Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Podcast, your guide to
Speaker 1: the White Tail Woods, presented by First Light, creating proven
Speaker 1: versatile hunting apparel for the stands, saddler Blind, First Light,
Speaker 1: Go further, stay Longer, and now your host Mark Kenyon.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Podcast. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon, and this week on the show, I'm joined
Speaker 1: by Ross Houseman to dive into his three year story
Speaker 1: chasing a deer known as pig Potatoes. All right, welcome
Speaker 1: to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by
Speaker 1: First Light, and we have got a special special episode
Speaker 1: for you today because we are wrapping up our Big
Speaker 1: Buck Breakdown month, where we've talked to hunters from across
Speaker 1: the country about, you know, hunts after one specific deer,
Speaker 1: like really special hunts for a really special deer where
Speaker 1: the hunter kind of went mad obsessing over an animal,
Speaker 1: trying to figure them out, going through all the ups
Speaker 1: and downs. And we've had some really good stories so far,
Speaker 1: but Tonight's story is one that I am a particular
Speaker 1: I'm particularly invested in this story because it's one of
Speaker 1: one of my good buddies who I've been following along
Speaker 1: with this story for years now, through all the ups
Speaker 1: and downs on almost a daily basis. Our guest today
Speaker 1: is the one and only Ross Houseman, longtime friend and
Speaker 1: and someone who's been within the wire Dunk community for
Speaker 1: a long time. Folks, folks, you know Ross, So welcome
Speaker 1: back to the show, my friend, and thanks for being
Speaker 1: willing to spill the beans on this story. Thanks for
Speaker 1: begging me to be on here. Mark and must must
Speaker 1: have ran out of guests. I guess that's I'm getting desperate.
Speaker 1: And the one condition you had to come on the
Speaker 1: show is that you needed your security blanket to help
Speaker 1: you out. We've got We've got Josh further Hilliard here, buddy,
Speaker 1: thanks for coming on his co host. Dude, that's really
Speaker 1: funny because my wife said the same thing, because where
Speaker 1: you like Ross's security blanket my hand here. I'm happy
Speaker 1: to be here. Thanks for having me to so so
Speaker 1: the the idea here. You know, you guys don't listen
Speaker 1: to my podcast at all, so you don't know what
Speaker 1: I've been doing this month. But what what I've been
Speaker 1: doing is is trying to get into the nitty gritty
Speaker 1: of these stories. You know, talk to folks who have
Speaker 1: been on the use, you know, multiple years sagas after
Speaker 1: an animal, learning them, studying them, trying to figure them out,
Speaker 1: you know, going into that year, really given it all,
Speaker 1: and and I kind of want to, you know, dig
Speaker 1: into the mind of that hunter, figure out how they
Speaker 1: did what they did, what their strategy was, how they
Speaker 1: were thinking and feeling throughout all of it. So, so
Speaker 1: Ross basically imagined like you are sitting on a couch
Speaker 1: at the therapist office, and I'm about to ask you,
Speaker 1: like all the awkward questions you want to keep inside
Speaker 1: of your mind, I'm going to ask you to verbalize
Speaker 1: these things. So that's that's what's in store today. Are you?
Speaker 1: Are you in your security blanket game for that? We're
Speaker 1: We're ready, okay. Um, So Josh, before we get Ross
Speaker 1: talking here, Um, is there anything that the audience should
Speaker 1: know about Ross and his personality or anything about him
Speaker 1: in general that we need to know as context for
Speaker 1: the story we're about to hear, Because you and I
Speaker 1: know Ross. Um, if anyone's if anyone, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: do that. If anyone's seen some of our video episodes
Speaker 1: way back in the day, you know Ross. But but Josh,
Speaker 1: what what does everyone need to know about Ross? As
Speaker 1: we get into this. Uh h Ross is Um, I
Speaker 1: think about this earlier. He is very much like super analytical,
Speaker 1: very can very much overthink or like I shouldn't say overthink,
Speaker 1: just think deeply about what he wants to do. Um
Speaker 1: when it comes with your hunting. Um. So, I think
Speaker 1: that's part of the reason why you two are such
Speaker 1: good friends. I think you guys are very similar in
Speaker 1: that aspect. You guys just go about it, keeping keeping
Speaker 1: track and making decisions a little bit differently. You guys
Speaker 1: eat grown way of doing things. But to get there,
Speaker 1: it's he's both very analytical. I'll leave it at that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I thought I thought, Mark, I thought you were setting
Speaker 1: this up to be a roast there, but Josh was like,
Speaker 1: actually pretty nice there, So thank you Josh. Security. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was way too easy on you there. Um, if
Speaker 1: only we had Andy on the show of us, things
Speaker 1: would be a little different. Yeah, there's a reason we
Speaker 1: didn't ask him to be in. Yeah, okay, So yeah,
Speaker 1: I would say I'd had a couple of things about
Speaker 1: you Ross that you're gonna have to just grin and
Speaker 1: bear as we as we lead this out. Uh So, Yes,
Speaker 1: Ross is a very analytical hunter. Uh. As Josh said,
Speaker 1: we've all been buddies for a long time now. We've
Speaker 1: been able to follow Ross's hunts over the years. And
Speaker 1: there's a few things I know about Ross um. Number one,
Speaker 1: Josh just said it. He's going to be thoughtful and
Speaker 1: careful and strategic with his hunts. He doesn't hunt often.
Speaker 1: He does a lot of work in the off season,
Speaker 1: but it seems like when the actual hunting season is here,
Speaker 1: he's very you know, tact you know, very very tactical
Speaker 1: with his strikes. There's some years where it's like he
Speaker 1: doesn't hunt at all and then bam, he hunts once
Speaker 1: or twice and then his season is done. He killed
Speaker 1: his buck, Um, and he's consistent in that. Like every year,
Speaker 1: it seems like he always gets his buck of. Of
Speaker 1: everyone in my hunting group, Ross is one guy who,
Speaker 1: like I just count on, he's gonna it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: We're also get a deer or two, no question, Like
Speaker 1: you know, Peter, I don't know, but but Ross he's
Speaker 1: gonna get it done. Um. This was one year where
Speaker 1: we were sweating a little bit. The story at least
Speaker 1: led to us sweat on that assumption. Um. So Ross
Speaker 1: is is consistent. He's tactical. He is very analytical. But
Speaker 1: one thing I have noticed about Rosses he can sometimes
Speaker 1: um his and we all do. I do that sometimes too,
Speaker 1: But his stress level really skyrockets real quick. Like he
Speaker 1: frequently is like, oh yeah, he's getting the season going
Speaker 1: and he's holding off for a buck and everything's all great.
Speaker 1: And then as soon as we inched closer to November.
Speaker 1: In past years, Ross all of a sudden is is
Speaker 1: panicking that he hasn't got his deer yet because it's
Speaker 1: almost November, and before you know it, he's freaking out.
Speaker 1: So Ross is a tendency to get really over excited
Speaker 1: about things too on occasion. Is all of that reasonably
Speaker 1: fair with a little exaggeration, Ross, It's very exaggerated. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: very much so. No. I I used to get I
Speaker 1: used to get more stressed out like that. Now, out
Speaker 1: of the last few years, I think I've been way
Speaker 1: more chill. I don't I don't get worked up like
Speaker 1: I used to, you know, like I think this last
Speaker 1: couple a few years, Um, I just I don't know,
Speaker 1: you know, It's just a deer at the end of
Speaker 1: the day. But I do get a little stressed out.
Speaker 1: But I don't like things bother me anymore. I just
Speaker 1: try to have fun and enjoy it for what it
Speaker 1: is and enjoy the time out there. But I do
Speaker 1: I do still get a little stressed out. Now. You,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, you have not come come around
Speaker 1: being more chill. You are the one that is always
Speaker 1: stressed out and always freaking out. So hey, fun season,
Speaker 1: Fun season was better exactly. So all right, so let's
Speaker 1: let's get into this story that I think paints a
Speaker 1: picture of probably how you've evolved and I think presented
Speaker 1: some interesting challenges to kind of work through the stuff
Speaker 1: we're talking about right here. Um. So, this buck that
Speaker 1: I want to talk about today, you named him big Potatoes,
Speaker 1: right BP. I don't know who before we did this.
Speaker 1: I was trying to think of when we came up
Speaker 1: with that name or how that even happened. Did I
Speaker 1: name him that or did we all name him that?
Speaker 1: I can't remember one of the he had like three names,
Speaker 1: Big potatoes, um, G two was another name. My son
Speaker 1: named him lighty um. So he's got like three different names,
Speaker 1: but big Potatoes was was a very popular one. Yes,
Speaker 1: So so with that name in mind, can you describe
Speaker 1: for us what this buck looked like. Can you paint
Speaker 1: a picture for us of this deal, how he got
Speaker 1: his name or how he stood out to you when
Speaker 1: you you know, tell us what he looked like. Now,
Speaker 1: so we're picturing like the end result, but then give
Speaker 1: me any other context as far as when he first
Speaker 1: discovered him to so this this year, he's just a
Speaker 1: just a really giant framed buck. He's a main frame
Speaker 1: ten pointer. He had a little kicker off his right.
Speaker 1: G two. Um, so he's got those like decently sized
Speaker 1: G two is I don't remember it, maybe they're like
Speaker 1: nine or ten inches, but then they're a little shorter
Speaker 1: than the G three. So he's got that short G two,
Speaker 1: longer G three and then good G four kind of
Speaker 1: looked to him and over wide. Um, just a giant
Speaker 1: framebuck when you see him. Um, the first year, the
Speaker 1: first year he got eyes on him or got pictures was.
Speaker 1: I'm sure he was around before that, but you know
Speaker 1: how they are when they're like two years older. So
Speaker 1: it's hard to it's hard to kind of know what
Speaker 1: DearS what after that unless there's some defining characteristics. But
Speaker 1: he that first year, I got a picture and Um,
Speaker 1: it was just one of those deer that you're just like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be a really nice buck. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: years past, I would have I would have loved to
Speaker 1: shoot him. At that time he was that first year,
Speaker 1: he was probably a mid one forties ten um and
Speaker 1: any other year, you know, I would have you know,
Speaker 1: in the past, I would have loved to shoot him.
Speaker 1: But it was just one of those bucks when you
Speaker 1: look at him and he's got these really long G
Speaker 1: three's and he's super young. I think when he was
Speaker 1: I'm guessing he was three that year, he had ten
Speaker 1: inch G three's already, and I think like ten inch
Speaker 1: twos or something like that. Um. So it's just like, Wow,
Speaker 1: this buck is gonna be this buck is gonna be special.
Speaker 1: H And at that point, I don't know what his
Speaker 1: name was. At that point, I don't even know if
Speaker 1: he had really a name. My my neighbor buddy, we'll
Speaker 1: call him Golden boy. He uh two and uh And
Speaker 1: that kind of stuck with throughout too. Um. But then
Speaker 1: I think with you guys, you know, we named them
Speaker 1: big potatoes because sometimes you guys study a huge body, which, um,
Speaker 1: sometimes when you have big potatoes it makes the meat
Speaker 1: look small kind of thing. So so I don't know
Speaker 1: if that's how it came about. I don't remember. But
Speaker 1: then uh, from there on out, it was that year
Speaker 1: I was you know, I was like, oh no, that
Speaker 1: that wasn't that buck wasn't on the radar that was
Speaker 1: and he was just soft. You know, he's just gonna
Speaker 1: be one of those awesome comers. And then um, and
Speaker 1: then yeah, then the next year came and he kind
Speaker 1: of blew up. So so before you before you go
Speaker 1: to last year, I have a question for you when
Speaker 1: it comes to like these really awesome three year olds.
Speaker 1: This is something that I've been asking some of the
Speaker 1: other guys about and something you know that I was
Speaker 1: thinking a lot about this year too. Um, when you
Speaker 1: get one of these three year olds that shows up
Speaker 1: like a younger buck that just seems to have a
Speaker 1: ton of potential, and you know you're at a point
Speaker 1: in your hunting journey or whatever you wanna call it
Speaker 1: where that's not a deer you're gonna target right now?
Speaker 1: Do you do you do anything different when you see
Speaker 1: a buck like this around? Do you, you know, stay
Speaker 1: out if you think you know where his core areas
Speaker 1: just stay out of it more often because you're hoping
Speaker 1: he'll stick around and survive, Or do you start paying
Speaker 1: extra attention to him in any kind of way, or
Speaker 1: or doing anything different with his trail camera photos or anything,
Speaker 1: you know, knowing that he's a deer that you hope
Speaker 1: to target someday in the future. UM, just taking note
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of notes with like the
Speaker 1: trail trail campaign, um, and just being observant. And then
Speaker 1: you know that first that first year, I had some
Speaker 1: great encoucounters with him. I got to see him get
Speaker 1: into it like a gigantic buck fight like forty yards,
Speaker 1: which was just unbelievably awesome. UM. I still like, I
Speaker 1: still remember when I was sitting there in that tree,
Speaker 1: you know, and I thought, he's just such a special buck,
Speaker 1: and I see him fighting in front of me, and
Speaker 1: I always like, it's like it's like your kids and
Speaker 1: he's like playing football and he's just getting his ass
Speaker 1: speed and you're just watching him as a parent on
Speaker 1: the sidelines and you're just like, oh my gosh, honey,
Speaker 1: you know, I hope you're okay, you know, And uh,
Speaker 1: this smaller act eight pointer was just just pummeling him
Speaker 1: and I still remember remember that, and that was just awesome. UM.
Speaker 1: But just like those encounters where they were at UM
Speaker 1: what he was doing, UM, had another encounter with them
Speaker 1: in a different stance, I kind of cruising through a
Speaker 1: bunch of visuals, you know, and you just kind of
Speaker 1: and that in the in the in the mind for
Speaker 1: future reference. UM. I don't stay out or anything. Usually
Speaker 1: sharing something with a buck that, you know, another buck
Speaker 1: that I would have been targeting. UM, like that year
Speaker 1: there was another buck that was really nice book that
Speaker 1: that I was hunting, and UM, I really just focus
Speaker 1: on them. I don't really think about the other books
Speaker 1: that much, but just taking note with the trail campis
Speaker 1: and uh. And then I usually you know, use all
Speaker 1: that information for the the next year. So UM, big
Speaker 1: believer in the whole. If they're in this area at
Speaker 1: this time of year, there's a very good chance they're
Speaker 1: gonna be in that same exact spot the next next
Speaker 1: year at the same time. I've seen that over and
Speaker 1: over again. UM. That kind of stuff is why I
Speaker 1: really play off of like where did I see him,
Speaker 1: what time of year, what was he doing, and then
Speaker 1: use that for the next year. And and you know,
Speaker 1: my my decisions, so I can't remember in yeah, you're
Speaker 1: just got to remind me here less. So moving into
Speaker 1: were you did you decide for sure like leading into
Speaker 1: that year, like yeah, absolutely you were going to target
Speaker 1: him last year? Or were you even thinking about passing
Speaker 1: him last year as well? Oh? Man? That was it
Speaker 1: was like because so last year he was a hundred,
Speaker 1: like a hundred and seventy two buck probably, And and
Speaker 1: finally to a point where I'm like, I can finally
Speaker 1: let dear go and not care, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like in the past, you just you just want to shoot,
Speaker 1: you know. And and I finally got to the point
Speaker 1: in my life where I'm like, I don't really need
Speaker 1: to shoot anything. I just like having him around and
Speaker 1: like seeing him growing. I like seeing him get big.
Speaker 1: And so last year I thought, you know, with my
Speaker 1: buddy golden boy, so we thought, you know, he's probably
Speaker 1: four and we should let him go. And he's got
Speaker 1: a good chance of living because everywhere he has been
Speaker 1: and everywhere you know, where he's at has been in
Speaker 1: an area where he probably can make it through the season.
Speaker 1: He probably can make it through guns season. And so
Speaker 1: we kind of made the decision just let him, let
Speaker 1: him go. Um. But it was still in my mind,
Speaker 1: you know, like if he walks through a twenty yards
Speaker 1: broadside and it's a hundred and seventies in buck, like, man,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be hard to to stay um discipline with that.
Speaker 1: So that first time it went out that that year, uh,
Speaker 1: I was I think it was like the twenty second
Speaker 1: of October had a fantastic hunt. Started out slow, one
Speaker 1: of those like cool mornings. The sun was coming up,
Speaker 1: and the deer kind of started trickling trickling in a
Speaker 1: little late, and I saw two bucks coming through, and
Speaker 1: one was this this mature a pointer that that just
Speaker 1: big bodied a pointer, not gonna be much bigger than
Speaker 1: like a hundred thirty inches. Ever he's at that time,
Speaker 1: I think he was four years old. And then I see, um,
Speaker 1: big potatoes. I see him standing there with this buck,
Speaker 1: and I see this eight point just bristle up and
Speaker 1: just push him off. And at that time I was like,
Speaker 1: oh no, you didn't, you know, because I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: if this little a pointer can push this buck off,
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, I bet you it would probably be
Speaker 1: a good idea to shoot this a pointer if he
Speaker 1: gets comes by me, so, uh, this is the first
Speaker 1: sit that year, and I grunted at him and he
Speaker 1: comes in like he's got a chip on his shoulder.
Speaker 1: I mean, big bodies, all posturing, and he just kind
Speaker 1: of sidestepping through it like eighteen yards and I shoot
Speaker 1: him and kill him and then that pretty much ended
Speaker 1: my season right there. Ah. So it made it easier
Speaker 1: for the rest of the year because I didn't have
Speaker 1: a bag any but but it was like it was
Speaker 1: one of those things where I was like, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: pass them, but man, it's gonna be it's gonna be tough. Um.
Speaker 1: But I was happy with my decision to shoot that
Speaker 1: a pointer because I didn't um. I kind of wanted
Speaker 1: him to feel comfortable in that area. Didn't one I'm
Speaker 1: being pressured by other like mature a deer that maybe
Speaker 1: we're smaller act you know. I wanted him to hang
Speaker 1: around there. I wanted him to be kind of comfortable
Speaker 1: kind of thing. Wasn't my thought process. Whether that has
Speaker 1: made a difference or not, I don't know, but that's
Speaker 1: kind of Have you ever found that too, you know,
Speaker 1: in your years hunting this spot in some of the
Speaker 1: other places that you've had, you know, a decent amount
Speaker 1: of time hunting. Have you ever found that to make
Speaker 1: a difference in any kind of way you can notice
Speaker 1: like this isn't a huge property. You don't have some
Speaker 1: monstrous farm that you know only you have access to
Speaker 1: your hunting relatively small stuff here. Um, you know, I
Speaker 1: guess when I'm getting is is that kind of idea
Speaker 1: trying to take out like a bully buck to keep
Speaker 1: a high potential buck in the area. Does that even
Speaker 1: have a chance of working on a small piece like this?
Speaker 1: Have you found that to be the case? I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think so, yeah, because there's usually there's usually a
Speaker 1: few bucks. But you know, I'm definitely privileged to live
Speaker 1: in Iowa. I worked really hard to get down here
Speaker 1: and have opportunities to have but man, I mean, it
Speaker 1: doesn't get much better. But with that said, in my area,
Speaker 1: a vast majority of the books that make mature that
Speaker 1: get to be mature bucks are not big racked like
Speaker 1: a lot of them. There's a tremendous amount of a
Speaker 1: pointers that probably aren't even poping young. You know, like
Speaker 1: there's there's just not that many big bucks. And I
Speaker 1: talked to my buddies about it a lot, and then
Speaker 1: we always wonder, you know, you have always had these
Speaker 1: up and comers that are like, man, that's gonna be
Speaker 1: a nice buck, and they just they just disappear. They
Speaker 1: just they don't stick around. They leave, and and a
Speaker 1: lot of times I want to stick around. Are these
Speaker 1: just these big fat a pointers which are nice bucks,
Speaker 1: but they're not really the big big rack bucks. So
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe maybe, you know, burning some tags
Speaker 1: on those bucks would help kind of get some of
Speaker 1: those other to stick around. I don't know, but I
Speaker 1: have no idea. If it it, um it will help
Speaker 1: in the future. But there's usually like one one big
Speaker 1: rack buck in the area, and it always seems like
Speaker 1: those eight pointers. And there was this ten pointer that
Speaker 1: was like, well it was Benja Benjamin Buttons, right, so
Speaker 1: the story of Benjamin Buttons. So he was like he's
Speaker 1: always busted up and this year he's busted up again,
Speaker 1: and so this year he really do feel like he
Speaker 1: pushed um big potatoes out of out of the farm.
Speaker 1: I think he kind of had the run of the
Speaker 1: place when the rut came around, and he I think
Speaker 1: he was a fighter. I got pictures of him last year,
Speaker 1: big scar bloody scarred down his back. You know, he's
Speaker 1: all busted up. He broke all of his times off
Speaker 1: and this year he busted off his both his G
Speaker 1: four's and he kind of was the buck that I
Speaker 1: was seeing most of the rut this year, and um,
Speaker 1: big Potatoes kind of just vanished. So I don't I
Speaker 1: don't know. Maybe there is something to it, but but um,
Speaker 1: uh further, can you really quick give us the rundown,
Speaker 1: like the honest truth of the Benjamin Buttons saga real
Speaker 1: fast that people know this buck that we're talking about.
Speaker 1: Can you can you share what happened here? Yeah? Okay,
Speaker 1: so this bu no not you Ross, not you Russ.
Speaker 1: I want Josh, the Benjamin Buttons buck. So you gotta
Speaker 1: go way back here. So are the buddy is out
Speaker 1: there shed hunting? You guys are out there shut hunting
Speaker 1: one year and you found a side of this buck.
Speaker 1: I believe right at least that you think it was.
Speaker 1: Like you guys were convinced that this deer was two
Speaker 1: and a half and by looking at the shed, you know,
Speaker 1: it's hard to tell, but by the size of the antler,
Speaker 1: you're probably right. But man, Ross sends this trail camera
Speaker 1: photo following year, and this thing looks like he's about
Speaker 1: to tip over old age. I mean he's all of
Speaker 1: five and a half, giant rackum, big fat body, sway
Speaker 1: a butt. I mean, he's like he looks like an
Speaker 1: old buck. And they're trying to say, these guys out
Speaker 1: and the ile were trying to pull all over eyes
Speaker 1: and say it's through and a half. I I just
Speaker 1: didn't believe him, and I don't think any in our
Speaker 1: kind of little group chat budd's believed him. And so
Speaker 1: I can't remember who came up with the name of
Speaker 1: the story of like the movie of Benjamin Buttons, where
Speaker 1: the guy gets old and he gets he's born old
Speaker 1: and he looks younger as he gets older. That's that's
Speaker 1: kind of the story of this book, that he looks
Speaker 1: super old even though I think he's you know, at
Speaker 1: the end of the story, I think he actually was
Speaker 1: young last year. Well he looks he does not look young.
Speaker 1: He didn't look young last year. I don't believe. I
Speaker 1: just have a really hard time believe he was through
Speaker 1: and a half. But let me tell the true story here.
Speaker 1: He was three and a half and he was a
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty inches and you guys are wrong. Well
Speaker 1: I don't know, but uh he did got he got
Speaker 1: killed this year, right, yeah he did so. So last
Speaker 1: year he was awesome, like he had deep splits, uh yeah,
Speaker 1: stickers off his basis. Um. Like when you see him,
Speaker 1: you're like, oh my god, this buck is going to
Speaker 1: be like a once in a lifetime buck if he
Speaker 1: continues to have all this trash and he's like and
Speaker 1: then at the time, yeah, I thought he was three
Speaker 1: and a half. Maybe he was older, but I thought
Speaker 1: he was three and a half. And um, he was
Speaker 1: one of those bucks that was just busted all up
Speaker 1: by the end of the year. And then this year
Speaker 1: he was on the farm again, but he like got smaller.
Speaker 1: He went from like he went from a hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty inches to probably at ten pointer, like lost all
Speaker 1: of his lost his split times, lost his stickers. Um.
Speaker 1: And I'm positive it was and it's him because he
Speaker 1: has a very um, a very specific shaped shaped rack
Speaker 1: that was the same same head, same facial kind of
Speaker 1: like he's got that unique look to him. So it's
Speaker 1: almost like when those like six or seven year old
Speaker 1: bucks start going downhill. M hm oh man no, but
Speaker 1: we all thought you were It was a bad girl.
Speaker 1: It was a bad girling year. There's something to it.
Speaker 1: This It was like a late spring and and uh,
Speaker 1: it just seemed like it seemed like the deer just
Speaker 1: didn't really put much antler around this year, at least
Speaker 1: around around here. And Ross, if I remember right, he
Speaker 1: was not You guys were going to give him the
Speaker 1: past last year, right, like you're not going to shoot him?
Speaker 1: No last year. Yeah, last year, we weren't going to
Speaker 1: shoot him. We all thought you were nuts. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: no he was. He know. I was like the gate
Speaker 1: the goal was like, oh man, can you imagine this
Speaker 1: Buck and big Tatoes make it one more year? You'd
Speaker 1: have to like to Boone and Crockett Bucks running around
Speaker 1: and on the same same farms. Like how often does
Speaker 1: that happen? You know? I remember you floating those pictures
Speaker 1: pictures around throughout the season last year, and we're all
Speaker 1: getting excited and dreaming about two and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: Um and and so that's that's what I really want
Speaker 1: to talk about now, is you know, going into last year,
Speaker 1: you were, you know, going to try to pass these bucks.
Speaker 1: You end up seeing BP the first night or first morning,
Speaker 1: whatever that was. But you shoot the Bully eight and
Speaker 1: now you're you're basically done, So I'm curious what you
Speaker 1: did from there. But I guess before as I'm saying this,
Speaker 1: there's one thing we didn't cover before getting this, which
Speaker 1: is trying to get like a lay of the land.
Speaker 1: So can you describe a little bit for us, like
Speaker 1: what's this kind of area this buck's living in, Like,
Speaker 1: like what kind of habitat is it? Um, what's it
Speaker 1: looked like, what's the kind of stuff he was living in?
Speaker 1: That kind of thing would help us kind of, I
Speaker 1: think envision what you'll discuss next. Yeah, so there's um
Speaker 1: um in this particular farm, there's like timber CRP. Neighboring
Speaker 1: farm has you know, a lot of edge, a lot
Speaker 1: of a lot of timber and CRP as well, there's
Speaker 1: um very it's a very big section, lots of lots
Speaker 1: of cover um, a lot of native grass. It's just
Speaker 1: a rolling hills um Rocky Ridge is kind of really cool,
Speaker 1: cool diversity in that sense. And um the property that
Speaker 1: I'm hunting is kind of long and narrow, hard to
Speaker 1: access UM, so it takes a little bit of gotta
Speaker 1: be a little careful getting in and out. Access from
Speaker 1: the north and getting back into the timber, back into
Speaker 1: the cover or where the deer at is kind of
Speaker 1: tough in the afternoon. It hunts best in the morning.
Speaker 1: The property kind of purges the deer out into the
Speaker 1: crop fields at night, and getting in the mornings a
Speaker 1: lot easier. You can get into as they come back in.
Speaker 1: But um, yeah, a lot of diversity, not great access, um,
Speaker 1: just a beautiful place. Yeah, yeah, it really is. Okay,
Speaker 1: So with that picture in our mind, now we're in.
Speaker 1: You shoot the big eight pointer, your your archery tags filled.
Speaker 1: What was your game plan from that point on? Now
Speaker 1: knowing that you know BP was alive as of that day,
Speaker 1: you were really really hoping he'd make it through the year. Um,
Speaker 1: and you're thinking, man, I've got the chance for like
Speaker 1: you know, buck of a lifetime next year if he survives.
Speaker 1: So did you start scheming, planning doing anything that fall?
Speaker 1: Did you? Did you at any point think, man, I
Speaker 1: should be scouting and still watching the property or were
Speaker 1: you doing anything to start preparing yourself already in October
Speaker 1: and November for the next year. I just mainly kept
Speaker 1: running cameras, was the main thing. I had a lot
Speaker 1: of cameras out just kind of get information for next year. UM.
Speaker 1: It's a big, giant like community scrape in the in
Speaker 1: the back of the property that usually gets the most activity.
Speaker 1: You can see kind of every single buck in the area,
Speaker 1: but hit it at least once. UM. And then I
Speaker 1: had cameras kind of in and around different kinds of
Speaker 1: doe betting areas, keep tractoring the RUTUM. But besides that,
Speaker 1: I just I had a great time just hunting with buddies,
Speaker 1: UM and being a part of some other hunts that
Speaker 1: were just fantastic. I just was trying to enjoy myself
Speaker 1: and cross my fingers that he made it pretty much UM,
Speaker 1: and start really doing more scouting and stuff. Until after
Speaker 1: the season. I kind of stayed out of there quite
Speaker 1: a bit. I did drive in a few times. UM.
Speaker 1: Josh was with me the one time, and what kind
Speaker 1: of went went in the property. We bumped um. We
Speaker 1: bumped him out of out of one of the best
Speaker 1: areas there, which UM kind of put that in the
Speaker 1: memory bank. UM. Other than that, kind of just staying
Speaker 1: out and using the trail camp pigs for the next year.
Speaker 1: So you mentioned a community scrape, that you put a
Speaker 1: camera on. But can you, uh, like, what are your
Speaker 1: camera setups like? Otherwise are they all on you know,
Speaker 1: these scrapes near betting areas and stuff like that. How
Speaker 1: many do you run? Um? Can you give me any
Speaker 1: more details about what this kind of strategy looks like
Speaker 1: for your in season cameras. I'll put uple cameras. UM.
Speaker 1: The so like some of the fields, like the crop
Speaker 1: or the food sources. UM, definitely different. You know, like
Speaker 1: when you're on cameras, it's hard to you don't really get.
Speaker 1: You don't get a lot and a lot of times
Speaker 1: they can be kind of deceiving or misleading. UM. But
Speaker 1: I'll put cameras in and around like the food sources.
Speaker 1: Just get inventory and just see what deer us want,
Speaker 1: what food sources, and then I'll have cameras I leave
Speaker 1: back in the timber. I don't really check or touch
Speaker 1: the one in that scrape. UM. It's just a good
Speaker 1: one to know what the heck is going on and
Speaker 1: what's kind of around. If I have to check that one,
Speaker 1: I usually drive back. I just drive the truck all
Speaker 1: the way back in there and check it. I feel
Speaker 1: like that's probably the UM least invasive just because of
Speaker 1: all the farming and stuff that goes on. Um, and
Speaker 1: then some other cameras I'll leave kind of just kind
Speaker 1: of in and around doe betting areas just to get
Speaker 1: an idea of what's going on every rut and where
Speaker 1: all the bucks are at let's see. So then there's
Speaker 1: some kind of really good in and outs of the
Speaker 1: property and pinch points where you can catch a lot
Speaker 1: of deer kind of in and around. I have a
Speaker 1: food plot in there, um and in the back, you know,
Speaker 1: like I'll have cameras that can check that are easy,
Speaker 1: easy in and out sell cams, and then some of
Speaker 1: other cams I'll just leave up and don't bother with
Speaker 1: until after the season or later on. Okay, So you
Speaker 1: get through you're watching cameras. I remember getting every time
Speaker 1: you get a picture chef cameras and saw he was
Speaker 1: on there. You were giving us the alert that he
Speaker 1: was still alive. You were super stoked about it. Um
Speaker 1: when you got into well, I guess before I ask anymore, Josh,
Speaker 1: is there anything else you feel like we need to
Speaker 1: cover or we should know about BP and this hunt
Speaker 1: before we get to like this year. Is there anything
Speaker 1: I'm forgetting about last year. As we were talking about
Speaker 1: this with a Ross and different things, he was talking about,
Speaker 1: do you feel like we have a covered I think
Speaker 1: pretty pretty well covered. One thing I'd ask you, Ross is,
Speaker 1: you know you don't have to be too specific here,
Speaker 1: but like, uh, can you talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: like neighboring pressure and kind of your overall feelings on
Speaker 1: on getting Bucks to the next age class if you
Speaker 1: had some pretty good success with that over the years,
Speaker 1: and kind of like what does that look like in
Speaker 1: your mind? And and feeling good about letting Bucks go. Um,
Speaker 1: it seems like it changes. It seems like it changes
Speaker 1: every year. It used to be a tremendous amount of pressure, uh,
Speaker 1: and then it went to pretty much no pressure. So
Speaker 1: this this last year when we when I decided to
Speaker 1: let him go, there was not much pressure. The gun
Speaker 1: pressure was like minimal. There's a there's a few guys
Speaker 1: that hunt um a neighboring property that had a pretty
Speaker 1: good chance to get them. Ah, and that was about it.
Speaker 1: They hunted, they hunted. Uh, let's see, they hunted the
Speaker 1: shotgun season and he was coming in and out of
Speaker 1: theirs at that time. So for some reason, he kind
Speaker 1: of makes a switch. He made a switch. He did
Speaker 1: it last year and he did it this year, and
Speaker 1: he and come come around December, he kind of moved
Speaker 1: a little bit and he starts hanging out in the
Speaker 1: neighbors and then he comes, uh, comes over to feed.
Speaker 1: So they had for a while there. I mean, my
Speaker 1: butt was pucker and during shotgun season, I was not
Speaker 1: I was not very optimistic. I thought they legitimately had
Speaker 1: a good crack at him and fortunately, m fortunately they
Speaker 1: had didn't have any luck. But besides them, and besides
Speaker 1: that one season there, there really was minimal pressure. Now
Speaker 1: this year was a different story. But you know, compared
Speaker 1: to other places and what other guys go through, I mean,
Speaker 1: we had a there's a he had a really good
Speaker 1: chance of making it last year and it worked out.
Speaker 1: So what about sheds? Shed hunting for this bucks and lers?
Speaker 1: I can't remember, honestly if you found his antlers or not. Um,
Speaker 1: So what did your shed hunting strategy look like? And
Speaker 1: and I guess more generally, what does it usually look
Speaker 1: like when you're after when there's like a buck like
Speaker 1: the big one you really after, do you shed hunt
Speaker 1: this property or any property? More? When there's a deer
Speaker 1: like that, do you have a different take? Do you
Speaker 1: start sooner or later, or or anything different at all.
Speaker 1: I guess I'm curious about that general question and then
Speaker 1: what you specifically did with this deer those two three
Speaker 1: years that he knew about him. You know, My my
Speaker 1: main goal for the for his sheds was to find
Speaker 1: them while they were like really in good shape still
Speaker 1: like any like my biggest fear when you get a
Speaker 1: big antler, You're trying to find that really nice shed
Speaker 1: when they when they shed, the dang squirrels like get
Speaker 1: to him so fast if it's in the timber. So
Speaker 1: actually that that last year, I just was had the
Speaker 1: cameras going like the whole you know, through January, February
Speaker 1: or whatever, and so I wanted to try to get
Speaker 1: a picture. And then it's soon as I recognized he
Speaker 1: dropped him. Then I was going to go look and
Speaker 1: he he shed. I got a picture of him actually
Speaker 1: coming into the property, and he had one he was
Speaker 1: lost one side, and I think I had a picture
Speaker 1: of him going out that that previous nights. So I knew, okay,
Speaker 1: he's like with in a reasonable distance either dropped it
Speaker 1: where I'm at or or somewhere where I can look
Speaker 1: and um. And then of course right after that, I
Speaker 1: never got any pictures of him with antlers. The next
Speaker 1: day he's got like a real identifiable like a couple
Speaker 1: of little tiny scars on his muscle, and he has
Speaker 1: like a different look to his face. Like so, I mean,
Speaker 1: when you see him, you just know it's him, whether
Speaker 1: he has antlers or not. And so, and I was
Speaker 1: running those cameras like crazy. I got those pictures. And
Speaker 1: then once I knew he shed, I didn't care anything else.
Speaker 1: I didn't care about any other deer. I just was
Speaker 1: wanted to go look around for those antlers. And so
Speaker 1: I walked and walked and walked and walked, and I couldn't.
Speaker 1: I had had a really hard time find them. Um.
Speaker 1: And then luckily after I don't know, I spent spent
Speaker 1: quite a while, put on a lot of miles, and
Speaker 1: I finally found found that antler and in uh in
Speaker 1: some CRP. But usually like shed hunting, I'm just like
Speaker 1: I run cameras like i'll like I do for deer hunting,
Speaker 1: trying to see where do you're at? Uh, and then
Speaker 1: also get an idea when they when they're dropping pretty much.
Speaker 1: Do you have any guests or could you give us
Speaker 1: like an estimate, like how many days you shed hunt?
Speaker 1: I used to shed on a lot, a lot, a
Speaker 1: lot more Now I'm just kind of I don't know,
Speaker 1: I'm a lot more laid back with all this stuff.
Speaker 1: I used to go out all the time. Now I'm
Speaker 1: just kind of like, yeah, I'd rather just have a
Speaker 1: good time with bodies and kids and you know, and
Speaker 1: wait for wait for those couple of weekends altogether, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Like I used to go all time.
Speaker 1: I used to walk the same stuff over and over
Speaker 1: and over and over again, um, every weekend. But then
Speaker 1: having a son known and all this other stuff makes
Speaker 1: it a little different, you know. Yeah, yeah, it changes things.
Speaker 1: So what you're trying to say is that now you're
Speaker 1: gonna start saving your properties for me and Josh can
Speaker 1: walk well, you know, having a shed, having a shed pelus,
Speaker 1: it would be it would be a blast. I I honestly, honestly,
Speaker 1: God Like, I'm just getting to the point where I
Speaker 1: just I don't I don't care about They're just deer,
Speaker 1: you know, and already got so many antlers. I don't
Speaker 1: really care about them anymore. I'm getting the point where
Speaker 1: they just need to go. You know, Mark, he's already
Speaker 1: he says all that, and he's already sent us a
Speaker 1: picture of a shed that he's found this year, like
Speaker 1: this passwork. He's already been shed on his in January.
Speaker 1: Oh that that was a group effort. Peter found that one.
Speaker 1: But it was it was a good time, all right.
Speaker 1: So so you check chair cameras, cameras obsessively till you
Speaker 1: said dropped. You worked, You worked the yields and the timber,
Speaker 1: and did you have any when it came to those
Speaker 1: shed walks when you're looking for his antlers? Were you
Speaker 1: like covering specific spots extra hard? Or do you literally
Speaker 1: grid search this property, like cover every square inch um,
Speaker 1: regardless of you know what kind of habitat of this?
Speaker 1: How Like what led to finding that that antler? Total
Speaker 1: grid search? Like I knew, I knew where he was
Speaker 1: at during the day, I knew where he was feeding.
Speaker 1: And then it's just like I just broke it down,
Speaker 1: just walked everything. Um, that's not that's usually for shed hunting,
Speaker 1: like I find, you want to find deer and then
Speaker 1: you just want to look at everything. You know, like, um,
Speaker 1: not wasting your time on stuff that's like, um blow odds.
Speaker 1: You know, just finding the high probability, high traffic stuff
Speaker 1: and then just walking the crap out of it pretty
Speaker 1: much is what I do. Yeah, okay, makes sense. So
Speaker 1: then that leads me to you know, you kind of
Speaker 1: you said something right there that's interesting, which is like
Speaker 1: you knew where he's at during the day, you knew
Speaker 1: where he was feeding. You know, you kind of had
Speaker 1: a lot of his pattern dialed in. So now it's two,
Speaker 1: you find his antler and you you're saying, you know
Speaker 1: all this stuff, So like what did you know? Can
Speaker 1: you describe for me what you had learned by that point,
Speaker 1: having you know, observed him and studied him for two
Speaker 1: years now, like keeping tabs on him, him being like
Speaker 1: a high priority deer. You have two years worth of
Speaker 1: camera photos, you have two years worth of observations, you
Speaker 1: have two years worth of shed hunting for him and
Speaker 1: scouting your property and all that kind of stuff leading
Speaker 1: into the hunting season. If if you and I were
Speaker 1: like sitting, you know, drinking a beer at the table,
Speaker 1: I said, all right, man, tell me everything you think
Speaker 1: you know about this deer, Like show me on a map. Um,
Speaker 1: what do you what do you know about him during
Speaker 1: the season, What do you think he's doing? And how
Speaker 1: do you think you're gonna kill him? What would you
Speaker 1: have told me before the season? As far as you
Speaker 1: know you're planning for that stuff and what you knew? Um,
Speaker 1: so it vast it vastly changed. Like what he was
Speaker 1: doing this year was completely different than last year. But
Speaker 1: what I thought I knew was what I thought he
Speaker 1: was going to be a homebody. I didn't think he
Speaker 1: was going anywhere. Um, pretty much just from running cameras
Speaker 1: and seeing him, I knew about as far west as
Speaker 1: he went, because my buddy, like he never got has
Speaker 1: never gotten a picture of him except for in summer. Um,
Speaker 1: he has like a really defined home range going to
Speaker 1: the to the west. And then I knew exactly where
Speaker 1: he goes to the east. Um, and he's spending so
Speaker 1: much time where I was at that. I mean, I
Speaker 1: thought it was was a done deal as long as
Speaker 1: I was patient and waited for the right the right
Speaker 1: opportunity to go hunt him. Uh. I I was confident
Speaker 1: he was going to be he was going to be
Speaker 1: in my food plot. And the first week of October.
Speaker 1: I think I would have told you, Mark would have
Speaker 1: been like, you know, if I get a cold front
Speaker 1: that first week of October and I get the right wind,
Speaker 1: I'll have a really good crack at him. And then, um,
Speaker 1: if I didn't get him that early October, towards the
Speaker 1: latter part of October, I knew, I knew I probably
Speaker 1: would get a second opportunity before he goes rotten. Which
Speaker 1: that's always you know, that's always hit or miss, that's all.
Speaker 1: It gets a lot of luck involved when he when
Speaker 1: it gets to the rut. But but I thought, I
Speaker 1: thought I knew enough about him where Mark, I bet you,
Speaker 1: I could have bet money I was going to kill
Speaker 1: him in the beginning of October. Um, and I almost did.
Speaker 1: So was that based off of historical pattern, like what
Speaker 1: he did the year prior or a year before that? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: just you know what I see what I've seen, and
Speaker 1: then also cameras, so let's see last year, last year
Speaker 1: was in my plot that that beginning of October. First
Speaker 1: time he shows up daylight, I think it was like, um,
Speaker 1: it was the first or second and he was there
Speaker 1: for that first week and then he kind of changed
Speaker 1: it up again. And then he'd be there. He'd be
Speaker 1: there in the in the middle of the night here
Speaker 1: and there throughout the middle of October, no daylight stuff. Um.
Speaker 1: And then he'd turn on again towards the end of
Speaker 1: the end of October that last week. So speaking of
Speaker 1: that food plot, then what was the habitat stuff you've done?
Speaker 1: You mentioned you're playing a food plot. I know you've
Speaker 1: done some other stuff there too. Um, what what did that? What?
Speaker 1: What work have you done here on this property? So
Speaker 1: the so the access is terrible. So like one of
Speaker 1: the main goals is to be able to hunt up
Speaker 1: front more and not have to go deep into the ones.
Speaker 1: That way I can I can hunt more with better
Speaker 1: access and you know, kind of be a little more undetected.
Speaker 1: And then um, it will hunt a little bigger too.
Speaker 1: But towards the front, there's a theater sect. There's uh,
Speaker 1: some good cover, there's some good dope in there, and
Speaker 1: there's some like kind of way that wasted land, you
Speaker 1: know a lot of the rome grass and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: And and so I don't know, it was a six
Speaker 1: years ago I started a starting orchard there and then
Speaker 1: in the last for this year was the first year
Speaker 1: I got quite a few apples, and then I also
Speaker 1: put in maybe like a third acre of radishes. Um,
Speaker 1: put in some oats rye radishes winter piece, and then
Speaker 1: have some clover and then that's my main main hunting
Speaker 1: kind of for evening October says early October mainly Okay,
Speaker 1: So you've got this high level of confidence that if
Speaker 1: you've got the right conditions, you'll kill him on the
Speaker 1: food early in October. If not that he'll be in
Speaker 1: there late October. You have camera scatter on the property,
Speaker 1: on scrapes and some different little pinch points and things. Um,
Speaker 1: you have some some of those are standard cameras, some
Speaker 1: of those are cell You've got these historical patterns, You've
Speaker 1: got the habitat um you know any you know what
Speaker 1: was what was going on in your mind leading into
Speaker 1: opening day and season opens October one, where you're at
Speaker 1: where you you know, September, where you're like, I'm hunting tomorrow,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna kill him or you know what was it
Speaker 1: looking like when those early October days we're showing up
Speaker 1: on the forecast and you're sitting there thinking about whether
Speaker 1: or not you can you can do this the way
Speaker 1: you wanted to what did that strategy end up looking like?
Speaker 1: So I think it was the end of September. It
Speaker 1: was September. He showed up on the plot and I'm like, oh, perfect,
Speaker 1: like perfect timing, you know, And then um, we got
Speaker 1: you look at the forecast and we had I think
Speaker 1: maybe you guys got it over in Michigan too, But
Speaker 1: we had an awesome cold front the beginning of October,
Speaker 1: and what we got plugued with east winds and where
Speaker 1: had those Those east winds were like I don't know
Speaker 1: if they were like seven days straight and it wasn't
Speaker 1: like there was no very ability. It was the same
Speaker 1: crap over and over and over again. And I unfortunately
Speaker 1: wasn't able to hunt that spot that first weekend because
Speaker 1: I just cannot make an east wind work there. I
Speaker 1: could have run and gun and picked a tree in
Speaker 1: and tried to make it work, but just having so
Speaker 1: many doughs around coming in there, I just felt like
Speaker 1: I would have like it was too big of a gamble,
Speaker 1: and I decided to I decided to wait. And of course,
Speaker 1: then later that night I get, you know, like I
Speaker 1: have my cell cam set up to send me pictures
Speaker 1: at like eight o'clock at night or whatever. And then
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there after I didn't hunt, and here he
Speaker 1: is walking right right into the plot at on daylight,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, dang it, I just knew, like I
Speaker 1: knew he was going to be there, and I could
Speaker 1: have probably taken a crack and and I had to
Speaker 1: hanging hunt to make that east wind work. But man,
Speaker 1: there's so many does coming I would have been coming
Speaker 1: from directly kind of downwind, that just one would have
Speaker 1: just blew it up. So I just, I mean, I
Speaker 1: had to. I had to live with that decision. But man,
Speaker 1: that was kind of hard not hunting that cold front
Speaker 1: on that spot. So he showed up. And then then
Speaker 1: looking at the forecast, I think that next week, that
Speaker 1: next next weekend when I would have been able to hunt, um,
Speaker 1: there was another kind of a cold front. I think
Speaker 1: it was going to be in the fifties again, which
Speaker 1: was pretty good for October if I remember right. And
Speaker 1: I had one of those. I had one of those, Like,
Speaker 1: I mean, I was so confident that my heart was
Speaker 1: like racing while I was sitting in that stand. I
Speaker 1: think it was like like the seventh October seven, And
Speaker 1: I remember I was sitting in the stand. I got
Speaker 1: this awesome seater. Now I have stand hung up in
Speaker 1: I can hunt pretty much any westerly wind um, and
Speaker 1: then most of you are going to come from my
Speaker 1: myself and then straight straight from the west. And I
Speaker 1: remember getting up in that stand and it was kind
Speaker 1: of one of these days that I a really good
Speaker 1: friend of mine, you probably could call him a mentor
Speaker 1: passed away um that week several days before, and it
Speaker 1: was like a whirlwind of like emotions, like everything you
Speaker 1: could possibly feel, you felt. It was just a horrible
Speaker 1: few days. And I was just like, man, I cannot
Speaker 1: wait to get in that tree. And I was like
Speaker 1: not to kill that deer, but just to like sit there,
Speaker 1: you know, and just like not think or just to
Speaker 1: think think about everything that happened the last few days.
Speaker 1: But when I got up in that tree, I was
Speaker 1: so confident. I was. I don't know, do you ever
Speaker 1: when you ever you like, as you lies your hunt
Speaker 1: or whenever you're going to sit in a spot, do
Speaker 1: you ever get like do you ever get like your
Speaker 1: heart going? Like can you can you raise your heart
Speaker 1: rate and all that stuff? Mark at all? Are you
Speaker 1: able to that when you visualize stuff? Yeah? Yeah, and
Speaker 1: like I know those days, Like I love that feeling
Speaker 1: when you have like that absolute kill set where you
Speaker 1: to go in with sky high confidence and like you're
Speaker 1: not just going in for a hunt. You're going in
Speaker 1: like knowing that everything is right and and those are
Speaker 1: the I mean, those are my absolute favorite hunts. I
Speaker 1: love that feeling. I mean I was, I was so pumped.
Speaker 1: I finally had a time to just go decompressed after
Speaker 1: everything that happened. But I mean I felt so confident.
Speaker 1: It felt it felt like that Buck was like walking
Speaker 1: in Like that's the feeling. I felt like, I was
Speaker 1: so um, I don't know, I'm I was gonna manifest
Speaker 1: that stuff. I was like, man, this is gonna it's
Speaker 1: gonna happen. It's gonna be awesome. It's gonna be like
Speaker 1: a tribute Buck. Um, it's gonna be fantastic. And I
Speaker 1: remember sitting there, conditions were perfect, um, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, I just sitting there, it's quiet and just
Speaker 1: like beautiful out and pow right behind me. I jumped,
Speaker 1: you know, like you're like, oh my gosh, that was
Speaker 1: so close. Uh he's He's like holy, that was unbelievably close,
Speaker 1: Like it just caught me off guard. I jumped out
Speaker 1: of the out of my seat, and I'm looking around,
Speaker 1: you know, and You're like duck in your head, like
Speaker 1: what in the world? And uh so the neighbor was
Speaker 1: actually target shooting. I didn't even hear him drive in, surprisingly,
Speaker 1: and he was probably like I don't know, he's probably
Speaker 1: like a hundred and fifty yard hundred yards behind me,
Speaker 1: and he just um started target shooting right there. I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, you gotta be kidding me. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is a horrible luck. But I mean, I wasn't
Speaker 1: I wasn't mad. I wasn't like this point. I was
Speaker 1: just kind of laughed at it, like he was just
Speaker 1: like what the heck, Like all this, all these places
Speaker 1: to shoot, and he chose to come back here and shoot,
Speaker 1: you know. And uh so I then at that point,
Speaker 1: I was like, well, you know, I know, dear, are
Speaker 1: gonna come out still, you know. And they hear gunshots
Speaker 1: all time because all the everybody had all these farms
Speaker 1: are always shooting guns, you know. But thing that was
Speaker 1: too close to the food. I'm like, there's no way
Speaker 1: he's gonna come out tonight. And I'm like, I just
Speaker 1: gotta get out of here. So I just bailed. So
Speaker 1: my first time I didn't really even do anything. I
Speaker 1: just sat up in the tree, got my heart rate up,
Speaker 1: but just thinking about the hunt and then the and
Speaker 1: then and then I got it blown out. But the
Speaker 1: awesome part is that night then I got a picture
Speaker 1: um of big potatoes on the camera there. So I'm like, awesome,
Speaker 1: he probably wasn't very close. He's still comfortable coming in.
Speaker 1: He didn't come in that night. Um, we're still good.
Speaker 1: Didn't get burned up or anything like that. Um, So
Speaker 1: that I'm like, you know what I'm going in the say.
Speaker 1: So I tried it the next day one last time,
Speaker 1: and uh I saw two two really awesome three year olds.
Speaker 1: I had a fantastic, fantastic hunt, but he just he
Speaker 1: just uh he just didn't show. Yeah, two days in row,
Speaker 1: October seven, eight. Um. And one of the things I
Speaker 1: feel like I always think about when hunting, like a
Speaker 1: spot like this, a relatively small property, when you after
Speaker 1: one deer, is this like worry of like blowing him
Speaker 1: out of the area because he's the only dear year
Speaker 1: really after And so if you screw it up, you know,
Speaker 1: then you're really in trouble. So I'm always you know me,
Speaker 1: You've heard me talk about this. I'm pretty paranoid about
Speaker 1: going in ever about hunting too much until it's like
Speaker 1: go time. So you've now hunted two days in a
Speaker 1: row in early October. Where you thinking, man, I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna keep on hitting him every time the conditions are right,
Speaker 1: or at this point did you think, Okay, I gotta
Speaker 1: back out and wait till we get to that second
Speaker 1: period that you mentioned being late October, like where's your
Speaker 1: head now? Um, I was gonna burn that. I was
Speaker 1: gonna burn that up while it was still good, and
Speaker 1: then um, which I think I'm pretty sure it's hard
Speaker 1: to remember back, but I think we got to. I
Speaker 1: think the whole dang month of October was east winds.
Speaker 1: I mean it was just horrible, like east northeast, the
Speaker 1: absolute worst winds for hunting that if I would have
Speaker 1: had better conditions, I would have hunted it until until
Speaker 1: I burned it up pretty good, I think right there,
Speaker 1: and then just wait until until the end of October.
Speaker 1: I mean when it's when it's hot, it's hot, and
Speaker 1: I feel like you gotta hunt it. Um, But I
Speaker 1: think those first two hunts were the best, best hunts
Speaker 1: I had, best chance I had and then and then
Speaker 1: I'm I'm pretty sure after that we got plagued with
Speaker 1: more east winds, which didn't didn't work for there, so
Speaker 1: I had to go try some other stuff. Is what happened?
Speaker 1: All right? Josh? What do you want learn about this point?
Speaker 1: Anything you remember during this period of his his texting
Speaker 1: to the group, his questions, is worries, his concerns, or
Speaker 1: anything you're curious about. Yeah, I totally forgot about the
Speaker 1: whole target shooting incident. That job, I remember that. That
Speaker 1: was funny. Um have you heard anything in the neighborhood
Speaker 1: about any sightings? Was there any any concern there? Um?
Speaker 1: But what what other people were seeing them at that point?
Speaker 1: M No, I know people knew about him, Um, I
Speaker 1: think neighbor did. There was a buck on the on
Speaker 1: one of the roads that was some you know, people
Speaker 1: were seeing all summer long, and jeez, everybody in the
Speaker 1: Dane County knew about it. It was just insane. It
Speaker 1: was like, oh, this is crazy, and I didn't know,
Speaker 1: we didn't know for sure if it was him or not.
Speaker 1: But but um, then in October, I didn't really hear
Speaker 1: anybody talking about about him. And then after after those
Speaker 1: early hunts, Uh no, there there was kind of it
Speaker 1: was pretty quiet, all right, So then what what what
Speaker 1: happened next? Walk us through the following days as you're
Speaker 1: checking the forecast and trying to decide do I hunt?
Speaker 1: Do I not hunt? Um? Take us through the next
Speaker 1: eventful moments. Uh So I don't, man, I don't keep
Speaker 1: spreadsheets like you Marxists. Really hard to recall some this stuff,
Speaker 1: so you gotta I gotta get with it. But the
Speaker 1: weather in October was just like the most got awful
Speaker 1: hunting weather I think we've ever had besides that first
Speaker 1: first little bit of October. It was, if I recall,
Speaker 1: it was just terrible, and I think I just was patient,
Speaker 1: and I just wanted to wait, wait it out until um,
Speaker 1: until it got it until got a little bit better. Um.
Speaker 1: And I didn't. I didn't really hunt until at the
Speaker 1: end of October. I think it was like the I
Speaker 1: finally tried to go back in there and I actually
Speaker 1: went to that same food plot and I went in
Speaker 1: the morning, and I was hoping it's kind of like
Speaker 1: in a transition area. So if he was out feeding
Speaker 1: in the in the the fields. H as a deer
Speaker 1: come back through, they'll kind of stop, they'll do a
Speaker 1: little browsing and they'll keep working their way back through,
Speaker 1: is what the kind of the goal of that spot is.
Speaker 1: So it's good in the evening, it's good in the morning.
Speaker 1: So I got up in there really early that morning,
Speaker 1: I think it was. It was a like a very
Speaker 1: light northwest wind, so it was north northwest, so it
Speaker 1: was it was kind of like that just off wind um,
Speaker 1: kind of blue, just on the other side of fence,
Speaker 1: down the fence, not really where he should be coming
Speaker 1: from more dear for that matter. That the fence kind
Speaker 1: of acts as like a barrier. I figured I can
Speaker 1: pull that off. So I got set up in there
Speaker 1: and it was kind of quiet. I had a small
Speaker 1: I had a small eight point buck come through, and
Speaker 1: then some does and I don't remember what time it
Speaker 1: might have been, like about eight thirty Elsedden. I heard
Speaker 1: that unmistakable clanking of antlers on branches. Like when I
Speaker 1: heard it, I was like, that's about making a scrape.
Speaker 1: And I had no idea what bucket was at the time,
Speaker 1: and it was off in the distance, so there's like
Speaker 1: a big cedar thicket, and he was in that cedar
Speaker 1: thicket scraping a tree, and I see him just step
Speaker 1: out of that, you know, like you get some thick cedars.
Speaker 1: It's kind of dark in there, and he like just
Speaker 1: walks out of that cedar thicket and stands there really tall,
Speaker 1: like an upright and it was just like super cool.
Speaker 1: And I pulled up my vinals and I look. I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, there he is. And so he popped out.
Speaker 1: And he's also already on the south side of me.
Speaker 1: So he's supposed to be coming from the north to
Speaker 1: the south, but he got past. He's already south of me.
Speaker 1: And so these doughs we're kind of down in this
Speaker 1: little dip in between me and him, and he walks
Speaker 1: out and he's just you can just tell he's like
Speaker 1: he's like super cautious, and he comes out kind of
Speaker 1: bumps the doughs a little bit, and when he turns
Speaker 1: and starts going down that dip, when I lose him,
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh man, he's coming. He's like he's like
Speaker 1: he's on his way of the food plot right now.
Speaker 1: And so at that point, I'm like kind of getting
Speaker 1: myself ready, and he walks right up to that fence
Speaker 1: that is directly south of me, and I have that
Speaker 1: wind blowing kind of down that fence, just off wind
Speaker 1: like it's good and it will if it stays consistent.
Speaker 1: And he walks up to the food plots, stand up there.
Speaker 1: He stands there for what seems like ten minutes. You
Speaker 1: know how those big bucks do they They they can
Speaker 1: just stand like statues for a long time and just
Speaker 1: like assess everything before you any further, for you any further, sorry,
Speaker 1: but I want to get a quick look inside your mind.
Speaker 1: In this moment, You've got this giant deer standing just
Speaker 1: on the edge of the plot about to walk into
Speaker 1: a spot you can get a shot at him. You've
Speaker 1: been watching this deer for three years. You essentially passed
Speaker 1: on him the year prior as a booner. I'm assuming
Speaker 1: that's the biggest deer you've ever passed. So there's like
Speaker 1: tons of pressure and excitement and craziness leading into this moment.
Speaker 1: You've killed a lot of deer over your life, but
Speaker 1: I also know that you've had some some some buck
Speaker 1: fever things over the course of your hunting life, just
Speaker 1: like me. Um So how are you handling this moment
Speaker 1: of truth? Like in your mind as this is coming
Speaker 1: together and you're realizing he's about to step into position,
Speaker 1: how how are you feeling? Did you feel good in
Speaker 1: that moment where you were you locked in? What were
Speaker 1: you telling yourself? What was what was happening in between
Speaker 1: the years? So when he first stepped out, I think
Speaker 1: I had that initial like adrenaline rush, you know, and
Speaker 1: then as he started kind of once he committed, it's
Speaker 1: like it's really exciting, and then and then I kind
Speaker 1: of calmed down when I know when I knew he was,
Speaker 1: when he was knew he was getting closer than I
Speaker 1: was kind of trying to get into like a mantra,
Speaker 1: you know, like like pick a spot, slow it down
Speaker 1: kind of thing, you know, because a lot of times
Speaker 1: I think I I rushed, I rush, and just trying
Speaker 1: to keep repeating like slowed down, pick a spot, slowed down.
Speaker 1: You know. Um, it's kind of what I was trying
Speaker 1: to trying to get my head um ready for, so
Speaker 1: trying to get that mantra going. And as he came out,
Speaker 1: he like he just tucked himself up against that fence
Speaker 1: like tight, like it didn't. I was like, why what
Speaker 1: is he doing? You know? But he just like, I mean,
Speaker 1: he his side was like brushing up against that barbed wire.
Speaker 1: It's like he was trying to get every little ounce
Speaker 1: of like of sent out of that food plot before
Speaker 1: he committed. And he stood there up tight against that
Speaker 1: fence at like twenty five yards while I was kind
Speaker 1: of talking myself through it. And at this point, I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: this thing I'm I knew in my mind. I knew
Speaker 1: I was going to get an opportunity, that I was
Speaker 1: going to get a shot. And he stopped out that
Speaker 1: fence and I was telling myself, you don't like slowed
Speaker 1: down and pick a spot. And I was trying to
Speaker 1: stay calm, and then he started making a little scrape
Speaker 1: like and that wins just an off wind. You know,
Speaker 1: you don't want him sticking around in one spot for
Speaker 1: too long. And I was like, oh, man, just hurry up.
Speaker 1: You know. He was just taking his time talked up
Speaker 1: against that fence. And then I felt that like unmistakable
Speaker 1: little gust of wind that you can get on your
Speaker 1: face sometimes it just makes your like makes your hair
Speaker 1: stand up when it happens. And I felt that and
Speaker 1: I knew, like instantly, I knew it was over because
Speaker 1: I get there was a little tiny gust and he
Speaker 1: was at twenty five yards. I didn't have a shot
Speaker 1: at him. It was too thick through his theater. And
Speaker 1: if he had kept on his path, I would have
Speaker 1: probably got like a fifteen yard broadside shot. It would
Speaker 1: have been just perfect. But right when that wind gusted,
Speaker 1: took literally like one second and he caught my wind
Speaker 1: and he just bolted out of there and just bounded
Speaker 1: out of out of sight. So that was my first
Speaker 1: encounrent with him that are this year. So now, what
Speaker 1: what were you feeling? Did you feel like you were screwed?
Speaker 1: Did you feel like not a huge deal, I'll get
Speaker 1: another shot later. I mean, how did that affect your
Speaker 1: morale and then your strategy? I just I knew I
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna be sitting there much more anytime soon. It's
Speaker 1: kind of what I thought. And when I when I
Speaker 1: sat down, I just kind of sat down and was just
Speaker 1: just a kind of just laughed. I was like, oh man,
Speaker 1: that was awesome. But oh well, you know, there's just
Speaker 1: so many things have to come together when you deer hunt.
Speaker 1: You know, like if you didn't make that great, I
Speaker 1: would have shot him. You know, so many little things
Speaker 1: have to work out, and um, like the absolute worst
Speaker 1: time to get augusta wind. It didn't do that all morning,
Speaker 1: and it was just right at that moment, and I
Speaker 1: kind of just like I was like, oh, I guess
Speaker 1: it just wasn't wasn't meant to be. It wasn't wasn't
Speaker 1: supposed to happen. It's awesome encounter, Like it was great
Speaker 1: that I got to see him. Um. And but then
Speaker 1: I was like shooting, Now what am I gonna do? Um?
Speaker 1: You know, how long is a buck? How long is
Speaker 1: this buck going to avoid this area specifically for this stand?
Speaker 1: Is this stand burnt up? Like? Where should I try next?
Speaker 1: Where is he gonna want to be next? How is
Speaker 1: he going to skirt this food plot? How is he
Speaker 1: gonna send check it? Um? That kind of stuff. That's
Speaker 1: kind of what I was thinking. So what do you do? Oh?
Speaker 1: And then I hunted the crap out of that place,
Speaker 1: bouncing around. So for all of November, Uh, I just
Speaker 1: bounced around dope. So it kind of stung a little
Speaker 1: bit because that end of October time is like the
Speaker 1: best time in my opinion, and then once November comes,
Speaker 1: it's just like a crapshoot. And when I had him,
Speaker 1: when I had him smell me that that that day,
Speaker 1: it kind of it sucked a little bit. It stung
Speaker 1: a little bit um. But then I just started bouncing around.
Speaker 1: I started hitting different kinds of different dope betting areas,
Speaker 1: UH focused on, you know, stand stand sites that were
Speaker 1: based on wind and dope betting areas, and I just
Speaker 1: never could catch up to him. I just never. I
Speaker 1: could never. I never saw him. He was around, but
Speaker 1: he just seemed like he kind of vacated. And I
Speaker 1: don't think it was because of obviously smelling me, because
Speaker 1: it smells people all the time, you know, But he
Speaker 1: just seemed like he rutted somewhere else. He kind of
Speaker 1: I think I didn't get many pictures of him. They
Speaker 1: got a couple of pictures right in the beginning of November,
Speaker 1: and then I had no pictures for two weeks, never
Speaker 1: saw him for two weeks. I think he showed up
Speaker 1: at the very north edge of the property like that
Speaker 1: middle middle of November, like thet or something like that.
Speaker 1: Just one picture that where he was clearly tending a
Speaker 1: dough kind of to the north. But he seemed like
Speaker 1: he just vacated the property, which I mean, there were
Speaker 1: so many questions like, well, what the heck, why does
Speaker 1: why did he move? Like he's been he rutted here
Speaker 1: the last four years or whatever five years. Why why
Speaker 1: did he suddenly make a change. That's always like those
Speaker 1: crazy questions, yet you never have the answer to. And
Speaker 1: I didn't know if it was because of that day,
Speaker 1: because of Benjamin Buttons or what. But he just he
Speaker 1: kind of just left. He kind of left. He went northeast.
Speaker 1: I knew had a pretty good idea where he went. Um,
Speaker 1: and I went and scouted some different stuff. I when
Speaker 1: hunted a different area to see if I to shake
Speaker 1: it up and try to change it up. And the
Speaker 1: sign wasn't that great. I didn't get the vibe that
Speaker 1: that he was really in there. I didn't really see much. Um.
Speaker 1: I just I think I think I put all my
Speaker 1: eggs in in the basket that he was going to
Speaker 1: be there the whole November and he wasn't. So then
Speaker 1: I think I wasted way too many days thinking like, oh,
Speaker 1: if I if I just keep it going, if I
Speaker 1: just keep it going, eventually he's going to show up,
Speaker 1: you know, and he just never did. And then by that,
Speaker 1: you know, by the but the next thing you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's like he missed out on that that early November,
Speaker 1: which is pretty good, and then they're locked down and
Speaker 1: it just seems like kind of I kind of in
Speaker 1: play November very well if you hindsight, obviously, but in retrospect,
Speaker 1: if you were to look back on that month knowing
Speaker 1: kind of what you know now, would you have made
Speaker 1: any big change that you think could have could have
Speaker 1: you know, change your results at all for that month
Speaker 1: or was it kind of out of your hands just
Speaker 1: because he just left and he was in places you
Speaker 1: could hunt. I could, I could hunt a little bit
Speaker 1: where he went. But I just I don't know that
Speaker 1: the rut is so random. I just you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's hard last few years and spend more about like
Speaker 1: hunting a specific book, and it just seems like once
Speaker 1: November comes, it's like, oh, it's kind of like it
Speaker 1: just sucks. Like if if you want to shoot a
Speaker 1: nice buck gets you excited, not a specific book, then
Speaker 1: November is awesome. But man, when you when it's when
Speaker 1: it's a specific buck during November, it gets it gets
Speaker 1: pretty tough, and I don't know, I don't really know
Speaker 1: exactly what I would do differently. I think I would
Speaker 1: have probably um tried to bounce around a little bit more.
Speaker 1: But but elsewhere, um, maybe on some stuff that I
Speaker 1: had permission on I tried it, but but um yeah,
Speaker 1: I just being able to adapt like on the fly
Speaker 1: and know a little quicker when to change it up
Speaker 1: is what's the hardest part, I think, or know when
Speaker 1: to when to bail on what you're doing and make
Speaker 1: a change is kind of always hard because it seems
Speaker 1: like if you take too long, then you're too late.
Speaker 1: So true, Hey, Ross, did you have like any point
Speaker 1: during that time period where you're after him and just
Speaker 1: did it like doubts start to creep in or did
Speaker 1: you have any other encounters with any other deer, Like, man,
Speaker 1: I should just shoot that buck this one. He's not
Speaker 1: gonna show up. It's not gonna happen. Well, it was
Speaker 1: kind of like your mindset, No, I was. It was
Speaker 1: pretty much I was set on just shooting that deer.
Speaker 1: There really were. There's a lot of the young gears
Speaker 1: around that, a lot of young geer that that should
Speaker 1: be really awesome in the future, and I didn't really
Speaker 1: I have my heart set on anything else there. The
Speaker 1: only thing I, you know, that would have changed that
Speaker 1: is maybe if I was hunting some public or something
Speaker 1: this year, and um, I would have changed my standards there.
Speaker 1: But Benjamin, Benjamin Buttons was the one that he was
Speaker 1: the one that was kind of running the show around
Speaker 1: the farm, and I had him broadside several times, um,
Speaker 1: and he was very visible, and um, besides him, it
Speaker 1: was kind of a ghost it was kind of a
Speaker 1: ghost town. That's why I kind of had the I
Speaker 1: kind of got the vibe that that maybe maybe he
Speaker 1: was actually the boss buck in that area. And I also,
Speaker 1: I mean there are also some dogs running and deer
Speaker 1: all November or all fall two, which was pretty pretty tough.
Speaker 1: I mean I could that have had an played a role? Yeah, probably, Um,
Speaker 1: they were run deer pretty regularly. One time I wasted
Speaker 1: in the stand and I had him run through. Um
Speaker 1: and and yeah that could have changed up too. But besides, besides,
Speaker 1: besides a big potatoes like, there wasn't really anything else
Speaker 1: I wanted to shoot. So is guns season the next
Speaker 1: big event here? Then in the story hunting and never
Speaker 1: caught up with him never saw him. So then gun
Speaker 1: season starts, um, and they were a hot mess, very stressed,
Speaker 1: very word. It was very intense, though, was the first
Speaker 1: few days. You know, I was like, oh man, you
Speaker 1: know there's gonna be some guys hunting, but you know what,
Speaker 1: what are the odds, you know, somebody gets them? Not
Speaker 1: that good, right, you know, like it's not very good
Speaker 1: at access. Like by the time these guys get in there,
Speaker 1: if they do their pushes, or if they do they're sitting,
Speaker 1: they're already blowing it up and winds out of the
Speaker 1: north and this and that. But cheez, it was. It was.
Speaker 1: It was pretty intense the first couple of days. Some
Speaker 1: people we're hunting next door and they just pretty much
Speaker 1: just I don't know what was going on. They walked
Speaker 1: in there and the story goes, that must have jumped
Speaker 1: him and just just so I don't know, unloaded on
Speaker 1: him as he's running away. Um, the rumors the guy said, oh,
Speaker 1: it was you know, a hundred buck and I hit him,
Speaker 1: but I I followed blood to the fence and then
Speaker 1: he crossed fence and then I you know, he didn't
Speaker 1: look anymore. So I was like, well, you know, you
Speaker 1: hear that it's like, oh, there's only one buck that's
Speaker 1: running around, there's not two. So it was kind of
Speaker 1: like the that sucks. First off, it's like how how
Speaker 1: do you hunt? Hunting? Hunt? Never see the day gear?
Speaker 1: And then somebody just walks in and then they jump
Speaker 1: him and started shooting lasting at him. That's gun hunting
Speaker 1: for you, right, And then of course the deer is
Speaker 1: running away, and then who who doesn't follow up on
Speaker 1: a deer that they wound even though they crossed the fence,
Speaker 1: let alone one eighty It's kind of like why would
Speaker 1: why wouldn't you actually put a little effort into this?
Speaker 1: So there was like no closure there for a while,
Speaker 1: like I don't know did he die? I had no
Speaker 1: idea do you live? Like what what happened? So there
Speaker 1: was like, um, yeah, there was like at a lot
Speaker 1: of unknown. I actually I know. I messaged you guys.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, he's dad. I just wrote him off.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh that's over. Um. And it wasn't
Speaker 1: like a bummer like oh I didn't get him, as
Speaker 1: more like a bummer like oh no, you don't don't
Speaker 1: get to hunt him anymore, or he's not around kind
Speaker 1: of thing you know, give me a little more like No, Bs,
Speaker 1: you've been you've been very optimistic, you've been very sunshine
Speaker 1: Ross in your description so far of how you've handled
Speaker 1: this season. Ross, I want the real story, like were
Speaker 1: you were you seriously like, oh well he's he's gone
Speaker 1: right them off and just like onto the next one.
Speaker 1: Or were you laying in bed that night like cussing
Speaker 1: them You're cussing things out and stressing out and all
Speaker 1: that good usual raw stuff. I was more mad at
Speaker 1: my wife. She didn't show me. She didn't show me
Speaker 1: any sympathy. Like even when I say she didn't even care,
Speaker 1: it's like she didn't want to hear it. I was like,
Speaker 1: what the heck? You know that stung, that hurt, that
Speaker 1: hurt me deep inside right there. What you want to
Speaker 1: hear about this? And I need hugs right now? But
Speaker 1: she yeah, she uh no, really, I you know what
Speaker 1: is what it is, that's how it goes. I I yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it sucks, especially when you try. Really it's
Speaker 1: hard to get dear to five or six years old.
Speaker 1: It's it's tough. It doesn't matter where you are Iowa
Speaker 1: or Michigan or anywhere. It's it's it's tough on small
Speaker 1: small acreage is where there's a lot of pressure. But
Speaker 1: I didn't, I really the passing to my friends stuff
Speaker 1: like that. I mean that even like you know that
Speaker 1: that put a whole different perspective on the season. Like
Speaker 1: my my season was like way more, you know, it was.
Speaker 1: I kept things in perspective a lot better. And you
Speaker 1: know when that when I heard that, it's just like,
Speaker 1: you know, it is what it is and just kind
Speaker 1: of move on type of thing. Yeah, but I you
Speaker 1: don't used to let that stuff on me. I just
Speaker 1: it's not worth it. They're just dear. Yeah, having kids
Speaker 1: definitely helps with that a lot too. Oh for sure.
Speaker 1: I get so much more value out of just like uh,
Speaker 1: hunting with Like I get a awesome group buddies down here.
Speaker 1: We all like share hunts together and just have a
Speaker 1: great time together. There's no selfishness or anything like that,
Speaker 1: you know. And uh and then you know with you guys,
Speaker 1: sharing sharing stuff with you guys, and it's just it's
Speaker 1: just way more fun than that that Like hunting camp
Speaker 1: kind of feel like getting back to that stuff is
Speaker 1: just that's where it's at. Yeah, So where we're's your
Speaker 1: where where were things going after this. You you texted us,
Speaker 1: he said that he's dead. We all kind of mourned
Speaker 1: for you for a while. We we uh figured the
Speaker 1: store was over, and we kept on getting reports like
Speaker 1: oh yeah, there's more guys this day, or there's your
Speaker 1: more stories and more guys the next week or whatever.
Speaker 1: It was. So at this point, Mark, I gotta tell you.
Speaker 1: So then I got to say this too, because so
Speaker 1: he gets shot, and then there's this other bu u
Speaker 1: uh google buck awesome dear that I'm really hoping that
Speaker 1: can make it through. And then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I get I get a text from the other neighbor.
Speaker 1: He's like, I just shot. I just shot a buck.
Speaker 1: He's staying standing down there and I'm like, well, did
Speaker 1: you hit him? He's like I don't know. And he's
Speaker 1: like I'm like, well, you're gonna go check. He's like, well,
Speaker 1: I'll go check after chores. And I'm like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: I thought I thought both my but both I hate
Speaker 1: say it's not what I mean, but both. I thought
Speaker 1: both bucks were like done, you know, So then that
Speaker 1: I'll be honest. Then I started getting a little pouty.
Speaker 1: After that. It was like the pressure was insane. This
Speaker 1: year there it was like guys everywhere. But like but
Speaker 1: after that, um, I put up some cameras. So last
Speaker 1: year he kind of shifted. He like I said before,
Speaker 1: he shifts, like in December, he shifted to a different area.
Speaker 1: And then he would he would bed bed on this
Speaker 1: one ridge and then where I can't hunt, and then
Speaker 1: he would cross a different field into and then feed
Speaker 1: into a bean and cornfield and whatnot. So last year
Speaker 1: you did that. So then I'm like, well, I better
Speaker 1: put some cameras up. He crosses a road, so I
Speaker 1: put I lined the road up with some cameras to see,
Speaker 1: you know, let's see if something happens and you were
Speaker 1: clinging to a little hope, then I guess maybe, yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't. You don't. There's so many rumors. Um the
Speaker 1: one one guy says he shot the shot the buck,
Speaker 1: and then my other buddy says he saw the book
Speaker 1: that same night. It's like you just don't know, you know,
Speaker 1: And there was no there's no way of knowing. So
Speaker 1: I put cameras up along the road and try to
Speaker 1: see if like, okay, if this he did this last year,
Speaker 1: I'm going to see if I can get him at
Speaker 1: these fence crossing, crossing the road to come in this
Speaker 1: field to to feed. And sure enough I got a
Speaker 1: picture of that dear, just like one of those hazy
Speaker 1: um those pictures where they're like that they're weigh in
Speaker 1: the background, you can barely see him. He guts zoom
Speaker 1: weigh in and you can just make him out, you
Speaker 1: know kind of picture. And I'm like wow, Like, I
Speaker 1: was like, oh my god, he's alive. I think I
Speaker 1: messaged you guys and other buddies right away. I'm like,
Speaker 1: holy kind I can't believe this, dear, he is alive. Like,
Speaker 1: and how long? How long after that when you thought
Speaker 1: he got shot? How how much time passed between these
Speaker 1: two things? Two weeks? Wow? Yeah? So he was gone
Speaker 1: for two weeks, no sign, no nothing, and then he
Speaker 1: showed up. Ah close to the end of shotguns season. Um,
Speaker 1: I think he showed up. It was like right before,
Speaker 1: right those last couple of days of shotguns season, he
Speaker 1: showed up, crossing the road in the dark. Did you
Speaker 1: have a tag during this gun season or no? No?
Speaker 1: No buck tag? Okay, so I got a late muzzle
Speaker 1: order tag for uh for the gun seasons? Gotcha? They're
Speaker 1: just sitting on the sideline watching all this happen. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: thinking why why the heck didn't I get a shotgun?
Speaker 1: Everybody else is having they're having a great time. Let
Speaker 1: me tell you. So he's back, He's alive. You confirmed
Speaker 1: he survived. Um now it was time for you know,
Speaker 1: retool of the system, re rejigger the game plan. What
Speaker 1: was your new plan of attack? Uh? What was? What
Speaker 1: did you do? So? Right when I got that picture,
Speaker 1: I think I don't remember too too long after that,
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, now I gotta prepared for a muzzle order.
Speaker 1: Um so I when I'm like a scouting mission. Right away,
Speaker 1: I did a big loop check some stuff out. Actually,
Speaker 1: you know what, I maybe pick maybe I did this
Speaker 1: before I got the picture. I think I did this
Speaker 1: before I got the picture. But I did like a
Speaker 1: maybe there was a little bit of hope left. But
Speaker 1: I did a I did a scout scout about and
Speaker 1: tried to figure out, Okay, what am I gonna do
Speaker 1: for muzzleloader. I knew he was coming out of there.
Speaker 1: I had a pretty good idea how he exited the timber.
Speaker 1: And then I found like a pretty good set up
Speaker 1: on a terrorist and I could shoot. I could shoot
Speaker 1: this bowl where he would come out and cross and
Speaker 1: be you know, within twenty yards or something like that.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, and I found a really awesome set up.
Speaker 1: And I was pretty much I sent you that picture.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember that picture because you're
Speaker 1: asking asking me about it, and it was a it
Speaker 1: would have been. That was the setup. I think. I
Speaker 1: was really confident and I thought if he was alive,
Speaker 1: that's where I was gonna get him. And then when
Speaker 1: I got this picture of him, like, Okay, this is
Speaker 1: this is gonna this is gonna maybe happen again. And
Speaker 1: then you're sure enough. Right where I was gonna sit,
Speaker 1: somebody put up a pop up line right there, and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, somebody else see what
Speaker 1: I was thinking, Like was gonna happen or you know,
Speaker 1: like I was like, wow, somebody else knows maybe what
Speaker 1: I what I was thinking or what I knew or whatever,
Speaker 1: And yeah, there was a blind right there. I was like,
Speaker 1: oh jeez, what now what am I gonna do? You know?
Speaker 1: So uh yeah. Then I still I kind of kept
Speaker 1: track of like the traffic going in there. It didn't
Speaker 1: seem like anybody was hunting it. So I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: you know what if now he's hunted, I'm still gonna
Speaker 1: go for it. Um. But never never really never really
Speaker 1: came about. Um did anything? Then? Did did he show
Speaker 1: up on camera anymore before we get to like that
Speaker 1: Christmas time period? Or was he he got the ghost
Speaker 1: picture of him you found on the spot you thought
Speaker 1: he could kill him? And then and then what so?
Speaker 1: I think I had that picture at the road there.
Speaker 1: I don't remember. I think it was so is Christmas
Speaker 1: time we got we got that awesome cold front and
Speaker 1: you guys got that too, didn't you. Yeah, mega mega
Speaker 1: storm cold front came through lots of snow. It was
Speaker 1: one of those one of those like and it was like,
Speaker 1: oh man, it's following, it's falling, falling on Christmas. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, dang it, you know, because I'm not like
Speaker 1: at that time Christmas we were going back to Wisconsin
Speaker 1: where I'm from, I'm not gonna be able to hunt
Speaker 1: you know, this cold front and a buddy of mine,
Speaker 1: shatter Box, during that, um, we had that like crazy wind.
Speaker 1: Deer were feeding like crazy. It was. It was it
Speaker 1: was an awesome cold front. Oh you know what Mark,
Speaker 1: I just thought of something because I don't have my spreadsheets,
Speaker 1: so I can't come up with this stuff. Um. Next
Speaker 1: time that we got that hazy picture of him across
Speaker 1: the road and then uh, the guys that I did
Speaker 1: like a loop around the property around the section, just
Speaker 1: kind of seeing what was going on, and as we
Speaker 1: came back down the road, we saw him, um, just
Speaker 1: after he crossed the road going into that field. So
Speaker 1: that was the second time, and he was just standing
Speaker 1: right off the road. So that was probably like fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes after dark, and that was right before Christmas. I
Speaker 1: don't think I remember here about that one. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: that was like the that was the last day of
Speaker 1: Guns season, I think. So he pretty much walked right
Speaker 1: past that pop up line and thank and thankfully nobody
Speaker 1: was in it, and then he crossed the road that
Speaker 1: last fifteen minutes and we saw him there and like, oh,
Speaker 1: this perfect, like you know exactly what he's doing, and
Speaker 1: he's here at a reasonable time, like I can catch
Speaker 1: him before dark in that spot. And then Christmas came
Speaker 1: that cold on game but I couldn't hunt it, which
Speaker 1: was like, oh man, I'm thinking might miss out on this.
Speaker 1: So I went back to Wisconsin. And then of course
Speaker 1: you're sitting there. I'm sitting there. Was I'm sitting there
Speaker 1: in Wisconsin and at night, you know, like eight o'clock
Speaker 1: to get my pictures, you know, and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, I see, oh my god, he showed up.
Speaker 1: And now he's he's in the property where I I
Speaker 1: want him to be the whole time. He finally showed
Speaker 1: back up, and I think the I think it was
Speaker 1: the fourth and I got pictures of him, so Christmas,
Speaker 1: even Christmas Day and a couple of daylight pictures, and
Speaker 1: I'm stuck in Wiscott. Yea, none of us, none of
Speaker 1: us understood why you didn't just hop in the truck
Speaker 1: head they and see a family. I mean, I was
Speaker 1: like I was. I was excited to get the pictures,
Speaker 1: but it was also like, oh man, if it was
Speaker 1: if I was like, man, I can't wait to get back,
Speaker 1: you know. Um, I think it what did Christmas? I
Speaker 1: don't know if he came back on the or whatever. Um,
Speaker 1: but we had that we had like a blizzard come through.
Speaker 1: It was like the fifty wind or whatever. And so
Speaker 1: we get back and I drive down the road and
Speaker 1: to hunt that first night, and I think it was
Speaker 1: the twent so was the night of I think, and
Speaker 1: I drive and driving down, I got all anticipation. I'm
Speaker 1: driving down the road and I was going to make
Speaker 1: a game plan of what to do based on kind
Speaker 1: of the tracks that I saw. So I was driving
Speaker 1: real slowed down the road, kind of checking for big tracks,
Speaker 1: checking for the traffic. And there were no tracks down
Speaker 1: the road at all. So where he was coming out
Speaker 1: of he wasn't coming out of anymore. And I totally
Speaker 1: locked out because that blizzard drifted in that hole for outside,
Speaker 1: so now where he was crossing, he he couldn't cross anymore.
Speaker 1: It was big, giant drifts. So once that blizzard came through,
Speaker 1: he started switching what he was doing. He wasn't coming
Speaker 1: out of that property anymore. He was coming out of ah,
Speaker 1: the cedar thicket um where I was at, So he
Speaker 1: had to kind of change it up. And so when
Speaker 1: I drove down that road, I'm like, Okay, this is
Speaker 1: gonna be perfect. I'm gonna set up um. Right before Christmas,
Speaker 1: I pulled out like one of those wagon blinds and
Speaker 1: got it set up, and I like that night I
Speaker 1: was gonna sit on the ground tucked into a cedar
Speaker 1: in the CRP and there's one trail that comes out
Speaker 1: of those cedars where generally late season, that's kind of
Speaker 1: how they'll act sit And I was gonna sit on
Speaker 1: the ground. I was gonna sit there, but it was
Speaker 1: it was just too dank cold. I'm like, I could
Speaker 1: do it, but being still and all that stuff, man,
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't know if I can pull
Speaker 1: that off. Um, So I ended up going into that
Speaker 1: blind and I sat there and I watched probably like
Speaker 1: forty pile out of where he where he had been,
Speaker 1: and he no showed. So then for then then you
Speaker 1: go through that like a little bit of a moment,
Speaker 1: you know, at the end of it gets dark and
Speaker 1: you're in that stupid blind and you're like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: should I get out now? Like when should I get out?
Speaker 1: Is he coming out like poking up of that take
Speaker 1: it right now? Like what do I do? And but
Speaker 1: I just pretty much just made a run for it,
Speaker 1: you know, as quick as I could get out of there. Um,
Speaker 1: I know, I blew up a few deer, but um,
Speaker 1: luckily I did not bump him. So then any questions, no,
Speaker 1: I think I feel like we're approaching the climax here.
Speaker 1: So work worked me through the final the final moments.
Speaker 1: So that cold front ended that that Tuesday. I think
Speaker 1: it was Tuesday, I'm pretty sure. And um, I still
Speaker 1: had that morning off, so I was going to make
Speaker 1: one last go at it. It was like that last
Speaker 1: I think it was maybe too below that morning or
Speaker 1: something like that. It was that last really cold morning,
Speaker 1: cold night before we got the big warm up then
Speaker 1: and then you know, looking at that extended forecast, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is gonna be this is gonna be terrible. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be an the forties and it's gonna be warm
Speaker 1: and just not great late season stuff. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: this is my last go at it. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: and mornings, like I actually love late season mornings and
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't don't, but I've had a
Speaker 1: lot of luck mornings late season. And that property in particular,
Speaker 1: you can hunt, you can hunt late, you can hunt
Speaker 1: in the afternoon and you'll see a ton of doze,
Speaker 1: but you won't see any bucks. But if you hunt
Speaker 1: the morning, you'll see all the box. There's something to it.
Speaker 1: I don't know why that property is like that. I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's a layout or what. But um,
Speaker 1: in the past, I've had a ton of luck that
Speaker 1: first fifteen minutes as they kind of come through, So
Speaker 1: I thought, Okay, this is gonna work. Um. I had
Speaker 1: a little bit of internal debate on where to sit.
Speaker 1: I was going to sit on the ground, if I
Speaker 1: should sit on the ground again, Um, there was a
Speaker 1: south wind, so the wind was not great. It was
Speaker 1: blowing straight to the deer where they would be coming from.
Speaker 1: So like, how am I gonna pull this off? I
Speaker 1: gotta get tucked in this fence. I was gonna go
Speaker 1: kind of brushing along the fence and get that south
Speaker 1: wind kind of like blowing as far off of the
Speaker 1: deer as traffic as possible. But it was so damn cold,
Speaker 1: And then I had to get in there so early
Speaker 1: so I didn't bump any deer. I got there. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I got there like an hour and
Speaker 1: a half before light or whatever. And I'm like, there's
Speaker 1: no way I'm gonna sit to blow for an hour
Speaker 1: and a half on the ground and then and then
Speaker 1: um all so you know, as the sun comes up
Speaker 1: and whatever, and then be still enough to work to
Speaker 1: the point where I'm gonna be able to pull this off.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, screw it, I'm going to the blind, um,
Speaker 1: and I'm just gonna button it up and cross my
Speaker 1: fingers that this south wind like won't uh won't ruin
Speaker 1: ruin this opportunity. And so I was sitting in the blind,
Speaker 1: So hold on deep, detail this blind a little bit
Speaker 1: more when when you say, like the blind, is this
Speaker 1: like a sealed up box blind? Is gonna keep your
Speaker 1: wind in? Is this, you know, detail that a little
Speaker 1: bit more for me. And then also just again I
Speaker 1: want to make sure you understand the set up here.
Speaker 1: This is like it's correct me if I'm wrong here.
Speaker 1: But we're on like a crp field that's in between
Speaker 1: the cedar thicket where you think you're bedded, and then
Speaker 1: there's like a cut corn field on the other side
Speaker 1: of it. Is that right that they're feeding in or
Speaker 1: is it the beans over on the other side. So
Speaker 1: the I think actually in the neighbors they have like
Speaker 1: by there, like their farmyard, they actually have like a
Speaker 1: lot of corn laying rounds like feed and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: I think the deer actually go right up in there, um,
Speaker 1: right up into like the the yard right there, and
Speaker 1: that's the north of me, and then to the south
Speaker 1: is the cedars and I'm like right in between. So
Speaker 1: where I put that blind was to set me up
Speaker 1: for um, you know, a reasonable you know, like within
Speaker 1: a hundred yards shot of any deer that is going
Speaker 1: to those seaters has to come through there pretty much.
Speaker 1: And that blinds like it's not an old wagon, you know,
Speaker 1: built out of pretty much scrap would it looks like
Speaker 1: a gingerbread house pretty much. It's nothing fancy, and uh,
Speaker 1: it's set up just right in between. But it's kind
Speaker 1: of sketchy because I mean getting in there in the morning,
Speaker 1: like you you're risking bumping deer. But if I just
Speaker 1: thought if I got in that thing early enough I
Speaker 1: could I could maybe pull it off. And cool thing
Speaker 1: was I built that with my friend of mine that
Speaker 1: that died too. And you know, I was sitting there
Speaker 1: and I was kind of going through that like those
Speaker 1: early morning minutes where it's dark yet and you're just
Speaker 1: kind of thinking about stuff, and I was like, man,
Speaker 1: maybe this is where I was supposed to shoot this
Speaker 1: deers out of this blind because I'm like, we built
Speaker 1: this blind together, you know, I was thinking about that.
Speaker 1: We spent a whole summer building that blind, um and uh,
Speaker 1: and he knew about the deer, you know, And and
Speaker 1: then I was hunting him and stuff like that, and
Speaker 1: I was like, man, this this is where I was
Speaker 1: supposed to shoot that deer. I was like, I was
Speaker 1: supposed to shoot that deer out of this blind And
Speaker 1: I kid you not. Like a couple of minutes after that,
Speaker 1: that deer pops up over the over the hill just
Speaker 1: to the north of me and that in the beans
Speaker 1: as and starts coming down towards me. I was like,
Speaker 1: it was like that initial like plump binoculars and like,
Speaker 1: oh man, it's gonna happen kind of thing. And so
Speaker 1: he so he he's coming towards me. And and then
Speaker 1: of course at the same time, you know, you got
Speaker 1: dolls coming out, and it's like, oh man, they're right
Speaker 1: down wind to me. I'm like, you gotta be kidding me.
Speaker 1: These those those dolls are gonna bust me. It's gonna
Speaker 1: blow it because he's coming just off wind. He'll be fine.
Speaker 1: These dolls are right but right right behind me. But
Speaker 1: for some reason, the wind currents or whatever the wind
Speaker 1: was doing, it was they weren't catching me. He comes
Speaker 1: up over the hill and he's heading straight for me.
Speaker 1: He's gonna cross the fence, but for some reason, you know,
Speaker 1: he turns and does a ninety He does a ninety
Speaker 1: degree turn and starts heading parallel to me, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: what is it like? And then you start freaking out.
Speaker 1: You're like, don't do that, you know, And he hits
Speaker 1: one of those drifts, and so he stops, and then
Speaker 1: you can tell he's kind of thinking it through, and
Speaker 1: he turns around and he heads back to where he
Speaker 1: was and then he finally finds a spot at the fence.
Speaker 1: And when he gets to that fence, I'm just he's
Speaker 1: just waiting. I know, we've all end to that point
Speaker 1: where a deer hits the fence and you're just waiting
Speaker 1: for him to cross. And once they crossed and make
Speaker 1: that commitment, and there it's like it's go time kind
Speaker 1: of thing, that feeling you get with that he's standing
Speaker 1: right at that fence, taking a while, and when he
Speaker 1: makes that commitment to jump and trots down, I'm like,
Speaker 1: it's happening. So at that time, I buttoned everything up,
Speaker 1: I opened up the one window. I gotta there's like
Speaker 1: a two track from the utv UM and there's a
Speaker 1: trail that comes up up to that that lane, and
Speaker 1: that's what I anticipated him coming up. So I got
Speaker 1: the gun set up right there, open that window, ah,
Speaker 1: and just waited pretty much, and I'm watching and watching.
Speaker 1: He comes down that hill and he goes down in
Speaker 1: this little dip and then he disappears. So at that
Speaker 1: point you're like, well, you don't know exactly what he's
Speaker 1: gonna do. Is he gonna change direction? Is he going
Speaker 1: to still come up this way? And it seemed like
Speaker 1: it was like fift minutes. It was like it seemed
Speaker 1: like an eternity. It was probably like five minutes, but
Speaker 1: it seemed seemed like fifteen minutes. And Uh. Then I thought,
Speaker 1: oh my god, he's he's scared in me. He went
Speaker 1: around me or maybe maybe smelled me. I wasn't sure.
Speaker 1: Then all of a sudden, you know, you look through
Speaker 1: like crp grass or native grass and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: when you see those like shadowy figures of deer coming
Speaker 1: through it, it's really cool. Um. I get the first
Speaker 1: glimpse and I'm like, oh, dope, okay, there's doughs coming.
Speaker 1: He's gonna be right behind these doors. And another one
Speaker 1: you see the shadow coming. You're looking for rack, and
Speaker 1: it's just a dope, then a fawn, then another dough
Speaker 1: and I'm like, okay, this many deer coming up this trail.
Speaker 1: He's gonna be right behind him. And then shortly after that,
Speaker 1: I get this other shadowy figure that you can just
Speaker 1: see the body kind of moving through those through all
Speaker 1: the grass. And then you just slowly see those times
Speaker 1: kind of just pop up out of the grass walking
Speaker 1: up the hill and kind of doing that bound says
Speaker 1: he's walking, and I was. It was just like unbelievable
Speaker 1: side It was just so amazing. And he walked up
Speaker 1: and at this point he's at like thirty eight yards
Speaker 1: and he quit, kind of did a little bumped the
Speaker 1: does off a little bit and and I'm merked him.
Speaker 1: Of course I gotta do that. And then and that's
Speaker 1: when I shot, and I just dumped him right right
Speaker 1: there and uh, at like thirty eight yards with the
Speaker 1: muzzle or so. It was pretty amazing. I think I
Speaker 1: would always prefer to shoot a buck the last day
Speaker 1: of towards the end of every season. You know, everybody
Speaker 1: likes the hunt more than the most and uh, it's
Speaker 1: pretty happy that the way it ended, and probably the
Speaker 1: most meaningful book I think I've ever shot, for sure,
Speaker 1: and pretty pretty awesome tribute to my friend of mine.
Speaker 1: And then also just all the memories behind it. It's
Speaker 1: gonna it's gonna be a pretty awesome thing to look
Speaker 1: at on the wall for the rest of my life. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a that's for sure. And we all got to
Speaker 1: even uh we tried to do a group video chat
Speaker 1: to see you walk up on him, even got the
Speaker 1: video of the recovery and all that stuff. It was
Speaker 1: pretty cool to get to see it. Um, heck of
Speaker 1: a deer? What Josh, what what are your final questions
Speaker 1: on this on this hunt or this deer any and
Speaker 1: the final things in your mind? Uh? Well, it's kind
Speaker 1: of interesting, like thinking about you talking about the previous year,
Speaker 1: what you had one hunt the previous year, one hunted
Speaker 1: one day and then this had to been probably one
Speaker 1: of your longest hunting seasons, right, I mean you probably
Speaker 1: had too many seasons. You've gone all year just grinding
Speaker 1: out like you did. Um, I guess, yeah, what did
Speaker 1: you learn in that one set and the subsequent kind
Speaker 1: of scouting that he did last year. Was there anything
Speaker 1: that that played into how you attacked this buck late season? Um,
Speaker 1: the biggest, biggest thing was just knowing where he was
Speaker 1: coming out of along that road and then kind of
Speaker 1: planning accordingly. I think I think the historical stuff is
Speaker 1: what what I learned the most that that helped me,
Speaker 1: you know, be successful. I I don't know. I mean
Speaker 1: I would have hunted, maybe I would have saw him,
Speaker 1: but I don't know if I wouldn't have had those
Speaker 1: cameras in those areas to give me that confirmation. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I would have maybe made the same decisions,
Speaker 1: you know, putting those cameras in those locations based on
Speaker 1: like the historical stuff. So then to kind of piggyback
Speaker 1: off of the Josh's question there just in general, then
Speaker 1: a sudden not necessarily what did you learn from you know,
Speaker 1: your intel that lad you killing him? But if you
Speaker 1: were to zoom out even further and just look at
Speaker 1: this whole multi year saga, is there any greater lesson
Speaker 1: about hunting that you've learned from this deer? Did this,
Speaker 1: dear teach you anything that's going to help you kill
Speaker 1: the next one or one ten years from now or
Speaker 1: anything like that. Um, yeah, I think the main thing
Speaker 1: you can now, I know it like the historical stuff
Speaker 1: like I know that plays a big role. But I
Speaker 1: think you just have to always expect change or you know,
Speaker 1: you have to always adapt obviously. Um. I don't know
Speaker 1: how many times, you know, you prepare for a season
Speaker 1: and nothing ever works out how you imagine, and it
Speaker 1: always it's always changing. And I think with this, dear,
Speaker 1: it's kind of like a you know, um, good example
Speaker 1: of how things can change pretty quickly. I had those
Speaker 1: early opportunities and the and then the rut was completely
Speaker 1: different than it had been. And you know with mature, dear,
Speaker 1: they they kind of they'll change change their routine very often.
Speaker 1: And you've got to be able to do that too,
Speaker 1: on the fly, um, and be on the go and
Speaker 1: not not put all your eggs in one basket. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that is the truth. Hard to do. Hard to do
Speaker 1: when you get a plan in your mind and you
Speaker 1: you think you've got to figure it out and then
Speaker 1: at all you know, the card table gets slipped over
Speaker 1: and you've got to figure it all out in the moment.
Speaker 1: That is uh, that is the fun of it. I
Speaker 1: guess every year when you have to pick them all
Speaker 1: back together and piece it piece in place. Um. Here,
Speaker 1: here's something I don't know if I don't know if
Speaker 1: anything comes to mind, but but you've you've mention a
Speaker 1: few times how meaningful this whole experience was given, you know,
Speaker 1: your your friends, involvement within it, and losing him. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: is there anything that you learned from your mentor over
Speaker 1: the years you guys got to know each other, and
Speaker 1: I know you guys spent a lot of quality time
Speaker 1: and and and I think he was someone he looked
Speaker 1: up to. Did you learn anything from him that sticks
Speaker 1: with you now that when you look up on that
Speaker 1: wall and see that dear next year or ten years
Speaker 1: from now or twenty years from now, and your kids
Speaker 1: or your your son comes back and you look at that, dear,
Speaker 1: and will you look up there and see your friend
Speaker 1: and think of any lessons or stories or or or
Speaker 1: things he told you that that will come to mind? Again? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's an easy one. I think just being generous, um,
Speaker 1: most um generous person I've ever met. Um. I think
Speaker 1: I had changed my perspective on the hunting in the
Speaker 1: last few years, you know, going from being like a
Speaker 1: solo kind of thing and like secretive and I wanted
Speaker 1: to let anybody, do you know what you know about
Speaker 1: your deer or whatever, what your hunt? Uh, just embracing
Speaker 1: just like the friendships and the camaraderie and the people
Speaker 1: of it. I think is I think he helped me
Speaker 1: change that. I went, Um, there's a lot of there's
Speaker 1: a lot of Yeah, there's a lot of awesome people
Speaker 1: out there. He was one of them. And I learned
Speaker 1: so much, so much in the last I don't know,
Speaker 1: fifteen years from him. He was like a mentor, um,
Speaker 1: and he kind of he kind of did so much
Speaker 1: for me that like he got me to the point
Speaker 1: where like hunting and stuff like that, I just want
Speaker 1: to be able to give back, you know, in that
Speaker 1: respect someday. Um. You know, Um, I think that's a
Speaker 1: big thing. Keeping keeping it in perspective. He never really
Speaker 1: wanted to carry care about deer, you know. Um, you
Speaker 1: thought I was always stupid for wanting to wanting to
Speaker 1: get big, big deer antlers you know, and that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. But but um, yeah, I mean I I
Speaker 1: he gave me so much. I just want to be
Speaker 1: able to give back. Now. I guess that's where I'm at.
Speaker 1: You know, well, that's a pretty special relationship. You guys
Speaker 1: had an an incredible like story that you couldn't you
Speaker 1: couldn't write a story more kind of spot on for
Speaker 1: for for a storybook ending than than this one ending
Speaker 1: the way it did. And uh, I know me and
Speaker 1: Josh and and all the guys have been very very
Speaker 1: excited for that this end of the way it did.
Speaker 1: And uh, it was an up and down roller coaster
Speaker 1: a year for you, and uh to have it end
Speaker 1: this way, it was pretty wild right down in the
Speaker 1: ninth inning. And somehow you you made it happen. So congratulations,
Speaker 1: my friend, thank you very much. It was it was definitely,
Speaker 1: it was definitely awesome, Sason. I won't forget yeah further
Speaker 1: any last thoughts now, Just like Mark said, happy for you,
Speaker 1: proud of you how you handled the whole situation. It was.
Speaker 1: It was not an easy one, um, and I think
Speaker 1: you handled it much better than maybe a Ross from
Speaker 1: five or six years ago would have handled it. So
Speaker 1: kudos to you for everything you've gone through this this year.
Speaker 1: And and the perspective thing is a big one and
Speaker 1: something I need to work on too, So I'm happy
Speaker 1: for it man heck of about heck of a season. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well we'll have to get you down here, Josh, since
Speaker 1: you'll be drawing a tag and Mark won't be to
Speaker 1: get to get you on a big one down here.
Speaker 1: I needed I needed to. I needed to shift my
Speaker 1: years away from the years that Josh hunts there because
Speaker 1: he he shoots the big deer before I ever get
Speaker 1: a chance at him. So I gotta make sure I'm
Speaker 1: just totally You're separated by full twelve months up there.
Speaker 1: He he kills in the second day of the hunt
Speaker 1: when he shows up. Um. Now now the end of
Speaker 1: the story here, though? Is that ross? The big thing,
Speaker 1: the big pressure that you didn't mention here, The thing
Speaker 1: that was probably weighing on any more than anything, was
Speaker 1: that with our group of buddies, whoever doesn't kill a
Speaker 1: buck or and given season is entered into buckless mania,
Speaker 1: which is uh uh, you know, a free for all
Speaker 1: cage fight the next year during our Turkey camp. And
Speaker 1: you and I managed to kill deer this past season,
Speaker 1: so we are immune from buckless mania. But there's one
Speaker 1: person on this phone call who has to enter the
Speaker 1: viper pit. Uh. Further, how you feeling coming to this man. I, Uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I better start training up. I've got some stiff competition. Uh.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of us that will be in it
Speaker 1: this year, so it's gonna be a it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a big cage fight for sure. We kind of had.
Speaker 1: We went from maybe the best season we've ever had
Speaker 1: as a group. I think we all killed last year, Uh,
Speaker 1: to what just three of the three of us now
Speaker 1: killing this year. So less than half the group or
Speaker 1: more than half the group will be in Buckleasmania this
Speaker 1: year with me so fun times I had at Turkey Camp. Ross,
Speaker 1: if you had to put your money on who's going
Speaker 1: to survive the cage fight, who's gonna win it? H Josh,
Speaker 1: don't take this personally. It's got to be a b
Speaker 1: Andy Bradley can a whoop everybody. He's got those mates
Speaker 1: and forearms just huge. H. The other way, I'll take
Speaker 1: whatever whatever fate comes my way. And I don't think
Speaker 1: I want to deal with Andy. He's got a bad right,
Speaker 1: bad right hip. We'll just stay on that side. There
Speaker 1: You good tip, Good tip. Alright, guys, Well let's let's
Speaker 1: wrap this one up. Appreciate you're sharing the story. Ross,
Speaker 1: I Uh, I'm glad we have to do this. Thanks buddy,
Speaker 1: and that is a rap. Thanks all for joining me
Speaker 1: for this one. Appreciate you following along. Hope you enjoyed
Speaker 1: this one month series of big buck stories as which
Speaker 1: trying to learn from these specific deer, these very focused
Speaker 1: hunts of sorts. I certainly enjoyed the stories. Different kind
Speaker 1: of flavor for us to kick off the new year,
Speaker 1: and from here we're gonna dive into a new line
Speaker 1: of thinking. Stay tuned for a month of habitat, management, ideas, projects, tactics,
Speaker 1: and uh and a whole lot more on that front.
Speaker 1: So if you ever wanted to improve land for deer
Speaker 1: and deer hunting another wildlife, you are going to want
Speaker 1: to stay tuned throughout the month of February. We got
Speaker 1: a lot of good stuff coming up. So until then,
Speaker 1: thanks for listening and stay wired to hunt.