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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, home of the

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Speaker 1: modern white tail hunter, and now your host, Mark Kenyon.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm your host,

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Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon, and today in the show, I am breaking

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Speaker 1: down seven days of epic white tail hunting during the

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Speaker 1: rut I'm breaking down the decisions, the outcomes, and everything

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Speaker 1: that happened on this recent rutcation. All right, welcome to

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Speaker 1: the wire Dunt podcast, brought to you by First Light.

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Speaker 1: We got a different kind of episode for you today

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Speaker 1: because this one's just me, just me, your host, Mark Kenyan.

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Speaker 1: I am going to break down the hunt that I

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Speaker 1: just finished up last night. Right now, I am on

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Speaker 1: the road driving from Iowa to Nebraska for another hunt,

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Speaker 1: and I don't have anyone with me. I don't have

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Speaker 1: the ability to get ahold of anyone right now. It's

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Speaker 1: just me and I thought, you know what, I am

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Speaker 1: fresh off this trip, it is in my mind. I've

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Speaker 1: been sitting here in the car kind of running through

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Speaker 1: events in my mind and thinking through what happened, what

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Speaker 1: what right? What right and wrong? What can I learn

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Speaker 1: from this? Breaking it all down, thinking through my decisions.

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Speaker 1: And as I'm kind of doing that, I'm thinking about jeez,

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Speaker 1: I should talk about this stuff. I shouldn't just think

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Speaker 1: this to myself. Maybe I should just share this with

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Speaker 1: everybody out there, the good and the bad and the ugly.

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Speaker 1: So that's what I'm gonna do. And this could be ugly.

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Speaker 1: I don't know, a glimpse into my mind unfiltered, with

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Speaker 1: nobody here to check me, or nobody here to call

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Speaker 1: me out, nobody here to tell me I'm crazy. I

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Speaker 1: don't know. You might not like what you here, but

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Speaker 1: that's I might not look it here. That's what I

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Speaker 1: want to try to do, give you the real raw

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Speaker 1: scoop um from beginning to end. So I just finished up,

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Speaker 1: like I said, a seven day hunt in Iowa from

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Speaker 1: November one through November seven, and we were filming this

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Speaker 1: for a new show coming out in the Mediator YouTube

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Speaker 1: channel here in just a couple of weeks. It's called

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Speaker 1: One Week in November, and we've talked about this a

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Speaker 1: little bit on the podcast leading up to this point.

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Speaker 1: But if you missed those earlier episodes, this show is

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Speaker 1: gonna follow me Tony Peterson, Spencer new Heart, and Clay

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Speaker 1: Newcombe as we each hunt those seven days. But we're

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Speaker 1: each in different places. So I was in Iowa, Clay

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Speaker 1: was in Arkansas and Oklahoma, Spencer was in Montana and Wyoming,

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Speaker 1: and Tony was in Minnesota and Wisconsin. So we're each

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Speaker 1: experiencing the rut, but in wildly different ways. So that's

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Speaker 1: what we're doing. Uh. I wanna start from the very

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Speaker 1: beginning of how this hunt all came together for me

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Speaker 1: and and really try to give you the nitty gritty

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Speaker 1: detail more than maybe I've ever done as far as

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Speaker 1: all the steps to go into this. I want to

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Speaker 1: break down each location that I hunted. I want to

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Speaker 1: break down how I decided to go there, why I

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Speaker 1: decided to go there, how I picked the tree, what happened,

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Speaker 1: what I learned from it, UM, my emotional state, my

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Speaker 1: mental state, all that. That's the level of detail I'm

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Speaker 1: going to try to get to today. Uh and hopefully

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Speaker 1: that'll that will be helpful to some of you. So

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Speaker 1: let's see, this story begins, I suppose, with getting access

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Speaker 1: to the places that I hunted during this trip. Uh.

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Speaker 1: It began back in the spring of when I decided, Okay,

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Speaker 1: this is the year I'm gonna draw Iowa. I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: do this hunt for one weekend November. So where am

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Speaker 1: I going to hunt? That's what I gotta figure out. Now.

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Speaker 1: I had hunted Iowa back in twenty so six years

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Speaker 1: ago as the last time I hunted Iowa, and I

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Speaker 1: had gotten some permission in a couple of spots, but

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Speaker 1: there's been a lot of hunting pressure, and I like

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Speaker 1: every hunt, I was dealing with people and and it

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Speaker 1: just wasn't a whole lot of fun because of that.

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Speaker 1: So I thought, you know, I want to try to

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Speaker 1: get some new spots this year. And so I was

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Speaker 1: talking to a couple of local friends of mine that

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Speaker 1: live in Iowa, and one buddy had a spot that

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Speaker 1: he actually had picked up a small lease, and he said, hey, man,

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Speaker 1: there's gonna be plenty of room for both of us.

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Speaker 1: You could hunt here with me a little bit. I thought, wow,

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Speaker 1: that would be great. Um, I would love to have

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Speaker 1: like a nice spot where we could do this hunt

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Speaker 1: and and not be kind of bouncing around between people

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Speaker 1: all the time. So that was a great thing. But

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Speaker 1: at the same time, I didn't want to be totally

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Speaker 1: dependent on that, uh, just because I don't want to

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Speaker 1: be stepping on my buddy's toes. So I kept looking

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Speaker 1: for stuff, and another friend of mine out there ended

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Speaker 1: up having a farmer who was giving them access to

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Speaker 1: another farm that was kind of an addition to what

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Speaker 1: they usually hunt, so they don't really need this spot.

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Speaker 1: They weren't depending on it, and so my pals said, hey, man,

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Speaker 1: this is this would be a good spot for you

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Speaker 1: to hunt too. We probably won't be hardly out there

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Speaker 1: at all. Check it out. So with those two I

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Speaker 1: DEAs in mind, I headed out there in I guess

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Speaker 1: late March early April and was able to uh. I

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Speaker 1: was able to get out to do hopefully scouting and

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Speaker 1: maybe pick up a late ship. It must have been April,

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Speaker 1: because I remember thinking that it was too late to

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Speaker 1: really expect to find a ship. My buddies property. Did

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Speaker 1: a quick lap of that and then this other farmers land.

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Speaker 1: There was actually two parcels that that guy was giving

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Speaker 1: us access to, so I did a quick lap of both.

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Speaker 1: My basic idea with this was just get a lay

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Speaker 1: of the land of everything. I looked at everything on

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Speaker 1: Onyx and I basically want to just get eyeballs on

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Speaker 1: it physically, to try to match up the things that

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Speaker 1: looked good in the map to what actually was there.

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Speaker 1: In person. So I didn't pick trees, I didn't prep trees.

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Speaker 1: I wasn't able to do any of that kind of stuff.

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Speaker 1: I was literally there for a day and a half. Uh,

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Speaker 1: just did not have a lot of time to work with.

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Speaker 1: I was gonna try to get the lay of the land,

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Speaker 1: was the main goal. I did that, uh kind of

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Speaker 1: way pointed a bunch of different bedding areas, waypointing some

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Speaker 1: little funnels, picked out a few things that I liked. Um,

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Speaker 1: and that was it had to hit the road, had

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Speaker 1: to go home. Fast forward now too late summer. It

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Speaker 1: is August, and I had time now to go back

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Speaker 1: to Iowa for a summer trip. Summer trip. I wanted

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Speaker 1: to put out some trail cameras. I wanted to glass

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Speaker 1: some fields at night, and I wanted to hopefully pick

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Speaker 1: some trees now after I had had a little time

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Speaker 1: to study the maps some more and actually have a

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Speaker 1: few places prepped, not necessarily prepped physically. I wasn't hanging

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Speaker 1: pre hung stands or anything like that. This was just

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Speaker 1: to pick some locations that I could go to with

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Speaker 1: my climbing sticks and my saddle and set up to

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Speaker 1: hunt once November came around. So like three days before

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Speaker 1: I'm going to go out there, one of my buddies

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Speaker 1: called and he said, hey, you know, this landowner that

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Speaker 1: was going to give us access to these two parcels

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Speaker 1: for whatever reason, got cold feet, and now he doesn't

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Speaker 1: want us out there. This is three days before I'm

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Speaker 1: supposed to show up and start to scouting prep. So

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Speaker 1: now I'm out two thirds of what I thought would

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Speaker 1: be my hunting access just before I'm supposed to go

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Speaker 1: out there and do this final work. So that led

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Speaker 1: me to have to get creative and thinking, Okay, all

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Speaker 1: I have is the one piece now that it's really

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Speaker 1: my buddy spot, and I don't want to be all

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Speaker 1: over it. So I go back and I start thinking

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Speaker 1: about the places that I hunted back in two thousand fifteen,

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Speaker 1: and one of those spots was a two parcel property,

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Speaker 1: and this property I actually got permission on and by

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Speaker 1: putting together a I went out there one summer in

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Speaker 1: two and I looked at you know, gosh, at that point,

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Speaker 1: I don't remember if I was using on X or

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Speaker 1: if there was actually just plat maps I was using.

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Speaker 1: Was that for long ago? But I figured out all

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Speaker 1: the property owners that had properties in this little zone

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Speaker 1: I was interested in. They had the best looking land,

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Speaker 1: got their addresses, and then spent a day going and

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Speaker 1: going to each one of these house. I went to

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Speaker 1: fourteen different homes and knocked on their doors and just

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Speaker 1: asked for permission, and I ended up getting permission on

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Speaker 1: this piece. It's actually two pieces owned by the same family.

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Speaker 1: One of them was this farm that just screamed out

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Speaker 1: like amazing. Imagine, uh, lots of timber with these fingered

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Speaker 1: crop fields going and almost like you're holding maybe three

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Speaker 1: fingers in your hands. Is the palm in your hand

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Speaker 1: and three fingers and a thumb that extend into a

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Speaker 1: big chunk of timber, and then the same kind of

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Speaker 1: thing coming down, and there's a big creek drainage that

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Speaker 1: runs through the middle of it, and crop fields up

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Speaker 1: on top, crop fields in the bottom, and just great,

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Speaker 1: great cover. I mean, this thing looked at dynamite and

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Speaker 1: it was big, maybe five acres or something like that. Uh.

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Speaker 1: The second parcel was smaller, maybe like two hundred seventy

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Speaker 1: acres something like that, but it was mostly it was

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Speaker 1: imagine it's a rectangle, it's just a big crop field,

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Speaker 1: but in the middle of it run and several creek

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Speaker 1: drainages thin thin I'm talking you know, eight yards wide

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Speaker 1: to fifty yards wide to maybe a hundred yards wide

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Speaker 1: at the wide is something like that, just thin lines.

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Speaker 1: Several of these thin drainages that that kind of run

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Speaker 1: through the middle of it, making a couple of wide

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Speaker 1: junctions in several places, just a long line across the

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Speaker 1: middle of the rectangle. But you know, it's crop field

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Speaker 1: did not look you know, nearly as enticing as the

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Speaker 1: big one. So I focused almost all my time on

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Speaker 1: the big one. And there were some good deer there.

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Speaker 1: I had some good hunts, but there was also a

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Speaker 1: lot of other hunters. Like I alluded to, there was

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Speaker 1: guys there. Every time I had a hunt, there was

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Speaker 1: someone driving past me in a four wheeler, there was

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Speaker 1: someone bumping into me, or there's someone spooking deer. It

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Speaker 1: was just kind of a mess. So this time around,

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Speaker 1: I thought, Okay, I wonder if I could get permission

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Speaker 1: hunt there again, but try the other parcel. That just

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Speaker 1: didn't look as good. Maybe other guys thought the same thing.

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Speaker 1: So I get a hold of these landowners again and said, hey,

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Speaker 1: I'm coming back out. Uh, and I've actually stopped by

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Speaker 1: their house a number of times over the years during

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Speaker 1: shed hunting season, even though I wasn't hunting there, I

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Speaker 1: would just stop by it, say hi and chat with them,

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Speaker 1: and you know, keep up. So I asked him if

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Speaker 1: I could come hunt this year. I finally had a

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Speaker 1: tag and I'm back, and they said sure, we're happy

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Speaker 1: to have you come back out. They've always appreciated me

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Speaker 1: stopping in and chatting and all that, and we have

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Speaker 1: a nice relationship. So here's what I was gonna do.

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Speaker 1: I I lost access to these two parcels, but now

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Speaker 1: I have permission again to hunt this old spot. And

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Speaker 1: my new idea was, let's focus on the lesser looking parcel,

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Speaker 1: because that's probably what everyone is overlooking. All the other

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Speaker 1: hunters a hunt here, probably see this one. I think, Nah,

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Speaker 1: not that great. I'm gonna hunt the big sexy one.

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Speaker 1: And actually, maybe these little draws that run through the

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Speaker 1: middle of the fields during the rut that actually could

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Speaker 1: be pretty decent, pretty predictable movement. There's gotta be bucks

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Speaker 1: cruising those draws, is what I was thinking to myself

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Speaker 1: this summer. Let's try that and maybe we can avoid

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Speaker 1: hunting pressure that way. So August six or whatever. That's

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Speaker 1: my idea. I'm gonna go look at my buddies property

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Speaker 1: real quick, do another walk through, and then go and

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Speaker 1: spend most of my time trying to relearn this spot.

216
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Speaker 1: And really learned this spot because I hunted the other parcel.

217
00:11:20,600 --> 00:11:23,480
Speaker 1: I hadn't hunted this overlooked parcel except for one afternoon.

218
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Speaker 1: I went and set the edge of it, sat the

219
00:11:25,040 --> 00:11:27,520
Speaker 1: edge of it. Didn't see a thing. So basically have

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Speaker 1: zero experience on this one August sevent rolls around. I

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00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:35,240
Speaker 1: go out there, do some glassing, don't really see much,

222
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Speaker 1: walk these properties, don't see a whole lot. Um I put.

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Speaker 1: Let's see, we had a handful of cameras on my

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Speaker 1: buddies property. Then I hung one cell camera and two

225
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Speaker 1: traditional cameras on the overlooked farm. We'll call that the

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Speaker 1: overlooked farm. We'll call the other one my buddies farm.

227
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Speaker 1: Just to keep these two things straight, so they overlooked farm.

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Speaker 1: I got three cameras up my Buddies farm. I gave

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Speaker 1: him a couple of cameras. He had a couple of

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00:11:59,760 --> 00:12:02,679
Speaker 1: camera was like three cell cameras, and we had those

231
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Speaker 1: all situated by the end of that weekend, and I've

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Speaker 1: gotten a dude. Basically, I'll walk through. I re learned

233
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Speaker 1: the Overlooked Farm, gotta walk through, picked out a couple

234
00:12:12,440 --> 00:12:14,559
Speaker 1: of spots that looked pretty good, and that was all

235
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Speaker 1: I had because I had like a day and a

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Speaker 1: half again for that trip. That was basically the extent

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00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:24,800
Speaker 1: of my scouting going into this November hunt. I had

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Speaker 1: done a few walk throughs, but was mostly going to

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Speaker 1: be dependent on, you know, figuring out as I went.

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Speaker 1: That brings us to October one, basically November one, Right,

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Speaker 1: I drive out the night of Halloween and arrive here

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Speaker 1: in Iowa with a week to hunt. I got a

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Speaker 1: cameraman with me, and I've got some climbing sticks, and

244
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Speaker 1: I've got my saddle and my bow and that's it.

245
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Speaker 1: I have some trout camera information because my buddy's property,

246
00:12:54,360 --> 00:12:56,520
Speaker 1: you know, he's been getting pictures and we had cell

247
00:12:56,600 --> 00:12:58,880
Speaker 1: cameras that we were both getting pictures to our phones from.

248
00:12:58,960 --> 00:13:02,199
Speaker 1: So we're keeping tabs and what was happening through that, uh,

249
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Speaker 1: the overlooked farm. I had that one cell camera, but

250
00:13:05,720 --> 00:13:08,559
Speaker 1: within like fifteen days of it going, it was dead

251
00:13:08,840 --> 00:13:11,440
Speaker 1: and wasn't sending me pictures anymore. So I had zero

252
00:13:11,480 --> 00:13:14,240
Speaker 1: intell on what was going on on the overlooked farm.

253
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Speaker 1: So arriving in the night of the thirty one, looking

254
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Speaker 1: at the weather, looking at everything that's going on, we

255
00:13:20,480 --> 00:13:23,400
Speaker 1: had a good cold conditions coming in for the beginning

256
00:13:23,440 --> 00:13:25,840
Speaker 1: of the week. It's gonna be November one. I'm thinking

257
00:13:26,400 --> 00:13:28,400
Speaker 1: they should be cruising, they should be starting to do

258
00:13:28,480 --> 00:13:32,760
Speaker 1: ready stuff. What I decided I wanted to do was

259
00:13:32,920 --> 00:13:36,160
Speaker 1: try to get an assessment of what was going on

260
00:13:36,160 --> 00:13:38,400
Speaker 1: on the overlooked property. Because I had a basic idea

261
00:13:38,440 --> 00:13:40,920
Speaker 1: of what was happening on my buddies because he'd hunted

262
00:13:40,960 --> 00:13:42,840
Speaker 1: a few times and we had trail cameras out there

263
00:13:42,880 --> 00:13:45,800
Speaker 1: that we're giving us, you know, consistent updates. Had zero

264
00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:48,599
Speaker 1: idea what was on the overlooked farm. If there was

265
00:13:48,679 --> 00:13:52,079
Speaker 1: hunters on the overlooked farm, Uh, nothing. So I thought,

266
00:13:52,120 --> 00:13:56,160
Speaker 1: all right, let's start there and then I will adjust

267
00:13:56,240 --> 00:13:58,720
Speaker 1: from there if I need to. That brings us to

268
00:13:58,880 --> 00:14:04,040
Speaker 1: the first mooring hunt. I had found a spot while

269
00:14:04,080 --> 00:14:06,000
Speaker 1: I was scouting in the summer, while I did my

270
00:14:06,080 --> 00:14:09,520
Speaker 1: quick speed walk of this property that really jumped out

271
00:14:09,520 --> 00:14:14,280
Speaker 1: to me as a great rut set. It just jumped

272
00:14:14,280 --> 00:14:15,760
Speaker 1: out as being the kind of spot was that was

273
00:14:15,800 --> 00:14:18,920
Speaker 1: a no brainer rut location, and it had a tree.

274
00:14:18,920 --> 00:14:21,800
Speaker 1: I actually remember finding a tree and pinning it, thinking, man,

275
00:14:21,840 --> 00:14:24,080
Speaker 1: this would be a great tree for a western northwest wind.

276
00:14:24,440 --> 00:14:28,280
Speaker 1: Easy to get into overlooked. This location was set up

277
00:14:28,280 --> 00:14:30,360
Speaker 1: decent with a cameraman. It was one of the few

278
00:14:30,360 --> 00:14:32,480
Speaker 1: spots I found like that. That was it was obvious,

279
00:14:33,440 --> 00:14:35,720
Speaker 1: So I pinned that. I thought to myself, now, hey,

280
00:14:35,720 --> 00:14:37,600
Speaker 1: that would be a great location. It would get me

281
00:14:37,680 --> 00:14:40,320
Speaker 1: back and kind of in the back corner of this

282
00:14:40,400 --> 00:14:42,520
Speaker 1: property for day one, and then I could pull trail

283
00:14:42,600 --> 00:14:46,080
Speaker 1: cameras on the way out that night. So morning one

284
00:14:46,440 --> 00:14:52,320
Speaker 1: was gonna be like a west northwest wind. This is

285
00:14:52,360 --> 00:14:54,080
Speaker 1: the location I wanted to go to. Now, let me

286
00:14:54,120 --> 00:14:56,640
Speaker 1: describe this location to you as I As I mentioned

287
00:14:56,640 --> 00:15:00,840
Speaker 1: the overlooked property, It's mostly just these rows that run

288
00:15:00,920 --> 00:15:06,480
Speaker 1: through this rectangular field. So imagine you've got this rectangle.

289
00:15:07,320 --> 00:15:12,400
Speaker 1: The rectangle is mostly corn except for these draws. And

290
00:15:12,480 --> 00:15:14,520
Speaker 1: if I were to paint the picture for you, imagine

291
00:15:14,600 --> 00:15:16,960
Speaker 1: drawing a line from the bottom left corner of the

292
00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:19,960
Speaker 1: rectangle up to the top right corner. That's the main

293
00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:25,480
Speaker 1: line of the creek, and then take two more lines

294
00:15:25,720 --> 00:15:29,280
Speaker 1: off of that and extend it from that middle line,

295
00:15:29,280 --> 00:15:32,000
Speaker 1: that diagonal line, make a y from one of those

296
00:15:32,040 --> 00:15:33,920
Speaker 1: down to a corner, and then take another one and

297
00:15:33,960 --> 00:15:36,200
Speaker 1: go down from the corner. So we've got this diagonal

298
00:15:36,200 --> 00:15:38,720
Speaker 1: line with two draws that dropped down from it, going down,

299
00:15:39,080 --> 00:15:43,840
Speaker 1: making a couple of ye junctions. That is the farm.

300
00:15:43,880 --> 00:15:47,280
Speaker 1: The bottom left corner where one of these wide junctions

301
00:15:47,360 --> 00:15:49,960
Speaker 1: happens is the location that I had picked out as

302
00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:54,880
Speaker 1: being dynamite. You've got these three lines of a draw

303
00:15:55,040 --> 00:15:57,920
Speaker 1: coming together, so we've got a three way junction of

304
00:15:57,920 --> 00:16:01,720
Speaker 1: timbered draws. In the middle of this there's this little

305
00:16:01,720 --> 00:16:05,040
Speaker 1: brushy bottom kind of a low spot. There's great big

306
00:16:05,080 --> 00:16:08,040
Speaker 1: scrape in the middle of it. And just to the

307
00:16:08,160 --> 00:16:10,200
Speaker 1: left in one of these draws, in one of these

308
00:16:10,200 --> 00:16:14,080
Speaker 1: little timbered fingers, is a pond about sixty yards away

309
00:16:14,080 --> 00:16:16,880
Speaker 1: from this tree. And then, oh, by the way, look

310
00:16:16,880 --> 00:16:19,400
Speaker 1: at the other timber draw So this is the third

311
00:16:19,520 --> 00:16:22,080
Speaker 1: of these timber draws that's ahead of me, and it

312
00:16:22,240 --> 00:16:26,200
Speaker 1: is thick, thick, nasty, best bedding cover I found on

313
00:16:26,200 --> 00:16:29,600
Speaker 1: this farm, opening up to a chunk of timber. So

314
00:16:29,640 --> 00:16:32,280
Speaker 1: I've got dough bedding in front of me. I've got

315
00:16:32,320 --> 00:16:35,040
Speaker 1: three pinches all coming down and converging right here in

316
00:16:35,040 --> 00:16:37,640
Speaker 1: the middle, and I have a pond. That is what

317
00:16:37,680 --> 00:16:41,600
Speaker 1: this location had. Those are things that scream rut success. Right.

318
00:16:41,760 --> 00:16:43,760
Speaker 1: The rut, as we've talked about over the years, is

319
00:16:43,800 --> 00:16:46,200
Speaker 1: about the does so being close to dough bedding, ding

320
00:16:46,280 --> 00:16:50,000
Speaker 1: ding ding, great thing, pinch points ding ding ding. I've

321
00:16:50,040 --> 00:16:52,280
Speaker 1: got a pinch. I've got three different pinches all converging

322
00:16:52,280 --> 00:16:55,600
Speaker 1: in one hub. And then hey, let's get the added

323
00:16:55,600 --> 00:16:57,920
Speaker 1: bonus of a great big hub scrape in the middle

324
00:16:57,960 --> 00:17:00,160
Speaker 1: of it, added bonus of a pond right now next

325
00:17:00,200 --> 00:17:03,480
Speaker 1: to it. And oh, by the way, in the field

326
00:17:03,520 --> 00:17:07,760
Speaker 1: behind me created by two of these timbered ridges coming

327
00:17:07,800 --> 00:17:11,920
Speaker 1: out is actually CRP. They took this one field out

328
00:17:11,960 --> 00:17:15,240
Speaker 1: of corn and put it into CRP. So my backside

329
00:17:15,320 --> 00:17:19,080
Speaker 1: now has great tall grass that I figured does must

330
00:17:19,080 --> 00:17:21,040
Speaker 1: be betting in. So I got dough betting on two

331
00:17:21,040 --> 00:17:24,560
Speaker 1: sides of me, pinch points on either side, pond, a scrape.

332
00:17:25,800 --> 00:17:29,360
Speaker 1: It looks great. I get another day. One got set

333
00:17:29,400 --> 00:17:32,119
Speaker 1: in the tree. We go in very early. I was

334
00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:35,560
Speaker 1: trying to get to the property almost two hours before daylight,

335
00:17:35,600 --> 00:17:37,280
Speaker 1: because it takes a long time to get camera gear

336
00:17:37,320 --> 00:17:39,800
Speaker 1: together and get your all your stuff takes It was

337
00:17:39,800 --> 00:17:42,240
Speaker 1: a twenty plus minute walking to get to the tree,

338
00:17:42,720 --> 00:17:45,240
Speaker 1: and then we have to set up climbing sticks, my

339
00:17:45,320 --> 00:17:48,960
Speaker 1: platform and saddle my cameraman's platform and saddle all of

340
00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:52,720
Speaker 1: our gear. So we were, you know, upright and early

341
00:17:52,800 --> 00:17:55,080
Speaker 1: at it, bright and early getting in there. We get

342
00:17:55,080 --> 00:17:57,160
Speaker 1: climbed up in the tree, we get settled. That took

343
00:17:57,200 --> 00:18:01,359
Speaker 1: a while. Daylight breaks and it is November first, first

344
00:18:01,359 --> 00:18:06,000
Speaker 1: shooting light. Iowa, everything you dream of, everything you hope for,

345
00:18:06,240 --> 00:18:08,560
Speaker 1: this is it right, This is the pinnacle of white

346
00:18:08,560 --> 00:18:11,000
Speaker 1: tail hunting. And I'm thinking this is gonna be a

347
00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:17,040
Speaker 1: heck of a week and not shoot. I don't know. Well, actually,

348
00:18:17,040 --> 00:18:19,560
Speaker 1: at first light I forgot about this. At first light,

349
00:18:20,320 --> 00:18:22,240
Speaker 1: I look out and I see a betted deer, like

350
00:18:22,320 --> 00:18:25,480
Speaker 1: seventy yards away. There's a buck betted seventy yards away,

351
00:18:25,560 --> 00:18:27,680
Speaker 1: laying down, facing away from us. It's a little year

352
00:18:27,680 --> 00:18:29,320
Speaker 1: and a half old, but that was a great sign

353
00:18:29,359 --> 00:18:32,760
Speaker 1: of thought. Then, probably ten minutes after light, I see

354
00:18:33,400 --> 00:18:36,040
Speaker 1: some movement in the crp behind us. Here comes a

355
00:18:36,119 --> 00:18:38,920
Speaker 1: dough and a buck, and right away I'm like, oh

356
00:18:38,960 --> 00:18:41,960
Speaker 1: my gosh, that's that might be a shooter buck. This

357
00:18:42,040 --> 00:18:45,160
Speaker 1: is a nice framed deer and he's coming my way

358
00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:48,840
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking, oh no, it's day one. I've hunted

359
00:18:48,880 --> 00:18:51,080
Speaker 1: for ten minutes in Iowa and here's this buck coming.

360
00:18:51,240 --> 00:18:55,639
Speaker 1: And I start looking at him and like, ah, I

361
00:18:55,640 --> 00:19:00,000
Speaker 1: don't know, he's what looks like an eight Eventually, really

362
00:19:00,040 --> 00:19:03,399
Speaker 1: he's a nine pointer, maybe like to his ears, maybe

363
00:19:03,440 --> 00:19:06,800
Speaker 1: just outside of his ears, and maybe like eight inch

364
00:19:07,040 --> 00:19:10,320
Speaker 1: time length, that kind of thing, Just like a nice

365
00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:15,159
Speaker 1: boxy eight pointer, nice like like a nice buck. A

366
00:19:15,200 --> 00:19:17,600
Speaker 1: buck in Michigan that would be one of the better

367
00:19:17,640 --> 00:19:20,800
Speaker 1: bucks around in most places I hunt in Michigan. But

368
00:19:20,920 --> 00:19:25,600
Speaker 1: here in Iowa, where you know the sky is the limit,

369
00:19:25,640 --> 00:19:28,280
Speaker 1: where you've waited years and years to draw a tag.

370
00:19:28,520 --> 00:19:30,560
Speaker 1: I've applied in the lottery for three years to get

371
00:19:30,640 --> 00:19:33,360
Speaker 1: enough points to get this tag. It's been six years

372
00:19:33,400 --> 00:19:36,480
Speaker 1: since i've been back. When you go to Iowa, there's

373
00:19:36,520 --> 00:19:41,720
Speaker 1: a certain set of standards or hopes or expectations that

374
00:19:41,760 --> 00:19:43,720
Speaker 1: you have. And this buck's coming in and I'm thinking,

375
00:19:44,320 --> 00:19:46,640
Speaker 1: goshtro I want to end my Iowa right hunt ten

376
00:19:46,640 --> 00:19:50,840
Speaker 1: minutes in on this buck. He's probably one twenty five

377
00:19:51,280 --> 00:19:56,040
Speaker 1: ish three year old, probably he keeps coming in and

378
00:19:56,080 --> 00:19:58,320
Speaker 1: I'm like, ah, I mean, I had this back and forth,

379
00:19:58,320 --> 00:20:00,560
Speaker 1: back and forth, like I can't shoot that now. I

380
00:20:00,600 --> 00:20:02,280
Speaker 1: can't shoot that kind of deer here in the first

381
00:20:02,320 --> 00:20:03,760
Speaker 1: time in Iowa, even though it would be a pretty

382
00:20:03,800 --> 00:20:07,840
Speaker 1: darn great buck back at home. Ah, I can't shoot

383
00:20:07,880 --> 00:20:09,600
Speaker 1: that buck on the first morning. And he ends up

384
00:20:09,640 --> 00:20:14,960
Speaker 1: coming into thirty yards, stands broadside, looking around, makes the scrape,

385
00:20:15,840 --> 00:20:18,080
Speaker 1: and I sit there and say, you know what, not

386
00:20:18,200 --> 00:20:21,000
Speaker 1: doing it. I can't shoot this buck right now. Pass

387
00:20:21,840 --> 00:20:24,439
Speaker 1: great encounter, though, got me very excited. I was fired

388
00:20:24,520 --> 00:20:27,680
Speaker 1: up sitting there a while longer, a little buck curses through.

389
00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:30,119
Speaker 1: Another little buck comes through. Then I looked to my

390
00:20:30,240 --> 00:20:33,919
Speaker 1: left and stepping out of that pond big tall times,

391
00:20:34,080 --> 00:20:37,960
Speaker 1: and I'm like, holy crap, big buck, big buck. Here

392
00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:39,800
Speaker 1: comes a deer. But as he gets up over the

393
00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:41,919
Speaker 1: hill coming out of the pond, and again had the

394
00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:48,040
Speaker 1: same feeling, Ah, he's kind of tight, he's kind of tall.

395
00:20:48,800 --> 00:20:50,800
Speaker 1: But he was another one of those in between her bucks.

396
00:20:50,840 --> 00:20:52,960
Speaker 1: He was bigger than the last one, I thought, but

397
00:20:53,040 --> 00:20:56,600
Speaker 1: again not a really big body. And at first my

398
00:20:56,720 --> 00:20:58,680
Speaker 1: cameraman he's like he's one fifty, and I'm like, oh,

399
00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:01,360
Speaker 1: my gosh, he is he one fifty? In my head,

400
00:21:01,400 --> 00:21:03,320
Speaker 1: he wasn't that big, and I think he was just

401
00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:06,040
Speaker 1: over excited as I'm looking at like maybe he's like

402
00:21:06,480 --> 00:21:11,359
Speaker 1: one thirties. Uh tight and tall, like eight pointer, nice

403
00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:15,320
Speaker 1: brow times. But again, We're only a half hour into

404
00:21:15,359 --> 00:21:18,320
Speaker 1: the day of the first day and he's coming out,

405
00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:21,720
Speaker 1: and I'm like, should I do this? Should I shoot

406
00:21:21,720 --> 00:21:24,440
Speaker 1: this buck? We've only just started. It seems like it's

407
00:21:24,440 --> 00:21:27,800
Speaker 1: absolutely popping. I know there's gotta be big mature box

408
00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:30,760
Speaker 1: around here this year. I don't think so. I think

409
00:21:30,800 --> 00:21:32,600
Speaker 1: he's probably a three and a half year old. He

410
00:21:32,640 --> 00:21:35,920
Speaker 1: comes walking by, like forty one yard something like that,

411
00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:39,720
Speaker 1: and I just let him walk. I don't even try

412
00:21:39,720 --> 00:21:42,520
Speaker 1: to get him closer. He gets out to ninety yards

413
00:21:42,560 --> 00:21:44,520
Speaker 1: and I'm back and forth, back and forth, like should

414
00:21:44,520 --> 00:21:46,240
Speaker 1: I try to get another look at him? Like oh,

415
00:21:46,280 --> 00:21:47,960
Speaker 1: that's grunting him in have him coming close and let

416
00:21:47,960 --> 00:21:49,480
Speaker 1: me look at him again and give him a little grunt.

417
00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:51,919
Speaker 1: He turns and looks kind of starts walking back my

418
00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:54,520
Speaker 1: way never quite comes in the rain. But as he's

419
00:21:54,520 --> 00:21:56,720
Speaker 1: coming by, I'm like, no, no, no, I'm not gonna

420
00:21:56,720 --> 00:21:59,240
Speaker 1: shoot that buck. On day one, I gotta give this

421
00:21:59,280 --> 00:22:01,120
Speaker 1: time a ride out out. I gotta I gotta enjoy

422
00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:03,000
Speaker 1: the ride, right you wait all this time to hunt Iowa.

423
00:22:03,040 --> 00:22:04,560
Speaker 1: You gotta enjoy it. You gotta see it. You don't

424
00:22:04,560 --> 00:22:08,200
Speaker 1: want to stop it right away. So I passed that buck.

425
00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:11,400
Speaker 1: The rest of the day come, you know, carries on.

426
00:22:11,520 --> 00:22:15,879
Speaker 1: I was very like hyped out, so pumped. It's everything

427
00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:18,280
Speaker 1: I dreamed of suck to like really nice bucks that

428
00:22:18,280 --> 00:22:21,120
Speaker 1: would have shot in a lot of places already. Um,

429
00:22:21,160 --> 00:22:23,480
Speaker 1: this is gonna be the week of all weeks. The

430
00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:26,560
Speaker 1: day moves on, a few more bucks cruise through. It's

431
00:22:26,640 --> 00:22:30,560
Speaker 1: looking good. I decide that I'm gonna change my plans.

432
00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:32,879
Speaker 1: My original plan was to hunt that morning see what

433
00:22:32,960 --> 00:22:35,280
Speaker 1: was going on, and then at midday I was gonna

434
00:22:35,320 --> 00:22:38,480
Speaker 1: bail out, pull trail cameras, and scout my way out

435
00:22:38,480 --> 00:22:40,680
Speaker 1: of the property. So that now I'd have a morning

436
00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:43,879
Speaker 1: hunt and trail camera intel and a midday scout to

437
00:22:43,960 --> 00:22:46,960
Speaker 1: assess what's happening on the overlooked farm, and then I

438
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:49,840
Speaker 1: would go hunt my buddies farm in the evening to

439
00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:51,760
Speaker 1: do the same thing, to scout my way in, to

440
00:22:51,840 --> 00:22:54,600
Speaker 1: get set up and to pull another camera and to

441
00:22:54,680 --> 00:22:57,280
Speaker 1: learn what's going on? But after all that hot and

442
00:22:57,320 --> 00:22:59,679
Speaker 1: heavy action that morning, and I forgot to mention I

443
00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:02,600
Speaker 1: all so saw one more buck, just for a couple

444
00:23:02,600 --> 00:23:05,359
Speaker 1: of seconds, running on a neighboring field that looked like

445
00:23:05,359 --> 00:23:08,879
Speaker 1: a big frame, so maybe a third good buck. So

446
00:23:08,960 --> 00:23:11,760
Speaker 1: all that action stopped. Made me think, man, it's on

447
00:23:11,880 --> 00:23:14,640
Speaker 1: and here. You don't leave fish to find fish, as

448
00:23:14,640 --> 00:23:17,000
Speaker 1: they say. So I decided I need to stick it

449
00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:20,200
Speaker 1: out here all day and see what happens the rest

450
00:23:20,240 --> 00:23:22,600
Speaker 1: of this, you know, afternoon. So I ended up sitting

451
00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:27,679
Speaker 1: through midday, sat the entire day there, and we saw

452
00:23:27,720 --> 00:23:30,920
Speaker 1: a few more young bucks, but no other shooters came

453
00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:34,120
Speaker 1: out that day. But we you know, we felt good

454
00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:37,240
Speaker 1: about it. We put in the time, had good opportunities,

455
00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:40,399
Speaker 1: just not quite what I was waiting for. Um, so

456
00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:43,359
Speaker 1: I thought, you know what great day one. On the

457
00:23:43,400 --> 00:23:45,919
Speaker 1: way out, I pulled a couple of cameras. One of

458
00:23:45,960 --> 00:23:49,439
Speaker 1: them had not taken pictures since September ten. That was disappointing.

459
00:23:49,920 --> 00:23:51,760
Speaker 1: The other one that had taken pictures all the way

460
00:23:51,840 --> 00:23:53,800
Speaker 1: up until that point. So that night I checked the

461
00:23:53,840 --> 00:23:58,440
Speaker 1: cameras and what the cameras showed me was kind of disappointing.

462
00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:01,320
Speaker 1: What that And it's only one camera, so you can

463
00:24:01,359 --> 00:24:04,800
Speaker 1: only take so much from it. But it basically showed

464
00:24:04,840 --> 00:24:07,359
Speaker 1: me that there was only one mature buck that was

465
00:24:07,440 --> 00:24:09,520
Speaker 1: hitting that camera. There was a bunch of young bucks,

466
00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:12,400
Speaker 1: there was the bucks that I passed on um and

467
00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:14,680
Speaker 1: a number of others, but there was only one deer

468
00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:17,479
Speaker 1: that was definitely four or older. He was a stud.

469
00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:21,000
Speaker 1: He was definitely a four plus year old buck, big

470
00:24:21,080 --> 00:24:23,879
Speaker 1: like main frame ten with an inside tying on one

471
00:24:23,920 --> 00:24:27,400
Speaker 1: of them, so technically at eleven points, I mean, a slammer.

472
00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:32,760
Speaker 1: But he was the only one, and that was a

473
00:24:32,800 --> 00:24:36,200
Speaker 1: little disappointing because this is Iowa, right, Yeah, you kind

474
00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:37,520
Speaker 1: of go into this, at least as an out of

475
00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:39,960
Speaker 1: state or you go into Iowa thinking, man, they're behind

476
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:42,240
Speaker 1: every corner. There should be big bucks or at least

477
00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:45,040
Speaker 1: mature bucks all over the place. This property seemed to

478
00:24:45,040 --> 00:24:46,919
Speaker 1: only have one or at least hitting that camera. So

479
00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:49,520
Speaker 1: I thought, all right, I'm gonna go back in and

480
00:24:49,600 --> 00:24:51,520
Speaker 1: hunt that same spot in the morning, because this just

481
00:24:51,840 --> 00:24:55,080
Speaker 1: seems like such a screaming rut spot and the activity

482
00:24:55,119 --> 00:24:57,600
Speaker 1: was pretty darn good yesterday. Let's go back and sit

483
00:24:57,640 --> 00:25:01,280
Speaker 1: it in the morning, So I go back the next day.

484
00:25:01,359 --> 00:25:03,560
Speaker 1: We get in there well ahead of daylight. We get

485
00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:05,760
Speaker 1: back into that same location we left everything up in

486
00:25:05,760 --> 00:25:09,760
Speaker 1: the tree and we sit it out, and pretty close

487
00:25:09,800 --> 00:25:13,400
Speaker 1: to first light, here comes that same nice, tight and tall,

488
00:25:13,520 --> 00:25:17,640
Speaker 1: like one thirty something buck comes in and this time

489
00:25:17,640 --> 00:25:20,960
Speaker 1: he comes into ten yards and I'm like, oh man,

490
00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:26,199
Speaker 1: it's the only day two. He's really nice. But I

491
00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:27,960
Speaker 1: even grabbed the bow this time, and I'm holding like,

492
00:25:28,040 --> 00:25:30,520
Speaker 1: don't come closer, don't come closer. If he gives me

493
00:25:30,560 --> 00:25:33,000
Speaker 1: just a screaming shot, I wonder if I should shoot it,

494
00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:35,720
Speaker 1: Like is this stupid not to shoot this deer? Not

495
00:25:35,800 --> 00:25:40,160
Speaker 1: only because you know he's a nice buck in most places, Um,

496
00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:44,399
Speaker 1: I'm also filming this show and there's definitely a certain

497
00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:46,679
Speaker 1: set of pressures that come with that that you know,

498
00:25:47,280 --> 00:25:49,680
Speaker 1: just being honest with you guys, like that is something

499
00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:51,520
Speaker 1: that's on my mind, and it's something that I think

500
00:25:51,560 --> 00:25:54,520
Speaker 1: about and concerned about, and gosh, I want to make

501
00:25:54,520 --> 00:25:56,880
Speaker 1: sure that you know, we have something that people want

502
00:25:56,880 --> 00:25:59,800
Speaker 1: to watch. This Should I be shooting this deer? But

503
00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:03,600
Speaker 1: I decide no, if I have to question it, if

504
00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:06,080
Speaker 1: I'm not certain on it, if I'm not dead set.

505
00:26:06,119 --> 00:26:07,600
Speaker 1: This is the buck I want. I'm not gonna do it.

506
00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:09,360
Speaker 1: I'm not just gonna shoot a buck because you gotta

507
00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:12,639
Speaker 1: kill something. Um. I want to enjoy this trip. I

508
00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:14,560
Speaker 1: want to see what it has to offer. I wanna

509
00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:18,200
Speaker 1: see what's gonna happen. So far, so good, so there's

510
00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:20,320
Speaker 1: got to be better stuff ahead, all right. So I

511
00:26:20,359 --> 00:26:22,919
Speaker 1: don't even try to shoot that deer that time, and

512
00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:26,040
Speaker 1: the day carries on, and that's basically all we see

513
00:26:26,080 --> 00:26:29,600
Speaker 1: that morning, slow his way down, and we get to

514
00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:35,119
Speaker 1: around noon ish, and I remember sitting there and thinking

515
00:26:35,119 --> 00:26:38,280
Speaker 1: through all this and thinking, man, between what I've seen here,

516
00:26:38,320 --> 00:26:40,960
Speaker 1: now we've sat you know, for a morning and evening

517
00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:43,439
Speaker 1: and another morning, and we check those trail cameras and

518
00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:45,960
Speaker 1: that yet to see a buck that, you know, I

519
00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:52,000
Speaker 1: think is definitely mature. Meanwhile, on my buddy's property, we've

520
00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:55,520
Speaker 1: been getting camera pictures of a number of bucks that

521
00:26:55,560 --> 00:26:57,600
Speaker 1: are at least four years old. I think there's at

522
00:26:57,640 --> 00:27:01,760
Speaker 1: least like, I don't know, four five maybe like that

523
00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:04,680
Speaker 1: that had been rolling through on a decently consistent basis.

524
00:27:05,520 --> 00:27:08,280
Speaker 1: And I'm just sitting there thinking, man, there's all these

525
00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:11,320
Speaker 1: bucks on this other property. My wasting my time here

526
00:27:12,040 --> 00:27:14,439
Speaker 1: midday decide, you know what, all right, I did my

527
00:27:14,480 --> 00:27:17,360
Speaker 1: assessment of the overlooked farm, It's time to go assess

528
00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:22,280
Speaker 1: my buddies farm. So midday we pulled on everything and

529
00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:25,080
Speaker 1: we drive to this other farm and we decided where

530
00:27:25,160 --> 00:27:28,200
Speaker 1: to go in and get set up in this spot. Now,

531
00:27:28,640 --> 00:27:34,320
Speaker 1: this farm, my buddies farm is How would I describe this.

532
00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:42,360
Speaker 1: Let's imagine you were to have two big valleys. One

533
00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:46,360
Speaker 1: of these big valleys runs east to west. Imagine it's

534
00:27:46,359 --> 00:27:49,399
Speaker 1: a big line of timber with a creek at the

535
00:27:49,440 --> 00:27:53,600
Speaker 1: bottom of it, running east to west, so very low

536
00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:55,879
Speaker 1: at the bottom, with steve ridges that rise up to

537
00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:58,359
Speaker 1: the top of either side. On either side to the

538
00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:01,800
Speaker 1: north and south of this big big line our crop

539
00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:05,160
Speaker 1: fields corn fields on the top. You then have another

540
00:28:05,280 --> 00:28:08,040
Speaker 1: valley that comes in running north and south in the bottom,

541
00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:10,000
Speaker 1: so you're effectively creating a tea. There's a big t

542
00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:14,800
Speaker 1: My buddy's property has part of that tea. Imagine you're

543
00:28:14,800 --> 00:28:16,960
Speaker 1: looking at the te he has the center line and

544
00:28:17,040 --> 00:28:19,040
Speaker 1: the top line, and then it runs off to the right.

545
00:28:19,240 --> 00:28:21,120
Speaker 1: To the left side of that tea is the neighbors.

546
00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:22,920
Speaker 1: To the right side of the tea is the property

547
00:28:22,920 --> 00:28:25,280
Speaker 1: I can hunt, and then there's a couple of little

548
00:28:25,280 --> 00:28:27,480
Speaker 1: fingers that dropped down off the top of the tea

549
00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:30,720
Speaker 1: that we can also hunt. But the main, the main

550
00:28:30,800 --> 00:28:34,440
Speaker 1: meat and potatoes of this farm is that center post

551
00:28:34,480 --> 00:28:36,879
Speaker 1: of the tea, and then the top right line of

552
00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:42,080
Speaker 1: the te timber draw big ridges, and the creek bottom.

553
00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:44,720
Speaker 1: So that's what this property is offered. And there were

554
00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:47,520
Speaker 1: a couple of camera locations that have been getting bucks

555
00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:51,200
Speaker 1: on them over the past couple of weeks, and one

556
00:28:51,240 --> 00:28:53,719
Speaker 1: of them in particular had been like red Hot. We

557
00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:58,200
Speaker 1: were getting several mature bucks almost daily rolling through this spot,

558
00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:01,200
Speaker 1: and I knew in my head that, man, this spot

559
00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:04,600
Speaker 1: has been on fire, and looking at the maps, I

560
00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:07,160
Speaker 1: think there's a reason why that is. I think that

561
00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:11,120
Speaker 1: there's this terrain feature. This spot is at the junction

562
00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:14,200
Speaker 1: of the teeth. So if you were to envision this

563
00:29:14,320 --> 00:29:19,920
Speaker 1: tea again, the left side of the tea and the

564
00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:23,920
Speaker 1: left how am I describing this, So if if you're

565
00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:25,600
Speaker 1: looking at the t and if you were looking at

566
00:29:25,640 --> 00:29:29,680
Speaker 1: the top left side, that valley, like I mentioned, was

567
00:29:29,680 --> 00:29:33,560
Speaker 1: on the neighbors, but we have the junction point, so

568
00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:36,480
Speaker 1: basically it's like an upside down l and at that

569
00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:39,440
Speaker 1: junction point there's a field in the back to the left,

570
00:29:39,960 --> 00:29:42,160
Speaker 1: and then there's the timbered ridge that I'm on and

571
00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:44,960
Speaker 1: the top valley all coming together here. So I thought,

572
00:29:44,960 --> 00:29:47,320
Speaker 1: all right, let's slip into this spot near where that

573
00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:50,680
Speaker 1: camera is. Let's scout it out. See exactly like what

574
00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:53,040
Speaker 1: it looks like on the ground, and why these bucks

575
00:29:53,040 --> 00:29:55,040
Speaker 1: are cruising through here. But my idea was that these

576
00:29:55,080 --> 00:29:58,000
Speaker 1: deer must be cruising this ridge looking for does it

577
00:29:58,080 --> 00:30:00,400
Speaker 1: must be dough bedding along the top. So these ridges

578
00:30:00,880 --> 00:30:03,040
Speaker 1: and these bucks are cruising the ridge. And then at

579
00:30:03,080 --> 00:30:07,200
Speaker 1: this corner right there's this field that pinches into the ridge,

580
00:30:07,640 --> 00:30:09,480
Speaker 1: right at the junction of the two posts of the

581
00:30:09,520 --> 00:30:13,040
Speaker 1: tea of the of the timber, and there's a knob

582
00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:15,800
Speaker 1: off of that, and I thought to myself, maybe there's

583
00:30:15,840 --> 00:30:17,760
Speaker 1: some kind of feature here. I knew it was cliffy.

584
00:30:17,800 --> 00:30:20,760
Speaker 1: I knew that these valleys were very steep, and that

585
00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:22,720
Speaker 1: there's only a couple of places where deer can go

586
00:30:22,800 --> 00:30:25,000
Speaker 1: up and down them. In my quick speed scout in

587
00:30:25,040 --> 00:30:27,000
Speaker 1: the spring and summer, I had noticed that, but I

588
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:31,560
Speaker 1: hadn't actually climbed up into this corner. So November two,

589
00:30:32,080 --> 00:30:35,480
Speaker 1: midday I slip into their scout my way in and

590
00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:38,240
Speaker 1: find what I think is why these deer passing through there.

591
00:30:38,600 --> 00:30:42,280
Speaker 1: As I mentioned, basically, this whole timbered ridge side is

592
00:30:42,280 --> 00:30:47,720
Speaker 1: is cliffed out, Like I'm talking fifty eighty foot tall

593
00:30:47,960 --> 00:30:50,720
Speaker 1: rock cliffs that deer just can't even get up and down,

594
00:30:51,200 --> 00:30:54,560
Speaker 1: and there's just a couple of places where it softens up,

595
00:30:54,720 --> 00:30:58,320
Speaker 1: and there's gaps that lead down to the bottom. So

596
00:30:58,680 --> 00:31:00,440
Speaker 1: I go around this ridge and I try to find

597
00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:04,640
Speaker 1: a spot where I can see the east west valley

598
00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:08,080
Speaker 1: while also being able to cover the north south ridge

599
00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:10,680
Speaker 1: that I'm sitting on. And I find an old logging

600
00:31:10,800 --> 00:31:14,080
Speaker 1: road that cuts the corner of this ridge and goes

601
00:31:14,120 --> 00:31:19,840
Speaker 1: above the cliff and creates basically the one easy access

602
00:31:20,280 --> 00:31:23,560
Speaker 1: gap along this knob as it turns to head east

603
00:31:23,560 --> 00:31:25,960
Speaker 1: and west. And what it looks like to me is that, Okay,

604
00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:29,680
Speaker 1: any deer that was running east to west that wants

605
00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:32,480
Speaker 1: to go north south has to go around this knob

606
00:31:32,520 --> 00:31:34,600
Speaker 1: because they're not gonna go down the cliff, and they're

607
00:31:34,640 --> 00:31:36,760
Speaker 1: not gonna want to go into the field. They're gonna

608
00:31:36,800 --> 00:31:40,880
Speaker 1: take the one opportunity, the one decent easy access to

609
00:31:40,920 --> 00:31:43,320
Speaker 1: get around this corner. So I'm thinking, man, this is

610
00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:46,200
Speaker 1: a great pinch. And I saw there was some thick

611
00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:48,840
Speaker 1: brushy stuff. There must be some does betting right here,

612
00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:51,280
Speaker 1: and probably on the neighbors over there. It looks good too.

613
00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:54,360
Speaker 1: Take all that, add to the fact that we had

614
00:31:54,400 --> 00:31:56,520
Speaker 1: trail camera pictures of bucks coming through here on a

615
00:31:56,560 --> 00:31:59,520
Speaker 1: relative the consistent basis look good to me. I got

616
00:31:59,520 --> 00:32:02,760
Speaker 1: set up in the tree that night, sat down, waded

617
00:32:02,800 --> 00:32:06,120
Speaker 1: it out, and nothing. I think I saw a little

618
00:32:06,160 --> 00:32:09,600
Speaker 1: dink and a couple of dos. And it was going

619
00:32:09,680 --> 00:32:14,720
Speaker 1: pretty slow and pretty disappointing until last light. The hunt's done.

620
00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:17,320
Speaker 1: Me and the cameraman start packing up, and I look

621
00:32:17,360 --> 00:32:19,760
Speaker 1: out at the horizon and you can see the field edge.

622
00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:22,880
Speaker 1: You know, we were probably a hundred some I don't

623
00:32:22,920 --> 00:32:24,640
Speaker 1: a hundred yards in from the field edge, maybe, but

624
00:32:24,680 --> 00:32:28,280
Speaker 1: you could see up there above us the kind of skyline.

625
00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:31,440
Speaker 1: And I see antlers come running down off of the

626
00:32:31,480 --> 00:32:33,280
Speaker 1: field edge into the timber towards me, and I pull

627
00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:35,880
Speaker 1: up my binoculars and then i'm it's dark in the timber.

628
00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:38,480
Speaker 1: I can hear grunting, and then I hear crashing. Then

629
00:32:38,480 --> 00:32:41,200
Speaker 1: I hear grunting and crashing, and long story short. A

630
00:32:41,280 --> 00:32:44,720
Speaker 1: dope comes walking right underneath us, and then in my

631
00:32:44,760 --> 00:32:46,880
Speaker 1: binoculars it's too dark to see it with my eyes,

632
00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:50,280
Speaker 1: but with my binoculars I see a big buck come

633
00:32:50,320 --> 00:32:54,040
Speaker 1: walking right towards us. This buck walks to ten yards

634
00:32:54,120 --> 00:32:57,160
Speaker 1: and hangs out around the tree for probably ten minutes,

635
00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:03,800
Speaker 1: just at the door, looking around, nibbling, making a scrape,

636
00:33:04,400 --> 00:33:07,400
Speaker 1: just doing buck stuff. He's probably like a hundred and

637
00:33:07,600 --> 00:33:12,560
Speaker 1: fifty inch type ten pointer, just a stud. Hangs out

638
00:33:12,600 --> 00:33:18,680
Speaker 1: there and eventually walks off. But great encounter. I mean,

639
00:33:18,720 --> 00:33:20,560
Speaker 1: even though it's after dark and I couldn't shoot him,

640
00:33:20,600 --> 00:33:22,880
Speaker 1: it was encouraging that there's a big buck in here.

641
00:33:23,480 --> 00:33:26,040
Speaker 1: He came right within range. If it had been daylight,

642
00:33:26,080 --> 00:33:29,280
Speaker 1: he could have shot him. Super encouraging, very excited. And

643
00:33:29,280 --> 00:33:31,520
Speaker 1: then I look at my phone and then I see

644
00:33:31,560 --> 00:33:35,040
Speaker 1: that my buddy Josh Ford or Hilliard killed the buck

645
00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:37,640
Speaker 1: that night on the same property. He also was given

646
00:33:37,640 --> 00:33:40,200
Speaker 1: access to the same spot, and he had killed a

647
00:33:40,280 --> 00:33:44,040
Speaker 1: buck across the road into another section. It's it's just

648
00:33:44,240 --> 00:33:47,320
Speaker 1: an open cut corn field next to a really good

649
00:33:47,360 --> 00:33:50,600
Speaker 1: neighboring property. I'll save this story for another day, but

650
00:33:50,840 --> 00:33:53,200
Speaker 1: lone both he shot a buck that night. We were

651
00:33:53,280 --> 00:33:55,600
Speaker 1: very excited about that. So I saw this buck after dark.

652
00:33:55,680 --> 00:33:59,480
Speaker 1: He shot this bucket nearby. We're on cloud nine day

653
00:33:59,480 --> 00:34:02,360
Speaker 1: to the h looking good hasn't come together for me yet,

654
00:34:02,440 --> 00:34:04,800
Speaker 1: but it seems like, you know, things are whether you

655
00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:19,959
Speaker 1: want to be. So that said, with what I've seen

656
00:34:20,080 --> 00:34:23,480
Speaker 1: that day, I decided, okay, we have this kind of

657
00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:26,560
Speaker 1: rut location that has trained features working for us, and

658
00:34:26,560 --> 00:34:28,120
Speaker 1: and a lot of this trip I was I was

659
00:34:28,160 --> 00:34:31,600
Speaker 1: trying to I was trying to balance two things. There's

660
00:34:31,640 --> 00:34:34,280
Speaker 1: one side of you that wants to learn about new places,

661
00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:37,680
Speaker 1: see new spots, find the action, find the sign. And

662
00:34:37,680 --> 00:34:40,120
Speaker 1: then there's another part of you, another part of hunting

663
00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:43,920
Speaker 1: the rut, which is find something that works, find a feature,

664
00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:46,760
Speaker 1: find up pinch point, find a dough betting air that works,

665
00:34:47,120 --> 00:34:49,000
Speaker 1: and then ride it out. You gotta give it time

666
00:34:49,040 --> 00:34:51,160
Speaker 1: because if it's a thing that will work and write

667
00:34:51,239 --> 00:34:54,640
Speaker 1: dough betting areas and funnels or pinch points, those are

668
00:34:54,680 --> 00:34:57,359
Speaker 1: things that do work during the rut. If you give

669
00:34:57,400 --> 00:35:00,200
Speaker 1: it time, eventually a buck's going to roll through. If

670
00:35:00,200 --> 00:35:02,400
Speaker 1: you judge it just based on one sit, you know,

671
00:35:02,440 --> 00:35:04,640
Speaker 1: you might have randomly not been there the right day

672
00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:06,440
Speaker 1: because there's a lot of things going on the rut.

673
00:35:06,600 --> 00:35:09,439
Speaker 1: The rut is very much a here but not their

674
00:35:09,520 --> 00:35:12,799
Speaker 1: type of deal, or today but not tomorrow. If any

675
00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:14,960
Speaker 1: of you've spent time in the woods during November, you

676
00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:17,480
Speaker 1: know that's the case. There will be days where it's dead,

677
00:35:18,520 --> 00:35:21,920
Speaker 1: but yards away it might be absolutely on fire, and

678
00:35:21,960 --> 00:35:24,680
Speaker 1: then there might be a spot that seems horrible today,

679
00:35:24,680 --> 00:35:26,319
Speaker 1: but tomorrow it could be the best place to be.

680
00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:29,799
Speaker 1: So there's this constant tension between do I need to

681
00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:31,399
Speaker 1: move or do I just need to wait it out

682
00:35:31,400 --> 00:35:34,560
Speaker 1: and give this place more time. I think sometimes during

683
00:35:34,560 --> 00:35:38,239
Speaker 1: the rut there's there's the temptation to move around too

684
00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:40,080
Speaker 1: much because you're trying to find the hot spot, and

685
00:35:40,080 --> 00:35:42,120
Speaker 1: you never give a spot enough time to actually produce.

686
00:35:42,160 --> 00:35:44,080
Speaker 1: So that was what I was thinking in my head

687
00:35:44,120 --> 00:35:46,040
Speaker 1: that night, even though I had a slow sit up

688
00:35:46,080 --> 00:35:48,320
Speaker 1: until after dark. I thought, you know what, it's definitely

689
00:35:48,360 --> 00:35:51,839
Speaker 1: deserves another set and maybe all day like this has

690
00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:54,520
Speaker 1: got the pinch, it's got the dough betting area. There's

691
00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:56,360
Speaker 1: a terrain feature is going to bring any buck the

692
00:35:56,360 --> 00:35:58,960
Speaker 1: cruises through here within twenty yards. I need to give

693
00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:01,760
Speaker 1: this time so I get out there the next morning

694
00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:06,719
Speaker 1: set it out, and I'm trying to think this through.

695
00:36:06,760 --> 00:36:12,239
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that morning I saw a couple of those.

696
00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:14,680
Speaker 1: I think was it. I mean, it was very slow,

697
00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:18,160
Speaker 1: so it was kind of disappointed when I kind of

698
00:36:18,200 --> 00:36:20,400
Speaker 1: I was very disappointed. I thought for sure that was

699
00:36:20,400 --> 00:36:22,600
Speaker 1: gonna be you know, that was gonna be a good

700
00:36:22,640 --> 00:36:29,279
Speaker 1: promising day. But so it goes midday arrives and one

701
00:36:29,320 --> 00:36:31,640
Speaker 1: of my friends sends me a text message. He says, hey,

702
00:36:32,040 --> 00:36:34,600
Speaker 1: you know, they are picking all the corn on the

703
00:36:34,640 --> 00:36:38,160
Speaker 1: rest of the property. Corns coming down, And in my head,

704
00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:40,840
Speaker 1: the first thing I think is, man, fresh cut corn

705
00:36:41,080 --> 00:36:45,919
Speaker 1: is a dough magnet. Those first couple of days after

706
00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:49,640
Speaker 1: a fields combined, there's so much waste grain available on

707
00:36:49,680 --> 00:36:51,960
Speaker 1: the ground that deer seemed to just flock to it.

708
00:36:51,960 --> 00:36:54,359
Speaker 1: It seems to, at least in my experience. It's it's

709
00:36:54,360 --> 00:36:57,640
Speaker 1: an instant draw. It is the top draw. It becomes

710
00:36:57,680 --> 00:37:01,480
Speaker 1: like the number one food source overnight. Well that in mind,

711
00:37:01,480 --> 00:37:04,319
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, man, fresh cut corn on the ground, that's

712
00:37:04,320 --> 00:37:05,800
Speaker 1: where all the doughs are gonna want to be. And

713
00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:07,120
Speaker 1: if that's where all the doughs want to be in

714
00:37:07,160 --> 00:37:09,759
Speaker 1: the evening, that's where the bucks are gonna be I

715
00:37:09,800 --> 00:37:14,560
Speaker 1: gotta get over there. So midday I decided to bail

716
00:37:14,600 --> 00:37:17,240
Speaker 1: out of this spot and go back to my truck,

717
00:37:18,120 --> 00:37:21,160
Speaker 1: get my decoy, drive around to the other side of

718
00:37:21,160 --> 00:37:24,120
Speaker 1: this property, and find a way to access what was

719
00:37:24,320 --> 00:37:28,239
Speaker 1: I thought probably the best area where this fresh cut

720
00:37:28,280 --> 00:37:30,960
Speaker 1: corn was. To take advantage of this situation I was

721
00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:33,440
Speaker 1: hoping would be the case. Now, I described to you

722
00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:37,720
Speaker 1: earlier how this t that this property kind of looks

723
00:37:37,760 --> 00:37:40,400
Speaker 1: like this timber tea with fields on the you know,

724
00:37:40,440 --> 00:37:42,840
Speaker 1: the outside of the tea had a couple of little

725
00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:44,520
Speaker 1: finger ridges sticking out of it. Well, one of these

726
00:37:44,560 --> 00:37:46,920
Speaker 1: little finger ridges that dropped off of the top east

727
00:37:46,960 --> 00:37:50,760
Speaker 1: west post of the t um created a little cove

728
00:37:51,320 --> 00:37:54,440
Speaker 1: like just imagine like a little half circle cove of

729
00:37:54,560 --> 00:37:58,360
Speaker 1: corn that pokes into that timber, pokes into all this stuff.

730
00:37:58,680 --> 00:38:01,000
Speaker 1: Well up there there's From my one walk through, I

731
00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:03,680
Speaker 1: remember seeing like there's some good prairie grass. There was

732
00:38:03,719 --> 00:38:07,920
Speaker 1: some good brushy, nasty kind of like multiflora rosie type

733
00:38:07,960 --> 00:38:10,239
Speaker 1: stuff up on here and in the neighbors, so good

734
00:38:10,239 --> 00:38:13,440
Speaker 1: good bedding, and then this little cove of what is

735
00:38:13,480 --> 00:38:17,960
Speaker 1: now freshly cut corn poking into that. As I'm thinking about, man,

736
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:20,120
Speaker 1: where would be the spot that does that feel comfortable

737
00:38:20,160 --> 00:38:22,799
Speaker 1: coming on feeding in daylight? And where Bucks would kind

738
00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:25,719
Speaker 1: of funnel out into their check Does this spot kind

739
00:38:25,719 --> 00:38:29,560
Speaker 1: of was the um one of the obvious options that

740
00:38:29,600 --> 00:38:32,520
Speaker 1: I thought would work well. So me and the cameraman

741
00:38:32,600 --> 00:38:34,160
Speaker 1: we just all right, we're gonna go in there. We're

742
00:38:34,200 --> 00:38:37,120
Speaker 1: gonna set the decoy up on the edge, and there

743
00:38:37,120 --> 00:38:38,560
Speaker 1: will be a bunch of doughs that come out here

744
00:38:38,560 --> 00:38:41,160
Speaker 1: at night, and there'll be bucks. Bucks will come out

745
00:38:41,160 --> 00:38:43,800
Speaker 1: looking for the doughs. We'll see this decoy and maybe

746
00:38:43,800 --> 00:38:47,239
Speaker 1: one will pull on to us. We slipped down in there,

747
00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:51,400
Speaker 1: and it is kind of a debacle as far as access.

748
00:38:51,600 --> 00:38:55,960
Speaker 1: I had forgotten how hard to get through this um

749
00:38:56,200 --> 00:38:59,040
Speaker 1: backside of the property was. It was actually thicker and

750
00:38:59,120 --> 00:39:03,640
Speaker 1: brushier than I realized. I I should have just coming

751
00:39:03,760 --> 00:39:06,080
Speaker 1: from the corn field. But I remember thinking to myself,

752
00:39:06,120 --> 00:39:08,120
Speaker 1: all right, if I come in from the cornfield, I

753
00:39:08,120 --> 00:39:10,319
Speaker 1: will have to walk out the corn field, and I

754
00:39:10,360 --> 00:39:13,480
Speaker 1: don't want to walk out the cornfield um and have

755
00:39:13,560 --> 00:39:14,800
Speaker 1: a bunch of deer out there that I had to

756
00:39:14,840 --> 00:39:18,000
Speaker 1: spook to get out. I'd much rather walk out the backside.

757
00:39:18,840 --> 00:39:21,200
Speaker 1: But if I didn't have my truck on the back side,

758
00:39:21,200 --> 00:39:22,560
Speaker 1: I would have like a two and a half mile

759
00:39:22,680 --> 00:39:25,439
Speaker 1: walk to get all the way back to my truck

760
00:39:25,480 --> 00:39:27,759
Speaker 1: what was originally parked. But if I came from the

761
00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:30,080
Speaker 1: back side, parked over there, and then walked in this

762
00:39:30,200 --> 00:39:32,680
Speaker 1: back hill, I could kind of do a back door

763
00:39:32,800 --> 00:39:35,000
Speaker 1: entry and then I would have an exit route after

764
00:39:35,040 --> 00:39:37,520
Speaker 1: the hunt where I would hopefully not spook all the

765
00:39:37,520 --> 00:39:39,960
Speaker 1: deer in the cornfield. That was the thought process going

766
00:39:39,960 --> 00:39:42,600
Speaker 1: into this well ended up being much more difficult to

767
00:39:42,600 --> 00:39:46,080
Speaker 1: get in, and as I'm doing I'm thinking, jeez, this

768
00:39:46,680 --> 00:39:49,160
Speaker 1: looks way better than I thought. This probably dear bed

769
00:39:49,239 --> 00:39:52,160
Speaker 1: in here. I've probably educated some deer as I'm slipping

770
00:39:52,160 --> 00:39:53,480
Speaker 1: in it. So I was kind of pissed as I

771
00:39:53,520 --> 00:39:56,920
Speaker 1: was just getting in with myself. We got set up,

772
00:39:57,040 --> 00:40:01,520
Speaker 1: got the decoy out, and and it up either because

773
00:40:01,560 --> 00:40:05,880
Speaker 1: of my access or because of whatever was going on

774
00:40:05,920 --> 00:40:11,319
Speaker 1: another very very dead set. We saw a couple of

775
00:40:11,320 --> 00:40:14,759
Speaker 1: dolls and a forky and that was it. And I'm thinking, man,

776
00:40:14,880 --> 00:40:17,359
Speaker 1: what is going on? Like what kind of situation in

777
00:40:17,360 --> 00:40:20,399
Speaker 1: Iowa where you've got a fresh cut corn field? And

778
00:40:20,400 --> 00:40:22,719
Speaker 1: and that's it. And we walked, like I said, we

779
00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:26,720
Speaker 1: walked through a decent bit, but there was this whole

780
00:40:26,800 --> 00:40:30,600
Speaker 1: other eight percent of the cover was untouched that I

781
00:40:30,640 --> 00:40:33,000
Speaker 1: wasn't inside of that that should have had deer in it,

782
00:40:33,040 --> 00:40:34,880
Speaker 1: that should have been piling out to this corn field

783
00:40:35,680 --> 00:40:38,799
Speaker 1: super slow. I couldn't understand it. So we now had

784
00:40:38,800 --> 00:40:41,040
Speaker 1: had like a very dead day. I mean all day

785
00:40:41,080 --> 00:40:43,960
Speaker 1: we've seen just a few dos and a forky uh,

786
00:40:43,960 --> 00:40:46,879
Speaker 1: and the whole yesterday, the whole day before that, other

787
00:40:46,920 --> 00:40:49,320
Speaker 1: than like that one like maybe back in the morning

788
00:40:49,719 --> 00:40:52,240
Speaker 1: and then seeing the back after dark, the whole rest

789
00:40:52,239 --> 00:40:54,319
Speaker 1: of the day, like most of the sitting hours had

790
00:40:54,360 --> 00:40:59,160
Speaker 1: been very dead. No cruising, no chasing, no nothing. So

791
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:02,239
Speaker 1: two days of that and I'm wondering what is going on,

792
00:41:02,360 --> 00:41:04,560
Speaker 1: Like this is way slower than it should be on

793
00:41:04,640 --> 00:41:10,320
Speaker 1: November two. In November three in Iowa with good cold conditions.

794
00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:12,640
Speaker 1: I mean we're talking these are twenty five degree mornings,

795
00:41:12,800 --> 00:41:17,279
Speaker 1: forty degree afternoons, the kind of conditions you're really hoping for.

796
00:41:18,320 --> 00:41:21,239
Speaker 1: So now it's day three and we're almost halfway through

797
00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:24,240
Speaker 1: my week, and it's looking a little glum. I remember

798
00:41:24,320 --> 00:41:28,520
Speaker 1: feeling like, yeah, I'm getting a little nervous. So day four, though,

799
00:41:29,160 --> 00:41:32,040
Speaker 1: I'm back to this debate. Do I keep on boxing

800
00:41:32,080 --> 00:41:34,320
Speaker 1: around trying to find something fresh, or do I trust

801
00:41:34,440 --> 00:41:38,040
Speaker 1: my terrain feature, trust my rut pillars and ride it

802
00:41:38,080 --> 00:41:40,759
Speaker 1: out and let one of these spots produce. I ended

803
00:41:40,840 --> 00:41:43,160
Speaker 1: up airing in that way. I end up saying, you

804
00:41:43,160 --> 00:41:47,560
Speaker 1: know what, this ridge betting slash kind of pinch around

805
00:41:47,600 --> 00:41:50,239
Speaker 1: this cliffy area, it's got to produce, Like there have

806
00:41:50,400 --> 00:41:53,200
Speaker 1: to be cruising bucks, they have to come through here.

807
00:41:53,640 --> 00:41:58,120
Speaker 1: It's gonna work. Now. I did notice the first day

808
00:41:58,120 --> 00:42:00,480
Speaker 1: I hunted there that there were a number of There

809
00:42:00,560 --> 00:42:05,239
Speaker 1: was like to two bucks, I guess, two young bucks

810
00:42:05,280 --> 00:42:07,279
Speaker 1: that had skirted the edge of us. There ends up

811
00:42:07,280 --> 00:42:09,800
Speaker 1: being a little draw, a little like I don't know

812
00:42:09,800 --> 00:42:12,200
Speaker 1: if it's like a like a ditch kind of in

813
00:42:12,239 --> 00:42:16,200
Speaker 1: that ridge that does dip through the cliff, and these

814
00:42:16,239 --> 00:42:19,480
Speaker 1: bucks came straight up to that. So I actually moved

815
00:42:20,040 --> 00:42:23,520
Speaker 1: our spot sixty yards maybe less than maybe fifty yards,

816
00:42:23,520 --> 00:42:25,400
Speaker 1: so that we would be able to shoot the cliff

817
00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:27,640
Speaker 1: pinch that I described to you already right at the corner.

818
00:42:27,680 --> 00:42:30,640
Speaker 1: But then also this little shoot that came up. So

819
00:42:30,719 --> 00:42:33,239
Speaker 1: now I can cover the two places that I think

820
00:42:33,320 --> 00:42:36,080
Speaker 1: deer have to come through while also still being range

821
00:42:36,080 --> 00:42:38,560
Speaker 1: of where that camera was getting us dear not shooting range,

822
00:42:38,600 --> 00:42:42,160
Speaker 1: but visible range, and with Doe betting up on these tops,

823
00:42:43,520 --> 00:42:45,120
Speaker 1: I get into that morning and I say, you know

824
00:42:45,160 --> 00:42:48,440
Speaker 1: what we're gonna We're gonna let this thing marinade. We're

825
00:42:48,480 --> 00:42:50,719
Speaker 1: gonna let this spot have the time to produce. Because

826
00:42:51,560 --> 00:42:53,959
Speaker 1: a buck has to cruise through here, and there's good

827
00:42:53,960 --> 00:42:56,600
Speaker 1: mature bucks in the area. Something's gonna cruise through. We

828
00:42:56,680 --> 00:42:58,759
Speaker 1: just need to be here and give a time. So

829
00:42:58,880 --> 00:43:04,080
Speaker 1: this is day four and I'm in this spot, very early,

830
00:43:04,480 --> 00:43:08,359
Speaker 1: settled in. We're believing in the spot. We sit there

831
00:43:08,360 --> 00:43:12,680
Speaker 1: all morning, nothing like a couple of dolls and a

832
00:43:12,760 --> 00:43:16,120
Speaker 1: year and a half old buck. We sit there all midday, nothing,

833
00:43:16,719 --> 00:43:23,080
Speaker 1: nothing cruised. We sit there all evening. Nothing, no shooters,

834
00:43:23,520 --> 00:43:26,040
Speaker 1: no three year olds, no two year olds. I mean,

835
00:43:26,040 --> 00:43:28,840
Speaker 1: it is dead. I'm talking to some of my buddies

836
00:43:28,840 --> 00:43:31,040
Speaker 1: and everyone's saying, man, it is dead as a door knob.

837
00:43:31,160 --> 00:43:35,160
Speaker 1: No one's seeing bucks. It's November four, it's cold, it's great,

838
00:43:35,400 --> 00:43:37,480
Speaker 1: this is what we had been hoping for, and no

839
00:43:37,520 --> 00:43:42,400
Speaker 1: one's seeing anything. Um, what's going on? Was what I

840
00:43:42,440 --> 00:43:44,000
Speaker 1: was thinking in my head, like, what is going on

841
00:43:44,040 --> 00:43:48,720
Speaker 1: what's happening? You know, these are spots that should be producing. Uh.

842
00:43:48,760 --> 00:43:51,239
Speaker 1: So now we're more than halfway through the week, and

843
00:43:51,440 --> 00:43:54,120
Speaker 1: very quickly I went from being super stoked on morning

844
00:43:54,160 --> 00:43:59,240
Speaker 1: one tonw after day four being ah kind of panicked,

845
00:43:59,560 --> 00:44:03,360
Speaker 1: like what what's gonna happen? You know, Uh, this is

846
00:44:03,400 --> 00:44:08,040
Speaker 1: not going the way I hoped it would. So now

847
00:44:08,600 --> 00:44:12,840
Speaker 1: I am reconsidering what I think about the Buddy property

848
00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:18,000
Speaker 1: because while it did have more bucks on camera leading

849
00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:22,319
Speaker 1: into the hunt, uh, nothing's been on camera recently. I'd

850
00:44:22,400 --> 00:44:26,200
Speaker 1: sat several really good looking spots and put in serious hours.

851
00:44:26,239 --> 00:44:30,439
Speaker 1: I've hunted four all day sets, um and I've yet

852
00:44:30,480 --> 00:44:34,520
Speaker 1: to you know, get eyes on one during daylight. Down

853
00:44:34,520 --> 00:44:37,400
Speaker 1: to my last three days, less than half the trips left,

854
00:44:38,480 --> 00:44:41,399
Speaker 1: I decided, you know what, the set from the very

855
00:44:41,440 --> 00:44:45,560
Speaker 1: first morning on the overlooked farm, you know what, is

856
00:44:45,600 --> 00:44:48,560
Speaker 1: looking a little better, because, yeah, those two bucks on

857
00:44:48,640 --> 00:44:50,840
Speaker 1: day one weren't what I want on day one, But

858
00:44:50,920 --> 00:44:53,120
Speaker 1: on day five, the way things are looking as slow

859
00:44:53,160 --> 00:44:56,319
Speaker 1: as all this is, maybe I should just go back

860
00:44:56,360 --> 00:44:58,040
Speaker 1: there and try to kill one of them, right they

861
00:44:58,080 --> 00:45:00,000
Speaker 1: were moving through there. There seems to be a number

862
00:45:00,040 --> 00:45:03,120
Speaker 1: of bucks like that around Um, yeah, there's only the

863
00:45:03,160 --> 00:45:05,879
Speaker 1: one big shooter. But maybe at this point I can't

864
00:45:05,920 --> 00:45:08,279
Speaker 1: be so picky. I've tried to ride this thing out.

865
00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:10,160
Speaker 1: I've tried to see what Iowa has to offer, and

866
00:45:10,160 --> 00:45:12,000
Speaker 1: it kind of looks like we're in a lockdown type

867
00:45:12,040 --> 00:45:16,520
Speaker 1: situation even though it's early. Um, I'm seeing that kind

868
00:45:16,520 --> 00:45:19,080
Speaker 1: of thing, like all my buddies are experiencing that kind

869
00:45:19,120 --> 00:45:22,799
Speaker 1: of thing, like nothing's moving around, nothing's chasing maybe these

870
00:45:22,800 --> 00:45:26,880
Speaker 1: bucks around doors. So my ideas, Okay, I'm gonna go

871
00:45:26,920 --> 00:45:32,240
Speaker 1: in there and I'm going to sit the ultimate hub

872
00:45:32,920 --> 00:45:36,680
Speaker 1: pinch point betting year zone again and we're gonna ride

873
00:45:36,680 --> 00:45:39,279
Speaker 1: that thing out and something is going to come through there.

874
00:45:39,880 --> 00:45:43,879
Speaker 1: So Day five A head in and that's the game plan.

875
00:45:44,600 --> 00:45:49,880
Speaker 1: I slipping there early. We get up in the set,

876
00:45:50,760 --> 00:45:58,960
Speaker 1: we're settled in, we're feeling good, nice cold morning, and nothing.

877
00:46:00,560 --> 00:46:04,520
Speaker 1: We're not seeing cruising bucks, We're not seeing chasing bucks.

878
00:46:05,280 --> 00:46:07,600
Speaker 1: I've got three little pinch points all converging in a

879
00:46:07,680 --> 00:46:09,480
Speaker 1: hub in the middle. I've got a mega scrape, I've

880
00:46:09,480 --> 00:46:12,080
Speaker 1: got a pond, and I've got a CRP field at

881
00:46:12,080 --> 00:46:14,560
Speaker 1: my backside and a dynamite betting area in front of me.

882
00:46:14,600 --> 00:46:17,000
Speaker 1: And my winds blowing off across section, not into any

883
00:46:17,040 --> 00:46:20,839
Speaker 1: of that good stuff, and nothing is coming through. And

884
00:46:20,920 --> 00:46:27,160
Speaker 1: I will definitely admit to a lot of frustration. Um,

885
00:46:27,280 --> 00:46:30,080
Speaker 1: you wait all year, you wait six years in this case,

886
00:46:30,120 --> 00:46:35,080
Speaker 1: to come hunt Iowa in the rut, and it's it's

887
00:46:35,520 --> 00:46:39,280
Speaker 1: a dud. I mean, it is absolutely worse than hunting

888
00:46:39,400 --> 00:46:43,480
Speaker 1: Michigan to this point, is what I was telling myself. Um.

889
00:46:43,520 --> 00:46:45,279
Speaker 1: And then I'm also thinking, man, I'm i gonna get

890
00:46:45,320 --> 00:46:47,360
Speaker 1: a buck killed. And already some of the other guys

891
00:46:47,360 --> 00:46:51,200
Speaker 1: in the crew had been killing bucks, and I'm thinking, gosh,

892
00:46:51,239 --> 00:46:54,080
Speaker 1: am I the only one that doesn't kill one. Um.

893
00:46:54,200 --> 00:46:56,560
Speaker 1: Like those kinds of thoughts were slipping in the back

894
00:46:56,600 --> 00:47:00,600
Speaker 1: of my mind, and uh, you know, definitely stressed now

895
00:47:01,560 --> 00:47:07,040
Speaker 1: and wasn't Um. I hate to say it, but I

896
00:47:07,080 --> 00:47:09,520
Speaker 1: wasn't enjoying it. I was just letting the pressure of

897
00:47:09,600 --> 00:47:12,040
Speaker 1: it get to me. You know, we've been We've done five,

898
00:47:12,239 --> 00:47:15,560
Speaker 1: well four and a half days of hunting so far,

899
00:47:15,760 --> 00:47:18,920
Speaker 1: is that right? Yeah, that whole morning, I guess was

900
00:47:19,160 --> 00:47:25,799
Speaker 1: just uneventful. So mid day I'm wrestling with all this,

901
00:47:26,040 --> 00:47:27,839
Speaker 1: thinking about all this and trying to think of, Okay,

902
00:47:27,840 --> 00:47:29,880
Speaker 1: what have I done. How have I How have I

903
00:47:29,920 --> 00:47:35,000
Speaker 1: made these decisions? What am I doing wrong? And I'm

904
00:47:35,040 --> 00:47:38,880
Speaker 1: thinking to myself, Okay, I tried to trust the ridge

905
00:47:38,920 --> 00:47:43,719
Speaker 1: pinch I gave that time didn't pan out. I had

906
00:47:43,800 --> 00:47:48,440
Speaker 1: now come back to the ultimate hub location. I hunted

907
00:47:48,480 --> 00:47:50,920
Speaker 1: that that first morning and night the second morning, now

908
00:47:50,920 --> 00:47:52,799
Speaker 1: I'll come back and hunted the second morning. That's two

909
00:47:52,800 --> 00:47:55,720
Speaker 1: full days worth of sitting in this hub location. Hadn't

910
00:47:55,719 --> 00:47:58,000
Speaker 1: had a single mature buck roll through. I couldn't even

911
00:47:58,000 --> 00:47:59,320
Speaker 1: get one of those nice three and a half to

912
00:47:59,400 --> 00:48:02,839
Speaker 1: roll back through. So I'd originally planned on sitting there

913
00:48:02,840 --> 00:48:06,640
Speaker 1: all day. But now at like noon or one, I

914
00:48:06,680 --> 00:48:08,200
Speaker 1: get this idea that you know what, you gotta go

915
00:48:08,280 --> 00:48:10,960
Speaker 1: find it. Like it's not happening here. You need to

916
00:48:11,000 --> 00:48:14,640
Speaker 1: go try to find something different. There's there's something happening somewhere,

917
00:48:15,880 --> 00:48:19,960
Speaker 1: Go find it. So I decided to pull up steaks,

918
00:48:20,120 --> 00:48:22,719
Speaker 1: slip out of there that night, and go scout some

919
00:48:22,760 --> 00:48:24,880
Speaker 1: stuff on this farm that I hadn't been to yet,

920
00:48:25,200 --> 00:48:27,200
Speaker 1: and see if I could find something worth setting up on.

921
00:48:27,360 --> 00:48:30,200
Speaker 1: See if I could get lucky and spot a buck

922
00:48:30,239 --> 00:48:32,640
Speaker 1: locked on a door somewhere, See if I could bump something,

923
00:48:33,080 --> 00:48:35,640
Speaker 1: See if I can make something happen. So we slipped

924
00:48:35,680 --> 00:48:39,239
Speaker 1: out like one or two, and they've been starting to

925
00:48:39,600 --> 00:48:42,200
Speaker 1: combine the field. This is a corn field, and there

926
00:48:42,320 --> 00:48:45,399
Speaker 1: was a set of timbered fingers running along the top

927
00:48:45,560 --> 00:48:48,879
Speaker 1: edge of this property. So I told you how Now

928
00:48:49,080 --> 00:48:50,759
Speaker 1: bear with me. Here is I try to describe this

929
00:48:50,800 --> 00:48:53,560
Speaker 1: farm again. Remember, this is the rectangle that's all field

930
00:48:53,680 --> 00:48:56,000
Speaker 1: except for the diagonal line from bottom left corner to

931
00:48:56,040 --> 00:48:58,480
Speaker 1: the top right corner and then a couple of spurs

932
00:48:58,520 --> 00:49:01,880
Speaker 1: off of that right well, there's also a finger that

933
00:49:01,960 --> 00:49:04,200
Speaker 1: kind of runs right along the top of the rectangle,

934
00:49:04,680 --> 00:49:06,600
Speaker 1: and that's coming off of a neighbors, but some of

935
00:49:06,640 --> 00:49:08,880
Speaker 1: it's on our at our side. So I thought, you

936
00:49:08,880 --> 00:49:10,239
Speaker 1: know what, I want to go up there. I've never

937
00:49:10,280 --> 00:49:13,680
Speaker 1: been up there. Let's go check that out. Maybe that's

938
00:49:13,680 --> 00:49:16,759
Speaker 1: where it's going on, and we'll still hunt and slip

939
00:49:16,760 --> 00:49:18,680
Speaker 1: our way through there and try to learn something. So

940
00:49:18,719 --> 00:49:20,799
Speaker 1: I do that. I get out, I walk up there.

941
00:49:21,360 --> 00:49:23,640
Speaker 1: I'm kind of still hunting my way through. They're scouting

942
00:49:23,760 --> 00:49:27,560
Speaker 1: and I'm just not finding much sign. It's like a scrape.

943
00:49:28,200 --> 00:49:30,480
Speaker 1: I think I saw a little tiny rub. There's some tracks.

944
00:49:31,239 --> 00:49:33,000
Speaker 1: It wasn't as thick and nasty in there, as I

945
00:49:33,040 --> 00:49:36,360
Speaker 1: was hoping it might be. UM. I basically walked the

946
00:49:36,440 --> 00:49:38,680
Speaker 1: up wind edge of that whole thing, just slowly going

947
00:49:38,719 --> 00:49:43,759
Speaker 1: through stopping glassing, stopping glassing, walking and maybe across the

948
00:49:43,880 --> 00:49:46,799
Speaker 1: entire finger with nothing. That screamed to me like you

949
00:49:46,840 --> 00:49:50,160
Speaker 1: absolutely need to be here. So I follow it all

950
00:49:50,200 --> 00:49:53,640
Speaker 1: the way down almost to the far east side of

951
00:49:53,640 --> 00:49:55,759
Speaker 1: this rectangle. Now, so we're almost down to the far

952
00:49:55,960 --> 00:49:58,800
Speaker 1: right hand side of the rectangle where that main draw

953
00:49:59,040 --> 00:50:01,600
Speaker 1: extends up to the top right corner of our rectangle.

954
00:50:02,320 --> 00:50:06,240
Speaker 1: Now upward that top right corner of the draw reaches

955
00:50:06,320 --> 00:50:10,319
Speaker 1: that corner, there is a pond and there's also one

956
00:50:10,320 --> 00:50:13,720
Speaker 1: of those spur draws that comes into it, creating a y.

957
00:50:13,800 --> 00:50:15,520
Speaker 1: This is a very tight why though. This isn't like

958
00:50:15,560 --> 00:50:18,400
Speaker 1: a big wide one. This is like a fifty yard

959
00:50:18,440 --> 00:50:21,359
Speaker 1: why brushy strip connecting in with another fifty yard why

960
00:50:21,440 --> 00:50:24,799
Speaker 1: brushy strip, and then you've got this pond in the

961
00:50:24,840 --> 00:50:26,960
Speaker 1: inside corner of that, and then a finger of the

962
00:50:27,000 --> 00:50:30,239
Speaker 1: corn extending down into there. This is a location where

963
00:50:30,239 --> 00:50:33,360
Speaker 1: I put a camera and I pulled that camera earlier

964
00:50:33,400 --> 00:50:35,959
Speaker 1: in the week when I pulled cameras that first day,

965
00:50:36,239 --> 00:50:39,520
Speaker 1: and this spot I placed in this gap between the

966
00:50:39,560 --> 00:50:43,000
Speaker 1: pond and the timbered ridges, this little brushy ridge not

967
00:50:43,040 --> 00:50:47,120
Speaker 1: even originally a draw um, because again this spot screamed

968
00:50:47,120 --> 00:50:49,160
Speaker 1: to me like a little tiny out of the way

969
00:50:49,360 --> 00:50:53,920
Speaker 1: convergence of pinch points. You've got three little draws timbered

970
00:50:54,000 --> 00:50:57,399
Speaker 1: lines all coming together with a pond. And then there's

971
00:50:57,400 --> 00:50:59,520
Speaker 1: actually crp on a little side here too, So this

972
00:50:59,600 --> 00:51:01,360
Speaker 1: is another one of those spots that circled as a

973
00:51:01,400 --> 00:51:04,279
Speaker 1: potential location. When I checked the camera, there was a

974
00:51:04,280 --> 00:51:06,799
Speaker 1: decent amount not tons, but there's a decent number of

975
00:51:06,800 --> 00:51:10,799
Speaker 1: bucks coming through this little gap, including the one shooter buck.

976
00:51:11,239 --> 00:51:14,040
Speaker 1: Now he was coming through the decent number of times.

977
00:51:14,600 --> 00:51:17,799
Speaker 1: One daylight picture. I can't remember the date of it.

978
00:51:17,800 --> 00:51:19,600
Speaker 1: It was in the late twenties, but there was one

979
00:51:19,640 --> 00:51:22,360
Speaker 1: daylight picture at last light he'd passed through here. So

980
00:51:23,280 --> 00:51:28,160
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, all right, this is total opposite side of

981
00:51:28,160 --> 00:51:30,759
Speaker 1: the farm. I haven't hunted, so it's been untouched. There

982
00:51:30,840 --> 00:51:32,719
Speaker 1: might be something going on down here. Hasn't been going

983
00:51:32,760 --> 00:51:34,440
Speaker 1: on up in the bottom left corner, but now we're

984
00:51:34,480 --> 00:51:36,960
Speaker 1: in the upper right corner. Maybe this is where it's at.

985
00:51:37,080 --> 00:51:39,120
Speaker 1: And I've got another one of these three way hubs

986
00:51:39,560 --> 00:51:42,719
Speaker 1: it's a tighter one, it's a smaller one, but this

987
00:51:42,840 --> 00:51:47,000
Speaker 1: could work. Uh Now, remember I'm slipping in here by foot.

988
00:51:47,040 --> 00:51:50,080
Speaker 1: I'd left my gear are sticks and saddles and stuff

989
00:51:50,120 --> 00:51:53,040
Speaker 1: up in the tree at the original location. So we've

990
00:51:53,040 --> 00:51:55,680
Speaker 1: got a southerly wind. It's starting to get warmer now

991
00:51:55,760 --> 00:51:59,160
Speaker 1: by the way the weather it's turned starting to get warmer.

992
00:51:59,239 --> 00:52:01,520
Speaker 1: We're getting down on to the final couple of days

993
00:52:01,520 --> 00:52:03,920
Speaker 1: of the hunt, and I decided, you know what, we'ren't

994
00:52:03,920 --> 00:52:08,000
Speaker 1: to just make a natural ground blind type situation work here.

995
00:52:08,160 --> 00:52:11,160
Speaker 1: I got up on a dike the pond. On one

996
00:52:11,200 --> 00:52:12,880
Speaker 1: side of the pond, there's a there's a dike like

997
00:52:12,960 --> 00:52:17,520
Speaker 1: a tall uh ridge. I'm blanking on the right word

998
00:52:17,560 --> 00:52:21,400
Speaker 1: here that would describe this um but imagine like a

999
00:52:21,400 --> 00:52:25,640
Speaker 1: tall hillside, and then it drops down like maybe fifteen

1000
00:52:25,920 --> 00:52:29,280
Speaker 1: yards is down to the bottom where these two draws

1001
00:52:29,320 --> 00:52:32,200
Speaker 1: come together, where the little finger of corn comes together,

1002
00:52:32,760 --> 00:52:36,000
Speaker 1: and where this gap is between the dike and between

1003
00:52:36,000 --> 00:52:38,319
Speaker 1: the draw where the camera was was getting pictures of

1004
00:52:38,360 --> 00:52:41,080
Speaker 1: these bucks. So I just tucked into this tall grass

1005
00:52:41,160 --> 00:52:44,800
Speaker 1: right there, and my cameraman's listening underneath me, and we

1006
00:52:44,920 --> 00:52:47,279
Speaker 1: lay down and we start kind of mapping out all

1007
00:52:47,320 --> 00:52:50,000
Speaker 1: the different things that might happen and how we'll react. Okay,

1008
00:52:50,080 --> 00:52:52,719
Speaker 1: so if a buck comes from the northwest corner, he's

1009
00:52:52,719 --> 00:52:54,600
Speaker 1: gonna be kind of angling towards us, so we're gonna

1010
00:52:54,600 --> 00:52:56,360
Speaker 1: have to stay laying down in the grass all the

1011
00:52:56,400 --> 00:52:58,200
Speaker 1: way till he's past us. And then right when he

1012
00:52:58,239 --> 00:53:01,680
Speaker 1: angles past us and turns, I'm gonna slowly rise up,

1013
00:53:01,760 --> 00:53:04,120
Speaker 1: draw and get a shot. If he comes from the

1014
00:53:04,239 --> 00:53:06,279
Speaker 1: left side, you know, we'll be able to get in

1015
00:53:06,320 --> 00:53:08,879
Speaker 1: position better because we'll have a little ridge, a little

1016
00:53:08,920 --> 00:53:11,400
Speaker 1: hillside in the way, and taller grass so I can

1017
00:53:11,400 --> 00:53:14,080
Speaker 1: actually get on my knees and draw back before he

1018
00:53:14,120 --> 00:53:16,640
Speaker 1: steps out into the open. So I basically like mapped

1019
00:53:16,640 --> 00:53:19,160
Speaker 1: out all these different things like this and practiced it.

1020
00:53:19,239 --> 00:53:22,280
Speaker 1: Practice drawing back, practice what the cameraman should do, practice

1021
00:53:22,280 --> 00:53:25,560
Speaker 1: what I should do, um and and just really sets

1022
00:53:25,640 --> 00:53:27,480
Speaker 1: up nice. I forgot to mention, like, because we're on

1023
00:53:27,480 --> 00:53:29,719
Speaker 1: the edge of this pond, we're able to have their

1024
00:53:29,760 --> 00:53:32,719
Speaker 1: wind blow across the pond, so we're almost completely safe

1025
00:53:32,719 --> 00:53:36,200
Speaker 1: from wind perspective with this really nice pinch point convergence

1026
00:53:36,200 --> 00:53:38,799
Speaker 1: of hubs in front of me in the water rail

1027
00:53:38,840 --> 00:53:40,880
Speaker 1: by the way, which could be a drafted deer. And

1028
00:53:40,920 --> 00:53:44,720
Speaker 1: then finally, about hundred yards away above us is where

1029
00:53:44,800 --> 00:53:48,239
Speaker 1: there's this another cut corn field on the neighbors. So

1030
00:53:48,600 --> 00:53:51,759
Speaker 1: if there are deer beded in these brushy draws, they're

1031
00:53:51,760 --> 00:53:56,160
Speaker 1: gonna head that way and probably funnel past us. So again,

1032
00:53:57,719 --> 00:54:00,160
Speaker 1: pillars of rut hunting. Right this whole week, I been

1033
00:54:00,160 --> 00:54:02,440
Speaker 1: trying to make sure everything I do revolves around one

1034
00:54:02,440 --> 00:54:04,680
Speaker 1: of these pillars. Am I close to doe betting or

1035
00:54:04,719 --> 00:54:08,440
Speaker 1: dope food? In this case, there's a cut cornfield past me,

1036
00:54:08,840 --> 00:54:12,360
Speaker 1: and there's these really thick, really nice looking brushy draws

1037
00:54:12,400 --> 00:54:16,400
Speaker 1: that just has to be deering end. Second pillar of

1038
00:54:16,440 --> 00:54:20,680
Speaker 1: run hunting funnels, any kind of feature that will concentrate

1039
00:54:20,680 --> 00:54:23,239
Speaker 1: dear movement a tight area. Well, I've got two of

1040
00:54:23,239 --> 00:54:26,080
Speaker 1: those coming together. So I've got two tight pinches that

1041
00:54:26,160 --> 00:54:28,920
Speaker 1: come together right next to me, and I'm set up

1042
00:54:28,920 --> 00:54:31,280
Speaker 1: in this location with water, which is a nice bonus.

1043
00:54:32,480 --> 00:54:35,040
Speaker 1: This has gotta be it. There's gonna be something to

1044
00:54:35,160 --> 00:54:37,239
Speaker 1: roll through here. There's gotta be something rolling through here.

1045
00:54:37,320 --> 00:54:39,080
Speaker 1: This is gonna be it. It's what me and my

1046
00:54:39,200 --> 00:54:43,640
Speaker 1: camera and Chase kept saying. We sit there, we sit there,

1047
00:54:44,640 --> 00:54:47,440
Speaker 1: we sit there, and then we start hearing to combine

1048
00:54:47,480 --> 00:54:49,920
Speaker 1: getting closer and closer. It's getting closer prime time, the

1049
00:54:50,000 --> 00:54:53,360
Speaker 1: combines getting closer, closer and closer. We're down to the

1050
00:54:53,440 --> 00:54:59,760
Speaker 1: last twenty minutes. The combine comes over, the hill, comes down, starts.

1051
00:55:00,000 --> 00:55:03,520
Speaker 1: I'm bining right next to us. Now, if you, if

1052
00:55:03,560 --> 00:55:06,359
Speaker 1: you guys hunt, you know farm country, you know as

1053
00:55:06,360 --> 00:55:08,920
Speaker 1: I described that, when the combines are in the field,

1054
00:55:09,040 --> 00:55:12,080
Speaker 1: when they're picking the corn. You know that fresh cut

1055
00:55:12,120 --> 00:55:14,120
Speaker 1: corn can be a drop and can be a drive.

1056
00:55:14,600 --> 00:55:16,480
Speaker 1: Right dear, you're gonna want to feed in that fresh

1057
00:55:16,800 --> 00:55:21,319
Speaker 1: combine corn. But from my experience, they're not gonna want

1058
00:55:21,320 --> 00:55:22,960
Speaker 1: to be like right next to the combine. Like if

1059
00:55:22,960 --> 00:55:25,640
Speaker 1: the combines doing the edge row, like, they're not gonna

1060
00:55:25,680 --> 00:55:27,920
Speaker 1: be standing on the edge. I know there's exceptions, there's

1061
00:55:27,960 --> 00:55:29,400
Speaker 1: all sorts of farmers out there. We will say, well,

1062
00:55:29,400 --> 00:55:31,200
Speaker 1: I'm in combine, the deer standing right next to me.

1063
00:55:31,560 --> 00:55:34,399
Speaker 1: I know that happens sometimes, but I also know that

1064
00:55:35,160 --> 00:55:37,839
Speaker 1: they usually aren't gonna be right there. Like I don't

1065
00:55:37,840 --> 00:55:39,840
Speaker 1: want to have a combine forty yards away from me

1066
00:55:40,360 --> 00:55:42,919
Speaker 1: and expect a buck to come out at thirty yards

1067
00:55:42,920 --> 00:55:46,200
Speaker 1: and let that happen. Well, that's basically what's happening to us.

1068
00:55:46,200 --> 00:55:48,200
Speaker 1: At the end of this night. We've got the combine

1069
00:55:48,280 --> 00:55:53,040
Speaker 1: work in the field right next to us, and a

1070
00:55:53,040 --> 00:55:57,520
Speaker 1: little forky comes through and that's it. Another one of

1071
00:55:57,520 --> 00:56:01,399
Speaker 1: these picture perfect rut locations and nothing's rolling through it all.

1072
00:56:02,560 --> 00:56:05,120
Speaker 1: And that's the end of day five. Down to two

1073
00:56:05,239 --> 00:56:08,160
Speaker 1: days left. I have yet to see a mature buck

1074
00:56:08,239 --> 00:56:11,279
Speaker 1: during daylight. I've hunted what I think are really good locations,

1075
00:56:11,840 --> 00:56:14,600
Speaker 1: and I've I've tried to balance the need to go

1076
00:56:14,719 --> 00:56:17,560
Speaker 1: find stuff with the balance to give a location time.

1077
00:56:17,680 --> 00:56:19,759
Speaker 1: Is at least the debate I kept having, and and

1078
00:56:19,800 --> 00:56:21,880
Speaker 1: really the the story of this trip is trying to

1079
00:56:21,920 --> 00:56:24,879
Speaker 1: walk those two walk that balancing act between the two.

1080
00:56:26,520 --> 00:56:29,760
Speaker 1: That's the end of the day five. And I'm definitely

1081
00:56:29,800 --> 00:56:35,479
Speaker 1: disappointed now, definitely concerned about what's happening. But I gotta

1082
00:56:35,560 --> 00:56:37,640
Speaker 1: keep going. I mean, that was my mantra all week

1083
00:56:37,760 --> 00:56:40,360
Speaker 1: was you gotta keep on grinding, you gotta keep going.

1084
00:56:41,040 --> 00:56:42,640
Speaker 1: And these are the things we've talked about, I mean

1085
00:56:42,640 --> 00:56:45,239
Speaker 1: a thousand times on this show. Right, Uh, this is

1086
00:56:45,280 --> 00:56:47,960
Speaker 1: a story you've heard some version of before from me. Right,

1087
00:56:48,160 --> 00:56:50,520
Speaker 1: how many times have I hunted during the rut and

1088
00:56:50,640 --> 00:56:52,520
Speaker 1: been concerned about how things are going. How many times

1089
00:56:52,520 --> 00:56:54,279
Speaker 1: has this happen to you where you've been hunting during

1090
00:56:54,320 --> 00:56:57,080
Speaker 1: the rut and it's been super slow and you're just thinking, man,

1091
00:56:57,600 --> 00:57:00,279
Speaker 1: this isn't gonna happen. Why is everybody else killing deer

1092
00:57:00,280 --> 00:57:02,480
Speaker 1: and I'm not. And then like in a snap, all

1093
00:57:02,480 --> 00:57:05,480
Speaker 1: of a sudden, bam, there's the buck, there's your shot.

1094
00:57:05,520 --> 00:57:07,560
Speaker 1: It's all changed. You just had the season in your

1095
00:57:07,600 --> 00:57:10,719
Speaker 1: life for the day of the year or whatever. I mean,

1096
00:57:10,760 --> 00:57:13,680
Speaker 1: the rut can change things so so so quickly. So

1097
00:57:13,719 --> 00:57:15,480
Speaker 1: this entire time, I'm just trying to remind myself it

1098
00:57:15,520 --> 00:57:17,320
Speaker 1: can all change in the second. They can all change

1099
00:57:17,320 --> 00:57:19,040
Speaker 1: in the second. It can all change in the second.

1100
00:57:19,080 --> 00:57:22,240
Speaker 1: Just keep going, Just keep going. So that's what I did.

1101
00:57:23,320 --> 00:57:26,280
Speaker 1: Day six rolls around and I'm debating what I want

1102
00:57:26,280 --> 00:57:29,120
Speaker 1: to do. I decide, you know what, the ultimate Hub

1103
00:57:30,120 --> 00:57:33,840
Speaker 1: needs one more try. I'm gonna double down on the

1104
00:57:33,920 --> 00:57:37,600
Speaker 1: Ultimate Hub. And I just believe that that spot just

1105
00:57:37,680 --> 00:57:40,720
Speaker 1: seems so good. It just seems so good. And at

1106
00:57:40,720 --> 00:57:43,200
Speaker 1: this point I lowered my standards. I'd be shooting any

1107
00:57:43,240 --> 00:57:47,160
Speaker 1: decent like three and a half ro buck. Something had

1108
00:57:47,200 --> 00:57:50,040
Speaker 1: to roll through there, and the way we've been operating

1109
00:57:50,120 --> 00:57:52,480
Speaker 1: with the wind. I just thought we can get away

1110
00:57:52,520 --> 00:57:54,440
Speaker 1: with hunting this thing. You know, this would be the

1111
00:57:55,760 --> 00:58:00,680
Speaker 1: We'd hunted it three mornings in an evening, and I

1112
00:58:00,680 --> 00:58:03,320
Speaker 1: thought one more morning. That's a lot to ride in

1113
00:58:03,360 --> 00:58:05,480
Speaker 1: one spot. But I also thought it could it could

1114
00:58:05,520 --> 00:58:08,320
Speaker 1: do it. It just had to do it. So we

1115
00:58:08,440 --> 00:58:12,040
Speaker 1: go in there morning of number six high hopes I

1116
00:58:12,080 --> 00:58:14,320
Speaker 1: had actually gotten I had a camera. I put a camera.

1117
00:58:14,320 --> 00:58:16,400
Speaker 1: I forgot to mention this. On day one, after that

1118
00:58:16,600 --> 00:58:20,120
Speaker 1: evening hunt, I went and put a cell camera on

1119
00:58:20,200 --> 00:58:24,560
Speaker 1: that hubscrape, and that hub scrape camera had actually got

1120
00:58:24,560 --> 00:58:26,920
Speaker 1: a picture of two like nice three year olds. One

1121
00:58:27,000 --> 00:58:29,160
Speaker 1: is the one I passed, that tight tall one, and

1122
00:58:29,160 --> 00:58:31,440
Speaker 1: one was another tight tall one. And I didn't recognize

1123
00:58:32,000 --> 00:58:34,160
Speaker 1: that it had come by that in daylight while I

1124
00:58:34,200 --> 00:58:37,440
Speaker 1: was gone. So I'm thinking, all right, they've been coming through,

1125
00:58:38,200 --> 00:58:40,640
Speaker 1: and I'm sure if if these bucks were on the hubscrape,

1126
00:58:41,040 --> 00:58:42,800
Speaker 1: I'm sure there's other bucks that have been around it

1127
00:58:42,800 --> 00:58:46,560
Speaker 1: that didn't make it on camera, it's gonna produce. I

1128
00:58:46,600 --> 00:58:49,160
Speaker 1: go back in there. This is day six, morning six,

1129
00:58:49,440 --> 00:58:52,560
Speaker 1: it's a Saturday. Now the weekend has arrived and we

1130
00:58:52,640 --> 00:58:54,880
Speaker 1: slip in there really good and early. We've got like

1131
00:58:54,960 --> 00:58:57,760
Speaker 1: forty five minutes sitting in the tree before dark, perfectly,

1132
00:58:57,800 --> 00:59:00,440
Speaker 1: still making sure nothing's you know, being s booked on

1133
00:59:00,480 --> 00:59:05,240
Speaker 1: our way in. Um. You know, we've been grinding and UM,

1134
00:59:05,320 --> 00:59:09,040
Speaker 1: I'm tired, but I'm trying to stay positive, trying to believe,

1135
00:59:09,040 --> 00:59:13,120
Speaker 1: all right, it's gonna happen today. And the light comes up.

1136
00:59:14,760 --> 00:59:17,080
Speaker 1: We see two doughs underneath the tree. Stand. First thing,

1137
00:59:17,240 --> 00:59:20,640
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, okay, live like live bait right there. That's

1138
00:59:20,680 --> 00:59:22,800
Speaker 1: what the bucks want. They want those doughs. It's gonna happen.

1139
00:59:22,800 --> 00:59:24,880
Speaker 1: It's gonna happen. And then I hear crack crack crack

1140
00:59:24,960 --> 00:59:29,400
Speaker 1: crack crack crack crack crack crack crack, and me and

1141
00:59:29,480 --> 00:59:32,720
Speaker 1: Chase my caraman look at each other. Is that dear fighting?

1142
00:59:33,400 --> 00:59:36,120
Speaker 1: Crack crack crack crack crack. And then I get this

1143
00:59:36,240 --> 00:59:38,760
Speaker 1: little whisper in my head like that doesn't sound right.

1144
00:59:38,960 --> 00:59:43,240
Speaker 1: That sounds that sounds like me when I'm rattling a

1145
00:59:43,360 --> 00:59:46,440
Speaker 1: rattling bag. We look at each I'm like, man, I

1146
00:59:46,440 --> 00:59:50,240
Speaker 1: sure hope that's not a hunter. Well it stops. We

1147
00:59:50,320 --> 00:59:55,720
Speaker 1: keep sitting there, nothing, nothing, nothing. Twenty minutes later crack

1148
00:59:55,800 --> 00:59:58,640
Speaker 1: crack crack crack crack crack crack crack crack crack crack crack.

1149
00:59:59,040 --> 01:00:00,680
Speaker 1: And instantly when I heard it at the second time

1150
01:00:00,680 --> 01:00:03,440
Speaker 1: within twenty minutes in the same location, I knew, damn it.

1151
01:00:04,120 --> 01:00:06,680
Speaker 1: There's another hunter and he's like a hundred yards away,

1152
01:00:06,680 --> 01:00:08,400
Speaker 1: a hundred fifty yards away something like that, on the

1153
01:00:08,480 --> 01:00:11,280
Speaker 1: other side of the property line on the neighbors and

1154
01:00:11,360 --> 01:00:15,280
Speaker 1: he's in that big brushy doe betting era that I'm

1155
01:00:15,400 --> 01:00:17,880
Speaker 1: just down wind of that. I'm like counting on the

1156
01:00:17,920 --> 01:00:19,919
Speaker 1: reason that buckstert me coming in and out of this hub.

1157
01:00:20,720 --> 01:00:23,840
Speaker 1: That's the draw. He's right smacked down in the middle

1158
01:00:23,840 --> 01:00:26,800
Speaker 1: of that, cracking his rattling bag together every twenty minutes.

1159
01:00:27,920 --> 01:00:33,160
Speaker 1: So there it is my ultimate hub, the spot that

1160
01:00:33,200 --> 01:00:35,720
Speaker 1: I dreaming of having a big buck rolling out of

1161
01:00:35,760 --> 01:00:38,200
Speaker 1: that had to produce. Well, now I know there's another

1162
01:00:38,240 --> 01:00:40,080
Speaker 1: guy sitting in the middle of it, blowing his wind

1163
01:00:40,160 --> 01:00:43,560
Speaker 1: through crash Nantler's to get every twenty minutes. Uh, you

1164
01:00:43,600 --> 01:00:46,680
Speaker 1: know it's shot now, I know. Like I kept I

1165
01:00:46,720 --> 01:00:49,480
Speaker 1: kept telling myself, well, he'd come from these other different directions.

1166
01:00:49,480 --> 01:00:51,400
Speaker 1: There's these other legs of the draw that come into

1167
01:00:51,440 --> 01:00:55,480
Speaker 1: my hub. But I absolutely was disheartened by that and disappointed,

1168
01:00:55,720 --> 01:00:58,880
Speaker 1: and um, you know, I kind of lost my conference

1169
01:00:58,920 --> 01:01:01,800
Speaker 1: in my in that spot after this. So that was

1170
01:01:01,840 --> 01:01:08,600
Speaker 1: the morning number six, and you know, at this point

1171
01:01:08,680 --> 01:01:12,560
Speaker 1: it's it's the end. I mean, I'm desperate. Absolutely was

1172
01:01:12,640 --> 01:01:18,480
Speaker 1: feeling feelings of desperation. Um, I decided, Okay, it's time

1173
01:01:18,520 --> 01:01:22,640
Speaker 1: to it's time to lose any of inhibitions. It's time

1174
01:01:22,680 --> 01:01:24,120
Speaker 1: to go ball to the wall. It's time to do

1175
01:01:24,160 --> 01:01:41,080
Speaker 1: whatever it takes to get something killed. There was two

1176
01:01:41,160 --> 01:01:45,960
Speaker 1: ideas I had. There was one location on my buddies

1177
01:01:46,000 --> 01:01:50,320
Speaker 1: farm that I knew had deer and good deer and opportunities,

1178
01:01:50,320 --> 01:01:54,360
Speaker 1: and I had purposely chose not to hunt despite that this,

1179
01:01:55,120 --> 01:01:56,760
Speaker 1: I had mentioned that my buddy Josh had killed the

1180
01:01:56,800 --> 01:01:59,360
Speaker 1: buck earlier in the week. Well, this is where he

1181
01:01:59,440 --> 01:02:03,080
Speaker 1: killed his buck. This is a corn field. This this

1182
01:02:03,520 --> 01:02:05,680
Speaker 1: part of property is nothing but a corn field. There's

1183
01:02:05,720 --> 01:02:09,160
Speaker 1: zero trees on it, there's zero grassy anything. I mean,

1184
01:02:09,200 --> 01:02:12,920
Speaker 1: it's just the corn field. And then on the neighbor's

1185
01:02:12,920 --> 01:02:16,600
Speaker 1: property is is basically land that's not allowed to be hunted.

1186
01:02:17,240 --> 01:02:19,200
Speaker 1: They don't let people hunt there. It kind of acts

1187
01:02:19,240 --> 01:02:23,040
Speaker 1: as a sanctuary and over the years historically, like just

1188
01:02:23,120 --> 01:02:25,360
Speaker 1: driving around the area, like you see a lot of

1189
01:02:25,360 --> 01:02:27,240
Speaker 1: good deer in there. We we just know that they're

1190
01:02:27,240 --> 01:02:29,280
Speaker 1: a good deal in the deer in that zone. They

1191
01:02:29,320 --> 01:02:31,600
Speaker 1: know they're not hunting in there, and they stay in there.

1192
01:02:32,200 --> 01:02:35,840
Speaker 1: But with this cut corn field, the belief is that

1193
01:02:35,880 --> 01:02:38,640
Speaker 1: the deer would be coming off of that little sanctuary

1194
01:02:38,680 --> 01:02:41,840
Speaker 1: area and feeding in the corn field that we can hunt.

1195
01:02:42,720 --> 01:02:46,480
Speaker 1: So when the corn was cut earlier, I guess it

1196
01:02:46,560 --> 01:02:50,360
Speaker 1: was late October, one of my buddies buddies brought in

1197
01:02:50,400 --> 01:02:53,240
Speaker 1: a box blind, brought in a trailer, put it down here,

1198
01:02:53,800 --> 01:02:56,200
Speaker 1: and we had this idea that you know, you could

1199
01:02:56,520 --> 01:02:59,760
Speaker 1: you could pull a deer in off that field. Something

1200
01:02:59,760 --> 01:03:01,120
Speaker 1: would I'm in the field, if you were sitting that

1201
01:03:01,200 --> 01:03:04,200
Speaker 1: box blind with a decoy, you might be able to

1202
01:03:04,200 --> 01:03:07,720
Speaker 1: get a buck to come in there. And that's what

1203
01:03:07,840 --> 01:03:10,040
Speaker 1: Josh ended up having happened to him earlier in the week.

1204
01:03:10,880 --> 01:03:12,600
Speaker 1: I had told him leading up to I don't want

1205
01:03:12,600 --> 01:03:15,000
Speaker 1: to hunt the box blne like, I just want to

1206
01:03:15,000 --> 01:03:16,240
Speaker 1: do it on my own. I want to hang my

1207
01:03:16,240 --> 01:03:19,360
Speaker 1: own stuff, I want to go saddle haunt, I want

1208
01:03:19,400 --> 01:03:23,400
Speaker 1: to find him somewhere else. Um, I just like that

1209
01:03:23,440 --> 01:03:25,400
Speaker 1: wasn't what I was dreaming of when it came to

1210
01:03:25,920 --> 01:03:29,120
Speaker 1: this hunt. It wasn't a box blind that someone else

1211
01:03:29,120 --> 01:03:31,800
Speaker 1: had pulled in there and kill him that kind of way.

1212
01:03:32,000 --> 01:03:34,320
Speaker 1: That's how I was feeling day one. So I was like, yeah,

1213
01:03:34,560 --> 01:03:38,560
Speaker 1: have at him, Josh Killy, great buck, awesome hunt. Really

1214
01:03:38,600 --> 01:03:41,520
Speaker 1: excited about it. For him, it was amazing. We'll tell

1215
01:03:41,520 --> 01:03:45,600
Speaker 1: that full story another day. Great great hunt. But still

1216
01:03:45,600 --> 01:03:47,000
Speaker 1: in my mind, I'm like, no, I'm not going there,

1217
01:03:47,160 --> 01:03:49,640
Speaker 1: especially now like it's been pressured. I'm not going there.

1218
01:03:49,640 --> 01:03:51,880
Speaker 1: I'm not going there. I'm not going there. Um. But

1219
01:03:52,040 --> 01:03:55,360
Speaker 1: now it's day six, I still haven't killed anything, and

1220
01:03:55,480 --> 01:03:58,760
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there thinking, man, I just want to kill something.

1221
01:03:59,040 --> 01:04:01,800
Speaker 1: I just want to kill something. Nothing's moving anywhere. Haven't

1222
01:04:01,840 --> 01:04:04,360
Speaker 1: seen a mature buck in daylight once this entire week

1223
01:04:04,400 --> 01:04:07,880
Speaker 1: in Iowa. Uh, I know there's mature bucks in they're

1224
01:04:07,920 --> 01:04:12,160
Speaker 1: moving around. We'd actually drove by, well, it was that day.

1225
01:04:12,240 --> 01:04:16,040
Speaker 1: I guess that day. So I bail out of the

1226
01:04:16,120 --> 01:04:20,000
Speaker 1: Ultimate Hub and we decide we're gona go do something different,

1227
01:04:20,600 --> 01:04:23,320
Speaker 1: And as we're driving by this property that's not allowed

1228
01:04:23,360 --> 01:04:26,480
Speaker 1: to be hunted, we see a big buck locked on

1229
01:04:26,520 --> 01:04:29,640
Speaker 1: a dough in there, and my buddies who had been

1230
01:04:29,640 --> 01:04:31,640
Speaker 1: in the area have been driving around earlier in the

1231
01:04:31,720 --> 01:04:33,760
Speaker 1: day and they'd seen a different big buck locked on

1232
01:04:33,800 --> 01:04:36,240
Speaker 1: a different dough in the same general era. So I

1233
01:04:36,280 --> 01:04:39,560
Speaker 1: know what's on in there. I know what's happening. I decided,

1234
01:04:39,600 --> 01:04:41,680
Speaker 1: you know what, screw it, there's nothing wrong with hunting

1235
01:04:41,680 --> 01:04:45,200
Speaker 1: the box blind using a decoy. Uh. At this point,

1236
01:04:45,240 --> 01:04:48,520
Speaker 1: I would be stoked to get anything killed. Um, I'll

1237
01:04:48,520 --> 01:04:52,160
Speaker 1: go hunt. Why not? Like I'm I'm frustrated, haven't seen anything?

1238
01:04:52,200 --> 01:04:53,919
Speaker 1: At least I wanna have a fun hunting seasoned darned

1239
01:04:53,960 --> 01:04:55,440
Speaker 1: deer like I haven't had a time. I've seen more

1240
01:04:55,440 --> 01:04:58,080
Speaker 1: than a couple of day at a time. Um, I

1241
01:04:58,120 --> 01:05:02,040
Speaker 1: haven't seen any running activity. This might be it. I

1242
01:05:02,080 --> 01:05:05,640
Speaker 1: don't care how we do it. So my idea is this.

1243
01:05:07,160 --> 01:05:10,400
Speaker 1: We left the Ultimate Hub at midday. I was gonna

1244
01:05:10,480 --> 01:05:13,880
Speaker 1: hunt the box blind that evening with a decoy on

1245
01:05:13,920 --> 01:05:16,120
Speaker 1: the corn field, but I wanted to set up a

1246
01:05:16,160 --> 01:05:19,640
Speaker 1: new location for the morning. Now, there's one area on

1247
01:05:19,800 --> 01:05:22,520
Speaker 1: my buddy's property that I had not been in. I

1248
01:05:22,520 --> 01:05:24,440
Speaker 1: had only walked it one time when I was there

1249
01:05:24,480 --> 01:05:27,919
Speaker 1: in the summer. I did like a ten minute walk

1250
01:05:28,000 --> 01:05:30,520
Speaker 1: through it. I was we were late. I didn't have

1251
01:05:30,560 --> 01:05:32,479
Speaker 1: a lot of time. As the end of our little

1252
01:05:32,560 --> 01:05:33,840
Speaker 1: day and a halftime I had there, I was like,

1253
01:05:33,880 --> 01:05:35,400
Speaker 1: I gotta walk this really quick. So I just ran

1254
01:05:35,440 --> 01:05:37,640
Speaker 1: through it. Just got a very very basic idea of

1255
01:05:37,680 --> 01:05:40,720
Speaker 1: what was going on. But now I'm realizing, Okay, this

1256
01:05:40,800 --> 01:05:42,480
Speaker 1: is the one part of the property I haven't been to.

1257
01:05:43,120 --> 01:05:45,040
Speaker 1: We did have one camera up there that was getting

1258
01:05:45,080 --> 01:05:48,400
Speaker 1: some bucks on it, and I recalled, I don't know

1259
01:05:48,400 --> 01:05:50,720
Speaker 1: why I hadn't thought about this sooner with all the

1260
01:05:50,720 --> 01:05:52,240
Speaker 1: other things I was thinking about. I guess it just

1261
01:05:52,400 --> 01:05:55,959
Speaker 1: overlooked it. But I do remember that there had been

1262
01:05:56,600 --> 01:05:59,320
Speaker 1: some cutting up there, and I remember thinking, man, it's

1263
01:05:59,320 --> 01:06:01,440
Speaker 1: some good but she's stuff up there. There's tree tops

1264
01:06:01,440 --> 01:06:03,400
Speaker 1: on the ground and new growth and and good bedding

1265
01:06:03,440 --> 01:06:05,720
Speaker 1: up there too. So I got to thinking, all right,

1266
01:06:06,440 --> 01:06:09,480
Speaker 1: midday day six, I'm gonna go in there with a set,

1267
01:06:09,600 --> 01:06:12,479
Speaker 1: scout at mid day and hang a set to hunt

1268
01:06:12,520 --> 01:06:15,040
Speaker 1: on the last day. So that's what I go do.

1269
01:06:15,080 --> 01:06:17,120
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go scout it out. I get there to

1270
01:06:17,160 --> 01:06:20,360
Speaker 1: the property, I slip in the backside and where this

1271
01:06:20,520 --> 01:06:24,520
Speaker 1: is is remember my buddy's property, Like the T. Right,

1272
01:06:24,520 --> 01:06:28,320
Speaker 1: we've got the top right of the T, and we've

1273
01:06:28,320 --> 01:06:32,080
Speaker 1: got the middle post of the T, and there's timber

1274
01:06:32,560 --> 01:06:36,439
Speaker 1: inside that upside on L and there's fields. Well, this

1275
01:06:36,640 --> 01:06:39,600
Speaker 1: area that I'm talking about is the top post of

1276
01:06:39,640 --> 01:06:42,720
Speaker 1: the T. So like the east west ridge, the north

1277
01:06:42,800 --> 01:06:44,720
Speaker 1: side of that ridge, there's a valley in the bottom

1278
01:06:44,920 --> 01:06:47,280
Speaker 1: timber on the top ridge of it for the very

1279
01:06:47,320 --> 01:06:50,160
Speaker 1: top of the tea here the north ridge, And as

1280
01:06:50,160 --> 01:06:53,680
Speaker 1: I described, there's a bunch of cutting in there, and

1281
01:06:54,200 --> 01:06:57,960
Speaker 1: actually it looked a lot better than I remembered from

1282
01:06:57,960 --> 01:06:59,720
Speaker 1: the summer. As I'm walking in the edge of the

1283
01:06:59,720 --> 01:07:02,720
Speaker 1: feet field, I see a scrape, then another scrape, then

1284
01:07:02,720 --> 01:07:08,480
Speaker 1: another scrape, then another scrape, literally ten twelve scrapes, all fresh,

1285
01:07:08,920 --> 01:07:11,440
Speaker 1: lining the edge of the standing corn field and the timber.

1286
01:07:12,280 --> 01:07:14,720
Speaker 1: I slip into the timber. Here's a rub. There's a rub.

1287
01:07:14,760 --> 01:07:17,160
Speaker 1: There's another scrape. There's another scrape. There's a rub. I mean,

1288
01:07:17,160 --> 01:07:19,760
Speaker 1: it's blown up in here. Right away I realized, whoa,

1289
01:07:20,360 --> 01:07:22,760
Speaker 1: there's some stuff going on in here, And whoa, this

1290
01:07:22,880 --> 01:07:27,560
Speaker 1: cover looks better than I realized compared to everything else, um,

1291
01:07:27,600 --> 01:07:29,400
Speaker 1: you know, better than anything else I've been in yet,

1292
01:07:29,520 --> 01:07:32,720
Speaker 1: this this week. So I go in there and start

1293
01:07:32,760 --> 01:07:34,600
Speaker 1: walking around, and I'm thinking, all right, I definitely want

1294
01:07:34,600 --> 01:07:37,880
Speaker 1: to be here tomorrow morning, and what's the what's the

1295
01:07:37,920 --> 01:07:40,720
Speaker 1: best way to take advantage of this? So I'm gonna

1296
01:07:40,760 --> 01:07:42,880
Speaker 1: try to describe this to you in a way that

1297
01:07:42,920 --> 01:07:47,320
Speaker 1: makes sense. Remember, we've got this east and west running

1298
01:07:47,880 --> 01:07:53,720
Speaker 1: line of timber, and there's the creek bottom. We're on

1299
01:07:53,760 --> 01:07:57,240
Speaker 1: the north edge of it, right, so the corn fields

1300
01:07:57,240 --> 01:08:02,600
Speaker 1: and the top behind me. This ridge has got basically

1301
01:08:02,680 --> 01:08:07,960
Speaker 1: a bench running along the top. It's maybe seventy yards

1302
01:08:08,000 --> 01:08:10,760
Speaker 1: from the top where the field is down to the

1303
01:08:10,840 --> 01:08:12,520
Speaker 1: end of the bench, and the bottom of the bench

1304
01:08:12,640 --> 01:08:14,640
Speaker 1: it cliffs out again. So I described you how this

1305
01:08:14,720 --> 01:08:17,360
Speaker 1: is a really steep country, but there's cliffs that no

1306
01:08:17,439 --> 01:08:20,839
Speaker 1: deer is coming up and down. There's just two spots,

1307
01:08:20,960 --> 01:08:22,600
Speaker 1: and this I had marked from the summer. There are

1308
01:08:22,640 --> 01:08:25,639
Speaker 1: two spots where you could come up or down from

1309
01:08:25,640 --> 01:08:28,639
Speaker 1: this ridge to get to the bottom. So I thought, okay,

1310
01:08:28,680 --> 01:08:30,599
Speaker 1: I want to get set up in a position where

1311
01:08:30,640 --> 01:08:34,280
Speaker 1: I am along the left to right movement right, because

1312
01:08:34,280 --> 01:08:36,120
Speaker 1: there's bucks are going to run the line of the

1313
01:08:36,200 --> 01:08:39,040
Speaker 1: ridge going east to west or west to east. But

1314
01:08:39,120 --> 01:08:41,320
Speaker 1: I also want to be where the convergence of any

1315
01:08:41,360 --> 01:08:43,720
Speaker 1: of the up and down movement comes into that. So

1316
01:08:43,880 --> 01:08:48,200
Speaker 1: I found a spot where the one gap in the

1317
01:08:48,240 --> 01:08:50,600
Speaker 1: cliffs is that allows these deer to come from the

1318
01:08:50,600 --> 01:08:52,479
Speaker 1: bottom to the top, or from deer that are up

1319
01:08:52,520 --> 01:08:54,280
Speaker 1: the top to want to go to the bottom, where

1320
01:08:54,280 --> 01:08:57,479
Speaker 1: that intersects with the left or right movement. And I

1321
01:08:57,520 --> 01:09:00,559
Speaker 1: found that there was a ditch, like a steep ditch

1322
01:09:00,640 --> 01:09:05,679
Speaker 1: that ran down the ridge that created like a really

1323
01:09:05,720 --> 01:09:07,559
Speaker 1: hard thing for deer to get across if they if

1324
01:09:07,560 --> 01:09:09,599
Speaker 1: they were running east to west, there was tree tops

1325
01:09:09,600 --> 01:09:11,599
Speaker 1: in the bottom. It was pretty steep, and you could

1326
01:09:11,600 --> 01:09:13,559
Speaker 1: see that there was two trails. One was like an

1327
01:09:13,600 --> 01:09:16,080
Speaker 1: old logging road and one was just a easy spot

1328
01:09:16,080 --> 01:09:19,760
Speaker 1: in the ditch where this deer we're running. So basically

1329
01:09:20,040 --> 01:09:22,200
Speaker 1: I found a spot where the up and down movement

1330
01:09:22,240 --> 01:09:23,960
Speaker 1: came up the ridge and then where there was these

1331
01:09:24,000 --> 01:09:28,040
Speaker 1: two obvious or at least the most obvious easiest trails

1332
01:09:28,200 --> 01:09:31,160
Speaker 1: for deer to be traveling left to right across. So

1333
01:09:31,200 --> 01:09:35,519
Speaker 1: basically I'm intersecting three lines of movement with all of

1334
01:09:35,560 --> 01:09:39,360
Speaker 1: this tree top cover, all this brushing new growth, just

1335
01:09:39,560 --> 01:09:44,240
Speaker 1: screaming bedding cover, so reitering the same damn thing I've

1336
01:09:44,240 --> 01:09:46,240
Speaker 1: said over and over again, pillars of rut success. I've

1337
01:09:46,280 --> 01:09:48,519
Speaker 1: got dough bedding all around me, and then I've got

1338
01:09:48,560 --> 01:09:51,799
Speaker 1: these terrain features that are funnily movement, the ridge top bench,

1339
01:09:52,560 --> 01:09:56,040
Speaker 1: the ditch funnel that's keeping deer moving, just two trails

1340
01:09:56,040 --> 01:09:58,400
Speaker 1: across west to east, and then the one up and

1341
01:09:58,439 --> 01:10:02,920
Speaker 1: down access coming up the cliff face. I hang a

1342
01:10:03,120 --> 01:10:07,479
Speaker 1: saddle set there. Looks really good. Feeling good about that

1343
01:10:07,520 --> 01:10:10,680
Speaker 1: for the morning. Leave there fast and get going to

1344
01:10:11,120 --> 01:10:14,080
Speaker 1: the box blind. Me and Chase get to the box blind,

1345
01:10:15,000 --> 01:10:16,920
Speaker 1: get settled in there, put the decoy out in front

1346
01:10:16,920 --> 01:10:20,559
Speaker 1: of us. Behind us is this property that doesn't allow hunting.

1347
01:10:21,800 --> 01:10:25,280
Speaker 1: It's thick tall grass, it's cedar trees, it's it's what

1348
01:10:25,360 --> 01:10:28,559
Speaker 1: you imagine when you imagine hunting. Iowa. Nothing else that

1349
01:10:28,600 --> 01:10:31,680
Speaker 1: I have access to looks like this, um, and so

1350
01:10:31,840 --> 01:10:33,519
Speaker 1: like this is the one spot that when you look

1351
01:10:33,560 --> 01:10:35,080
Speaker 1: at it, like, oh gosh, like this is the stuff

1352
01:10:35,120 --> 01:10:38,360
Speaker 1: that Mark Drury hunts. Um. It just looks cool. It

1353
01:10:38,400 --> 01:10:40,280
Speaker 1: just gets you excited to look at that and to

1354
01:10:40,400 --> 01:10:43,160
Speaker 1: know that, you know, four hours ago or two hours

1355
01:10:43,160 --> 01:10:45,760
Speaker 1: ago or whatever it was, when I was driving around

1356
01:10:45,760 --> 01:10:48,280
Speaker 1: the other road, I saw a big giant buck in

1357
01:10:48,360 --> 01:10:51,040
Speaker 1: that stuff with a doll, and I knew there was

1358
01:10:51,080 --> 01:10:54,200
Speaker 1: more in there. So I set a decoy on front,

1359
01:10:54,200 --> 01:10:57,800
Speaker 1: and I'll describe the decoy set up. Uh, Basically, we

1360
01:10:57,880 --> 01:11:00,320
Speaker 1: set up this decoy, I take one antler off of it.

1361
01:11:00,400 --> 01:11:02,040
Speaker 1: This is a thing that I think it was John

1362
01:11:02,120 --> 01:11:03,960
Speaker 1: Dudley years ago was writing about and that I've just

1363
01:11:04,040 --> 01:11:05,559
Speaker 1: kind of stuck to you ever since. You've take an

1364
01:11:05,560 --> 01:11:07,960
Speaker 1: antler off, so it seems slightly less imposing, look a

1365
01:11:08,000 --> 01:11:11,280
Speaker 1: more approachable beat up a ble buck. Because the idea

1366
01:11:11,360 --> 01:11:13,120
Speaker 1: here is you're putting this decoy out there and hoping

1367
01:11:13,120 --> 01:11:15,000
Speaker 1: that a buck's going to see it and then want

1368
01:11:15,000 --> 01:11:18,559
Speaker 1: to come in and and tango with it. So I

1369
01:11:18,600 --> 01:11:21,040
Speaker 1: set that decoy with one antler off, and then I

1370
01:11:21,080 --> 01:11:24,920
Speaker 1: set him quartering towards, kind of quartering off either one

1371
01:11:24,920 --> 01:11:27,240
Speaker 1: of your shoulders from left or right, or off your

1372
01:11:27,320 --> 01:11:30,000
Speaker 1: right shoulder, recording off your left shoulder, looking kind of

1373
01:11:30,120 --> 01:11:32,720
Speaker 1: past you. Because what you want to set up is

1374
01:11:32,720 --> 01:11:36,320
Speaker 1: you want this buck to come in to the decoy

1375
01:11:36,400 --> 01:11:39,599
Speaker 1: and give you a broadside shot. And bucks usually almost

1376
01:11:39,600 --> 01:11:42,200
Speaker 1: always want to approach a decoy head on like there,

1377
01:11:42,280 --> 01:11:44,240
Speaker 1: you know, try to approach antler to antler will kind

1378
01:11:44,240 --> 01:11:46,639
Speaker 1: of circle around it and head to the down wind side.

1379
01:11:46,720 --> 01:11:49,080
Speaker 1: Usually so in a perfect world, you'd like the wind

1380
01:11:49,160 --> 01:11:51,599
Speaker 1: blowing from the decoy to you. So he has to

1381
01:11:51,600 --> 01:11:54,519
Speaker 1: circle in closer to you, but he'll be looking at

1382
01:11:54,520 --> 01:11:57,320
Speaker 1: the decoy and not at you, and then give you

1383
01:11:57,360 --> 01:12:00,439
Speaker 1: that quartering away your broadside shot. So and with Tim

1384
01:12:00,479 --> 01:12:04,439
Speaker 1: looking over my right shoulder and into the stuff behind me,

1385
01:12:05,520 --> 01:12:08,000
Speaker 1: got set up in the box blind and and yeah,

1386
01:12:08,040 --> 01:12:10,200
Speaker 1: I mean it was cushy. It was. I was thinking, man,

1387
01:12:10,280 --> 01:12:13,439
Speaker 1: this is really nice after after spending all day every

1388
01:12:13,520 --> 01:12:17,519
Speaker 1: day hanging in the saddle um night number six, sitting

1389
01:12:17,520 --> 01:12:20,840
Speaker 1: in a box blind was was just the luxurious break

1390
01:12:20,960 --> 01:12:23,200
Speaker 1: we needed. At this point. I didn't care. I was

1391
01:12:23,280 --> 01:12:26,400
Speaker 1: fine doing that. We've been working our tails off, I

1392
01:12:26,439 --> 01:12:29,639
Speaker 1: mean working our tails off. I was ready to enjoy

1393
01:12:29,720 --> 01:12:34,599
Speaker 1: myself finally. And uh, we actually sat on our knees

1394
01:12:34,680 --> 01:12:36,400
Speaker 1: because we were worried about we We went through the

1395
01:12:36,439 --> 01:12:40,040
Speaker 1: whole um practice, every scenario, kind of thing that I

1396
01:12:40,080 --> 01:12:42,320
Speaker 1: talked about sometimes like we did. We did this when

1397
01:12:42,360 --> 01:12:44,800
Speaker 1: I described that sitting on the pond dike in the

1398
01:12:44,840 --> 01:12:47,599
Speaker 1: grass situation, well, in this situation, I was like, Okay,

1399
01:12:47,720 --> 01:12:50,080
Speaker 1: How are we gonna get the window open and get

1400
01:12:50,120 --> 01:12:52,160
Speaker 1: in position if a buck comes from this way? How

1401
01:12:52,200 --> 01:12:54,439
Speaker 1: are we going to get into position and film and

1402
01:12:54,520 --> 01:12:57,240
Speaker 1: be in shop position if they come this way? So

1403
01:12:57,280 --> 01:13:01,160
Speaker 1: we worked out each situation, we practiced it. We you know,

1404
01:13:01,479 --> 01:13:04,040
Speaker 1: went through all the motions, drawing back the boa, having

1405
01:13:04,080 --> 01:13:06,120
Speaker 1: the cameraman move around where it needs to go, everything,

1406
01:13:07,360 --> 01:13:09,000
Speaker 1: And we realized it was really hard to do it

1407
01:13:09,920 --> 01:13:12,000
Speaker 1: quietly if we were trying to use the chairs in there.

1408
01:13:12,000 --> 01:13:13,759
Speaker 1: So we just push these chairs in the back corner

1409
01:13:14,120 --> 01:13:16,120
Speaker 1: and we both just stayed on our knees on the

1410
01:13:16,120 --> 01:13:17,960
Speaker 1: floor of the box blind so we could be as

1411
01:13:17,960 --> 01:13:21,040
Speaker 1: silent as possible and move as little as possible if

1412
01:13:21,040 --> 01:13:23,760
Speaker 1: a buck were to come through. And you know, like

1413
01:13:23,800 --> 01:13:25,479
Speaker 1: an hour and a half four day, like here comes

1414
01:13:25,479 --> 01:13:28,240
Speaker 1: a dough, Here comes another dough, and another dough. All

1415
01:13:28,280 --> 01:13:30,240
Speaker 1: these deers start piling out into the field, and and

1416
01:13:30,280 --> 01:13:31,760
Speaker 1: all right, I'm like, wow, this is the best set

1417
01:13:31,920 --> 01:13:36,000
Speaker 1: of the whole durn week we've had. Um Like we're

1418
01:13:36,200 --> 01:13:37,920
Speaker 1: seeing a bunch of deer, seeing a bunch of doughs.

1419
01:13:38,000 --> 01:13:41,439
Speaker 1: And as these doughs start piling out, I start realizing like, hey,

1420
01:13:41,439 --> 01:13:46,240
Speaker 1: you know, this could actually work. You know, Having all

1421
01:13:46,240 --> 01:13:47,960
Speaker 1: these doughs out here all of a sudden gave me

1422
01:13:48,040 --> 01:13:50,240
Speaker 1: a lot of confidence, because that's that's all you need,

1423
01:13:50,600 --> 01:13:54,320
Speaker 1: was does. We were counting on the fact that if

1424
01:13:54,640 --> 01:13:56,519
Speaker 1: these doughs would come out to that field, like bucks

1425
01:13:56,520 --> 01:13:58,200
Speaker 1: would have to be checking it, because they were definitely

1426
01:13:58,200 --> 01:14:01,080
Speaker 1: bucks in this brushy cover behind me. And if the

1427
01:14:01,080 --> 01:14:02,680
Speaker 1: does that come out to be in the cornfield, the

1428
01:14:02,680 --> 01:14:04,800
Speaker 1: bucks will come to and maybe we get lucky with

1429
01:14:04,800 --> 01:14:07,920
Speaker 1: the bucks seeing that deco, so does start piling out,

1430
01:14:08,000 --> 01:14:09,639
Speaker 1: and then a little buck and then a little buck,

1431
01:14:10,040 --> 01:14:16,880
Speaker 1: and I'm jacked, like, finally I'm having that exciting Iowa anticipation,

1432
01:14:16,920 --> 01:14:19,720
Speaker 1: like it's gonna happen. We're seeing the deer, I know,

1433
01:14:19,800 --> 01:14:22,240
Speaker 1: those big buck in here. And then I see a

1434
01:14:22,280 --> 01:14:24,280
Speaker 1: dough run over the hill towards us, and the antlers

1435
01:14:24,280 --> 01:14:27,479
Speaker 1: come behind her, and right away, like big buck. Here

1436
01:14:27,520 --> 01:14:29,760
Speaker 1: comes a big, big shooter deer I think he was

1437
01:14:29,760 --> 01:14:32,160
Speaker 1: a ten point runs over the hill and I'm like,

1438
01:14:32,240 --> 01:14:35,839
Speaker 1: chase shooter. Finally we've seen a mature buck during daylight.

1439
01:14:36,080 --> 01:14:40,720
Speaker 1: There's our second to last night and very excited, we

1440
01:14:40,760 --> 01:14:42,960
Speaker 1: start moving like a right here is coming from the right,

1441
01:14:43,680 --> 01:14:46,679
Speaker 1: getting a position, move my rep I taking my range

1442
01:14:46,680 --> 01:14:48,920
Speaker 1: finder off, put it in the right spot, put my

1443
01:14:48,960 --> 01:14:53,000
Speaker 1: binoculars down, have my grunt to within range. Reposition myself

1444
01:14:53,080 --> 01:14:54,840
Speaker 1: so I could open this window. And now I'm just

1445
01:14:54,880 --> 01:14:57,120
Speaker 1: waiting for it to happen. And he comes over the

1446
01:14:57,200 --> 01:15:02,320
Speaker 1: hill following that dough, and he stops and looks at

1447
01:15:02,320 --> 01:15:04,800
Speaker 1: the decoy. And this is like the moment of truth,

1448
01:15:05,080 --> 01:15:07,280
Speaker 1: like he's gonna see the decoy and be interested in

1449
01:15:07,320 --> 01:15:09,880
Speaker 1: it or he's not. It looks at the decoy and

1450
01:15:09,880 --> 01:15:12,280
Speaker 1: the doe starts moving off, and he turns back to

1451
01:15:12,320 --> 01:15:13,880
Speaker 1: the door and starts following down. I'm like, oh no,

1452
01:15:14,320 --> 01:15:18,040
Speaker 1: he's not gonna leave that dough. But you never know.

1453
01:15:18,600 --> 01:15:20,599
Speaker 1: I slowly opened the window and it's all right. I'm

1454
01:15:20,600 --> 01:15:22,280
Speaker 1: gonna try to call him. I'm gonna try to give

1455
01:15:22,360 --> 01:15:25,439
Speaker 1: him a grunt, snort, wheeze. See if I can piss

1456
01:15:25,479 --> 01:15:27,800
Speaker 1: him off. So I give him a grunt. He doesn't hear.

1457
01:15:27,880 --> 01:15:31,160
Speaker 1: Give him another grunt, doesn't hear, give him a snort weez.

1458
01:15:34,120 --> 01:15:37,479
Speaker 1: He stops, his head, swings around and just glares at me.

1459
01:15:38,120 --> 01:15:45,240
Speaker 1: He's probably ninety yards away something like that. Maybe you know,

1460
01:15:45,320 --> 01:15:48,479
Speaker 1: give or take glares at me, ears kind of pin back.

1461
01:15:48,720 --> 01:15:52,559
Speaker 1: He turns and starts walking right at us. It's gonna happen.

1462
01:15:52,720 --> 01:15:54,599
Speaker 1: This is happening right now, This son of a buck

1463
01:15:54,680 --> 01:15:57,200
Speaker 1: is gonna come into the decoy. We're gonna get a

1464
01:15:57,200 --> 01:15:59,879
Speaker 1: crack at him. I mean, I was pumped, get in position,

1465
01:16:00,200 --> 01:16:03,320
Speaker 1: got the window ready to get turned open. He rung.

1466
01:16:03,439 --> 01:16:08,440
Speaker 1: He walks about ten yards and then stops stairs, stairs,

1467
01:16:09,160 --> 01:16:13,400
Speaker 1: turns around, goes back to the doll, keeps walking, folling

1468
01:16:13,479 --> 01:16:16,040
Speaker 1: dough keeps walking, following dough. And I'm no, I know

1469
01:16:16,120 --> 01:16:17,719
Speaker 1: in the back of my head, like this isn't gonna happen,

1470
01:16:18,320 --> 01:16:20,000
Speaker 1: But I try one more time, give him one more snort.

1471
01:16:22,479 --> 01:16:26,840
Speaker 1: He stops stairs, turns, takes a couple of steps towards me.

1472
01:16:26,880 --> 01:16:29,040
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, all right, yes, yes, yes, yes, And then

1473
01:16:29,600 --> 01:16:32,280
Speaker 1: he turns back to the dough, chases the door over

1474
01:16:32,320 --> 01:16:36,720
Speaker 1: the hill. And that's all she wrote. Buck walked out

1475
01:16:36,720 --> 01:16:41,800
Speaker 1: of our lives, wouldn't leave his dough night closed. And

1476
01:16:41,880 --> 01:16:44,680
Speaker 1: that was it. But it was exciting. It's disappointed it

1477
01:16:44,720 --> 01:16:46,960
Speaker 1: come together. But finally we had an encounter. Finally had

1478
01:16:47,000 --> 01:16:49,519
Speaker 1: I got to see mature buck. Finally I thought we're

1479
01:16:49,600 --> 01:16:52,400
Speaker 1: kind of in it. Um so at this point is that, Okay,

1480
01:16:52,439 --> 01:16:55,800
Speaker 1: we're gonna be back here tomorrow. Like there's mature bucks

1481
01:16:55,840 --> 01:16:58,960
Speaker 1: in here. This almost worked out. This buck wasn't willing

1482
01:16:58,960 --> 01:17:00,800
Speaker 1: to do it, but maybe another on the cruise through

1483
01:17:01,240 --> 01:17:04,160
Speaker 1: and you know, be willing to be aggressive and come after.

1484
01:17:04,360 --> 01:17:07,320
Speaker 1: So that said, the next morning, though I had that set,

1485
01:17:07,360 --> 01:17:11,200
Speaker 1: i'd hung at midday. So we're today seven. This is

1486
01:17:11,200 --> 01:17:14,600
Speaker 1: the last day of the hunt. I am tired. I

1487
01:17:14,640 --> 01:17:16,960
Speaker 1: am worn out. We've been up at three thirty four

1488
01:17:17,000 --> 01:17:20,519
Speaker 1: or whatever it is every day, hunted all day, every

1489
01:17:20,600 --> 01:17:23,080
Speaker 1: day other than and we we moved locations a couple

1490
01:17:23,080 --> 01:17:25,800
Speaker 1: of times, but we've not once like we never went

1491
01:17:26,280 --> 01:17:28,760
Speaker 1: to the house. We never went to lunch. We never

1492
01:17:29,320 --> 01:17:33,760
Speaker 1: We're going the entire time, hanging new sets, moving new spots, uh,

1493
01:17:33,880 --> 01:17:37,320
Speaker 1: sitting the hold armed time. All my buddies felt bad

1494
01:17:37,360 --> 01:17:39,479
Speaker 1: for my camera guy. They thought he was gonna either

1495
01:17:39,560 --> 01:17:42,200
Speaker 1: murder me or quit or something because I was putting

1496
01:17:42,240 --> 01:17:45,559
Speaker 1: him through hell. But he was a trooper and uh

1497
01:17:45,600 --> 01:17:48,760
Speaker 1: and just went with it. Um. So I was trying,

1498
01:17:48,760 --> 01:17:50,480
Speaker 1: you know, I was feeling a little bit of optimism

1499
01:17:50,479 --> 01:17:52,960
Speaker 1: now though like that that mid day's that mid week

1500
01:17:53,120 --> 01:17:59,320
Speaker 1: stretch from day three through through that night of day six. Um,

1501
01:17:59,360 --> 01:18:01,759
Speaker 1: you know, we're just pretty much dead, you know, nothing

1502
01:18:01,800 --> 01:18:03,479
Speaker 1: but like a couple of does and or adnker here

1503
01:18:03,479 --> 01:18:05,640
Speaker 1: and there for three and a half days when it's

1504
01:18:05,680 --> 01:18:08,200
Speaker 1: supposed to be, you know, the best of the best.

1505
01:18:08,520 --> 01:18:11,759
Speaker 1: That was a tough stretch where I just was bumming out.

1506
01:18:11,800 --> 01:18:13,640
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of us can relate to that.

1507
01:18:13,640 --> 01:18:16,280
Speaker 1: With the white Tail rut, you have so much expectation.

1508
01:18:16,400 --> 01:18:19,559
Speaker 1: I think that's why the the slow periods are harder

1509
01:18:19,640 --> 01:18:22,480
Speaker 1: during the rut is because you have such high expectations.

1510
01:18:22,760 --> 01:18:25,320
Speaker 1: You know, if it's slow on October fifteen, things kind

1511
01:18:25,320 --> 01:18:29,760
Speaker 1: of I was expecting. If it's slow on septem you know,

1512
01:18:30,439 --> 01:18:32,760
Speaker 1: it's just how it is sometimes. But when it's November four,

1513
01:18:33,320 --> 01:18:36,120
Speaker 1: especially if you're in somewhere like Iowa or Illinois or

1514
01:18:36,240 --> 01:18:40,759
Speaker 1: Kansas summer, you dream of Um, it's supposed to be amazing.

1515
01:18:40,800 --> 01:18:43,800
Speaker 1: It's supposed to be it's supposed to be the best

1516
01:18:43,840 --> 01:18:45,320
Speaker 1: of the best, and so when it doesn't happen, I

1517
01:18:45,320 --> 01:18:49,160
Speaker 1: think it hurts more. So That's where I was at

1518
01:18:49,400 --> 01:18:53,040
Speaker 1: and Um, as I mentioned, was was was bumming about it.

1519
01:18:53,640 --> 01:18:56,960
Speaker 1: Finally we saw Buck. Now I'm re energized and I'm like,

1520
01:18:56,960 --> 01:19:00,000
Speaker 1: you know what, damn it, Final day Magic, We're gonna

1521
01:19:00,040 --> 01:19:02,160
Speaker 1: do it. Like I'm not quitting, I'm not giving up.

1522
01:19:02,560 --> 01:19:05,679
Speaker 1: This is gonna happen. We have worked for the universe

1523
01:19:05,720 --> 01:19:10,760
Speaker 1: will reward us. So the final morning, I remember in

1524
01:19:10,800 --> 01:19:13,240
Speaker 1: the car, I put on the final countdown you know,

1525
01:19:13,400 --> 01:19:18,000
Speaker 1: classic rock song by Europe, and we're jamming out down No,

1526
01:19:18,080 --> 01:19:21,240
Speaker 1: not there, and just like jamming like this is it?

1527
01:19:21,760 --> 01:19:25,880
Speaker 1: Hell Yeah, last day. We get to the property. We

1528
01:19:25,960 --> 01:19:28,439
Speaker 1: slip in their way before daylight so we're not spooking

1529
01:19:28,479 --> 01:19:30,880
Speaker 1: anything at gray light, and we get set up. We're

1530
01:19:30,880 --> 01:19:34,519
Speaker 1: feeling great, We're feeling confident, and I'm excited, like I'm

1531
01:19:34,520 --> 01:19:36,880
Speaker 1: gonna pull this thing out in the end. Somehow it's

1532
01:19:36,880 --> 01:19:40,640
Speaker 1: gonna happen. This spot looks good, feels good. Um, it

1533
01:19:40,760 --> 01:19:42,800
Speaker 1: follows the rules of the rut that I preach all

1534
01:19:42,800 --> 01:19:46,799
Speaker 1: the time. Um. And it's fresh, and the sign was hot,

1535
01:19:47,840 --> 01:19:54,800
Speaker 1: and daylight breaks and the woods comes alive. Here's a

1536
01:19:54,800 --> 01:19:57,880
Speaker 1: little buck. There's a little buck. And they're all doing

1537
01:19:57,960 --> 01:19:59,919
Speaker 1: just what I was hoping they would do. Their cruising

1538
01:20:00,600 --> 01:20:02,960
Speaker 1: east to west, the cruising across the top of the tea.

1539
01:20:04,360 --> 01:20:07,080
Speaker 1: Try and check these betting areas, and because of that

1540
01:20:07,240 --> 01:20:10,800
Speaker 1: steep ditch along our side, they have to cross these

1541
01:20:10,800 --> 01:20:13,599
Speaker 1: two places that are both within range of me. So

1542
01:20:13,680 --> 01:20:16,439
Speaker 1: these box are cruising past, and everything that's coming past

1543
01:20:16,640 --> 01:20:20,360
Speaker 1: is within shooting range. And now it's I don't know,

1544
01:20:21,920 --> 01:20:26,679
Speaker 1: oh somewhere around the first hour of daylight um, and

1545
01:20:27,160 --> 01:20:32,280
Speaker 1: we are sitting there quiet, scanning, scanning, and I see

1546
01:20:32,439 --> 01:20:35,240
Speaker 1: times come out of the brush approaching that ditch to

1547
01:20:35,400 --> 01:20:38,600
Speaker 1: my left, and I remember saying buck coming, and I

1548
01:20:38,640 --> 01:20:41,680
Speaker 1: pulled out my buyos and as a shooter buck. Immediately

1549
01:20:41,720 --> 01:20:43,599
Speaker 1: you can see like this is a big, big shooter

1550
01:20:43,640 --> 01:20:48,559
Speaker 1: buck coming in. So I start swinging into position, swinging

1551
01:20:48,560 --> 01:20:50,680
Speaker 1: and go grab my bow. And he's coming fast, like

1552
01:20:50,720 --> 01:20:55,439
Speaker 1: he's cruising on a very fast walk, not stopping, not loafing, nothing,

1553
01:20:55,600 --> 01:21:00,240
Speaker 1: and he's heading. If you can envision me hanging on

1554
01:21:00,320 --> 01:21:03,240
Speaker 1: my saddle, let's let's say I'm like, like, I'm sitting

1555
01:21:03,280 --> 01:21:05,280
Speaker 1: in my truck right now, driving right so I'm here

1556
01:21:05,280 --> 01:21:07,639
Speaker 1: holding the steering wheel, and the trees directly in front

1557
01:21:07,680 --> 01:21:11,719
Speaker 1: of me, if we're talking about them, the hunting snare,

1558
01:21:11,760 --> 01:21:14,240
Speaker 1: So imagine the trees directly in front of me, I'm

1559
01:21:14,280 --> 01:21:16,519
Speaker 1: hanging off of the rope back off of that tree.

1560
01:21:17,560 --> 01:21:20,800
Speaker 1: This deer is approaching from kind of where you're left

1561
01:21:21,720 --> 01:21:26,040
Speaker 1: rear view mirror would be, so my left front side,

1562
01:21:26,040 --> 01:21:28,640
Speaker 1: he's approaching, and he's gonna head across in front of me.

1563
01:21:28,720 --> 01:21:31,160
Speaker 1: As if you were, you know, gonna walk from my

1564
01:21:31,280 --> 01:21:34,960
Speaker 1: left across to directly in front of me, my shot

1565
01:21:35,400 --> 01:21:38,679
Speaker 1: would be just off the just left side of the tree.

1566
01:21:39,240 --> 01:21:41,519
Speaker 1: So I need to lean out around the tree just

1567
01:21:41,560 --> 01:21:43,439
Speaker 1: a little bit and then shoot directly in front of me.

1568
01:21:44,439 --> 01:21:47,720
Speaker 1: As I lean to get into position to shoot, I've

1569
01:21:47,720 --> 01:21:51,559
Speaker 1: got several thoughts going through my mind. I had ranged

1570
01:21:51,600 --> 01:21:54,160
Speaker 1: this area earlier, and there was this old logging road

1571
01:21:54,200 --> 01:21:58,200
Speaker 1: that this ditch crossing follows, and I had ranged it

1572
01:21:58,720 --> 01:22:04,080
Speaker 1: like the back was somehre on like thirty six yards ish,

1573
01:22:04,200 --> 01:22:06,439
Speaker 1: in the front of this log arns around thirty yards,

1574
01:22:06,479 --> 01:22:08,920
Speaker 1: So I knew he was gonna be, you know, somewhere

1575
01:22:08,920 --> 01:22:14,160
Speaker 1: in that like thirty something yard range. And I remember

1576
01:22:14,240 --> 01:22:16,960
Speaker 1: thinking to myself, I want to range him, but he's

1577
01:22:16,960 --> 01:22:18,599
Speaker 1: come so fast, like there's no I don't have time

1578
01:22:18,600 --> 01:22:21,080
Speaker 1: to arrange him. The second thing I remember thinking is

1579
01:22:21,120 --> 01:22:28,000
Speaker 1: that this freaking backpacks in my way. The freaking backpack

1580
01:22:29,720 --> 01:22:32,680
Speaker 1: is my cameraman's bag. And this has been a thing

1581
01:22:32,720 --> 01:22:37,000
Speaker 1: like all week is that, uh, my cameraman has got

1582
01:22:37,200 --> 01:22:39,280
Speaker 1: a lot of gear with him. He's carrying three different

1583
01:22:39,320 --> 01:22:41,519
Speaker 1: cameras because he's got one camera that's pointed at me

1584
01:22:41,560 --> 01:22:44,320
Speaker 1: to try to get my reactions and my stuff, and

1585
01:22:44,360 --> 01:22:47,320
Speaker 1: then he has a handheld camera that he's using to

1586
01:22:47,320 --> 01:22:49,519
Speaker 1: film the deer coming in, and then he has a

1587
01:22:49,560 --> 01:22:52,840
Speaker 1: third camera that's for still photography, and he's got a

1588
01:22:52,880 --> 01:22:54,439
Speaker 1: camera arm and all this kind of thing. So he's

1589
01:22:54,479 --> 01:22:57,120
Speaker 1: got a big, huge backpack and then like extra bags

1590
01:22:57,160 --> 01:22:59,479
Speaker 1: that were attached to that. So in the tree, every

1591
01:22:59,479 --> 01:23:01,720
Speaker 1: time we were unning, it was a challenge to try

1592
01:23:01,720 --> 01:23:03,800
Speaker 1: to find a way like position his bags somewhere that

1593
01:23:03,840 --> 01:23:06,439
Speaker 1: they'd be out of my way, but also you know, hidden.

1594
01:23:06,720 --> 01:23:08,840
Speaker 1: We're always trying to find ways to stay hidden because

1595
01:23:08,880 --> 01:23:12,639
Speaker 1: like with two guys and two sets of gear and

1596
01:23:12,640 --> 01:23:14,519
Speaker 1: and all this crab, it was very hard to ever

1597
01:23:14,560 --> 01:23:17,679
Speaker 1: stay hidden. So it was like a point of concern

1598
01:23:17,760 --> 01:23:19,599
Speaker 1: at all times to try to find this middle ground

1599
01:23:19,600 --> 01:23:22,160
Speaker 1: where I'm able to get him hidden in a way

1600
01:23:22,760 --> 01:23:26,840
Speaker 1: um that also allows us to get shots. And that

1601
01:23:26,880 --> 01:23:29,680
Speaker 1: morning he set up and I remember thinking that this

1602
01:23:29,760 --> 01:23:32,040
Speaker 1: backpack is in the way if a deer comes right

1603
01:23:32,080 --> 01:23:34,040
Speaker 1: here to my front left. So I told him, like,

1604
01:23:34,040 --> 01:23:36,840
Speaker 1: do we gotta do something all that backpack. So he

1605
01:23:36,880 --> 01:23:38,800
Speaker 1: tried to raise it up a little bit, and then

1606
01:23:38,840 --> 01:23:42,280
Speaker 1: we tucked the straps that were hanging off and we

1607
01:23:42,280 --> 01:23:44,519
Speaker 1: hadnt really straps, so take the straps. I remember putting

1608
01:23:44,520 --> 01:23:48,720
Speaker 1: the straps into the water ball pockets, and I practice like,

1609
01:23:48,720 --> 01:23:50,760
Speaker 1: can I get a shot around here? It's still dark out,

1610
01:23:50,760 --> 01:23:51,960
Speaker 1: this is really early in the morning. Can I get

1611
01:23:51,960 --> 01:23:53,720
Speaker 1: a shot around? Like, damn, it's still kind of like

1612
01:23:53,760 --> 01:23:57,320
Speaker 1: in the way. But I had been I've been on

1613
01:23:57,400 --> 01:23:59,120
Speaker 1: him so much to like move these things and do

1614
01:23:59,160 --> 01:24:01,719
Speaker 1: this stuff. I felt ad like I was. I was worried.

1615
01:24:01,720 --> 01:24:04,559
Speaker 1: I'm being like that annoying nag, like always talent move

1616
01:24:04,640 --> 01:24:06,200
Speaker 1: this stuff or this stuff is in the way, or

1617
01:24:06,479 --> 01:24:08,320
Speaker 1: it's like I'm not gonna ask him to move it again,

1618
01:24:08,479 --> 01:24:10,240
Speaker 1: Like he's he's got a thousand things to do. It

1619
01:24:10,280 --> 01:24:12,360
Speaker 1: takes a long time for him to get set up

1620
01:24:12,360 --> 01:24:14,240
Speaker 1: with all this different gear and all these cameras, and

1621
01:24:14,680 --> 01:24:16,560
Speaker 1: you know, I was approaching daylight and all that. So

1622
01:24:16,600 --> 01:24:18,760
Speaker 1: I'm like, it's good enough. What I'll do is if

1623
01:24:18,800 --> 01:24:22,080
Speaker 1: a buck's coming I can just lower myself down. You know,

1624
01:24:22,120 --> 01:24:24,240
Speaker 1: if you know on a satellite, you'm hanging from a rope,

1625
01:24:24,280 --> 01:24:27,280
Speaker 1: So I can either like kneel down and get lower,

1626
01:24:27,680 --> 01:24:32,080
Speaker 1: or I could even release the ropeman that's running me

1627
01:24:32,120 --> 01:24:34,080
Speaker 1: on the rope. I can actually lower myself on the

1628
01:24:34,160 --> 01:24:37,160
Speaker 1: rope even more so, so I remember thinking it'll be

1629
01:24:37,160 --> 01:24:39,599
Speaker 1: good enough. I can just lower myself or kneel down

1630
01:24:39,680 --> 01:24:41,880
Speaker 1: and shoot underneath that backpack. Probably just fine. I'm not

1631
01:24:41,880 --> 01:24:44,880
Speaker 1: gonna bug chase anymore. So that was that morning. Well,

1632
01:24:45,479 --> 01:24:49,960
Speaker 1: now this big buck's coming through, and this big buck

1633
01:24:50,080 --> 01:24:52,839
Speaker 1: is is running walking from left to right very quickly,

1634
01:24:53,120 --> 01:24:56,639
Speaker 1: coming down this logging road trail, and he's gonna give

1635
01:24:56,680 --> 01:24:59,840
Speaker 1: me one opening. There's one opening in the brush, and

1636
01:25:00,040 --> 01:25:04,120
Speaker 1: it's right where that backpack is. Let me tell you

1637
01:25:04,120 --> 01:25:08,840
Speaker 1: about this buck. This buck is like a horse body.

1638
01:25:09,479 --> 01:25:13,760
Speaker 1: I mean, he's like a Clydesdale body buck. And he

1639
01:25:13,920 --> 01:25:20,880
Speaker 1: is big, heavy, wide, tall eight pointer. He's like a

1640
01:25:21,000 --> 01:25:25,120
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty in eight pointer, biggest eight point buck

1641
01:25:25,120 --> 01:25:32,800
Speaker 1: I've ever had within shooting range. Slammer, and I get

1642
01:25:32,840 --> 01:25:38,479
Speaker 1: my bow up into position, and I remember thinking I

1643
01:25:38,520 --> 01:25:42,040
Speaker 1: can't get underneath this freaking backpack. I need to lower myself,

1644
01:25:42,880 --> 01:25:45,240
Speaker 1: but that bus coming so fast. He's almost to my

1645
01:25:45,240 --> 01:25:47,320
Speaker 1: shooting lane, and I realized I can't. I don't have time.

1646
01:25:47,360 --> 01:25:49,160
Speaker 1: I'm like reaching from my rope man like I can't

1647
01:25:49,160 --> 01:25:51,280
Speaker 1: do it. So all of this happens in the matter

1648
01:25:51,320 --> 01:25:54,120
Speaker 1: of like this is like an eight second time period.

1649
01:25:54,200 --> 01:25:56,799
Speaker 1: Probably I don't know how long. It was, maybe maybe

1650
01:25:57,880 --> 01:26:00,560
Speaker 1: twenties seconds from the time we out the buck to

1651
01:26:00,640 --> 01:26:02,479
Speaker 1: the time he gets into my shooting lane. Like he

1652
01:26:02,560 --> 01:26:04,240
Speaker 1: came out on an oor in the thick cover, and

1653
01:26:04,280 --> 01:26:07,320
Speaker 1: then bam, he's crossing the ditch. He's approaching the shooting lane.

1654
01:26:08,040 --> 01:26:10,719
Speaker 1: All I have time to grab the bow, swing down,

1655
01:26:10,840 --> 01:26:12,639
Speaker 1: and then I have the two thoughts. One thought is God,

1656
01:26:12,680 --> 01:26:14,360
Speaker 1: I wish I could a range on him. Second, not

1657
01:26:14,479 --> 01:26:16,400
Speaker 1: enough time. The second thing is gotta getta get lower

1658
01:26:16,400 --> 01:26:20,200
Speaker 1: and it's backpack. I can't do it. So I am

1659
01:26:20,240 --> 01:26:22,840
Speaker 1: trying to crouch. I'm trying to angle my bow. I'm

1660
01:26:22,840 --> 01:26:24,639
Speaker 1: trying to find some way to get under this thing.

1661
01:26:24,680 --> 01:26:28,080
Speaker 1: But my top limb of my bow is bumping up

1662
01:26:28,080 --> 01:26:31,240
Speaker 1: against the top of this backpack that's still hanging down

1663
01:26:31,240 --> 01:26:34,920
Speaker 1: too low. The buck enters the shooting lane, I have

1664
01:26:35,080 --> 01:26:40,920
Speaker 1: to get a shot I remember drawing back and knee

1665
01:26:41,040 --> 01:26:44,280
Speaker 1: I'm like kneeling down and like hanging out and trying

1666
01:26:44,320 --> 01:26:47,080
Speaker 1: to keep my bow underneath the backpack. I remember the

1667
01:26:47,120 --> 01:26:50,320
Speaker 1: moments I can remember. I remember once like hitting it.

1668
01:26:50,400 --> 01:26:52,160
Speaker 1: I remember being canted to the side, and then I

1669
01:26:52,200 --> 01:26:56,479
Speaker 1: remember just trying to hack. I don't know. All I

1670
01:26:56,479 --> 01:26:59,599
Speaker 1: remember is trying to navigate around this thing. And then

1671
01:26:59,640 --> 01:27:02,960
Speaker 1: I remember member seeing my third yard paint on that

1672
01:27:03,000 --> 01:27:06,400
Speaker 1: buck and being like this is it, and the shot

1673
01:27:06,439 --> 01:27:11,000
Speaker 1: went off, And the moment the shot went off, I cursed,

1674
01:27:11,320 --> 01:27:16,759
Speaker 1: like I knew instantly I missed. I mean instantly. Um,

1675
01:27:16,840 --> 01:27:18,639
Speaker 1: the poor editors are gonna have to edit it out

1676
01:27:18,680 --> 01:27:24,519
Speaker 1: because like the shot and then immediately instantly, and that

1677
01:27:24,600 --> 01:27:28,799
Speaker 1: buck ran off so probably like sixty yards and stopped

1678
01:27:28,880 --> 01:27:35,479
Speaker 1: just looking around, and I'm just like, no freaking way.

1679
01:27:35,920 --> 01:27:39,080
Speaker 1: And I grabbed another arrow and I get the new

1680
01:27:39,200 --> 01:27:43,840
Speaker 1: arrow on there, and where he's positioned, I don't have

1681
01:27:43,920 --> 01:27:48,240
Speaker 1: a good shot, but maybe if I could lower myself

1682
01:27:48,280 --> 01:27:51,120
Speaker 1: on the rope and swing around this stupid backpack all

1683
01:27:51,160 --> 01:27:53,160
Speaker 1: the way the backside, there might be a clear lane.

1684
01:27:53,840 --> 01:27:55,760
Speaker 1: So I'm trying to fumble with my rope and my

1685
01:27:55,840 --> 01:27:58,960
Speaker 1: rope man, which is like the This is like the ascend.

1686
01:27:59,320 --> 01:28:01,000
Speaker 1: It's like this little mechanism that holds you on the

1687
01:28:01,040 --> 01:28:02,960
Speaker 1: rope at whatever level you want to be at. I'm

1688
01:28:03,000 --> 01:28:05,639
Speaker 1: trying to open that up so I can lower myself

1689
01:28:05,720 --> 01:28:09,120
Speaker 1: down the rope and swing around either side. And as

1690
01:28:09,160 --> 01:28:12,080
Speaker 1: I do that, like it makes a clicking noise, it pops,

1691
01:28:12,560 --> 01:28:16,599
Speaker 1: and that buck just bolts, blow in and barrels out

1692
01:28:16,600 --> 01:28:22,200
Speaker 1: of there. And uh, I had just missed one of

1693
01:28:22,240 --> 01:28:25,799
Speaker 1: the biggest bucks in my life. Um. Definitely the biggest

1694
01:28:25,800 --> 01:28:29,360
Speaker 1: eight point in my life. Uh. And uh, you know,

1695
01:28:29,400 --> 01:28:33,200
Speaker 1: first mature buckhead within shooting range. Definitely the biggest buck

1696
01:28:33,240 --> 01:28:36,720
Speaker 1: I saw that week. Um, And that was my opportunity.

1697
01:28:37,000 --> 01:28:41,680
Speaker 1: I busted my balls all seven days for that. I

1698
01:28:41,840 --> 01:28:44,479
Speaker 1: passed on those really nice bucks the first couple of

1699
01:28:44,520 --> 01:28:47,640
Speaker 1: days for an opportunity like that, and then there he

1700
01:28:47,760 --> 01:29:00,040
Speaker 1: is and I blew it, and um, you know, I

1701
01:29:00,200 --> 01:29:02,960
Speaker 1: decided to sit there the rest of the day because

1702
01:29:03,200 --> 01:29:05,080
Speaker 1: after that, I saw a number of other young bucks

1703
01:29:05,080 --> 01:29:07,800
Speaker 1: come cruising through, and I knew there's other maturity deer

1704
01:29:07,800 --> 01:29:10,439
Speaker 1: on camera, so I knew, like, all right, he's out

1705
01:29:10,439 --> 01:29:13,800
Speaker 1: of here, but maybe another one of these big boys

1706
01:29:13,840 --> 01:29:15,920
Speaker 1: all roll through because obviously this spot is the spot

1707
01:29:15,960 --> 01:29:18,360
Speaker 1: they want to come through. So I sat out the

1708
01:29:18,360 --> 01:29:21,040
Speaker 1: rest of the day. Then around like two o'clock that

1709
01:29:21,120 --> 01:29:26,800
Speaker 1: wind um I was getting stronger, and I realized that

1710
01:29:26,840 --> 01:29:29,600
Speaker 1: more of these deer were taking the top trail like

1711
01:29:29,680 --> 01:29:32,800
Speaker 1: that big buck had done. And in the morning he

1712
01:29:32,840 --> 01:29:35,080
Speaker 1: couldn't win me because my thermals were dropping. But now

1713
01:29:35,280 --> 01:29:37,679
Speaker 1: the air warmed up and the wind was blowing towards

1714
01:29:37,720 --> 01:29:41,200
Speaker 1: that trail now and more deer we're using that top

1715
01:29:41,200 --> 01:29:43,519
Speaker 1: trail than I was expecting. So I got to think of, man,

1716
01:29:43,560 --> 01:29:46,439
Speaker 1: you know what, we really need to be in a

1717
01:29:46,479 --> 01:29:49,280
Speaker 1: position so that if another deer comes on the top

1718
01:29:49,320 --> 01:29:51,080
Speaker 1: trail doesn't wind us, Like, what's the point of sitting

1719
01:29:51,120 --> 01:29:53,559
Speaker 1: here all day and trying to do this if another

1720
01:29:53,600 --> 01:29:55,439
Speaker 1: buck does what that one does and then he wins

1721
01:29:55,479 --> 01:29:57,640
Speaker 1: me before I can get a shot. So at like

1722
01:29:57,680 --> 01:29:59,840
Speaker 1: two o'clock or to thirty or something, I tell Chase, Man,

1723
01:29:59,880 --> 01:30:02,439
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I know you're worn out. I'm worn out.

1724
01:30:02,479 --> 01:30:03,720
Speaker 1: I don't want to do this, but we need to

1725
01:30:03,760 --> 01:30:05,639
Speaker 1: make a little adjustment because I'm not gonna have gone

1726
01:30:05,640 --> 01:30:09,000
Speaker 1: through all this and then miss this book to just

1727
01:30:09,080 --> 01:30:11,240
Speaker 1: have a final opportunity to the last night for magic,

1728
01:30:11,320 --> 01:30:14,360
Speaker 1: and then we get winded. So with a couple hours

1729
01:30:14,439 --> 01:30:17,240
Speaker 1: left in the day, we pulled on our set, move

1730
01:30:17,360 --> 01:30:19,479
Speaker 1: forty yards to another tree that's better for the wind

1731
01:30:19,479 --> 01:30:22,240
Speaker 1: and gives us another shooting angle. Put another step back

1732
01:30:22,320 --> 01:30:26,040
Speaker 1: up like our seven seemed like our seventh setup of

1733
01:30:26,080 --> 01:30:29,559
Speaker 1: the trip, got up in the tree. And I should

1734
01:30:29,600 --> 01:30:33,519
Speaker 1: point out that they started combining this field now and

1735
01:30:33,760 --> 01:30:36,320
Speaker 1: we're sitting up there and like, oh man, please stop,

1736
01:30:36,960 --> 01:30:38,719
Speaker 1: or please work on the opposite side of the field

1737
01:30:38,800 --> 01:30:41,360
Speaker 1: or something, or please get done before daylight, I mean

1738
01:30:41,360 --> 01:30:44,719
Speaker 1: before dark. But as the evening progresses now we're sitting

1739
01:30:44,760 --> 01:30:48,519
Speaker 1: there and of course, just like that other night, the

1740
01:30:48,600 --> 01:30:51,360
Speaker 1: last half hour daylight, he's picking the field right next

1741
01:30:51,400 --> 01:30:54,200
Speaker 1: to us and literally doing the last row right next

1742
01:30:54,240 --> 01:30:56,519
Speaker 1: to the timber that we're close to now during the

1743
01:30:56,600 --> 01:31:00,880
Speaker 1: last ten fifty minutes of the night, and nothing but

1744
01:31:00,960 --> 01:31:04,599
Speaker 1: a single dough comes through and there's two one little buck,

1745
01:31:05,560 --> 01:31:08,360
Speaker 1: and the night ended like that. That was this was

1746
01:31:08,479 --> 01:31:12,639
Speaker 1: last night. That was how I hunt added and I

1747
01:31:12,720 --> 01:31:18,719
Speaker 1: did not kill a buck in Iowa. And I blew

1748
01:31:18,840 --> 01:31:24,960
Speaker 1: my opportunity at my opportunity, blew mine, blew my shot

1749
01:31:25,439 --> 01:31:29,040
Speaker 1: um and you know, I replayed that moment over and

1750
01:31:29,080 --> 01:31:32,160
Speaker 1: over and over again, thinking about what what happened? You know,

1751
01:31:32,880 --> 01:31:35,040
Speaker 1: what did you do wrong? What could have you done different?

1752
01:31:36,120 --> 01:31:39,200
Speaker 1: I mean there's a whole lot of self loathing. I

1753
01:31:39,200 --> 01:31:44,559
Speaker 1: mean I was busted up about it, of course. Um,

1754
01:31:44,600 --> 01:31:47,400
Speaker 1: and you know I I couldn't get around that back

1755
01:31:47,439 --> 01:31:49,560
Speaker 1: I mean, it was a horrible shooting situation. It was

1756
01:31:49,600 --> 01:31:55,920
Speaker 1: just a horrible I mean it was awful. And UM,

1757
01:31:56,120 --> 01:31:58,680
Speaker 1: you know, I guess I blame myself. I do. I

1758
01:31:58,760 --> 01:32:02,600
Speaker 1: blame myself for that because I should have known to

1759
01:32:02,760 --> 01:32:08,120
Speaker 1: not settle for that backpack being anywhere in the way. Um,

1760
01:32:08,160 --> 01:32:11,120
Speaker 1: because you know, I should have known that I wouldn't

1761
01:32:11,120 --> 01:32:13,360
Speaker 1: be able to easily adjust to get around it in

1762
01:32:13,400 --> 01:32:15,200
Speaker 1: the heat of the moment when there's a buck barreling

1763
01:32:15,200 --> 01:32:17,920
Speaker 1: down on you. Um. I thought it was good enough,

1764
01:32:17,960 --> 01:32:21,920
Speaker 1: but it was not good enough. And uh, you know,

1765
01:32:22,040 --> 01:32:25,240
Speaker 1: if I had moved that backpack, it might have been

1766
01:32:25,240 --> 01:32:30,120
Speaker 1: a different story. Um. I shot low in a little

1767
01:32:31,000 --> 01:32:33,160
Speaker 1: It's hard to tell exactly watching the footage, but it

1768
01:32:33,160 --> 01:32:35,920
Speaker 1: looks like the arrow hits beneath him and a little

1769
01:32:35,920 --> 01:32:42,000
Speaker 1: bit back. Um. So what did I do wrong? I

1770
01:32:42,080 --> 01:32:44,080
Speaker 1: had that backpack there, that I should have moved even

1771
01:32:44,120 --> 01:32:46,760
Speaker 1: more than I already moved it. That backpack made it

1772
01:32:46,800 --> 01:32:48,600
Speaker 1: really hard for me to shoot around it, and I

1773
01:32:48,640 --> 01:32:50,960
Speaker 1: was just in a very augard position, bending down low,

1774
01:32:51,040 --> 01:32:53,200
Speaker 1: kind of leaning out. I might even had to have

1775
01:32:53,240 --> 01:32:57,760
Speaker 1: the bow canted out to left a little bit. Um,

1776
01:32:57,800 --> 01:33:00,160
Speaker 1: I mean, you don't want to shoot like that, can

1777
01:33:00,280 --> 01:33:03,200
Speaker 1: lee That buck might have been a little further than

1778
01:33:03,240 --> 01:33:06,679
Speaker 1: I thought. Um, you know, I was using my thirty

1779
01:33:06,720 --> 01:33:08,880
Speaker 1: yard pin, but he was probably more like thirty four

1780
01:33:08,960 --> 01:33:11,000
Speaker 1: yards when I you know, watching the footage and trying

1781
01:33:11,000 --> 01:33:13,040
Speaker 1: to range exactly where he was and all that kind

1782
01:33:13,040 --> 01:33:15,479
Speaker 1: of stuff. So not only was that in a horribly

1783
01:33:15,479 --> 01:33:19,719
Speaker 1: awkward position trying to shoot wonky, but also I'm shooting

1784
01:33:19,840 --> 01:33:22,920
Speaker 1: with a thirty yard pin when he's you know, thirty

1785
01:33:22,920 --> 01:33:25,519
Speaker 1: four yards away. Let's say, so there's another reason why

1786
01:33:25,640 --> 01:33:32,040
Speaker 1: the shot could have been lower than it should have been. Um,

1787
01:33:32,160 --> 01:33:43,679
Speaker 1: you know, ah uh yeah, I I guess. I don't

1788
01:33:43,680 --> 01:33:45,800
Speaker 1: know what to say. I've thought through this thing so

1789
01:33:45,880 --> 01:33:48,879
Speaker 1: many times. I beat myself over it so many times.

1790
01:33:49,680 --> 01:33:53,439
Speaker 1: Definitely like a confidence I don't want to say I'm

1791
01:33:53,479 --> 01:33:56,960
Speaker 1: having a crisis of confidence, but this definitely like shook me,

1792
01:33:58,560 --> 01:34:03,960
Speaker 1: you know, Um, even though there's all these extenuating circumstances

1793
01:34:03,960 --> 01:34:07,400
Speaker 1: that made this awful. Um, it's also kind of thing. Man,

1794
01:34:07,439 --> 01:34:10,759
Speaker 1: you missed a big buck last year, Now this happens again.

1795
01:34:11,800 --> 01:34:13,880
Speaker 1: You don't you don't want to get into a thing

1796
01:34:14,000 --> 01:34:17,040
Speaker 1: like that where that starts happening. And all that is

1797
01:34:17,080 --> 01:34:21,719
Speaker 1: to say, um, man, just not a good feeling, really

1798
01:34:21,760 --> 01:34:26,840
Speaker 1: really disheartening feeling, very discouraging. Um. As you all know.

1799
01:34:26,920 --> 01:34:30,760
Speaker 1: I mean, those those those moments of the lowest of lows,

1800
01:34:30,800 --> 01:34:34,680
Speaker 1: and it comes to hunting, and I'm still working through it. Um,

1801
01:34:34,760 --> 01:34:37,200
Speaker 1: this is this is raw. This just happened yesterday morning,

1802
01:34:37,200 --> 01:34:38,880
Speaker 1: and now it's that that the following day in the

1803
01:34:38,920 --> 01:34:41,360
Speaker 1: morning when I'm recording this, and it's a bitter pill

1804
01:34:41,360 --> 01:34:45,360
Speaker 1: of swallow. It is a really really bitter pilla swallow. Um.

1805
01:34:45,400 --> 01:34:47,120
Speaker 1: And I know that's something that a lots you can

1806
01:34:47,160 --> 01:34:50,080
Speaker 1: relate to. Um, this is not something you need to me.

1807
01:34:51,040 --> 01:34:53,080
Speaker 1: A lot of us have worked really hard and not

1808
01:34:53,160 --> 01:34:56,240
Speaker 1: gotten paid off for a lot of us have practice

1809
01:34:56,240 --> 01:34:58,759
Speaker 1: a ton and try to very best and still missed

1810
01:34:58,880 --> 01:35:02,800
Speaker 1: or still didn't get to see one or still has

1811
01:35:03,000 --> 01:35:06,519
Speaker 1: something going wrong. So there's no use to me sitting here. Um.

1812
01:35:06,520 --> 01:35:09,000
Speaker 1: Playing my fiddle and feeling sorry for myself because I

1813
01:35:09,040 --> 01:35:10,800
Speaker 1: know that plenty of other people have dealt with it,

1814
01:35:10,840 --> 01:35:14,599
Speaker 1: and plenty of other people have to deal with worse. UM.

1815
01:35:14,640 --> 01:35:19,479
Speaker 1: So I'm trying to do what I've said here on

1816
01:35:19,520 --> 01:35:21,639
Speaker 1: the podcast in the past, which is number one. I'm

1817
01:35:21,640 --> 01:35:23,960
Speaker 1: trying to remember that there's a lot bigger things in

1818
01:35:24,000 --> 01:35:30,040
Speaker 1: life than this. And I've still got great I don't need. Um,

1819
01:35:30,720 --> 01:35:32,280
Speaker 1: i don't even feel that bad because I've got a

1820
01:35:32,280 --> 01:35:34,040
Speaker 1: great family. I've got the best kids in the world.

1821
01:35:34,080 --> 01:35:36,080
Speaker 1: I've got a home, I've got a way to pay

1822
01:35:36,120 --> 01:35:40,680
Speaker 1: the bills, I've got great family and friends. I'm healthy. Um.

1823
01:35:40,760 --> 01:35:43,439
Speaker 1: So I'm trying to put things in context and and

1824
01:35:43,520 --> 01:35:49,040
Speaker 1: remember this isn't life or death. UM. And I'm also,

1825
01:35:50,000 --> 01:35:51,400
Speaker 1: you know, trying to do the other thing which I

1826
01:35:51,400 --> 01:35:56,880
Speaker 1: preach a lot, which is trying to remember the process. Right. Um,

1827
01:35:56,920 --> 01:36:00,160
Speaker 1: I didn't get the results I wanted. But the one

1828
01:36:00,200 --> 01:36:01,760
Speaker 1: thing I can hang my head on, and then one

1829
01:36:01,800 --> 01:36:05,000
Speaker 1: thing I can say, probably I'm honestly I'll go back

1830
01:36:05,040 --> 01:36:07,599
Speaker 1: and say I'm embarrassed, like I'll tell you, like just honestly,

1831
01:36:08,920 --> 01:36:13,160
Speaker 1: just being brutally honest with you. This is embarrassing. It's

1832
01:36:13,160 --> 01:36:17,720
Speaker 1: embarrassing that I missed a buck. It's embarrassing that I

1833
01:36:17,760 --> 01:36:20,559
Speaker 1: didn't kill a deer. It's embarrassing I spent seven days

1834
01:36:20,560 --> 01:36:22,000
Speaker 1: in the best place in the world and couldn't get

1835
01:36:22,000 --> 01:36:25,360
Speaker 1: it done. It's embarrassing that, you know, me, Clay, Tony,

1836
01:36:25,439 --> 01:36:27,519
Speaker 1: and Spencer were all on this hunt for the show,

1837
01:36:28,240 --> 01:36:32,840
Speaker 1: and Tony killed, Spencer killed, Clay killed. Who's the one

1838
01:36:32,840 --> 01:36:35,080
Speaker 1: guy I didn't kill? The son of a gun that

1839
01:36:35,120 --> 01:36:37,840
Speaker 1: hosts the Wired Dunt podcast, this this great big white

1840
01:36:37,840 --> 01:36:39,759
Speaker 1: tailed podcast. I'm supposed to be the guy is supposed

1841
01:36:39,760 --> 01:36:43,280
Speaker 1: to get this done, and then I don't. Um So

1842
01:36:43,479 --> 01:36:48,000
Speaker 1: all of those things have been in my brain, and

1843
01:36:48,160 --> 01:36:55,360
Speaker 1: uh man, it sucks. But the one thing, when I

1844
01:36:55,360 --> 01:37:00,880
Speaker 1: climbed out of the tree last night, I just said,

1845
01:37:02,600 --> 01:37:05,000
Speaker 1: I freaking gave it my all. I mean, I just

1846
01:37:05,400 --> 01:37:10,160
Speaker 1: did everything I could. I did not take a break.

1847
01:37:10,880 --> 01:37:14,920
Speaker 1: I did not take an easy route. Every time I thought, man,

1848
01:37:14,920 --> 01:37:16,720
Speaker 1: I got to make an adjustment, every time I thought

1849
01:37:16,720 --> 01:37:18,679
Speaker 1: I gotta take a long way, every time I thought

1850
01:37:18,720 --> 01:37:22,600
Speaker 1: I gotta go harder, longer. Whatever I did it, I

1851
01:37:22,720 --> 01:37:25,519
Speaker 1: gave every damn little bit of myself. And I am

1852
01:37:25,520 --> 01:37:36,280
Speaker 1: whooped and Um, tired, and uh, you know, that's just

1853
01:37:36,280 --> 01:37:40,880
Speaker 1: how it goes sometimes. So I I'm gonna try to

1854
01:37:40,920 --> 01:37:43,600
Speaker 1: sleep easy tonight in some kind of way, knowing that

1855
01:37:43,680 --> 01:37:46,240
Speaker 1: I left it on the court, left it all on

1856
01:37:46,280 --> 01:37:49,400
Speaker 1: the field, and that that is just how it goes sometimes.

1857
01:37:49,479 --> 01:37:53,160
Speaker 1: That's all right, that's life. Right. You're gonna work really

1858
01:37:53,200 --> 01:37:56,280
Speaker 1: hard for things, and you're not gonna get what you want.

1859
01:37:56,320 --> 01:37:58,920
Speaker 1: Sometimes you're gonna have tough times. You have good times

1860
01:37:58,920 --> 01:38:00,400
Speaker 1: and you have tough times, and you get learn how

1861
01:38:00,400 --> 01:38:01,960
Speaker 1: to weather both. And you gotta learn how to stay

1862
01:38:01,960 --> 01:38:04,160
Speaker 1: even killed. And you've gotta learn to stay positive through

1863
01:38:04,200 --> 01:38:06,760
Speaker 1: it and make the most situations. And you gotta know

1864
01:38:06,760 --> 01:38:10,360
Speaker 1: how to take your lumps. And so I'll get through

1865
01:38:10,400 --> 01:38:12,360
Speaker 1: this one. I've gotten through all the others. I'll get

1866
01:38:12,400 --> 01:38:17,640
Speaker 1: through this one. I'll learn from it. I'll grow. And um,

1867
01:38:17,680 --> 01:38:21,080
Speaker 1: you know, if any of you followed Wired to Hunt

1868
01:38:21,360 --> 01:38:24,080
Speaker 1: for any period of time, you know that I have

1869
01:38:24,160 --> 01:38:27,680
Speaker 1: been through these things before. And this is just this

1870
01:38:27,760 --> 01:38:29,680
Speaker 1: is this is what wird Hunt is. I guess right.

1871
01:38:29,720 --> 01:38:33,719
Speaker 1: This is a process, this is a learning process. You've

1872
01:38:33,760 --> 01:38:36,360
Speaker 1: gotten to ride along with me since two thousand nine,

1873
01:38:36,560 --> 01:38:39,479
Speaker 1: when I first decided to try to start killing mature bucks.

1874
01:38:39,720 --> 01:38:43,280
Speaker 1: When when more like, well, yeah, I guess he's nine. Um,

1875
01:38:43,600 --> 01:38:44,880
Speaker 1: when I said, all right, I'm gonna try to kill

1876
01:38:44,880 --> 01:38:47,599
Speaker 1: them a sure buck, And you've got to follow along

1877
01:38:47,640 --> 01:38:49,559
Speaker 1: with me as I have tried to learn how to

1878
01:38:49,600 --> 01:38:51,439
Speaker 1: do that and started being able to do that, and

1879
01:38:51,439 --> 01:38:54,639
Speaker 1: started to do that consistently. But you've also seen me

1880
01:38:54,920 --> 01:38:58,200
Speaker 1: fail a whole lot along the way. You've seen me struggle,

1881
01:38:58,439 --> 01:39:00,320
Speaker 1: and you've seen me learn from it. You've seem to

1882
01:39:00,320 --> 01:39:02,719
Speaker 1: get better, You've seen me revert back and do bad again.

1883
01:39:02,800 --> 01:39:08,200
Speaker 1: You've see me get better again. And damn it, what

1884
01:39:08,240 --> 01:39:11,599
Speaker 1: we're gonna keep on doing. I'm gonna bounce back from

1885
01:39:11,600 --> 01:39:13,320
Speaker 1: this one. I'm gonna learn from it. This whole little

1886
01:39:13,320 --> 01:39:15,400
Speaker 1: breakdown I just did with you guys, I don't know

1887
01:39:15,439 --> 01:39:17,320
Speaker 1: if this is interesting in any kind of way. I

1888
01:39:17,360 --> 01:39:20,760
Speaker 1: don't know if you just listen to me prattle on

1889
01:39:20,880 --> 01:39:23,600
Speaker 1: for an hour and forty minutes with with nothing to it,

1890
01:39:23,640 --> 01:39:25,800
Speaker 1: I'm not sure. I hope that there's something valuable here,

1891
01:39:25,840 --> 01:39:29,840
Speaker 1: But I hope that by trying to break things down

1892
01:39:29,880 --> 01:39:33,519
Speaker 1: like this, um for myself, it can serve as an

1893
01:39:33,520 --> 01:39:35,559
Speaker 1: illustration of how you might be able to do the

1894
01:39:35,600 --> 01:39:39,360
Speaker 1: same both you know, how to work through a week

1895
01:39:39,360 --> 01:39:42,720
Speaker 1: of tough hunting and make adjustments. And you know, I

1896
01:39:42,720 --> 01:39:45,519
Speaker 1: feel like one of the things that I I think

1897
01:39:45,520 --> 01:39:47,080
Speaker 1: I did an okay job of. I think it did

1898
01:39:47,080 --> 01:39:50,439
Speaker 1: a good job of was trying to balance this um

1899
01:39:50,479 --> 01:39:54,840
Speaker 1: tension between searching out new spots and hot sign versus

1900
01:39:54,960 --> 01:39:57,280
Speaker 1: finding a good spot and giving a time. I you know,

1901
01:39:57,320 --> 01:40:00,040
Speaker 1: there's a couple of spots I really found h the

1902
01:40:01,400 --> 01:40:04,519
Speaker 1: deserved time, and I gave them a good bit. I

1903
01:40:04,600 --> 01:40:08,280
Speaker 1: didn't pan out, but um, I tried to kind of

1904
01:40:08,360 --> 01:40:10,240
Speaker 1: let a couple of spots soak the way they should.

1905
01:40:10,360 --> 01:40:11,920
Speaker 1: And at the same time, I also said, all right,

1906
01:40:11,920 --> 01:40:13,240
Speaker 1: there's times and you get a bail out and you

1907
01:40:13,320 --> 01:40:16,400
Speaker 1: gotta seek out new spots. So I I bailed out

1908
01:40:16,439 --> 01:40:19,280
Speaker 1: and scouted new areas and I hunted new spots, and

1909
01:40:19,600 --> 01:40:22,880
Speaker 1: you know, a couple of those plays lead to opportunities,

1910
01:40:22,880 --> 01:40:26,599
Speaker 1: are close to opportunities or sightings, and um, I think

1911
01:40:26,600 --> 01:40:29,080
Speaker 1: those are those were good moves. So you know, I

1912
01:40:29,080 --> 01:40:31,760
Speaker 1: can look back at my process, and I can look

1913
01:40:31,760 --> 01:40:34,120
Speaker 1: back at those decisions and and and and see some

1914
01:40:34,200 --> 01:40:36,800
Speaker 1: good things. I can see some good things. I can

1915
01:40:36,840 --> 01:40:38,559
Speaker 1: see some things I wish I would have done differently.

1916
01:40:38,560 --> 01:40:40,840
Speaker 1: I wish I had scouted out that north Ridge sooner.

1917
01:40:41,479 --> 01:40:43,920
Speaker 1: I wish that I'd gotten there sooner because if I

1918
01:40:43,920 --> 01:40:46,320
Speaker 1: had more time, I wonder if I would have had

1919
01:40:46,520 --> 01:40:50,400
Speaker 1: another opportunity. Um because it definitely was the best looking

1920
01:40:50,600 --> 01:40:54,559
Speaker 1: signed by far um that I found. And um, I

1921
01:40:54,560 --> 01:40:56,200
Speaker 1: didn't get there till the last day or second to

1922
01:40:56,280 --> 01:40:58,240
Speaker 1: last days when I scouted it and didn't hunt it

1923
01:40:58,280 --> 01:41:01,200
Speaker 1: till the last day. Um So tho's those those types

1924
01:41:01,240 --> 01:41:03,280
Speaker 1: of things too. And of course then the shot, I mean,

1925
01:41:04,040 --> 01:41:06,519
Speaker 1: I can look at that and tell you, I mean,

1926
01:41:06,520 --> 01:41:09,040
Speaker 1: I already did the things I wish I had done differently.

1927
01:41:09,920 --> 01:41:14,320
Speaker 1: Um So that's where I'm at, Guys. It was a

1928
01:41:14,320 --> 01:41:17,040
Speaker 1: heck of a week. I'm not happy with how it

1929
01:41:17,080 --> 01:41:20,840
Speaker 1: turned out. I wish I had a successful story to

1930
01:41:20,840 --> 01:41:22,160
Speaker 1: share with you right now. I wish I had a

1931
01:41:22,200 --> 01:41:24,360
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty and shape pointer five year old buck

1932
01:41:24,360 --> 01:41:26,719
Speaker 1: in the back of my truck right now, But I don't.

1933
01:41:27,600 --> 01:41:30,880
Speaker 1: And that's life. Sometimes you drive home with an empty

1934
01:41:30,880 --> 01:41:35,160
Speaker 1: truck bed, and what makes the man, I think is

1935
01:41:35,200 --> 01:41:37,000
Speaker 1: what you do the next morning when you wake up.

1936
01:41:37,280 --> 01:41:39,760
Speaker 1: You're gonna hang your ahead and are you gonna bitch

1937
01:41:39,800 --> 01:41:43,559
Speaker 1: about it, and are you gonna let that define you

1938
01:41:44,640 --> 01:41:46,960
Speaker 1: or are you gonna hit the road and keep on trying.

1939
01:41:47,880 --> 01:41:51,280
Speaker 1: And I guess, literally and figuratively, I am hitting the

1940
01:41:51,360 --> 01:41:54,679
Speaker 1: road and going to keep on trying, as I'm actually

1941
01:41:55,120 --> 01:41:57,360
Speaker 1: in my truck driving to Nebraska, and I will be

1942
01:41:57,400 --> 01:42:01,280
Speaker 1: starting to hunt again tonight, filming an another show and

1943
01:42:02,160 --> 01:42:06,680
Speaker 1: hopefully gonna put something together a very different hunt. We'll

1944
01:42:06,680 --> 01:42:09,240
Speaker 1: talk about this at a later day, but um, I'm

1945
01:42:09,240 --> 01:42:12,559
Speaker 1: gonna keep on keeping on then, keep grinding. And I

1946
01:42:12,640 --> 01:42:14,479
Speaker 1: hope that if you guys are out there, if any

1947
01:42:14,479 --> 01:42:16,720
Speaker 1: of you are out there and you've had something like this,

1948
01:42:16,800 --> 01:42:18,080
Speaker 1: if you had a tough hunt, if you had a

1949
01:42:18,080 --> 01:42:20,320
Speaker 1: tough week, if you had a tough moment, if you

1950
01:42:20,320 --> 01:42:22,040
Speaker 1: missed a buck or wounded a buck, or if you

1951
01:42:22,360 --> 01:42:26,800
Speaker 1: can't seem to get on a deer or whatever it is, Um,

1952
01:42:26,880 --> 01:42:30,640
Speaker 1: I hope that you will keep on grinding too. I

1953
01:42:30,680 --> 01:42:32,920
Speaker 1: hope you will do what it takes to keep the

1954
01:42:32,960 --> 01:42:36,080
Speaker 1: fun in it. Don't let this stuff get miserable, don't

1955
01:42:36,080 --> 01:42:38,280
Speaker 1: put so much pressure on yourself that you aren't enjoying

1956
01:42:38,280 --> 01:42:42,759
Speaker 1: it anymore. But also remember that you know hard work,

1957
01:42:43,880 --> 01:42:46,920
Speaker 1: hard work is good for you, and Um, it does.

1958
01:42:48,160 --> 01:42:49,880
Speaker 1: It does pay off in the end in one way

1959
01:42:49,960 --> 01:42:53,240
Speaker 1: or another. So keep after it, keep the faith. I'm

1960
01:42:53,280 --> 01:42:56,120
Speaker 1: pulling for all of you. I'm I'm stoked that so

1961
01:42:56,160 --> 01:42:57,880
Speaker 1: many of you have had success. I love all the

1962
01:42:57,920 --> 01:43:00,280
Speaker 1: messages and pictures and notes I get sent when you

1963
01:43:00,320 --> 01:43:04,160
Speaker 1: guys do fill a tag and uh and I'm just

1964
01:43:04,280 --> 01:43:06,120
Speaker 1: wishing the best for all the rest of you too.

1965
01:43:06,280 --> 01:43:10,040
Speaker 1: So that is it for today. I appreciate you listening

1966
01:43:10,080 --> 01:43:15,680
Speaker 1: to me kind of do my post hunt therapy session here. Um,

1967
01:43:15,720 --> 01:43:18,120
Speaker 1: I don't know if this is I don't I don't

1968
01:43:18,120 --> 01:43:21,280
Speaker 1: know anything right, what do I know? But uh, I

1969
01:43:21,320 --> 01:43:23,880
Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed it. I hope that the next time

1970
01:43:23,880 --> 01:43:27,280
Speaker 1: we chat, I've got a better story for you. And

1971
01:43:28,120 --> 01:43:34,639
Speaker 1: until then, thank you for listening, and stay wired to Hunt.