Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, home of the
Speaker 1: modern white tail hunter and now your host, Mark Kenyon.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Mark Kenyan, and this week on the show, I'm joined
Speaker 1: by Michael Mansell and Brennan Nating of the Breaking Point
Speaker 1: TV to discuss real world tactics for killing deer during
Speaker 1: the late season. All right, welcome to the Wired to
Speaker 1: Hunt podcast, brought to you by First Life, and we
Speaker 1: are officially, unfortunately out of the month of November. Cue
Speaker 1: the sad boo hoo sounds or some kind of appropriate
Speaker 1: sound effect. Uh. Podcast editor Hayden, I'm no God, no God, please, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no sweet novembers behind us. I hope, I hope it
Speaker 1: was sweet for you. I had one of those hit
Speaker 1: or miss kind of novembers. It started out amazing with
Speaker 1: a kill on November one, and then I had a
Speaker 1: big lull. Unfortunately for the rest of that next seven
Speaker 1: to ten days. I saw some kind of younger age
Speaker 1: class bucks there in mid November, and then late November,
Speaker 1: I've actually gotten back into some action. UM have been
Speaker 1: having some very close calls with a buck I'm after.
Speaker 1: Now that's uh. A pretty cool story. I'm actually trying
Speaker 1: to get this buck killed with my son, which is wild.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a unique situation where I thought I
Speaker 1: could get the job done from a blind so I
Speaker 1: brought my four year old son out with and uh,
Speaker 1: we've been trying to kill a mature buck and we
Speaker 1: actually have come very close. Um. I'll share that full
Speaker 1: story another time. Hopefully we'll get him killed here soon
Speaker 1: and we'll have a happy ending. But if not, it's
Speaker 1: it kind of has gone back to what I talked
Speaker 1: about all year, which is that I just want to
Speaker 1: have fun this year. And I realized that I I already
Speaker 1: killed a nice buck in Michigan. I don't need to
Speaker 1: kill another one. Um, and this dear is one that
Speaker 1: he's super nice. Could he used another year? It would
Speaker 1: be cool to see him another year. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, he's mature and he's a great buck to
Speaker 1: kill here, and I could kill him with my son
Speaker 1: with me. It would be amazing and so and so
Speaker 1: I've leaned into that because that would be fun. And
Speaker 1: it's been fun doing it. I mean, it's been trying
Speaker 1: taking a four year old out trying to kill a
Speaker 1: big deer. UM. I each time we've gone out, I thought,
Speaker 1: there's no way this is gonna work. There's no I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do this again. Ever, and then I go out
Speaker 1: and try it again. UM, so we'll see. That's That's
Speaker 1: kind of been my late November story. But I bring
Speaker 1: all that up to say that the season is still going,
Speaker 1: and I hope that you're feeling the way I'm feeling
Speaker 1: right now, which is as energized and excited as I've
Speaker 1: been heading into a December as as I have been
Speaker 1: in a number of years. Um. I'm not exactly sure
Speaker 1: what to attribute that too. It has been a little
Speaker 1: bit less travel than past years, but I think it
Speaker 1: maybe is going back to that mindset shift that I've
Speaker 1: talked about in some of my previous episodes about goals.
Speaker 1: We've talked about it, you know when I killed my
Speaker 1: buck in Michigan, we talked about it. You know when
Speaker 1: I killed my buck in Nebraska. Um, I'm trying to
Speaker 1: relieve some of the pressure of what I'm supposed to
Speaker 1: be doing and what other folks say we should be
Speaker 1: doing or killing or whatever, and just going back to
Speaker 1: hunting our own hunt, hunt my own hunt, do the
Speaker 1: things that make hunting fun again. And if you do
Speaker 1: that it actually believe it or not, keeps it fun
Speaker 1: and you want to keep doing more of it. And
Speaker 1: and that's been my takeaway this year so far, and
Speaker 1: I'm just wanting to push that, you know, right on
Speaker 1: through the rest of the season. So I've got some
Speaker 1: Ohio hunting I'm gonna take off and do it. I've
Speaker 1: got some more stuff in Michigan, gonna be going to
Speaker 1: Texas here later in the month, and uh, I'm pumped
Speaker 1: for it. So all that's to say, UM, we've got
Speaker 1: some tips here today to help you make that kind
Speaker 1: of thing work out for yourself. We're talking to Michael
Speaker 1: Mansell and Brennan Nating. These guys are co hosts. They're
Speaker 1: part of the team over on the Breaking Point TV. UM.
Speaker 1: This is a great series I followed over on YouTube.
Speaker 1: You can watch it and where I have different places,
Speaker 1: but their YouTube channels where I would be going to
Speaker 1: interact with their stuff. They've i think been doing this
Speaker 1: for ten seasons now and they put out some of
Speaker 1: the best videos out there, and they're doing a very
Speaker 1: very good job of getting deer on the ground. I mean,
Speaker 1: this year, I can't even tell you how many bucks,
Speaker 1: their group is killed. Brennan and Mike have been doing
Speaker 1: this consistently, uh successfully, at a clip that you don't
Speaker 1: see from many people that aren't the big name owned,
Speaker 1: big land kind of guys. I think that's an important
Speaker 1: point with this conversation we have here today that separates
Speaker 1: I think, what they're doing from from a lot of folks.
Speaker 1: You know, UM, nothing against the TV guys who have
Speaker 1: the two thousand acre farms and fifty acre standing bean fields.
Speaker 1: Like when they talk about how to kill there during
Speaker 1: the late season, it's it works, it's fun. I like
Speaker 1: watching it, and if I had that, I would be
Speaker 1: doing it. But then what about the rest of us
Speaker 1: who don't have that farm, who are hunting a forty
Speaker 1: acre piece or a seventy acre piece, who don't have
Speaker 1: hundreds of acres of sanctuary and standing corn or whatever
Speaker 1: it is. Um, how are you supposed to have late
Speaker 1: season success in that situation? Um? That's what we talked
Speaker 1: about today with Mike and Brennan. Because they're young guys,
Speaker 1: you know, I think they're younger than me. Um, they
Speaker 1: don't own a whole bunch of lane end. I think
Speaker 1: they've had some little leases. I think they've had some permission.
Speaker 1: I think they've done public land, they've kind of done
Speaker 1: all that kind of piece it together, normal real world
Speaker 1: stuff that most of us are doing. And they're still
Speaker 1: killing a lot of great deer, and they're still doing
Speaker 1: it during the late season, which is notoriously a tough
Speaker 1: time to get it done in those types of situations.
Speaker 1: So that's our episode today, talking to Mike talking to
Speaker 1: Brennan about real world tactics for hunting late season deer.
Speaker 1: We cover, you know, everything from how to relocate deer
Speaker 1: during the late season after they've been pushed all over
Speaker 1: the place. We talk about, you know, different exit and
Speaker 1: access strategies. We talk about perfect setups of the late season.
Speaker 1: We talked about why they prefer ground blinds during the
Speaker 1: late season, talk about, uh, you talk about baiting and
Speaker 1: feed if that's legal in your area, that might be
Speaker 1: something that could help you. Um And I'm I'm personally,
Speaker 1: you know, looking at that kind of thing now in
Speaker 1: certain situations to try to figure out if that's something
Speaker 1: that might be help me in some weird situations in
Speaker 1: the late season. So we kind of cover it all.
Speaker 1: It's an interesting one and these guys really do back
Speaker 1: up what they're saying with the results. If you're heading
Speaker 1: over to the YouTube, to their Instagram, to their Facebook,
Speaker 1: you're gonna see that these guys know how to get
Speaker 1: it done and they're worth listening to, so tune in.
Speaker 1: Michael and Brennan have a lot to share today. I
Speaker 1: hope you learned some stuff from them. I hope you
Speaker 1: enjoy it, and I hope you enjoy the rest of
Speaker 1: your hunting season because we've got a lot more of it.
Speaker 1: Let's go have some fun and here we go with
Speaker 1: my chat with Michael and Brennan from the Breaking Point TV.
Speaker 1: Al Right, here we are. We've got Brennan Nating and
Speaker 1: Michael Mansell on the line. Gentlemen, thank you for making
Speaker 1: time to do this here during what's still a busy,
Speaker 1: busy season for you guys. Thank you, no problem. You
Speaker 1: glad to be on. I'm I'm glad we're doing this.
Speaker 1: I've I've you know, been watching you guys build this
Speaker 1: thing for years and years and we've had you, you know,
Speaker 1: hopping on to ret Fresh Radio and different things over
Speaker 1: the years. But I've been wanting a big deep dive
Speaker 1: like this with the two of you, so I'm glad
Speaker 1: that we can do it, and uh, I want to
Speaker 1: do it now because the late season and you guys,
Speaker 1: you're filling tags all year round, but it seems like
Speaker 1: every year you've got good stuff happening in the late season,
Speaker 1: and not everybody does that. There's a lot of folks
Speaker 1: who have like big fancy farms and they own thousands
Speaker 1: of acres with thousands of acres of food plots or whatever,
Speaker 1: and they kill lots of late season bucks, but you
Speaker 1: don't see like the the usual young guy d I
Speaker 1: Y kind of doing it the hard with those folks
Speaker 1: seem to have a harder time pulling off in the
Speaker 1: late season. But you guys, um, you guys are the
Speaker 1: exception to the rule. So first off, kudos to UH
Speaker 1: to you guys for doing that. And secondly, congratulations also
Speaker 1: need to go to you Brennan, because you just killed
Speaker 1: a buck last night, right Kansas? Is that right? Yeah? Correct,
Speaker 1: I was fortunate enough to wrapped my tag on a
Speaker 1: good Kansas buck last night on the public plans. So
Speaker 1: as we speak at the very end of November, So
Speaker 1: would you say that you killed that buck on a
Speaker 1: like a late rut kind of pattern or was this
Speaker 1: like a late season movement thing already? What what would
Speaker 1: you categorize that as? Uh, definitely late rut We were
Speaker 1: down there hunting for the past seven days and we
Speaker 1: were we were hunting down there pretty much like we
Speaker 1: would hunt the rut um you know, first second week
Speaker 1: in November in uh, Iowa or Illinois or Wisconsin. Um.
Speaker 1: I've always had my best luck down there. I see
Speaker 1: the most rutting action actually, like between the fifteenth and
Speaker 1: the thirtieth of November in Kansas. So we went down
Speaker 1: there like full blown rut mentality, took the decoy into
Speaker 1: every spot, banging on the antlers and uh. And that's
Speaker 1: how we ended up killing that buck last night. Really
Speaker 1: he came into the radley yep, yep. He come out
Speaker 1: on a food source and uh, he was set checking does.
Speaker 1: And we had several deer come out on the food source.
Speaker 1: And there was a handful of bucks. Um actually three
Speaker 1: pretty nice ones, and they were they were more or
Speaker 1: less checking does and running around checking each other, walking
Speaker 1: each other off. And UM, I ended up rattling actually
Speaker 1: a few different times. There was so much going on
Speaker 1: on the field that it was actually the third time
Speaker 1: I rattled at him, and he finally curiosity got the
Speaker 1: best of them, and he game a couple of hundred
Speaker 1: yards across the field and walked past that fifteen. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's awesome. So when when do you feel, Brennan, that
Speaker 1: it switches, typically for you, at least in your mind,
Speaker 1: from that late rut kind of hunt to a late
Speaker 1: season hunt. Is there like a calendar date or are
Speaker 1: you kind of doing it based on which kind of
Speaker 1: state you're in, or when does that flip switched from
Speaker 1: you know, late rut to all right, this is late
Speaker 1: season officially? When's that happened for you? I would stay
Speaker 1: probably around the stem or fifth to the tent is
Speaker 1: when I kind of shift focus, like, uh in Iowa
Speaker 1: here next week. I I really see a lot of
Speaker 1: activity on my cameras and from hunting in the past.
Speaker 1: Um usually somewhere around December one to the tent, there's
Speaker 1: a there's a second wave of that route, it seems like,
Speaker 1: and my cameras just they blow up for a few
Speaker 1: days and then once that's done, That's when I would
Speaker 1: say the kind of shift gears to late season. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what about you, Mike? I would agree with that. I
Speaker 1: would say, Um, you know, definitely in states like Iowa
Speaker 1: and Kansas, UM, states that I would say you don't
Speaker 1: necessarily see as much hunting pressure. UM. That rut kind
Speaker 1: of lasts through the majority of November into the early
Speaker 1: part of December. UM. You know, back in the home
Speaker 1: state of Wisconsin, UH, where we're punting, pressure is quite
Speaker 1: a bit higher. I'm sure you notice that. Even in
Speaker 1: Michigan to Mark UM, it seems like the second gun
Speaker 1: season hits, you're runt, you're running activity significantly decreases, UM
Speaker 1: and it just seems to kind of fizzle out as
Speaker 1: a as a gun season progresses. You do get a
Speaker 1: little bit of a second rout actually coming into early December,
Speaker 1: but it seems to peter out a lot more as
Speaker 1: to where, like you know, some of the other states,
Speaker 1: like like I said, Iowa and Kansas, you don't where
Speaker 1: you don't see as much, you know, hunting pressure. It
Speaker 1: seems like, just you know, from previous sits and and
Speaker 1: and on the cameras, those bigger boxs are moving throughout
Speaker 1: the entire month into early December. Yeah. Now, I heard
Speaker 1: you say somewhere, Mike. I can't remember where it was,
Speaker 1: but I remember you saying that and maybe you were
Speaker 1: just saying this because it was in an episode, but
Speaker 1: I think it was one of your video episodes about
Speaker 1: late season. You said that it's late seasons your favorite
Speaker 1: time of year. I think you were talking specifically about
Speaker 1: going up to your camp up in North Dakota, UM
Speaker 1: And I'm curious, is that is that true? Is the
Speaker 1: late season your favorite or is it just like you
Speaker 1: like going up to the North Dakota camp or what's
Speaker 1: your take on that. I would say, yeah, it's it's definitely.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's still nothing that beats the rut, but
Speaker 1: it's late season is one of my favorite times of
Speaker 1: the year just because kind of that time of the
Speaker 1: year where a lot of people pack it in. They think,
Speaker 1: you know, once November is over, the season is over,
Speaker 1: and they a lot of guys just don't want to
Speaker 1: stick it out through the cold, cold weather. And and
Speaker 1: to be honest, I mean, if you have you know,
Speaker 1: the right spot with with food and cover, it can
Speaker 1: be the best time of the year to be hunting.
Speaker 1: Um And And I would just say another reason to
Speaker 1: just like with our cabin being in North Dakota and
Speaker 1: the success we've had in late season, and and we
Speaker 1: we have a pretty good sized group that goes out
Speaker 1: there that time of year. Um, it's a pretty good
Speaker 1: camp camaraderie. So that's that's one of the reason it's
Speaker 1: too I look forward to it, um a lot of
Speaker 1: times every year. You know, it's not not just from
Speaker 1: the hunting aspect of it, but um, it's a lot
Speaker 1: a lot of that deer camp feel that you don't
Speaker 1: really see as much nowadays. I would say, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can definitely relate to that. Brennan, what's your take
Speaker 1: on the late season? Do you love it, hate it?
Speaker 1: Somewhere between? I absolutely love the late season I consider
Speaker 1: most like Mike said, a lot of people, you know,
Speaker 1: if they don't get their deer filler tag in November,
Speaker 1: they kind of like, oh ship, better luck next year.
Speaker 1: And and I look at over the years, I've definitely
Speaker 1: killed the majority of the deer I've shot have been
Speaker 1: in the late season and then but I feel like
Speaker 1: if you kind of put yourself in the position early
Speaker 1: on in the year, whether it's food plots, are just
Speaker 1: planning and all that that can go into it, Like
Speaker 1: I feel like late season is by far, you know,
Speaker 1: the best opportunity to kill a good buck just because yeah,
Speaker 1: you can killing in during the rut, but I feel
Speaker 1: like there's a lot of luck involved. Um, you still
Speaker 1: put yourself in the right position, but you're at the
Speaker 1: mercy of the ruck. I mean deer can they can
Speaker 1: you know, travel so far and and cover so much
Speaker 1: drowned Like It's just I feel like there's a lot
Speaker 1: more strategy that goes into late season much like early
Speaker 1: season on. Yeah, just to add on to that too,
Speaker 1: I would say, just in the last ten years of
Speaker 1: doing the show, Yeah, I would bet I would venture
Speaker 1: to say, of the deer that we kill on video
Speaker 1: are from not like now until the middle of January. Well, so,
Speaker 1: so you kind of you both gave me a little
Speaker 1: bit of like why, Like you told me why you
Speaker 1: like it. But if we had to say, like, what
Speaker 1: are the top two reasons that the late season is
Speaker 1: so good? I mean, is it is it just because
Speaker 1: of the predictability, do you guys think or is it
Speaker 1: the food thing? I mean, Mike, why would you why
Speaker 1: would you say you guys have so much success at
Speaker 1: this time of year. I think I would say a
Speaker 1: combination of the predictability and the food. I mean, if
Speaker 1: you have if you have the food source in the
Speaker 1: cold weather like this time of the year. The deer
Speaker 1: are just slaves to their stomach I mean they're trying
Speaker 1: to replenish a lot of that the reserves that they lost,
Speaker 1: you know, during during the rut um, and they're just
Speaker 1: more susceptible to slip up, especially your mature dear. Um.
Speaker 1: I would say even more now than than in the
Speaker 1: November months. If you if you can have the right setups. Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: would you add anything to that? Brinan no I I
Speaker 1: he really literally stole the words out of my mouth.
Speaker 1: Dere Or Stummach year Mark Jury talked about it all
Speaker 1: the time, and it's just there's you know, after they
Speaker 1: come out of the rut, I feel like you can
Speaker 1: get cold weather and you have a food star. There's
Speaker 1: no better or time for a mature deer to slip
Speaker 1: up and make a mistake. Yeah. Now, okay, so they're predictable,
Speaker 1: their slaves to their stomachs. Uh, they gotta you know,
Speaker 1: they can be concentrated in certain places, right because where
Speaker 1: you find that security cover and that food, like they're
Speaker 1: all going to get there. You know, early season there
Speaker 1: might be deer everywhere. Late season, they're more concentrated in
Speaker 1: certain places, So all those things are good. On the
Speaker 1: flip side, you know, I guess I'll throw a couple
Speaker 1: possible downsides, and you guys could either agree with me
Speaker 1: or disagree with me on this, But I would say,
Speaker 1: you know, the late season, these deer have been pressured
Speaker 1: to tons, so they might be super spooky. Uh, We've
Speaker 1: got fewer deer because a bunch of deer have been
Speaker 1: killed in the early season and during the rut um.
Speaker 1: And then if you don't have that unpressured pocket or
Speaker 1: that amazing food, you might be completely out of the game.
Speaker 1: And am I right on those things or am I
Speaker 1: overblowing those possible down I think you're spot on on
Speaker 1: all of that. I mean, it's when we do our
Speaker 1: late season hunting, we're we're pretty much targeting states that
Speaker 1: don't see that pressure that makes it difficult. Um, you
Speaker 1: know I'm not I'm not hunting in Wisconsin late season,
Speaker 1: for example. UM, I'm going to a state that's you know,
Speaker 1: it doesn't see near the deer hunting pressure. Um, I'm
Speaker 1: going to areas where I know that deer aren't you know,
Speaker 1: still scared from the gun season. So I think that's
Speaker 1: got a big part of it. Not to say that
Speaker 1: you can't successfully go to Wisconsin or Michigan and have
Speaker 1: a late season a good late season hunt, but we
Speaker 1: kind of try to stack our odds and go to
Speaker 1: states where we know the hunting pressure hasn't had that
Speaker 1: kind of toll on the deer. Yeah, what do they mean? Yeah?
Speaker 1: One thing I would say to Mark though, is you
Speaker 1: do you mentioned that? Um, you know a lot of
Speaker 1: your a lot of your deer you know, may already
Speaker 1: been harvested. Um, you know prior to prior to that time,
Speaker 1: the eight season months. Um. You know. It's one thing
Speaker 1: that we've noticed though with late season, given the right
Speaker 1: you know, location, food, source cover, because you can draw
Speaker 1: a deer from that you've never even seen on cameras before. Um.
Speaker 1: We see it all the time in North Dakota. I've
Speaker 1: seen it last year on my lease in Iowa, where
Speaker 1: I would go all year with without certain bucks on camera,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden end in December, random
Speaker 1: buck shows up out of nowhere that I've never even
Speaker 1: seen on camera or I had encounters with before. And
Speaker 1: it's just that drawing power of you know, the limited
Speaker 1: pressure and the food on top of it, that can
Speaker 1: get really those deer moving from miles away onto the
Speaker 1: properties you haunted if you haven't set up right. So
Speaker 1: I feel like there's like two two general camps that
Speaker 1: folks might fall into when it comes to this time
Speaker 1: of year. There's there's folks that have some control over
Speaker 1: the habitat maybe who can like set up a place
Speaker 1: or prepare a place to be great for the late season.
Speaker 1: And then there's folks who don't have that ability and
Speaker 1: they're just hunting whatever permission ground they have or whatever
Speaker 1: public land they have access to or something like that,
Speaker 1: so they have to try to find that or just
Speaker 1: hope there to have that. UM. I'm kind of curious
Speaker 1: about your take on both of those, But let's start
Speaker 1: first with like the prep because it sounds like maybe
Speaker 1: you guys have been able to do some of that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff, whether it be on the lease, um
Speaker 1: or otherwise. So what have you found in a place
Speaker 1: that you do have some kind of preseason influence on
Speaker 1: the property. What have you found has been the most
Speaker 1: important to set you up for late season success? Um?
Speaker 1: And maybe we can even talk about what we've done
Speaker 1: in North Dakota with with you know, putting food out
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. I mean across the board in
Speaker 1: a place where you have influence, where you can control stuff.
Speaker 1: Let's start there. What kind of things can you do
Speaker 1: to set yourself up for late season when it arrives
Speaker 1: brendan Um, I mean if you've got control over the
Speaker 1: property um, which I personally do not on a lot
Speaker 1: of the stuff I hunt um in Hiaway hunt permissioned
Speaker 1: pieces and uh, I don't have the ability to plant food.
Speaker 1: If I could, I would, and I would plan a
Speaker 1: lot of it. But like Iowa this year, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I'm gonna actually hunt the first shotgun season just because
Speaker 1: I'm hoping to get lucky during that second wave of
Speaker 1: the rut. But if I had access to plant food,
Speaker 1: I would definitely be planting corn, soy beans, any kind
Speaker 1: of cereal grain um to to pretty much just for
Speaker 1: the late season. I would even I wouldn't even necessarily
Speaker 1: care about it during October November even think about hunting it.
Speaker 1: I would just stay out of those areas and let
Speaker 1: the deer get comfortable, because I know when the weather hits,
Speaker 1: you know, in late December early January. All takes is
Speaker 1: one cold front and as old storm and you're probably
Speaker 1: gonna get the biggest deer on the farm and step
Speaker 1: out in the daylight. Um. You got other states like uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we hunt in North Dakota and uh, I'll
Speaker 1: actually be going down with erin to Oklahoma. He's got
Speaker 1: a body down in Oklahoma that he hunts with. And uh.
Speaker 1: In states where it's legal to feed, by all means
Speaker 1: we're feeding. And uh, I feel like the most important
Speaker 1: part of that is getting feet on the ground before
Speaker 1: the bad weather moves in because in those areas, dear
Speaker 1: do yard up into large groups and it's important that
Speaker 1: you get food on the ground so they can locate
Speaker 1: it before the snow gets deep and the weather gets nasty,
Speaker 1: because otherwise you might not have any chance to draw
Speaker 1: on them. Mhm. Interesting. I've got a lot more questions
Speaker 1: about that. But first, uh, Mike, anything you would add
Speaker 1: on non kind of baiting prep that you might do,
Speaker 1: or you know, plantings that you've ever tried in the
Speaker 1: pass um Well, I mean really it's a lot of
Speaker 1: what Brennan said, Um with last year at a last
Speaker 1: and Iowa. So I was able to actually pay a
Speaker 1: local farmer um to leave some of the corn, which
Speaker 1: allowed me to once they harvested the corn, to put
Speaker 1: in a tower stand kind of overlooking that and and
Speaker 1: one of the things I did then is actually run
Speaker 1: down a lot of it so I was able to
Speaker 1: shoot with the muzzleloader. Things like that. UM, I would say,
Speaker 1: just nonfood related and Brennan kind of hit on it
Speaker 1: a little bit in that conversation there. But UM, really
Speaker 1: following the weather, UM, late season, I think it's more
Speaker 1: crucial to be honest than any other time of the year.
Speaker 1: You gotta really the deer don't tolerate much late seasons.
Speaker 1: You've got to be selective on when you make your move. Um,
Speaker 1: you can kill the biggest buck on the farm first,
Speaker 1: second sit if if you make the move when you
Speaker 1: need to. I think a lot of people the great
Speaker 1: reason they don't want to have success in the late
Speaker 1: season months as they get impatient and they want to
Speaker 1: go all in the first sit. UM. But if you can,
Speaker 1: if you can see a cold front ten to fourteen
Speaker 1: days out where there's even greater temperature drop, UM, it
Speaker 1: can greatly stack the odds in your favor. So I
Speaker 1: think I think one one tip you know to not
Speaker 1: related to the food side. But it's just just to
Speaker 1: just really be patient for when the weather is when
Speaker 1: you need it. Yeah, don't burn the spot out before
Speaker 1: before the late season ends. And I think that kind
Speaker 1: of brings to mind another thing you can do if
Speaker 1: you and this is something I kind of do in
Speaker 1: some of my spots where I know that, um, there's
Speaker 1: tons of hunting pressure during guns season, and I know
Speaker 1: that that pressure does subside though, usually in the late season,
Speaker 1: so I kind of try to leave some of these
Speaker 1: spots alone during that mid season, you know, mid the
Speaker 1: late November, and I let that be sort of sanctuary
Speaker 1: because I know I'll come back in the late season.
Speaker 1: And even though I can't control when the corn gets cut,
Speaker 1: when the beans get cut, I can't control the food.
Speaker 1: And that kind of way, I can control when it's
Speaker 1: a safe sanctuary. And if you can provide that safe
Speaker 1: sanctuary for a while leading into the late season and
Speaker 1: then keep it a sanctuary in the late season and
Speaker 1: then just make those couple well timed hunts, you might
Speaker 1: not be able to have twenty acres of food out there,
Speaker 1: but you can be that one place that hasn't been
Speaker 1: you know, hunted to death, and that can push in deer. Um.
Speaker 1: So that is one thing you can do when you
Speaker 1: don't have tons of control. It's just your like you said,
Speaker 1: your pressure, be careful and sometimes stack, let a property
Speaker 1: stack up and then hunt it after you stacked a
Speaker 1: full of deer, you know what I mean? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I would just to add, just to add on that,
Speaker 1: I would say, you know, if if you have limited control,
Speaker 1: um is is limiting um that pressure on your exit
Speaker 1: entrance and exit route as well. Um. Because one of
Speaker 1: the biggest problems when you get a lot of deer
Speaker 1: in the mix is being able to get out at
Speaker 1: night without blowing the whole field up. On a food source, um,
Speaker 1: you can really ruin a spot very fast. So if
Speaker 1: you can set up your blind in a in a
Speaker 1: situation where you have some sort of rise or some
Speaker 1: sort of food source blocking like like on my on
Speaker 1: my least last year, I I kind of set it
Speaker 1: up where the corn. I used a little bit of
Speaker 1: the corn as a screening UM, so I could get
Speaker 1: in and out of the spot without blowing the whole
Speaker 1: field up. Um. If you can make your late season spot,
Speaker 1: the hunt quality lasts a lot longer. Also, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure, UM, I want to go back to something
Speaker 1: Brannan brought up. You mentioned, uh, the corn thing, and
Speaker 1: you said that one thing that's important is to is
Speaker 1: to start putting out feed, you know, before the late
Speaker 1: season really gets late, um, when they really needed because
Speaker 1: you got to find it. Um. I have never used
Speaker 1: feed corn really much at all. UM. Ste of way
Speaker 1: way back when I was like a kid, my family
Speaker 1: put it out. Um. But I found myself recently in
Speaker 1: situation in Ohio where like there's just no deer around
Speaker 1: and it seems like everybody else is putting out bait
Speaker 1: and I can't get anything on cameras in my places,
Speaker 1: and nothing seems to be hitting the harvested crop fields
Speaker 1: on these properties have access to. It's just a ghost town.
Speaker 1: And I'm wondering, like, man, there's two months of the
Speaker 1: season left and I've got no food that these deer
Speaker 1: interested in. Um. Maybe I could change my fate if
Speaker 1: I did start putting something out and try that for
Speaker 1: once and see if maybe that could give me a
Speaker 1: chance at something here in the late season. Um, but
Speaker 1: I don't know what I'm doing. UM. What would you say,
Speaker 1: Brennan for like a strategic use of corn or feared
Speaker 1: or whatever it is, if it's legal in your state, Like,
Speaker 1: what's the smart way to do something like that, to
Speaker 1: kill a deer in the late season, Because the temptation,
Speaker 1: like what we did when I was a little kid,
Speaker 1: is I take a five yell and bug with apples
Speaker 1: and corn and we walk it out, we dump it
Speaker 1: in a pile, and I'd sit thirty yards away from it.
Speaker 1: I'm assuming that's not what you'd recommend I do. Um,
Speaker 1: if I'm trying to if I'm trying to get bucks
Speaker 1: to be in my area to get him intour of
Speaker 1: them again maybe in the late season, and to actually
Speaker 1: have a chance of killing something at this time of
Speaker 1: year when I don't have a great food source, naturally,
Speaker 1: walk me through like a strategic way to do something
Speaker 1: like that. I mean, the best advice I could give is, uh,
Speaker 1: you want to get the food close enough to their
Speaker 1: bedroom that they are comfortable getting out of bed and
Speaker 1: coming to hit it before dark. But you also want
Speaker 1: to put it in the place you know where you can.
Speaker 1: You want to essentially put the deer where you want
Speaker 1: the deer. So do you want to make sure you
Speaker 1: can hunt it on a couple of different wind options
Speaker 1: and and Mike, Like Mike mentioned, entrance to negative is
Speaker 1: everything because if you if you're hunting over a corn
Speaker 1: pile or standing beam field or any kind of food source,
Speaker 1: I mean, you're at the liberty of potentially having twenty
Speaker 1: plus deer in front of you at dark. And if
Speaker 1: your target buck don't happen to be one of those
Speaker 1: twenty deer, he's not too far away. More than likely
Speaker 1: when you blow that field up at dark or blow
Speaker 1: that you know that bait up at dark. So I
Speaker 1: guess the the thing I would recommend is putting it
Speaker 1: close enough to the food source that he's comfortable coming
Speaker 1: out and hitting it before dark, but also putting it
Speaker 1: in an area where you can still get it in
Speaker 1: out of there clean. And uh, I would. I would
Speaker 1: rely heavily on trail camera as far as telling you
Speaker 1: when to go. You know, if that buck is coming
Speaker 1: in hour or two hours after dark, I wouldn't necessarily say, well,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna go in there and hope he comes
Speaker 1: in there. I'm gonna wait for that deer to daylight,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna be there the next night. Now, are
Speaker 1: you typically hunting like within shooting range of that bait
Speaker 1: or do you trust set up the spout where they're
Speaker 1: gonna treit? You are, okay? Yeah, no, if we're if
Speaker 1: we're bow hunting um near bait, we're within twenty to
Speaker 1: thirty yards of it for sure. Okay, Um, is there
Speaker 1: any I mean anything as far as like how they
Speaker 1: usually approach a feed like that? Do they ever circle
Speaker 1: down wind to come into it like they might with
Speaker 1: a scrape or something, or that's heading straight to the
Speaker 1: easiest path, just like they're coming to a fee or
Speaker 1: a field or something. It kind of depends. Like North Dakota,
Speaker 1: if the snow gets deep, they're gonna stick to their
Speaker 1: main travel like their trails. They're gonna have set trails
Speaker 1: if the snow is real deep. But a lot of
Speaker 1: times those mature bucks are still gonna circle down wind
Speaker 1: of it. So we try to set them up in
Speaker 1: a way where they can still circle down wind of it,
Speaker 1: and we're cheating the wind just enough that we can
Speaker 1: get away with it. Yeah. Yeah, just so they think
Speaker 1: they have it in their favor. We've almost got the
Speaker 1: blind set up parallel to if they do circle, they
Speaker 1: think they still have the wind in their favor. But
Speaker 1: we're just outside of that cone. Okay, One thing we
Speaker 1: will do to uh, like well, for North Dakota for example.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you've noticed, Mark, we're just watching some of
Speaker 1: our stuff, is we only hunt on the ground late season. Um.
Speaker 1: And that that primarily is just because of the conditions
Speaker 1: out there, just too miserable to be in a in
Speaker 1: a tree stand that time of year. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: when you're in a blind, you can be ten to
Speaker 1: fifteen degrees warmer. It makes it a little bit more
Speaker 1: enjoyable of a sit. You could have a heater if
Speaker 1: it gets really cold. Um. But a lot of times,
Speaker 1: you know, because you could when it's when it's cold,
Speaker 1: it seems like your your sound is always amplified. Um.
Speaker 1: We'll place those baits out, you know, even a touch
Speaker 1: further than we normally would like to yards um in
Speaker 1: that range. Um, just because when you get like that,
Speaker 1: many deer in a in a nearby area and they're
Speaker 1: circling and there's just a lot of stuff going on.
Speaker 1: I mean, it only takes one to ruin the party.
Speaker 1: So sometimes bumping it out a little bit, um, I
Speaker 1: mean it can help you play your wind a little
Speaker 1: bit better too. Um. But but also um, just so
Speaker 1: you don't alert as many deer. Yeah, Now what about
Speaker 1: actually putting the feed out? Um? Are you how frequently
Speaker 1: do you do that? Are you worried about spooking deer
Speaker 1: when you do that? Do you have a certain time
Speaker 1: that you're you know, a certain amount of time between refills? Um?
Speaker 1: Is it better just dump stuff on the ground versus
Speaker 1: used like a feeder that will kind of slow deploy stuff.
Speaker 1: What about that? It kind of depends on where you're at,
Speaker 1: Like North Dakota, we feed all on the ground. Um,
Speaker 1: where Aaron hunts in Oklahama, but we're that guy's running
Speaker 1: time feeders, So it's a it's a little bit different
Speaker 1: depending on where you're at. Um. We try not to
Speaker 1: go into spots outside of mid day. Um. We don't
Speaker 1: want to bump deer, you know, going in there in
Speaker 1: the morning to feed them, and we don't want to
Speaker 1: bump them in the afternoon. We kind of want them
Speaker 1: to know that, you know, we come in there during
Speaker 1: the middle of the day, we're putting new feet on
Speaker 1: the ground for him and kind of let them feel
Speaker 1: safe during those morning hours and evening hours or potentially
Speaker 1: going to be hunting them. Okay, and what uh what
Speaker 1: kind of uh you know, frequency do you feel like
Speaker 1: you typically need to reapply to to keep that pattern going.
Speaker 1: Is it like a once a week thing or what?
Speaker 1: UM I would say to kind of depends on the stage. Sorry,
Speaker 1: go ahead, brand, Yeah, I mean are when the baits
Speaker 1: are running dry is when we feed them. So, I
Speaker 1: mean it used to be before cell cameras we just
Speaker 1: go you know, every week or every two weeks, but
Speaker 1: now we just keep an eye on the cell cameras
Speaker 1: and if if the food's gone, we go in there
Speaker 1: and feed them. Yeah, Mike, I would agree percent with that.
Speaker 1: But also, you know, it depends on the state you're
Speaker 1: hunting to, uh and the regular as they have for
Speaker 1: you know, the quantity you can have about UM, I
Speaker 1: would say a lot of the states we hunt right now,
Speaker 1: there's really not an you know, set regulation on how
Speaker 1: much food you can put out, but um, some states
Speaker 1: there is you know, certain limits as far as how
Speaker 1: much you can put on the ground at one time. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: definitely gonna be checking those before do anything there. UM. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's helpful. What about um? You know, kind of along
Speaker 1: these lines, when I'm thinking about putting up bait or
Speaker 1: something like that, and you mentioned it Brandon with cell
Speaker 1: cameras and stuff. I'm thinking for a lot of folks,
Speaker 1: the late season is kind of like a reset period
Speaker 1: and for some people you kind of need to relocate deer. Uh,
Speaker 1: because a lot of deer go and do funky things
Speaker 1: in November. I've certainly have had a lot of years
Speaker 1: where my target bucks disappear for large parts of November
Speaker 1: and then like December three, December nine, somewhere in that ballpark, Bam,
Speaker 1: here here they are, They're back. Or I found myself
Speaker 1: another year is where I don't have a good one
Speaker 1: and I'm like, Okay, I gotta figure something out here
Speaker 1: for the late season, and I'm like searching on other
Speaker 1: properties again and hoping to find something, shifting things around,
Speaker 1: moving cameras around, different stuff like that. Um, Mike, what
Speaker 1: do you do or what are the the ideas you've
Speaker 1: used in the past when you're just trying to find
Speaker 1: late season deer and and trying to figure out like
Speaker 1: where are they? Where's my opportunity? Um? What's that like
Speaker 1: locating and scouting look like once you get into December
Speaker 1: or January? For you? UM, I would say, I mean
Speaker 1: we kind of already hit home on it a little bit,
Speaker 1: but you know, trying to find the thickest cover possible
Speaker 1: and anything that has a you know, nearby food source. Um.
Speaker 1: You know. The one reason I think late season, you know,
Speaker 1: is at the time here that we get excited about
Speaker 1: you know, so much. Like you said, it's kind of
Speaker 1: a reset. Um, we all will get dear, you know,
Speaker 1: that will show up that we had pictures of early
Speaker 1: season in velvet and they might have disappeared for four
Speaker 1: months and shifted off somewhere, and then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden they just show right back up. So that that's
Speaker 1: one another reason too why I think we enjoy hunting
Speaker 1: it so much is because you you just don't know,
Speaker 1: um what you're gonna be getting yourself into. It's it's
Speaker 1: like a whole new time of the year for hunting. Really, Um,
Speaker 1: I would say, as far as you know, trying to locate, um,
Speaker 1: trying to locate dear this time of year, I mean,
Speaker 1: the biggest thing is the biggest thing for us too,
Speaker 1: is just trying to see where they're yarding. Um, if
Speaker 1: snow is on the ground, Uh, you can kind of hopefully,
Speaker 1: you know, it helps you a little bit with with
Speaker 1: pinpointing where deer are UM. I don't know, Brendan, you've
Speaker 1: got anything else to add to that. I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm missing something. North Dakota for example, which I know
Speaker 1: we keep talking about North Dakota, but that's one of
Speaker 1: our favorite UM places hunt, especially during the late season.
Speaker 1: Is I mean, we drive miles and miles and miles
Speaker 1: around in them and just trying to find deer, and
Speaker 1: if if there's snow on the ground, it definitely helps
Speaker 1: to locate them because you can see the sign and
Speaker 1: see trails, especially if you're driving around on a sunny day.
Speaker 1: Everything's kind of magnified when you're driving around, those trails
Speaker 1: just shine. But really it's it's locating where the hurds
Speaker 1: are at because in late season, especially where the weather
Speaker 1: gets really nasty, they yard up. And if you're you know,
Speaker 1: trying to hunt an area where there's no I mean,
Speaker 1: there's there's certain spots up there that might hold two
Speaker 1: deer one winter, and if the food source switches there
Speaker 1: might there might not be a single deer within three
Speaker 1: miles of it the following winter. So it kind of
Speaker 1: changes every year with crop rotation and everything else. So
Speaker 1: the thing that we're looking for is just trying to
Speaker 1: find those pock It's a deer might not necessarily be
Speaker 1: a herd of two hundred, but if you find you know, ten, fifteen,
Speaker 1: twenty deer that are living in this block, you know
Speaker 1: there's a pretty decent chance that there's you know, at
Speaker 1: least one solid buck in the group. So we try
Speaker 1: to find those groups and we try to put our
Speaker 1: foods are you know, right on top of them? And
Speaker 1: you're saying that you're putting in some random spot and
Speaker 1: hope you get lucky. Yeah, So you're finding them though
Speaker 1: by just driving around and glass and fields? Is that
Speaker 1: what you're doing? Driving around? Especially in North Dakota where
Speaker 1: it's such wide open country. Yet we're we're putting a
Speaker 1: lot of miles on the vehicle for sure. Now, what
Speaker 1: about late season trail camera use? Um? Is it a
Speaker 1: dent putting on those bait piles or uh? Do you
Speaker 1: have any other kind of locations that work well for
Speaker 1: putting cameras out and finding these deer? I guess also
Speaker 1: for states that don't allow baiting, what do you do
Speaker 1: in that kind of situation? Brennan Um, I'm pretty much
Speaker 1: if it's a bait legal state, we're putting cameras right
Speaker 1: on the food. If it's you know, where you can't
Speaker 1: put feed down. I'm moving all my cameras to uh,
Speaker 1: you know, to an eggs field and pretty much fence
Speaker 1: crossing heading, you know, heading towards a food source. UM.
Speaker 1: And I just I'll take twenty cameras and pull them
Speaker 1: off scrapes and I'll this litter them around the outside
Speaker 1: edge of the field, just so I have a good
Speaker 1: idea what's coming to it. Uh, Mike, anything different, I
Speaker 1: would agree with all that, you know, I just like
Speaker 1: Brennan kind of said on in states where you can't bait,
Speaker 1: I would pull a lot of my interior cameras out
Speaker 1: to the exterior of the property any any sort of
Speaker 1: transition to a food source, I would have just about
Speaker 1: every trail covered going out to any sort of major
Speaker 1: egg field, UM, to just kind of get that inventory
Speaker 1: as far as you know what they're utilizing in and
Speaker 1: where they're accessing it. Yeah, all right, So we're lasting fields,
Speaker 1: were checking snow for tracks and trails. We're running cameras
Speaker 1: on the best food source, whether that's placed there by
Speaker 1: you or if it's you know, whatever's are there naturally
Speaker 1: with agg um, that's gonna help you fair out where
Speaker 1: this deer are. Now, I guess I want to dive
Speaker 1: into how you actually are setting up on him. So
Speaker 1: we've we've talked a little bit about this, and Mike
Speaker 1: you mentioned that you're almost always doing ground blinds, at
Speaker 1: least in those North Dakota setups. Um, but walk me through. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, Brendan, maybe start me out here. Can you
Speaker 1: walk me through your ideal set up for a late
Speaker 1: season hunt if you're if you can kind of lay
Speaker 1: out from me. Okay, we've got like this kind of
Speaker 1: food source, and then how that might relate to a
Speaker 1: betting area, and then how you position yourself in there.
Speaker 1: Are you do you always like to be right on
Speaker 1: the food? Do you sometimes prefer to be off it? Uh?
Speaker 1: Give me some details and like, paint me this picture
Speaker 1: of the perfect late season set up, how you would
Speaker 1: set it all up. So I guess the perfect eight
Speaker 1: seasons set up for me would be. You know, if
Speaker 1: I'm bow hunting, it would probably be set up for
Speaker 1: a northwest wind, because when you get those major cold fronts,
Speaker 1: that's generally what what wind you're getting is the north northwest.
Speaker 1: So I would you know, if I had to set
Speaker 1: up one late season spot, I would set it up
Speaker 1: for a north northwest wind. Um. But that being said,
Speaker 1: we try to set up spots for literally every wind direction.
Speaker 1: That way, you know, if you get a week of
Speaker 1: south winds, you're not You're not screwed and sitting there
Speaker 1: scratching your head saying, ship, we can't hunt any of
Speaker 1: these spots. So we try to set up, you know,
Speaker 1: try to evenly spread everything out. Have you know, multiple
Speaker 1: north wind spots, south wind spots, west wind east and uh.
Speaker 1: But if I had to set up one spot for
Speaker 1: late season, I would have my blind or stand or
Speaker 1: whatever I'm hunting out of I would have it set
Speaker 1: up for a northwest wind. And I mean accesses is everything.
Speaker 1: Being able to get in and out of there without
Speaker 1: spooky deer you know, is number one. But I would
Speaker 1: set up for a northwest wind. Okay, so northwest wind
Speaker 1: in this spot where you can get off that food source. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Can I give me a little more detail there as
Speaker 1: far as like how you might position yourself one thing,
Speaker 1: like when you're hunting food sources, A lot of questions,
Speaker 1: you know, folks have is like how you're setting up
Speaker 1: with the wind direction? So do you want the wind,
Speaker 1: you know, going parallel to the edge of that field?
Speaker 1: Do you want or the or the bait pile or
Speaker 1: whatever it is. Do you want the wind going straight
Speaker 1: from the bedding out into the field and you're trying
Speaker 1: to kill him before they get down? When do you
Speaker 1: in the field cutting the corner with the wind? Like?
Speaker 1: What about that kind of stuff? I pretty much want
Speaker 1: the wind in my face from the time I leave
Speaker 1: my vehicle or wherever I'm coming from. I pretty much
Speaker 1: want the wind in my face from the time I
Speaker 1: leave the vehicle until the time I'm leaving. Um. I
Speaker 1: don't want my wind ever to flow into any sort
Speaker 1: of cover where deer could potentially be betting. I think
Speaker 1: a lot of people kind of throw that out the window.
Speaker 1: They think about what the wind is once they're in
Speaker 1: their stand or in their blind, but they don't necessarily
Speaker 1: pay attention to where their wind is blowing when they're accessing.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what a lot where a lot
Speaker 1: of people make mistakes. You can do a lot of
Speaker 1: damage walking across the property to get to a stand
Speaker 1: if you're winds blowing in to cover the whole way
Speaker 1: to get there. UM. So I I try to set
Speaker 1: my spots up and like I got a cage blind
Speaker 1: in Iowa, which is kind of a perfect example. I
Speaker 1: have the landowner actually is gracious enough to stack round
Speaker 1: bales around the base of the tower that way deer
Speaker 1: can't see me climb in and out of the tower.
Speaker 1: And just small little attention to details like that of
Speaker 1: getting in and out, Like if I didn't have those
Speaker 1: bails covering me. Uh, there's a very good chance every
Speaker 1: time I climb out of that tower, dark fear are
Speaker 1: gonna bust me. And you know, every time the deer
Speaker 1: bust you, you're less likely to get a mature gear
Speaker 1: step out in that area during daylight. What about you, Mike,
Speaker 1: I would say, Um, also just using train features, UM,
Speaker 1: if you have you know, if you're hunting an area
Speaker 1: that on a food source that has some sort of
Speaker 1: rise to it, or terrorists, things like that. UM, using
Speaker 1: using that in your favor to have as a you know,
Speaker 1: an exit strategy can be huge. UM. Brennan hit it
Speaker 1: on the nail, right on the head when he was
Speaker 1: talking about you know, entering and always having that wind
Speaker 1: in your face. I mean that rule would apply, you know,
Speaker 1: not just to late season, but any sort of time
Speaker 1: of the year. Um. I mean, if you can ideally
Speaker 1: access your property with with the wind never blowing to
Speaker 1: the sides of you or in front of you at
Speaker 1: any time, you're gonna you're gonna maximize the amount of
Speaker 1: amount of cover that that you're indirection hasn't blown into,
Speaker 1: and you're not alarming you know, should not. You shouldn't
Speaker 1: alarm you know, any deer at that point, then, um,
Speaker 1: can you can you paint me a picture? Can you
Speaker 1: tell me about what you're like? Perfect late seasons set
Speaker 1: up would be as far as like, all right, this
Speaker 1: is where the food source would be, this is how
Speaker 1: I placed my blind This is how far away it
Speaker 1: would be from X thing. Um, what would that look
Speaker 1: like for you if if you could just sit down
Speaker 1: and blueprint out exactly what you wanted for this kind
Speaker 1: of time of year. Mm hmmm. I would say it's
Speaker 1: very very similar to how how Brennan had his set up. Um,
Speaker 1: I I really like my my Lisa had last year
Speaker 1: and Iowa I would say it was one of the
Speaker 1: more perfect setups I had for for late season. Um. Ever, um,
Speaker 1: just to kind of like paint a picture for you
Speaker 1: that the deer we're primarily betting to the west northwest
Speaker 1: of where I was located on the food source um,
Speaker 1: and they had to come across the CRP field to
Speaker 1: get to the food source. And and I had my
Speaker 1: stand positioned on be on the south side of the
Speaker 1: corn um. And I actually left probably sixteen rows of
Speaker 1: standing corn in between me and the deer. This was
Speaker 1: for for muzzloaders set up, not for archery. Um. And
Speaker 1: then there's fingers that ran through through the draws. North
Speaker 1: would be north and then and one to the northeast
Speaker 1: from my stand, and I was able to knock down
Speaker 1: corn in the center of them. So it allowed me
Speaker 1: to basically get in and out of the stand uh
Speaker 1: without the deer even really seeing my presence um when
Speaker 1: they would get into the corn and they'd be feeding
Speaker 1: inside the corn um. So generally, generally speaking, if everything
Speaker 1: worked out right, I could get in and out with
Speaker 1: deer in the field. So what ended up happening there,
Speaker 1: um I shot uh buck the second night of the
Speaker 1: of my sit. Didn't take too long at all, did
Speaker 1: they did? They follow the script just like you thought
Speaker 1: they would. Yeah, they did exactly exactly what I thought
Speaker 1: they would. I actually ran um where they come out
Speaker 1: of the trust to the CRP grass. They had to
Speaker 1: jump a fence, and where they were jumping the fence
Speaker 1: is where I actually ran the corn down into the cornfield.
Speaker 1: So all the dear pretty much single file, came right
Speaker 1: through that gap. Um. Yeah, it worked out absolutely perfect.
Speaker 1: Had the ideal you know, northwest wind that night it
Speaker 1: was you know, ten to fifteen blow zero. I mean,
Speaker 1: you couldn't have asked for better conditions for for late
Speaker 1: muzzloter hunting in Iowa. Yeah. That was that a tree
Speaker 1: stand or blind. I was on out of cage blind.
Speaker 1: Um so an elevated ground blind. Um. Let's talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about ground blinds. And you mentioned that you
Speaker 1: use that a lot in North Dakota. I know a
Speaker 1: lot of folks use these during the late season. UM. Now,
Speaker 1: I know your example right, there was an elevator one.
Speaker 1: But when you're on the ground, there definitely are some
Speaker 1: things that are different as far as what you can
Speaker 1: get away with and what you can't, especially in the
Speaker 1: late season. I feel like in the late season the
Speaker 1: deer are on edge even more than usual. It seems
Speaker 1: like sound carries even further in the late season. Um,
Speaker 1: it just seems like there's so much that can go
Speaker 1: wrong and then like just getting drawn back. Everything's creaking
Speaker 1: and popping and just all these different things. Is there
Speaker 1: anything you've learned over the years, Mike, as far as
Speaker 1: little tricks for making you know things work better in
Speaker 1: a ground blind or or anything you've learned over the
Speaker 1: years to help make sure that you know you're more
Speaker 1: effective in those situations and don't get busted during the
Speaker 1: late season. Yeah, I would say just starting from the setup.
Speaker 1: The first thing that we do when we go into
Speaker 1: a ground blind set up for late season, and we
Speaker 1: will remove any sort of debris that's in that area
Speaker 1: where gonna be putting the blind, so there's no typically
Speaker 1: there's no grass, no leaves, anything like that. Once you
Speaker 1: pop pop the blind up and get it situated. UM.
Speaker 1: Just another little trick we do when we're set up
Speaker 1: in the blind is we'll actually bring like either a
Speaker 1: mat or something like a like a thermi seed, um,
Speaker 1: and instead of putting it on your on your butt,
Speaker 1: put it right on the floor. Um. It can service
Speaker 1: two purposes that can minimize your noise when you're shifting
Speaker 1: your feet around, but also just having that little bit
Speaker 1: of insulation will make a huge difference when it's really
Speaker 1: cold with keeping your feet warmer. UM. Another thing that
Speaker 1: we'll do in the ground blind is pretty much from
Speaker 1: the waist up, I'll we're all black, um, just to
Speaker 1: try and keep everything dark in the blind as possible,
Speaker 1: as much as possible, UM, And I try. I prefer
Speaker 1: to wear like uh footed sweatshirt, like try and layer
Speaker 1: under beneath that. UM. Just from what we've noticed in
Speaker 1: the past, you know, any sort of put in material
Speaker 1: is a lot quieter compared to trying to wear like
Speaker 1: a you know, a big bulky winter jacket. UM. So
Speaker 1: when it comes time to drawing and that you're making
Speaker 1: the least amount of no as possible. UM. Another thing
Speaker 1: to add on to that, I would say is we
Speaker 1: try to always bring in like a ground blind bow holder,
Speaker 1: whether it's one that you can put in the top
Speaker 1: hub of the blind or on the ground, because when
Speaker 1: it gets to be ten in some cases north to
Speaker 1: North Dakota, you know ten, blow it up to fifty below.
Speaker 1: It's you can't hang onto a bowl that long. Your
Speaker 1: hands will freeze right off. UM. So, but you gotta
Speaker 1: be ready because it because it can literally happen when
Speaker 1: you're on the ground any second. So just having where
Speaker 1: it's just um right, you know, right next to you
Speaker 1: in your hand, where something happens, you can make that
Speaker 1: quick move and make a shot. UM. Just being able
Speaker 1: to always be ready is key when it gets cold,
Speaker 1: it's a great it's a great point. Now, with these
Speaker 1: ground blinds that you're sending up for those Dakota hunts,
Speaker 1: how far ahead of time do you feel like you
Speaker 1: need to get a blind set up in a place
Speaker 1: so that it's not spooking deer? Like are you are
Speaker 1: you putting these blinds out way early in the season
Speaker 1: they stay out all year, or do you find yourself
Speaker 1: like scouting late season, locating the deer and then putting
Speaker 1: the blinds right and then and there. I would say
Speaker 1: that when we we don't really leave blinds out at
Speaker 1: all North Dakota year round. We and we go to
Speaker 1: set of stuff late season, we pop them up and
Speaker 1: out there. It seems like the deer it doesn't take
Speaker 1: that long for them to get used to them. Um.
Speaker 1: I would I would say most actually, a lot of
Speaker 1: the states that we hunt, UM, that are you know,
Speaker 1: lower pressure states. I feel like you could pop a
Speaker 1: blind up and within you know, a few days, you
Speaker 1: could get away with hunting out of it um. But
Speaker 1: some of your higher pressure states, I would definitely be
Speaker 1: popping on blind up, you know, a few weeks before
Speaker 1: I would even be considering, you know, hopping in into
Speaker 1: hunt it um. It just seems it's you know, some
Speaker 1: of those higher pressure states, it takes a lot longer
Speaker 1: for those deer to really get accustomed to it um
Speaker 1: and and it seems like if you can brush it
Speaker 1: into that can kind of help them as well, get
Speaker 1: a little bit more so they're not as skittish to it. Uh. Brennan,
Speaker 1: What's what about your take on both ground blinds set
Speaker 1: up and then also a little tips or any little
Speaker 1: tricks you found over the years to be more effective
Speaker 1: when you're actually in their hunting. From anything that you'd
Speaker 1: add what Mike brought up on those two points, I
Speaker 1: think a spot on you know, as far as uh location.
Speaker 1: You know, in in some states it takes deer maybe
Speaker 1: a day or two to get used to a ground
Speaker 1: blind and you know, be comfortable moving in front of them,
Speaker 1: and other states that could take through three weeks for
Speaker 1: a deer to get comfortable to you know, feed in
Speaker 1: front of them. But one of the things that I
Speaker 1: kind of key in on hunting out of ground blinds
Speaker 1: is keeping as much as many of the windows closed
Speaker 1: as possible. I feel like a lot of people set
Speaker 1: up ground blinds and they feel like they need to
Speaker 1: see all the way around them, so they got windows
Speaker 1: open on every side. I will literally have my window
Speaker 1: open where I send a shoot and everything else will
Speaker 1: be pitch black, like I if it if it wasn't
Speaker 1: for filming, I would probably have about a six by
Speaker 1: six inch window that would I would leave open on
Speaker 1: a blind just to shoot out of. But with us filming,
Speaker 1: we leave a little bit more open. But I think
Speaker 1: the key is to keep as much closed as possible. Um.
Speaker 1: I think it helps a little bit with scent does
Speaker 1: definitely doesn't you know, take care of your sending like
Speaker 1: a redneck would. But I feel like keeping as much
Speaker 1: of it closed as possible definitely helps. And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: obviously the more you have closed up, the less likely
Speaker 1: are you to get picked off by dear Yeah, one
Speaker 1: little we've done over the uh, go ahead, Mike, I
Speaker 1: don't say one little thing that we've done over there
Speaker 1: is we're big believers in using those jammer. Um is
Speaker 1: when we would put blinds, if we'd actually spray it,
Speaker 1: spray the blinds with those jammer because that's what we're
Speaker 1: using when we're hunting. I'm just getting them dear accustomed
Speaker 1: to that smell. Um. I feel like it gives us
Speaker 1: a little bit more of an advantage. Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: found that helps too. Sure what were you saying before that, Brian, Um,
Speaker 1: it's just uh kind of going back to what Mike
Speaker 1: said about cleaning out the the floor of the blind,
Speaker 1: like when we sat the blind. Um, Well, you know,
Speaker 1: if it's in a grassy are are, let's say there's
Speaker 1: already snow on the ground when we set up blind up,
Speaker 1: We'll go through there and kick that ground completely clean
Speaker 1: all the way down to the dirt. That way, you're
Speaker 1: not making any any kind of noise when you're shuffling
Speaker 1: your feet around or moving around in there, because once
Speaker 1: the ground freezes, if you have leaves or grass or
Speaker 1: anything in there, or even snow that would freeze, I mean,
Speaker 1: that's extremely noisy to unless you have like a dirt
Speaker 1: floor in the blind that you can you can save
Speaker 1: yourself a lot of noise? Do you guys ever use ozonics?
Speaker 1: Machines used to UM until nose jammer came out, and
Speaker 1: we have no we have no affiliation with nose jammer,
Speaker 1: but we we use it like it's going out of style.
Speaker 1: So so you feel like that negates the need for
Speaker 1: something ozonics because because especially with ground blinds, UM, I'm
Speaker 1: always you know, trying to figure out the right way
Speaker 1: to use something like that and those kinds of setups. UM,
Speaker 1: it seems like you guys get away when those jammer
Speaker 1: and that's about all you need. I mean, I've got
Speaker 1: a lot of faith to know the jammer. Not to
Speaker 1: say we don't get busted by deer, because we still do,
Speaker 1: but I feel like we've got away with a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff that we want to without nose jammer, if
Speaker 1: that makes any sense. But we we've had very good
Speaker 1: luck too with those onics. Yeah, Wisconsin, with the nosonics,
Speaker 1: I feel like it played a huge part. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I would say though you know, it was one of
Speaker 1: the reasons that I feel like we kind of quit using.
Speaker 1: It wasn't necessarily like we weren't believers in the product.
Speaker 1: It was just when we're hunting and filming, you're carrying
Speaker 1: so much stuff already to begin with. It's just another thing, Carrie. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and when you can, when when we can just have
Speaker 1: a little spray, bottle of nose jammer or something that's
Speaker 1: a little more compact. Um. I don't know. So it's
Speaker 1: just one less item that you gotta have on your pack. Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know one thing I found myself doing this year too.
Speaker 1: I used both. I use nose jam r and ozonics
Speaker 1: most hunts, um. But for whatever reason, I just have
Speaker 1: gotten sick of the sound of the ozonics. Like the
Speaker 1: fan up above you, and I just I turned off
Speaker 1: a few times and I'd be like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I can hear so much more, Like I would have
Speaker 1: no idea there's a dearly fifty yards away. I couldn't
Speaker 1: hear it at all. And I turned that dang thing
Speaker 1: off and like bam, oh yeah there's a deer. Um.
Speaker 1: You forget what that would sound like without that fan
Speaker 1: whirring over top of your head. Sometimes. Yeah, yeah, that smell,
Speaker 1: that ozone smell kind of makes me nauseous to it
Speaker 1: if I've got it running for too long. I that's
Speaker 1: something about that smell kind of bothers me after a
Speaker 1: while too. It's definitely um for me. It's become like
Speaker 1: an association with huntings, like if I smell a whiff
Speaker 1: of ozone like in its place outside of like a
Speaker 1: hunting context of like oh, hunting season, but it does
Speaker 1: have a noticeable of roma to it. Um. But but
Speaker 1: back to like stuff during the hunt, um. I mean,
Speaker 1: we were just talking about some of your send control
Speaker 1: practices during the hunt, talked about some of the things
Speaker 1: you're setting up within your ground blines for these hunts, um.
Speaker 1: And that brings us back to I think like one
Speaker 1: of the overarching themes of late season, which is deer
Speaker 1: or really spooky. So they're gonna be easier to spook
Speaker 1: with your wind, They're gonna be easier to spook with
Speaker 1: a sound or movement in the tree or in the blind. Um.
Speaker 1: You just have to really be on your A game.
Speaker 1: I feel like during the late season there's there's almost
Speaker 1: zero room for error. It's kind of the exact opposite
Speaker 1: of the rut. If if the rut gives you the
Speaker 1: most opportunity to get away with a few mistakes here
Speaker 1: and there, the late season is is the exact opposite. Um.
Speaker 1: So this brings to mind another question to have, which
Speaker 1: is another one of these kind of aggressive place that
Speaker 1: you might use a little bit during the early season.
Speaker 1: You know, use probably a lot in some places during
Speaker 1: the rut, But what about during the late season. The
Speaker 1: question is calling? Will you ever use any kind of
Speaker 1: calling techniques once we get into this late season, you
Speaker 1: gotta buck this just out of range. Doesn't look like
Speaker 1: he's gonna come into the food, but he's kind of
Speaker 1: in your zone. Do you ever bust out the grunt
Speaker 1: tube or or something else, Brennan at this time of year,
Speaker 1: I personally don't. I mean, I shouldn't say that we
Speaker 1: rattled one in last night, but I I said, I
Speaker 1: don't consider it late season yet where we were hunting,
Speaker 1: and like next week in uh or this weekend in Iowa. UM,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm I'm still treating it like the rut,
Speaker 1: so I'll probably do some calling, but like once I'm
Speaker 1: kind of shifted to late season on over a foot stores,
Speaker 1: I personally don't even take the calls with me anymore.
Speaker 1: And why is that? Um? Because i feel like I'm
Speaker 1: hunting an area where I feel like if these deer
Speaker 1: are unpressured, and they don't know that I'm hunting them.
Speaker 1: They're gonna to come in there the next night too.
Speaker 1: So if they come in one night and they skirt
Speaker 1: me out of range, I don't want to throw anything
Speaker 1: at them trying to get them in range. I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna hunt it on the next good weather day and
Speaker 1: hope for different results, versus taking the risk of you know,
Speaker 1: throwing a call at him and them, you know, spooky. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I follow you there, Mike, what about you? I would
Speaker 1: agree with that too. I've never really considered even using
Speaker 1: calls late season. Um. One of the biggest reasons why though,
Speaker 1: is just because typically when you're when you're hunting some
Speaker 1: of these um lads and food sources, you're dealing with
Speaker 1: a lot more eyes, a lot more noses. Um, there's
Speaker 1: this a lot less you can get away with, like
Speaker 1: you said, so bringing calls to their attention a lot
Speaker 1: of times, when you have that many deer nearby, you
Speaker 1: can actually alert them and and make them a little
Speaker 1: more skittish than actually draw me in um myself personally,
Speaker 1: just even during during hunting the rut um, using calls
Speaker 1: and rattling just seems to be only effective to me
Speaker 1: when you're dealing with one specific deer or a couple
Speaker 1: of deer um at a given time. You know, once
Speaker 1: you get multiple deer out in the field. UM. I
Speaker 1: tried it a couple of years ago in Iowa. Had
Speaker 1: tried hitting the horns when there's like ten fifteen gear
Speaker 1: out in the field and that the whole field apart.
Speaker 1: So after that, I pretty much gave up on calling
Speaker 1: and rattling on deer when there's multiple deer um. I
Speaker 1: feel like it's just timing specific and usually a late season.
Speaker 1: It's just it's not the right time to do it
Speaker 1: when you're dealing with that many eyes and eyes and
Speaker 1: ears and noses out in the field at wants. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I felt the same way. It just seems like higher
Speaker 1: excuse me, higher risk and lower reward at that time
Speaker 1: of year. So let's say this. Let's say you you
Speaker 1: had this perfect, picture perfect setup, you went in there,
Speaker 1: you hunted it. Uh, you you had everything you thought
Speaker 1: lined up just perfect, and the big buck doesn't show.
Speaker 1: You go back in the next day, maybe still good conditions,
Speaker 1: he still doesn't show. What do you do when it
Speaker 1: comes to the issue of you know, hunting the same
Speaker 1: spot over and over again, like volume hunting a spot
Speaker 1: versus like bouncing around and looking for new spots or
Speaker 1: fresh activity. Um, when it comes to the late season,
Speaker 1: are you more apt to just like stick it out
Speaker 1: on that very best place and give it time or
Speaker 1: do you like to bounce and bounce and bounce and
Speaker 1: you know, get a bunch of quote unquote first sits
Speaker 1: um until you figure something out. Brennan, What's what's your
Speaker 1: approach there? I guess it depended like if if you're
Speaker 1: targeting a specific buck or if you're just targeting, you know,
Speaker 1: a respectable buck. If I'm targeting a specific buck, I'm
Speaker 1: probably not gonna hunt anywhere else just because I'm set
Speaker 1: on a certain deer. Um. So I'm gonna hunt him
Speaker 1: on when the conditions are right. If I hunt in
Speaker 1: a couple of days in a row and he doesn't show,
Speaker 1: but he had been daylight active leading up to that, um,
Speaker 1: And as long as my entrance and the exit is
Speaker 1: clean and I'm not busting deer every time I'm going
Speaker 1: in there, I'll keep hunting them if the winds right, um,
Speaker 1: Because I feel like We've got a couple of spots
Speaker 1: like that, in North Dakota, where you know we'll get
Speaker 1: a deer that will come in there broad daylight, two
Speaker 1: or three days out of the week. No really consistent
Speaker 1: reason why he's coming in when he's coming in. But
Speaker 1: if you go on at two nights in a row
Speaker 1: and then you're like, oh, I'm gonna give it a
Speaker 1: break a night, I guarantee he's coming in the next night.
Speaker 1: The old A lot of times, if we're getting in
Speaker 1: and out of the spots clean and not blowing deer,
Speaker 1: you know, well, well on them three or four nights
Speaker 1: in a row, as long as we're getting in and
Speaker 1: out of there without busted deer. Yeah, my last book,
Speaker 1: I shot North Dakota eight season. That's actually what how
Speaker 1: I killed it is. Remember we had a couple of
Speaker 1: the guys haunted a spot I think three nights in
Speaker 1: a row and they didn't see a single deer and
Speaker 1: they didn't want to sit it. So I said, if
Speaker 1: they're not sitting and I'm gonna sit it, and I
Speaker 1: shot shot one of the boss Because of how the
Speaker 1: just because of how their patterns were and how our
Speaker 1: entrance and exit was set up, I felt like you
Speaker 1: could have got away with hunting it multiple times. I
Speaker 1: mean a lot of times that's not the case though
Speaker 1: I'm myself personally, I would say, if i'm, if I'm
Speaker 1: sitting a spot and kind of the scenario you laid
Speaker 1: out and I sat it a couple of nights and
Speaker 1: you didn't come in. Um, if it, if I feel
Speaker 1: that there's even a chance that I'm alerting any sort
Speaker 1: of deer, I might take a night off. Or if
Speaker 1: I see another cold front coming, you know, a few
Speaker 1: days down the road, I might not even hunt it
Speaker 1: for a few days. Um. If I'm if I'm and
Speaker 1: just go on a different spot or not hunt at all,
Speaker 1: you know. Um, I would say that more for myself
Speaker 1: more than not. That's what I would do. But it
Speaker 1: but it really can depend on you know, we keep
Speaker 1: going back to it, but your your entrance and exit, um,
Speaker 1: how it sets up for you. If if you feel
Speaker 1: like you can get in and out multiple times without
Speaker 1: alerting deer, I feel like you can definitely get away
Speaker 1: with with sitting in multiple days in a row. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you brought up like checking the forecast and seeing if
Speaker 1: there's maybe another cold front coming or something like that,
Speaker 1: and how that might impact your decision. Making, which which
Speaker 1: brings up the fact that we haven't really dove deep
Speaker 1: into these conditions you're waiting for. We we've just kind
Speaker 1: of alluded to like cold weather. Um, but is is
Speaker 1: there anything specifically that you're looking for from the weather
Speaker 1: forecast that tells you it's go time? I mean, does
Speaker 1: it have to be like any kind of cold from
Speaker 1: or are you waiting for like the mega cold from
Speaker 1: the thirty degree drop or the sub zero temperatures in snow,
Speaker 1: Like what what's the specific thing you're looking for to
Speaker 1: tell you it's it's time to go? Mike, I would
Speaker 1: say it doesn't necessarily need to be the megaculds round.
Speaker 1: Just a significant enough temperature drop to where it's gonna
Speaker 1: get deer up on their feet and wanting to hit
Speaker 1: you know, a grain food source. Um. You know, and
Speaker 1: it can just some of the little factors that can
Speaker 1: come into play, you know, even just a uh a
Speaker 1: minute cold front change or a temperature change with a
Speaker 1: wind ruction switch, or if it's going from cast the
Speaker 1: clear skies, like those little bit those little factors can
Speaker 1: get those maturity up on their feet. Um. But I
Speaker 1: mean the first thing I'd always go go to for
Speaker 1: the rule of thumb would be that you know, initial
Speaker 1: temperature drop. Like that's what we're at least what I'm
Speaker 1: you know, setting my my sights on when I'm looking
Speaker 1: at the forecast in the future is if there's a
Speaker 1: you know, ten degree change or more in uh in
Speaker 1: temperature from one day to another. Um. I mean some
Speaker 1: of the other factors that I hit on, they just
Speaker 1: kind of add to the I think increasing your odds. Yeah, Brennan, Um,
Speaker 1: kind of on the weather stuff. Um, almost complete opposite though.
Speaker 1: We've noticed, you know, if you've got a week straight
Speaker 1: of five to ten below and you all of a
Speaker 1: sudden you get a a day where it's ten above,
Speaker 1: and like, Sonny, it's almost like those dear for it
Speaker 1: as like how we would treat, you know, the fourth
Speaker 1: of July, like it's nice out, let's let's move and
Speaker 1: get up and walk around, so like not to stay
Speaker 1: like that is just cold fronts that are effective. It's
Speaker 1: like any like change in the weather. So if you've
Speaker 1: got you know, a week straight of just nasty cold weather,
Speaker 1: yeah you might have some good hunting, but there's a
Speaker 1: pretty good chance when that weather changes and it warms
Speaker 1: up and it's nice that first day that day could
Speaker 1: be just as effective as the cold trunk. Yeh yeah.
Speaker 1: And and and to add on to that, you know,
Speaker 1: usually when when you have them extreme cold trunks like
Speaker 1: that that you know, span multiple days, those first couple
Speaker 1: of days might just be dynamite, but as it kind
Speaker 1: of legs on, those deer will kind of just eventually
Speaker 1: get subdued and kind of lay up and they're waiting
Speaker 1: for that that warm up, like Brennan said, to get
Speaker 1: up and you know and feed. Um. We'll see the
Speaker 1: North Dakota a lot of times to lay excusion where
Speaker 1: the deer don't move it all through the night. But
Speaker 1: then once it warms up you know, ten fifteen degrees
Speaker 1: during the middle of day, if we're driving around or
Speaker 1: you know, checking spots things like that, you see deer
Speaker 1: out all over it. If it's a clear, sunny day.
Speaker 1: You know, I I don't blame them, you know, I'd
Speaker 1: rather go out and feed when it's twenty degrees out
Speaker 1: then you know, last light when it's five below zero.
Speaker 1: So they definitely take advantage of those times of the
Speaker 1: day when when there is those warm ups to get
Speaker 1: out and kind of sun and stretch your legs and
Speaker 1: get some food. Um, you know, and if you get
Speaker 1: if you get a warm enough spell, like if you
Speaker 1: just to kind of throw an example out, if you're
Speaker 1: if you have a long stretch of cold leather with
Speaker 1: with some snow on the ground and their hammering, uh
Speaker 1: you know there your corn or beans, things like that,
Speaker 1: if you get a severe warm up where it it'll
Speaker 1: you know, melt some of that snow and open up
Speaker 1: some some green areas. Sometimes going back to that green
Speaker 1: can be huge. Um. You know, we've killed a handful
Speaker 1: of box late season, you know, doing stuff like that
Speaker 1: where when the snow melts off, that's that's usually the
Speaker 1: They definitely try to take advantage of, um, the limited
Speaker 1: resource at that time. And when you get a warm
Speaker 1: up and and green pops up, um, they're gonna try
Speaker 1: and eat it up as as much as they can
Speaker 1: until you know that next snowfall comes and and they
Speaker 1: have to go back to you know, feeding on green. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a good point. Speaking of those warmups, what about
Speaker 1: the situation where you're just stuck with the warm you
Speaker 1: never get the big cold front that comes through, and
Speaker 1: you're late season is winding down and you keep on
Speaker 1: looking the weather and you're like, man, it's warm, it's warm.
Speaker 1: It's warm. Now we're down to the last ten days.
Speaker 1: Now we're down the last seven days. Time's taken away.
Speaker 1: It looks like you're never going to get that cold front. Um,
Speaker 1: what do you do in that case, Mike, when you're
Speaker 1: just stuck with mild or average temperatures you never get
Speaker 1: the cold one. Um, do you just not hunt or
Speaker 1: do you you take a stab? Or is there a
Speaker 1: totally different approach you have for late season warm or
Speaker 1: mild weather temperature hunts? Uh? I mean, when you're running
Speaker 1: out of time, you wanted to try and still take stabs.
Speaker 1: But um, I would say, if you're looking at the
Speaker 1: forecast and and all it is is warm from you
Speaker 1: know now until the end of the season, you gotta
Speaker 1: do something. And I mean if if if I was
Speaker 1: in that situation, I would probably consider maybe hunting off
Speaker 1: the food a little bit closer to the bedding um
Speaker 1: and trying to catch some deer maybe when they're getting
Speaker 1: up out of their bed um, you know, right at
Speaker 1: last light, since they're since they're not going to be
Speaker 1: getting up you know a a little bit sooner with this
Speaker 1: with those like those when those cold sunds come through. Um,
Speaker 1: I mean typically most your deer probably not going to
Speaker 1: be getting out of bed, so the last ten fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes of shooting light. So I would say if if
Speaker 1: it was it was me, you know, trying to press
Speaker 1: in a little bit more, hunt off the food would
Speaker 1: be one thing that you could do. Um Or, like
Speaker 1: I said, you know earlier, going going back to a
Speaker 1: green food source might be something we're considering. What about you, Brian,
Speaker 1: warm weather, If time's sticking and like there's literally no
Speaker 1: cold weather until the end of season, I would I
Speaker 1: would say, yeah, get aggressive and and press them closer
Speaker 1: to bedding, trying to get them, you know, right when
Speaker 1: they're standing up out of their bed um. But if
Speaker 1: it's warm and there's any chance of a cold front,
Speaker 1: I will I will sit out for a week just
Speaker 1: to hunt one day, even if it's the last day
Speaker 1: of the season. I'd sit out the entire week to
Speaker 1: hunt one cold front versus trying to add you know,
Speaker 1: trying to get in tight and educating the deer and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden the cold front comes and
Speaker 1: you already blew it. So if there's no chance of
Speaker 1: a cold front, for the rest of the season. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would get aggressive. But if there's any chance of
Speaker 1: a cold front happening, even if it's the last day
Speaker 1: of the season, I'm waiting for it. Yeah, I would
Speaker 1: agree with that. To this. Perfect example for that is
Speaker 1: last year here in Iowa, I sat out the first
Speaker 1: ten days I think it was the muzzleloader season, just
Speaker 1: because the weather. The temperatures were in the highs, in
Speaker 1: the forties, and you know, you could see in the
Speaker 1: extended forecast, you know, right around New Year's we were
Speaker 1: supposed to get a temp drop below zero. So I mean,
Speaker 1: I knew, you know, if I just was patient that
Speaker 1: it was you know, it was being patient was going
Speaker 1: to reward UM in the long run. So sometimes sitting
Speaker 1: out is not, you know, not a bad thing. Always
Speaker 1: easier sudden and done sometimes for those that of us
Speaker 1: that are eager to get out and hunt. But like
Speaker 1: you said, you usually pays off UM, or at least
Speaker 1: we'll pay off ever once in a while enough to
Speaker 1: make it worth being patient. UM. Alright, guys, I got
Speaker 1: two quick last questions before sending you on your way
Speaker 1: to your next hunting destination. UM. Late season tricks for
Speaker 1: staying warm Mike, you already mentioned the hot pad thing
Speaker 1: underneath your feet. Is there any other things you do
Speaker 1: to handle those super cold late season days, whether it's
Speaker 1: with your clothing or any other gear things you take
Speaker 1: with you, or anything else to just weather those coldest days.
Speaker 1: I'll let you start, Mike. UM. I'm a huge fan
Speaker 1: of he did um heated socks. I I have in
Speaker 1: my first lighting off, I always have a one of
Speaker 1: those battery powdered powered hand warmers. UM. I pretty much
Speaker 1: switched completely off of using any sort of UM handwarmers UM,
Speaker 1: like your your grabbers or or hot hands. The last
Speaker 1: couple years, I went, you know, straight to using any
Speaker 1: any sort of battery powered stuff. UM. It just seems
Speaker 1: to last longer, UM and in the long run, it's
Speaker 1: a little bit more cost effective. UM. One of the
Speaker 1: things that I started using a lot this year too,
Speaker 1: UM was we started working in the company called hyper Heat,
Speaker 1: and they make a heated seat UM that you can
Speaker 1: put on your tree stand or on you know seat
Speaker 1: the ground blind UM. We used. I used it in
Speaker 1: that sit uh, in that situation, but also when it
Speaker 1: got really cold here during the rut. It comes with
Speaker 1: a strap that can actually latch onto your latch onto
Speaker 1: your stand, but it will also vote on your waist.
Speaker 1: So I actually, when it got really cold, clipped it
Speaker 1: on um and put the heated side on the back
Speaker 1: side where my kidneys were, And I actually was heating
Speaker 1: my back with that um through some of these colder
Speaker 1: sits during the rout I plan on doing that as
Speaker 1: well during the late season months. Um. From a gear
Speaker 1: gear side of things, I always wear a neck get
Speaker 1: um pretty much from mid November to to the end
Speaker 1: of season. Uh. It can really save on wind burn
Speaker 1: on your face and uh and just from your lips
Speaker 1: and everything else chapping up. Ah. I would say that
Speaker 1: that's one of my one of my favorite pieces to
Speaker 1: use in the late season months. M Yeah, what about
Speaker 1: you brandan I am opposite of Mike. I buy stock
Speaker 1: in Hot Hands for late Jesus, I get all the
Speaker 1: adhesive like I'll buy the full the full feet ones,
Speaker 1: and I'll wear up, you know, a normal pair of socks.
Speaker 1: Then I'll put the hot hand foot warmers you know,
Speaker 1: in between that and a pair of wool socks. I'll
Speaker 1: put Hot Hands on my pretty much on my thighs,
Speaker 1: on my kid knees, on my shoulder blades. I've always
Speaker 1: I like four to six of them stuffed in my
Speaker 1: hand muff um we Like Mike said, I think a
Speaker 1: neck gator is invaluable in the late season because keeps
Speaker 1: a lot of cold air going in and out of
Speaker 1: your your top um. And one other thing is I
Speaker 1: will always carry my heavy bass layers to the blind
Speaker 1: and then put it on, versus trying to waddle in
Speaker 1: there like Ralphie from the Christmas Story and getting all
Speaker 1: sweated up, and because once you get sweaty, you're screwed.
Speaker 1: So I feel like, you know, carrying in your top
Speaker 1: layers is key. You know, go in there. You might
Speaker 1: be a little cold on the walk in, but it's
Speaker 1: better than getting sweaty and then freezing once you sit down. Yep,
Speaker 1: I have to agree with that. I've been there and
Speaker 1: always better to go that route. Uh well, guys, I
Speaker 1: do feel um, I do feel maybe a little bit
Speaker 1: more excited about the upcoming weeks, like I felt relatively
Speaker 1: confident coming into my late season. I feel like I
Speaker 1: got a couple more hot tips now to take into
Speaker 1: the woods. So thank you for that. Uh, coul, What
Speaker 1: do you give me a grundown or give us a
Speaker 1: rundown of where we can see everything you've got going on,
Speaker 1: where we can follow along with how your hunts are
Speaker 1: going now, where we can see your you know, past
Speaker 1: hunts and videos of all that kind of stuff. Brennan,
Speaker 1: can you can you maybe walk us through some of that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So we are in the middle of producing our tenth
Speaker 1: season of The Breaking Point. I'm gonna say the best
Speaker 1: place to find us right now is on YouTube. UM.
Speaker 1: The main show comes out every year. We usually start
Speaker 1: dropping new episodes in uh late summer, typically in August,
Speaker 1: and UM this year Mike and specially put together fourteen
Speaker 1: new episodes there, and then we have a semi live
Speaker 1: see reas which Aaron does all the editing for those
Speaker 1: come out every Sunday all year long and new to
Speaker 1: the channel. This year, we were doing what we call
Speaker 1: RUT Live and that was just uh, it was a
Speaker 1: six week program, um Mike's it was kind of Mike's baby,
Speaker 1: but we had two in studio hosts and then we
Speaker 1: were running three to four live units every Saturday and
Speaker 1: we would have live hunting broadcasting right to our YouTube channel.
Speaker 1: So that was kind of cool. Um, that's something we're
Speaker 1: definitely going to continue to do in the future and
Speaker 1: something that we're really excited about. But yeah, this check
Speaker 1: us out on YouTube is probably the best way to
Speaker 1: find us. To search the Breaking Point TV and you
Speaker 1: can find every video that we have ever put out. Man,
Speaker 1: I love it's good stuff. I've been watching it. I
Speaker 1: I got a kick out of seeing my buddy further
Speaker 1: join you guys last year for that hunt. That seemed
Speaker 1: like it was a really good time. I'm glad he
Speaker 1: got redemption there in the late season two. Um, so
Speaker 1: thanks for taking good care of him putting them on
Speaker 1: the bucks. And yeah, I guys, keep up the good work. Mike,
Speaker 1: Is there anything else you will want to add before
Speaker 1: I let you guys hit the rope? No, I think
Speaker 1: I think we touched it all. Awesome, well, Brennan Michael,
Speaker 1: appreciate time go kill some late season bucks now, all right,
Speaker 1: appreciate all right, that's a rap. Appreciate you listening, Thank
Speaker 1: you for tuning in, Thanks for being a part of
Speaker 1: this Wired Dhunt community. It's been a fun season, guys.
Speaker 1: I've I've loved sharing ever madeute of it with you.
Speaker 1: I've really really appreciate the notes the Instagram messages, the
Speaker 1: emails um telling me about how the podcast has helped
Speaker 1: or how the Wire Dunk website or YouTube videos, um,
Speaker 1: how all the different projects we're doing are either keeping
Speaker 1: the entertained or sharing you know, some kind of lesson
Speaker 1: with you that's helped you kill a deer have a
Speaker 1: better hunting season. Means the world to know that you
Speaker 1: know this is helping you out. So appreciate you'all. I
Speaker 1: hope you're in a fun season. Keep getting after it.
Speaker 1: There's still time. Don't throw in the towel yet. Don't
Speaker 1: give up yet. You can still get it done. Enjoy
Speaker 1: this hunting season while we still got it, because I
Speaker 1: guarantee you in a couple of months when season's closed,
Speaker 1: we're all gonna be wondering and waiting and hoping for
Speaker 1: that opening day again soon too. So enjoy and until
Speaker 1: next time, stay Wired to Hunt.