1
00:00:02,880 --> 00:00:06,440
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for

2
00:00:06,519 --> 00:00:11,479
Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,

3
00:00:11,880 --> 00:00:16,040
Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Podcast. I'm

4
00:00:16,040 --> 00:00:19,560
Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan in this episode number two eight,

5
00:00:19,600 --> 00:00:22,159
Speaker 1: and today I'm sharing the story of my hunt for

6
00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:26,320
Speaker 1: the buck known as Frank, the largest buck I've ever

7
00:00:26,480 --> 00:00:48,720
Speaker 1: had the privilege of hunting. All right, welcome to the

8
00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:52,800
Speaker 1: Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by Onyx and

9
00:00:55,200 --> 00:00:58,880
Speaker 1: I I don't know, Um what am I trying to say?

10
00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:02,320
Speaker 1: I guess I don't have the right words to describe

11
00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:06,080
Speaker 1: how excited I am for this one. It's a story

12
00:01:06,120 --> 00:01:10,000
Speaker 1: I'm excited to share. Um. And we'll get right to

13
00:01:10,040 --> 00:01:11,520
Speaker 1: it because I've had a lot of people want to know,

14
00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:12,959
Speaker 1: like when are you gonna tell the story? When you

15
00:01:12,959 --> 00:01:16,080
Speaker 1: canna tell the story? So we're gonna finally tell the story. Um,

16
00:01:16,120 --> 00:01:18,240
Speaker 1: I got Spencer here with me, I got Dan here

17
00:01:18,240 --> 00:01:22,160
Speaker 1: with me to help break down the story of my

18
00:01:22,319 --> 00:01:28,560
Speaker 1: hunt for Frank, And UM, I gotta I gotta apologize,

19
00:01:28,640 --> 00:01:30,560
Speaker 1: right Dan, Spencer, you knew this, but I was was

20
00:01:30,640 --> 00:01:34,600
Speaker 1: kind of playing at low key on this buck. Um.

21
00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:38,840
Speaker 1: But but now we can tell the full, the full story, right, Dan. Yeah, Well,

22
00:01:38,880 --> 00:01:41,520
Speaker 1: the first thing you need to do, I feel, is

23
00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:47,000
Speaker 1: tell everybody why you kept this all low key. Well,

24
00:01:47,240 --> 00:01:50,040
Speaker 1: there's this buck that I was hunting this year, and

25
00:01:50,200 --> 00:01:56,640
Speaker 1: he was not normal for where I hunt, very abnormal

26
00:01:56,720 --> 00:01:58,960
Speaker 1: for where I hunt, and I was just when this

27
00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:01,480
Speaker 1: buck showed up, it was a kind of deer that

28
00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:05,600
Speaker 1: would would gain a lot of attention. And I was

29
00:02:05,680 --> 00:02:07,680
Speaker 1: kind of thinking, you know what, I don't need any

30
00:02:07,800 --> 00:02:11,280
Speaker 1: extra added attention to what's happening here or any extra

31
00:02:11,360 --> 00:02:14,840
Speaker 1: pressure on me with this hunt. I was kind of like,

32
00:02:14,919 --> 00:02:16,560
Speaker 1: you know, I don't want to jinx anything. I don't

33
00:02:16,600 --> 00:02:19,320
Speaker 1: wanna you know. I just felt like I should just

34
00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:21,959
Speaker 1: kind of hunt, just try to take care of the

35
00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:25,000
Speaker 1: hunt myself without all the other stuff going on. And

36
00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:27,560
Speaker 1: and then if it all came together or whenever it all,

37
00:02:27,600 --> 00:02:30,040
Speaker 1: you know, one way or another, whenever it concluded, I

38
00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:35,640
Speaker 1: would talk about some of the details and stuff. Um.

39
00:02:35,680 --> 00:02:37,960
Speaker 1: And and now I'm very very fortunate that I can

40
00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:40,600
Speaker 1: actually now share everything without needing worry at all because

41
00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:43,640
Speaker 1: it came together the way I wanted it to. But

42
00:02:43,639 --> 00:02:47,639
Speaker 1: but yeah, man, this this this buck, frank Um, it

43
00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:52,960
Speaker 1: was like a once in a lifetime probably buck in Michigan. Um.

44
00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:55,960
Speaker 1: So I'll break that down a little more maybe once

45
00:02:55,960 --> 00:02:57,880
Speaker 1: we get into the story. But this book is is

46
00:02:58,320 --> 00:03:01,960
Speaker 1: really big or where I hunt, he's not. He's not

47
00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:05,560
Speaker 1: once in a lifetime maybe in Michigan, but he's a

48
00:03:05,600 --> 00:03:10,000
Speaker 1: once in a lifetime deer anywhere. Yeah, I think white tails,

49
00:03:10,080 --> 00:03:13,160
Speaker 1: I think for most people, Yeah, for sure. Um, and

50
00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:17,320
Speaker 1: he's he's he's big. I mean it's like blow your mind,

51
00:03:17,400 --> 00:03:20,800
Speaker 1: like holy shit big um, the kind of this is

52
00:03:20,800 --> 00:03:23,600
Speaker 1: the biggest deer I've ever seen while deer hunting in

53
00:03:23,639 --> 00:03:27,000
Speaker 1: my life. And um, I've seen maybe only two other

54
00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:29,400
Speaker 1: deer bigger during the summer. Like I've been on some

55
00:03:29,440 --> 00:03:31,600
Speaker 1: summer scouting trips, you know, on glass and being fields,

56
00:03:31,639 --> 00:03:34,040
Speaker 1: and I've seen a buck that was bigger in Iowa once.

57
00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:36,560
Speaker 1: And I saw a buck that was probably bigger than

58
00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:40,880
Speaker 1: this or right in that ballpark in Ohio once. Um, otherwise,

59
00:03:40,920 --> 00:03:46,280
Speaker 1: this is probably the biggest deer. Um. So yeah, it was.

60
00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:48,640
Speaker 1: It was very unexpected like that. These deer do not

61
00:03:49,040 --> 00:03:52,480
Speaker 1: they're not around where I hunt. So I feel like

62
00:03:52,480 --> 00:03:54,600
Speaker 1: I was kind of like, you know, maybe maybe Dan,

63
00:03:55,320 --> 00:03:58,280
Speaker 1: you know, somehow I rubbed off your Aowa good luck

64
00:03:58,320 --> 00:04:00,400
Speaker 1: on me and and one of those deer knuck over

65
00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:02,320
Speaker 1: the border to Michigan because that's what I felt like.

66
00:04:04,440 --> 00:04:06,920
Speaker 1: So he was he was a secret to the wired

67
00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:11,520
Speaker 1: hunt community. But what about too, like the other hunters

68
00:04:11,520 --> 00:04:15,120
Speaker 1: in your area? Did people know about this year? So

69
00:04:15,440 --> 00:04:18,240
Speaker 1: that's a good question. I don't know. I wondered about that.

70
00:04:18,320 --> 00:04:21,120
Speaker 1: I have a hard time believing that he was a

71
00:04:21,160 --> 00:04:24,799
Speaker 1: complete secret. UM. But I'm not like terribly tapped into

72
00:04:24,839 --> 00:04:28,080
Speaker 1: the local community. UM. I know some of my neighbors,

73
00:04:28,120 --> 00:04:30,800
Speaker 1: but but most of them ortin deer hunters. UM. A

74
00:04:30,880 --> 00:04:34,200
Speaker 1: couple of deer hunters I do know weren't weren't really

75
00:04:34,240 --> 00:04:38,000
Speaker 1: aware of him. There was one who was, UM. A

76
00:04:38,040 --> 00:04:40,760
Speaker 1: friend of mine around here actually texted me one night

77
00:04:41,240 --> 00:04:43,960
Speaker 1: and he's like, Dude, I I just nearly hit a

78
00:04:44,080 --> 00:04:47,000
Speaker 1: giant drive in my truck past the property that you hunt.

79
00:04:47,080 --> 00:04:51,920
Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh, really, UM, that's interesting, and I

80
00:04:51,960 --> 00:04:55,800
Speaker 1: believe it was probably the same deer. UM. I think

81
00:04:55,880 --> 00:05:00,400
Speaker 1: they're Actually he was well known because I was through

82
00:05:00,440 --> 00:05:02,719
Speaker 1: some of the comments on your Instagram page and it

83
00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:05,440
Speaker 1: sounds to me like there's a group of guys who

84
00:05:05,480 --> 00:05:10,440
Speaker 1: were very familiar with this dear. Really yep, yep, I

85
00:05:10,480 --> 00:05:13,880
Speaker 1: didn't see that. Yeah, so I think they called him Frankenstein.

86
00:05:14,320 --> 00:05:19,120
Speaker 1: Oh that's what we called him. M hmm, that's what

87
00:05:19,160 --> 00:05:25,080
Speaker 1: we call. Okay, well, I'm a jackass. Continue, Well, so

88
00:05:25,279 --> 00:05:28,640
Speaker 1: you say frank and there was other people posting about Frankenstein.

89
00:05:28,720 --> 00:05:32,200
Speaker 1: So I thought it was two different two different dear. Yeah, no,

90
00:05:32,279 --> 00:05:36,200
Speaker 1: so so frank is short for Frankenstein. So I got that. Yeah,

91
00:05:36,240 --> 00:05:38,560
Speaker 1: so we should we should just say what we should

92
00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:40,240
Speaker 1: pride to just rewind to the very beginning of the

93
00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:42,479
Speaker 1: story and then then and then we'll work our way

94
00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:45,160
Speaker 1: through with with the added context now that I can

95
00:05:45,200 --> 00:05:50,839
Speaker 1: add to the story. So, so frank first showed up.

96
00:05:50,920 --> 00:05:52,960
Speaker 1: When he first showed up, he was an unnamed buck.

97
00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:56,440
Speaker 1: Because this happened in two thousand sixteen, So the season

98
00:05:56,520 --> 00:05:58,479
Speaker 1: two thousand and sixteen was that year I was hunting

99
00:05:58,520 --> 00:06:02,240
Speaker 1: holy Field to using them all over the place. Um

100
00:06:02,279 --> 00:06:04,600
Speaker 1: that I was seeing holy Field all the time. This

101
00:06:04,680 --> 00:06:06,720
Speaker 1: is the year that I almost got a shot at

102
00:06:06,760 --> 00:06:09,080
Speaker 1: him at forty yards but couldn't quite see him in

103
00:06:09,080 --> 00:06:11,440
Speaker 1: my pins, so I didn't take the shot and then

104
00:06:11,680 --> 00:06:13,640
Speaker 1: decided at the end of the season in December, you

105
00:06:13,680 --> 00:06:15,000
Speaker 1: know what, I don't want to shoot this steer anymore.

106
00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:16,520
Speaker 1: I want to give him one more year. So I

107
00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:20,880
Speaker 1: passed on holy Field, um during muzzleloader season and and

108
00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:22,960
Speaker 1: you know, had him around their bunch during that time period,

109
00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:24,800
Speaker 1: and that I was getting pictures, and I had that

110
00:06:25,040 --> 00:06:27,560
Speaker 1: encounter with holy Field in that kind of food plot

111
00:06:27,640 --> 00:06:29,960
Speaker 1: system that I've talked about a lot that I've created

112
00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:32,000
Speaker 1: here on the front side of this property that I

113
00:06:32,040 --> 00:06:37,560
Speaker 1: got permission on well on December it was December nine,

114
00:06:37,680 --> 00:06:40,320
Speaker 1: I think of two thousand and sixteen. I got a

115
00:06:40,360 --> 00:06:42,960
Speaker 1: picture of this buck. I'm like, man, that's a nice

116
00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:45,679
Speaker 1: ten point. I've never seen him before, never gotten pictures

117
00:06:45,720 --> 00:06:47,880
Speaker 1: of him before. I got one picture of him in

118
00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:50,520
Speaker 1: that food plot system, and then a couple of hours later,

119
00:06:50,560 --> 00:06:52,479
Speaker 1: I got another picture of him maybe about a hundred

120
00:06:52,480 --> 00:06:55,280
Speaker 1: and fifty two hundred yards away on another camera. Is

121
00:06:55,279 --> 00:06:57,080
Speaker 1: the only time that buck showed up. I was thinking,

122
00:06:57,080 --> 00:06:59,000
Speaker 1: he's probably like a He definitely looked like a three

123
00:06:59,080 --> 00:07:02,760
Speaker 1: year old and he may be like thirty class type

124
00:07:03,279 --> 00:07:05,240
Speaker 1: three and a half year old. So like, wow, that's

125
00:07:05,880 --> 00:07:08,360
Speaker 1: that's a nice buck. Nice probably a bigger deer than

126
00:07:08,400 --> 00:07:10,640
Speaker 1: holy Field even was that you're maybe here in that ballpark,

127
00:07:10,800 --> 00:07:14,000
Speaker 1: but um, just kind of a random show up type deal.

128
00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:16,600
Speaker 1: It was cool, but never saw any more pictures of him,

129
00:07:16,600 --> 00:07:19,760
Speaker 1: never you know, nothing more from him. Didn't think a

130
00:07:19,800 --> 00:07:23,160
Speaker 1: whole lot more about that deer. The off season comes

131
00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:26,520
Speaker 1: and goes. Um, it's shed hunting season, shed hunting season

132
00:07:26,560 --> 00:07:28,480
Speaker 1: of two thousand seventeen, and my number one goal is

133
00:07:28,520 --> 00:07:31,040
Speaker 1: to try to find the shed from holy Field. So

134
00:07:31,080 --> 00:07:33,160
Speaker 1: I'm shed hunting all over the place, hiked and hiking

135
00:07:33,160 --> 00:07:34,920
Speaker 1: and hiked to put a ton of miles in the boots.

136
00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:38,160
Speaker 1: No luck. Um got permission on a lot of different

137
00:07:38,160 --> 00:07:41,520
Speaker 1: properties in the general area to shed hunt too, And

138
00:07:41,800 --> 00:07:44,080
Speaker 1: on one of those different properties that I permission on,

139
00:07:44,440 --> 00:07:46,760
Speaker 1: I found a soft, really nice shed sitting in some

140
00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:49,320
Speaker 1: tall grass and I'm like, holy crap, that's holy Field shed.

141
00:07:49,720 --> 00:07:52,920
Speaker 1: I go running over there pick it up, and it's

142
00:07:52,960 --> 00:07:55,320
Speaker 1: not holy Field shed. It's a different buck. Jeez, this

143
00:07:55,400 --> 00:07:57,040
Speaker 1: is a really nice shed, and I'm looking at it

144
00:07:57,520 --> 00:07:59,720
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking, my god, do I know this buck?

145
00:08:00,520 --> 00:08:03,240
Speaker 1: I mean, first thing, first thought, no, I don't, because

146
00:08:03,280 --> 00:08:06,560
Speaker 1: the only decently large buck was holy Field that I've

147
00:08:06,600 --> 00:08:08,720
Speaker 1: been seeing in hunting. But then when I got to

148
00:08:08,760 --> 00:08:10,080
Speaker 1: thinking about I was like, this kind of looks like

149
00:08:10,160 --> 00:08:11,560
Speaker 1: that buck I got a picture of, And I went

150
00:08:11,600 --> 00:08:13,680
Speaker 1: back looked at the trail Karen pictures enough, and sure

151
00:08:13,800 --> 00:08:15,920
Speaker 1: enough it was that same buck I got pictures of

152
00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:18,080
Speaker 1: on December ninth or tenth, or whatever that day was.

153
00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:21,840
Speaker 1: So I found the shed, got one set of pictures

154
00:08:21,880 --> 00:08:24,160
Speaker 1: of this deer. Cool, but still, you know, I didn't

155
00:08:24,160 --> 00:08:26,360
Speaker 1: have a whole lot going for me. Now we get

156
00:08:26,400 --> 00:08:29,400
Speaker 1: into the summer. It's the summer of two thousand seventeen. Um,

157
00:08:29,400 --> 00:08:32,400
Speaker 1: really hoping how big it was he in two thousand sixteen?

158
00:08:32,440 --> 00:08:35,200
Speaker 1: You think I thought it would be like one thirty

159
00:08:35,280 --> 00:08:38,319
Speaker 1: or something like that, as a ten pointer, as three

160
00:08:38,320 --> 00:08:41,640
Speaker 1: and a half reel ten? Yeah, okay, Um? And how

161
00:08:41,920 --> 00:08:44,520
Speaker 1: like how deep into the neighbor's property was he when

162
00:08:44,559 --> 00:08:46,680
Speaker 1: you found that she had? Did to seem realistic that

163
00:08:47,320 --> 00:08:51,520
Speaker 1: this buck could someday like be irregular at your place. Um,

164
00:08:51,800 --> 00:08:53,840
Speaker 1: it was definitely realistic that that's kind of buck that

165
00:08:53,880 --> 00:08:56,760
Speaker 1: could pass by my property that I could hunt. Um,

166
00:08:56,800 --> 00:08:58,720
Speaker 1: it wasn't so far away that it would be like

167
00:08:59,040 --> 00:09:01,319
Speaker 1: impossible he would me certainly was in the reund of

168
00:09:01,320 --> 00:09:04,560
Speaker 1: possibility he could show up. But the fact that he

169
00:09:04,600 --> 00:09:07,000
Speaker 1: hadn't shown up except for one day on the property

170
00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:09,800
Speaker 1: I could hunt, made me think it was unlikely like

171
00:09:10,120 --> 00:09:13,839
Speaker 1: this property to hunt. I almost never ever get random bucks,

172
00:09:13,880 --> 00:09:16,000
Speaker 1: Like it's always there's the bucks I get on the

173
00:09:16,040 --> 00:09:18,959
Speaker 1: camera starting in September, and those are the same, dear,

174
00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:21,440
Speaker 1: I see the entire year. I never get rut bucks

175
00:09:21,480 --> 00:09:23,840
Speaker 1: that show up by surprise. I never get bucks that

176
00:09:23,880 --> 00:09:27,200
Speaker 1: mysteriously show up in late season. It's always the same, dear.

177
00:09:28,080 --> 00:09:30,080
Speaker 1: Just that's how it's always been on this on the spot.

178
00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:32,680
Speaker 1: So given the fact that I had not seen this

179
00:09:32,720 --> 00:09:34,719
Speaker 1: buck that season in two thousand and sixteen, or it

180
00:09:34,760 --> 00:09:36,240
Speaker 1: is a two year old and two thousand and fifteen,

181
00:09:36,679 --> 00:09:40,439
Speaker 1: I just never really he never really entered my thought

182
00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:43,400
Speaker 1: as like, oh I might be able hunt him. Knew

183
00:09:43,400 --> 00:09:45,840
Speaker 1: there's like a possibility, but it wasn't like a realistic thing.

184
00:09:45,840 --> 00:09:47,320
Speaker 1: I was like, I really hope this dear has been

185
00:09:47,360 --> 00:09:49,320
Speaker 1: around a bunch. I didn't really think it happened. So

186
00:09:49,960 --> 00:09:51,559
Speaker 1: it takes me two thousand and sixteen again, or no

187
00:09:51,640 --> 00:09:54,800
Speaker 1: starry two thousand seventeen and again it's all Holy Fields, right.

188
00:09:54,840 --> 00:09:56,880
Speaker 1: If you guys remember last year was all about putting

189
00:09:56,880 --> 00:09:59,080
Speaker 1: the plan together for holy Field. He was the number

190
00:09:59,080 --> 00:10:08,000
Speaker 1: one buck everything was revolved around this deer. Yeah, exactly. Um,

191
00:10:08,120 --> 00:10:13,560
Speaker 1: And a neighbor of mine had let me know like

192
00:10:13,840 --> 00:10:16,360
Speaker 1: this this, uh, this woman knows that I'm a big

193
00:10:16,360 --> 00:10:18,040
Speaker 1: deer hunter, and she happened to say, hey, I've been

194
00:10:18,040 --> 00:10:20,840
Speaker 1: seeing a whole lot of deer in the field across

195
00:10:20,840 --> 00:10:23,719
Speaker 1: from my house, including some like nice bucks. Like you

196
00:10:23,760 --> 00:10:26,080
Speaker 1: should come and like sit in my driveway and look

197
00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:30,000
Speaker 1: at these deers someday. So I go drive down the

198
00:10:30,080 --> 00:10:32,880
Speaker 1: road to where this property is that this lady um

199
00:10:32,960 --> 00:10:36,200
Speaker 1: is on and um, I go pull into her driveway

200
00:10:36,640 --> 00:10:38,440
Speaker 1: and I sit there for the evening. This is maybe,

201
00:10:38,480 --> 00:10:41,240
Speaker 1: I don't know, sometime in July, I would guess, maybe

202
00:10:41,440 --> 00:10:44,480
Speaker 1: two seventeen, and a whole bunch of deer are piling

203
00:10:44,480 --> 00:10:47,560
Speaker 1: out into this bean field, and eventually some bucks and

204
00:10:47,600 --> 00:10:50,560
Speaker 1: then finally, like this mega buck pops out like a

205
00:10:50,640 --> 00:10:54,559
Speaker 1: really big Michigan buck. And I actually, I'm pretty sure

206
00:10:54,559 --> 00:10:57,120
Speaker 1: I posted a video of this on Instagram. I think

207
00:10:58,080 --> 00:10:59,800
Speaker 1: last summer, I guess it would have been. And I'm

208
00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:01,360
Speaker 1: on this buck. I'm like, I don't know this buck,

209
00:11:01,440 --> 00:11:03,120
Speaker 1: Like this is a big deer. This is like one

210
00:11:03,120 --> 00:11:05,079
Speaker 1: of the biggest deer I've ever seen around here. I

211
00:11:05,160 --> 00:11:08,520
Speaker 1: can't believe this deer is in the general vicinity of

212
00:11:08,520 --> 00:11:11,280
Speaker 1: of where I can hunt. Um. And at first I

213
00:11:11,320 --> 00:11:12,880
Speaker 1: was hoping it's gonna be holy Field as I'm looking

214
00:11:12,880 --> 00:11:14,439
Speaker 1: at him, like there's I don't think there's any way

215
00:11:14,440 --> 00:11:16,480
Speaker 1: that could be holy Field. Just did not look like

216
00:11:16,559 --> 00:11:18,840
Speaker 1: him at all, even if he even if holy Field

217
00:11:18,920 --> 00:11:22,000
Speaker 1: blown up and like add some character points or something. Um,

218
00:11:22,200 --> 00:11:24,160
Speaker 1: I just this did not look like him. An awesome

219
00:11:24,160 --> 00:11:27,440
Speaker 1: and jeeves, this is like some different random buck, really nice, um,

220
00:11:27,440 --> 00:11:29,000
Speaker 1: not too far away from where I can hunt, and

221
00:11:29,040 --> 00:11:33,040
Speaker 1: that was exciting. So I saw that deer twice. UM.

222
00:11:33,040 --> 00:11:34,760
Speaker 1: I think it was July, July or August. I can't

223
00:11:34,760 --> 00:11:38,800
Speaker 1: remember saw him twice. But then the season starts and

224
00:11:38,840 --> 00:11:41,000
Speaker 1: I started getting pictures of holy Field, start getting pictures

225
00:11:41,040 --> 00:11:43,880
Speaker 1: of some other deer, but this random buck nothing. Um.

226
00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:45,679
Speaker 1: So as the season progress, I kind of just forgot

227
00:11:45,720 --> 00:11:49,440
Speaker 1: about that deer altogether. UM. I didn't think anything that

228
00:11:49,520 --> 00:11:56,000
Speaker 1: dear again until December. Late December, holy Field has disappeared.

229
00:11:56,240 --> 00:11:58,480
Speaker 1: You know, I had my chance in November didn't work out.

230
00:11:58,800 --> 00:12:02,319
Speaker 1: Now it's December. I've shifted over to dough patrol because

231
00:12:02,320 --> 00:12:04,319
Speaker 1: I haven't seen it or gotten pictures or anything of

232
00:12:04,360 --> 00:12:06,240
Speaker 1: Holy Field, and like almost I don't know what it was,

233
00:12:06,400 --> 00:12:09,320
Speaker 1: four weeks or something. I finally had to try to

234
00:12:09,360 --> 00:12:11,199
Speaker 1: kill some doughs in this place. So me and Further

235
00:12:11,720 --> 00:12:14,480
Speaker 1: are in dough patrol. We're sitting in the um. I

236
00:12:14,559 --> 00:12:17,120
Speaker 1: got this box blind. We're sitting this box blind together

237
00:12:17,440 --> 00:12:19,960
Speaker 1: trying to shoot a couple of doughs. Maybe it's like

238
00:12:20,080 --> 00:12:23,319
Speaker 1: December twenty seven or eight or somewhere in that ballpark.

239
00:12:23,480 --> 00:12:28,280
Speaker 1: And I remember looking down this long um opening and

240
00:12:28,400 --> 00:12:30,560
Speaker 1: a bunch of deer start filing through it, and they're

241
00:12:30,600 --> 00:12:32,440
Speaker 1: kind of like jogging, like something that's spooked him, it

242
00:12:32,480 --> 00:12:34,679
Speaker 1: seemed like. And I see a couple of dolls and

243
00:12:34,679 --> 00:12:36,319
Speaker 1: then a couple of little bucks, and the little buck

244
00:12:36,360 --> 00:12:38,400
Speaker 1: stops and turns around look behind them, and then all

245
00:12:38,400 --> 00:12:42,480
Speaker 1: of a sudden, this colossus mystery buck comes walking out

246
00:12:42,559 --> 00:12:44,760
Speaker 1: and I'm like, Further, look at this thing. Holy shit,

247
00:12:45,480 --> 00:12:49,360
Speaker 1: And um, it's this this giant deer the biggest year

248
00:12:49,360 --> 00:12:52,000
Speaker 1: I've ever seen in Michigan um and it's on it's

249
00:12:52,040 --> 00:12:54,920
Speaker 1: on the property I can hunt, and it was like unbelievable.

250
00:12:54,960 --> 00:12:56,599
Speaker 1: And we talked about this during the podcast. Dan, I

251
00:12:56,600 --> 00:12:57,840
Speaker 1: don't know I don't know if you remember, but I

252
00:12:57,880 --> 00:12:59,360
Speaker 1: was like, I was calling him the mystery Buck. Do

253
00:12:59,400 --> 00:13:02,480
Speaker 1: you remember that? Ye? Yes, the mystery Bucks showed up,

254
00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:04,880
Speaker 1: walked through this opening, and disappeared. He was a couple

255
00:13:04,960 --> 00:13:06,840
Speaker 1: hundred yards away, though maybe like three or four hundred

256
00:13:06,880 --> 00:13:10,760
Speaker 1: yards away. Something like that. Passes through disappears, and that

257
00:13:10,880 --> 00:13:15,640
Speaker 1: was that super exciting, but you know, just a quick thing.

258
00:13:15,800 --> 00:13:18,160
Speaker 1: I checked cameras the next day or something, hoping maybe

259
00:13:18,200 --> 00:13:21,760
Speaker 1: he'd been around. Nothing, no pictures of him. Um. I

260
00:13:21,880 --> 00:13:24,280
Speaker 1: hunted the rest of the season, hoping to maybe see him.

261
00:13:24,320 --> 00:13:25,840
Speaker 1: I was bringing my bow along with me just in

262
00:13:25,880 --> 00:13:29,439
Speaker 1: case that bucks showed up again. Nothing. Continued rolling cameras

263
00:13:29,480 --> 00:13:32,400
Speaker 1: through the rest of the winter, no pictures. That takes

264
00:13:32,440 --> 00:13:35,360
Speaker 1: me though too. I think it was late January, maybe

265
00:13:35,440 --> 00:13:37,920
Speaker 1: give or take somewhere around that place. And again I'm

266
00:13:37,960 --> 00:13:41,400
Speaker 1: out in the vicinity of this property. I'm always, you know,

267
00:13:41,520 --> 00:13:43,800
Speaker 1: checking this place out, always looking around in the summer.

268
00:13:43,840 --> 00:13:46,400
Speaker 1: I'm glass in the fields in the winter, on glass

269
00:13:46,440 --> 00:13:48,200
Speaker 1: and fields, trying to see where these bucks are, trying

270
00:13:48,200 --> 00:13:49,959
Speaker 1: to know where I should shed hunt. And I get

271
00:13:50,040 --> 00:13:53,560
Speaker 1: to a cut corn field in the general area and

272
00:13:53,600 --> 00:13:55,800
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of deer feeding out in this cut cornfield,

273
00:13:55,880 --> 00:13:58,560
Speaker 1: and I pulled the binos on this group of deer

274
00:13:59,080 --> 00:14:01,680
Speaker 1: and a deer pooks picks up his head and it's

275
00:14:01,679 --> 00:14:04,520
Speaker 1: a giant missing an antler though just once he's got

276
00:14:04,520 --> 00:14:08,080
Speaker 1: one antler, but it's a huge five point side like

277
00:14:08,920 --> 00:14:10,880
Speaker 1: and and right away I was like, oh my gosh,

278
00:14:10,920 --> 00:14:13,760
Speaker 1: that's the buck. That's the mystery buck. And it's it's

279
00:14:13,760 --> 00:14:17,200
Speaker 1: a it's it's it's relatively close to that same property,

280
00:14:17,240 --> 00:14:19,720
Speaker 1: that same area where I saw him in December, so

281
00:14:19,760 --> 00:14:23,240
Speaker 1: I got some video of him. Then now I'm thinking, okay,

282
00:14:23,400 --> 00:14:25,880
Speaker 1: this is that that interestingly was actually right near where

283
00:14:25,880 --> 00:14:28,240
Speaker 1: I found the shed too, So now I'm starting to

284
00:14:28,240 --> 00:14:30,400
Speaker 1: put some pieces again. I'm realizing, Okay, the mystery buck

285
00:14:31,240 --> 00:14:33,520
Speaker 1: is the same buck that I got the shed from

286
00:14:33,760 --> 00:14:36,080
Speaker 1: from the spring and tails and seventeen. And then when

287
00:14:36,120 --> 00:14:38,720
Speaker 1: I looked at the video from the January and two

288
00:14:38,960 --> 00:14:41,640
Speaker 1: eighteen video, I connected that to the video of the

289
00:14:41,680 --> 00:14:44,040
Speaker 1: summer tails and seventeen. I'm like, this is that same buck.

290
00:14:44,520 --> 00:14:47,440
Speaker 1: Now he's shown up on two different properties that I

291
00:14:47,480 --> 00:14:50,640
Speaker 1: can't hunt and the one property that can hunt. Um,

292
00:14:50,680 --> 00:14:52,640
Speaker 1: but it's all kind of spread out like it's it's

293
00:14:52,640 --> 00:14:55,640
Speaker 1: a wide area. This isn't all concentrated in one little spot.

294
00:14:55,680 --> 00:14:57,840
Speaker 1: There's kind of a wide area that I've been seen.

295
00:14:58,840 --> 00:15:01,240
Speaker 1: How many miles are you thinking? Not that wide? Like

296
00:15:01,320 --> 00:15:05,400
Speaker 1: this is within like a two square mile area maybe Okay,

297
00:15:06,080 --> 00:15:08,560
Speaker 1: And that's bring up to thousand the air like it's

298
00:15:08,640 --> 00:15:11,760
Speaker 1: late winter earlier, well, I don't know, late January, early February,

299
00:15:11,800 --> 00:15:14,360
Speaker 1: whatever you call that. And it's seen that he lost

300
00:15:14,400 --> 00:15:17,080
Speaker 1: one ailer. So now I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna shed

301
00:15:17,160 --> 00:15:20,000
Speaker 1: hunt like crazy to find this deer's antlers because this

302
00:15:20,040 --> 00:15:21,920
Speaker 1: is the biggest deer that I've ever been able to

303
00:15:22,200 --> 00:15:25,040
Speaker 1: shed hunt around, at least in Michigan. Biggest deer that's

304
00:15:25,040 --> 00:15:28,000
Speaker 1: ever been around the spot that I can hunt. Um,

305
00:15:28,080 --> 00:15:29,680
Speaker 1: So I thought, all, I'm gonna wait a week and

306
00:15:29,720 --> 00:15:31,400
Speaker 1: that or wait a couple of days and keep glass

307
00:15:31,400 --> 00:15:33,600
Speaker 1: in this field and hopefully see this big body deer

308
00:15:33,600 --> 00:15:35,760
Speaker 1: out there again without his antler. No, they're both dropped,

309
00:15:36,920 --> 00:15:39,960
Speaker 1: and then just scour that whole area. So I do that,

310
00:15:41,120 --> 00:15:44,000
Speaker 1: and long story short, I never found the sheds. I

311
00:15:44,040 --> 00:15:46,280
Speaker 1: walked and walked and walked and walked, walked every property

312
00:15:46,320 --> 00:15:48,560
Speaker 1: could get permission on around there. Hoping to either find

313
00:15:48,600 --> 00:15:51,920
Speaker 1: sign of holy Field being still alive or um finding

314
00:15:52,040 --> 00:15:57,680
Speaker 1: this buck sheds no such luck. Moving on into the summer,

315
00:15:58,240 --> 00:16:00,480
Speaker 1: I'm again hoping the holy Fields alive because I did

316
00:16:00,560 --> 00:16:04,280
Speaker 1: find one of his antlers. Um, But driving around in

317
00:16:04,280 --> 00:16:07,200
Speaker 1: the summer, never never saw either one of these deer.

318
00:16:07,720 --> 00:16:11,160
Speaker 1: I didn't know what to expect. You know, September rolls around.

319
00:16:11,240 --> 00:16:12,960
Speaker 1: I still don't have pictures of holy Field. I still

320
00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:15,320
Speaker 1: don't have pictures of this other deer. So again I'm

321
00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:17,240
Speaker 1: kind of thinking, man, I don't know what I'm gonna

322
00:16:17,280 --> 00:16:19,800
Speaker 1: hunt this year here. Um. You know, as we talked

323
00:16:19,840 --> 00:16:21,640
Speaker 1: about the podcast, I was kind of bumming there was

324
00:16:21,720 --> 00:16:23,560
Speaker 1: a couple of three year olds, but I wasn't going

325
00:16:23,600 --> 00:16:25,240
Speaker 1: to target one of them this year. So I kind

326
00:16:25,240 --> 00:16:27,400
Speaker 1: of was at the point thinking that, you know, I'm

327
00:16:27,400 --> 00:16:29,120
Speaker 1: just not going to shoot a buck on this on

328
00:16:29,160 --> 00:16:31,080
Speaker 1: this property. I have permission here, I'm probably just gonna

329
00:16:31,080 --> 00:16:33,760
Speaker 1: shoot does there just isn't a buck to hunt? Um?

330
00:16:33,840 --> 00:16:35,920
Speaker 1: And I didn't want to, you know, shoot one of

331
00:16:35,960 --> 00:16:38,360
Speaker 1: those three year olds. So that was kind of where

332
00:16:38,360 --> 00:16:43,240
Speaker 1: things were until Halloween. And I told this story, you know,

333
00:16:43,400 --> 00:16:45,080
Speaker 1: a month ago or a few weeks ago, A little

334
00:16:45,120 --> 00:16:48,680
Speaker 1: bit um, but I left out the details about the buck,

335
00:16:48,760 --> 00:16:52,280
Speaker 1: so I'll cover it again briefly. Basically, right Halloween, I

336
00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:55,560
Speaker 1: got word that this giant buck had been seen on

337
00:16:55,600 --> 00:16:59,680
Speaker 1: this property, um that I could hunt. My wife decided

338
00:16:59,680 --> 00:17:02,400
Speaker 1: to call all him Frankenstein, So I started calling him

339
00:17:02,440 --> 00:17:05,119
Speaker 1: Frank for short um. And then I got home two

340
00:17:05,200 --> 00:17:07,320
Speaker 1: days later from the meetings I was at in Montana

341
00:17:07,359 --> 00:17:11,000
Speaker 1: and I could start hunting on November two. So November two,

342
00:17:11,640 --> 00:17:14,040
Speaker 1: I'm gonna hunt this front area where the buck was seen.

343
00:17:14,440 --> 00:17:16,560
Speaker 1: And I don't see anything that morning, don't see anything

344
00:17:16,560 --> 00:17:18,520
Speaker 1: that night, so that I'm like, ah, you know what,

345
00:17:18,680 --> 00:17:21,440
Speaker 1: he's probably gone. Like at this point, I realized it's

346
00:17:21,440 --> 00:17:24,480
Speaker 1: that same dear, Um, it's that same big buck, because

347
00:17:24,480 --> 00:17:26,120
Speaker 1: I had some video footage and I could look at

348
00:17:26,560 --> 00:17:29,760
Speaker 1: and um, I I just assumed though, all right, he

349
00:17:29,800 --> 00:17:31,359
Speaker 1: showed up. This is the first time that bucks ever

350
00:17:31,359 --> 00:17:34,320
Speaker 1: shown up on my property during the rut. He probably

351
00:17:34,440 --> 00:17:36,320
Speaker 1: you know, he's got a core area somewhere on one

352
00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:39,160
Speaker 1: of these neighbors. He hopped and it happened to find

353
00:17:39,160 --> 00:17:41,199
Speaker 1: a hot dough, and that hot dough brought him on

354
00:17:41,240 --> 00:17:43,960
Speaker 1: the farm I can hunt, and he was there locked

355
00:17:43,960 --> 00:17:46,119
Speaker 1: on to her for a day or two. He's probably

356
00:17:46,160 --> 00:17:48,919
Speaker 1: back to wherever you know he lived usually, so I

357
00:17:48,960 --> 00:17:50,680
Speaker 1: figured it since I didn't see anything. On the second,

358
00:17:50,680 --> 00:17:52,280
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, man, that was it? Like there's a once

359
00:17:52,320 --> 00:17:54,160
Speaker 1: in a lifetime buck here on the property I can hunt,

360
00:17:54,520 --> 00:17:58,760
Speaker 1: and of course I'm in Montana. You know. Um, what's

361
00:17:58,760 --> 00:18:02,960
Speaker 1: funny is I was, uh, I was in meetings with

362
00:18:03,240 --> 00:18:05,320
Speaker 1: the guys here at meat Eator and then I get

363
00:18:05,359 --> 00:18:08,400
Speaker 1: a text message from my wife with this like cell

364
00:18:08,400 --> 00:18:11,320
Speaker 1: phone video that she'd shot of this deer because she

365
00:18:11,320 --> 00:18:14,159
Speaker 1: she saw this deer out in this field and she

366
00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:17,240
Speaker 1: sent me a video clip that she took, and um,

367
00:18:18,440 --> 00:18:20,360
Speaker 1: I look at this video. I'm like, holy, I mean,

368
00:18:20,400 --> 00:18:23,240
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe it. I just like yelled out in

369
00:18:23,240 --> 00:18:24,920
Speaker 1: the middle of a meeting I'm in when these guys

370
00:18:24,960 --> 00:18:27,159
Speaker 1: are like, oh my god, look at this. This is

371
00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:29,320
Speaker 1: on a place I can hunt, and I'm out here.

372
00:18:29,320 --> 00:18:32,080
Speaker 1: It was crazy, and I was very stressed out because

373
00:18:32,119 --> 00:18:35,520
Speaker 1: I was not there. Um, and it was you know,

374
00:18:35,640 --> 00:18:36,880
Speaker 1: you know how that is. I mean, if that buck

375
00:18:36,920 --> 00:18:38,520
Speaker 1: showed up and you're not there, and you know it's

376
00:18:38,560 --> 00:18:39,959
Speaker 1: this time of year that they can just show up

377
00:18:39,960 --> 00:18:41,159
Speaker 1: for a day or two and be gone. I'm like,

378
00:18:41,160 --> 00:18:42,880
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, this is never gonna happen again. I'm

379
00:18:42,880 --> 00:18:45,879
Speaker 1: gonna show up and he's gone. And that was it. Um,

380
00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:49,080
Speaker 1: And so that's what I thought would happened. So so

381
00:18:49,160 --> 00:18:53,200
Speaker 1: when when you got these when you got these pictures

382
00:18:53,320 --> 00:18:57,720
Speaker 1: of this buck making an appearance on your property and

383
00:18:57,800 --> 00:19:00,560
Speaker 1: you get back from montage and you start to, you know,

384
00:19:02,440 --> 00:19:07,360
Speaker 1: hunt him, what was your initial thought process is how

385
00:19:07,400 --> 00:19:10,040
Speaker 1: you were going to intercept this buck? What he was

386
00:19:10,080 --> 00:19:13,800
Speaker 1: doing as far as using your property. So I knew

387
00:19:13,920 --> 00:19:16,160
Speaker 1: very little, right, I mean, I had no pictures of him.

388
00:19:16,240 --> 00:19:18,000
Speaker 1: I had never seen him on the property can hunt

389
00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:20,600
Speaker 1: except for that one random pass through. So the only

390
00:19:20,600 --> 00:19:22,760
Speaker 1: intel I had to work off of was this kind

391
00:19:22,760 --> 00:19:25,160
Speaker 1: of from the road siding. My wife had this deer

392
00:19:25,240 --> 00:19:27,639
Speaker 1: walking along the edge of a bean field. Um, that

393
00:19:27,720 --> 00:19:31,399
Speaker 1: was it. So I I just took that. Okay, that's

394
00:19:31,400 --> 00:19:33,280
Speaker 1: where he was seeing. And he was kind of cruising

395
00:19:33,440 --> 00:19:36,120
Speaker 1: along the edge of that food plat system that I've

396
00:19:36,119 --> 00:19:38,760
Speaker 1: talked about, the same food plat system where I got

397
00:19:38,800 --> 00:19:41,720
Speaker 1: his picture in two thousands sixteen. And then you know,

398
00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:43,920
Speaker 1: so now he's been seeing kind of cruising through there,

399
00:19:43,920 --> 00:19:46,440
Speaker 1: and he was um in the general area. I think

400
00:19:46,760 --> 00:19:50,040
Speaker 1: I'm trying to remember if it was if he was

401
00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:51,400
Speaker 1: with the dough at the in the in the very

402
00:19:51,400 --> 00:19:53,600
Speaker 1: beginning of he was. I don't know, but it was

403
00:19:53,640 --> 00:19:56,240
Speaker 1: either he was sighted by himself and then he bumped

404
00:19:56,240 --> 00:19:59,720
Speaker 1: it was chasing the dough or something. I guess. I

405
00:20:00,119 --> 00:20:01,639
Speaker 1: it's all a blur to me at this point. But

406
00:20:01,720 --> 00:20:05,000
Speaker 1: long story short, the basic I just remember thinking, like,

407
00:20:05,080 --> 00:20:06,720
Speaker 1: he's got to be with the dough. He was chasing

408
00:20:06,760 --> 00:20:09,600
Speaker 1: dose around. He's likely with the dough, and he was

409
00:20:09,640 --> 00:20:12,119
Speaker 1: seen with that doughe in this general area. So that

410
00:20:12,280 --> 00:20:15,800
Speaker 1: general area I had prepared to hunt holy Field. You know,

411
00:20:15,960 --> 00:20:18,640
Speaker 1: all these different encounters I had with holy Field, many

412
00:20:18,640 --> 00:20:20,639
Speaker 1: of them were right in the same general vicinity, right

413
00:20:20,680 --> 00:20:22,760
Speaker 1: I've got I had a bail blind set up there

414
00:20:22,800 --> 00:20:25,480
Speaker 1: to hunt that area of the south wind or southwest

415
00:20:25,480 --> 00:20:28,040
Speaker 1: type winds or easterly winds. I had a tree stand

416
00:20:28,040 --> 00:20:29,880
Speaker 1: that's kind of in the middle of the complex that's

417
00:20:30,200 --> 00:20:33,000
Speaker 1: they're situated for northerly winds or different things. And I

418
00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:34,879
Speaker 1: got a box blind's on the far south side of

419
00:20:34,880 --> 00:20:38,080
Speaker 1: that complex that's used for gun season, like muzzler season

420
00:20:38,119 --> 00:20:39,880
Speaker 1: used issue does from that so I had a couple

421
00:20:39,880 --> 00:20:41,440
Speaker 1: of different options. So I thought, all right, I'm gonna

422
00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:45,040
Speaker 1: hunt in this little area in the safest place from

423
00:20:45,040 --> 00:20:48,280
Speaker 1: a wind perspective on that first day and hopefully learn

424
00:20:48,400 --> 00:20:51,600
Speaker 1: something and see something. Because that wind ahead, if I

425
00:20:51,640 --> 00:20:53,440
Speaker 1: remember right, it was kind of a westerly wind, and

426
00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:55,760
Speaker 1: it's really hard to hunt this part of the property

427
00:20:56,040 --> 00:20:58,800
Speaker 1: with any kind of westerly wind because the the food

428
00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:00,960
Speaker 1: is all on the east side. Or sorry, the food

429
00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:03,920
Speaker 1: is all on the west side. That's where I can hunt,

430
00:21:04,440 --> 00:21:06,520
Speaker 1: but all the good bedding is on the east side,

431
00:21:06,560 --> 00:21:09,600
Speaker 1: where I can't hunt. So there's just one little gap.

432
00:21:09,600 --> 00:21:11,639
Speaker 1: There's like an open stretch here. It's like a power

433
00:21:11,680 --> 00:21:13,720
Speaker 1: line type of thing, not a type thing's power line,

434
00:21:14,359 --> 00:21:17,040
Speaker 1: and um, the way I can blow my wind down

435
00:21:17,080 --> 00:21:20,439
Speaker 1: that pot power line and avoid blowing out the betting ears.

436
00:21:21,400 --> 00:21:27,520
Speaker 1: So basically I got set up there. Um no, now

437
00:21:27,520 --> 00:21:31,520
Speaker 1: I'm mixing my days up. Man, I'm losing my mind here,

438
00:21:31,520 --> 00:21:33,480
Speaker 1: you guys. I don't even remember where I think I hunt.

439
00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:36,080
Speaker 1: Maybe I did hunt there. I don't even remember where

440
00:21:36,080 --> 00:21:39,359
Speaker 1: a hunt on the second now, but that's where I

441
00:21:39,400 --> 00:21:43,600
Speaker 1: hunted the third. I don't know why I can't remember

442
00:21:43,600 --> 00:21:45,439
Speaker 1: this but I hunted up in that general area on

443
00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:47,840
Speaker 1: the second. Maybe I hunted the tree stand I don't know,

444
00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:50,800
Speaker 1: or the food plat stand. But I hunted that area

445
00:21:50,840 --> 00:21:54,600
Speaker 1: on the second, um, thinking i'd see him and um,

446
00:21:54,680 --> 00:21:56,439
Speaker 1: and that didn't work out. What you were telling me,

447
00:21:56,480 --> 00:22:00,480
Speaker 1: you were you were hunting over a scrape that was

448
00:22:00,840 --> 00:22:08,159
Speaker 1: pretty active, if I remember correctly. No, no, no, I

449
00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:10,840
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't know what why. I can't remember

450
00:22:10,880 --> 00:22:15,879
Speaker 1: all this stuff. Did you even shoot a deer? I

451
00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:18,800
Speaker 1: don't know what's going on that now I'm blacking out.

452
00:22:18,840 --> 00:22:20,520
Speaker 1: But what I do remember is that I didn't see

453
00:22:20,560 --> 00:22:22,040
Speaker 1: him in the second But I went back to the

454
00:22:22,080 --> 00:22:25,159
Speaker 1: same general area on the evening of the third. And

455
00:22:25,240 --> 00:22:27,040
Speaker 1: I do know that on the evening of the third,

456
00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:29,280
Speaker 1: because of that westerly wind issue that I was telling

457
00:22:29,320 --> 00:22:31,400
Speaker 1: me about, I had to set up in my saddle.

458
00:22:31,720 --> 00:22:34,760
Speaker 1: I snuck in there with sticks and my saddle and

459
00:22:34,880 --> 00:22:36,919
Speaker 1: set up in the timber. There's a little strip of

460
00:22:36,960 --> 00:22:39,240
Speaker 1: timber that's just south of that food plot complex, and

461
00:22:39,280 --> 00:22:41,760
Speaker 1: I could set up my saddle there and be able

462
00:22:41,800 --> 00:22:45,720
Speaker 1: to see into that system these couple of little fields, UM,

463
00:22:45,760 --> 00:22:47,960
Speaker 1: but also see back into some of the cover while

464
00:22:48,080 --> 00:22:50,000
Speaker 1: not blowing out that area, and I thought, this is

465
00:22:50,040 --> 00:22:52,120
Speaker 1: the closest I can get to where I think he'll

466
00:22:52,119 --> 00:22:56,120
Speaker 1: come through. And as I told you guys three weeks

467
00:22:56,119 --> 00:22:57,840
Speaker 1: ago or whatever it was that I told the first

468
00:22:57,840 --> 00:23:01,000
Speaker 1: story about him, he ends up coming out behind a

469
00:23:01,080 --> 00:23:04,840
Speaker 1: dough at I don't like an hour before dark comes

470
00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:06,480
Speaker 1: out with that dough, right, And I told you guys

471
00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:09,760
Speaker 1: about how he's out there like seventy yards. I try

472
00:23:09,800 --> 00:23:12,160
Speaker 1: to grunt to him. Eventually he doesn't. He eventually stays

473
00:23:12,160 --> 00:23:14,000
Speaker 1: with that dough breeds that do in front of me.

474
00:23:14,400 --> 00:23:16,399
Speaker 1: So you know what happened there. But just now layer

475
00:23:16,640 --> 00:23:19,240
Speaker 1: on top of that the fact that this buck is

476
00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:21,439
Speaker 1: a five and a half year old, he's the biggest

477
00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:23,639
Speaker 1: body deer I've ever seen in my life. Um, at

478
00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:25,399
Speaker 1: least at least one of the one of the biggest

479
00:23:25,400 --> 00:23:28,400
Speaker 1: body deers, deer that at least I've ever hunted. Um

480
00:23:28,480 --> 00:23:30,280
Speaker 1: that dear jaw breaker that I hunted a number of

481
00:23:30,359 --> 00:23:32,800
Speaker 1: years ago, he was very big body. But this deer,

482
00:23:32,840 --> 00:23:35,800
Speaker 1: I just remember thinking it was a cow, just huge body,

483
00:23:36,080 --> 00:23:39,800
Speaker 1: and then I mean just a really really really big

484
00:23:39,840 --> 00:23:43,280
Speaker 1: ten pointer UM Boon and Crockett type caliber buck is

485
00:23:43,320 --> 00:23:45,600
Speaker 1: what I'm thinking when I'm seeing this, dear, like there's

486
00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:49,439
Speaker 1: there's I feel like when it comes to deer, you

487
00:23:49,480 --> 00:23:52,159
Speaker 1: can just tell like, oh, yeah, that's a booner, like

488
00:23:52,200 --> 00:23:54,240
Speaker 1: that kind of buck that just is like head and

489
00:23:54,280 --> 00:23:56,960
Speaker 1: shoulders frame wise bigger than anything else you ever see.

490
00:23:57,440 --> 00:24:00,359
Speaker 1: There's usually that kind of like oh wow that you

491
00:24:00,359 --> 00:24:01,960
Speaker 1: get when you see a deer like that. That's what

492
00:24:02,040 --> 00:24:06,160
Speaker 1: I got with this deer. Um mark, how many deer

493
00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:08,680
Speaker 1: in Michigan have you seen that would like go over

494
00:24:09,119 --> 00:24:12,720
Speaker 1: one fifty or go over one sixty? Like can you

495
00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:17,280
Speaker 1: count the exact number of deer that size that you've seen? Yeah?

496
00:24:17,320 --> 00:24:26,440
Speaker 1: I can, um that I've seen in person right myself? Um,

497
00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:31,800
Speaker 1: two maybe all time over or over one sixty, over

498
00:24:31,840 --> 00:24:35,040
Speaker 1: one sixty one of those, dear being, Well, no, I

499
00:24:35,080 --> 00:24:44,560
Speaker 1: can think of uh one, two, two, three, maybe three

500
00:24:44,560 --> 00:24:47,560
Speaker 1: bucks over one fifty that I've ever seen ever in Michigan.

501
00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:50,399
Speaker 1: And these are all in the summer deer feeding and

502
00:24:50,440 --> 00:25:01,680
Speaker 1: bean fields. Um. And then how many did you see yesterday? Thirty? Yeah? Exactly?

503
00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:05,879
Speaker 1: Yeah man. And so that's that's what it was. That

504
00:25:05,880 --> 00:25:09,560
Speaker 1: that's what was going through my mind this entire experience.

505
00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:13,080
Speaker 1: It was just like this isn't gonna happen again? Like

506
00:25:13,160 --> 00:25:16,879
Speaker 1: this is this unreal? Like it's like I had like

507
00:25:16,920 --> 00:25:18,840
Speaker 1: as you just said to me, Dan, like did this

508
00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:20,800
Speaker 1: even happen? Or are you just making it up? Like

509
00:25:20,840 --> 00:25:22,240
Speaker 1: that was what was going in my head? Like this

510
00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:24,359
Speaker 1: can't possibly be real. I can't be looking at a

511
00:25:24,400 --> 00:25:27,359
Speaker 1: buck like this right now in Michigan on this little

512
00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:29,200
Speaker 1: property that I'm hunting, this proper da hunt and we've

513
00:25:29,200 --> 00:25:33,119
Speaker 1: talked about four it's ninety acres, but like fifty of

514
00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:35,399
Speaker 1: that is open field, so there's only forty acres that

515
00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:38,439
Speaker 1: are huntable, and of that a lot of it is

516
00:25:38,480 --> 00:25:41,479
Speaker 1: just like little fence row type stuff. I mean, this

517
00:25:41,560 --> 00:25:43,720
Speaker 1: is not the kind of place you would expect to

518
00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:47,480
Speaker 1: see a buck like that, um, and I never have,

519
00:25:47,640 --> 00:25:49,080
Speaker 1: like right, I mean, if you look back at all

520
00:25:49,080 --> 00:25:51,040
Speaker 1: my years hunting in this spot, as some of these

521
00:25:51,080 --> 00:25:54,160
Speaker 1: stories I've told, like the Holy Field stuff, I mean,

522
00:25:54,680 --> 00:25:56,959
Speaker 1: you know, even when there is an old deer running around,

523
00:25:57,280 --> 00:26:01,000
Speaker 1: they're usually like like that just has not This is

524
00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:04,160
Speaker 1: not a spot that typically is producing large antler deer.

525
00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:06,560
Speaker 1: The genetics just aren't great. There's not a whole lot

526
00:26:06,560 --> 00:26:08,960
Speaker 1: of deer that get old any given near I think

527
00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:10,520
Speaker 1: if I think back to every year that if hunted

528
00:26:10,520 --> 00:26:13,320
Speaker 1: this spot or any of the neighboring areas, there's only

529
00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:16,359
Speaker 1: ever one mature buck, if if any. Some years there's

530
00:26:16,400 --> 00:26:19,280
Speaker 1: just nothing. UM. Some years there's a three year old

531
00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:21,840
Speaker 1: or four year old UM. But there's never been any

532
00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:25,399
Speaker 1: kind of giant like this to hunt. UM. So this

533
00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:30,399
Speaker 1: is new. Do you feel that the absence of holy

534
00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:34,639
Speaker 1: Field as a mature buck created a power vacuum for

535
00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:38,080
Speaker 1: this buck to step in and claim a claim? Uh?

536
00:26:38,119 --> 00:26:41,120
Speaker 1: I guess a good territory. That's one of the theories.

537
00:26:41,800 --> 00:26:44,040
Speaker 1: That's one of the theories. Or it might be the

538
00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:47,800
Speaker 1: flip which some people have like messaged me about, might

539
00:26:47,880 --> 00:26:51,280
Speaker 1: have the presence of this buck pushed holy Field. Though

540
00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:55,440
Speaker 1: maybe holy Field actually is alive, but he's on the decline,

541
00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:58,440
Speaker 1: and this deer started hanging out more in the area

542
00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:00,640
Speaker 1: and kind of nudged holy Field out of the area.

543
00:27:00,680 --> 00:27:03,879
Speaker 1: He wasn't UM. I think it's more likely that what

544
00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:05,880
Speaker 1: you proposed, And I think it's more likely the holy

545
00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:09,840
Speaker 1: Field probably um probably died from an injury or winter

546
00:27:10,280 --> 00:27:15,240
Speaker 1: or something. And I think that this buck lived somewhere

547
00:27:15,240 --> 00:27:19,679
Speaker 1: in the general vicinity. And I think that maybe he

548
00:27:19,760 --> 00:27:22,320
Speaker 1: caught a dough, caught wind of the dough, and ended

549
00:27:22,359 --> 00:27:26,840
Speaker 1: up hanging out around this area. And then he bumped

550
00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:28,600
Speaker 1: into another dough that was hot, and I think that

551
00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:30,520
Speaker 1: maybe that all of a sudden he realized, well, this

552
00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:32,159
Speaker 1: is a pretty nice spot. There's not a whole lot

553
00:27:32,200 --> 00:27:34,400
Speaker 1: of hunting pressure, there's some good food, there's some good cover,

554
00:27:34,480 --> 00:27:37,000
Speaker 1: there's lots of ladies. Um, I want to hang out

555
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:40,119
Speaker 1: here more. And that's kind of what seemed to happen,

556
00:27:40,200 --> 00:27:42,520
Speaker 1: because you know, I thought he was gonna be there

557
00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:43,919
Speaker 1: for a day or two, but he wasn't. Right. I

558
00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:45,639
Speaker 1: had that close call with him on the third when

559
00:27:45,680 --> 00:27:48,600
Speaker 1: he brought the dough. I had the next morning where

560
00:27:48,640 --> 00:27:52,399
Speaker 1: I hunted for him, and that was the poop blind morning.

561
00:27:52,920 --> 00:27:59,520
Speaker 1: Remember that one. Yeah, so so think about that story.

562
00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:02,359
Speaker 1: Think about what I told you. I had to have

563
00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:06,160
Speaker 1: an emergency number two inside of my hay Beell blind

564
00:28:06,560 --> 00:28:09,800
Speaker 1: and I was doing that while watching a Booner type

565
00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:12,840
Speaker 1: buck in front of me while crab walking my way

566
00:28:12,880 --> 00:28:17,320
Speaker 1: in the hay Beell blind. That happened to me, Dan Man,

567
00:28:17,840 --> 00:28:19,960
Speaker 1: I can't wait till I can't wait till your kid

568
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:22,040
Speaker 1: here's that story, and he's gonna just I mean, like

569
00:28:24,359 --> 00:28:27,280
Speaker 1: it's one one of the kind of you are becoming.

570
00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:29,879
Speaker 1: You're you're quickly becoming somebody in the hunting industry. And

571
00:28:29,920 --> 00:28:33,280
Speaker 1: to have this story out, I mean it is that's

572
00:28:33,280 --> 00:28:36,720
Speaker 1: a big time the fact I've becoming someone in the

573
00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:39,800
Speaker 1: hunting industry because I pooped while watching a booner. It's

574
00:28:39,840 --> 00:28:42,120
Speaker 1: just relatable because I bet you there's a lot of

575
00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:45,400
Speaker 1: people that are listening to this right now or listen

576
00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:47,800
Speaker 1: and follow. You're just like you know what I used

577
00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:50,760
Speaker 1: to think Mark Kennyon was a huge sellout, only in

578
00:28:50,800 --> 00:28:53,600
Speaker 1: it for the fame, but when he came come on

579
00:28:53,640 --> 00:28:56,200
Speaker 1: air and he can say, listen, I poop in my

580
00:28:56,200 --> 00:29:00,840
Speaker 1: blind just like everybody else does, just like everybody else.

581
00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:02,840
Speaker 1: Do you think everybody else? Do you think everybody else

582
00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:08,160
Speaker 1: poops in their blinds? Spencer? Do you poop in your blinds?

583
00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:12,280
Speaker 1: I only odd to a tree stand, so I'll poop

584
00:29:12,280 --> 00:29:17,000
Speaker 1: out of a tree stand hashtag hashtag skuy dump hashtag

585
00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:22,680
Speaker 1: poop blinds. Oh Man, Yeah, And I wondered. I wondered,

586
00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:24,719
Speaker 1: like am I having this tech because like I'm so

587
00:29:24,800 --> 00:29:27,520
Speaker 1: nervous because this mega giant is coming towards me, like

588
00:29:27,560 --> 00:29:31,960
Speaker 1: I gotta hold it together. But but yeah, so that

589
00:29:32,040 --> 00:29:35,760
Speaker 1: whole thing happened. And if you're not a really wide

590
00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:38,760
Speaker 1: range of competence, like I think, you're just setting yourself up.

591
00:29:38,800 --> 00:29:40,520
Speaker 1: You knew you were going to kill that block, so

592
00:29:41,080 --> 00:29:43,080
Speaker 1: you'd be, like you said, the bar super low with

593
00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:48,360
Speaker 1: your whole audience. And yeah, I've been doing that for

594
00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:50,400
Speaker 1: about ten years here with wired Hunt and setting a

595
00:29:50,520 --> 00:29:57,240
Speaker 1: very low bar. So so, so that whole thing happened.

596
00:29:57,240 --> 00:29:59,640
Speaker 1: And for some reason you are listening to this podcast

597
00:29:59,640 --> 00:30:02,480
Speaker 1: and you do in here the poop Blind story or

598
00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:06,640
Speaker 1: this whole store of this buck of Frank, Um, you

599
00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:08,960
Speaker 1: should probably go back a couple of episodes, Dan, do

600
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:11,120
Speaker 1: you remember what episode it was and we talked about that.

601
00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:13,160
Speaker 1: I think it was the Heartland bow Hunter episode. I

602
00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:16,200
Speaker 1: think the first half of it. Yeah, the first half

603
00:30:16,200 --> 00:30:18,280
Speaker 1: of it you and me talked about this buck and

604
00:30:18,320 --> 00:30:20,400
Speaker 1: my you know, my November hunts, and I think the

605
00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:23,600
Speaker 1: second half was with Heartland bow Hunter. So so in

606
00:30:23,640 --> 00:30:25,720
Speaker 1: that episode, I go through the details, like all the

607
00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:30,080
Speaker 1: details of these encounters. I don't want to rehash everything. Um,

608
00:30:30,120 --> 00:30:32,040
Speaker 1: so listen to that, then come back to this know

609
00:30:32,200 --> 00:30:34,840
Speaker 1: that this whole poop Blind story happened with this really

610
00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:39,080
Speaker 1: big buck in front of me. Um, and that kind

611
00:30:39,080 --> 00:30:42,160
Speaker 1: of I think it colors things a little bit differently. UM,

612
00:30:42,200 --> 00:30:45,040
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how difficult it was and how

613
00:30:45,120 --> 00:30:47,320
Speaker 1: much I battled back and forth inside my head like

614
00:30:48,320 --> 00:30:50,120
Speaker 1: is this something that you share? Is is is something you

615
00:30:50,160 --> 00:30:54,680
Speaker 1: don't share? You know? Because um, I usually share everything,

616
00:30:54,840 --> 00:30:56,840
Speaker 1: right as far as my hunts and everything and a

617
00:30:56,920 --> 00:30:59,520
Speaker 1: video everything, And I'm sharing pictures and I'm sharing screenshots

618
00:30:59,560 --> 00:31:01,800
Speaker 1: and I'm telling about everything. I mean, I'm I'm very

619
00:31:01,920 --> 00:31:04,240
Speaker 1: very very very very transparent. I tell you, when I

620
00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:07,000
Speaker 1: pooped my blind I don't know if most people would

621
00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:09,760
Speaker 1: tell that story. Well, I'm just glad that you decided

622
00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:13,719
Speaker 1: not to, you know, do pictures with that story, and

623
00:31:13,760 --> 00:31:19,560
Speaker 1: just well, well we'll trust you on the poop line story. Yeah.

624
00:31:19,600 --> 00:31:22,440
Speaker 1: So I didn't share pictures that either, But but you know,

625
00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:25,640
Speaker 1: usually everything I do, I share, and I was just

626
00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:27,160
Speaker 1: like I didn't know what to do with this deer.

627
00:31:27,200 --> 00:31:29,040
Speaker 1: I was like, I just this deer is like just

628
00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:31,480
Speaker 1: it was like a different level. And I just kept thinking, man,

629
00:31:32,600 --> 00:31:34,000
Speaker 1: this is just the kind of thing that it would

630
00:31:34,040 --> 00:31:36,880
Speaker 1: just be like too much like stress. I felt like

631
00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:38,640
Speaker 1: if I put it out there right now. I was

632
00:31:38,680 --> 00:31:40,680
Speaker 1: already freaking out enough as it was that this deer

633
00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:43,000
Speaker 1: was running around let alone, if like the whole world

634
00:31:43,080 --> 00:31:45,960
Speaker 1: knew about it and everyone was, you know, just commenting

635
00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:51,040
Speaker 1: on it, and you know, added hunting pressure all around you,

636
00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:52,640
Speaker 1: just all that kind of stuff with stuff I was

637
00:31:52,680 --> 00:31:54,560
Speaker 1: thinking about and just wondering like, maybe this is one

638
00:31:54,560 --> 00:31:57,080
Speaker 1: of those stories you tell after the season. Um, it's

639
00:31:57,160 --> 00:31:59,959
Speaker 1: kind of what I started thinking. Did anything with your

640
00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:04,280
Speaker 1: experience with holy Field like change how you handled Frank?

641
00:32:04,440 --> 00:32:07,320
Speaker 1: I mean, for example, the holy Field was so famous

642
00:32:07,360 --> 00:32:10,240
Speaker 1: he had his own Instagram accounts that everybody knew about it.

643
00:32:10,320 --> 00:32:13,360
Speaker 1: In me, like, did that change anything for how you

644
00:32:13,400 --> 00:32:18,280
Speaker 1: know you addressed Frank to your Wired Hunt audience? Yeah,

645
00:32:18,440 --> 00:32:20,160
Speaker 1: I want to make it clear that I did not

646
00:32:20,320 --> 00:32:25,680
Speaker 1: create an Instagram account for holy Field. Somebody else created

647
00:32:25,680 --> 00:32:30,760
Speaker 1: an Instagram for holy Field, which was pretty funny. Um, yeah,

648
00:32:30,880 --> 00:32:35,440
Speaker 1: is that your Dan know? Um? But but yeah, it

649
00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:37,800
Speaker 1: did color a little bit because yeah, right, I talked

650
00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:40,200
Speaker 1: about this box so much a lot of people knew

651
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:43,520
Speaker 1: about this buck. I had people that I didn't know

652
00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:46,520
Speaker 1: hunted around me, Um reach out and say, hey, I

653
00:32:46,560 --> 00:32:48,920
Speaker 1: knew I saw this buck or I've been looking for

654
00:32:48,960 --> 00:32:51,160
Speaker 1: this buck, or oh is this where that buck is?

655
00:32:51,400 --> 00:32:53,760
Speaker 1: Or hey, I saw holy Field down the road, or

656
00:32:53,800 --> 00:32:56,040
Speaker 1: like people stopping at my house and telling me about

657
00:32:56,080 --> 00:32:59,720
Speaker 1: holy Field people I didn't know. Um, so all of

658
00:32:59,760 --> 00:33:02,960
Speaker 1: that has just made me, you know, just try to think,

659
00:33:03,080 --> 00:33:06,040
Speaker 1: like you know, I don't know. I mean, there's a

660
00:33:06,040 --> 00:33:09,640
Speaker 1: certain level of privacy that any normal person would like

661
00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:12,600
Speaker 1: to have, right And I did the same thing this year, dude.

662
00:33:12,880 --> 00:33:21,360
Speaker 1: So I mean, I think everybody understands, what why you

663
00:33:21,400 --> 00:33:24,880
Speaker 1: didn't post pictures of this dear? Yeah, And I mean,

664
00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:27,720
Speaker 1: you know, it's just it's like a case by case

665
00:33:27,760 --> 00:33:29,000
Speaker 1: things like I'd like to share as much as I

666
00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:31,440
Speaker 1: possibly can, but sometimes I think maybe, you know, there's

667
00:33:31,480 --> 00:33:33,360
Speaker 1: some things that that you know, as a hunter, as

668
00:33:33,360 --> 00:33:35,040
Speaker 1: a person, you're just gonna keep yourself a little bit.

669
00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:36,960
Speaker 1: So this is one of those things that I thought,

670
00:33:36,960 --> 00:33:39,320
Speaker 1: you know, I'll keep this one close. I'll just kind

671
00:33:39,320 --> 00:33:41,680
Speaker 1: of I'll just try to hunt this dear without it

672
00:33:41,840 --> 00:33:44,760
Speaker 1: being out there and just see what happens. And I

673
00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:46,400
Speaker 1: think it was probably the right call. I think it

674
00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:48,280
Speaker 1: kind of kept the pressure a little bit lower. I mean,

675
00:33:48,280 --> 00:33:50,000
Speaker 1: I I put a lot, like I strepped, I mean,

676
00:33:50,280 --> 00:33:52,880
Speaker 1: anyone listening to this show knows, as you've heard me

677
00:33:52,960 --> 00:33:55,640
Speaker 1: kind of like stream of thought talk all the time

678
00:33:55,680 --> 00:33:57,360
Speaker 1: about how I hunt and that things that go on.

679
00:33:57,400 --> 00:33:59,680
Speaker 1: Anyone that listens to this knows that like, I overstress,

680
00:34:00,120 --> 00:34:02,720
Speaker 1: I over analyzed, I get really worked up about this stuff.

681
00:34:02,720 --> 00:34:05,280
Speaker 1: I put a lot of pressure on myself. Um So

682
00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:07,000
Speaker 1: with this deer, like, there was already enough of that

683
00:34:07,120 --> 00:34:09,600
Speaker 1: just in my mind, thinking, Okay, there's this once in

684
00:34:09,640 --> 00:34:13,160
Speaker 1: a lifetime buck and it was enough just that let

685
00:34:13,160 --> 00:34:16,359
Speaker 1: alone if I had like everyone knowing about it and

686
00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:19,400
Speaker 1: following it and all that kind of stuff. So I

687
00:34:19,400 --> 00:34:21,160
Speaker 1: think I'm glad that I that I stuck to that

688
00:34:21,239 --> 00:34:23,640
Speaker 1: decision because it made it. It made it was also

689
00:34:23,719 --> 00:34:25,640
Speaker 1: a little bit fun just to like be able to

690
00:34:25,640 --> 00:34:27,440
Speaker 1: talk about this deal with a couple of close friends

691
00:34:27,440 --> 00:34:30,480
Speaker 1: and bounce back and forth without you know, just everything

692
00:34:30,480 --> 00:34:33,920
Speaker 1: else kind of going on around. So there's also like

693
00:34:33,960 --> 00:34:37,880
Speaker 1: the fact that it's this it becomes more about the

694
00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:42,399
Speaker 1: story and not the antlers, right because we're you know,

695
00:34:42,680 --> 00:34:47,480
Speaker 1: as hunters, we all dive into how big the antlers is.

696
00:34:47,520 --> 00:34:49,480
Speaker 1: But if you take that out of the equation, you

697
00:34:49,520 --> 00:34:54,320
Speaker 1: really start to follow along with the strategy. You follow

698
00:34:54,360 --> 00:34:57,279
Speaker 1: along with what you were doing, what the deer was doing,

699
00:34:57,440 --> 00:35:00,759
Speaker 1: and the overall story and not just the end, which is, hey,

700
00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:02,320
Speaker 1: this is uh, you know, close to a Boone and

701
00:35:02,360 --> 00:35:05,279
Speaker 1: Crockett deer. Yeah, yeah, so you know it was it

702
00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:07,040
Speaker 1: was a mature buck, and I wouldn't have hunted him

703
00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:09,160
Speaker 1: any differently, if you know, whether he was a hundred

704
00:35:09,239 --> 00:35:11,919
Speaker 1: twenty buck or a hundred seventuck, would hunted the same way.

705
00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:14,359
Speaker 1: Given that he was five and a half, He's still

706
00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:16,080
Speaker 1: trying to kill him. But it just, you know, it

707
00:35:16,160 --> 00:35:18,080
Speaker 1: was just something that I had not I had not

708
00:35:18,160 --> 00:35:19,959
Speaker 1: experienced this. I've never been able to hunt a Boone

709
00:35:19,960 --> 00:35:22,080
Speaker 1: and Crockett type buck in my life before like this,

710
00:35:22,719 --> 00:35:28,320
Speaker 1: so it's new for me, new for everything. So so yeah,

711
00:35:28,560 --> 00:35:31,120
Speaker 1: I mean it was just kind of high intensity. It

712
00:35:31,160 --> 00:35:33,759
Speaker 1: was a really intense week there in early November when

713
00:35:33,760 --> 00:35:36,080
Speaker 1: I was having all these encounters. Had the had the

714
00:35:36,760 --> 00:35:38,040
Speaker 1: night when he came up with the dough bread the

715
00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:39,880
Speaker 1: dough had the next morning with the poop blind, had

716
00:35:39,920 --> 00:35:41,480
Speaker 1: the next had that next night when I had to

717
00:35:41,480 --> 00:35:43,959
Speaker 1: shift spots because the wind, and then he came out

718
00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:46,719
Speaker 1: past the poop blind again but not within range of

719
00:35:46,719 --> 00:35:48,279
Speaker 1: the tricky stand I was hunting in and I had

720
00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:50,960
Speaker 1: to watch that happening. Chased Dose around and he went

721
00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:52,840
Speaker 1: down win into the poop blind and didn't seem to

722
00:35:52,840 --> 00:35:54,960
Speaker 1: be bothered by that at all. So I thought, damn,

723
00:35:54,960 --> 00:35:57,000
Speaker 1: I did a good job of bearing all that. So

724
00:35:57,040 --> 00:36:01,359
Speaker 1: I felt good about that. And then the next day

725
00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:03,880
Speaker 1: I did a running gun set up deep into this

726
00:36:03,960 --> 00:36:06,360
Speaker 1: little thicket where he'd been with the dough that morning

727
00:36:06,400 --> 00:36:08,200
Speaker 1: and then that night before where he took that dough

728
00:36:09,080 --> 00:36:11,680
Speaker 1: snuck in there, did a really long roundabout way to

729
00:36:11,719 --> 00:36:14,000
Speaker 1: get in there without you know, if I kind of

730
00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:16,319
Speaker 1: based my plan on the assumption that he's only back

731
00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:18,400
Speaker 1: in that thicket with that dough locked down with her again.

732
00:36:18,640 --> 00:36:21,640
Speaker 1: So I just said, that's that's where he is. I

733
00:36:21,680 --> 00:36:24,000
Speaker 1: just had to that was my assumption, and I decided

734
00:36:24,040 --> 00:36:25,719
Speaker 1: to operate as if that was the truth. That's where

735
00:36:25,719 --> 00:36:27,799
Speaker 1: he is. So if he's there, and with the wind

736
00:36:27,800 --> 00:36:29,719
Speaker 1: direction we have in the access routes I have into

737
00:36:29,760 --> 00:36:31,480
Speaker 1: this property, I had to go way to the far

738
00:36:31,719 --> 00:36:35,000
Speaker 1: southern border of this property into a huge, rapping, long

739
00:36:35,120 --> 00:36:37,920
Speaker 1: roundabout walk, like two hours before daylight to try to

740
00:36:37,960 --> 00:36:39,600
Speaker 1: get on the back side of that where I was

741
00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:41,960
Speaker 1: hoping they transition back to the main area where I

742
00:36:41,960 --> 00:36:44,799
Speaker 1: think they were in the bed, And it worked out

743
00:36:44,840 --> 00:36:46,759
Speaker 1: almost exactly like I was hoping it would. I got

744
00:36:46,800 --> 00:36:48,879
Speaker 1: set up in there with my saddle, and at first light,

745
00:36:49,239 --> 00:36:52,640
Speaker 1: here he comes walking right towards me, and he's raking

746
00:36:52,640 --> 00:36:55,120
Speaker 1: a tree and he's flying like there's grass and long

747
00:36:55,640 --> 00:36:57,920
Speaker 1: branches like flying up in the air over his shoulders,

748
00:36:57,920 --> 00:37:01,080
Speaker 1: and he's got tall grass in his antlers, and it

749
00:37:01,200 --> 00:37:02,759
Speaker 1: was just like the coolest thing I ever saw. And

750
00:37:02,760 --> 00:37:04,840
Speaker 1: he's walking right towards and he's like eighty five yards

751
00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:07,520
Speaker 1: eighty yards seventy five yards, seventy yards on the holy ship.

752
00:37:07,600 --> 00:37:10,319
Speaker 1: This is gonna happen. Really excited, I got my bow

753
00:37:10,400 --> 00:37:12,960
Speaker 1: in my hand, and then that dope pops out and

754
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:16,080
Speaker 1: she goes rounding the other direction. He follows her, and

755
00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:19,399
Speaker 1: he goes walking by the poop blind again. And uh,

756
00:37:19,719 --> 00:37:21,799
Speaker 1: I haven't thinking, jees o pete, if I had been there,

757
00:37:21,800 --> 00:37:24,040
Speaker 1: if I just said sat in that same blind for

758
00:37:24,200 --> 00:37:27,160
Speaker 1: all these now I thought that in my head, like

759
00:37:27,239 --> 00:37:29,239
Speaker 1: if I just stayed there, I would have had him

760
00:37:29,280 --> 00:37:31,759
Speaker 1: go past me three different times or two different times

761
00:37:31,800 --> 00:37:34,560
Speaker 1: or something like that. But yeah, three, But the issue

762
00:37:34,640 --> 00:37:36,600
Speaker 1: was the wind. I can never hunt there with that

763
00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:39,720
Speaker 1: wind direction. It's a really tough spot to hunt without

764
00:37:39,719 --> 00:37:43,120
Speaker 1: blowing out this entire bedding year. So I had those

765
00:37:43,120 --> 00:37:45,839
Speaker 1: early November encounters like like a four day period or whatever,

766
00:37:45,840 --> 00:37:48,439
Speaker 1: it was four or five days or something, and uh,

767
00:37:48,480 --> 00:37:50,319
Speaker 1: and then I had to leave, if you remember, Dana

768
00:37:50,360 --> 00:37:53,759
Speaker 1: had to leave for that meat eater hunt. So left

769
00:37:53,760 --> 00:37:56,000
Speaker 1: for a week. It was all stressed out that he

770
00:37:56,000 --> 00:37:57,640
Speaker 1: was gonna be around there and I'm not hunting him

771
00:37:57,680 --> 00:38:01,120
Speaker 1: and gonna miss out my opportunity. But I can't back. Um,

772
00:38:01,160 --> 00:38:03,120
Speaker 1: I had no pictures of him anywhere on this property,

773
00:38:03,160 --> 00:38:05,120
Speaker 1: so it's like he vanished, and I kind of was like,

774
00:38:05,160 --> 00:38:09,560
Speaker 1: well that was it, until not take that back. As

775
00:38:09,600 --> 00:38:11,680
Speaker 1: I'm clicking through all the pictures, that's I'm thinking, and

776
00:38:11,719 --> 00:38:14,200
Speaker 1: then I get to the last day of the last

777
00:38:14,280 --> 00:38:17,360
Speaker 1: camera card I look at, and that morning, so the

778
00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:19,040
Speaker 1: morning of the day that I went to go check

779
00:38:19,120 --> 00:38:21,839
Speaker 1: the cameras, I got one set of pictures of him

780
00:38:21,960 --> 00:38:24,160
Speaker 1: that morning, like a half hour before daylight. So like,

781
00:38:24,160 --> 00:38:26,319
Speaker 1: holy crap, he's back. This is the only picture I

782
00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:28,560
Speaker 1: had of him from that whole time period. Ball was

783
00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:31,719
Speaker 1: gone and he's back. That morning, I got back to

784
00:38:31,800 --> 00:38:35,000
Speaker 1: hunt that area. So now I'm excited, and I hunt

785
00:38:35,040 --> 00:38:37,919
Speaker 1: the next three four days in that area into guns

786
00:38:37,960 --> 00:38:41,160
Speaker 1: season a little bit and nothing, no more sightings, no

787
00:38:41,239 --> 00:38:44,400
Speaker 1: more pictures. Um. I remember sitting out there and opening

788
00:38:44,480 --> 00:38:46,759
Speaker 1: day guns season, I'm hearing all these gunshots all around me.

789
00:38:46,800 --> 00:38:50,080
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking, man, he's probably dead, Like that's probably it,

790
00:38:50,400 --> 00:38:53,640
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah. I had to keep telling myself, you

791
00:38:53,680 --> 00:38:55,960
Speaker 1: know that I was really lucky and fortunate just who

792
00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:58,920
Speaker 1: have had those encounters Like that's why. That's the thing.

793
00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:01,239
Speaker 1: I kept trying to remind mysel off every day during

794
00:39:01,280 --> 00:39:02,840
Speaker 1: that series of days where I was seeing him and

795
00:39:02,840 --> 00:39:05,120
Speaker 1: not quite getting it done. There was like that that

796
00:39:05,239 --> 00:39:10,000
Speaker 1: reptilian part of my brain or like the the the

797
00:39:10,120 --> 00:39:12,600
Speaker 1: initial reaction part of me, like the emotional side, and

798
00:39:12,640 --> 00:39:14,880
Speaker 1: it's like, son of a gun, you had you you

799
00:39:14,880 --> 00:39:17,839
Speaker 1: almost had an opportunity, didn't come together, you didn't make

800
00:39:17,880 --> 00:39:20,799
Speaker 1: quite the right choice or whatever, and he slipped through

801
00:39:20,800 --> 00:39:22,680
Speaker 1: your fingers and you're never gonna see that buck again

802
00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:25,560
Speaker 1: once in lifetime. Buck. But then half hour later, in

803
00:39:25,560 --> 00:39:27,759
Speaker 1: my head, I'm thinking, man, you just got to appreciate it.

804
00:39:27,960 --> 00:39:29,759
Speaker 1: You just need to appreciate the fact you got to like,

805
00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:33,120
Speaker 1: you've never had an encounter like that ever, You've never

806
00:39:33,160 --> 00:39:35,120
Speaker 1: been sitting and watch a deer like that? How cool

807
00:39:35,160 --> 00:39:36,880
Speaker 1: is it just to see a deer like that, especially

808
00:39:36,960 --> 00:39:39,960
Speaker 1: here in Michigan. Um So I kept trying to like

809
00:39:40,760 --> 00:39:46,680
Speaker 1: tell myself that, like, just appreciate that experience. Season. Were

810
00:39:46,719 --> 00:39:48,720
Speaker 1: you hunting with a gun or were you still hunting

811
00:39:48,719 --> 00:39:51,959
Speaker 1: with the boat? I hunted with a gun opening day

812
00:39:52,040 --> 00:39:54,359
Speaker 1: and the second day. I think the first two days

813
00:39:54,360 --> 00:39:57,040
Speaker 1: I hunted with a gun. And then after not seeing

814
00:39:57,120 --> 00:39:59,080
Speaker 1: him and not getting any pictures or anything, I was like,

815
00:39:59,120 --> 00:40:01,440
Speaker 1: you know what, I don't know, I just I was

816
00:40:01,520 --> 00:40:03,000
Speaker 1: I kind of decided I was going to bail out

817
00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:05,560
Speaker 1: of that and just keep tabs on things. But I

818
00:40:05,600 --> 00:40:07,279
Speaker 1: didn't want to over pressure it if you was still

819
00:40:07,320 --> 00:40:10,080
Speaker 1: around there. At that point, I thought, you know, if

820
00:40:10,080 --> 00:40:13,040
Speaker 1: he's still around, I should just lay out of here

821
00:40:13,040 --> 00:40:15,560
Speaker 1: and and just see what happens, because obviously he's not

822
00:40:15,560 --> 00:40:17,520
Speaker 1: moving in daylight. I was sitting in some spots where

823
00:40:17,600 --> 00:40:19,200
Speaker 1: I would have thought I might have seen him if

824
00:40:19,200 --> 00:40:22,000
Speaker 1: he was still doing something like he was he's doing. Um,

825
00:40:22,080 --> 00:40:25,600
Speaker 1: I wasn't gonna go push into like these there's like

826
00:40:25,719 --> 00:40:28,080
Speaker 1: one and man, Yeah, there's like one spot I can

827
00:40:28,120 --> 00:40:30,160
Speaker 1: hunt that's kind of like good security cover, and I

828
00:40:30,239 --> 00:40:33,120
Speaker 1: usually just leave that as like a sanctuary. UM. I

829
00:40:33,160 --> 00:40:35,440
Speaker 1: definitely wouldn't want to push him there during gun season

830
00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:38,920
Speaker 1: because there's neighbors that hunt like all all edges of it. UM,

831
00:40:39,040 --> 00:40:40,799
Speaker 1: So I definitely didn't want to push in the stuffought. Well,

832
00:40:40,800 --> 00:40:42,560
Speaker 1: maybe if he is alive, he's either hold up in

833
00:40:42,600 --> 00:40:44,719
Speaker 1: that spot and I definitely don't want to push him

834
00:40:44,719 --> 00:40:47,480
Speaker 1: out of there because he'll get blasted right away. Um,

835
00:40:47,640 --> 00:40:51,640
Speaker 1: or he's there's some other little dark, heidi hole that

836
00:40:51,680 --> 00:40:54,040
Speaker 1: he stays in that has allowed him to live through,

837
00:40:54,480 --> 00:40:58,080
Speaker 1: you know, four previous gun seasons. Um, it's unlikely that

838
00:40:58,120 --> 00:41:01,279
Speaker 1: he's gonna screw up. Here's fifth year. UM. So he's

839
00:41:01,280 --> 00:41:03,439
Speaker 1: either dead or he's in the hidy hole, and that's

840
00:41:03,440 --> 00:41:06,120
Speaker 1: just what it is. So my game plan then from

841
00:41:06,160 --> 00:41:09,120
Speaker 1: that standpoint was to stay out and just observe as

842
00:41:09,160 --> 00:41:10,799
Speaker 1: many nights as I could get out there where I

843
00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:13,080
Speaker 1: could just sit and glass room a long distance. I

844
00:41:13,080 --> 00:41:15,640
Speaker 1: would do that, and I would check cameras a little

845
00:41:15,680 --> 00:41:18,680
Speaker 1: bit more often, um, but in a safe kind of

846
00:41:18,680 --> 00:41:20,479
Speaker 1: way so I don't spook it driving there with a truck.

847
00:41:20,520 --> 00:41:23,120
Speaker 1: Or four with check cameras and try to monitor UM.

848
00:41:23,160 --> 00:41:24,840
Speaker 1: But I just didn't. It didn't seem like he was

849
00:41:24,960 --> 00:41:27,759
Speaker 1: going to be a consistent buck. It seemed like he

850
00:41:27,800 --> 00:41:29,680
Speaker 1: was here for that five days stretch with that dough

851
00:41:30,280 --> 00:41:32,000
Speaker 1: and then he showed up. You know what was it?

852
00:41:32,040 --> 00:41:35,440
Speaker 1: He showed up a week later, one camera, one second,

853
00:41:35,480 --> 00:41:38,520
Speaker 1: you know, was one set of pictures, and you know,

854
00:41:38,600 --> 00:41:41,480
Speaker 1: maybe maybe if I'm lucky, he might drop in a

855
00:41:41,480 --> 00:41:43,360
Speaker 1: couple more times the rest of the year, but based

856
00:41:43,360 --> 00:41:45,360
Speaker 1: off of history, I did not expect him to be

857
00:41:45,400 --> 00:41:47,719
Speaker 1: consistent in any kind of any kind of way. So

858
00:41:49,560 --> 00:41:52,719
Speaker 1: that that took me through November. So I got the

859
00:41:52,760 --> 00:41:55,560
Speaker 1: one picture of him on the or fourteenth or whatever

860
00:41:55,560 --> 00:42:00,560
Speaker 1: it was, UM, and then nothing until I checked cameras

861
00:42:00,600 --> 00:42:04,680
Speaker 1: again late in November and I think it was November maybe,

862
00:42:05,200 --> 00:42:10,520
Speaker 1: and checked cameras that day and looked at pictures, and interestingly,

863
00:42:10,600 --> 00:42:12,680
Speaker 1: it was the same kind of scenario of all the

864
00:42:12,719 --> 00:42:15,000
Speaker 1: cards I checked, no pictures of no pictures of no

865
00:42:15,080 --> 00:42:17,239
Speaker 1: pictures of him. I get to the last card that

866
00:42:17,239 --> 00:42:21,280
Speaker 1: I'm checking and the last set of pictures of that card.

867
00:42:21,719 --> 00:42:23,680
Speaker 1: From that, like the middle of the night the night

868
00:42:23,719 --> 00:42:29,680
Speaker 1: before there he is again. So he's alive still. It's

869
00:42:29,760 --> 00:42:31,840
Speaker 1: almost the end of gun season. He's still alive and

870
00:42:31,840 --> 00:42:34,799
Speaker 1: he's still passing through the property. Um. But it's it

871
00:42:34,840 --> 00:42:36,520
Speaker 1: wasn't in daylight or anything. But that got me really

872
00:42:36,560 --> 00:42:40,480
Speaker 1: excited again. So I went out hunted that next day.

873
00:42:40,840 --> 00:42:44,480
Speaker 1: I didn't see anything, um, and then I had to

874
00:42:44,520 --> 00:42:47,719
Speaker 1: go up to my northern Michigan property for a few days.

875
00:42:47,719 --> 00:42:50,319
Speaker 1: So I when did that hunt, and all the while

876
00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:52,520
Speaker 1: just thinking, well, you know, he's alive. He if he

877
00:42:52,600 --> 00:42:55,680
Speaker 1: made it to November, he made it through gun season

878
00:42:55,680 --> 00:42:58,279
Speaker 1: pretty much. Um. So now I'm thinking my head, well

879
00:42:59,440 --> 00:43:02,400
Speaker 1: there's a chance. You know, I didn't really feel particularly

880
00:43:02,440 --> 00:43:05,400
Speaker 1: strong about my late season chances with this deer, um

881
00:43:05,480 --> 00:43:08,880
Speaker 1: because you know, he never had been a consistent buck

882
00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:12,920
Speaker 1: in the late seasons in the past. But but the

883
00:43:12,920 --> 00:43:15,480
Speaker 1: the one picture that I got of him in previous

884
00:43:15,560 --> 00:43:19,920
Speaker 1: years was December nine in that food plot system and

885
00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:22,839
Speaker 1: two sixteen, and then the one sighting that I had

886
00:43:22,920 --> 00:43:26,840
Speaker 1: on this property of him was in December of two seventeen.

887
00:43:26,960 --> 00:43:30,080
Speaker 1: Late December, though, so I knew it was like in

888
00:43:30,120 --> 00:43:32,720
Speaker 1: the past, he has passed through in here in December,

889
00:43:32,760 --> 00:43:34,960
Speaker 1: so I knew, like, there's this chance in my head

890
00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:36,919
Speaker 1: that I was thinking, Man, it's just like I'm gonna

891
00:43:36,960 --> 00:43:39,200
Speaker 1: have to get lucky, Like he's not here consistently. So

892
00:43:39,280 --> 00:43:42,439
Speaker 1: maybe let's say, maybe he's gonna be here two days

893
00:43:42,520 --> 00:43:45,000
Speaker 1: or three days or something like that randomly. I have

894
00:43:45,160 --> 00:43:47,120
Speaker 1: no idea how to pick which one of those days

895
00:43:47,200 --> 00:43:48,600
Speaker 1: is going to be, Like, how am I gonna know?

896
00:43:48,800 --> 00:43:51,360
Speaker 1: I don't know. Um So in my head again, my

897
00:43:51,360 --> 00:43:54,239
Speaker 1: plan was just keep observing as much as possible, check

898
00:43:54,280 --> 00:43:56,960
Speaker 1: trail cameras when you can, and anytime you get a

899
00:43:57,000 --> 00:43:59,440
Speaker 1: picture of him or you see him moving in daylight,

900
00:43:59,520 --> 00:44:01,560
Speaker 1: then you pounce on that. Then you hunt him hard

901
00:44:01,600 --> 00:44:04,200
Speaker 1: for the next day or two, and then he's probably

902
00:44:04,200 --> 00:44:06,560
Speaker 1: gone again if you don't kill him, and then maybe

903
00:44:06,600 --> 00:44:08,080
Speaker 1: he shows up a week or two later, and if

904
00:44:08,120 --> 00:44:10,200
Speaker 1: you get some kind of intel that he's back, and

905
00:44:10,280 --> 00:44:12,200
Speaker 1: then go hunt hard enough for another day or two.

906
00:44:12,920 --> 00:44:14,480
Speaker 1: And that was because I want to try to balance,

907
00:44:14,520 --> 00:44:16,080
Speaker 1: like I want him to drop in, but at the

908
00:44:16,080 --> 00:44:18,120
Speaker 1: same time, I don't want to be hunting it every

909
00:44:18,120 --> 00:44:21,359
Speaker 1: single day and spooking every day around and then he's

910
00:44:21,360 --> 00:44:23,520
Speaker 1: never gonna come through again. This kind of in my

911
00:44:23,560 --> 00:44:27,840
Speaker 1: head's at And then now we get too early December,

912
00:44:28,800 --> 00:44:32,480
Speaker 1: and I start thinking, you know that whole strategy I

913
00:44:32,520 --> 00:44:34,200
Speaker 1: just mentioned to you, that was kind of my game plan.

914
00:44:34,239 --> 00:44:37,200
Speaker 1: I'm gonna like play careful hunt if I get some

915
00:44:37,280 --> 00:44:41,279
Speaker 1: kind of intel. Then I started thinking, you're you're never

916
00:44:41,280 --> 00:44:43,400
Speaker 1: going to get a chance like this again, Like this

917
00:44:43,440 --> 00:44:47,560
Speaker 1: is a once in a lifetime chance. Is that strategy

918
00:44:47,840 --> 00:44:51,560
Speaker 1: everything you could possibly do? Or is there more you

919
00:44:51,560 --> 00:44:54,000
Speaker 1: can do? Like what is this? Is me talking to

920
00:44:54,000 --> 00:44:55,360
Speaker 1: my head. I'm talking about something like where do you

921
00:44:55,400 --> 00:44:57,719
Speaker 1: think this buck lives? And I say to myself, well,

922
00:44:57,719 --> 00:44:59,160
Speaker 1: he doesn't live on the property I can hunt. He

923
00:44:59,200 --> 00:45:02,200
Speaker 1: probably lives and this area maybe, or this area maybe,

924
00:45:02,400 --> 00:45:05,440
Speaker 1: or this area maybe based on these different preseason sightings

925
00:45:05,520 --> 00:45:07,319
Speaker 1: or winter sightings and all that kind of stuff. Where

926
00:45:07,320 --> 00:45:08,880
Speaker 1: I found the shed where I saw him in January,

927
00:45:08,880 --> 00:45:10,719
Speaker 1: where I saw him the summer, he might be over

928
00:45:10,719 --> 00:45:12,880
Speaker 1: in that spot of that spot, And I was like,

929
00:45:12,920 --> 00:45:15,560
Speaker 1: you know what, I need to go to him. I

930
00:45:15,640 --> 00:45:18,040
Speaker 1: needed rather than waiting for that buck to come to me,

931
00:45:18,120 --> 00:45:20,439
Speaker 1: maybe I need to go to him. Maybe I've got

932
00:45:20,480 --> 00:45:23,080
Speaker 1: a chance to hunt some of these other properties. Now,

933
00:45:23,160 --> 00:45:25,160
Speaker 1: over the all these years i've hunted in this general area,

934
00:45:25,200 --> 00:45:27,600
Speaker 1: I've asked for permission on a bunch of different properties,

935
00:45:27,880 --> 00:45:31,319
Speaker 1: and most of them have been knows. But I thought, well,

936
00:45:31,800 --> 00:45:35,160
Speaker 1: maybe it can't hurt to try again. So December, like

937
00:45:35,239 --> 00:45:37,480
Speaker 1: sixth or something, I'm thinking, all right, I'm gonna I'm

938
00:45:37,480 --> 00:45:40,600
Speaker 1: gonna try to get some new permission. So I called

939
00:45:40,640 --> 00:45:43,799
Speaker 1: one landowner and I stopped by one other landowner's house

940
00:45:43,880 --> 00:45:47,600
Speaker 1: that owners in my home. The other landowner didn't answer. Um,

941
00:45:47,719 --> 00:45:49,400
Speaker 1: So I'm thinking, well, I'm just gonna keep you know,

942
00:45:49,480 --> 00:45:51,080
Speaker 1: maybe next week, when I've got some more time, I'm

943
00:45:51,120 --> 00:45:53,640
Speaker 1: gonna try these folks again and just see. Even though

944
00:45:53,680 --> 00:45:56,319
Speaker 1: the chances are low, maybe maybe I can go out

945
00:45:56,719 --> 00:45:59,080
Speaker 1: for December. It's been a no for October and November.

946
00:45:59,120 --> 00:46:01,160
Speaker 1: Who knows, maybe nobody hunts in December. Maybe they'd be

947
00:46:01,160 --> 00:46:02,600
Speaker 1: okay with me going out there a couple of days

948
00:46:02,600 --> 00:46:06,600
Speaker 1: something like that. And for context, like you've shed hunted

949
00:46:06,640 --> 00:46:09,719
Speaker 1: on some of the neighbors before a neighbor, Yes, I

950
00:46:09,760 --> 00:46:12,760
Speaker 1: do have shed hunting permission on a handful of different

951
00:46:12,760 --> 00:46:15,600
Speaker 1: properties in the general area, some neighbors, some that aren't neighbors,

952
00:46:15,640 --> 00:46:18,839
Speaker 1: but in the general vicinity. Um, so I have had

953
00:46:18,880 --> 00:46:21,520
Speaker 1: some shed hunting permission, but not hunting permission on a

954
00:46:21,560 --> 00:46:25,719
Speaker 1: lot of these spots. So so that's where it's at.

955
00:46:25,880 --> 00:46:28,920
Speaker 1: I don't end up getting any extra hunting permission. Um,

956
00:46:28,960 --> 00:46:31,200
Speaker 1: but you know, I'm just going to continue this observation.

957
00:46:31,719 --> 00:46:38,600
Speaker 1: And the morning of December seven, I'm doing a little

958
00:46:38,600 --> 00:46:41,439
Speaker 1: bit of observation and I spot a big body deer

959
00:46:41,440 --> 00:46:44,120
Speaker 1: out in the edge of this field, in this tall

960
00:46:44,160 --> 00:46:48,280
Speaker 1: grass on the edge of it. Pulled the buyos and

961
00:46:48,920 --> 00:46:54,840
Speaker 1: unbelievably it's Frank. And right away I was like, holy smokes,

962
00:46:54,880 --> 00:46:59,360
Speaker 1: he's back. It's daylight. He's out there. Um, I'm hunting tonight.

963
00:46:59,480 --> 00:47:02,120
Speaker 1: Changed all my plans. I gotta hold My wife's like, hey,

964
00:47:02,200 --> 00:47:04,480
Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm not. We're not doing dinner tonight. I'm

965
00:47:04,520 --> 00:47:08,360
Speaker 1: going hunting tonight. Uh, Frank's out there. I could watch him.

966
00:47:08,520 --> 00:47:11,160
Speaker 1: I watched him walk the edge of this like tall

967
00:47:11,160 --> 00:47:16,439
Speaker 1: grassy stuff and he was standing with a dough. And

968
00:47:16,480 --> 00:47:19,960
Speaker 1: then Survivor comes walking up. You mus might remember this

969
00:47:20,000 --> 00:47:22,120
Speaker 1: buck I've been calling Survivor. He's a he's Originally I

970
00:47:22,120 --> 00:47:23,239
Speaker 1: thought it was a four year old. Now I think

971
00:47:23,239 --> 00:47:25,160
Speaker 1: he's a three year old. He comes walking up to

972
00:47:25,800 --> 00:47:28,399
Speaker 1: Frank and this dough and they actually start to spa.

973
00:47:29,080 --> 00:47:32,600
Speaker 1: So Frank pushes survivor off, spars him, spooks him away,

974
00:47:32,880 --> 00:47:35,040
Speaker 1: and the dough goes running away, and then Frank goes

975
00:47:35,160 --> 00:47:37,600
Speaker 1: chasing the dough. So Frank is bird dog in the dough.

976
00:47:37,680 --> 00:47:41,040
Speaker 1: Now it's December seven, and I'm thinking, Okay, maybe this

977
00:47:41,120 --> 00:47:43,360
Speaker 1: is like some second rout action, you know, maybe there's

978
00:47:43,400 --> 00:47:45,480
Speaker 1: a dough that came into heat the second time around.

979
00:47:45,920 --> 00:47:48,960
Speaker 1: Frank's on that dough. I then watch him proceed into

980
00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:51,920
Speaker 1: that food plot system. There's the same food plot system

981
00:47:52,080 --> 00:47:54,880
Speaker 1: where I got a picture of him in sixteen, same

982
00:47:54,920 --> 00:47:57,040
Speaker 1: spot where I had all these encounters with them earlier

983
00:47:57,040 --> 00:48:00,200
Speaker 1: in the month, well the month prior. Watch him walk

984
00:48:00,239 --> 00:48:03,880
Speaker 1: past the poop blind again, um feed in there, and

985
00:48:03,920 --> 00:48:07,160
Speaker 1: then kind of follow that dope back into the neighboring

986
00:48:07,200 --> 00:48:10,360
Speaker 1: bedding air this cover back in there. That's all I

987
00:48:10,360 --> 00:48:12,640
Speaker 1: could see from my viewpoint. That was what I could see.

988
00:48:13,600 --> 00:48:16,080
Speaker 1: So in my head, I'm thinking, Okay, I gotta hunt

989
00:48:16,160 --> 00:48:19,360
Speaker 1: in there tonight. I pull up my weather app I

990
00:48:19,440 --> 00:48:21,720
Speaker 1: look at the wind, and then my heart just sinks

991
00:48:22,880 --> 00:48:26,319
Speaker 1: because it's the worst, just about the worst possible when

992
00:48:26,360 --> 00:48:29,120
Speaker 1: you can possibly get to hunt in that area. And

993
00:48:29,160 --> 00:48:31,759
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, my God, of course, like this is

994
00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:34,839
Speaker 1: my chance, and I've got this got awful wind, Like

995
00:48:34,880 --> 00:48:37,040
Speaker 1: how can I hunt in there without totally screwing it

996
00:48:37,120 --> 00:48:40,960
Speaker 1: up with this buck in there? So here, let me

997
00:48:41,040 --> 00:48:43,719
Speaker 1: let me lay out this scenario. Right, we've I've kind

998
00:48:43,760 --> 00:48:45,920
Speaker 1: of talked about a little bit, but I'll try to

999
00:48:45,920 --> 00:48:49,320
Speaker 1: paint the picture just a little bit more. Imagine. Um,

1000
00:48:49,400 --> 00:48:53,120
Speaker 1: you've got the property line from my property that can

1001
00:48:53,200 --> 00:48:55,640
Speaker 1: hunt in the neighbors that I can't hunt on the

1002
00:48:55,640 --> 00:48:59,480
Speaker 1: neighbor's side. So this is to the east side is

1003
00:48:59,520 --> 00:49:01,400
Speaker 1: a bunch of really good thick cover and there's a

1004
00:49:01,400 --> 00:49:04,640
Speaker 1: bunch of deer better than there. To the west side,

1005
00:49:04,680 --> 00:49:07,760
Speaker 1: the property that can hunt is a cut bean field

1006
00:49:08,600 --> 00:49:10,920
Speaker 1: the north side of the creek, and then on the

1007
00:49:10,960 --> 00:49:12,680
Speaker 1: south side of the creek is where I put in

1008
00:49:12,680 --> 00:49:14,560
Speaker 1: this food plat system. Is a bunch of tall grass

1009
00:49:14,640 --> 00:49:18,120
Speaker 1: like CRP type stuff. There's the food plots that I've planted,

1010
00:49:18,400 --> 00:49:20,400
Speaker 1: and there's all this like Egyptian wheat and stuff that

1011
00:49:20,440 --> 00:49:22,839
Speaker 1: I've planted around the edges to provide some like cover

1012
00:49:23,360 --> 00:49:26,040
Speaker 1: from the larger fields and the openings in the road

1013
00:49:26,080 --> 00:49:30,319
Speaker 1: and never like that. So this blind that I have

1014
00:49:31,080 --> 00:49:34,839
Speaker 1: is on that edge between the beans and the food

1015
00:49:34,880 --> 00:49:37,640
Speaker 1: plat system, and then there's all this tall grass around it. Um.

1016
00:49:37,680 --> 00:49:39,440
Speaker 1: If I wanted to hunt there, which is where this

1017
00:49:39,480 --> 00:49:41,960
Speaker 1: deer passed by, and all these deer passed by, UM

1018
00:49:42,000 --> 00:49:44,719
Speaker 1: I had a west southwest wind, that west southwest wind

1019
00:49:44,719 --> 00:49:47,440
Speaker 1: would blow right into that big bedding area. If I

1020
00:49:47,480 --> 00:49:48,920
Speaker 1: wanted to hunt the tree stand that I have a

1021
00:49:48,960 --> 00:49:52,200
Speaker 1: little bit farther south, a west southwest wind blows into

1022
00:49:52,239 --> 00:49:55,280
Speaker 1: that same bedding area. UM. If I wanted to hunt

1023
00:49:55,360 --> 00:49:57,880
Speaker 1: that box blind that I have on the far south side,

1024
00:49:58,200 --> 00:50:02,120
Speaker 1: that wind blows right into that bedding are everything anything

1025
00:50:02,120 --> 00:50:04,080
Speaker 1: I can hunt around there were blow into that bedding

1026
00:50:04,080 --> 00:50:06,880
Speaker 1: era that I saw Frank in this doe go back into.

1027
00:50:08,120 --> 00:50:11,920
Speaker 1: So I only had two options. I know I had

1028
00:50:11,960 --> 00:50:14,839
Speaker 1: to hunt somewhere around there, but I need to make

1029
00:50:14,840 --> 00:50:16,600
Speaker 1: sure I could get a shot. Now, this was opening

1030
00:50:16,680 --> 00:50:18,920
Speaker 1: day of muzzleloader season in Michigan, so I knew I

1031
00:50:18,920 --> 00:50:21,560
Speaker 1: could go out there with a firearm. And this county

1032
00:50:21,600 --> 00:50:23,440
Speaker 1: that I'm hunting is one of the c w D

1033
00:50:23,600 --> 00:50:27,160
Speaker 1: Management counties in Michigan. And what that meant this year

1034
00:50:27,520 --> 00:50:30,160
Speaker 1: is that muzzloader season this year for those counties is

1035
00:50:30,239 --> 00:50:33,040
Speaker 1: opened up to any legal firearm, So I could go

1036
00:50:33,040 --> 00:50:34,440
Speaker 1: out there with a muzzloader. I could go out there

1037
00:50:34,440 --> 00:50:37,359
Speaker 1: with a shotgun. So I have a shotgun. I thought,

1038
00:50:37,520 --> 00:50:40,200
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go out there with a firearm. I can

1039
00:50:40,239 --> 00:50:41,680
Speaker 1: reach out there a little bit more. So this is

1040
00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:44,480
Speaker 1: a little more reach and I have with my bow. Um,

1041
00:50:44,560 --> 00:50:46,360
Speaker 1: so there's one tree stand I have. Again, these are

1042
00:50:46,360 --> 00:50:48,920
Speaker 1: all like edge type spots. Right. And over the years, Dan,

1043
00:50:48,960 --> 00:50:51,000
Speaker 1: We've talked about this a million times, how difficult of

1044
00:50:51,000 --> 00:50:52,680
Speaker 1: a time I have here because I can only hunt

1045
00:50:52,719 --> 00:50:54,840
Speaker 1: these edges. And I see all these deer back in

1046
00:50:54,880 --> 00:50:57,719
Speaker 1: the cover, but I can't hunt them. Um. So that

1047
00:50:57,760 --> 00:51:00,480
Speaker 1: was the same scenari here again. But but you know,

1048
00:51:00,480 --> 00:51:02,560
Speaker 1: I've been trying to improve this little area to make

1049
00:51:02,560 --> 00:51:04,520
Speaker 1: it at least a little bit more secure, so hopefully

1050
00:51:04,560 --> 00:51:06,600
Speaker 1: deer will move in daylight. And you know, over the

1051
00:51:06,680 --> 00:51:08,879
Speaker 1: years has worked decently well. Right, I had a bunch

1052
00:51:08,880 --> 00:51:10,719
Speaker 1: of encounters with the Holy field of had encounters with

1053
00:51:10,719 --> 00:51:13,520
Speaker 1: another deer. UM killed a three year old out there

1054
00:51:13,520 --> 00:51:16,120
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago, and now this buck Frank

1055
00:51:16,200 --> 00:51:18,200
Speaker 1: was out there. So so it was pretty cool to

1056
00:51:18,280 --> 00:51:21,480
Speaker 1: see the impact that this habitat work I've done in

1057
00:51:21,480 --> 00:51:24,399
Speaker 1: a really small ottle area has worked. I mean, all

1058
00:51:24,440 --> 00:51:27,880
Speaker 1: this stuff, all those encounters that I had with this buck,

1059
00:51:28,400 --> 00:51:31,640
Speaker 1: and all but one of the pictures um was all

1060
00:51:31,680 --> 00:51:34,520
Speaker 1: within like a five acre area, probably five or ten

1061
00:51:34,560 --> 00:51:36,880
Speaker 1: acres against something like that somewhere in that ballpark. Almost

1062
00:51:36,880 --> 00:51:42,040
Speaker 1: all that was in this little tiny spot. So I

1063
00:51:42,040 --> 00:51:44,000
Speaker 1: could hunt a tree stone they had in the far

1064
00:51:44,080 --> 00:51:46,000
Speaker 1: north side of the property. That would be the safest

1065
00:51:46,000 --> 00:51:48,680
Speaker 1: place to hunt because that west southwest wind would just

1066
00:51:48,800 --> 00:51:51,799
Speaker 1: cut like through the northern portion of the betting area.

1067
00:51:52,000 --> 00:51:54,839
Speaker 1: But this would put me two yards away from that

1068
00:51:54,880 --> 00:51:58,279
Speaker 1: food plot system where they were feeding that morning. So

1069
00:51:58,360 --> 00:52:00,439
Speaker 1: I thought, well, that'd be the safest place to hunt.

1070
00:52:01,080 --> 00:52:03,480
Speaker 1: But I don't want to shoot. I don't I'm not coning.

1071
00:52:03,480 --> 00:52:05,680
Speaker 1: I wouldn't shoot two undred yards with the shotgun. I

1072
00:52:05,680 --> 00:52:08,000
Speaker 1: thought one fifty was my max range I was setting.

1073
00:52:08,040 --> 00:52:10,080
Speaker 1: I'm not a big gun hunter. I hunt very rarely

1074
00:52:10,160 --> 00:52:13,000
Speaker 1: with a gun. I practice out to that distance, and

1075
00:52:13,040 --> 00:52:15,040
Speaker 1: that was that was my comfortable range of that gun.

1076
00:52:16,000 --> 00:52:18,120
Speaker 1: So I wouldn't be able shoot him if he came

1077
00:52:18,160 --> 00:52:19,839
Speaker 1: out back into that same place that I saw him

1078
00:52:19,840 --> 00:52:22,080
Speaker 1: that morning. I'd have to hope that he would come

1079
00:52:22,120 --> 00:52:24,480
Speaker 1: out into this bean field and hopefully feed out there

1080
00:52:24,480 --> 00:52:27,360
Speaker 1: with a dough. My theory was that if this is

1081
00:52:27,400 --> 00:52:30,280
Speaker 1: gonna work, that dough that he was with is hopefully

1082
00:52:30,280 --> 00:52:31,920
Speaker 1: going to come back out in the evening, and he

1083
00:52:31,960 --> 00:52:34,480
Speaker 1: would hopefully follow that dough. So that's why I want

1084
00:52:34,480 --> 00:52:36,040
Speaker 1: to hunt back in the same area. But I thought,

1085
00:52:36,040 --> 00:52:38,719
Speaker 1: given where she went in, and given that that a

1086
00:52:38,760 --> 00:52:40,520
Speaker 1: lot of deer had been feeding that food plot. This

1087
00:52:40,560 --> 00:52:43,000
Speaker 1: food plot, I've got a bunch of brassicas like turnips

1088
00:52:43,040 --> 00:52:45,080
Speaker 1: and rape and kale and stuff like that plane in there.

1089
00:52:45,120 --> 00:52:47,720
Speaker 1: So it's great late season once you get this cold weather,

1090
00:52:48,360 --> 00:52:49,960
Speaker 1: and so there's a bunch of deer feeding in in

1091
00:52:50,040 --> 00:52:52,400
Speaker 1: the morning as they all transitioned back to bed. So

1092
00:52:52,440 --> 00:52:55,040
Speaker 1: I was thinking in my head, it's most likely that

1093
00:52:55,080 --> 00:52:57,120
Speaker 1: these deer are going to come out into that food

1094
00:52:57,120 --> 00:52:59,480
Speaker 1: plot first, feed into that food plot for the first

1095
00:52:59,480 --> 00:53:01,680
Speaker 1: part of the night, and then maybe then they'll transition

1096
00:53:01,680 --> 00:53:04,200
Speaker 1: out to the to the cut being field possibly. So

1097
00:53:04,520 --> 00:53:05,840
Speaker 1: that was like where I really wanted to be. I

1098
00:53:05,880 --> 00:53:08,320
Speaker 1: wanted to be tight to that plot. But with that

1099
00:53:08,440 --> 00:53:11,280
Speaker 1: west southwest wind, if I hunted tight to the plot,

1100
00:53:11,640 --> 00:53:13,320
Speaker 1: the whole betting year scenario I just laid out for

1101
00:53:13,360 --> 00:53:16,200
Speaker 1: you would screw me. But I kept thinking, So I

1102
00:53:16,200 --> 00:53:18,319
Speaker 1: can hunt that tree stand I mentioned, or I could

1103
00:53:18,400 --> 00:53:22,920
Speaker 1: hunt the poop blend the poop blind that west southwest

1104
00:53:22,920 --> 00:53:28,360
Speaker 1: wind I know, right, UM would the west southwest wind,

1105
00:53:28,400 --> 00:53:31,000
Speaker 1: it would blow out the northern portion. Like if you

1106
00:53:31,040 --> 00:53:33,080
Speaker 1: imagine this betting air is like a square and you

1107
00:53:33,239 --> 00:53:34,920
Speaker 1: draw a line down the middle of it, like a

1108
00:53:34,960 --> 00:53:38,319
Speaker 1: horizontal line cutting in half, the northern portion of that

1109
00:53:38,360 --> 00:53:41,560
Speaker 1: betting air would get blown out. The southern portion would

1110
00:53:41,600 --> 00:53:45,240
Speaker 1: not get blown out. I saw the dough and Frank

1111
00:53:45,440 --> 00:53:48,640
Speaker 1: go into the southern portion of the betting air, so

1112
00:53:49,560 --> 00:53:51,320
Speaker 1: I had to sit. I was, you know, the whole morning,

1113
00:53:51,320 --> 00:53:53,680
Speaker 1: I'm debating back and forth with myself, looking at maps,

1114
00:53:53,680 --> 00:53:55,560
Speaker 1: thinking this through, texted a couple of bodies like I'm

1115
00:53:55,560 --> 00:53:57,839
Speaker 1: thinking this. I'm thinking this, What do you think? I'm

1116
00:53:57,880 --> 00:54:00,279
Speaker 1: just trying to think through, Like do I do I

1117
00:54:00,320 --> 00:54:02,400
Speaker 1: sit in the poop blind, which is riskier, but it

1118
00:54:02,440 --> 00:54:04,719
Speaker 1: presents me the best chances of a shot if he's

1119
00:54:04,760 --> 00:54:07,200
Speaker 1: in the southern portion. But if he's not in the

1120
00:54:07,200 --> 00:54:09,640
Speaker 1: southern portion, then I'm blowing him out of there before

1121
00:54:09,800 --> 00:54:12,719
Speaker 1: I even get a chance to see him. So or

1122
00:54:12,760 --> 00:54:14,200
Speaker 1: do I sit there? Or do I hunt the far

1123
00:54:14,320 --> 00:54:17,800
Speaker 1: northern tree standwich, which relatively safe, is low probability of

1124
00:54:17,880 --> 00:54:20,200
Speaker 1: him winning me. But is he going to come out

1125
00:54:20,360 --> 00:54:23,160
Speaker 1: to the shooting range. I don't know much less of

1126
00:54:23,160 --> 00:54:26,960
Speaker 1: a sure thing. So ultimately, after debating this all morning

1127
00:54:26,960 --> 00:54:30,239
Speaker 1: and into the afternoon, I decided, you gotta swing for

1128
00:54:30,280 --> 00:54:32,439
Speaker 1: the fences, like this is the kind of situation where

1129
00:54:32,440 --> 00:54:35,040
Speaker 1: you gotta try to kill him now. And what if

1130
00:54:35,080 --> 00:54:38,440
Speaker 1: if if he is bettered in the southern portion of

1131
00:54:38,480 --> 00:54:40,920
Speaker 1: the betting air, which is based off what I know

1132
00:54:40,960 --> 00:54:43,560
Speaker 1: about this area, based off where he went into, based

1133
00:54:43,600 --> 00:54:45,839
Speaker 1: on what I've seen, that is the most likely thing,

1134
00:54:46,200 --> 00:54:48,640
Speaker 1: based off how he's come the past couple of times,

1135
00:54:48,719 --> 00:54:50,399
Speaker 1: you know, in early November, when I saw him come

1136
00:54:50,400 --> 00:54:53,240
Speaker 1: out into this area, all but one of those times

1137
00:54:53,320 --> 00:54:56,560
Speaker 1: he came out south of the creek. So using all

1138
00:54:56,560 --> 00:54:59,160
Speaker 1: that intel, using what I saw that morning, I made

1139
00:54:59,160 --> 00:55:03,480
Speaker 1: a calculated that he most likely would come out to

1140
00:55:03,560 --> 00:55:06,560
Speaker 1: the south into that food plot, and if that's the case,

1141
00:55:06,600 --> 00:55:09,480
Speaker 1: I needed to be in the poop line. So I

1142
00:55:09,560 --> 00:55:13,000
Speaker 1: went and I washed all my hunting clothing. Again, I

1143
00:55:13,000 --> 00:55:15,200
Speaker 1: had watched it just like six days earlier or something,

1144
00:55:15,200 --> 00:55:17,600
Speaker 1: but I washed every piece of gear. I had took

1145
00:55:17,600 --> 00:55:19,759
Speaker 1: all that gear put it in an ozone box. I

1146
00:55:19,920 --> 00:55:24,920
Speaker 1: crushed or you know, ozoned everything. Um to do that.

1147
00:55:25,160 --> 00:55:28,080
Speaker 1: I sprayed down everything a a jillion times, all sorts

1148
00:55:28,080 --> 00:55:31,440
Speaker 1: of scent eliminating spray. I took the scent free shower.

1149
00:55:31,920 --> 00:55:34,960
Speaker 1: I made sure like I took all my scent control procedures,

1150
00:55:35,000 --> 00:55:37,640
Speaker 1: like to the UMP team, Like any any corner I

1151
00:55:37,719 --> 00:55:40,120
Speaker 1: might have cut in the past, or any tiny little

1152
00:55:40,120 --> 00:55:41,799
Speaker 1: thing that in the past maybe I didn't do just right.

1153
00:55:41,840 --> 00:55:43,680
Speaker 1: I tried to make sure I did it perfect this time.

1154
00:55:43,719 --> 00:55:46,000
Speaker 1: I was just thinking, man, like this is this is

1155
00:55:46,040 --> 00:55:49,360
Speaker 1: super risky. There's gonna be deer that are gonna be

1156
00:55:49,440 --> 00:55:52,640
Speaker 1: down wind. Anything you can do to reduce the chances

1157
00:55:52,640 --> 00:55:54,600
Speaker 1: of deer winning you, you gotta do so. I just

1158
00:55:54,719 --> 00:55:58,320
Speaker 1: like went o c D to the tenth degree. That afternoon.

1159
00:55:59,040 --> 00:56:02,799
Speaker 1: I charged my osonics unit and my old ozonics unit,

1160
00:56:03,080 --> 00:56:05,239
Speaker 1: so I two ozonics units that charged. I took every

1161
00:56:05,280 --> 00:56:07,080
Speaker 1: every trick I could probably think of. I'm thinking like,

1162
00:56:07,120 --> 00:56:10,080
Speaker 1: this is my one and only chance probably this buck. Now, Um,

1163
00:56:10,120 --> 00:56:12,840
Speaker 1: you gotta make it count. So I do all that.

1164
00:56:14,200 --> 00:56:16,200
Speaker 1: It's like two o'clock and I'm like, I'm gonna get

1165
00:56:16,239 --> 00:56:19,520
Speaker 1: that get in there um two o'clock. I do a

1166
00:56:19,600 --> 00:56:23,359
Speaker 1: really long roundabout route to get in um so that

1167
00:56:23,440 --> 00:56:26,880
Speaker 1: this west southwest wind has as as small of a

1168
00:56:26,960 --> 00:56:29,000
Speaker 1: chance to blow into that bedding as possible. So I

1169
00:56:29,000 --> 00:56:31,759
Speaker 1: approached from the north. I brought hip waiters in, got

1170
00:56:31,800 --> 00:56:34,160
Speaker 1: to the creek, put on my hip waiters, and then

1171
00:56:34,200 --> 00:56:37,080
Speaker 1: way did the creek for ways until I got to

1172
00:56:37,200 --> 00:56:40,080
Speaker 1: the back of this blind. Crawled up hopped into the

1173
00:56:40,120 --> 00:56:42,840
Speaker 1: back of the poop blind. It seemed appropriate that if

1174
00:56:42,880 --> 00:56:44,520
Speaker 1: I was gonna kill this buck, I should kill him

1175
00:56:44,520 --> 00:56:47,760
Speaker 1: from the poopline, where you know, the most momentous portions

1176
00:56:47,760 --> 00:56:52,480
Speaker 1: of these experiences happened. So I get in there, get

1177
00:56:52,520 --> 00:56:54,880
Speaker 1: all set up, get to ozonics units up there. I

1178
00:56:54,880 --> 00:56:57,960
Speaker 1: sprayed some nose jammer, made sure everything was situated well

1179
00:56:58,280 --> 00:57:01,560
Speaker 1: adjusted the windows, looked around me, tried to think through

1180
00:57:01,560 --> 00:57:04,799
Speaker 1: every different scenario, thought through where, you know, based off

1181
00:57:04,840 --> 00:57:06,680
Speaker 1: what I knew, where I most likely thought he might

1182
00:57:06,680 --> 00:57:09,719
Speaker 1: come out. Adjusted my seat, saw I was real far back.

1183
00:57:09,760 --> 00:57:13,160
Speaker 1: So I'm all situated there, and uh, the first hour

1184
00:57:13,239 --> 00:57:15,440
Speaker 1: or two goes by and there's like nothing moving around me,

1185
00:57:15,680 --> 00:57:17,640
Speaker 1: nothing coming out to the south of me, where I'm

1186
00:57:17,640 --> 00:57:19,840
Speaker 1: hoping this deer gonna be feeding the plot nothing to

1187
00:57:19,880 --> 00:57:22,320
Speaker 1: the north of me and this bean field. Um, and

1188
00:57:22,360 --> 00:57:25,880
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, man, your winds just blowing out that bedding

1189
00:57:25,920 --> 00:57:28,760
Speaker 1: year like, I would never do this otherwise, probably all

1190
00:57:28,800 --> 00:57:31,160
Speaker 1: the deer were in the north. They've all winded. You.

1191
00:57:31,160 --> 00:57:33,520
Speaker 1: Your sent control sucks. Your stupid hunter. You made a

1192
00:57:33,520 --> 00:57:37,760
Speaker 1: bad decision. This isn't gonna happen. And then I start

1193
00:57:37,800 --> 00:57:40,720
Speaker 1: seeing there's there's another field, like, there's this little like this,

1194
00:57:40,840 --> 00:57:42,880
Speaker 1: there's the food plus system. And if you go farther

1195
00:57:42,920 --> 00:57:44,880
Speaker 1: south and there's a strip of timber where I had

1196
00:57:44,960 --> 00:57:46,760
Speaker 1: that you know, running guns set up. I did that

1197
00:57:46,840 --> 00:57:49,440
Speaker 1: almost worked out. That's where the saddle hunt was that

1198
00:57:49,520 --> 00:57:52,520
Speaker 1: other day. Um, there's that thin strip of timber. And

1199
00:57:52,560 --> 00:57:55,640
Speaker 1: then there's another field south of that. I start seeing

1200
00:57:55,640 --> 00:57:58,919
Speaker 1: deer piling into that field. Doe doe doughe little buck,

1201
00:57:58,960 --> 00:58:00,640
Speaker 1: little buck, two year old buck, two year old buck,

1202
00:58:01,040 --> 00:58:03,920
Speaker 1: little buck, Doe doe doe, do dough big buck. Pull

1203
00:58:03,960 --> 00:58:06,920
Speaker 1: up my bios and there's Tran, this nice three year

1204
00:58:06,920 --> 00:58:08,680
Speaker 1: old that I've been seeing this year, like a pretty

1205
00:58:08,720 --> 00:58:10,560
Speaker 1: darn nice buck. He's out there feeding. And then I

1206
00:58:10,560 --> 00:58:12,840
Speaker 1: see survivor pop out there the other nice three year

1207
00:58:12,840 --> 00:58:14,400
Speaker 1: old out there, and I see another two year old.

1208
00:58:14,480 --> 00:58:16,960
Speaker 1: So like every deer I know is all feeding out

1209
00:58:16,960 --> 00:58:19,280
Speaker 1: in this other field like three yards away, four hundred

1210
00:58:19,280 --> 00:58:21,120
Speaker 1: yards away or something like that. And then my head,

1211
00:58:21,160 --> 00:58:25,760
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking, man, of course everything's out there tonight,

1212
00:58:26,240 --> 00:58:29,600
Speaker 1: you're sitting over here. If ever, if every deer is

1213
00:58:29,640 --> 00:58:33,120
Speaker 1: pile into that, that's probably where if Frank's gonna show up,

1214
00:58:33,160 --> 00:58:34,960
Speaker 1: that's probably where he's gonna show up. Like there's there

1215
00:58:35,040 --> 00:58:37,040
Speaker 1: must be a hot maybe that hot dough is over there.

1216
00:58:37,080 --> 00:58:39,600
Speaker 1: That's why there's so many bucks, an abnormally high number

1217
00:58:39,600 --> 00:58:43,400
Speaker 1: of bucks are all out there. I see bucks chasing around. Think, man,

1218
00:58:43,400 --> 00:58:45,520
Speaker 1: there's that hot dough. He's pulled every buck in the area.

1219
00:58:45,640 --> 00:58:47,560
Speaker 1: She's pulled every buck in the area. I keep on

1220
00:58:47,680 --> 00:58:49,680
Speaker 1: every day that comes out. I'm glass and just thinking

1221
00:58:49,680 --> 00:58:53,080
Speaker 1: it's gonna be Frank. But I don't see him. Um,

1222
00:58:53,080 --> 00:58:54,960
Speaker 1: but I keep thinking, if I see Frank over there,

1223
00:58:55,360 --> 00:58:58,120
Speaker 1: I'm gonna sneak out of the blind and belly crawl,

1224
00:58:58,240 --> 00:59:00,200
Speaker 1: Like I can't go walk in that way like they're

1225
00:59:00,200 --> 00:59:01,960
Speaker 1: gonna see me. But maybe I could sneak out of

1226
00:59:01,960 --> 00:59:04,120
Speaker 1: the blind, get on my belly and belly crawl for

1227
00:59:04,160 --> 00:59:06,560
Speaker 1: two yards or something, and maybe they'll edge my way

1228
00:59:06,600 --> 00:59:08,800
Speaker 1: up to the edge of that piece of timber. Maybe

1229
00:59:08,800 --> 00:59:10,760
Speaker 1: we'll get a shot at something that that way. But

1230
00:59:10,840 --> 00:59:12,480
Speaker 1: I never do end up seeing Frank. So I never

1231
00:59:12,520 --> 00:59:14,440
Speaker 1: do that because if I I didn't want to make

1232
00:59:14,440 --> 00:59:16,800
Speaker 1: that move then because then I would be blowing everything out,

1233
00:59:17,560 --> 00:59:20,880
Speaker 1: So that would basically be ruining my original plan. If

1234
00:59:20,880 --> 00:59:24,800
Speaker 1: I did that, well, it takes me to like, I

1235
00:59:24,840 --> 00:59:27,480
Speaker 1: don't know, ten fifteen minutes before the end of the night.

1236
00:59:27,960 --> 00:59:30,919
Speaker 1: At this point I thought, well, you tried. It didn't

1237
00:59:30,920 --> 00:59:33,840
Speaker 1: work out. Either he was in the bad area of

1238
00:59:33,840 --> 00:59:35,800
Speaker 1: the betting year and he winded you, or he's going

1239
00:59:35,840 --> 00:59:37,440
Speaker 1: to go out into that south field while as other

1240
00:59:37,480 --> 00:59:40,720
Speaker 1: deer and it's just it wasn't meant to be hit.

1241
00:59:41,600 --> 00:59:45,000
Speaker 1: You tried real quick. Before moving on any further, I

1242
00:59:45,000 --> 00:59:47,360
Speaker 1: want to take a quick pause for a moment to

1243
00:59:47,360 --> 00:59:50,560
Speaker 1: think our partners at White Tailed Properties and to mention

1244
00:59:50,600 --> 00:59:53,840
Speaker 1: their land beat video series over on their YouTube channel.

1245
00:59:54,120 --> 00:59:56,840
Speaker 1: If you're looking for some quick, helpful tips from some

1246
00:59:56,880 --> 01:00:00,360
Speaker 1: of the most well rounded white tail management experts out there,

1247
01:00:00,600 --> 01:00:03,320
Speaker 1: the white Tail Propers YouTube channel has got you covered.

1248
01:00:03,320 --> 01:00:05,959
Speaker 1: These guys their land specialists really know what they're talking

1249
01:00:05,960 --> 01:00:08,720
Speaker 1: about when it comes to buying and selling land, when

1250
01:00:08,720 --> 01:00:11,760
Speaker 1: it talks to hunting deer, when it comes to planning

1251
01:00:11,800 --> 01:00:14,720
Speaker 1: food plots or managing deer herds, or butchering deer, or

1252
01:00:14,760 --> 01:00:17,120
Speaker 1: improving timber stands or planning fruit trees. Are all sorts

1253
01:00:17,160 --> 01:00:20,760
Speaker 1: of stuff like that. They've got you covered. So after

1254
01:00:20,760 --> 01:00:22,960
Speaker 1: this podcast, that highly encourage you to head on over

1255
01:00:23,000 --> 01:00:25,919
Speaker 1: to the white Tail Properties YouTube channel. Check it out.

1256
01:00:25,960 --> 01:00:28,760
Speaker 1: Like I said, lots of great information and some great

1257
01:00:28,800 --> 01:00:32,600
Speaker 1: Hunt film type things as well, so hopefully you can

1258
01:00:32,720 --> 01:00:36,240
Speaker 1: take a look and enjoy those. And the other final

1259
01:00:36,320 --> 01:00:39,440
Speaker 1: thing I would mention on a very separate note, is

1260
01:00:39,600 --> 01:00:43,480
Speaker 1: related to Wired Hunt merchandise. Al right over the last

1261
01:00:43,640 --> 01:00:45,800
Speaker 1: six to seven months or something like that, people have

1262
01:00:45,880 --> 01:00:48,040
Speaker 1: wondered why doesn't the store over and wired hunt dot

1263
01:00:48,040 --> 01:00:50,120
Speaker 1: com work anymore? Where's your gear? Where are your hats?

1264
01:00:50,120 --> 01:00:53,400
Speaker 1: Where your shirts? Where your details? Well, that stuff now

1265
01:00:53,520 --> 01:00:56,720
Speaker 1: lives over on the Meat Eater dot com. That's where

1266
01:00:56,720 --> 01:00:59,080
Speaker 1: my new content is and that's where my merchandise is

1267
01:00:59,080 --> 01:01:01,600
Speaker 1: now too. So if you want a wired Hunt hat,

1268
01:01:01,960 --> 01:01:03,760
Speaker 1: if you want a Wired Hunt T shirt, if you

1269
01:01:03,760 --> 01:01:06,520
Speaker 1: want a Wired Hunt sticker, or decal. That's where you

1270
01:01:06,520 --> 01:01:10,280
Speaker 1: can find it in for now right now, which is

1271
01:01:10,400 --> 01:01:17,040
Speaker 1: December through Christmas. So December December eighteen, we're gonna give

1272
01:01:17,040 --> 01:01:20,760
Speaker 1: you a twenty off discount on all that Wired Hunt

1273
01:01:20,760 --> 01:01:23,560
Speaker 1: gear if you use promo code Wired. That's w I

1274
01:01:23,880 --> 01:01:26,160
Speaker 1: R E D figure. We'll run a whole bunch of

1275
01:01:26,200 --> 01:01:28,439
Speaker 1: nice little promotions here on Christmas. I told you last

1276
01:01:28,440 --> 01:01:30,440
Speaker 1: week about the deal with first Light. This week we're

1277
01:01:30,440 --> 01:01:33,160
Speaker 1: gonna run something with Wired to Hunt to thank you

1278
01:01:33,200 --> 01:01:35,600
Speaker 1: all for supporting this podcast and what I've been doing.

1279
01:01:35,760 --> 01:01:37,400
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. So

1280
01:01:37,480 --> 01:01:40,240
Speaker 1: get off. If you want to try out one of

1281
01:01:40,280 --> 01:01:43,160
Speaker 1: those hats or shirts or details with the promo code wired,

1282
01:01:43,240 --> 01:01:45,720
Speaker 1: just go to the meat Eater dot com head over

1283
01:01:45,720 --> 01:01:48,080
Speaker 1: the shop and you will see it all there. And then,

1284
01:01:48,240 --> 01:01:51,760
Speaker 1: are you getting frustrated at all with this buck? I mean,

1285
01:01:53,040 --> 01:01:55,920
Speaker 1: did you even have time because it sounded like you

1286
01:01:55,960 --> 01:01:58,600
Speaker 1: were pretty busy throughout the fall to let this buck

1287
01:01:59,320 --> 01:02:03,439
Speaker 1: sink in like I don't know. For me, I've I've

1288
01:02:03,480 --> 01:02:05,880
Speaker 1: been obsessed with a couple of year over my hunting

1289
01:02:05,920 --> 01:02:10,560
Speaker 1: career where I was almost had blinders on. Everything in

1290
01:02:10,600 --> 01:02:14,160
Speaker 1: my life revolved around this particular said particular buck did

1291
01:02:14,360 --> 01:02:17,200
Speaker 1: did did it get to that point with you? You

1292
01:02:17,200 --> 01:02:19,960
Speaker 1: know it in in fits and bursts like during that

1293
01:02:20,080 --> 01:02:22,400
Speaker 1: week or ten days during November where he was around

1294
01:02:22,640 --> 01:02:24,440
Speaker 1: during that period. Yeah, like I was obsessed. I was

1295
01:02:24,440 --> 01:02:27,000
Speaker 1: freaking out. I was seeing him every night. I was

1296
01:02:27,040 --> 01:02:28,920
Speaker 1: sitting over the maps, like going back and forth where

1297
01:02:29,040 --> 01:02:31,520
Speaker 1: I moved what I do, blah blah. But then after

1298
01:02:31,560 --> 01:02:33,960
Speaker 1: that week where he's around and now he's disappeared again,

1299
01:02:34,440 --> 01:02:36,000
Speaker 1: and then it was kind of like I was always

1300
01:02:36,000 --> 01:02:38,200
Speaker 1: thinking about it, and oh, I mean lots of times

1301
01:02:38,240 --> 01:02:40,280
Speaker 1: going out there to glasses there. I glassed a lot.

1302
01:02:40,320 --> 01:02:42,280
Speaker 1: I didn't hunt a bunch, but I was glassing a

1303
01:02:42,280 --> 01:02:45,600
Speaker 1: lot um every evening I could get away. Every morning,

1304
01:02:45,680 --> 01:02:47,840
Speaker 1: I could be you know, looking from that hill. I

1305
01:02:47,880 --> 01:02:52,400
Speaker 1: was doing that um. So yes and no, I just

1306
01:02:52,400 --> 01:02:54,320
Speaker 1: didn't feel like there was a super high chance he

1307
01:02:54,320 --> 01:02:56,120
Speaker 1: was gonna be out there. So it was always kind

1308
01:02:56,120 --> 01:02:58,240
Speaker 1: of like I was just hoping, like crossing all my

1309
01:02:58,240 --> 01:02:59,960
Speaker 1: fingers and toes, like gosh, I hope I get lucky

1310
01:03:00,000 --> 01:03:01,760
Speaker 1: and he shows back up. But I didn't have this

1311
01:03:01,880 --> 01:03:05,480
Speaker 1: like feeling as it was with Holy Field in past years,

1312
01:03:05,480 --> 01:03:07,400
Speaker 1: where I thought like I know he lives around here.

1313
01:03:07,440 --> 01:03:09,920
Speaker 1: He shows up so often. It's like every time you

1314
01:03:09,960 --> 01:03:12,200
Speaker 1: know he's out there, I just need to happen to

1315
01:03:12,240 --> 01:03:14,640
Speaker 1: be there. This time I was like, well, he's probably not.

1316
01:03:14,880 --> 01:03:19,520
Speaker 1: He's probably not there, but maybe. So when it was,

1317
01:03:19,560 --> 01:03:21,880
Speaker 1: it was a shorter time period too, right, I only

1318
01:03:21,920 --> 01:03:25,200
Speaker 1: really knew and was hunting Frank actively from you know,

1319
01:03:25,280 --> 01:03:29,000
Speaker 1: Halloween on until December seven, So it was five weeks

1320
01:03:29,000 --> 01:03:31,040
Speaker 1: of being obsessed to this buck versus you know, three

1321
01:03:31,120 --> 01:03:34,560
Speaker 1: years of the Holy Field. Um So it's different. But

1322
01:03:34,640 --> 01:03:37,960
Speaker 1: still it was really intense because it wasn't just you

1323
01:03:37,960 --> 01:03:39,280
Speaker 1: know it was it was it was he was a

1324
01:03:39,320 --> 01:03:41,960
Speaker 1: mature buck. I'm always always get excited and ramped up

1325
01:03:41,960 --> 01:03:43,760
Speaker 1: and stressed out, and I'm hunting a mature buck like that.

1326
01:03:43,800 --> 01:03:45,600
Speaker 1: But then it was also like realizing that this is

1327
01:03:45,600 --> 01:03:49,240
Speaker 1: an incredibly rare mature buck and a very rare opportunity.

1328
01:03:49,840 --> 01:03:54,360
Speaker 1: Um So that added a different level to it for sure.

1329
01:03:54,600 --> 01:03:56,560
Speaker 1: Like with this hunt, I think we know what's going

1330
01:03:56,600 --> 01:03:59,160
Speaker 1: to happen in the last fifteen minutes of the haunt,

1331
01:03:59,280 --> 01:04:03,760
Speaker 1: but you had another trip planned shortly after that. We're like,

1332
01:04:03,800 --> 01:04:07,360
Speaker 1: if it didn't happen with Frank here soon you just

1333
01:04:08,080 --> 01:04:10,400
Speaker 1: might not literally get a chant in and because you

1334
01:04:10,400 --> 01:04:13,360
Speaker 1: wouldn't be there. Yeah. Well I had a trip just

1335
01:04:13,440 --> 01:04:15,600
Speaker 1: before this, so I've been gone in northern Michigan for

1336
01:04:15,640 --> 01:04:17,440
Speaker 1: a while and then yeah, and then right after that,

1337
01:04:17,520 --> 01:04:19,240
Speaker 1: I had to go to Montana, which is where I'm

1338
01:04:19,320 --> 01:04:22,280
Speaker 1: right now. So yes, I had I had trips that

1339
01:04:22,360 --> 01:04:25,200
Speaker 1: I had to do bracketed on either side of this encounter.

1340
01:04:25,680 --> 01:04:28,360
Speaker 1: Um that really severely was going to limit my overall

1341
01:04:28,440 --> 01:04:31,280
Speaker 1: hunting time here. Um so yeah, I mean, my my

1342
01:04:31,320 --> 01:04:34,520
Speaker 1: opportunities are really slim. I just got lucky that I

1343
01:04:34,560 --> 01:04:37,320
Speaker 1: happened to be looking out there that morning, that that

1344
01:04:37,400 --> 01:04:39,760
Speaker 1: he showed up, and that I had the flexibility of

1345
01:04:39,800 --> 01:04:42,160
Speaker 1: my schedule to be able to hunt that night and

1346
01:04:42,280 --> 01:04:45,800
Speaker 1: um and yeah, so this hunt though, so after I

1347
01:04:45,840 --> 01:04:48,720
Speaker 1: saw him that morning, then my stress level and nervous

1348
01:04:48,880 --> 01:04:50,880
Speaker 1: level and excitement level just went to like two th

1349
01:04:51,800 --> 01:04:53,920
Speaker 1: right sneaking in that night and when I got setting

1350
01:04:53,960 --> 01:04:56,560
Speaker 1: the blind, I mean talk about like the nervous butterflies.

1351
01:04:57,240 --> 01:04:59,520
Speaker 1: We've talked about this in the past, and but you know,

1352
01:04:59,560 --> 01:05:01,680
Speaker 1: there's I have two there's two different types of hunts

1353
01:05:01,680 --> 01:05:03,400
Speaker 1: for me. There's those hunts when you go out there

1354
01:05:03,440 --> 01:05:05,200
Speaker 1: like you're hunting because you've got a day to hunt

1355
01:05:05,640 --> 01:05:08,160
Speaker 1: um or you know, whatever it is. Maybe there's just

1356
01:05:08,480 --> 01:05:10,040
Speaker 1: you know, maybe you're hunting every day of the week

1357
01:05:10,080 --> 01:05:13,040
Speaker 1: because the rut or something. But there's certain days when

1358
01:05:13,080 --> 01:05:15,120
Speaker 1: you go out there where you feel on a decent spot,

1359
01:05:15,200 --> 01:05:17,880
Speaker 1: but you've got you're you're excited to hunt, but it's

1360
01:05:17,920 --> 01:05:22,240
Speaker 1: nothing extra special. But then there's those days when it's

1361
01:05:22,280 --> 01:05:25,080
Speaker 1: like a killing day where all the conditions are right

1362
01:05:25,200 --> 01:05:26,960
Speaker 1: or you have some piece of intel and you just

1363
01:05:27,040 --> 01:05:29,400
Speaker 1: feel perfect, like you're in the right spot at the

1364
01:05:29,480 --> 01:05:32,480
Speaker 1: right time, like everything's lined up. I have certain hunts

1365
01:05:32,480 --> 01:05:35,760
Speaker 1: when like it's always when I'm showering, when I'm showering

1366
01:05:35,800 --> 01:05:38,000
Speaker 1: before the hunt, and one of those days is when

1367
01:05:38,000 --> 01:05:40,480
Speaker 1: it usually hits me, like I get these serious butterflies.

1368
01:05:40,480 --> 01:05:43,040
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, man, Like you just get this different

1369
01:05:43,120 --> 01:05:46,400
Speaker 1: level of excitement and anxiety and like something like there's

1370
01:05:46,440 --> 01:05:48,600
Speaker 1: like a tingle and you're just like, man, this is

1371
01:05:48,640 --> 01:05:51,440
Speaker 1: like one of those hunts. So that's how I was

1372
01:05:51,480 --> 01:05:53,920
Speaker 1: feeling for this hunt. But then this added level of

1373
01:05:53,920 --> 01:05:57,320
Speaker 1: like of of nervousness because I knew it was a

1374
01:05:57,400 --> 01:05:59,760
Speaker 1: risky sit because where I was going was like it

1375
01:05:59,800 --> 01:06:02,560
Speaker 1: was like, I'm blowing out half of the area and

1376
01:06:02,600 --> 01:06:04,400
Speaker 1: I'm hoping he's in the southern half. But I'm doing

1377
01:06:04,440 --> 01:06:07,440
Speaker 1: it because it's it's it's you know, hit the home

1378
01:06:07,520 --> 01:06:10,080
Speaker 1: run or go home with the loss. That's basically what

1379
01:06:10,160 --> 01:06:14,280
Speaker 1: was happening here. So that was my mindset. As this

1380
01:06:14,360 --> 01:06:17,200
Speaker 1: is all happening, gets to the last ten fifteen minutes

1381
01:06:17,200 --> 01:06:20,000
Speaker 1: of the night, I see a buck working the way

1382
01:06:20,040 --> 01:06:22,960
Speaker 1: through the timber from that field where all the deer feeding.

1383
01:06:23,000 --> 01:06:25,520
Speaker 1: I see a buck coming down through the timber towards me.

1384
01:06:26,040 --> 01:06:28,479
Speaker 1: Pull up the buy notes. It's that buck, Tran. Tran

1385
01:06:28,640 --> 01:06:31,120
Speaker 1: comes out and three other dink bucks. They walk from

1386
01:06:31,160 --> 01:06:33,800
Speaker 1: that original field to come to the plot and start

1387
01:06:33,840 --> 01:06:36,000
Speaker 1: feeding the plot in front of me. So I'm like, okay,

1388
01:06:36,000 --> 01:06:37,760
Speaker 1: and he's the first year that had come out. Now

1389
01:06:37,800 --> 01:06:39,560
Speaker 1: that there's a button buck that had been out there earlier,

1390
01:06:39,560 --> 01:06:42,120
Speaker 1: but that was it. It's like, okay, well there's something

1391
01:06:42,320 --> 01:06:44,400
Speaker 1: coming out here that's good. And then it was cool

1392
01:06:44,440 --> 01:06:46,280
Speaker 1: that Tran came out, like this is really nice three

1393
01:06:46,360 --> 01:06:48,680
Speaker 1: year old. It's a pretty nice buck. Like in previous years,

1394
01:06:48,680 --> 01:06:51,600
Speaker 1: I would have shot this deer um, especially as he

1395
01:06:51,680 --> 01:06:54,080
Speaker 1: came walking him like jeez. He he looks better than

1396
01:06:54,120 --> 01:06:56,920
Speaker 1: I thought from like the longer distance observations that I've

1397
01:06:56,920 --> 01:06:59,600
Speaker 1: seen them. So I had this like, man, that's cool,

1398
01:06:59,760 --> 01:07:03,600
Speaker 1: Like yeah, Frank, it's not happening, but really cool to

1399
01:07:03,640 --> 01:07:05,960
Speaker 1: see this buck up close, like fifty yards easily could

1400
01:07:05,960 --> 01:07:07,800
Speaker 1: have got shot him. He set there feeding for a

1401
01:07:07,880 --> 01:07:09,720
Speaker 1: long time, like really cool, and Connor of the steer,

1402
01:07:10,200 --> 01:07:13,760
Speaker 1: so you know, right off, as is a nice hunt

1403
01:07:14,760 --> 01:07:17,080
Speaker 1: that's happening. Now it's down to like I don't know,

1404
01:07:17,280 --> 01:07:19,280
Speaker 1: eight minutes left shooting light or seven minute. I keep

1405
01:07:19,280 --> 01:07:21,439
Speaker 1: looking at my clock on my phone checking what time

1406
01:07:21,480 --> 01:07:24,840
Speaker 1: it is. Now we're down like the final handful of minutes.

1407
01:07:24,880 --> 01:07:26,640
Speaker 1: And I remember thinking, all right, you know, I'm in

1408
01:07:26,640 --> 01:07:28,360
Speaker 1: this bail blind and in this bail one there's really

1409
01:07:28,400 --> 01:07:30,880
Speaker 1: small windows. You can kind of just see what's directly

1410
01:07:31,120 --> 01:07:32,960
Speaker 1: out in front of that bailball, and you can't really

1411
01:07:33,000 --> 01:07:35,360
Speaker 1: see well to either side. So I'm like, I want

1412
01:07:35,360 --> 01:07:36,960
Speaker 1: to kind of peer to the side and just see

1413
01:07:37,000 --> 01:07:38,840
Speaker 1: if there's anything like tight to these corners. So I

1414
01:07:38,920 --> 01:07:40,840
Speaker 1: dropped down out of the chair on my knees and

1415
01:07:40,960 --> 01:07:43,320
Speaker 1: almost stick my head out the window to look far

1416
01:07:43,360 --> 01:07:45,400
Speaker 1: to my left. And when I do that I see

1417
01:07:45,400 --> 01:07:48,160
Speaker 1: a dough and this dough starts walking out through this

1418
01:07:48,200 --> 01:07:51,640
Speaker 1: tall grass towards the plot. She stops and she looks

1419
01:07:51,680 --> 01:07:55,040
Speaker 1: behind her, and in my head, I just like, oh, yes,

1420
01:07:55,720 --> 01:07:57,920
Speaker 1: like you know, you know that when the dough you're

1421
01:07:57,920 --> 01:07:59,360
Speaker 1: hoping there's a buck falling a dough, and then the

1422
01:07:59,360 --> 01:08:01,320
Speaker 1: doe stops and behind I mean, what do you expect

1423
01:08:01,360 --> 01:08:04,919
Speaker 1: to happen next? Right? Yeah, here comes the buck. So

1424
01:08:05,120 --> 01:08:07,760
Speaker 1: the dough stops. She looks back. I look behind her,

1425
01:08:07,760 --> 01:08:11,360
Speaker 1: and here comes another deer and it's another dough. I'm like,

1426
01:08:12,320 --> 01:08:15,000
Speaker 1: all right, that's it. A couple dolls coming out. So

1427
01:08:15,040 --> 01:08:17,840
Speaker 1: they walk out to the food plug. They get in

1428
01:08:17,880 --> 01:08:20,280
Speaker 1: there and they stop and they both turned back and

1429
01:08:20,320 --> 01:08:23,479
Speaker 1: look where they came. Now I'm thinking, oh, maybe maybe,

1430
01:08:23,720 --> 01:08:25,280
Speaker 1: And I turned my head and looked to the left

1431
01:08:25,320 --> 01:08:28,080
Speaker 1: and looking looking and then here comes another deer and

1432
01:08:28,200 --> 01:08:34,479
Speaker 1: boom like picket fence, huge buck walking and it just

1433
01:08:34,600 --> 01:08:36,960
Speaker 1: it was just like, holy crap, this is happening, Like

1434
01:08:36,960 --> 01:08:38,920
Speaker 1: this is happening right now. He's in range, he's on

1435
01:08:38,960 --> 01:08:41,439
Speaker 1: the property. I can hunt, I can shoot him right now.

1436
01:08:41,640 --> 01:08:46,400
Speaker 1: Holy shit, this is happening. And it was just in

1437
01:08:46,520 --> 01:08:49,599
Speaker 1: my head right now I I want just like right now.

1438
01:08:49,600 --> 01:08:51,040
Speaker 1: I was like I wanted to ask her. I wanted

1439
01:08:51,080 --> 01:08:53,559
Speaker 1: to say like it was like nervous or something, but

1440
01:08:53,600 --> 01:08:56,560
Speaker 1: there wasn't anything. There wasn't any kind of rush of excitement.

1441
01:08:56,880 --> 01:08:59,800
Speaker 1: It was almost just like okay, go like business. It

1442
01:08:59,880 --> 01:09:01,559
Speaker 1: was just get the gun. So I remember, like I

1443
01:09:01,600 --> 01:09:04,320
Speaker 1: saw him, that's him reach for the gun. I'm on

1444
01:09:04,320 --> 01:09:06,080
Speaker 1: my knees still, and then it's get the gun out

1445
01:09:06,120 --> 01:09:09,040
Speaker 1: the window. And then I remember, usually what I was

1446
01:09:09,040 --> 01:09:10,839
Speaker 1: planning on doing is if I was sitting in this situation,

1447
01:09:10,880 --> 01:09:13,559
Speaker 1: I would rest my elbows on my knees and be

1448
01:09:13,600 --> 01:09:16,240
Speaker 1: able to get a solid rest to shoot. But in

1449
01:09:16,240 --> 01:09:17,880
Speaker 1: this case, I couldn't do that. So I tried to

1450
01:09:17,960 --> 01:09:21,240
Speaker 1: rest my gun on the fabric of the window, and

1451
01:09:21,280 --> 01:09:23,160
Speaker 1: that wasn't working really well. So I kind of pushed

1452
01:09:23,160 --> 01:09:25,160
Speaker 1: the fabric all the way down until almost it was

1453
01:09:25,280 --> 01:09:27,720
Speaker 1: on the metal bar. I couldn't quite push it all

1454
01:09:27,720 --> 01:09:29,120
Speaker 1: the way down, but I pushed enough that it was

1455
01:09:29,240 --> 01:09:32,360
Speaker 1: enough resistance, had a pretty solid rest. And then I

1456
01:09:32,400 --> 01:09:34,120
Speaker 1: pull up the gun and I looked through the scope

1457
01:09:34,280 --> 01:09:37,160
Speaker 1: and it's zoomed way way out. Like the last time

1458
01:09:37,200 --> 01:09:38,760
Speaker 1: I'd used this gun. I was up at our northern

1459
01:09:38,840 --> 01:09:41,360
Speaker 1: Michigan property, and you can't see more in like forty yards.

1460
01:09:41,520 --> 01:09:44,280
Speaker 1: So I had the scope zoomed way out. So now

1461
01:09:44,280 --> 01:09:45,760
Speaker 1: I looked down at the gun. But because I'm in

1462
01:09:45,800 --> 01:09:48,000
Speaker 1: this bail blind, very little light can come in there

1463
01:09:48,000 --> 01:09:51,160
Speaker 1: because all the windows are mostly closed. So I just

1464
01:09:51,240 --> 01:09:52,880
Speaker 1: I can't see the numbers on the scope. So I

1465
01:09:52,920 --> 01:09:55,759
Speaker 1: tried to spin the power dial you know, on the scope,

1466
01:09:55,800 --> 01:09:57,880
Speaker 1: tried to zoom in, but I didn't know which way

1467
01:09:57,880 --> 01:09:59,720
Speaker 1: to zoom it. So I just spun the dial, pull

1468
01:09:59,800 --> 01:10:02,200
Speaker 1: up the gun again, and realized I zoomed even further out.

1469
01:10:02,800 --> 01:10:05,160
Speaker 1: So then I pulled the gun down again, spin the

1470
01:10:05,200 --> 01:10:08,360
Speaker 1: dial of the other direction to zoom in. Get it up. Okay,

1471
01:10:08,400 --> 01:10:12,200
Speaker 1: now I'm dialed in, and I looked at my you know,

1472
01:10:12,320 --> 01:10:16,200
Speaker 1: I pulled it up. He's there at the edge. I

1473
01:10:16,200 --> 01:10:18,040
Speaker 1: remember thinking, this is all happening in the course of

1474
01:10:18,080 --> 01:10:20,680
Speaker 1: from the moment I saw him to the moment that

1475
01:10:20,720 --> 01:10:22,080
Speaker 1: I had the scope right, you know, this is all

1476
01:10:22,080 --> 01:10:24,880
Speaker 1: happened in like fifteen seconds or something. I don't twenty seconds.

1477
01:10:25,960 --> 01:10:29,800
Speaker 1: I pull him from the scope. I can see him,

1478
01:10:29,960 --> 01:10:31,400
Speaker 1: but I can only see him from the neck up.

1479
01:10:32,400 --> 01:10:35,559
Speaker 1: Got him in the scope, he takes one step, two steps,

1480
01:10:35,760 --> 01:10:39,200
Speaker 1: three steps, four steps, passes out of the tall grass

1481
01:10:39,200 --> 01:10:41,120
Speaker 1: and stands right there at the edge of the plot,

1482
01:10:41,479 --> 01:10:43,519
Speaker 1: kind of looks around and and and there he is

1483
01:10:43,760 --> 01:10:49,480
Speaker 1: seventy yards probably give or take. Put the crosshairs on him. Boom.

1484
01:10:49,520 --> 01:10:53,200
Speaker 1: I remember thinking in that shot, I just remember seeing

1485
01:10:53,240 --> 01:10:55,920
Speaker 1: like I just remember my head like registering that looks

1486
01:10:55,920 --> 01:10:58,680
Speaker 1: like a hit. I don't I don't remember exactly how

1487
01:10:58,720 --> 01:11:00,880
Speaker 1: to articulate why I thought that. I guess I think

1488
01:11:01,080 --> 01:11:03,240
Speaker 1: there's like a certain like impact that it kind of

1489
01:11:03,240 --> 01:11:04,840
Speaker 1: feels like when you see a deer get hit, like

1490
01:11:04,960 --> 01:11:08,120
Speaker 1: you've seen enough deer get hit with bullets on TV shows,

1491
01:11:08,240 --> 01:11:09,840
Speaker 1: or like I don't gun hunt a whole lot, so

1492
01:11:09,840 --> 01:11:13,200
Speaker 1: I haven't seen this personally too terribly many times. Um,

1493
01:11:13,280 --> 01:11:15,640
Speaker 1: but I just could just tell it looked like he

1494
01:11:15,720 --> 01:11:18,000
Speaker 1: was hit and he just bolted right away. It was

1495
01:11:18,040 --> 01:11:20,840
Speaker 1: like boom running away, and I remember thinking his tail

1496
01:11:20,920 --> 01:11:23,479
Speaker 1: was not up, his tail was down, and he's bombed

1497
01:11:23,479 --> 01:11:25,240
Speaker 1: away immediately, and I could see him like a second

1498
01:11:25,280 --> 01:11:28,160
Speaker 1: and a half and he was gone behind trees and

1499
01:11:28,200 --> 01:11:29,920
Speaker 1: that was it. And then in my head, I'm like,

1500
01:11:29,960 --> 01:11:31,439
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, was that a good shot? Did I

1501
01:11:31,520 --> 01:11:33,920
Speaker 1: hit him? Did I did I rush? It was? I rested?

1502
01:11:33,920 --> 01:11:36,240
Speaker 1: Well enough? What just happened? Oh my god, I just

1503
01:11:36,280 --> 01:11:39,640
Speaker 1: have frank um and I just texted a couple of

1504
01:11:39,640 --> 01:11:41,080
Speaker 1: friends and my wife. I was like, I just shot

1505
01:11:41,160 --> 01:11:44,840
Speaker 1: him and um And then you know, it wasn't even

1506
01:11:44,880 --> 01:11:47,120
Speaker 1: like I didn't even have like a rush of excitement

1507
01:11:47,160 --> 01:11:49,240
Speaker 1: or anything. It was just like nervousness, like, oh my gosh,

1508
01:11:49,240 --> 01:11:53,519
Speaker 1: did I did I just have the most incredible thing happened?

1509
01:11:53,600 --> 01:11:55,400
Speaker 1: Or I just blow like the one opportunity to have.

1510
01:11:55,479 --> 01:11:57,160
Speaker 1: I didn't know what to think yet because it just

1511
01:11:57,479 --> 01:11:59,960
Speaker 1: was was so fast and I couldn't see. I couldn't

1512
01:12:00,000 --> 01:12:01,720
Speaker 1: watching for very long to like know whether or not

1513
01:12:01,720 --> 01:12:04,200
Speaker 1: I was a hit. It was just like a gunshot

1514
01:12:04,200 --> 01:12:08,640
Speaker 1: and he's gone, and uh, I texted you, Dan, and

1515
01:12:08,680 --> 01:12:10,200
Speaker 1: then you got really mad at me because I didn't

1516
01:12:10,240 --> 01:12:13,280
Speaker 1: tell you anything more for like an hour, right, who

1517
01:12:13,640 --> 01:12:17,599
Speaker 1: does that? He's like I shot him? And I reply, thinking, Okay,

1518
01:12:17,720 --> 01:12:21,240
Speaker 1: maybe we're gonna have an active conversation right now, like hey,

1519
01:12:21,280 --> 01:12:23,280
Speaker 1: what do I need to do? You know, like what

1520
01:12:23,439 --> 01:12:27,720
Speaker 1: friends do? But no, then then blackout for like an

1521
01:12:27,760 --> 01:12:31,360
Speaker 1: hour and a half. Yeah. Sorry, well yeah, it was

1522
01:12:31,400 --> 01:12:35,000
Speaker 1: like I texted you. I texted my group text um,

1523
01:12:35,240 --> 01:12:39,640
Speaker 1: you know, Corey and Further and Andy and Dustin, all

1524
01:12:39,680 --> 01:12:42,200
Speaker 1: those guys group text those guys told them and I

1525
01:12:42,240 --> 01:12:46,040
Speaker 1: texted my wife and then um, then I was like, okay,

1526
01:12:46,240 --> 01:12:48,639
Speaker 1: I I just need to sneak out of here. And

1527
01:12:48,680 --> 01:12:50,160
Speaker 1: then I was just like so kind of worked up

1528
01:12:50,200 --> 01:12:51,400
Speaker 1: with it all. I just it took me a long

1529
01:12:51,439 --> 01:12:52,920
Speaker 1: time to get everything packed up. I was just kind

1530
01:12:52,920 --> 01:12:55,880
Speaker 1: of fumbling with things and got everything packed up and

1531
01:12:56,240 --> 01:12:58,519
Speaker 1: got out of there and after a while got home

1532
01:12:58,720 --> 01:13:01,080
Speaker 1: and I'm aren't going and I and my wife, like

1533
01:13:01,120 --> 01:13:02,639
Speaker 1: you know, came giving a big hug and a kiss.

1534
01:13:02,640 --> 01:13:05,040
Speaker 1: She's like, oh my gosh, she's all excited, and I'm like,

1535
01:13:05,240 --> 01:13:07,320
Speaker 1: don't get excited, Like, don't get excited yet. I'm not

1536
01:13:07,360 --> 01:13:09,800
Speaker 1: excited yet. Um. I don't even want to act like

1537
01:13:09,840 --> 01:13:14,559
Speaker 1: I'm excited yet. I just like I'm just nervous. Um.

1538
01:13:14,800 --> 01:13:17,280
Speaker 1: And then so I'm waiting for all my friends to

1539
01:13:17,320 --> 01:13:20,400
Speaker 1: come over because you know, we you know how it

1540
01:13:20,479 --> 01:13:22,040
Speaker 1: is like if you've got buddies, you always want to

1541
01:13:22,080 --> 01:13:24,880
Speaker 1: go on recovery together, Like that's a really fun moment

1542
01:13:24,920 --> 01:13:27,240
Speaker 1: and experience to share with each other. And this year.

1543
01:13:27,320 --> 01:13:30,320
Speaker 1: All my Michigan buddies, no one had killed anything in Michigan,

1544
01:13:30,360 --> 01:13:32,479
Speaker 1: so we hadn't gone on a single track job together.

1545
01:13:32,560 --> 01:13:36,400
Speaker 1: No one had yet. And now finally we've got one down,

1546
01:13:36,720 --> 01:13:39,960
Speaker 1: or we hopefully have one down, and we're here in Michigan,

1547
01:13:40,800 --> 01:13:42,400
Speaker 1: and it just happens to be the biggest buck that

1548
01:13:42,400 --> 01:13:44,880
Speaker 1: any one of us has ever been a hunt in Michigan. Um,

1549
01:13:45,920 --> 01:13:48,519
Speaker 1: I take that back, du My buddy Dusty shot a

1550
01:13:48,600 --> 01:13:51,400
Speaker 1: state record a long time ago. Um, but that was

1551
01:13:51,439 --> 01:13:54,040
Speaker 1: before any of us were really serious about this stuff.

1552
01:13:54,320 --> 01:13:55,880
Speaker 1: So basically, this is gonna be like a once in

1553
01:13:55,880 --> 01:13:58,160
Speaker 1: a lifetime opportunity for all of us to get down either. Um,

1554
01:13:58,400 --> 01:14:03,160
Speaker 1: So I guess I'll fast forward through all this. This

1555
01:14:03,200 --> 01:14:06,639
Speaker 1: isn't too particularly interesting. Basically, I waited around for three

1556
01:14:06,680 --> 01:14:09,799
Speaker 1: hours before everybody could get there, very nerve wracking. Three hours.

1557
01:14:10,240 --> 01:14:12,760
Speaker 1: Drink a beer to talk through the story, tell the

1558
01:14:12,760 --> 01:14:14,960
Speaker 1: story a thousand times, each different person, try to eat

1559
01:14:15,000 --> 01:14:16,800
Speaker 1: some food, can hardly eat a single piece of pizza

1560
01:14:16,800 --> 01:14:21,040
Speaker 1: because I'm so nervous. Finally everybody gets there, we head out,

1561
01:14:21,120 --> 01:14:24,160
Speaker 1: We go to the shot um where the impact site was,

1562
01:14:24,720 --> 01:14:26,559
Speaker 1: and you know, I'm still just nervous. I don't even

1563
01:14:26,560 --> 01:14:28,599
Speaker 1: know if I hit him, um, because I hadn't gone

1564
01:14:28,600 --> 01:14:30,280
Speaker 1: and check the impact site. I just wanted to scoot

1565
01:14:30,320 --> 01:14:32,000
Speaker 1: out of there without just I don't want to get

1566
01:14:32,000 --> 01:14:34,160
Speaker 1: close to it at all, just in case. Um. So

1567
01:14:34,160 --> 01:14:36,320
Speaker 1: now we get to the point of impact right away.

1568
01:14:36,479 --> 01:14:40,719
Speaker 1: There's blood and uh blood, blood blood. We gone five yards,

1569
01:14:40,800 --> 01:14:44,519
Speaker 1: twenty yards, forty yards, fifty yards, and then I remember

1570
01:14:44,600 --> 01:14:46,320
Speaker 1: like we'd slowed down because there wasn't a whole lot

1571
01:14:46,320 --> 01:14:47,760
Speaker 1: of blood now, like there was a great blood trail

1572
01:14:47,760 --> 01:14:50,120
Speaker 1: in the snow, and then it slowed down and then

1573
01:14:50,200 --> 01:14:53,000
Speaker 1: we just kind of, um, we're looking around kind of

1574
01:14:53,040 --> 01:14:55,920
Speaker 1: all directions. I remember standing kind of upright with my

1575
01:14:56,000 --> 01:14:58,080
Speaker 1: flashlight and I just started training it out in the

1576
01:14:58,080 --> 01:15:02,040
Speaker 1: distance a little bit. And then man, there was and

1577
01:15:02,080 --> 01:15:05,320
Speaker 1: I just I think I said, uh, guys, we got him. Uh,

1578
01:15:05,479 --> 01:15:08,800
Speaker 1: we got him. Like it just it wasn't even I

1579
01:15:08,800 --> 01:15:10,720
Speaker 1: don't know, I just couldn't believe it. It was just

1580
01:15:12,120 --> 01:15:14,880
Speaker 1: it was surreal to see that it actually happened. And

1581
01:15:14,960 --> 01:15:18,439
Speaker 1: we walked up on this deer and uh, man, I

1582
01:15:18,439 --> 01:15:22,160
Speaker 1: had killed this buck. I had great double long shot

1583
01:15:22,920 --> 01:15:25,320
Speaker 1: and he had ran I don't know, sixty yards or

1584
01:15:25,320 --> 01:15:27,559
Speaker 1: seventy yards or something that hadn't ran very far at all,

1585
01:15:28,520 --> 01:15:32,719
Speaker 1: and there he was. Um, biggest buck I've ever shot,

1586
01:15:32,800 --> 01:15:34,679
Speaker 1: biggest deer I've ever been able to hunt in Michigan,

1587
01:15:35,320 --> 01:15:37,439
Speaker 1: probably the biggest buck Oliver Good hunt in Michigan. I

1588
01:15:37,439 --> 01:15:39,240
Speaker 1: do not There's not gonna be another buck like this

1589
01:15:39,280 --> 01:15:41,400
Speaker 1: in this area for a lot forever, probably like there haven't.

1590
01:15:41,400 --> 01:15:44,160
Speaker 1: There hasn't been a buckle that before, very very unlikely ever.

1591
01:15:44,200 --> 01:15:47,880
Speaker 1: Well again, um so I was just kind of in

1592
01:15:47,960 --> 01:15:50,560
Speaker 1: shock that this thing that I thought was a pipe dream,

1593
01:15:50,600 --> 01:15:52,639
Speaker 1: that I thought was not gonna happen because I missed

1594
01:15:52,680 --> 01:15:55,400
Speaker 1: those opportunities. This thing that I was thinking of my

1595
01:15:55,439 --> 01:15:57,479
Speaker 1: head was a once in a lifetime thing had actually

1596
01:15:57,520 --> 01:16:01,519
Speaker 1: come together. Um in was it was just kind of

1597
01:16:01,560 --> 01:16:04,479
Speaker 1: just I didn't I couldn't process it at the moment.

1598
01:16:04,520 --> 01:16:08,880
Speaker 1: It just like it didn't seem real. Um. And that

1599
01:16:09,000 --> 01:16:11,559
Speaker 1: was that, I mean, that was That was the long

1600
01:16:11,640 --> 01:16:13,840
Speaker 1: That was my long drawn out version of the story

1601
01:16:13,880 --> 01:16:16,200
Speaker 1: of my hunt for Frank. I mean it it was.

1602
01:16:16,240 --> 01:16:18,000
Speaker 1: It was a three year hunt. Like I had known

1603
01:16:18,000 --> 01:16:19,800
Speaker 1: of this deer for three years, but it really wasn't

1604
01:16:19,840 --> 01:16:23,440
Speaker 1: until the last five weeks that I really was hunting him.

1605
01:16:23,240 --> 01:16:24,880
Speaker 1: Um So it's kind of weird and that I kind

1606
01:16:24,880 --> 01:16:26,560
Speaker 1: of knew of this deer but never really thought that

1607
01:16:26,600 --> 01:16:29,479
Speaker 1: I could hunt him. Um And and somehow it all

1608
01:16:29,520 --> 01:16:31,720
Speaker 1: kind of miraculously came together like this and in a

1609
01:16:31,840 --> 01:16:36,800
Speaker 1: really really cool way. So my question to you is,

1610
01:16:37,960 --> 01:16:42,599
Speaker 1: it's a big mature buck with a big rack on

1611
01:16:42,680 --> 01:16:51,560
Speaker 1: his head. What does that particularly mean to you? Well, um,

1612
01:16:51,600 --> 01:16:57,280
Speaker 1: it's it. And killing any mature buck in Michigan means

1613
01:16:57,360 --> 01:16:59,599
Speaker 1: more to me than killing the mature buck anywhere else.

1614
01:16:59,680 --> 01:17:01,599
Speaker 1: Like I've view, mission is the hardest place I hunt.

1615
01:17:01,640 --> 01:17:03,040
Speaker 1: Of all the states of over hunted, this is the

1616
01:17:03,040 --> 01:17:05,439
Speaker 1: hardest place to hunt, the toughest place to to get

1617
01:17:05,479 --> 01:17:07,639
Speaker 1: mature bucks, to get with a range of mature bucks,

1618
01:17:07,640 --> 01:17:09,519
Speaker 1: to see mature bucks, to hunt him. There's the fewest

1619
01:17:10,240 --> 01:17:11,920
Speaker 1: of the place the different stage and I found out

1620
01:17:11,920 --> 01:17:14,040
Speaker 1: of ten twelve, ten different states or something like that.

1621
01:17:14,640 --> 01:17:17,479
Speaker 1: Um So I've always thought to myself, like, you kill

1622
01:17:17,600 --> 01:17:21,040
Speaker 1: mature buck here, it is, it's worth it just seems

1623
01:17:21,080 --> 01:17:23,920
Speaker 1: like sweeter than somewhere else. So to have killed the

1624
01:17:23,960 --> 01:17:26,560
Speaker 1: five and a half year old buck in Michigan, I

1625
01:17:26,720 --> 01:17:32,040
Speaker 1: felt amazing. Um to have killed a buck like this

1626
01:17:32,360 --> 01:17:40,040
Speaker 1: in Michigan just seem like it's the the rarity of it,

1627
01:17:40,479 --> 01:17:45,599
Speaker 1: like the simple fact that this animal is like so

1628
01:17:45,600 --> 01:17:48,760
Speaker 1: so rare in that area. Um. And for this set

1629
01:17:48,800 --> 01:17:52,880
Speaker 1: of circumstances and factors and variables and all these different,

1630
01:17:52,960 --> 01:17:55,920
Speaker 1: million different things all had to come together for this

1631
01:17:56,200 --> 01:17:59,360
Speaker 1: moment to have occurred, um. And to realize that it's

1632
01:17:59,439 --> 01:18:03,840
Speaker 1: it's something probably will never happen again. That means to me,

1633
01:18:03,920 --> 01:18:08,280
Speaker 1: like it's just such a such a unique, special, rare

1634
01:18:08,560 --> 01:18:13,080
Speaker 1: moment that these things all came together, um, not to mention,

1635
01:18:13,120 --> 01:18:15,320
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's a beautiful, incredible animal as a

1636
01:18:15,360 --> 01:18:18,400
Speaker 1: specimen of a white tailed deer, and like their respect

1637
01:18:18,439 --> 01:18:20,599
Speaker 1: and admiration, just how much like I love these animals,

1638
01:18:20,640 --> 01:18:22,040
Speaker 1: Like how cool I think they are, how much I

1639
01:18:22,040 --> 01:18:24,400
Speaker 1: love like looking at him and watching them and chasing

1640
01:18:24,439 --> 01:18:27,160
Speaker 1: them like he is just like and he this buck

1641
01:18:27,200 --> 01:18:31,519
Speaker 1: epitomizes everything that I think that makes white tailed deer

1642
01:18:31,560 --> 01:18:34,120
Speaker 1: so cool. Right. And he was a huge bodied, mature

1643
01:18:34,200 --> 01:18:37,080
Speaker 1: buck that had survived five years here in Michigan where

1644
01:18:37,080 --> 01:18:41,160
Speaker 1: there's hunters all over the place, just a beautiful, heavy

1645
01:18:41,200 --> 01:18:43,160
Speaker 1: antlerd tall time to mean, like if you if you

1646
01:18:43,160 --> 01:18:46,040
Speaker 1: imagine like that buck that someone draws a painting of

1647
01:18:46,080 --> 01:18:48,200
Speaker 1: that you hang on your wall. This is kind of

1648
01:18:48,200 --> 01:18:51,599
Speaker 1: like that buck. It's the buck that gets painted and

1649
01:18:51,720 --> 01:18:53,920
Speaker 1: gets sold for those those paintings get sold for five

1650
01:18:53,920 --> 01:18:56,760
Speaker 1: thousand bucks, like those beautiful paintings. Like that deer in

1651
01:18:56,840 --> 01:19:00,640
Speaker 1: real life happened to by some miracle chance show up

1652
01:19:00,680 --> 01:19:02,839
Speaker 1: in real life somewhere I can hunt, and I actually

1653
01:19:03,000 --> 01:19:05,479
Speaker 1: somehow I was able to kill him. All those things

1654
01:19:05,560 --> 01:19:08,800
Speaker 1: lining up just made this like like a dream, like

1655
01:19:08,800 --> 01:19:13,800
Speaker 1: a dream situation. I guess, um that is just it

1656
01:19:13,840 --> 01:19:16,840
Speaker 1: was hard to like process and hard to like to

1657
01:19:16,960 --> 01:19:18,599
Speaker 1: know what to think of it all. And now at

1658
01:19:18,600 --> 01:19:21,920
Speaker 1: this point it's just just like a an overwhelming sense

1659
01:19:21,960 --> 01:19:26,360
Speaker 1: of appreciation that had happened. Um, and maybe like a

1660
01:19:26,400 --> 01:19:30,760
Speaker 1: sense of awe, Like there's something like, ah, I don't

1661
01:19:30,760 --> 01:19:33,880
Speaker 1: know what it was, but like like a sense of

1662
01:19:33,880 --> 01:19:35,800
Speaker 1: of magic. I don't know if magic is the right word,

1663
01:19:35,920 --> 01:19:38,360
Speaker 1: serendipity or magic or just like I don't know. This

1664
01:19:38,560 --> 01:19:42,400
Speaker 1: is weird, just a weird year for me where things

1665
01:19:42,439 --> 01:19:44,920
Speaker 1: fell into place in like a really unique and special way.

1666
01:19:44,920 --> 01:19:47,720
Speaker 1: I mean it's just been a really outside I mean

1667
01:19:47,720 --> 01:19:50,519
Speaker 1: it's just been I've been really incredibly fortunate this year

1668
01:19:50,520 --> 01:19:53,120
Speaker 1: for so many reasons. Most importantly, I have a son,

1669
01:19:53,200 --> 01:19:55,320
Speaker 1: I have a family this year, and to be able

1670
01:19:55,360 --> 01:19:57,519
Speaker 1: to have all these things happen, you know, as as

1671
01:19:57,560 --> 01:19:59,760
Speaker 1: a as a father now, um, and getting to share

1672
01:19:59,800 --> 01:20:02,040
Speaker 1: these moments like yeah, he's young, he doesn't really know

1673
01:20:02,080 --> 01:20:05,920
Speaker 1: what's going on, but you know, it's just been special,

1674
01:20:06,400 --> 01:20:09,800
Speaker 1: just special. Um. And this kind of capped it off

1675
01:20:09,800 --> 01:20:13,479
Speaker 1: in like a way I never could have imagined. Um.

1676
01:20:13,640 --> 01:20:15,400
Speaker 1: So it's just been a special year. And I'm just

1677
01:20:15,439 --> 01:20:18,559
Speaker 1: not gonna I'm not going to fail to appreciate that

1678
01:20:20,360 --> 01:20:23,559
Speaker 1: all the emotions you just described. Plus I would imagine

1679
01:20:23,920 --> 01:20:28,519
Speaker 1: like some validation not just for you know, the Wired

1680
01:20:28,600 --> 01:20:32,200
Speaker 1: Hunt fans who you know can look at the thing

1681
01:20:32,240 --> 01:20:34,800
Speaker 1: as an example. Yeah, I know what I'm talking about

1682
01:20:34,840 --> 01:20:36,640
Speaker 1: in the magazines you've written for, in the books that

1683
01:20:36,680 --> 01:20:39,840
Speaker 1: you've written, but just for yourself as well. Uh, you know,

1684
01:20:40,080 --> 01:20:43,479
Speaker 1: there's like a bit of confirmation there, Like yeah, like

1685
01:20:43,560 --> 01:20:46,679
Speaker 1: all this time I've been thinking about it, Um, all

1686
01:20:46,720 --> 01:20:52,120
Speaker 1: these podcasts that I put together, it can amount to something. Yeah,

1687
01:20:52,160 --> 01:20:54,240
Speaker 1: I guess I guess there's some truth to that. Um.

1688
01:20:54,280 --> 01:20:57,759
Speaker 1: I mean it's not like I know, Mark that Wired

1689
01:20:57,840 --> 01:21:01,080
Speaker 1: Hunt has never been like, it's never supposed to be

1690
01:21:01,640 --> 01:21:04,879
Speaker 1: the Drewry outdoors and killing giant bucks or Lean Tiffany

1691
01:21:04,920 --> 01:21:07,240
Speaker 1: and killing giant bucks. That's how wired hunt is about.

1692
01:21:07,560 --> 01:21:11,360
Speaker 1: But it's definitely nice to make this like a part

1693
01:21:11,360 --> 01:21:14,559
Speaker 1: of it and put that feather in your hat. Yeah,

1694
01:21:14,720 --> 01:21:18,880
Speaker 1: I mean, like you said, like, that's not like people

1695
01:21:18,920 --> 01:21:21,040
Speaker 1: better not get used to me doing this, right, this

1696
01:21:21,080 --> 01:21:25,640
Speaker 1: isn't likely going to be a reoccurring story that we tell, um,

1697
01:21:25,680 --> 01:21:29,000
Speaker 1: But but it's certainly it's certainly is something that when ah,

1698
01:21:29,400 --> 01:21:31,160
Speaker 1: you know, you don't look a gift horse in the mouth,

1699
01:21:31,280 --> 01:21:33,800
Speaker 1: right when you get that gift, you just be really

1700
01:21:33,840 --> 01:21:37,000
Speaker 1: thankful that you got it and just enjoy the hell

1701
01:21:37,040 --> 01:21:38,960
Speaker 1: out of it. And that's kind of how I'm looking

1702
01:21:39,000 --> 01:21:42,160
Speaker 1: at this one, um. And and I mean it is

1703
01:21:42,200 --> 01:21:44,360
Speaker 1: also you know, to a degree, I don't want to

1704
01:21:44,360 --> 01:21:47,639
Speaker 1: say like this doesn't prove anything about me to myself

1705
01:21:47,720 --> 01:21:50,080
Speaker 1: or anything like, yeah, I killed I killed a mature

1706
01:21:50,080 --> 01:21:52,519
Speaker 1: buck in Michigan and just so happened to be a

1707
01:21:52,560 --> 01:21:53,960
Speaker 1: buck that a lot of people look at and be like,

1708
01:21:54,000 --> 01:21:57,519
Speaker 1: oh wow, that's that's a big buck. Um. It wasn't

1709
01:21:57,600 --> 01:22:00,880
Speaker 1: like I did something extra special to have killed a

1710
01:22:00,960 --> 01:22:03,960
Speaker 1: big buck instead of just a nice buck. I didn't

1711
01:22:04,000 --> 01:22:06,160
Speaker 1: do anything particularly different. It just so happened that this

1712
01:22:06,200 --> 01:22:10,560
Speaker 1: buck miraculously showed up, and I made the right decisions

1713
01:22:10,600 --> 01:22:13,000
Speaker 1: that led to that buck getting killed, plus had some

1714
01:22:13,120 --> 01:22:15,679
Speaker 1: luck to um. But this buck just as likely could

1715
01:22:15,680 --> 01:22:17,840
Speaker 1: have been a five and a half year old duck.

1716
01:22:18,680 --> 01:22:20,720
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have done anything different. Just that what if

1717
01:22:20,880 --> 01:22:23,439
Speaker 1: if that was the mature buck, if he was five

1718
01:22:23,520 --> 01:22:25,160
Speaker 1: year old, I would have been hunting him the same way.

1719
01:22:25,640 --> 01:22:27,680
Speaker 1: I would have done the same things. And that's the

1720
01:22:27,720 --> 01:22:29,559
Speaker 1: BUCKOUT have killed. And I would have been super stoked

1721
01:22:29,600 --> 01:22:32,640
Speaker 1: about it. People maybe wouldn't have been quite as like

1722
01:22:33,520 --> 01:22:35,760
Speaker 1: excited about it, but um, but I would have been

1723
01:22:35,760 --> 01:22:38,280
Speaker 1: really excited about it. Um. And you know, just so

1724
01:22:38,400 --> 01:22:41,200
Speaker 1: happened that this time kind of a freak of nature

1725
01:22:41,560 --> 01:22:46,280
Speaker 1: special thing kind of happened here. Um. Now that said,

1726
01:22:47,080 --> 01:22:50,200
Speaker 1: there were a few things that this experience like illuminated

1727
01:22:50,240 --> 01:22:54,120
Speaker 1: for me, or like reaffirmed for me, um or or

1728
01:22:54,120 --> 01:22:58,920
Speaker 1: we're we're interesting to note one thing. Take a look

1729
01:22:58,920 --> 01:23:01,360
Speaker 1: at the annual pattern here year. I think this is

1730
01:23:01,360 --> 01:23:04,519
Speaker 1: a really interesting example of the annual pattern thing that

1731
01:23:04,560 --> 01:23:08,040
Speaker 1: you and me Dan talk a lot about. Right this buck.

1732
01:23:08,640 --> 01:23:10,640
Speaker 1: The only pictures I got of this buck in two

1733
01:23:10,680 --> 01:23:16,240
Speaker 1: thousand sixteen were December nine in that same food plat system.

1734
01:23:16,280 --> 01:23:18,519
Speaker 1: Two years later, I kill him in that same food

1735
01:23:18,520 --> 01:23:25,800
Speaker 1: plus system on December seven. Interesting, Um, take a look at, uh,

1736
01:23:26,160 --> 01:23:29,960
Speaker 1: what's another thing? This same spot? This is? This is

1737
01:23:30,040 --> 01:23:31,680
Speaker 1: this is a little bit of validation for me. This

1738
01:23:31,720 --> 01:23:34,479
Speaker 1: is just validation to myself as far as hard work

1739
01:23:35,439 --> 01:23:38,360
Speaker 1: in that some number of years ago, five years ago

1740
01:23:38,479 --> 01:23:40,439
Speaker 1: or six years ago, as I was trying to figure

1741
01:23:40,439 --> 01:23:42,240
Speaker 1: out how to hunt this property again, I always had

1742
01:23:42,280 --> 01:23:45,479
Speaker 1: these issues with it being mostly just open field, not

1743
01:23:45,560 --> 01:23:47,400
Speaker 1: a lot of cover I could hunt. Then there was

1744
01:23:47,439 --> 01:23:49,240
Speaker 1: this front part of the of the property that just

1745
01:23:49,280 --> 01:23:51,640
Speaker 1: seemed like there's nothing going on there. There was all

1746
01:23:51,640 --> 01:23:53,599
Speaker 1: sorts of deer on the neighbors, but nothing coming out

1747
01:23:53,640 --> 01:23:56,800
Speaker 1: into the spot I could hunt. Um, I'm thinking, how

1748
01:23:56,800 --> 01:23:59,720
Speaker 1: can I make this better? Like, how can I how

1749
01:23:59,760 --> 01:24:03,320
Speaker 1: can I utilized this front the property in some kind

1750
01:24:03,320 --> 01:24:06,240
Speaker 1: of way? And I remember I was sitting at breakfast

1751
01:24:06,439 --> 01:24:10,519
Speaker 1: with my buddy Corey, and I pulled out a napkin

1752
01:24:10,520 --> 01:24:13,360
Speaker 1: and a pen and drew a sketch. I was like,

1753
01:24:13,360 --> 01:24:15,160
Speaker 1: you know what what if I took this like tall

1754
01:24:15,240 --> 01:24:18,880
Speaker 1: grassy area and carved in like little food plat system

1755
01:24:18,920 --> 01:24:21,240
Speaker 1: and planted a screen around it and made it like

1756
01:24:21,280 --> 01:24:23,479
Speaker 1: feel secluded in there. But then there'd be like some

1757
01:24:23,520 --> 01:24:26,000
Speaker 1: food that might entice deer out of there, Like maybe

1758
01:24:26,080 --> 01:24:28,640
Speaker 1: that could make this whole area a lot different. And

1759
01:24:28,680 --> 01:24:30,720
Speaker 1: I did that, And I've been fine tuning it over

1760
01:24:30,760 --> 01:24:32,840
Speaker 1: the course of these past five years or whatever, every year,

1761
01:24:32,880 --> 01:24:34,760
Speaker 1: making switches, trying to make it better, trying to figure

1762
01:24:34,760 --> 01:24:36,280
Speaker 1: out how to haunt it. All these different things I've

1763
01:24:36,280 --> 01:24:38,280
Speaker 1: tweaked and changed around out of the bail blind a

1764
01:24:38,320 --> 01:24:41,599
Speaker 1: year ago. All that came together now killing this deer

1765
01:24:42,200 --> 01:24:45,720
Speaker 1: with all these encounters, So that was a cool thing. Um.

1766
01:24:45,840 --> 01:24:47,880
Speaker 1: That showed that, yeah, this kind of hard work. And

1767
01:24:48,000 --> 01:24:49,960
Speaker 1: it hadn't paid off yet. I killed one deer there

1768
01:24:49,960 --> 01:24:51,360
Speaker 1: in a bunch of doughes, but I mean it hadn't

1769
01:24:51,479 --> 01:24:53,360
Speaker 1: hadn't paid off as far as getting holy Field there.

1770
01:24:53,800 --> 01:24:56,280
Speaker 1: UM had a close call with him there, passed on

1771
01:24:56,360 --> 01:24:58,519
Speaker 1: him that one year. But last year I had made

1772
01:24:58,520 --> 01:25:00,120
Speaker 1: all these changes that I thought were gonna leave to

1773
01:25:00,120 --> 01:25:01,639
Speaker 1: me getting a shot in there. It didn't work out,

1774
01:25:01,640 --> 01:25:05,160
Speaker 1: But now the next year here it is. UM. I

1775
01:25:05,200 --> 01:25:07,840
Speaker 1: also think this is also another example of like just

1776
01:25:08,040 --> 01:25:11,920
Speaker 1: persistence and perseverance paying off to right. Everyone knows the

1777
01:25:12,000 --> 01:25:14,519
Speaker 1: long drawn out story of holy Field that never got

1778
01:25:14,560 --> 01:25:17,639
Speaker 1: the conclusion that we all wanted. Right, it didn't happen.

1779
01:25:18,160 --> 01:25:22,280
Speaker 1: But this is like a strange like universe saying, you

1780
01:25:22,280 --> 01:25:24,559
Speaker 1: know what, you tried really hard. You worked really hard

1781
01:25:24,600 --> 01:25:27,160
Speaker 1: trying to kill that deer. It didn't work out. But

1782
01:25:27,200 --> 01:25:28,960
Speaker 1: then like the universe gave me a kind of gave

1783
01:25:29,000 --> 01:25:31,880
Speaker 1: me a gift here. Uh. I don't know if that's

1784
01:25:31,880 --> 01:25:34,680
Speaker 1: the thing, but it kind of is some weird, like

1785
01:25:34,960 --> 01:25:39,120
Speaker 1: interesting way that that story finished off. That the place

1786
01:25:39,120 --> 01:25:41,560
Speaker 1: where I had my closest calls the Holy Field, the

1787
01:25:41,600 --> 01:25:44,560
Speaker 1: place where I thought I was gonna kill holy Field. Um,

1788
01:25:44,600 --> 01:25:48,160
Speaker 1: that that spot that I've specifically worked on for that deer.

1789
01:25:48,920 --> 01:25:51,840
Speaker 1: Now the next year, that dear disappears. I'm very disappointed.

1790
01:25:51,880 --> 01:25:54,360
Speaker 1: Most of this year in Michigan was mostly gosh, this

1791
01:25:54,400 --> 01:25:57,040
Speaker 1: thing disappeared. That story ended. All the hard work I

1792
01:25:57,040 --> 01:25:59,240
Speaker 1: put on the Holy Field was for not. And then

1793
01:25:59,320 --> 01:26:02,360
Speaker 1: this happens and it closes out that story in this

1794
01:26:02,520 --> 01:26:06,280
Speaker 1: this interesting, very very surprising way. That was interesting. Another

1795
01:26:06,320 --> 01:26:09,760
Speaker 1: thing that stood out to me was just this year,

1796
01:26:09,760 --> 01:26:12,479
Speaker 1: if you compare my two thousand and eighteen year. And

1797
01:26:12,479 --> 01:26:14,080
Speaker 1: and Dan, I do want to give you an opportunity.

1798
01:26:14,080 --> 01:26:15,320
Speaker 1: I know you got a bounce out of here soon.

1799
01:26:15,479 --> 01:26:17,120
Speaker 1: So if you want to cut me off and share

1800
01:26:17,160 --> 01:26:19,840
Speaker 1: any final question or thought for me before I ramble on,

1801
01:26:20,000 --> 01:26:23,120
Speaker 1: feel free to do that. Just go for it. Yeah.

1802
01:26:23,120 --> 01:26:25,679
Speaker 1: So then what I'll say is that this two thousand

1803
01:26:25,760 --> 01:26:30,320
Speaker 1: eighteen year, it stands in start contrast to two seventeen. Right,

1804
01:26:30,400 --> 01:26:33,360
Speaker 1: last year, I didn't kill a single buck. I hunted,

1805
01:26:33,400 --> 01:26:36,280
Speaker 1: holy feel like crazy. I did all these things. Nothing

1806
01:26:36,360 --> 01:26:38,479
Speaker 1: went my way. Last year I went to Montana, didn't

1807
01:26:38,479 --> 01:26:40,439
Speaker 1: work out. I went to Ohio. I had a bunch

1808
01:26:40,479 --> 01:26:42,639
Speaker 1: of things that didn't work out. Ohio hunted hard mission

1809
01:26:42,640 --> 01:26:45,639
Speaker 1: it didn't work out. Now this year, I go to Montana,

1810
01:26:45,680 --> 01:26:47,479
Speaker 1: I kill a great buck. I go to Nebraska, I

1811
01:26:47,560 --> 01:26:49,920
Speaker 1: kill a break buck. I have this great buck in Michigan.

1812
01:26:49,960 --> 01:26:52,160
Speaker 1: Like everything went right this year. And if I sit

1813
01:26:52,200 --> 01:26:54,080
Speaker 1: and I analyzed these two seasons, like if I if

1814
01:26:54,120 --> 01:26:55,760
Speaker 1: I put them next to each other, and I think back,

1815
01:26:56,120 --> 01:26:58,000
Speaker 1: did I work harder this year than I did last year?

1816
01:26:58,760 --> 01:27:01,960
Speaker 1: Not not in any kind of stip substantial way. I

1817
01:27:02,000 --> 01:27:04,400
Speaker 1: think I I I put in the same amount of

1818
01:27:04,400 --> 01:27:07,120
Speaker 1: after both years, I think I made generally the same

1819
01:27:07,200 --> 01:27:10,280
Speaker 1: number of good decisions. I'm not I'm not three mature

1820
01:27:10,320 --> 01:27:12,880
Speaker 1: bucks smarter than I was last year. I'm not three

1821
01:27:12,920 --> 01:27:15,800
Speaker 1: mature bucks better off a deer hunter than I was

1822
01:27:15,880 --> 01:27:20,960
Speaker 1: last year. UM. I think that this two seventeen versus

1823
01:27:20,960 --> 01:27:24,559
Speaker 1: two thousand eighteen is just a perfect illustration of the

1824
01:27:24,680 --> 01:27:28,439
Speaker 1: game of inches that is hunting mature bucks. You can

1825
01:27:28,439 --> 01:27:31,479
Speaker 1: do everything right in some days or some weeks or

1826
01:27:31,520 --> 01:27:35,760
Speaker 1: some years, the final little variable or factor just won't

1827
01:27:35,800 --> 01:27:38,320
Speaker 1: go your way, and then you can do the same

1828
01:27:38,360 --> 01:27:40,160
Speaker 1: thing the next year, or the next week or the

1829
01:27:40,160 --> 01:27:42,280
Speaker 1: next day. You can do everything right, and then those

1830
01:27:42,320 --> 01:27:45,280
Speaker 1: little final pieces of the puzzle do fall together and

1831
01:27:45,320 --> 01:27:47,760
Speaker 1: do come together, and you do feel that tech. So

1832
01:27:47,800 --> 01:27:49,880
Speaker 1: I think this is just a great reminder to all

1833
01:27:49,920 --> 01:27:52,280
Speaker 1: of us that even when everything's going wrong, if you

1834
01:27:52,400 --> 01:27:54,160
Speaker 1: keep doing what you know you gotta do, if you

1835
01:27:54,280 --> 01:27:56,960
Speaker 1: keep working hard, if you keep believing, if you keep trying,

1836
01:27:57,960 --> 01:28:00,840
Speaker 1: things can come together. We had like h like if

1837
01:28:00,880 --> 01:28:03,519
Speaker 1: if you're looking quantitatively like last year being like the

1838
01:28:03,560 --> 01:28:06,080
Speaker 1: worst kind of year didn't fill a single buck teg.

1839
01:28:06,400 --> 01:28:09,080
Speaker 1: And then this year quantitatively being like the best kind

1840
01:28:09,120 --> 01:28:10,960
Speaker 1: of year, if we're if we're just talking about filled

1841
01:28:10,960 --> 01:28:14,000
Speaker 1: tags for bucks, right, two very different levels of quote

1842
01:28:14,040 --> 01:28:17,679
Speaker 1: unquote success. And I think it's simply that things fell

1843
01:28:17,760 --> 01:28:20,479
Speaker 1: together this way. UM. Now, Yeah, I did learn some things.

1844
01:28:20,479 --> 01:28:22,400
Speaker 1: I did do some things different. I learned from last year.

1845
01:28:22,400 --> 01:28:25,120
Speaker 1: I did get better. UM. But I still think there's

1846
01:28:25,160 --> 01:28:28,280
Speaker 1: a lot of just a lot of you know, I

1847
01:28:28,360 --> 01:28:30,080
Speaker 1: got a little bit lucky this year. I got a

1848
01:28:30,080 --> 01:28:32,920
Speaker 1: few things fell in my favorite that last year didn't. UM.

1849
01:28:33,000 --> 01:28:34,479
Speaker 1: And I think when those things happen, it's just a

1850
01:28:34,520 --> 01:28:38,040
Speaker 1: great reminder and it's also just a great opportunity to

1851
01:28:38,160 --> 01:28:41,120
Speaker 1: say here, you know what, appreciate it, enjoy it when

1852
01:28:41,120 --> 01:28:45,559
Speaker 1: it does happen that way. UM. And I think I think,

1853
01:28:45,560 --> 01:28:47,280
Speaker 1: I don't know. Those are those are my big takeaways

1854
01:28:47,280 --> 01:28:50,080
Speaker 1: from all this. Those are the things that stand out. UM.

1855
01:28:50,120 --> 01:28:53,400
Speaker 1: And now I'm just very appreciative, very humbled by the

1856
01:28:53,680 --> 01:28:57,400
Speaker 1: by this thing that happened to happen to me. Um.

1857
01:28:57,479 --> 01:29:01,320
Speaker 1: And I'm just going to enjoy it and um be thankful.

1858
01:29:01,880 --> 01:29:05,439
Speaker 1: So that is where my head is at as far

1859
01:29:05,479 --> 01:29:07,600
Speaker 1: as all these things. Do you do you guys have

1860
01:29:07,640 --> 01:29:12,640
Speaker 1: any thoughts? Congrats That's all I gotta say. Dude, Thank you,

1861
01:29:12,760 --> 01:29:15,800
Speaker 1: my friend. I appreciate and I appreciate you know your

1862
01:29:15,880 --> 01:29:18,479
Speaker 1: different thought. You know this is interesting. We didn't mention

1863
01:29:18,560 --> 01:29:20,920
Speaker 1: this Dan, but so so I saw him in the

1864
01:29:20,960 --> 01:29:25,599
Speaker 1: morning of December seven, and I text you and said, dude,

1865
01:29:25,720 --> 01:29:28,000
Speaker 1: I saw him this morning. I'm going after him to

1866
01:29:28,080 --> 01:29:29,840
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to kill him tonight. And you text

1867
01:29:29,880 --> 01:29:32,679
Speaker 1: me back you said what I want. I should find

1868
01:29:32,680 --> 01:29:36,080
Speaker 1: the exact quote that you said. Um, all right, you

1869
01:29:36,160 --> 01:29:37,880
Speaker 1: wait here two seconds. I'm gonna read you what you

1870
01:29:37,920 --> 01:29:43,040
Speaker 1: said to me. I texted, you saw Frank this morning,

1871
01:29:43,560 --> 01:29:47,559
Speaker 1: moving in daylight dot dot dot, going after him tonight.

1872
01:29:48,120 --> 01:29:54,160
Speaker 1: You said, stop blinking around Kenyan and kill him. I said,

1873
01:29:54,720 --> 01:29:57,640
Speaker 1: I said, I'm sure gonna try. You said there is

1874
01:29:57,680 --> 01:30:02,639
Speaker 1: no try. There is only do. Then I text you

1875
01:30:03,200 --> 01:30:05,760
Speaker 1: a Jeff or a gift or whatever you say of

1876
01:30:05,880 --> 01:30:08,880
Speaker 1: Yoda saying he says he says do or do not

1877
01:30:09,040 --> 01:30:12,400
Speaker 1: there is no try. And then the next thing I

1878
01:30:12,439 --> 01:30:17,920
Speaker 1: text you is I shot him, so you shot him.

1879
01:30:18,000 --> 01:30:24,040
Speaker 1: And then it goes from four seven to me doing

1880
01:30:24,640 --> 01:30:30,280
Speaker 1: multiple multiple text messages to finally you responding to me

1881
01:30:30,400 --> 01:30:35,080
Speaker 1: at like it's like almost five hours. Yeah, I'm I'm

1882
01:30:35,120 --> 01:30:39,080
Speaker 1: still a little upset. About that. Yeah, I said I

1883
01:30:39,080 --> 01:30:41,200
Speaker 1: shot him. You say w t F. Then you say

1884
01:30:41,240 --> 01:30:43,680
Speaker 1: I need details, then you say you're killing me. Then

1885
01:30:43,680 --> 01:30:46,799
Speaker 1: you say this is getting ridiculous, and then I texted

1886
01:30:46,800 --> 01:30:53,400
Speaker 1: me picture and then you said, holy sh it, speechless. Yeah, man,

1887
01:30:53,520 --> 01:30:57,200
Speaker 1: it was nuts, just a crazy, crazy, crazy situation. And

1888
01:30:57,360 --> 01:31:02,320
Speaker 1: uh and yeah, I mean yeah, I don't know what

1889
01:31:02,320 --> 01:31:05,280
Speaker 1: else to say, Spencer. Do you have any wise words

1890
01:31:05,280 --> 01:31:07,320
Speaker 1: that we should end with, or any final questions or

1891
01:31:07,360 --> 01:31:12,840
Speaker 1: anything that we should that we should cover. No, I mean, congrats, Mark, awesome, Buck,

1892
01:31:13,040 --> 01:31:17,920
Speaker 1: awesome season. Uh that was fun, follower, But like, what

1893
01:31:18,040 --> 01:31:21,880
Speaker 1: if magically holy Field and him stepped out at the

1894
01:31:21,920 --> 01:31:29,439
Speaker 1: same time? Then what man if Like, so if that night,

1895
01:31:29,439 --> 01:31:32,320
Speaker 1: if holy fielding him both stepped out at the same time,

1896
01:31:33,240 --> 01:31:35,719
Speaker 1: I think if you don't know for certain holy Field

1897
01:31:35,800 --> 01:31:39,280
Speaker 1: is dead, correct, still a chance, there's still a chance. Yeah, okay,

1898
01:31:39,479 --> 01:31:41,439
Speaker 1: so this could have happened. So say they both step out,

1899
01:31:41,520 --> 01:31:44,400
Speaker 1: then what, man, I do not know what I would

1900
01:31:44,400 --> 01:31:50,200
Speaker 1: have done. I think, I think, I think, I man,

1901
01:31:50,240 --> 01:31:53,280
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think I would have I'd like

1902
01:31:53,360 --> 01:31:56,160
Speaker 1: to think that I would have shot holy Field. No

1903
01:31:56,479 --> 01:32:00,960
Speaker 1: wrong answer, but you know, because have more history with

1904
01:32:01,000 --> 01:32:04,760
Speaker 1: that Buck Um, I don't know what, but it's such

1905
01:32:04,800 --> 01:32:07,479
Speaker 1: a weird thing because like either what either one would

1906
01:32:07,479 --> 01:32:10,680
Speaker 1: have been unbelievably special in so many ways. So then

1907
01:32:10,720 --> 01:32:12,640
Speaker 1: it's like, then i'd be sitting there with I don't know,

1908
01:32:12,720 --> 01:32:14,559
Speaker 1: I probably would have this is what I probably would done.

1909
01:32:14,560 --> 01:32:16,479
Speaker 1: I probably would have froze. I would have paralyzed in

1910
01:32:16,520 --> 01:32:17,800
Speaker 1: the moment, and then they would have walked away. I

1911
01:32:17,800 --> 01:32:22,400
Speaker 1: would have shot either one. That's probably what happened. Um,

1912
01:32:22,439 --> 01:32:25,560
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean one bucks like a four year history,

1913
01:32:25,880 --> 01:32:29,200
Speaker 1: incredible amount of ups and downs that deer. Another buck

1914
01:32:29,240 --> 01:32:31,679
Speaker 1: would have been three years of history and a once

1915
01:32:31,680 --> 01:32:34,240
Speaker 1: in a lifetime buck as far as the rarity of

1916
01:32:34,280 --> 01:32:37,840
Speaker 1: that type of animal. Um, I mean it would have been. Yeah.

1917
01:32:37,920 --> 01:32:41,280
Speaker 1: I would have just froze, panicked, maybe had to go

1918
01:32:41,320 --> 01:32:43,680
Speaker 1: to the bathroom and not shot at the buck. That's

1919
01:32:43,680 --> 01:32:48,479
Speaker 1: probably what would happen. So yeah, I'm glad that didn't happen.

1920
01:32:48,680 --> 01:32:52,559
Speaker 1: And maybe, maybe, just maybe holy Field is still alive,

1921
01:32:52,840 --> 01:32:55,280
Speaker 1: and now that Frank has gone, maybe he's gonna reclaim

1922
01:32:55,320 --> 01:33:00,760
Speaker 1: his old territory and to the um, to the may

1923
01:33:00,760 --> 01:33:02,479
Speaker 1: of the wired and audience, they'll have to hear about

1924
01:33:02,479 --> 01:33:08,240
Speaker 1: holy Field for a fifth year. Probably not so, uh,

1925
01:33:08,280 --> 01:33:13,000
Speaker 1: I guess with that Dan, any final anything final? Nope,

1926
01:33:13,120 --> 01:33:15,479
Speaker 1: my kids are starting to cry. All right, go take

1927
01:33:15,520 --> 01:33:17,679
Speaker 1: care of your kids. Thank you for taking the time

1928
01:33:17,760 --> 01:33:19,519
Speaker 1: to to chat through all this. Thanks for all the

1929
01:33:19,600 --> 01:33:23,439
Speaker 1: support and and uh ideas and thoughts and and go

1930
01:33:23,520 --> 01:33:26,080
Speaker 1: get hims and Spencer. Same to you man. Thanks for

1931
01:33:26,120 --> 01:33:29,400
Speaker 1: all the you know, a couple of different chats for

1932
01:33:29,800 --> 01:33:31,560
Speaker 1: radios where we talked through what's going on in the

1933
01:33:31,640 --> 01:33:34,920
Speaker 1: encouragement and big thanks to you know, all my buddies

1934
01:33:34,920 --> 01:33:37,439
Speaker 1: are other people who knew about this hunt, even the folks,

1935
01:33:37,600 --> 01:33:39,280
Speaker 1: even everyone who knew that I I was hunting this buck

1936
01:33:39,320 --> 01:33:42,519
Speaker 1: but didn't quite know um what he looked like. Everybody

1937
01:33:42,560 --> 01:33:44,960
Speaker 1: was out there, you know, giving me encouragement and wishing

1938
01:33:45,000 --> 01:33:48,160
Speaker 1: me on and crossing their fingers, and um, I think

1939
01:33:48,160 --> 01:33:50,080
Speaker 1: this is actually just I want to say thank you

1940
01:33:50,160 --> 01:33:53,040
Speaker 1: to everyone out there listening, the the kind words and

1941
01:33:53,080 --> 01:33:55,599
Speaker 1: the support and everything throughout all my hunts. I just

1942
01:33:55,720 --> 01:33:59,000
Speaker 1: I appreciate that, Like I really do appreciate every comment

1943
01:33:59,040 --> 01:34:01,720
Speaker 1: you guys leave, the reviews, you leave, the notes you

1944
01:34:01,760 --> 01:34:03,439
Speaker 1: send me. I don't get to respond to every one

1945
01:34:03,479 --> 01:34:06,360
Speaker 1: of them, um, but it means a lot. So so

1946
01:34:06,520 --> 01:34:10,400
Speaker 1: thank you for all those all those um all those words,

1947
01:34:10,760 --> 01:34:14,080
Speaker 1: and I think with that we shut this down and

1948
01:34:14,160 --> 01:34:16,559
Speaker 1: that's gonna do it for this episode. Thank you all

1949
01:34:16,600 --> 01:34:19,240
Speaker 1: for listening. Just another quick reminder, we do have that

1950
01:34:19,680 --> 01:34:22,080
Speaker 1: percent off deal going for wire hunt gear over at

1951
01:34:22,160 --> 01:34:25,400
Speaker 1: the meat eater dot com. Head to the shop, use

1952
01:34:25,479 --> 01:34:28,400
Speaker 1: that promo code, get off all of the wire hunt

1953
01:34:28,400 --> 01:34:31,400
Speaker 1: gear that's wired w I R E D. And otherwise

1954
01:34:31,720 --> 01:34:34,040
Speaker 1: that's all I got. Well, we'll get you one more

1955
01:34:34,080 --> 01:34:37,280
Speaker 1: episode before the holidays. Hopefully you're having a great December.

1956
01:34:37,280 --> 01:34:39,800
Speaker 1: Hopefully you're hunting season is coming to a to a

1957
01:34:39,920 --> 01:34:42,000
Speaker 1: nice end with a lot of fun, a lot of

1958
01:34:42,080 --> 01:34:44,120
Speaker 1: venice in the freezer, and a lot of great memories.

1959
01:34:44,160 --> 01:34:49,439
Speaker 1: So thank you and until next time, stay wired to Hunt.