WEBVTT - Ep. 362: What Would John Eberhart Do? 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:06.520 Welcome to the wire to Hunt podcast, your home for 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:11.720 deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host, 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:17.600 Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:20.599 your host, Mark Kenyan. In this episode number three sixty 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:23.720 two and telling the show, I'm joined by the legendary 0:00:23.840 --> 0:00:27.800 d I Y Michigan bow hunter John Eberhart to discuss 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:30.240 what exactly he would do in some of the deer 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:39.640 hunting world's toughest scenarios. All right, welcome to the wire 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:42.519 ton Podcast, brought to you by on X. Today. On 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:45.599 the show, we've got John Eberhardt back with me. And 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:48.080 if you're a longtime listener, you're familiar with John. He's 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:50.920 been on here quite a few times, I think four 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:53.120 or five, three or four somewhere in that ballpark over 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:56.520 the years. But if you're not familiar with John, here's 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:59.040 a really quick intro. He's one of the most successful 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:01.760 d I Y bow owners that I know of, especially 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:04.200 in the state of Michigan. He's got dozens of record 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:07.640 book books. He's written multiple books which I highly recommend, 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:10.440 such as Precision Bow Hunting and Bow Hunting White Tales 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:14.000 that Eberhart way. He's done all of this on public 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:16.679 land or by permission land, and he's doing it in 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:20.520 tough locations, and he consistently has success, and he's great 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:24.000 at telling people and teaching people how to do something similar. So, 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:27.280 like I said, I've had John on the show over 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:30.240 the years, You've heard kind of the basics of what 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:32.800 he does. Some of the you know, what do you 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:34.800 do with rubs? What do you do with traial cameras? 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:37.199 What are you doing this? Blow blah? But I thought, 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:40.039 what's a different kind of way that we could approach 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:43.559 a hunter like John? How might be there some different 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:45.759 ways we could learn from as m As I'm stewing 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:49.680 on this, I started thinking through different scenarios and thinking, 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:52.520 you know, what would John do in that scenario? What 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:56.880 would John do in this scenario? And let's say you're 0:01:56.920 --> 0:01:59.400 all set up in a tree, another hunter comes waltzing by, 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:01.800 and you've got an hour and a half left to daylight? 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:04.960 What would John Eberhart do in that scenario? What would 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:07.160 John do if he was dropped into a brand new 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:08.880 property at the end of the summer and he only 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:11.400 had one day to figure it out and prepare for 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:14.720 the season, what would he do in that scenario. Those 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:17.240 kinds of questions started popping in my mind, and they 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:21.120 were the impetus for this episode. What would John Eberhart do? 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:24.760 I think that there's something we can learn from a hunter, 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:28.119 not just by asking him or her what do you 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:32.359 think about X, but instead put them in a scenario 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:36.280 and ask them to explain their thought process, what exactly 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:39.120 they would do, why exactly they would do it, how 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:41.560 exactly they would do it. I think that we can 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:43.880 learn something new when you approach a topic in that 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:46.880 kind of way, and that's that's kind of my hypothesis 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:50.120 for today's episode. I'm thinking, I'm hoping, I'm pretty damn 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:52.920 sure that we can get a new level of insight 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:56.400 from John by picking his brain on a bunch of 0:02:56.480 --> 0:03:00.000 example situations. So that's what we did. I'm grilling John 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:02.760 on one of our community's very best deer hunters, on 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:07.760 a bunch of hypothetical situations, very specific, and we're gonna 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:09.720 hear how he would approach it. And I gotta tell 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:12.120 you a spoiler alert, They're gonna be a lot of 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:15.120 cool things that we cover. I'm I'm very much looking 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:17.880 forward to it. So I think, whether than me rambling 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:20.320 about it. Rather than me talking about how great this 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:22.240 episode is gonna be, we should just get into it 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:24.280 and see if it can actually live up to that billing. 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:26.799 I think it will. Every time I've ever talked to John, 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:29.360 I've learned something, and uh, I trust this will be 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:32.360 the case too, hopefully for you as well. So let's 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:37.040 get right into it, all right. I am very excited 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:40.800 to have back on the show with me John Eberhart. John, 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:44.080 thanks so much for coming back on the show. Oh well, 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:48.360 thanks for inviting me. It's uh, it's always a treat 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:50.720 for me because because as you know, as I've told 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:53.800 you probably every year we talk, you were one of 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:56.720 the most influential people in the early stages of my 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:00.960 serious deer hunting journey, and and I've grown a lot 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:02.880 because of everything I learned from you. So it's just 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:04.560 great whenever I can get you back on the show, 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:08.560 because I know other people will benefit from it. To um, 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:10.640 I've got a cool idea. I think it's a cool idea, 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:12.240 and maybe you'll think otherwise, but I think I've got 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:15.480 a cool idea for this chat. Um. But before we 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:17.360 get into the real meat and potatoes, I just got 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:19.919 to hear real quick off the bat. It's been a 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:23.000 weird spring, a weird summer of everything going on with 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:26.760 with COVID and and everything else. I'm just curious. Regardless 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:28.719 of that, how do you feel about your deer hunting 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:31.960 prospects this year? Is everything looking okay to We're able 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:36.400 to do the scouting you needed? Is everything still on track? Uh? 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:41.599 Well it's get Uh. My shoulder surgery hampered my season 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:44.359 last year. Um this year, Yeah, I got out and 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:46.840 did all my scouting, all my scouting has done. Everything 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:51.600 looked great. Uh did some additional public land scouting, prepped up, 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:56.200 reprepped all my old locations. Everything's cool. I'm shooting fifty pounds, 0:04:56.320 --> 0:04:58.560 I'm shooting about six arrows at a time. My shoulders 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:01.680 I'm still having issue, but I also definitely be able 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:05.280 to hunt. But as you well know, I don't go 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:07.880 out and look for deer. So I just I just 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:10.720 hunt according to the sign that I see during postseason, 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:14.280 that you know from the previous year's run. Um, So 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:16.599 I don't go out. I have no idea what's on 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:19.160 the properties like hunt because I don't own anything, I 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:21.640 don't leave anything. Everything is pretty far away from where 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:25.919 I actually live, right now is that something that do 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:29.080 you ever I can see an inherent benefit to that, 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:31.320 because there's always a certain sense of surprise when you 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:33.600 go out there. You don't quite know what's running around, 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:35.960 and when you see a buck that you want to shoot, 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:38.120 it's it's a holy smokes, look at this deer. I 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:40.359 had no idea who was out here. That's that's really cool. 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:45.320 But do you ever find yourself occasionally hearing about somebody 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:48.840 else who does get to specifically target one buck over 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:51.640 course of weeks or months or years. Does that appeal 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:54.159 to it all? Or is it you know, you're really 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:58.440 happy that you got uh. I. You know, there are 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:01.839 times when some buddy that actually hunts the same properties 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:04.000 as me tells me there's a big buck there, or 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:07.039 they show me a motion picture. Because I never hunted 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:10.120 property by myself. It's public or free knock on door 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:13.360 for permission. So if I have somebody shown me a picture, yeah, 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:16.920 that definitely raises my level and makes me concentrate more 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:20.800 on that piece of property. Um, you know, and that's 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:23.200 what Miles Keller used to do. Miles Keller is an 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:25.200 old school guy, but you know he always targeted a 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:28.279 single buck, you know, he'd drive around through the countryside 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:30.280 with his job and he'd see big bucks and then 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:32.760 he'd get permission. This is back in the seventies and eighties, 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:36.400 and he would target those individual bucks. And yeah, that's 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:41.320 always that always makes it a different type of a challenge. Um. 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:44.040 But when you're hunting like I do, where you're trying 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:48.080 to go to a lot of different places, you just 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:54.560 don't have the time to put out cameras and take inventories. 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:58.000 It's too far away. Um. I just you know, when 0:06:58.000 --> 0:06:59.920 I like, when I go out of state, I hunt 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:03.560 cameras exclusively. We put cameras at every single location, and 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:06.200 we hunt according to what we see on the cameras. Um. 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:08.480 And but there's always big bucks there. You know, last 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:10.840 two seasons in Michigan, I haven't even seen a Pope 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:14.040 and young buck at all. There's time when I go 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:16.679 to Kansas, I'll see fifteen Pope young bucks in a week. 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:21.480 So you know, it's definitely different here as you well know. 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:25.880 And I've had pretty good success on not doing a 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:29.320 lot of preseason scouting and turning bucks nocturnal before season 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:32.680 even opens. Um. You know, I've shot a few bucks, 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:36.160 a few book bucks, early in the season. So, um, 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:38.960 I'm kind of doing what I do and I like 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:41.200 doing it. But once in a blue moon, I will 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:44.600 know there's a big buck on specific property and I 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:46.520 will actually target that buck and try to kill it. 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:50.280 So that was what I was. Yeah, so I was curious, 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:52.320 I was. That's exactly what I was gonna ask next. 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:54.280 I was trying to rack my brain to think back 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:56.960 through all the past stories I've heard from you, trying 0:07:56.960 --> 0:07:59.480 to think about if there ever was a year where 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:02.280 a certain buck got under your skin and just changed 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:05.560 all your plans and you had to focus on him. Um, 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:09.400 it sounds like that has happened before. Yeah, it happened 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:13.600 in There was a big buck on a little two 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:17.640 acre parcel that I hunt and somebody told me about him. 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:21.240 I had never seen him, so I went in there, 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:25.200 you know, during my during September, during a hard rain 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:28.320 and being two acres, I used to hunt it. I 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:30.400 used to hunt this property and somebody seeing this buck 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:33.760 across the road after dark, so I went and got 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:35.959 permission to hunt it again. And the lady could never 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:38.280 let anybody else hunter. Nobody else had asked because it's 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:40.160 such a small parcel. There was a cattail marsh that 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:42.400 butted up to her property, and right at the back 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:44.480 of her little two acres there was a little transition 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:48.080 zone into that cattail marsh. So I went in there 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:49.840 and I on the edge of the cat tails. There 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:52.360 was a bunch of red brush, and I went in 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:57.280 there like on September, and you know, three weeks after 0:08:57.320 --> 0:08:59.320 the bucks are all rubbed out, the bigger bucks, and 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:02.080 it was all crashed up, you know, that just rubs 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:05.280 all over the place down that edge. So I prepped 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:08.400 a tree because it was rainy and I wasn't gonna 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:10.200 make a lot of noise, and you know, it masked 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:13.200 my noise, and I prepped a tree and that buck 0:09:13.240 --> 0:09:14.920 was kind of under my skin and I shot him 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:20.200 opening morning at eight. It was orange ten point. Yeah, 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:21.760 that's a heck of a buck for two act or 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:28.720 property especially. Yeah. It just there's very few years, you know, 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:31.880 and where I hunt in public and stuff that I 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:36.400 hunt where things work out perfectly, and that was definitely 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:40.679 one of them. Yeah, So that kind of fits really well. 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:44.199 That story fits very well into my idea for our 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:48.439 chat because I think this is our fourth, our fourth 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:51.480 or fifth one of these we've done together, and over 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:54.560 all those years, I've kind of grilled you on a 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:56.840 bunch of different tactics. I've asked you, you know, what 0:09:56.880 --> 0:09:58.520 do you think about trail cameras, what do you think 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:00.360 about scrapes? What do you think about this? That, and that? 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:03.280 So we've got that kind of high level understanding of 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:05.360 what you do and how you do it pretty well. 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:07.360 So I started to think, you know, what would be 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:10.400 a way to get it a new like the next 0:10:10.520 --> 0:10:14.760 level of nuance from you. And my idea is this, John, 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:18.880 I thought that I could just pitch out a variety 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:22.400 of different scenarios to you. Outline a scenario, and then 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:25.680 what I'd like to hear from you is what would 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:28.000 you do in that situation? I think we could learn 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:30.079 from all these different examples. So I'll put something out 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:33.080 there and then I'd be really curious to hear what 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:36.160 would you do, How would you do it? Why would 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:38.360 you do it? Maybe there's a story from the past 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:40.280 where this actually happened to you and you can tell 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:44.400 us that. Um, but I've got some interesting situations lined 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:46.800 up that I'm really interested to hear how you would tackle. 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:50.320 So if your game, I want to start playing. What 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:55.080 would John neighborheard do. I'm always game. It might take 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:57.640 me a few seconds to sid and think about something 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:03.800 to process this tough that's perfect process. I love it. 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:06.200 I love it. I think that would be great. So 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:08.640 so let's do that, John, And let's start with something 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:11.080 that's a little bit like what you just described. It's 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:13.520 a scenario that some people might find themselves here in 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:18.040 the coming weeks. Let's say it is late August and 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:21.679 out of the blue, maybe the mailman stopped by your 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:23.920 house and you got into a conversation with him, and 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:26.520 he happens to find out you're a deer hunter, and 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:29.600 you know he's been your mailman for twenty years, and 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:33.439 he says, you know what, John, you can hunt my property. 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:36.400 I've got, you know, forty acres or whatever, just back here, 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:39.160 go ahead hunt it. But it's the last week August, 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:41.920 and all you have is one week of available time 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:44.960 that you could go see it, scout it, prep it. 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:47.280 You've got like a day and a half, two days max. 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:50.280 Can you walk me through how would you use that 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:53.840 day and a half of weekend time to absolutely get 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:55.880 the most you could out of this brand new property 0:11:55.880 --> 0:12:01.000 you picked up on the last weekend of August. Yeah, 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:05.640 because that's happened to me quite a few times. Actually. Um, 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:09.160 what I would probably do is, I would grill the guy. 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:12.280 You know, if he owned forty acres, that's a pretty 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:15.360 you know, that's a for Michigan, that's that's an average parcel. 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:18.320 I would ask him if he knows of any decent 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:21.920 bucks on the property, um, that he has possibly seen, 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:24.000 because if he was a male man, that means he's 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:26.640 probably leading his house pretty early and coming in in 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:31.240 the evening, coming home. Um. And I would ask him. 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:33.959 I'd obviously look at an aerial and I'd ask him 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:36.960 what the layout of his property is. Aside from looking 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:40.000 at an arial, just to see what borders his property, 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:44.320 I'd ask him, okay, on your bordering properties, you know 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:47.920 how much hunting pressure is on the bordering properties. Is 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:50.240 there a swamp on your property? Is there a swamp 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:52.960 that butts up to your property? You know where your 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:55.800 mate maybe coming out of a swamp in the evening, 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:57.880 you know, right at the edge of darkness because it 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:02.280 butts right up to his fence line. Um, I'd basically grilled, 0:13:02.760 --> 0:13:05.120 not grilled because the guy had given me permission, but 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:07.480 I'd ask him a lot of questions, and it's very 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:10.120 possible once I looked at an aerial photo of it, 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:14.120 you know, if it was just open timber, or twenty 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:16.600 acres of open timber with no under story and there 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:18.960 wasn't any betting area on it, if it was you know, 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:23.199 ten acres of pasture, if there wasn't any oak trees 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:25.200 on it, because he would know if he owned it, 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:27.240 if there was olk on it or some apple trees. 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:31.200 I would ask him what the actual property looked like, 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:34.160 what it contained. If it did have oaks, would they 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:36.679 brought up to some semblance of security cover for a 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:40.560 daytime visits, or if they're just oaks out in open timber, 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:42.520 where a mature buck in Michigan is not going to 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:45.920 access that place during daylight hours because it's too vulnerable 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:49.520 with no understory to for security cover. And then I 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:52.200 would go from there if if there was something that 0:13:52.360 --> 0:13:57.240 I didn't think was conducive or better than what I 0:13:57.440 --> 0:14:00.959 already have prepped. You know, because I have forty trees 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:03.240 preps going into the fall. I may only on ten 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:06.480 of them or twelve, but I've got trees ready. So 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:08.280 if it's not something that I think is going to 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:11.640 be overpowering as far as this is something where I 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:14.160 think I can win here and kill something on a 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:17.280 pretty short term time frame because it's got a betting area, 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:20.360 or it's got some apple trees button up the security cover, 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:23.360 or it's got you know, oaks that butt uped a 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:27.840 security cover. Um. You know, it would totally depend on 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:29.520 the layout of the property. I may just put it 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:32.280 off and totally not even go there, and you know, 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:36.720 scouted during postseason the next the next spring. But if 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:39.560 if it had everything I needed, I'd wait for a hard, 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:42.840 rainy day, or I'd wait for a very windy day 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:46.560 because the forty acre parcels really really small. As far 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:48.640 as if they had betting area on it, you know, 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:51.880 it's gonna be a relatively small betting area. So I'd 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:55.840 wait for a nasty day where it's gonna mask the 0:14:55.880 --> 0:14:58.880 majority of my noise and the majority of my scent, 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:02.560 even though I would be going in santlock. Um, I'd 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:05.320 go in on a nasty day, and I would very 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:09.480 cautiously look the property over. If I thought the property 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:11.880 was going to be conducive to have a mature book 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:15.000 on it, that might move on that property during daylight hours, 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:17.920 and I would also take because it's only forty acres, 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:20.360 I would take my prep gear and if there was 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:24.160 something that I saw that looked conducive for daytime movements, 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:27.080 i'd prep it right there on the spot so I 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:30.800 didn't have to make a second trip. So when you 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:34.400 when you say you'd walk it very carefully, can you 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:37.000 elaborate on exactly what you mean by that? Would you 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:39.320 just go and check out the few spots on the 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:40.960 map look the best, or are you going to cover 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:43.720 the whole thing or just the edges that? How literally 0:15:43.760 --> 0:15:47.080 are you going to check it? I'm going to check 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:50.040 primarily the ages that there were a betting area on it. 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:54.040 I would would definitely not intrude into the betting area 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:57.680 in late August. There's no way I would. I would 0:15:57.760 --> 0:15:59.840 definitely look at the edges of the betting area that 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:03.320 if there was any mast or fruit trees. And the 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:05.520 cool thing about going in there in late August, I 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:08.840 would know not only if their water masts or fruit trees, 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:11.480 I would also know if they were burying food, you know, 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:14.120 because I could see the acorns or apples in the 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:17.120 tree if it had that. So I would just go 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:22.120 the edges of any you know, projected bedding areas, and 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:28.040 and I would just walk gingerly and slowly because I 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:30.440 wouldn't want to spook anything. Because a lot of times, 0:16:30.560 --> 0:16:34.520 you know, when when you go in and you preseason scout, 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:37.880 which I don't do anymore unless it's in a situation 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:40.800 like this, which is very rare. But when you go 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:43.280 in and you pre seasoned scout, a lot of times 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:45.680 the bucks are not bedded back deep into the bedding 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:48.720 areas there, They're on the perimeter edges of them. So 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:55.120 you've gotta be really really cautious, you know, and move slow, um, 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:57.720 you know, and you just gotta be as quiet as 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:00.400 you possibly can because you don't want to intrude on anything. 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:04.440 I did a live webinar the other day and a 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:08.520 guy had a situation very similar to that. He actually 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:12.560 pulled in on this piece of property and he saw 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:15.199 a buck that had been bettered in a fence room 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:17.119 and it was moving across a little opening in a 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:21.960 pasture towards September. So he didn't go over there, but 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:24.560 he asked me how I would go about setting up 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:28.000 on that, and I said, what I would do is Obviously, 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:30.880 that buck is probably betted in that fence room because 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:32.440 the fence rol he said, had a lot of heavy 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:35.080 security cover. It was probably betted on the edge where 0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:39.040 he could see out into the little open pasture, and 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:41.360 he probably had the wind coming in from his back 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:43.480 where he could smell anything coming in from from the 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:46.159 other side of the open area. So I said, what 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:48.359 I would do is I would go around through the timber, 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:53.159 you know, a way outside of the open pasture, and 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:56.600 I would go back around to where that buck was heading. 0:17:57.080 --> 0:17:59.080 I would do it on a rainy or a windy day, 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:02.199 come back in the himber from the opposite side, and 0:18:02.280 --> 0:18:05.040 I'd go and try and find out why, you know, 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:07.960 for buck to get up and move, there's a reason 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:10.640 he was going in that direction. And you know this 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:12.840 time of year it was food based. It was probably 0:18:12.880 --> 0:18:16.359 food based, so there was probably something over there, some 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:19.080 form of a food source, you know, maybe an early 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:22.359 apple tree. It is way too early for dropping acorns. 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:27.080 But I'd find out why the deer was going that place, 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:30.160 and if he could find that location, set up a tree, 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:32.040 and then go back out the same way, because if 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:35.080 he if he were to go across that open pasture 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:38.080 and that buck was still bettered in the same place 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:40.200 he was when he when he saw him come out 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:42.880 of there. Probably that buck is going to visually see 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:45.760 him going across that opening, so he wants to definitely 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:48.280 go around where there's not going to be a visual 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:51.160 and it's nasty days not yet, he press the tree 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:52.840 that buck's not going to hear him, and then he's 0:18:52.880 --> 0:18:54.760 going to go back out the same way he came in. 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:57.760 And then on opening evening he could go back in 0:18:57.800 --> 0:19:01.000 the same way way around and go to that spot 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:03.800 and hopefully that buck gets up and keeps that same 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:07.640 pattern and he might have an opportunity yet. Interesting, So 0:19:07.840 --> 0:19:10.159 here's another scenario. Then it's a little bit related to 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:13.880 what you just described there. Um as he mentioned that 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:15.879 that buck was probably heading where he was because of 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:20.920 a food related attracting of some kind. Um. I want 0:19:20.920 --> 0:19:25.359 to kind of understand better how you choose between potential 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:29.879 early season spots, you know, opening night set kind of situation. 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:34.240 So let's assume it's October one, and of all the 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:36.720 different places you have prepped, of all the different properties 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:39.480 you have, let's say you're down to two different stand 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:43.360 sites that seem ideal for early season. We're gonna say that, 0:19:43.520 --> 0:19:46.920 you know, all the conditions seem lined up for these spots, 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:50.320 but one of them is overlooking. Let's say a couple 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:52.919 of apple trees, and the other one is set up 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:56.920 a big it's next to a big, lone white oak tree. 0:19:57.480 --> 0:20:00.520 Both of them are dropping. They're both kind of ideal. 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:04.120 Can you walk me through how you would try to 0:20:04.200 --> 0:20:06.480 pick between those two. Maybe you've got a clear cut 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:08.520 favorite between the two food sources, or maybe you could 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:11.360 describe what other factors you would try to look at 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:14.919 to determine which is your top option of those two 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:20.600 good options. That one is really, really, really simple because 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:25.440 I always do. Let's say, let's say I've got I 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:30.280 think thisser have act again like trees prepped. Probably twenty 0:20:30.359 --> 0:20:34.240 of those trees are going to be potential first day 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:36.560 or two or three of season trees. They're gonna be 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:42.119 early season feeding locations or potentially of a primary scrape 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:44.639 area on the edge of the standing cornfield. So what 0:20:44.800 --> 0:20:48.439 I always do, and I've done this for years, I 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:51.800 will put on snuntlock and I'll try and wait for 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:54.439 a windy day. But it's not that critical, and I 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:59.160 do what I call a speed tour now. Because Michigan 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:03.440