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, we're chatting with Toddgraf of bowhunting dot Com
Speaker 2: about the habits, personality, traits and behaviors of the biggest
Speaker 2: oldest bucks he's ever hunted. All right, welcome back to
Speaker 2: the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by First
Speaker 2: Light and their Camo for Conservation initiative, in which every
Speaker 2: purchase of their white tail Camo products, if you pick
Speaker 2: up their Solitude jacket or the Origin hoodie or anything
Speaker 2: like that in the specter cameo pattern, which is the
Speaker 2: whitetail pattern, a portion of that purchase goes back to
Speaker 2: and is donated to the National Deer Association to help
Speaker 2: them towards their mission of working towards deer and deer hunters.
Speaker 2: Good stuff, right there. So today on the show, we
Speaker 2: are kicking off a brand new series this month of September,
Speaker 2: as deer hunting seasons are kicking off all over the country.
Speaker 2: We're going to talk to a handful of some of
Speaker 2: the best deer hunters across the country about the biggest
Speaker 2: oldest bucks they've ever hunted. We're diving into the minds,
Speaker 2: the personalities, the tendencies, the vulnerabilities of really old bucks.
Speaker 2: Now here's the thing about old bucks. They are really cool.
Speaker 2: But I want to point out the fact that you
Speaker 2: don't need to chase big old bucks. So don't think
Speaker 2: when you're here in this episode, in the next couple
Speaker 2: that by any means you should feel obligated to chase
Speaker 2: the deer like this. If you are into shooting the
Speaker 2: first dear, you see more power to you. You are
Speaker 2: a newer hunter and you are just figuring this stuff out.
Speaker 2: Please do not think that you need to chase a
Speaker 2: five or six year old buck. It is hard just
Speaker 2: to kill a dough. It is hard just to kill
Speaker 2: a year and a half old deer. Figure it out easier,
Speaker 2: way into it. Enjoy every step of the process. Don't
Speaker 2: feel any pressure to chase after one of these deer
Speaker 2: or to do something like you're hearing about here today.
Speaker 2: That said, if you are in a place where you
Speaker 2: are interested in mature deer. These shows are definitely for you,
Speaker 2: and you can learn a lot even if you're not
Speaker 2: chasing deer like this. There's a lot to be learned here.
Speaker 2: But if you appreciate a big, old stinky buck the
Speaker 2: way that I do, there's nothing wrong with that either.
Speaker 2: There is something special about a buck, a white tail buck,
Speaker 2: when they get to that age of you know, five
Speaker 2: or six or seven or older than that, in some places,
Speaker 2: they just become a different creature. They move different, they
Speaker 2: think different, They act in a way that causes all
Speaker 2: the other deer around them to act differently. And when
Speaker 2: you're gonna hunt them, you have to realize that. You
Speaker 2: have to realize that this is a different ballgame. When
Speaker 2: you're trying to chase those oldest of the deer that
Speaker 2: top five percent of the age bracket in your neck
Speaker 2: of the woods, those deer operate on a different plane.
Speaker 2: And so this month we're gonna try to dig into
Speaker 2: I'm trying to get behind the scenes, try to lift
Speaker 2: up the covers on what those old bucks lives are like.
Speaker 2: And to do that today, we're kicking it off with
Speaker 2: mister Todd grafft Todd's one of the founders of bowhunting
Speaker 2: dot Com, one of the co hosts of Bowhunt or Die,
Speaker 2: a terrific YouTube series, and a diehard, longtime, super serious
Speaker 2: whitetail bowhunter from Illinois. Spent a lot of time there
Speaker 2: in his home state, done a lot of hunting in
Speaker 2: Wisconsin and around that neck of the woods. He's killed
Speaker 2: a lot of big, old deer. He's chased a whole
Speaker 2: bunch of these old, gnarly grizzled mature bucks, the ones
Speaker 2: that I know a lot of us lose a lot
Speaker 2: of sleepover. So Todd's got a lot of experience to
Speaker 2: bring to the table. He's got some strong perspectives, some
Speaker 2: interesting ideas, and some great stories. So that is what
Speaker 2: we get into here today, and then over the next
Speaker 2: four weeks we'll have a whole bunch more of that
Speaker 2: from some other folks too. So before we get into
Speaker 2: that conversation with Todd, though, I do want to give
Speaker 2: you a couple quick updates. Number one, One Week in
Speaker 2: November Season two is now live on the meat Eater
Speaker 2: YouTube channel. Hopefully you all caught one Week in November
Speaker 2: season one. That was the show that I co hosted
Speaker 2: over there. It came out in two thousand and twenty one.
Speaker 2: I think it was. Maybe it was twenty one or
Speaker 2: twenty I can't keep track. It's all kind of blur.
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure it's twenty one. But the idea of
Speaker 2: the show is that it follows myself and four other
Speaker 2: folks from the med Eater Whitetail team as we all
Speaker 2: hunt across the country in different places on the same
Speaker 2: seven days during one week in November, and each episode
Speaker 2: follows one day. So episode one follows our experiences on
Speaker 2: November first, Episode two shows our day on November two,
Speaker 2: and so on, and so you get to foul along
Speaker 2: with the white Tail Rut across wildly different places with
Speaker 2: different people hunting in different ways. So it's very interesting
Speaker 2: kind of getting that thirty thousand foot perspective of what
Speaker 2: the rut looks like across the country during that week.
Speaker 2: And it's a lot of fun too, you know, including myself.
Speaker 2: There's also Tony Peterson, Spencer Newharth, Clay Newcomb, and Giannis
Speaker 2: Ptellus joined us this year too, so we have a
Speaker 2: lot of fun. We talks and smack and we shoot
Speaker 2: some deer and episodes one and two are out now
Speaker 2: and there is a very exciting hunt from yours truly
Speaker 2: on there. That starts in episode one. It ends in
Speaker 2: episode two, so highly recommend you check that out. If
Speaker 2: you heard my story last year during the fall about
Speaker 2: the Nebraska hunt, that's what you can watch now, So
Speaker 2: head on over to the Meat Eater YouTube channel to
Speaker 2: check that out. Hope you enjoy that. Update number two
Speaker 2: rut Fresh Radio is kicking off this week, so hopefully
Speaker 2: you already heard the first episode, which came out I
Speaker 2: believe yesterday. But every Wednesday during the hunting season, we
Speaker 2: have a mini series that comes out called rut Fresh Radio.
Speaker 2: If you're not familiar, hopefully you are. It's been going
Speaker 2: on for seven or eight years. But if you're new,
Speaker 2: what this show is is, it's a short, maybe thirty
Speaker 2: ish minute episode every Wednesday in which we hear from
Speaker 2: four or five different hunters across the country in different
Speaker 2: places every week, and we're asking them, what's the activity
Speaker 2: been like from a deer hunting perspective, What have you
Speaker 2: been seeing, What are the deer doing, what are they
Speaker 2: keying in on, How are they, you know, relating to
Speaker 2: certain things, how are they adjusting to weather conditions or
Speaker 2: the moon phase? Or temperature or whatever might be going
Speaker 2: on that week in the woods. We are asking them
Speaker 2: to report back to us and then also predict, you know,
Speaker 2: what should we expect over the next seven days. So
Speaker 2: each week you're gonna get updates from different really good
Speaker 2: deer hunters across the country to hearing about you know,
Speaker 2: exactly what they're doing now and what you should be
Speaker 2: thinking about in the coming days. It's it's a super
Speaker 2: helpful resource I've found, at least for myself and hopefully
Speaker 2: you do too. So that kicks off this week and
Speaker 2: then every week for the rest of the hunting season
Speaker 2: on Wednesday, so be sure to keep an eye out
Speaker 2: for that as well. Last update here for you, I've
Speaker 2: got another one of my Working for Wildlife tour events
Speaker 2: coming up here at the end of September. If you
Speaker 2: are down in the South, this is the event for you,
Speaker 2: September twenty third. We're going to be in Mississippi in
Speaker 2: the DeSoto National Forest. This is kind of I was
Speaker 2: looking as kind of equidistant between Lake New Orleans and
Speaker 2: I think Mobile, Alabama, Mobile Mobile Mobile. I don't know
Speaker 2: how you guys say it down there, but it's that
Speaker 2: city down in Alabama. That's where we're going to be at.
Speaker 2: I want to see you, I want to shake your hand,
Speaker 2: I want to take some pictures, we want to tell
Speaker 2: some stories, and I want to do some good work
Speaker 2: on the landscape for deer and turkeys and other c
Speaker 2: We're going to be improving some wildlife habitat, a whole
Speaker 2: bunch of different things we're gonna be doing down on
Speaker 2: that National Forest to make it better for critters, to
Speaker 2: make it better for hunters, and then we're gonna have
Speaker 2: a good time afterwards, catching up, having a little social event,
Speaker 2: and just enjoying ourselves here at the beginning of hunting season.
Speaker 2: So please, if you've got a little extra time in
Speaker 2: the middle of your day on September twenty third, would
Speaker 2: love to meet you and spend some time. And I
Speaker 2: really do believe that it's a little bit of donation
Speaker 2: of your time there to volunteer to do some stuff
Speaker 2: there on the land, but it's going to payback dividends.
Speaker 2: I've done four of these now this year, and every
Speaker 2: single one of them, I've had a blast, felt really
Speaker 2: good coming out of it, made new friends, and I
Speaker 2: just left me energize moving on from there. So I
Speaker 2: think that will be a good thing for all of
Speaker 2: us as we kick off the hunting season here. So
Speaker 2: September twenty third in Mississippi, heading over to oh Google
Speaker 2: Google the Working for Wildlife Tour to find the website
Speaker 2: that will give you all the details for that. That's
Speaker 2: probably your best bet and you can register at that website,
Speaker 2: so please do that September twenty third. Hope to see
Speaker 2: you there. And now with all that out of the way,
Speaker 2: let's get to our main event today, my conversation with
Speaker 2: Todd Graf and digging into the nitty gritty of the
Speaker 2: biggest oldest bucks he has ever hunted. I hope you
Speaker 2: guys enjoyed it all right here with me Now on
Speaker 2: the line, we've got Todd Graf. Welcome to the show. Todd, Hey, Mark,
Speaker 2: as always, thanks for having me. For sure, man, I'm
Speaker 2: glad we're doing this. We've been in touch over the
Speaker 2: years for a long time, and I'm pretty sure you
Speaker 2: contributed on one of our Rough Fresh radio episodes at
Speaker 2: some point along the way, but I don't think we've
Speaker 2: done a main show, so this has been a long
Speaker 2: time coming and I appreciate you making time to do this.
Speaker 3: Mark I'm gonna be honest with you. I just I'm
Speaker 3: looking at you, I'm talking it. I just, I mean,
Speaker 3: I remember the first time we met, literally when you
Speaker 3: were working for Google, and I mean, what are we
Speaker 3: talking about? Is that? Seriously ten years right now? How
Speaker 3: many years was that? Now?
Speaker 2: It's it's pushing closer to like thirteen, fourteen years. I know,
Speaker 2: it's we're getting old.
Speaker 3: I was trying to keep it less than more, but
Speaker 3: holy cow, it is time fly for sure.
Speaker 2: It's nuts. But somehow we're still here, still doing this,
Speaker 2: having a good time, so that that's got to count
Speaker 2: for something, right.
Speaker 3: Hey, we both got smiles on our face. We know
Speaker 3: we are weeks. Well, I'm actually five days a week.
Speaker 3: So I'll be hunting in New Mexico here on some
Speaker 3: private land for ELK in about four or five days
Speaker 3: from now. So I'm pretty excited. Yeah, so we know
Speaker 3: the best time of the year is right here, so.
Speaker 2: Coming, It's so true. So opening day in Illinois is
Speaker 2: October first, Right, How are you feeling leading into the
Speaker 2: Homestaate opener?
Speaker 3: You know, I'm feeling pretty good. You know how we
Speaker 3: are as white tail guys. I mean it's almost like
Speaker 3: I'm talking to you, you start feeling like you have anxiety.
Speaker 3: You know, you're starting to think like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 3: I didn't go to that stand or I didn't do this.
Speaker 3: But you know, Justin and I were even talking the
Speaker 3: other day, and you know what, sometimes some of the
Speaker 3: best hunts and some of the best year you shoot
Speaker 3: sometimes are come from the stands that you haven't completely
Speaker 3: prepped and you haven't done all the workload on. Sometimes
Speaker 3: some of the best hunts are those ones where you
Speaker 3: are either a traveling between those normal stands that you
Speaker 3: hunt and something catches your eye and it draws you
Speaker 3: in and then before you know it, you're hanging a
Speaker 3: stand or jumping in the saddle. And sometimes some of
Speaker 3: those hunts are some of the best ones, right, and
Speaker 3: not always those ones that you have completely prepped and
Speaker 3: have gotten ready to answer your question, I got a
Speaker 3: couple of good ones, and I'm I'm feeling good, feeling
Speaker 3: good good. Now.
Speaker 2: I know last year, kreit Ho, I'm wrong, but I
Speaker 2: think last year your big big goal for the twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two season was to kill a buck on your
Speaker 2: new farm. Didn't happen the year before, So twenty twenty
Speaker 2: two is all about getting one of these big deer
Speaker 2: out there. Do you have a specific goal like that
Speaker 2: or something different for this season out there or any
Speaker 2: of your properties.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you are, first of all, you are correct. I
Speaker 3: mean the first year that I bought my farm, I
Speaker 3: was not able to successfully get the buck, my target
Speaker 3: buck that I was after, the buck that I would
Speaker 3: have liked it, I think died from e HD. Unfortunately,
Speaker 3: we the neighbor, found that the buck that I wanted
Speaker 3: it was a named kickstand. I was able to successfully
Speaker 3: get that deer in year two over some property improvements
Speaker 3: that I made on the property. So anytime you can
Speaker 3: make improvements to a property your own and then you know,
Speaker 3: be rewarded for the you rewarded for the efforts that
Speaker 3: you put in is always always makes you feel good
Speaker 3: for sure. You know, that was a woodland pond that
Speaker 3: I put in kind of a nice high up on
Speaker 3: top of a ridge that really worked out well. As
Speaker 3: far as this year spot. It is a great spot.
Speaker 3: And I actually went there about two days ago and
Speaker 3: set a set a camera and we were driving in
Speaker 3: there and our new guy Paul that's working for us,
Speaker 3: we were driving and he's you know, he reminds me
Speaker 3: of me when I was, you know, twenty two or
Speaker 3: twenty three years old. And he's super excitable, right, you know,
Speaker 3: and he's like, whoa, dude, there's a buck over there.
Speaker 3: You know. I'm like, I'm like, Paul, dude, don't be yelling.
Speaker 3: Just take take it down a notch man. We just
Speaker 3: we want to act cool. We want to act like
Speaker 3: we're just we want to act like we're that farmer
Speaker 3: that's just just driving along. Man. He's almost jumping out
Speaker 3: of the ranger. I'm like, whoa, take it easy, but
Speaker 3: we want to get in it out of here stealth
Speaker 3: mode wise. But honestly, this particular year, you know, anything
Speaker 3: can show up. We don't to spend a bunch of
Speaker 3: time in this, but I just I don't have a
Speaker 3: target buck on that property. This year that I've seen
Speaker 3: that I'm excited about, I really have done. I've been
Speaker 3: working a little mini series, you know, and we've been
Speaker 3: doing a lot of work on the property. Might've just
Speaker 3: done some big, big projects that are honestly bigger than
Speaker 3: what I'm used to doing. So some of these things,
Speaker 3: you know, this big you know equip program I did,
Speaker 3: It was like one hundred and ten loads or something
Speaker 3: of rock they brought in to fix erosion, and so
Speaker 3: many of the projects that I'm doing, Honestly, they're not
Speaker 3: everybody always wants to do things necessarily for dear, dear, dear,
Speaker 3: dear dear. This is more about everything, habits, rabbits, habitat, rabbits,
Speaker 3: just everything. I just want everything, honestly, you know. So
Speaker 3: it's more of a whole. Once I do what I'm
Speaker 3: doing with this property, all the critters will ultimately want
Speaker 3: to be on it at some point.
Speaker 2: So I think that's awesome.
Speaker 3: It's fun, it's fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, so there's not a super I don't want
Speaker 2: to say super exciting, but but there's not one yet
Speaker 2: that has your attention. The theme for this month of
Speaker 2: September here on the podcast, Todd is going to be
Speaker 2: kind of exploring the hard to understand behind the curtain
Speaker 2: mysterious world of those biggest oldest mature bucks, right, those
Speaker 2: ones that fascinate us, those ones that keep us up
Speaker 2: at night. That's what we're going to try to kind
Speaker 2: of dial in on this month.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I've watched many many of your hunts over the years, Todd.
Speaker 2: I've seen you chase big really old bucks, you know
Speaker 2: for years now. I actually, just just for old time's sake,
Speaker 2: I went back and watched the video of that one
Speaker 2: hundred and ninety two inch buck you killed back I
Speaker 2: don't know, ten plus years ago. Man, he was something.
Speaker 2: But I'm curious what is it about a super mature
Speaker 2: buck or mature bucks in general? But what is it
Speaker 2: about that kind of deer that gets you so excited
Speaker 2: and make who's so fascinated? Why is this something that
Speaker 2: you you know, pursue to this degree and obsess over
Speaker 2: to the degree that you do. You know, all deer cool,
Speaker 2: but there's something about that really old buck. What's that
Speaker 2: for you?
Speaker 3: That's a great question. I mean, that's that's a million
Speaker 3: dollar question, right. It's the thing that just keeps is
Speaker 3: coming back year after year. And I think that it's
Speaker 3: funny because that is something that I think about. Right,
Speaker 3: There's other sports and there's other things that we do
Speaker 3: in our lives that kind of come and go, right,
Speaker 3: like they kind of like come in your life and
Speaker 3: then you're kind of like all hell bent about it.
Speaker 3: You want to go get I don't know, I don't golf,
Speaker 3: but whatever, you go out and buy a new golf clubs.
Speaker 3: You're all excited or maybe it's yeah, you know, who
Speaker 3: knows what. Right, there's all these different things that's kind
Speaker 3: of come in and come out. But man, when it
Speaker 3: comes the white tail hunting deer, I mean, man, I'm
Speaker 3: as ate up with it at fifty one years old
Speaker 3: as I was when I was saying, I mean, I
Speaker 3: just love it, right, I mean, and I think truthfully
Speaker 3: what it is. It's it's I'm actually getting like the
Speaker 3: goosebumps right now. You know, it's different every year, right,
Speaker 3: Like what's so fun about it is no deer is
Speaker 3: the same. It's always different. The racks are different, the land,
Speaker 3: the spots moving around, the stories, how it happens. It's
Speaker 3: always new. It's not the same kind of just same thing.
Speaker 3: It's always something different. And I don't know, it keeps
Speaker 3: me coming back every year, you know. I mean, and
Speaker 3: I'm just fueled about it now. You did bring up
Speaker 3: that one hundred and ninety two inch dear, And we
Speaker 3: want to stay focused to help people think about big Bucks.
Speaker 3: And I wish I could honestly look in the eyeballs
Speaker 3: mark and tell you I've killed you know, I have
Speaker 3: this pedigree of killing you know, the most maturest monster
Speaker 3: bucks in the world. I'm really good at finding them,
Speaker 3: and it seems like everyone else always gets them. But
Speaker 3: I have killed. I have killed some really good ones
Speaker 3: in my life, for sure. And when you ask me
Speaker 3: the question if I had a big one that I
Speaker 3: was chasing, you asked it in a way that it
Speaker 3: was in regards to my current farm, right And I
Speaker 3: don't have one there, but I absolutely have a big
Speaker 3: one that I really, really really will be putting a
Speaker 3: significant amount of effort into this year. And it's a
Speaker 3: little disheartening because it's not on my farm where I
Speaker 3: want to be, and I have all my stuff and
Speaker 3: I've done all this work, and it's like I kind
Speaker 3: of want to be there mentally, But if I truly
Speaker 3: want to get a big one like that one ninety two,
Speaker 3: I'm going to have to hunt somewhere else. And I
Speaker 3: think that's something that people have to keep in mind,
Speaker 3: of course, when it comes to kill in big bucks. Right, Listen,
Speaker 3: we all have trail cameras, we all have cellular cameras,
Speaker 3: we're all running these things. At some point, you just
Speaker 3: can't lie to yourself. They don't the cameras don't lie,
Speaker 3: and we ought listen, every one of us want to
Speaker 3: sneak into a stand and we never ever ever want
Speaker 3: to lose the dream of that big monster, you know,
Speaker 3: drop tyme gnarly Buck just coming through the woods. You know,
Speaker 3: you know, we never want to lose that, right because
Speaker 3: that's what keeps us getting up in the morning and
Speaker 3: getting out there and going for it. Right. Well, let's
Speaker 3: be honest, sometimes cellular or not cellular, but sometimes trail
Speaker 3: cameras in general could take that away a little bit
Speaker 3: because even like me at my current farm, like eh,
Speaker 3: I'm just not seeing it. That doesn't mean that it's
Speaker 3: not living somewhere else, which is a big topic that
Speaker 3: we're going to talk about in this podcast because you know,
Speaker 3: and I think I listened to one of your podcasts recently,
Speaker 3: or maybe it was one of your other hosts that was,
Speaker 3: you know, talking about Doze and you know, understanding the
Speaker 3: Doze and Bucks want to be in a different place.
Speaker 3: We'll get there, but I do have the point that
Speaker 3: I was trying to make so it doesn't get lost
Speaker 3: is specifically, at some point you can't lie to yourself
Speaker 3: if you're hunting a spot and you truly, truly want
Speaker 3: to kill a monster bucket. You say, Hey, listen, I've
Speaker 3: killed the one twenties, I've killed the one thirties. I
Speaker 3: on one hundred and fifty inch buck. Like, listen, at
Speaker 3: the end of the day, if the data that you have,
Speaker 3: either through scouting, your eyes, trail cameras, friends that hunt
Speaker 3: the farm with you, whatever, if the deer's not there,
Speaker 3: the deer's not there, you got to move on. You
Speaker 3: got to go somewhere else, You got to find a
Speaker 3: different spot. So to your point, absolutely, I do have
Speaker 3: a sweet buck that I want to shoot this year,
Speaker 3: and I'm going to be putting most of my effort
Speaker 3: into that deer, even though it's completely far away from
Speaker 3: my current spot, and I'll just have to deal with
Speaker 3: not being able to be where I really want to
Speaker 3: be with because of the moneies that I spent in
Speaker 3: the efforts I put in. But this deer here is
Speaker 3: living in a spot that is very, very very similar
Speaker 3: to that one hundred and ninety two inch buck that
Speaker 3: you brought up. And I recently did a little video
Speaker 3: on overlooked hunting spots, and I think in the point
Speaker 3: that we're trying to make is mature bucks do things
Speaker 3: differently than what everybody else is doing, period, and your
Speaker 3: brain has to get wired that way. Like we want
Speaker 3: to go to the food plots. Why because it's fun,
Speaker 3: it's exciting. You know you're going to have activity. You
Speaker 3: know you're going to see deer. Generally, you've set these
Speaker 3: spots up and because of the day that we live
Speaker 3: in now, everyone's smart enough to realize, hey, if I
Speaker 3: do a food plot, I'll set up two different stands
Speaker 3: for two different wind directions. So it's easy, it's convenient,
Speaker 3: you're going to have activity. You don't go home after
Speaker 3: a weekend feeling like that was the least Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: oh I didn't see anything. But when you start truly
Speaker 3: trying to get the big guys, you're not going to
Speaker 3: be going to those type of spots. You're looking for
Speaker 3: those overlook spots. And per that conversation you brought up
Speaker 3: with that one n it was a nasty cattail, smaller trees, CRP,
Speaker 3: just low kind of a low area where I think
Speaker 3: those areas are a little bit cooler, where it's not
Speaker 3: as hot during those summer days where they could be
Speaker 3: a little bit down and it's just kind of a.
Speaker 3: I don't want to say it's like some big nasty
Speaker 3: cattail swamp like my Wisconsin piece of property was, but
Speaker 3: it's just this low lying area where they're just not
Speaker 3: getting pressured. And I think when it comes to these
Speaker 3: mature deer, it's about pressure. And I'm sure you've seen.
Speaker 2: That too, Yeah, yeah, At what age do you think
Speaker 2: you see the biggest chain in a buck's behavior? Like
Speaker 2: like when we talk about like a super like a
Speaker 2: very mature buck, you start hearing people talk about different
Speaker 2: behavior changes that they tend to see in them. For you,
Speaker 2: where have you seen that? Like I might say, like
Speaker 2: in my experiences, I was thinking about this, like I've
Speaker 2: always seen a big change from a three year old
Speaker 2: to a four year old where they go from like
Speaker 2: a crazy teenager to like an adult sort of. But
Speaker 2: then the five year olds, at least the five year
Speaker 2: olds I've ever been been able to hunt become like ghosts.
Speaker 2: So I almost think that from four to five it's
Speaker 2: been bigger in my experience. At least, where have you
Speaker 2: seen that? Or is there is there a totally different
Speaker 2: category of maturreyer that I've never seen? Like do they
Speaker 2: do something totally different at six or seven or eight,
Speaker 2: because I've never got to hunt a deer like that.
Speaker 2: Where do you see that big transition occurring from a
Speaker 2: behavior standpoint?
Speaker 3: I'm just you know, again, I can only relate this
Speaker 3: to deer that I know that I've chased, you know.
Speaker 3: So when I think of the bigger dear that I chase,
Speaker 3: I think a sweetness. You probably remember that buck that
Speaker 3: was a two hundred and twenty inch buck here shot
Speaker 3: in Illinois by a good friend of mine, Mike, you know.
Speaker 3: And I chased the daylights out of that deer and
Speaker 3: finally had a chance sent him at late season. It
Speaker 3: was a sixty yard shot and I don't feel comfortable taking,
Speaker 3: you know, far shot, so I didn't shoot, and then
Speaker 3: we ended up getting him the following year. And when
Speaker 3: I think of sweetness, I think of that other big
Speaker 3: buck coke Can that Kirk shot, you know on our team,
Speaker 3: that was a big deer that I that I passed
Speaker 3: that ended up getting a couple of years down the
Speaker 3: road and really turned out to be a monster old buck. Again,
Speaker 3: not necessarily a huge rack, but just old deer. So
Speaker 3: I think I think what you said is pretty much
Speaker 3: spot on. It seems like that that and the way
Speaker 3: you and the way you posed it is pretty spot
Speaker 3: on too, right, Like they're they're these wild teenagers and
Speaker 3: they're full of and maybe they're just that way too
Speaker 3: because they're trying to find their spot and they're trying
Speaker 3: to find their place in the hierarchy, because there's always
Speaker 3: somebody older than you, and there's always that, you know,
Speaker 3: a deer that is probably already holding onto those quote
Speaker 3: unquote better spots. Like if you're bass fishing, it seems
Speaker 3: like there's certain spots you can always go to if
Speaker 3: that tree limb comes out, it's like you can almost
Speaker 3: always get a fish off it. But that's not necessary
Speaker 3: where the big one is, right, So I think you're right.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's at least from what I've seen from
Speaker 3: trail camera data and the bucks that I've chased, it
Speaker 3: seems like when they hit that four and a half boy,
Speaker 3: they get elusive. Last year, we were chasing a pretty
Speaker 3: big buck and on a different farm we were chasing,
Speaker 3: and man we had we were getting shots of him
Speaker 3: early season, cool deer, big deer, and just like you said,
Speaker 3: light bulb went off, that deer was gone. And truly,
Speaker 3: it's a special deer. This is a great buck. And
Speaker 3: he disappeared off the radar and gone nothing on this deer.
Speaker 3: And would you believe it, he's still alive. We just
Speaker 3: got a picture of him, you know, a few weeks ago.
Speaker 3: So just crazy enough. Like I mean, they got those
Speaker 3: underground caves dug out somewhere, and they they don't get big.
Speaker 3: They don't listen, they don't get that big being stupid.
Speaker 3: They just don't. And and I don't know sleep listen.
Speaker 3: I don't think they wake up in the morning and
Speaker 3: have grafts and power points and charts and are tracking
Speaker 3: every movement. You know that we do. I don't think
Speaker 3: their brains work that way, you know, at all. I
Speaker 3: think when it comes down to it, they know where
Speaker 3: they're being bumped and where they're not being bumped. And
Speaker 3: you know, the best, we always whenever I talk to
Speaker 3: my friends, I always think about the same thing I'm
Speaker 3: telling you, Like, PTSD is a real thing, right, And
Speaker 3: if you're laying in your bed at night and you're
Speaker 3: all cozy and you're sleeping there with your wife, I
Speaker 3: promise you, if a fricking burglar comes busting through that
Speaker 3: door and you fly out of that bed. I promise
Speaker 3: you you're not going to sleep very good and that
Speaker 3: bed for a long time to come. And we've all
Speaker 3: been mister sneaky, tiptoeing into these spots that we know,
Speaker 3: like we're a foot away from taking a step where
Speaker 3: we know we know we're gonna bust one at any second,
Speaker 3: right because you could just tell by the way the
Speaker 3: spot looks, and I promise you you can. Man, you
Speaker 3: can only get away with doing that a couple of times,
Speaker 3: and they're not coming back. So personally, I just think
Speaker 3: those big deer as they age, if they want to live,
Speaker 3: they don't want to be bothered, They don't want to
Speaker 3: be around all that dough pressure. They find those spots
Speaker 3: where they're just not being pressure all the time. It's
Speaker 3: like looking for a used car. Everyone always wants what, Man,
Speaker 3: I found this car that was in this seventy five
Speaker 3: year old ladies garage. She's never driven it. It's unbelievable,
Speaker 3: it's never been touched, right, Like, we're all looking for
Speaker 3: these hunting spots that they do exist, But what's the
Speaker 3: first thing we do when we usually find these spots?
Speaker 3: Walk all over go and then what do we do
Speaker 3: the trail cameras follow and then maybe a food plot follows,
Speaker 3: and then maybe oh gosh, I can't figure the spot out. Hey, Mark,
Speaker 3: you got to You got a couple hours this weekend. Listen,
Speaker 3: I need you to come over and take a look
Speaker 3: at this spot, and and and and hey, that's fine.
Speaker 3: If you want to bring Rover, you know, bring go
Speaker 3: ahead and bring Rover to he can take a walk
Speaker 3: along with us. You know, the bottom line, those best
Speaker 3: spots that we find that are untouched whatever. Call it
Speaker 3: the sanctuary, you call it the back forty, call it,
Speaker 3: whatever you want to call it. Those spots do exist.
Speaker 3: And if you can find them, know where they are,
Speaker 3: stay out of them and figure out how to I mean,
Speaker 3: you talk about that one hundred and ninety two inch
Speaker 3: buck man, everything about killing that one ninety two, because
Speaker 3: I that that was in the early days of filming
Speaker 3: and I and I I wasn't filming everything that I
Speaker 3: was doing, you know, some of the other encounters I
Speaker 3: had with them and so forth. But everything about shooting
Speaker 3: that deer was entry point and exit critical. I mean
Speaker 3: it was I had the most pinpoint way of being
Speaker 3: able to get in and get out, and it was
Speaker 3: putting down the most minimal amount of scent and not
Speaker 3: disturbing that key, betting your ear where he was, where
Speaker 3: he was hung up. That was number one. Number two,
Speaker 3: it was making sure that I just didn't go in
Speaker 3: there on the wrong wind, because just because they're getting
Speaker 3: in and out, if all of a sudden you're sitting there,
Speaker 3: we've all been there before, We're sitting there, and all
Speaker 3: of a sudden you're like that, you know, you feel
Speaker 3: it against the back of your ears, and you're like, oh,
Speaker 3: you know, and and what's the worst man? The worst
Speaker 3: for me is I'm a filmer. So I'm sitting there,
Speaker 3: going do I want to tear down all this equipment now?
Speaker 3: And the answer should be yes, right, your brain, your
Speaker 3: everything in your body's telling you no, I should move
Speaker 3: right now. But then you're like, well, maybe it's going
Speaker 3: to change an hour from now or maybe this, but
Speaker 3: you probably have already blown it, you know. So I
Speaker 3: think to answer your question specifically, I think you're right.
Speaker 3: At four and a half, they start really just becoming
Speaker 3: a lot harder to find, and their movements just become
Speaker 3: a lot more at night, a lot more you know, nocturnal,
Speaker 3: and that they're a little bit harder to pick up
Speaker 3: and locating.
Speaker 2: You mentioned the entry and exit for that one, and
Speaker 2: you said that was a just bulletproof entry and exit.
Speaker 2: Can you describe how you were actually doing that that
Speaker 2: made it so effective for a way to get in
Speaker 2: and out?
Speaker 3: It was just easy, to be honest with you, you know,
Speaker 3: I wish I could tell you, like this was like
Speaker 3: super strategic. The area that I was hunting Number one
Speaker 3: was flat. Anyone that hunts enough realizes that if you
Speaker 3: can if the topology is flat, then the wind is
Speaker 3: going to always be so much more consistent. You start
Speaker 3: getting into any kind of hilly country and mountains, and
Speaker 3: you know, you got your place in Idaho and whatever.
Speaker 3: I mean, you start hunting different train. Anytime you start
Speaker 3: hunting topology, topology, you know, you know, anytime you start hunting,
Speaker 3: you know where it's hilly valleys, bottom areas, lowlands, and
Speaker 3: you can't keep the wind consistent. Dude, it's a it's
Speaker 3: a whole nother ball of axe. I mean, truthfully, I
Speaker 3: was kind of fortunate when I first started hunting my
Speaker 3: Wisconsin swamp. Dude, it was like flat, and then my
Speaker 3: and then and then hunting here and ill More in
Speaker 3: the northwest suburbs of Chicago where we live, it's flat.
Speaker 3: So that particular entry point when it's a west wind,
Speaker 3: it's a west wind, when it's even south west or whatever, like,
Speaker 3: it is exactly what it is versus other stands. You
Speaker 3: go to, Oh, it's going to be a west wind,
Speaker 3: and you get up there and you're throwing the wind
Speaker 3: check and you're like what you know, you know, and
Speaker 3: it's going completely the wrong way because of the you know,
Speaker 3: because of the land. So that particular hunt, I was
Speaker 3: able to park the car in a spot to where
Speaker 3: nobody was around. It was super easy. I was able
Speaker 3: to keep my nose right into the wind. And honestly,
Speaker 3: it wasn't like over the woods, you know, through a
Speaker 3: cornfield up over there. I mean, it was just a
Speaker 3: nice easy straight line. Now that was by design with
Speaker 3: where I was parking, and I had to get some
Speaker 3: access at that point in my life to be able
Speaker 3: to allow me to pull that off. And luckily the
Speaker 3: woman was nice enough to let me actually park the
Speaker 3: and do what I was doing, so that worked out
Speaker 3: like sweet as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah that's no small thing to go get that extra access.
Speaker 3: Yeah no, no, but you know, you know, years ago,
Speaker 3: it's also seemed like it was a lot easier too.
Speaker 3: I mean, listen with anyone that's been doing any kind
Speaker 3: of door knocking nowadays. I talked to Paul our, our
Speaker 3: new guy that's working with us. I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: and I and I keep referring it to like the
Speaker 3: salesmanship thing, right, like, you knock, got enough doors, eventually
Speaker 3: somebody's going to answer. Right. He's like, oh, I've been
Speaker 3: on twelve already and I've only had one. That's like ah,
Speaker 3: And I said, hey, dude, that's how it works. You
Speaker 3: just got to keep you got to keep going and
Speaker 3: eventually you know you're going to find something. But so
Speaker 3: having good entry points when you know where a good
Speaker 3: betting here is, and of course that you know, you
Speaker 3: you you you're always playing a game because it's how
Speaker 3: close do I want to get? You know? Like sure, Mark,
Speaker 3: I'm sure you've been in a lot of hunting situations
Speaker 3: where yeah, you can sit way back and you can
Speaker 3: watch them get up and you can see him and
Speaker 3: then you're like, Okay, they need to come this way,
Speaker 3: and then they go that way, right, Like I mean,
Speaker 3: so it's always kind of determining how close can I
Speaker 3: get without it being too close? And in that particular case,
Speaker 3: I was able to legitimately get within about sixty yards
Speaker 3: of this little favorite little spot where he was betting.
Speaker 3: So that was key. And if there's anything to be
Speaker 3: taken from this podcast right now that we're having, we're
Speaker 3: not going to tell you till the end. I'm just kidding,
Speaker 3: wait till you're gonna have to wait. Is if you
Speaker 3: can find good solid buck betting areas of the buck
Speaker 3: that you want to kill the buck that you want.
Speaker 3: It's all about locating those areas and getting as close
Speaker 3: to them as you can that I mean, that is key.
Speaker 3: And you know what, and don't buck the spots up.
Speaker 3: I do not put the trail cameras in those spots.
Speaker 3: When you find that big buck bed. I think a
Speaker 3: Matt Miller on our team. You know, he moved here
Speaker 3: and was hunting a lease, and you know he found
Speaker 3: a really decent bed of a buck up on a ridgetop,
Speaker 3: and you know what, same thing goes. I think about
Speaker 3: his hunt. I remember talking to him. This is years
Speaker 3: ago too. I remember just talking to him and he
Speaker 3: just he knew in your brain, it's almost like you
Speaker 3: can close your eyes and you literally can execute the plan.
Speaker 3: You know all the way from getting out of the car,
Speaker 3: the path that you're gonna take, how you're gonna climb
Speaker 3: that tree, how stealthy and quiet you're gonna be, and
Speaker 3: and how quickly you know the timeliness it takes you
Speaker 3: to get there. Like, you got to have all that
Speaker 3: stuff in your brain. Big buck killers they got that
Speaker 3: wired in their brain. It's not I'm gonna stop and
Speaker 3: get this coffee and then I'm gonna do this, and
Speaker 3: then you know I'm gonna I might wear those boots man,
Speaker 3: big buck killers and people, and forget about the big
Speaker 3: buck hillers. People that shoot bucks on a year to
Speaker 3: year regular basis. Man, they've got a plan. It's in
Speaker 3: their brains. You know. They know their gear, they know
Speaker 3: what's in their pack, they know what's in the left
Speaker 3: hand top pocket. They they you're dialed in, whether you're
Speaker 3: a saddle guy, you just know what's in each pocket,
Speaker 3: how you're gonna maneuver. Like that's the way you need
Speaker 3: to train your brain. So when you can start getting
Speaker 3: into those situations where you're gonna get tight on mature bucks,
Speaker 3: you know where all your stuff is you're just dialed in.
Speaker 3: All the guys that I meet that are crazy, I
Speaker 3: shouldn't say crazy, but because one of them you're just
Speaker 3: you're just you're you know, you're just you're dialed in. Mark,
Speaker 3: you know, you know what I'm talking about. I mean,
Speaker 3: you know those guys who are just walking around and
Speaker 3: just kind of being lazy, and they wonder why they're
Speaker 3: spooking deer and not seeing stuff. And then you got
Speaker 3: your guys who are just man, they're on their a game,
Speaker 3: and that's what you gotta be. Period of this. We
Speaker 3: got off, we all get lucky, right, we all can
Speaker 3: fall into one once in a while, and hey, that happens.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to pass up those. But if you
Speaker 3: really want to get those mature bucks, you got to
Speaker 3: have a plan. You got to learn where they're living,
Speaker 3: and you've got to find those overlooked spots, which you
Speaker 3: know we talked about how you said, Hey, you know
Speaker 3: you got to walk around. Yeah, you do have to scout,
Speaker 3: like I mean, you know, there's a time to scout.
Speaker 3: There's a time to do it effectively, and then there's
Speaker 3: the times when you shouldn't. One of the things that
Speaker 3: I've kind of gotten in the habit of doing is
Speaker 3: we're all creatures of habit, right, So often we have
Speaker 3: a stand You mentioned it in the beginning of this podcast.
Speaker 3: You know you've trimmed your stuff out, you're kind of ready,
Speaker 3: you kind of have your plan. What I try to
Speaker 3: do when I go hunt one of those spots is
Speaker 3: I try to always be scouting, right, you always got
Speaker 3: to be scouting. So sometimes what I'll do is, even
Speaker 3: though it's easier for me to maybe go out the
Speaker 3: way that I came, and my brain is telling me that, hey,
Speaker 3: I don't want to leave in the extra sin, I
Speaker 3: don't want to do that. Sometimes you just got to
Speaker 3: go some different routes and some different paths to be
Speaker 3: able to see if things have changed, because in the
Speaker 3: White Tails world, things are always always changing. I'll tell
Speaker 3: you a little thing too. I got this really big
Speaker 3: one that I told you earlier in this podcast that
Speaker 3: I that I'm chasing. I went back there to this spot,
Speaker 3: and man, I was like, I just I'm not getting
Speaker 3: both of them anymore. I thought he died, honestly. I mean,
Speaker 3: we have a drought here in Illinois, EHD. I'm sure
Speaker 3: something you've heard people talking about here in the Midwest.
Speaker 3: I mean, the drought is bad. It sucks. And I
Speaker 3: could just smell I could smell, you know, something dead,
Speaker 3: you know, you know, and if ben in the woods
Speaker 3: enough to know when you smell that, you're kind of
Speaker 3: you know, you're like you almost have to like it's
Speaker 3: almost like a game, right, But it's like you gotta
Speaker 3: go find it, Like there's something about us that this
Speaker 3: is like I need to go find what this got
Speaker 3: to well, you gotta know, right, And I haven't been
Speaker 3: getting pictures of him for a month. He disappeared, This
Speaker 3: big guy disappeared on me, and so so I am.
Speaker 3: So I start, you know, looking around, Thank goodness, was
Speaker 3: the dead raccoon. Okay, let's get that out of the way.
Speaker 3: Round the bat good But I'm like, man, why is
Speaker 3: this deer not coming through here? So he was always
Speaker 3: coming through. This was like bulletproof.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: I was getting pretty regular inns. Would you believe it?
Speaker 3: We had a really big storm, a monster I mean,
Speaker 3: a big tree fell down and this particular spot is
Speaker 3: almost like a little funnel, almost like a little pinch point.
Speaker 3: And sure enough it complete. I mean, this tree is
Speaker 3: a huge cottonwood completely blocked the access because it wasn't
Speaker 3: just so much that my big guy was missing. I
Speaker 3: wasn't getting even my there's been one dough with one
Speaker 3: fund coming through there, and even I was getting kind
Speaker 3: of coyotes in a red like man, this just this this,
Speaker 3: this is not something's not right. Well, sure enough, this
Speaker 3: monster cottonwood came down and it hit completely like they
Speaker 3: could not get through and they were going around and
Speaker 3: completely avoiding this spot, like entirely. So I had to
Speaker 3: go in there and get rid of that. And would
Speaker 3: you believe it? You know, would you believe it when
Speaker 3: you actually when you texted me, I was out in
Speaker 3: Montana or Colorado. Forgot where I was at the time,
Speaker 3: and I was finally starting to get pictures again because
Speaker 3: before I, before I went on the trip, I went
Speaker 3: into that particular spot. I cleaned it out, got it
Speaker 3: trimmed out. Of course, you know, it took a lot
Speaker 3: of work, chainsaws, blah blah blah. I had to do
Speaker 3: way more disruption than I wanted to do. But after
Speaker 3: about a week and a half, would you believe it,
Speaker 3: there comes my going fawn again and here comes that
Speaker 3: regular traffic, and sure enough, bam, you know, he showed
Speaker 3: up a couple more times just because that path of easy,
Speaker 3: path of least resistance wasn't there anymore and they just
Speaker 3: weren't cutting through there. So just a little tidbit of
Speaker 3: information there, right, You know, if something changes, you gotta
Speaker 3: kind of got to figure out what happened. Like if
Speaker 3: you're this awesome funnel on top of a ridge somewhere
Speaker 3: and you're like, what is going on this thing? Just die? Well? Geez,
Speaker 3: if you had a big, huge oak tree block it
Speaker 3: sixty eighty one hundred yards up and you can't see
Speaker 3: it and now they're screting the side, something can change.
Speaker 3: You gotta always be scouting for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's that really tricky balancing act between maintaining you know,
Speaker 2: current intel while also not over pressuring a location. And
Speaker 2: you mentioned a second ago how the very most important
Speaker 2: thing when it comes to these really mature boxes is
Speaker 2: finding where they want to live and not screwing that up.
Speaker 2: Can you share with me a little bit about the
Speaker 2: kinds of specific places that you found over the years
Speaker 2: that these big old like the top dog buck in
Speaker 2: the area likes to hole up. I mean, we know
Speaker 2: the general things like, oh, they're like thick stuff or
Speaker 2: so on and so forth. But when you think about
Speaker 2: some of these specific old deer that you've gotten to
Speaker 2: know over the years, I'd be really curious about, like
Speaker 2: if you can even recall, like what some of those
Speaker 2: specific little bedrooms looked like that that top dog picked.
Speaker 2: It's interesting to think about where like the number one
Speaker 2: spots are because these bucks, you know, have a hierarchy, right,
Speaker 2: and so the different betting years kind of get claimed
Speaker 2: based on where you stand in a hierarchy sometimes, So
Speaker 2: where's that top tier deer prefer to be.
Speaker 3: I definitely think it's different, you know, for all the
Speaker 3: different areas you hunt. I think of this one buck
Speaker 3: longhorn that I was chasing, and this was in more
Speaker 3: western Illinois, and there's these rock croppings, right, And it's
Speaker 3: funny because you think betting, you think betting years, you're
Speaker 3: almost like you're almost your brains like thinking, oh, it
Speaker 3: should be cushy, right, it should be like a temper
Speaker 3: pedic mattress, and it should be super nice and comfortable,
Speaker 3: and they're going to get in there and kind of
Speaker 3: snuggle in. And this one buck uh longhorn that that
Speaker 3: that I was chasing, Oh, just an awesome accounter with
Speaker 3: never know whatever happened to that deer. He was awesome.
Speaker 3: He had this spot that was on a I know
Speaker 3: this isn't a video, but if you can almost imagine
Speaker 3: a top of a ridge that comes to a point
Speaker 3: and there is these big rock outcroppings and there is
Speaker 3: just the biggest bed that I found in the longest
Speaker 3: time on this point by these rocks, and it's like, shit,
Speaker 3: I wouldn't I wouldn't have lasted there more than five
Speaker 3: minutes sitting on there. But you know, that's not how
Speaker 3: animals think, right, That's just how soft whimbs like me think.
Speaker 3: But when you think of a big buck who wants
Speaker 3: to have a great vantage point that you know, in
Speaker 3: this particular spot in this country, it was up high,
Speaker 3: the wind was good, they had, you know, they could
Speaker 3: keep their back, you know, where they could smell stuff
Speaker 3: coming from behind them. They could sit where they could
Speaker 3: see you know, a whole area with multiple exits, you
Speaker 3: know exits, you know, I mean if they if someone
Speaker 3: would have jumped that deer, it literally could have gone
Speaker 3: three different directions and within seconds you'd never see it again.
Speaker 3: And that was one spot that I remember, and the
Speaker 3: more that I've hunted in those areas where you have
Speaker 3: hills with those rock croppings out on those points. Man,
Speaker 3: they just really seem to like those spots because I
Speaker 3: just think they literally can dart downhill and you'll never
Speaker 3: see them ever again. And and the wind is just
Speaker 3: so good for them up there that they can just
Speaker 3: always feel safe, and you know, at the end of
Speaker 3: the day, like they're just worried about predators, right, they're
Speaker 3: not really thinking, oh shit, Mark kenyans after me. You know,
Speaker 3: they're not you know, they're they're not thinking like that.
Speaker 3: They're just thinking, like, you know, where can I get
Speaker 3: the best rest, you know, for the longest amount of
Speaker 3: time without being busted all the time. So I think
Speaker 3: an area where a buck, you know, big mature buck
Speaker 3: can sit have And it's funny because we think about
Speaker 3: you know, sometimes we're always thinking about that thick, nasty stuff.
Speaker 3: You know. I don't know if that's always the case, right,
Speaker 3: Like I've seen plenty of big bucks be in areas
Speaker 3: where there's not tons and tons of cover. They could
Speaker 3: just see good, the wind's good, and they've got enough
Speaker 3: exit points where they got cover that they know if
Speaker 3: they need to get out get out of the area
Speaker 3: that they can. But so I, you know, my favorite
Speaker 3: spots where I generally find those big, bigger bucks. You know,
Speaker 3: it seems to be those cat tail slews, those areas
Speaker 3: that are just kind of thick and nasty that nobody
Speaker 3: wants to go to and no one's really kind of
Speaker 3: popping into it. And every time in my life that
Speaker 3: I found those cattail slews, you walk around those things enough.
Speaker 3: And the only reason why I even like those things
Speaker 3: is because I was fortunate enough again to have that
Speaker 3: property in Wisconsin that I was able to get purchased
Speaker 3: from my dad years ago, and that's all I had
Speaker 3: to hunt. And being a duck hunter when I was younger,
Speaker 3: you walked around those cat tails enough. You were looking
Speaker 3: for what when you were duck hunting, those spots that
Speaker 3: just had the little open, little water spots right where
Speaker 3: you'd see those buck, duck bucks, Jesu Louise bucks, ducks,
Speaker 3: all of them. You'd see those ducks, you know, cupping
Speaker 3: up and locking in and coming on in right. You
Speaker 3: were looking for those spots for the ducks. But on
Speaker 3: your way to getting to those spots, you'd be walking
Speaker 3: along and all of a sudden, you'd come along the
Speaker 3: spot where it's like, holy cow, look at this. You
Speaker 3: could literally come right up and it's all just you know,
Speaker 3: up and high and man, you're like, man, look at
Speaker 3: the beds in here, like they could just you know,
Speaker 3: you would never think that you could literally go out
Speaker 3: into the middle of a cat tail nasty slew and
Speaker 3: have completely dry ground where they can stand up, shake
Speaker 3: it off, you know, eat a little bit, you know,
Speaker 3: chew their cuds, turn around a little bit, lay back
Speaker 3: down again. So I think the key of what we're
Speaker 3: talking about here is you're looking. You're not always looking,
Speaker 3: like you said, for those spots where the most thickest,
Speaker 3: nastiest cover is. Those are good and those can be
Speaker 3: really successful, but also be looking for those spots where
Speaker 3: the deer just they've got the winning advantage, Like you know,
Speaker 3: they've got those spots, and sometimes those spots you just
Speaker 3: got to beat the deer back to them. You know,
Speaker 3: you know you're there. You just got to be in
Speaker 3: super early. You got to get there way before they're
Speaker 3: going to get there, and hope that you're not going
Speaker 3: to get detected while you're sitting there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've seen I've had some situations where I've seen this,
Speaker 2: and I've certainly heard of other people mentioning this, but
Speaker 2: always it still catches me by surprise. Sometimes. Have you
Speaker 2: ever seen a buck that beds in a place that
Speaker 2: you would think actually would put him around people and
Speaker 2: human access more than you might expect, But he's actually
Speaker 2: there because he's monitoring access, so he's able. He's out
Speaker 2: on like a point leading out into a grassy field
Speaker 2: or something that kind of goes by the access road,
Speaker 2: so every time you go in there, he knows it.
Speaker 2: That kind of thing. I've heard stories about that kind
Speaker 2: of thing. I've had a couple situations where I thought
Speaker 2: that might be what's going on, Like, man, how come
Speaker 2: I can never get in here without this deer knowing
Speaker 2: I'm here because he shows up in daylight on trail camera.
Speaker 2: But whenever I'm in here, even though I think my
Speaker 2: win's right, even though I think I'm doing everything right,
Speaker 2: he never shows up. And then all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: I find this little buck bed like right along where
Speaker 2: I was coming along in a spot that doesn't make
Speaker 2: any sense in most most ways of thinking about have
Speaker 2: you ever seen that kind of thing?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's interesting, Then you know, I guess I never
Speaker 3: really I've heard people talk about this like maybe they're
Speaker 3: just watching us coming in and coming out all the time,
Speaker 3: you know, so maybe you know, But I don't know.
Speaker 3: I you know, I I really truly don't think they're
Speaker 3: that strategic. I just don't, you know, maybe I'm wrong.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm sure you can find sixteen guys or
Speaker 3: you'll get a million comments. Now that just says I'm
Speaker 3: an idiot, right, Like the keyboard guys will come and
Speaker 3: start smashing it on this. You know, I really just
Speaker 3: don't no matter what you say, it doesn't matter what
Speaker 3: I say, right, I just I really don't think a
Speaker 3: mature buck wakes up in the morning and it's like,
Speaker 3: you know what, I'm gonna slip down and I'm gonna
Speaker 3: park myself near that particular spot to see if anyone's
Speaker 3: going to come into the hunt this public today. You know,
Speaker 3: I just don't think they think that way. I think
Speaker 3: the spots that they choose are chosen because they have
Speaker 3: those vantage points. They feel safe, they've got the wind
Speaker 3: at their advantage. They feel like if they do get busted,
Speaker 3: they can get out of dodge, you know quickly. I
Speaker 3: just I really don't think. I think for their brains,
Speaker 3: it's where can I go and where can I sit
Speaker 3: the longest before I ever get bumped by anything. If
Speaker 3: you're out west, maybe it's cougar's you know, maybe it's
Speaker 3: you know, maybe it's you know, a pack of coyotes. Whatever,
Speaker 3: it's where can I go and be for the longest
Speaker 3: period of time when no one's bugging me? I mean,
Speaker 3: my opinion, I think that's what is truly going on
Speaker 3: in a big buck's brain. Where can I be for
Speaker 3: the longest period of time, get the most amount of sleep,
Speaker 3: relax without being bumped constantly. That, in my opinion, I
Speaker 3: just think that's the spots that they're looking for. I mean,
Speaker 3: come on every podcast you always listen to when people
Speaker 3: talk about public land, public land, public land, right, and
Speaker 3: they want to go so much of everything you've thought
Speaker 3: about as a kid when you were younger, was like
Speaker 3: how much further can I go over the next guy? Right?
Speaker 3: Like how much further back can I go? Because someone
Speaker 3: to get away from that traffic, and generally speaking, you're
Speaker 3: rewarded for doing that because the animals just aren't being bothered.
Speaker 3: Some of the best, easiest punts are going into spots
Speaker 3: where there is the least amount of pressure period. So
Speaker 3: I think find those unpressured areas, and you're going to
Speaker 3: put yourself most likely in an opportunity to find where
Speaker 3: a big mature deer is hung up and is living.
Speaker 3: And we'll also put you in a position. But they
Speaker 3: have a chance to harvest them if you can get
Speaker 3: in and get out. There are those spots, Mark, and
Speaker 3: you and I both know it, where you're gonna find
Speaker 3: a big mature bucks sign down in the bottoms, right,
Speaker 3: I mean we've all been there, anybody who has spent
Speaker 3: any time hunting. When you start hunting hilly country, you
Speaker 3: get down in those bottoms and you're like, man, look
Speaker 3: at this. We found a horizontal rub and I mean
Speaker 3: look at the sign down here, and it's just tore
Speaker 3: up and here's a bed. But whoo, trying to get
Speaker 3: down in those spots and actually hunting them, it's not
Speaker 3: not not good. It's not gonna happen. Maybe in the rut,
Speaker 3: maybe get lucky, maybe the winds is right perfect, but
Speaker 3: not often.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, so speaking of these kinds of spots that
Speaker 2: these big old bucks gravitate towards and as you mentioned,
Speaker 2: I think it makes a lot of sense to remember
Speaker 2: to keep it simple sometimes and just think like where
Speaker 2: can they go and feel safe and comfortable. You know
Speaker 2: one thing that I seem to hear consistently, and I
Speaker 2: think I've seen this to a degree, is that once
Speaker 2: those as those bucks get older and older, many of
Speaker 2: them tend to become more and more of a homebody.
Speaker 2: They tend to have a shrinking core area. Maybe at
Speaker 2: least that's something I've seen a little bit and heard
Speaker 2: of quite a bit, especially from folks that just have
Speaker 2: a lot more mature bucks around. Have you seen that?
Speaker 3: Is that true?
Speaker 2: And because of that in your experience, have you found
Speaker 2: with those like five year old plus bucks, are they
Speaker 2: easier to pattern because of that or because of the
Speaker 2: behavior traits that become harder.
Speaker 3: If it gets easier, I have a lot more five
Speaker 3: and a half year old Bucks on my wall, that's
Speaker 3: for sure. So so it definitely it can't get easier
Speaker 3: because I'd have I'd have a lot more bigger Bucks
Speaker 3: on my wall. I can tell you that for sure.
Speaker 3: But I but I think of listen, I definitely agree
Speaker 3: with you, for sure. I believe their ranges definitely get smaller.
Speaker 3: I think there's something about being the top dog that
Speaker 3: allows them the luxury of being able to And we've
Speaker 3: seen this. We've all seen this bow hunting before, or
Speaker 3: whatever type of hunting you do, we've all seen Let's
Speaker 3: say you are hunting a food plot, right, and it's
Speaker 3: almost like the tone let me let me switch this
Speaker 3: up because my brain sometimes got eighty D and I'm
Speaker 3: jumping around. It's almost like you're in the conference room, right,
Speaker 3: four or five guys, You're all sitting around there talking
Speaker 3: and man, now the boss steps into the now all
Speaker 3: of a sudden, you know, bam, the boss comes walking
Speaker 3: in the conference room. Donnarn is the tone of the
Speaker 3: room just change? Am I right? Or am I wrong? Right?
Speaker 3: It's different on hunt go hunt a food plot. You're
Speaker 3: sitting there right. Let's say it's late season, right, it's cold,
Speaker 3: you're in, You're in, You're in your box blind whatever, right,
Speaker 3: doze are out? The young bucks are out, dude. It's
Speaker 3: almost like the tone changes when that mature buck comes
Speaker 3: out with the other bucks in the field. You know,
Speaker 3: or even you know that first cold front that comes
Speaker 3: in in October. We're all waiting for that first cold front, right,
Speaker 3: because they can be super duper successful. And if there's
Speaker 3: something about it when you get those young deer bucks
Speaker 3: out there and you're sitting there hunting, and all of
Speaker 3: a sudden, you almost can you almost can if you're
Speaker 3: watching the tone of the deer and you're reading the deer,
Speaker 3: you can almost see their behaviors starting to changing. Maybe
Speaker 3: they're starting to kind of getting away from the spot,
Speaker 3: their ears are getting in back, maybe they're getting little edgy,
Speaker 3: and all of a sudden, those bigger bucks come out
Speaker 3: Like the big guys definitely carry some weight to them,
Speaker 3: which I think the older they get allows them the
Speaker 3: ability to not have to travel as far because, you
Speaker 3: know what, they kind of know who their girls are.
Speaker 3: They kind of know who they're gonna breed man when
Speaker 3: they're out checking those scrapes at night and they're they
Speaker 3: know they are. I completely believed Listen. I'm not a biologist,
Speaker 3: but I completely believe one that they know what dough
Speaker 3: is going to come in first. They do know who
Speaker 3: she is. They do generally know where she is living,
Speaker 3: and they generally are able to because of the old guys,
Speaker 3: and you know that they generally get to be able
Speaker 3: to hold that dominance in an area, and I think
Speaker 3: they can get away with traveling less. They don't have
Speaker 3: to be running. It's almost like the big buck that
Speaker 3: the coyle standing on top of the hill looking down
Speaker 3: at all the coles and the young buck wants to
Speaker 3: run down there, or the young con wants to run
Speaker 3: down there and say, you know, let's get one, and
Speaker 3: then the old bull says no, let's just walk down
Speaker 3: and get them. All right, Like at the end of
Speaker 3: the day, those big guys they've got their spot. They
Speaker 3: know specifically which ones are going to come in. I
Speaker 3: do think they travel less. And I'll tell you a
Speaker 3: really cool story. This is. This is a cool story
Speaker 3: if anyone ever watched the Sweetness story that we put
Speaker 3: on bow hunting dot com years ago. I mean, I
Speaker 3: chased that deer and we mentioned it earlier in this
Speaker 3: That was an eight and a half year old deer
Speaker 3: two hundred and twenty inch buck. The deer was shot
Speaker 3: and wounded when he was four and a half years
Speaker 3: old by my friend. He's gonna kill me right now
Speaker 3: for doing this, but he shot him. It was a
Speaker 3: high shot. It happens, guys. If we're bowhunters, come on man,
Speaker 3: anybody who bow hunts, you know, things happen. There's a difference.
Speaker 3: We always say the same thing. There's the difference between
Speaker 3: doing the right thing ethically and having stuff go wrong
Speaker 3: versus doing the wrong thing. And and and then you
Speaker 3: got to live with that, do the right thing, and
Speaker 3: you never have that. You can always sleep, you know,
Speaker 3: good at night. But you know, it was a high shot.
Speaker 3: Sweetness was fine. The deer lived on. I can't tell
Speaker 3: you the strategies that we put in place to try
Speaker 3: to kill that deer, right, and and it kind of
Speaker 3: had its pad. It just seemed to like leave our property,
Speaker 3: hit another property. Some other guys had the deer named
Speaker 3: a different name than well, we had it named, you know,
Speaker 3: and I'm sure three other properties they all everyone had
Speaker 3: their own name for this deer. Right. And would you
Speaker 3: believe it? Four years later, my friend who originally shot
Speaker 3: Sweetness ends up harvesting Sweetness in the same stand four
Speaker 3: years later. So, I mean, isn't it cool? I mean
Speaker 3: it is wild, right, Like all this work, all this effort,
Speaker 3: all these different locations, and to think four years later
Speaker 3: he'd be harvested this unbelievable two hundred and twenty inch
Speaker 3: deer would be harvested from the same stand that it
Speaker 3: was wounded in. Right like, so maybe if you spook
Speaker 3: a big buck out of his bed, after four years,
Speaker 3: it will forget about it will come back to that bed,
Speaker 3: right like you knows what the ultimate who knows what
Speaker 3: the right. It may take a little bit of time
Speaker 3: until you sleep back in that bed again. But the
Speaker 3: point being, you know, per this, you know call what
Speaker 3: we're talking about right now. Mature bucks one hundred percent
Speaker 3: have those good key spots that they love, and you
Speaker 3: gotta pay attention. You gotta look for them. You know,
Speaker 3: it's not just aimlessly walking through the woods. You gotta
Speaker 3: look at your maps. You gotta look at for the sign.
Speaker 3: You know. No, you're not gonna get down and smell
Speaker 3: the bed or do stupid stuff like you're gonna look
Speaker 3: at the bed. You're gonna look at the size of
Speaker 3: the bed and then and then maybe you're gonna come
Speaker 3: back and check it, you know, a year later. Some
Speaker 3: of the best times, honestly to find these big beds,
Speaker 3: you know, and where we think these big guys are
Speaker 3: are are living is really that early season. When I
Speaker 3: say early season, I really like kind of that March
Speaker 3: April time frame when you can really get out there
Speaker 3: and really look around and really see what you have there.
Speaker 3: But to answer your question, yes, I do believe as
Speaker 3: deer get older, they gravitate to their favorite spots. They
Speaker 3: don't travel as far for a couple of different reasons. One,
Speaker 3: I think they've learned over the years where the good
Speaker 3: food is, where the good water sources are, where the
Speaker 3: girls are that they're gonna need at the time when
Speaker 3: the rut comes along. And I think they just, through
Speaker 3: time learn where those best spots are. And I really
Speaker 3: do believe they don't travel as far. Now, again, guys,
Speaker 3: you can analyze this all day long, and if you
Speaker 3: live in an area where food sources are low and
Speaker 3: they have to travel farther, or you're in a big drought,
Speaker 3: I mean, there's a ten thousand variables that we could
Speaker 3: go through right now. But generally speaking, I think is
Speaker 3: deer age. I really do believe that that area that
Speaker 3: they're they're monitoring just get smaller.
Speaker 2: So let's let's uh, I want to kind of get
Speaker 2: your take on a few other different I don't know,
Speaker 2: if there's a personality, maybe tendencies, maybe that you've seen
Speaker 2: with these older bucks as far as behavior, and and
Speaker 2: I know a lot of this. One of the things
Speaker 2: you hear a lot about when people start, you know,
Speaker 2: getting to know a mature buck is they'll say, well,
Speaker 2: there's this personality trailer. This buck has got a unique personality.
Speaker 2: So I think there's going to be a lot of
Speaker 2: unique things depending on the deer. But I am curious
Speaker 2: whether or not you've seen any consistencies of any kind.
Speaker 2: Let's say, well, let's start first with like with how
Speaker 2: a really mature buck uses the wind. Have you found
Speaker 2: any consistency with those oldest bucks you've hunted, Man, they
Speaker 2: they always like to bet with the wind in a
Speaker 2: certain way, like at their back or is that not
Speaker 2: the case? Have you always seen that? Man?
Speaker 3: They like me?
Speaker 2: You hear some people talk that, man, mature bucks really
Speaker 2: want to move with the wind in their face or
Speaker 2: quartering or crossed. And then you hear other people saying, nah,
Speaker 2: that the rock of the tail wind. You know, anything
Speaker 2: on the wind side. Have you seen anything that stands
Speaker 2: out as a nugget of a tendency that's worth keeping
Speaker 2: in the back of your mind when it comes to
Speaker 2: these five year olds, these six year olds whatever.
Speaker 3: I think one of the hardest things that I've had
Speaker 3: to learn, because anyone that knows me, dude, I'm hyper, right, Like,
Speaker 3: I'm a hyper guy. I mean, I just I can't help.
Speaker 3: I'm just a shaker. I'm a mover. I just you know,
Speaker 3: I talk with my hands. I mean, I just I'm
Speaker 3: a mover. And I think one thing and I'm excluding.
Speaker 3: I'm excluding the rut right now when I get ready
Speaker 3: to say this guy's okay. But one thing's for certain.
Speaker 3: When you see big legitimate bucks man, and I'm talking
Speaker 3: good mature bucks, they are slow movers. They take the time,
Speaker 3: did they did? They're methodical. You just you can just
Speaker 3: see that ever so slight, little you know, little lift
Speaker 3: of that little lift of that head man just taking
Speaker 3: in that little extra you know, scent coming across their nose. Man.
Speaker 3: You really see big bucks. They you know, they're not
Speaker 3: just oh, there's the playground, let's go, you know, like that.
Speaker 3: They just take their time. Now again, I'm excluding the rut.
Speaker 3: On a hot trail with a hot dough, obviously that's
Speaker 3: completely different. But even when a big buck finally is
Speaker 3: going to tend to a dough and he's decided that
Speaker 3: she's gonna come in the heat. That's the dough. That's
Speaker 3: the one I'm breeding. They, through vocalization, you know, are
Speaker 3: able to like get that dough to kind of stay put.
Speaker 3: I mean, every once in a while they take off
Speaker 3: a generally speaking man when they just want things to
Speaker 3: be calm. They have a way of doing that right.
Speaker 3: And I have seen so many big Bucks they just
Speaker 3: take their time. My point with me being kind of
Speaker 3: a hyper shaky guy and trying to use this as
Speaker 3: a tactic to be smart. You know, for me, the
Speaker 3: tree stand is my yoga session. The tree stand is
Speaker 3: the one time when I can, you know, you can
Speaker 3: kind of like just get in there, snuggle in, be
Speaker 3: smart and and and and try not to move right like,
Speaker 3: because I'm telling you those big Bucks they're not just
Speaker 3: using their nose. They're using their eyes too, and and
Speaker 3: and when they start walking and they decide that they're
Speaker 3: going to move from point A to point B and
Speaker 3: they're gonna actually go do something, they're using everything they
Speaker 3: got right their nose, their ears, their eyes, they're using
Speaker 3: it at all. They're looking out for predators. And I'm
Speaker 3: telling you, part of their strategic way of living longer
Speaker 3: and getting bigger too, is they just move methodically and
Speaker 3: they move a little slower, and man, you just see them.
Speaker 3: You just see them stop right like you can see
Speaker 3: them like they just if they get out of their bed.
Speaker 3: Sometimes they just stand there for like forever, and you know,
Speaker 3: and then they just they're so methodical about Okay, which
Speaker 3: way am I gonna kind of pull out of here today?
Speaker 3: And then they come down the tray a little bit,
Speaker 3: and then they'll just stop and they'll just they'll literally
Speaker 3: stand there for minutes. Some of the biggest bucks I've seen,
Speaker 3: they'll just they'll just stand there and they'll just kind
Speaker 3: of just smell and they'll just So the problem is
Speaker 3: you might have you might be hunting to killer ridgeline, right,
Speaker 3: you might be hunting something really good. And if you're
Speaker 3: standing up and you know, talking to your buddies, or
Speaker 3: you know, if they're filming you, or you're just you know,
Speaker 3: moving a little too much in those stands, sometimes those
Speaker 3: deer are just seeing you and you're never seeing you're
Speaker 3: never even seeing them, right, They've already they WHOA what
Speaker 3: was that? And and they just total away. How many
Speaker 3: times have you spooked a big buck. Right you're in
Speaker 3: the stand, you see them coming, and do they Mark,
Speaker 3: do They usually go bolting out of there and running away,
Speaker 3: the big.
Speaker 2: Guys sneaking on out turntail quickly and they're just scooting out.
Speaker 3: They just do they just did, you know? They don't
Speaker 3: They don't need to make him listen, Spooking a buck
Speaker 3: out of bed is one thing, because they aren't blowing yeah,
Speaker 3: totally right, This isn't This isn't the big Nanny Doe
Speaker 3: going like, Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna blow here for
Speaker 3: the next fifteen I mean, they just usually like, man,
Speaker 3: if they get the scent to something, wron, they just man.
Speaker 3: Sometimes I think they can just walk in reverse. You know.
Speaker 3: It's like it's like, how will you just go? You know,
Speaker 3: It's it's like that Bart Simpson's one of my favorite
Speaker 3: little icons where he's like just kind of like kind
Speaker 3: of just sneaks exactly.
Speaker 2: That's exactly. You know, you.
Speaker 3: Know what, Mark, you don't beat me to this. I'm
Speaker 3: gonna take that meme and I'm gonna have a buck
Speaker 3: just disappearing back in the books Hunting Seasons coming great,
Speaker 3: don't you take that one? I'm gonna go I'm gonna
Speaker 3: go make that one of course, but you know what
Speaker 3: I'm talking about. I mean, that's exactly what I just think.
Speaker 3: You know, they're methodical. They're slow, and again they're not
Speaker 3: being methodical because they're like, oh, man, Todd's out here today.
Speaker 3: I saw his truck pull in, or you know, or
Speaker 3: the neighbor. They're just this is what they do, right,
Speaker 3: Like they they don't want to get eaten for lunch.
Speaker 3: They don't want coyotes chasing them, they don't want you know,
Speaker 3: they just they're just methodical. They're just they those bigger guys,
Speaker 3: they're just they take their time. They've been in the
Speaker 3: woods a lot longer than the other deer. They just
Speaker 3: know what they need to do to survive and and
Speaker 3: to not be chased as much and and and not
Speaker 3: be killed. Right, so, man, you watch them. They're slow,
Speaker 3: So don't be moving around a lot in your stands.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, so, so what's the hunting takeaway from that?
Speaker 2: As you mentioned, one thing, don't be making them, you know,
Speaker 2: don't do anything crazy up in the tree and let
Speaker 2: them see you. But if they're given that they're so
Speaker 2: slow and methodical, is one of the hunting takeaways like man.
Speaker 2: Because of that, that's another really strong reason for why
Speaker 2: you should try to be as close to their bedding
Speaker 2: year as possible, because they're just not going to travel
Speaker 2: seven hundred yards or whatever to go down the ridge
Speaker 2: all the way. You gotta be close to their bedroom.
Speaker 2: Is that it or what is it? In your mind?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's always a good question mark. You want to
Speaker 3: tip as many things in your favor as possible. We
Speaker 3: know for a fact that big mature bucks generally are
Speaker 3: just not okay I'm excluding the rut, but generally speaking
Speaker 3: or just not out running around all day long. Okay,
Speaker 3: I mean I live in areas where big bucks live.
Speaker 3: I haven't fact, I haven't seen a monster buck this
Speaker 3: year yet. I'm excluding the hunting season obviously in January,
Speaker 3: but I have not seen a big buck, legitimate shooter
Speaker 3: buck on their feet during day time. I think a Kurt,
Speaker 3: you know Kurt, you know a guy on our team.
Speaker 3: You know Kurt. You know he's killed a lot of deer.
Speaker 3: You know, he does a lot of management on farms
Speaker 3: and stuff like that. And I mean even he's out
Speaker 3: in the daily you know, and he doesn't even see
Speaker 3: that many big bucks during the day and moving around,
Speaker 3: so you want to get as close as you can
Speaker 3: number one without blowing out the areas. Number two, you
Speaker 3: always have to be, you know, playing the win that
Speaker 3: we've talked about. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: you know, they just don't move a lot, so you
Speaker 3: want to make sure you're putting yourself in the best
Speaker 3: position for when they do make those moves before they
Speaker 3: come out to those bigger fields and at night and
Speaker 3: eat and so forth, that you have the best chance
Speaker 3: at getting them. You're not going to have that happen
Speaker 3: if you're just going to go to some big bean
Speaker 3: plot on an evening hunt. Right. Like, again, there's always luck,
Speaker 3: but when it comes to those big mature guys, you
Speaker 3: better you'd better be close to where they're betting, and
Speaker 3: you have to be able to get in there without
Speaker 3: you know, busting them out and having them know that
Speaker 3: you're there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, speaking of the fact that those big old guys
Speaker 2: don't get up and move very far, very often, that
Speaker 2: brings to mind another thing that hunters love to debate
Speaker 2: and question, which is trying to predict the conditions that
Speaker 2: might get a big old buck like that on his
Speaker 2: feet a little bit earlier or moving just a little
Speaker 2: bit further. So there's all sorts of you know, popular
Speaker 2: apps these days of predicted deer movement, and there's all
Speaker 2: sorts of theories about the moon and the wind and
Speaker 2: the barometer and the temperature and humidity and YadA, YadA, YadA.
Speaker 2: Is there anything from all those different factors that you
Speaker 2: think does have the greatest influence on a mature, mature buck, Like,
Speaker 2: is it, man, that barometer really does pressure really does
Speaker 2: get a big old buck on his fear. Is there
Speaker 2: anything like that in your mind that stands out that
Speaker 2: is unique to getting those special deer out and moving
Speaker 2: a little bit more?
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, I do. I know there's the moon, guys
Speaker 3: that really, really really foul the moon years ago. I
Speaker 3: used to you know, foul the moon and kind of
Speaker 3: kind of stop fouling the moon as much. But there
Speaker 3: is no doubt when it comes to barometric pressure. Pressure
Speaker 3: is a biggie. I mean, I don't care. You watch
Speaker 3: pressure enough, and you know, it's funny because so many
Speaker 3: people stop watching the pressure since the hunting season's over, right,
Speaker 3: But pay attention to the pressure even when the hunting
Speaker 3: season is not going on. You know those days where
Speaker 3: you're just like, dang, I really have seen a lot
Speaker 3: of deer today, take the time to, you know, remember
Speaker 3: to go look at so many people forget about looking
Speaker 3: at that once the hunting season's over, right, So pressure
Speaker 3: is a big one for sure. I mean there is
Speaker 3: no doubt after running you know, our web series Bowhunter
Speaker 3: Die for as many years as we have, I can
Speaker 3: almost guarantee if me and Justin are talking about when
Speaker 3: we think the first couple of deer kills are going
Speaker 3: to come in. Generally that first high pressure system that
Speaker 3: comes in in the beginning when you can hunt deer. Obviously,
Speaker 3: you know when your season starts, that first one. If
Speaker 3: you can get catch that first high pressure system, that's
Speaker 3: almost always always always a good one. But I do
Speaker 3: watch the pressure quite a bit. I do have some
Speaker 3: of my best hunting daring high pressure. But Mark, that
Speaker 3: doesn't mean that I'm not going to go hunt, you
Speaker 3: know a day where maybe the pressure is not as good.
Speaker 3: I mean, everyone's lives are different, everyone's work schedules are different.
Speaker 3: Everyone has different times that they can hunt and how
Speaker 3: much they can hunt. But for the average guy who
Speaker 3: has some control over their schedule, that can save some vacations,
Speaker 3: that can bank some vacation days. I think if you
Speaker 3: can be lucky enough to time a high pressure hunt
Speaker 3: with when you're going versus just aimlessly going into spots
Speaker 3: when you shouldn't be going into some of your better spots,
Speaker 3: is going to make a difference. And generally speaking, on
Speaker 3: those high pressure situations, it does seem like those bigger
Speaker 3: mature bucks do get out of their beds a little
Speaker 3: bit earlier and people can say, well, geez, I hunted
Speaker 3: high pressure, but I just didn't see the mature deer. Well,
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, let's be realistic, how
Speaker 3: many big mature deer are in your area? Number one right,
Speaker 3: and he just doesn't have one spot that he goes to.
Speaker 3: So just because I'm having bag luck this day, I
Speaker 3: could be literally texting you, who could be completely on
Speaker 3: the other side of the fire, and you're like, dude,
Speaker 3: you were right. Today was the day. You know, you know,
Speaker 3: there's let's be honest, there's only so many these four
Speaker 3: and a half five and have six year old deer
Speaker 3: and they just don't do the same thing. Every single day.
Speaker 3: I hit Starbucks, I go to the Walmart, I go
Speaker 3: to the office, Like Okay, like you know, that's just
Speaker 3: not how it works. You know. They just they have
Speaker 3: other spots, their appetite might be desiring something different. They
Speaker 3: just might go to a different area. So just because
Speaker 3: you're like, oh, I'm hunting this high pressure day and
Speaker 3: I'm not seeing any activity, doesn't you may have just
Speaker 3: chose the dang wrong spot too, you know, And that
Speaker 3: can completely happen, right Like, sometimes you just got to
Speaker 3: have all those all those things line up, and there's
Speaker 3: just not enough really legitimately big bucks for everything that
Speaker 3: line up perfectly for all of us all the time.
Speaker 3: So I do like the pressure my absolute man. I
Speaker 3: we all only get so many opportunities at shooting a
Speaker 3: quality deer each year, right, Like, I mean you can
Speaker 3: pretty much guarantee like every season, you know, what is it,
Speaker 3: maybe three, you know, maybe four, I mean, like not many,
Speaker 3: and you know, and you're just hoping.
Speaker 2: And that's for those of us that have a lot
Speaker 2: of time to do it on.
Speaker 3: Your hundred percent for you know, it can be very
Speaker 3: different for everybody else. But let's just say you get
Speaker 3: three legitimate chances, right, you know, so you got to
Speaker 3: be you know, you got to make sure you're on
Speaker 3: your eight game in your prepaid because you start messing
Speaker 3: those up, like you can't get time back right, and
Speaker 3: the season, you know, it starts off and it just
Speaker 3: kind of gets going. And the next the point that
Speaker 3: I'm trying to make here is if it's if it's
Speaker 3: not barometer or barometric pressure, right, that the next thing
Speaker 3: that I really, really, really, man, I love those those
Speaker 3: those pre rut those pre rut days are just I
Speaker 3: would take the pre rut over the rut any day
Speaker 3: of any day of the week. You know, I would
Speaker 3: much rat even though you can't see as far because
Speaker 3: there's more foliage. You know, corn still love blah blah blah.
Speaker 3: That pre rut you can pretty much count on. They
Speaker 3: just they know it, man, They just got it in
Speaker 3: their body. They know they know what's coming. It's built
Speaker 3: into their everything that a deer does, like they have
Speaker 3: to breathe. It's just it's the way it works. And
Speaker 3: that pre rut, they start getting up, they get up
Speaker 3: a little bit earlier, they start checking those scrapes, they
Speaker 3: start checking those line and man, I loved I love
Speaker 3: that pre rut time that that for hair in Illinois.
Speaker 3: Sometimes that twenty second. I'd killed some of my best
Speaker 3: deer between the twenty second and the twenty eighth of
Speaker 3: October compared to November first through the seventh. Hands down.
Speaker 3: If I went back, I wish I would have done
Speaker 3: a better job, you know, keeping track of the stuff,
Speaker 3: you know, as I was younger. But there is no
Speaker 3: doubt I would take the twenty second to the thirty
Speaker 3: first over the first through the seventh, any day of
Speaker 3: the week or eighth anytime. I just pluster calmer too.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I was gonna ask, you know, when you think
Speaker 2: if you could pick any you know, week during the
Speaker 2: hunting season to kill a buck like this, if there's
Speaker 2: like a six year older after or something, and you
Speaker 2: had to pick one week, would it be that last
Speaker 2: week of October? Sounds like maybe that's the case.
Speaker 3: Yes, Yes, I really try my hardest every year not
Speaker 3: to screw that last week up. I mean, like, you know,
Speaker 3: being sick, I may still be the guy wearing masks.
Speaker 2: You you know, I do don't want to miss those days,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 3: I love that. You know that that last ten days
Speaker 3: of October. I love that last ten days of October.
Speaker 3: I just I just I really, really really those are
Speaker 3: my fa I will take those days anytime over the run.
Speaker 3: I mean, don't get me wrong. I mean the ruts
Speaker 3: fun and you can see chasing, and you can see
Speaker 3: him further away, and you know, and you can and
Speaker 3: I've still killed there during those times. And it's not like, oh,
Speaker 3: October thirty for halloweens here, I'm done. I'm hanging up
Speaker 3: the boat. No, of course, not no, sure, no, I
Speaker 3: mean it's been plenty years. I haven't even had a
Speaker 3: tag notched by then, you know. But but there's no
Speaker 3: doubt when it comes to filming mature bucks, getting close
Speaker 3: in on them. Man, that is the time to do it.
Speaker 3: I just, I just I love that window. That's a
Speaker 3: great window of time. I mean, especially if you haven't
Speaker 3: been fortunate enough to locate that big buck. Right, Like,
Speaker 3: let's just forget about everything that we've been talking about,
Speaker 3: you know, in terms of okay, Todd, you know what,
Speaker 3: I hun a small piece of property or mark. I
Speaker 3: don't have an opportunity to hunt a lot of land.
Speaker 3: Let me, let's face it, just because you even got
Speaker 3: two hundred acres doesn't mean doesn't mean that the big
Speaker 3: guy is living on you, right, So you still got
Speaker 3: to then figure out, Okay, you know, if when time
Speaker 3: comes and he's gonna and I want to kill that
Speaker 3: mature buck, where is the highest likelihood spot that he's
Speaker 3: gonna be on my place, whether that's ten acres, five acres,
Speaker 3: forty acres, or a thousand acres. Right, You're always trying
Speaker 3: to find those spots where those mature bucks generally like
Speaker 3: to travel, you know, so you got to keep that
Speaker 3: in mind too. But I I I do love that
Speaker 3: end of that end of October mark for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when you're coming in.
Speaker 3: Also, let's change this up when you kind.
Speaker 2: Of come home, let's go. I need to get there soon.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 3: Well, the man, let's go. I just gave it to you,
Speaker 3: So let's go. Let's do it.
Speaker 2: Be careful what you ask for, Todd, I might be
Speaker 2: kno going to the door this fall.
Speaker 3: Let's go, man. I I told Justin I'm all about
Speaker 3: doing new and different things. You know, my boys in
Speaker 3: college now and trying to mix things up and do
Speaker 3: different things. And uh, and it's fun. It's always fun
Speaker 3: to meet new people, hear different edies, do different things,
Speaker 3: listen to podcasts like this, Like that's what makes it fun, right, like, Hey,
Speaker 3: there's gonna be plenty of people take little nuggets of
Speaker 3: this podcast and they're going to hopefully gonna be able
Speaker 3: to implement it to their style and what they're doing,
Speaker 3: and hopefully it helps them bag their first big buck, right, Like,
Speaker 3: that's that's what it's all about. It's all about experiences,
Speaker 3: and it's like everything in life. You know, if you
Speaker 3: get a couple of good nuggets from everything you do
Speaker 3: in life, I mean that's and you and you keep
Speaker 3: and you hold those that usually end up panning, you know,
Speaker 3: paying out for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So that's a perfect segue todd to the final
Speaker 2: question I want to run by you, which was if
Speaker 2: there's any particular big old buck from your past that
Speaker 2: gave you one of those nuggets, one of those lessons
Speaker 2: learned that stands out more than any other. If if
Speaker 2: you were to think back over all of the years,
Speaker 2: over all those biggest oldest ghosts that haunted you, maybe
Speaker 2: you got him, maybe you didn't get them, does one
Speaker 2: of them stand out as having taught you the most
Speaker 2: important lesson or taught to you the most that has
Speaker 2: impacted your hunting still to this day. What would that lesson?
Speaker 2: What would that buck be, and what would that lesson be.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna that's a great question. It's a very very
Speaker 3: very good question, and I already have the answer. It's
Speaker 3: stay put if you've done your homework. I think of Longhorn,
Speaker 3: that buck. He pisses me off to this day. I'm
Speaker 3: not gonna lie. I mean, I'll just even just drive
Speaker 3: cellular my stealth cams, you know, cellular trail cameras. I
Speaker 3: had one on. Remember I was describing that knob with
Speaker 3: that rock cropping. There literally was a spot over here
Speaker 3: and then they're literally on the other side of the
Speaker 3: valley was another spot where he came out. I'm telling you, like,
Speaker 3: I know this is a podcast, and I know you're
Speaker 3: watching me, and I'm literally like messing with my hand.
Speaker 3: I'm like squeezing my head right now, like that stupid buck.
Speaker 3: I mean that that was such a cool buck. I'm
Speaker 3: gonna get your photo of him. Yeah, Longhorn was this
Speaker 3: amazing buck and son of a gun dude. I'm telling you,
Speaker 3: I had pictures of him like crazy and videos. I'm
Speaker 3: like crazy, I finally finally had an opportunity at him,
Speaker 3: and I mean, stay put. Your question specifically was what
Speaker 3: did you learn from the biggest bucks. Longhorn kept coming
Speaker 3: out on these two spots, and and and I was
Speaker 3: an idiot, and I would try to like squeak in
Speaker 3: and move a stand. And if I would have just
Speaker 3: stayed put in those two spots, dude, I would go
Speaker 3: to the one spot and I'd be sitting there shoot,
Speaker 3: and he'd be at the other spot, you know, And
Speaker 3: then and then I'd go to that spot, and then
Speaker 3: he'd be And it was a joke, man. I mean
Speaker 3: a couple of my buddies, you know, literally who also
Speaker 3: super good, good friends of mindy, really good people where
Speaker 3: where you know are are are not able to hunt
Speaker 3: as much as I am. And so they're always watching
Speaker 3: the cameras right and literally they would be like, you
Speaker 3: screwed up. He's over there, you know. I'm like, oh
Speaker 3: my dude, I had to like I had to turn
Speaker 3: the phone off. I couldn't even watch that crap anymore
Speaker 3: because I'd be sitting there and it's like, oh, well,
Speaker 3: there is there he is, you know. And he would
Speaker 3: any any any and never never would he go from
Speaker 3: this spot during the during the hunt and come all
Speaker 3: the way over to the spot. It was just too far.
Speaker 3: It was to it was it was. I mean, as
Speaker 3: far as the crow flies, it was that big of
Speaker 3: a deal. But in terms of like the terrain going
Speaker 3: all the way down, crossing the ag field, coming all
Speaker 3: the way up to the other spot, it just wasn't
Speaker 3: gonna happen. And and I honestly, I should have just
Speaker 3: stopped going from A to B to A to B
Speaker 3: and then trying to stick in the C and the D.
Speaker 3: I should have just been like, now you know what,
Speaker 3: I'm hunting B. I'm just staying at B. I know
Speaker 3: he's gonna come here. I know this is one of
Speaker 3: the scrapes that he frequently checks. I'm just going to
Speaker 3: stay here. And if I would have done that, I
Speaker 3: probably would have had a second chance. And I did
Speaker 3: finally end up getting a chance at Longhorn, and I
Speaker 3: literally had him at I don't know, five yards and
Speaker 3: I just did not have an ethical shot and there's
Speaker 3: just no way. And heck, I was going to take that,
Speaker 3: take that chance. So you know, I so so. And
Speaker 3: then and then the last final thing, let's just talk
Speaker 3: about and let's just talk about sweetness for two seconds,
Speaker 3: right four years later, what did we talk about earlier
Speaker 3: in this show, he ends up being shot right right
Speaker 3: out of the same darn spot. Sorry, Mark, I'm trying
Speaker 3: to put my laptop in here, same spot four years later.
Speaker 3: So dude, good spots are good spots, right, and we
Speaker 3: keep trying to add more spots. But man, when you
Speaker 3: get a good one sometimes, I've learned from Big Bucks, Dude,
Speaker 3: hold the line, and it's so easy to get carried.
Speaker 3: It's so easy to want to do what go to
Speaker 3: and do spot? I mean, Mark, we hang all these stands.
Speaker 3: How many stands you got hung right now?
Speaker 2: Well, not as many because I'm mostly saddle hunt now.
Speaker 2: But there's a lot of prep trees ready for saddles
Speaker 2: and a lot of locations.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, Hey listen, I haven't killed a deer with
Speaker 3: the sald yet. I'm all in this year. I really
Speaker 3: do want to shoot a deer with a saddle, for sure.
Speaker 3: It's fun, it's new, it's different, it's exciting, right, It's
Speaker 3: just it's it's just it's something different. And but not
Speaker 3: that I'm dissing saddle hunting or tree stand hunting, right, Like,
Speaker 3: the saddle almost is like adds a whole nother mind,
Speaker 3: like a whole nother mind boggling dimension to it now,
Speaker 3: because now I'm walking around going like, Okay, I got
Speaker 3: a tree stand hung there, I could saddle hunt there,
Speaker 3: and I can saddle hunt there. Now. It's like my
Speaker 3: inventory of spots has gone up, you know, but I.
Speaker 2: Can go too far. Sometimes it can go too far.
Speaker 3: Sometimes. The point is that we're trying to make with
Speaker 3: this last and final question. When you find a big
Speaker 3: buck and you know that he has been frequently coming
Speaker 3: to an area, clearly that can change. Like listen, right now,
Speaker 3: apples are falling, and you know you'd go stick a
Speaker 3: trail camera underneath an apple tree, and right now apples
Speaker 3: are kind of hot, and it's a fun way to
Speaker 3: get some inventorysm deer. Yes, that's going to probably change.
Speaker 3: But generally speaking, this whole podcast has been about mature
Speaker 3: deer where they like to live, and when you find
Speaker 3: and when you believe you have one of those spots
Speaker 3: and you get your stand or you get your saddle position,
Speaker 3: hold the line and hang in there. That that would
Speaker 3: be my personal you know, recommendation period. Yeah, sweetness, I
Speaker 3: had strong, strong advice. Ton I had ten probably stands
Speaker 3: for sweetness. I probably should have just kept going back
Speaker 3: to the ladder stand that my friend shot for years ago,
Speaker 3: and I would add a chance at a you know,
Speaker 3: and longhorn. I should have just kept sticking with the spot.
Speaker 3: But hue in nature is you know, you want to
Speaker 3: shake and move, you want to do different things. You
Speaker 3: start letting your brain get in the way in terms
Speaker 3: of like, oh gosh, does the deer think that he's
Speaker 3: onto me here? So again, the best lesson I could
Speaker 3: say when it comes to that last question you asked, specifically,
Speaker 3: what have we learned from hunting big mature bucks. When
Speaker 3: you find a good spot that they like the frequent,
Speaker 3: make that saddle or tree stand bulletproof. From how you
Speaker 3: get in, how you get out. Make sure you understand
Speaker 3: the wind on multiple different conditions. There when it's not right,
Speaker 3: don't hunt it, leave it alone, pay attention to the
Speaker 3: bear the pressure, and I can pretty much guarantee that
Speaker 3: you will be tipping the odds in your favor of
Speaker 3: shooting that big buck this fall.
Speaker 2: Man, it's a perfect boat to put on top of
Speaker 2: the whole conversation. Tod, that's perfect. Thank you for that.
Speaker 2: So let's let's end it with this. Can you give
Speaker 2: folks a quick rundown of where they can connect with
Speaker 2: you guys, where they can see all the bowhunting dot
Speaker 2: Com content. Is there anything in particular they should be
Speaker 2: keeping an eye out this year for anything like that.
Speaker 2: Please let us know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Mark, thanks for that. I appreciate it. For those
Speaker 3: of you that follow us, I mean, you know I
Speaker 3: I websites and have been in my blood forever. I
Speaker 3: mean I started literally like in nineteen ninety six. I'm
Speaker 3: gonna end this with a really fun story about and
Speaker 3: I'll save that for the end. But bowhunting dot Com
Speaker 3: is a great resource for a lot of great information.
Speaker 3: Justin and Paul and our team and Brody. We got
Speaker 3: a lot of writers, We got a lot of good
Speaker 3: content on there. Mark, I actually am going to pose
Speaker 3: a question to you right now that puts you in
Speaker 3: a position where you just can't say no. That's why
Speaker 3: I'm saving this too as well. We do a really
Speaker 3: cool thing with age, the age this buck, and I
Speaker 3: would love it if you, guys, if I sent you
Speaker 3: about twelve different bucks that we're going to be yeah aging,
Speaker 3: if you could give us your opinion on the age
Speaker 3: of these bucks, and of course you know it will
Speaker 3: be from Mark Kenyon what he thinks the age of
Speaker 3: those deer ours. We love to have to be a
Speaker 3: part of that. So if you want to have fun, guys,
Speaker 3: go to bowhunting dot com. We've got some sweep steaks,
Speaker 3: We've got a lot of good content and we can
Speaker 3: answer a lot of your questions with our bow Hunt
Speaker 3: one or one section. As far as YouTube goes, guys,
Speaker 3: you can pull up our channel, which is you know,
Speaker 3: bow hunting dot com. We've got a series that has
Speaker 3: been called Bowhunter Die. You've never heard of it. Check
Speaker 3: it out for those of the people that haven't been
Speaker 3: following along with Bowhunter Die. It's really cool because a
Speaker 3: lot of our teammates are just like probably a lot
Speaker 3: of the audience, right they're not doing this full time
Speaker 3: like we're doing. They are guys who have full time jobs.
Speaker 3: They're working, they're eight up with this stuff. They're and
Speaker 3: they're trying to do the most with their time and
Speaker 3: getting out there, and they have found a little knack
Speaker 3: for filming their hunts and they've been on board for years.
Speaker 3: So definitely take a peek at our YouTube series Bowhunter Die.
Speaker 3: Justin my right hand Man has also started a podcast
Speaker 3: along with the stuff that we do called pinch points.
Speaker 3: So we've got a lot of different content, a lot
Speaker 3: of different things that we're doing to help, you know,
Speaker 3: the average bowhunter get out there and get started and
Speaker 3: have a great time in the woods. Of course, social
Speaker 3: channels and all that stuff. But last, but not least,
Speaker 3: you know, one of the questions I always get asked
Speaker 3: a lot is how the heck did you get that
Speaker 3: domain name bowhunting dot com? And it was probably one
Speaker 3: of my most favorite purchases ever. I literally I think
Speaker 3: I still owned this date over two thousand hunting related
Speaker 3: domain names, but you name it, I own it. Food
Speaker 3: plots dot com or dear ticks dot com. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: own a lot of them, but this one, specifically, I
Speaker 3: really wanted bow hunting dot com right, it's my favorite
Speaker 3: thing to do.
Speaker 4: And I was looking up the domainium This is literally
Speaker 4: about like nineteen ninety six or seven, and a lady
Speaker 4: in Canada owned it and I called her up and
Speaker 4: I said, Hey, what do I need to do to
Speaker 4: buy this domain niume for me? She's like, jeez, Louise,
Speaker 4: I get so many phone calls to people who want
Speaker 4: to buy this name, and it must be really popular.
Speaker 3: I'm like, well, i'll tell you what. I'll give you
Speaker 3: two thousand dollars for it. And back then like, seriously, guys,
Speaker 3: I was probably living on my credit cards. Like it's
Speaker 3: probably not the smartest thing, but man, I was buying
Speaker 3: every domain name I could think of. I knew the
Speaker 3: Internet was going to go somewhere one day. And she's
Speaker 3: like two thousand dollars. You got to be kidding me.
Speaker 3: She said, I'll be more unhappy to sell that name
Speaker 3: due and I said, great. You know, so I got
Speaker 3: a certified check man, I sent it to her, and finally,
Speaker 3: once the transaction was done, I said to her, I said, man,
Speaker 3: if you don't mind me asking, you know, why did
Speaker 3: you buy that domain name? Oh, me and my daughters
Speaker 3: love collecting bows for our hair, you know, so we're out,
Speaker 3: you know, bow hunting for bows for our hair.
Speaker 5: And I was like, I mean, I was like, you
Speaker 5: gotta be kidding me, But that is how I am
Speaker 5: getting the domain name bon hunting dot com.
Speaker 3: But Mark, it's been a it's been an absolute pleasure.
Speaker 3: I appreciate, you know, meat eater and all the great
Speaker 3: stuff that you guys do. You guys do a fantastic
Speaker 3: job as well, and I appreciate the fact that you're,
Speaker 3: you know, willing to have a have me on today
Speaker 3: and talk about this big buck strategy. I will say
Speaker 3: it's a lot easier to kill those three and a
Speaker 3: half year olds at the end of this but and
Speaker 3: I might not pass up one of those if it
Speaker 3: comes by. But I do appreciate it for sure.
Speaker 2: You.
Speaker 3: I do appreciate it, and you do a great job.
Speaker 3: And with all getting aside, Mark, love to have you down.
Speaker 3: We got some great spots and if you want to
Speaker 3: come down, have a great time, filmed some videos whatever.
Speaker 3: Love to have you down. The doors open, so just
Speaker 3: you got my cell number, give me a shout, tell
Speaker 3: me when you're coming. Let's get it done.
Speaker 2: Awesome. Well, he thank you for that invite and for
Speaker 2: being here to do this and for sharing all your insight.
Speaker 2: This is as I knew it would be. It's been great,
Speaker 2: it's been fun, and we'll have to make a point
Speaker 2: to do this again soon.
Speaker 3: Sounds really good. Thanks so much.
Speaker 2: Appreciate it all right, and that is a wrap. Thank
Speaker 2: you for joining me. Appreciate you tuning in. Got to
Speaker 2: just leave you with one last ask. Make sure you're
Speaker 2: following Wired to Hunt over on Instagram if you want
Speaker 2: the latest and greatest updates from my hunts, from my fall,
Speaker 2: from the content we're putting out there. That's where I'm
Speaker 2: posting a lot of my stories and little snippets from
Speaker 2: different experiences and different content pieces I'm working on. As
Speaker 2: I mentioned, I think per week prior. My season's kicking
Speaker 2: off here in about a week, so I will have
Speaker 2: some deer hunting stories very soon, and I hope you'll
Speaker 2: follow along there. Over on the Wired Hunt Instagram account,
Speaker 2: We've also got a newsletter. If you go to the
Speaker 2: meat Eater dot com, it will prompt you to sign
Speaker 2: up for the Wired to Hunt weekly newsletter. Make sure
Speaker 2: you're signed up there to get our latest content delivered
Speaker 2: right to your inbox as well. So with all that
Speaker 2: out of the way, I appreciate you listening today, Thanks
Speaker 2: for being a part of this community. Best of luck
Speaker 2: out there. If you guys are hunting already, I know
Speaker 2: a lot of you are. I hope that some of
Speaker 2: the things you've learned this year from the podcast are
Speaker 2: coming in handy, and I hope if stay Wired to
Speaker 2: Hunt