Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Wired To Hunt Podcast #152: The Secrets To Stan Potts’ Deer Hunting Success

Transcript

Wired To Hunt Podcast #152: The Secrets To Stan Potts’ Deer Hunting Success · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wire to Hunt podcast, your home for
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan. This is episode number one fifty
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: two Tan the show, we are joined by the One
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: and Only stand Pots, and we're discussing some of his
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: most memorable hunts and the lessons learned along the way
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: that have led to his incredible hunting success. All Right,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: welcome to another episode of the Wire to Hunt podcast,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: brought to you by Sitka Gear. And today in the show,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: we're joined by an absolute legend in the white tail
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: hunting world, the one the Only stand Pots and Stands
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: a long time big buck killer. He's been the host
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: of shows such as North American Whitetail TV, Whitetail Explorer
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: and Matthews Dominant Bucks, and he's appeared on many other
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: shows and videos as well. And stand has killed mature
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: bucks on public land and private land. He's killed him
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: d I Y, and he's killed them without fitters. And
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: so he's got a lot of different types of experiences
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: and along the way he's killed four different two bucks.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: So today our plan is to dive into the world
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: of stand pots. I want to hear about some of
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: his most interesting experiences over the years, and I'm hopefully
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: most importantly, you know, hopefully, we're gonna be learning about
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: what some of those most important hunting lessons are that
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: he's learned as he's chased his big deer all across
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: the country. So that's the game plan. And before we
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: get stand in the line though, back with me today
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: is my buddy and co host, the Nine Fingered Man
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: from Iowa, Dan John Mark Kenyon. Oh, you know, just uh,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: living that dream, living the American dream. Yeah. White picket fence, Yeah,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: except like it's not really white. It's like the paint.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: The fence needs paint and I haven't had a time
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: to fix the fence yet. If that makes sense, it does.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: It sounds just about right. Can I tell you a
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: really quick This just popped in my mind? But speaking
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: of you, um great, I love where this is gonna go.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: I almost had a nine fingered dad, my dad. That
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: sounding weird now it's almost figured dad, It's not like
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: you were almost my dad. My dad almost lost one
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: of his fingers last week doing what he was going
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: fishing and he him and his buddy had they're putting
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: the boat in the water, and somehow, I don't I
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: don't know all the details. On sure if they know
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: all the details. But somehow, when my dad put his
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: hand back on the hitch of the trailer in between
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: the ball and the receiver, my buddies or my dad's
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: buddy was just getting out of the vehicle and must
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: have let his foot off the pet left the brake
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: or something. Somehow the truck shifted back and smashed and
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: crushed my dad's finger between the hitch and the receiver,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: and it almost completely severed it and the bone was
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: sticking out completely, five fractures in there, and they almost
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: had to amputate it. Um, but it looks like they
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: saved the finger. So I almost had nine fingered Wonder
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: on the podcast and a nine fingered dad. Well, I
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: tell you what, I'm looking for a good co host
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: for my podcast. You know, maybe if he goes through
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: with an amputation, we could talk. But until then, I'll
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: send him your way if that happens. Yeah, yeah, he's good,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: he's good enough. He he had surgery last week and
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: it looks like that one well, so um knock on
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: wood looks like should be should be set moving forward?
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Cool beans, man, you're back from Montana. I am back
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: from Montana. You know, I got back to it late
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: last week. Does it suck to be back or are
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: you glad you're back? You know, I'm actually glad to
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: be back. Um. It was at a blast out there,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: did a lot of awesome stuff, but you know, it
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: was also exhausting. Um, and it's just nice to kind
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: of get settled back into the routine and and be
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: able to kind of get some work done in a
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: regular place. It was just a little bit more challenging,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: I think, trying to trying to work, trying to record podcasts,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: trying to do different things when you know we're living
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: out of a campground or national forest, and you know,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: it's hard sometimes get power, hard, sometimes get internet, um,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: different stuff like that. So, um, it was fun. But
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: it's nice to be back and I can get to
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: work on some of my white tailed shores. So so
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: many white tailed shores. So that's right, the two lists long.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what. Let's see real quick. I went
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: fishing this weekend. Called a ton of fish my daughter.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Awesome fish. Yeah, really awesome. Fishing is fun blah blah
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: blah blah blah. But but you can never be a
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: fishing podcast host if that's how you talk about Well,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: I love I love fishing, right, It's it's really fun,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: especially when the fish are biting. I got my father
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: in law. He's been um fishing this specific portion of
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: the Mississippi River for forty two years so and he's retired.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: So not only does he know where all the hot
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: spots are the good spots depending on how you know
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: low or high the river is, he's there all the time.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: So as soon as that shift happens, let's say the
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: water the river drops a foot, he knows where the
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: fish are gonna be. So when whenever we go up there,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: it's like we have our our own personal guide. So
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: the fishing ever really sucks. Yeah, But more importantly and
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: kind of the white tail thing, man, I like, I
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: got some money set aside this year for some gear
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: that I'm gonna buy, and it's burning a hole in
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: my pocket and it's it's gonna be dangerous. Like I
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: don't know if you ever go through these phases where
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: I got some catalogs in the mail from a couple
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: of companies that I've made purchases from in the past,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: and it's just like it's it's kind of like fishing.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: It's like a fishing lure where I'm gonna bite and
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna lose. I'm not gonna lose because I'm actually
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: gaining good gear. But you know, I've already bought arrows
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: this year. I bought a pack frame this year. What
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: else I'm gonna probably buy some boots I'm gonna buy. Uh,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: let's see what else am I gonna buy. I'm probably
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: gonna buy some additional like Camo slash gear, you know,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: uh that I'm gonna buy some more wool bass layers
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: and stuff like that. It's just like it's so dumb
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: because I probably I have everything I really need, but
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: I want more. You and me and everyone everyone listening.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Probably it's especially this time of year, like it's it's bad,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: but I know it's just true. Like you get a
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: little like dopamine burst when you can't you can't actually
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: go hunting, but you can get this little tiny bit
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: of hunting excitement when you go to the gear store
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: and you buy something, so like I do that to
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: like hit the hunting feel good. Buzzing button and then
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: my checking account doesn't look good. Amen on that man.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Other than that, I mean, you've been back for what
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: to three days? Now? For how long? Yeah, we got
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: back like late Thursday, but then we went up to
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: visit my family over the weekend, so I've only really
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: been home at the house for two days. Um, but
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: I did I didn't go turkey hunting. Finally, I went
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: turkey hunting twice yesterday. Um. No, I actually took my
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: nephew out both days, trying to get him his first bird,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: and um, we had somewhat close calls both days, but
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: just couldn't quite get him coming to range. Um, he's
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: just using a little twenty gage, so we definitely have
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: to have him close. But um, but it was cool
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: the first time he's ever been turkey hunting and had
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: him You know, they're working in and they're gobbling and
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: responding to the calls, and he was pumped. And at
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: one point I thought they were gonna come and coming
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: to range where we're at, and I told him to
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: get ready and he was holding the gun up and
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: you can see him like breathing really heavy and shaking,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: and I was like, all right, he's feeling it. He's
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: feeling it, so I'm pretty excited about this. I'm gonna
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: try to get him out some more before the season
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: is done, and I'd rather him get a bird than me,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: so hopefully, hopefully that will happen. And I think we're
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: gonna do some hunting this weekend and finish off the
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: month of May and hopefully high note awesome. Alright, so
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: I guess we got stand coming on here pretty soon.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: But I got have you checked any trail cameras? Did
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: you have any trail cameras up and running on some
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: of your old food plots or anything like that? I mean,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: do we have a holy Field update or anything like that?
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: No Holy Field update. Um, I pulled all my cameras
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: before I left to go out, so no cameras are up.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: But but I'm definitely gonna be putting him out here
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: soon and just just a lot of a lot of stuff.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: I've been seeing a lot of deer last day's while hunting.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Keep an eye out for a chunk out of the
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: year of a buck, but haven't seen him yet, but
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: fingers crossed. And the food plot works gonna be starting soon.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: And I did do some Habita at work before I
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: left that we never did talk about that. Maybe we
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: can talk about more another time. Worked on some betting
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: areas and stuff. So so the plan is in the
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: works and I'm doing trial camera studying, still looking at
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: things and you know, this is the topic that we
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: could talk about for an hour. So but yeah, it's
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: it's all in the works. So Ben Harshine, you know,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: the owner of hunter are our friend of both of ours.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: He uh, he got a call from the landowner that
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: he hunts on and he had um a buck still
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: holding They were out there mushroom hunting a buck that
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: it's still holding on. I think it was April both sides. Geez,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: that's crazy. Yeah, it's been a weird year, very weird.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: And we haven't talked about this. We went me and
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Kylie went shed hunting, right, we haven't talked about this
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: in Montana. Yeah, we went hunt in Montana. That's awesome.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: It was sweet. So we hit up the property where
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: I killed my buck last year and we found four
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: sheds in a deadhead and Kylie found her very first
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: shed and it was a really nice one. Um man,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: it had a long main beam in a big split
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: g three deep split G three and two times busted
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: off had an inside time and then like it's G
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: two was busted off. So if it had those times,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, this would have been a six point side
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: then and it would have been substantial, like I don't know,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: sixty lost inches probably when it was all said and done.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Back out there here, I am hunting. Excuse me, I
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: am going to hunt Montana, But I was planning on
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: hunting a different spot, um, just to try new things.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: And I know I wanted to hunt federal public land
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: instead of UM state, but I don't know. Now that
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: I know that, now that I know this guy is
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: still there, UM, it's it's very tempting and I know it,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: and uh, I don't know. So we'll see. Maybe I'll
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: maybe I'll try a little bit in the new spot
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: and then if it doesn't go well after the first
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: couple of days, head over this one. I don't know.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: We'll see. But because I didn't know he's there, yea amen. So,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: but we're gonna do another podcast here soon. We can
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: just catch up on what's going on with our world,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: because this wasn't enough. UM two, there's so much talk
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: about there's so much to talk about velvet. Velvet antlers
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: are beginning to pop out. Oh, I'm getting excited. I
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: love this. I love June and July and August when
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: you start seeing those deer in the fields. I love
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: going and checking the trail camera for the first time.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Uh you know when they're like in July, when they're
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: for the most part done growing, you know, they still
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: got like a couple of inches left, and you're flipping
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: through the trail camera and you go, oh, yeah, that
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: is the big that you've been chasing for like three years. Yeah, alright, Well,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: let's let's take a break from our little joy fest here.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Let's get our sickest story and then we'll get stand
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: on the line and he will help us scratch that
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: white tail each and our sickest story today comes from
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: our very own Spencer new Hearth. He's a producer here
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: at Wired Hunt and the co host of our radio
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: podcast series The Errors in the Fall, and Spencer just
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: completed an absolutely amazing Turkey hunt, one truly for the
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: record books. So here's his story. So it was April
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: fift My fiance and I were on our way to
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: our family Easier. Now on the way, they're convinced her
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: to let me drive by some of my turkey spots
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: to see if anything was going on out there, And
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: sure enough, on the middle of this pasture was just
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: this huge tom. He had like a paintbrush of a beard.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: I could see through my binoculars, and I knew I
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: had to go after this bird. So I drove her home,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: dropped her off, grabbed my matthews and put on my
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: stratus pants and my fanatic coodie and went back after
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: that bird. So I get out there and that tom
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: is gone, and I don't see him anymore, um until
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: I realized that he's looking right at me. We're about
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: eighty yards apart, and I think, oh man, this is over.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: So I ducked back into the trees, watched him for
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: a little bit and realized that he has a hen
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: with him. Now that hen did not know I was there,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: and so I still had a chance at this bird.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: So I sneaked to within about forty yards and the
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: two turkeys had yet to move, and I crawled out,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: laid out my hand decoy, and I called a couple
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: of times and turn off. It peaked that hen's interest
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: and she came walking over towards me, and the Tom
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: was hesitant, but he was not about to give up
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: that hand that he had. So here comes the hen
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: right through my shooting lane about twelve yards. I'm just
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: tucked back in the trees, no blind and following her
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: is that Tom at full strut. I shoot him at
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: eight yards. Uh. It was a great shot, but I
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: still had to make a follow up shot about ten
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: minutes later to put him down. And I knew right
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: away this was my biggest turkey had ever shot. And
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: got up to him and then I realized just how
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: special he really was. He had three beards. Uh, the
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: biggest one was over eleven inches and totally measured over
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: twenty seven inches. And he's going to go into the
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: record book is South Dakota's new archery state record for
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Rio's and in the world he'll be number fifteen overall.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: So that's my sitk of story. If you'd like to
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: create your own sitk of story or to see sit
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: because technical hunting apparel, visit sit good gear dot com.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: All right, now, with this on the line, stand pots,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: welcome to the show stand. Hey, thanks for having me.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to it. My favorite subject talking about
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: big deer. Hey, you and me both, and Dan I'm
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: sure too, So this, uh, this will be fun. And
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: I was just saying a second ago before we started
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: recording UM, that you and I had chatted a few
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: months ago with the Drewies on our other podcast, One
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Wild Podcasts, and coming out of that conversation, I just
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: just I was excited because I knew you're gonna be
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: joining us on the Wired Hunt podcast, and you had
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: so much great stuff to share, and I'm just I'm
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: just excited for today and there's a lot I want
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: to talk about, So I'm not gonna beat around the bush.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: So stand what I want to kind of kick us
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: off with here is hearing a little about who you
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: were before the stand pots that we all know from TV.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: Before you were up on the tree stand on the
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: television screen telling everyone to give you a quick second.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: What were you doing before all of that, and how
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: did you get to this point? Well, I mean before that,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: I've been a deer hunter. I mean back in the
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: in the sixties. I shot my first deer with a
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: bowl in n seven. I was seventeen years old, and
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: I hunted um for a few years before that. Uh,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: you know, I loved it. I grew up as a
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: hunter when you know, I went with my dad when
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: I was just big enough to walk. I mean, we
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: squirrel hunted, rabbit hunted. My dad had bird dogs, so
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: we always says in whale hunted. Back in those days
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: in the Midwest. Here in Illinois, you know, we had
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: tremendous pheasant hunting. Now of course they're gone basically, I mean,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: the environment's gone. But I started deer hunting in an
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: early age. My my my dad never hunted here, you know.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: And when I started in the in the mid sixties,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: there wasn't any gun season in the county that I
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: lived in. There was some counties in supprom Illinois that
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: had a shotgun season, but none here in central Illinois.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: And so I started bow hunting with a recurve. Loved it.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: I mean from a minute I started, I just loved it.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: And I've never stopped to this day. And it's just
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: as exciting and I get just as much out of
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: it today as I did back in the sixties. That's awesome.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: That's that's good to know that that it never wears off.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: It hasn't worn off for me, and twenty five years
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: or so, but I'm glad to know that I've got
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: many many more years of that fire in the belly.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: So once once you started hunting, you know in Illinois,
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: right away, were you able to have success on those
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: big bucks? I mean, is it like they say that
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: back in the day, they're just behind every tree in Illinois,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: or to take a long time for you to make
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: that transition to being able to kill those bigger, older deer. Oh,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: it took a long time for me to kill those
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: big old bucks. Absolutely. Like I said, the first year
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: I shot was in nineteen sixty seven. It was a
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: dough with a re curve and I was standing on
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: all of course, I didn't use three stands back in
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: those days, and I had hunted for two or three
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: years with the bowl before that. But you know, big
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: bucks never came to me until I'm gonna say the
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: first one I killed was in the in the seventies,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: mid seventies, and at that time I wouldn't call it
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: a big buck, but it was. It was They were
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: nice bucks. My first big deer was in the early eighties.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: The first, the first what I would call big deer
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: I shot with the ball in um eighty one, and
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: it was a big nine pointer, big white deer close
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: to one. And then of course I shot what at
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: the time would have been the number three pope young
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: in the world, typical you know, two twelve grows and
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: sixth eighth gnat, and you know I mean to shoot
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: a deer like that, um third largest ever taken with
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: a bow on the typical side. You know, I just
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: field the fire and then I just started. It was
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: a an obsession hunting big mature box From that point forward,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: I've been I've been blessed though. You know. I was
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: born and raised and grew up in Illinois, and there's
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: no place any better than the Midwest in Illinois, you know,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: for big mature white tails, right here through the farm belt.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: So I was blessed. I was bent with the bug,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: had a passion for it, and lived right smack in
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: the middle of the last world. Now, you mentioned that
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: your first I guess quote unquote big buck was shot
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: in the mid seventies. Was it at that point that
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: you started going after um bigger, more mature bucks or
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: was it until you shot that big one in the
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: eighties that you know I started. No, I started going
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: after him after when I when I was able to
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: take that big mature nine pointer, that just you know,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: that kind of lit a fire and it was such
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: a it was such a thrill, such a uh moment
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: of satisfaction to shoot a big buck like that. I
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: wanted to do it again, you know. I wanted that
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: feeling again and again. And so I started hunting mature
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: big bucks. And that's what I hunted. Not that I
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: didn't shoot dose down the down the line and stuff
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: like that, but primarily with bowl hunting, I was hunting
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: for big mature beer. Well, what was like the biggest
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: what do you think was the biggest shift you made
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: that allowed you to start being able to do that consistently?
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: And what did you have? It? There? Was there one
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: like watermark moment where you all of a sudden changed
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: one thing and now all of a sudden you started
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: having opportunities at that that first big mature buck and
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: then in those subsequent years. Was there anything you remember
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: that really was like the light switch moment for you? Well?
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: I I yes, I mean I realized back then that
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: your opportunities at at these bigger mature bucks was going
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: to be around the rut, meaning not peak rud peak
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: rud is by far the best, but late October, all
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: through the month of November, the last week or so
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: of October, all through the month of November, and then
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: a little bit in early December. It's what I concentrated
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: on because I realized and I knew that that is
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: flynn these deer or on their feet, that's when that's
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: when they're the most vulnerable. Not that you can't kill
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: one in the early season, because you can, but not
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: with any regularity. And I just felt like if I,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: if I stayed uh, if I stayed true to that
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: time period, I would be more successful. I just wanted
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: to put myself in the best situation. And that was it. Now,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: eventually you became worked with an outfit or correct, was
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: that during the same time period or was that later
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: on after you've been doing this for a while. Oh,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: that was later on and and um that was that
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: was that's actually later on, And that's when I first
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: met Mark and Terry. I went to work for UM
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: for a place a lot of people probably heard of,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: Heartland Lodge. They had just started Heartland Lodge and they
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: hired me and Brenda to UM to run it, to
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: come in send it all up and manage it. And
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: that's when I first started um dealing with outfitters and
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: and if you would call me an outfitter, I guess
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: I was managing the Heartland Lodge kind of going back
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: that was back in the nineties, kind of going back
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: to you know, the eighties, before all the trail cameras,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: you know, before knowing, uh, every buck on a particular property,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: How did you go about finding and locating a big buck?
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Or was it something where you just sat in a
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: tree and waited for a big buck to come by? No? No, no,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: you know, I mean I you know, primarily where I
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: was hunting was Illinois. That's where That's where I lived.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: And when I became obsessed with hunting these big bucks,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: and that's what I wanted to do. Then I learned
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: everything I possibly could about hunting them, and I started
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: scouting for I started scouting the postseason. I started looking
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: for big rubs, scrape lines, I mean big giant rubs.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: To me, is is one of the most important pieces
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: of sign that I can find that tells me that
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: that a particular or multiple big bucks are in the area.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: Because big bucks rub big trees, not that little bucks
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: don't rub big trees, because they do, but they don't
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: make big rubs. I mean where the tree is tore
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: up and you can see it fifty yards down through
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: the timber. That takes a big buck to rub a
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: big tree like that and tear it up. And that
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: it's what I looked for. And then I started putting
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: the puzzle together. I start finding the big rub lines
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: in conjunction with scrapes. Then I start figuring out where
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: the betting areas was versus where the food source was.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: And then I started figuring out how I felt like
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: he would move from point A to point B, reading
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: everything I possibly could, talking to other people, you know,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: reading Jean Winstle's book. I mean, just on and on
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: and on. You know, I was just gonna ask um,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: And maybe you just mentioned him, but I was gonna
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: I was gonna ask who were your greatest um resources
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: or mentors, or who did you learn the most from
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: when you were just figuring all this out yourself. To
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: be honest with you, I didn't really have local mentors
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: as far as shooting big bucks goes. As far as
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: hunting big bucks, you know, I learned it on my own.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: But I read everything I could, And you know, back
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: in it's when the first issue of North American White
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: Out magazine. What I thought and what most of her
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: I unders think of it is the bible for big
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: buck hunters. And you know, I started reading everything I could,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: but I learned all on my own, as far as
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: in the field and figuring them out. So eighty two
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: North American White Tail came out and you said in
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: three was the year you killed the two twelve? Is
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: that right? Bright? And and then in eighty four they
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: did a feature article on him. Wow, could you tell
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: us about that hunt? How that all came together? Uh?
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: Shooting the buck or the article the buck? Yeah? I
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: mean I had seen this buck. I was hunting a
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: little piece of property that butted up against some state
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: ground that there was no hunting. And I had seen
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: this buck a year before, and I knew he was there,
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: but I only see any once, and of course I
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: was hunting multiple big bucks. I knew it was in
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: the area. And the day after the gun season that here.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: It was November one, and we have a three day
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: gun season in Illinois Friday, Saturday, the Sunday, and those
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: three days prior um was a gun season. Well, Monday,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: it was the twenty one November, and it was an
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: unfeasibly warm day. You know, it was seventy degrees plus.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: And I went that afternoon and I had a southwest wind,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: and I had a tree right in the corner of
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: this little piece of property. It was a big burgle tree.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: And at that time of year, you know, it's a
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: it's a great time to raffle, because I mean I
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: rattled a lot. But you know, I've always felt like
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: just before the peak of the rut and just after
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: the peak of the rut goes down as the best time. Well,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: November one in Illinois is when the rut is starting
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: to dip down the other way. And what that means
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: is these big bucks are having a little bit of problem,
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: big mature white tails are having a little bit of
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: a problem having a hot dough. There's not as many.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: They got to spend a little more time on their
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: feet to find one, if you're with me, So that's
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: a great time to rattle. I got in the tree
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: early afternoon, I mean one thirty two o'clock, probably got
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: in there early and and went through a rattling sequence.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: Didn't see anything about three o'clock. I picked the horns
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: back up again, crack the antlers together, and I get
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: the antlers out of my hands quick, because a lot
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: of times they come running in. I've had them, I've
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: had that happen, but sometimes they don't. I hung the
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: antlers up real quick, picked up the bow, and immediately
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: looked in front of me, looked to the last, look
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: to the right, because they can come in quick, like
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: I said. And and I looked back to my right,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: and I heard something back over my left shoulder. I
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: heard a noise. So I turned real slow to look.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: And this is like thirty seconds after I hold the
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: horns up. I turned and I looked. Well. When I looked,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: I saw a squirrel jumped up on the side of
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: the tree and went up the tree. You know, well,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: my brain tells me that's what I heard, you know,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: as a rustling noise. So I turned back to my right.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: I'm looking in front of me, looking to my right,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: looking behind, I hear the same noise to my left again,
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: jump jump, like something in the leaves walking. And I
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: slowly turned and looked back over there again, and there
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: he was. He had come into the rattling He was
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: there quick, and he was just standing there looking. He
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: was about four yards away in this little waterway that
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: led from the tree I was in down to this
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: pond to my left, and he had just come out
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: of the thicket and he was just staying in and
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: they're looking back and forth. He was looking for what
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: he heard. There was no doubt. And as soon as
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: I saw him, I was certain it was a buck
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: that I've seen the year before. And when I saw
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: him the year before, it was in the late season.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: It was in December, and I was sitting on that
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: corn field, on a small corn field, and he came
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: from half a mile away, and there was a bunch
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: of deer out in the field, and I noticed. I
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: just looked up, and I was trying to be as
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: inconspicuous as possible with deer out in the field. Nothing
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: I wanted to shoot, but you know I was. I
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: was being as careful because you've got a lot of
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: eyes out there, and and all of a sudden, I
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: just happened to notice that every deer in the field
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: had their heads up, looking all in the same direction.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: I looked completely across this field, and here's this giant coming.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: I can see his rack almost a half a mile
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: and he's coming across there. Well, he comes all the
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: way across, comes down, in comes into my cornfield and
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: he's on an angle that's gonna put him at forty
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: yards broadside. But there's some limbs kind of in the way.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: But there's one pretty good hole that I can shoot through.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: But I need to stop him because he's walking, but
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: he's walking slow, and I come to full drawing when
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: he gets into that opening night. Back then, I wasn't
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: experienced enough to stop him with a soft grunt. So
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: what I did was I just like that wrong spooking.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: He just immediately took off and they three or four
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: or five leaps straight away from me and stopped and
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: turned and looked and looking at for that noise that
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: spooked him, and he starts stopping and they started blowing,
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: and he just went right back out the field away,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: come with his flagging up tick talk, just like the
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: second hand on the clock and gone. So we're back
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: in November the following year, and one time I've seen
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: the buck. He comes into the rattling antlers. He's standing
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: there looking at me in four yards, looking my direction.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: Then he hops over that little waterway and he starts
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: up into a thicket, and that thicket goes up on
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: a hillside right in front of me, into my left. Well,
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: I know that he's gonna come out of that thicket,
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: and he's gonna come out right in front of me.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: And there's a run at forty yards, and there's a
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: run at twenty and I don't know which one he's
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: gonna be on because when he went up in there,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: he's on a run and it forks something that thicket,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: so I don't know which one he's gonna be on.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: But I'm squaring myself around, getting my boat in position
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: and getting everything because I've made so many stupid mistakes
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: over the years. You got you know, I mean, you
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: don't get many chances like this. And I squared around,
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: and I'm just standing there sideways, waiting to draw my bowl,
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: but waiting for him to appear where he's gonna be.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: And I can hear him walk and and and as
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: he starts to come out of that thicket, I don't
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: know for sure where he's at. And then I catch
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: him out of the corn my eye walking. He's got
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: his head down and he said to one of the
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: yards he's on that pointy, hard run and as he
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: steps out, he goes behind a little red hole bush.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: That gave me a chance to draw. You cannot draw
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: on those big giant beer like that. If they can
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: see it, they'll see the movement. So when he went
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: behind that little bush, I drew. I come to full draw.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: And as he comes out, he's got his head down,
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: he's sniffing the ground, but he stops at All I've
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: got is his head and his neck just up to
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: about the front part of his shoulder, and he sniffed
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: in the ground. Looking around. He raises his head up,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: and I'm the full drawest at this point, you know,
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: And I'm waiting for him to step out, you know.
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: And and he stands there and stands there well you know.
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: I mean, if he was still standing there today, I
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: could have kept that bow back. That's not much adrenal
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: on my head. So finally he starts walking, and in
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: my mind, and I don't know if if wire how
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: I figured this all out, but I knew that it
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: was the I've seen the year before. I knew I
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: couldn't stop him. I knew that he was walking super
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: super slow, and I was real high in the tree
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: and he's real blow me. So I felt like I
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: needed to hit him at the last rib because he's
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: quartering away. So I put the pen about six eight
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: inches in front of where I wanted it to hit,
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: and I just and I just followed him. He was
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: walking real slow, and I kept my blue arm swinging.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: I hit the release and arrow hitting perfect right behind
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: the right behind the last rib, angling forward, and he
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: just blew out there, I mean just blew. Everything just
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: was bang bang bang. Happened so quick up over the
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: little ridge, gone crash, crashed down through the brush, and
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: then it got quiet, and then I heard a big
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: crash way down. Well. Immediately I'm thinking, uh, oh, you know,
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: was that him going down? This man? And I started
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: second guessing the shot. It wasn't too far back, was
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: at the it was a bat well. I was gonna
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: wait thirty minutes to get down. I waited about one minute. Yeah,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: I was on the ground. I was on the ground
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: in a minute probably. I lowered my bow down, got down,
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: and I thought, well, I'm gonna walk up there. I
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: started to go up there. I come back. I went
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: back and forth a couple of times, about ten ft
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: I got back to the three and I said, no,
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: you know you're hit him. It looks good. Get out
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: of here, go get help. You'll need help anyway. Just leave.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: It was about three thirty in the afternoon something like that.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: So I left, went home, got two of my buddies,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: grabbed the wheat light because it was it was a
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: pretty good dry fifteen miles to get get home. And
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: time we got back it was dark, you know that
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: time of the year, And get started five o'clock and
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: when it was dark m hmm. I went up there.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: I found a couple of drops of blood. Last little
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: spot of blood was on the side of a little
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: bitty sapling about knee high, and that was it. And
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: that was only within about thirty yards from where I shot,
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: and no blood nowhere. Looked and looked and looked and
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: looked in a small area. They're split up in a
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: small area, making little circles. I didn't just want them
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: guys to go wandering off and we so we went
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: back to the last spot of blood there and they're
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: up to my right was a big wooven water tight fence,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: and so I thought, I told them, I said, if
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: he went to the right I said, he had to
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: jump that fence because it's only up there thirty yards.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: I said, if he jumped that fence, when he hit
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: the ground on the other side, there's gotta be a
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: little blood coming off that arrow or something. I said,
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: you guys go up there and look on both sides
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: of that fence and I and I got on my
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: hands and knees and started crawling, looking down every little
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: game trail and I went about thirty yards and I
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: broke out into a little grass field with sparse trees,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: which is the worst place you can be for trying
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: to find blood in tall grass. So I stood up
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: walked about another ten yards, and I had a wheat light,
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: but I didn't have it on my head. I had
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: it in my hand where I could move it around,
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: and I just looked. There was a big scrape down
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: below a big oak tree to my left, and I
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: kind of went downhill, and I thought, you know what,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: he might start circling downhill, and I just showing that
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: light down there by that scrape. I don't know why,
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: but I did. And I could see his left antler
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: sticking up above the grass. It was WAISTI and he
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: died right in that scrape and what I heard crashing
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: from the tree was him going down. Wow, an absolute
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: epic story. And I got and I got and I forgot.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: I had two buddies with me. I sat down with
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: the deer and his head in my lafe, and I'm
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: just sitting there and shocked, you know, knowing because I
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: knew Mel Johnson. I know Mel Johnson. He has the
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: world record still today with the bow. I've been in
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: his house, I held being the deer and everything, and
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: this deer has a has a bigger frame, and I'm
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: looking at it. I'm thinking, this is the biggest deer
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: I've ever seen in my lifetime. And I'm sitting there
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: and I don't know how long I sat there before
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: I realized that I had Kirby and john afterre with
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: me somewhere, and so I stood up and I could
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: see their flashlights way up through the trees and I
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: hollered at him. I got him down here where they
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: didn't hear exactly what I said. They just hurt me holler.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: And they all are back and said, did you find
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: some blood? And I hollered in as loud as I
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: could in a plain clear voice, No, I am standing
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: over my got him right here. It looked like airport
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: searchlights coming. They was running their lights going, and it
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: was well, all the listeners right now. I wished everybody,
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: everybody could experience something like that moment. It was it's
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: you know when I talked about it now, it's like
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: it was yesterday. I mean that it was like it
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: was yesterday. How much bigger was this buck than your
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: previous biggest buck? Oh it was my biggest buck before
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: that was high forties, almost one fifty. I mean it
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: was this bucks the two twelve gross six ages, and
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: that is the third largest typical ever taken with a
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: bow in the world. So I mean there was no comparison.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: I mean back in those days, I mean there were
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: mega giant deer. I mean the Jordan buck was killed
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: in six you know, and and there was a lot
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: of but not around here, not where I'm at. I
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: mean the local hunters and everything. I mean, you know,
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: nobody saw a deer like that, nobody, nobody ever seen
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: anybody pull up with something like that in the bathroom run.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: How do you shock value? How did you handle that
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: moment of truth when you when you see him and
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: this is so much dramatically larger of a deer than
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: anything you've shot before. When you were about to shoot him,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: when you were in that moment before the shot, how
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: did you handle it? Then? What was going through your mind?
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: How were you able to handle that moment and pull
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: off a successful shot? And then I'm curious, how does
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: that compare to today or any of your later massive
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: bucks there's others after you've become much much more experienced.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: What was that like originally early and then now, well,
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you it was like this. I mean, I
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: had made without going into all the all the details
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: and all the stories, I've made some stupid mistakes on
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: big giant deer. I've made my share of mistakes already,
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: and I had, I had disciplined myself enough, and I
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: knew that this deer was by far the biggest deer
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: I've ever seen. I knew that I had to basically
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: get mad and and not let that piece of her
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: down there dictate to my brain that I couldn't get
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: it done. So I had to slow everything down. And
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: that's what everybody needs to do even today, right now.
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: It's the same for me, I mean, it's the same
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: for everybody that loves to hunt these big deer like
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: we all do. I mean, when one appears, your heart rate,
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: everything is accelerated tremendously, and if you don't make yourself
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: slow down, get that pin where it needs to be
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: and hold it and then get that smooth release, you
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: can't do it. You won't get it done. And it's
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: the hardest thing, you know. I got some really good
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: friends that are that are that are world class athletes,
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: some great guys. A lot of people don't realize that
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: I love to play golf. I got some great p
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: GA professionals that are buddy's mind, and they've told me
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: that I'm telling you, a big giant white tail is
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: more stressful in front of you and making a thought
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: for a million, and you just gotta discipline yourself. And
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: the way back then, I just used to say, you know,
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: I am not going to let that dictate to my
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: brain that I cannot get it done, because it'll happen.
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: I mean, you'll get that bow back and you'll get
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: the pen in a general direction. It's gone. Yeah, you
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: just because it's just everything. Your heart rate, your leg
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: is shaken, you know, it's just but that's why that's
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: why we do it, isn't it? That's why we're doing
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: and the success, the successful part of it, when we
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: are successful we do it is so gratifying because we
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: have to put ourselves in very uncomfortable positions like that
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: to be successful. No different than an athlete, you know,
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: and you know, like a Michael Jordan's or I was watching, Um,
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: I was watching Stephan Curry the other night in an
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: interview and he was saying, how he you know, he
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: wants to put be uncomfortable, He wants to put himself
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: in that situation to knock down that three under all
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: that pressure because when he does it, and he doesn't
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: do it all the time, but when he does do it,
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: it's that much sweeter. Yeah, if that makes any sense,
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: it does. It does so so of all of your
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: bucks that you've killed, whether it be your twos or
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: any of the other deer that you've killed like this,
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: he's big mature deer that have required you to put
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: yourself in these difficult situations and somehow overcome it. Is
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: there any one of those that stands out as the
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: most rewarding, um or or memorable for some reason, Um,
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: that you could tell us about why no, absolutely, I
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: mean there's not without a question about a doubt. It's
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: the one I shot in Ohio, and a lot of
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: people get a little bit puzzled when I tell him
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: that because it's a muzzle or kill. I was up
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: hunting with Joel Snow in Ohio and it's it's it's
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: a two danger. And but the reason it's always going
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: to be my favorite is because my son Tim was
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: in the tree with me as a cameraman and we
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: went there and got on the deer on Halloween and
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: on the next day, November the one, no Honey, we
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: got on him. We got him on film. We almost
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: got him, and stayed two extra days and didn't see
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: him again. But I knew that he would be in
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: that area because it was late October, just before the
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: doze had come in heat, and I felt like we
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: were in his home corep area, and if he made
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: it through the rut, made it through the season in
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: the late season, he would be back. And when you
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: buy a deer tag in Ohio, it's good for any season,
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: any weapon. So I him and I formulated this plan
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: that we would come back to Ohio for the muzzleoader season.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: That was between Christmas and New Year. It was the seventh,
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: eighth and ninth, I think, or maybe twenty eight, nine
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: and thirty, but it was. It was right between. It
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: was a four day season, and we felt like, if
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: we could get back there with a muzzloader in late season,
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: we have a good chance to kill this mega giant.
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: And so we were together during Halloween and the next
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: night and we didn't get him killed and it was tremendous.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: And then we left there and for the next almost
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: two months, um it would have been almost two months. Yeah,
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: it was two months. All we traveled the country. He
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: was filming for me at that time, and we were
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: in other states hunting and and in Illinois and stuff,
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: but we always came back to that Ohio. Buck talked
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: about a lot when we were driving down the road
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: when we're in the three stands, you know, planning and
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: figuring this out and doing all that. And then we
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: went back got there on the day before, on the
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: day after Christmas, and Joel told me he had a
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: really good spot for me that morning and I said, no,
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: I'm not hunting in the morning. He said, we mean
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: it's opening day. I said no, I said, I'm here
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: to try to shoot that big buck for at least
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: the first two days. And I said, I really don't
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: want to go in that spot in the morning because
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: I don't don't know where he's at, and if he's
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: right there around that thicket that he was coming out
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: of us and Halloween, I said, I didn't want to
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: bump him in the dark going in because he won't
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: come out there in the afternoon the way he should.
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: So I'm not hunting the first morning nor the second morning.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: I'll hunt the the third and the fourth morning, even
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: if I hunt somewhere else. But I'm gonna give myself
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: at least two opportunities to shoot that there. And that's
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: what we did. We went in there the first afternoon,
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: got in the same dream that we was in back
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: in October, got up thirty minutes before dark. He pops
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: out right behind the buck that he was with in October.
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: There was another buck to have a big, heavy eight point,
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: and he comes. He come out in a different place,
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: but he came all the way across into that little
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: cover field where he was at and gave me a
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: hundred twenty five yard broadside shock for that muzzleloader. And
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: the rest of history, and Tim and I got to
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: share that together that whole time for two months and
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: got to share that killing that deer together and doing
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: the recovery together and everything, and hands down, I don't
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: care what I shoot unless it's one bigger with Hamburg
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: carry either said, but that will always be my favorite
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: because of that. That's awesome. So what do you think
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: was why? Why did that come together? Because that's pretty
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: incredible that you saw this buck in October in a
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: certain spot. Two months later you came back to the
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: exact same place and you killed them that first night.
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: How did you do that? What was the key to
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: that all coming together? Well, you know, a lot of luck,
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: of course, but you know, I know I was smart
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: enough to realize that that in late October, like that,
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: a buck like that, six and a half year old
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: deer like that is in his whole core area, meaning
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: you know, these big giant bucks have a home core area,
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: and it's relatively small, it's not that big. And I
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: felt like if he disappeared, we saw him few days
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: in a row, he disappeared, and we stayed two extra
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: days in the disappeared we didn't see him. So that
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: tells me on about the second or third or the
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: night of the first of November. He found a hot though,
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: because that's when they're just getting ready to come in,
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: and who knows where he's going to be. He could
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: be five miles away. But I knew that if he
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: made it through the run, made it through the seasons,
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: made it through the shotgun season, which is the Monday
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: after Thanksgiving in in a while, made it through all that.
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: Then we had a good crack at him in late December,
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: in the late season because we knew where he lived
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: and where he came out on Halloween evening and the
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: evening and the first of November, he am out of
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: about a ten or fifteen acre thicket. That's that's right
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: up against this big hardwood camber. I mean a thicket
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: you know, Rose Bruce mollifor Rose Briars. Nasty, just you
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: couldn't even get through it. If you have, you better
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: have car hearts on if you're going through there. And
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: he lived there, and I felt like he lived there,
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: and that's why it came out of there just before
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: dark two evenings in a row at the end of October,
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: in the first day in November, and so I felt
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: like if he survived, he would be right back there
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: close in that area in December and late December, because
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: their number one priorities then it's route. And you know
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: that's just you know, I mean it might not have
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: happened that way, but I mean all the experience and stuff,
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: and you know that's that's what you do. You formulate
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: a plant and and you stick to it, and you
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: know it doesn't always happen that way, but you gotta
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: give yourself that chance. Yeah, And so Tam and I
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: gave us, gave ourselves that chance and grow back, you know,
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: six seven hours whatever it is up there to Ohio
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: where we're hunting with Joel and and shot him out
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: of the the same tree the first time. It's amazing. All right.
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: Before we continue on with stand, we're going to pause
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: briefly for a weekly white Tail Wisdom with white Tail Properties,
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: and our producer Spencer Newhart will take him here. This
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: week with white Tail Properties, we are joined by Steve Purviance,
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: a land specialist out of northern Oklahoma, and Steve is
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: going to be telling us about what he thinks separates
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: the most successful hunters from everyone else. Well, to start with,
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: you've got to be in an area, um, really a
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: specific area that even potential to produce the biggest deer.
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: Let's just use that for an example. You know, the
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: guys that are killing the biggest are the big bucks.
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: You know, they're hunting in states that can produce them
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: to begin with, in areas of the state that can
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: grow them. Um. And there's just so many factors, So
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: I guess really the first one would be just the
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: tract of land or the tracts of land that they
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: had to hunt. UM. Secondly, you gotta have time. You
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: gotta have once you get into that area that's got
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: a big deer, and a lot of people can start
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: identifying them now. You know, years ago you just had
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: to put in the time. Now, with all the technology
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: trail cameras, et cetera, you can pretty much pinpoint a
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: big buck. And once you find one, you've got to
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: have the time to put in the hunting. UM. And
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: that's a lot of things that you know, that's a
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: that's a big thing that a guy can't do these days,
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: it seems everybody's busy. So the more successful hunters are
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: going to have time, um and energy to put into
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: hunt that specific big deer. If you'd like to learn
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: more and to see the properties that Steve currently has
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: listed for sale, visit whitetail properties dot com, backslash purvyant.
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: That's p U R B I A N c E.
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: You're hunt in so many different types of situations now,
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, from what I understand, you're hunting, you know,
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: all over the country, all sorts of different places across
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: the country. You're hunting all sorts of different types of properties.
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: I mean it sounds like, you know, sometimes you're hunting
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: with someone like Joel snow and outfitter. Sometimes you're hunting,
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: you know, on your own places. Sometimes I understand you've
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: funding some public You've hunted all these different types of
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: situations across all sorts of different circumstances. If you had
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: to kind of drill down what you do to like
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: a few core elements, maybe the three most important elements
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: to how you successfully kill mature deer across all these
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: different situations, What would be those couple two or three
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: core principles that lead to the success that you keep having. Well,
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: the first thing would be and and this is this
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: is gonna sound sally to some people that go, oh yeah,
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: I've heard that a lot, but it is. It's true.
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: You gotta go early and you gotta stay late, and
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: you get out of it what you're willing to put
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: in it. You're not going to be successful in anything
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: in life. It's no different hunting big white heles. If
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: if you don't give it everything you've got, if you
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: don't give it the effort that it deserves. You know,
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: you might kill one once in a while, but not
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: on a consistent basis, not there in year out. And
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: then the second thing would be, no the habits of
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: big mature white heiles, and they're no different here or
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: in wy only. They're no different once they get to
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: be mature, get the age on them. I mean, they're
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: no different. Their their their number one things becomes survived
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: of all, they don't like a lot of the other deer.
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: You'll see him in the early season in Bashford groups
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: once in a while, but they don't like being around
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: a lot of deer. They like being off by theirselves,
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: you know, for the most part. And probably the third
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: thing is don't shoot anything on the last day that
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: you wouldn't shoot on the first. Hm Oh, I mean,
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: you know, when you set a goal, stick to it.
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: Because some of the greatest hunts I've ever been on
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: in my life, I never shot nothing. Elaborate on that
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: a bit, because you've got to you've sat in a
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: tree stand for a long amount of you know, not
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: only just a long amount in one day, but throughout
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: the entire years. What are some things that you've learned
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: from a mature whitetailed deer that have helped you become
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: the hunter that you are today? Just you know, the
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: same thing that we've been talking about. Really, I mean,
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: he's one thing I'd like to add to it, though,
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: is he's a different animal than the rest with there
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: in the herd. He is, He's different once he gets
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: to be mature. He reacts to situations different. And you
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: you so you got a hunt different. You gotta you
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: gotta know, you've got to do your homework. You gotta
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: know that a big buck, whenever he's traveling through an area,
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: you know, he doesn't travel into the wind. He quarters
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: into the wind. He quarters into it. He's got the
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: wind coming from the side, quartering into it. Most of
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: the time. I mean, I've seen big bucks come out
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: with the wind right behind them, but very very rarely.
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: You know, you got to know those things when he's
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: when he's when he's traveling, he quarters into the wind
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: when you're looking for three stand locations, and no one
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: would travel. Corridors are from the food to the bed,
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: or from the bed to the food. Then you've got
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: to pick a tree. You've got to know that you've
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: got to be right on the edge where he's almost
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: gonna get you, but he's not gonna get you if
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: you if you know, if you know what I mean,
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, you gotta put you know, really the odds
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: are mostly in his favor, and you've got to think
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: that there. You gotta let him think that he's the
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: odds are in his favor when he's coming through there.
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: You know, just a lot of things like that. Here's
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: one thing that I would tell people that that that
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: how I learned a lot of stuff. I feel like
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: back in the early days, is I um I back
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: a long time ago, seventies. I started going out after
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: the season was over. The season used to go out
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: the end of December here in Illinois. Now it runs
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: into about the twelfth of January. But I would go
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: out and and if I was killed. Now you could
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: only shoot one buck back in those days. If I
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: was killed Rale, i'd go out in December. But my
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: point is I would wait for a fresh snow, a
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: good fresh snowfall, and I would go out to the
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: food source. Cut cornfield was corn on the ground where
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: the gear coming to it in late season, and I
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: would pick up I would pick up a big buck track.
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: It's easy to tell a big buck track. Some people
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: might tell you that you can't, but I mean, big
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: buck have big big bucks have a big feet. It
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: didn't take rocket signs figure it out. But but I
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: would pick up the track and I would track those
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: bucks back to the timber when they left the food source.
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: And I would take my time, and I would watch,
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: and I would stop, and I would look, and I
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: would analyze why he's doing where he's going, and why
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: he's going here versus there, what he's doing and how
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: he's doing it, because they don't, you know, they don't
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: really have the power of reason. Things are instinctively done
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: by these big deer. But I would figure out why
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: he was doing what he was doing, and how he
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: was moving through an area. And then I started realizing
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: where I needed to set up to kill these big deer.
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: And it, and that holds true not only where I'm
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: tracking in the snow, but another timber and another state.
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: They were acting the same. It's just like a big
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: just like a big bass, I mean a bass fisherman
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: out there. You pull a big giant five six seven
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: pounder out from under a certain stump, it won't be
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: long to for another just like him right there, you know.
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: And so that's how I learned how to pick the
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: right tree. And the right tree is everything. And shooting
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: big giant deer, especially with the bow, it's everything. There's
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: a lot of guys that see big bucks, but seeing
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: big bucks and killing them as a whole different deal. Yeah,
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: can you elaborate on what makes for the right tree?
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, first generically, um, But then maybe can you
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: share this a couple of examples of what some of
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: the you know, an example right tree might be for
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: different parts of the year, even um, because I think
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: there's there's so much talk about in this topic, but
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: we don't always dive deep into it. Um. I'd love
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: to better understand what you mean by that in detail. Well,
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: what I mean is when when a buck's traveling through
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: a piece of woods, I'd say from a betting area
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: to a food source. You you learn that he travels.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: He doesn't travel on top of the reagion. He doesn't
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: travel in the bottom very often. Now I want to
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: say that once in a great while he'll be on top,
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: or once in a great while he'll be in the bottom,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: but not very often. And this is a game of percentages.
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: Most of the time he'll be halfway up or on
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: the side hill. He'll be running the hogbacks. And and
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: you'll learn that if you do what I did, you'll
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: learn that. And then you'll find an area where maybe
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: he's pinched down a little bit where if he's quartering
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: end of the wind, you'll find that tree where you
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: can get in that tree. And even though he's coming
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: quartering into the wind, you're off to the side just slightly.
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: The photography of the ground will allow you to do
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: that to where he can't get you. He's not gonna
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: bust and he's not gonna wind you. Things like that.
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: You got to analyze it all. You've got to analyze
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: the situation and figure it out and figure out you know,
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: and it's still not going to work all the time.
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: Don't believe me. You will it will you'll be more
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: successful if you figure all this stuff out. Yeah, So
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: could you give us an example of maybe what you
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: would consider a great tree stands set up in the
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: early season, a great he stands up in the rut in,
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: a great set up for the late season. I mean,
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: maybe you've got an example you can look back on
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: you actually used, or maybe you could just kind of
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: make up an ideal scenario. Well, an early season, an
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: early season like I hunt in the West or hunt
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: down in Kentucky. Early season is all about the food source,
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: and it's all about hunting in the afternoons. Now I'm
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: not saying you can't. You may going early season in
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: the mornings, but you're not going to do it very often.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: And I don't even hunt mornings hardly ever an early season.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: So it's all about the food source, and it's all
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: about scouting, and all about watching the bean fields or
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: the alp hower for or whatever your food sources that
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: they're coming out in in September and early October, and
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: watching that and watching where they come out and pattern
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: them and then slipping in and putting your three stand
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: in with the right wind so he comes on out
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: and he doesn't bust you. That's that's not that difficult
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: with early seasons. You know, late season is similar to that.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: And one thing you want to remember in early season.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: In late season, it's all about the food. But one
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: thing that you've got to remember is that either late
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: season or early season, afternoons are the best. But you
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: gotta left the small bucks and all the dose get
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: out past you and get out in the field in
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: the food source and still not win you, because he's
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: going to be the last one out or one of
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: the last ones out. And if those other deer get
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: out and you've got the wind bowling from in the
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: timber out into the food source, and they get out
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: in the food source and get your wind, they're gonna
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: get squirrely out there. Sometimes they blow and spook and
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: the run and off. Sometimes they just get squirrely and
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: get to bouncing around or acting funny. If they're doing that,
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: he ain't coming. He's not coming. So you got to
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: pick the right tree in early season. In late season,
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: the win over there get by you and still not
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: lend you once they get past. It's not that that's
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: the hard part of of early season and and during
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: the rut. My favorite time, probably everybody's favorite time to
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: hunt is I look for the perfect trees. Let me
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: give you a scenario of a creek crossing, for instance,
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: you've got a certain win. You know, he's coming quartering
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: into the wind. But when he's quartering into the wind,
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: he crosses, he crosses the creek in this low spot
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: below this riffle or above right above on the top
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: side of this riffle. So he will he will be
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: quartering into the wind, but he will cut that off
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: and give you that opportunity when he crosses that creek
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: to go to the other side. So he set up
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: on that crook crossing or same thing. You do the
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: same thing. If you've got a little hog back where
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: he goes through a little hog back, you know what
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, a little saddle. Times when he squartering into
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: the wind, you can get off the side of that
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: little siddle and he'll change his travels just there for
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: a little short distance to cut through by saddle and killing.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: It stands like that. Yeah, it's it's amazing. The You know,
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of us as deer hunters, we
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: we begin our process, you know, just figuring out where
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: the core elements. So you talked about earlier. Where do
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: they bed, where do they feed? You know, where do
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: they travel? And then as we continue to progress, I
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: think we start moving up to these types of discussions
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: where we're then talking about, Okay, how is the deer
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: going to be traveling between those places with winding consideration?
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: And then I think that next step is what you
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: just talked about there. It's how do you find the
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: kind of anomalies in his travel where he had where
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: he's forced into a slightly different thing which gives you
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: that little tiny edge. And it's it's really hard, I
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: think to find that unless you have been out hunting
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: for a long period of time and start knowing how
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: to notice those things. I mean, the the example you
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: talked about it is sounds perfect um, but what a
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: challenge is to identify that unless you've been able to
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: see dear do these types of things over and over
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: again and you start to recognize that as almost a pattern.
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: You can say, Okay, this is yeah, yeah, you're right,
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's it's or unless you went out in
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: December January on a fresh not went tracking and I
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: track them all the way and see what they do
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: and watch him do those kind of things by his tracks,
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: and I tracked him all the way until I jump in.
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: I want to know where he's laghing do. I want
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: the whole I want the whole thing. I want all
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: the information, and I'll jumping because when I jumping, when
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: season is over doesn't make any difference. Right, Well, he'll
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: be back there. He might be a few days before
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: he comes back there, but he'll be back there because
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: you're not going to be back there for eight nine months. Yeah,
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: what's the rest of your scouting repertoire look like throughout
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: the rest of the year, the off season and in season.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: It sounds like I mean, we just talked about a
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: really great idea to use during the winter once filled
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: your tag um, what else are you doing from a
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: scouting standpoint to put you in a position for success? Well,
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: I'm done now, I'm not. I'm done scouting right now,
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: and I will and I will be done until at
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: least around the fifteenth of July. And around the fifteenth
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: or so of July, then I'll be out in my
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: spots or I'll have somebody out in the spots that
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: I hunt out of state, because I don't I hunt
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: with a couple of outfitters. I don't hunt with many
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: when I hunt out of state, you know, I usually
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: do my own thing there too. But you know, I'll
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: be done until mid July, and then I'll be watching
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: the bean fields, watching the food sources from long range
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: with a spotting scope, looking to see what's there and
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: what's left over and get an idea. And I'll tell
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: you what. Even if your season, like in Illinois here,
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: our season doesn't open, Talktober first, and once once you
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: get much past the eighteenth of Septem berk those big
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: deer get really really hard because they rubbed their velvet
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: off in early September, and once their velvet has been
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: off for a little while, they get away from their buddies.
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: They're not in bachelor groups anymore, and they go off
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: by theirselves and you can't find them. I mean, half
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: of these big giant deer here in the Midwest and
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: Illinois live out in the standing cornfields in the summertime.
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: But you know, I'll watch the food source and I'm
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: primarily doing that at that time of year to see
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: what I've got and to see what they turned into
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: from the previous year, and to build my confidence because
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: if I if I, for instance, my place over here
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: West before we live that Tim and Terry and I
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: are hunting, you know, if I go over there in
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: July and we see two or three big megabucks coming
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: out every night into a field, it's gonna make a
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: difference when I get there in November because I'm gonna
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: stay early, or I'm gonna go early and I'm gonna
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: stay late. It's gonna make a difference to me. It's
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: a confidence builder. You know, I know they're there because
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: I just saw them in July and August. I know
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: they're I know they're there somewhere. And so when I
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: do lock in and in the Midwest, I don't start
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: hunting here until late October, and I'm gonna lock in,
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: and it's gonna it's gonna it's gonna motivate me at
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: my age even I mean, I don't need a lot
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: of motivation, to be honest with you, because I've never
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: found anything that I like better never, But you know,
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm gonna I'm gonna go go and stay late.
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: And you know, if I've got a couple of deer
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: that I know is something outstanding that that I want
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: to try to take that. I want to work on
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: m makes it easier, Yeah, I imagine. So then moving
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: forward after that, you you've scouted your summer bucks, you're
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: moving now into the season. What's what's the nd season
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: type of scouting look like? If at all, I do
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: a little bit, but not a lot. You know, I've
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: I've already got my place is picked for the most part,
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: where I'm gonna hunt. I got I gotta picked now
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: for where I'm gonna hunt here in Illinois fall, I've
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: already gotten picked. So you're doing. I've already been out,
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: you know. I've been out in in January, February, March,
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: before I started getting green. I've been looking, I've been walking.
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I mean I don't I don't
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: hunt for sheds like I used to. I let Terry
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: and then do that. Terry picked up fifty something this year.
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: There's a buck. He's got both sides of that that
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: we're gonna be hunting this year. That's um, it's a
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: five by five clean typical. I think you'd be one
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: ninety plus this fall. Wow. Yeah. And that's Bay. That's
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: a big ten point And and he's there, you know,
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: and and actually, you know, going forward in the future
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: for all the all the listeners out there, you know, um,
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: I've got I found a spot in early March that
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: is as good as it gets, and I am going
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: to shoot a giant out of it. It'll be hopefully
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: it'll be it'll be him, or it'll be another one
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: that that that's in there. But it's a perfect, perfect spot.
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: It's on the side of a ridge, big hardwood ridge.
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: It's on the side of it. And he's running that ridge.
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: He's got a rub line there. There's rubs. There's rubs
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: in their last falls, big as you're like, and you
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: know he's running it with a certain wind. And I
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: found a place right there where there's a little sad
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: when it comes off the field way down below the ridge.
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: It comes off the field and comes up that ridge,
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: and he goes, he goes up and he and he
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: drops through that little saddle right there. And when he does,
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: when winds out of the northwest, he's quartered into it.
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: But when he had but when he when he goes
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: through that saddle, when he cuts off to the side
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: a little bit and goes through that saddle, he's vulnerable.
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: And I'll kill him right there. So when I'm gonna
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: get me, when do you hunt it? And how do
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: you get in there to hunt it? How will you
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: access that spot? And when will you do That'll come
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: right up the ridge. I'll come right up the ridge
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: from the field and the bottom and I'll and I'll
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: park my ranger, my a TV. I'll park it right
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: below it. It's about a hundred and fifty yards. I'll
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: park it right there. There's a perfect spot for it.
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: It's kind of a little low ditch right there, and
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: I'll pull it right in there and I'll walk right
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: straight up the ridge. I'm why to walk for a
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: hundred hundred fifty yards popping into three. And this is
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: a rut set. It sounds like, yeah, it's it's a
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: it's a it's a set for late October and all
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: through the month in November. Yeah, And it's about a
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty yards. I'm gonna say below, just down
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: the hill and and a little bit below a primary
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: food source and he'll he'll he's cut, he's cutting up
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: through there and he's he'll be wind checking that food source.
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: He won't even have to go out in it with
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: the northwest wind to check it. So you got a
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: buck like this, a gigantic typical buck, and you just
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: mentioned one example of a great spot you found to
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: set up on him possibly, What what else do you
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: do knowing that a giant like that is there? You
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: mentioned the summer scouting, um. Is there anything else that's
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: going into your strategy this year specifically just for that deer.
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: I've got a couple of spots picked out that is
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: real uh, real short points. It's crossing. Uh, it's crossing
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: our pasture. Um. And what I mean by short points,
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: it's where the timber lion goes along through the pasture
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: and then it sticks way out in the pasture and
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: comes back. And it's a little low area that cuts
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: across the pasture. So from one point of the timber
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: to the other point of the timber is is a
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: relatively short distance. It's only about a hundred yards and
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: the rest of it is several hundred yards across, and
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: that's where they'll cross. And I got I got a
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: couple of trees picked out to hunt, hunt with my
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: buck decoy there and if I can catch him on
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: his feet by himself, cutting the cutting from one spot
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: to another, cutting out of one timber to cut across another,
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: and I got that buck decoy l getting to come
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: into it now killing. Tell us about your buck decoy strategy.
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: How when are you using that? How do you set
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: the it up? How often do you use that type
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: of thing? Well, I use it any time I'm hunting
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: in the Midwest from late October through the month in
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: November and early December. Just when I'm hunting the Midwest.
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: I'm using the decoy. If I'm setting in the open
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: during the run during that time period brand to catch
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: those big bucks cruising. I'm using the decoy if I'm
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: setting on a food source, if I'm setting on that
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: open pasture or a short shortcut down CRP field. You know,
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: I don't use them When the graphs is tall and
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: that stuff. I want to be able to see it,
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: and that's when I'm using them. And I picked places
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: where that If I've got my decoy out there in
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: front of me in the open, the wind's bowling from
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: the decoy to me and I'm sitting right on the
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: edge of the timber. Okay, Yeah, it's uh. It's one
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: of those things that seems high risk, high reward, but
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: a lot of guys seem to be able to pull
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: it off. Do you find that to be the same
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: case of me as that one of those swing for
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: the fences type moves for you? Well, yeah, I mean
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: I've spooked year. I spooked him with a decoy. And
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: if you're setting on a food source and it gets
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: late in the day, you know, and there's a lot
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: of dose. A small bucks come out after they've been
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: out of while staring at that decoy. Sometimes they get squirrely,
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: but it doesn't you know, there's not enough of a
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: negative there for me not to do it, because I
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: killed so many big mature deer doing that, you know,
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: And I and the and the deer that I am
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: targeting is a big mature buck looking for a hot
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: dough cruise and during the daytime by himself, and more
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: times than not, when you get that situation, more times
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: than not, he will come to that buck decoy. I
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: don't use it though, decoy hardly ever, other than I
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: will use it once in a great while. If I've
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: had a buck come out and spook on my buck
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: decoy and I'm hunting in the same spot again, I
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: will bring the second decoy and I'll take the antlers
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: and the legs off of it, and I'll set it
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: in front of my buck decoy about or so like
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: attending buck pen than the dough. You've seen him do,
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: bend it out in the open field, the buck just
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: standing off to the side. You know, I've done that,
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: and I've done that, and that's worked before. It too interesting?
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: What what are you thinking, Dan? Well? You know we
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: always like to share the success. You know, you've been
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: on multiple covers of magazines, you shot multiple bucks, But
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: has there ever been a story or a particular buck
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: that ended up beating you and you you kind of
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: held a grudge on that buck or or use that
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: that you know, you being unsuccessful with that particular dear
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: to change how you hunt. No, not really change. But
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: I've had way more of them out smartly and I'm
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: not and I never got. You know that that then
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: I've gotten because I'm always always usually going into every season,
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: I always know where there's a big buck here there,
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: you know, and places that I hunt, and I try
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: to hunt them and I lock in on them. But
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: you know, if something else comes by that's good and solid,
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: I'll go ahead and take them. Because I'm making TV
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: but I never hope to grudge. I never get mad.
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: I never you know, I mean you can't. I mean,
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: you just can't. I mean, it's it's the thrill of
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: doing it. And then when you are successful, which you're
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: not going to be successful on them as much as
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: you're gonna be unsuccessful. It's just it's just that way,
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: you know. And but never get mad. Just tip your
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: hat that big boy put it on you, you know,
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, I just you know, that's that's you know,
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: a true big buck hunter. You know, it's they love
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: what they do and they have a passion for the animal.
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: There is you know, I mean a big mature white
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: tail right here in the Midwest that lives to be eight, nine,
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: ten years old. I mean, you know, he is living
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: in your backyard almost, and it's just, you know, you
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: gotta love them. I mean, they are they they are
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: a different animals. There's nothing like them, nothing they're they're
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: they're just so smart and so cunning. Their instincts are
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: so good. And you know, I mean when they get
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: to be six or seven, they they don't even participate
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: that much in the rut. You know, people think you're
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: crazy when they hear somebody like me say that, but
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: they don't. You know, I'm not saying that they don't
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: breed those they do, but they do it on their
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: own terms. And they don't breed very many of them
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: once they get to be seven or old. But they
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: just don't because they can't, you know, they it's you know,
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: they still participate in it when they can, but it's
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: not the number one thing for him anymore, perpetuating the species.
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: It's not number one. It's not number one to me
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: at my age. You're number one to me living and
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: that's no different with a big giant whitehil Living is
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: more important to them. Survival. That's one of the best
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: moments we've ever had in this podcast, I think right there,
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: that's that's a that's some wisdom right there. Well, I
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: mean it's true though we just stop and think about it.
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: If they're no different thing we are, Yeah, I mean,
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: they're just you know, I mean, it's you know, things,
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: that's all things change and living is more importantly. And
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: besides that, that that four and a half or five
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: and a half year old well whipped their ass. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: I know it makes it makes perfect sense. You you
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: have been around. I'm sure some of the very most
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: experienced and most successful deer hunters in the world. And
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: this is something I often like to ask our guests,
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: some who have kind of experiences like you do um
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: because of the perspective I think you're able to get
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: from all these different people. Are there any core traits
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: or tactics or anything like that that the very best
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: deer hunters that you know all have. Is there anything
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: that you can put your finger on and say these
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: they all do it, or they all have it what
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: you do. The only thing is the only thing I
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: would say is they all have the passion for baked
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: mature white tail box. They have that passion. They love
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: that animal that they hunt. They love them, they can't
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: get enough of it. They have so much respect and
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: and that's that's that. That goes just goes down the line.
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, Gene and Barry and the Wide and Mr
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: and you know, these guys are all great buddies of
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: mine and people like that, you know, and lots of
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: people that I could mention that that that nobody would
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: even recognize, you know, but that they you know, that's
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: that's it. They just have the passion for hunding, the
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: big giant white tail bucks. That's it that they just
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: have that passion. They love that animal and they put
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: everything into it, h and whatever. And another thing that
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: that you notice about people like that is whatever they
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: get out of it, it's fine with them. Whatever it is,
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: it's fine. It's it's it's the experience. It's it's being
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: able to do it and be out there and and
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: and just do it. You know, if you don't get it,
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: you don't get it, but which you're nice when you do.
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: That's the truth. Is is there anything out there as
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: we as we're talking about these different things. We've talked
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: about some things kind of high level, we've talked about
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: some things kind of in the weeds. Is there any
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: one thing that if you could talk to the average
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: deer hunter and tell them focus on this more, or
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: change this or really improve in this way. If there's
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: one place that you could, like, you know, use a
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: magic wand to help everybody fix this one core thing.
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: What would you want that to be for the average
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: deer hunter out there, well, for the average deer hunter,
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: the average hunter, but you know, we're talking about deer
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: hunting today. Um, but one thing is is, you know,
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: don't get caught up. I mean, so many people now
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: think that they need to force their beliefs and their
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: thoughts and the way they do things on everybody else,
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: just like the deer management, for instance, managing for big
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: bucks on your property, getting upset whenever your neighbor down
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: the road shoots a buck that's three and a half
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: years old that you let go is a year and
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: a half and a two and a half. You know,
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: it's not about that. It's it's about doing what you
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: want to do, and it's about explaining where you're coming from.
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: But it's not about thinking that everybody needs to do
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: what you believe they need to do and everybody will
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: be better off. I just think that it's I just
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: that's the number one thing. I would like to see
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: people take a step back and just look at the
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: whole situation. Say hey, I am old blasts. I can
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: do what I want to do. I want to try
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: to hunt these big bucks. I want to do the best.
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: But that doesn't mean the guy down the road has
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: to do that, because if he doesn't do that, he's
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: gonna hurt me, and he's gonna hurt what I want
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: to do. We live in America. Yeah, that's it. Yeah.
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: Is there anything that you do stand that other people,
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: other great deer hunters would think is crazy or would
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: be surprised by. Is there anything that you do this
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: contrary to the rest of the rest of the big
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: buck hunters out there. Yeah, there is. There's one thing
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: I've gotten black on so many times, and you probably
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: won't believe it when I tell you, but it's it's
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: tremor shoot lines. I'm the tremor. If it's in the way,
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: I get it out. And I've I've went back and
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: forth with a lot of my good buddies and that
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: are grace hunters. They tell me I can't do that. Well,
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: come on over and take a look on the wall.
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah you know. I mean they think that if they
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: cut a branch, or cut this or cut that, but
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: the buck is gonna look where, Look where Johnny cut
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: that limb? I better back out of here. I don't
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: mean I go in there with a bobcat and clean
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: the whole place out. But but I trim shooting lanes
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: and a lot of guys don't. And I'll tell you
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: one of the best big buck hunters that I know
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: in this North America period is don kissing. I have
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: as much respect for him as I do for anybody.
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: And he doesn't cut a branch. And him and I
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: went around and around because I've hunted with him in
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: Candy many times. And when they turn me loose and
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: they go in there and find more my tree stand
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: locations that I've picked, she's trimmed out. That drives That
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: drives Donnie crazy. Is that you know what I mean?
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: It's my way, it's not his way. And believe me,
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: you cannot argue with DARNTISTI success. There's nobody out there
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: kills any bigger ones more often than them. Yeah, So
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: is there anything that you do to compensate for that?
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, you've got great, big shooting lanes. So do
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: you do you hang your stands higher or are you
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: more careful about being still or anything like that to
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: avoid the negative, the potential negative of having big shooting lanes. Yeah,
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: you've gotta You've got to pick the tree that maybe
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: you can, you can be more inconspicuous in. And sometimes
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: higher is not better. A lot of people, a lot
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: of people miss out on that. Sometimes higher is worse
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: because if you stand back and you get too high,
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: your skylighted. It just depends on the situation and and
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: the and the photography of the ground and everything else
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: and your background of stuff. Like sometimes you're much better
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: off the fifteen feet than yard twenty five because of
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: you're you're out in the open and a team, You've
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: got a lot of back dropped in a lot of ground,
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: and and you know it's it's just you just look
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: at the situation. I don't have a set hight. People
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 1: ask me in a lot of my seminars, how high
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: do you like to put your tree stand? Well, I
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: don't have a set high jock, but my core stand.
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: If it's the right tree in the right spot, and
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: it's and it would allow me to get up about
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: twenty ft, that's why I like to be. But if
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: it's the right tree in the right spot and I
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 1: can get twelve feet, that's where I'm gonna be. I've
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: got a two oh seven in there on the wall.
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: But you could have jumped up and touched my platform.
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: I could have. I could have jumped up and touched it.
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: And believe me, for me to jump up and dutches.
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: It's not very high, but it was in a big
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: old stage. It was in a big old stage, orange tree,
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: hedge tree, a lot of trunks on it, a lot
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: of limbs low, a lot of stuff around me. I was, well, hit,
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 1: can you tell us about that hunt? How that all
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: came together? To I always find I think maybe it's
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: just me, but I tend to learn more from stories
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: and specific applications, and I'm always interested to hear how
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: something wanting down and then pick all the different right
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: choices that person made to actually have it all come together. So, uh,
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 1: forgive me for for keeping them prying into your stories,
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: But I'm fascinated is that when you can tell well, yeah,
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: I can tellt here. I killed that deer on November,
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 1: which was right after Thanksgiving, um, just a few days
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: after Thanksgiving. I don't remember exactly what the day was
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: Thanksgiving or what, but I remember that that the day
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: that I killed him was the twenty eight in November.
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 1: And I saw him that morning, and I was about
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: about three d fifty yards that morning from where I
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: killed him that afternoon, and I was in an oak tree,
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: and I had a light southwest wind, cold frosty morning, perfect,
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: and I was up. I had an open field behind
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: me and behind me where the open field was to
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: the north, all from right where it started there. It
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: was a mile before you got to the next member,
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: so it was wide open. And I was in this
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: tree and I was set up where where where there
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: you know, they'd be right in front of me. And
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: I was sitting there, and I've been there since before daylight,
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 1: and it was about eight thirty in the morning. I've
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: been there a while and hadn't seen much. I don't remember,
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: you know, a few two little does probably or whatever.
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: But I hadn't seen much. And I'm sitting there and
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden behind me and to my right,
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: not very far away. I'm just sitting there, and you know,
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: I'm kind of lackadaisical. I sat down the tree. I
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: hadn't seen anything, a lot of action going, and all
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: of a sudden behind me and to my right just
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: ah ah, you know, and you can tell if it's
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 1: a dough or a buck blowing, if you know. I mean,
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: there was big mature bucks, got a deep, loud snort
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: and he just started blowing snorting behind me, got my wind,
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: got a little bit of my wind, and I just
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 1: sat there and I just real slow turned my head
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: to the right and looked back behind me, and I
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: could see him through the trees by sixty yards away.
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: He was just standing there, stomping, bawling. Every once in
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: a while he gotten a little bit of my wind,
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: not a lot, but a little bit. And he stood
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: there for a little bit and then he turned he
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: started walking away from me, but but but quartering, kind
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: of quartering down and away from me, you know. And
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: when he started walking away from me, I mean, he
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: was freaking giant, a monster, I could tell, you know.
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: They looked so gig going away from me. But this
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: was a magatre. And he just walked away from me,
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: walked down through this grass is tall grass, and there
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: was hedge freeze mixed in there and stuff, and about
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: every third step he was just ah wow, and he
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: just walked off. Finally, when he got down in there
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: and out of sight, you know, I knew where he
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: was going. He was gonna go down and go through
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: this drawl, this headge drawl, and then um go up
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: on top of this, up on top of this ridge
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: in a in a choked up thicket and bent down
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: to what I thought he was probably gonna do it.
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: And it was late run I mean, there was still
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: a little bit going on, but you know, he was
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: just out rolling around looking for a last though. And
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: so I thought I had a stand down there in
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: that other drawl. And I thought, as soon as he
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: gets down through that drawl, and I think he's got
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: enough time where he's out of there, I'm gonna get down.
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna slip down. I'm gonna get out of here,
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: and I'm gonna slip right down there in another three
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: And I also rising, I'll sit there all day if
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: I need to, but he'll come out there tonight. I
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: figured that's what I did. I got down and went
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: over and gotten that other tree and I got up
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: in it, and I said him. I sat there for
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: another hour or so, and I realized that I hadn't lunch.
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: I brought lunch because I was gonna hunt all day,
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: maybe get down for an hour or two and eat,
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 1: you know, but get right back in just to break
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: the monotony. Well, I left my lunch in the back
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: of the trup, you know, and I sat there agonized
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: him on whether to get down or not and go
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 1: get it. And I got hungry, so finally I decided
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: I could get down leave my bow hanging in the tree,
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: leave everything, get down, slip up through there. It was
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: about an eighth of a mile up to the truck,
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 1: and and get that lunch and get right back to
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: the tree as quick as I couldn't then eat my
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 1: lunch in the tree. And so that's why I did.
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: I got all the way up there and all the
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: way back to that tree. I kept thinking, he's gonna
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: be and an under it. That's just what happens. This
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: was stupid. Why did you leave it? You know, sometimes
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: you're in a hurry to get out and get down
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: and stay in the morning, to forget well. I got
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 1: back down to the tree, never seen nothing happened, you
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: know which I thought my I got back up in
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: the tree, sat there and eight months ate my sandwich.
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: I had two sandwiches, stuff ate and had a catch
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 1: some pop with me, and and you sat there and
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: seen the dough here and the dough there, you know,
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: set the rest of the day. At about three thirty
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: four o'clock that afternoon, I had four or five deer
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: right in front of me in the draw, melting around, browsing.
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: It's kind of thick in there, but I could see
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: them a couple of small ducks, and they were browsing around.
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: They were on their feet, and I had already stood
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: up and got my boat, because when you get deer
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: around you like that, you know, dear, that you're not
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: gonna shoot. You need to get on your feet, and
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: you need to get your bow in your hand, because
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: you never know when all of a sudden you hear something.
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 1: You look down there, he stands at twenty yards and
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: then you can't reach over and get your bow because
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: you've got all these other deer right around underneath you,
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: and they'll see you moving. And you bought it, you know.
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: Those are things that you learned by by being stupid.
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: So I was standing there with my bow and I'm
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: watching these other deer, keeping an eye on him, you know,
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: not moving much, just moving my head, and all of
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: a sudden, right on the left outside edge of the
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 1: draw and his hands draw I was in, I can
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: hear a deer walking coming up the draw, and I
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: just kind of looked down there a little bit to
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: my left, down in front of me. I figure, it's
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 1: one of these deer that's been around me right here,
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 1: melling around. And I looked down at about died. I
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: mean here he comes, I mean a one two o seven.
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: Well that's pretty good. He's coming right on the outside
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: edge of the draw in that tall asked. And he
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: walked right up there and stops about thirty yards from me.
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 1: But I can't shoot him over there because he's outside
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: the draw and there's way too much stuff in the way.
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 1: And he stops and he wants to go on up
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: through that siddle, up through that grass, up towards where
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: I was that morning. And the reason I know it
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 1: was the same book as well as I know my
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: own name. He stood there and stared right up there
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: where I was that morning, where he winded me, and
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 1: he would just stomp his foot. He just stomped his
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: right foot every couple three seconds. He just just stomping.
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 1: He was just staring up there, staring. He stood there
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: for the longest time doing that, never blew enough, and
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: just stood there. He didn't like that up there. There
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: was something up there he didn't like. And I'm standing
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: there and I'm shaking like a leaf. And then all
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, he just does a complete circle, turns
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 1: right around and walks starts walking right into the drawing
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: right in front of me, and he's gonna come out
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: in my shooting lane at one of the yards. He's
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: got his head down, he's just walking slow. He don't
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 1: know I'm in the world. And he's to the south.
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, I got a southwest wind, all the deer
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 1: south on me. I just come to full drawing when
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 1: he stepped in that shooting lane. I just went to
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: just stopped him. I smoked him perfect. He wrote about
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: eighty or a hundred yards and piled up, and he
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 1: had twenty one score able points. He was a big
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 1: five by five. He's a big five by five main
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: frame with a bunch of stickers and kickers gross two
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: oh seven. If I know it was the same buck
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: I saw that morning, And if I hadn't went down
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 1: and gotten that three and decided to stay all day,
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't probably killed him. If I went into that
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: three at two or three in the afternoon, I might
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: have bumped some deer. Whatever, it doesn't take much. I'm
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 1: glad I asked you to tell that story too, because
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, I think there are a
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: lot of lessons that can be taken from that. You know,
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: Number one, we just said there you are willing to
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: sit all day. Number two, you had the knowledge to
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: know that when that deer went down in that draw,
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: after you watched him from up on the field, you
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: knew he was probably headed into that thicket to bed there. So,
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: because of that knowledge you had probably from previous hunting
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 1: or scouting, you knew you knew where to go. You
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: also had the confidence to make that move, which I
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: think is another great lesson we can all learn the
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 1: fact that you have to sometimes when the time was right,
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: you have to be aggressive to get after this big
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 1: mature bucks. Um. I think the fact that you knew
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: to stand and have your your bowl ready when there's
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 1: other deer around, I think that's a great lesson we
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 1: can all take from this, Um. And then even back
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 1: to the very beginning where you talked about the fact
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: that this was that really short true right, you you
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 1: probably put yourself a position with good cover that maybe
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: other hunters wouldn't have wanted to sit there, but you
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 1: knew that was the right spot to be, and you
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 1: placed yourself lower than most people would go, but in
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 1: a place that's still I guarantee the platform. I guarantee
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 1: you the platform. Mom. That stand was not nine ft. Wow,
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: it was just a little portable tree stand I popped in.
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: I only had one. I only had one little rapid
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: rail along the tree. I only needed one just to
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: get a few feet up. And then I had a
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 1: couple of three lambs I could step on to get
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: up in it. And I had five or six years
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 1: around me for an hour or more before that. They
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: didn't get back behind me down when they was just
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: right in there messing around, browsing, eating them little leaves
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: that fell off in them hedge trees and stuff, you know.
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: I mean, they were just all around me named not
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: one of them even knew I was in the world. Yeah,
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 1: that's not always about getting I think that's that's just
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: a really great illustration of of all the different little
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: things that you need to do to put a successful
• 1:39:54
  Speaker 1: hunt together like this. Um, I think that was that
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 1: was a great example. So I'm glad. I'm glad. Thank
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: you for sharing that one. Stand That one was super healthful. Dan,
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 1: Thanks for that. Dan. Do you have any final question
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: for for stand here? Just one ultra vague question, and
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: that is what is your favorite part about bow hunting
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: white tails? What's your favorite the preparation the preparation building
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 1: up to the moment. That's my favorite thing. It's my
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: favorite thing. It's it's all about the preparation, all about,
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: you know, trying to put the puzzle together and doing
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: it all and then of course the moment of truth
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: is great, but the preparation lasts so much longer, Right,
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: I can relate to that. Amen, And I'm excited because
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: this time of year, there's a whole lot of that
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: stuff to do, that's for sure. Oh yeah, it's hey,
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 1: it'll be hereful you know it. It's true. It's true. Well, stand,
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 1: I appreciate you. I appreciate you having me on. I
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: really do. Absolutely, It's it's mutual. This is a lot
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: of fun. I think there's a lot of different lessons
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 1: that we can all take from this. And stand. If people,
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: if our listeners would like to see some of your
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 1: hunts on TV in the future, where should they go
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 1: to see those and when should they be looking for him?
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: They should go to the Sportsman's channel on Wednesday nights
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 1: North American White Tale and they should go to the
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: Sportsman's channels on Tuesday evening and look for White Tale Explorer.
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 1: That's my show. And I also host North American White Tale,
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 1: but Whitetail Explorers, Mine and a couple of buddies. We
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: were all three our partners in it. And those are
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: the two shows that I'm on now, and you'll see
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 1: me sprinkled here and there and some other stuff that
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 1: I do for some friends, but those are the main
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 1: Wednesday Night in North American White Tale, Tuesday Night Whitetil
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: Explore excellent. Well, I'm sure anyone who has watched your
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 1: hunts in the past knows it's always a good time
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 1: following along with Stand on a Hunt, So I'd recommend
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: anyone else out there check it out and stand Thank
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 1: you so much and good luck this coming season. Okay,
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: thanks for having me on and we'll have to do
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: it again. Guys. It was a lot of fun, Thank
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: you much. It sounds great and that's it, folks. But
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: a couple quicker minders before you hit the stop button
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 1: on your phone or car. First off, are you following
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 1: Wired to Hunt on social media yet? If not, you
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: really ought to do that. I'm constantly posting new articles
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 1: and podcasts, questions, stories and photos across all of our
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: social platforms um, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Are where we're
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: the most active, so be sure to follow along there.
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: You know, Facebook is the best spot to get updates
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: and links to our newest content. Twitter is probably the
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: best way to share quick feedback with me or to
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: ask quick questions. And Instagram is the best spot to
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: stay up to date on my latest outdoor and hunting
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: adventures as I'm always sharing different photos from all the
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: stuff I'm up to there, so be sure to follow
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 1: along with Wired to Hunt on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Next,
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: I want to give a big shout out to our
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: partners who have continued to step up to keep the
• 1:43:06
  Speaker 1: Wired to Hunt podcast on the air. If these companies
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 1: didn't help us out, there would be no podcast. So
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 1: big thanks to Sick Gear Yetie Cooler's, Matthew's Archery, Maven Optics,
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: White Tail, Institute of North America, Trophy Ridge and Hunt
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 1: Terror Maps. And if you found the wire Hunt podcast valuable,
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 1: you know, give these companies a quick shout sometime and
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: just let them know that you appreciate their part in
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: making this happen. And finally, thank you all for listening.
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: You know, sponsors or no sponsors. If it wasn't for you,
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: none of this would exist. So thank you for being
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 1: hardcore hunters, thank you for being supporters of Wired to Hunt,
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: Thanks for tuning in today and until next time. I
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 1: hope you'll stay Wired to Hunt.