Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your guide to
Speaker 1: the whitetail woods, presented by First Light, creating proven versatile
Speaker 1: hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First Light
Speaker 1: Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host, Mark Kenyon.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. This week on
Speaker 2: the show, I'm going to be walking you through the
Speaker 2: top ten preseason tasks to finish before opening day of
Speaker 2: hunting season. All right, welcome back to the Wired to
Speaker 2: Hunt podcast, brought to you by First Light and their new,
Speaker 2: brand new Reinvented reintroduced the line of whitetail gear and
Speaker 2: their camera for Conservation initiative. If you're not familiar, a
Speaker 2: portion of every sale of first Light Spectrum Cameo pattern,
Speaker 2: which is our white tail pattern, portion of every one
Speaker 2: of those sales goes to support the National Deer Association.
Speaker 2: That said, today, what I want to do is talk
Speaker 2: about summer prep and early fall prep, the last things
Speaker 2: we need to do before hunting season. And the way
Speaker 2: I thought we'd do that is walk through what's on
Speaker 2: my to do list, walk through my final projects, the
Speaker 2: things that I need to get done before the season begins,
Speaker 2: and use those things as examples. Use those things to
Speaker 2: illustrate a number of different ideas, concepts, projects that you
Speaker 2: might want to add to your repertoire as we come
Speaker 2: down to these final weeks and months before the season starts.
Speaker 2: So as we talk, it is, you know, as I
Speaker 2: record this, at least it's August twelfth, and my opening
Speaker 2: day in Michigan is October first, so we are less
Speaker 2: than two months away from that opening day. I know
Speaker 2: some people kick it off in September, so we might
Speaker 2: be less than a month out. For you, that means
Speaker 2: we're getting down to the wire. It's time to get
Speaker 2: serious about this stuff. It's time really to cram for
Speaker 2: the final exam because it's just about here. So that's
Speaker 2: what I want to do here. I want to talk
Speaker 2: through things like, you know, getting ready with our shooting.
Speaker 2: I want to talk about some final habitat work. I
Speaker 2: want to talk about, you know, prepping tree stands and
Speaker 2: saddle sets and clearing access routes and some scouting advice
Speaker 2: and you know, cameras and glassing, getting access to new properties.
Speaker 2: All that kind of stuff is on the to do
Speaker 2: list here today. And before we get to that, though,
Speaker 2: I want to give you a couple quick heads ups
Speaker 2: on things, a couple house cleaning items I think I've
Speaker 2: called it in the past. Number one, we do have
Speaker 2: that new first Light white tailed gear out as I
Speaker 2: mentioned at the top, on over to first light dot
Speaker 2: com to check it all out. There are three new
Speaker 2: kits that are part of the system. That's a jacket
Speaker 2: and bibcombo for kind of the early to mile type temperatures.
Speaker 2: That's the Phase. Then there's the Core kit, which is
Speaker 2: that peak of the rock kind of laid Ouctober November
Speaker 2: kind of thing, very versatile. You could use it earlier,
Speaker 2: you could use it later. Then there's also the Thermic
Speaker 2: and that's the super late season, very very very cold
Speaker 2: weather kit. So check those out. I won't belabor the points,
Speaker 2: but they might be something you want to look into.
Speaker 2: The other heads up just another reminder Whitetail Edu Tony
Speaker 2: and I. We've got this educational video series over on
Speaker 2: the meat eater Clips YouTube channel going over there. There's
Speaker 2: new videos coming out about mature buck travel. We had
Speaker 2: one that came out about scrapes, rubs, deer droppings, all
Speaker 2: sorts of stuff. If you want to level up your
Speaker 2: foundation of deer hunting knowledge before the season. This would
Speaker 2: be a good way to do it. Finally, if you
Speaker 2: listen to this one and you've got more kind of
Speaker 2: you know, you've got more energy, you're interested in kind
Speaker 2: of scratching that whitetail edg some more. I wanted to
Speaker 2: give you two other episode recommendations that would be useful
Speaker 2: at this time of year. Number one, take a listen
Speaker 2: to number two ninety nine, so Wired to Hunt Podcast
Speaker 2: two hundred and ninety nine. It's titled locating the Best
Speaker 2: Buck in Your Neighborhood with Adam Hayes. I think this
Speaker 2: one's particularly irrelevant right now because Adam, if you if
Speaker 2: you're not familiar, he's a tremendously successful deer hunter, and
Speaker 2: one of the things he's done very well in the
Speaker 2: past is he will not just stick with the same
Speaker 2: properties over and over. He will seek out the best
Speaker 2: buck around and then find a way to get access's
Speaker 2: where that buck lives, and then hunts that deer. So
Speaker 2: this is a very good time of year to do that.
Speaker 2: If it's August or early September, you can go out
Speaker 2: there glass Fields, find the caliber deer you're interested in,
Speaker 2: and then you'll have time to try to get access
Speaker 2: in that area. So go on listen to episode two
Speaker 2: ninety nine if that sounds interesting to you. My second
Speaker 2: recommendation is episode number four forty nine, and this one's
Speaker 2: titled Mastering September with Sean Luckdel, David Skinner, Brendan Nating,
Speaker 2: and Greg Godfrey. And this is like a compilation best
Speaker 2: of podcast featuring you know, a handful of different guys
Speaker 2: all giving their best advice for hunting in September. So
Speaker 2: September is knocking on the door. It's just about here.
Speaker 2: If you want to get ready for that one, go
Speaker 2: ahead and give episode number four forty nine to listen.
Speaker 2: So there's two more suggestions for you after this one,
Speaker 2: two ninety nine and forty nine. Check them out if
Speaker 2: this is if this one's wrapped up, or if you
Speaker 2: listen to this here, Hey, I'm bored with Mark. I
Speaker 2: want to hear someone different. Go check out those two
Speaker 2: as well. So that's that's it for suggestions and we'll
Speaker 2: heads ups. Let's get to our top ten preseason tasks.
Speaker 2: Talk through what I'm up to right now. Why I
Speaker 2: am running around like a crazy person every year when
Speaker 2: August comes around, I just kind of know to wall
Speaker 2: off my calendar, evenings, weekend days, any little bit of
Speaker 2: spare time I have, I'm just going to be in
Speaker 2: the field. There's a thousand things to do at this
Speaker 2: time of year. Even if I try to get stuff
Speaker 2: done the spring, which I do throughout the middle of
Speaker 2: the summer, it seems no matter what, there's always a
Speaker 2: pile of stuff to do here at the end of
Speaker 2: the year. And the reason why this piles up for
Speaker 2: me in August is because, as I alluded to at
Speaker 2: the beginning, my opening day in Michigan is October one,
Speaker 2: and I set a one month out deadline. So by
Speaker 2: that I mean I don't want to go in the
Speaker 2: woods or hardly have to go in the woods at all,
Speaker 2: for at least one month before opening day. So that
Speaker 2: means all of my preseason projects need to be done
Speaker 2: by the end of August so that I can leave
Speaker 2: all of September for this area to be quiet and
Speaker 2: safe for deer, so that once opening day comes, I
Speaker 2: have deer that are feeling unpressured, unbothered, and are to
Speaker 2: some degree vulnerable for an early season hunt. So I'm down,
Speaker 2: you know, two three ish weeks to get this stuff
Speaker 2: done here and I'm gonna give you my first piece
Speaker 2: of advice, and this is a simple thing I've talked
Speaker 2: about in the past, but it has been really powerful
Speaker 2: for me, and that is to write things down, actually
Speaker 2: build a list. I have two lists, or two sets
Speaker 2: of lists. I have a digital to do list, which
Speaker 2: is like my master list, my master deer hunting to
Speaker 2: do list. And I break this list down by property,
Speaker 2: so each different property that I've access to, I will
Speaker 2: have a to do list, and then I will sometimes
Speaker 2: put like you know, date ranges when I want to
Speaker 2: do these things, or I'll put things in chronological order,
Speaker 2: like this property needs to get worked one first, this one,
Speaker 2: this one, this, and I do all of this. I
Speaker 2: write all this stuff down because if you keep all
Speaker 2: of the things that you need to get done up
Speaker 2: in your head, it's stressful. It's nearly impossible to keep
Speaker 2: it all straight, and you have like latent stress, like
Speaker 2: wheels are turning the back of your mind when you're
Speaker 2: trying to keep all these balls up in the air.
Speaker 2: And that is stressful, that's exhausting, and it's an easy
Speaker 2: way to forget things. But as soon as you write
Speaker 2: it down, it's like taking weight off your shoulders, and
Speaker 2: it's also more effective. You're more likely to do these things.
Speaker 2: You're more likely to get all the stuff done that
Speaker 2: you want to get done if you have a way
Speaker 2: to keep track of it and if you can actually
Speaker 2: also feel the good vibes of checking things off that list. So,
Speaker 2: as I mentioned, I have the master to do list.
Speaker 2: I use Google Docs for that. I break it down
Speaker 2: by property and I write everything down that I need
Speaker 2: to get done on each one of these properties. Then
Speaker 2: I have a I don't know where it is. I
Speaker 2: have a physical book right here which I personally use,
Speaker 2: something called the Full Focused Planner. And this is a
Speaker 2: daily planner and weekly planner that my whole life revolves around,
Speaker 2: not just my deer hunting life, but this is something
Speaker 2: that allows me to keep track of things on a
Speaker 2: week to week basis and day day basis. So at
Speaker 2: the beginning of every week, Sunday night, I go and
Speaker 2: I actually have a seven day outlook. I can see
Speaker 2: my full seven days ahead and I can write in
Speaker 2: what I need to do on each one of these days.
Speaker 2: And then Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, there's a full two
Speaker 2: pages for each day in which I prioritize the top
Speaker 2: things I need to do for work, top things I
Speaker 2: need to do for my outside of work projects. And
Speaker 2: this is where my deer hunting stuff lives. So I
Speaker 2: have this master list online and then each week, especially
Speaker 2: this time of year in the summer, I am then
Speaker 2: looking at that master list when I do my weekly
Speaker 2: planning in the physical book. And this is where I
Speaker 2: can say, Okay, this week, the week of August twelfth,
Speaker 2: am I going to try to get done? What am
Speaker 2: I going to take off my master digital list of
Speaker 2: to do list items? The thousand different deer hunting stuff
Speaker 2: I got to get done. Which of those things can
Speaker 2: I get done this week? And then I can actually
Speaker 2: pencil them into the days or the you know, the
Speaker 2: weekend days, whenever it might be when I can do
Speaker 2: those things. And I'm telling you by actually scheduling this stuff,
Speaker 2: by putting it in a calendar of sorts, I know
Speaker 2: it sounds nerdy, I'm a nerd, I get it. But
Speaker 2: by writing this stuff down and scheduling it, stuff actually
Speaker 2: gets done. Like there's a saying in the business world
Speaker 2: like what's what gets what gets on the calendar and
Speaker 2: gets done, And that's very true, because life is chaotic
Speaker 2: life is nuts. It's very easy for the chaos of
Speaker 2: the day to you know, just make it be react reactions, right,
Speaker 2: we react to this, we react to that, we get
Speaker 2: this kind of fire, drill taken care of me, run off,
Speaker 2: take up, take care of that errand, and we will
Speaker 2: never get the big stuff done that's important if we
Speaker 2: don't prioritize those things and actually find a place in
Speaker 2: our day to do that stuff. So for me, this
Speaker 2: two list system and this planner system. Again, I know
Speaker 2: it's nerdy, but it works. You will get more stuff
Speaker 2: done if you plan to do that versus just thinking
Speaker 2: in your head, Oh, when I have time, I'll go
Speaker 2: get this project done, or okay, next Saturday, I'll do
Speaker 2: some stuff. Yeah, that might work some of the time.
Speaker 2: But if you really want to check all the boxes,
Speaker 2: if you really want to do as good of a
Speaker 2: job as possible and be efficient so that you can
Speaker 2: get this stuff done in the allotted time and then
Speaker 2: be fully present and there for your family or friends
Speaker 2: the rest of the time, this system is a good
Speaker 2: way to do it. So consider the list system, whether
Speaker 2: it's digital or physical. Consider that. So that all said,
Speaker 2: that's how I'm organizing all these things. Now, what's on
Speaker 2: my list? What do I have on my master to
Speaker 2: do list? What are the things I've been working through recently?
Speaker 2: What do I have coming up? Let's talk through that stuff.
Speaker 2: Number One, this is an ongoing one for me. Excuse me,
Speaker 2: but it is shooting. It's shooting my bow. It's continuing
Speaker 2: to get ready from that perspective for the upcoming year.
Speaker 2: That's something that starts for me in the spring and
Speaker 2: it continues through the summer, and it kind of gradually changes.
Speaker 2: We've talked about this a lot in the past. I
Speaker 2: won't spend a lot of time on it, but I
Speaker 2: will just give you a couple quick updates when it
Speaker 2: comes to shooting and how my shooting regimen changes in
Speaker 2: these final weeks. So in the spring and summer, I'm
Speaker 2: basically in rep mode, Like I'm just trying to get
Speaker 2: reps in, just getting in, staying comfortable shooting my bow
Speaker 2: and making it feel like second nature. Now this year
Speaker 2: has been a little bit different for me because I
Speaker 2: have switched bows. I switched this year to the Matthews
Speaker 2: Lift thirty three, and I'm using a new site, the
Speaker 2: Dialed ARCSOS. It's a single pin site, so new bo,
Speaker 2: new style site, a lot of new stuff. So I'm
Speaker 2: honestly still in the getting comfortable phase. I switched to
Speaker 2: this stuff early in the summer. Throughout the middle of
Speaker 2: the summer when I was home, I've been shooting. But
Speaker 2: now that I am kind of in this final sprint
Speaker 2: to the opening day, which for me is about two
Speaker 2: months out, I'm shifting what I'm doing. So I'm shifting
Speaker 2: from just getting reps and just getting comfortable to now
Speaker 2: shifting into a more of a you know here in
Speaker 2: the you know, the next couple, next couple of weeks
Speaker 2: will be rep mode. And then once we get to
Speaker 2: about a month out, that's when I start getting a
Speaker 2: little bit more strategic with my shooting. That's when I
Speaker 2: start doing, you know, some of the stuff that Andy
Speaker 2: may talked about a few weeks ago. He's doing that
Speaker 2: longer than I am. Admittedly, I start doing that about
Speaker 2: a month out. That's when I start, you know, shooting
Speaker 2: from different positions in my saddle. That's when I start
Speaker 2: shooting from weird wonky angles, or on my knees, or
Speaker 2: standing up on top of a hill shooting down at an
Speaker 2: awkward angle. I try to plan for the different pop
Speaker 2: scenarios you could find yourself in when bow hunting, I
Speaker 2: try to practice those. I will say that, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm getting used to this new setup. Still it's not
Speaker 2: quite what I I'm having a hard time describe as
Speaker 2: I'm still getting comfortable, I suppose, so we're not there
Speaker 2: yet when it comes to getting strategic. I'm still trying
Speaker 2: to figure out the right way to make this bow
Speaker 2: set up work for me. As we talked about the spring,
Speaker 2: making changes, trying to figure out some new things, trying
Speaker 2: to reduce complexity and make my bow set up and
Speaker 2: my shooting set up as simple as possible. So shorter
Speaker 2: range shots for me this year, single pin, trying to
Speaker 2: you know, learn when and how I want to adjust
Speaker 2: that single pin. So it's going to be an interesting
Speaker 2: year for me. I'm working through that stuff right now.
Speaker 2: But that's a key thing, and probably the most important
Speaker 2: thing when it comes to my shooting at this time
Speaker 2: of year, is that it has to be a daily routine.
Speaker 2: Early in the winter, in the spring, honestly, I don't
Speaker 2: do it every day, but when it comes to the summer,
Speaker 2: every single night. This is a part of what I
Speaker 2: do and what works for me in my life is
Speaker 2: to put the kids down for bed, And as soon
Speaker 2: as the kids go down for bed, that's like the queue,
Speaker 2: all right, trying to go outside, grab my bow. And
Speaker 2: what's nice is that I've got my bow set up
Speaker 2: at my barn. Everything's ready to go. I have an
Speaker 2: archery target set up in front of the house so
Speaker 2: that I can go in the barn, grab my bow
Speaker 2: and arrows, step out to the front of the house
Speaker 2: and I can shoot, you know, just shoot, zone out,
Speaker 2: do the things I want to do. It's cool in
Speaker 2: the evening, it's nice. There's some fields around me. I
Speaker 2: sometimes see deer outside. My binoculars out and kind of
Speaker 2: glass deer off in the distance. And it's a very
Speaker 2: enjoyable way to end the day, kind of therapeutic. But
Speaker 2: by having this kind of locked in time frame that
Speaker 2: I'm doing it, I stick to it more often. Right.
Speaker 2: It goes back to the whole like putting things on
Speaker 2: the calendar. If I were to try to shoot just
Speaker 2: some random time that I find a few minutes, it'd
Speaker 2: be very easy not to do that. But when I
Speaker 2: have a locked in time like I'm going to do
Speaker 2: it every night after the kids go sleep. You stick
Speaker 2: to that, you keep that time open. My significant other,
Speaker 2: my wife, knows that that's what's going to go on,
Speaker 2: so it's no surprise. She's not going to ask me
Speaker 2: to do something different. And these little things help me
Speaker 2: stay consistent and help me actually get the stuff done
Speaker 2: that I know I need to get done. So that's shooting.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm up to right now. That's what the
Speaker 2: routine looks like from here all the way to October. First,
Speaker 2: next up, I am doing some final habitat things. So
Speaker 2: I hunt a variety of different kinds of places. I
Speaker 2: hunt some public I hunt some buy permission properties, and
Speaker 2: then I hunt some properties that I have management access
Speaker 2: in which I can actually do some habitat work. And
Speaker 2: so this time of year is always a scrambled trying
Speaker 2: to get that last habitat stuff done. I got a
Speaker 2: few things going on. I've got two different properties where
Speaker 2: I can plant food plots. One of them is our
Speaker 2: family deer camp. One of them is a property I
Speaker 2: hunt in southern Michigan. So on the Southern Michigan piece,
Speaker 2: the first step has been spraying. I just got out
Speaker 2: there and sprayed these plots. And what I plant is
Speaker 2: a two two phase system. The last maybe three years
Speaker 2: I've been doing this, I've been planting seed from a
Speaker 2: company called Vitalize, and they have a spring planting and
Speaker 2: a fall planting, and the idea is to rotate these
Speaker 2: so spring planting then fall planting, and they each help
Speaker 2: each other. So what you plant in the fall provides
Speaker 2: great deer attraction, and then in the spring it greens
Speaker 2: up early, keeps weeds from growing, and then when you
Speaker 2: knock that out and plant, you are spring planting. Your
Speaker 2: spring planting takes advantage of the organic material that's there
Speaker 2: from the fall. It then builds up a bunch of
Speaker 2: nitrogen in the soil that when you knock that out
Speaker 2: and plant your fall planting, your fall planting basically uses
Speaker 2: the organic matter and the nitrogen from your spring planting
Speaker 2: as fertilizer to then grow. So this is like a constant,
Speaker 2: perpetual cycle that builds off of each other. The spring
Speaker 2: planting which I put in the ground this spring, that's
Speaker 2: in those plots right now included stuff like barley, forge peas, soybeans,
Speaker 2: sun hemp, some clover, some sorghum. It's getting a lot
Speaker 2: of stuff. There's a lot of organic matter. Now, what
Speaker 2: I just did yesterday I believe it was, is I
Speaker 2: sprayed that stuff and it's going to knock out most
Speaker 2: of that competing vegetation. And then I've got a friend
Speaker 2: who's going to come in. It's the first time I've
Speaker 2: done this. In the past, I've done a basically like
Speaker 2: a spray and spread where I have sprayed or I
Speaker 2: actually broadcasts the seed and then kill the vegetation, had
Speaker 2: that die on top of it, and then had basically
Speaker 2: a no till planting without any equipment. That's worked okay
Speaker 2: for me, but I would say my germination rate has
Speaker 2: not been as high as i'd like. So this year,
Speaker 2: I've got a friend who has a drill, a no
Speaker 2: till drill, who's going to come in and drill in
Speaker 2: my fall planting. And so again I sprayed the old stuff,
Speaker 2: so there's a lot of growth that's going to die,
Speaker 2: provide organic material and kind of an armor on top
Speaker 2: of the soil. And then later this week, just before
Speaker 2: the rain, my buddy's then come in with a drill
Speaker 2: and he's going to drill in. He's going to plant
Speaker 2: what's called the carbon load, which is a bunch of
Speaker 2: grains at winter rye and wheat and oats, and then
Speaker 2: radishes and clover and turnips and all sorts of good
Speaker 2: stuff like that. So a lot of attractive things for early,
Speaker 2: mid and late season for deer. It's a diverse blend.
Speaker 2: I'd like to have a lot of different things that
Speaker 2: provide attraction at different parts of the year. They're all
Speaker 2: going to help each other grow. Some are going to
Speaker 2: be fixing nitrogen, some of them will be using nitrogen,
Speaker 2: some of them will be providing organic material. Like I
Speaker 2: said earlier, some of these things will grain up next
Speaker 2: year and provide food again in the spring. So diversity
Speaker 2: and not tilling up the soil so that I'm not
Speaker 2: getting erosion, so I'm not losing moisture, so I'm not
Speaker 2: killing the bio kind of the biology of the soil.
Speaker 2: That's why I'm taking this approach. So that's all happening,
Speaker 2: you know, over the coming days here, and then you
Speaker 2: don't need as much fertilizer when you use this method,
Speaker 2: because you know the organic material and the plants are
Speaker 2: doing that job for me. So I'm not needing to
Speaker 2: use as much synthetic fertilizer. I don't need to spray often,
Speaker 2: so I've minimized my herbicide you significantly from what it
Speaker 2: used to be when I'd be spraying multiple, many, many
Speaker 2: times a year, trying to keep any weeds out of there,
Speaker 2: then disking everything up and then planting into that cut
Speaker 2: that down a pretty good bit. So the food plot
Speaker 2: project is underway here in southern Michigan. I'll be going
Speaker 2: up to northern Michigan here in the next week or
Speaker 2: two and just managing a plot up there. We've got
Speaker 2: clover plots, and so in that case, I'm gonna be
Speaker 2: mowing and maybe spraying a selective herbicide to kill any
Speaker 2: grasses if that's a problem right right now, but really
Speaker 2: trying to manage there for efficiency, hopefully getting clover to
Speaker 2: take over here, take over very well. Up there, we
Speaker 2: can't visit as often, so having something that clover that
Speaker 2: just comes back a year after a year is a
Speaker 2: great option. It's obviously very attractive to deer in other wildlife,
Speaker 2: and it's something that you know, you don't need to
Speaker 2: use a lot of chemical, you don't need to til
Speaker 2: it up every year, you don't need to use big equipment.
Speaker 2: It's simple, it's effective, and it's good for a lot
Speaker 2: of critters. So that's kind of our food plot approach.
Speaker 2: I'm relatively small scale, right, I'm not doing this on
Speaker 2: the scale like the Juries or someone you know, total
Speaker 2: I probably have I don't know, three acres of food
Speaker 2: plots four acres across these two different places. So my
Speaker 2: system obviously is different than if I was doing this
Speaker 2: on a much larger scale. But that's my approach. Those
Speaker 2: are the things that I'm thinking about, and that's, you know,
Speaker 2: something that does really help me. I'm not changing the
Speaker 2: world with these food plots, but I'm providing nutrition to
Speaker 2: a lot of different wildlife species and it does help
Speaker 2: me get deer to use the properties that I hunt
Speaker 2: in the places that's most beneficial for hunting in ways
Speaker 2: that I can access them. And again I can you know,
Speaker 2: some people give you a hard time about planting food
Speaker 2: plots and agricultural land because there's food everywhere, right, But
Speaker 2: what I think you can provide with food plots is
Speaker 2: kind of like an ice cream stand. The major egg
Speaker 2: feels all around you, like that's your meat and potatoes,
Speaker 2: that's the main course that the deer feeding on. I
Speaker 2: try to provide them something different, something extra special. And
Speaker 2: something very safe. So it's like if you are in
Speaker 2: a war zone and it's dangerous everywhere you go, but
Speaker 2: then there's one amazingly safe bunker with a bunch of
Speaker 2: ice cream in it, that's the spot you'd want to
Speaker 2: go to a lot, right, Well, that's kind of what
Speaker 2: I'm trying to provide the local deer in my area
Speaker 2: with these food plots. That's my approach. Number three. Another
Speaker 2: thing that I'm working on on the properties that I
Speaker 2: do have the ability to do some management. This is
Speaker 2: nothing dramatic, this is nothing too crazy, but access routes.
Speaker 2: This is something that sometimes we can overlook. You want
Speaker 2: to have, if possible, cleared out quiet access routes on
Speaker 2: properties that you have the ability to do this. So
Speaker 2: for me, that looks like a couple of different number
Speaker 2: couple diff things. One just the other day, I've sprayed
Speaker 2: some of these trails that I have that you know,
Speaker 2: over the course of the summer they get overgrown. I'll
Speaker 2: do one herbicide application just to knock down everything right now,
Speaker 2: and then I will do a mow here towards the
Speaker 2: end of the summer. Once that's done with a mowing
Speaker 2: in the spring, you've got a clear, low, quiet trail
Speaker 2: that you can access your tree stand locations, that you
Speaker 2: can access spots to change trail cameras, that you can
Speaker 2: drive your e bike or your UTV or whatever it is.
Speaker 2: Having those trails is super helpful. I do that with
Speaker 2: the mower in places that that's possible. But something that
Speaker 2: I you know, I don't always do this as much
Speaker 2: as I should. I'm trying to do more and more
Speaker 2: of this every year. I'll try to create small, cleared
Speaker 2: out trails to my actual stand locations too. And that's
Speaker 2: just as simple as going in with you know, for
Speaker 2: me like some pruners and pruning the branches, just clearing
Speaker 2: out branches or any brush on the ground, many downtry
Speaker 2: limbs or anything that are going to make it loud
Speaker 2: or difficult for you to get to the actual trees
Speaker 2: that you want to hunt. So this is one of
Speaker 2: those things that if you can make the time, it
Speaker 2: can help you because, as we've talked about many times
Speaker 2: over the years, at least if you're trying to kill
Speaker 2: and hunt matured deer, the little things matter. The tiniest
Speaker 2: little mistake can be the thing that keeps you from
Speaker 2: getting that deer you know, stepping on that one branch
Speaker 2: or getting your backpack hung up in some bushes behind
Speaker 2: you and making a bunch of noise. That might be
Speaker 2: the thing that spooks the buck that's bed at eighty
Speaker 2: five yards away. So any little thing, any little variable
Speaker 2: that you can control now will help you, because there's
Speaker 2: a whole lot of stuff come in the fall that
Speaker 2: you can't control. So that is the kind of thing
Speaker 2: that I'm looking for with this access route prep clearing
Speaker 2: those little trails, raking some vegetation out of the way,
Speaker 2: or spraying the grassy path so you can get into
Speaker 2: there more quietly. Again, it's not a huge thing, but
Speaker 2: it can make a big difference in a few months.
Speaker 2: Number four scouting Summer scouting. This is something that I love.
Speaker 2: It's one of my favorite things for this time of year.
Speaker 2: But it's something that you have to look at with
Speaker 2: a grain of Salt's here's what I mean. Probably most
Speaker 2: of you know this, but I want to review it
Speaker 2: just in case you're relatively new to this, because it's
Speaker 2: very very important. Seeing deer in the summer, feeding in
Speaker 2: fields or getting pictures of deer in the summer is
Speaker 2: a lot of fun. It can tell you some things,
Speaker 2: but it is not the end all be all, because
Speaker 2: there is a significant rain shift from the summer to
Speaker 2: the fall for many bucks. So if you see or
Speaker 2: get pictures of a deer right now, there might be
Speaker 2: a fifty percent chance that that deer is going to
Speaker 2: relocate to a totally new zone one September hits. So
Speaker 2: I scout and I pay attention, but I'm doing all
Speaker 2: of it without getting overly excited and without drilling into
Speaker 2: the details of you know, if I saw a buck
Speaker 2: move into the corner of this field, I'm not going
Speaker 2: to be like, oh wow, I'm going to kill the
Speaker 2: deer in the corner of that field if I don't
Speaker 2: have an early season opener. So if you have an
Speaker 2: early season opener in September, you know, first week or
Speaker 2: two of September, then yes, summer patterns might still be
Speaker 2: relevant and you can kill a deer doing the stuff
Speaker 2: you're seeing them do now in August. But if you
Speaker 2: are like me in your opening day is not until
Speaker 2: October first, it's going to be pretty different. That all said,
Speaker 2: there are a few things you can gain with summer scouting.
Speaker 2: There's a few things that I'm personally looking for when
Speaker 2: I do this. Number One, you can assess the quality
Speaker 2: of deer in the general area, even if you know
Speaker 2: a given deer might not be on your property, that
Speaker 2: is on your property right now. If you are trying
Speaker 2: to figure out does this zone have mature bucks, your
Speaker 2: summer glassing and summer pictures can tell you that. You
Speaker 2: can also get confirmation of deer being back. You know,
Speaker 2: let's say you had a few bucks that you were
Speaker 2: hunting last year. Now's a great time to determine whether
Speaker 2: or not they're still alive and whether they're around. Take
Speaker 2: a look at them, see how they're looking, See if
Speaker 2: they're as old as you think they are, See if
Speaker 2: there's new deer in the area. Again, we alluded to
Speaker 2: this at the very beginning, but you can also try
Speaker 2: to find a buck now that maybe isn't a totally
Speaker 2: new area, and then try to get permission in that zone. Now,
Speaker 2: be careful if you spot a buck in August, he
Speaker 2: might be somewhere different in September, So continue that kind
Speaker 2: of surveillance into September. And that's a key thing I
Speaker 2: think we should remember is that usually most deer are
Speaker 2: losing their velvet the first week or so of September,
Speaker 2: and that is really when most rain shift happens, because
Speaker 2: you've got a major testostere rise happening this time of year,
Speaker 2: velvet's peeling off, and bucks are starting to relocate to
Speaker 2: their fall ranges. From my experience, I would say about
Speaker 2: a third ish of the bucks that I see in
Speaker 2: the summer go somewhere else come September. But that still
Speaker 2: means two thirds are there. And I'm not hunting big properties.
Speaker 2: I don't have any properties I have access to that
Speaker 2: are more than like one hundred sum makers. So you know,
Speaker 2: maybe if I had a thousand acre swath, I could
Speaker 2: keep track of all of these deer. Maybe the deer
Speaker 2: that are here in August would just be down, you know,
Speaker 2: on the other side of my property comes September. But
Speaker 2: I just don't have that scenario. So a third to
Speaker 2: maybe a little bit more than a third of the
Speaker 2: bucks I'm watching now I know are just going to
Speaker 2: be gone. But that's okay in my case. There are
Speaker 2: for example, in one of my main zones in Michigan,
Speaker 2: there are two bucks that last year I had been
Speaker 2: passing on when was a three year old. One was
Speaker 2: a four year old, and I was really hoping that
Speaker 2: they would make it to this year. Both of them did.
Speaker 2: One of these deer is a buck that my youngest
Speaker 2: son named Bear Deer. He was just like a tall,
Speaker 2: mainframe eight pointer last year as a three year old
Speaker 2: with a big inside time, and you saw him a lot.
Speaker 2: Didn't try to kill him. He just showed back up
Speaker 2: within the last handful of weeks, maybe two three weeks ago,
Speaker 2: and he's big and tall, really nice tall bro. I mean,
Speaker 2: he's just a very very impressive deer, a big deep
Speaker 2: split in G two. He lost an inside time but
Speaker 2: now has a split G two, so he's on the list.
Speaker 2: He's a very cool deer and my son is very excited.
Speaker 2: The bear deer is still around. So he's a deer
Speaker 2: that I'm getting pictures of and I'm trying to glass
Speaker 2: and get eyes on him, and that's that's purely for fun,
Speaker 2: you know, sometimes summer glassing is just a good time.
Speaker 2: I realize I'm not probably going to be able to
Speaker 2: pattern him in any kind of way because i can't
Speaker 2: hunt him now, but I just like watching deer and
Speaker 2: watching deer do deer stuff, so that's part of what
Speaker 2: I'm doing now. The second buck in this zone that
Speaker 2: is back is a buck that my other son named Bulldozer,
Speaker 2: and he is a five year old. This year I
Speaker 2: passed a bunch of the three year old last year's
Speaker 2: a four year old passed him one time with the
Speaker 2: muzzle ludder muzzler season and then saw him a couple
Speaker 2: times but out of range, but he was always around.
Speaker 2: He's the oldest buck. He's the one five year old
Speaker 2: that I know of in this area, and we actually
Speaker 2: found his match set of antlers. I found one antler
Speaker 2: close to this spot where I thought he betted, and
Speaker 2: then later found his other side and then went and
Speaker 2: got my youngest son brought him out and had him,
Speaker 2: you know, fine to himself. So so yeah, really cool
Speaker 2: story with that buck having his antlers, having seen him now,
Speaker 2: you know, for so many years, so those back. He's
Speaker 2: a big nine pointer, big old body, and blind in
Speaker 2: one eye, so it'll be interesting to see if that
Speaker 2: will make him slightly more approachable. I guess I'm not
Speaker 2: sure what to you know, how much of a factor
Speaker 2: that'll be, but it'll be interesting to watch him. He
Speaker 2: was really really big bodied last year during the season,
Speaker 2: so I'm excited to see what he looks like as
Speaker 2: those testosterone levels start to rise and he really starts
Speaker 2: to get runted up, I think he'll be pretty darn impressive.
Speaker 2: So so yeah, I mentioned this, But there's there's two
Speaker 2: kinds of summer scouting that I'm doing. One is the glassing.
Speaker 2: Any night that I can get out and sit on
Speaker 2: a hill or on the side of the road and
Speaker 2: glass some of these beanfields or alfalfa fields. I'm doing
Speaker 2: that one to try to see these bucks that I'm
Speaker 2: after and just see them, get some footage of them.
Speaker 2: That's just plain fun. But then I'm also trying to
Speaker 2: assess new areas and just get a sense of hey,
Speaker 2: is there a different neighborhood, a different area where there
Speaker 2: are some like spectacular deer that I should try to,
Speaker 2: you know, somehow get permission on. That is a possibility,
Speaker 2: and that's something that I like to try to do.
Speaker 2: I'll just do like what I call a deer drive,
Speaker 2: where I'll just go drive around, drive the back roads.
Speaker 2: It's a good time and sometimes you can learn about
Speaker 2: a new honey hole that might be worth investigating further.
Speaker 2: And then secondly, running trail cameras. I'm running these on
Speaker 2: all the properties I have access to that I've been
Speaker 2: hunting forever, and then I'm also putting trail cameras on
Speaker 2: new properties that I'm getting access to to try to
Speaker 2: assess like what's here, what's the area offer, and do
Speaker 2: I really need to double down on this spot? Which
Speaker 2: brings me back to or brings me to another one
Speaker 2: of these ideas or one of these kind of categories
Speaker 2: that I'm working on, which is getting new access. And
Speaker 2: this is something you know that you can't these days.
Speaker 2: You almost never can stop doing this because if you
Speaker 2: don't own your own farm, if you're depending on permission
Speaker 2: or even leases, it's just so common to lose that permission,
Speaker 2: to lose that access. There's just you know, land is
Speaker 2: changing hands, there's obviously a lot of demand for hunting access,
Speaker 2: and I just find myself, you know, every time I
Speaker 2: get something good and new that I'm excited about, it
Speaker 2: seems like it disappears in a year or two. So
Speaker 2: that happened to me this year. I picked up a
Speaker 2: really nice new property last year that I was excited
Speaker 2: about a couple hundred acres, and now already this year
Speaker 2: I don't have access. So a major thing that I
Speaker 2: try to do all year round, but especially comes summer,
Speaker 2: especially right about now, is start checking in with the
Speaker 2: network and trying to find possible new opportunities for hunting locations.
Speaker 2: I've kind of had a renewed urgency this summer because
Speaker 2: of losing that spot, and so I've just started like
Speaker 2: asking random friends who maybe have a family member that's
Speaker 2: a farm owner, or I bumped in to a neighbor
Speaker 2: the other day and just brought it up, just asked, hey,
Speaker 2: you know you happen to know of anyone you happen
Speaker 2: to have something, And you know, I've landed a couple
Speaker 2: of little spots, nothing big and extra special, but I'm
Speaker 2: now in a point where I'm just trying to stack
Speaker 2: up little spots. So, for example, I talked to a
Speaker 2: farmer the other day who I've gotten to know over
Speaker 2: the years, and I knew he had a handful of
Speaker 2: different properties. I've never tried to get access to them
Speaker 2: in the past, but we developed a relationship over the
Speaker 2: years to a point where I thought, you know, maybe
Speaker 2: he'd be open to that now, and so I just mentioned, hey,
Speaker 2: you know lost some spots looking for a new location
Speaker 2: or two, I know you've got a property over an
Speaker 2: X y Z road or another one down that road.
Speaker 2: Would you ever be you know open to me, you know,
Speaker 2: helping out with the dope problem there and hunting sometimes
Speaker 2: and lo and behold, got me permission on a couple
Speaker 2: of these spots. And so that is my maybe biggest
Speaker 2: piece of advice when it comes to this, is just
Speaker 2: always always ask, you know, anytime there's someone who might
Speaker 2: know somebody or owns some land or has a family
Speaker 2: member that owns land, it can't hurt to ask, right
Speaker 2: The answer is no already if you ask, the worst
Speaker 2: case scenario is it's going to be no still, but
Speaker 2: maybe you will get a yes. And you never know
Speaker 2: where those kinds of conversations can go. And you can
Speaker 2: never have enough hunting property, right. It's location. Location. Location
Speaker 2: is so much the name of the game when it
Speaker 2: comes to hunting deer. So I got permission on a
Speaker 2: few new spots. They're not, you know, amazing spots, but
Speaker 2: you never know that one little extra location might make
Speaker 2: all the difference next year. For example, one of these
Speaker 2: properties that I just got permission on is something like
Speaker 2: sixty or seventy acres, but it's almost all crop field.
Speaker 2: There's just four acres of cover. Rest is standing corn,
Speaker 2: but the four acres of cover which is mixed grasses,
Speaker 2: some willows, various shrubs and stuff, and then some trees.
Speaker 2: This butts up and is adjacent to a really big
Speaker 2: swamp system. And the swamp system is one that I've
Speaker 2: known of in the past. I've driven around this area
Speaker 2: a lot during previous summers and I've seen a lot
Speaker 2: of deer all on the edges and all around it.
Speaker 2: So I've just known, like, man, this spot holds a
Speaker 2: lot of deer, and some big deer like deer get
Speaker 2: old around these swamp systems in southern Michigan. And so
Speaker 2: when I knew or when I saw that I could
Speaker 2: get access to the edge of it, even though it
Speaker 2: was just four acres, it's still exciting. And so this
Speaker 2: is another one of my top ten things is doing
Speaker 2: this last minute scouting. I just went and did a
Speaker 2: quick speed scout of this new property yesterday. What I'm
Speaker 2: trying to achieve in this quick speed scout is twofold
Speaker 2: number one. I want to get a lay of the land,
Speaker 2: just going out there quickly to get a sense of
Speaker 2: what's the access like where do I park, how do
Speaker 2: I get in these places, where will be the routes
Speaker 2: I can take in without spooking a bunch of deer.
Speaker 2: And then I want to figure out where's the food,
Speaker 2: where's the bedding, where's the travel? And you can figure
Speaker 2: that out relatively quickly, especially on a small property like this,
Speaker 2: right a four acres, you can relatively quickly figure out. Okay,
Speaker 2: obviously there's deer feeding in this cornfield. Obviously there's deer
Speaker 2: betting on the edges of this swamp and inside the
Speaker 2: swamp in high spots. But as I walked this little
Speaker 2: swath of ground, I ran up on a buck that
Speaker 2: was standing in the standing corn feeding, bumped him. And
Speaker 2: then later I bumped a nice buck out of a
Speaker 2: bed kind of on the edge of this swampy area,
Speaker 2: and some like tall, grassy, willowy stuff. So right away
Speaker 2: I'm just saying, okay, there's bucks in here. Right now,
Speaker 2: there's all sorts of sign all sorts of old rubs,
Speaker 2: old scrapes, beat down trails, all the good stuff you
Speaker 2: want to see. So I've done two things with this.
Speaker 2: I've figured out where the bedding is, where the feeding is.
Speaker 2: I've seen a bunch of the trails I identified a
Speaker 2: couple little pinch points. For example, there's like a like
Speaker 2: a canal or a channel, like a drainage ditch. I
Speaker 2: guess it'd be coming out of the swamp that butts
Speaker 2: up right to the edge of the cornfield. So this
Speaker 2: drainage ditch is full of water, it's pretty wide, not
Speaker 2: easy for deer to get across, And then it comes
Speaker 2: right up to the edge of that cornfield and stops
Speaker 2: maybe five yards ahead of it, and you can just
Speaker 2: see how all the deer, you know, rather than crossing
Speaker 2: this big drainage ditch, they all funnel around the top
Speaker 2: of that ditch in the edge of the cornfield. So
Speaker 2: here's a major travel pinch. Anything that wants to come
Speaker 2: from the north side and wants to get to the
Speaker 2: south side, a lot of these deer are going to
Speaker 2: move around this little corner. So right away I knew, Okay,
Speaker 2: this is a possible hunting location, and this is definitely
Speaker 2: a good spot for a camera. So I put a
Speaker 2: camera out and that's going to give me back to
Speaker 2: the summer scout that's going to help me assess the area.
Speaker 2: So again I'm not necessarily trying to pattern a deer
Speaker 2: with these cameras right now, I'm just trying to get
Speaker 2: a sense like, hey, am I right? Are there some
Speaker 2: older deer in this area like I would expect given
Speaker 2: the swamp, given the habitat, you know, could there be
Speaker 2: something worth chasing even though there's just a little four
Speaker 2: acre window I have here. And then number two. As
Speaker 2: I do that, I'm also looking for spots that might
Speaker 2: be worth coming back and hunting in the fall. So
Speaker 2: in this area, like for example, I found this pinch
Speaker 2: and then I started thinking, Okay, this is a great location.
Speaker 2: I can see this is like close to the bedding.
Speaker 2: It's this area that a lot of deer travel is
Speaker 2: going to want to be funneled through. Is there a
Speaker 2: tree around here I can hunt? And the answer to
Speaker 2: that was actually no, there's not a good tree to hunt.
Speaker 2: So what could I do? Well? I got to thinking, man,
Speaker 2: I really think this would be a place worth hunting,
Speaker 2: but there's not a tree. So what could I make
Speaker 2: work on the ground? And what I came up with
Speaker 2: was that actually, there's so much deer activity in this
Speaker 2: area that the corn field was like mowed down, Like
Speaker 2: the corn most of it was eaten down to like
Speaker 2: waste height. And I realized if I were to stand
Speaker 2: and hide in the standing corn about thirty yards back
Speaker 2: where it isn't mowed down by deer, you could actually
Speaker 2: hide on the ground in the standing corn and have
Speaker 2: a clear view right to the edge and where this
Speaker 2: water source butts up to it. So I went in
Speaker 2: there kind of found a perfect spot, marked a waypoint,
Speaker 2: and have a setup now where I know if I
Speaker 2: want to come back in here in October when the
Speaker 2: season's open, I have a pre planned location. I mapped
Speaker 2: it out to make sure I could see like shooting
Speaker 2: lanes to the pinch point, to a couple other spots.
Speaker 2: I found that perfect spot marked a trail, so I
Speaker 2: can go and actually hunt from within the standing corn,
Speaker 2: aiming out towards this ditch and this cleared out area
Speaker 2: where the deer have already been feeding and mowing down
Speaker 2: the corn. That's what I'm trying to do with this
Speaker 2: summer scouting is determine quality and like presence of deer
Speaker 2: with cameras, and then number two get some potential hunting
Speaker 2: locations planned out. I don't in most cases anymore going
Speaker 2: prep full tree stands anymore. Right, I'm a saddle hunter,
Speaker 2: ninety nine percent of the time on new spots. I
Speaker 2: like to be pretty mobile. I don't want to get
Speaker 2: committed to anyone location too much. So in this case,
Speaker 2: I just found a spot like this for the ground.
Speaker 2: I found another spot where I found like probably this
Speaker 2: tree or that tree would be the ones, and I
Speaker 2: just marked those pins. So I didn't go in there
Speaker 2: and do any major prep work on the trees. I
Speaker 2: didn't go in there and hang a tree stand or
Speaker 2: a permanent set. I didn't trim a thousand tree limbs.
Speaker 2: I just marked a couple of trees. Now while I
Speaker 2: could walk around while I saw where the trails were.
Speaker 2: It'll make things a little bit easier for me if
Speaker 2: I do come back in October, I'll have like an
Speaker 2: easy idea, a quick idea of where I want to go. Now,
Speaker 2: that's kind of what I will do on some of
Speaker 2: these newer properties where I'm not committed to anyone spot
Speaker 2: in a big way. If I were to be doing
Speaker 2: my prep work on a property that I know I'm
Speaker 2: going to hunt a lot, it would look a little
Speaker 2: bit different. And I'll get to that in a second,
Speaker 2: because I definitely am doing some more thorough prep work
Speaker 2: in other locations. But when it comes to this new stuff,
Speaker 2: I'm trying to cover a bunch of ground. I'm trying
Speaker 2: to give myself a bunch of options, and so you know,
Speaker 2: this little four warker piece just eyeballed it. Took a
Speaker 2: quick walk, put two cameras out located to possible hunt locations,
Speaker 2: mark those, and now we're going to move on and
Speaker 2: wait and see what shows up there, and wait and
Speaker 2: see if it ends up being something i want to
Speaker 2: spend more time on. I've got another property like this
Speaker 2: that I picked up access to that I'm going to
Speaker 2: go later this week and do the same thing too.
Speaker 2: There's a couple other pieces of public that I'm going
Speaker 2: to do something similar, so again not doing not making
Speaker 2: a huge investment into them yet because I'm casting a
Speaker 2: wide net. I don't want to get stuck on any
Speaker 2: one piece. I want to cast a wide net, have
Speaker 2: a bunch of different options, and maybe the buckle pop
Speaker 2: on one of them but nothing on the other, or
Speaker 2: maybe I'll have time to hunt one more more than
Speaker 2: the other and I'll be able to spend more time
Speaker 2: prepping trees that or bounce around while I'm in hunting
Speaker 2: season and get to know it in that kind of way,
Speaker 2: but right now I'm just trying to get a sense
Speaker 2: of the place and have a starting point. Now, another
Speaker 2: one of these that'll be coming up is a pretty
Speaker 2: exciting new situation down in Illinois. And this kind of
Speaker 2: goes back to like always be asking, always be thinking
Speaker 2: about new access. This kind of came up when I
Speaker 2: was spending time with my buddies Casey Smith and Tyler
Speaker 2: Jones from the Element last week at a work thing.
Speaker 2: We were talking about how we really need to find
Speaker 2: a piece of ground that we can share and hunt together,
Speaker 2: and wouldn't it be great to be able to do
Speaker 2: some stuff kind of in collaboration, And we got to think, of, man,
Speaker 2: we just need to like send out some mass messages
Speaker 2: to anyone we know in like Illinois or Ohio and
Speaker 2: just see is there anything we might be able to
Speaker 2: get on. And long story short, one of our contacts
Speaker 2: that Casey reached out a shared contact, ended up happening
Speaker 2: to know of a person who might have some land
Speaker 2: they'd be willing to let us get on, maybe for
Speaker 2: a small lease fee or access to use their stuff
Speaker 2: and help them out with some things. And long story short,
Speaker 2: it looks like that's panned out. It looks like we
Speaker 2: have a few properties that the three of us could
Speaker 2: hunt in Illinois. And so our plan later this week
Speaker 2: is to go and do a speed scout similar to
Speaker 2: what I just discussed. I'm going to go down there
Speaker 2: and drive down there to Illinois and kind of burn
Speaker 2: across these properties as fast as I can, just to
Speaker 2: get cameras out with the same goals in mind which
Speaker 2: I mentioned are get a sense of the place, see
Speaker 2: what the quality deer is out there, and you know,
Speaker 2: maybe we'll get lucky and some of these deers stick around.
Speaker 2: But again I'm not trying to pattern on them right now.
Speaker 2: I just want to see, like a general vibe check
Speaker 2: is what I'm going for in the summer, and then
Speaker 2: again speed scouting, walking the borders, walking all the main
Speaker 2: interesting zones of habitat right I'm doing a pretty significant
Speaker 2: e scout for every one of these new properties ahead
Speaker 2: of time. And when I'm looking at that and trying
Speaker 2: to identify, you know, where does it look like there's
Speaker 2: the best cover, Where is the possible betting, where's the
Speaker 2: possible food, Where are the possible funnel funnels or pinch points?
Speaker 2: Where are the possible water sources. So mark all of
Speaker 2: that on my map that I'm looking at. I use
Speaker 2: ONYX for this, get that all done ahead of time.
Speaker 2: That way, when I show up in person and I've
Speaker 2: got one day to scout, I can then go and
Speaker 2: hit all of those highlights, so I don't need to
Speaker 2: cover every square inch. I can just go and check
Speaker 2: all the places that I thought had the best opportunities,
Speaker 2: that I believed were the most interesting, and then I
Speaker 2: can ground trooth them. I can then see, Okay, yes,
Speaker 2: this actually is awesome. Cover check market, this is a
Speaker 2: good betting era. And then when I'm in these different locations,
Speaker 2: then I'm also going to be pinning possible trees. So
Speaker 2: anytime I find something that I find that could be
Speaker 2: useful for a hunting location, Like maybe they'll be a
Speaker 2: little isolated corner of a bean field that pokes into
Speaker 2: some good bedding off of a ridge, and I see
Speaker 2: a patch of big oaks on the edge of it. Man,
Speaker 2: this could be a great early season location. Let's think
Speaker 2: about what the wind might be here, and let's try
Speaker 2: to find a tree or two that I could hunt,
Speaker 2: and I'll pin that. I'll try to find one that
Speaker 2: you know has good access. Maybe you know, maybe it
Speaker 2: makes sense to trim a couple of tree limbs off
Speaker 2: real quick. But again, in this kind of speedy scenario
Speaker 2: where it's a new place, I haven't been able to
Speaker 2: commit to it for a long period of time. I'm
Speaker 2: not going to go hung a day, hang a dozen stands.
Speaker 2: I'm going to try to get a bunch of starting points,
Speaker 2: and then when I start hunting a new place, I
Speaker 2: go in there with a sal and I hunt my
Speaker 2: way to the deer. So I'll start with a starting location.
Speaker 2: I'll observe, I'll learn, I'll adjust, I'll scout, i'll adjust,
Speaker 2: i'll watch, I'll adjust. I've really gotten away from hanging
Speaker 2: a bunch of stands on day one on a new
Speaker 2: property and doing a bunch of work, because then you
Speaker 2: kind of over commit yourself. And if you spend all
Speaker 2: this time putting up a permanent set and trimming out
Speaker 2: a thousand trees and cutting an access trail to this location,
Speaker 2: if you do that and then you hunt it, you
Speaker 2: hunt it, and it stinks. It's much harder to pick
Speaker 2: up and move to a new spot when you are
Speaker 2: so committed to a permanent location. So I've gotten away
Speaker 2: from that, very light and fast and adaptable. Yeah, that's
Speaker 2: my new approach now. So when we're there in Illinois,
Speaker 2: we're gonna do the speed scout. We're going to ground
Speaker 2: truth all these locations. We're going to mark some possible trees,
Speaker 2: We're gonna put up some cameras to do our vibe check,
Speaker 2: and then I'm probably gonna do an evening drive around
Speaker 2: the neighborhood again, getting a sense of the place, getting
Speaker 2: a sense of what our expectations should be for the area.
Speaker 2: Is this a place where there's a bunch of four
Speaker 2: and five year old bucks running around like we hope,
Speaker 2: let's see you know, is a good buck here like
Speaker 2: a four year old one? Or is it a five
Speaker 2: year old one? Sixty? Are there dear bigger than that?
Speaker 2: That's the kind of thing that you can determine in
Speaker 2: the summer. Again, yes, things change, but the general sense
Speaker 2: of the place, the general sense of the neighborhood is
Speaker 2: usually a good barometer for what you can expect to
Speaker 2: come fall. So that is That's what I've got going
Speaker 2: on when it comes to these new properties with these
Speaker 2: quick scouts, there's a lot of that happening over these
Speaker 2: coming weeks. I'm going to do some more of that,
Speaker 2: some kind of last minute public checks too. Did some
Speaker 2: of that in the spring. But there's just always more locations, right,
Speaker 2: And I'm trying to get better since I don't have
Speaker 2: I don't own a bunch of big farms, I don't
Speaker 2: own anything like that. What I've found that I need
Speaker 2: to do is have a lot of different small things,
Speaker 2: a lot of different opportunities, because if you are dependent
Speaker 2: on any one spot, which I have been in the past,
Speaker 2: sometimes you can get yourself in a bad spot if
Speaker 2: that location is, you know, not producing for whatever reason.
Speaker 2: Maybe there's more pressure around it, or maybe the one
Speaker 2: deer year after got shot by a neighbor, or maybe
Speaker 2: the winds just wrong for most of the farm for
Speaker 2: a whole week, whatever it is. If you are beholden
Speaker 2: to a single location, you just inevitably are going to
Speaker 2: find yourself in times when it's just not right and
Speaker 2: you're stuck at home. I don't want to be stuck
Speaker 2: at home, So I'm trying to get better every year
Speaker 2: at adding new places, even though I keep losing them,
Speaker 2: trying to add these little spots, and public land is
Speaker 2: a great option for that, as well, because there is
Speaker 2: great opportunity on public land, you have to work hard
Speaker 2: at it, you have to search these places out. But
Speaker 2: you know, one way I like to look at this
Speaker 2: is that you know, I might spend the best weather days,
Speaker 2: the best conditioned days, in my best private land locations,
Speaker 2: but then there's going to be a Friday night or
Speaker 2: a Saturday night, inevitably during the hunting season when the
Speaker 2: conditions aren't great, and you might say, well, I don't
Speaker 2: want to hunt my good spots right now because I
Speaker 2: don't want to blow it up on a bad day.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, you want to hunt. So
Speaker 2: this is a great opportunity if you have these places
Speaker 2: planned out and scouted and have some ideas on the board.
Speaker 2: On the maybe not great day, go and hunt those
Speaker 2: public spots and sure, maybe it's not a great night
Speaker 2: and you don't see anything, but no harm, no fault,
Speaker 2: you didn't blow up your good things, no big deal.
Speaker 2: On the flip side, maybe get lucky. Maybe you discover
Speaker 2: this spot's actually better than you thought. Can you go
Speaker 2: in there and you see a bunch of sign and
Speaker 2: you realize you want to put more time to it,
Speaker 2: or maybe you see a great buck maybe you shoot
Speaker 2: a deer when you never expected it, because deer don't
Speaker 2: always follow the playbook. Deer don't always do what we
Speaker 2: think they'll do. So you want to be out there
Speaker 2: as much as possible to take advantage of these freak
Speaker 2: mother nature kind of events. And if you're sitting on
Speaker 2: the couch because you don't want to hunt your good
Speaker 2: private spots, you might be missing out. So for that reason,
Speaker 2: adding some more public scout into my repertoire for this
Speaker 2: last month, too, suggest you do the same. So that's
Speaker 2: property access, that is last minute speeds gouting new properties,
Speaker 2: which I'm doing a lot of back to prepping on
Speaker 2: committed properties which I have as well, so the properties
Speaker 2: that you have hunted for years in the past and
Speaker 2: you continue to do. So the next thing that I'm
Speaker 2: doing that I suggest you do is go and check
Speaker 2: every one of your sets that you currently have up.
Speaker 2: So if you have tree stand locations or prep saddle
Speaker 2: trees or blinds that are out there all year round,
Speaker 2: you got to go check them every year. And so
Speaker 2: I make a point every late summer to go and
Speaker 2: do a couple of things. Number one, I go and
Speaker 2: check the straps on any sticks and stands, and make
Speaker 2: sure the straps are number one, loosened up enough so
Speaker 2: that you know they account for the growth of the tree.
Speaker 2: You don't want them stretched out because that'll lead to
Speaker 2: them breaking and inhibiting the tree growth. So I make
Speaker 2: sure that the tree straps are loosened a little bit.
Speaker 2: I then check the straps, of course, to make sure
Speaker 2: they're not ripped or torn or damaged in any kind
Speaker 2: of way. I do the same thing to every tree stand.
Speaker 2: Adjust the straps, check all the you know, connection points
Speaker 2: to make sure the tree stands are safe and good
Speaker 2: to use, make sure my safety lines are in there.
Speaker 2: I then will trim out every one of these stands.
Speaker 2: So any permanent location, like a spot that I keep
Speaker 2: maintained year for year, these are the spots where I'll
Speaker 2: do some significant you know, tree limb cutting. Making sure
Speaker 2: I've got good lanes, making sure, as I mentioned earlier,
Speaker 2: that I have access trails to them, making sure that
Speaker 2: I have room around the base of the tree to
Speaker 2: lay my bow down and to get hooked into the tree,
Speaker 2: or to throw my lineman's belt around, whatever it might be.
Speaker 2: I'm doing a lot of that, So lanes, straps, access trails.
Speaker 2: Another thing I do in these locations is I will
Speaker 2: also every year try to improve these sets a little bit.
Speaker 2: One way I found to do that is by modifying
Speaker 2: maybe the deer movement just a little bit. Like try
Speaker 2: to like if you've hunted a location year after year
Speaker 2: and you found that a lot of deer, maybe fifty
Speaker 2: percent of the deer travel a secondary trail that's just
Speaker 2: out of range, well, now is a great time to
Speaker 2: go and cut a tree or two and block part
Speaker 2: of that trail that pushes them. Hopefully that funnels them
Speaker 2: closer to you into range. So you can manipulate deer
Speaker 2: movement a little bit by blocking trails or opening trails
Speaker 2: where you want them. You could do this and a
Speaker 2: food plot, you might lay a tree top down across
Speaker 2: part of the food plot so that any deer that's
Speaker 2: coming through that area has to go around that tree limb,
Speaker 2: which then pushes them to ain shooting range maybe of
Speaker 2: a stand location. That type of thing I'm doing and
Speaker 2: is definitely worth doing this time of year. Speaking of
Speaker 2: modifying deer movement, another thing that I'm adding to the
Speaker 2: to do list right now. Anywhere that I hunt a
Speaker 2: food plot or open field, I am putting in a
Speaker 2: scrape tree location where I want it. So what I
Speaker 2: mean by that is I am either adding or reopening
Speaker 2: a mock scrape underneath a real tree if there's a
Speaker 2: spot like this within shooting range, or if not, I
Speaker 2: am going to create a fake scrape tree location. I
Speaker 2: do this for a couple of reasons. Number One, mock
Speaker 2: scrapes are terrific locations to get trail camp pictures, both
Speaker 2: in the summer and during the hunting season. I like
Speaker 2: to have a location like this buy some of my
Speaker 2: top tree stand locations, especially if it's like an open
Speaker 2: field there, like we're talking about, because we'll just use
Speaker 2: one of my examples. I have at like an acre ach.
Speaker 2: Yeah about an acre food plot in one of these spots,
Speaker 2: and there's not a lot of trees on it, and
Speaker 2: deer will kind of come in and out of it.
Speaker 2: In many different locations, it's hard to zero in on
Speaker 2: the entry or exits into this food source, but there's
Speaker 2: deer comeing to it. But by putting a scrape tree
Speaker 2: in the middle of that field, it is a magnet
Speaker 2: for deer activity. So you can take that acre worth
Speaker 2: of deer travel and narrow a bunch of it down
Speaker 2: into this one spot right where you want it. Because
Speaker 2: just like bass will be attracted to a Christmas tree
Speaker 2: sunk in the middle of a pond, deer will be
Speaker 2: attracted to a single tree, a single scrape location in
Speaker 2: the middle of an opening because it is it's like
Speaker 2: the water cooler. A scrape is a message board, is
Speaker 2: a communication center for deer, and if it's the only
Speaker 2: thing like that in an open area, they're just they're
Speaker 2: going to be pulled to it like with a tractor beam.
Speaker 2: And so I will add these scrape trees to each
Speaker 2: one of my food plots in the open within shooting,
Speaker 2: so that not only can I get pictures, but also
Speaker 2: you have this possible increased chance of a deer that's
Speaker 2: entering that area to come within range of you and
Speaker 2: to also stop where you want him, so that scrape
Speaker 2: not only gets him close, but he gets them stopping
Speaker 2: gets him focused on something other than you, because he's
Speaker 2: focused on that scrape, and if you do it right,
Speaker 2: he'll hopefully be facing that scrape in a direction that
Speaker 2: gives you a good broadside or quartern away shop. So
Speaker 2: highly recommend if you have any of these openings. If
Speaker 2: it's a meadow or a crp field, or a food plot,
Speaker 2: or the inside corner of a crop field that doesn't
Speaker 2: get planted. This is something that can really be a
Speaker 2: useful add on for any stand location. And I'll tell
Speaker 2: you I've used a lot of different things to achieve this.
Speaker 2: I've tried a lot of different ways, and I've kind
Speaker 2: of come upon my favorite scrape tree method. What I
Speaker 2: found works best for me is to cut down a
Speaker 2: tree about four to six inches in diameter, so a
Speaker 2: pretty hefty sized tree. I don't want a little tree.
Speaker 2: I've used little trees in the past, they just don't
Speaker 2: seem to work as well for me. I like a
Speaker 2: big tree because a big tree can be sunk deep
Speaker 2: down into the ground, can be locked into place. I
Speaker 2: like to bury it like at least two, if not
Speaker 2: three feet deep, using postal diggers, and then I really
Speaker 2: try to pack in the dirt around it. I know
Speaker 2: some people will put gravel or cement around it. I
Speaker 2: haven't done that, but you really want it firmly in place.
Speaker 2: And what you get with that big tree is that
Speaker 2: eight number one. It's much less likely for a deer
Speaker 2: to knock that out of the ground, or bend it over,
Speaker 2: or you know, cant it in any kind of way.
Speaker 2: These little trees they've used in the past just never
Speaker 2: seem to hold up because what happens is come fall,
Speaker 2: Bucks will use this scrape tree and they will rub
Speaker 2: it and push it and do all sorts of stuff
Speaker 2: to it. And if you've got a little dinky tree,
Speaker 2: they just beat it up too much. But if I
Speaker 2: have a four to six inch diameter post essentially driven
Speaker 2: into the ground, Bucks can work that and it won't
Speaker 2: it won't destroy it. But what I will have is
Speaker 2: you will see this post this tree, especially if it's
Speaker 2: a real tree. I've not tried using like a what
Speaker 2: am I trying to stay here? A post that you
Speaker 2: can buy at the store. I've not used a post
Speaker 2: you can buy at the hardware store. But what I
Speaker 2: do know works with a real tree is that they
Speaker 2: will rub up on that and they enjoy all the
Speaker 2: benefits of a real natural rub Right there's there's some
Speaker 2: sap in there still, they get the peeling effect, they
Speaker 2: can leave their scent on. It's very natural thing. So
Speaker 2: I've created effectively a manufactured rubbing post. And in the
Speaker 2: past I used to try to cut down a tree
Speaker 2: and use the actual branches attached to that tree. But
Speaker 2: I've gotten away from that. I've started actually buying or
Speaker 2: doing this yourself. I've done it myself and I've bought
Speaker 2: the tool for it, but effectively creating a licking branch
Speaker 2: holder and attaching that to the post. And the thing
Speaker 2: I found that I like the most is a tool
Speaker 2: called the scrape stick, I think, and it is a
Speaker 2: tool that you can either strap or drill into your
Speaker 2: post and it has then a adjustable limb holder. So
Speaker 2: imagine like a fishing pole holder where you can just
Speaker 2: stick the butt into your fishing pole into this tube. Well,
Speaker 2: this tube is instead of a fishing pole. It's there
Speaker 2: to hold your licking branch and then it has an
Speaker 2: adjustment on it so you can adjust the angle of
Speaker 2: tilt for that fishing pole holder. So what you can
Speaker 2: do is go find an ideal licking branch for me.
Speaker 2: I want something that's very leafy, very bushy. I like
Speaker 2: oak trees a lot, and then I've also had success
Speaker 2: with like cedar limbs, conifers, that kind of stuff, but
Speaker 2: I would say oaks are usually my number one. So
Speaker 2: let's say I've got my post buried two to three
Speaker 2: feet deep in the middle of the food plot, within
Speaker 2: shooting range of my stand. I then attached the scrape stickholder,
Speaker 2: the the you know, fishing pole holder type thing, and
Speaker 2: I angle that I get that to a height about
Speaker 2: maybe just below chest height, I guess, give or take.
Speaker 2: And then I'm going to, based on the limb that
Speaker 2: licking branch, adjust the angle so that that licking branch
Speaker 2: is about deer head height. And I have found that
Speaker 2: you do not want it too high. I sometimes have
Speaker 2: accidentally made my licking branch a little bit too high,
Speaker 2: like more like my eye level. And you got to remember,
Speaker 2: deer is shorter than you realize, Like in real life,
Speaker 2: most deer are not that tall. Yeah, big mature buck
Speaker 2: might be. But you want the doze and young deer
Speaker 2: to be able to rub their faces and their noses
Speaker 2: and their glands in that leafy licking branch too. And
Speaker 2: if those doughs can't reach it, they can't leave as
Speaker 2: much scent. There's less of an attraction for the bucks.
Speaker 2: So do your licking branch a little bit lower than
Speaker 2: at least I have to tell myself to do my
Speaker 2: licking branch a little bit lower than I think is right,
Speaker 2: because too many times I've just seen these doughs come
Speaker 2: up to the camera and the licking branch and they're
Speaker 2: you know, not being able to reach it. So that's
Speaker 2: something that I'm doing in a handful of different locations,
Speaker 2: is creating this like ideal scrape, big post, big oak
Speaker 2: tree limb, perfect height. I kick out a really big,
Speaker 2: very obvious scrape in the ground. You know, I've done
Speaker 2: different scent things in the past to try to kickstart
Speaker 2: a mock scrape like that. I've peed in it myself
Speaker 2: and that seems to work fine. I'm trying something this
Speaker 2: year called DH three from a friend who's got a
Speaker 2: new company. It's got a licking branch scent and a
Speaker 2: synthetic urine TBD and all that kind of stuff. But
Speaker 2: that's something I'm trying some different places. But whatever you need,
Speaker 2: open up a scrape, have a licking branch. If it's
Speaker 2: in a obvious location where it stands out, deer going
Speaker 2: to use it. And then I always like to have
Speaker 2: one of my cameras facing these spots because they become
Speaker 2: a great place to get an idea of what's visiting
Speaker 2: these open areas. So scrape trees big project of mine
Speaker 2: this time of year, and again I try to get
Speaker 2: these in by the end of August, and I like
Speaker 2: to not do them too early. This is a key thing,
Speaker 2: is that your scrape trees, especially if you are putting
Speaker 2: on a limb, I don't want to have to change
Speaker 2: that limb a bunch. I don't want to go in
Speaker 2: there in the middle of the hunting season and walk
Speaker 2: around these places. So most of the time I will
Speaker 2: put a limb, a licking branch limb on these fake
Speaker 2: scrapes at the very end of August. It's the last
Speaker 2: thing I do, and then they still hold their leaves
Speaker 2: and are good into October and maybe November. Especially if
Speaker 2: you use oaks, like a big leafy oak seems to
Speaker 2: hold onto those leaves very well. For some reason, I've
Speaker 2: found that that kind of licking branch would be a
Speaker 2: little bit more attractive. So let's see here, We've talked
Speaker 2: about checking and improving our old sets. We've talked about
Speaker 2: access routes, glassing, summer photos, habitat work, shooting your bow,
Speaker 2: prepping new locations. You know, I guess I will say
Speaker 2: that one thing I will do on these committed properties,
Speaker 2: so kind of differentiating here the new properties like my
Speaker 2: wide net bunch of new spots, I'm not prepping trees.
Speaker 2: I'm just having trees marked for my mobile running gun possibilities.
Speaker 2: But on properties that I'm for suregun hunt that I
Speaker 2: have hunted in the past and I definitely will here
Speaker 2: again in the future, I will still prep trees for saddles, right, So,
Speaker 2: even though I don't put as mainy tree stands up
Speaker 2: as I used to, I still like to have new
Speaker 2: trees prepped for saddles, especially in locations that I've found
Speaker 2: to be historically good. So like I've run, I've done
Speaker 2: a bunch of run and gun hunting, hunting new places,
Speaker 2: trying new spots, and over the years I found like, man,
Speaker 2: this is the place that I keep coming back to
Speaker 2: a year after year, or this is a spot like
Speaker 2: just needs to have a prepped location. So something I'm
Speaker 2: doing over the coming weeks is going to those locations
Speaker 2: and trimming around the tree to make sure I can
Speaker 2: easily maneuver at the base. So I talked about this earlier,
Speaker 2: but it's an important thing, making sure there's room around
Speaker 2: the base of the tree to set down your backpack
Speaker 2: or your bow to get your sticks on the tree,
Speaker 2: to do all that kind of stuff. Make sure that
Speaker 2: the tree is prepped up so you can put your
Speaker 2: sticks up, or maybe even install permanent tree steps or
Speaker 2: you know, a set of ladder steps, whatever it is.
Speaker 2: If this is one of those locations that you find
Speaker 2: yourself coming back to over and over, maybe it makes
Speaker 2: sense to put a permanent way to get up into it.
Speaker 2: And then finally I will go up in the tree
Speaker 2: with my saddle and identify shooting lanes that I want
Speaker 2: to clear. It's nice to have, even with a saddle.
Speaker 2: It's nice to have pre set trees that you can
Speaker 2: just slip to climb right up and know like you're
Speaker 2: gonna have great shooting lanes, you're gonna have the cover
Speaker 2: you need, and you can be as efficient and quiet
Speaker 2: as possible. Yes, this is extra work, but it's still
Speaker 2: not nearly as bad as doing twenty different tree stands.
Speaker 2: This way, you can just have you know, ten fifteen
Speaker 2: trees prepped and ready, and then you bounce around with
Speaker 2: your saddle whenever you want to hit one of those spots.
Speaker 2: So that is what I'm doing with my tree prep.
Speaker 2: Last thing cameras. We talked about summer cameras in summer
Speaker 2: intel and how you have to take it all with
Speaker 2: a grain of salt. What I didn't mention is that
Speaker 2: my summer camera locations are different usually from my fall
Speaker 2: my fall camera location. So a summer camera location is
Speaker 2: going to be very It's gonna be very related to
Speaker 2: summer food because deer are specially slaves to the stomach
Speaker 2: in the summer, and they're feeding on things like at
Speaker 2: least an agg country that I hunt, they're feeding on
Speaker 2: soybeans or alfalfa. But come September or October, that's going
Speaker 2: to start to shift. So I like to make my
Speaker 2: camera adjustments at the end of August, very beginning of
Speaker 2: September and move those cameras to the spots I want
Speaker 2: them to be in leading in the hunting season. So
Speaker 2: this is going to be, you know, on the edges
Speaker 2: of betting and staging where I think like they'll be
Speaker 2: heading to fall food sources. So a staging area in
Speaker 2: between a betting area and a cornfield. The action might
Speaker 2: not be there right now alongside of cornfield because they're
Speaker 2: just not feeding in there as much right now, But
Speaker 2: come October, come November, they absolutely will. So I'm going
Speaker 2: to move my cameras to those kinds of spots now.
Speaker 2: I'm going to, like, if there's a spot deep in
Speaker 2: the timber in some backwoods funnel location that historically is
Speaker 2: really good in the rut, I don't want to go
Speaker 2: hang on camera in October. I want to hang that
Speaker 2: camera now, even though it won't be good for another
Speaker 2: month and a half. So important thing here is that
Speaker 2: when you're putting up your cameras at the end of
Speaker 2: August or early September, make sure you've got a power solution,
Speaker 2: either with a solar panel or really good lithium batteries
Speaker 2: or whatever it is. Make sure that you know that
Speaker 2: you can put your cameras up now and not need
Speaker 2: to worry about them, you know, just before hunting season
Speaker 2: or in the middle of hunting season, especially if it's
Speaker 2: in a hard to get to place. So that's the
Speaker 2: final thing. I'm just moving all my cameras to their
Speaker 2: final spots before the hunting season, you know, and ideally
Speaker 2: in locations that will give me good early season intel.
Speaker 2: And really I can keep a lot of these cameras
Speaker 2: up all season these days, so putting them in those
Speaker 2: spots that will get me the information that I know
Speaker 2: I'm gonna need in October, in November, or whatever. It
Speaker 2: might be. A final note, I suppose on these fall
Speaker 2: camera locations, almost always I will make sure that there
Speaker 2: is a mock scrape or a real scrape in front
Speaker 2: of that camera. So by that, I mean, let's go
Speaker 2: back to that stage in location. Let's say I know
Speaker 2: I want a camera in a staging area between a
Speaker 2: bedding area and the cornfield, because that's gonna be good
Speaker 2: come October. Okay, So if I'm going, then I'm walking
Speaker 2: through the staging area, which is like mixed cover in
Speaker 2: between the bedding and the food. As I walk through
Speaker 2: that mixed cover, sure, I'm going to look for trails. Sure,
Speaker 2: I'm going to look for convergences of travel or pinch
Speaker 2: points of travel in between there. But I will also
Speaker 2: be looking like, is there a historical straight scrape. Is
Speaker 2: there a big old scrape that's been used year after
Speaker 2: year after year that's going to be like the spot
Speaker 2: within the spot for the camera. And if not, if
Speaker 2: maybe I just have like three trails that all come
Speaker 2: together at a crete crossing in this staging area, that's
Speaker 2: pretty good. I'm going to add a licking branch in
Speaker 2: front of it to have that little extra attraction or
Speaker 2: that little extra thing to stop a deer right or
Speaker 2: I want it for the picture, and I'm going to
Speaker 2: have that on. I mean, I have a hard time
Speaker 2: thinking of any place I wouldn't have that. I will
Speaker 2: always have a mox scrape. If there's not a scrape,
Speaker 2: I'm going to make sure that there's the licking branch.
Speaker 2: Either I bend down into the zone or or make
Speaker 2: sure I pick my camera angle to have some kind
Speaker 2: of liking branch in the frame, and I will kick
Speaker 2: out a scuffed up area in front of it, make
Speaker 2: sure that looking branch is present, Put some scent, you know,
Speaker 2: take a take a leak in at whatever I got
Speaker 2: to do to make sure that I have a chance
Speaker 2: of a scrape, you know, starting to get used there
Speaker 2: in front of the camera. I almost always always always
Speaker 2: sweeten the deal with that mock scrape. And that's what
Speaker 2: I'm doing. That is the final piece of the puzzle.
Speaker 2: Like I said, I try to do that at the
Speaker 2: end of the summer because I want to make sure
Speaker 2: that I'm taking advantage of the shift which happens in
Speaker 2: the beginning of September. And this is this is another
Speaker 2: good point. You can do things in August that in
Speaker 2: September might really mess stuff up. But if you do
Speaker 2: it in August, not only is it a long ways
Speaker 2: away from opening day at least if you are hunting
Speaker 2: somewhere like I am, where opening day is until October,
Speaker 2: but there's that rain shift. Remember I always look at
Speaker 2: like September Uber seven is when those bucks are usually
Speaker 2: shifting by. And so if I do a big project
Speaker 2: at the end of August, I might be mucking up
Speaker 2: this spot and putting a camera on the staging area,
Speaker 2: and the bucks that I'll be hunting in a month
Speaker 2: might not even be here yet. They might be a
Speaker 2: mile down the road. But if I were doing this
Speaker 2: project on September fifteenth, well, every buck who's going to
Speaker 2: be here for the hunting season, he's here now, and
Speaker 2: he's smelling this, and he's hearing this or seeing this.
Speaker 2: So I like to get it done well ahead of that.
Speaker 2: Give these dear time to calm down, give these dear
Speaker 2: time for the new ones to move into the area,
Speaker 2: and make sure that I am ready both with cameras
Speaker 2: and fall locations. Trees prepped, saddle locations pinned, a plan
Speaker 2: in place, access trails cut, and getting as much laid
Speaker 2: out as possible, even though you know that there will
Speaker 2: be new ideas to try out come fall, even though
Speaker 2: you know things won't go quite as you planned. If
Speaker 2: you have a well prepared playing field, it gives you
Speaker 2: an opportunity to start from a position of power. I
Speaker 2: think would be one way to think about this, like,
Speaker 2: if you show up unprepared at all, you're just kind
Speaker 2: of throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks.
Speaker 2: But if you show up with a well prepared plan,
Speaker 2: you at least can start well. You got to adjust,
Speaker 2: you need to pivot sometimes you need to learn in
Speaker 2: the fly. But start well prepared in your hunting season
Speaker 2: will go much much more smoothly. It will be much
Speaker 2: more enjoyable, and you'll have pretty darn good odds to
Speaker 2: wrap attack on something. That is what I am doing
Speaker 2: over these coming weeks. That's my top ten preseason tasks.
Speaker 2: Those are the projects I'm focusing on. These are the
Speaker 2: types of projects I would suggest you consider if you
Speaker 2: were not already. I would love to answer any questions
Speaker 2: you guys have about these, so please head on over
Speaker 2: to Probably the Wired to Hunt Instagram would be the
Speaker 2: best place for you to message me or leave a
Speaker 2: comment or We also have video versions of this podcast,
Speaker 2: so if you go to the Meat Eater podcast Network
Speaker 2: YouTube channel, comment on this YouTube video for the podcast
Speaker 2: with your questions and I would happily answer your questions
Speaker 2: there too. But I hope this is helpful. I thought
Speaker 2: this would be a good exercise for me to walk
Speaker 2: through these things to make sure I'm staying up on them,
Speaker 2: to make sure that I'm incentivized to stick with my plan,
Speaker 2: to keep on checking things off my list, to talk
Speaker 2: through all these things and make sure I'm not forgetting
Speaker 2: something to which I don't think I am. The writing
Speaker 2: things down thing does help, so I'm feeling good about this.
Speaker 2: I'm chipping things off the list, checking things off the list,
Speaker 2: chipping away at them and makings of progress, and I'm
Speaker 2: very excited. It's an amazing time of year. It's just
Speaker 2: a lot of hope, a lot of anticipation, and before
Speaker 2: you know it, hunting. So make sure you are working
Speaker 2: on a list of your own. Make sure you check
Speaker 2: out those other podcasts I mentioned at the top, Episode
Speaker 2: number two ninety nine with Adam Hayes. Is all about
Speaker 2: finding the best bucks in your neighborhood, seeking them out,
Speaker 2: getting access, and putting together a plan. I think that's
Speaker 2: really relevant to what we're talking about here. And then
Speaker 2: check out episode four forty nine Mastering September. That's going
Speaker 2: to be all about tactics to use during this first
Speaker 2: month of the hunting season if you start in September,
Speaker 2: and I think there's some good things to get brushed
Speaker 2: up on. So well, that all said, I appreciate you
Speaker 2: tuning in, thank you for being here, best of luck
Speaker 2: with your final summer projects, and until next week, stay
Speaker 2: Wired to Hunt.