Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your guide to
Speaker 1: the Whitetail Woods, presented by First Light, creating proven versatile
Speaker 1: hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First Light
Speaker 1: Go farther, stay Longer, and now your host, Mark Kenyon.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. This week on
Speaker 2: the show, I'm running Jared Mills through our what would
Speaker 2: you do gauntlet, giving us insight into exactly how we'd
Speaker 2: handle some of the most challenging deer hunting scenarios. I
Speaker 2: could throw it all right. Welcome to the Wired to
Speaker 2: Hunt podcast, brought to you by First Light and our
Speaker 2: Camera for Conservation initiative, which means every purchase of first
Speaker 2: Light gear in the Spectra pattern, which is the whitetail
Speaker 2: camera pattern, a percentage of every single one of those
Speaker 2: sales goes to the National Dear so helping support their
Speaker 2: mission to make things better for deer and deer hunters,
Speaker 2: and they're doing a good job of it. I actually
Speaker 2: was with a bunch of the guys from the NDA
Speaker 2: just last weekend way up there in Idaho for one
Speaker 2: of our Working for Wildlife Tour events. I'm sure you've
Speaker 2: heard all about it, but we have had some great
Speaker 2: opportunities so far to volunteer on public land improve habitat
Speaker 2: for wildlife, and that was certainly a good example of it.
Speaker 2: There was I think more than fifty volunteers. We improved
Speaker 2: some aspen stand habitat which a lot of white tails
Speaker 2: and elk and other critters are going to benefit from.
Speaker 2: Man we had a good time doing it too, so
Speaker 2: kudos to the NDA. And speaking of working for wildlife
Speaker 2: tour events, we've got another one coming up this weekend.
Speaker 2: If you are in Missouri, we are going to be
Speaker 2: getting together this coming Saturday. That's Saturday, August twelfth, down
Speaker 2: the BK. Leach Memorial Conservation Area. We're going to be
Speaker 2: doing some habitat improvement out there. That's just outside of
Speaker 2: Saint Louis, Missouri, I believe. So I'd love to see
Speaker 2: at eight a m. Saturday morning at the BK. Leech
Speaker 2: Memorial Conservation Area. This is in partnership with backcountry Hunters
Speaker 2: and anglers. We're going to do some good work for
Speaker 2: wildlife and then later that afternoon get together for social event.
Speaker 2: Some storytelling should be great. You can sign up over
Speaker 2: on the BHA website. They've got an events page there.
Speaker 2: For it where you can register. Hope to see you there,
Speaker 2: I guess in other news, since we're talking news. This
Speaker 2: past weekend, so two weekends ago was the Working for
Speaker 2: Wildlife Tour event in Idaho. This most recent weekend, I
Speaker 2: was down in southern Michigan for the Field to Fork
Speaker 2: program at the Back Forty, which has been such a
Speaker 2: cool thing to see grow over the last couple of years,
Speaker 2: and this year we introduced I think thirteen or fourteen
Speaker 2: new hunters this past Saturday to this whole hunting lifestyle.
Speaker 2: So we got to spend the day with them, giving
Speaker 2: them experience behind a rifle and a crossbow, answering all
Speaker 2: sorts of questions about hunting, taking them for a tour
Speaker 2: of the property, talking through different deer behavior and habitat
Speaker 2: and strategy questions. And then there will be a whole
Speaker 2: series of hunts happening this fall in the early season
Speaker 2: and late season where there will be specific partners or
Speaker 2: sorry mentors partnered up with each one of these new hunters,
Speaker 2: and it's very cool to see the Back forty property
Speaker 2: being used for that. So that's what I was doing
Speaker 2: this past Saturday. That was a lot of fun and
Speaker 2: other than that. We do have a podcast episode to
Speaker 2: get too, which I know you guys are chomping at
Speaker 2: the bit for and it's a good one. We're continuing
Speaker 2: our what would You Do? Series, which is this thing
Speaker 2: we do every August. Hopefully you heard last week with
Speaker 2: Bobby Kendall. What we're doing is running our guests through
Speaker 2: a series of specific hypothetical hunting scenarios to see what
Speaker 2: they would do and why they would do it. And
Speaker 2: today's guest is Jared Mills. He is a great deer
Speaker 2: hunter who just came off of a really really great
Speaker 2: hunting season and he's got some insights, some ideas and
Speaker 2: perspectives that I think we can all learn from and
Speaker 2: apply to our own hunting situations. Jared's over there in Iowa.
Speaker 2: He is probably most known for his participation in the
Speaker 2: Midwest White Tail Series for a really really long time,
Speaker 2: probably a decade or more. He's now doing his own thing.
Speaker 2: He's got his own YouTube channel. You can find that
Speaker 2: just by searching Jared Mills over on YouTube. And he
Speaker 2: documented his hunting season last year on that channel and
Speaker 2: it got a lot of interest in Buzz because he
Speaker 2: had one heck of a year and showcased it all
Speaker 2: really well there on the channel, so if he haven't
Speaker 2: seen those videos, you gotta check it out. He killed
Speaker 2: three really great dear on video, told some great stories,
Speaker 2: so definitely worth checking out. And I think that will
Speaker 2: give you some really good context either before listening to
Speaker 2: this or after listening to this. But that's plan. We're
Speaker 2: talking to Jared. I'm gonna run him through a whole
Speaker 2: bunch of different situations, see what he would do with
Speaker 2: him out there in the White Tail woods. And man,
Speaker 2: we had fun. I learned some stuff, I got some
Speaker 2: good ideas, and it got me even more excited for
Speaker 2: this coming season. I'm out there scouting beanfield seeing some
Speaker 2: nice deer. The hit list is starting to fill up
Speaker 2: here in southern Michigan, which is exciting. And can't wait
Speaker 2: to share some of those stories of you too. So
Speaker 2: that will be for another day though. For now, let's
Speaker 2: get to Jared Mills or running them through the what
Speaker 2: would you do? Gauntlet? And here we go, all right
Speaker 2: with me now on the line, I've got the one
Speaker 2: and only Jared Mills. Jared, thanks for making time for.
Speaker 3: This, absolutely man, it's good to chat again, and I
Speaker 3: appreciate the invite.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is this month of August for the last
Speaker 2: few years has become this month when I do this
Speaker 2: series we run people through these hypothetical scenarios. It ends
Speaker 2: up being maybe my favorite month of the year as
Speaker 2: far as the podcast, just because you get to geek
Speaker 2: out alongside you know, you the guest. I get to
Speaker 2: geek out on thinking through every one of these different
Speaker 2: scenarios too. It's kind of like when you're sitting there
Speaker 2: with your hunting buddies, or I do this thing where
Speaker 2: we dig road trips where we're gonna go to hant
Speaker 2: Ohio or some different state and they'll be me or
Speaker 2: another friend or two in the car and we'll just
Speaker 2: sit there for hours on the highway and be like,
Speaker 2: what would you do if this happened? Or what would
Speaker 2: you do if a split brow time and a drop
Speaker 2: time buck came at the same time? Like what's cholm?
Speaker 2: Just shoot like all those kinds of things. So basically,
Speaker 2: I'm taking my road trip game and applying it to
Speaker 2: work with you, Jared.
Speaker 3: So that's perfect. I love the idea. I think obviously
Speaker 3: it's a great way for listeners to learn. But I
Speaker 3: think at least from my perspective. The coolest part is
Speaker 3: it just points out how many different ways there are
Speaker 3: to do things. I mean, especially if you're offering very
Speaker 3: similar or the same situations to each different person. I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm willing to bet most of your answers are pretty different.
Speaker 3: So I think it just speaks to you got to
Speaker 3: know your own hunting situations, your own properties, your own deer,
Speaker 3: whatever it is, all the factors you have to deal
Speaker 3: with this specifically before you are able to make those
Speaker 3: decisions on what to do. And this series, to me,
Speaker 3: really highlights that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great it's a great point and it
Speaker 2: is funny though. And I don't know if you've experienced this,
Speaker 2: but I bet you have, given how many different hunters
Speaker 2: you've worked with at Midwest Whitetail and through all the
Speaker 2: different things. You know, there's so many successful guys and
Speaker 2: gals out there, Like you said, they all do it
Speaker 2: in different ways, but maybe fifty percent of them think
Speaker 2: they are ways the only way still, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean, Like, there's some people that are so dead
Speaker 2: set on like, oh, this is the only way to
Speaker 2: do it. I'm shocked by that still, Like, how many
Speaker 2: people are so set in that you know perspective.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, if they don't know anything else and
Speaker 3: they you know, maybe don't branch out on a lot
Speaker 3: of different situations, they're probably right. I mean, what they're
Speaker 3: used to on their home turf is probably the right
Speaker 3: way for them. But yeah, and I think part of
Speaker 3: it's just the world we live in too, you know.
Speaker 3: I think everyone kind of wants to be the expert
Speaker 3: on it and you know, wants to be the source
Speaker 3: of that type of information. So I'm sure that plays
Speaker 3: into it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's some truth to that before we get into
Speaker 2: the you know, the scenarios here. You know, given your
Speaker 2: kind of life changes over recent years, I know there's
Speaker 2: been some career shifts. You've got a young child one
Speaker 2: or two one okay one, So if you were to
Speaker 2: look back over, say that the last decade or so
Speaker 2: up to now, what has been the biggest change for you, Like,
Speaker 2: if we're talking about how there's so many different ways
Speaker 2: to do this, is there is there some major difference
Speaker 2: for you as far as how your life has or
Speaker 2: circumstances or anything has led to a shift in your
Speaker 2: strategies or style of hunting. Anything like that come to mind.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the biggest one that comes to mind,
Speaker 3: and I probably wouldn't shorten that timeframe down, you know,
Speaker 3: ten years is a long time. I'd look at maybe
Speaker 3: the last few years. But for me, it's really trying
Speaker 3: to keep the enjoyment of it first and foremost, because
Speaker 3: there's so many things we can get wrapped up on that.
Speaker 3: The world of hunting is changing so rapidly and continuing
Speaker 3: to evolve. Technology is coming into play so much, the
Speaker 3: amount of information available, social media, all that type of
Speaker 3: stuff has really changed what hunting is. When I think
Speaker 3: about what it used to be growing up and when
Speaker 3: I was cutting my teeth on learn how to bow
Speaker 3: and all that type of stuff, that seems like it's
Speaker 3: such a different experience now than it was, And I
Speaker 3: think for me, my eyes have been opened up like
Speaker 3: it doesn't have to be that way. I think that's
Speaker 3: the biggest thing that's been a revelation for me is hey,
Speaker 3: you can make it harder on yourself. And I don't
Speaker 3: want that to sound wrong. I don't want it to
Speaker 3: seem like it's gotten too easy, because it certainly hasn't.
Speaker 3: But there are obviously things you can do to make
Speaker 3: it easier or harder on yourself if you want to.
Speaker 3: You need to figure out what's best for your experience.
Speaker 3: And for me, it's just don't get don't mix hunting
Speaker 3: too much with work, don't put stress on yourself. You
Speaker 3: have to kill dear, don't you know? All those types
Speaker 3: of things. Get back to the enjoyment of hunting and
Speaker 3: what it felt like way back when. I think that's
Speaker 3: that's I've been lucky to have come across that and
Speaker 3: bring that into focus more. And that's certainly going to
Speaker 3: be a goal of mine, you know, here in the
Speaker 3: new near future and hopefully for a long time, and hopefully,
Speaker 3: you know, hopefully I can help hunters along the way
Speaker 3: with different tactics and strategies and stuff. But if nothing else,
Speaker 3: you know, I want to just bring that awareness to
Speaker 3: guys that you can make this experience what you want
Speaker 3: it to by doing things your own way, and you
Speaker 3: don't have to do what everyone else is doing. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I couldn't relate more to that. I mean, over the
Speaker 2: last two years, I've kind of gone through that same
Speaker 2: sort of epiphany where I reached like a mega burnout
Speaker 2: stage where I just felt all this pressure because like
Speaker 2: you mentioned, it was tied up in work and expectations
Speaker 2: and worrying about what other people think and YadA, YadA, YadA,
Speaker 2: and all that stuff was like sucking the fun out
Speaker 2: of it for me. So last season, like my main
Speaker 2: goal is like, Okay, I gotta just shove aside any
Speaker 2: of the stuff that's bringing me down, like any of
Speaker 2: the things that are taking this thing that I love
Speaker 2: so much and making it miserable for me. Sometimes like
Speaker 2: that's you can't have that anymore. And I just tried to, like,
Speaker 2: stop caring what other thing, what other people think, Stop
Speaker 2: caring about if I kill a big enough buck or
Speaker 2: enough deer, whatever it is. Stop trying to impress people.
Speaker 2: Just do hunt your own hunt, enjoy it, do it
Speaker 2: for the right reasons, and you know, let the chips
Speaker 2: fall where they may, and lo and behold, I had
Speaker 2: a blast and still had like a great hunting season
Speaker 2: by you know, all other metrics too. And it's it's
Speaker 2: funny how that probably works out in many cases once
Speaker 2: you just got get your head back to normal, things
Speaker 2: work out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it's I do I think things fall into
Speaker 3: place when you prioritize it the right way, and even
Speaker 3: if they don't work out. You're gonna be way less
Speaker 3: frustrated because you enjoyed the experience rather than you know,
Speaker 3: stressing yourself out. So yeah, that's that's the page of
Speaker 3: mon I feel lucky to be in a spot where
Speaker 3: I can see that, because when you get to that perspective,
Speaker 3: you look back and you realize how silly it was
Speaker 3: to think otherwise, or to make hunting this thing that
Speaker 3: we all have this crazy passion about, to make it
Speaker 3: not fun like it's it's just seems so silly looking back.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is uh, this is not brain surgery, this
Speaker 2: is not a life or death thing. We're not saving
Speaker 2: the world. Nobody really cares whether we kill a big
Speaker 2: buck or not. Do it for yourself, have fun with it,
Speaker 2: and that's the best you can do. So yeah, that's right,
Speaker 2: I'm right there with it. All that said, then let's
Speaker 2: add some pressure though. Let's put you in the Let's
Speaker 2: put you through the gauntlet and see what you would
Speaker 2: do in these scenarios because that's kind of fun sometimes too.
Speaker 3: Yeah sounds good.
Speaker 2: All right, So I think you know the basic rules, right.
Speaker 2: The idea here is is walk me through your thought process.
Speaker 2: Once I present these scenarios to you, you know, the
Speaker 2: more details the better, the more kind of behind the
Speaker 2: scenes thinking out loud, the better. And we're gonna start
Speaker 2: kind of pre season and sort of work our way
Speaker 2: into different parts of the season itself. So my first question,
Speaker 2: my first scenario is gonna be this. Let's say you
Speaker 2: get the very good news of picking up access to
Speaker 2: a brand new farm. So you just picked up something
Speaker 2: brand new. Let's just say it's gonna be one hundred acres.
Speaker 2: To keep it simple, it's gonna be Midwest, you know, Iowa, Illinois,
Speaker 2: Indiana kind of stuff, mixed timber and agg It's one
Speaker 2: hundred acre square and there's gonna be a creek that
Speaker 2: runs snaking through the middle. All right, that's our property.
Speaker 2: What I'm curious about to start is how you would
Speaker 2: go about learning this place, scouting and learning it. And
Speaker 2: I'm curious what your process would be at different start points.
Speaker 2: So what I'm gonna ask you to run me through
Speaker 2: is what your plan would be to learn this place
Speaker 2: if you got access on August thirtieth with an October
Speaker 2: first opening day. So that's the first one, and then
Speaker 2: my second one after that, I'm going to be curious
Speaker 2: to hear what you would do differently if you didn't
Speaker 2: get access until October first itself. So all right, August thirtieth,
Speaker 2: that's a few you know, a couple of weeks from now,
Speaker 2: as far as when we're recording this, you get to
Speaker 2: step foot on it for the first time. August thirtieth,
Speaker 2: you have about a month before opening day. Walk me
Speaker 2: through what you would do to learn this place fast
Speaker 2: with one month of go time.
Speaker 3: Okay, so yeah, August thirtieth is its earlier than October first,
Speaker 3: but still late in the game, and you know you're
Speaker 3: not really going to do any property improvements much at
Speaker 3: that point anyways. So I always like to start big
Speaker 3: picture first, just to establish a starting point I guess
Speaker 3: on a new property, and by big picture, of course
Speaker 3: aerial maps, but also I think a focus on the
Speaker 3: neighborhood in general, especially when you mentioned it being you know,
Speaker 3: a timber egg set up. Usually there's destination feeding areas
Speaker 3: or food sources for deer in that type of habitat,
Speaker 3: you know, big egg fields or whatever. And I think
Speaker 3: by spending time looking at the general neighborhood, whether it's
Speaker 3: driving around the blocks, you know, looking at aerially whatever,
Speaker 3: figure out where or at least guess where the deer
Speaker 3: might be going to end up, because I think having
Speaker 3: a general direction of movement on a property can give
Speaker 3: you a really good starting point on how to hunt it.
Speaker 3: You know which way to come in, which way to
Speaker 3: go out, where to focus potential stand set up. So
Speaker 3: I'll try to establish, you know, what are the deer
Speaker 3: doing each evening or each morning when they're either leaving
Speaker 3: their bed or coming back to bed by looking at
Speaker 3: the neighborhood. And then, of course, with it be in
Speaker 3: August thirtieth, I'm still not worried about running deer off
Speaker 3: and them not coming back. So I'm gonna spend a
Speaker 3: good amount of time with boots on the ground walking
Speaker 3: the property figuring out those things, either a confirming what
Speaker 3: I found on the aerial map, or be picking up
Speaker 3: those little things that you can't pick up on aerial map,
Speaker 3: little pinches and things like that, whether it's I mean
Speaker 3: something as simple as a down tree can create a
Speaker 3: really good pinch point. You're obviously not going to see
Speaker 3: that on aerial map, So boots on the ground to
Speaker 3: figure that type of stuff out. You know, I'll try
Speaker 3: to figure out signs. Not the most visible at that
Speaker 3: time of the year. But I'll try to find what
Speaker 3: would be some potential betting areas, because if you can
Speaker 3: figure out, you know, maybe the where the one, two
Speaker 3: or three, you know, one hundred acres the primary betting
Speaker 3: areas that you're not going to want to go blowing
Speaker 3: into early or again, it still gives you even more
Speaker 3: information with the general movement direction. So if they're going
Speaker 3: from this spot, you know, there's a really big agg
Speaker 3: field on the west side that's probably their destination food source,
Speaker 3: you can figure out, okay, how are they going to
Speaker 3: get from point A to point B? Where can I
Speaker 3: put myself in the middle of that? So I think
Speaker 3: those are probably the main things. Of course, you know,
Speaker 3: getting some cameras out. August thirtieth is a great time
Speaker 3: to start establishing mock scrapes, so that coincides well with
Speaker 3: with putting cameras out for the first time. There's a
Speaker 3: lot of properties that that's about the time I put
Speaker 3: cameras out anyways, on properties I already have access to,
Speaker 3: so very very good time to start getting inventory. Scrapes
Speaker 3: are my number one tool for inventory. You know, I
Speaker 3: think that you learn a lot about deer just based
Speaker 3: on their interactions at scrapes. I think most of the
Speaker 3: mature bucks in the area will eventually come to that,
Speaker 3: So try to get as many cameras out on mock
Speaker 3: scrapes to learn what deer in the area. So I
Speaker 3: think those are probably the main things. If I come
Speaker 3: across some really obvious stand locations, I may go ahead
Speaker 3: and hang on right away, But more often than not
Speaker 3: than a new property, I don't get too crazy about
Speaker 3: getting those locations set up, at least not permanent locations.
Speaker 3: I do a decent amount of moving around mobile type hunting,
Speaker 3: even just small adjustments. It may be fifty yards, but
Speaker 3: I have very few even the properties that I have
Speaker 3: access to, and for years I don't have a ton
Speaker 3: of permanent locations. And I think the primary reason for
Speaker 3: that is because I like targeting individual deer and they
Speaker 3: all seem to use a property a little bit different. Yes,
Speaker 3: you know, pinch points and funnels are still going to
Speaker 3: be there year after year, but each deer may use
Speaker 3: it a little bit differently depending on where he's betting
Speaker 3: and just the end of visuality. The personalities of the
Speaker 3: bucks lead to different styles of hunting. You know, maybe
Speaker 3: some spots, but buck is really callable. You're gonna want
Speaker 3: to be in a location where you can see further
Speaker 3: and potentially call them in. You know, little examples like that.
Speaker 3: I think for the primary reason I don't get too
Speaker 3: crazy about permanent locations until I really learn a lot
Speaker 3: more than maybe I'll hang a stand and leave it
Speaker 3: up for the season and take it down after. So
Speaker 3: those are kind of the first steps that I guess
Speaker 3: I would think about off the top of my head.
Speaker 2: So two follow ups. First, when you do that boots
Speaker 2: on the ground part, is that like a one day
Speaker 2: thing or are you going to be making multiple trips
Speaker 2: and checking it over the course of that month leading
Speaker 2: up to the season, or would you have a cut
Speaker 2: off date like I don't want to walk any sooner
Speaker 2: than September fifteenth because it's too close to the opener
Speaker 2: anything like that.
Speaker 3: I don't know that I would have cut off date
Speaker 3: prior to the season unless I found a deer I
Speaker 3: wanted to hunt and he was there, then that's where
Speaker 3: I'm probably gonna be a lot more careful. But if there,
Speaker 3: as long as there's still more for me to learn
Speaker 3: by walking around and looking, I'm gonna keep doing it
Speaker 3: until I feel like, Okay, I've got a really good
Speaker 3: idea of how this farm sets up, how the deer
Speaker 3: use it. Now, I'll make adjustments based on what I
Speaker 3: see from the stand. That's when you know, I'll call
Speaker 3: it good. But during that time period August thirtieth October first,
Speaker 3: unless there's a deer I want to kill right away
Speaker 3: and that he's living in there, I'm not too afraid
Speaker 3: of impacting my fall based on going in and out.
Speaker 3: And you know, it's it's similar to hunting. Like you
Speaker 3: mentioned the creek going through the middle of property. I'm
Speaker 3: still going to try to be smart about access. If
Speaker 3: I can go in and check an area out with
Speaker 3: the wind in my face, I'll do it. If I
Speaker 3: can use that creek to get in initially and then
Speaker 3: pop up and check an area out, I'll do it. So,
Speaker 3: you know, I guess there's maybe a little bit of
Speaker 3: a difference there between being like super aggressive and you know,
Speaker 3: just sloppy. I want to learn so much as I can,
Speaker 3: but maybe with a few precautions taken.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I follow you. So last one on that
Speaker 2: piece hunter acre new property, how many cameras would you
Speaker 2: be putting up to try to like get an idea
Speaker 2: of what's happening there.
Speaker 3: I would say due to you know, my primary use
Speaker 3: of cameras is for inventory. I'm not always trying to
Speaker 3: figure out every hunting specific piece of information that I
Speaker 3: can from trail cameras. I also want to know that
Speaker 3: there's a good deal around. I don't need to know
Speaker 3: is every step on the property. In fact, I'd rather
Speaker 3: not know to be honest, you know, I'd rather, you know,
Speaker 3: figure it out based on other factors. But I would say,
Speaker 3: hundred acre property, you know, maybe half a dozen cameras
Speaker 3: to start out with, and that's just trying to kind
Speaker 3: of cast a net, you know, maybe six to eight
Speaker 3: cameras to cast a wider net, just to during that
Speaker 3: initial time frame. But you know, in theory, if you
Speaker 3: have them on good scrape locations, good travel locations, you're
Speaker 3: gonna get most of the dear on that property, you know,
Speaker 3: for inventory purposes on one of those six cameras.
Speaker 2: Yep. Okay, Now, let's say same scenario, except you don't
Speaker 2: get access on the thirtieth of August. You get access
Speaker 2: on opening day of both season October first. So in
Speaker 2: that case, how do you approach this differently. Are you
Speaker 2: just gonna start hunting it from the outset? Ind are
Speaker 2: you gonna blast in there and still learn it all
Speaker 2: early and then plan hunting late, like what's what's your take? Then?
Speaker 3: No, I might even be a lot more careful at
Speaker 3: that time frame, for sure. Again, I'll still try to
Speaker 3: learn as much as I can, I just won't try
Speaker 3: to cover every square end. So if I do go
Speaker 3: in on a hunt again potentially using that creek for access,
Speaker 3: depending on the exact situation and wind direction. I've done
Speaker 3: it a lot where I'll sit for a morning hunt
Speaker 3: or something and then just slowly maybe take a longer
Speaker 3: route out, just see what I can learn, see what
Speaker 3: I can see. But the reality is October first, a
Speaker 3: lot of my learning is probably going to be be
Speaker 3: coming from tree stand observations and and you know, just
Speaker 3: sits and adjusting from there. You can get You can
Speaker 3: learn a lot whether you see a targetbuck or not
Speaker 3: from a hunt. You know, againting back to the general movement,
Speaker 3: A lot of times you'll you'll see whether it's a
Speaker 3: movement an evening hunt or morning hunt. You're going to
Speaker 3: see which direction most of the deer are moving. You know,
Speaker 3: it changes a little bit once you get to the
Speaker 3: ret time frame November time frame, and the cruising becomes
Speaker 3: a little more random direction. But you know that early
Speaker 3: October timeframe, that stuff is relatively consistent and that can
Speaker 3: give you a lot of information on that property.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, let's kind of continue on with this property.
Speaker 2: Let's say and for whatever reason, you're scouting your way
Speaker 2: into a spot or something. You're moving your way through
Speaker 2: the property and you stumble on an area that screams
Speaker 2: out like big Buck bedroom to you, Like alarm bells
Speaker 2: start going off in your head and you say, holy smokes,
Speaker 2: I'm in the bedroom. M what would it take, like
Speaker 2: describe to me what would take to see for you
Speaker 2: to think that's like paint for me a picture of
Speaker 2: what that kind of place would have to be to
Speaker 2: set off those alarm bells for you. And then number two,
Speaker 2: what would you do in that situation? Because let's say
Speaker 2: it's October, sometime in October, and now you've stumbled into
Speaker 2: a big Buck bedroom. You're seeing something that makes you think,
Speaker 2: oh wow, I'm in the thing. What do you do
Speaker 2: next or how do you use that information if you're
Speaker 2: not going to do anything immediately with it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I guess the first part of the question.
Speaker 3: You know, a location that I that would come to mind,
Speaker 3: especially if the property has some topography to it, would
Speaker 3: be a higher point where a buck can see in
Speaker 3: multiple directions but is somewhat protected by thick cover. A
Speaker 3: lot of times I find those locations really close to
Speaker 3: where you know, let's say, maybe it's a spot with
Speaker 3: with a bunch of briars or some type of really
Speaker 3: thick protective cover, but it's on the edge of where
Speaker 3: it opens up, so you might have Basically that's what
Speaker 3: creates the visibility for them, is you know, they're protected,
Speaker 3: but they can see through, see you know, danger, see
Speaker 3: other deer. Whatever. Of course, a lot of big rubs
Speaker 3: would would help give that spot away. The other thing too,
Speaker 3: it just seems like a lot of mature bucks are
Speaker 3: very off on their own. So if I'm seeing a
Speaker 3: bunch of other you know, a bunch of beds together
Speaker 3: or something like that, I'm usually gonna guess that's not
Speaker 3: a spot where a mature buck is. But it's usually
Speaker 3: a spot that's not overloaded with deer sign. In general,
Speaker 3: it's going to have you know, sign specific to him,
Speaker 3: but it's not going to be uh, you know, crazy traffic,
Speaker 3: as far as just the deer herd in general. So
Speaker 3: I think those three things are the first ones I
Speaker 3: think about. It is important that location is important to
Speaker 3: me during the October timeframe, for sure. I think, you know,
Speaker 3: the month of October is usually your better opportunity to
Speaker 3: kill a local resident mature buck. Of course, they're going
Speaker 3: to be day very light active through November, but it's
Speaker 3: it's hard to figure out where they're going to be.
Speaker 3: They could be miles away. Just there's just so many
Speaker 3: random factors are out of your control. Where As if
Speaker 3: he's living there and consistent and you catch him before
Speaker 3: a bunch of dose coming to Estris, it's it's good
Speaker 3: to know exactly where he's betting and coming and going to.
Speaker 3: So yeah, that information is definitely important. How I would
Speaker 3: hunt it, I've never been big on trying to dive
Speaker 3: right into that core area. I think I think they're
Speaker 3: there for a reason, and I think that reason is
Speaker 3: it's hard to get to, you know. I'd rather just
Speaker 3: know it and hunt intercept him to where he's going.
Speaker 3: But knowing is a big piece of that puzzle, right,
Speaker 3: just not I just don't want to hunt right on it.
Speaker 3: So if I know, hey, the dough betting areas over here,
Speaker 3: as we get towards late October, he's going to be
Speaker 3: looking for that. Usually he's going to be the one
Speaker 3: that gets that first sessious know on that property, that
Speaker 3: local dough. He's going to be going and checking this
Speaker 3: more and more regular as we get to the last
Speaker 3: couple of weeks of October. That's really good to know that.
Speaker 3: Even like I was talking earlier, the destination food source
Speaker 3: is really good to know. But yeah, it's an important
Speaker 3: piece of information, but I don't typically get in the
Speaker 3: habit of hunting right on that location.
Speaker 2: Does Does it change things at all? If you saw
Speaker 2: the buck like get up out of his bed and
Speaker 2: run away. So if you actually bumped the buck out
Speaker 2: of its bad you see, he's a he's a target deer.
Speaker 2: Would that change any part of that? And would you
Speaker 2: have you know, if you were going to try to
Speaker 2: hunt that deer? Now, how would that impact the timing
Speaker 2: of when you would try to hunt him again?
Speaker 3: It wouldn't affect the timing. I'll give you example and
Speaker 3: explain why. But the first part of the question, I
Speaker 3: think it does doesn't change it. It confirms it. For me,
Speaker 3: it's like, okay, this is where he's at, and usually
Speaker 3: it's going to confirm like okay. It was hard to
Speaker 3: get into. I bumped him, you know, trying or accidentally
Speaker 3: bumped him, but kind of the same thing there. It
Speaker 3: does not. I think these deer, especially in this area,
Speaker 3: farm country, whatever, they get bumped a lot more often
Speaker 3: than we know about. I would rather bump them walking
Speaker 3: in or doing some type of activity as opposed to
Speaker 3: spooking them from the tree stand by being sloppy with
Speaker 3: wind direction or movement or something like that. I can
Speaker 3: think of an example. It's been a few years now,
Speaker 3: but I was hunting a target buck. I did not
Speaker 3: know this was a property that was pretty homogeneous, and
Speaker 3: so it didn't have like what I would call designated
Speaker 3: betting areas. There's a lot of really good betting areas,
Speaker 3: and they seem to bounce around quite a bit, even
Speaker 3: the mature buck. He's still better on his own, but
Speaker 3: it just it just seemed to be a little bit random.
Speaker 3: So anyway, I was walking in to try a new spot,
Speaker 3: tree standing on my back, you know, sticks, everything, just
Speaker 3: a hanging hunt, and I bumped him and of course
Speaker 3: you had that feeling of kind of devastation, you know, man,
Speaker 3: that was a deer I came in for. There's also
Speaker 3: a little bit of you that's like, I should just
Speaker 3: go home now, right, like what am I doing here?
Speaker 3: But instead I sat down. I mean I was definitely upset,
Speaker 3: don't get me wrong, but I sat down and just
Speaker 3: thought about where would he go? Where's he going right now?
Speaker 3: You know, where's he running to? When is he going
Speaker 3: to stop running? When is he going to settle down?
Speaker 3: And so I made the move on the entire opposite
Speaker 3: side of the property. And actually there was another tree
Speaker 3: stand already set up, so it wasn't a complete hanging hunt.
Speaker 3: But I hopped in that tree stand where I had
Speaker 3: good visibility on a really thick area that I thought
Speaker 3: he could have ran to, and sure enough he came out.
Speaker 3: He was one of that came out that evening. Didn't
Speaker 3: get a shot out. I never worked his way into
Speaker 3: bowt range. You know, probably sixty yards is probably the
Speaker 3: closest he got. But I got to watch him do
Speaker 3: his thing. He ended up getting with a dough and
Speaker 3: but that was one of the first eye opening experiences
Speaker 3: for me, Like he was completely fine. I mean it was.
Speaker 3: It would have been like if I picked the right
Speaker 3: spot and he got up out of his bed and came.
Speaker 3: I mean, he acted no different. And this was only
Speaker 3: probably an hour hour and a half after jumping out
Speaker 3: of his jumping him out of his bed. So I
Speaker 3: think we tend to think we ran run a buck
Speaker 3: into the next county, and more often than not that's
Speaker 3: not the case. I'm not saying every time you're going
Speaker 3: to have a situation like I just laid out, But
Speaker 3: the reality is, I think they forget about some of that,
Speaker 3: some of those types of spooking activities fasher than we think.
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, what a good feeling that must have been.
Speaker 2: Though when you had to you had that like low
Speaker 2: point where you bumped him, you're all bummed out, and
Speaker 2: then you made the pivot and then that like that
Speaker 2: was right, you made the right call, and there he was.
Speaker 2: I mean that must have been.
Speaker 3: At first I was like, man, I'm gonna kill this thing.
Speaker 3: There's what a crazy story. This is? Right, they jump him,
Speaker 3: and then you know it was probably I don't know,
Speaker 3: five hundred yard four hundred to five hundred yard move
Speaker 3: from where he was initially betted to where he came
Speaker 3: out that night. So he went in decent ways, But
Speaker 3: I obviously I have no way of knowing how quick
Speaker 3: he settled that, Like, you know, did he run for
Speaker 3: one hundred yards and then just me and er the
Speaker 3: rest of the way, or did he run hard for
Speaker 3: a few hundred yards? Hard to say, but you know,
Speaker 3: nonetheless it was it was a cool learning experience for me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, let's shift to one of your longtime properties.
Speaker 2: Let's say, like, I know, you bought a new farm
Speaker 2: last year. I think it was, So let's say we're
Speaker 2: there maybe, and let's say we're going into the season.
Speaker 2: You've got your target bucks that made it back. You've
Speaker 2: done all these food plots and TSI, you've done all
Speaker 2: this work. You've got stands prepped or trees prepped or
Speaker 2: ideas in place. You've done the work, you have a
Speaker 2: strategy laid out, you're just counting down the days till
Speaker 2: opening day. And then let's say a week before opening day,
Speaker 2: a few days before opening day, all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: like a mega giant starts showing up on trailt camera
Speaker 2: like a brand new buck you've never seen before, never
Speaker 2: heard of this deer before, and he's like multiple levels
Speaker 2: above anything else you have on the farm, Like he
Speaker 2: is a world class deer. He'd be your biggest ever.
Speaker 2: He's really really special, a deer that in your mind
Speaker 2: you all of a sudden say, whoa to I have
Speaker 2: to focus on him and him alone. In that scenario,
Speaker 2: what do you do now it's September twenty sixth or
Speaker 2: seventh or something like that. How do you try to
Speaker 2: close in on him or learn something fast or shift
Speaker 2: cameras or shift plans to now figure out this brand
Speaker 2: new specific buck but with zero background or history.
Speaker 3: So first of all, I hope you're speaking this into
Speaker 3: existence here with this scenario.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll cross my fingers for you.
Speaker 3: Uh No, I don't know that it would change a
Speaker 3: whole lot for me because with they're being so close
Speaker 3: to the season, I'm not going to move a ton
Speaker 3: of cameras around and being a property that I know
Speaker 3: pretty well already, I know the best camera locations, right,
Speaker 3: That's where I'm That's that's where I'm going to get
Speaker 3: most of my information. And my property is not I mean,
Speaker 3: it's it's not big enough to where you know, it's
Speaker 3: one hundred acre, so it's not big enough to where
Speaker 3: I'm going to completely change where I have cameras or
Speaker 3: I need to add a bunch of new cameras to
Speaker 3: try to get this information. You know, I already have
Speaker 3: cameras in the pinches on some of the best scrapes,
Speaker 3: et cetera. So from that standpoint, I don't think it's
Speaker 3: going to change a whole lot for for me, and
Speaker 3: I have a good idea of how the deer used
Speaker 3: the property. I think it's just going to be more
Speaker 3: or less monitoring, you know, if he stays around. I mean,
Speaker 3: normally you get some deer like that that you don't know.
Speaker 3: It could be a really small window that he's usual
Speaker 3: utilizing your property, and he could be gone back to
Speaker 3: where he came from. Uh So, I guess, having said that,
Speaker 3: maybe I'll be a little bit more aggressive early to
Speaker 3: take advantage of him being on the property. You know,
Speaker 3: sometimes you're able to take information you learn about a
Speaker 3: deer from previous years, you knowing when he shows up,
Speaker 3: knowing what he does on during certain strutches of the season,
Speaker 3: and apply it. Obviously, that's not the case here, so
Speaker 3: I think that probably would As I'm kind of thinking
Speaker 3: through it, I probably would be a lot more aggressive
Speaker 3: than I had planned to be initially on that property
Speaker 3: with some of the other target deer.
Speaker 2: All right, opening day arrives and you have a plan
Speaker 2: in place. You are walking to the tree stand that
Speaker 2: you either have prepped or the tree that you've got
Speaker 2: ready for your hanging hunt or whatever it is, and
Speaker 2: you have a strong reason for going there. You feel
Speaker 2: great about the wind, you feel great about your access.
Speaker 2: You're going there for a reason. And then you know
Speaker 2: like you're about to start walking down that trail, and
Speaker 2: then you get the ping on your phone and we're
Speaker 2: going to say it's uploads on your cell camera from
Speaker 2: the night previous. And so now all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: you're looking at all the pictures and you see the
Speaker 2: night before, this buck was somewhere totally different the night before.
Speaker 2: Do you chase that cell cam picture from the night
Speaker 2: before or do you stick with your original plan and
Speaker 2: reasons you had for that.
Speaker 3: I think initial plan two things. First, the property that
Speaker 3: I have and that we're playing this scenario out on
Speaker 3: isn't big enough to completely go relocate. But two, from
Speaker 3: the night before, they can cover so much ground in
Speaker 3: that time frame. You know in a day or half
Speaker 3: a day or whatever it is. I think in that situation,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna trust my gut. I had a plan in place.
Speaker 3: I never really like to make a lot of adjustments
Speaker 3: off cell cam photos anyways, for a variety of reasons,
Speaker 3: but especially in that scenario, I'm going with my gut.
Speaker 3: There's you know, that could have been a one off
Speaker 3: deal that he was over there. It could have and
Speaker 3: maybe I'll be wrong, I won't see him and I
Speaker 3: should have made that move. But I'll take those odds
Speaker 3: every time that my plan was solid enough to outweigh
Speaker 3: one single trail camp photo.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right. Now, instead of being a cell cam picture,
Speaker 2: let's say instead the night before the opener, you sat
Speaker 2: out somewhere and Gola. Let's say there's a hill or
Speaker 2: somewhere where you can get a good visibility of Smarus
Speaker 2: and you get eyes on this buck on the night
Speaker 2: before the opener, you see him do something, come out
Speaker 2: to one of your little food plots or something to
Speaker 2: feed in daylight. Very exciting to see, great piece of
Speaker 2: information to get the next day, though, the wind isn't
Speaker 2: going to be the same. So let's say it's gonna
Speaker 2: go from I don't know, from like a north wind
Speaker 2: on the night when you saw him to a west
Speaker 2: wind the next day. Do you push in there and
Speaker 2: hunting him with the different wind because you don't care
Speaker 2: about what the wind was as long as you can
Speaker 2: safely hunt. Or is that shifting wind direction going to
Speaker 2: make you predict him showing up somewhere different based on that.
Speaker 3: I think I'm probably going to not shy away from
Speaker 3: him doing that again, just based on the wind switch.
Speaker 3: I think he may access it differently based on the
Speaker 3: different wind direction. But I think if that's where he
Speaker 3: wants to be during that time, I mean, who knows what.
Speaker 3: Maybe it's a freshly picked cornfield or something that's I mean,
Speaker 3: those super hot for four or five days, they're gonna
Speaker 3: be there, you know. Maybe maybe they'll wait till closer
Speaker 3: and darker after dark, or maybe they'll just access it
Speaker 3: a little bit differently so they can have a quartering
Speaker 3: wind or win their face or whatever it may be.
Speaker 3: But I still think that's where If that's where he was,
Speaker 3: that's where he wants to be for a certain reason,
Speaker 3: and in that time frame, that October timeframe usually is
Speaker 3: in a random reason. You know, it's something. It's usually food,
Speaker 3: social related, or whatever. So I think I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 3: gonna take my chances if and this is a big if,
Speaker 3: if I can get in clean with whatever wind direction
Speaker 3: that is, I'm not I'm gonna consider that way higher
Speaker 3: than I am. Is he going to use it just
Speaker 3: because it's a different wind direction.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So you mentioned if you can get in clean,
Speaker 2: What if the wind's risky? What if it's a situation. Man,
Speaker 2: he was just here and conditions are still good except
Speaker 2: the wind. Now you know, maybe there's like a fifty
Speaker 2: to fifty chance. Now you're not exactly sure where he's better.
Speaker 2: If he happens to be here a little south, you're screwed.
Speaker 2: If he happens to be a little north, you're golden.
Speaker 2: Do you still swing for the fences that night? Or
Speaker 2: what do you do? Then?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a good question. I think the answer would
Speaker 3: be very obvious to me if this wasn't a deer
Speaker 3: that was completely random and maybe gone right away. If
Speaker 3: it was a really good deer, shoot your deer. But
Speaker 3: I had confidence he was going to stay and at
Speaker 3: least be around somewhat throughout the month, I would not
Speaker 3: push it that early in the season, I would I
Speaker 3: would not risk messing something up there. But the kicker
Speaker 3: to it is this, in this scenario, it's this deer
Speaker 3: that literally you have no information on and could be gone.
Speaker 3: And that may make me be a little more aggressive there.
Speaker 3: But I think I had to pick one thing, I
Speaker 3: probably wouldn't push it on a fifty to fifty on
Speaker 3: October first or second, whatever day we're talking about, I
Speaker 3: think I'll take my chances he'll be around a little
Speaker 3: bit longer for a.
Speaker 2: Safer Okay, all right, So I hate to tell you this,
Speaker 2: but we're going to erase the mega giant off the table.
Speaker 2: He's no longer part of the scenario. We're going to
Speaker 2: start a new place, new situation. I'm just gonna assume
Speaker 2: you killed that buck, all right, He's dead. He's on
Speaker 2: the wall. Let's say it is mid October. This is
Speaker 2: like a controversial time of year. People either love to
Speaker 2: say it's horrible or they love to give shit to
Speaker 2: people who say it's horrible. Right, So let's say it's
Speaker 2: October fourteenth, and there's a cold front pushing through overnight.
Speaker 2: So the next morning, the lows are going to be
Speaker 2: like twenty or thirty degrees cooler than they were yesterday,
Speaker 2: the fourteenth, and then your evening lows again are gonna
Speaker 2: be cold. Say it went from like a seventy degree
Speaker 2: day in the fourteenth and now it's going to be
Speaker 2: like in the forties, maybe forties, fifties, something like that.
Speaker 2: So we're talking like the first big big cold front
Speaker 2: of October. But it's happening, you know, October fifteenth, that morning.
Speaker 2: Let's say you don't have any daylight pictures of your
Speaker 2: shooter box yet. Let's say you have. You know, you
Speaker 2: had some target deer a year after, but they have
Speaker 2: not been daylighting yet, or at least haven't been dayletting
Speaker 2: maybe since like early October. Maybe you had a couple
Speaker 2: of things that are going early it didn't work out.
Speaker 2: Now we're in mid October with this situation, first big
Speaker 2: cold front. Are you hunting October fifteenth, that morning or
Speaker 2: that evening because of the big cold front. Are you
Speaker 2: taking a stab at one of your target bucks given
Speaker 2: that weather front, or are you still playing conservative because
Speaker 2: there's no daylight activity and you're waiting till later in
Speaker 2: the month or anything else. What would you do in
Speaker 2: that scenario, I'd.
Speaker 3: Be hunting for sure. You only have a few of
Speaker 3: those days during that October October time frame, and they're
Speaker 3: as good as they get. So you have to be
Speaker 3: in your best spots on those days. Now, you know,
Speaker 3: I have multiple permission properties in different places that I
Speaker 3: helped manage and hunt. I'm going to go to the
Speaker 3: one where I have the most likely chance. You talk
Speaker 3: about not having any bucks daylighting, I'm probably gonna go
Speaker 3: to where I at least have one close, you know,
Speaker 3: maybe showing up half hour after dark, an hour after dark.
Speaker 3: If it's too much mill of the night, I'm going
Speaker 3: to assume that I'm nowhere close to where he's living.
Speaker 3: I'm assuming he's you know, on neighboring property or something
Speaker 3: like that. But if he's close, my assumption is that
Speaker 3: he's going to be up on his feet a lot
Speaker 3: earlier on those conditions. So yeah, the short answer is absolutely,
Speaker 3: I'm hunting some of my best spots where I have
Speaker 3: a good target buck living on that day. I'm not
Speaker 3: going to miss that one or haunt somewhere else.
Speaker 2: Okay, same time of the year, middle of October and
Speaker 2: you're out there hunting, I'm gonna say it's not that condition, though,
Speaker 2: we're gonna say it kind of average temperatures for mid October,
Speaker 2: somewhere between the fifteenth and let's put it between the
Speaker 2: fourteenth and twentieth, somewhere in that window. And you're out
Speaker 2: there and you spot a mature buck and several other
Speaker 2: younger deer harassing a dough, like chasing her, the bucks
Speaker 2: like the big boy standing around her, and you're seeing
Speaker 2: like ruddy kind of stuff happening. But it's October sixteenth
Speaker 2: or seventeenth or something like that. If you were to
Speaker 2: see that on that evening hunt, how would that change
Speaker 2: your scenario or how would that change your hunting strategy
Speaker 2: if at all, for the next day or two? Or
Speaker 2: does that factor in zero because you're not worried about
Speaker 2: that behavior at this point, it would.
Speaker 3: Change it from the standpoint of, Okay, he he's got
Speaker 3: to at least know that that dough is close. You know,
Speaker 3: a lot of times what you see during that timeframe
Speaker 3: or maybe even a earlier, is the younger bucks doing it.
Speaker 3: I mean, and I never really pay attention to them,
Speaker 3: but those maturity are almost never wrong, and they just
Speaker 3: they know. So if he was there standing next to
Speaker 3: that though, and run another little bucks off. I know
Speaker 3: there's something to it, and I know that he's probably
Speaker 3: gonna follow her for however long, So it's going to
Speaker 3: change my strategy from the standpoint of yeah, I know
Speaker 3: where he's at, he's probably not going to go too far.
Speaker 3: What is she going to do? Is she going to
Speaker 3: be coming to this green food source? So she you know,
Speaker 3: that's more or less how I'm gonna hunt him is
Speaker 3: based on what she's going to do, because my guess
Speaker 3: is that he's not going to go too far from
Speaker 3: where she's at for a few days.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So so give me a little more detail in
Speaker 2: the situation. Let's let's let's zoom forward. Say we're in November,
Speaker 2: when we just know it's you know, it's on, and
Speaker 2: you do spot a buck that you're after, locked on
Speaker 2: a dough like he's doing all the things like he
Speaker 2: used to said, he's he's scaring off every other buck.
Speaker 2: He's standing over top of her in some little pocket
Speaker 2: of brush. Everywhere she goes, he goes, So you know
Speaker 2: what's happening. How do you try to kill a deer
Speaker 2: in that situation? I know some people get super aggressive
Speaker 2: in that case, and then some people actually get kind
Speaker 2: of conservative and wait for him to break off almost
Speaker 2: and start moving around more. What do you do in
Speaker 2: that scenario?
Speaker 3: And my experience, it is very very tough because a
Speaker 3: lot of times that doe won't It just doesn't seem
Speaker 3: like she does the normal things, like you know, maybe
Speaker 3: every other doe is going to still go to the
Speaker 3: food source same time, but she's going to lay up
Speaker 3: in that thick cover so she can you know, at
Speaker 3: least minimize the harassment from other deer other bucks. So
Speaker 3: that's very very tough. I think during that timeframe, I
Speaker 3: just want to be in a tree in the area
Speaker 3: because you know, you obviously want to be there when
Speaker 3: he if and when he breaks off. But if I
Speaker 3: it's so situational. I think if if I could safely
Speaker 3: hunt a nearby food source that she could potentially drag
Speaker 3: him out to, I think that's probably what I'm gonna
Speaker 3: focus on. It just becomes more about hunting her, like
Speaker 3: I said, than it is about hunting him. Uh So
Speaker 3: maybe it's I think in the evenings that's what I'm
Speaker 3: gonna do on an afternoon hunt. I don't morning hunt.
Speaker 3: Maybe I'm gonna put myself in those spots to try
Speaker 3: to catch him breaking away to go find another dough.
Speaker 3: You know, maybe it's those good pinches or funnels or
Speaker 3: down inside of bedding areas or whatever. But an evening hunt,
Speaker 3: I've just seen it too often where she will get
Speaker 3: antsy and need to go out and get some food
Speaker 3: and he'll be right in toe. You know, we've probably
Speaker 3: all seen it. So that's probably the situation I'm gonna
Speaker 3: put myself in, just based on odds thing and just
Speaker 3: based on my personal experience. That's probably how I would
Speaker 3: break it down. Is, you know, what's the food source
Speaker 3: she's probably gonna go to. How can I hunt that
Speaker 3: and hope that she just she just brings him by
Speaker 3: with her.
Speaker 2: She brings them by. Let's say you're sitting in your
Speaker 2: evening spot. She comes out to the food source. She
Speaker 2: got him in tow, but she brings him out of
Speaker 2: range from you. So they're out there in the food source.
Speaker 2: She's feeding, he's standing there. Maybe they're you know, let's
Speaker 2: say one hundred yards away. You're up in a tree,
Speaker 2: tons of thick cover. There's really thick brush underneath you
Speaker 2: that kind of goes all the way around this little
Speaker 2: food source. There's a couple of things maybe you could
Speaker 2: do in this situation. Let's say that the wind direction
Speaker 2: and speed and cover along the edge of the field
Speaker 2: is such that you hypothetically could climb out of the
Speaker 2: tree and try to stalk on him and round the
Speaker 2: edge of that thing. You could also hypothetically call try
Speaker 2: to pull him away. You could hypothetically do nothing at
Speaker 2: all and just wait. But let's say all those things
Speaker 2: are on the table, plus anything else you can think of.
Speaker 2: What would you do in that scenario? Do you get
Speaker 2: aggressive because he's right there and he's going to be there,
Speaker 2: or are you gonna play conservative?
Speaker 3: Yeah? So I'm obviously purely going to speak on my
Speaker 3: typical hunting situation, and that is that those chances come
Speaker 3: and go, you know, very fleeting, like to have a
Speaker 3: target deer out in front of you. I don't hunt
Speaker 3: enough acres and enough unpressured ground to let him do
Speaker 3: his thing without trying something, because I may not get
Speaker 3: another chance. Now if I was in a different situation
Speaker 3: where and he's probably gonna do this again in a
Speaker 3: few nights, if I don't mess it up, you know,
Speaker 3: maybe I would think differently. But that's not my situation.
Speaker 3: So my situation. I think first and foremost, I'm gonna
Speaker 3: think about calling to him, even though it's a lot
Speaker 3: lower odds, because he is with that dough, you can
Speaker 3: sometimes get them to come just a little bit. Maybe
Speaker 3: you only need him to come twenty five yards and
Speaker 3: then he's in bow range. So again situational, I don't
Speaker 3: know how far he is in this scenario. But the
Speaker 3: other thing I'm considering on the calling is can he
Speaker 3: get down wind of me to where if he does
Speaker 3: make the big circle, am I gonna? Am I screwed?
Speaker 3: Because there are certain situations where I just don't call,
Speaker 3: because you know, every mature buck is likely gonna if
Speaker 3: he's committing, he's gonna come in downwind of you, And
Speaker 3: if you don't have a shot on the down wind
Speaker 3: side or before he gets to the down wind side
Speaker 3: or whatever, you have really really really limited your chances
Speaker 3: of that scenario playing out successfully successfully. Again, you know
Speaker 3: he's not gonna he's now been educated to that stand
Speaker 3: location and you being in that tree. But if it's
Speaker 3: stick enough cover below you, he may commit just a
Speaker 3: little bit, not to completely leave that though, but just
Speaker 3: to get a better look. He may not be coming
Speaker 3: in for a full on commitment fight type of situation
Speaker 3: where he's gonna circle down wind, but if you can
Speaker 3: draw him just a little bit with curiosity, and probably
Speaker 3: what I'm gonna either try is a grunt, caller, snort wheeze,
Speaker 3: one of one of those two. You know, maybe I'd
Speaker 3: start with a really non aggressive grunt just to see
Speaker 3: if I can peak his curiosity, and I'd probably build
Speaker 3: it into a snort wheeze if that wasn't successful, and
Speaker 3: just see if I can just pull him up. Because
Speaker 3: you know that situation where you were talking about earlier,
Speaker 3: when it when it's the mid October or mid to
Speaker 3: late October, and he is kind of with that though,
Speaker 3: but you know, she's not quite in heat yet. I
Speaker 3: think he's more likely to pull off of her temporarily
Speaker 3: as as compared to you know, we're talking November eleventh
Speaker 3: or whatever, and you know he is not letting her
Speaker 3: get a few more than a few feet away, your
Speaker 3: chances are probably a lot lower than so, you know,
Speaker 3: obviously everything we talked about situational, but I think that's
Speaker 3: what what I would try in that situation. Low odds,
Speaker 3: but I'm not I'm not letting him just walk out
Speaker 3: of there at those those chances are too few and
Speaker 3: far between for me to just watch it happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, Okay, we're still in November. Let's say it's
Speaker 2: that first week in November. This is a snare that
Speaker 2: happened to a lot of us last year. First week
Speaker 2: in November. You got your vacation time in Maybe this
Speaker 2: is it. This is your big week and we've got
Speaker 2: like seventy degree temperatures the whole week. Hot, creuddy. How
Speaker 2: does your hunting strategy change at all for that time
Speaker 2: of year? How does your approach? How does your mental
Speaker 2: game change when you're stuck with hot temperatures for your
Speaker 2: big rut trip in November.
Speaker 3: I think in general, it affects us more than it
Speaker 3: does the deer, you know. I think it's it becomes
Speaker 3: mentally taxing on us because we just think that it's
Speaker 3: not the perfect conditions. It's you know, we're not going
Speaker 3: to see as many deer. They're just going to lay
Speaker 3: there until dark or whatever it is. I think that
Speaker 3: we paint a worse picture than it is. I think
Speaker 3: they're still going to do their thing, you know, if
Speaker 3: it's if it's noon on a hot day and he
Speaker 3: needs to go find a dough. He's going to go
Speaker 3: find a dough, you know. I think there's certain things
Speaker 3: you can do to up your odds, though, like be
Speaker 3: around water. I think they obviously will, you know, tend
Speaker 3: to visit water, either water holes or creeks or whatever
Speaker 3: to drink out of more frequently during those hot conditions.
Speaker 3: But you know, if that's my vacation, I'm definitely not
Speaker 3: sitting it out. And I've seen way too many big
Speaker 3: deer and I've killed big deer on hot days to
Speaker 3: think that I'm out of the game.
Speaker 2: Okay, I like that. I feel the same way. I've
Speaker 2: gone into so many hot November periods and been like
Speaker 2: just bumming out in my head about it, and then
Speaker 2: the deer prove the deer prove you wrong. Now, yeah,
Speaker 2: sometimes they prove you right too. Let's stay with that
Speaker 2: kind of mental side of things a little bit here,
Speaker 2: because I think one of the things that rained true
Speaker 2: for me a lot last year was just all the
Speaker 2: expectations we put on the RUT. I think we've all
Speaker 2: seen so many like hunting videos and we've heard so
Speaker 2: many stories about how amazing the rut is. That every
Speaker 2: year we go into it thinking it's going to be
Speaker 2: slammed dunk, It's going to be chaos the whole time.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be just like you know, we saw on
Speaker 2: Midwest White Deal, just like we saw on juries whatever.
Speaker 2: It is, right, And I think there probably are some
Speaker 2: places where it actually is like that all the time, maybe,
Speaker 2: but for most of us, for most of us, at
Speaker 2: least in my case and everything I've seen in my friends,
Speaker 2: you know, it's usually a whole lot of slower days
Speaker 2: punctuated by a few moments of that magic, you know.
Speaker 2: So let's say, though it's November seventh, which is one
Speaker 2: of those days that a lot of people point to
Speaker 2: is like maybe the best day of the entire rut
Speaker 2: in a lot of the Midwest and a lot of
Speaker 2: the country. So let's say it's right in there, and
Speaker 2: they are very high hopes for it, very high expectations.
Speaker 2: It should be amazing. Conditions are good. Let's say it's cold,
Speaker 2: it's like in the forties, the winds just like the
Speaker 2: way you want it. Maybe there's been a little bit
Speaker 2: of snow over the last couple of days early in
Speaker 2: the morning when it's a little bit cold, So it
Speaker 2: just should be on but for the last three days,
Speaker 2: you've been sitting in a primo location, like a pinch
Speaker 2: point downwind of a doe betting area kind of situation
Speaker 2: that's like you couldn't paint any better and it's dead.
Speaker 2: You've sat three days in great rot conditions and you
Speaker 2: don't understand it, but you're just not seeing the activity
Speaker 2: that you should. What do you do in that kind
Speaker 2: of situation where like you're for some reason the rut
Speaker 2: seemingly is dead it should be on. How do you
Speaker 2: address that mentally? How do you change your strategy if
Speaker 2: at all? Or do you just stick it out because
Speaker 2: you know, like eventually it'll happen.
Speaker 3: Are we talking like a big property where there's multiple
Speaker 3: locations like that, like you know what, Let's say it
Speaker 3: is a down wind side of a really good betting area.
Speaker 3: We are we talking the property is big enough to
Speaker 3: have multiple of those type of spots. Are we are
Speaker 3: we talking about, Hey, this is your best thought that
Speaker 3: based on all your scouting, all your knowledge of the property, everything,
Speaker 3: this is the best spot you have.
Speaker 2: I'd be curious to hear your answer for both. Let's
Speaker 2: say there's one situation where you have other options and
Speaker 2: then one situation that is what you just described, like
Speaker 2: this is the one spot.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think in general the situation you described is
Speaker 3: the rut. If I could sum it up, you're either
Speaker 3: in the game you're out of the game, and that
Speaker 3: can change on a dime anytime. So my short answer is,
Speaker 3: I'm not going to get discouraged and think that there's
Speaker 3: something wrong with the spot if I haven't seen anything
Speaker 3: in three days. However, that is extremely mentally challenging to
Speaker 3: keep going to that spot over and over again. And
Speaker 3: so if I had other access to other spots on
Speaker 3: that property where potentially, you know, if I'm hunting a
Speaker 3: target buck, he could be at that one or all
Speaker 3: the bucks in general, there could be a hot do
Speaker 3: over there that I have access to us just as
Speaker 3: good as a spot. I may pop over and try
Speaker 3: that if I'm able to, maybe maybe even just for
Speaker 3: a change of scenery and a confidence boost, just to
Speaker 3: get me back in the game. But I guess my
Speaker 3: short answer is that it's just I've seen it so
Speaker 3: many times where you just you can feel like you're
Speaker 3: so far out of the game, and then one morning
Speaker 3: it's just on fire and you see every buck within
Speaker 3: the neighborhood in that same spot that you just watched.
Speaker 3: You know, you saw three der in five days. It's
Speaker 3: just it's just the nature of the rut. That's why
Speaker 3: it can be so challenging. But it's also such a
Speaker 3: fun time when when it does happen, it's it kind
Speaker 3: of makes up for all the slow times. But it
Speaker 3: can be it can be slower than you know, that
Speaker 3: October low timeframe, you know that you were describing. If
Speaker 3: you're just not in the right just and a lot
Speaker 3: of it's luck. It's just the the nature of of
Speaker 3: you know, where the hot though come into play, and
Speaker 3: you know where the bucks kind of run them off to,
Speaker 3: and you know a lot of different factors like that
Speaker 3: that can be out of your control. But I guess
Speaker 3: my short answer for the question is, don't just get
Speaker 3: discouraged by the spot just because of the lack of activity.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the rut is kind of like the
Speaker 2: way my wife describes pregnancy in that you uh, you
Speaker 2: you know, my wife had had one of our babies
Speaker 2: and it was like the worst thing ever, right, so
Speaker 2: painful and so hard and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: But like a few weeks later, she completely forgot about
Speaker 2: the bad stuff and only remember the good stuff. And
Speaker 2: I think that's kind of how it is with the
Speaker 2: rut probably for us, right, we forget all those miserable
Speaker 2: long days and all we remember is like the twenty
Speaker 2: seven minutes that were incredible, And so when the next
Speaker 2: year rolls around, like, oh man, it's gonna be incredible,
Speaker 2: and we just forgot about those other fifteen days.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there you go. But it's expectations too, like you described,
Speaker 3: it's you know, when we think about November, we have
Speaker 3: a certain picture in our mind based on on what
Speaker 3: we've seen or watched or whatever. So the expectations can
Speaker 3: be a little bit skewed there. But yeah, I agree,
Speaker 3: and you can you can quickly forget about all those
Speaker 3: slow times.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So speaking of like sitting one spot for a while,
Speaker 2: I know I think this is correct, Correct me if
Speaker 2: I'm wrong. But I think last year, on November thirteenth,
Speaker 2: you killed a buck and you had sat that same
Speaker 2: stand for three days in a row.
Speaker 3: Correct.
Speaker 2: So I'm curious what is the situation that has to
Speaker 2: be in place for you to sit one place for
Speaker 2: that many days in a row. Because I know you've
Speaker 2: talked about in the past liking to bounce around a
Speaker 2: decent bit. I know a lot of people you don't
Speaker 2: like to do that for good reason. They don't want
Speaker 2: to burn out a spot. So what scenario would you like?
Speaker 2: You know, just like just just bum rush a stand
Speaker 2: over and over and over again like that.
Speaker 3: Two things access and confidence in the spot. So your
Speaker 3: access is probably the first thing that I would say.
Speaker 3: Your access has to be so good to be able
Speaker 3: to hunt a spot over and over again without decreasing
Speaker 3: the effectiveness of it or how good of a spot.
Speaker 3: It is really fast, even when you're not spooking deer.
Speaker 3: You know, just by hunting a spot, there's some residual
Speaker 3: effect to you being there, you know, whether a deer
Speaker 3: comes by later that evening or the next day or
Speaker 3: two days. I mean, there's there's definitely some residual from
Speaker 3: you coming in and out of that spot. Maybe you
Speaker 3: laid your gear on the ground before you climbed up,
Speaker 3: or whatever it is. You're having an impact on that spot.
Speaker 3: So your access up to the tree, getting in from
Speaker 3: where you're parking, all the way up to the tree
Speaker 3: and back out again. You know, I think sometimes people
Speaker 3: think about getting or or forget to think about the
Speaker 3: getting out part. They can get in clean, but they
Speaker 3: forget about the access out and where the deer going
Speaker 3: to be, you know, six hours later after you came in.
Speaker 3: So in and out has to be the number one
Speaker 3: factor for hunting a spot over and over again. Otherwise
Speaker 3: each time you hunt it, you're going to see fewer
Speaker 3: and fewer deer, and especially in mature bugs. The second
Speaker 3: thing is the confidence in that spot. So that's the
Speaker 3: example that you brought up, is I knew at some
Speaker 3: point that deer had to come by that tree based
Speaker 3: on the terrain, based on where the primary betting areas were.
Speaker 3: If he's checking these areas, eventually he's going to come
Speaker 3: by this spot, just because of the way the creek
Speaker 3: funnels and how it was pretty much in between two
Speaker 3: of the best betting areas I know about. So my
Speaker 3: confidence in that I was able to tell myself just
Speaker 3: be in the tree, just be there. Eventually it's going
Speaker 3: to play out. Keep keep going there as long as
Speaker 3: the wind directions right. And I was fortunate that had
Speaker 3: three straight days of some type of westerly wind. It
Speaker 3: did vary from southwest to northwest, but as long as
Speaker 3: the wind is right, you need to be in that
Speaker 3: tree because my confidence in that spot. So I think
Speaker 3: those are probably the two things that I would quickly
Speaker 3: point to to where I'm not going to bounce around.
Speaker 3: I have enough faith that that's that's where I need
Speaker 3: to be.
Speaker 2: You killed them one day, three what like how many
Speaker 2: more days? If you didn't kill him that day? How
Speaker 2: much more time do you think you would have given it?
Speaker 2: Assuming that the wind stayed good.
Speaker 3: I would have probably kept I probably would have kept going.
Speaker 3: I mean, maybe I would have found another spot that
Speaker 3: was a similar setup along that creek that wear it
Speaker 3: pinched down and you know, maybe he was having not
Speaker 3: seen him for four or five, six days whatever, you know,
Speaker 3: knowing that he's around, but maybe he's just not coming
Speaker 3: by this, but maybe he's beering off to where I
Speaker 3: can't see him somewhere. I'd maybe it just but but man,
Speaker 3: I had so much confidence that he was eventually going
Speaker 3: to walk by. Maybe he'd be slightly out of boat range,
Speaker 3: but so much confidence I was eventually going to see
Speaker 3: him from that tree. So I'd like to think I
Speaker 3: would have just stuck with it and just you know,
Speaker 3: just assume that maybe he was with the dough that's
Speaker 3: why I wasn't seeing him or you know something, I
Speaker 3: just knew if he was searching, he was going to
Speaker 3: come by that tree.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well it certainly worked out the way he wanted to.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's just that's one of those spots. I don't
Speaker 3: I'm not going to say every property has one, but
Speaker 3: probably probably more properties than a guy thinks has one
Speaker 3: of those spots. It's just access has to be really good.
Speaker 3: And that's that's probably the biggest challenge in most guys face,
Speaker 3: is being able to get in out clean enough that
Speaker 3: you're not affecting the quality of the hunting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, December, we're now in the late season,
Speaker 2: and let's say you still haven't filled your tag yet,
Speaker 2: and for whatever reason, you have lost access to any
Speaker 2: of your properties that have ag on them or food plots,
Speaker 2: so you're stuck hunting properties that are just timber, old fields,
Speaker 2: swamp grass, stuff like that. Basically, I'm trying to put
Speaker 2: you in a situation that you know, most people would
Speaker 2: not want, right because December is when we all want
Speaker 2: to hit. We want to hunt those standing food sources
Speaker 2: or whatever. But let's say you just don't have that,
Speaker 2: what would you try to do in that scenario to
Speaker 2: get a deer killed.
Speaker 3: So the and I've been in these situations before, you know,
Speaker 3: when it comes to the late season, and especially here
Speaker 3: in Iowa, that early December through mid December time frame
Speaker 3: is probably the most pressure the deer face all season.
Speaker 3: It's the two and a half weeks of shotgun season
Speaker 3: where everyone's out pushing them around, just NonStop pressure, and
Speaker 3: they're moving to the best cover that they had that
Speaker 3: time of year, and there's not much of it obviously
Speaker 3: being late season, but they're finding those areas where they're
Speaker 3: not disturbed and they're pretty much going to stay in
Speaker 3: those spots through the end of the season here in
Speaker 3: Iowa the end of the season of January tenth. So
Speaker 3: a deer, especially mature buck, is cover. I think I
Speaker 3: think it is probably higher priority than easy access to food.
Speaker 3: I think a deer will travel a long ways, even
Speaker 3: if it's after dark to get to that food, and
Speaker 3: they'll be back in the safety of cover before daylight.
Speaker 3: But if that cover that's a mile away or half
Speaker 3: mile away is the best cover and a lot better
Speaker 3: cover than the stuff that's acent to the feeding area,
Speaker 3: they still think they're going to be in that cover.
Speaker 3: So I'm gonna look for areas like that. You know,
Speaker 3: I don't have the food, but maybe I might have
Speaker 3: the cover. Maybe I'm gonna have some of those little
Speaker 3: pockets that that didn't get disturbed or those pockets that
Speaker 3: the deer potentially moved into during those pressure days or
Speaker 3: weeks of the of the gun season. So long distance
Speaker 3: scouting and trail cameras are probably gonna be my two
Speaker 3: best friends with regards to finding those spots and finding
Speaker 3: the deer in those spots. And then it's just, uh,
Speaker 3: it's just the challenge of figuring out how to get
Speaker 3: to them and how to catch the deer coming out
Speaker 3: of them. You know, you usually can guess where the
Speaker 3: nearest food source is even if you don't have access
Speaker 3: to it. You know, maybe you can drive right before
Speaker 3: before dark and see all the does that are out there.
Speaker 3: That's probably where he's going to be going at some point.
Speaker 3: But if you can get close enough to that thick cover,
Speaker 3: you'll have a good chance of catching him in the daylight,
Speaker 3: especially if he has a decent ways to go, He's
Speaker 3: probably gonna get up and at least start moving around
Speaker 3: somewhat early. Even if he doesn't hit the opening until
Speaker 3: after dark. So that's that's probably how I play that situation.
Speaker 3: I can't think of any specific examples to go off of,
Speaker 3: but I've certainly had that. I mean, I haven't always
Speaker 3: had access to properties where I could plant food or
Speaker 3: do anything like that, So it's it's a common scenario.
Speaker 2: Let's let's flip it a little bit and give you
Speaker 2: the food back. So let's say you now have properties
Speaker 2: with crops. But let's say that you were after Let's
Speaker 2: let's bring back our mega giant buck. Let's say he
Speaker 2: was around all year. Now you hunted him off fall,
Speaker 2: never could catch up with him, and then during gun
Speaker 2: season someone kills him finally, so he gets killed during
Speaker 2: that December gun season. And now you've devoted the last
Speaker 2: two and a half months or whatever to that deer.
Speaker 2: Now you're picking up the pieces and have to like
Speaker 2: start from square one. And let's say now you have
Speaker 2: to find a new deer to target. It's late season.
Speaker 2: Is it just kind of what you just described, but
Speaker 2: now you're glass and fields and putting cameras on fields
Speaker 2: to try to find something new or what does that
Speaker 2: specifically look like when you are now hunting you know,
Speaker 2: like you just said, very pressured deer, and you're trying
Speaker 2: to kind of refigure them out because you've been ignoring
Speaker 2: everything else as you were focused on this one deer elsewhere.
Speaker 2: What does that look like now?
Speaker 3: But I still have the food in this or I
Speaker 3: do have the food in this scenario.
Speaker 2: You do have food in this scenario.
Speaker 3: So if you do have the food, you still got
Speaker 3: to have the cover obviously, like the scenario I just
Speaker 3: laid out. The reason I end up hunting a lot
Speaker 3: of times on the food source during late season is
Speaker 3: because it gets too hard to access anything else. You know,
Speaker 3: all the foolage has gone. The deer pressured. A lot
Speaker 3: of times, they're they're kind of grouped up, and there's
Speaker 3: you have a lot of a lot of eyes and
Speaker 3: ears and noses in a small area compared to earlier
Speaker 3: in the season. Earlier in the season, I'd prefer almost
Speaker 3: to not be you know, I spent a lot of
Speaker 3: time playing food plots for myself and for other guys.
Speaker 3: I haven't killed that many deer on the food plots
Speaker 3: in my career. You know, a lot of times I
Speaker 3: think the biggest benefit, well, a couple of things I
Speaker 3: love food plotting just because it's you know, I love
Speaker 3: seeing things grow, I love the experimentation of it, all
Speaker 3: that type stuff. But the primary hunting benefit for me
Speaker 3: is just keeping the deer around and on or near
Speaker 3: the property for a longer period of time in the
Speaker 3: season as opposed to not having the food and they
Speaker 3: have to go somewhere else to find it. But I'd
Speaker 3: still always rather hunt them going to or from it
Speaker 3: if I can. But late season I tend to be
Speaker 3: on the food just because it's hard to get into
Speaker 3: those other spots. But yeah, finding the deer in that case,
Speaker 3: if I'm starting over to find the deer, I'm obviously
Speaker 3: gonna have cameras on the food source and and just
Speaker 3: watch them, you know, try to find a spot where
Speaker 3: you can see long ways. Maybe it's multiple food sources.
Speaker 3: Maybe you have a cornfield you can watch them, a
Speaker 3: bean field you can watch you know, whether it's the
Speaker 3: picked standing doesn't matter, they're all they're all good food
Speaker 3: sources at that time frame. But yeah, because of the
Speaker 3: way I hunt, I'm still gonna want to find a
Speaker 3: deer to go after and not just not just sit
Speaker 3: a random food source hoping something comes out that I
Speaker 3: want to shoot.
Speaker 2: So let's say you spot them, you spot when you're like, yeah,
Speaker 2: that's that's one. I'll I'll take a stab at. Let's
Speaker 2: say you have a decent number of other bowhunters still
Speaker 2: around this area, so you find one. You found a
Speaker 2: pocket where these deer deers still feel safe, but you know,
Speaker 2: like there's gonna be other guys in and around here still,
Speaker 2: so this isn't This might not stay a secret forever.
Speaker 2: And now we're down to those final days of the season.
Speaker 2: Let's push it later into the late season. We're down
Speaker 2: to maybe you've got like seven to ten days left
Speaker 2: of the season. You find one, you know there's a
Speaker 2: chance other guys are gonna be in and around here.
Speaker 2: I know a lot of us, at least I'm assuming
Speaker 2: you maybe not, but I'm assuming you would love there
Speaker 2: to be a big cold front or some snow or
Speaker 2: something coming in that'd like make it very likely he's
Speaker 2: gonna come out. But let's say that's not in the
Speaker 2: forecast at all and we're just not seeing that yet.
Speaker 2: Are you going to keep waiting and waiting and waiting
Speaker 2: and hope that happens before the last day of the season,
Speaker 2: or are you going to start taking a swing because
Speaker 2: you have to because the season is running out, and
Speaker 2: there's also other guys that might be poking in this
Speaker 2: weekend when that comes up too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure taking a swing. I mean, if you
Speaker 3: don't with a few days left, you're you're almost just saying, hey,
Speaker 3: I'll get him next year. And there's so much that
Speaker 3: can happen between you know, then and your next opportunity
Speaker 3: that Again, it is just I don't have that type
Speaker 3: of situation where I could just throw my hands up
Speaker 3: and throwing a towel. But I think specifically what I
Speaker 3: would do is probably try to get closer some way, somehow,
Speaker 3: whether it's even if it's having to hunt on the ground,
Speaker 3: get closer to where he is entering the food source,
Speaker 3: get closer to where he's leaving the bedding area, whatever
Speaker 3: it is. You have to get aggressive there. At least
Speaker 3: in my eyes, you have to, just because your your
Speaker 3: chances of that happening in the last few days. By
Speaker 3: sitting and not being aggressive, it just seems it would
Speaker 3: have already happened likely if if you're if it's going
Speaker 3: to you know, sitting in the same spot or watching
Speaker 3: from a distance, hoping he's eventually gonna come into Bowt range.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna get aggressive there, whether
Speaker 3: it's moving stand locations or hunting from the ground, even
Speaker 3: even potentially trying a morning hunt. You know that that'd
Speaker 3: be something that maybe guys don't think about during the
Speaker 3: late season, is it's it's evening. It's evening. But maybe
Speaker 3: you can get in super early through the back door
Speaker 3: and just be in there waiting for him, and maybe
Speaker 3: you don't beat him in, but maybe he gets up,
Speaker 3: you know, mid morning to stretch his legs and mosey
Speaker 3: around a little bit, or maybe you switch his betting
Speaker 3: locations based on a wind switch or something. So I'm
Speaker 3: gonna try to get creative on what I could do
Speaker 3: to make it happen those last few.
Speaker 2: Days you mentioned liking to hunt those evenings, you know,
Speaker 2: on the food or right around that stuff. What's your
Speaker 2: what's your approach?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 2: I know every property, every situation is going to be different,
Speaker 2: but what kinds of things work for you for exit strategies?
Speaker 2: You know, on the food late season, a lot of
Speaker 2: deer out there. Hunting on the food is really hard,
Speaker 2: especially like you know, you get crunchy snow or crunchy leaves.
Speaker 2: It's cold out. It's hard to beat the eyes, let
Speaker 2: alone the ears too. What kinds of things have you
Speaker 2: found work in that? You know? Harder about as hard
Speaker 2: as it gets, as far as the exit on food
Speaker 2: will be the late season exits unless you have you know,
Speaker 2: the car or someone driving up that kind of thing.
Speaker 2: What kind of things have you found to work?
Speaker 3: So I lost you for a few seconds just to
Speaker 3: make sure I have got you back at the end.
Speaker 3: So are you asking about how what have I seen
Speaker 3: to get out of tricky situations? Late season started getting
Speaker 3: out at night?
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you're hunting close to the food, how are
Speaker 2: you exiting safely without destroying the whole thing?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Very very tough. I'd say more often than not,
Speaker 3: if I'm in a situation, I try to not put
Speaker 3: myself in those situations. Is by you know, creating a
Speaker 3: good entry exit spot. You know, maybe I have a
Speaker 3: screen you know, covering the food source and my hunting
Speaker 3: locations that I can when I climb down I'm out
Speaker 3: of sight, or maybe it's a hill that I'm coming
Speaker 3: down the backside, or maybe my stand drops right down
Speaker 3: to a ditch. Whatever it is, but certainly that's not
Speaker 3: always a case. I have shot doze before, you know,
Speaker 3: to clear the field, just shoot a dough that's close by.
Speaker 3: A lot of times the rest of the deer don't
Speaker 3: really know what happened. I'd rather have all the deer
Speaker 3: run off because of a noise and all the other
Speaker 3: deer running then them sit there and watch me climb
Speaker 3: down from a tree or climb out of the blind.
Speaker 3: So as long as I have an easy way of
Speaker 3: getting their in and out, you know, maybe I have
Speaker 3: you know, I like using an electric four wheel UTV
Speaker 3: or equad to be pretty quiet. If I have that
Speaker 3: part clearby, I can shoot her and make a good shot.
Speaker 3: Maybe it's a close shot. I know she's not going
Speaker 3: to go far. I can get in hook onto her
Speaker 3: and get out of there quick before. A lot of
Speaker 3: times the deer will be back in that plot in
Speaker 3: half an hour, you know, they're not bothered by it.
Speaker 3: Other times I'm just forced to wait until well after
Speaker 3: dark and then just go really slow from there and
Speaker 3: just kind of take your chances. There's you know, sometimes
Speaker 3: if you just don't have good exit, you're you're you're
Speaker 3: just doing the least amount of damage kind of taking
Speaker 3: the lesser of two evils. And for me, the deer
Speaker 3: seem to relax a lot after dark. It seems like
Speaker 3: you get away, you know, either after dark or before daylight,
Speaker 3: you can get away with a lot more. And that
Speaker 3: tends to be the case. Sometimes I'll wait hour hour
Speaker 3: and a half after dark where I can't even you know,
Speaker 3: see my hand in front of my face, and then
Speaker 3: I'll just go really slow and try to try not
Speaker 3: to make noise. And you know, a lot of times
Speaker 3: I think the deer aren't bothered at all. They they
Speaker 3: may or may not be able to see you, I
Speaker 3: don't know, but they don't seem to act the same
Speaker 3: as they do in the daylight in terms of spooking.
Speaker 3: So those are probably the main things if I get
Speaker 3: stuck in a situation like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's always a doozy.
Speaker 3: I've tried the kyo kyo calls or howling with your mouth.
Speaker 3: Sometimes that works, but you're still drawing attention to where
Speaker 3: you're at. You know, even if they may you may
Speaker 3: get lucky and they think it actually is a kyo,
Speaker 3: it still is that spot you're hoping to go to
Speaker 3: tomorrow night, you know. So I don't love that one.
Speaker 3: And sometimes they just look at you and you're not
Speaker 3: close enough to scare them anyway, so they just keep feeding.
Speaker 2: And you sound so awful. They're looking up in the
Speaker 2: tree and saying, look at that idiot humans.
Speaker 3: That's the reality. Probably.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, man, Well you made it through the gauntlet.
Speaker 2: You survived. Great, great insight. There. I've got one last
Speaker 2: thing for which is like the rapid fire session, where
Speaker 2: I'm going to ask you a series of quick questions
Speaker 2: and you have to answer with a one word answer. Effectively,
Speaker 2: you can't explain yourself. You just have to give me
Speaker 2: your first quick, gut instinct answer to these and then
Speaker 2: followed by one normal question after that. So good for that.
Speaker 3: Let's do it, all right?
Speaker 2: So, would you take a fifty yard shot at a
Speaker 2: white tail with a bow? Yes?
Speaker 3: Or no? It's situational, but I'm just gonna go with no.
Speaker 2: Ok. If you could only have one of these tools
Speaker 2: for the rest of your hunts, for the rest of
Speaker 2: your life, you can only pick one of these. Which
Speaker 2: one would you pick? Would it be a grunt tube
Speaker 2: or set of rat ling antlers?
Speaker 3: Got two.
Speaker 2: Expandable or fixed blade broadheads.
Speaker 3: In situational, but I'm gonna go fix blade.
Speaker 2: Okay, should you stop a buck with some kind of
Speaker 2: sound before shooting if it's you know, walking, Yes or no.
Speaker 3: If it's walking, I'm gonna go yes.
Speaker 2: Does the moon matter for deer movement? Yes or no?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 2: All right, here's the lengthier one. Let's say that I
Speaker 2: rule the world and I have control over your hunting
Speaker 2: privileges for the rest of your life, and I am
Speaker 2: going to take away your hunting license in Iowa and
Speaker 2: any other state you could want to go to forever
Speaker 2: unless you can kill a five and a half year old,
Speaker 2: like you know, a shooter buck, the buck that you
Speaker 2: would shoot in Iowa, whatever that might be, a big
Speaker 2: giant deer that you would shoot. You have to kill
Speaker 2: a deer of that caliber this year. If you don't
Speaker 2: kill that deer this year, you lose your privileges forever.
Speaker 2: If you do kill that deer, you get to keep
Speaker 2: on hunting forever. Here's the thing, though, I'm only going
Speaker 2: to give you one day to kill that buck. You
Speaker 2: get one day, and you get to pick one stand location.
Speaker 2: So tell me what date on the calendar you would
Speaker 2: pick for this day, and then describe for me. This
Speaker 2: can either be an actual tree stand location or place
Speaker 2: you've actually hunted, or this can be like a hypothetical,
Speaker 2: make believe perfect situation that you'd want for that date.
Speaker 2: So tell me the date you're going to pick, and
Speaker 2: paint me a picture of what that best possible stand
Speaker 2: site could be to get this buck killed in this
Speaker 2: very very high pressure situation.
Speaker 3: That's a tough one. One quick clarifying question, is this
Speaker 3: any shooter buck or is this a specific shooter buck.
Speaker 2: I'll let it be. We'll let it be any shooter buck,
Speaker 2: but I am curious if you had to pick a
Speaker 2: specific shooter buck how that would change this, because that's
Speaker 2: interesting to me too.
Speaker 3: It may not change it a ton. And I'll give
Speaker 3: you two kind of answers on this one. Probably the
Speaker 3: one i'm gonna pick for this question because I don't
Speaker 3: want you taking away the hunting rights forever. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: pick probably the less fun scenario, but the more effective scenario.
Speaker 3: It's probably going to be that late season hunt on food.
Speaker 3: You know, let's say January fifth, snow, cold weather, the
Speaker 3: deer just have to feed, They have to feed, they
Speaker 3: have to feed early. It's hot pressure. You know everything
Speaker 3: we talk about. I think your odds are so high
Speaker 3: that every deer's going to be in that food source
Speaker 3: in daylight. Every deer that's living near that food source
Speaker 3: is going to be there. It's not what I would
Speaker 3: pick if I was, you know, just wanting the most fun,
Speaker 3: most exciting hunt, if I'm going that direction, and I
Speaker 3: want to, but it's still any buck, Like I still
Speaker 3: just need to kill any five and a half year
Speaker 3: old deer. I'm gonna pick let's say November I go
Speaker 3: a little bit later. I'll go like November sixteenth, you know,
Speaker 3: kind of on the back side of that where the
Speaker 3: deer really starting to search for those last few days,
Speaker 3: or maybe even November eighteenth, a little bit later. But
Speaker 3: I'm gonna, you know, pick a really good pinch that's
Speaker 3: obviously gonna give me a good chance at a bow
Speaker 3: range shot that's close to dough betting areas and areas
Speaker 3: that those deer are going to keep seeking. I think
Speaker 3: that's a lot more fun hunt, but still high odds,
Speaker 3: just not quite high odds, high enough odds compared to
Speaker 3: the late season need to feed type of hunt. As
Speaker 3: far as the individual buck versus any mature buck yeah,
Speaker 3: any immature I'm not going to take. If I'm trying
Speaker 3: to kill an individual book, I'm not going to pick
Speaker 3: that November day. I'm for sure going to go late season,
Speaker 3: or potentially my next option might be late October, perfect conditions,
Speaker 3: cold front, of high pressure, all that type of stuff
Speaker 3: for that individual, that one specific target book.
Speaker 2: So for that January fifth hunt, you said, you know,
Speaker 2: by food, cold, snowy day, what would like that perfect
Speaker 2: standsite be though? You know, how how would you like
Speaker 2: that's that's both season for you guys too, right, So
Speaker 2: how would you set up perfectly? You know, a lot
Speaker 2: a lot of big late season food sources can be
Speaker 2: hard with a bow because they're big, a big beanfield
Speaker 2: or something. Right, how'd you get it done from that scenario?
Speaker 3: That goes way back to your initial design stages on
Speaker 3: the on the food line, how it sets up. You
Speaker 3: know a lot of times if you're if you're in
Speaker 3: a bigger field that is obviously too big to just boha,
Speaker 3: you can't cover the whole thing. Most likely still the
Speaker 3: deer gonna enter and exit, or let's just say enter,
Speaker 3: because that's normally what you're you're playing off of. They're
Speaker 3: still going to enter in specific spots. Maybe it's one area,
Speaker 3: maybe it's two areas, whatever, it's not like they're coming
Speaker 3: from three hundred and sixty degrees around that. So in
Speaker 3: that case, you know, a lot of times I'll try
Speaker 3: to maybe set up the plot to where it's narrow
Speaker 3: and then expands out, because you can't just have one
Speaker 3: super long, narrow plot that's going to provide enough food
Speaker 3: to last to January fifth, but you need something that's
Speaker 3: gonna keep on by that so that you know. Different
Speaker 3: things that I've done or tried or have helped other
Speaker 3: people set up would be that situation where it's narrow
Speaker 3: at first and you're almost letting the deer work by you,
Speaker 3: and then you know out into the bigger part and
Speaker 3: that allows you to normally sneak out back that other
Speaker 3: way too. That's one. Or you could have either an
Speaker 3: L shape where you're on the corner of the L.
Speaker 3: A lot of times deer will you know to see
Speaker 3: what other deer in the plot or whatever they're eventually
Speaker 3: going to come by that middle point, or you can
Speaker 3: you know, hour glasst to where it pinches them down
Speaker 3: in the middle. Different things like that. Other scenarios if
Speaker 3: you're not lucky enough to design the shape of it,
Speaker 3: would be you know, scrape posts out within bow range.
Speaker 3: Even late in the season like that, there's still good
Speaker 3: chances deer at least gonna just come check it out
Speaker 3: out of curiosity. Just says more of a scent check
Speaker 3: or whatever. Other thing you could do is maybe overseed.
Speaker 3: Let's say it it is a grain field. You could
Speaker 3: potentially overseed some some greens, whether it be cereal grains
Speaker 3: or brascas or something into a spot that is in
Speaker 3: bow range. So you have this big field, but you know,
Speaker 3: deer are naturally browsers, so a lot of times they'll
Speaker 3: they'll feed the grain, they'll come get a bite of green.
Speaker 3: You know, they'll kind of go back and forth, but
Speaker 3: put something there. Another one would be you have a big,
Speaker 3: let's say, swebean field, and you go in in August
Speaker 3: and you till up you know, strips, Maybe there's spokes
Speaker 3: of a wheel that all come back and meet to
Speaker 3: where you're hunting. Location is whether it's a blind or
Speaker 3: a tree stand. Eventually they're going to hit those and
Speaker 3: kind of use those as travel paths. So a lot
Speaker 3: a lot of different things you can do it's just
Speaker 3: it's pretty situational, and I'd probably look at a spot
Speaker 3: each time and you know, try to decide what's best
Speaker 3: for that particular spot. But a lot of things you
Speaker 3: can do to try to get a deer to eventually
Speaker 3: be within bow range at some point in that evening
Speaker 3: to work past your stand or blind.
Speaker 2: I like your plan. I think you get it done.
Speaker 2: It's it's a nightmare scenario kind of. But also like
Speaker 2: when I listen to people's answers, especially like yours, when
Speaker 2: you when you're talking through all the different things you
Speaker 2: could do, would in a weird way, it would be
Speaker 2: a pretty fun challenge just to take, you know, to
Speaker 2: have like hundreds of days of work to try to
Speaker 2: fine tune down to just one day to execute. It
Speaker 2: would be an interesting challenge to try to pull off.
Speaker 3: I think you should do.
Speaker 2: Stacking every little thing. I guess I should should taste
Speaker 2: the poison I've been sending out that I would.
Speaker 3: I would watch that series. It would be fun, especially
Speaker 3: like it'd be cool if you gave like some type
Speaker 3: of deadline to a guy to where he had to
Speaker 3: pick either the property or the deer he had to
Speaker 3: kill on that day and and see how it changes,
Speaker 3: like how much additional scouting he does, how many more
Speaker 3: observation sits he does like leading up to that date?
Speaker 3: That would be pretty cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah would Yeah, that is is a really good idea.
Speaker 3: I'm not volunteering, you just wouldn't want.
Speaker 2: To sacrifice all those days hunting or Another thing I
Speaker 2: thought about too, would be like what if you restricted
Speaker 2: people to like, hey, you could only hunt October and
Speaker 2: you have to get it all done October, or you
Speaker 2: could only hunt November and you can't. So how would
Speaker 2: that change your strategy and your scouting and all your plans,
Speaker 2: Like if you were pushed into different parts of the
Speaker 2: season too.
Speaker 3: I would love to see it because I think, and
Speaker 3: I'm not saying people are lying, but I think the
Speaker 3: way we talk about it, it would be interesting to
Speaker 3: see if you actually had to do it, if that
Speaker 3: backed up what you thought in your head you would do,
Speaker 3: because I bet more often that it'd be different. I
Speaker 3: think it's easier to talk about than you are forced
Speaker 3: to do it. You may do things completely differently.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, can you imagine, like if you had
Speaker 2: no November to be kind of using as a crutch,
Speaker 2: you know, knowing that November's coming and you just had October.
Speaker 2: I mean, you'd be taking some big swings. You'd be ye,
Speaker 2: be really interesting, And.
Speaker 3: There are certain situations where that may be more effective
Speaker 3: for a guy. You know, it would not be fun
Speaker 3: in a situation you have multiple tags, you still can't November.
Speaker 3: But for guys that have one tag, you know, very
Speaker 3: limited spots to hunt, you know, maybe you would serve
Speaker 3: them better to be more aggressive early on. Yeah, it
Speaker 3: could be a better situation. So that'd be pretty cool.
Speaker 2: It would be interesting. Well, Jared, this is a This
Speaker 2: has been fun. I enjoyed it, really really good insight
Speaker 2: you shared there, and it's got me even more jacked
Speaker 2: up than I was beforehand, which is hard to believe
Speaker 2: because I'm pretty amped. Yeah. Man, you had a hell
Speaker 2: of a season last year. You killed like one hundred
Speaker 2: and ninety four inch buck, I think a one seventy,
Speaker 2: which is like a dream deer for me, like matching
Speaker 2: flyers off the twos. I think it was at the
Speaker 2: threes something like that. Then another big old late season Buck.
Speaker 2: Do you feel like you can match it this year?
Speaker 2: Do you feel like, uh no, you can't match it?
Speaker 2: Do you have do you feel like across your new farm,
Speaker 2: I mean that it's not new anymore, but across your
Speaker 2: home farm or your other permissions and things like that,
Speaker 2: you feel optimistic about what's coming up or where do
Speaker 2: things stand.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I am, I'm super excited. Like a lot of times,
Speaker 3: it gets back to what we were talking about at
Speaker 3: the beginning, you know, just just there were times where
Speaker 3: this time of year I was still so stressed about
Speaker 3: what had to be done and what. Now I'm a
Speaker 3: little bit past that to where I'm very excited just
Speaker 3: to get out and then getting a tree stand again
Speaker 3: and enjoy it. I think there's there's certainly potential, there's
Speaker 3: good prospects around. But regardless, I'm I'm just super excited
Speaker 3: to be back in a tree and hunting and chasing
Speaker 3: some of these deer. And yeah, things are looking good.
Speaker 3: It seems like it's this Most of my properties aren't
Speaker 3: great summer properties, so I don't have a ton of
Speaker 3: really good ones on camera yet, but they're slowly but
Speaker 3: surely starting to show up. These next thirty days for
Speaker 3: me are always really good as far as deer popping
Speaker 3: back in for the first time. They start to make
Speaker 3: a few excursions here and there before moving back in
Speaker 3: full time, you know, later in September early October. But
Speaker 3: this is the time frame where I get to see
Speaker 3: him for the first time. They may pop in and
Speaker 3: you know, maybe it's just for a night, but at
Speaker 3: least get to see what they look like this year.
Speaker 2: Cool. Well that's exciting. Yeah, Well, where can people follow
Speaker 2: along with all this, Jared? Where can they see the
Speaker 2: past videos and any other new things you've got coming
Speaker 2: up this fall?
Speaker 3: Yeah, the primary spot is just the YouTube channel, just
Speaker 3: the Jared Mills YouTube channel. I'm gonna start really ramping
Speaker 3: up the content here over the next few weeks as
Speaker 3: I start to prepare for the season, and then of
Speaker 3: course the hunts will be on there. You can follow
Speaker 3: along on social media. I'm not super active on their
Speaker 3: YouTube is probably the best best place, but yeah, I mean,
Speaker 3: I love interacting with guys. I love helping. I love
Speaker 3: hearing about different scenarios, hearing about good stories, all that
Speaker 3: type of stuff. So you know, anybody's more than welcome
Speaker 3: to reach out at any time. I'm not the greatest
Speaker 3: timely responses, but eventually we'll get back and I enjoy
Speaker 3: talking with everybody.
Speaker 2: So wait, none of us are good at that last thing,
Speaker 2: so you're not alone. That's hard to do. Yeah, well,
Speaker 2: I'm excited to see what happens. I'll be crossing my
Speaker 2: fingers and toes for it. Jared, best of luck and
Speaker 2: thanks for doing us awesome.
Speaker 3: Thanks for the in by. Best of luck to you
Speaker 3: and everybody out there.
Speaker 2: All right, and that is a wrap. Thanks for tuning in.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it. If you're down in Missouri and if
Speaker 2: you're listening to this right when it comes out, I
Speaker 2: hope to see you Saturday, August twelfth for our working
Speaker 2: for wildlife to revent and if not, happy scouting, shooting, prepping,
Speaker 2: whatever it is you're doing right now, living into the season.
Speaker 2: Hope it's going well. Hope you're having fun. Until next time,
Speaker 2: stay wired to Hunt.