Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 1077: Back 40 - Four Decisions Most Hunters Make That Cost Them More Deer Than They Realize

Transcript

Ep. 1077: Back 40 - Four Decisions Most Hunters Make That Cost Them More Deer Than They Realize · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What is going on? This is Jake Hofer and welcome
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: to another episode of Back 40. This is our last
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: batch with Adam Keith, Aaron Warburton, Bill Wienke, and Jeff Sturgis.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: We're going to be bringing in a new panel October 15th,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: and they're going to be here until the end of
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the year. But it's October 1st, and with October 1st
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: begins many, many decisions throughout the entire season. In fact,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: I would be scared to tally up how many decisions
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: a hunter makes throughout an entire season? Do I hunt?
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Do I not hunt? Should I try to swing for
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: the fences? Do you think I can get away with
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: this wind? All these different decisions that go into almost
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: every single hunt. And so for this episode, I'm asking
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: them for decisions hunters make that cost them more deer
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: and opportunities than they realize. So the root of this
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: question is to provide either some liberty on what decisions
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: you might be overthinking. And then the flip side of
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: that is, what decisions you might be making that ultimately
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: is costing you opportunity. And season only comes around once
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: a year, and we want to make the most of it.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: So I hope you guys really enjoyed this episode with
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: our panel of guests for this week's episode of Back 40.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: And before we get into this week's episode presented by Moultrie,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: some exciting news. It's Whitetail Week, and we are going
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: to be doing the ultimate whitetail giveaway. So get ready
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: to take your hunting season to the next level with
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: the ultimate whitetail giveaway featuring over $ 23, 000 in prizes, including...
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: And that's not all. One lucky winner will be going
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: on a fully guided muzzleloader hunt at Running Water Hunting,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: hosted by outfitter Jordan Budd. and hunting alongside Mark Kenyon.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: So how do you get in? Visit First Light contest
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: page at firstlight.com and fill out the entry form to
• 2:02
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• 2:04
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• 2:08
  Speaker 1: with every purchase you make at firstlight.com. Don't wait. The
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: giveaway ends Monday, October 12th, 2026 at 1159 p.m.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Mountain Time.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: So be sure to check it out. Whitetail Week, get
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: loaded up with any first light gear you've been putting
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: off and get comfortable, get ready for this upcoming season
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: and have a chance to win a $ 23, 000 prize package
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: and ultimately a hunt with Jordan Budd and Mark Kenyon
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: at Running Water Outfitters. All right, getting right into it.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: We're going to kick things off with Aaron Warburton from
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: The Hunting Public and get his opinion on the decisions
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: that could ultimately be costing you more opportunities than you
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: can realize.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: The whitetail calendar is full of a bunch of different decisions.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Where to go. When do I take my vacation time?
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Like we talked about last week, how to hang a stand,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: where to hang the stand, where to set up, where
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: not to set up all these different things. But if
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: you could think of one decision universally that most hunters
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: make that cost them more deer than they realize. So
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: meaning a decision that is costing them more opportunity than
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: maybe what they could even imagine. And they need to
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: hone in on it for this year. And it could
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: be a decision that gets made every day. It could
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: be a decision that gets made every hunt. It could
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: be anything.
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: I would go back to what we talked about a
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: couple of episodes back there, wherever we were discussing your
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: time management and basically how to be efficient with your time.
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: So are you making a decision that is very inefficient
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: with it?
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Because.
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: Most of us are in the same boat.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: Our time is very valuable.
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: If you're in my situation, mid, late 30s, got a family,
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: got to work, got all this other stuff going on,
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: you need to be very, very strategic with your time.
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: So I'll kind of go back to what we talked
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: about a little bit on this. I know I'm regurgitating
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: some of the same stuff, but this is really important.
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: If you have a, if you have a couple hours
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: that you can get out and go scout, go do that,
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: you know, and use the conditions of that day to
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: your advantage. If you have only a couple of days
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: to hunt, maybe you don't send it all the way
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: into the very back of the property on the first day.
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: And you blow that up and you also spend all
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: that time walking through there. It's like you're, you're not
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: being efficient with your time. I mean, we think about
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: that on public all the time. It's like, you want
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: to get to the very back corner. That back corner
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: is two and a half miles back.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: It takes you three hours to walk there.
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: You know, it's, it's, it's the, it's always, well, it's
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: greener pastures, you know, it's, well, that's where the big
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: ones are going to be. Well, it takes you two
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: and a half hours to get there. You got to
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: wake up at 3 a.m. 2 a.m. to get all
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: the way in there and to be set up correctly. Well,
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: If you try that and it doesn't work, you just
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: walked your butt off, you exhausted yourself, you didn't get
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: enough sleep the night before, you kind of pushed in
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: too many chips too early there, and then it doesn't
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: work out and you can't easily jump to plan B, C,
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: or D because you're two and a half miles in.
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: That's like your whole day. So that's the opposite of
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: being efficient in my mind. I would much rather... maybe
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: not even go hunting. I'd rather just spend half the
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: day scouting and go boom, boom, boom, boom, scout like
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: four or five different spots. And I like to have
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: scouting locations in mind within those spots where I can
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: kind of jet in, jet out, and understand if the
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: bucks are in there or not.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: Just based off of looking at sign. Like I might
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: just jet out.
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: An oak ridge and realize like, oh, red oaks are
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: just started dropping in here.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: There's some fresh poop. There's a fresh rub. There's a
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: fresh scrape there here right now. What do I need
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: to do?
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: And then I'll drop a couple of pins and then
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: jet back out and go check another spot. I mean,
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: it may only be 300 yards in the truck, but
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: I'm wanting to be as efficient as possible with that time.
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: That's the, I think that's the main thing that people
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: where they, they get behind the eight ball on is
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: if they don't gather enough of that information. And, uh,
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: you know, and this even includes what we were discussing
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: last time on the weather. If you got bad weather,
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: and you have the time to go, go, don't necessarily hunt,
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: but go and figure something out. Use the time wisely.
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: You only have so much of it. So if you
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: have wet, if it's raining, pouring and windy and you
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: can't hunt, then go out there and put on a
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: poncho and walk and figure out what the heck's going on.
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: Cause that's going to help you when you can go
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: in two days or whatever.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: How, um, how efficient do you feel? How much more
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: efficient do you feel now than maybe even what you
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: were seven years ago, 10 years ago, when it comes
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: to efficiency with time specifically?
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: Oh, I'm light years ahead now than what I used
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: to be because I used to just be, you know,
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: living out of my car in a, you know, cheap
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: apartment and I didn't have nothing else to worry about.
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: So I could just kind of go out whenever I wanted,
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: you know, now I got a family at home. I
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: got a house and there's property to take care of.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: And, a job.
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: I got employees to worry about. Um, I got lots
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: of stuff, other stuff that I got to deal with.
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: So I have to be very intentional and efficient with
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: my time out there in order to be successful.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Do you feel with, with, um, cause this is, this
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: is a topic that comes up in a lot of
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: different interviews that I've done over the years where people,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: you know, the less I hunted, the more success I found. Uh,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: but it doesn't necessarily mean the less I work I
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: put in, you know, like I think that sometimes that's
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: lost in translation, but Do you feel you can get
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: to that point without that phase? Because when people bring
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: that up, they always say, I used to hunt a bunch,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: used to hunt a bunch, used to hunt a bunch.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: And I feel like that almost sets it up to
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: where you become very efficient. For someone that's newer listening
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: and they hear like, man, you got to be efficient
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: with your time, pick your days, be smart about it.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Do you feel they have to go through that awkward
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: stage of being super inefficient to become efficient? Or do
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: you think you can skip that step?
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Oh, I don't know.
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: It depends on the person and, you know, their personality probably.
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: but I think you could probably skip some of those steps.
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: I mean, you don't, it depends on what you want though.
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: You know, when you're younger and you're just getting into this,
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: you want to be hunting as much as possible. Like
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: you want to be out there sitting there with your
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: bow and waiting for something to happen.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: But as you get older, you realize like.
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: Oh, this is a low odd setup, or this is a,
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: you know, I have very little confidence that a mature
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: buck is going to come in here. We might see
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: a doe or whatever, and that'd be fine. I'm, I
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: don't have days to burn like that anymore. Um, so
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: I'm not really telling anybody that's younger and just getting
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: into this, how to do this. There's, there's a bunch
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: of different ways to skin the cat, but if you're
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: wanting to skip some of those steps, you certainly can.
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: I just would encourage you to scout way, way more
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: than you hunt and get those setups dialed in and that,
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: that plan dialed in so that you're ready to rock
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: and roll when the time is right. That could mean
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: a variety of different things, but I don't know. I,
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: The more time that goes on, the more scouting I do.
• 9:36
  Speaker 5: Really?
• 9:38
  Speaker 6: Yes.
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: So overall time in the woods, if you combine scouting
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: and hunting has probably went down.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: I know it's went down in the last 10 years.
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: I don't spend as much time out there, but my
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: time now is much more intentional than it used to be.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: And I spend, I guess the.
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: Proportion of scouting to hunting, I spend way more time
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: scouting now than I do hunting. And back then it
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: used to be kind of an even split. So I
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: might hunt 40 days in a fall, you know, and
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: I might hunt or I might scout 20, 30 days.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Now I may, I may.
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: Scout 30, 40 times in a year. And I may
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: hunt half a dozen times.
• 10:22
  Speaker 5: Wow.
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: You know. That's an interesting, yeah, that's interesting.
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: I'm looking at, I'm looking at lots of different setups
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: and positions, but this is all, this is public land hunting,
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: you know, across multiple states.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: Different style.
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: So if you're on one property, that's, that's a tough
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: one to crack because if you're on one relatively small
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: property and you're really wanting to hunt a lot, You
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: certainly can, but keep your expectations in check. Like that
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: farm that we hunt all the time, my family farm,
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: we have one stand in the middle of that farm
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: in a big white oak tree that, I mean, we
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: really don't have to do anything but just go there
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: on a cold front day when the northwest wind's blowing
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: in late October and we're probably going to see a
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: good buck.
• 11:10
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: I mean, we don't have to go there to do
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: anything other than maybe show up in July sometime and
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: make sure the straps are still good Yeah.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: We don't have to, we don't even set foot in there.
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: I mean, other than doing habitat work, we may go
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: in there and do some like growing season burns and
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: stuff like that.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: But as far as.
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: Hunting goes, we don't, we don't hunt it, but maybe
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: two or three times a year and that's on a
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: hundred acres.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Well, it's October 1st. So, uh, Aaron, I appreciate you
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: walking through this entire buildup to the entire season. And
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: covering all these different questions and dilemmas that I think
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: a lot of people really face if they're being honest.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: These thoughts, I feel, come across everyone's mind at some point.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: So I really, really appreciate it. One last time, where
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: can people find you? Which I'm sure they already know
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: who you are and what you have going on. But
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: in case they haven't, where can they do that? Best
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: place would be.
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: The Hunting Public on YouTube and then all the social
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: media platforms. We've also on Instagram and Facebook and TikTok
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: and whatnot.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: All right, that's what we have from Aaron. Get ready
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: to hear what Bill Winkie has to say. Same statement,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: same dilemma. Let's hear what he has to say. All right, Bill,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: we're closing out this mini series of Back 40, so
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: I appreciate you tagging along. It's October 1st, and I
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: figured what's a better way to maybe provide more clarity
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: or more confusion for this upcoming season? And the idea is,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: what's a decision that most, what's one decision most hunters
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: make that costs them more deer than they realize? Because
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: I feel like There's so many decisions that go into
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: a season. So many decisions. If you break it down
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: on a weekly basis or daily basis or afternoon, do
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: I hunt here or do I hunt there? But what's one,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: I guess, habit or decision that costs people so many
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: deer that they don't even realize it?
• 13:01
  Speaker 7: Well, in a roundabout way, it's kind of easy to
• 13:05
  Speaker 7: answer that because in order for them to not realize
• 13:08
  Speaker 7: they're making the mistake, it has to be something that
• 13:11
  Speaker 7: that they're not seeing or not picking up on, if
• 13:13
  Speaker 7: they're not in their stand, they're not going to know
• 13:16
  Speaker 7: the deer that walked past it. And I think the,
• 13:20
  Speaker 7: that is one mistake that people could make and not
• 13:23
  Speaker 7: even realize it's a mistake because they get bored or
• 13:26
  Speaker 7: let's say, you know.
• 13:28
  Speaker 6: Some people, they get hungry or whatever it is.
• 13:30
  Speaker 7: And at 10 o'clock in the morning, they've been sitting
• 13:32
  Speaker 7: there for four and a half hours or whatever, you know,
• 13:35
  Speaker 7: they're like, ah, I got to get out of here.
• 13:37
  Speaker 7: I'm just, you know, I'm getting, uh, stir crazy. You know,
• 13:42
  Speaker 7: I can't stand this, you know, sitting any longer. So
• 13:45
  Speaker 7: they climb down and leave. Well, I mean, especially if
• 13:48
  Speaker 7: they're hunting near a bedding area, that spot can be
• 13:51
  Speaker 7: good all day long. I mean, it can be good
• 13:54
  Speaker 7: right up until like an hour before the end of
• 13:56
  Speaker 7: legal shooting time if you're back in the timber. You know,
• 13:59
  Speaker 7: the deer are going to be active and moving around.
• 14:01
  Speaker 7: And occasionally, obviously, if it's warm, they're going to be
• 14:03
  Speaker 7: bedded for, you know, big parts of the day. But
• 14:06
  Speaker 7: if it's not a hot day, they're going to be up,
• 14:09
  Speaker 7: you know, on and off. throughout the whole day. And
• 14:12
  Speaker 7: if you're not there, you don't know what you missed. And,
• 14:18
  Speaker 7: you know, and I'm guilty of it too. Part of
• 14:20
  Speaker 7: it is because of the filming that we do. It's,
• 14:23
  Speaker 7: it's kind of hard for us, you know, with all
• 14:27
  Speaker 7: the things that we have to do with the video
• 14:29
  Speaker 7: production to stay on stand all day.
• 14:31
  Speaker 6: And we do, we do it.
• 14:34
  Speaker 7: It's just a little bit more demanding because there's a
• 14:36
  Speaker 7: lot of little things that we have to take care
• 14:38
  Speaker 7: of that, that, you know, really it makes it easier
• 14:41
  Speaker 7: if we come out at midday, but I'm getting better
• 14:44
  Speaker 7: about staying all day. I'd say I hunted all day,
• 14:46
  Speaker 7: I bet you a dozen times last season. And, uh,
• 14:52
  Speaker 7: you know, I wouldn't say that I necessarily got rewarded
• 14:54
  Speaker 7: for it, but you know, some years you do and
• 15:00
  Speaker 7: some years you don't, but, um, no, the odds have
• 15:04
  Speaker 7: to add up. If you're not in the tree, you're
• 15:06
  Speaker 7: not going to kill them. So, um, I'm just going
• 15:08
  Speaker 7: to stick with that answer that that's an easy mistake
• 15:12
  Speaker 7: for people to make, and they don't realize they're doing it.
• 15:15
  Speaker 6: It's a simple decision. Oh, man, I've had enough. I'm hungry.
• 15:20
  Speaker 7: Or some excuse. Well, I got to get home and
• 15:22
  Speaker 7: check on XYZ. Well, they really don't. Or Michigan's playing
• 15:27
  Speaker 7: Ohio State, and you don't have to watch that. They're
• 15:31
  Speaker 7: going to be on the Big Ten Network for the
• 15:33
  Speaker 7: next month. You don't have to go back and watch that. Um,
• 15:38
  Speaker 7: so anyway, that's, I think that's the one is we,
• 15:41
  Speaker 7: we find excuses to get out of the tree.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: That's an excellent, an excellent answer because I feel like
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: everyone has done that. They played the mental gymnastics of, well, exactly.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, I've, I've been guilty of this, like, man,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: that email I need to get to has just been
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: burning a hole in my pocket since I read it,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: which I shouldn't even open up my email because now
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: it's all I can think about. Like, I feel like
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: everyone falls into whatever category of their life that they have.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: They feel like they have to address it right now.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: And has that gotten easier over the years?
• 16:12
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I think so.
• 16:13
  Speaker 7: I think when you get older, I think your pace
• 16:19
  Speaker 7: slows down. I remember reading a Gene Wentzel book many
• 16:24
  Speaker 7: years back, many years back. And he was saying, I
• 16:27
  Speaker 7: can't wait till I get older. I'm like, gosh, that
• 16:29
  Speaker 7: doesn't sound good. And I can wait. But then Gene's
• 16:33
  Speaker 7: point was, I'll be more patient. you know, I can
• 16:36
  Speaker 7: sit longer. I'm not going to be as quick to
• 16:40
  Speaker 7: get out of the tree. So I think there's some
• 16:44
  Speaker 7: truth to that. But you can rewire your central nervous system.
• 16:48
  Speaker 7: It takes a few days. But if you force yourself
• 16:51
  Speaker 7: to sit all day, you know, for a couple of days,
• 16:54
  Speaker 7: you know, I'd say within, after that, you can go
• 16:59
  Speaker 7: two weeks hunting every day, all day. And it's just
• 17:04
  Speaker 7: like your system gets reprogrammed, but it's hard at first,
• 17:09
  Speaker 7: you know, because we're all wired for now we're wired.
• 17:12
  Speaker 6: For instant, you know, action.
• 17:13
  Speaker 7: And, you know, I, I guess you could take your
• 17:16
  Speaker 7: phone and you can entertain yourself with that. But, you know,
• 17:19
  Speaker 7: I try not to look at the phone very much
• 17:21
  Speaker 7: because I've been caught looking at the phone when I
• 17:23
  Speaker 7: should be looking, looking around.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: How, this is a really dumb question, but how do you,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: how do you sit all day when it's slow. Like
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: I'm picturing it's 1130 and you haven't seen a deer
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: since eight o'clock and you're like.
• 17:38
  Speaker 7: Well, you have to keep reminding yourself what it's going
• 17:41
  Speaker 7: to look like when that buck that you're hunting shows up. Um,
• 17:45
  Speaker 7: I hunted a deer in Kansas one time and my,
• 17:47
  Speaker 7: I'd never saw the deer. My friend, his name is
• 17:50
  Speaker 7: Rod Ponton. He had permission for me on this property.
• 17:53
  Speaker 7: And he said that somebody had seen the deer on
• 17:56
  Speaker 7: the property bordering it the week before I got there.
• 17:58
  Speaker 7: And he said, it's a honest to goodness, world record
• 18:01
  Speaker 7: white tail giant. He's, He described it to me.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: Typical or not typical?
• 18:07
  Speaker 6: It was a typical. Okay.
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 18:09
  Speaker 7: It was like a big six by six, like a
• 18:11
  Speaker 7: 215 or something stupid, you know? And so I sat
• 18:14
  Speaker 7: there every day, all day for like 10 days, never
• 18:18
  Speaker 7: saw the deer. I mean, I only saw maybe two
• 18:20
  Speaker 7: bucks during, you know, all those 10 days because it
• 18:23
  Speaker 7: was a long shot because, you know, that was before
• 18:26
  Speaker 7: trail cameras and I was living off one sighting. on
• 18:30
  Speaker 7: the adjoining property from, you know, several days before I
• 18:33
  Speaker 7: got there. So I could keep myself glued though, because
• 18:38
  Speaker 7: I would continue to visualize or to imagine what that
• 18:42
  Speaker 7: would look like. Cause I think the reason we do this,
• 18:45
  Speaker 7: you know, I've kind of narrowed it down after all
• 18:48
  Speaker 7: these years. I don't do it because I want somebody
• 18:50
  Speaker 7: to pat me on the back because I really don't
• 18:52
  Speaker 7: care once the deer is dead. It's the fun's gone.
• 18:55
  Speaker 7: You know, that's the quest, but it's also that adrenaline rush.
• 18:59
  Speaker 7: You know, I think it's why people jump out of airplanes.
• 19:01
  Speaker 7: It's why people do, you know, they climb, you know,
• 19:04
  Speaker 7: the stuff at Yosemite when they know they shouldn't, you know,
• 19:08
  Speaker 7: El Capitan and they fall off there. Well, why are
• 19:12
  Speaker 7: they climbing that stupid rock? You know, it's the adrenaline rush.
• 19:16
  Speaker 7: And I think that's what we live for because when
• 19:21
  Speaker 7: that buck shows up, it's like, oh man, every ounce,
• 19:24
  Speaker 7: every fiber in your whole body is like instantly alive.
• 19:35
  Speaker 7: There's not too many other things you can do. And
• 19:38
  Speaker 7: I don't know that I've ever done anything in my
• 19:41
  Speaker 7: life that stimulates everything inside of me. Like seeing that
• 19:47
  Speaker 7: buck that you've been hunting. It doesn't have to be
• 19:49
  Speaker 7: a giant. I mean, I've had the same thing happen
• 19:53
  Speaker 7: on 130 inch deer as on, you know, way bigger deer.
• 19:56
  Speaker 6: It's just the one that you're after. It's like, there
• 19:58
  Speaker 6: he is, there he is, you know.
• 20:00
  Speaker 7: So I think that's what drives me during those slow
• 20:03
  Speaker 7: times is just the knowledge that if I can just
• 20:06
  Speaker 7: stick it out, eventually I'm going to be rewarded by
• 20:09
  Speaker 7: that moment. And I don't know why that moment is
• 20:12
  Speaker 7: so precious. I don't know what that does to us,
• 20:15
  Speaker 7: but for some reason, that's what trips my trigger. You know,
• 20:21
  Speaker 7: like making the quest come to completion. And, you know,
• 20:25
  Speaker 7: without having that buck show up, you're just sitting in
• 20:28
  Speaker 7: a tree, you know, and, you know, you're a birdwatcher
• 20:31
  Speaker 7: or you're a whatever you want to call it. But
• 20:33
  Speaker 7: the fact that you're hunting that deer, gives purpose to
• 20:36
  Speaker 7: the time. It creates that quest. So I guess that's
• 20:41
  Speaker 7: what I key on is like, what is it going
• 20:43
  Speaker 7: to look like? When, as soon as I started getting
• 20:45
  Speaker 7: bored or start getting lazy, even lazy in my approach
• 20:49
  Speaker 7: to how I sneak in and out and all that stuff,
• 20:51
  Speaker 7: I keep reminding myself that I'm only one minute away
• 20:56
  Speaker 7: potentially from that, you know, having that experience.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: Well, I think that's the perfect October 1st motivation everyone
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: wants to hear. And I think the decision not to
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: go is going to be what potentially haunts you. I mean,
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: I feel like everyone's had some point where it's like
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: November 13th and you've been hunting really hard for like
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: seven days. You're like, man, I'm just going to sleep in.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: And then everyone's like, oh my gosh, it was the
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: best day of the year.
• 21:22
  Speaker 6: Well, I had that happen in 2021.
• 21:24
  Speaker 7: I was hunting a lease that I had and I
• 21:28
  Speaker 7: was going to go back to the house.
• 21:30
  Speaker 6: I've had enough.
• 21:30
  Speaker 7: I've been there for like 12 straight days. And that
• 21:33
  Speaker 7: was back when I was sleeping in the woods every night.
• 21:35
  Speaker 7: You know, I wasn't even, you know, I didn't even
• 21:37
  Speaker 7: have a bed. I was either sleeping in my ground
• 21:39
  Speaker 7: blind or I was sleeping in a sleeping bag on
• 21:41
  Speaker 7: the ground at the base of the tree. And, you know,
• 21:44
  Speaker 7: I was really getting burned out. And I thought, oh man,
• 21:46
  Speaker 7: I'm just tired of this. And it was like, like
• 21:48
  Speaker 7: you said, it was like the 12th or 13th. And
• 21:51
  Speaker 7: I said, I'm just going to give it one more day.
• 21:54
  Speaker 7: I'm not going to leave yet. Well, I killed the
• 21:56
  Speaker 7: buck I was after. I mean, I'd, I'd been after
• 21:58
  Speaker 7: that deer the whole time, the whole, you know, two weeks.
• 22:01
  Speaker 7: And then he finally, I got the shot and it
• 22:03
  Speaker 7: was like you said, I mean, I was just, I
• 22:07
  Speaker 7: was burned out.
• 22:07
  Speaker 6: I was tired of it.
• 22:08
  Speaker 7: I just wanted to take a break, but you know,
• 22:12
  Speaker 7: it worked out. So that's what you have to remind
• 22:15
  Speaker 7: yourself is that, you know, at any second, any minute,
• 22:19
  Speaker 7: your whole season can pivot and it can only do
• 22:23
  Speaker 7: that if you're there, you know, it's not going to
• 22:25
  Speaker 7: happen if you're, if you found some excuse to sleep
• 22:28
  Speaker 7: in or, uh, some excuse to go home and watch
• 22:30
  Speaker 7: the football game on TV or whatever it is. If
• 22:33
  Speaker 7: you're not there, that season can't pivot.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, I like it. Bill, you guys, do you
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: post a video about, is it once a week at least?
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Is that a fair?
• 22:45
  Speaker 6: During the season?
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 22:47
  Speaker 6: It's like every day.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: Every day. All right. It's October 1st. There's new videos
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: almost every day.
• 22:51
  Speaker 6: Every day.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: If people want to join the fun, they need to
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: see what you're up to and maybe pick off some
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: tips along the way. What is the channel? I'm sure
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: everyone can punch in your name and find it, but
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: I'm going to make you say it.
• 23:03
  Speaker 6: Oh, yeah. It's the Bill Winkie channel on YouTube.
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Jumping into Adam Keith's take on decisions that are costing
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: you more opportunities than you can ever realize. The whole
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: entire Whitetail calendar is a stacked full of decisions every
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: step of the way. There's constant decisions that you have
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: to be making. Where do I hang this stand? Do
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: I hang it facing north or south or off, you know,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: three quarters northeast? What do I plant? Which we talked
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: about earlier in this back 40 series. Um, when do
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: I hunt all these different things? We're constantly making decisions
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: and they all have either positive or negative benefits, but
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: I want to focus on the negative here right now
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: and ask the question, what's, what's the most common one
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: decision most hunters are making that's costing them more deer
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: than they likely realize. Yeah.
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah. And they're going to turn it off 10 seconds
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: after I answer this. Um, So sorry about the downloads here, but, um,
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: I would say that in my opinion, so this is
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: my opinion, not yours, uh, or anyone else's, so it
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: can be wrong, but I think guys hunt too much.
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: I think they hunt too many bad days, too many
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: poor days. They go on the weekend because it is
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: the weekend. And I just feel like guys put too
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: much pressure on their farm that doesn't have the adequate
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: habitat to give them that grace of you can have
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: a little bit more inconsistent winds or a little bit
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: poor access. But you have the high quality bedding, so
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: they're going to stay. I feel like so many guys
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: have poor habitats. And they hunt too much, and therefore,
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: the deer are now leaving and going to isolated areas
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: of their home range to avoid the pressure.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Easier said than done, because it's like— That phrase. What's
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: the phrase? You can't kill him on the couch. That's
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: what we always tell ourselves. I can't kill him on
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: the couch.
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: Well, you can darn sure scare him over to the
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: neighbor's property.
• 25:06
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: And I think that if something as a father with
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: a young family and social media has filled my algorithm
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: of things that make me cry because of my kids,
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: I would say I'm pleading more and more each day
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: with dads to not hunt so hard and create that
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: negative connotation with hunting for their kids and their wife.
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: Like I'm pleading for you to find and learn to
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: hunt the best days and spend less time in the
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: tree stand more time with your family and still kill
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: more deer because you picked the right days.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: So this is October 1st in this, this scenario too.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: So this is when this episode goes live on October 1st.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: And so I feel like that's a, maybe the hardest
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: time for someone to hear that. It's like, what do
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: you mean? It's October 1st and archery season just opened
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: in Illinois, Iowa, all these other states that opened October 1.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: What do you mean? What are you talking about? You're nuts. Yeah,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: and so, I mean, for someone that you have to
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: convince here a little bit harder of like, yeah, I
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: hear you, but I just, you know, a lot of
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: people feel guilty when they don't go. Let's say they
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: have a free day in October and it's 90 degrees
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: and it's a Saturday and they're like, man, I worked
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: all week and I want to go out.
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: I mean, what do you say to that guy?
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: I would say, do you have a deer identified that's
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: on the property? If you don't, then are you going
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: to go shoot does? Because we need to do that too,
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: most likely. So do you have a buck on camera?
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: No.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: That's a strike one. What's the weather look like? Oh,
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: it's still hot. There's very little wind. And you have
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: no idea where he's betting.
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: Strike two.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Oh, sorry. This isn't baseball.
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: You're out. Strike three came with that one. I would
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: say if you don't have an idea of where they're
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: at and if they're on the property, then let the
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: property cook. Let it keep getting better. It's only going
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: to get better the more you stay out. And so
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: I have no problem, too. I'll speak both sides of
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: my mouth. Riding the hole, hunting more, if we've identified...
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: a deer that we're hunting and we have good access,
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: then I have no problem hunting it multiple times. But
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: so many times I see guys and friends of mine
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: that are, that are hunting.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: It's like, well, who are you hunting? I don't, I don't,
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: I just want to go out there. Okay.
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: I understand that, that hunting is a, an escape, but
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: don't come crying the moan and crying and moaning in
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: late October when there's nothing there.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah. That's the second part of the conversation that, that
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: gets lost because, And it's even, as a community, I
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: feel like we kind of perpetuate this. Like, October 1st,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: I'm going to text you and say, have you been
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: out yet? What have you been seeing? You know, it's like, oh,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: you haven't even gone yet? Do you even like hunting?
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: Huh? You're just at home watching football, aren't you?
• 28:07
  Speaker 6: Yes.
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: And I would totally say that most of the time
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: in talking to people, especially buddies, is like, it almost
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: like for several years, I generally try to pride myself
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: on Fewer days in the tree stand with more success. Like,
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: I feel like that's important to me to spend more
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: time with my, you know, my kids love a local
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: amusement park in the fall. They love going. And I'm like,
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: at some point in my life, I'm going to be maybe,
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: maybe not laying in a hospital bed and there won't
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: be a deer head one around me. It will be
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: my kids and my wife. And I just look at
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: it going, I need to spend time with them. They're
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: only young one time. And at some point when they're
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: teenagers and I'm not as cool, then I might hunt more.
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: But for me right now, it's like I'll make excuses
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: to not hunt because making the excuses to not hunt
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: means that when I do find the reason to hunt,
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: the property's probably in better condition. The deer are less pressured.
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: I have a higher probability of getting that deer in
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: bow range. Yeah.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: And I think the other side of this, and I'm
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: projecting a little bit, which might make someone or a
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: couple people mad. But it's like you spent a lot
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: of days in the field before season two. And I
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: feel like the can't kill from the couch crowd wasn't
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: out there scouting in the offseason, wasn't doing all of
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: the buildup to season to where it's like, man, I
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: stacked the cards in my favor. I'm gonna strike when
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: i have the best hand versus i didn't do that
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: and now i feel like i'm trying to play catch
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: up and i know that sounds bad but it's probably
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: the truth if we're being honest if you have.
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: A bag of chips i use more chips in the
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: off season making the habitat planting the food plots doing
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: all of that to where i have fewer chips but
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: those are really really high dollar chips in the hunting
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: season I drew a Kansas tag this year, probably going
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: to hunt public ground. My bag of chips is in scouting, hunting,
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: all combined. It's like all in, just throw them on
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: the table. I'm all in because I have to figure
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: this out very quickly. And so for some of the
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: guys listening or a lot of guys listening, they may
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: be in that situation where it's like, I have permission.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: I have a permission piece. A lot of people. Yeah.
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: And so I would say, hey, this fall, you're kind
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: of in this second scenario where You're scouting and hunting together.
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: But hey, you know, in the off season, talk to
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: that landowner, do the works of 2027, you can have
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: more success. But as far as hunting more, regardless of
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: have I done any habitat improvement or not, I would
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: say identify the weather that's increasing the probability that he's
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: going to be on his feet. And it's not 85,
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: six mile an hour.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: Wind, In a bottom.
• 30:59
  Speaker 6: In a bottom. In a bottom.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: Like, that's not the scenario.
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: So I would always say when people say, you can't
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: kill him on the couch, because I get that a lot.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: Have you been yet? I'm like, no, I haven't been yet.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: The weather sucks. He's not really, he's on property. Yeah,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: are you a fraud, Adam? Yeah, are you a fraud? Yeah.
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: And I'd say, no, I mean, the chance is not great.
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: And the more time I go when the chances aren't great,
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: I think the days that the chances are good, you're
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: just diminishing that because you've overpressured.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: I like it. Well, we're off to October here, and
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: I appreciate you joining this season of Back 40. Next week,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: we'll have a new batch of guests, but I really
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: appreciate you walking us through this off-season and the build-up
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: and then giving a... Let's use that pressure valve accordingly
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: with the weather for the season. So I really appreciate it.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: If they haven't found you yet with all the other
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: episodes we've done, where can people hunt you down?
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you can check us out on major social media
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: platforms for Lane of Legacy, as well as the podcast platforms.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: And now we're going to jump into what Jeff Sturgis,
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: who has seen a lot of farms, a lot of perspective,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: and has talked to a lot of hunters to hear
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: what mistakes people are maybe unknowingly making. Here we go.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: All right. Throughout the season, it's October 1st. There's already
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: been a lot of decisions leading up to October 1st.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: But even as we get deeper and deeper in every
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: single hunt and every single decision, there is a bunch
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: of decisions hunters make some that have high stakes, some
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: of them that have low stakes. But overall, what's one
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: decision most hunters make that costs them more deer and
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: more opportunity than they realize?
• 32:39
  Speaker 5: Hunting too often. And so I can preface that by saying,
• 32:45
  Speaker 5: especially on private land, when you have public land, and
• 32:49
  Speaker 5: even in a public land area, if you want to
• 32:51
  Speaker 5: manage the area, like I like hunting remote and deep,
• 32:54
  Speaker 5: getting away from people. So I want to hunt herds
• 32:57
  Speaker 5: that are a little bit more stable because they're not
• 33:01
  Speaker 5: pressured as much, then you're in for the long haul.
• 33:07
  Speaker 5: Your private land chunk, you're in for the long haul,
• 33:09
  Speaker 5: especially on private land because you can't just go move
• 33:11
  Speaker 5: somewhere else. Even if you have 160 acres, you move
• 33:15
  Speaker 5: a half mile, you're on someone else's property. So when
• 33:17
  Speaker 5: you spook that deer herd and they run a quarter mile,
• 33:20
  Speaker 5: you really don't have any choices. So By hunting too much,
• 33:24
  Speaker 5: you're spreading your scent around. You're not increasing your odds.
• 33:26
  Speaker 5: In fact, every time you sit during a bad day,
• 33:28
  Speaker 5: a bad weather day, you spook deer, then you're lowering
• 33:31
  Speaker 5: your chances each and every set. And so you really
• 33:35
  Speaker 5: can kill more deer from the couch. When you have
• 33:37
  Speaker 5: that public land sit for a week, you're going in
• 33:40
  Speaker 5: for five to seven days. Even then you can manage
• 33:43
  Speaker 5: where you sit on public land to say, well, this
• 33:45
  Speaker 5: is a good spot for early in the season. This
• 33:48
  Speaker 5: is more invasive. We'll do it later on day five
• 33:50
  Speaker 5: or six. Sometimes there are those great funnels on public land.
• 33:54
  Speaker 5: You just hunt them every day because your scent can
• 33:57
  Speaker 5: blow in somewhere you don't know. You might be shooting
• 33:59
  Speaker 5: that buck that comes around every five days and he
• 34:02
  Speaker 5: comes from three miles away. So, you know, that's a
• 34:05
  Speaker 5: little bit different on public land. It's almost a race then,
• 34:07
  Speaker 5: you know, opening day, public land, you go get them
• 34:10
  Speaker 5: before someone else does. But typically your manager, your hunt
• 34:13
  Speaker 5: and the places I hunt for the long haul, And
• 34:16
  Speaker 5: that means you have to pick and choose your time.
• 34:18
  Speaker 5: And what I find is when you do that and
• 34:20
  Speaker 5: you hunt smart with a high level of strategy, you
• 34:22
  Speaker 5: have a certain buck you're after. Over a 10-year period,
• 34:25
  Speaker 5: you'll shoot them 80% of the time. So that's what
• 34:28
  Speaker 5: I find is that you're getting that buck, however many
• 34:31
  Speaker 5: states you're hunting in, 80% of the time because you're
• 34:34
  Speaker 5: hunting smart and you're playing the long game.
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: Do you think that is just really hard for people
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: to actually stick through? Like very simple concept.
• 34:41
  Speaker 5: Extremely, extremely hard because... You know, I remember as a
• 34:45
  Speaker 5: young hunter, I went every weekend. And now when I
• 34:48
  Speaker 5: went every weekend, I really tried to hunt the wind,
• 34:51
  Speaker 5: play the wind, hunt the stands that I thought were
• 34:53
  Speaker 5: best for morning, afternoon, develop a morning and afternoon structure
• 34:56
  Speaker 5: of hunting, morning in bedding areas, by bedding areas, backside
• 35:00
  Speaker 5: of bedding areas, and then afternoon for a food source movement.
• 35:02
  Speaker 5: Some might even hunt one stand in the morning, one stand,
• 35:05
  Speaker 5: rarely a certain stand all day. But it's really, really
• 35:09
  Speaker 5: hard because you have to put faith in less.
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: And so.
• 35:14
  Speaker 5: Sometimes people want that immediate gratification. We always do as humans.
• 35:18
  Speaker 6: We want to go in.
• 35:19
  Speaker 5: We want to enjoy the hunt. We want to get
• 35:20
  Speaker 5: out there. You want to enjoy. You bought this property.
• 35:23
  Speaker 5: You just bought a new bow, equipment, whatever it might be.
• 35:27
  Speaker 5: It's like you have to justify it by going out
• 35:29
  Speaker 5: hunting more when you're really, really hurting your chances. And
• 35:33
  Speaker 5: so it takes a lot of patience. I think when
• 35:36
  Speaker 5: you try it and you hunt smart, hunt by the weather,
• 35:39
  Speaker 5: hunt with reason every time you go into the woods,
• 35:41
  Speaker 5: whether this is a morning stand, this is an afternoon stand,
• 35:44
  Speaker 5: This is a stand I should wait till the rut.
• 35:46
  Speaker 5: And you have a purpose with each set. You blow
• 35:50
  Speaker 5: your scent into a non-deer area. You access through non-deer
• 35:54
  Speaker 5: and it comes to fruition and you have success. Then
• 35:58
  Speaker 5: what I find is that success builds on the next.
• 36:01
  Speaker 5: It builds confidence. And all of a sudden, a system
• 36:04
  Speaker 5: of hunting that you wouldn't have considered years earlier has
• 36:07
  Speaker 5: now accounted for more bucks and older bucks than you've
• 36:10
  Speaker 5: ever shot before in a short period of time. and
• 36:12
  Speaker 5: it's cemented for life. So I encourage you to try
• 36:14
  Speaker 5: that and, um, and really learn that less is more
• 36:20
  Speaker 5: sitting on the couch does pay off and, uh, it'll
• 36:22
  Speaker 5: bring you more deer in general. And if you're on
• 36:26
  Speaker 5: target for mature bucks, does and young bucks are easy.
• 36:29
  Speaker 5: So always manage for the lowest toll in the bucket
• 36:32
  Speaker 5: and all this other stuff is super easy.
• 36:33
  Speaker 6: So, yeah.
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: I think, it's a, it's an easy concept to hear,
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: but then you start getting FOMO and then like, uh,
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: all these different things that come into, come into impact
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: where it's like, well, there's still, you know, the deer's
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: out there at all times. Like there's still a chance.
• 36:47
  Speaker 5: But they're still, they're always in the woods. So it's
• 36:49
  Speaker 5: still a chance.
• 36:50
  Speaker 6: That's what you hear.
• 36:51
  Speaker 5: And I think it's really, really tough because you want
• 36:54
  Speaker 5: to get out. It's, it's hard. It's to me, it's
• 36:57
  Speaker 5: such a simple, basic structured concept of hunting that it's
• 37:01
  Speaker 5: almost like, it's dumbed down too much for people to
• 37:05
  Speaker 5: think it actually works. And you got to try this
• 37:09
  Speaker 5: latest gadget. You got to go right into the middle
• 37:11
  Speaker 5: of bedding area, use this scent to control your scent downwind.
• 37:15
  Speaker 5: They're always moving. You know, you can, you can, they're
• 37:18
  Speaker 5: out in the woods so you can shoot them. And you,
• 37:20
  Speaker 5: you have all these things that just lead you astray
• 37:23
  Speaker 5: when really it's, it's basic concepts. And there's a lot
• 37:26
  Speaker 5: of things in life that relate to that, that it's
• 37:28
  Speaker 5: a lot more basic than anything. then it, then people
• 37:32
  Speaker 5: make it, people make it life sometimes a lot harder
• 37:34
  Speaker 5: than it needs to be. And certainly hunting.
• 37:36
  Speaker 6: So, yeah.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: Well, Jeff, I appreciate you. Um, you get everyone prepped
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: for this upcoming season. That's October 1st. I hope everyone
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: has an incredible, incredible deer season and a lot of
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: what you have shared, uh, will be helpful. And, um,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: once again, you know, how many, you typically post what
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: two or three videos a week at least.
• 37:56
  Speaker 5: Four videos a week and then sometimes short. So I
• 37:59
  Speaker 5: would say an average of five videos a week. So
• 38:01
  Speaker 5: 250 videos for the year, put out maybe 600 articles.
• 38:05
  Speaker 5: I don't even know how many we have on YouTube now,
• 38:07
  Speaker 5: maybe 17, 1800, 1600 videos. And so there's a lot
• 38:12
  Speaker 5: of stuff out there. So Instagram, I put a little
• 38:15
  Speaker 5: bit more on Instagram too, but anything under whitetail habitat
• 38:18
  Speaker 5: solutions and Instagram, YouTube, Google.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so there'll be more real-time advice and strategy throughout
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: the entire season here. So I appreciate it once again.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Jeff.
• 38:30
  Speaker 6: Thanks for having me, Jake.
• 38:31
  Speaker 5: I appreciate it. Love always being in here with you.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: All right, there you guys have it. I hope you
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: guys enjoyed this leg of the Back 40 series. A
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: huge thank you to Aaron, Bill, Jeff, and Adam for
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: jumping in here and helping us get a game plan,
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: address some issues that we all face when it comes
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: to whitetail hunting leading up to October 1, which is
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: the opener for many, many people. And like I said,
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: we're going to be having a new leg starting October
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: 15th to the very end of the year to walk
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: us through in-season dilemmas and some of the things that
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: we're going to be facing from here all the way
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: until Christmas Eve. eve so i hope you guys enjoyed
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: it we'll see you next time see ya