Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Wired To Hunt Podcast #216: Beginner’s Guide To Deer Hunting

Transcript

Wired To Hunt Podcast #216: Beginner’s Guide To Deer Hunting · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for
0:06
Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
0:11
Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm
0:16
Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyon. This episode number two hundred and sixteen,
0:20
Speaker 1: and today in the show, Dan and I are joined
0:22
Speaker 1: by a brand new hunter and we're taking on the
0:25
Speaker 1: enormous task of trying to teach him everything he needs
0:28
Speaker 1: to know to get started deer hunting in just an
0:31
Speaker 1: hour and a half. All right, welcome to the Wired
0:47
Speaker 1: to Hunt podcast. And today on the show, we're doing
0:51
Speaker 1: something that I've wanted to do for a long time now,
0:55
Speaker 1: and I've kind of had it on my list of
0:57
Speaker 1: to do is, but I kept pushing off, pushing off,
0:58
Speaker 1: pushing it off, and only we're now doing it, and
1:01
Speaker 1: that is providing a beginner's guide to deer hunting. Um.
1:05
Speaker 1: And you know, the huge proportion of our audience, probably
1:09
Speaker 1: the majority will definitely the majority of our audience for
1:11
Speaker 1: this podcast is comprised of of really serious, really experienced
1:15
Speaker 1: deer hunters, deer hunters that that don't need a beginner's guide.
1:19
Speaker 1: So to those of you in that group, don't turn
1:21
Speaker 1: this one off yet. Because there is something here for
1:23
Speaker 1: you too. But I also get lots and lots of
1:26
Speaker 1: emails and messages from people on the other side of
1:28
Speaker 1: the spectrum who are brand new to deer hunting and
1:31
Speaker 1: looking for help, asking me all sorts of questions, um
1:35
Speaker 1: or or talking about the fact that you know, up
1:36
Speaker 1: to this point they just had to jump into the
1:38
Speaker 1: podcast and try to figure things out. Was like, go.
1:41
Speaker 1: But I've always wanted to provide something better, something I
1:43
Speaker 1: could point to and say, hey, this is where you
1:45
Speaker 1: can get started, um, you know, true launching point for
1:49
Speaker 1: those of you who are new to all this. And
1:50
Speaker 1: so that's what I want to do here today. We're
1:53
Speaker 1: going to cover everything that Dan and I can think
1:55
Speaker 1: of to help get a brand new deer hunter started.
1:59
Speaker 1: And to help us do that, I've got a guest.
2:02
Speaker 1: And this is where I think this episode gets particularly interesting,
2:05
Speaker 1: even if you're an experienced hunter, because this guest is
2:08
Speaker 1: a brand new hunter himself, um and I brought him
2:11
Speaker 1: along to actually be the voice of the new hunter,
2:15
Speaker 1: to actually provide kind of you know, this podcast is
2:18
Speaker 1: speaking to new hunters. Now, we're actually have a new
2:20
Speaker 1: hunter on the show with us to listen to us
2:22
Speaker 1: and to say, hey, this doesn't make sense, or Hey
2:25
Speaker 1: tell me more about this, or hey that's all great,
2:28
Speaker 1: but what I really want to know about is A
2:29
Speaker 1: B and C. So as we walk through a beginner's guide,
2:32
Speaker 1: my friend and this new hunter, Connor, he's gonna listen
2:36
Speaker 1: along and jump in when he needs more. He's gonna
2:38
Speaker 1: jump in when necessary, and I think it's gonna lead
2:40
Speaker 1: to a couple of cool things. Um. Number one, like
2:43
Speaker 1: I just kind of mentioned, we're gonna get to cover,
2:45
Speaker 1: you know, the questions and concerns that new hunters really have.
2:49
Speaker 1: I think that if me and Dan just did this
2:51
Speaker 1: on our own, there would be the risk of us
2:53
Speaker 1: glossing over certain things that we would just assume that
2:56
Speaker 1: new people would know, but maybe they wouldn't. So by
2:59
Speaker 1: actually having Conn here with us, he's going to call
3:01
Speaker 1: us out and say, hey, what in the world does
3:03
Speaker 1: crepuscular mean or something like that, and we'll make sure
3:06
Speaker 1: to cover and make sure to cover this. Well, we'll
3:10
Speaker 1: get to that dan, um. And then number two, if
3:14
Speaker 1: you are an experienced hunter with aspirations of someday helping
3:18
Speaker 1: somebody else get into hunting, you know, if you want
3:20
Speaker 1: to help your kids or your friends, or whoever it
3:24
Speaker 1: might be. If you want to help someone else get
3:26
Speaker 1: into this community, in this lifestyle, I think this podcast
3:30
Speaker 1: is going to provide you a great opportunity to kind
3:32
Speaker 1: of get a preview of what that process might be like,
3:35
Speaker 1: because now you can actually hear from another new hunter
3:37
Speaker 1: and hear about what his questions are, you know, here
3:39
Speaker 1: about what his concerns were, here about which things confused him,
3:43
Speaker 1: so that when you go about this on your own,
3:45
Speaker 1: you'll have some different things that kind of help you prepare.
3:48
Speaker 1: So I think this is gonna be valuable for both
3:50
Speaker 1: new hunters and experienced. Obviously two different goals there, but
3:54
Speaker 1: I'm excited about it. That's our game plan. I think
3:57
Speaker 1: this should be and will be a really helpful resource.
4:00
Speaker 1: And um, that's what we're gonna do. So before we
4:02
Speaker 1: get to that, though, Dan, does that? Does that sound
4:05
Speaker 1: like a good plan? Is there anything else we should add? Um?
4:09
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts? No? I really think this is
4:12
Speaker 1: good because not only does it force me and you
4:15
Speaker 1: too dump it down a little bit, it also, um
4:19
Speaker 1: is something that I think as we get more and
4:23
Speaker 1: more in depth into hunting strategy, that we forget the
4:27
Speaker 1: basics sometimes, and I think that is what causes you
4:31
Speaker 1: and me because we are both self admittedly do this
4:35
Speaker 1: uh overthink when we probably don't need to. And that's
4:39
Speaker 1: a good point sometimes it it really does come down
4:42
Speaker 1: and just taking a step out of all like the minutia,
4:45
Speaker 1: like you all the details like sometimes sometimes it's good
4:48
Speaker 1: to take a step back and just get back to basics. Um.
4:52
Speaker 1: You know, during well I won't go into rabbit holes here,
4:55
Speaker 1: but I at one place, one time of the year,
4:57
Speaker 1: I always find myself needing to do that as during
4:59
Speaker 1: the run when I get over obsessed with all these
5:01
Speaker 1: little things. And then I just said, okay, take a
5:03
Speaker 1: step back, remember remember the core fundamentals of hunting at
5:06
Speaker 1: this time of year, and that usually gets me back
5:08
Speaker 1: on the right track. But but we'll talk more about that,
5:12
Speaker 1: I guess a little bit later here once Connor gets
5:13
Speaker 1: on here. Um, first off, before we do get in,
5:18
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you something for you know, congrats on
5:21
Speaker 1: the big news that just went down last week between
5:25
Speaker 1: you and meat eater Man. That's uh from from you know,
5:30
Speaker 1: a contributor to this podcast to also a follower of
5:33
Speaker 1: Wired Wired to Hunt. You know, I speak for the
5:36
Speaker 1: Wired to hunt you know nation that congrats, man, that's
5:40
Speaker 1: a big thing. Thank you, buddy, I really appreciate that.
5:43
Speaker 1: And uh, I appreciate all of your contributions and help
5:46
Speaker 1: along the way. And uh I think there's lots of
5:49
Speaker 1: exciting stuff ahead and um, you know, hopefully with this
5:53
Speaker 1: new partnership, I think you and me will get hurt
5:55
Speaker 1: by more than the three or four people that follow
5:57
Speaker 1: us right now. So it should be good. My mom,
6:01
Speaker 1: your your wife, and two our friends. Yeah, my wife
6:06
Speaker 1: does not listen to this pocket point. You guys probably
6:09
Speaker 1: wouldn't be still married. That's right now. You just can't
6:15
Speaker 1: go getting this, uh this, you know, claiming this celebrity status. Now,
6:20
Speaker 1: you know, you gotta remember the little guys like me
6:23
Speaker 1: and Further and Corey and all the you know, the
6:27
Speaker 1: the guys you know, your your bros from back in
6:29
Speaker 1: the day. Oh man, No, no celebrity status here at all.
6:32
Speaker 1: Because you're absolutely right. Whenever I'm around you, guys, I
6:35
Speaker 1: am brought back down to earth real quick. I'm reminded
6:41
Speaker 1: of my place on the total. That means you've made it.
6:44
Speaker 1: That means you've made it. No, no, just just trying
6:47
Speaker 1: to keep someone's knocking you down. If someone's knocking you down,
6:52
Speaker 1: especially your buddies, right, they're giving you ship. That means
6:55
Speaker 1: that means you're doing something right. It's a good way
6:58
Speaker 1: to look at it. Yeah, Man, exciting exciting times and
7:04
Speaker 1: um yeah, I'm looking forward and where things go and
7:08
Speaker 1: excited to see, uh what kind of cool stuff you
7:10
Speaker 1: continue to do with Sportsman's Nation. And man, we we
7:13
Speaker 1: got a lot, We got a lot going on these days. Buddy,
7:18
Speaker 1: we are now real quickly here. I don't want to
7:21
Speaker 1: go too far down our usual rabbit holes. But for
7:24
Speaker 1: several months now, even even last year, we were talking
7:27
Speaker 1: about some of the things that you were going to
7:29
Speaker 1: be doing to help prepare yourself for future hunting seasons.
7:32
Speaker 1: And one of those things that you talked about was
7:35
Speaker 1: investing in your relationship. Right And uh, right, you've got
7:40
Speaker 1: You've got a great big brownie point trip coming up,
7:42
Speaker 1: don't you. Yeah. Man, I tell you, my wife got
7:48
Speaker 1: mad at me. This was a while ago. She's like,
7:50
Speaker 1: we haven't even gone on a vacation or a honeymoon yet. Uh.
7:54
Speaker 1: And you're playing all these elk hunting trips and you
7:57
Speaker 1: old deer hunting trips and and all this stuff and
8:00
Speaker 1: you haven't taken me anywhere, and I'm just like, I
8:02
Speaker 1: took you to the State Fair one year. Obviously that
8:06
Speaker 1: you know that doesn't count. But uh so I said,
8:11
Speaker 1: you know what, this is gonna be good for not
8:13
Speaker 1: only her, but for us to get away from the kids,
8:16
Speaker 1: which is much needed. Um, to take some stress out
8:20
Speaker 1: of her life and give her, which is with what
8:23
Speaker 1: is her dream vacation And I'm taking her to let's
8:28
Speaker 1: see next. So you're listening to this on a Thursday.
8:31
Speaker 1: By this time the following Tuesday, I will be in
8:35
Speaker 1: an airplane flying to San Francisco with my wife and
8:41
Speaker 1: we're going to enjoy a day in San Francisco and
8:43
Speaker 1: then three days in like Sonoma and Napa Valley. My wife,
8:47
Speaker 1: my wife loves wine, so we're gonna do that whole
8:50
Speaker 1: you know, take the wine tours and go eat at
8:54
Speaker 1: some nice restaurants and maybe even fit in a hike
8:57
Speaker 1: in the Redwoods and you know, take a dip in
9:00
Speaker 1: the Pacific Ocean. So we, uh, we got a big,
9:04
Speaker 1: big vacation coming up. And basically I'm doing this to
9:08
Speaker 1: keep my wife happy, so she continues to allow me
9:11
Speaker 1: to go on these uh these big trips. That's awesome, dude,
9:15
Speaker 1: Well I think that's uh, that's dear beginner's deer hunter
9:18
Speaker 1: guy tip number one is make sure to invest in
9:22
Speaker 1: prioritize your family right because that that's a good thing.
9:26
Speaker 1: Makes the world go round. When the wife's happy, you
9:29
Speaker 1: can help more. That's a fact. My wife literally has
9:32
Speaker 1: a sign over my bed that says happy wife, Happy life.
9:37
Speaker 1: A constant daily reminder, A speaking of your speaking of
9:42
Speaker 1: your NAPA Valley, Sonoma. Portion of the trip. Uh, not
9:45
Speaker 1: too far from there is Point Reyes. I think it's
9:48
Speaker 1: a national lake shore. I think it's Point Reyes National
9:51
Speaker 1: Lake Shore, I think, or not lake shore, but whatever
9:54
Speaker 1: it is. Um yep. Really recommend checking that out if
9:58
Speaker 1: you're looking for a hike that's close to the was
10:00
Speaker 1: I think it's just south of it. Really amazing, very
10:03
Speaker 1: cool place for some hiking on the ocean. We saw
10:06
Speaker 1: sea lions and big trees and beautiful sites. So that's
10:09
Speaker 1: when you might want to add to the itinerary or
10:10
Speaker 1: look at least. Yeah, it's all, it's already on the list. Nice. Nice, Okay,
10:16
Speaker 1: So let's we're gonna stay focused today. UM, so we're
10:21
Speaker 1: gonna have Connor come on here in a second. He's
10:23
Speaker 1: a friend of mine who joined me a couple of
10:26
Speaker 1: weeks ago for his very first hunt ever. So in
10:29
Speaker 1: a second here we're gonna call him in, get him
10:32
Speaker 1: to tell us a little bit about that first hunt,
10:34
Speaker 1: and then um he he already has talked about being
10:36
Speaker 1: interested in hunting again in the future, maybe trying deer hunting.
10:39
Speaker 1: So that's why he's going to be here with us,
10:42
Speaker 1: to to play that role and to really get himself
10:44
Speaker 1: ready for the hunt. So are you ready, Dan, Let's
10:48
Speaker 1: do it all right, Let's take a quick break to
10:51
Speaker 1: thank our partners at White Tail Properties, and then we
10:54
Speaker 1: will get Connor on the line. This week with White
10:58
Speaker 1: Tailed Properties, we were joined by Adam Hating, a land
11:00
Speaker 1: specialist out of Ohio, and Edam is going to be
11:03
Speaker 1: telling us about how to develop a checklist as a
11:06
Speaker 1: property buyer. One thing that I would suggest whenever I
11:10
Speaker 1: you know, if I was going in to look at
11:12
Speaker 1: a property, I would sit down and I would just
11:14
Speaker 1: ask myself several questions, A, you know, how big of
11:17
Speaker 1: a property do I want be? Obviously what is my budget?
11:22
Speaker 1: And then you know, I would go in to see
11:24
Speaker 1: like the just detailed specifics, um, you know, and am
11:28
Speaker 1: I wanting big open woods? Am I wanting crop fields around?
11:32
Speaker 1: Just depending on where you're out in the country. Um,
11:36
Speaker 1: you know, am I wanting water on the property? And
11:38
Speaker 1: if water is not there, do I have capabilities of
11:42
Speaker 1: putting upon them myself? Um? You know, there's just so
11:44
Speaker 1: many things that you can think about, um and write
11:48
Speaker 1: actually on paper and make a list that will help
11:52
Speaker 1: it you being, you know, help a buyer whenever they're
11:55
Speaker 1: looking at properties physically or filtering through them online, they
11:59
Speaker 1: can actually go through and eliminate properties or check off properties. Um.
12:04
Speaker 1: But then also just kind of keep a list. I mean,
12:06
Speaker 1: if you if you narrow what you want to look
12:08
Speaker 1: at down to three or four or five properties, and
12:10
Speaker 1: you have a checklist, even in an excel file or
12:12
Speaker 1: something else, so easy to go in there and then
12:15
Speaker 1: check off and look at the ones that have hit
12:18
Speaker 1: more criteria than the others, and it would help you
12:21
Speaker 1: choose the property that's best for you. If you'd like
12:24
Speaker 1: to learn more and to see the properties that Adam
12:26
Speaker 1: currently has listed for sale, visit white tail properties dot com.
12:31
Speaker 1: Backslash Hayden that's h A Y D E N alright,
12:36
Speaker 1: we're back in with me and dan Is my buddy
12:40
Speaker 1: Connor and I had this idea of doing this Beginner's
12:44
Speaker 1: Guide to deer hunting, you know, as we mentioned for
12:46
Speaker 1: a while now, but then just recently, I said, we
12:49
Speaker 1: can make this a lot better if we had a
12:50
Speaker 1: brand new hunter to kind of check us as we go.
12:53
Speaker 1: And Connor, you jumped to my mind right away because
12:57
Speaker 1: we just a couple of weeks ago spent time hunting
13:01
Speaker 1: together and that was your very first hunt, right, my
13:05
Speaker 1: very first one ever was actually my first time ever
13:07
Speaker 1: shooting a gun as well. Yeah, can you can you
13:11
Speaker 1: walk folks through how that happened? I mean, what the
13:14
Speaker 1: scenario was. Because we're going on this turkey hunt in
13:16
Speaker 1: southwest Michigan and m pick pick it up from there.
13:20
Speaker 1: You're meeting us in southwest Michigan. How did you get
13:22
Speaker 1: there and what happened right when you did? Yeah? No, absolutely,
13:26
Speaker 1: So I'll give you a little bit more background too.
13:27
Speaker 1: So I grew up in Chicago in an urban setting.
13:30
Speaker 1: I've lived in New York for a few years, and
13:33
Speaker 1: now I'm living out in Los Angeles, so you know,
13:35
Speaker 1: in all those cities, just being a big urban dweller.
13:38
Speaker 1: You know, hunting has never been a huge focal point
13:40
Speaker 1: for the people I've been around. And it's funny, Mark
13:42
Speaker 1: one of the podcasts I was listening to recently, where
13:45
Speaker 1: you said you did your internship in New York and
13:47
Speaker 1: just kind of driving you crazy because you were surroonded
13:50
Speaker 1: by all this concrete all the time, and there was
13:53
Speaker 1: nowhere for you to hunt, and there's nowhere for you
13:55
Speaker 1: to be in wilderness. So that's kind of how I've
13:57
Speaker 1: always spent my life and that's part of the reason
14:00
Speaker 1: I've never really had that experience. Um, but no, man,
14:03
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago, going up to Michigan with you,
14:06
Speaker 1: Steve and uh and be honest, was was really actually
14:08
Speaker 1: one of the coolest experiences of my life. And we
14:11
Speaker 1: made it even more special too. It was the fact
14:12
Speaker 1: that you know, all three of you guys are from
14:14
Speaker 1: Michigan and you already had a lay of the land,
14:16
Speaker 1: and I could tell it was pretty nostalgia inducing for
14:19
Speaker 1: you guys as well. So you know, we got there
14:22
Speaker 1: on the Friday night, Um, you know, we were a
14:24
Speaker 1: bit later than expected, and we go right out to
14:27
Speaker 1: the take some target practice, and like I said, I
14:30
Speaker 1: had never shot a gun before in my life, any
14:32
Speaker 1: type of gun, maybe a pellet gun when I was
14:34
Speaker 1: eight or nine years old. But we get out there,
14:37
Speaker 1: you know, we're sitting down, and you know, I take
14:39
Speaker 1: my first shot, and I had no idea the type
14:41
Speaker 1: of kickback that I'd be experiencing. So it felt like
14:43
Speaker 1: I got a nice Charlie horse right in my right
14:45
Speaker 1: in my shoulder. Yeah, being around all the guys, I
14:50
Speaker 1: I didn't want to, you know, show them that it
14:52
Speaker 1: actually hurt more more than uh um. So anyway, Yeah,
14:57
Speaker 1: the night was great, and I actually didn't do a
15:00
Speaker 1: lot of sleeping the night before the actual hunt. We gotta,
15:02
Speaker 1: I gotta, I gotta stop you really quick. That kind
15:04
Speaker 1: of you missed one important detail. Your very first time
15:08
Speaker 1: shooting gun was literally after dark by the headlights of
15:11
Speaker 1: a truck in the backyard because of how late you
15:13
Speaker 1: guys got in. So it's like, welcome the camp, turn
15:16
Speaker 1: on the head lamps, and let's get them shooting exactly exactly.
15:21
Speaker 1: And we uh and I think uh, I took three
15:24
Speaker 1: shots that night too, so that's all I had going
15:26
Speaker 1: in And uh. The funny part is, um, that night,
15:29
Speaker 1: like I said, I didn't do much sleeping, so I
15:31
Speaker 1: was listening to YouTube sounds of turkey calls. So I'm like,
15:34
Speaker 1: you know what, I don't want to be that guy
15:37
Speaker 1: that's holding everyone back. I want to help out in
15:40
Speaker 1: any sort of capacity I can. So you know what,
15:42
Speaker 1: maybe if I'm able to identify these turkey sounds, then
15:45
Speaker 1: I'll be somewhat useful tomorrow. So we wake up at
15:48
Speaker 1: uh four fift, crack it dawn. We get out there
15:52
Speaker 1: at around five, and we're paring off in twos. Uh
15:55
Speaker 1: it is me and the lobnin Eagle, be honest, but
15:58
Speaker 1: tell us. And of course you know, I'm an eager beaver.
16:01
Speaker 1: When I get out there, I'm trying to, you know,
16:02
Speaker 1: prove my worth and so everything. Every single sound I hear,
16:06
Speaker 1: I go, y, honest, honestly, there's a gobbo over there.
16:08
Speaker 1: There's a gobble and he goes Connor, No, no, no,
16:10
Speaker 1: that's a crane. That's not a turkey. Next sound I hear,
16:13
Speaker 1: I go, oh, honest, honest, I gotta read on one
16:15
Speaker 1: over there. He goes, no, that's also not a turkey.
16:18
Speaker 1: So then I was like, you know what, I'm just
16:19
Speaker 1: gonna shut my mouth and I'm gonna let the pro
16:21
Speaker 1: do his work here, and so within about ten or
16:24
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes, y Honest gets a great read on a
16:26
Speaker 1: few birds, sets us up perfectly, and he basically just
16:30
Speaker 1: tells me, all right, Connor, I'm gonna set up the decoys.
16:32
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do the calls. All I need you to
16:34
Speaker 1: do is sit against that tree, turn the safety on
16:37
Speaker 1: the gun and wait for me to tell you to shoot.
16:39
Speaker 1: I go, okay, that sounds great. He sets up the decoys,
16:43
Speaker 1: he comes back, sits next to me, starts doing some calls,
16:45
Speaker 1: starts doing some calls, and literally, within about seven or
16:49
Speaker 1: eight minutes, two birds come like screaming down this meadow
16:55
Speaker 1: and they're coming in real fast, and so my heart
16:57
Speaker 1: is starting to beat. The adrenaline is full force, you know.
17:01
Speaker 1: I unleashed the safety, put the gun on my knee,
17:05
Speaker 1: and Janice just tapped me on the shoulder. He goes now,
17:08
Speaker 1: and I took the shot, and it was kind of
17:10
Speaker 1: one of those I've heard you guys, some of you
17:12
Speaker 1: guys talked about before. It was kind of one of
17:13
Speaker 1: those blackout moments. Um, super exhilarating, super amazing, and uh yeah,
17:21
Speaker 1: took the shot and loan, behold there he went, and
17:23
Speaker 1: you know, one of the things you told me, Mark
17:25
Speaker 1: was even if you don't get a turkey that day,
17:27
Speaker 1: just enjoy the experience. Just enjoy the sights and the
17:30
Speaker 1: sounds being out there, enjoy the camaraderie, because that's also
17:34
Speaker 1: what it's all about. And so for me, it was
17:37
Speaker 1: it was extremely exhilarating and eye opening and I couldn't
17:40
Speaker 1: have had a better first experience it was. It was
17:43
Speaker 1: so cool that it worked out that way for you too, because,
17:45
Speaker 1: like you just mentioned the night before, I was trying
17:47
Speaker 1: to make sure we set expectations, you know, relatively low.
17:50
Speaker 1: Didn't want you to think that it was going to
17:52
Speaker 1: happen super easy right away, and because usually it doesn't,
17:56
Speaker 1: but miraculously, this time it really did. Um that was cool.
18:00
Speaker 1: And not only did you have that success right away
18:02
Speaker 1: in the morning, but like ten minutes later, I was
18:05
Speaker 1: hunting half mile away or something or whatever it was,
18:09
Speaker 1: and I got a bird first thing in the morning,
18:11
Speaker 1: and maybe ten minutes later after that, our other friend
18:13
Speaker 1: Jason got his first turkey ever. Um. So it was
18:17
Speaker 1: a magical morning. It was just kind of all the
18:19
Speaker 1: stars aligned and made for just that perfect situation. Um.
18:24
Speaker 1: What what was it like though, because you probably heard
18:27
Speaker 1: if you listen to that one podcast where me and
18:29
Speaker 1: Steve and Janice were talking about some of our early experiences,
18:32
Speaker 1: you probably heard us talk about, you know what that
18:34
Speaker 1: moment was like when we walked up on our first
18:36
Speaker 1: deer or the first animal that we had that we
18:38
Speaker 1: had killed and hunted, that hunted and killed. And what
18:41
Speaker 1: was that like for you? Was it? Um? I don't
18:44
Speaker 1: know what were you feeling when you realize why I
18:46
Speaker 1: just took this animal's life, I'm gonna eat this animal
18:49
Speaker 1: or anything? There? Was it all just kind of a blur? Yeah.
18:51
Speaker 1: I mean, like I said, it was pretty exhilarating. I've
18:55
Speaker 1: always been a very carnivorous person. I've always loved eating meat.
18:59
Speaker 1: And know the way I thought about it was, you know,
19:02
Speaker 1: unfortunately a lot of the meat did I eat. Those
19:06
Speaker 1: animals are unfortunately killed in a lot more in humanely
19:09
Speaker 1: ways and in humane ways. Um, so you know it
19:14
Speaker 1: was it was It was sort of a bit of
19:16
Speaker 1: a shock at some point, but you know, I think
19:20
Speaker 1: it was more exhilarating than anything. And um, it was
19:24
Speaker 1: just kind of a really cool experience. And then to
19:25
Speaker 1: be able to consume that you know eat it a
19:28
Speaker 1: week later? Was was? That was great as well? Even
19:31
Speaker 1: though you know my shot wasn't great because I kind
19:33
Speaker 1: of got it in the breast, so I was I
19:35
Speaker 1: was spitting on a lot of babies when I was
19:36
Speaker 1: eating it. So there's a lot of how How was
19:41
Speaker 1: the how was the prep in the eating? Was it
19:42
Speaker 1: pretty good? What would you kind of recipe to try? Um?
19:47
Speaker 1: You know, I actually had a family member helped me out.
19:50
Speaker 1: I've never been been much of a cook. Uh. With
19:52
Speaker 1: my job, I've been working long hours. I'm a big
19:55
Speaker 1: takeout guy. So I had to consult a real shaft
19:59
Speaker 1: to help me out. And I hate to admit that,
20:01
Speaker 1: but that's that's the God's on us truth. That's it
20:04
Speaker 1: must have been pretty cool still to eat that and
20:06
Speaker 1: know that you were part of that process from beginning
20:08
Speaker 1: to end, right exactly. I did have to give you know,
20:12
Speaker 1: my family member four warning that she might be spitting
20:15
Speaker 1: out babies as well, So just choose slowly. Yeah, and
20:18
Speaker 1: you you you breasted and cleaned that bird out yourself too. Um,
20:23
Speaker 1: that was an interesting experience, right, It certainly was, But
20:28
Speaker 1: you're not giving yourself enough credit. You you did kind
20:31
Speaker 1: of walk me right through it, which I needed all
20:33
Speaker 1: the help I can get. But UM, yeah, no, that
20:35
Speaker 1: that really was. Yeah, it was awesome. Um. And one
20:38
Speaker 1: of the first things you said though, I remember me
20:41
Speaker 1: and me and Dirt got back from our hunting. You
20:43
Speaker 1: and Yas got back from your hunt. We met at
20:45
Speaker 1: the truck and you were starting to tell your story,
20:48
Speaker 1: and then you said, like, I got the I got
20:49
Speaker 1: the itch, I got the I got the feeling now
20:52
Speaker 1: like the fever. You were already like, let's go hunt
20:54
Speaker 1: another one. You wanted to get going after more birds.
20:58
Speaker 1: Unfortunately you only out one tag in Michigan. Um. But
21:02
Speaker 1: then I asked you very soon after that, and I
21:03
Speaker 1: want to ask you a getting to still see if
21:06
Speaker 1: you still feel the same way, But are you still
21:08
Speaker 1: interested in in the future hunt again? Absolutely, And I'll
21:14
Speaker 1: say this it's it's it's not even about getting the
21:17
Speaker 1: animal as much, but not to be redundant. It was
21:20
Speaker 1: it was the camaraderie the whole weekend. You know. It
21:22
Speaker 1: was getting out in nature and being more tuned to
21:26
Speaker 1: sites and sounds that maybe I would have taken for
21:29
Speaker 1: granted before and getting away from you know, being on
21:33
Speaker 1: my phone or being on my computer or being in
21:36
Speaker 1: this urban setting where it's just you know, car horns
21:39
Speaker 1: and people yelling. It was. It was a really eye
21:42
Speaker 1: open experience. So yes, sign me up, let's already get
21:46
Speaker 1: planned on the next one. Yeah, I mean that, that's
21:48
Speaker 1: that's so cool for me to hear. I love hearing
21:52
Speaker 1: your thoughts and your experiences from that, um, because it
21:55
Speaker 1: is something that you know, Dan and myself and so
21:57
Speaker 1: many of others we have. We have this deep love
22:00
Speaker 1: for this, for this activity, for this lifestyle, and there's
22:03
Speaker 1: so many people that have never been exposed to in
22:05
Speaker 1: any way, shape or form, and sometimes there's negative kind
22:08
Speaker 1: of connotations or stereotypes around it to make them think
22:10
Speaker 1: that it's something they never would want to get involved in. Um.
22:14
Speaker 1: But to hear someone have such a positive experience like
22:16
Speaker 1: you did, UM, that's that's encouraging. So um that's kind
22:20
Speaker 1: of why I want to get you on the podcast
22:21
Speaker 1: now though, Connor was because I know you're interested in
22:24
Speaker 1: going on future hunt. I think that future hunt should
22:27
Speaker 1: be a deer hunt, So UM, me and Dan are
22:29
Speaker 1: gonna try to prepare you for that future hunt. If
22:33
Speaker 1: you're up for a little bit of deer hunting one
22:35
Speaker 1: on one, what do you say I am a perfect
22:38
Speaker 1: student for deer hunting one on one because I I'm
22:41
Speaker 1: starting at square one. I got my notepad out right now. Awesome, Dan,
22:46
Speaker 1: any thoughts before we dive into the curriculum. Did you
22:49
Speaker 1: like kind of story? And doesn't that Isn't that like
22:51
Speaker 1: a great thing to hear? Right now? Here's the deal
22:56
Speaker 1: because oftentimes when you have a season or your first
23:01
Speaker 1: hunting experience like what he had, Connor, I'm just preparing
23:06
Speaker 1: you that hunting is not always on guaranteed success. So
23:12
Speaker 1: for me especially, I went years and years without being
23:15
Speaker 1: successful and had to appreciate nature. Um, so just remember
23:21
Speaker 1: that next year, if you don't get a bird, or
23:23
Speaker 1: if you don't run into a turkey, to stay patient,
23:27
Speaker 1: stay calm, and you're gonna get frustrated, because we all do.
23:30
Speaker 1: But uh it that every time you have a really
23:34
Speaker 1: shitty season and you come out of it and the
23:35
Speaker 1: next season is great, you just appreciate it that much more. Yeah. No,
23:41
Speaker 1: I totally understand that too, And that's one of the
23:43
Speaker 1: things that that Mark and Steve we're telling Jason and
23:46
Speaker 1: I as well as like listen, man, you guys were
23:48
Speaker 1: spoiled getting one within the first hour that is that
23:51
Speaker 1: does not happen. Um, So no, that yeah, that's definitely
23:54
Speaker 1: something I got in the back of my mind for sure.
23:56
Speaker 1: It's also go ahead. Also, do you have a girlfriend
24:01
Speaker 1: right now? I do not? Okay, good? Good, because if
24:07
Speaker 1: you had a girlfriend oral wife right now and you
24:10
Speaker 1: started getting into hunting, that's just the recipe for disaster. Man.
24:14
Speaker 1: So so now that you're falling in love with this,
24:17
Speaker 1: it might be Uh, it's definitely a conversation that's gonna
24:21
Speaker 1: have to be had with whoever. You know, your next
24:25
Speaker 1: partner is like, Hey, I'm a hunter now I I
24:28
Speaker 1: go away for a long periods of time. It's good
24:32
Speaker 1: to be good to be getting a head start before
24:35
Speaker 1: the relationship. Um. But to your earlier point to Dan,
24:39
Speaker 1: that's almost like the perfect place to start when it
24:41
Speaker 1: comes to when it comes to this, that being to
24:44
Speaker 1: have you know, reasonable expectations, like it should not be
24:48
Speaker 1: your expectation that when you head out for a hunt,
24:51
Speaker 1: especially early on, that you're going to get a deer
24:53
Speaker 1: or turkey or a squirrel or a rabbit or whatever
24:55
Speaker 1: it is that you're hunting, that you're gonna get one
24:57
Speaker 1: right away or every time. Um, and aren't in any
25:00
Speaker 1: hunt is it's a challenge, it's going to take a
25:02
Speaker 1: lot of work. It's gonna take a lot of mistakes
25:04
Speaker 1: and learning from those mistakes and getting better. Um So.
25:07
Speaker 1: One of the things I feel like happens with a
25:09
Speaker 1: lot of people that maybe don't have a mentor or
25:11
Speaker 1: someone who can kind of walk them through all this
25:13
Speaker 1: stuff is that they go out there and then it
25:15
Speaker 1: doesn't go well, and they try a handful of times maybe,
25:17
Speaker 1: and they just get frustrated, they get disheartened, and they
25:20
Speaker 1: give up. Um So, I think, right out the gate gate,
25:24
Speaker 1: don't give up, Like realize it's gonna be a challenge,
25:27
Speaker 1: but it is so worth it once you start wrapping
25:28
Speaker 1: your head around these things, and it takes time. And
25:31
Speaker 1: for context, I grew up in a hunting family, like
25:34
Speaker 1: I grew up learning stuff related to hunting right from
25:37
Speaker 1: the time I was walking pretty much. And I still
25:39
Speaker 1: didn't kill my first deer until I was I think
25:43
Speaker 1: it was eighteen years old or something like that. So
25:45
Speaker 1: I had a lot of years, a lot of time
25:47
Speaker 1: spent hunting right, never filled the tag um So. And
25:52
Speaker 1: I think Dan, you were you know, a teenager too, right, Oh,
25:56
Speaker 1: I started uh, deer hunting, nothing serious. I come from
26:00
Speaker 1: a deer hunting or a hunting family. We fished and
26:04
Speaker 1: my uncles did some trapping, but there was no hunting
26:08
Speaker 1: in our family until I was about twelve or fourteen.
26:13
Speaker 1: I can't really remember when I started, but I didn't
26:15
Speaker 1: kill my first deer with a bow until I was
26:22
Speaker 1: So there you go a lot of a lot of
26:24
Speaker 1: a lot of bumps on the road along that way, right, absolutely. Yeah,
26:29
Speaker 1: and you guys, you guys both prefer bows. Well, yeah,
26:33
Speaker 1: I would say that I think for not everyone, but
26:38
Speaker 1: for a lot of people. Once you get like really
26:40
Speaker 1: serious into hunting and you do it a lot, you
26:42
Speaker 1: just want to find ways to extend your season. You
26:44
Speaker 1: want to have as much time spent outdoors. There's many
26:47
Speaker 1: different opportunities. Um and so yeah, moving to two archery
26:51
Speaker 1: equipment is a way to do that. It makes it
26:53
Speaker 1: much more challenging. It also opens up much longer seasons,
26:57
Speaker 1: um and it's it is a different experience. UM. So
27:00
Speaker 1: that's a good point. Though. I think most of what
27:02
Speaker 1: we'll talk about here today we'll kind of well, I'll
27:05
Speaker 1: try to frame once we get into some of the
27:07
Speaker 1: strategy and stuff, maybe we should like. As we go
27:10
Speaker 1: through this, Dan, we'll say, if you're if you're hunting
27:12
Speaker 1: with a bow, you know, think about X. If you're
27:14
Speaker 1: hunting with a gun, you can think about why. Um.
27:18
Speaker 1: And that's another thing I guess I would say too,
27:21
Speaker 1: is that if you're beginning using a firearm, probably is
27:26
Speaker 1: what most people used to get started, simply because it's
27:28
Speaker 1: a little bit easier to figure that out. It's a
27:30
Speaker 1: little bit more of I think people become more comfortable
27:33
Speaker 1: with a firearm more quickly than with a bow. Um.
27:37
Speaker 1: So would you agree with that, Dan, that for most people,
27:39
Speaker 1: starting with a firearm might be the best way unless
27:41
Speaker 1: they're already like really interested in archery or already experienced
27:43
Speaker 1: with archery. Um, if you don't have like a passion
27:46
Speaker 1: for that right out the get go, a firearm might
27:48
Speaker 1: be the easiest way to get started and get in
27:50
Speaker 1: the field. Would you Is that about right? You know,
27:53
Speaker 1: I'm gonna agree with an asterisk because I because the
27:57
Speaker 1: statistics are showing that crossbow hunting is on the rise
28:02
Speaker 1: big time. So if you kind of want the best
28:06
Speaker 1: of both worlds, let's say like a state like Ohio
28:09
Speaker 1: I believe allows crossbow hunting or other states that allow
28:13
Speaker 1: you to use a crossbow to hunt. That might be
28:16
Speaker 1: that might be a good first start for somebody, Um,
28:20
Speaker 1: just because you get to have the archery season, but
28:25
Speaker 1: use a weapon that's a little bit more accurate, uh,
28:28
Speaker 1: and have some more long range opportunities than than a bow.
28:34
Speaker 1: That's a really good point. That's a very good point.
28:37
Speaker 1: It's kind of the best of both worlds for a beginner.
28:39
Speaker 1: That is a great way to go. Um. Right, I'm
28:42
Speaker 1: glad you mentioned that. So here here's kind of where
28:44
Speaker 1: I want to go with this, and I kind of layout,
28:46
Speaker 1: like the the planned the outline of, at least in
28:49
Speaker 1: my head, how how I'm going to walk you through
28:51
Speaker 1: this counter. I kind of want to talk to you
28:53
Speaker 1: a little bit about kind of the biology and behavior
28:55
Speaker 1: of deer, so kind of get you just a little
28:57
Speaker 1: bit of a foundation as far as how deer operate,
29:00
Speaker 1: what matters to them, the things that we as hunters
29:02
Speaker 1: need to know about them. And then we're gonna talk
29:05
Speaker 1: through a little bit about how to find a place
29:07
Speaker 1: to hunt, how to then you know, get you know,
29:10
Speaker 1: prepared for the hunt. You know, so where to look
29:12
Speaker 1: for deer, where to set up, where you're going to
29:15
Speaker 1: hunt some of those things that you just need to
29:17
Speaker 1: know before you actually have the hunting season open. And
29:19
Speaker 1: then we'll talk about things that we're thinking about when
29:21
Speaker 1: you actually go out there in the woods on that
29:23
Speaker 1: day when you are going to hunt, stuff like, you know,
29:27
Speaker 1: when should I go out, how long should I stay out,
29:29
Speaker 1: what should I do I'm out there in the woods,
29:31
Speaker 1: things like that. Um, we'll talk about what happens when
29:34
Speaker 1: you're actually about to take a shot at a deer,
29:36
Speaker 1: and then finally what to do afterwards. So how do
29:39
Speaker 1: you know, how do you deal with it? Gut it,
29:41
Speaker 1: clean it, get it out of the woods. A little
29:43
Speaker 1: bit about processing, a little bit about you know, how
29:45
Speaker 1: to get that in the freezer and make sure you've
29:48
Speaker 1: got good food to eat. So that's kind of the
29:49
Speaker 1: direction at a very very high level. I'm thinking of taking, um,
29:53
Speaker 1: but well I'm sure we'll take a winding path to
29:55
Speaker 1: get there. Um. So first off, and Dan, you jump
30:01
Speaker 1: in here whenever you whenever you want. But the first
30:03
Speaker 1: I thought we should talk about deer the animal itself,
30:06
Speaker 1: all right. So white tailed deer are, if not one
30:10
Speaker 1: of the very most prolific mammals in North America, or
30:14
Speaker 1: at least in the United States and really across North America.
30:17
Speaker 1: They're almost across the entire lower forty eight states. So
30:20
Speaker 1: as far as like big game species, UM, they are
30:24
Speaker 1: probably the greatest opportunity out there for people because they're
30:27
Speaker 1: so present, they're very adaptable. They can live outside of
30:30
Speaker 1: New York City. They can live in the farm country
30:32
Speaker 1: of Iowa by dan they can live UM in northern
30:36
Speaker 1: idao and the mountains. They can live in southern Florida
30:39
Speaker 1: and the swamps. They're kind of all over the place,
30:41
Speaker 1: so it's it's the kind of animal that is most
30:44
Speaker 1: likely going to be somewhere near you. And they are
30:48
Speaker 1: a beautiful, fascinating, interesting animal. They're challenging animal to understand
30:52
Speaker 1: and hunt, and they provide some of the absolute best
30:55
Speaker 1: food out there. I mean, venison is is just off
30:58
Speaker 1: the charts as far as good a protein to eat. UM.
31:02
Speaker 1: But they're smart, they're cag So a few things need
31:05
Speaker 1: to know about a deer. If you're gonna try to
31:07
Speaker 1: hunt a deer, you need to realize that they have
31:09
Speaker 1: three senses that are constantly providing them kind of their
31:14
Speaker 1: their defense mechanisms to make sure that they can stay alive.
31:17
Speaker 1: Number one, Their strongest sense is smell, so they have
31:20
Speaker 1: tremendous noses um their sense of smell compared to us humans.
31:25
Speaker 1: I don't remember what the ratio is, but I'd say
31:27
Speaker 1: it's something like a thousand times more scent receiving kind
31:30
Speaker 1: of receptacles or whatever might be in that knows that
31:33
Speaker 1: allows them to pick up just so much greater detail
31:37
Speaker 1: in smell. They can smell from a much, much greater distance.
31:40
Speaker 1: So that's something you always have to be thinking about.
31:42
Speaker 1: And this is different than turkeys because turkeys they don't
31:45
Speaker 1: really have that strong sense of smell. So when we're
31:47
Speaker 1: hunting those turks, we never really considered what if, you know,
31:50
Speaker 1: if they might smell us or anything. We're just worried
31:52
Speaker 1: about them seeing us. But with deer, you have to
31:55
Speaker 1: think about scent all the time. So you'll hear us
31:58
Speaker 1: talk a little bit later about worrying about our wind
32:00
Speaker 1: when we say we gotta watch where our wind is blowing.
32:02
Speaker 1: That's basically where our scent is going and making sure
32:05
Speaker 1: that deer aren't going to be where our scent is
32:07
Speaker 1: blowing to because that's a good way to scare those
32:09
Speaker 1: deer way right, away. That's that's super interesting, and that
32:12
Speaker 1: does provide an added layer of challenge. Are there certain?
32:17
Speaker 1: And this is going to be a complete wrong term. Certain,
32:20
Speaker 1: like perfumes you guys would have to wear when you
32:23
Speaker 1: go deer hunting that would sort of lessen your own
32:26
Speaker 1: smell or you know, make a deer less suspicious that
32:31
Speaker 1: humans might be, you know, in close proximity. Yeah, so
32:35
Speaker 1: kind of the exact opposite. So rather than like using
32:38
Speaker 1: some kind of well, some people do use a cover something,
32:41
Speaker 1: but yeah, you need to do a handful of different
32:43
Speaker 1: things to try to minimize your scent as much as
32:45
Speaker 1: possible or keep deer from smelling that human scent. So
32:50
Speaker 1: there's tons and tons of stuff that people do to
32:52
Speaker 1: try to eliminate their scent. So we'll we'll refer to
32:56
Speaker 1: that scent control um, so things like showering and washing
33:01
Speaker 1: yourself and washing your clothes in scent free soaps and
33:04
Speaker 1: sent free detergents, so stuff that cleans but has no
33:08
Speaker 1: additional odor. Um. We me and Dan, will you know,
33:12
Speaker 1: store all of our clothes in like air tight bins
33:15
Speaker 1: or bags, will keep them outside or in our garage
33:17
Speaker 1: or somewhere where they're not going to pick up smells. Um,
33:21
Speaker 1: we won't get changed into our hunting clothes until you
33:25
Speaker 1: know we're actually outside about to go hunting. So it's
33:28
Speaker 1: different than again, turkey hunting. You know, before we went
33:30
Speaker 1: turkey hunting, we're inside eating breakfast, wearing all of our
33:33
Speaker 1: camera and stuff. I would never do that when I'm
33:35
Speaker 1: deer hunting. I would wear totally different clothes when I'm
33:38
Speaker 1: inside the house, and then when I get outside actually
33:41
Speaker 1: like outside the truck, then I put my camouflage hunting
33:43
Speaker 1: clothes on then and then I walk out to go hunting.
33:46
Speaker 1: So very different that way. Um. There's different kind of
33:50
Speaker 1: sprays that you can use that can eliminate some scent,
33:53
Speaker 1: They destroy some scent milqueles. Um. There's a whole slew
33:57
Speaker 1: of different things out there. I don't know if we
33:59
Speaker 1: want to go into all the all the details, but
34:02
Speaker 1: lots of stuff there, um, Dan at a high level.
34:05
Speaker 1: Is there anything else you'd add on the on the
34:06
Speaker 1: scent piece, Yeah, just to put it into kind of perspective.
34:09
Speaker 1: I read an article a while ago where um, a
34:14
Speaker 1: guy mentioned that dear smell how humans see. So if
34:20
Speaker 1: I look at you, I can see that you're wearing
34:24
Speaker 1: a shirt, I can see that you have hair, and
34:27
Speaker 1: you have skin, and you have shoes on, and you
34:29
Speaker 1: have pants on. A deer can smell in the detail
34:34
Speaker 1: that we can see in, so they could smell your shirt,
34:37
Speaker 1: and smell your hair and smell your shoes. M Yeah,
34:42
Speaker 1: that's kind of how they go about their world too.
34:43
Speaker 1: Like I think our number, like as you said, like
34:46
Speaker 1: a lot of how we function daily life is based
34:48
Speaker 1: on the things we see, and that's kind of the
34:51
Speaker 1: way it is with dear. Of course site is important
34:53
Speaker 1: to them too, but they make a lot of decisions
34:55
Speaker 1: based on what they smell. They communicate a lot through
34:58
Speaker 1: smells as well. Um, we'll talk about this a little
35:01
Speaker 1: bit later, Connor, but you might remember that one day
35:04
Speaker 1: you and we were walking through the woods and I
35:06
Speaker 1: pointed out something I call a scrape and we talked
35:08
Speaker 1: about some of the things that are communicated there. Um,
35:12
Speaker 1: that's all through mostly through smells. Um. So, so scent
35:16
Speaker 1: is just a huge deal in the white tailed deer world,
35:18
Speaker 1: any kind of dear world. Um. And so that's just
35:21
Speaker 1: something that as a beginner hunter definitely be thinking about
35:24
Speaker 1: that and what We'll get a little bit more into
35:27
Speaker 1: this as far as how that impacts how you hunt.
35:29
Speaker 1: But important to note deer have incredible noses. They also
35:33
Speaker 1: have great eyes. They've got really terrific eyesight. Um. They
35:37
Speaker 1: have much better low light sight than we humans do,
35:42
Speaker 1: so they can see really well after dark, especially it
35:45
Speaker 1: kind of the edges of dark, so early in the morning, um,
35:49
Speaker 1: just at first light or late in the evening, just
35:51
Speaker 1: before it gets dark, and that is like their prime
35:54
Speaker 1: time to see. So that is something we always be
35:58
Speaker 1: considered about when we're out in the woods trying to
36:00
Speaker 1: hunt them. So just like turkeys, you have to be
36:01
Speaker 1: really slow when you move, and you're try not to
36:04
Speaker 1: move as much as possible, um, because they've got a
36:06
Speaker 1: great eye for catching movement and if they see movement,
36:09
Speaker 1: or if they see human or they see something that
36:11
Speaker 1: doesn't seem quite right, lots of times, that's gonna be
36:14
Speaker 1: enough to get them to run away. Um. They've got
36:17
Speaker 1: different color vision. They don't see as many colors as
36:20
Speaker 1: we do. That's why people wear bright orange when they
36:24
Speaker 1: hunt sometimes because that's something that humans see very well,
36:27
Speaker 1: but deer don't see it. Um. So that's a great
36:30
Speaker 1: way to make sure that you know we as hunters
36:32
Speaker 1: during firearm seasons see other hunters out there and don't
36:34
Speaker 1: accidentally shoot towards their direction or anything like that. Um.
36:38
Speaker 1: But yeah, site have to be very aware of And
36:41
Speaker 1: then finally, sound. They have tremendous ears. They can hear
36:45
Speaker 1: from a very far distance. They have the ability to
36:47
Speaker 1: kind of pinpoint locations of sounds even better than we
36:52
Speaker 1: do as humans. So lots of times you'll see something
36:54
Speaker 1: where maybe you'll make a noise to try to simulate
36:57
Speaker 1: another deer, and if a deer hears that, they can
37:00
Speaker 1: sometimes get right to the bottom of like your tree,
37:02
Speaker 1: like right where you are. They'll be all pinpoint you
37:04
Speaker 1: from a hundred yards away and be right next to you,
37:07
Speaker 1: just based off you know, one or two little sounds
37:09
Speaker 1: you might have made. Um. But that also means as
37:12
Speaker 1: a hunter, they can also pinpoint a sound that you
37:15
Speaker 1: make and have that scare them. So if you make
37:17
Speaker 1: you know, if you talk, or if you cough, or
37:20
Speaker 1: if you you know, drop your gun or your bone
37:23
Speaker 1: arrow or something like that, that's going to spell disaster. Um.
37:27
Speaker 1: So I remember as a kid when I was starting hunting,
37:30
Speaker 1: it was just the bare bones basics that I knew
37:32
Speaker 1: that were most important. Was don't move or at least
37:35
Speaker 1: don't move fast. Um. And then don't make loud noises
37:38
Speaker 1: like so, constantly whispering, constantly, very very slow subtle movements,
37:43
Speaker 1: constantly trying to be hidden. Um. Those are those very
37:46
Speaker 1: bare bone basics things of if you're out there in
37:48
Speaker 1: the woods hunting deer, you need to be thinking about that,
37:51
Speaker 1: and then layer over the fact that wind incent matters
37:54
Speaker 1: a lot. And those are the main things you gotta
37:57
Speaker 1: be thinking about when you're out there as far as
37:59
Speaker 1: how do you operates this defense kind of system to
38:03
Speaker 1: to stay alive. Um, it sounds like a deer has
38:07
Speaker 1: some of the best sensory perception of any animal out there.
38:12
Speaker 1: Basically they're right up there. Yeah, I mean they're right
38:15
Speaker 1: up there with any other ungulate like a four legged mammal,
38:19
Speaker 1: hooked mammal like elk, deer, moose. All these critters have
38:22
Speaker 1: got just tremendous senses. And I mean they're right. They've
38:25
Speaker 1: been hunted for thousands and millions of years by whether
38:29
Speaker 1: it's humans or wolves or whatever other predator might be
38:32
Speaker 1: out there, so they've developed a lot of these things
38:34
Speaker 1: too to try to stay alive. Um. Anything from a
38:38
Speaker 1: sense standpoint or high level biology standpoint we should touch
38:41
Speaker 1: on Dan And I think I'm going to call this
38:45
Speaker 1: a defense mechanism because they they have the most outstanding
38:53
Speaker 1: patients of any animal that I've seen in the woods.
38:57
Speaker 1: They they will sit there and they will watch whatever
39:01
Speaker 1: they don't like or look or smell until they can
39:07
Speaker 1: have enough I guess they can make their decision, you know,
39:10
Speaker 1: yes it's safe or no it's not safe. And if
39:12
Speaker 1: that takes him an hour, they will stand still in
39:15
Speaker 1: one spot for one hour until they are able to,
39:20
Speaker 1: you know, say it. You know, going down this trail
39:23
Speaker 1: is safe or I need to turn around and go
39:26
Speaker 1: back the other way. The patients that these animals have
39:30
Speaker 1: has kept them alive, like, like we said, for thousands
39:33
Speaker 1: of years. M One of the one of the things
39:36
Speaker 1: that I've always been curious on referring to the biology
39:39
Speaker 1: are the antlers. And and Mark, this goes back to
39:43
Speaker 1: you finding I think I think it was Holy Fields
39:45
Speaker 1: antlers in February. Are there certain indicators from Dear's antlers
39:52
Speaker 1: of their overall health or stature, et cetera. Man, it's
39:57
Speaker 1: good questions. This is that's not that's like that's an
40:02
Speaker 1: in depth question. Man, that's good stuff. Connor, you've been
40:05
Speaker 1: doing your homework to bring the heat this early on.
40:07
Speaker 1: But I've always been curious. So so I'll give you
40:11
Speaker 1: antler one oh one here and to answer your question
40:14
Speaker 1: at a really high level. Yes, definitely. UM, So dear,
40:19
Speaker 1: you know they grow you might you might not know this, Dear,
40:21
Speaker 1: regrow the antlers every year, so they drop them in
40:24
Speaker 1: the winter and they start growing them again in the spring,
40:26
Speaker 1: and so their brand new antlers every year. That they
40:29
Speaker 1: grow just in a handful of months, which is pretty incredible. Um.
40:32
Speaker 1: One of the fastest growing tissues I think out there, um,
40:37
Speaker 1: either faster than or very close to as fast as
40:41
Speaker 1: cancer cells grow. So it's pretty remarkable that they that
40:44
Speaker 1: they grow this new appendage of sorts just in one season. UM.
40:48
Speaker 1: But yeah, So antler growth depends on a couple of
40:50
Speaker 1: different things. There is a genetic component, um, but a
40:54
Speaker 1: lot of how big antlers get or how fully um
40:57
Speaker 1: they reached. The antler growing potential does have to do
41:00
Speaker 1: with how healthy that deer is, um. The nutrition available
41:05
Speaker 1: sometimes the climate, you know, so if there's a drought
41:07
Speaker 1: or if there's good water that year. A bunch of
41:10
Speaker 1: different habitat. Things like that can impact how much antler
41:13
Speaker 1: growth the deer will get in a given year. And
41:15
Speaker 1: actually some studies have shown recently that then how large
41:20
Speaker 1: deer's antlers are ends up being sometimes a selective characteristic
41:25
Speaker 1: when it comes to females breeding. So they will select
41:29
Speaker 1: for bigger antler deer, bigger antler bucks, because that's a
41:33
Speaker 1: sign that this is a healthier, more superior buck for
41:36
Speaker 1: her to propagate her genetics. So a lot of interesting
41:40
Speaker 1: stuff with antlers. UM. And then of course there they're
41:46
Speaker 1: very unique. I think antlers you're when you hear a
41:50
Speaker 1: lot of hunters talk, We talk a lot about, you know,
41:51
Speaker 1: the rack on her deer, and I think a lot
41:53
Speaker 1: of times it's because it oftentimes the most unique feature
41:57
Speaker 1: of a buck. Um. It's that kind of un It's
42:00
Speaker 1: like with a person, that's our face, right, I see
42:02
Speaker 1: your face, I see Dan's face, I see Whoever's face,
42:04
Speaker 1: and that's kind of how we identify that person. Um.
42:07
Speaker 1: Lots of times dear's faces more often have somewhat similar
42:11
Speaker 1: look to him. But the antlers are always very unique.
42:13
Speaker 1: They're obviously unique. UM. And that's kind of like at
42:16
Speaker 1: least two humans loss of times. That's kind of that
42:18
Speaker 1: major identifier and makes to be some some interesting things too.
42:22
Speaker 1: So yeah, with holy Field, I picked up his antler
42:25
Speaker 1: finally this year, and um, he's a he's a relatively healthy,
42:29
Speaker 1: relatively old buck. That makes him an interesting one to
42:33
Speaker 1: uh to chase after. Um so yeah, did I miss
42:37
Speaker 1: anything of their dan? I don't think so. What I
42:40
Speaker 1: will say is, as we get further into this podcast
42:44
Speaker 1: and and talking about the beginning hunter, right someone who
42:48
Speaker 1: has never hunted before, Yes, that's a Those are nice
42:53
Speaker 1: fun facts, but I don't think antlers should determine what
42:58
Speaker 1: a beginning hunter should go after right away. So it's
43:02
Speaker 1: it's great to know these, you know, these fun facts
43:05
Speaker 1: and stuff, but I would recommend that antlers should not
43:09
Speaker 1: be a determining factor in what you're going for as
43:12
Speaker 1: a new hunters. To agree, I think that expectation, that
43:17
Speaker 1: goals and expectations again are are so important I think
43:20
Speaker 1: for beginners. And yeah, any deer is a huge accomplishment.
43:24
Speaker 1: I think, you know, especially when you're right out the gate,
43:28
Speaker 1: just trying to have some success, trying to get some
43:30
Speaker 1: meat in the freezer. Um, any deer that you can
43:33
Speaker 1: get a shot at is a great opportunity, and you know,
43:36
Speaker 1: a great place to start. And some people never care
43:39
Speaker 1: about different things. Some people eventually, once they hunt a lot,
43:42
Speaker 1: then they decide, Okay, now I want to target just bucks,
43:45
Speaker 1: or I want to target older deer, or I want
43:47
Speaker 1: to target this dear. Different ways to to change that experience,
43:51
Speaker 1: to lengthen that experience. Um. But yeah, from a beginner,
43:56
Speaker 1: that's such a great point because a lot of the
43:58
Speaker 1: media out there, a lot of hunting media does talk
44:01
Speaker 1: a ton about antlers, about big box and things like that, which,
44:04
Speaker 1: as you said, Dan, they're fun, it's interesting, really cool.
44:07
Speaker 1: But as a new hunter, please don't get too caught
44:10
Speaker 1: up in that. UM, just get some experience, enjoy this experience. UM,
44:16
Speaker 1: get some meat in the freezer. So, yeah, antlers are interesting,
44:19
Speaker 1: but that's not not what it's all about. UM, got it.
44:24
Speaker 1: So we talked about some high level senses. We talked
44:26
Speaker 1: about antlers a few things. When it comes to dear
44:29
Speaker 1: behavior or things that matter to dear that I think
44:31
Speaker 1: are important. There's really four things that deer's life revolves
44:35
Speaker 1: around at a high high level. They care about food,
44:39
Speaker 1: they care about water, they care about breeding opportunities at
44:43
Speaker 1: one time of year, and then they care about security
44:46
Speaker 1: staying alive. So as a hunter, we need to be
44:48
Speaker 1: understanding those things too. So we want to understand what
44:52
Speaker 1: deer eat. We want to understand where water is a
44:54
Speaker 1: deer might go to. We want to understand what dear
44:57
Speaker 1: do when they're breeding because that impacts we hunt them.
45:00
Speaker 1: And then we want to also understand how are they
45:03
Speaker 1: trying to stay safe so that we can take advantage
45:05
Speaker 1: of its hunters. Um So a couple of things on food.
45:12
Speaker 1: Deer food is going to be different based on where
45:15
Speaker 1: you're hunting. So if you're hunting deer in Texas versus
45:18
Speaker 1: Michigan versus New Hampshire, they're gonna have different types of
45:22
Speaker 1: food sources that they like the most. Um. So it's
45:25
Speaker 1: probably not worth us trying to go through and list
45:28
Speaker 1: every single different thing that deer will eat. But I
45:30
Speaker 1: would just say for any new hunter out there, I
45:32
Speaker 1: would try to talk to someone local to where you
45:34
Speaker 1: hunt and to where you're gonna be and try to
45:37
Speaker 1: understand what are the preferred food sources here for deer.
45:40
Speaker 1: So in Michigan where you and we were hunting turkeys, um,
45:43
Speaker 1: you know, there's lots of agricultural you know, farm ground
45:46
Speaker 1: where we are at, and so deer are gonna eat
45:48
Speaker 1: a lot of those crops. Are gonna eat that corn,
45:49
Speaker 1: They're gonna eat the soybeans, They're gonna eat the alfalfa
45:52
Speaker 1: or the winter wheat. UM, they're gonna eat acorns that
45:55
Speaker 1: fall from oak trees. They're gonna eat all sorts of
45:58
Speaker 1: different bushes and forbes and different things in the forest.
46:01
Speaker 1: So so that's just something that I would talk to
46:03
Speaker 1: someone local and figure out what are they eating around here,
46:06
Speaker 1: and that's going to help you figure things out in
46:07
Speaker 1: the future. UM. Water is kind of a given ponds, streams, lakes,
46:13
Speaker 1: little water holes, that kind of stuff matters to deer security.
46:19
Speaker 1: I was just gonna ask what are UM what are
46:21
Speaker 1: some of the ideal regions for both you know, climate
46:24
Speaker 1: and food supply UM in the US for for deer HM.
46:30
Speaker 1: So their present almost in every state in the lower
46:34
Speaker 1: forty eight UM they're they're widely spread. But as far
46:40
Speaker 1: as the very best deer habitat in the country, I
46:43
Speaker 1: think most people would agree that it's in like the Midwest,
46:46
Speaker 1: so kind of around you know, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Ohio, Indiana,
46:53
Speaker 1: southern Michigan kind of like that corn belt of the
46:56
Speaker 1: country just because it has you know, great habitat, tons
47:00
Speaker 1: and tons of food, um, a lot of different things
47:03
Speaker 1: like that that just allow for kind of an optimal
47:06
Speaker 1: situation for deer um in climate to the winners aren't
47:10
Speaker 1: too hard there, but there are seasons. It's just kind
47:13
Speaker 1: of a good level playing field that deer seem to
47:17
Speaker 1: do very well. And um, would you agree with that
47:19
Speaker 1: in absolutely? And like we keep getting back to, is
47:24
Speaker 1: I mean they'll eat bark off trees, they'll eat cactuses,
47:27
Speaker 1: they'll eat um, whatever they have to eat to survive,
47:32
Speaker 1: and they do a good job of surviving there. They're
47:35
Speaker 1: very adaptable, very deptable. I mean there's there'll be deer
47:38
Speaker 1: in neighborhoods, you know, feeding on your landscaping in some places,
47:41
Speaker 1: so they can make a lot of things work. Um.
47:44
Speaker 1: But one of the very most important things to dear
47:47
Speaker 1: is is a feeling of safety. Security. So in some situations,
47:51
Speaker 1: in most situations, they're going to try to avoid human activity.
47:54
Speaker 1: So as a hunter, something you're gonna have to think
47:56
Speaker 1: about when you start hunting is trying to make sure
47:58
Speaker 1: that deer don't know that you're there, because if they
48:00
Speaker 1: do know you're there, they're gonna go to other places,
48:03
Speaker 1: or they're only going to move at night where they're
48:05
Speaker 1: going to change their behavior in some other way. That's
48:07
Speaker 1: that's not going to be good for you. So at
48:09
Speaker 1: a super high level, it's just always good to think
48:11
Speaker 1: about what are these deer doing because they want food,
48:14
Speaker 1: they want water, and they want to stay away from
48:16
Speaker 1: humans and other predators. Now, when it comes to breeding,
48:20
Speaker 1: they do some different funky things, and that happens in
48:22
Speaker 1: the fall. Usually for like us here in Michigan or Iowa,
48:26
Speaker 1: usually in late October into November is when the breeding
48:30
Speaker 1: season is happening. And then they start doing kind of
48:33
Speaker 1: like you know, when guys go to the bar, they
48:36
Speaker 1: sometimes act crazy because they're trying to impress women. That
48:38
Speaker 1: kind of thing happens with dear too. During that time period.
48:41
Speaker 1: They start acting a little bit different because they're trying
48:43
Speaker 1: to find mating opportunities. So as a hunter, that can
48:46
Speaker 1: be one of the very best times of year to
48:48
Speaker 1: be in the woods because they move a lot more,
48:51
Speaker 1: they're more they if they're gonna make a mistake, that's
48:54
Speaker 1: the one time of year they might do it. UM,
48:57
Speaker 1: so wherever you're hunting too, you'll want to find out
49:00
Speaker 1: when that you know, the specifics of that breeding season occur,
49:03
Speaker 1: and um, that's going to help you choose, you know,
49:06
Speaker 1: when to hunt sometimes as well. UM. A couple of
49:09
Speaker 1: other things on the behavior note I talked about crepuscular earlier. Dan. Basically,
49:15
Speaker 1: that just means that deer are an animal that moved
49:18
Speaker 1: the most at the edges of the day, So they
49:20
Speaker 1: move most at dawn, they move most at dusk. Those
49:22
Speaker 1: are the two peaks of deer movement during every twenty
49:25
Speaker 1: four hour period, so that hour or two around first
49:29
Speaker 1: light in the morning the hour to last light in
49:31
Speaker 1: the evening, which is why those are the two best
49:34
Speaker 1: times to hunt on a given day. UM. And it's
49:38
Speaker 1: kind of similar, you know, Connor, how when we went
49:40
Speaker 1: turkey hunting, we turkey hunted in the early morning and
49:43
Speaker 1: then you know, we're turkey hunting in the evening as well,
49:46
Speaker 1: but we hunted even sometimes during the middle of the day.
49:48
Speaker 1: There's not as much middle of the day movement usually
49:51
Speaker 1: for deer as there is with turkeys. UM. Another thing
49:55
Speaker 1: to know about deer is that they followed generally consistent
49:59
Speaker 1: patterns They've got basic kind of schedule, kind of like
50:03
Speaker 1: we do. You know, most of us, we wake up,
50:05
Speaker 1: we have some breakfast, we go to work, we come back,
50:08
Speaker 1: we dinner, fiddle around, go to bed. Deer kind of
50:12
Speaker 1: do the same thing. But their general pattern for most
50:14
Speaker 1: of the year is that you know, in the early
50:18
Speaker 1: morning they're out feeding, they come back to a betting area,
50:22
Speaker 1: like a general region where they typically lay down for
50:25
Speaker 1: most of the day in some kind of thick cover,
50:27
Speaker 1: so thick brush or trees or somewhere they feel safe.
50:30
Speaker 1: They spend most of the daylight hours betted down in
50:33
Speaker 1: a safe zone, and then in the evening they get
50:35
Speaker 1: back up again and they go start feeding, and then
50:38
Speaker 1: overnight then they kind of rotate between feeding and betting
50:41
Speaker 1: and doing different things like that. But generally there's that
50:44
Speaker 1: betting to feeding, feeding to betting pattern. Um So, if
50:50
Speaker 1: you as a hunter learn where deer feed and then
50:53
Speaker 1: you learn where they bed, you can start to know
50:56
Speaker 1: where you need to be as a hunter. Um So,
50:59
Speaker 1: I don't know dan at the highest of levels here.
51:02
Speaker 1: If we're talking about the important behavior to know about deer,
51:05
Speaker 1: those are a couple of things I thought would be
51:07
Speaker 1: important to know and then again, you know, I think
51:09
Speaker 1: I touched enough during the breeding season, which people refer
51:13
Speaker 1: to as the rut. They changed some of that behavior,
51:16
Speaker 1: but anything else from just at what dear do that
51:19
Speaker 1: we need to cover before talking about you know, Okay,
51:21
Speaker 1: now how do we hunt them? No? My question is
51:25
Speaker 1: to Connor, I mean, you just got a earful in
51:28
Speaker 1: a very short period of time. Are there any questions
51:32
Speaker 1: that you have right now that we can maybe go
51:34
Speaker 1: into a little bit more detail in of what Mark
51:36
Speaker 1: maybe just covered. Yeah, so I was curious on as
51:40
Speaker 1: a beginning hunter and who's someone who is unfamiliar with
51:44
Speaker 1: some of the indicators you guys are pointing out how often?
51:50
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure the answer is as much as
51:52
Speaker 1: you possibly can. But you know, during the off season,
51:54
Speaker 1: how much would you recommend, you know, sort of an
51:56
Speaker 1: unseasoned hunter to go out and sort of familiarize themselves
51:59
Speaker 1: with these indicators so they can get a better sense for,
52:03
Speaker 1: you know, some of the breeding behaviors and maybe some
52:05
Speaker 1: of the security behaviors before the actual season in the
52:08
Speaker 1: pursuit starts what you said, Dan, Well, here's what I'm
52:14
Speaker 1: gonna tell you. For someone who's brand new and you
52:19
Speaker 1: want to. And like Mark said, they have a majority
52:23
Speaker 1: of the day they're lying down in the woods right there, betting,
52:27
Speaker 1: and then towards the end of the day it starts
52:29
Speaker 1: to get dark, they're gonna stand up out of there,
52:32
Speaker 1: they're gonna walk down some trail and they're going to
52:34
Speaker 1: go to a food source or a water source or
52:38
Speaker 1: maybe both. So what I would recommend doing for someone
52:43
Speaker 1: who's brand new is to get in the woods and
52:47
Speaker 1: try to identify some of those places just and it
52:52
Speaker 1: doesn't even have to be extremely detailed. Just maybe look
52:55
Speaker 1: for an older rub or look for walk through the woods,
52:59
Speaker 1: and if you kick up a deer, you just you know,
53:03
Speaker 1: put a mental note there say okay, well I saw
53:05
Speaker 1: a deer here, and then when it's time to hunt
53:08
Speaker 1: that following you know, that fall, then you have a
53:11
Speaker 1: good idea of actually where to start. Yeah, yeah, I
53:16
Speaker 1: think And to your point, Connor, as much as possible,
53:18
Speaker 1: it definitely is the answer because of the more time
53:20
Speaker 1: you spend out here in these habitats where deer are,
53:24
Speaker 1: the more you're gonna be able to learn this stuff
53:26
Speaker 1: and what we call this and like the hunting world,
53:27
Speaker 1: we call it scouting. So when you go on the
53:29
Speaker 1: property where you can hunt and scout, you can learn
53:32
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff that will help you when hunting
53:34
Speaker 1: season actually opens up. So most deer hunting seasons open
53:37
Speaker 1: up in the fall, so either in September or October,
53:40
Speaker 1: and they usually run into the early winter. Most places
53:44
Speaker 1: closed at the end of December or somewhere in January,
53:46
Speaker 1: give or take um. So in the spring and summer,
53:49
Speaker 1: if you can get out and walk around the areas
53:51
Speaker 1: you're gonna hunt. And like Dan said, if you see
53:55
Speaker 1: some deer that go running away during the middle of
53:57
Speaker 1: the day, then you just learned where they were bedded.
54:00
Speaker 1: So that's a great thing. If you have a map
54:01
Speaker 1: with you, circle that on your map and say, hey,
54:04
Speaker 1: there were dear bedded here. Or if you're out there
54:06
Speaker 1: in the evening and you're walking by a field and
54:09
Speaker 1: you see a bunch of deer standing in the middle
54:10
Speaker 1: of that field and they're feeding on something. All of
54:12
Speaker 1: a sudden, now you've located a feeding a food source.
54:14
Speaker 1: You've located somewhere where they're going in the evening's defeat.
54:17
Speaker 1: So that's a huge important thing to know. So circle
54:20
Speaker 1: that on your map and do that as often as
54:22
Speaker 1: you can you'll start to have this map that shows
54:25
Speaker 1: the betting areas, the feeding areas, and then maybe you'll
54:28
Speaker 1: see some trails. Basically, it'll look like like a hiking
54:32
Speaker 1: trail kind of in the woods where deer walk up
54:34
Speaker 1: and down this thing so many times going from a
54:36
Speaker 1: bed to a food source. You can start to see
54:39
Speaker 1: how they travel through the landscape. And so once you
54:42
Speaker 1: identify those three features, it'll start to it'll start to
54:46
Speaker 1: be almost like a diagram that you can look at
54:48
Speaker 1: and say, Okay, here's where they're coming from, here's where
54:51
Speaker 1: they're going to, here's the travel path they're taking in between. Now,
54:55
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, if you start knowing when they're
54:57
Speaker 1: doing each so we know that deer going to be
55:00
Speaker 1: feeding around those two points of the day early morning,
55:03
Speaker 1: late evening, and we know that during the middle of
55:05
Speaker 1: the day they're gonna be in those betting areas. You
55:08
Speaker 1: can start to say, Okay, if I'm trying to hunt
55:10
Speaker 1: a deer in the morning, I know he's gonna be
55:12
Speaker 1: feeding in this field, probably because I saw them out
55:14
Speaker 1: there doing this, and I know they're gonna be going
55:16
Speaker 1: back to that chunk of woods because I know I
55:19
Speaker 1: scared some deer out of there before than in the day. Now,
55:22
Speaker 1: you know, okay, in the morning, they're in area A,
55:26
Speaker 1: they're heading to Area B. I'm gonna be sitting in
55:28
Speaker 1: between the two. So that's like a at a very
55:31
Speaker 1: high level, that's how we start kind of formulating how
55:34
Speaker 1: to hunt these deer. Because different than turkeys, a lot
55:38
Speaker 1: of deer hunting is kind of ambush related. So with
55:42
Speaker 1: turkey hunting, right, we walked out there in the morning
55:44
Speaker 1: and we listened for them, we heard them gobbling. We
55:47
Speaker 1: walked over to where they're kind of near where they're gobbling.
55:49
Speaker 1: Then we sat down and we called them. We brought
55:51
Speaker 1: them to us. In most deer hunting situations, that's usually
55:55
Speaker 1: not how it goes. Usually you try to understand what
55:58
Speaker 1: you think the deer is gonna do, and then you
56:00
Speaker 1: set up and sit and wait for him to do that.
56:02
Speaker 1: So you kind of set up this ambush because you
56:04
Speaker 1: think he's going to come through this area where you
56:06
Speaker 1: think he's gonna be coming to this place, and then
56:09
Speaker 1: you set up there hiding in a tree or in
56:12
Speaker 1: a little you know, behind some bushes, or you build
56:14
Speaker 1: what we call it blind something to sit in and
56:18
Speaker 1: hide yourself and you sit and you wait, and then
56:20
Speaker 1: hopefully you predicted the right thing, and then that deer
56:23
Speaker 1: will come walking by and you're able to get a shot.
56:26
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of um before the hunt work
56:31
Speaker 1: that's needed to put yourself in a good position to
56:34
Speaker 1: have a shot. UM. So it comes to scouting. I
56:37
Speaker 1: guess we talked a lot about, you know, just walking
56:39
Speaker 1: around and trying to mark these places on your map.
56:42
Speaker 1: So look for those food sources. You know, maybe you'll
56:45
Speaker 1: actually see a deer and you'll know, Okay, he was
56:47
Speaker 1: out there, he was his head was on the ground,
56:49
Speaker 1: he was feeding on stuff. Okay, he's this is a
56:51
Speaker 1: food source. Again, I would try to if you're new,
56:54
Speaker 1: if you find some in the area who hunts there,
56:56
Speaker 1: try to ask, like I said, ask what kind of
56:58
Speaker 1: stuff they feed on. And maybe this person is going
57:00
Speaker 1: to say, well, they eat acorns, and they eat apples,
57:03
Speaker 1: and they eat this one tree leaf, and they eat
57:06
Speaker 1: corn and beans and anything else in the farm fields.
57:08
Speaker 1: So now when you're out there scouting at some other
57:11
Speaker 1: point of the year, you can walk around the woods
57:13
Speaker 1: and if you see some acorns in the ground, or
57:15
Speaker 1: if you see an old corn field, now you know, Okay, yeah,
57:18
Speaker 1: these are probably places that deer feeding. So you're just
57:20
Speaker 1: kind of building this map for yourself of of these
57:24
Speaker 1: three kind of areas. And I think that's that's like
57:26
Speaker 1: a great beginning point to set yourself up to actually
57:29
Speaker 1: go into the hunting season knowing a few of these
57:31
Speaker 1: basic things. Um, I'm trying to think what kind of
57:35
Speaker 1: like it's almost like a board game and that you're
57:37
Speaker 1: trying to identify these different like key locations and then
57:41
Speaker 1: how will you get from point to point? But I
57:42
Speaker 1: just don't know what board game to to say it is. Um,
57:48
Speaker 1: have you have you guys noticed that maybe you know
57:50
Speaker 1: your strategies have changed season after season because obviously, as
57:55
Speaker 1: we talked about, deer or very perceptive animals, and perhaps
57:59
Speaker 1: they'll change their ways to fulfill that security point that
58:03
Speaker 1: you were talking about. So if you notice that you
58:05
Speaker 1: know your own strategies is deer owners has to change
58:08
Speaker 1: season after season. Man, there's a good questions aren't they
58:12
Speaker 1: do it? Definitely? Definitely because because of that security need,
58:18
Speaker 1: their deer are constantly changing what they do based on
58:22
Speaker 1: human activity. So if a deer was you know, if
58:25
Speaker 1: the deer like to feed in the food source A,
58:28
Speaker 1: and they like to bed in bedding area B. And
58:31
Speaker 1: that's what they're doing consistently every day. Maybe. But if
58:34
Speaker 1: then I start going into the area and walking around
58:37
Speaker 1: and scaring those deer everywhere every day, or accidentally, you know,
58:40
Speaker 1: my wind blowing to them and then finding out that
58:42
Speaker 1: I was there, then they will change their behavior totally.
58:46
Speaker 1: And so then use a hunter need to adjust to
58:48
Speaker 1: so season after season that happens sometimes, or that happens
58:51
Speaker 1: within a season, so you're always trying to minimize them
58:55
Speaker 1: hearing you or seeing you or smelling you, so they
58:58
Speaker 1: don't change that behavior. But they're really smart, they're survivors,
59:02
Speaker 1: so inevitably oftentimes they do UM, so you need to
59:06
Speaker 1: be aware of that and then try to adjust to that.
59:08
Speaker 1: So this this kind of scouting, observing and then adjusting
59:12
Speaker 1: is like a never ending thing. You're constantly trying to
59:14
Speaker 1: learn what they're doing and then readjust how you set
59:17
Speaker 1: up to try to to try to ambush them again.
59:21
Speaker 1: UM agreed. Man, you mentioned you mentioned something about board game, right,
59:25
Speaker 1: I almost want to say it's like shoots and ladders, right,
59:28
Speaker 1: You work your way up and then all of a
59:30
Speaker 1: sudden you'll hit a slide and have to go way
59:33
Speaker 1: back to the beginning. It's kind of kind of like
59:35
Speaker 1: deer hunting. You'll you'll walk into the woods. You'll set
59:38
Speaker 1: up in a tree based off of whatever sign you've
59:41
Speaker 1: found or you know whatever. Let's say you you didn't
59:44
Speaker 1: even scout the woods. You walk into a place, you
59:47
Speaker 1: think it's good. You set up there, and let's say
59:50
Speaker 1: you see a deer right and let's say the deer
59:53
Speaker 1: comes by, hits a certain point and runs away. Well,
59:57
Speaker 1: that means this deer probably smelled you. All right, Well
1:00:00
Speaker 1: now you have to say, okay, well what made this
1:00:03
Speaker 1: deer run away? Oh, it's because my wind was blowing
1:00:06
Speaker 1: right at him. Well, next time I have to be
1:00:08
Speaker 1: if the wind is the same, I have to be
1:00:10
Speaker 1: on the opposite side of that trail, so my scent
1:00:14
Speaker 1: won't go to where that deer was. So then you
1:00:19
Speaker 1: make that move right and then you realize that, well
1:00:22
Speaker 1: it's the same wind, but a different deer came from
1:00:25
Speaker 1: a different direction and busted me, or it you know,
1:00:28
Speaker 1: nothing happened, or the deer came by me and I
1:00:32
Speaker 1: was able to get a shot at him. You just
1:00:34
Speaker 1: keep playing this game where you you make these small
1:00:38
Speaker 1: moves or sometimes they're big moves or whatever moves to
1:00:42
Speaker 1: put yourself in a position to where you're within range
1:00:47
Speaker 1: of what every weapon UH to UH to the deer
1:00:50
Speaker 1: year after. I guess, yeah, it's a it's a lot
1:00:53
Speaker 1: of observation, trial and error. I think as a as
1:00:57
Speaker 1: a deer hunter getting started, a lot of you know,
1:01:00
Speaker 1: you can go and you can do a lot of
1:01:01
Speaker 1: preparation ahead of time by scouting these things out, finding
1:01:04
Speaker 1: these couple of things we've talked about. But then once
1:01:06
Speaker 1: you do start hunting, then it's a lot of what
1:01:08
Speaker 1: Dan just said, observing what happens and then changing your
1:01:15
Speaker 1: your hunt location, your ambush location for the next time
1:01:18
Speaker 1: to try to be a little bit closer or to
1:01:20
Speaker 1: to take what you learned and adjust your approach based
1:01:23
Speaker 1: on that. So there's gonna be a lot of trials,
1:01:26
Speaker 1: a lot of errors, a lot of you know, moving
1:01:28
Speaker 1: a little bit more, figuring things out, fine tuning where
1:01:31
Speaker 1: you're sitting. But it's it's very much you know, as
1:01:34
Speaker 1: we talked about, it's it's this ambush style, so you
1:01:37
Speaker 1: kind of have to watch what happens on today and
1:01:40
Speaker 1: then tomorrow or next weekend or the next time you
1:01:42
Speaker 1: can go and then you're able to try the new approach,
1:01:45
Speaker 1: the new location. UM. But it's it's very iterative. I
1:01:48
Speaker 1: think is is kind of what it what it comes
1:01:50
Speaker 1: down to. So as far as that scouting, right, we
1:01:53
Speaker 1: talked about finding where they're feeding. We talked about finding
1:01:55
Speaker 1: where they're betting, and again, you know betting areas what
1:01:58
Speaker 1: we're kind of referring to his betting years. One way
1:02:02
Speaker 1: to find them, like Dan said, is to just walk
1:02:04
Speaker 1: around during the day and see where deer go running
1:02:06
Speaker 1: out of. Um. That's something you want to do, you know,
1:02:09
Speaker 1: not during hunting season. Hopefully, hopefully this is way ahead
1:02:12
Speaker 1: of time. UM. But usually this is going to be
1:02:14
Speaker 1: like an area that's really thick, you know, lots of bush,
1:02:16
Speaker 1: lots of brush, lots of just where deer you know,
1:02:19
Speaker 1: couldn't be seen easily at at the very generical level,
1:02:22
Speaker 1: that's kind of stuff typically they look for when they're
1:02:24
Speaker 1: finding where they want to bed. UM. And then another
1:02:29
Speaker 1: thing to look for when you're scouting is sign. And
1:02:31
Speaker 1: by sign, we talked about trails. You want to look
1:02:33
Speaker 1: for those actual trails through the woods that look like
1:02:36
Speaker 1: hiking trails sort of that these deer go up and down.
1:02:38
Speaker 1: You can see like actual deer tracks, you know, in
1:02:40
Speaker 1: the mud, maybe on a trail or in a field
1:02:43
Speaker 1: or wherever, and that just kind of indicates that there's
1:02:45
Speaker 1: a lot of deer activity there. It's a good thing
1:02:47
Speaker 1: to see. UM. And then Dan also mentioned rubs. He
1:02:50
Speaker 1: mentioned that word rubs, And then earlier we talked about scrapes.
1:02:54
Speaker 1: I kind of explained that to you when we were
1:02:55
Speaker 1: out in the woods that one day. UM. But for
1:02:58
Speaker 1: anyone new who who is not familiar with the rubs
1:03:00
Speaker 1: and scrapes, I will give you just the the very
1:03:03
Speaker 1: thirty tho ft overview of what these two things are,
1:03:05
Speaker 1: because you'll see these things in the woods and you
1:03:07
Speaker 1: want to take note of them. So basically, a rub
1:03:11
Speaker 1: is a tree. You're gonna see on a tree where
1:03:13
Speaker 1: it looks like someone took um like claws or something
1:03:17
Speaker 1: and just ripped up the side of a tree. And
1:03:19
Speaker 1: so there's gonna be like strings of bark and tree
1:03:21
Speaker 1: stuff hanging off the side of a tree at about
1:03:23
Speaker 1: maybe you know, anywhere from the knee to waste height.
1:03:27
Speaker 1: Maybe that's a rub. And that basically is created by
1:03:30
Speaker 1: deer rubbing his antlers up against that tree. There's a
1:03:33
Speaker 1: whole bunch of stuff we go into that kind of
1:03:36
Speaker 1: seasoned deer hunters think about when it comes to what
1:03:38
Speaker 1: rubs mean. But I will say it for just the beginner,
1:03:41
Speaker 1: I would just look at that rub as an indication
1:03:44
Speaker 1: that that a buck, that a deer has been through here,
1:03:47
Speaker 1: and it means that this is just an area that
1:03:48
Speaker 1: a buck travels through. That's another good piece of sign
1:03:52
Speaker 1: to just take into the equation and help you say, Okay, yep,
1:03:55
Speaker 1: there is a there is a buck moving through this area.
1:03:57
Speaker 1: It's another good thing to know. Um. Is it a
1:04:01
Speaker 1: form of communication with the other deer or is it
1:04:05
Speaker 1: sort of satisfying some sort of lack of a better term,
1:04:10
Speaker 1: like an itch or is it just kind of unknown?
1:04:14
Speaker 1: So there's two things that most people believe they're doing.
1:04:16
Speaker 1: Number One, UM, I think I mentioned this before, but
1:04:20
Speaker 1: in the summer, when deer are growing their antlers, they
1:04:22
Speaker 1: have this fuzzy stuff on the outside of the antlers
1:04:24
Speaker 1: that we call velvet. So that comes off usually early
1:04:28
Speaker 1: September for most deer. So that first week in September
1:04:32
Speaker 1: give or take a little bit, they are rubbing trees
1:04:35
Speaker 1: to get that velvet and the extra velvet off of
1:04:38
Speaker 1: their antlers. So they do some of that at that
1:04:39
Speaker 1: time period, but most of the rubbing behavior happens during
1:04:43
Speaker 1: and leading up to that mating season. And so some
1:04:47
Speaker 1: some people think it's like a little bit of a
1:04:48
Speaker 1: communication mechanism because when they're rubbing that tree, there's these
1:04:51
Speaker 1: glands that the deer have on their forehead and different
1:04:56
Speaker 1: parts of their face that release um, oh, what's the
1:05:00
Speaker 1: word I'm looking here for? Um? Oh, gosh, We're just
1:05:04
Speaker 1: gonna say chemicals because I can't think of what the
1:05:06
Speaker 1: world on the tip of my tongue is. But they
1:05:09
Speaker 1: leave these these chemical uh communicators on the tree that
1:05:13
Speaker 1: came off of those glands off their forehead. Um. And
1:05:16
Speaker 1: then it also some believe it's kind of like a
1:05:18
Speaker 1: stress reliever too, because there's all this pent up energy. Again,
1:05:21
Speaker 1: if we use like the bar metaphor, you've got this
1:05:23
Speaker 1: male who is trying to find a mate and he's
1:05:27
Speaker 1: frustrated because it's not working out, maybe or because he
1:05:29
Speaker 1: wants to fight another guy or something like that. So
1:05:32
Speaker 1: this is like a way to get that pent up
1:05:34
Speaker 1: sexual frustration out. They'll rip up a tree or rip
1:05:37
Speaker 1: up a bush and Um, that's another thing that's going
1:05:40
Speaker 1: on with this these this rubbing behavior they build up.
1:05:43
Speaker 1: They also use it to build up their neck muscles
1:05:46
Speaker 1: for fighting. So the pump and iron yeah, um. So
1:05:51
Speaker 1: then the scrapes are the other major piece of sign
1:05:53
Speaker 1: that we see out there that the deer use and make.
1:05:56
Speaker 1: And this was that area that we saw when we
1:05:59
Speaker 1: were walking around Connor where it looked like something that's
1:06:01
Speaker 1: scraped up the ground and opened up this kind of
1:06:04
Speaker 1: oval of dirt in the middle of the woods. So basically,
1:06:08
Speaker 1: if you're walking through the woods and you see this
1:06:10
Speaker 1: what looks like just where all the leaves and grass
1:06:12
Speaker 1: and stuff had been kicked out of the way, and
1:06:13
Speaker 1: you just kind of see a dirt patch, that is
1:06:16
Speaker 1: a scrape. And for the I think all we need
1:06:20
Speaker 1: to understand about scrapes is that this is a major
1:06:22
Speaker 1: communication hub for deer. Deer that comes through an area,
1:06:26
Speaker 1: sometimes a buck will make a scrape where he will
1:06:28
Speaker 1: kick away all the grass, kick away the leaves with
1:06:30
Speaker 1: us with his feet. He'll make this section and then
1:06:33
Speaker 1: he will only make a scrape where there's a branch
1:06:36
Speaker 1: overhanging this area. We call it a licking branch. So
1:06:39
Speaker 1: he's got this overhanging branch, it's about head level. He
1:06:42
Speaker 1: walks up to this thing, he smells the branch, he
1:06:45
Speaker 1: maybe licks the branch, he rubs his forehead and his
1:06:48
Speaker 1: nose and his antlers on the branch. He's again getting
1:06:50
Speaker 1: some of those chemical signals from those glands rubbed up
1:06:53
Speaker 1: on that branch, so he's leaving some messages there saying hey,
1:06:56
Speaker 1: I was here or whatever. He's trying to whatever those
1:06:59
Speaker 1: chemicals indicate, and then he scrapes up the ground with
1:07:01
Speaker 1: his feet. He then, typically a male deer will piss
1:07:05
Speaker 1: on the back of his legs on another set of
1:07:07
Speaker 1: glands there that again leave more signals, which then again
1:07:11
Speaker 1: communicate other messages to other deer. So any buck that
1:07:14
Speaker 1: comes by near that scrape oftentimes will visit it and
1:07:18
Speaker 1: smell it to see who's been there, what's happening, and
1:07:21
Speaker 1: then leave his scent to and then female deer will
1:07:24
Speaker 1: do the same thing, and that they'll come and smell
1:07:26
Speaker 1: it and they get this information. So it's kind of
1:07:28
Speaker 1: like like back in the day when there's like the
1:07:31
Speaker 1: water cooler at the office and everyone kind of come
1:07:33
Speaker 1: to the water cooler and that's where they kind of
1:07:36
Speaker 1: chit chat and there'd be like a bolting board and
1:07:38
Speaker 1: you'd read all everyone, you know, whatever notes people left there.
1:07:41
Speaker 1: That's kind of how scrapes sort of work, um in
1:07:45
Speaker 1: some cases in the in the dear world. So as
1:07:48
Speaker 1: a hunter, when you see a scrape, you're gonna usually say, okay,
1:07:52
Speaker 1: that means deer are gonna frequent this at some part
1:07:55
Speaker 1: of the year, and usually this is happening during the
1:07:57
Speaker 1: fall again around mating season. Um. The one thing that's
1:08:01
Speaker 1: worth noting, and we talked about this this spring too,
1:08:04
Speaker 1: is that scrapes that you find along a field edge
1:08:08
Speaker 1: or like way out in the open are usually only
1:08:11
Speaker 1: visited by bucks after dark can because these deer want
1:08:15
Speaker 1: to feel secure, So lots of times they're not going
1:08:17
Speaker 1: to travel in the open during daylight. They'd rather like
1:08:19
Speaker 1: to be back in the woods where humans or other
1:08:21
Speaker 1: practors won't see them. Um, now does you know or
1:08:25
Speaker 1: young bucks they might move more during the daylight. But
1:08:28
Speaker 1: just worth noting that scrapes on the open are more
1:08:31
Speaker 1: of a nighttime thing. Scrapes that you see, like way
1:08:34
Speaker 1: back in the woods that are kind of secluded, those
1:08:36
Speaker 1: might be mused more during daylight because deer feel more secure.
1:08:41
Speaker 1: So you've got all the scouting until you look for
1:08:44
Speaker 1: tracks and trails and scrapes and rubs and food sources
1:08:47
Speaker 1: and betting years. All this kind of helps you like
1:08:49
Speaker 1: build that map of where deer are on a property
1:08:53
Speaker 1: or on an on an area that you're hunting. Um.
1:08:56
Speaker 1: And that kind of sets you up now to then actually,
1:08:58
Speaker 1: you know, try to try to hunt dan what am
1:09:01
Speaker 1: I missing as far as like that pre hunt scouting
1:09:04
Speaker 1: or preparation piece um that we need to touch on.
1:09:09
Speaker 1: You know, for a beginner, uh, I feel that rubs
1:09:12
Speaker 1: and scrapes are a good thing to take note of,
1:09:16
Speaker 1: but not an ultimate indicator on on where you should
1:09:20
Speaker 1: be hunting right away. UM. I think for a new hunter,
1:09:24
Speaker 1: if you find a some tracks and let's say there's
1:09:28
Speaker 1: just more and more tracks in one area, and let's
1:09:31
Speaker 1: say they're all leading to a trail on a field edge,
1:09:34
Speaker 1: just that's a good place to start. It's just the
1:09:38
Speaker 1: where where there's the most concentration of tracks and maybe
1:09:44
Speaker 1: a well used trail. I think ultimately that'ship that that
1:09:48
Speaker 1: would be the perfect spot to start. H And then
1:09:51
Speaker 1: it's that observation you find these places you observe, and
1:09:55
Speaker 1: then you say, okay, this, this looks like a good
1:09:57
Speaker 1: place to start based on these different things I saw.
1:10:00
Speaker 1: But now I'm seeing that most of the deer are
1:10:02
Speaker 1: actually a hundred yards over there, or most of the
1:10:05
Speaker 1: deer are coming out or coming in this region, and
1:10:07
Speaker 1: then that's when you adjust. Um. But that's I feel
1:10:12
Speaker 1: like I'm hoping that we're covering like that, just the
1:10:14
Speaker 1: basic building blocks of how to figure out where these
1:10:17
Speaker 1: deer might be and how to start thinking about it. Um. Next,
1:10:20
Speaker 1: I want to talk about actually going on hunting, but
1:10:22
Speaker 1: before that, connor anything on the basics of just this
1:10:26
Speaker 1: high level learning scouting in area. I mean no that
1:10:30
Speaker 1: that was a super helpful synopsis, and that's one of
1:10:32
Speaker 1: the things I had always been curious about and obviously
1:10:35
Speaker 1: just kind of speaks to my general Naiva theater on hunting.
1:10:38
Speaker 1: But I had no idea that there was you know,
1:10:40
Speaker 1: that much strategy and calculation and in preseason planning involved.
1:10:45
Speaker 1: And I can only imagine the amount of times have
1:10:47
Speaker 1: been hiking through a forest and stumbled across those types
1:10:50
Speaker 1: of signs, but just obviously had no idea what they were. UM,
1:10:54
Speaker 1: but no super helpful and That's one of the coolest
1:10:57
Speaker 1: things I think about hunting is that you know, when
1:11:01
Speaker 1: you're out there hiking or walking around the woods or
1:11:04
Speaker 1: some area, you're you're seeing stuff, right, You're seeing beautiful
1:11:08
Speaker 1: animals maybe, and you're seeing flowers and trees, and you're
1:11:11
Speaker 1: you're seeing something, you're enjoying the landscape, but there's a
1:11:15
Speaker 1: there's a depth of there's a depth out there that
1:11:19
Speaker 1: you're missing that as a hunter, when you walk through
1:11:21
Speaker 1: that same woods, you'll notice all these different things. You'll
1:11:24
Speaker 1: notice all the things we just mentioned, plus a whole
1:11:27
Speaker 1: slew of other different little features or little signs that
1:11:32
Speaker 1: point to how wildlife might be using this or what
1:11:35
Speaker 1: this habitat might mean for other animals. Um or oh hey,
1:11:38
Speaker 1: look at that. This is a great place that deer
1:11:40
Speaker 1: probably walk through or you might, I don't know. Just
1:11:43
Speaker 1: kind of opens a whole new wealth of experience when
1:11:46
Speaker 1: you're going through these places, when you have this different
1:11:48
Speaker 1: depth of experience, that that just makes it really cool.
1:11:52
Speaker 1: Um So, I think, Okay, we've we've understood how dear
1:11:56
Speaker 1: kind of behave. We've kind of covered how to learn
1:12:00
Speaker 1: in an area. We didn't really talk about finding like
1:12:03
Speaker 1: a place to hunt. Like, there's two options as far
1:12:05
Speaker 1: as like places to hunt. You can either go to
1:12:06
Speaker 1: public land, so land that's open to anyone and anyone
1:12:10
Speaker 1: can go out there and do this stuff. Or you
1:12:12
Speaker 1: can try to get access on land that's privately owned
1:12:16
Speaker 1: UM or you know, you could own land yourself, maybe
1:12:18
Speaker 1: already but you know kind of when we're turkey hunting,
1:12:21
Speaker 1: that was private land that you know that our friend
1:12:23
Speaker 1: Matt owned, so we got permission to hunt that. If
1:12:25
Speaker 1: you know a friend or have some different people that hunt,
1:12:28
Speaker 1: or some people that own land, it's great to try
1:12:31
Speaker 1: to get permission on private land. That's a great opportunity
1:12:33
Speaker 1: to get in there and not have as much competition
1:12:36
Speaker 1: you know, different other people out there bothering you. But
1:12:38
Speaker 1: if you don't have land to hunt, there are lots
1:12:40
Speaker 1: of public land opportunities out there where you know, you
1:12:43
Speaker 1: can go out there for free and have access. UM.
1:12:46
Speaker 1: We could talk a full podcast about finding places to hunt,
1:12:49
Speaker 1: so I don't want to dive too deep into that UM,
1:12:52
Speaker 1: but there's lots of information on the Internet or on
1:12:55
Speaker 1: the Wyreton podcast or anywhere else as far as finding
1:12:59
Speaker 1: places to hunt. UM, actually getting like a specific property
1:13:02
Speaker 1: to hunt or finding a piece of public land where
1:13:04
Speaker 1: you can go. I think that's just worth worth noting.
1:13:08
Speaker 1: Con go ahead. I was just gonna ask with you
1:13:12
Speaker 1: living in Los Angeles, I take it that you know
1:13:15
Speaker 1: there might be some there. There may or may not
1:13:18
Speaker 1: be white tailed deer close to where you're at, but
1:13:21
Speaker 1: I have a feeling you're going to personally have to
1:13:23
Speaker 1: travel somewhere to hunt. Is that correct? Correct? And I
1:13:28
Speaker 1: actually think northern California has um some decent public lands,
1:13:35
Speaker 1: but I think it's again, I think it's mainly blacktail.
1:13:39
Speaker 1: I think that's correct. Yea, so, and that shouldn't note
1:13:43
Speaker 1: that most of what we're talking about here is more
1:13:47
Speaker 1: specific to whitetailed deer, which is the deer species that's
1:13:50
Speaker 1: that's widely spread over most of the country. And then
1:13:52
Speaker 1: you've got sections of the country where there's mule deer
1:13:55
Speaker 1: more in some of the mountain ranges um and some
1:13:58
Speaker 1: of the rocky mountain west into Pacific northwest, and then
1:14:03
Speaker 1: far far west on the west coast. Then you've got
1:14:05
Speaker 1: what you mentioned, the blacktail deer um, which are which
1:14:08
Speaker 1: are very very similar meal deres sometimes kind of the
1:14:10
Speaker 1: same thing. I think people have said so when you
1:14:15
Speaker 1: come and visit us in the Midwest again, I think
1:14:17
Speaker 1: when you travel to hunt some of these white tails,
1:14:20
Speaker 1: hopefully with with me or someone here soon, Um, this
1:14:23
Speaker 1: is the kind of stuff that we'll be doing and
1:14:25
Speaker 1: we'll be looking at. Now, where are you going to
1:14:28
Speaker 1: go in a direction with that? Dan? No, I was
1:14:31
Speaker 1: just kind of curious because you know, obviously he's not
1:14:35
Speaker 1: going to have the ability to sit, you know, go
1:14:39
Speaker 1: spend large amounts of time scouting, you know, from his
1:14:43
Speaker 1: from where he sets. I'm assuming that he's going to
1:14:45
Speaker 1: show up for a hunting season, and if you were
1:14:49
Speaker 1: doing this all by yourself, you're going to be the
1:14:51
Speaker 1: person who has to scout and hunt all at the
1:14:54
Speaker 1: same time, which can you know, it can be a
1:14:57
Speaker 1: little bit more difficult, but if you follow the same principles,
1:15:01
Speaker 1: you know, it's all this all the same, but it's
1:15:02
Speaker 1: always it's always better in your scenario to have you know,
1:15:08
Speaker 1: someone like Mark to help show you the ropes. Yeah. Absolutely,
1:15:12
Speaker 1: And I'm always looking for any used to to get
1:15:14
Speaker 1: back to my homeland in the Midwest, So this sounds
1:15:17
Speaker 1: like it it is one of the better excuses to come. Now,
1:15:22
Speaker 1: were you going to ask another question? Before before Dan's there, Well,
1:15:25
Speaker 1: just I was curious on the on the public land
1:15:28
Speaker 1: and private land management in terms of deer population. UM,
1:15:34
Speaker 1: what are some of the I guess, regulations around private
1:15:38
Speaker 1: landowners and the things that they have to do to
1:15:42
Speaker 1: ensure you know, healthy deer populations. So it's all voluntary.
1:15:50
Speaker 1: Private landowners can can manage or not manage their property
1:15:54
Speaker 1: or their their wildlife, you know, however they want. Now
1:15:57
Speaker 1: it's important note that wildlife, so dear turkeys, etcetera, are
1:16:02
Speaker 1: technically technically property of the state um and are managed
1:16:06
Speaker 1: by the state. And then so even if you own land,
1:16:09
Speaker 1: So even if I own a farm or something and
1:16:11
Speaker 1: there's deer and turkeys on my farm, those animals don't
1:16:14
Speaker 1: actually belong to me. They're they're managed and they're managed
1:16:17
Speaker 1: by the state in the trust of the public. So
1:16:20
Speaker 1: technically a deer that's on my property doesn't belong to me,
1:16:23
Speaker 1: it doesn't belong to you. It's it's roaming freely between
1:16:26
Speaker 1: those properties. But as a landowner, I do own that
1:16:29
Speaker 1: land and that habitat and I can choose how to
1:16:31
Speaker 1: manage that stuff. So as a private landowner, I can
1:16:35
Speaker 1: manipulate the habitat I can do things that will make
1:16:38
Speaker 1: it better for deer. UM or people that don't care
1:16:41
Speaker 1: about wildlife, they can do whatever they want and they
1:16:43
Speaker 1: do nothing with it, or some people want to build
1:16:45
Speaker 1: stuff on or some people want to farm it, whatever
1:16:47
Speaker 1: it might be. UM there's a ton of information and
1:16:51
Speaker 1: a whole subculture of deer hunting around managing your area,
1:16:56
Speaker 1: like your private property specifically for wildlife and deer, all
1:17:00
Speaker 1: sorts of ways you can do that. It's probably it's
1:17:02
Speaker 1: it's definitely two in depth to go into for for
1:17:04
Speaker 1: this UM. But if you want, you know, if someday
1:17:08
Speaker 1: kind of you got to the point five years from
1:17:10
Speaker 1: now and you fell in love with deer ounting and
1:17:12
Speaker 1: you bought a twenty acre property outside Chicago and you
1:17:15
Speaker 1: said this is gonna be my deer hunting property, I
1:17:17
Speaker 1: would tell you to go visit the website or become
1:17:21
Speaker 1: a member of an organization called the Quality Deer Management Association.
1:17:26
Speaker 1: Just a terrific resource for everything related to how you
1:17:28
Speaker 1: can manage an area or property for deer and UM
1:17:34
Speaker 1: help improve the health of the deer and your property,
1:17:36
Speaker 1: help manage all sorts of different things for that optimal situation. UM.
1:17:41
Speaker 1: So that's where I point you or other people for
1:17:43
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. Got it. So now we're hunting.
1:17:48
Speaker 1: We've learned a lot about the property. We've learned a
1:17:50
Speaker 1: little bit about the basics of deer. Um. I want
1:17:53
Speaker 1: to again, we're kind of running that time. This is
1:17:55
Speaker 1: one of those topics that probably we could spend like
1:17:57
Speaker 1: five hours talking about, but to try to cover the
1:18:01
Speaker 1: bare bones basics here in an hour and a half,
1:18:03
Speaker 1: we're gonna jump to actually going out there and hunting.
1:18:06
Speaker 1: So let's say you've got this property that you're allowed
1:18:09
Speaker 1: to hunt, Connor, You've studied it a little bit, You've
1:18:11
Speaker 1: learned where some of these different things are. Um, now
1:18:15
Speaker 1: it's the day you're gonna go out hunting. I want
1:18:17
Speaker 1: to mention a few things that you should be thinking
1:18:19
Speaker 1: about on this day when you're gonna go hunt. Hopefully
1:18:23
Speaker 1: before this day of the hunt, you've already done that
1:18:25
Speaker 1: scouting and you've picked a few places that you think
1:18:28
Speaker 1: there should be deer. Like Dan said, you found this
1:18:31
Speaker 1: trail or you saw these tracks. So you found these
1:18:33
Speaker 1: rubs and scrapes and tracks all together, and they seem
1:18:35
Speaker 1: like good places. So in a perfect world, you would
1:18:39
Speaker 1: set up a location beforehand. A set up that ambush
1:18:42
Speaker 1: location beforehand, so you would either put a blind out
1:18:46
Speaker 1: there or a tree stand at that spot, so that
1:18:49
Speaker 1: on the day of the hunt you could just go
1:18:51
Speaker 1: and sit and be ready to go. Now, for someone
1:18:54
Speaker 1: brand new, basically, a tree stand is like something that
1:18:57
Speaker 1: hanging up in a tree where you can sit in
1:18:59
Speaker 1: and be hidden from the deer and you kind of
1:19:00
Speaker 1: have this high perch where you can watch and shoot from.
1:19:04
Speaker 1: Or a blind is basically some kind of little shelter
1:19:08
Speaker 1: you create on the ground that again hides you. There's
1:19:11
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of different options here. You can have
1:19:13
Speaker 1: like fabric pop up blinds. You can build a blind
1:19:16
Speaker 1: just out of wood. There's tons of different types of
1:19:18
Speaker 1: tree stands, different ways to get up in a tree.
1:19:21
Speaker 1: But that's more detail than we can get into um.
1:19:24
Speaker 1: But for the new hunter in a perfect world, learn
1:19:27
Speaker 1: a little bit about blinds or tree stands and set
1:19:29
Speaker 1: up some locations so that on the day of the
1:19:32
Speaker 1: hunt you can walk right out to your stand and
1:19:35
Speaker 1: be sitting and hunting. So this is a different counter
1:19:38
Speaker 1: than when we turkey hunted. When we turkey on, we
1:19:41
Speaker 1: just walked out there, picked a tree and sat on
1:19:42
Speaker 1: the ground and just called the birds. And you can
1:19:46
Speaker 1: do that, especially if you're hunting with a gun. Um.
1:19:49
Speaker 1: I know, like when I grew up deer hunting, lots
1:19:51
Speaker 1: of times when we hunted with the guns with firearms,
1:19:54
Speaker 1: we would go out and sit on a stump or
1:19:55
Speaker 1: sit next to a tree that looked like a good
1:19:57
Speaker 1: spot with a good view, and and can you know,
1:20:00
Speaker 1: get a shot at a deer like that, especially when
1:20:02
Speaker 1: you get a gun that can fire out during a
1:20:04
Speaker 1: hundred yards or two hundred yards away. Um. But in
1:20:07
Speaker 1: a perfect world, you'd have something already set up. And
1:20:10
Speaker 1: if you're hunting with arch equipment like a crossbow or
1:20:13
Speaker 1: a regular compoundbo, when a deer is that close close
1:20:18
Speaker 1: enough to get a shot with one of those weapons,
1:20:19
Speaker 1: they're gonna see you moving if you're just sitting on
1:20:22
Speaker 1: the ground without any kind of concealment. So that's why
1:20:24
Speaker 1: having something that's gonna hide you is important. But I'm
1:20:29
Speaker 1: gonna try a gloss over that a little bit because
1:20:30
Speaker 1: we have to get to, you know, some other things.
1:20:32
Speaker 1: So the first thing when you're choosing where are you
1:20:35
Speaker 1: gonna hunt on this given day is what we talked
1:20:38
Speaker 1: about earlier. It's the wind. So we always needed to
1:20:41
Speaker 1: be thinking about where is my wind blowing. So let's
1:20:46
Speaker 1: say today we have a west wind. If you're deciding
1:20:50
Speaker 1: where you want hunt on that given day, just always
1:20:52
Speaker 1: think about how that wind will impact things. So if
1:20:55
Speaker 1: you picked out let's say you picked out two locations
1:20:57
Speaker 1: on your property that look good based on that side
1:21:00
Speaker 1: that we talked about already, now think about what the
1:21:03
Speaker 1: wind will do. So we'll say location A. You want
1:21:07
Speaker 1: to hunt with this wind that's blowing from the west,
1:21:09
Speaker 1: it's blowing from the west going to the east. If
1:21:13
Speaker 1: that wind that's blowing now to the east is blowing
1:21:15
Speaker 1: right towards what you identified already as a betting area
1:21:19
Speaker 1: where deer are gonna be, that's probably not a good
1:21:22
Speaker 1: thing because those deer that are in that betting area
1:21:24
Speaker 1: during the day will smell you when you walk there
1:21:27
Speaker 1: for your afternoon hunt. So just think about how is
1:21:30
Speaker 1: the wind going to impact things. Or if you're gonna
1:21:32
Speaker 1: be walking to your spot and that west wind is
1:21:36
Speaker 1: gonna blow towards that corn field that you found, and
1:21:40
Speaker 1: at this time of day that you're walking in there,
1:21:42
Speaker 1: you think that deer will be feeding. So in the
1:21:44
Speaker 1: morning when deer feeding. If you know that wind is
1:21:47
Speaker 1: gonna be blowing into that corn field, well, all of
1:21:49
Speaker 1: a sudden you realize, Oops, that's where the deer are
1:21:51
Speaker 1: and they're gonna smell me there in a runaway. So
1:21:54
Speaker 1: always just be thinking about that. Um, Always be thinking
1:21:59
Speaker 1: then about the two things we already talked about, food
1:22:01
Speaker 1: and bedding. So when you're choosing where you want to hunt,
1:22:03
Speaker 1: you want to think about Okay, Bob, my mentor told
1:22:07
Speaker 1: me that at this time of year, in October, the
1:22:10
Speaker 1: deer are really feeding on acorns. And if you had
1:22:13
Speaker 1: found that at your location, b there were acorns, now
1:22:17
Speaker 1: you know, Okay, this is gonna be one of the
1:22:18
Speaker 1: This might be the better spot of the two locations
1:22:20
Speaker 1: I have because I know they're feeding on this food source. Um,
1:22:26
Speaker 1: I don't know how how do we how do we
1:22:27
Speaker 1: talk through this? Damn without getting too much in the weeds?
1:22:29
Speaker 1: Are making this confusing? Is this making sense? Um? As
1:22:33
Speaker 1: I'm talking, I already see like there's so many different
1:22:34
Speaker 1: ways you could spiral around this. Let me let me
1:22:38
Speaker 1: put it. Let me try to simplify it. Imagine a clock, okay,
1:22:41
Speaker 1: and you are the very center of the clock that
1:22:45
Speaker 1: is your tree stand. Okay, if the wind is coming
1:22:50
Speaker 1: from twelve in blowing to six, just you should think
1:22:55
Speaker 1: that nothing is going to come from that direction because
1:23:00
Speaker 1: your scent is going to ruin everything in that direction
1:23:02
Speaker 1: or seven or six or five. And you know, because
1:23:05
Speaker 1: scent kind of cones out from you know, where where
1:23:09
Speaker 1: you're at. So you have to once you've identified where
1:23:15
Speaker 1: you think the deer are coming from, um, then kind
1:23:19
Speaker 1: of put a clock over top of it and and
1:23:21
Speaker 1: put the wind coming out of let's say a nine
1:23:25
Speaker 1: and in going to a three. The three. You know
1:23:28
Speaker 1: the three is gonna be bad. So let's say you identify, um,
1:23:33
Speaker 1: the deer are at a nine and they're going to
1:23:37
Speaker 1: go to a three. Well, that means that you should
1:23:39
Speaker 1: probably have a wind that is going from twelve to
1:23:43
Speaker 1: six or from six to twelve roughly. Okay. That way,
1:23:48
Speaker 1: when the deer are walking by you, for the most part,
1:23:52
Speaker 1: they're not going to intercept you unless that trail is
1:23:56
Speaker 1: kind of above your location, if that makes any sense. Yeah,
1:24:01
Speaker 1: And are you guys using any sorts of decoys similar
1:24:04
Speaker 1: to the way that we I mean, we're using decoys
1:24:07
Speaker 1: and calls for the turkey hunt? Marb so there are
1:24:12
Speaker 1: certain situations when people will use Dear decoys. Um, I
1:24:16
Speaker 1: will say for the beginner hunter, I wouldn't worry about
1:24:19
Speaker 1: that because us just just like a very small portion
1:24:21
Speaker 1: of the hunting season with very specific conditions. Would you
1:24:25
Speaker 1: ever want to use a decoy? So I'd say for
1:24:28
Speaker 1: the average person going out there, don't worry about that yet.
1:24:31
Speaker 1: The best thing is just to set up the observation point.
1:24:33
Speaker 1: So so yeah, so you take all the stuff you've
1:24:36
Speaker 1: learned about the property, you have a couple of spots prepped,
1:24:40
Speaker 1: you think about the wind the way Dan described it,
1:24:43
Speaker 1: and then you're going to go out there and you're
1:24:46
Speaker 1: sitting that location and you're gonna observe. You're going to
1:24:51
Speaker 1: be as quiet as you possibly can be because we
1:24:53
Speaker 1: talked about how great they're hearing is. You're going to
1:24:55
Speaker 1: be as still as you can possibly be, because we
1:24:57
Speaker 1: talked about how great their eyes it is. And most hunts,
1:25:02
Speaker 1: you're gonna see dear, but they're gonna be too far away,
1:25:05
Speaker 1: or they'll move through too quickly, or something will happen
1:25:08
Speaker 1: where you're not able to get a shot, but you'll
1:25:09
Speaker 1: learn something. So I always every time you go out there,
1:25:11
Speaker 1: I'll try to think about what they're doing and learn
1:25:14
Speaker 1: and so you can say, okay, well I learned that
1:25:16
Speaker 1: they're actually traveling over here, or learned that they tend
1:25:19
Speaker 1: to come back into this piece of woods an hour
1:25:22
Speaker 1: after daylight. So just try to learn from that observation.
1:25:25
Speaker 1: UM I would say, while you're actually out there hunting,
1:25:27
Speaker 1: when you're in the tree, or you're in your blind,
1:25:29
Speaker 1: or you're sitting on that log, the way I would
1:25:32
Speaker 1: spend most of that time is just very very slowly
1:25:36
Speaker 1: quietly looking around you. You know, just very slowly turn
1:25:40
Speaker 1: your head looking to your left and just constantly observing
1:25:43
Speaker 1: the setting around you to try to make sure that
1:25:45
Speaker 1: you spot an animal before it spots you. So in
1:25:49
Speaker 1: a perfect world, you're sitting in your spot and you're
1:25:52
Speaker 1: very carefully observing around you. Every once in a while,
1:25:56
Speaker 1: maybe put your binoculars up to your eyes and look
1:25:58
Speaker 1: off from the distance, and then hopefully you're gonna spot
1:26:01
Speaker 1: a deer or a movement or a shape and you'll see, okay, oh,
1:26:04
Speaker 1: that's a deer, and then you'll see it's coming your way,
1:26:08
Speaker 1: and then you can, you know, know when it's getting
1:26:10
Speaker 1: close enough so that you can prepare yourself and make
1:26:12
Speaker 1: sure you're not not moving at all, not making any
1:26:15
Speaker 1: sounds or anything by the time it gets close enough.
1:26:19
Speaker 1: And then if this is a deer that you excuse me,
1:26:21
Speaker 1: this is a deer you're gonna try to get a
1:26:22
Speaker 1: shot at, then you can do things to prepare yourself
1:26:24
Speaker 1: for that shot. So you know, like in your situation
1:26:26
Speaker 1: turkey hunting, counter when you know when that when that
1:26:30
Speaker 1: turkey finally was within sight of you, guys, I know
1:26:32
Speaker 1: that Janice probably had instructed you to at this point
1:26:35
Speaker 1: be ready. You have your gun up already, and then
1:26:37
Speaker 1: you don't want to move at all, right, because once
1:26:39
Speaker 1: that deer is within or once that turkey was within
1:26:41
Speaker 1: sight of you, you didn't want to make any movements
1:26:43
Speaker 1: because they would see you. So you already had the
1:26:44
Speaker 1: gun up on your on your knees, and you were
1:26:47
Speaker 1: just waiting for him to get close enough, and then
1:26:48
Speaker 1: you just pulled the trigger. So it's kind of the
1:26:50
Speaker 1: same thing with deer hunting. Once you observe that deer,
1:26:52
Speaker 1: hopefully it's far enough away so you can get yourself prepared.
1:26:56
Speaker 1: So in this case, you're going to very slowly get
1:26:58
Speaker 1: your gun or very slowly get your bow and position yourself. However,
1:27:02
Speaker 1: you need to to be able to get that shot,
1:27:04
Speaker 1: ideally doing this when the deer is not looking at you,
1:27:07
Speaker 1: or when the deer is far enough away, and then
1:27:09
Speaker 1: once that deer finally does get to within range of
1:27:12
Speaker 1: whatever weapon is you're using, then you you go through
1:27:14
Speaker 1: that shot process. You pull the trigger, you shoot the
1:27:17
Speaker 1: bow whatever it might be. Um and are there in
1:27:22
Speaker 1: terms of aiming because I know, as I mentioned the
1:27:25
Speaker 1: beginning when I was talking about my turkey story, or
1:27:28
Speaker 1: is there a specific spot you want to aim for? So,
1:27:31
Speaker 1: I mean most of the meat is preserved. Yeah, So
1:27:34
Speaker 1: the vital zone on a deer is that it's lungs
1:27:38
Speaker 1: or it's heart or what you ideally want to hit,
1:27:41
Speaker 1: and so that is going to be just behind its shoulder.
1:27:45
Speaker 1: So the best thing to do anyone that's brand new
1:27:48
Speaker 1: to this just go to Google and type in you know,
1:27:52
Speaker 1: white tailed deer vital zone or something like that, and
1:27:54
Speaker 1: there's a thousand different images diagrams that show this. But
1:27:58
Speaker 1: if you imagine a deer standing in front of view
1:28:00
Speaker 1: and you imagine it's front shoulder and then draw or
1:28:03
Speaker 1: just take a pipe play or take a paper plate
1:28:05
Speaker 1: and put that just behind that front shoulder. Essentially, that
1:28:10
Speaker 1: is the section that you want to aim at because
1:28:12
Speaker 1: you'll get hopefully that bullet or that arrow will go
1:28:15
Speaker 1: through both lungs or the heart and it very quickly,
1:28:18
Speaker 1: um will kill that animal is as quickly and ethically
1:28:21
Speaker 1: as you possibly can. That's that's your best spot. Um.
1:28:25
Speaker 1: So a few things I guess at that point about
1:28:30
Speaker 1: handling the moment of truth. So you've got that deer
1:28:33
Speaker 1: coming in, you're gonna get that shot. Dan, any advice
1:28:37
Speaker 1: for a very new hunter about handling the actual moments
1:28:41
Speaker 1: just before or at the shot. No, because what's gonna
1:28:46
Speaker 1: happen is, I'm going to tell you something right now,
1:28:49
Speaker 1: and this will be the closest dear that you've ever
1:28:52
Speaker 1: had to yourself. Right you're you with the intentions of
1:28:55
Speaker 1: killing it, and everything for the first time, everything that
1:29:01
Speaker 1: we've told you today will go out the window, and
1:29:04
Speaker 1: you'll get this gigantic adrenaline rush and you'll go into
1:29:09
Speaker 1: autopilot with whatever you've learned up to that point on
1:29:13
Speaker 1: shooting an animal, and it will be the greatest moment
1:29:16
Speaker 1: of your life, one of the greatest moments of your life.
1:29:18
Speaker 1: And so for me to sit here and tell a
1:29:21
Speaker 1: new hunter on how to act during the moment of
1:29:26
Speaker 1: truth is I mean, I'm not gonna say it's gonna
1:29:29
Speaker 1: be It would be wasted breath. But you're not gonna
1:29:33
Speaker 1: You're not gonna think of what Dan Johnson told me
1:29:35
Speaker 1: when when you're getting ready to pull back the boat.
1:29:38
Speaker 1: You know what I mean. I will offer you one
1:29:42
Speaker 1: one piece of vice, though, Connor, and that is that,
1:29:46
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, when you are taking a shot an
1:29:50
Speaker 1: animal like a deer, for most people, it's a lot
1:29:54
Speaker 1: different than when you take a shot at something like
1:29:55
Speaker 1: a turkey. Um. I don't know if it's because of
1:29:58
Speaker 1: the size of the animal or just the the charismatic
1:30:01
Speaker 1: nature of a big mammal like that, but something about it.
1:30:04
Speaker 1: And also because the amount of work typically that goes
1:30:06
Speaker 1: into a deer hunt versus a turkey hunt. Like it
1:30:09
Speaker 1: was a little bit easier to go out there on
1:30:10
Speaker 1: your first day like we did, and this turkey ran
1:30:12
Speaker 1: in and you just got that shot like it was.
1:30:14
Speaker 1: There wasn't a whole bunch of backstory and time and
1:30:16
Speaker 1: work that went into that. But on a deer hunt
1:30:19
Speaker 1: there'll be lots and lots of work typically that goes
1:30:21
Speaker 1: into it um and now all that's built up to
1:30:24
Speaker 1: this moment. Now this big, beautiful mammal is walking towards you,
1:30:29
Speaker 1: and now you need to place that bullet or arrow
1:30:32
Speaker 1: in this one specific spot. So there's it's it's a
1:30:34
Speaker 1: high pressure moment. So Dan said, lots of times that
1:30:37
Speaker 1: first time you might almost blackout, or you might just
1:30:40
Speaker 1: like your autopilot takes over lots of times. So the
1:30:43
Speaker 1: best way to make sure that this goes well and
1:30:46
Speaker 1: not badly is that you practice a lot beforehand. Ye,
1:30:51
Speaker 1: So don't do what you did with the turkey hunt
1:30:53
Speaker 1: on your deer hunt, because it's a lot easier to
1:30:56
Speaker 1: mess things up on a deer. So that turkey, like
1:30:58
Speaker 1: the shot it's as it was a shotgun you're using,
1:31:01
Speaker 1: So it shouted a bunch of different babies in a
1:31:03
Speaker 1: wide area. So even if you shot a little bit
1:31:06
Speaker 1: to the left or a little bit up or a
1:31:07
Speaker 1: little bit downward to the right, all those babies spread
1:31:10
Speaker 1: out and you were still able to hit that turkey right.
1:31:12
Speaker 1: You mentioned that somewhere in the breast, so some of
1:31:14
Speaker 1: those hit low, but still that was a dead turkey.
1:31:17
Speaker 1: It was great in the situation of a deer. It's
1:31:20
Speaker 1: just a single projectile, so it's one single piece of
1:31:22
Speaker 1: lead or one single arrow, so that has to go
1:31:25
Speaker 1: to the to the right spot, perfectly right spot. So
1:31:30
Speaker 1: you just want to have practiced shooting a lot and
1:31:32
Speaker 1: done a lot to prepare for that moment so that
1:31:34
Speaker 1: when autopilot does kick in, when the nerves kick in. Um,
1:31:38
Speaker 1: there's something people referred to as buck fever. So it's
1:31:40
Speaker 1: kind of just this the swelling up of emotion and
1:31:42
Speaker 1: excitement and nervousness and everything just before the shot. Some
1:31:46
Speaker 1: people like freak out, start shaking, some people start hyper ventling,
1:31:50
Speaker 1: some people there's all sorts of different things that kind
1:31:52
Speaker 1: of happened to the body when this like high pressure
1:31:54
Speaker 1: moment happens. Um, the more you've practiced actually executing a
1:31:58
Speaker 1: good shot, the more likely you are to be able
1:32:01
Speaker 1: to handle that moment. Um. So my my highest level
1:32:05
Speaker 1: piece of advice would just be to take that seriously.
1:32:08
Speaker 1: Any new hunter, like, practice as much as you can.
1:32:11
Speaker 1: I had time to make sure that when you do
1:32:13
Speaker 1: finally get that shot, you can take advantage of it
1:32:15
Speaker 1: and things go things go well. You don't want to miss,
1:32:18
Speaker 1: you don't want to injure a deer and then have it,
1:32:20
Speaker 1: you know, be wounded and you're not able to recover it. Um,
1:32:23
Speaker 1: our goal is always to get a quick, clean, ethical
1:32:26
Speaker 1: kill that allows you to recover that that deer as
1:32:29
Speaker 1: quickly as possible, get a bunch of meat, and um,
1:32:33
Speaker 1: you know, be able to continue on as a as
1:32:35
Speaker 1: a successful hunter. So there's lots and lots more about
1:32:40
Speaker 1: how to properly shoot under pressure, how to learn how
1:32:42
Speaker 1: to shoot a bow, how to learn how to shoot
1:32:44
Speaker 1: a gun. That stuff is above kind of what we're
1:32:47
Speaker 1: trying to achieve here too. So there's obviously tons of
1:32:50
Speaker 1: homework that any new hunter would have to do after
1:32:52
Speaker 1: this kind of beginning guide, um about learning how to
1:32:55
Speaker 1: how to shoot a bow or a gun or whatever
1:32:57
Speaker 1: it might be. So again, lots of resources on YouTube
1:33:00
Speaker 1: or on this podcast or if you google it, there's
1:33:02
Speaker 1: lots of stuff out there. But but take that moment seriously,
1:33:06
Speaker 1: I guess, I would say would be the most important thing.
1:33:08
Speaker 1: Be prepared because it is a high intense moment. Um. No,
1:33:15
Speaker 1: that's helpful, and it's funny too, because I had no
1:33:18
Speaker 1: sort of idea how intense the shot part of the
1:33:24
Speaker 1: Turkey hunt to be until they were coming down that
1:33:28
Speaker 1: alleyway and my heart was beating and I was like,
1:33:31
Speaker 1: all right, collect yourself. This is the actual moment. So
1:33:34
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's taken up to a whole another level. Um,
1:33:37
Speaker 1: you know when it comes to box. Yeah. Yeah, So see,
1:33:40
Speaker 1: it's a multiply that Turkey moment times like a hundred,
1:33:43
Speaker 1: and then that will be what your first first deer
1:33:46
Speaker 1: might be, like, Um, is there anything and we're running
1:33:50
Speaker 1: that time? Is there anything else on the actual in
1:33:52
Speaker 1: the tree or in the woods hunt Dan that we
1:33:54
Speaker 1: absolutely should touch on here or should we jump to
1:33:56
Speaker 1: a couple of quick things on what happens afterwards? Just
1:33:59
Speaker 1: stay off your phone. Yeah, I've had some mistakes where
1:34:06
Speaker 1: I missed out on opportunities because of that, So yeah,
1:34:08
Speaker 1: stay focused. Definitely good when you're out there hunting. Try
1:34:12
Speaker 1: to avoid distraction. Um. That will always be the best
1:34:16
Speaker 1: things about hunting though, is like when you're out there
1:34:18
Speaker 1: at least the two days I was out there in
1:34:19
Speaker 1: Michigan and I turned my phone off, you know, like
1:34:21
Speaker 1: this is the best excuse to not have it on. Yeah. Yeah,
1:34:25
Speaker 1: I think that's a great way to do it because
1:34:27
Speaker 1: you can if you allow yourself to if you turn
1:34:30
Speaker 1: off those distractions and allow yourself just to take in
1:34:32
Speaker 1: everything around you. Um. That really is what's so special
1:34:36
Speaker 1: about hunting is you you get to put yourself out
1:34:38
Speaker 1: in these wild places, surrounded by wildlife, and you can
1:34:41
Speaker 1: observe and see all these different things and notice all
1:34:43
Speaker 1: these different things, and um, it's it's the complete opposite
1:34:47
Speaker 1: of most of our daily lives working in the office
1:34:49
Speaker 1: or the factory or whatever and surrounded by people and
1:34:52
Speaker 1: loud noises and all this stuff. Um. It goes back
1:34:54
Speaker 1: to we talked about in the very beginning, Connor, which
1:34:56
Speaker 1: is just enjoying that experience out there, um, soaking it
1:35:00
Speaker 1: all in. So that's that's so important to do. And
1:35:04
Speaker 1: also from a pragmatic standpoint, getting the strategic can can
1:35:09
Speaker 1: ruin your chances sometimes of getting a deer, like it
1:35:10
Speaker 1: did to me this past fall. So don't do that. Um. Yeah,
1:35:17
Speaker 1: it was Holy Field. That's probably still a sore subject
1:35:21
Speaker 1: then it is. It is. That's why Dan chuckled when
1:35:23
Speaker 1: he mentioned it, because he he knew that was a
1:35:26
Speaker 1: dagger to the gut for me. Um. Now, when it
1:35:31
Speaker 1: comes to let's say, let's say you did all these
1:35:33
Speaker 1: things right, you actually had a deer come in, you
1:35:36
Speaker 1: got a shot. This deer ran off fifty yards and
1:35:39
Speaker 1: dropped over and it died quickly. And it's a perfect situation. Again,
1:35:44
Speaker 1: this is probably something you need to go watch a
1:35:46
Speaker 1: video on to see how to handle um processing that
1:35:49
Speaker 1: deer in the field. But at a high level, what
1:35:51
Speaker 1: you want to know is that you want to gut
1:35:53
Speaker 1: that deer as soon as possible, especially if it's warm
1:35:56
Speaker 1: out um, because you want to be able to preserve
1:35:58
Speaker 1: the meat as best as possible. So if you saw
1:36:00
Speaker 1: that deer run and die, go over that thing and
1:36:04
Speaker 1: then gut the deer. YouTube how to get a deer
1:36:07
Speaker 1: to learn how to do this, or go out there
1:36:08
Speaker 1: with a friend or a mentor who can show you.
1:36:11
Speaker 1: It's way too complicated to try to talk you through
1:36:13
Speaker 1: it right now over the over the skype, but you
1:36:16
Speaker 1: saw how you know, I showed you how to breast
1:36:18
Speaker 1: out and take out the legs and thighs of a turkey. Um.
1:36:21
Speaker 1: You know it's gonna be a process, that kind of
1:36:23
Speaker 1: deal where you need to learn how to open up
1:36:24
Speaker 1: the deer, take out and trails and stuff like that
1:36:27
Speaker 1: that then cools down the deer's body. And then after
1:36:31
Speaker 1: that you'll need to get that deer out of the woods,
1:36:33
Speaker 1: back to your house or back to your truck or
1:36:36
Speaker 1: back to wherever, so that you can then make the
1:36:39
Speaker 1: decision of how to process that meat. You can process
1:36:42
Speaker 1: the meat yourself. Um And again it helps to have
1:36:45
Speaker 1: a friend or a mentor someone who knows what they're doing. Um.
1:36:49
Speaker 1: But I actually learned how to process my dear from
1:36:52
Speaker 1: a book. I bought a book that was like a
1:36:53
Speaker 1: step by step guide to processing your own deer. So basically,
1:36:56
Speaker 1: how to butcher up the meat, you know, into different pieces,
1:36:59
Speaker 1: how to get it off the get off the bones,
1:37:01
Speaker 1: and get it into pieces of meat that you can
1:37:03
Speaker 1: then package up and putting the freezer. So I taught
1:37:06
Speaker 1: myself out of a book. Um. So that's an option
1:37:09
Speaker 1: for people, or there's YouTube videos out there that walk
1:37:11
Speaker 1: you through everything. Or if for some reason you don't
1:37:14
Speaker 1: want to do that, or you don't have the time
1:37:16
Speaker 1: to do that, or you don't feel comfortable doing that,
1:37:17
Speaker 1: there are lots of butcher shops and meat processors all
1:37:21
Speaker 1: over the country that will do this for a small fee.
1:37:23
Speaker 1: Um So that's an option too. But you just want
1:37:26
Speaker 1: to do whatever you can. Gut that deer as quickly
1:37:29
Speaker 1: as possible to make sure the meat stays cool. Learn
1:37:31
Speaker 1: how to gut properly so you're not getting um, stomach
1:37:35
Speaker 1: fluids or things on the meat that will make that
1:37:37
Speaker 1: meat go bad. Um. Just take this part. Learn as
1:37:40
Speaker 1: much as you can about this part, because that meat
1:37:42
Speaker 1: is so important to that's at the very base of
1:37:46
Speaker 1: what we're doing. That's why we're why we're hunting, is
1:37:47
Speaker 1: to get that amazing organic, free range protein. So make
1:37:52
Speaker 1: sure you're taking it, taking it seriously and doing good
1:37:55
Speaker 1: job of getting that meat out of the woods into
1:37:58
Speaker 1: your freezer. Um. And that's some good, good tasting food too.
1:38:03
Speaker 1: You you had some elk, you had some caribou. Um,
1:38:07
Speaker 1: So you've enjoyed stuff that's gonna taste very much like
1:38:10
Speaker 1: a white tailed deer. And I think based on your
1:38:12
Speaker 1: experiences that are hunting Camp Connor, you can attest to
1:38:14
Speaker 1: the fact that it's it's it's something worth working towards,
1:38:17
Speaker 1: right for that kind of food. Gosh, it was. It
1:38:20
Speaker 1: was some of the most rush best food I've eaten
1:38:23
Speaker 1: in a long time. It was really I mean, obviously,
1:38:27
Speaker 1: you know, going out there in the woods naturally you
1:38:30
Speaker 1: build up a hunger, but I was. I was looking
1:38:32
Speaker 1: forward to every meal more so than I usually do. Yeah, so, Dan,
1:38:38
Speaker 1: I mean I feel even effort. Like I came into
1:38:40
Speaker 1: this podcast with like high hopes of like feeling that
1:38:42
Speaker 1: we cover so much, so clearly and articulately, and now
1:38:45
Speaker 1: looking back on it, I'm like, Man, I feel like
1:38:48
Speaker 1: we we had to gloss over so much. We had
1:38:50
Speaker 1: to walk circles around so many different things. But I'm
1:38:53
Speaker 1: hoping we laid out some basics that will be helpful
1:38:55
Speaker 1: as someone that's brand new. Is there anything though that
1:38:58
Speaker 1: you feel like we definitely missed that we have to touch?
1:39:02
Speaker 1: I feel I feel this is what I feel. Um,
1:39:08
Speaker 1: Connor do me a favor because guys like myself and
1:39:14
Speaker 1: Mark who are in the hunting industry right we see
1:39:18
Speaker 1: it every day. Um, whether it's pressure to shoot a
1:39:21
Speaker 1: big buck or it is you know, because we are
1:39:27
Speaker 1: I don't know, we're content providers to the industry. You know,
1:39:31
Speaker 1: we have to play in the world where big mature
1:39:35
Speaker 1: bucks are the most important thing in the world, when
1:39:39
Speaker 1: in all actuality it is not important at all. Okay,
1:39:44
Speaker 1: as a new hunter, I would say, go out there
1:39:47
Speaker 1: and just hunt and not worry about what size the
1:39:52
Speaker 1: antlers are, how old the deer is. All that stuff
1:39:56
Speaker 1: can be secondary as you progress up your ladder, But
1:40:01
Speaker 1: for guys like me, I, I go into a season
1:40:05
Speaker 1: kind of thinking about this and it and it doesn't
1:40:08
Speaker 1: necessarily take the fun out of it, but in a way,
1:40:12
Speaker 1: it kind of takes the overall enjoyment of what hunting
1:40:17
Speaker 1: is supposed to be about down a level. So from
1:40:22
Speaker 1: from what I would say to myself as an experienced
1:40:25
Speaker 1: hun or to a new hunter, don't worry about that
1:40:28
Speaker 1: all that extra ship. Just go out and experience hunting
1:40:31
Speaker 1: in its ross form. I agree. I think that's ah.
1:40:39
Speaker 1: It goes back to, you know, kind of where we started,
1:40:42
Speaker 1: that experience being out there observing, learning, connecting with these
1:40:48
Speaker 1: wild animals in these places in a in a different
1:40:50
Speaker 1: way that that only happens when you go out there
1:40:52
Speaker 1: as a hunter, um, which I think you've got to
1:40:55
Speaker 1: begin to experience on that Turkey Enconnor and uh and
1:40:58
Speaker 1: have fun, enjoy it. Don't start out too much about it. Um.
1:41:02
Speaker 1: You are out there trying to achieve a goal of
1:41:03
Speaker 1: trying to get that deer, trying to get that meat.
1:41:06
Speaker 1: But enjoy it too, because, um it's a it is
1:41:10
Speaker 1: a millennia old, thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands
1:41:15
Speaker 1: of year old tradition of humans acquiring our meat from
1:41:18
Speaker 1: the land in this way, and it's uh, in my opinion,
1:41:21
Speaker 1: of privilege to be able to still partake in that.
1:41:23
Speaker 1: So um, so enjoy that process. So Connor, now that
1:41:28
Speaker 1: you've heard all this stuff and we've confused you probably
1:41:30
Speaker 1: with ten thousand different things, or do you have any
1:41:33
Speaker 1: pressing questions you want to make sure we cover before
1:41:36
Speaker 1: we wrap this one up? You know, No, I think
1:41:39
Speaker 1: you guys fielded all my questions very well and it
1:41:42
Speaker 1: was super helpful to get some pro tips from you know,
1:41:45
Speaker 1: some of the best way to tail guys out there.
1:41:47
Speaker 1: And you know, I think too Dan's point early on
1:41:51
Speaker 1: in the show, it's pretty amazing what goes into you know,
1:41:56
Speaker 1: the entire process and strategy and how long and you
1:42:00
Speaker 1: know how patient you guys have to be. But ultimately
1:42:04
Speaker 1: it seems like that's what makes it so fulfilling. You
1:42:07
Speaker 1: know when when you get the deer and you know
1:42:09
Speaker 1: ultimately when it gets to your table. So you know,
1:42:12
Speaker 1: it's just something my mom, I'm really looking forward to
1:42:15
Speaker 1: getting into and can't thank you guys enough for for
1:42:17
Speaker 1: having me on and fielding my questions. Hey, our pleasure, Connor,
1:42:21
Speaker 1: and I want to extend the invite if you if
1:42:23
Speaker 1: I haven't already, and I think we kind of have
1:42:25
Speaker 1: talked about but if not, I would love for you
1:42:27
Speaker 1: to come upto Michigan and deer hunting with me at
1:42:29
Speaker 1: some point this year to try to take some of
1:42:31
Speaker 1: the things we talked about and actually try them out
1:42:33
Speaker 1: in the field and uh see if we can feel
1:42:36
Speaker 1: your freezer with some venice and if you're interested, absolutely
1:42:40
Speaker 1: challenge accepted. All right, well, uh Dan Connor, thanks guys
1:42:46
Speaker 1: for this fun conversation. It's it's got me excited to
1:42:49
Speaker 1: get out and hunt myself and also to continue trying
1:42:52
Speaker 1: to have more conversations like this, because next to hunting yourself,
1:42:56
Speaker 1: one of the most fulfailing things is is seeing other
1:42:58
Speaker 1: people getting into it. Like I had so much fun
1:43:00
Speaker 1: watching you and Jason kind of test the waters and
1:43:04
Speaker 1: taking my nephew out of the past two springs, getting
1:43:07
Speaker 1: him out there and him learning some of these things.
1:43:09
Speaker 1: That has been so much fun. Um So, anyone listening
1:43:12
Speaker 1: right now that is a experienced hunter but hasn't got
1:43:14
Speaker 1: to take other people out. I hope you will, Um,
1:43:17
Speaker 1: I hope you'll give it a try. I hope you
1:43:18
Speaker 1: will try to introduce more people to what we're doing,
1:43:22
Speaker 1: because I think any of us that are experienced in
1:43:24
Speaker 1: this stuff, we know how fulfilling it is. We know
1:43:28
Speaker 1: how great it is to to feed your family with
1:43:30
Speaker 1: something that that you you know, hunted yourself, and to
1:43:34
Speaker 1: be part of that whole process, and to enjoy all
1:43:36
Speaker 1: these experiences. We know how great that is. So take
1:43:39
Speaker 1: a little time out of your hunting season, take a
1:43:41
Speaker 1: little time out of your year to to share it
1:43:43
Speaker 1: with someone else. I think, um, I think you'll enjoy that,
1:43:46
Speaker 1: and I think it's gonna be important for the long
1:43:48
Speaker 1: term future of our hunting community and lifestyle. So that's
1:43:52
Speaker 1: it for today, folks. And the only thing I add
1:43:55
Speaker 1: is just a quick reminder to head on over to
1:43:58
Speaker 1: iTunes and give us a quick rating review if you
1:44:00
Speaker 1: haven't yet. It doesn't take very long at all, but
1:44:03
Speaker 1: it is a huge help. Also, make sure, if you
1:44:06
Speaker 1: haven't done this already, head over to the Wired to
1:44:09
Speaker 1: Hunt YouTube channel and subscribe. We've got a new series
1:44:12
Speaker 1: coming out or a kind of a series of videos
1:44:15
Speaker 1: within our our weekly vlog series which I will be
1:44:19
Speaker 1: taking a look back at my two thousand seventeen hunting
1:44:21
Speaker 1: season for holy Field and breaking down the decisions I made,
1:44:25
Speaker 1: some of the mistakes I made, some of the lessons
1:44:28
Speaker 1: I learned, And of course if you follow this podcast,
1:44:30
Speaker 1: you've heard me talk about him a lot. But I
1:44:32
Speaker 1: actually haven't put the video out there from two thousand
1:44:34
Speaker 1: seventeen yet, so this will finally be happening. I think
1:44:37
Speaker 1: you'll get a kick out of it, so make sure
1:44:39
Speaker 1: you subscribe to that Wired to Hunt YouTube channel. And next,
1:44:43
Speaker 1: I want to thank our partners for their support of
1:44:45
Speaker 1: this podcast. Big Things to Yetie Cooler's Matthew's Archery may
1:44:49
Speaker 1: have an optics White Tailed Properties hunter a maps, And
1:44:52
Speaker 1: of course thank you all for listening. As I have
1:44:55
Speaker 1: mentioned many times before in the podcast, I couldn't be
1:44:58
Speaker 1: doing this without you guys, your support, your time and attention.
1:45:02
Speaker 1: It is so appreciated and and I mean the the
1:45:05
Speaker 1: overwhelming deluge of positive comments and emails and messages and
1:45:10
Speaker 1: tweets after the news I shared last week. I just
1:45:13
Speaker 1: can't thank you enough for all that. It was incredible.
1:45:15
Speaker 1: You guys have lifted me up and supported me so
1:45:18
Speaker 1: much and it is very very much appreciated, so until
1:45:22
Speaker 1: next time, thank you and stay wired to hunt.