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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your guide to

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Speaker 1: the Whitetail Woods, presented by First Light, creating proven versatile

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Speaker 1: hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First Light

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Speaker 1: Go farther, stay longer, and now your host, Mark Kenyon.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to the Wire to Hunt podcast. This week on

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Speaker 2: the show, I'm joined by Mike Reed of Midwest Whitetail

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Speaker 2: to discuss his incredible twenty twenty three hunting season and

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Speaker 2: late season tactics so you can put into action right now.

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Speaker 2: All right, welcome back to the Wired Hunt Podcast, brought

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Speaker 2: to you by First Light in the Camo for Conservation Initiative.

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Speaker 3: And here we are at.

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Speaker 2: The end of twenty twenty three. I believe this is

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Speaker 2: going to be our last episode of the year, and

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Speaker 2: I want to wrap it up here with another fun

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Speaker 2: episode looking back on this past season with a terrific hunter.

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Speaker 2: Our guests today mister Mike Reid. You likely know Mike

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Speaker 2: from Midwest White Tail. He's been a prominent figure on

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Speaker 2: the Midwest White Tail show for years and now I

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Speaker 2: believe he's one of the co owners. He is doing

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Speaker 2: all sorts of good work there, putting out daily blogs

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Speaker 2: and being a part of Chasing November and their main

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Speaker 2: season shows. You can follow so much of what he's

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Speaker 2: doing there, and he's doing it really, really well. Mike

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Speaker 2: had a incredible twenty twenty three season, killed his top

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Speaker 2: two target bucks, has had his family out there hunting

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Speaker 2: with him and helping them have success. So today in

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Speaker 2: the show, we actually end up talking about hunting with

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Speaker 2: kids and his experience with his family. We talk through

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Speaker 2: each of his successful hunts this year where he did

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Speaker 2: fill his tags there in Iowa, the lessons he learned,

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Speaker 2: the tactics he used. We dive into a lot of

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Speaker 2: how he approaches targeting one single buck, because that's something

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Speaker 2: he's really found a way to be successful at over

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Speaker 2: the years, consistently putting his tag on his top one

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Speaker 2: or two deer on the properties that he hunts.

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Speaker 3: We cover some of that.

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Speaker 2: We talk through some of the things that translate from

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Speaker 2: what he does now in Iowa to some of his

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Speaker 2: previous types of hunting setups back in the past when

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Speaker 2: he hunted in Louisiana or when he didn't own land,

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Speaker 2: so that's interesting. And then finally we wrap it all

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Speaker 2: up by discussing some of the tactics that can help

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Speaker 2: you and that have helped him in the past during

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Speaker 2: the late season. So if you're listening right now and

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Speaker 2: are trying to have some of that last minute luck

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Speaker 2: around the holidays or early in twenty twenty four, Mike's

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Speaker 2: got some ideas as well. So that's the game plan

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Speaker 2: for today. Let's get right into it. Let's not beat

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Speaker 2: around the bush, and let's get going.

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Speaker 3: With Mike Reid.

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Speaker 2: All right with me on the show is someone who

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Speaker 2: I've wanted to have on for a long time and

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Speaker 2: just hasn't happened yet for some reason. I'm very glad

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Speaker 2: to introduce mister Mike Reed. Thanks for being here.

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Speaker 3: Hey, thanks for having me man.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I've been, you know, following what you've been doing

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Speaker 2: and all the guys in Midwest White Tail for a

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Speaker 2: long time now, and uh, and you've been on that

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Speaker 2: list I have of guys that we just got to

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Speaker 2: get on the show eventually. So I'm glad this worked

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Speaker 2: out and under good circumstances too. You've had a heck

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Speaker 2: of a year.

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Speaker 3: Huh. Yeah, it's been one that I think we're gonna

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Speaker 3: have a tough time beating for a while. Between myself

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Speaker 3: having a great season, but just the kids and the family.

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Speaker 3: It's been one that'll be tough to top for sure.

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Speaker 2: What's that been like as the kids have gotten more

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Speaker 2: and more in hunting, and has that forced you to

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Speaker 2: re shift priorities at all or how much time you're spending?

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Speaker 2: How do you handle that?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure, I think naturally it's what I want.

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Speaker 3: You know, My interest in hunting has just progressed over time,

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Speaker 3: and now to sort of building that desire in my

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Speaker 3: kids and teaching them. And so, you know, my oldest

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Speaker 3: as twelve, and she picked up a bow this year

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Speaker 3: actually last year, started practicing with the bow and we

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Speaker 3: were able to make some hunts with the bow this year,

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Speaker 3: and she's become a really proficient hunter, a patient hunter.

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Speaker 3: She's had great success. And I'm trying to build up

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Speaker 3: that woodsmanship in her and some of the scouting and

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Speaker 3: some of the stuff that my grandfather taught me and

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Speaker 3: you know, pounding out on Louisiana Public Ground. And you know, now,

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Speaker 3: Ryan and I actually were just talking a couple hours

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Speaker 3: ago about what next year is going to look like

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Speaker 3: as my you know, so my twelve ten eight year

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Speaker 3: old girls, my twins are going to be six in February,

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Speaker 3: and I said, you know, I Brian, my eight year

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Speaker 3: old killed two bucks this year. I just killed her

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Speaker 3: second one a week ago, and Bellas killed two. My

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Speaker 3: ten year old is circling back saying, I think I

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Speaker 3: want to go again. She shot one when she was seven,

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Speaker 3: and I want to be like my mother. Two sisters

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Speaker 3: and the boys are chomping at the bid. I was like,

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Speaker 3: there's no way I'm going to be able to take five. Ryan,

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Speaker 3: my wife trying to help me. It's it's a lot

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Speaker 3: of fun, though. It just is so much fun, and

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Speaker 3: I get way more I think, enjoyment out of that

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Speaker 3: than even you know, hunting for myself. I think it's

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Speaker 3: just it's just a lot of fun. To see their excitement.

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Speaker 2: It's so cool man, so so great. It's it makes

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Speaker 2: everything new again for you. You know. That's what I

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Speaker 2: found is we kind of get we take so much

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Speaker 2: for granted right after doing this for so many years,

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Speaker 2: and we get so deep into it and kind of

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Speaker 2: obsessed with the deer, we're after YadA, YadA, YadA, and

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Speaker 2: then you take out your kid and all of a

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Speaker 2: sudden they see the squirrel next to the tree and

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Speaker 2: are like, that's amazing.

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Speaker 3: That it's amazing. Yeah, so good.

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Speaker 4: You need that.

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Speaker 3: Oh it's beautiful. Yeah. It just rekindles a lot of things.

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Speaker 3: And you know, I want my kids to enjoy the outdoors,

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Speaker 3: and so to see them like Bella this year getting

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Speaker 3: in a tree stand for the first time, being in

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Speaker 3: the timber and being like mass squirrel is three feet

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Speaker 3: away and got turkeys and pheasants and deer and and

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Speaker 3: just every time she turns around, why I'd be like,

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Speaker 3: you know, it's just it's just so enjoyable.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So, so now they're on this topic, I've I've

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Speaker 2: got to pry you for some info. Info they'll help me. So,

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Speaker 2: like I've told you before we start recording, I've got

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Speaker 2: a three year old and a five year old. They're

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Speaker 2: just about four and six, and they both want to

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Speaker 2: go all the time. And the six year old almost

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Speaker 2: six year old is gung ho and like is getting

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Speaker 2: good as far as being able to control himself out there,

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Speaker 2: being able to stay quiet. He's into it all. The

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Speaker 2: four year old is manic right as most three slash

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Speaker 2: four year olds would be. So one of the things

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Speaker 2: I've struggled with or just thought about a lot of

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Speaker 2: guests is trying to find this balancing act when you

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Speaker 2: take them out, whether it's hunting or camping trip or whatever,

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Speaker 2: balancing this idea of keeping it fun right. You want

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Speaker 2: them to enjoy the thing so they want to keep

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Speaker 2: doing it.

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Speaker 3: But then I.

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Speaker 2: Also have found, or at least maybe this is just me,

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Speaker 2: but I've thought that hunting and the outdoors and things

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Speaker 2: like that are opportunities for growth in a kid too, right,

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Speaker 2: learning mental toughness, or learning how to persevere, or learning

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Speaker 2: how to deal with a little bit of discomfort. How

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Speaker 2: have you navigated that with your kids? You've been through

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Speaker 2: a bunch. Now you're ahead of me. Is that something

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Speaker 2: that you've ever thought about at all? Or do you

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Speaker 2: lean one way or the other?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? I think you hit the nail on the head

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Speaker 3: as far as growth. I mean, not only are they

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Speaker 3: learning actual useful information and how to harvest food from

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Speaker 3: the land and be self sustaining and all these types

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Speaker 3: of things, but you know it's challenging, right, How many

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Speaker 3: six year olds have put a pack on and climbed

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Speaker 3: up a big hill, you know? And I try to

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Speaker 3: use little moments like that say hey, there are a

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Speaker 3: lot of things we have to work for. It's hard,

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Speaker 3: It's okay if it hurts a little, it's okay to

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Speaker 3: you know, suffer a little and have a challenge that

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Speaker 3: you overcome. And I actually use it a lot in

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Speaker 3: everyday life talking to them about you know, if they're

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Speaker 3: whining about something or crying about you know this I

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Speaker 3: got to out or something, I'm like, hey, you know

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Speaker 3: you you we talked about going elk hunting. We talked

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Speaker 3: about going out west in the mountains and and how

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Speaker 3: tough you have to be to go and do that

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Speaker 3: for a week in the mountains, and you know, sometimes

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Speaker 3: you got to suck it up and like it's okay

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Speaker 3: to push through some pain. And you know, I think

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Speaker 3: it's hard to get that in other places in life.

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Speaker 3: That Aldre certainly offers some opportunity there, and I definitely

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Speaker 3: try to, you know, capitalize on those.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's the truth. So does does anyone in

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Speaker 2: the family still have tags for the late season?

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Speaker 3: Yes? Yeah, actually so the second split of archery and

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Speaker 3: late musslower and I would just opened up today actually

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Speaker 3: and Bella, so my wife got a landor and tag

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Speaker 3: and filled his first shotgun tag, so she technically could

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Speaker 3: get a late Muzzy tag. But she's she's usually happy

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Speaker 3: with one Bella. I offered her, you know, she got

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Speaker 3: a Kansas buck and then a youth buck and so

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Speaker 3: she can get a late Muzzy tag. And I had

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Speaker 3: offered her, like do you want second gun and go

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Speaker 3: with the three point fifty or do you want to

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Speaker 3: go Late Muzzy with the crossbow. And she was like,

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Speaker 3: I want to go Late Muzzy just because she gets

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Speaker 3: two weeks off of school and she'll she'll want to

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Speaker 3: go every day.

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Speaker 2: That's so great.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So I was like, okay, all right, you'll get

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Speaker 3: And then I asked my third daughter, brind I said,

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Speaker 3: do you also want to wait for Late Muzzy or

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Speaker 3: do you want to get the second shotgun? And she

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Speaker 3: went ahead and got second shotgun and two sits in,

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Speaker 3: got a buck last Sunday and so she's done. And

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Speaker 3: so yeah, my daughter Anna Cat, she hasn't hundred in

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Speaker 3: three years. As I mentioned, she she has a late

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Speaker 3: Muzzy tag, and then Bello will have a late Muzzy

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Speaker 3: tag and myself and you know, so that's gonna from

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Speaker 3: here until the end. I take every day off, every

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Speaker 3: afternoon off, starting January first, get I get busy at

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Speaker 3: work the end of the year, and so we hurt

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Speaker 3: we hunt the holidays. You know, it's kind of a

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Speaker 3: family affair. We'll all be out there on Christmas, even

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Speaker 3: Christmas Day and all that, so those days will be good.

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Speaker 3: But then starting New Year's that ten day stretch will

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Speaker 3: gover afternoon. Wow, there's still there's still plenty of plenty

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Speaker 3: of hunting to be had for the Reid plan.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, with all these kids, I feel like you're

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Speaker 2: you're like running an outfitter, Like you've got so many,

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Speaker 2: so many people to put here and figure this out.

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Speaker 2: I mean, you've got a lot of balls in the

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Speaker 2: air trying to figure who goes where and when, and

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Speaker 2: you've got an interesting hunting situation there in a.

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Speaker 3: Way, and it's it's been something that it's a little

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Speaker 3: challenging the balance. I said, you know, there's no way

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Speaker 3: we can all continue to shoot this many deer. I

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Speaker 3: mean I've bought land and invested in land and tried

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Speaker 3: to diversify and get good pieces that have good caring

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Speaker 3: capacity and can carry a lot of deer, and a

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Speaker 3: lot of them. I don't shoot anything the first three

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Speaker 3: years I own them. I just try to get the

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Speaker 3: age structure really up, and we're pretty nitpicky. Even the kids.

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Speaker 3: They from the time they were little, we talk about

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Speaker 3: what we actually go after, and they always say, we

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Speaker 3: want to shoot Grandpa deer, and I'm like, exactly, So

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Speaker 3: you know, if a buck comes out like it's not

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Speaker 3: a Grandpa deer, and I'm like, that one's not a

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Speaker 3: Grandpa dear, We'll go ahead and keep waiting. And it's

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Speaker 3: not because I have good age structure and I haven't.

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Speaker 3: You know, they don't have giant racks, but there's plenty

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Speaker 3: of five year old type plus year between the properties,

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Speaker 3: and it's been a luxury. It's been a blessing for

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Speaker 3: sure to be able to say, okay, you know we

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Speaker 3: can we can go in harvest and a lot of them,

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Speaker 3: I mean the kids. We'll shoot some four year olds

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Speaker 3: and things like that. I mean, obviously a first year

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Speaker 3: is difference kind of go shoot whatever. But I try

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Speaker 3: to start fairly early thinking about conservation and the herd management.

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Speaker 3: And it's been a challenge though to set up enough

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Speaker 3: spots that you can say crossbow hunt out of, because

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Speaker 3: when they're real little, they're not super interested in the gun.

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Speaker 3: I almost ruined my oldest daughter with the gun getting

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Speaker 3: on a muzzled or when she was six and she

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Speaker 3: killed one, but then she was seven it kind of

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Speaker 3: got her. And well, I've really taking a step back saying, look,

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Speaker 3: whenever you guys are ready, and that crossbow has been

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Speaker 3: a blessing to be able to take them. Doesn't make noise,

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Speaker 3: doesn't kick. I just got to get them within forty

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Speaker 3: which obviously that's a challenge, especially late season.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, So what's that age that you found? This

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Speaker 2: podcast a whole different direction than I originally planned. But

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Speaker 2: I'm so interested because my kids are great there. We

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Speaker 2: don't have an age limit anymore in Michigan as far

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Speaker 2: as your minimum age. They can start going as soon

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Speaker 2: as they want, as long as they're a parent or mentor.

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Speaker 2: And so my five year old almost six year old

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Speaker 2: boy for two years. But I can do it dead,

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Speaker 2: I can do it. I'm like, no, we're in a

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Speaker 2: wait a while. But what I've struggled thinking through what

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Speaker 2: that right age will be and is there a difference

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Speaker 2: between when he physically can pull the trigger accurately versus

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Speaker 2: when he's like mentally ready. Just thought about that a lot.

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Speaker 2: How have you gone about you know that decision with

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Speaker 2: your kids.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's interesting. It's it's I think it's different for

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Speaker 3: every kid, you know, and I even think probably between

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Speaker 3: boys and girls it's probably a little bit different. I mean,

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Speaker 3: I feel like my boys are they're doing that boy

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Speaker 3: thing where they just want to shoot all the time.

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Speaker 3: They love shooting the twenty two. They love it just

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Speaker 3: you know, target acquisition, getting a good site picture, doing

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Speaker 3: all that kind of stuff. Belle wa' be in my first.

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Speaker 3: You know, I just cultivated it into her and I

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Speaker 3: felt very comfortable when she was six. You know, Anna

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Speaker 3: went when she was seven, and when we did it,

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Speaker 3: I was like, oh, that's probably a little bit early. Brin.

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Speaker 3: When when she was six, I was like, it's definitely

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Speaker 3: too early. I mean she was just in the blind

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Speaker 3: doing all this and you know, late season in a

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Speaker 3: blind with the heater, with some hot chocolate and snacks

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Speaker 3: and like a puzzle and some books and like trying

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Speaker 3: to make it very very fun. But say, you know,

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Speaker 3: let's get up and count the deer. Let's talk about

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Speaker 3: the deer. You know, it's interesting. I think your situation,

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Speaker 3: it matters what you're going to put a kid into.

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Speaker 3: They gotta be comfortable. It's got to be fun. It

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Speaker 3: can't be too long. And I definitely started like last year,

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Speaker 3: I didn't take brand when she was seven. This year

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Speaker 3: at eight, I mean, she's totally ready in the zone,

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Speaker 3: knows how to get focused. And you know, some of

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Speaker 3: my kids are a little more eightyd than the others,

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Speaker 3: and so that's fluctuated with with how I might approach

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Speaker 3: you know, them individually, And it's hard to know the

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Speaker 3: right answer because I've had buddies take their five year

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Speaker 3: olds and just knock it out of the park. But

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Speaker 3: you know, with my kids, I kind of tiptoed around

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Speaker 3: that six seven age mark and sort of feel better

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Speaker 3: a little bit older, like come, come sit in the blind,

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Speaker 3: come watch, but you need to sort of show me

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Speaker 3: that you can do it before I just turn you loose.

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Speaker 2: Right, And what about the age when they've actually been

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Speaker 2: able to pull the trigger and do that? Well, has

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Speaker 2: that been like that six seven mark or seven?

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Speaker 3: Bella was six and it was seven and Brent was six.

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Speaker 3: On the crossbow. That crossbow, you know, it's a little

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Speaker 3: tiny one, it's compact and it fits them. And of

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Speaker 3: course we do lots of practicing at the house until

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Speaker 3: I feel like you can get a good group. We

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Speaker 3: study deer pictures where to aim. I make them take

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Speaker 3: a pencil and put marks, you know, and I'm very

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Speaker 3: selective about when I would give them the green light.

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Speaker 3: You know. Both my first two did really well, no issues.

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Speaker 3: My third daughter, she kind of was arguing with me

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Speaker 3: in the blind, you know, years old, and there's a

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Speaker 3: beer at forty and I'm like, just use the forty dots.

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Speaker 3: She's like, I want to use a twenty dot and

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Speaker 3: I'm like, uh, well, I'm shooting this dough right here,

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Speaker 3: you know. And then I'm like there's deer walking and

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Speaker 3: moving and she's all over the place. I was like, wait, okay, everybody,

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Speaker 3: just take a step back. Let's stop for a second,

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Speaker 3: wait for a night, let's make sure we're shooting the

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Speaker 3: right one. And you know. So, I think it is

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Speaker 3: different for each kid, but and the gun, I've wanted

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Speaker 3: to wait until they just feel super comfortable shooting the gun.

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Speaker 3: Tak them some out turkey hunting where it's not so

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Speaker 3: much chaos. But yeah, I think that six seven range

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Speaker 3: has worked well for me. The boys are certainly beating

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Speaker 3: on the door. They're five, and they really want to go,

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Speaker 3: and I'm like, I want them to wait one more year,

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Speaker 3: just because it's hard to take five kids.

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Speaker 2: I can imagine.

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Speaker 3: For the gun helped me out.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, seriously, got to get the whole crew. They're just

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Speaker 2: taking out the kids. You mentioned a three point fifty

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Speaker 2: and you mentioned a muzzleoader has been Has the three

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Speaker 2: fifty been the best option for the young kids or

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Speaker 2: what did you started them most? Y?

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Speaker 3: So I I had a muzzleoader and I got kind

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Speaker 3: of loaded it down, you know, fifty grains and keep

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Speaker 3: the shot close. And that's just because that's all I

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Speaker 3: had at the time when Bella that was that was

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Speaker 3: six years ago. Since then, Iowa change the law where

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Speaker 3: you can use a smooth wall cartridge rifle during youth

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Speaker 3: and shotgun, and you can't do it during late muzzleloader

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Speaker 3: or early muzzloder, but youth and shotgun. And I got

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Speaker 3: a little youth three fifty and I really had the

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Speaker 3: recommendation of a bunch of my buddies just saying, and

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Speaker 3: the gun shops and that's a great youth gun and

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Speaker 3: they shoot it very well, very consistently out to one hundred,

348
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Speaker 3: great group and they don't complain about the recoil, and

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Speaker 3: so to me, I don't have a lot of experience

350
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Speaker 3: with a lot of other but you know, at the

351
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Speaker 3: recommendation of a lot of people, tried it and I

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Speaker 3: have really loved it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I've got one of those. You can use those

354
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Speaker 2: in southern Michigan during our rifle season, and I thought

355
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Speaker 2: the same thing. Perfect for someone young. I mean, no

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Speaker 2: recoil light, easy to use, Yeah, strong choice, very effect.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. And I mean to put them down too.

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Speaker 2: It does, it does the job. You don't need more, Yeah,

359
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Speaker 2: you really don't need more. So what about your season?

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Speaker 2: So you've had the kids out, they've had some success.

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Speaker 2: I've seen for sure, you've taken two of your target bucks.

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Speaker 2: Have you taken anything else?

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Speaker 3: Or is that? That's you know? Here in Iowa, I

364
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Speaker 3: used to do urban. I stopped doing urban a few

365
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Speaker 3: years ago when I first moved up here, just my

366
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Speaker 3: job was so labor intensive that I couldn't get out

367
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Speaker 3: of town hardly. So I started doing urban. It was

368
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Speaker 3: a nice way to manage the population but and get

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Speaker 3: an extra tag. But essentially, in Iowa, you get an

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Speaker 3: archery tag, you get a statewide and then you get

371
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Speaker 3: a landowner to choose either archery or gun, and so

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Speaker 3: I usually get a landowner archery and a statewide archery.

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Speaker 3: And uh, yeah, I took down DK on October thirtieth

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Speaker 3: buck that I kind of come into the season. He

375
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Speaker 3: was gonna be my primary target. And really before we

376
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Speaker 3: even got going with the with the rut, he comes

377
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Speaker 3: strolling in and in a in a spot that I've

378
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Speaker 3: had a lot of good luck with on my river

379
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Speaker 3: Bottom farm and a spot I called the pinch. It's

380
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Speaker 3: just a great natural, little funnel area. And yeah, he

381
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Speaker 3: just walks into twenty yards and you know, yeah, I

382
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Speaker 3: hut some deer for years and you know, can't even

383
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Speaker 3: get him within fifty you know, but that one worked

384
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Speaker 3: out pretty well.

385
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Speaker 2: So we got to rewind that a little bit. Mike, Yeah, sure,

386
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Speaker 2: because because you, like you mentioned, you've hunted some of

387
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Speaker 2: these deer for years, and while some of them have

388
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Speaker 2: taken you a while, I mean, you've any deer that

389
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Speaker 2: makes it on your hit list is in big trouble,

390
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Speaker 2: it seems like for for a long time now. I'm

391
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Speaker 2: I mean you've gotten your target bucks or one of

392
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Speaker 2: the bucks on your list, or several of the bucks

393
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Speaker 2: on your list every year, So you've you've really seemed

394
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Speaker 2: to have nailed down this process of like figuring out

395
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Speaker 2: a specific buck. So that's something I love to do,

396
00:19:14,240 --> 00:19:16,720
Speaker 2: and I guess I'm just curious about what that process

397
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Speaker 2: has evolved into for you now after you've done this

398
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Speaker 2: for so long, you have a system that obviously is

399
00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:25,199
Speaker 2: working now, like, yeah, maybe with DK as an example,

400
00:19:25,600 --> 00:19:27,480
Speaker 2: or if one of these other bucks is a better example,

401
00:19:27,680 --> 00:19:29,600
Speaker 2: can you kind of walk me through how you go

402
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Speaker 2: about kind of putting that entire plan in place to

403
00:19:33,800 --> 00:19:35,359
Speaker 2: dial it in and kill that one deer.

404
00:19:36,200 --> 00:19:38,560
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, And it's I mean a lot of it

405
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Speaker 3: goes back to history. I have been very fortunate and

406
00:19:42,240 --> 00:19:45,840
Speaker 3: be successful over the last good bunch of years, at

407
00:19:45,880 --> 00:19:48,080
Speaker 3: least the last five years. When I really started saying

408
00:19:48,119 --> 00:19:51,840
Speaker 3: I'm going to just hunt this dear, just enjoying the chase, right,

409
00:19:52,040 --> 00:19:53,840
Speaker 3: I used to start to add my list of these

410
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Speaker 3: are all my shooters on the farm, any buck that's

411
00:19:55,960 --> 00:19:58,480
Speaker 3: five or older, and I was pretty happy to take

412
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Speaker 3: any of them. And then over time I kind of say, well,

413
00:20:01,040 --> 00:20:03,400
Speaker 3: let's make it a fun chase and go after one.

414
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Speaker 3: And you know, I am fortunate since I own the

415
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Speaker 3: property and I've owned the river bottom since twenty seventeen

416
00:20:12,960 --> 00:20:15,960
Speaker 3: and the home farm since twenty eighteen. Now to have

417
00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:19,159
Speaker 3: years of history, probably what works the best for me

418
00:20:19,240 --> 00:20:21,439
Speaker 3: is I get to sort of pick up on these

419
00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:24,399
Speaker 3: deer when you are three, you know, and then four

420
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Speaker 3: and I'm just not going to shoot him then, you know,

421
00:20:26,520 --> 00:20:29,480
Speaker 3: and I'm I'm watching them and learning a lot about

422
00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:31,840
Speaker 3: their moving patterns, where they like to be, what times

423
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Speaker 3: a year. And I mean I knew DK pretty well

424
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Speaker 3: because we've got four years of history with him and

425
00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:42,080
Speaker 3: where he likes to be, and so coming into the year,

426
00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:46,120
Speaker 3: I just designed my plan around that, you know, where

427
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Speaker 3: am I going to put food, where I'm going to

428
00:20:47,600 --> 00:20:49,239
Speaker 3: set up my spots, How am I try to get

429
00:20:49,280 --> 00:20:53,520
Speaker 3: him early? And then you got your good natural rut

430
00:20:53,560 --> 00:20:55,520
Speaker 3: spots that if you sit there enough and they're in

431
00:20:55,560 --> 00:20:58,280
Speaker 3: the area, you should probably encounter them. And then I

432
00:20:58,320 --> 00:21:00,520
Speaker 3: always fall back on late season, you know, if I

433
00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:04,360
Speaker 3: had a good good amount of time to have success

434
00:21:04,359 --> 00:21:06,200
Speaker 3: growing my crop and my food plots. You know, the

435
00:21:06,520 --> 00:21:09,600
Speaker 3: river bottoms of Wetland, So there's a lot of rules

436
00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:13,159
Speaker 3: and I have a compatibility use agreement with the NRCS

437
00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:15,280
Speaker 3: that allows me to put five percent of the property

438
00:21:15,320 --> 00:21:18,240
Speaker 3: into food plot and so it's not there's no agg

439
00:21:18,359 --> 00:21:21,600
Speaker 3: there as far as just I planted one hundred acres,

440
00:21:21,600 --> 00:21:23,800
Speaker 3: I combine eighty and I left twenty standing. I mean,

441
00:21:23,840 --> 00:21:27,040
Speaker 3: I've got five percent and it can and I mix

442
00:21:27,119 --> 00:21:30,800
Speaker 3: it between green and grain. But the deer population is

443
00:21:30,880 --> 00:21:34,560
Speaker 3: so high there and I'm still working on that. It's

444
00:21:34,560 --> 00:21:37,200
Speaker 3: hard to grow grain, you know, So I do sorghum,

445
00:21:37,280 --> 00:21:40,320
Speaker 3: and I do beans and corn, and I got to

446
00:21:40,400 --> 00:21:43,040
Speaker 3: fence it and then it's just been a it's been

447
00:21:43,080 --> 00:21:45,359
Speaker 3: a struggle to grow it. But the years that we

448
00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:48,639
Speaker 3: can get good food late season ends up being you know,

449
00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:51,080
Speaker 3: if you haven't got them yet, you probably are gonna

450
00:21:51,080 --> 00:21:52,800
Speaker 3: be able to get a shot at him late season.

451
00:21:52,880 --> 00:21:55,840
Speaker 3: But I prefer archery hunting. I love the chase in

452
00:21:55,840 --> 00:22:00,440
Speaker 3: October November, and so really historical knowledge and then learning

453
00:22:00,440 --> 00:22:02,840
Speaker 3: the property. I mean I added onto the River Bottom

454
00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:07,399
Speaker 3: farm in twenty twenty, and you know that was an

455
00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:09,720
Speaker 3: extra three hundred and forty acres in addition to the

456
00:22:09,720 --> 00:22:13,920
Speaker 3: two twenty, So there's a big chunk. And I feel

457
00:22:13,920 --> 00:22:16,240
Speaker 3: like just this year I start of know how deer

458
00:22:16,359 --> 00:22:20,760
Speaker 3: like to use it, just natural movement patterns, and then

459
00:22:20,800 --> 00:22:22,879
Speaker 3: what it's changed over the last two years is the

460
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:27,879
Speaker 3: drought years, which slews have water and how that affects

461
00:22:27,920 --> 00:22:30,000
Speaker 3: your movement. And then this year the mass crop, the

462
00:22:30,040 --> 00:22:35,399
Speaker 3: mask crop was just insane and both the bucks I shot.

463
00:22:35,600 --> 00:22:37,320
Speaker 3: You know, I have all my spots I like, and

464
00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:39,240
Speaker 3: I'm like, if I just rotate where I'm hunting in

465
00:22:39,280 --> 00:22:41,280
Speaker 3: the wind, I'm going to encounter them at some point.

466
00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:43,600
Speaker 3: Like this buck lives over here, I'm kind of dips

467
00:22:43,600 --> 00:22:46,639
Speaker 3: in the farm over here. This one's over here, and

468
00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:48,720
Speaker 3: five hundred and sixty acres. Mean it's a good it's

469
00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:52,360
Speaker 3: a good chunk of ground. But it's not like I

470
00:22:52,480 --> 00:22:55,960
Speaker 3: encompass their home range completely, right, So all these deer

471
00:22:55,960 --> 00:22:59,399
Speaker 3: are coming and going and they're they're they're crossing roads

472
00:22:59,400 --> 00:23:01,560
Speaker 3: and encountering other hunters and all that kind of stuff.

473
00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:05,320
Speaker 3: But this year I modified a lot what I was doing,

474
00:23:05,440 --> 00:23:07,760
Speaker 3: just based on the mass crop and where the does were,

475
00:23:08,240 --> 00:23:10,040
Speaker 3: and I mean it worked really well.

476
00:23:10,920 --> 00:23:13,480
Speaker 2: So when you say you modified what you're doing based

477
00:23:13,480 --> 00:23:17,320
Speaker 2: on those two things, how did you modify You're modifying

478
00:23:17,359 --> 00:23:19,960
Speaker 2: your habitat plan or just how you hunted.

479
00:23:20,359 --> 00:23:24,280
Speaker 3: No, just how I hunted. Yeah, So the river bottom

480
00:23:24,320 --> 00:23:27,240
Speaker 3: doesn't have a ton of eight oak trees, and there's

481
00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:29,399
Speaker 3: a couple of just concentrations of them, and I was,

482
00:23:29,880 --> 00:23:31,480
Speaker 3: you know, I noticed there was a good mass crop.

483
00:23:31,480 --> 00:23:33,439
Speaker 3: But then I'd go sit there and be like twenty

484
00:23:33,480 --> 00:23:36,400
Speaker 3: dos just sitting here for two hours all morning, right,

485
00:23:36,440 --> 00:23:38,879
Speaker 3: and so coming in and out, I was like, well,

486
00:23:39,320 --> 00:23:40,920
Speaker 3: so then I was like, okay, I'm not going to

487
00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:43,280
Speaker 3: go move and hunt. You know, when I get that

488
00:23:43,359 --> 00:23:45,240
Speaker 3: north wind, I'm not going to go to that spot.

489
00:23:45,280 --> 00:23:47,199
Speaker 3: I like, with a north wind, that's just sort of

490
00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:49,439
Speaker 3: a good spot. I'm just going to keep hunting around

491
00:23:49,440 --> 00:23:52,879
Speaker 3: these oak trees, playing the wind, just in the spot

492
00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:56,560
Speaker 3: and kind of staying in those locations. And just because

493
00:23:57,359 --> 00:23:59,320
Speaker 3: all the deer were coming there, and you just knew

494
00:23:59,359 --> 00:24:02,359
Speaker 3: the bucks they were going to be there that morning,

495
00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:05,800
Speaker 3: you know, the amount of encounters we were just having,

496
00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:08,960
Speaker 3: it was it was just it was hard to want

497
00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:11,040
Speaker 3: to go somewhere else. I'm like, I mean, this is obvious.

498
00:24:11,119 --> 00:24:13,400
Speaker 3: If I keep sitting here, it's gonna it's gonna work.

499
00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:17,080
Speaker 3: And even when we switched to my second buck and

500
00:24:17,240 --> 00:24:18,960
Speaker 3: who was all the way on the south piece of

501
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:23,240
Speaker 3: the property, and again, the form I've just kind of

502
00:24:23,240 --> 00:24:26,000
Speaker 3: been learning the last couple of years, and I just

503
00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:28,560
Speaker 3: I'd hunted this one particular tree a few times in

504
00:24:28,600 --> 00:24:31,560
Speaker 3: the past, but it was always okay. I just noticed

505
00:24:31,560 --> 00:24:33,680
Speaker 3: that those red oaks were just dropping like crazy, andess

506
00:24:33,720 --> 00:24:36,280
Speaker 3: all the year kept going there. I said, well, I

507
00:24:36,320 --> 00:24:38,280
Speaker 3: think we keep sitting we're going to kill him. And

508
00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:40,920
Speaker 3: you know, five years of history with this deer, it's

509
00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:44,280
Speaker 3: been kind of all over the place, all over both

510
00:24:44,920 --> 00:24:48,680
Speaker 3: pieces of the river bottom, and you know, I had

511
00:24:48,840 --> 00:24:51,280
Speaker 3: three encounters with him in one day and then ended

512
00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:53,840
Speaker 3: up shooting him November eleventh, and it was just like, well,

513
00:24:54,320 --> 00:24:56,639
Speaker 3: it's hard to talk myself out of going, you know.

514
00:24:56,760 --> 00:24:58,040
Speaker 3: RIGHTE asked me where do you want to go tonight?

515
00:24:58,040 --> 00:24:59,240
Speaker 3: And I was like, we got to go back to

516
00:24:59,280 --> 00:25:02,560
Speaker 3: that spot. You know, you climb in the stand and

517
00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:05,159
Speaker 3: there'd be deer you could see embedded and they get up,

518
00:25:05,160 --> 00:25:06,720
Speaker 3: come feed and the a carns go back in bed,

519
00:25:06,760 --> 00:25:10,160
Speaker 3: and it was it was just interesting dynamic. I don't

520
00:25:10,200 --> 00:25:12,359
Speaker 3: know that we'll see that again soon. I mean, in

521
00:25:12,760 --> 00:25:14,960
Speaker 3: six years of owning the place, I've never seen a

522
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:17,400
Speaker 3: mass drop like better. Is it changed the deer patterns

523
00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:17,720
Speaker 3: for sure?

524
00:25:18,280 --> 00:25:31,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I know that mass situation was unique. But

525
00:25:33,600 --> 00:25:37,880
Speaker 2: one other thing I've I've struggled with sometimes is this,

526
00:25:40,400 --> 00:25:43,080
Speaker 2: I guess it's it's like a pressure, and it comes

527
00:25:43,119 --> 00:25:44,879
Speaker 2: from what we've heard a lot and what many of

528
00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:47,359
Speaker 2: us have seen in our own hunts, which is, you know,

529
00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:50,080
Speaker 2: oftentimes the first time you hunt a spot, it's the best, right,

530
00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:53,200
Speaker 2: and then your impact slowly chips away at the deer

531
00:25:53,240 --> 00:25:56,080
Speaker 2: activity right, And so there's always this temptation to be like, okay,

532
00:25:56,080 --> 00:25:57,520
Speaker 2: I should move. Okay, she go to the next spot,

533
00:25:57,560 --> 00:25:59,320
Speaker 2: she go to the next spot, bounce around, bounce around,

534
00:25:59,359 --> 00:26:02,040
Speaker 2: keep them on their toe. But then sometimes, like in

535
00:26:02,040 --> 00:26:05,119
Speaker 2: a situation like you're talking about, the right move is

536
00:26:05,160 --> 00:26:07,200
Speaker 2: actually to stick it out. Or I've had a deer

537
00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:09,560
Speaker 2: like I was hunting this year that it seemed every

538
00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:11,720
Speaker 2: time I would go to A, he'd be at B.

539
00:26:12,040 --> 00:26:13,440
Speaker 2: So then I would go to B, and then he'd

540
00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:14,919
Speaker 2: be at C, and then I go to C and

541
00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:17,520
Speaker 2: he's D. And I kept on the rotating round and

542
00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:20,080
Speaker 2: he'd always be random in which way he was going.

543
00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:22,080
Speaker 2: And then I finally got to think, and I just

544
00:26:22,080 --> 00:26:24,199
Speaker 2: need to stay in a spot, and then he'll eventually

545
00:26:24,280 --> 00:26:27,760
Speaker 2: cycle to me. How do you how do you think

546
00:26:27,800 --> 00:26:32,639
Speaker 2: through that and manage those two kind of competing thought

547
00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:34,560
Speaker 2: processes when picking out where you want to hunt.

548
00:26:34,840 --> 00:26:37,800
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I don't like to overhunt a spot. I

549
00:26:37,800 --> 00:26:40,200
Speaker 3: mean I usually say, if I've got a buck that's

550
00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:42,359
Speaker 3: using area and I feel like I've got a good chance,

551
00:26:42,440 --> 00:26:44,560
Speaker 3: I do like to give it three sits. A lot

552
00:26:44,560 --> 00:26:46,600
Speaker 3: of times I just play the law of averages like

553
00:26:46,800 --> 00:26:50,320
Speaker 3: he's gonna come by. But for the sake of you know,

554
00:26:50,359 --> 00:26:52,040
Speaker 3: like what you were mentioning, you stink it up and

555
00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:55,280
Speaker 3: you disturb it too much. And some spots kind of

556
00:26:55,359 --> 00:26:57,760
Speaker 3: lend themselves if they've got good entry and exit to

557
00:26:58,200 --> 00:27:00,760
Speaker 3: repeat hunting without disturbing it too much. Other spots are

558
00:27:00,760 --> 00:27:02,760
Speaker 3: blown out deer every time you go, you know. And

559
00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:04,920
Speaker 3: the Pinch is one of those spots where I really

560
00:27:04,920 --> 00:27:06,720
Speaker 3: feel like I can just hunt it over and over

561
00:27:06,760 --> 00:27:08,960
Speaker 3: and over, particularly in the morning. I don't hunt it

562
00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:11,879
Speaker 3: in the Afternoon's hardly ever I can get in there

563
00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:14,120
Speaker 3: in the morning the deer or nowhere around. We get

564
00:27:14,119 --> 00:27:19,160
Speaker 3: in early, and the thermals helped me so much, got

565
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:21,720
Speaker 3: deer on all sides of me. We never get picked

566
00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:24,560
Speaker 3: off there. They all work past. I hunt till noon

567
00:27:24,600 --> 00:27:26,600
Speaker 3: or whatever. You get down, get out, and I've got

568
00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:30,560
Speaker 3: a mode path that basically goes almost directly to the stand,

569
00:27:31,119 --> 00:27:34,920
Speaker 3: and we hunt it repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly, and I say

570
00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:37,200
Speaker 3: it like wee hundred it twenty times. When that doesn't happen,

571
00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:40,639
Speaker 3: I naturally, with wind directions and going back to work

572
00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:43,240
Speaker 3: and all these things give it breaks. Yeah, but I

573
00:27:43,320 --> 00:27:45,640
Speaker 3: try to be conscious about over hunting a spot. Three

574
00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:48,560
Speaker 3: spots is kind of three times is my number. And

575
00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:51,840
Speaker 3: then I've changed what I do for vacation. I used

576
00:27:51,840 --> 00:27:55,200
Speaker 3: to take a week off, you know, and hunt nine days,

577
00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:57,280
Speaker 3: and then that was it. So now what I do

578
00:27:57,400 --> 00:28:00,240
Speaker 3: is I take three days off, two or three days

579
00:28:00,280 --> 00:28:02,600
Speaker 3: off the last week of October, two or three days off,

580
00:28:02,840 --> 00:28:04,639
Speaker 3: two or three days off, and so I break up

581
00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:08,480
Speaker 3: my vacation days. I usually take seven or eight vacation

582
00:28:08,600 --> 00:28:13,679
Speaker 3: days over a three week period, flank weekends. And you know,

583
00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:17,560
Speaker 3: before the time change, I can hunt afternoons a lot

584
00:28:17,600 --> 00:28:21,800
Speaker 3: of times, and so you know, earlier I'm not hunting mornings,

585
00:28:22,160 --> 00:28:24,800
Speaker 3: you know, and we're we're working into the end of October,

586
00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:28,720
Speaker 3: you know, and then just that naturally gives my farm's breaks.

587
00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:31,080
Speaker 3: And then obviously having more than one spot I can

588
00:28:31,320 --> 00:28:34,360
Speaker 3: rotate around. It's it's a little different than it used

589
00:28:34,359 --> 00:28:35,800
Speaker 3: to be now that you pick a bucket, Like I'm

590
00:28:35,880 --> 00:28:38,720
Speaker 3: hunting K and he's on this piece of the farm.

591
00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:41,320
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm basically rotating around that one spot. So

592
00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:44,960
Speaker 3: I try to be conscientious of it and hunt smart.

593
00:28:45,080 --> 00:28:46,800
Speaker 3: You know, I'm not. I don't dive way back in

594
00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:48,680
Speaker 3: there very much. I mean a lot of it's got

595
00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:50,080
Speaker 3: good access, it's on the edge.

596
00:28:50,120 --> 00:28:52,880
Speaker 2: Yes, can you can you break down that pinch a

597
00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:54,720
Speaker 2: little bit more? I know you mentioned you've got the

598
00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:57,640
Speaker 2: mode path in and out, but what else makes it

599
00:28:58,040 --> 00:29:00,920
Speaker 2: so that you can hunt it uniquely like that? And

600
00:29:00,960 --> 00:29:03,640
Speaker 2: it seems like I mean I've seen an arail of it,

601
00:29:03,680 --> 00:29:05,800
Speaker 2: so I can. I can see that it looks pretty good.

602
00:29:05,840 --> 00:29:08,520
Speaker 2: But for the folks listening that maybe don't don't hit

603
00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:10,280
Speaker 2: that background. Can you kind of walk us through a

604
00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:12,000
Speaker 2: how you can hunt it so much? Be what it

605
00:29:12,040 --> 00:29:13,360
Speaker 2: looks like and why it's so effective?

606
00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:16,840
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I get this question a lot, just like

607
00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:20,560
Speaker 3: on our videos, they'll type how does this working? There's

608
00:29:20,600 --> 00:29:23,520
Speaker 3: no way it works? You know, it's hard to appreciate it.

609
00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:26,800
Speaker 3: I think just from a like an aerial or a

610
00:29:26,880 --> 00:29:30,000
Speaker 3: drone shot, but so to paint a picture. The entire

611
00:29:30,160 --> 00:29:33,960
Speaker 3: farm is a wetland. It's flat, there is no undulation.

612
00:29:34,200 --> 00:29:38,040
Speaker 3: You know, there's a couple slews, but it's all wetland grass.

613
00:29:38,840 --> 00:29:42,360
Speaker 3: It's tall natives and wetland grass and willow thickets, and

614
00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:47,120
Speaker 3: it's got great ground level horizontal cover. And so I

615
00:29:47,320 --> 00:29:49,960
Speaker 3: have a lot of mode lanes all over the place,

616
00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:54,080
Speaker 3: primarily for fire breaks. I mean, I want to rotate

617
00:29:54,120 --> 00:29:56,720
Speaker 3: my burning, and I have a fifteen foot mower that

618
00:29:56,800 --> 00:30:00,479
Speaker 3: I keep everything mode really really short. But it also allows,

619
00:30:00,520 --> 00:30:03,640
Speaker 3: based on certain wind directions, access because I can just

620
00:30:04,200 --> 00:30:07,280
Speaker 3: use an e bike or walk in boots and there's

621
00:30:07,360 --> 00:30:09,959
Speaker 3: just no vegetation to rub up against, and so all

622
00:30:10,040 --> 00:30:12,160
Speaker 3: my spots I can generally access fairly well because of

623
00:30:12,200 --> 00:30:16,200
Speaker 3: the mode paths. The river is on the west side

624
00:30:16,200 --> 00:30:20,040
Speaker 3: of the property. We have this one hundred acre peninsula

625
00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:25,440
Speaker 3: that is just thick, gnarly wetland and it's all bedding,

626
00:30:26,520 --> 00:30:30,080
Speaker 3: and so the deer work their way out of that

627
00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:33,600
Speaker 3: peninsula up the river in the in the afternoons to

628
00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:37,320
Speaker 3: the north to all the big aggfields that I don't own.

629
00:30:37,360 --> 00:30:41,160
Speaker 3: They're just destination agfields, and then in the morning. I

630
00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:44,040
Speaker 3: get there early, and don't I don't come down the

631
00:30:44,160 --> 00:30:48,560
Speaker 3: river edge. I come at it perpendicular. So I come

632
00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:51,240
Speaker 3: in from the road and I have a modepath essentially

633
00:30:51,280 --> 00:30:54,760
Speaker 3: that kind of comes at the river perpendicular. And so

634
00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:58,320
Speaker 3: the pinch, there's the river and then there's a slew

635
00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:02,040
Speaker 3: and it's a strip of timber oak trees, and then

636
00:31:02,080 --> 00:31:03,560
Speaker 3: when you get on the other side of the slough,

637
00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:06,160
Speaker 3: it's all that wetland grass, which is really it's a

638
00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:09,840
Speaker 3: lot of bedding as well, but it's little pockets and

639
00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:11,400
Speaker 3: deer bed out there. And they don't all come through

640
00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:13,920
Speaker 3: the pinch, obviously, but all the deer that are going

641
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:17,920
Speaker 3: back into that peninsula, they naturally come through that pinch.

642
00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:20,880
Speaker 3: It's and when the slough has water in it, it

643
00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:24,040
Speaker 3: works really well because you got you can have deep

644
00:31:24,080 --> 00:31:26,640
Speaker 3: water in there and then the river and they really

645
00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:29,680
Speaker 3: walk through there. Right now, you know, they spread out

646
00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:31,040
Speaker 3: a little bit, some of you can see them going

647
00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:33,160
Speaker 3: through the grass and the natives and some are in

648
00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:37,600
Speaker 3: the slough and and all that, but it's still that

649
00:31:37,600 --> 00:31:42,040
Speaker 3: that peninsula pulls them to the river's edge because they're

650
00:31:42,080 --> 00:31:46,280
Speaker 3: going around that bend, and it just it's one of

651
00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:51,400
Speaker 3: those spots where I mean I've killed four I mean

652
00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:54,760
Speaker 3: I've owned the place six years. I've killed four bucks there. Wow,

653
00:31:55,320 --> 00:32:02,240
Speaker 3: I mean I've hunted a lot in the spot. Funny, Yeah, seventeen, nineteen,

654
00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:04,360
Speaker 3: twenty one, twenty three. So my camera guys, all right,

655
00:32:04,360 --> 00:32:08,640
Speaker 3: every other year we got a shoot buck. Wow, it works.

656
00:32:08,800 --> 00:32:09,520
Speaker 3: It's a good spot.

657
00:32:10,080 --> 00:32:13,040
Speaker 2: And so that's where DK met his end, right in

658
00:32:13,080 --> 00:32:13,560
Speaker 2: the pinch.

659
00:32:13,440 --> 00:32:16,160
Speaker 3: That's right October thirtieth. And it was sort of funny

660
00:32:16,160 --> 00:32:19,640
Speaker 3: because we were seeing pre road activity. We were filming

661
00:32:19,640 --> 00:32:22,880
Speaker 3: some great four year olds and some great three year

662
00:32:22,920 --> 00:32:30,000
Speaker 3: olds chasing, grunting, awesome vocalizations. And I had had an

663
00:32:30,080 --> 00:32:33,480
Speaker 3: encounter a couple encounters with DK there last year. I

664
00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:35,960
Speaker 3: had one encounter, like November third with him. He didn't

665
00:32:35,960 --> 00:32:38,400
Speaker 3: come all the way through, but you know, I knew

666
00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:41,320
Speaker 3: that he would come through there at some point, and

667
00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:43,760
Speaker 3: I wasn't really thinking then. I thought maybe on a

668
00:32:43,800 --> 00:32:48,440
Speaker 3: dough later in November. But that morning he just was

669
00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:52,160
Speaker 3: eating acorns. I mean, there was does and some little

670
00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:54,400
Speaker 3: bucks and he's just kind of feeding and walking around.

671
00:32:54,440 --> 00:32:59,880
Speaker 3: They're just socializing there, eating and where the stand is,

672
00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:03,200
Speaker 3: it's right in a little cluster of oaks where you

673
00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:06,200
Speaker 3: can see the deer walking. They hesitate there to munch

674
00:33:06,240 --> 00:33:09,120
Speaker 3: for a little bit. So it worked out well.

675
00:33:09,760 --> 00:33:13,560
Speaker 2: So so walk me through what your kind of hunt

676
00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:16,920
Speaker 2: strategy looked like, you know, from the beginning of the

677
00:33:16,920 --> 00:33:19,280
Speaker 2: season to that point, because if I remember right, you

678
00:33:19,360 --> 00:33:22,080
Speaker 2: took a couple stabs at him early and he had

679
00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:24,720
Speaker 2: daylighted in like a little plot somewhere, and you kind

680
00:33:24,720 --> 00:33:26,720
Speaker 2: of were kind of the wrong spot, wrong time a

681
00:33:26,760 --> 00:33:29,680
Speaker 2: couple times. And then that transition a few more hunts

682
00:33:29,720 --> 00:33:32,080
Speaker 2: into that late October time period when you start hunting

683
00:33:32,080 --> 00:33:34,040
Speaker 2: the pinch. But can you walk me through a few

684
00:33:34,040 --> 00:33:35,360
Speaker 2: of those decisions along the way.

685
00:33:35,440 --> 00:33:40,480
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, So early October, mid October, I tend

686
00:33:40,520 --> 00:33:44,080
Speaker 3: to focus on afternoon hunts over whatever food source I

687
00:33:44,120 --> 00:33:48,320
Speaker 3: think they're hitting. And he was living on the north

688
00:33:48,320 --> 00:33:50,440
Speaker 3: side of the farm or or off the farm and

689
00:33:50,560 --> 00:33:53,680
Speaker 3: kind of venturing through the north piece of the farm occasionally.

690
00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:56,760
Speaker 3: And I had two plots, little tiny clover plot, this

691
00:33:57,000 --> 00:34:00,280
Speaker 3: little bow plot forty yards by forty yards, and a

692
00:34:00,280 --> 00:34:05,440
Speaker 3: little acre acre and a half turnip plot. And when

693
00:34:05,480 --> 00:34:08,440
Speaker 3: the deer come through the pinch and out of the peninsula,

694
00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:13,399
Speaker 3: they often work through my turnip plot off to the

695
00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:16,000
Speaker 3: north to all the agg and just way more deer

696
00:34:16,040 --> 00:34:21,680
Speaker 3: traffic there, and the little clover plot it's it's just

697
00:34:21,800 --> 00:34:24,359
Speaker 3: not in a high traffic area. So you can sit

698
00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:26,759
Speaker 3: there and see a dough or two and it is

699
00:34:26,800 --> 00:34:30,960
Speaker 3: what it is. And so I tend to gravitate towards

700
00:34:31,680 --> 00:34:34,600
Speaker 3: the other plot because I feel like he's more likely

701
00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:37,920
Speaker 3: to show up there. And I had him the beginning

702
00:34:37,960 --> 00:34:42,440
Speaker 3: of September, multiple afternoons in a row eating turnips, and

703
00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:45,000
Speaker 3: I put a bunch of radishes in there in front

704
00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:47,359
Speaker 3: of the stand and it just had it just made

705
00:34:47,360 --> 00:34:49,360
Speaker 3: a nice plot. And he was there a lot in

706
00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:54,080
Speaker 3: early September, and I said, okay, you know, the food

707
00:34:54,080 --> 00:34:55,799
Speaker 3: patterns are going to change and this, that and the other.

708
00:34:55,840 --> 00:34:58,359
Speaker 3: But I still thought statistically that one's going to be better.

709
00:34:58,400 --> 00:34:59,719
Speaker 3: And so I actually had a set up for a

710
00:34:59,719 --> 00:35:04,400
Speaker 3: south and set it for a north wind, and I

711
00:35:04,480 --> 00:35:06,960
Speaker 3: would go sit that blind and there was a time

712
00:35:07,080 --> 00:35:09,919
Speaker 3: or two that right at last light, with five minutes ago,

713
00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:12,719
Speaker 3: he'd pop up on that clover plot and basically what

714
00:35:12,800 --> 00:35:15,839
Speaker 3: he was doing he was coming my way, you know,

715
00:35:15,880 --> 00:35:19,000
Speaker 3: but where he was betting off the property. He would swing,

716
00:35:19,200 --> 00:35:22,000
Speaker 3: he'd come through all this standing corn and then swing

717
00:35:22,040 --> 00:35:24,480
Speaker 3: through that clover plot, get his picture taken, and then

718
00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:27,920
Speaker 3: he'd keep working his way eventually after dark onto the turnips,

719
00:35:28,239 --> 00:35:31,640
Speaker 3: and I thought, man, and I was always saying, well,

720
00:35:31,680 --> 00:35:33,640
Speaker 3: if he's better on me today, he's going to hit

721
00:35:33,680 --> 00:35:35,400
Speaker 3: the turnups first. But if he's not better on me,

722
00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:37,560
Speaker 3: he'd probably be over there. It took a lot for

723
00:35:37,640 --> 00:35:39,040
Speaker 3: me to go hunt the clover, and I ended up

724
00:35:39,120 --> 00:35:41,960
Speaker 3: hunting it twice, and it was pins and needles, because

725
00:35:42,840 --> 00:35:44,480
Speaker 3: just like, man, if he's better in this corn right here,

726
00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:47,439
Speaker 3: he's going to be on us. And the first time

727
00:35:47,440 --> 00:35:50,160
Speaker 3: we hunted it, we actually stayed in the stand for

728
00:35:50,280 --> 00:35:53,680
Speaker 3: thirty forty minutes after dark and we got a picture

729
00:35:53,719 --> 00:35:56,879
Speaker 3: of him. I mean he walked probably sixty yards from

730
00:35:56,920 --> 00:35:58,719
Speaker 3: us and was working a scrape in the dark. We

731
00:35:58,719 --> 00:36:03,280
Speaker 3: couldn't see him, but yeah, because I was like, well,

732
00:36:03,360 --> 00:36:05,000
Speaker 3: let's let him if he is coming in, let him

733
00:36:05,040 --> 00:36:09,200
Speaker 3: come in and get past it. Because so early, I

734
00:36:09,239 --> 00:36:12,879
Speaker 3: never I never felt like I have other deer. In fact,

735
00:36:12,960 --> 00:36:16,600
Speaker 3: like last year the Bucky shot October sixth I mean,

736
00:36:16,640 --> 00:36:20,560
Speaker 3: he just was in the property and I felt like, man,

737
00:36:20,560 --> 00:36:23,440
Speaker 3: I could kill this dear early, I never really felt

738
00:36:23,440 --> 00:36:25,640
Speaker 3: that way with DK, just because he wasn't really on

739
00:36:25,680 --> 00:36:29,759
Speaker 3: the property and yet had the cards feil the right way.

740
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:32,560
Speaker 3: I mean, it could have happened. I was. I was

741
00:36:32,600 --> 00:36:35,480
Speaker 3: still focusing on these October cold fronts and kind of

742
00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:39,080
Speaker 3: playing my moves. But those two food plots aren't terribly invasive,

743
00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:42,000
Speaker 3: and I just kept hedging on the turnups and the

744
00:36:42,040 --> 00:36:43,520
Speaker 3: one night he daylight while I was there. It just

745
00:36:43,560 --> 00:36:45,480
Speaker 3: happened to be on the other one man.

746
00:36:45,920 --> 00:36:49,239
Speaker 2: So it goes and then the you know, you go

747
00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:51,879
Speaker 2: through the month waiting on fronts and whatnot. You get

748
00:36:51,880 --> 00:36:54,680
Speaker 2: to the end of October. You said that was the thirtieth,

749
00:36:54,760 --> 00:36:56,560
Speaker 2: so that would have been a few days into that

750
00:36:56,719 --> 00:36:58,920
Speaker 2: awesome cold front that we all got in the Midwest.

751
00:36:59,640 --> 00:37:02,800
Speaker 2: Was that was that part of the rationale for starting

752
00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:04,200
Speaker 2: to hunt those more? I know, I mean it's kind

753
00:37:04,200 --> 00:37:06,560
Speaker 2: of that time of year two, but you pushed into

754
00:37:06,640 --> 00:37:08,560
Speaker 2: one of your best spots on a morning hunt. Was

755
00:37:08,600 --> 00:37:11,200
Speaker 2: it the combination of it's the end of October and

756
00:37:11,320 --> 00:37:11,880
Speaker 2: cold front?

757
00:37:12,160 --> 00:37:12,399
Speaker 4: Yep?

758
00:37:12,520 --> 00:37:14,840
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mean, how could you drop a better picture?

759
00:37:14,880 --> 00:37:15,040
Speaker 4: You know?

760
00:37:15,040 --> 00:37:17,919
Speaker 3: And I had. It was actually the last day of

761
00:37:17,960 --> 00:37:22,440
Speaker 3: my five day stretch of vacation. Maybe I had a

762
00:37:22,480 --> 00:37:27,520
Speaker 3: six day had a six day stretch. I took off Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,

763
00:37:27,640 --> 00:37:30,640
Speaker 3: and then I had Monday. And I just loved the

764
00:37:30,680 --> 00:37:33,880
Speaker 3: pre rut. I loved the end of October. I love

765
00:37:34,280 --> 00:37:36,840
Speaker 3: those older bucks looking for that first dough and just

766
00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:39,960
Speaker 3: being callable and kind of doing that stuff. It's just

767
00:37:40,040 --> 00:37:42,759
Speaker 3: one of the most enjoyable times to hunt. And so

768
00:37:43,640 --> 00:37:46,920
Speaker 3: I started hunting mornings. I mean, if I look back

769
00:37:46,960 --> 00:37:52,399
Speaker 3: over the last fifteen years of hunting Iowa, I've had

770
00:37:52,440 --> 00:37:58,000
Speaker 3: some really great pre rut morning hunts starting October twenty

771
00:37:58,239 --> 00:38:02,239
Speaker 3: somethinghere around there, so I'll start hunting more mornings. I

772
00:38:02,239 --> 00:38:05,239
Speaker 3: have to negotiate all this, right, so our balance out

773
00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:08,040
Speaker 3: how much I hunt, and so early I've done a

774
00:38:08,080 --> 00:38:11,160
Speaker 3: lot of afternoon and then sometime around October twenty I

775
00:38:11,160 --> 00:38:18,520
Speaker 3: start focusing more on mornings. And you know, like you said,

776
00:38:19,920 --> 00:38:22,600
Speaker 3: the cold front, but I'd actually hunted the pinch maybe

777
00:38:22,600 --> 00:38:25,799
Speaker 3: three or four times before that day, and we had

778
00:38:25,920 --> 00:38:30,000
Speaker 3: gotten his DK's picture before I killed him. We got

779
00:38:30,080 --> 00:38:33,000
Speaker 3: him way south into the farm, in fact, the spot

780
00:38:33,040 --> 00:38:36,200
Speaker 3: where i'd really never gotten him. And I was like, man,

781
00:38:36,239 --> 00:38:39,120
Speaker 3: what this is so weird, because what I was thinking

782
00:38:39,200 --> 00:38:41,799
Speaker 3: was going to happen wasn't really happening. And we took

783
00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:45,360
Speaker 3: six bucks off the River Bottom farm last year, which

784
00:38:45,520 --> 00:38:47,360
Speaker 3: was kind of what I was like, Man, I really

785
00:38:47,400 --> 00:38:49,239
Speaker 3: cleaned out. I mean eight year olds and seven year

786
00:38:49,239 --> 00:38:52,000
Speaker 3: old and six year olds and my daughter shot two,

787
00:38:52,120 --> 00:38:54,600
Speaker 3: I shot two, Rye shot one, and his wife shot one,

788
00:38:55,280 --> 00:38:58,960
Speaker 3: and it's six bucks. They were all six year older

789
00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:01,319
Speaker 3: except one of them him if I remember right, No

790
00:39:01,360 --> 00:39:04,439
Speaker 3: two or five, Wow and so. And we hadn't taken

791
00:39:04,480 --> 00:39:06,320
Speaker 3: a lot of bucks to previous years. We were hunting

792
00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:10,120
Speaker 3: Marino and Dax so much and just got a lot

793
00:39:10,160 --> 00:39:11,680
Speaker 3: of age on some of these deer and somebody's here

794
00:39:11,680 --> 00:39:14,319
Speaker 3: one hundred and ten inches. But you know, they were

795
00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:16,760
Speaker 3: bully bucks, like we like to call him, and we've

796
00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:18,600
Speaker 3: taken him out of there. And I do think that

797
00:39:18,760 --> 00:39:22,480
Speaker 3: was probably a factor in inviting DK being able to

798
00:39:22,520 --> 00:39:24,719
Speaker 3: roam in there a little more was he didn't have

799
00:39:24,760 --> 00:39:30,240
Speaker 3: as much competition. But you know, Mike ran, we're talking

800
00:39:30,280 --> 00:39:32,320
Speaker 3: it over about where to go because we got his picture.

801
00:39:32,360 --> 00:39:34,919
Speaker 3: I think that night to the South I was like, yeah,

802
00:39:34,920 --> 00:39:36,759
Speaker 3: I'm not going hunt over there, though I'm still going

803
00:39:36,920 --> 00:39:39,960
Speaker 3: in the pinch because you know, whether he's coming out

804
00:39:39,960 --> 00:39:41,840
Speaker 3: of me or coming back in after a night of

805
00:39:42,040 --> 00:39:44,640
Speaker 3: tomping around. I mean, that's still the spot to focus on.

806
00:39:44,719 --> 00:39:47,879
Speaker 3: And you know, just trying to get that area where

807
00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:49,480
Speaker 3: you can get him in bow range. You know, it's

808
00:39:49,520 --> 00:39:51,160
Speaker 3: one thing to go sit somewhere and see a deer

809
00:39:51,200 --> 00:39:53,840
Speaker 3: off in the willows, but get him in bow range.

810
00:39:54,120 --> 00:39:57,399
Speaker 3: So yeah, the end of October, the food, the acorns there,

811
00:39:57,560 --> 00:39:58,440
Speaker 3: the cold.

812
00:39:58,120 --> 00:40:01,200
Speaker 2: Front, you know, all lined up well, yeah, couldn't couldn't

813
00:40:01,200 --> 00:40:02,400
Speaker 2: write up much better than that.

814
00:40:02,480 --> 00:40:17,440
Speaker 5: Yeah, so you're the void you created.

815
00:40:18,160 --> 00:40:20,279
Speaker 2: It's very interesting. I mean this scale, like the way

816
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:22,400
Speaker 2: you're able to do that is way off from what

817
00:40:22,440 --> 00:40:24,560
Speaker 2: I could ever do. Like, you have a lot of

818
00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:27,080
Speaker 2: land there, and your age structure is incredible, and you

819
00:40:27,080 --> 00:40:29,560
Speaker 2: can take five six bucks over five that that's amazing.

820
00:40:29,680 --> 00:40:30,400
Speaker 3: It's crazy.

821
00:40:30,880 --> 00:40:34,240
Speaker 2: It's crazy, but but I think even like random schmuck

822
00:40:34,320 --> 00:40:36,520
Speaker 2: like me could probably still learn something from this, or

823
00:40:36,680 --> 00:40:39,799
Speaker 2: you take something from this, and that, you know, I've

824
00:40:39,840 --> 00:40:44,839
Speaker 2: started thinking about trying to create a void myself. Now

825
00:40:44,880 --> 00:40:47,200
Speaker 2: I'm working with like one hundred, one hundred and twenty

826
00:40:47,560 --> 00:40:50,840
Speaker 2: eighty like stuff like that. But I've had situations where

827
00:40:50,880 --> 00:40:53,239
Speaker 2: they'll be like that really nice three year old, and

828
00:40:53,280 --> 00:40:55,240
Speaker 2: then there's a four year old and a five year old,

829
00:40:55,640 --> 00:40:57,960
Speaker 2: and they might be like the standard, just like, hey,

830
00:40:58,000 --> 00:40:59,440
Speaker 2: he's going to be one hundred and twenty inch eight

831
00:40:59,440 --> 00:41:01,120
Speaker 2: and he's a hundre in twenty three inch eight and

832
00:41:01,120 --> 00:41:04,160
Speaker 2: he's one hundred and twenty seven inch eight. And I've

833
00:41:04,160 --> 00:41:08,120
Speaker 2: always been so paranoid to go and hunt some of

834
00:41:08,120 --> 00:41:12,359
Speaker 2: these spots too often in fear of educating the deer

835
00:41:12,360 --> 00:41:14,480
Speaker 2: and pushing them off under the neighbors and stuff, that

836
00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:17,600
Speaker 2: I've sometimes avoided targeting a deer like that at all

837
00:41:17,920 --> 00:41:19,440
Speaker 2: because I don't want to go muck it up for

838
00:41:19,480 --> 00:41:21,200
Speaker 2: that really nice three year old that I'm hoping to

839
00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:24,239
Speaker 2: hunt in a year or two. Sure, so how do

840
00:41:24,280 --> 00:41:26,160
Speaker 2: you balance? Do you ever worry about that? Have you

841
00:41:26,200 --> 00:41:28,759
Speaker 2: thought about that? Like you got to kill the bullibucker?

842
00:41:28,800 --> 00:41:30,719
Speaker 2: You want to try to open up a space for

843
00:41:30,800 --> 00:41:33,160
Speaker 2: these younger, higher potential deer, but at the same time,

844
00:41:33,600 --> 00:41:35,160
Speaker 2: you don't want to blow all the bucks off your

845
00:41:35,200 --> 00:41:37,680
Speaker 2: farm and then have him get shot by the neighbors.

846
00:41:37,800 --> 00:41:39,680
Speaker 2: Or you educate that three year old and then the

847
00:41:39,680 --> 00:41:42,920
Speaker 2: next year he's like he's on you already. Yeah, anything

848
00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:43,800
Speaker 2: that ever happened.

849
00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:46,000
Speaker 3: I've spent a lot of time thinking about that over

850
00:41:46,080 --> 00:41:48,200
Speaker 3: the years, and I mean I've I've not owned land

851
00:41:48,200 --> 00:41:50,239
Speaker 3: for a super long time. I mean, I'm I've on

852
00:41:50,440 --> 00:41:54,840
Speaker 3: land now for eight years, and so I've definitely changed

853
00:41:54,880 --> 00:41:57,279
Speaker 3: the way I think about things. I've had some lease

854
00:41:57,360 --> 00:42:00,200
Speaker 3: ground before that, but before that it was public and

855
00:42:00,680 --> 00:42:02,360
Speaker 3: just grinding it out, and I had some friends that

856
00:42:02,400 --> 00:42:05,920
Speaker 3: would let me hunt some back in Louisiana. And but

857
00:42:07,239 --> 00:42:10,279
Speaker 3: you know, what I've come to the conclusion is if

858
00:42:10,320 --> 00:42:14,200
Speaker 3: I really make my property as good as possible, so food,

859
00:42:14,239 --> 00:42:19,560
Speaker 3: water cover very inviting, and hunt it smart, those deer

860
00:42:19,600 --> 00:42:21,400
Speaker 3: are going to want to be in there. And so

861
00:42:21,560 --> 00:42:23,880
Speaker 3: like I don't worry too much about running off the

862
00:42:23,920 --> 00:42:27,840
Speaker 3: three year old because of my human pressure, I worry

863
00:42:27,920 --> 00:42:30,400
Speaker 3: much more about the bully buck doing it. You know,

864
00:42:30,520 --> 00:42:32,439
Speaker 3: I mean, I've just seen it over and over where

865
00:42:32,480 --> 00:42:35,520
Speaker 3: you get this, you know, five year old, six year old,

866
00:42:35,560 --> 00:42:37,120
Speaker 3: seven year old book that I'm like, well, I don't

867
00:42:37,120 --> 00:42:39,400
Speaker 3: want to burn my tag on that. Even at one point,

868
00:42:39,680 --> 00:42:41,840
Speaker 3: you know, I get one bow tag and before I

869
00:42:41,880 --> 00:42:44,279
Speaker 3: own land, and I wanted to just hunt the best buck.

870
00:42:45,120 --> 00:42:48,319
Speaker 3: Well then you sort of think, well, it's great if

871
00:42:48,360 --> 00:42:50,600
Speaker 3: there are multiple deer, but every farm is a little

872
00:42:50,600 --> 00:42:52,160
Speaker 3: bit different, and how much cover do you have, what's

873
00:42:52,160 --> 00:42:54,399
Speaker 3: your carrying capacity? I mean, you've got a couple five

874
00:42:54,440 --> 00:42:56,520
Speaker 3: year olds, it's not like there's so much covering the

875
00:42:56,600 --> 00:42:59,759
Speaker 3: river bottom area. That deer density is ridiculous. I've never

876
00:42:59,760 --> 00:43:02,399
Speaker 3: seen anything like it on anything that I've personally owned

877
00:43:02,480 --> 00:43:05,040
Speaker 3: or hunted, and just a year after year, there's just

878
00:43:05,600 --> 00:43:10,040
Speaker 3: there's just so many deer. So it's it's really a luxury.

879
00:43:10,719 --> 00:43:13,719
Speaker 3: But like what I teach my kids, we still have

880
00:43:13,840 --> 00:43:17,520
Speaker 3: to manage the herd once they get to five. And

881
00:43:17,560 --> 00:43:20,399
Speaker 3: you could argue, I think in a luxurious situation that

882
00:43:20,440 --> 00:43:22,720
Speaker 3: six would be better, you know, as far as seeing

883
00:43:22,760 --> 00:43:25,759
Speaker 3: the most potential out of a out of hampers. But

884
00:43:27,600 --> 00:43:29,719
Speaker 3: whatever they have on their head, they're probably not going

885
00:43:29,800 --> 00:43:32,000
Speaker 3: to get a whole lot bigger, you know, and you

886
00:43:32,080 --> 00:43:34,560
Speaker 3: might as well haunt them and harvest them. They've reached

887
00:43:34,600 --> 00:43:37,160
Speaker 3: full maturity. This is a grandpa dear, let's let's do it,

888
00:43:37,760 --> 00:43:41,720
Speaker 3: you know, and so trying to just focus on taking

889
00:43:41,760 --> 00:43:45,359
Speaker 3: out the mature ones and then hopefully keeping those young

890
00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:48,719
Speaker 3: ones there to grow up and have future deer to harvest.

891
00:43:49,880 --> 00:43:50,920
Speaker 3: So that's kind of how I look at it.

892
00:43:51,960 --> 00:43:55,080
Speaker 2: Man, I hope that four year old that you call

893
00:43:55,280 --> 00:44:01,279
Speaker 2: Moss because that deer is cool. I love that kind

894
00:44:01,280 --> 00:44:06,560
Speaker 2: of heavy tall brows, like the drop, the tall.

895
00:44:06,640 --> 00:44:10,719
Speaker 3: I mean, I know even last year, so I don't.

896
00:44:10,800 --> 00:44:13,400
Speaker 3: I don't know him from the year before last, and

897
00:44:13,440 --> 00:44:16,799
Speaker 3: you think he would be very recognizable. But last year

898
00:44:16,800 --> 00:44:18,360
Speaker 3: I had one pitchure him in velvet and I was

899
00:44:18,400 --> 00:44:21,120
Speaker 3: like immediately like, whoa, what dear is that? You know?

900
00:44:21,160 --> 00:44:24,960
Speaker 3: You just see these big tall brows and uh, you know,

901
00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:26,880
Speaker 3: then we got to get more picture of him and

902
00:44:26,920 --> 00:44:28,520
Speaker 3: get it, get a good age. Guess. I was like,

903
00:44:28,560 --> 00:44:31,080
Speaker 3: he's got to be three, and you know he's a

904
00:44:31,080 --> 00:44:34,760
Speaker 3: stocky three year old and uh, this year I actually

905
00:44:34,760 --> 00:44:37,440
Speaker 3: saw him getting involved and uh, I mean, I just

906
00:44:37,640 --> 00:44:39,919
Speaker 3: love those brows and I don't have I've never killed

907
00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:42,160
Speaker 3: a year with like a big drop time. I've killed

908
00:44:42,160 --> 00:44:44,439
Speaker 3: some little ones. But he's got he grew a big

909
00:44:44,440 --> 00:44:48,600
Speaker 3: bass kicker, and it just takes everything I have to say.

910
00:44:48,680 --> 00:44:55,000
Speaker 3: You next year comes at ten yards like three times.

911
00:44:55,360 --> 00:44:58,320
Speaker 3: But you know what I mean, See I try to commit,

912
00:44:58,480 --> 00:45:01,720
Speaker 3: you know, DK okay DK nothing and play the game.

913
00:45:02,960 --> 00:45:05,000
Speaker 3: But good news, I did get a picture of moss.

914
00:45:05,080 --> 00:45:08,440
Speaker 3: Like yesterday night, I was like, he made your gun season,

915
00:45:08,640 --> 00:45:12,759
Speaker 3: So that's great, Like statistically he should hopefully be there

916
00:45:12,880 --> 00:45:13,359
Speaker 3: next year.

917
00:45:14,080 --> 00:45:17,600
Speaker 2: Man, Yeah, he is one. He is super cool. I

918
00:45:17,640 --> 00:45:21,719
Speaker 2: hope he's there for you. Yeah. So so speaking to

919
00:45:21,760 --> 00:45:23,759
Speaker 2: this kind of topic then of like getting these deer

920
00:45:24,200 --> 00:45:26,720
Speaker 2: to some age on them. The other deer you killed

921
00:45:26,760 --> 00:45:29,239
Speaker 2: I heard you talk about I think it was on

922
00:45:29,239 --> 00:45:31,200
Speaker 2: one of your Guys podcasts. You were talking about how

923
00:45:31,320 --> 00:45:34,560
Speaker 2: fits the other buck you shot looked like a four

924
00:45:34,640 --> 00:45:36,400
Speaker 2: year old forever? Like every year, like I has a

925
00:45:36,400 --> 00:45:37,880
Speaker 2: four year old ten, and then next year I has

926
00:45:37,880 --> 00:45:41,359
Speaker 2: a four year old ten. Talk to me a little

927
00:45:41,360 --> 00:45:43,080
Speaker 2: bit about a deer like that and how a deer

928
00:45:43,120 --> 00:45:44,960
Speaker 2: like that can kind of slip through the cracks for

929
00:45:45,120 --> 00:45:48,360
Speaker 2: years and then finally this year it all came together.

930
00:45:48,719 --> 00:45:51,359
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's such a strange thing. You know, they we

931
00:45:51,440 --> 00:45:55,880
Speaker 3: put a lot of weight on body size and you know,

932
00:45:55,960 --> 00:45:58,239
Speaker 3: skeletal structure and how you might age a deer and

933
00:45:58,239 --> 00:46:02,120
Speaker 3: all this kind of stuff. And I've seen too many

934
00:46:02,160 --> 00:46:04,319
Speaker 3: times that example of a deer that just never is

935
00:46:04,360 --> 00:46:07,080
Speaker 3: a big body deer, and so so much of it

936
00:46:07,120 --> 00:46:10,480
Speaker 3: goes back to just history. To really feel like Okay,

937
00:46:10,520 --> 00:46:15,200
Speaker 3: I'm confident in where they're at. And I think for me,

938
00:46:15,480 --> 00:46:18,279
Speaker 3: a lot of it falls back to he was on

939
00:46:18,440 --> 00:46:20,720
Speaker 3: he was a three year old. Right when we really started,

940
00:46:21,160 --> 00:46:23,759
Speaker 3: I started kind of picking the deer to hunt. And

941
00:46:24,320 --> 00:46:27,560
Speaker 3: it's at the same time as my chaos in my

942
00:46:27,680 --> 00:46:31,800
Speaker 3: life between kids and work and Midwest whitesel and everything

943
00:46:31,800 --> 00:46:35,960
Speaker 3: else is on ramping up. And I said this on

944
00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:41,439
Speaker 3: our podcast talking about I used to just I didn't

945
00:46:41,440 --> 00:46:43,680
Speaker 3: have kids, and you know, all the trail cameras and

946
00:46:43,719 --> 00:46:45,520
Speaker 3: all the time and just going through stuff, and I

947
00:46:45,600 --> 00:46:48,719
Speaker 3: just knew everything about everything, and I never would have

948
00:46:48,760 --> 00:46:51,080
Speaker 3: looked over at any deer. I just knew who they were,

949
00:46:51,120 --> 00:46:52,560
Speaker 3: and I could tell you from a one hundred yards

950
00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:55,120
Speaker 3: novel that so and so and you know. And so anyway,

951
00:46:55,160 --> 00:46:58,800
Speaker 3: getting focusing on a certain target, and when I'm flipping

952
00:46:59,000 --> 00:47:01,560
Speaker 3: through trail camera and sell cam picks. Over the last

953
00:47:01,600 --> 00:47:04,359
Speaker 3: few years, as I've transitioned to that, you know, I'm

954
00:47:04,680 --> 00:47:07,719
Speaker 3: usually blowing by stuff that's not the buck I'm after,

955
00:47:07,960 --> 00:47:11,520
Speaker 3: and I just want the information I need to strategize.

956
00:47:11,920 --> 00:47:13,600
Speaker 3: And so a little bit of that played into it.

957
00:47:13,640 --> 00:47:18,040
Speaker 3: But a couple of years ago, you know, fits we

958
00:47:18,040 --> 00:47:20,560
Speaker 3: were seeing him late season. Every time he'd pop out

959
00:47:20,600 --> 00:47:23,040
Speaker 3: of the timber, I'd say, man, that's a good dear,

960
00:47:23,120 --> 00:47:26,279
Speaker 3: what deer is that? And oh it's that big four

961
00:47:26,360 --> 00:47:28,640
Speaker 3: year old ten? And then last year he just didn't

962
00:47:28,719 --> 00:47:30,040
Speaker 3: change it all. In fact, I think he got a

963
00:47:30,080 --> 00:47:33,120
Speaker 3: few inches smaller. And so then I started questioning myself,

964
00:47:33,280 --> 00:47:35,040
Speaker 3: was he three last year and he's four this year?

965
00:47:35,680 --> 00:47:37,839
Speaker 3: How old is that, dear? And so I started going

966
00:47:37,840 --> 00:47:40,759
Speaker 3: through tild camera pictures and I was like, oh, man,

967
00:47:40,840 --> 00:47:43,240
Speaker 3: he was. He's been four a long time.

968
00:47:43,760 --> 00:47:50,160
Speaker 2: So I was like Benjamin Button deer exactly.

969
00:47:50,360 --> 00:47:53,000
Speaker 3: And so once I kind of got last year, you know,

970
00:47:53,040 --> 00:47:55,400
Speaker 3: I was focused on what I was doing with Kelsey,

971
00:47:55,520 --> 00:47:58,920
Speaker 3: and but I told I told Ryan last year, I said,

972
00:47:58,920 --> 00:48:00,640
Speaker 3: we didn't we didn't have that dear extra He's gonna

973
00:48:00,640 --> 00:48:03,120
Speaker 3: be seven, and you know, he grew his best rack.

974
00:48:03,440 --> 00:48:06,120
Speaker 3: I mean he went from a straight up ten for

975
00:48:06,840 --> 00:48:09,560
Speaker 3: four years in a row to a six by seven

976
00:48:09,600 --> 00:48:12,480
Speaker 3: with kickers, and I think he had seventeen scoreable points,

977
00:48:12,520 --> 00:48:15,920
Speaker 3: which is wow, just nuts. He wasn't a lot of masks,

978
00:48:15,920 --> 00:48:18,280
Speaker 3: not a big frame, but you know, lots of points

979
00:48:18,320 --> 00:48:23,040
Speaker 3: and certainly age is the most important thing. Just seven

980
00:48:23,080 --> 00:48:27,120
Speaker 3: and a half year old buck. I mean that so.

981
00:48:26,320 --> 00:48:29,120
Speaker 2: Hard argue that. Yeah, so how how did that?

982
00:48:29,520 --> 00:48:29,880
Speaker 3: Yeah?

983
00:48:29,920 --> 00:48:33,000
Speaker 2: So how that'll come together? You killed DK at the

984
00:48:33,080 --> 00:48:35,760
Speaker 2: end of October, and now you've got like a little

985
00:48:35,800 --> 00:48:37,719
Speaker 2: work break. You go go work for a while, and

986
00:48:37,760 --> 00:48:41,800
Speaker 2: then you've got one of your little rocations again. Yeah,

987
00:48:41,920 --> 00:48:45,320
Speaker 2: So how did you kind of attack him now that

988
00:48:45,360 --> 00:48:46,360
Speaker 2: you had to shift gears?

989
00:48:46,560 --> 00:48:51,760
Speaker 3: Yeah, because we were shifting into you know, primary breeding.

990
00:48:52,080 --> 00:48:54,040
Speaker 3: So it's a it's a pretty difficult time to hunt

991
00:48:54,080 --> 00:48:56,400
Speaker 3: one particular deer, right they're locked down for two or

992
00:48:56,400 --> 00:48:59,600
Speaker 3: three days and you might catch them. And we actually

993
00:48:59,680 --> 00:49:02,120
Speaker 3: joked a little bit when I was hunting DK because

994
00:49:02,920 --> 00:49:04,600
Speaker 3: DK is not on the farm, you know, like he

995
00:49:04,600 --> 00:49:06,200
Speaker 3: didn't really live here. We're gonna have to kill him

996
00:49:06,200 --> 00:49:09,279
Speaker 3: in November. But he was the one I wanted. But

997
00:49:09,480 --> 00:49:12,360
Speaker 3: all the while, I'm getting pictures of fits in daylight

998
00:49:12,480 --> 00:49:14,839
Speaker 3: over and over and over and over on the south

999
00:49:14,920 --> 00:49:17,640
Speaker 3: end of the farm. And I was telling Ry, I

1000
00:49:17,680 --> 00:49:20,480
Speaker 3: was like, man, mid October, I think we could have

1001
00:49:20,520 --> 00:49:22,400
Speaker 3: killed him, gone in there and killed him. He just

1002
00:49:22,480 --> 00:49:26,040
Speaker 3: was so it was on such a pattern, and I

1003
00:49:26,080 --> 00:49:28,200
Speaker 3: was like, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna It's not

1004
00:49:28,239 --> 00:49:31,560
Speaker 3: gonna be that way now. And so anyway, kill DK

1005
00:49:31,719 --> 00:49:33,080
Speaker 3: go to work for three or four days and I

1006
00:49:33,160 --> 00:49:35,360
Speaker 3: come back to start over, and our first day back,

1007
00:49:36,120 --> 00:49:38,840
Speaker 3: I said, you know, I still think because it was

1008
00:49:38,880 --> 00:49:46,960
Speaker 3: November third, maybe November third, I still think he's betting

1009
00:49:47,040 --> 00:49:49,480
Speaker 3: in this one particular spot, and I still think he's

1010
00:49:49,520 --> 00:49:51,480
Speaker 3: going in there in the morning and bedding down for

1011
00:49:51,520 --> 00:49:53,920
Speaker 3: a while, kind of mid morning, nine o'clock after he

1012
00:49:54,000 --> 00:49:57,600
Speaker 3: does his rounds. And I had had a few pictures

1013
00:49:57,640 --> 00:50:00,879
Speaker 3: of him doing this this thing the previous two weeks,

1014
00:50:00,880 --> 00:50:03,920
Speaker 3: and so I thought, that's our best chance, hopefully before

1015
00:50:03,960 --> 00:50:06,680
Speaker 3: he really leaves or goes and does whatever bucks do

1016
00:50:06,719 --> 00:50:11,880
Speaker 3: in the rut. And we sneak in there, and I

1017
00:50:12,000 --> 00:50:15,600
Speaker 3: was right, we're in the but we're in the tree

1018
00:50:15,600 --> 00:50:18,759
Speaker 3: goofing off because we're not overly confident what we're doing.

1019
00:50:18,840 --> 00:50:21,000
Speaker 3: Then all of a sudden, I hear running, and I

1020
00:50:21,120 --> 00:50:25,680
Speaker 3: turn around and he's coming up right behind us, and

1021
00:50:26,160 --> 00:50:27,720
Speaker 3: he got out of there. Both of us were pretty

1022
00:50:27,719 --> 00:50:31,080
Speaker 3: disappointing ourselves because we had let our guard down, and

1023
00:50:31,840 --> 00:50:33,719
Speaker 3: that was that would have been an opportunity to just

1024
00:50:34,080 --> 00:50:39,239
Speaker 3: I mean, bang bang. But yeah, so he caught us,

1025
00:50:39,440 --> 00:50:42,600
Speaker 3: and I actually shifted to the other side of the farm,

1026
00:50:42,600 --> 00:50:46,680
Speaker 3: probably eight hundred yards away the direction he ran off

1027
00:50:46,719 --> 00:50:49,120
Speaker 3: in that morning, I thought, you know, he's gonna probably

1028
00:50:49,120 --> 00:50:50,719
Speaker 3: go bet up somewhere over there. And then I had

1029
00:50:50,719 --> 00:50:53,720
Speaker 3: a food plot over there, and we saw him twice

1030
00:50:53,719 --> 00:50:56,400
Speaker 3: that afternoon, once kind of harassing oze out in the

1031
00:50:56,440 --> 00:50:58,600
Speaker 3: timber about one hundred yards away, and then at dark

1032
00:50:58,640 --> 00:51:03,080
Speaker 3: he came through the food plot and I hunt that

1033
00:51:03,160 --> 00:51:05,840
Speaker 3: particular spot on A West and I have a different

1034
00:51:06,880 --> 00:51:10,000
Speaker 3: where I killed him on a south. And so I said,

1035
00:51:10,000 --> 00:51:12,640
Speaker 3: you know what, in the mornings we can go hunt

1036
00:51:12,640 --> 00:51:14,480
Speaker 3: our runt spots, but in the afternoons we have these

1037
00:51:14,520 --> 00:51:16,680
Speaker 3: two food sources. I've got the acorns right here, and

1038
00:51:16,719 --> 00:51:19,080
Speaker 3: I've got that turnip plot that we almost killed him in,

1039
00:51:20,120 --> 00:51:22,239
Speaker 3: And just based on where the wind was, I was

1040
00:51:22,280 --> 00:51:24,440
Speaker 3: going to bounce back and forth between those two spots

1041
00:51:24,440 --> 00:51:29,320
Speaker 3: in the afternoon. And we actually never saw him again

1042
00:51:29,960 --> 00:51:33,640
Speaker 3: until the day that I shot him. So we had

1043
00:51:33,680 --> 00:51:36,640
Speaker 3: three encounters in one day, and then actually he wasn't

1044
00:51:36,680 --> 00:51:38,080
Speaker 3: on camera for three or four days. And what I

1045
00:51:38,120 --> 00:51:39,960
Speaker 3: think was happening was, I mean he was locking down

1046
00:51:40,000 --> 00:51:42,880
Speaker 3: with a dough. In fact, I went through that little

1047
00:51:42,880 --> 00:51:44,600
Speaker 3: four or five day cycle of hunting, went back to

1048
00:51:44,600 --> 00:51:46,640
Speaker 3: work for two or three days. We had some good

1049
00:51:46,640 --> 00:51:49,879
Speaker 3: weather come through and I got a picture of him

1050
00:51:49,880 --> 00:51:52,160
Speaker 3: in the morning with a dough, and then I got

1051
00:51:52,160 --> 00:51:54,520
Speaker 3: a picture of him that afternoon going back out with

1052
00:51:54,640 --> 00:51:56,680
Speaker 3: the dough, and I was like, Okay, he's just in

1053
00:51:56,719 --> 00:51:58,840
Speaker 3: this little area with the dough, and it's something that

1054
00:51:58,880 --> 00:52:01,360
Speaker 3: I actually seen the year four with him right in

1055
00:52:01,400 --> 00:52:03,239
Speaker 3: that spot, and so it's where he liked to be

1056
00:52:03,360 --> 00:52:05,560
Speaker 3: in the rut, and so I just kind of said,

1057
00:52:05,560 --> 00:52:08,000
Speaker 3: you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna hone in on this area.

1058
00:52:08,600 --> 00:52:10,719
Speaker 3: When he was three or four years old, he was

1059
00:52:10,760 --> 00:52:12,799
Speaker 3: farther to the north, but the previous couple of years

1060
00:52:12,800 --> 00:52:15,360
Speaker 3: he had moved down to his pocket of doze, and

1061
00:52:16,360 --> 00:52:18,720
Speaker 3: I was really making decisions based on that and hunting

1062
00:52:18,760 --> 00:52:20,440
Speaker 3: the dose. You know, where the dough is going to be,

1063
00:52:21,120 --> 00:52:24,920
Speaker 3: and those acorns and I mean that dough drug him

1064
00:52:25,520 --> 00:52:28,839
Speaker 3: under the tree three yards just.

1065
00:52:28,840 --> 00:52:34,719
Speaker 2: Can be then Yeah. Yeah, so you've killed you killed

1066
00:52:34,760 --> 00:52:37,800
Speaker 2: these two bucks this year. Last year you killed Kelsey

1067
00:52:38,040 --> 00:52:41,120
Speaker 2: and I think another big old giant buck, and then

1068
00:52:41,120 --> 00:52:45,160
Speaker 2: the year before that, you kill the legends Dak and Marino. Yeah,

1069
00:52:45,200 --> 00:52:48,720
Speaker 2: and you know, you can go on and on. You've

1070
00:52:48,760 --> 00:52:53,000
Speaker 2: you've had this amazing run. But you mentioned a while back,

1071
00:52:53,040 --> 00:52:55,439
Speaker 2: you mentioned, you know, you've only owned land for eight

1072
00:52:55,520 --> 00:52:57,719
Speaker 2: years something like that, and you've been in Iowa for

1073
00:52:57,880 --> 00:53:00,680
Speaker 2: fifteen or something like that. Before that, you were Louisiana,

1074
00:53:00,800 --> 00:53:05,920
Speaker 2: right hunting some public and hunting other people's stuff. So

1075
00:53:06,840 --> 00:53:10,360
Speaker 2: something of a lot of folks, you know, like to

1076
00:53:10,400 --> 00:53:12,920
Speaker 2: gripe about when it comes to like the hunting media

1077
00:53:12,960 --> 00:53:15,560
Speaker 2: today is they say, well, we're just seeing these guys

1078
00:53:15,640 --> 00:53:17,359
Speaker 2: kill these big giant bucks on a bunch of land

1079
00:53:17,400 --> 00:53:21,400
Speaker 2: they own, right. But I always like to kind of

1080
00:53:21,960 --> 00:53:27,160
Speaker 2: look at the situation and then separate the situation from

1081
00:53:27,200 --> 00:53:30,440
Speaker 2: like the strategies that have got them there. And I

1082
00:53:30,440 --> 00:53:33,799
Speaker 2: always think that even though I have better situations now

1083
00:53:33,840 --> 00:53:36,399
Speaker 2: that I hunted than I had fifteen years ago, man,

1084
00:53:36,440 --> 00:53:39,279
Speaker 2: I've learned so much that I could go back to

1085
00:53:39,320 --> 00:53:41,640
Speaker 2: those places and be way, way, way more successful than

1086
00:53:41,680 --> 00:53:43,960
Speaker 2: I was back then. So this is a long winded

1087
00:53:43,960 --> 00:53:47,440
Speaker 2: way of getting to what would be like the top

1088
00:53:47,560 --> 00:53:49,760
Speaker 2: one or two things that you've learned in these recent

1089
00:53:49,840 --> 00:53:52,640
Speaker 2: years that you would take back with you if you

1090
00:53:52,760 --> 00:53:54,759
Speaker 2: had to go back to Louisiana or if you had

1091
00:53:54,800 --> 00:53:57,920
Speaker 2: to go back to hunting public or buy permission stuff.

1092
00:53:58,400 --> 00:54:00,360
Speaker 2: What do you think have been like those most important

1093
00:54:00,400 --> 00:54:04,680
Speaker 2: things now that would translate to a less ideal scenario.

1094
00:54:05,239 --> 00:54:12,399
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you know, probably the most useful thing

1095
00:54:12,480 --> 00:54:22,120
Speaker 3: that I've honed in on is scouting aerial maps, you know,

1096
00:54:22,440 --> 00:54:26,239
Speaker 3: looking at a piece of property, because the way I

1097
00:54:26,320 --> 00:54:29,200
Speaker 3: hunt is I want to figure out where the deer

1098
00:54:29,200 --> 00:54:34,160
Speaker 3: bed and where they feed. That dictates everything. Where they bed,

1099
00:54:34,200 --> 00:54:39,359
Speaker 3: where they feed primarily, and then I don't I mean,

1100
00:54:39,400 --> 00:54:41,040
Speaker 3: I have a few stands of a inbedding areas and

1101
00:54:41,080 --> 00:54:42,759
Speaker 3: I love getting into thick stuff at the right time

1102
00:54:42,760 --> 00:54:44,520
Speaker 3: of year and having a lot of fun. That's how

1103
00:54:44,560 --> 00:54:47,200
Speaker 3: I grew up hunting public, because all the deer get

1104
00:54:47,280 --> 00:54:50,560
Speaker 3: pressured and go into that. But in the Midwest it's

1105
00:54:50,600 --> 00:54:52,480
Speaker 3: a little bit different. I mean, it's different than the

1106
00:54:52,480 --> 00:54:55,120
Speaker 3: swamps of Louisiana, where it's just thousands and thousands and

1107
00:54:55,160 --> 00:54:58,200
Speaker 3: thousands of acres and similar to what you probably hunt Michigan, right,

1108
00:54:58,200 --> 00:55:01,080
Speaker 3: I mean, it's like big wood stuff, you know, and

1109
00:55:01,160 --> 00:55:03,640
Speaker 3: especially if it's heavily pressured, you're getting back into certain

1110
00:55:03,640 --> 00:55:06,360
Speaker 3: areas and that's a lot harder to look at. I

1111
00:55:06,400 --> 00:55:10,239
Speaker 3: would say aerials and pick out okay, betting feeding, and

1112
00:55:10,560 --> 00:55:14,480
Speaker 3: I had some experience doing that, but it was private

1113
00:55:14,520 --> 00:55:17,840
Speaker 3: ground still in Louisiana, where there were food plots and

1114
00:55:17,880 --> 00:55:19,839
Speaker 3: there were things where you say okay, and there were

1115
00:55:19,880 --> 00:55:23,520
Speaker 3: cuts where they were doing rotational logging operations and you

1116
00:55:23,600 --> 00:55:25,760
Speaker 3: knew where the deer were going to primarily be betted,

1117
00:55:26,280 --> 00:55:29,160
Speaker 3: and so you could sort of say okay. And that's

1118
00:55:29,160 --> 00:55:31,760
Speaker 3: really back in the early two thousands when I started

1119
00:55:31,760 --> 00:55:34,720
Speaker 3: sort of honing that idea of I'm not just hunting

1120
00:55:34,719 --> 00:55:40,120
Speaker 3: a trail, I'm not just hunting a scrape line, you know,

1121
00:55:40,200 --> 00:55:41,600
Speaker 3: in a way I am, but I'm still trying to

1122
00:55:41,600 --> 00:55:44,359
Speaker 3: figure out, okay, where these deer really betting, and then

1123
00:55:44,360 --> 00:55:47,959
Speaker 3: where they headed out to and is that acorns right now?

1124
00:55:48,120 --> 00:55:51,520
Speaker 3: Is that ag? Is that something I planted? I think

1125
00:55:51,560 --> 00:55:54,840
Speaker 3: it's definitely easier in the Midwest. But any property I

1126
00:55:54,840 --> 00:55:57,479
Speaker 3: get and I talk to a lot of people friends

1127
00:55:57,520 --> 00:55:59,520
Speaker 3: that have property, like, how would you approach this? And

1128
00:55:59,600 --> 00:56:03,960
Speaker 3: I mean you pan that camera out and where is

1129
00:56:04,000 --> 00:56:08,160
Speaker 3: the cover? You know? And then topographically what draws because

1130
00:56:08,200 --> 00:56:11,040
Speaker 3: deer man, you go out hunting out in Kansas and

1131
00:56:11,080 --> 00:56:13,200
Speaker 3: it's a ton of grass, you know, and it's little

1132
00:56:13,239 --> 00:56:15,879
Speaker 3: ditches and are you look at what Caleb just did

1133
00:56:15,920 --> 00:56:19,080
Speaker 3: recently on the show, Like you know, it's just tree

1134
00:56:19,120 --> 00:56:22,440
Speaker 3: lines and waterways, you know, and deer. They're resilient creatures

1135
00:56:22,440 --> 00:56:25,759
Speaker 3: and they find areas, but trying to figure out where

1136
00:56:25,800 --> 00:56:27,480
Speaker 3: you're at, where they like to hang out and where

1137
00:56:27,480 --> 00:56:29,440
Speaker 3: they're going to feed and get in between, and that's

1138
00:56:29,440 --> 00:56:30,560
Speaker 3: probably the most useful thing.

1139
00:56:31,200 --> 00:56:31,839
Speaker 4: Yeah.

1140
00:56:32,160 --> 00:56:34,919
Speaker 2: So then in this scenario that you are in where

1141
00:56:34,960 --> 00:56:37,560
Speaker 2: you do have your own land and you can make changes,

1142
00:56:37,600 --> 00:56:40,200
Speaker 2: and you have made changes and things, what do you

1143
00:56:40,200 --> 00:56:43,759
Speaker 2: think is the most important change that you have made

1144
00:56:43,840 --> 00:56:48,000
Speaker 2: as far as you know, being able to manipulate the habitat,

1145
00:56:48,239 --> 00:56:51,200
Speaker 2: set things up how you want. You know, you've you've

1146
00:56:51,320 --> 00:56:54,480
Speaker 2: you've built something in a couple spots now that works

1147
00:56:54,600 --> 00:56:57,080
Speaker 2: really really well. If you had to put your finger

1148
00:56:57,120 --> 00:57:00,680
Speaker 2: on that one or two things that made the just difference,

1149
00:57:00,719 --> 00:57:01,560
Speaker 2: what do you think that would be?

1150
00:57:01,960 --> 00:57:06,720
Speaker 3: Probably food, honestly. So the home farm was a cattle

1151
00:57:06,760 --> 00:57:15,640
Speaker 3: pasture for seventy five years, never farmed and heavily heavily

1152
00:57:15,719 --> 00:57:18,800
Speaker 3: hunted every year. The farmer that I bought it from

1153
00:57:18,960 --> 00:57:21,200
Speaker 3: let everybody drive through it and push all the deer

1154
00:57:21,240 --> 00:57:23,480
Speaker 3: out and I mean, there was nothing for age on

1155
00:57:23,520 --> 00:57:27,080
Speaker 3: that farm when I bought it, and it was it

1156
00:57:27,160 --> 00:57:30,400
Speaker 3: was Hey, half the farm wasn't accessible because you couldn't

1157
00:57:30,400 --> 00:57:32,680
Speaker 3: get across the creek, you know, the cows had access

1158
00:57:32,720 --> 00:57:35,880
Speaker 3: to it. But I bought that farm. I put in

1159
00:57:36,080 --> 00:57:40,720
Speaker 3: four creek crossings for different access. I did sad busts

1160
00:57:41,040 --> 00:57:44,360
Speaker 3: where I could start planting, because you know, I'm investing

1161
00:57:44,360 --> 00:57:46,720
Speaker 3: a lot of money into land, so okay, let me

1162
00:57:46,760 --> 00:57:51,560
Speaker 3: start farming where I can because maybe CRP or whatever

1163
00:57:51,560 --> 00:57:53,680
Speaker 3: I need to do to generate income to help cover

1164
00:57:53,880 --> 00:57:56,960
Speaker 3: costs and things like that. And I didn't need to

1165
00:57:57,040 --> 00:57:59,840
Speaker 3: make the bedding be better on that property. It was

1166
00:57:59,840 --> 00:58:03,400
Speaker 3: already very centralized. Cattle pastures that are allowed to grow up,

1167
00:58:03,800 --> 00:58:06,680
Speaker 3: you know, tend to be gnarly things. I mean, lots

1168
00:58:06,680 --> 00:58:12,840
Speaker 3: of locusts and hedge and multiflora rows. So the bedding

1169
00:58:12,920 --> 00:58:17,439
Speaker 3: was pretty thick. And so I just optimize feed there,

1170
00:58:17,600 --> 00:58:21,120
Speaker 3: you know, basically strategically putting food where I can hunt it.

1171
00:58:21,800 --> 00:58:25,160
Speaker 3: And then the river bottom is is similar. You know,

1172
00:58:25,160 --> 00:58:29,360
Speaker 3: the whole place is cover. It's interesting now over time

1173
00:58:29,520 --> 00:58:35,240
Speaker 3: finding out okay they really like that peninsula, then trying

1174
00:58:35,280 --> 00:58:38,160
Speaker 3: to work with the nrcs and the forester about and

1175
00:58:38,320 --> 00:58:40,560
Speaker 3: the whole thing is not wetland. There's there's about sixty

1176
00:58:40,600 --> 00:58:42,200
Speaker 3: acres that's not a wetland that I can do what

1177
00:58:42,240 --> 00:58:45,800
Speaker 3: I want on. But where can we do TSI work

1178
00:58:46,840 --> 00:58:50,400
Speaker 3: to thicken up some areas and really hold them there,

1179
00:58:50,480 --> 00:58:53,640
Speaker 3: and then release some of those valuable trees, those mash trees,

1180
00:58:53,680 --> 00:58:55,440
Speaker 3: those white oaks that are in there, the swamp oaks

1181
00:58:55,440 --> 00:58:57,960
Speaker 3: and that kind of thing. But it still goes back

1182
00:58:58,000 --> 00:59:01,280
Speaker 3: to food because for years before I owned it, there

1183
00:59:01,320 --> 00:59:04,880
Speaker 3: wasn't food on it. And the year that we flooded,

1184
00:59:04,960 --> 00:59:08,840
Speaker 3: and another year where we just didn't have success. I

1185
00:59:08,840 --> 00:59:10,600
Speaker 3: didn't have the right equipment and I was trying to

1186
00:59:10,600 --> 00:59:12,800
Speaker 3: figure out how can I grow food, and I hadn't

1187
00:59:12,800 --> 00:59:16,919
Speaker 3: bought electric fence yet. It's amazing that you're gone. I mean,

1188
00:59:17,760 --> 00:59:21,840
Speaker 3: once the rut's over, they go find food. And so

1189
00:59:21,920 --> 00:59:25,760
Speaker 3: I've made that a priority there and here in the Midwest.

1190
00:59:25,840 --> 00:59:30,600
Speaker 3: In these situations, particularly as you get late, food is

1191
00:59:31,000 --> 00:59:33,880
Speaker 3: just king. It's a must. But it helps a lot

1192
00:59:34,200 --> 00:59:36,960
Speaker 3: throughout the entire season, right, I mean early season. It matters.

1193
00:59:37,000 --> 00:59:39,480
Speaker 3: If you're holding dose on your property, the rut's going

1194
00:59:39,560 --> 00:59:41,080
Speaker 3: to be better you're going to hold more bucks. I

1195
00:59:41,080 --> 00:59:43,760
Speaker 3: mean all these types of things. So just really putting

1196
00:59:43,800 --> 00:59:48,800
Speaker 3: a lot of time, energy and effort into diversifying food

1197
00:59:48,840 --> 00:59:51,440
Speaker 3: plots and being successful with them and what it was

1198
00:59:51,480 --> 00:59:52,120
Speaker 3: going to take there.

1199
00:59:53,120 --> 00:59:55,880
Speaker 2: Yes, So that raises the question when you said diversify

1200
00:59:55,880 --> 01:00:00,120
Speaker 2: your food plots, do you prefer to have different and

1201
01:00:00,200 --> 01:00:03,520
Speaker 2: food sources in different places to get that diversity or

1202
01:00:03,520 --> 01:00:06,640
Speaker 2: do you ever mix in single plots? I've heard you

1203
01:00:06,680 --> 01:00:11,600
Speaker 2: mentioned like clover plot, Braska plot, But how do you

1204
01:00:11,680 --> 01:00:15,680
Speaker 2: usually do that to get that right ratio in draw

1205
01:00:15,720 --> 01:00:17,040
Speaker 2: where you want it when you want it.

1206
01:00:17,800 --> 01:00:20,880
Speaker 3: I generally have green plots and green plots, you know,

1207
01:00:21,000 --> 01:00:23,560
Speaker 3: like the home farm. I actually commercially farm it. So

1208
01:00:23,600 --> 01:00:28,400
Speaker 3: I do my corn bean rotation and I combine everything

1209
01:00:28,760 --> 01:00:31,360
Speaker 3: except like six acres that I leave for food for late,

1210
01:00:32,000 --> 01:00:34,440
Speaker 3: and then I put in green plots. Now my green plots,

1211
01:00:34,880 --> 01:00:37,600
Speaker 3: I tend to do a mixture. And I'm still playing

1212
01:00:37,640 --> 01:00:39,680
Speaker 3: around with it. I mean I had alfalfa there for

1213
01:00:39,720 --> 01:00:42,520
Speaker 3: a long time that we hate, and we actually it

1214
01:00:42,640 --> 01:00:45,960
Speaker 3: just was so tore up. The guy that was paying

1215
01:00:45,960 --> 01:00:47,480
Speaker 3: it for me is like, we need to just farm

1216
01:00:47,520 --> 01:00:50,200
Speaker 3: it a few years. It just it was so eroded

1217
01:00:50,360 --> 01:00:53,440
Speaker 3: and it just was a tough place to hay. So

1218
01:00:54,480 --> 01:00:56,840
Speaker 3: that alfalfa, I want to get back to it because

1219
01:00:56,880 --> 01:00:59,920
Speaker 3: it's so valuable early. It's so fun in velvet season,

1220
01:01:00,040 --> 01:01:03,160
Speaker 3: and it's a great spot to early bowhunt. And I've

1221
01:01:03,240 --> 01:01:06,040
Speaker 3: changed kind of how the home farm hunts by putting

1222
01:01:06,040 --> 01:01:09,280
Speaker 3: that into a crop rotation. But my green plots, like

1223
01:01:09,320 --> 01:01:12,600
Speaker 3: where Bella, my daughter shot big Mac in September, this

1224
01:01:12,720 --> 01:01:14,640
Speaker 3: eight and a half year old deer, five years of history,

1225
01:01:16,960 --> 01:01:20,600
Speaker 3: I do braskaz. I usually have clover mixed in, and

1226
01:01:20,640 --> 01:01:24,640
Speaker 3: I love radishes for early and so I'm gonna do

1227
01:01:24,720 --> 01:01:29,200
Speaker 3: a Braska mix. Got some turnips and rape and sugar

1228
01:01:29,240 --> 01:01:33,240
Speaker 3: beets and everything in there with a clover base. So

1229
01:01:34,200 --> 01:01:37,040
Speaker 3: I'll either depending on how old the plot is and

1230
01:01:37,040 --> 01:01:39,320
Speaker 3: how weed it is, sometimes I kill it, turn it under,

1231
01:01:39,480 --> 01:01:42,720
Speaker 3: put the clover and everything at one time. But what's

1232
01:01:42,760 --> 01:01:45,440
Speaker 3: even better is, you know, if I have a healthy

1233
01:01:46,000 --> 01:01:48,000
Speaker 3: clover plot, or like let's say I do that to

1234
01:01:48,080 --> 01:01:50,080
Speaker 3: a green plot and I put clover in with the brascas,

1235
01:01:50,080 --> 01:01:51,880
Speaker 3: it's mostly gonna be brascas that year, but in the

1236
01:01:51,920 --> 01:01:54,600
Speaker 3: spring it's gonna come up thick, lush clover. I'll mowed

1237
01:01:54,600 --> 01:01:56,280
Speaker 3: a couple of times have a nice clover plot for

1238
01:01:56,480 --> 01:01:58,840
Speaker 3: turky season and through the summer. But then when it

1239
01:01:58,880 --> 01:02:01,120
Speaker 3: comes time for the end of July, I'll go in

1240
01:02:01,160 --> 01:02:04,920
Speaker 3: there and either till under strips to put brassicas or

1241
01:02:05,160 --> 01:02:08,360
Speaker 3: drill brascas in there and have a nice mixture and

1242
01:02:08,440 --> 01:02:13,280
Speaker 3: then broadcast radishes like what I did this year in

1243
01:02:13,320 --> 01:02:15,600
Speaker 3: front of each stand. I just went in a thirty

1244
01:02:15,680 --> 01:02:19,360
Speaker 3: yard circle and just put some extra radishes just onto

1245
01:02:19,400 --> 01:02:22,040
Speaker 3: the ground on top, and it was interesting to watch

1246
01:02:22,080 --> 01:02:26,360
Speaker 3: the deer kind of gravitate there and concentrate there. And

1247
01:02:27,320 --> 01:02:29,200
Speaker 3: I just like having a mixture in the green plots

1248
01:02:29,200 --> 01:02:31,000
Speaker 3: because I don't have tons and tons and tons of

1249
01:02:31,000 --> 01:02:33,680
Speaker 3: green plots. I have a couple that I like, and

1250
01:02:34,000 --> 01:02:36,600
Speaker 3: each one of those different things is more palable at

1251
01:02:36,600 --> 01:02:38,920
Speaker 3: different times. And you know, it's fun to watch what

1252
01:02:38,960 --> 01:02:40,440
Speaker 3: the deer like to eat. But I think they all

1253
01:02:40,520 --> 01:02:43,240
Speaker 3: kind of might feel like something different each day too.

1254
01:02:43,320 --> 01:02:44,840
Speaker 3: You know, they're in there and they got a shortage bark,

1255
01:02:44,920 --> 01:02:45,760
Speaker 3: so it works out well.

1256
01:02:46,480 --> 01:02:51,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, it seems like that that diverse approach seems to

1257
01:02:51,480 --> 01:02:53,600
Speaker 2: have a lot of benefits to it, like you described there.

1258
01:02:54,400 --> 01:02:57,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, you want a drought year, right, I mean, like

1259
01:02:57,400 --> 01:03:01,360
Speaker 3: not every you do a monoculture, you're gonna potentially hose yourself.

1260
01:03:01,400 --> 01:03:05,080
Speaker 3: So having some shade tolerant, drought tolerant, you know, and

1261
01:03:05,120 --> 01:03:06,960
Speaker 3: then hopefully end up with something to hunt over. And

1262
01:03:07,040 --> 01:03:10,360
Speaker 3: I mean I've done this on where before I had

1263
01:03:10,360 --> 01:03:12,560
Speaker 3: any equipment, you know, like we always call it the

1264
01:03:12,560 --> 01:03:15,040
Speaker 3: pormat spot. Go spray and see it and you get

1265
01:03:15,040 --> 01:03:16,640
Speaker 3: a little bit of rain and you can you can

1266
01:03:16,680 --> 01:03:20,320
Speaker 3: really make a spot a lot more effective by doing that.

1267
01:03:21,080 --> 01:03:31,720
Speaker 4: Yeah.

1268
01:03:32,040 --> 01:03:35,640
Speaker 2: So, so you mentioned the home farm and how you've

1269
01:03:36,160 --> 01:03:40,400
Speaker 2: you've got this grain rotation, but I wanted to talk

1270
01:03:40,400 --> 01:03:42,040
Speaker 2: to you about the home Farm to kind of wrap

1271
01:03:42,080 --> 01:03:44,920
Speaker 2: us up here a little bit, because there was a

1272
01:03:45,000 --> 01:03:49,400
Speaker 2: late season stretch a few years back that I watched recently,

1273
01:03:49,480 --> 01:03:52,000
Speaker 2: I guess it would have been sometime this past winter.

1274
01:03:52,160 --> 01:03:55,560
Speaker 2: I remember watching these episodes with my son and he

1275
01:03:55,640 --> 01:03:59,440
Speaker 2: got a kick out of it because two of your daughters,

1276
01:03:59,440 --> 01:04:01,920
Speaker 2: I think, if I'm remember right, two of your daughters

1277
01:04:01,960 --> 01:04:04,880
Speaker 2: and your wife killed bucks in like back to back

1278
01:04:04,920 --> 01:04:09,480
Speaker 2: to back sits right around Christmas, and I think from

1279
01:04:09,480 --> 01:04:11,800
Speaker 2: the same blind or we're like very close to the

1280
01:04:11,840 --> 01:04:14,400
Speaker 2: same place, like over and over and over, and that

1281
01:04:14,560 --> 01:04:15,280
Speaker 2: blew me away.

1282
01:04:15,680 --> 01:04:15,840
Speaker 4: Yea.

1283
01:04:16,400 --> 01:04:18,440
Speaker 2: So I had to ask, you know, as as we

1284
01:04:18,480 --> 01:04:20,720
Speaker 2: move into this late season time period that we're actually

1285
01:04:20,720 --> 01:04:23,280
Speaker 2: in right now when we're talking, there's people out there

1286
01:04:23,320 --> 01:04:28,880
Speaker 2: trying to get that late season last second magic. Tell

1287
01:04:28,920 --> 01:04:32,360
Speaker 2: me about this like dream scenario, amazing situation you had

1288
01:04:32,400 --> 01:04:34,840
Speaker 2: somehow it was able to like handle that, Like what

1289
01:04:34,920 --> 01:04:36,960
Speaker 2: did you have there that was drawing deer like that

1290
01:04:37,040 --> 01:04:39,919
Speaker 2: in the late season over the conditions that got these

1291
01:04:39,960 --> 01:04:42,280
Speaker 2: deer up on their feet over and over again? And

1292
01:04:42,360 --> 01:04:45,760
Speaker 2: how'd you manage to to do that without educating these

1293
01:04:45,800 --> 01:04:49,640
Speaker 2: deer the fact that hate we're getting hunted here after

1294
01:04:49,760 --> 01:04:52,080
Speaker 2: you had a shot and recovery a shot in recovery.

1295
01:04:52,840 --> 01:04:54,080
Speaker 2: How did that all work?

1296
01:04:54,600 --> 01:04:56,680
Speaker 3: I know, it's pretty crazy how it worked out. And

1297
01:04:57,560 --> 01:05:00,360
Speaker 3: the spot just lends itself to it so much. But

1298
01:05:00,400 --> 01:05:04,080
Speaker 3: it's in the back of the property. It's a sixteen

1299
01:05:04,120 --> 01:05:10,360
Speaker 3: acre agfield, and it's a big bottom goes up the

1300
01:05:10,440 --> 01:05:14,200
Speaker 3: hill and it kind of tucks in back to the

1301
01:05:14,240 --> 01:05:18,440
Speaker 3: main bedding area and it's this little finger of crop

1302
01:05:18,560 --> 01:05:21,520
Speaker 3: that goes back in there. And so what I did

1303
01:05:21,520 --> 01:05:23,760
Speaker 3: when I bought the farm, I just sort of looking

1304
01:05:23,800 --> 01:05:25,120
Speaker 3: at it and how it set up I was like,

1305
01:05:25,240 --> 01:05:28,760
Speaker 3: this is right up against the bedding, big thick draws

1306
01:05:28,800 --> 01:05:31,800
Speaker 3: that go down into the timber, super gnarly old cattle farm.

1307
01:05:31,840 --> 01:05:34,479
Speaker 3: As I mentioned, tons of multi four rows. The deer

1308
01:05:34,680 --> 01:05:38,600
Speaker 3: cannot see out into the field from the timber. It's

1309
01:05:38,680 --> 01:05:43,280
Speaker 3: just so thick. And so when I bought the property,

1310
01:05:43,280 --> 01:05:45,080
Speaker 3: it just kind of looked at where I could put green.

1311
01:05:46,080 --> 01:05:50,520
Speaker 3: I made four little green plots, you know, north south,

1312
01:05:50,560 --> 01:05:56,000
Speaker 3: east west sides of this thicket. And so this backfield,

1313
01:05:56,040 --> 01:05:58,120
Speaker 3: this little finger that goes back there at the very

1314
01:05:58,160 --> 01:06:00,880
Speaker 3: tip of it, I have a little green plot turnips

1315
01:06:00,960 --> 01:06:04,320
Speaker 3: and whatnot, which can be pretty effective late season as well.

1316
01:06:04,560 --> 01:06:06,720
Speaker 3: But then when we're drilling all of our crops, we

1317
01:06:07,120 --> 01:06:08,840
Speaker 3: go back in there and make a loop and turn

1318
01:06:08,840 --> 01:06:12,480
Speaker 3: around and come back out. And what I have done

1319
01:06:12,880 --> 01:06:17,240
Speaker 3: is I'll take plot screen, and the co op works

1320
01:06:17,280 --> 01:06:19,400
Speaker 3: with me on this. It's kind of nice, but I'll

1321
01:06:19,440 --> 01:06:21,520
Speaker 3: once my beans were coming up, I actually go and

1322
01:06:21,560 --> 01:06:23,720
Speaker 3: I'll till under a six foot wide strip or a

1323
01:06:23,720 --> 01:06:27,280
Speaker 3: ten foot wide strip and hand broadcasts of plot screen

1324
01:06:27,360 --> 01:06:30,840
Speaker 3: some Egyptian weed and sorg them and whatnot and pack

1325
01:06:30,880 --> 01:06:32,760
Speaker 3: it in fertilizer and flag it so that when they

1326
01:06:32,760 --> 01:06:36,200
Speaker 3: come back to spray my beans. They skip over that

1327
01:06:37,000 --> 01:06:41,320
Speaker 3: and where it works out great for a northwest wind,

1328
01:06:42,000 --> 01:06:43,720
Speaker 3: and I can come all the way around to the

1329
01:06:43,720 --> 01:06:46,000
Speaker 3: back of the farm. We walk up this big hill

1330
01:06:46,120 --> 01:06:48,520
Speaker 3: and we're in the blind and I've got plot screen

1331
01:06:49,040 --> 01:06:51,440
Speaker 3: and so you got great entry and exit for late season.

1332
01:06:52,760 --> 01:06:55,440
Speaker 3: And then it's just right butts up against the bedding area.

1333
01:06:56,120 --> 01:07:00,520
Speaker 3: And we had it was Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and

1334
01:07:00,560 --> 01:07:03,360
Speaker 3: then we skipped one day because the wind had switched

1335
01:07:03,360 --> 01:07:05,280
Speaker 3: out of the south, and then went back to that

1336
01:07:05,440 --> 01:07:07,960
Speaker 3: same exact line when the wind switched back. So three

1337
01:07:08,000 --> 01:07:12,280
Speaker 3: sits Thursday, Friday, Sunday, three kills and it was a

1338
01:07:12,360 --> 01:07:15,080
Speaker 3: five year old, a six year old in my four

1339
01:07:15,200 --> 01:07:17,640
Speaker 3: year old, my seven year old daughter. It was her

1340
01:07:17,680 --> 01:07:22,360
Speaker 3: first deer, and we were being we're certainly being less

1341
01:07:22,440 --> 01:07:26,560
Speaker 3: less picky, and my wife was with us, and so

1342
01:07:26,840 --> 01:07:28,560
Speaker 3: it was really cool. There were four of us in

1343
01:07:28,600 --> 01:07:33,120
Speaker 3: the blind. And I think, you know, the farm is

1344
01:07:33,160 --> 01:07:36,040
Speaker 3: interesting because it's in the center of a pretty big

1345
01:07:36,080 --> 01:07:40,040
Speaker 3: section and it gets hunted pretty heavily all around. So

1346
01:07:41,440 --> 01:07:45,960
Speaker 3: through gun season deer move in there. Every year, deer

1347
01:07:46,040 --> 01:07:48,520
Speaker 3: move in there. In fact, side note the buck my

1348
01:07:48,680 --> 01:07:51,479
Speaker 3: daughter Brin shot last weekend. I don't know the deer,

1349
01:07:52,120 --> 01:07:54,560
Speaker 3: and it's it's a big, mature deer. And I got

1350
01:07:54,680 --> 01:07:58,280
Speaker 3: one picture of the night before and I texted my

1351
01:07:58,760 --> 01:08:00,760
Speaker 3: Ryan and I said, man, look at this buck. And

1352
01:08:00,800 --> 01:08:02,200
Speaker 3: we went in there the next day and he was

1353
01:08:02,200 --> 01:08:03,960
Speaker 3: still in there and she killed him. And I don't know,

1354
01:08:04,000 --> 01:08:06,160
Speaker 3: the dear big ten. You know, it's like so and

1355
01:08:06,200 --> 01:08:10,520
Speaker 3: he actually had a bullet hole through his neck. Just yeah,

1356
01:08:10,600 --> 01:08:12,280
Speaker 3: And so, you know, they just get a lot of pressure.

1357
01:08:12,440 --> 01:08:16,559
Speaker 3: And in fact, that night there were three or four

1358
01:08:16,600 --> 01:08:19,080
Speaker 3: other shots. Right, there's just a lot of activity. So

1359
01:08:19,520 --> 01:08:21,880
Speaker 3: my farm, in the grand scheme of things, is not

1360
01:08:22,080 --> 01:08:25,640
Speaker 3: very pressured, and I'm very careful about how we go

1361
01:08:25,680 --> 01:08:29,360
Speaker 3: about hunting it. And there's great cover on it and food.

1362
01:08:29,439 --> 01:08:34,280
Speaker 3: So that particular year we sneak in there, we're using

1363
01:08:34,280 --> 01:08:37,280
Speaker 3: a crossbow, so that's also you're not shooting up the

1364
01:08:37,320 --> 01:08:41,240
Speaker 3: place with the gun. And both my daughter at the

1365
01:08:41,280 --> 01:08:45,000
Speaker 3: time she was would have been nine or ten, Bela,

1366
01:08:45,040 --> 01:08:49,440
Speaker 3: and my wife, you know, thirty yard shot, heart shot

1367
01:08:49,840 --> 01:08:52,720
Speaker 3: deer runs forty yards into the timber, and both of

1368
01:08:52,760 --> 01:08:54,960
Speaker 3: them died in the same exact spot. I mean they

1369
01:08:54,960 --> 01:08:58,160
Speaker 3: shot him the same spot. They died within three feet

1370
01:08:58,200 --> 01:09:02,160
Speaker 3: of each other and so quick quick recoveries. I think

1371
01:09:02,160 --> 01:09:04,000
Speaker 3: if we were tramping all let's say they hit him

1372
01:09:04,000 --> 01:09:05,880
Speaker 3: back and we were tramping all around the timber, maybe

1373
01:09:05,920 --> 01:09:08,639
Speaker 3: that wouldn't have worked out. But being able to slip

1374
01:09:08,640 --> 01:09:11,160
Speaker 3: in there after dark because they shoot him right before dark,

1375
01:09:11,200 --> 01:09:13,680
Speaker 3: get the deer out, get out of there, you know,

1376
01:09:13,880 --> 01:09:19,360
Speaker 3: I mean, it's it's And I think the other unique

1377
01:09:19,360 --> 01:09:21,400
Speaker 3: thing is that we were seeing like a different mature

1378
01:09:21,439 --> 01:09:25,320
Speaker 3: buck each day, right so, and I noticed that now

1379
01:09:25,360 --> 01:09:27,720
Speaker 3: if I go just rotate around my farm, because the

1380
01:09:27,720 --> 01:09:29,519
Speaker 3: way I have all the food set up around that

1381
01:09:29,640 --> 01:09:32,479
Speaker 3: central area, there might be a buck that likes to

1382
01:09:32,520 --> 01:09:35,040
Speaker 3: go to one. But it's not at all surprising. They'll

1383
01:09:35,080 --> 01:09:36,960
Speaker 3: come out to the east one one night, they'll go

1384
01:09:37,000 --> 01:09:38,880
Speaker 3: out to the south one one night. So you kind

1385
01:09:38,920 --> 01:09:41,519
Speaker 3: of get a rotation where that buck that we were

1386
01:09:41,520 --> 01:09:43,599
Speaker 3: shooting the next day wasn't there the night before, so

1387
01:09:43,640 --> 01:09:47,479
Speaker 3: he wasn't part of that exposure to all the deer

1388
01:09:47,520 --> 01:09:50,439
Speaker 3: clearing field or whatever. So it's sort of a perfect storm.

1389
01:09:50,840 --> 01:09:53,719
Speaker 3: But again it goes down to I think low pressure,

1390
01:09:54,280 --> 01:09:57,640
Speaker 3: good deer numbers. At that point, I hadn't shot a

1391
01:09:57,680 --> 01:09:59,479
Speaker 3: lot of deer on that property. So we were getting

1392
01:09:59,560 --> 01:10:03,120
Speaker 3: we're some pretty good age amongst the bucks, and you

1393
01:10:03,160 --> 01:10:05,760
Speaker 3: couldn't draw that up any better. I mean, what a memory, right,

1394
01:10:06,200 --> 01:10:10,000
Speaker 3: I have the best photo ever of my wife and

1395
01:10:10,040 --> 01:10:13,680
Speaker 3: two older daughters, all with with bucks, all with a crossbow,

1396
01:10:13,920 --> 01:10:15,040
Speaker 3: and it's just a crazy story.

1397
01:10:15,760 --> 01:10:18,800
Speaker 2: That's amazing. So so what are what are some of

1398
01:10:18,840 --> 01:10:23,200
Speaker 2: the other kind of foundational late season things that you're

1399
01:10:23,240 --> 01:10:25,240
Speaker 2: thinking about if if you were still trying to get

1400
01:10:25,240 --> 01:10:27,360
Speaker 2: one killed right now, or as you are probably trying

1401
01:10:27,360 --> 01:10:29,599
Speaker 2: to help your kids, you know, in these coming days

1402
01:10:29,600 --> 01:10:32,000
Speaker 2: and weeks, what are some of the other things you're

1403
01:10:32,000 --> 01:10:34,720
Speaker 2: thinking about to help choose where to hunt or when

1404
01:10:34,760 --> 01:10:35,120
Speaker 2: to hunt.

1405
01:10:36,280 --> 01:10:39,599
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's it's uh, I mean it's hard.

1406
01:10:39,880 --> 01:10:41,840
Speaker 3: It revolves around food, right, If you don't have food,

1407
01:10:41,880 --> 01:10:45,960
Speaker 3: you're not going to have deer. And they're definitely skittish

1408
01:10:46,040 --> 01:10:51,320
Speaker 3: just times a year, this time of year. They doesn't

1409
01:10:51,320 --> 01:10:54,280
Speaker 3: take much to clear a field, but we started. They're

1410
01:10:54,400 --> 01:10:57,240
Speaker 3: driven by their stomach and I shot a great buck

1411
01:10:57,240 --> 01:10:59,920
Speaker 3: a few years ago. I have a property, one of

1412
01:11:00,000 --> 01:11:01,800
Speaker 3: the first proppers ever bought. I've never sold it, and

1413
01:11:01,880 --> 01:11:05,559
Speaker 3: it's two and a half hours away and I rarely

1414
01:11:05,600 --> 01:11:08,519
Speaker 3: go there. You know, we farm it, it butts up

1415
01:11:08,520 --> 01:11:11,000
Speaker 3: against a lot of cover. And it was January first

1416
01:11:11,000 --> 01:11:13,479
Speaker 3: we had a huge storm coming in and I was like,

1417
01:11:13,479 --> 01:11:15,519
Speaker 3: we got to go sit that place, and you know,

1418
01:11:15,800 --> 01:11:19,080
Speaker 3: one hundred eighty inch deer comes out, and you know,

1419
01:11:19,120 --> 01:11:21,400
Speaker 3: you're like, well, there you go. That's the recipe in

1420
01:11:21,439 --> 01:11:25,840
Speaker 3: Iowa for success. And I think I was unique in

1421
01:11:25,880 --> 01:11:28,200
Speaker 3: that we're far enough north where we get we get

1422
01:11:28,520 --> 01:11:31,200
Speaker 3: we're post rut ruts. In November, we're post rut and

1423
01:11:31,240 --> 01:11:34,000
Speaker 3: then we have these can have this harsh weather and

1424
01:11:34,040 --> 01:11:36,840
Speaker 3: it just it just drives in the food. Of course

1425
01:11:38,160 --> 01:11:41,160
Speaker 3: I don't hunt mornings. Then, just that sort of concept

1426
01:11:41,200 --> 01:11:44,760
Speaker 3: of the deer feeding feeding, feeding, feeding, feeding, and they're

1427
01:11:44,800 --> 01:11:47,439
Speaker 3: not betting very far off the food. And so if

1428
01:11:47,479 --> 01:11:48,800
Speaker 3: you go in there in the morning and blow them

1429
01:11:48,800 --> 01:11:49,960
Speaker 3: out of they're not going to come back out in

1430
01:11:49,960 --> 01:11:54,080
Speaker 3: the afternoon. And so not only are we transitioning from hey,

1431
01:11:54,080 --> 01:11:56,400
Speaker 3: we were worn out. We just hunted however many days

1432
01:11:56,479 --> 01:11:59,720
Speaker 3: and we need to get back to, you know, other priorities.

1433
01:12:00,600 --> 01:12:03,080
Speaker 3: So it's kind of nice over the Christmas holidays, a

1434
01:12:03,080 --> 01:12:04,760
Speaker 3: lot of family time in the morning and then we

1435
01:12:04,880 --> 01:12:06,680
Speaker 3: go do a three hour hunt in the afternoon. It

1436
01:12:06,720 --> 01:12:09,960
Speaker 3: works out well, but I also think strategically you just

1437
01:12:10,000 --> 01:12:12,760
Speaker 3: have more success that way. I think some farms set

1438
01:12:12,800 --> 01:12:15,080
Speaker 3: up well to hunt bedding in the morning, the way

1439
01:12:15,120 --> 01:12:17,160
Speaker 3: their access is. I have friends that can do that

1440
01:12:17,280 --> 01:12:19,400
Speaker 3: late season. They can get in the back of a

1441
01:12:19,439 --> 01:12:22,200
Speaker 3: bedding safely and catch deer coming back from the crops.

1442
01:12:22,240 --> 01:12:25,320
Speaker 3: But none of my places really set up like that,

1443
01:12:25,439 --> 01:12:28,920
Speaker 3: so I focus on food and afternoons and cold weather.

1444
01:12:30,080 --> 01:12:33,640
Speaker 2: You mentioned the plot screen that you had on that

1445
01:12:33,720 --> 01:12:37,720
Speaker 2: home farm setup, which sounded perfect for getting out of there.

1446
01:12:38,680 --> 01:12:41,599
Speaker 2: Do you have any other exit strategies, because that's always

1447
01:12:41,760 --> 01:12:43,920
Speaker 2: one of the toughest things I encounters, is like, you

1448
01:12:43,920 --> 01:12:46,640
Speaker 2: could hunt good food in the evening, how do you

1449
01:12:46,680 --> 01:12:48,599
Speaker 2: get out of there without spooking a thousand deer if

1450
01:12:48,640 --> 01:12:51,240
Speaker 2: you're hunting close to the food. I know, it's what

1451
01:12:51,320 --> 01:12:51,960
Speaker 2: have you done?

1452
01:12:52,200 --> 01:12:57,479
Speaker 3: It's tough, you know. I don't have this luxury anymore.

1453
01:12:57,479 --> 01:12:59,600
Speaker 3: At one point I had enough people that didn't have

1454
01:12:59,640 --> 01:13:01,639
Speaker 3: anything to do that someone could come clear the field

1455
01:13:01,640 --> 01:13:06,640
Speaker 3: with a vehicle. You know, nobody's going that. So my

1456
01:13:06,680 --> 01:13:09,040
Speaker 3: wife would laugh at me. Maybe when my kids get

1457
01:13:09,080 --> 01:13:11,040
Speaker 3: a little bit older and start driving and be like, hey,

1458
01:13:13,120 --> 01:13:16,679
Speaker 3: we don't live on the farm, and so that's a

1459
01:13:17,320 --> 01:13:19,519
Speaker 3: you know, even the home farms thirty minutes from the house.

1460
01:13:20,120 --> 01:13:23,600
Speaker 3: But that's a good strategy if someone lives on the farm.

1461
01:13:24,240 --> 01:13:26,920
Speaker 3: Some of my food plots, like at the river bottom,

1462
01:13:27,400 --> 01:13:30,120
Speaker 3: a lot of deer, even though it's a three acre

1463
01:13:30,200 --> 01:13:34,000
Speaker 3: food plot. They come out of the peninsula. They they'll

1464
01:13:34,040 --> 01:13:36,559
Speaker 3: feed there for an hour, but then they work they

1465
01:13:36,600 --> 01:13:39,280
Speaker 3: work off I mean every time, right, And so if

1466
01:13:39,320 --> 01:13:41,920
Speaker 3: you could somehow set it up where it's not truly

1467
01:13:42,000 --> 01:13:46,120
Speaker 3: the destination, that's ideal, you know, because you can just

1468
01:13:46,200 --> 01:13:47,920
Speaker 3: keep going back and they're not there when you get out.

1469
01:13:49,160 --> 01:13:51,759
Speaker 3: And then the other strategy that I've used where legal

1470
01:13:52,200 --> 01:13:56,519
Speaker 3: is like electronic calls, like a coyote call. You know,

1471
01:13:56,600 --> 01:14:00,120
Speaker 3: you put your your coyote call under the blind in

1472
01:14:00,160 --> 01:14:02,400
Speaker 3: the bushes thirty yards away and have the remote. You know,

1473
01:14:03,040 --> 01:14:06,479
Speaker 3: that's not legal everywhere, but you know you can turn

1474
01:14:06,520 --> 01:14:08,360
Speaker 3: on a coyote yapp and and then all the deer

1475
01:14:08,439 --> 01:14:10,000
Speaker 3: run off and you just get out, sneak out and

1476
01:14:10,000 --> 01:14:10,599
Speaker 3: get out of there.

1477
01:14:11,400 --> 01:14:11,800
Speaker 2: That's good.

1478
01:14:11,880 --> 01:14:16,559
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that's that's pretty effective, you know, if if

1479
01:14:16,600 --> 01:14:19,599
Speaker 3: it's legal where you hunt. But I always I try

1480
01:14:19,640 --> 01:14:23,280
Speaker 3: to wait till it's super dark. We don't use lights,

1481
01:14:23,840 --> 01:14:25,760
Speaker 3: you know, and I'm hoping that when I get out

1482
01:14:25,760 --> 01:14:29,080
Speaker 3: of there, you know, one dough clears the field right,

1483
01:14:29,120 --> 01:14:31,439
Speaker 3: and it's like, I'm they don't really know what's going on,

1484
01:14:31,760 --> 01:14:35,080
Speaker 3: because I definitely have had to get out and clear

1485
01:14:35,200 --> 01:14:38,479
Speaker 3: deer off the food plot. Another strategy, I don't use

1486
01:14:38,520 --> 01:14:41,000
Speaker 3: a ton I used to use it more like shoot

1487
01:14:41,000 --> 01:14:44,200
Speaker 3: a dough or something, but then you got to go

1488
01:14:44,280 --> 01:14:46,439
Speaker 3: recover the dough. And so I've never technically liked that

1489
01:14:46,439 --> 01:14:47,240
Speaker 3: one thing.

1490
01:14:47,560 --> 01:14:53,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I don't know for sure what your forecast

1491
01:14:53,439 --> 01:14:56,080
Speaker 2: looks like, but I usually what you guys have got

1492
01:14:56,120 --> 01:14:57,559
Speaker 2: in I was just a couple of days ahead of

1493
01:14:57,560 --> 01:15:00,680
Speaker 2: what we're getting here in Michigan, and h when I

1494
01:15:00,720 --> 01:15:02,840
Speaker 2: look in the two week forecast or the ten day

1495
01:15:02,880 --> 01:15:06,639
Speaker 2: forecast coming up, it's not real promising for late season.

1496
01:15:06,680 --> 01:15:09,800
Speaker 2: It's a lot of warm, mild weather. We don't have

1497
01:15:09,880 --> 01:15:13,919
Speaker 2: that awesome blizzard coming through. We don't have the big cold, cold,

1498
01:15:14,080 --> 01:15:17,680
Speaker 2: frigid front hitting. It's kind of been the story of

1499
01:15:17,760 --> 01:15:22,920
Speaker 2: most of this December. Does anything change for you when

1500
01:15:22,920 --> 01:15:25,519
Speaker 2: you have this warm weather, Like, you know, if someone's

1501
01:15:25,560 --> 01:15:27,160
Speaker 2: got like, hey, this is my time off, I was

1502
01:15:27,160 --> 01:15:29,400
Speaker 2: gonna be a hunt around the holidays, and now we're

1503
01:15:29,439 --> 01:15:33,840
Speaker 2: stuck with this kind of lousy weather. Do you still try?

1504
01:15:34,000 --> 01:15:36,120
Speaker 2: Do you hunt a different food source, like I know

1505
01:15:36,240 --> 01:15:38,240
Speaker 2: some guys might prefer some type of food and warm

1506
01:15:38,280 --> 01:15:41,120
Speaker 2: weather versus some type of food and cold or is

1507
01:15:41,120 --> 01:15:43,040
Speaker 2: there something totally different off the wall that you'd be

1508
01:15:43,040 --> 01:15:44,800
Speaker 2: thinking about with that set of conditions.

1509
01:15:45,080 --> 01:15:47,920
Speaker 3: I I don't. I mean, still these deer are still

1510
01:15:48,040 --> 01:15:50,479
Speaker 3: post rut, They're still trying to put on weight for

1511
01:15:50,520 --> 01:15:52,760
Speaker 3: the winter, you know, and it's just not quite as good.

1512
01:15:52,800 --> 01:15:54,439
Speaker 3: They may not get to the food plot as early.

1513
01:15:54,680 --> 01:15:56,800
Speaker 3: And maybe that one buck you're really hoping showed up

1514
01:15:56,840 --> 01:16:00,439
Speaker 3: never does because he's just not It's it's not cold

1515
01:16:00,560 --> 01:16:04,000
Speaker 3: enough yet. But in general, you still see deer going

1516
01:16:04,080 --> 01:16:07,479
Speaker 3: to feed, and so obviously with the time I have,

1517
01:16:07,640 --> 01:16:10,559
Speaker 3: it's a huge family bonding time. I mean, we're going

1518
01:16:10,600 --> 01:16:12,479
Speaker 3: sit in the blind, we're spending time out there, and

1519
01:16:12,520 --> 01:16:14,680
Speaker 3: if we kill a greade, if we don't, whatever. But

1520
01:16:16,960 --> 01:16:19,599
Speaker 3: I do think the warmer temps, you can see even

1521
01:16:19,680 --> 01:16:22,720
Speaker 3: on like Troke coming stuff, that the deer might hit

1522
01:16:22,760 --> 01:16:25,000
Speaker 3: the green more. You know, they might be in the

1523
01:16:25,040 --> 01:16:28,000
Speaker 3: turnips more that day. And so I was actually looking

1524
01:16:28,040 --> 01:16:30,160
Speaker 3: at the forecast thinking about I had just drug. I

1525
01:16:30,160 --> 01:16:32,160
Speaker 3: have my blinds on trailers, and so I pulled a

1526
01:16:32,240 --> 01:16:35,960
Speaker 3: blind out to the beans, and I thought, I'm watching

1527
01:16:36,000 --> 01:16:38,400
Speaker 3: the cameras and I'm watching my turniplot have a bunch

1528
01:16:38,439 --> 01:16:41,880
Speaker 3: of deer in it every night, and it's actually easier

1529
01:16:41,920 --> 01:16:43,800
Speaker 3: to hunt with the crossbow because it's smaller. And I

1530
01:16:43,840 --> 01:16:45,599
Speaker 3: was like, man, I should probably pull a blind back

1531
01:16:45,640 --> 01:16:48,280
Speaker 3: with these warmer temps, and still trying to decide if

1532
01:16:48,280 --> 01:16:52,439
Speaker 3: I'm going to do that, but I I mean, I'll

1533
01:16:52,479 --> 01:16:54,679
Speaker 3: still go hunt my corn and my beans all the same,

1534
01:16:54,840 --> 01:16:56,960
Speaker 3: and you know, all that action might be the last

1535
01:16:56,960 --> 01:16:59,719
Speaker 3: thirty minutes, but you're still getting most of those deer

1536
01:16:59,720 --> 01:17:03,400
Speaker 3: coming out there, at least in my situation where it's

1537
01:17:03,400 --> 01:17:05,840
Speaker 3: it's private ground that you aren't super pressured. I mean,

1538
01:17:05,840 --> 01:17:08,240
Speaker 3: they're wanting to eat. I mean this is not everywhere

1539
01:17:08,520 --> 01:17:10,160
Speaker 3: that cold weather. You know, they're out there at two

1540
01:17:10,200 --> 01:17:15,840
Speaker 3: o'clock in the afternoon, and that what I love about. Yeah,

1541
01:17:15,880 --> 01:17:19,160
Speaker 3: you're out there so early, and that's when you get

1542
01:17:19,200 --> 01:17:21,720
Speaker 3: those jury you maybe never saw before that they're like,

1543
01:17:21,720 --> 01:17:24,160
Speaker 3: we got to find food, and they're traveling miles to

1544
01:17:24,200 --> 01:17:26,680
Speaker 3: find food and you're like, what buck is that you know?

1545
01:17:26,840 --> 01:17:29,599
Speaker 3: And so you know, we still have a lot of fun,

1546
01:17:29,640 --> 01:17:32,000
Speaker 3: a lot of success even if the weather's not perfect.

1547
01:17:33,040 --> 01:17:39,280
Speaker 2: All right, So you're saying there's a chance, go just go, Yeah.

1548
01:17:38,520 --> 01:17:40,479
Speaker 3: I can't kill them from as they say.

1549
01:17:40,360 --> 01:17:44,719
Speaker 2: Right, that is the truth. So okay, So folks want

1550
01:17:44,720 --> 01:17:48,400
Speaker 2: to see these hunts we talked about DK or Fits

1551
01:17:48,680 --> 01:17:50,839
Speaker 2: all the others. If they want to hear about stuff,

1552
01:17:50,880 --> 01:17:52,680
Speaker 2: if they want to stay up to date with what

1553
01:17:52,760 --> 01:17:55,519
Speaker 2: you've got going on, can you give us the loadown

1554
01:17:55,560 --> 01:17:56,479
Speaker 2: on where we can find all that.

1555
01:17:56,960 --> 01:18:01,840
Speaker 3: Yeah, the easiest place is our YouTube channels. We have

1556
01:18:02,000 --> 01:18:06,240
Speaker 3: Midwest White Tail, our main page that we put the

1557
01:18:06,280 --> 01:18:10,800
Speaker 3: weekly Monday main show on and that's that's sort of

1558
01:18:10,800 --> 01:18:14,320
Speaker 3: the main kill every week, and you can find all

1559
01:18:14,360 --> 01:18:17,639
Speaker 3: those kills from all the guys on the main page.

1560
01:18:17,960 --> 01:18:20,960
Speaker 3: And then there's a group of us that do daily

1561
01:18:21,040 --> 01:18:24,600
Speaker 3: blogs and so that's really our journal, right, that's the

1562
01:18:24,680 --> 01:18:28,920
Speaker 3: highs the lows, that's the strategy. That's the goose egg

1563
01:18:29,000 --> 01:18:31,800
Speaker 3: hunt where you didn't see anything that's going in there

1564
01:18:31,880 --> 01:18:34,920
Speaker 3: having great hunts that some of that stuff gets replicated

1565
01:18:34,960 --> 01:18:36,479
Speaker 3: on the main show if we have good encounters. But

1566
01:18:36,720 --> 01:18:39,320
Speaker 3: that's where it pops up within twenty four hours. Typically

1567
01:18:39,400 --> 01:18:42,840
Speaker 3: it is the daily channel, and so we have a

1568
01:18:43,040 --> 01:18:46,559
Speaker 3: there's small group of people that enjoy watching the grind,

1569
01:18:46,600 --> 01:18:48,840
Speaker 3: I guess, and it is fun because you don't miss

1570
01:18:48,840 --> 01:18:51,360
Speaker 3: anything following along with that. And we also have our

1571
01:18:51,400 --> 01:18:54,760
Speaker 3: regional channel where all of our regional pro staff from

1572
01:18:54,760 --> 01:18:59,000
Speaker 3: across the country we post their content. And while YouTube

1573
01:18:59,040 --> 01:19:03,519
Speaker 3: is the easiest, we've got it on pretty much all

1574
01:19:03,520 --> 01:19:05,719
Speaker 3: the major platforms, so you can if you just search

1575
01:19:05,720 --> 01:19:07,559
Speaker 3: for Midwest White Tail, you can find those.

1576
01:19:10,240 --> 01:19:12,360
Speaker 2: You guys are pumping out a whole lot of stuff,

1577
01:19:12,680 --> 01:19:18,040
Speaker 2: and I'm always impressed with it. It's always good, it's frequent, consistent,

1578
01:19:18,360 --> 01:19:20,600
Speaker 2: and uh man, you guys are having a heck of

1579
01:19:20,600 --> 01:19:22,800
Speaker 2: a year this year. I don't know if you were

1580
01:19:22,800 --> 01:19:26,600
Speaker 2: gonna point and I mean probably ninety nine percent of

1581
01:19:26,640 --> 01:19:30,320
Speaker 2: folks listening to our podcast also already watch your stuff too.

1582
01:19:30,360 --> 01:19:33,599
Speaker 2: But let's just hypothetically say there's someone who's new who's

1583
01:19:33,640 --> 01:19:37,160
Speaker 2: not familiar with Midwest White Tail somehow, and you were

1584
01:19:37,200 --> 01:19:40,840
Speaker 2: gonna point them to one video that you guys put

1585
01:19:40,920 --> 01:19:44,240
Speaker 2: up this year, I can I mean, there's a couple

1586
01:19:44,240 --> 01:19:46,120
Speaker 2: of you guys have been pretty stoked about I know,

1587
01:19:46,520 --> 01:19:48,599
Speaker 2: all right, you guys have had some really good stories

1588
01:19:48,600 --> 01:19:50,680
Speaker 2: this year. If you had to pick just one that

1589
01:19:50,720 --> 01:19:52,920
Speaker 2: you're gonna say, Hey, you gotta gotta go watch this one.

1590
01:19:53,800 --> 01:19:54,479
Speaker 2: What would that one be?

1591
01:19:54,760 --> 01:20:00,960
Speaker 3: Oh? Man, that's oh I got two. I got to

1592
01:20:00,960 --> 01:20:04,680
Speaker 3: pick too, because there's two that are so good for

1593
01:20:04,800 --> 01:20:10,040
Speaker 3: different reasons. I mean Owen's early season kill of Lockness

1594
01:20:10,120 --> 01:20:16,120
Speaker 3: and getting in to Owen's history, and I mean being

1595
01:20:16,160 --> 01:20:19,080
Speaker 3: a Michigan boy and growing up and the grind and

1596
01:20:19,200 --> 01:20:21,479
Speaker 3: just like sort of the pinnacle of his hunting career.

1597
01:20:21,800 --> 01:20:23,840
Speaker 3: And not to mention, who doesn't love seeing a two

1598
01:20:23,920 --> 01:20:27,320
Speaker 3: hundred and fifteen engineer go down? And you you talk

1599
01:20:27,360 --> 01:20:31,320
Speaker 3: about the strategy. That guy's a master, right, I mean

1600
01:20:31,360 --> 01:20:34,880
Speaker 3: he he's a master of it. And so to be

1601
01:20:34,920 --> 01:20:36,680
Speaker 3: able to pin that deer down six and a half

1602
01:20:36,760 --> 01:20:38,920
Speaker 3: years old, all the history and just get him just

1603
01:20:39,000 --> 01:20:42,720
Speaker 3: like that was It's awesome. It's a great episode. And

1604
01:20:42,760 --> 01:20:47,320
Speaker 3: then our most recent one, Caleb Grinder, the story of

1605
01:20:47,360 --> 01:20:50,640
Speaker 3: his entire season. I mean, we'll bring a tear to

1606
01:20:50,680 --> 01:20:55,200
Speaker 3: your eye. The emotional stress. I mean for those of

1607
01:20:55,280 --> 01:20:57,840
Speaker 3: us that are like really obsessed with this and just

1608
01:20:57,920 --> 01:21:00,479
Speaker 3: live and breathe it and Caleb's one of those guys

1609
01:21:01,000 --> 01:21:03,960
Speaker 3: to go through what he went through this year, having

1610
01:21:04,120 --> 01:21:08,640
Speaker 3: just a dream hit list and hav an ehd ravage

1611
01:21:09,280 --> 01:21:13,559
Speaker 3: like everything, and then to come full circle and to

1612
01:21:13,640 --> 01:21:16,000
Speaker 3: do a spot and stalk on the ground on a

1613
01:21:16,280 --> 01:21:19,679
Speaker 3: giant I mean, it's just crazy. So it's they're both.

1614
01:21:19,720 --> 01:21:21,880
Speaker 3: They're both way up there. I think in the history

1615
01:21:21,960 --> 01:21:26,040
Speaker 3: of Midwest whitetail as just top in and they're both

1616
01:21:26,040 --> 01:21:28,400
Speaker 3: this year. And there's some other good ones this year,

1617
01:21:28,479 --> 01:21:32,360
Speaker 3: but those two, man, I'll be saying that in ten years,

1618
01:21:32,400 --> 01:21:36,160
Speaker 3: like these two episodes, you know that's I mean.

1619
01:21:36,479 --> 01:21:39,040
Speaker 2: I can I can say the one for sure. I've

1620
01:21:39,080 --> 01:21:41,040
Speaker 2: seen that one. Haven't seen Caleb yet, but it's on

1621
01:21:41,160 --> 01:21:43,720
Speaker 2: the It's on the to watch list here pretty soon.

1622
01:21:43,760 --> 01:21:44,320
Speaker 2: That's a long one.

1623
01:21:44,360 --> 01:21:45,400
Speaker 3: I mean, it's a long one.

1624
01:21:45,600 --> 01:21:47,479
Speaker 2: It's a long one. So I've got to invest some

1625
01:21:47,560 --> 01:21:48,080
Speaker 2: time in that.

1626
01:21:48,040 --> 01:21:53,280
Speaker 3: But three evenings to get through it with all the

1627
01:21:53,360 --> 01:21:57,080
Speaker 3: kids and the Christmas concerts and everything else. But I

1628
01:21:57,200 --> 01:22:01,679
Speaker 3: tell you what, it's it's awesome. I Mean we're always

1629
01:22:01,760 --> 01:22:05,040
Speaker 3: kind of bouncing around about what's best, how do we

1630
01:22:05,080 --> 01:22:09,880
Speaker 3: produce these things, And we've always really pride ourselves on

1631
01:22:10,000 --> 01:22:13,439
Speaker 3: a good story and education and all these types of things.

1632
01:22:13,880 --> 01:22:15,840
Speaker 3: And we used to try really hard to cut everything

1633
01:22:15,840 --> 01:22:18,280
Speaker 3: down to twenty or thirty minutes, and it's hard to

1634
01:22:18,320 --> 01:22:20,519
Speaker 3: tell the whole story. When you've got some of these stories,

1635
01:22:20,840 --> 01:22:22,400
Speaker 3: I would say, you know what, we're not trying to

1636
01:22:22,400 --> 01:22:24,640
Speaker 3: fit it into a TV channel like we used to be,

1637
01:22:24,760 --> 01:22:27,040
Speaker 3: like this, this is YouTube, like hey, you know what,

1638
01:22:27,280 --> 01:22:28,920
Speaker 3: people could fast forward through if they don't want to

1639
01:22:28,920 --> 01:22:31,679
Speaker 3: watch it all. And you know, but for the ones,

1640
01:22:31,760 --> 01:22:35,960
Speaker 3: I really enjoy that story. I mean, they're just great

1641
01:22:36,000 --> 01:22:38,439
Speaker 3: stories and like you just find yourself, you know, I

1642
01:22:38,439 --> 01:22:40,720
Speaker 3: mean I find myself just at the edge of my

1643
01:22:40,800 --> 01:22:43,040
Speaker 3: seat following along, so so free.

1644
01:22:43,479 --> 01:22:46,559
Speaker 2: I'm so glad that we have that freedom now of

1645
01:22:47,240 --> 01:22:51,240
Speaker 2: longer length. You know, the twenty two minute TV shows

1646
01:22:51,320 --> 01:22:53,240
Speaker 2: of the you know, back in the day, that is

1647
01:22:53,280 --> 01:22:56,439
Speaker 2: not enough to hardly do anything. So it's not I'm

1648
01:22:56,479 --> 01:23:00,120
Speaker 2: all about these forty five minute, hour long almost We're

1649
01:23:00,120 --> 01:23:04,000
Speaker 2: getting films now. Yeah, and these dear deserve.

1650
01:23:03,800 --> 01:23:06,439
Speaker 3: That, yeah yeah, yeah yeah truth.

1651
01:23:07,439 --> 01:23:10,120
Speaker 2: So well, Mike, I'm glad we finally got to chat.

1652
01:23:10,200 --> 01:23:12,200
Speaker 2: I really appreciate you taking the time to do this.

1653
01:23:12,320 --> 01:23:14,640
Speaker 3: Thank you, yeah, man, thanks for having me. Hopefully we

1654
01:23:14,640 --> 01:23:15,479
Speaker 3: can do it again sometime.

1655
01:23:16,400 --> 01:23:20,360
Speaker 2: I hope we can. I'm sure that next year I'm

1656
01:23:20,400 --> 01:23:22,040
Speaker 2: gonna have to get you on the show to talk

1657
01:23:22,080 --> 01:23:25,840
Speaker 2: about killing moss at five and a half with double

1658
01:23:25,960 --> 01:23:28,960
Speaker 2: drops and thirteen inch brow times and all that kind

1659
01:23:29,000 --> 01:23:31,519
Speaker 2: of stuff. So let's just cut that with calender now, okay,

1660
01:23:32,200 --> 01:23:35,920
Speaker 2: I only hope, all right, let's plan on it. Appreciate it, Bud,

1661
01:23:37,720 --> 01:23:39,360
Speaker 2: all right, and that's going to wrap it up for

1662
01:23:39,439 --> 01:23:42,280
Speaker 2: us today. Appreciate you listening. I hope you've had a

1663
01:23:42,439 --> 01:23:45,800
Speaker 2: wonderful twenty twenty three. I hope your hunting season has

1664
01:23:45,880 --> 01:23:49,360
Speaker 2: been fun, successful. I hope you've learned some things, and

1665
01:23:49,400 --> 01:23:51,519
Speaker 2: I hope, as we all try to do every year,

1666
01:23:51,560 --> 01:23:55,719
Speaker 2: I hope you've grown. And next year, hey, it should

1667
01:23:55,720 --> 01:23:58,880
Speaker 2: be even better. So enjoy the holidays. Merry Christmas, Happy

1668
01:23:58,920 --> 01:24:01,720
Speaker 2: New Year. Whatever are you doing however you're celebrating. I

1669
01:24:01,720 --> 01:24:06,720
Speaker 2: hope it's great. And until next time, stay wired to

1670
01:24:06,880 --> 01:24:07,040
Speaker 2: hun