Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 368: 10 Steps to Your Best Deer Hunting Season Ever

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Ep. 368: 10 Steps to Your Best Deer Hunting Season Ever · 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,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan, and this is episode number three
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  Speaker 1: and today on the show we are covering the ten
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  Speaker 1: steps to your best deer hunting season ever and discussing
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: our first white tail hunt of the season. All right,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: welcome to the Wired Hunt podcast, brought to you by
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: on X to Dan. The show it is myself and
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Josh further Hilliard. Josh, how you doing. You don't like
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: it when I call you further Well, I mean you
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: did this little shake of the head. I'll take it.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: It's all funny games. I don't have a choice anymore.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: I don't think to change it now. So no, man,
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  Speaker 1: it's locked in stone. Um So here's what we're gonna
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: do today. Um we I thought that with hunting seasons
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  Speaker 1: opening up across the country, right our season started today.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: You and I out. We're out here in Idaho on
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: our public land whitetail hunt. We just had our very
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  Speaker 1: first hunt of the year tonight. Um, our seasons are
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  Speaker 1: kicking off. People are kicking off in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kentucky,
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  Speaker 1: all over the place, and then a bunch of seasons
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  Speaker 1: opening up for the next couple of weeks. I thought
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  Speaker 1: we'd kind of do my beginning of the season Pep
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  Speaker 1: Talk episode. Every few years, I try to do this,
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  Speaker 1: just kind of laying out some key things to think about.
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  Speaker 1: And I thought, rather than it be just me lecturing folks, UM,
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  Speaker 1: why don't the two of us talk through a handful
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  Speaker 1: of things. UM, I'll kind of lay out some of
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  Speaker 1: these idea is basically what I've done is is compile
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: a list of ten different I don't know if it's steps,
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  Speaker 1: it's more so ten different reminders of important things to
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: keep in mind throughout the hunting season that's going to
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  Speaker 1: help you. Some of these are there are contactical things,
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  Speaker 1: Some of these are more mindset things. Um in some
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  Speaker 1: our beginner some are a little bit more advanced. But
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  Speaker 1: I think regardless of if you're a new hunter or
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  Speaker 1: if you are a very experienced hunter, there's something in
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  Speaker 1: here that will be helpful to you to keep in
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  Speaker 1: mind over the course of the next four months. Right
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: because you can never stop learning, you can never have
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  Speaker 1: this stuff figured out enough so you know, if this
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  Speaker 1: all sounds like something you've heard before, as we're discussing it,
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  Speaker 1: think about, Okay, how do I actually execute some of
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  Speaker 1: these things this coming season? Or can I pick one
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  Speaker 1: of these things to try to really focus on and
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  Speaker 1: get better at this thing? Um, that's how you grow
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  Speaker 1: is by kind of taking purposeful, meaningful focused practice or
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: attention to detail specific things. And I think that's what
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  Speaker 1: we can do here. So some ideas will walk through
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  Speaker 1: these ten things, and then after that, we gotta tell
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  Speaker 1: everybody about our hunt to night because we had a
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  Speaker 1: hell of a hunt. We had a good one tonight.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: I still can't really wrap my head around what happened
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  Speaker 1: to you tonight. Further further had a hell of a hunt, guys,
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  Speaker 1: a really fun night. Um, so we're gonna tell you
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  Speaker 1: about that after we run through our ten steps or
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  Speaker 1: ten reminders to your best deer hunting season ever. We'll
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  Speaker 1: keep this one kind of quick because I know folks
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  Speaker 1: want to get out in the woods. The seasons are opening,
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  Speaker 1: so let's not spend too much time sitting in the
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  Speaker 1: truck listening to people talk about it. Let's actually get
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  Speaker 1: out there and do it. So, uh, here's what I'm thinking, Josh,
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  Speaker 1: I'm gonna bring up each one of these different topics.
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  Speaker 1: I'll kind of lay out some of my thoughts or
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  Speaker 1: ideas on it, and then if you've got any examples,
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  Speaker 1: or if you've got questions, or if you've got something
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  Speaker 1: else you want to add to it, Um, jump in
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  Speaker 1: and do that. Sounds good, um, And we'll just kind
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  Speaker 1: of take it from there and then we'll get into
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  Speaker 1: story time. So here we go. Ten steps to your
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  Speaker 1: best deer hunting season ever. Like, one of the first
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  Speaker 1: things to keep in mind if you are, especially if
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  Speaker 1: you are taking that step to trying to hunt for
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  Speaker 1: bucks or especially mature bucks. What I'm gonna tell you
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  Speaker 1: here is is something that just is crucial, and that
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  Speaker 1: is the fact that the details are everything. All the
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  Speaker 1: little things matter. I go back to and I bring
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  Speaker 1: this up a lot, but Mark D'Antonio, the former coach
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  Speaker 1: of Michigan State football, always said that it was a
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  Speaker 1: game of inches, and that's stuck with me. It's those
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  Speaker 1: little inches along the way that lead to first downs,
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  Speaker 1: which leads to touchdowns, which lead to games one and
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  Speaker 1: the same thing applies to white tail hunting. It's the
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  Speaker 1: little things it's it's um you know, making sure that
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  Speaker 1: you've got your whole process down when it comes to
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  Speaker 1: setting up your saddle and sticks, and so you're you're
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  Speaker 1: well thought through and planned and how you're gonna do that,
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  Speaker 1: you can do it quietly and effectively. It's a little
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  Speaker 1: thing like taping a buckle so that when you drop
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  Speaker 1: a strap and bangs against the side of your sticks,
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  Speaker 1: that doesn't make that ding. It's a little detail, like
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  Speaker 1: thinking through exactly how the wind direction might change part
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  Speaker 1: way through your day. It's it's it's not glossing over things.
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  Speaker 1: And it's so easy to do. And I am guilty
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  Speaker 1: of it a lot where I want to gloss over
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  Speaker 1: things and sometimes I still do, even when I know
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  Speaker 1: it's not the right thing. Um, But I try really
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  Speaker 1: hard not to do this. Um. But the details can
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  Speaker 1: be a pain in the ass, like trying to have
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  Speaker 1: to worry about all the little things like on our
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  Speaker 1: hunt tonight, right, I mean, there's so many little things
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  Speaker 1: that you don't want to worry about. The wind direction
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  Speaker 1: is this certain direction when we're heading in and then
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  Speaker 1: you can either just ignore it, or you can take
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  Speaker 1: a calculated risk, or you can go do something totally different.
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  Speaker 1: And then you gotta think about, Okay, now, how am
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  Speaker 1: I going to set up my stand in a position
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  Speaker 1: so that I can get shot and I can get
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  Speaker 1: access without spooking deer, and I can I get out
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  Speaker 1: without spooking deer. And I need to be able to
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  Speaker 1: be covered in the tree, and I need to be
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  Speaker 1: able to you know, move around. All these different things
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  Speaker 1: you have to think about. Every little tiny thing does matter, sure,
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  Speaker 1: especially on the first hunt, right like the first one
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  Speaker 1: of the year. I mean, you're rusty, you're not used
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  Speaker 1: to you know, by the time November comes around, you
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  Speaker 1: usually a well oiled machine. But I'm guilty of forgetting
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  Speaker 1: something almost every year. My first time, I forgot my
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  Speaker 1: arrows in my truck. I forgot my quiver in my
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  Speaker 1: truck one year. So I mean, the first hunt is
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  Speaker 1: always you know, attention to details make such a big
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  Speaker 1: different difference on that first one, especially, which brings to
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  Speaker 1: mind something that a little tool you can use the
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  Speaker 1: helps you pay attention to these details. And I think
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  Speaker 1: when it's something that's kind of floating around in your head,
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  Speaker 1: it's easy to ignore something or move on from something,
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  Speaker 1: but it's a lot easier to follow through on things
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  Speaker 1: when you write them down. So, for example, if you
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  Speaker 1: know there are some little things that you want to
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  Speaker 1: take care of before opening day, like taping the straps
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  Speaker 1: on your sticks, or like making sure your tree stands
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  Speaker 1: aren't squeaking, or you want to get better making sure
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  Speaker 1: you follow through on your entire sent control regiment that
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  Speaker 1: you know you should do, but you inevitably skip steps
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  Speaker 1: because you're tired or lazy or whatever you don't want
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  Speaker 1: to do at all. If there's something like that, and
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  Speaker 1: and it's a good idea in a lot of cases
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  Speaker 1: with with all these things to try to not necessarily
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  Speaker 1: tackle everything, but pick a few things to focus on.
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  Speaker 1: So write a few of these things down and say,
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  Speaker 1: you know, this year, I'm gonna nail that thing or
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  Speaker 1: these three things. I'm gonna make sure I pay attention
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  Speaker 1: to the details of you know, in this case, keeping
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  Speaker 1: your stand in sticks and everything perfectly silent. There's a
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  Speaker 1: little detail thing that can actually make a big difference. Um.
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  Speaker 1: So that's that's a high level concept of sorts that
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  Speaker 1: can apply to a lot of different aspects of your
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  Speaker 1: deer hunting life of a given season. But try to
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  Speaker 1: try to just always not cut yourself slack when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to these things. When you find yourself wanting to
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  Speaker 1: cut the corner, try to remember, dang it, those inches matter.
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  Speaker 1: I gotta pay attention to the details. I'm just gonna
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  Speaker 1: do it. It's like when I was a kid. I
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  Speaker 1: used to right ignore my mom when you told me
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  Speaker 1: go claim my room or vacuum the stairs, or do
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  Speaker 1: this thing or that, and I would like try to
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  Speaker 1: push it off as long as possible and find some
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  Speaker 1: way to skirt around it and get away with not
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  Speaker 1: doing as much. But at some point along the way,
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  Speaker 1: I realized that my life would be better and easier
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  Speaker 1: if I just like took it on the chin and
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  Speaker 1: just did it right away, Just get it done over with,
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  Speaker 1: do the hard thing right away, and then the rest
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  Speaker 1: of your life is so much better. And that's kind
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  Speaker 1: of the thing with deer hunting is do the hard, annoying,
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  Speaker 1: detailed things sometimes. Just do it, get it done, check
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  Speaker 1: the box, and then move on, rather than letting that
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  Speaker 1: thing naggets you, knowing like I should have done that.
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  Speaker 1: So that's number one. Number two this is a more
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  Speaker 1: tactical idea, But keep this in mind throughout your hunts,
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  Speaker 1: and again None of this is new stuff. These are
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  Speaker 1: things that we've talked about over many episodes with many
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  Speaker 1: different guests, and everyone has their own take on it.
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  Speaker 1: So what I'm trying to do here is synthesize a
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  Speaker 1: few of the most important concepts and talk about them
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  Speaker 1: in a more general way that you can maybe apply
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  Speaker 1: to whatever circumstances you're in. So here's something that we've
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  Speaker 1: talked to a lot of people about, and that is
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  Speaker 1: the importance of the first sit. The first time you
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  Speaker 1: go into a spot is often your very best opportunity
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  Speaker 1: at a book right because you're gonna have deer that
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  Speaker 1: very quickly pick up on what you're doing. We know
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  Speaker 1: that one of the greatest challenges we have as hunters
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  Speaker 1: is trying to keep deer from becoming educated as to
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  Speaker 1: what we're doing trying to hunt them. So one of
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  Speaker 1: the best ways to keep them uneducated is to keep
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  Speaker 1: changing it up. So that means one of two things.
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  Speaker 1: Either it means waiting to go in to hunt certain
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  Speaker 1: place until the right time so that that first time
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  Speaker 1: you go into the right time, or number two, it's
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  Speaker 1: have a lot of first sits, so don't hunt the
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  Speaker 1: same place over and over and over hunt a spot,
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  Speaker 1: swing for the fences there, and then moved to a
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  Speaker 1: new spot, get your first sit there, and then moved
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  Speaker 1: to a new spot, get your spot there. And you
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: can do that in several ways. You can do that
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: by having a bunch of tree stands all over your properties,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: or you can do that by being mobile like we
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: are on this hunt. We both got our saddles and sticks,
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  Speaker 1: and we snuck in today we hunk are hung our
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: saddles and sticks hunted, and at dark we pulled them
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  Speaker 1: all down and we're gonna move for tomorrow. So that's
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  Speaker 1: a great way to always be in a fresh spot.
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  Speaker 1: Keep those dear guessing they are not going to know
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  Speaker 1: where you're gonna be tomorrow, right because they've had no idea,
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  Speaker 1: And that's gonna put you in a better pocisition. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: And just like you know, I I hunted. I got
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: access to a new lease last year and hadn't been
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: hunted in a while, and my first time out there
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  Speaker 1: had a shot opportunity passed on a buck that would
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: have been one of my best books. I just you know,
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  Speaker 1: I didn't take the shot and never really had an opportunity.
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  Speaker 1: But I don't think I would have anyway, and um,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: you know, first time out there and they had no
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  Speaker 1: idea and first time out tonight. I think we can
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  Speaker 1: talk about that a little bit later, but you know,
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  Speaker 1: I think we both had, you know, a good first
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  Speaker 1: set in a in a new spot. Definitely something to
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  Speaker 1: be said for that. The first set. It is a powerful,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: powerful thing, and so many people can point to that. Um,
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  Speaker 1: it's it's something you want to preserve or create. So
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  Speaker 1: keep that in mind. Let's jump over to another mindset thing.
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  Speaker 1: This is something more and more and more, and I
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: want to dive into this further in future episodes. But
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: I see deer hunting like becoming a good deer hunter
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  Speaker 1: is a two part thing. One part is understanding deer
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  Speaker 1: and dear behavior and and strategy stuff. They're like, what
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  Speaker 1: is a deer going to do in certain situations and
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: how do I on for them? But then the other side,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: decision making. It's understanding how to analyze all these different inputs,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: all these different things, what I scouted, what I saw,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: what the weather is, what the time of years, taking
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: all these different things and then try to have some
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: kind of model to process that and come to the
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  Speaker 1: right decision. That's a lot harder than people give it
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  Speaker 1: credit for. And that has got me kind of fascinated
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  Speaker 1: in a whole bunch of weird wormholes around decision making,
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  Speaker 1: around mindset, around human psychology and how we can apply that.
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  Speaker 1: And one thing that I have dove into a little
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: bit this is getting a little wonk, not a little
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: a lot wonky, is ancient philosophy and how that can apply.
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  Speaker 1: I know you think I'm nuts, but hear me out here.
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  Speaker 1: One of the most important high level concepts that's practiced
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: and philosophy and just basic everyday life is this idea
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  Speaker 1: of understanding what you can control and what you can't
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: and learning to give up, not give up, but by
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: by releasing that those things that you can't control, accepting
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: what you can't, and taking responsibility for what you can do.
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  Speaker 1: And if you can do those things, your life it's
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: a lot easier, a lot more fulailing a lot more successful.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: And that applies to general life, and it really applies
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: to deer hunting. There's so many things in the deer
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: hunting world where I found myself in the past stressing out,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: getting upset, getting piste, getting frazzled about some kind of situation,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: that if I were to take a step back, I'd realize, Man,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: a lot of these things are out of my control.
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  Speaker 1: Like the neighbors started driving up down the property line
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  Speaker 1: and shooting his gun something like that. I can get
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: piste about it and tell all my friends about it
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: and let it ruin my night and ruin my week
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: of hunting and blame everything that goes wrong on this guy.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Or I can say, all right, this bad thing happened.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: I had no control. I have no control where happens next.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: And you know, at least in regards to what this
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: neighbor does. So all I can do is this that's
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: water to the bridge. The only thing that can control
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: is how do I react to it. That's what you
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: have control over. So, Josh, if you miss a deer,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: you can't get that arrow back right. That thing happened.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: You can't control it anymore. All you can control is
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: what you do next. What are you gonna do about tomorrow?
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Shoot your bow and try to fix the fix whatever's
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: going on. And yeah, I mean, you just gotta get
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: back on the horse and and keep going. And I
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: had that situation last year, so and dwelling on it
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: and pissing the moaning about it and feeling bad about it.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: That doesn't it doesn't achieve anything, right, Nope, I think
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: so many times it's once you can turn that corner.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: He said, Okay, that happened. Now what I think that
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: phrase right there? Now, what is an important one Whenever
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: something crappy happens, is up hunting hunting season, when someone
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: steals your trail camera, when you miss a buck, when
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: your neighbor shoots the buck you were after, when you
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: lose access to your best farm. Except okay, that thing happened.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Now what that is? The superpower that you have is
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: you have this superpower to make the next decision. You
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: can turn that page, and the sooner you can do that,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: the sooner you get onto the next thing, and making
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: good things happen exactly. We were talking about that on
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: the truck right out, Just like mindset and attitude and
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: not how so much of that can play into success
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: and just putting yourself in better situations by you know,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: having having the right mindset. And I think that applies
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: directly to that topic there, very very true, and that
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: actually applies to one of our other key reminders here.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: But I'm gonna jump back to a more tactical thing,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: and this jumps or this this is very related to
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: the last one. We talked about the importance of those
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: first sits, those fresh sits. One of the things you
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: can do to make sure you have more fresh sits
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: is to preserve your best spots for the right times.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: And this is something that we've talked a lot about
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: over the years that I've focused on a lot about
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: over the years. We've talked to Mark Drewry about this
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: a lot. Understanding different factors and conditions that can help
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: you pinpoint your best possible chances when the possible odds
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: of success are as high as they possibly can be
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: because of outside factors like barement, your pressure, or temperature
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: changes or precipitation or you know, observations or time of year. Um.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: A big, big, big, big change in my dear hunting
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: success came when I started realizing that you can't just
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: sit stuff over and over. You've got to have certain
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: places for certain times of year, in certain places, for
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: certain situations. When you think that, Okay, this is this
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: is game time, this is a killing day. When you've
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: got those killing days, you gotta go to a killing
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: spot and then there's other days where the conditions aren't
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: so great and you can do one or two things.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: You can sit at home on the couch, or you
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: can go and hunt secondary spots, or hunt a wild
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: card spot, or hunt some public land. Get out there, learned,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: has some fun, maybe you'll get lucky. Um. But when
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: it comes to those special special spots, save them for
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: the right times. Try to preserve those fresh sits as
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: much as possible, or they really aggressive sits. Try to
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: time your aggressive moves to better conditions so that when
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: you do swinging for the fences with um, you know,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: diving into hunt a betting area or a buck bed.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: You know, Andrew Quisto talks about this. He will, you know,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: bump buck and find out where his betting areas. But
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: then sometimes he'll try to time his return trip to
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: when there's a good moon time. He's a big believer
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: in the moon positioning and how that can impact dear movement,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: and so he'll wait and try to see when the
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: moon says that that buck will likely return to his
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: bed a little bit later in the morning, going to
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: keep him on his feet just a little bit more
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: so now he knows that's the time to strike because
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: I've got that little thing in again. Back to his inches,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: He'll have a couple of little inches and more in
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: his favor. So you know, you can listen to four
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: hours on this and Mark Jurie if you want, or
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: we've talked about it many times. But if there's anything
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: I like the most, it's it's temperature drops. I'm a huge,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: huge believer in the power of cold fronts um bara
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: metric pressure. That seems to be one that's consistent with
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: a lot of people. The moon thing, I still I
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: don't know. And then you know intelligence, trail camera pictures,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: actual observations, those things. When you see that, move on
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: it because dear behavior can change fast, So jump on
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: those opportunities. So let me ask you a question. How
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: are you going to apply that topic to this hunt? Well,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: we're out of state hunt. We've got seven, eight, nine
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: days something like that to get it done. We kind
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: of dove in tonight in some good spots. We've got
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: some not so great weather coming up, pushing ninety degrees.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: How are you going to put that into motion here
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: on our hunt? Know? So that's an interesting one because
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: I would actually in a situation where you've got a
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: very limited amount of time. I would kind of push
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: some of that out of the way, and I wouldn't
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: worry as much because right right, the right time to
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: strike is the few days you have. Like you, so
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: you just got to take advantage of the few days
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: you have. So in that case, you know, even if
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: the temperature gets hot, we still gotta hunt. We still
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: gotta try to make the best of a couple of days.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: Even at the bare metro pressure of the moon's around,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: we still gotta go and hit our good spots because
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: this could be the only chance. Um. But there are
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: certain things like an observation. So for example, if I
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: observe a deer do something, I'm going to know not
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: necessarily that tomorrow is the day to strike. Of course
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: it's Mars the day to do it, but you know
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: where so you see a deer do something, immediately adjust
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: go in there, try to get him doing it again
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: the next day, and that kind of thing. You know,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: if you're on a long trip and you've got something
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: really dramatic where there's you know, it's been super ninety
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: degrees warm forever, and then we know on the second
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: day of the trip that you're gonna have a thirty
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: degree cold front come through and it's gonna be amazing.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Then I might think, Okay, that first night, well let's
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: just Scott, let's just watch that first night because it's
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: gonna be so good. The next day, let's just observe
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: at night number one, see exactly what they're doing, and
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: then we can make a killing strike the next day,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: a very educated move. Um. That kind of thing. Maybe, sure,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: but you know, in our situation, I think we just
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: gotta keep on going. Um. So that's my take on that.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: And again, there's there's so many different ways it's gonna
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: be applied throughout the hunting season. So it could be
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: outside factors like temperature, moon, blah blah blah. It could
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: also be time of year. So right, if you're a
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: new hunter, it's important to remember there are certain times
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: of year when you're gonna have a disproportionately high chance
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: of deer being on their feet moving. So, for example,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: if I had to pick, like my strike zones, the
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: times of year that I'm you know, all things being equal,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna feel the very best about my chances. I'm
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: gonna be looking at the first few days of the
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: hunting season before a bunch of hunters have mucked things up.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: You've got a really good chance swing swing for the
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: fences that time of year. And then you're gonna get
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: into late October or November when you're getting to the
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: rut phases. That's a great time to swing for the fences. Um,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: you know, you get into the late season if you
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: get certain weather mixed with the late season, like really
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: cold and snowy temperatures in December or January, and then
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna swing for the fences those kind of situations.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: So there's a bunch of different little ways that can
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: be applied. But but think about that high level concept
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: throughout your year. Pick your times, pick your spots. You
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: can't you you almost play pro baseball, right, Josh, you can't.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: You can't try for a home run every single pitch, right.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: You got to know the right pitches to I mean,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: you tell me you you throw what's a baseball stick?
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: Is what you swing? Yeah? I think the stick? No,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: I mean you you get yourself into certain pitch accounts
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: that you're more likely to get a fastball or an
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: easier pitch to hit that you can kind of you know,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: quote unquote swing for the fences a little a little
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: more freely on those types of accounts than um, you know,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: other scenarios. And same thing with hunting. Um, you're gonna
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: have days where, hey, this thing's a pitch right down
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: the middle, you're going to that classic rut spot because
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: it's November eight, um, But you don't wanna go sit
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: that same spot October one or September one or whatever
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: it is. And that tastes some time to figure out,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: you know, if if you're brand new, don't feel bad
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: if you don't know some of these things yet, but
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: try to pick up or listen when you hear other
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: conversations when people are talking about these different times of year,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: these different circumstances, that that that that influence them to
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: do certain things. Know that very little that's by accident.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Most the serious and consistently successful deer hunter does not
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: do things willie nilly. They don't do things by accident.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: The people that are consistently successful do it because they
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: have a very clear plan and they do things for
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: a reason. Nothing's by accident, Which brings us to another
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: high lovel concept which has helped me learn a lot
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: as I go through my deer hunting journey, and that
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: is this this um idea of always asking why so
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: when something happens. And I've I've shared this anecdote many
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: times in the past, I'll share it again. But I
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: was hunting with with the late Craig Doherty and we're
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: sitting in one of his blinds in New York and
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: he was a very experienced great deer hunter and I
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: was just a kid, I don't know, twenty one or
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: twenty two. And we're sitting there and we were hunting
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: what looked like a great place to me, but we
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: weren't seeing any deer. And as the night wrapped up. Um,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: I said, well, I guess you know, I just got unlucky. Um,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: just how it goes sometimes. And Craig's like, no, no,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: something was going on tonight. There's always a reason why.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: I always ask why. And then he started like putting
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: up potential things. Maybe it was this. Maybe when we
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: access to this blind, we didn't think about the fact
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: that the wind was blowing into that whole cutover timber
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: area and that might have been where they are all
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: better tonight. So what I try to do and what
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: I'm actually gonna try to start doing this hunting season
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: is every day after I hunt, come back and ask why,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Like examine what happened tonight, what I see, what they
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: not see? Why did these things happen? And if you
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: can do that in many different ways, you can do
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: that like I just described after hunt, or you could
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: do that when you're you see a buck go skirt
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: in the edge of field, or you watch a mature
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: buck go do something, always try to think about why
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: that buck's doing that, because again, mature bucks, just like
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: consistent dear hunters, they don't do things I accident. Typically
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: they're doing something for a reason, and if you can
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: get better and better and better at discerning that reason,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: you become a much better hunter. So always ask why,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: because that is the key I think to learning and growing. Yeah,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: that's definitely something I need to get better at asking
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: myself why. I think that's a great idea to keep
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: track of. You know, your observations, what you're seeing, and
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: then why why? Why is that what you're seeing? Yeah?
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: And then and so part of it is a thought
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: exercise for you, Right is it you the individual? You're
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: asking yourself why, and then you're making guesses. Right, You're
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: trying to think they're Okay, these are the things I know,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: these are things I think. I know. It might be this,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: it might be this, it might be this. And simply
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: going through that exercise is going to be good for you.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: But also don't be afraid to ask other people that
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: are experienced get other perspectives too, because that's really gonna
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: help you so and you may be able to start
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: connecting dots to you if you're looking at Okay, you
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: know November one, I saw him November eight, so you
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: know what, what were there any similarities from those days
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: and maybe that's the reason why he was doing that. Um,
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: I think that definitely definitely helps something I want to
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: start doing more of. And and this is where just
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: having a good network of hunting buddies of some kind,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: whether that be folks you grew up with or someone
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: you're involved in a conservation organization. If you don't have
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: a group of hunting buddies, get involved with something like
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: q D, m A or b H. It's a great
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: way to get some friends that can help you out
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: with these things. And one of my you know, one
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: of the favorite things during the hunting season I enjoy
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: is this, you know, reaching out to your buddies after
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: something happens, Hey, this happened, What do you think? Why?
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Why do you think this happened? And getting all these
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: different ideas. UM, that's fun and it's also really helpful. UM,
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: So don't be afraid to do that. Don't be afraid
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: to ask why. You don't need to know it all.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: You don't need to feel bad if you're don't have
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: if you don't have an answer. UM, Admitting you don't
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: have the answer is probably the first step. And then
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: trying to figure something out or a lot of times
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: you probable won't have an answer, but the process can
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: help you get there somewhere, moving on to something a
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: little more tactical. And this is this is just a
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: key consistent trade again of all the people that are
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: really really good at this thing that we talked about
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: on the warrecome podcasts all the time. Deer hunting, scouting,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: scouting more, they scout more than they hunt. Scout scout
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: scout scout scout, learn, look for details, pay attention tracks,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: pay attention to fresh sign, pay attention to old sign.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: Go back and and study these different things. See how
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: sign changes year after years. See how sign changes in
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: regards to crop rotations. See how um see if you
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: can pin specific kinds of sign to specific deer year
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: after study trail camera pictures, study observations from the past,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: take note of these things you're seeing. Don't just walk
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: around the woods and look at stuff, but go back
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: and write in your journal or right on your phone
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: in the notes that you saw this. He y're in
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: here and here, or go on your maps on ONYX
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: or wherever and mark all these things up so you
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: can start to put the picture together. Um. It's such
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: a simple thing. But it's easy to want to just
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: go out there and hunt because that's you know, what
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: a lot of us think of his hunting. But I
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: can't think of anyone who's really good at this who
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: doesn't point to the fact that they enjoy scouting a lot,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: but do it more than more than the average person,
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: for sure. So so just don't discount that this. It
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: can be in season, it can be off season, it
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: could be boots in the ground, it could be studying
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: maps or studying trail camera pictures. Um. But it goes
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: back to a lot of what we're talking about here.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: We have this whole puzzle that we're trying to figure out.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: When we're trying to hunt dear, you're trying to learn
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: what dear do, why they do it, and then you're
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: trying to predict what they're gonna do next, because that's
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: the only way you can kill a deer is by
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: predicting what these deer are gonna do. The only way
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: we can do that is by actually getting puzzle pieces
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: to build out the damn picture on the table, and
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: the only way you get those puzzle pieces in place
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: is by scouting. There's lots of different ways to do that,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: but you need those puzzle pieces. It's very hard to
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: recreate the picture on the box if you've only got
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: four puzzle pieces of a thousand, So get out there,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: find them, do the extra work to do that. UM
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: an educated, well planned out hunt, just one like that
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: we're scouting has has led you to have a well informed,
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: educated guests behind everything you're doing. One of those is
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: worth ten willy nearly uninformed hunts, or or fifty it's
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: it's it's again something that over the last however many years,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: have been doing is eight nine years talking to the
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: best deer hunters across the country. That is very, very
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: very consistent. Next, let's talk mindset again, positive mindset, but
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: negative preparations. So here's what I'm talking about here, and
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: this goes back to what you talked about a little earlier.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: I do think that there's something to be said about
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: having a positive mindset, believing in yourself, having confidence in
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: the fact that I'm going to make this thing work,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: and also being positive about the fact that, yes, bad
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: things are gonna happen, and you know, I'm not gonna
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: let that weigh me down and ruin my hunt and
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: ruin my day and ruin my year. So what you
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: what you can do is often, at least the way
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: I look at Maybe it's different for different people, but
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: it comes down to a decision. You can choose to
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: be a negative Nancy, or you can choose to say,
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: you know what, I'm going to find some way to
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: find silver linings. And a lot of these things are connected.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: I'm going to control what I can and I'm gonna
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: let go of what I can't. Um And what you
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: can do when you have that is that you become
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: much more accepting. I don't know if it's accepting, but um,
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: We've got a friend who believes that if you've got
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: a positive minds that it creates like an energy feel
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: that draws things to you. I'm not there yet. I
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: don't know. If I don't, I don't, I don't. I
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: can't get behind that. But I do think that if
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: you have a positive, confident um, optimistic belief in yourself
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: and view of the world, that you become much more
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: able to take advantage of good things when they come about.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: Those opportunities. You know, someone might call lucky, but I
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: think you know what do they say? Luck is where
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: preparation meets opportunity. It's you've You've put in the work,
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: You've you've got the right mindset to take advantage of
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: these things when they come along. If you are sitting
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: there sulking about all your bad luck, all the things
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: that went wrong, how tough your rut hunts bit, you
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: haven't seen any to hear it's been so yeah, exactly,
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: and all those all those things lead to you know,
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: self fulfilling prophecies. So that is the positive mindset side
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: of things. But I was recently listening to someone talk
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: about the positive benefits of negative thinking, which was kind
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: of counterintuitive. Counterintuitive to me, but it makes sense and
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: and her her horror role idea here was that the
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: whole positive mindset things important, but it is also beneficial
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: to think through and have a plan for negative possibilities.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: So believe in yourself, believe and and be positive about
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: how you're gonna spin these things as a positive, but
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: also know that, hey, they're likely will be potential challenges.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: So why don't I spend a little bit time thinking
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: about what will these or what could these excuse me?
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: What could these challenges be? And how can I plan
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: ahead of time to to do something about it. So
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: heading into your hunting season, get your mind right, plan
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: on being positive, but then think about, Okay, hey, there's
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: some things that probably will go wrong, and maybe I
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: can do a little thinking ahead of time to be
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: ready to deal with some of that stuff. So, for example,
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: we're on our public plan hunt right now. I want
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: to be positive and optimistic about how things are gonna go,
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: but likely some things will go wrong. Here's something that
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: could go wrong. I bet you there's gonna be other
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: hunters out there. They're gonna muck things up. So before
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: this hunt, I thought to myself, Okay, probably is gonna happen.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: There's gonna be other people. So right off the bat,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: I need to really try hard not to get all
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: pissy and money and upset about that when it happens,
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: be okay, this is what it is. That's okay. How
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: do we adjust? Okay, so there's one thing I'm thinking about.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna be much better at that. And
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: it happened tonight, right, and we can be pissing money
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: or because Okay, that happened. It is what it is.
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: How do you adjust? What else we could we do?
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: We're worried about other hunters, Well, have backup plans. So
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: this year I made sure we had three very different, diverse,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: different types of areas where you're not dead set stuck
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: on any one place. We have options. So if we
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: came in here and there's a lot of other hunters,
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: we plan to have their options. So that's just one
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: example of of of how you can do this. The
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: same thing could be said for your upcoming hunting season.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: Like here's another example. I am so focused on trying
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: to kill Tran right, that's my number one target buck
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: in Michigan, my third year hunting him. Um, you know,
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: I spend a lot of mental bandwidth thinking about how
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: I'm going to find this deer, and you know, I'm
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: all wrapped up in this mission or whatever you wanna
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: call it, but I also need to be realistic about
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: the possible negative possibilities. I'm not wishing this, I'm not
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: I'm not giving into this fate. I am just being
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: realistic about the possibility. Hey, a neighbor could kill him,
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: someone else could kill him, he could get hit by
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: a truck, And all these plans, all this work I've
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: done specifically to try to kill this one deer, I
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: can all go out the window. So I'm going to
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: and I already have. I've had like a little mental
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: conversation with myself saying, hey, this is a possibility. How
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: are you gonna handle that? What are you gonna do
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: when that happens? You're gonna sulk theman and give up
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: on the season, or you go into you know, regroup
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: and go find something else, somewhere else and find another
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: fun thing to do for this season. So I've kind
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: of already tried to mentally prepare myself for that so
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: that when it happens, if it happens, I'm not going
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: to be devastated and kicking and screaming on the floor.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna, you know, take the punch and move on.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: So that's all you can do to have that positive mindset,
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: but prepare for negative possibilities. I think that's something that
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: in so many parts of the deer hunting experience, can
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: help you. What else do you want to talk about, Josh?
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: How about here's a high level one that again this
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: isn't rocket science, this is nothing new to anyone, but
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: it's something that I think you just had to get
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: knocked on the head with over and over and over
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: and over with it, which is, don't get lazy with
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: your access in your exit. Don't cut your corners when
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: it comes to getting into your tree stands or out
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: of your tree stands without spooking deer, because if you're
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: educating your deer, this goes right back to the very
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: first thing we talked about. The first said is the best.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: You don't get a first set if you let them
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: know you're coming in on the way you're there, and
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: you don't get to enjoy future first sets if every
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: deer in your property knows that you're leaving at the
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: end of the night and walking through a cut corn
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: field and you're spooking fifty deer every single night. You
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: gotta have a plan in place for how to deal
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: with access and exit. So today, when we hiked in,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: we had we had to deal with slightly less than
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: optimal wins. We had a plan for how we're going
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: to access this as best as possible, thinking about when
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: thinking about send control. And then when we had to
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: exit tonight, you and me were talking through, Okay, how
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: do we get out of here? What spooking these deer
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: that got to these fields? You wait a while, I'm
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: gonna sneak out this back way a little bit um.
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: You just don't want to bust these deer. And again,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: I'm not claiming this to be rocket science. This is
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: just a hey, this is your once this week reminder.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: You gotta take it serious. Yep. Well, especially like just
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: to go into a little bit about tonight, I mean,
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: first hit really good. Sit made some great observations that
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: we can use to our advantage tomorrow, which could potentially
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: be another quote unquote first hit in a little different spot,
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: mix it up a little bit, um, move and adjust
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: our setups to what the deer are doing. Similar win directions.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: So we you know, I had a deer all over me,
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: so I just had to wait to get out of there. Um,
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: try to get out there as quiet as we can
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: so we don't muck it all up for tomorrow. Well yeah,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: and that's the thing is that you have. We had
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: this great first set, We had this great observation with
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: great new intelligence, this new scouting intel that we can
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: use to hopefully put a kill, make it happen tomorrow.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: But if we got lazy with our exit, we could
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: throw all that out the door, because we might educate
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: all those deer and then tomorrow they're gonna do something
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: totally different. So it's one of those things that can
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: just have this really disproportionate effect. It can really change things.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: It can take all your hard work and and just
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: stomp on it like grapes. So oh so, don't let
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: that be the crux that ruins what you're doing. And
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: it's it's again it goes back to planning these things
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: out ahead of time. Think through, Okay, what's the challenge
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: of getting in or out of here? And how do
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: I count for that? Is this the spot I just
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: can't hunt in the night, in the air, starry in
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: the evenings. Is this the spot I just can't go
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: to in the mornings. Is this a spot that I
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: have to convince my wife to come drive out here
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: and pick me up? Um? Whatever you gotta do. Think
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: about those things and understand that it's it's something that
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: has to be part of every decision when it comes
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: to picking where you're hunting and when you're hunting. That
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: has to be at the very forefront of that decision
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: making process. How many does that, Josh, I don't know.
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: I was about to ask you how many we've gone through?
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: You know what I did here is I wrote down
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: more than ten. I got on a roll and I
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: just started writing things down. So I don't even know.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: Let me see here. Um one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: eight two more two more. Okay, Uh. This is one
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: more tactical thing, and it's a little bit of a
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: it's nothing too special, tricky, but something that's helped me
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: out in a lot of situations. And this is the
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: idea of the It's it's easy to get tunnel vision
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: with the places that you hunt. You can get so
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: focused on the little the spots you hunt and the
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: property that you hunt, that you what's the saying you
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: you missed the forest for the trees. You don't zoom
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: out and look at the bigger picture. So my reminder
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: to everybody is to remember to look at the big picture.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: Don't get too obsessed with these two trails and how
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: dear getting between that little ravine and that swallow or
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: that swell. That's important, But also what you can do
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: is zoom out, literally zoom out on the maps and
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: look at how your little property fits into the bigger
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: scheme of things, or look at your property with new
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: eyes and try to say, Okay, if I had never
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: hunted this place and I was looking at this as
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: a brand new property from above, what would I think
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: where the places that look particular appealing? Because if you've
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: got twenty years of history in place, it's very easy
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: to get sucked into the same old, same old stuff.
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: And this is what grandpa there, that's what we did,
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: and this is what we do, or this is what
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: has always worked for me. But getting those fresh eyes
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: on a property and and looking at it from a
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: high level and trying to start the simplest and then
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: work down it's a really powerful way to come to
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: new ideas. So that's something like before the hunting season
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: opens or soon after. I'd encourage everyone to try to
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: to try to do this, to try to look at
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: your spots, whether it's a public land area or your
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: land that you own or least or have permission on.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: Try to try to as best as you can. This
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: is against like a mental exercise. You can't completely do this,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: but try to say, Okay, if I didn't know anything
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: about this, if I was looking at this as a
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: brand new place, what would the spots be that a
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: key in on? Or how do I think deer moved
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: through here? Or how does this property fit into the
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: square mile? Or how did dear get from that corner
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: of the square mile to this corner of the square mile.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: You might start to see trends or ideas or patterns
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: that could help you in your little tunnel vision world,
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: but you never would notice if you only lived in
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: that tunnel vision world. So look at the big picture.
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: And that's number nine. Number ten. I think we will.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: I've got three good ones to choose from, Josh, I'm
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: just gonna say them all. I'm gonna call this ten.
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: Execute on the plan. You know what to do if
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: you listen to this podcast, if you love this kind
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: of stuff. You know, most of the things you're supposed
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: to do. I say this a lot, but this is
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: one of the hardest things we have as hunters. And
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: it goes back to the whole. Little things matter the whole.
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: Every inch counts. It's doing the ship that you you
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: know has to get done. But it's hard to do.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: It's hard to do all the little stuff. It's hard
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: to get up early. It's hard to make sure you
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: packed everything and double checked. It's hard to wake up
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: eight days in a row. It's hard to walk that
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: extra half mile to make sure you're not blown deer
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: out of the field. All those things are hard. What's
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: easy is to skip things. What's easy is to say
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: it'll be fine today. What's easy is to say it's
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: raining outside, I'm gonna watch college football unless you like
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: the big time. Um, you know, but if you can
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: make this promise to yourself, and every year I try
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: to do it, and I'm never I'm not I'm never
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: perfect at this, and maybe some people are. I'm not perfect.
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: I can't nail this all the time. But every year
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: I try to have kind of a mental little pep talk,
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: you know, at the beginning of the season, and then
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: usually at the beginning of the run, like, hey, you
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: gotta do better than you did last year. At least
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: execute on this thing. And you know the things to do.
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: You have a plan, You've done the work. Now you
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: just have to follow through on it. And maybe maybe
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: you don't try to, you know, bite it all off
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: at one time. Pick pick the one or two things
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: that you know you really struggle with the most that
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: consistently every year that you struggle with. Pick those and
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: and try to fix those this year, and then maybe
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: pick something else next year, and you know you'll get
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: that ball rolling downhill and you'll be good to go. Yeah,
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: And that applies to all of these ideas, right, A
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: lot of different high level, little little reminders here. And
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: I don't think any of us could probably try to
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: focus on all of these, but if each one of
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: us could pick one of these things to really focus
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: on this year and make a real tangible difference there
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: here all of a sudden, I having a better deer
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: hunting season, Which brings me to the last thing, which
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: is something that Andre du Cuisto talked about a week
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago on the podcast, and it
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: really stuck with me was this idea of trying to
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: overcome our fear of failure. And it's something that I
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: realized as he was talking about this, that I've had
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: a lot over the last decade as I've learned more
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: and more about, you know, hunting mature bucks. I don't
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: know what the twelve thirteen years ago now on my
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: thirty three, I was about twenty. Yeah, so about thirteen
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: years ago I decided I'm gonna start try to start
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: shooting big old bucks. And the first things I read
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: and many of the people that I was learning from
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: early on, it was all about how to not screw up.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: And and some of the things we've talked about today
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: are related to how to not screw up, how to
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: keep tear from getting educated. That's very important. But at
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: the same time, back to the baseball analogy, if you
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: constantly are bunting because it's like a safe thing to do,
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: you're never gonna hit a home run home run. Sometimes
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: you do have to take that swing. Sometimes you do
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: have to get aggressive, and that comes with experience, It
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: comes with time, it comes with knowing the right time
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: to strike um. But I'm working on this year to
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: try to not be so afraid to fail and instead
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: be a little bit more I'm not sure what the
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: right word is, but prepared to succeed or or or
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: reaching for the success. Sometimes you gotta go get it.
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: You can't always wait for it to come to you.
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: It's it's like there's two approaches. There's the weight around
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: and just don't r up enough until the deer makes
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: a mistake approach, or there is a go for it,
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: go for it, go for it until you get the success.
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: And you make a bunch of mistakes along the way,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: You screw up a bunch of stuff along the way.
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: But if you swing for the fences enough times, you
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: will get that home run. And you only need one
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: home run a year to be a pretty happy hunter. Um.
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of circumstantial stuff that can change how
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: you actually execute on this. You're like, you don't want
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: to go hunt betting areas every single time. If you
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: have a twenty property, that's the only thing you can hunt. Um,
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: But I do think there are opportunities, at least speaking
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: for myself, where I can get more aggressive in the
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: smart way, in a well planned way. UM that in
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: the past I was probably you know, worried that's that's
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: too risky, or that's you know, too aggressive for this
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: time of year, for this kind of property, for the state. UM.
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: But maybe that's a lot of just what other people
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: are telling me. UM. Why not go learn those things
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: for yourself and see if you can pull it off,
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: and if you can't pull it off, what you learned
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: from it? Ask why after the situation learn from it.
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: Control what you can control, Let go of the things
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: you can't execute the damn plan. Be positive, but prepare
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: for the negative possibilities. And right up in a nice
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: little bow there, Mark, that was nice. If you can
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: do those things, you are set for quite possibly your
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: best your hunting season ever. Maybe that's literally, maybe that's
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: just emotionally or fun or whatever. But I do think
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: and I hope some of these ideas can help you out,
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: whether this is your first hunting season or your UM.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: I think there's some things in here that that each
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: and ever one of us could could think about a
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: little bit more. So those are my reminders leading the
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: hunting season. I'm excited for all of you. I I
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: I'm excited for myself. I'm excited for you, Josh, And
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: let's just give the people the story of what happened
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: tonight because we got to I know, we drove twenty
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: five hours straight from Michigan, all the way through the night.
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: We got to my place out here. UM, we did
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: some scouting on a property, lots of other hunter signed
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: a bunch of trail cameras tree stand UM. So that's
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: a little disheartening, but were prepared for this. Um ID
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: scouted several other places this summer. So I had one
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: place in particular that I was very excited about. UM.
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: I think I talked about so Dan on one episode,
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: but I'll just for those that aren't familiar, I coul
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: should have to be just a little bit. I. I
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: basically had been roaming Idaho looking for places where public
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: land intersected with river bottom cover, which is usually where
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: you find good white tailed populations out west. And then
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: I was trying to then verify that after after finding
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: these places on maps, and then I go and verify
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: in personally. Can you get access in here? UM doesn't
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: actually look like there's food around it the deer would
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: be feeding on. Can you hunt it with certain wind directions?
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: Are there actually deer in here? So I went and
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: visited a bunch of places, drove all over the place,
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: UM hiked in suddenly spots, and eventually found one of
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: them that I really liked. I snuck in there in
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: the last couple of hours of daylight, started seeing deer
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: crossing little opening. I hunkered down, watched this area for
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: a while. Then I stuck up to a field edge
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: right at the edge of the public and watch several
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: nice bucks and a bunch of deer go out in
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: the south alpha field. So right there I ascertained Number one,
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: there's quality deer on this piece of public land. Number two,
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: I figured out, hey, these deer going going to this field,
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: Here's where they're betting, here's where they're feeding. In a
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: general idea, and then I went and I left with
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: a little bit of daylight left, and when drove the
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: outside roads to see other food sources, to see, you know,
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: are there more deer coming to other fields? What's the
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: kind of big picture of what we have here as
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: a possibility that all led to us today. We checked
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: spot number one, determine there's some other people in there.
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: So the idea was, let's going to spot number two.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: I can tell you right out the gate that there's
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: gonna be deer probably feeding in the south Alpha field
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: and I'm pretty sure the betting on these you know
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: river bottom stuff over to the north. Um, and you
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: and I snuck in with the game plan to try
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: a first night hunt with what goals to observe and
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: learn and you know, still be in a position that
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: maybe we could get lucky in that number one. Yeah,
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: I think we we definitely put our We both put
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: ourselves in positions that I think we could potentially have
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: shot shot opportunities, but then also be able to kind
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: of see what's going on with the with this piece
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: of public land and what's going on with it and
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: what the deer how they're using it, and um, yeah,
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: I've had a I had a night like I don't
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: think I've ever had in the woods before, just with
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: NonStop action. Um and started off slow. I mean we
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: got in there pretty early, um, just to make sure
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: we had some time to check it out and knew
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: what we were doing and knew we were going and um,
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: but we had a geez, what was that maybe two
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: hours before dart first buck popped out in the off
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: Alfa field where you know it's going kind of slow
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: and then all of son. First dear came out, um,
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: and then from there on out it was just um
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: whirlwind of trying to keep track up the deer that
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: I saw on and trying to keep track of where
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: they were coming out, on how they were using the
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: betting area and coming out into the food source and um,
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: you know. And so to back up real quick, Josh,
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: just when we're explain how the two of us set
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: up differently, Um, we ad you set up kind of
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: on the edge of this field so that you could
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: shoot in the public land cover on our side, but
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: you could at least glass the half off the field
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: and the private land. The idea being that we really
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: wanted to know a, are there deer still coming out
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: to feed out here? And be if so, where are
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: they leaving the public land from. If we could figure
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: that out, then we would know one night number two
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: where to go set up. Yep. Um, so that's where
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: you went. I went back in the cover closer to
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: the betting areas to try to see, Okay, is this
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: where they are? I didn't know. Excuse me, we weren't
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: able to be out here for the first couple of
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: nights of the season. So we're in here nine, number
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: three of this season. So I was a little worried.
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: You know, I did a bunch of guys poundless the
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: first couple of nights, and all that bad defeat stuff
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: isn't gonna be happening as visibly out closer to the field.
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: We might have to be typed to the bedding air.
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: So I thought, you know, if you're on the observation,
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: standing near the food sources, you can see what's happening
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: out there. I could be a little tighter to the cover,
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: a little bit farther in, and we'll kind of see
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: which situation we're dealing with. And pretty quickly became apparent
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: that your situation was was pretty good, because I saw
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: some deer, but nothing like you saw. I saw two doors,
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: a fawn, a little six pointer, a spike, and like
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: a nice little two year o day pointer. Um. And
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: that was all about in the last hour of daylight
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: for me. Um. But that's what I saw. Like seven deer.
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: You saw seventy eight d deer or something. I couldn't.
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: I couldn't keep tracking. You've never had a night I've
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: never ever. I mean, every time I turned around there
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: was more deer like and I could tell there are
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: different ones because they kept feeding out into the middle
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: of the South Alpha fields. I mean by the time,
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: you know, daylight was gone and there there was eight
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: deer in that. I mean, it's crazy. I've never seen
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: anything like it. How many five or thirty? I saw
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: one bachelor group of ten bucks come out another seven
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: bucks just before uh last light, and I saw I
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: think I was keeping track on my phone. I think
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: I saw eight Bucks before those two groups. Um, you
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: can never say that I got a hole. You Yeah,
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: that you're right. I didn't put you in a bed
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: and you picked your own spot, but I certainly didn't know. No,
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: we you know, it was incredible. I mean just there's
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: deer coming out everywhere and trying to keep track of
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: where they were coming out and eventually just got okay.
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: I think maybe out of those or thirty bucks, maybe
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: three or four of them were like mature bucks that
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: like good shooter bucks. Um, and I want to take
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: a step back to just say this is absurd. Yeah,
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: it is not normal for most people or for us. UM,
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: I don't like, yeah, this is nuts. We've kind of
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: we've kind of stumbled on him and my scouting worked
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: out got a little lucky to found a little honey
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: hole here. That's hard to get to. You gotta walk
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: along ways on the road. It's relatively tough to access
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: public land in an area that not a whole lot
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: of people are interested in white tails. And you've got
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: good food and good cover. All these things kind of
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: line up to have this kind of underutilized resource. But
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: there's a whole bunch of deer and a bunch of
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: nice bucks. Um and knock on wood. We're in the middle,
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: and they see him healthy. I mean, we saw a
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: bunch of I saw a bunch of fawns, a bunch
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: of doughs with with twin fawns. And so that's exciting too,
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: from like a like a quality standpoint, like these animals
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: are getting the food that they need, and they've got
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: the security cover that they need him and get. They've
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: got everything right there and um, they don't have to
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: adventure very far for any of it. I don't think so. So.
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: So you were set up on the field, you had
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: a buck, he had one shot opportunity. I did, I did,
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: I passed, I passed a nice as the nine point
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: I think he's probably two and a half year old.
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: You know, my personal goals are like a three and
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: a half year old. And I was clipped in on
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: my bow and I was looking at I may regret
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: it later. I may regret it, regret it by the
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: end of the week, um if if another opportunity doesn't arise.
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: But um, yeah, I was. I was this close to
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: uh taking a shot tonight. Just um. I wasn't quite
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: ready to be done that in the first day after
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: that kind of action. So yeah. So everything else though,
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: was was kind of out of range by a little bit. Yeah,
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: most most things were out of range. Out of all
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: those dear, I think I maybe had I don't know,
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: five or six within range um. And then some of
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: that was on the private that the LFLFA field was
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: they couldn't shoot into there um, but there were a
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: few deer that would have been within range um there.
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I think maybe five to six deer, we're
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: probably within range. And then everything else was I don't know,
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: you know, some stuff was way out and some stuff
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: was within a hundred yards. So some microadjustments I think
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: to what I want to do tomorrow, and I should be,
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: uh should be in the game. So I didn't see
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: anything I was interested in shooting where I was at,
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: So I'm making a wholesale move to a new area.
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: But you saw several bucks that you would like to shoot,
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: So walk me through your game plan for tomorrow. So
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: we got a couple of things to think about. One
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: of the things we didn't talk about was we did
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: have another hunter in there tonight. UM. I don't know
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: when he came in. I never saw him come in.
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: You never saw or heard him come in, UM, but
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: come Yeah, we just saw him riding a bike like
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: a mountain bike on the way out that I could
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: see about binoculars. He had a bow in his lap
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: and that was like fifteen minutes before shooting light ended.
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: So that was one of those things. Jeez, you know,
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: I might as well start packing up now. And no
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: later did he go driving out? Did a bachelor group
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: of seven bucks come out right where he rode his
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: bike through, Um, two of those being good shooter, you know, nice,
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: really solid eight points UM within minutes after he left.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: So UM, I don't know where exactly he was at,
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: but I think my plan is to um move up
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: on a little bit towards the betting area and further
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: towards the east of where these deer were coming. They
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: were they were coming out into the field about seventy
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: yards from where I was set up. So if I
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: can cut that distance down and then move a little
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: further back into the cover, I'd like to try to
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: intercept them a little bit sooner. I mean, they came
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: out within the last couple of minutes of shooting light,
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: So if I can get back in there a little
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: deeper without spooking anything, UM, give myself a few, you know,
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: a few extra minutes of daylight, hopefully to to make
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: something happen. What's the conference level? UM, I'm pretty high.
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: I'm feeling and pretty good about it. Um, if you
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: had to place like a probability that you're gonna get
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: a shot tomorrow percentage wise, I don't like doing this.
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: I was gonna put ten bucks on it. I don't
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: you're putting me in a bad situation. I don't like
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: putting it because then I'm gonna have this pressure on myself.
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: I don't know what I mean, so many things can
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: go wrong. I mean, right now they're calling for the
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: same wind, and you know, will they do the same thing? Maybe?
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: Did they come out down there because they knew I
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: was in there, and they you know, it could be
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: a number of the why I don't know. I don't
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: know why they did that. Um Or is that just
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: the the trail they have been using for the last
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: couple of months in their summer feeding patterns. I don't know.
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: Um if they did exactly the same thing, and I
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: set myself up in a good you know, a tree
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: where I could have some multiple shot out pretty like
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: different lanes and things, I don't I don't know, confident man,
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: positive mindset. If there's seventy or eighty deer running around there,
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: maybe maybe it'll be some others that could get an
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: arrow as well. So, UM, I really see my target
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: rich environment. Yeah, I'm I'm really excited. I didn't have
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: nearly the night you had, but just hearing about your
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: experience has me so excited, just because a that makes
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: me feel great about my own possibilities, but then also
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: it's just gonna be fun to see you get an opportunity.
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: And now now that we say that's I probably won't
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: see a single deer tomorrow or something we don't believe
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: in jinx is. We don't believe any of that kind
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: of stuff. We're gonna see what happens, and if it
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: doesn't go well, we will adjust and adapt and we'll
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: figure out I forgot I did see a cow moose
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: to your grand of the night sounds kind of well,
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: it's pretty cool, cool cool critters man, big big animals.
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: All right, Josh, do you have any final thoughts before
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: wrap this one up? No, just I'm see if I can.
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: I should be able to get some sleep tonight, but
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: going on like thirty six straight hours and not much sleep,
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: but I'll be thinking about tomorrow afternoon. Everybody. If if
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: nothing we said here tonight makes any sense, just know
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: that's because we drove all the way through the night
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: and then hunted and worked all day today and it's
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: like almost midnight when we're recording this, and I think
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: we've neither one of us got more than two hours
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: over the last of sleep, two hours of sleep over
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: the last forty hours. So the fact that we have
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: coherently spoken for fifty nine minutes and fifty six seconds
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: I think is downright miraculous. So we just got a
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: good attitude and we've got the right mindset right exactly.
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: So um, yeah, with that said, I think I'll let
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: you guys get after it. For those of you that
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: are starting your hunting seasons this week or have over
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: the past couple of days, good luck get out there.
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: I hope you can take some of these things into
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: account and find them helpful. You know one thing I
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: didn't mention and should have mentioned, one of the very
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: most important things on top of all these other reminders,
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: on top of all these other ideas, Ultimately, have fun.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: Enjoy it out there. Don't get too worked up, don't
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: get too stressed, don't make it work. Try to enjoy
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: this thing. Put food on the table, spend time with
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: your friends and family, and enjoy the great outdoors. This
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: is an awesome thing we get to do. It's a privilege,
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: it's a it's just good stuff. So best of luck,
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: enjoy it until next time. Stay wired to hunt.