Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your guide to
Speaker 1: the whitetail Woods, presented by first Light, creating proven versatile
Speaker 1: hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First Light
Speaker 1: Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host, Mark Kenyon.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. This week on
Speaker 2: the show, I'm joined by Dan Johnson to discuss the
Speaker 2: particularly challenging whitetail rut that we both just experienced and
Speaker 2: our ideas and strategies for the weeks to come. All right,
Speaker 2: welcome back to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to
Speaker 2: you by First Life and their Camel for Conservation initiative.
Speaker 2: And today I am joined by my good buddy, mister
Speaker 2: Dan Johnson, and we are going to be discussing and
Speaker 2: breaking down kind of oh, I guess, like a Monday
Speaker 2: morning quarterback kind of session on the rut, what we
Speaker 2: just experienced here in November of twenty twenty four, the
Speaker 2: hunts that we had, the experiences that we had, some
Speaker 2: thoughts on why we and so many other people thought
Speaker 2: this was such a weird, slow, bizarre.
Speaker 3: Challenging rut for so many of us.
Speaker 2: So we're going to discuss that, kind of discuss some
Speaker 2: of the different thoughts that we had on what we
Speaker 2: personally saw as well as some higher level maybe impacts
Speaker 2: that are kind of hitting folks across the board. And
Speaker 2: then we're also going to talk through some of the
Speaker 2: things that worked, some of the things that led to
Speaker 2: Dan having success, so we get a success story for
Speaker 2: Daniel Johnson here in November. And then finally we're going
Speaker 2: to walk through some of our thoughts on what all
Speaker 2: this means for the future, how we can take some
Speaker 2: of these lessons learned and apply them to the weeks
Speaker 2: to come. And this kind of second maybe it's more
Speaker 2: like the third, the last third of the season, maybe
Speaker 2: second half, maybe last third of the season, whatever it is,
Speaker 2: We're we're on the downward slope. We are past mid November.
Speaker 2: We are entering a different phase of the year, and
Speaker 2: it's been a weird one for me, as Dan and
Speaker 2: I will talk about, it's been a doozy.
Speaker 3: I've had some just.
Speaker 2: Funky, strange things going on, both hunting and outside of hunting.
Speaker 2: So I'm personally ready to move on. I'm ready to
Speaker 2: move into a new part of the year. Trying to
Speaker 2: feel good, trying to have fun, trying to be healthy,
Speaker 2: and make the best of the rest of the twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four season. So that's what we've got in store.
Speaker 2: I will just give you one very quick heads up,
Speaker 2: which is we do have this big old, crazy Black
Speaker 2: Friday sale going on for Meet Eatter and first Light
Speaker 2: and all of our brands up to fifty percent off
Speaker 2: stuff like logo areas. I know it's fifty percent off,
Speaker 2: great deals on things like the Furnace hoodie which I'm
Speaker 2: wearing here today. This hat's one of those pieces that's
Speaker 2: fifty percent off, so check it all over Themediator dot
Speaker 2: com or first Light dot com. There's plenty of other
Speaker 2: sale adds, all that kind of stuff everywhere else you look.
Speaker 2: I don't want to belabor the point anymore. So thanks
Speaker 2: for being here. I hope you all have an incredible Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2: I hope today is a day if you are listening
Speaker 2: on the day this launches, where you are spending time
Speaker 2: with friends and family and appreciating the many blessings that
Speaker 2: we all have and the incredible opportunity that we have
Speaker 2: here as hunters.
Speaker 3: So I'll also just note that I.
Speaker 2: Appreciate you, appreciate you all tuning in being a part
Speaker 2: of this community and being good stewards of our traditions,
Speaker 2: our resources, and all those wild critters out there. So,
Speaker 2: without any further ado, let's get to my chat with
Speaker 2: Dan Johnson as we recap the twenty twenty four rut
Speaker 2: and our thoughts were moving forward. All right here with
Speaker 2: me on the line for a much needed therapy session,
Speaker 2: is my good buddy, mister Dan Johnson.
Speaker 3: How the hell are you?
Speaker 4: Man?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 4: Your therapy is and understatement, my friend, Uh, have you
Speaker 4: ever woke up? Or maybe it's when you wake up?
Speaker 4: Maybe it's when you Usually it's when I go to
Speaker 4: bed where I feel And this is a sick joke,
Speaker 4: but I feel like an Alzheimer's patient where I'm just
Speaker 4: like lost and confused and I don't know where I'm at.
Speaker 3: Yeah, dude, you have no idea how much I can
Speaker 3: relate to that I have.
Speaker 2: I'm going through a weird thing right now where I'm
Speaker 2: having insomnia. I have not been able to sleep like
Speaker 2: three out of the last four days. Really, I've been
Speaker 2: up till like three or four in the morning. Can't
Speaker 2: get my head to turn off.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So, is there a major decision you're about to make
Speaker 4: or dabbling in in life.
Speaker 3: No, it's it.
Speaker 2: There's actually I think there's a reason I'm taking some
Speaker 2: medicine for some weird health issues I've been going through
Speaker 2: the last month, and suppose me that can cause insomnia, okay,
Speaker 2: and so that and then stress, I think. So I'm
Speaker 2: getting stressed out about what's going on and not sleeping,
Speaker 2: and then I think those two things combined have led
Speaker 2: to me not being able to. Like I just lay
Speaker 2: there and the switch never happens, It never turns off,
Speaker 2: it just stays there.
Speaker 3: It's like the wheels keep spinning and spinning and spinning,
Speaker 3: but about nothing.
Speaker 2: It's not like I'm worrying about any specific thing other
Speaker 2: than just why can't I sleep?
Speaker 3: Why can't I sleep? What's wrong with me?
Speaker 4: Yep? I have two solutions that your doctor will probably
Speaker 4: argue against. But though, yeah, one is bourbon AH and
Speaker 4: the other one is THHC. So so I'm telling you, dude,
Speaker 4: you put a little bit of gummy in your mouth
Speaker 4: and you slide it down the hatch, and in about
Speaker 4: thirty minutes you will be going to sleep. I gain
Speaker 4: almost guarantee it.
Speaker 3: You know, you're not the first person to recommend that
Speaker 3: to me.
Speaker 4: I think I know who the other person is.
Speaker 2: So I very well might consider that it's twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: It's a brand new world that's totally in the wheelhouse exactly. Yeah, man,
Speaker 2: So I don't know, it's all sorts of the last
Speaker 2: month for me has been six weeks.
Speaker 3: Five weeks.
Speaker 2: Last five weeks have been one of the weirdest five
Speaker 2: weeks of my life, let alone hunting life. So yeah,
Speaker 2: we've got a lot to cover as far as hunting
Speaker 2: and what's been going on, because I think other than
Speaker 2: just my general weird stuff that's going on, there's also
Speaker 2: the hunting stuff, and this has been my.
Speaker 3: It's hard to say.
Speaker 2: Sometimes we're biased to always thinking like what's happening right
Speaker 2: now is the best of the worst or the most.
Speaker 2: You know, there's a freak like a recency bias, I
Speaker 2: think is what they call it. But still it seems
Speaker 2: like this has been the weirdest, most frustrating white tail
Speaker 2: rut I've personally ever experienced.
Speaker 4: Yep. And this isn't just something that you and I
Speaker 4: have experienced. I am very active on my Instagram messages
Speaker 4: and I communicate with people all over the nation. Right,
Speaker 4: so when people when people reach out to me. I
Speaker 4: tend to like respond back to whatever, like whether it's
Speaker 4: a question or hey, dude, how's your rut been? Things
Speaker 4: like that. If I have a little bit of time
Speaker 4: and I'm waiting at a practice or I'm waiting in
Speaker 4: between hunts or in my truck waiting for something, I'm responding,
Speaker 4: and the traditional Midwestern rut from about Nebraska to the
Speaker 4: East coast. I am getting hundreds of people responding to
Speaker 4: me that are having the exact same outcome in their rut,
Speaker 4: and so it's not just us.
Speaker 2: It makes you feel a little better, yes, right, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I have not seen I've not seen a single buck
Speaker 2: chasing a doe. No, I've not heard any grunting snort wheez,
Speaker 2: And I haven't seen a fight. I haven't seen. I've
Speaker 2: seen bucks cruising. That's the only running activity I've seen.
Speaker 2: It just like bucks kind of doing the march. Yep,
Speaker 2: that's all I've seen. And I have not seen a
Speaker 2: single mature buck in Michigan since October fourteenth, and I
Speaker 2: have one.
Speaker 3: No, that takes back. I have three mature buck pictures
Speaker 3: since November one.
Speaker 4: I was trying to find it email someone sent me
Speaker 4: about this and it has to do with what's that
Speaker 4: guy's Charles.
Speaker 3: El Sheimer and moon. You think the moon theory.
Speaker 4: Not necessarily moon, but he it was something about a
Speaker 4: synchronized rut versus a traditional rut. Yeah, and so this
Speaker 4: year was definitely the trickle rut. I mean I had
Speaker 4: I had guys telling me that they saw breeding in
Speaker 4: mid October and then recent like then nothing. So it's
Speaker 4: it basically has told me that there dose were not
Speaker 4: coming into heat in a group, right. I saw, dude,
Speaker 4: when I was leaving Iowa to come back home for
Speaker 4: a couple of days before I left to go to Kansas,
Speaker 4: I was watching doe groups and I was watching three
Speaker 4: year old bucks and four year old bucks come downwind
Speaker 4: of dough groups sent check them and not even bump them,
Speaker 4: just leave. And that was going all the way up
Speaker 4: until I believe November fourteenth, when you would think that
Speaker 4: there would be Now, did I see a little bit
Speaker 4: of chasing, Yes, I saw the bare minimum of chasing.
Speaker 4: But when you have three year olds ignoring, does dude
Speaker 4: something like they did their due diligence, they came down
Speaker 4: wind of them. And when a three year old is
Speaker 4: telling you this dough isn't even close to coming in,
Speaker 4: and they're they're basically just cruising. Now, that's one thing
Speaker 4: that I did see this year, and that was a
Speaker 4: ton of deer on their feet for longer periods of time,
Speaker 4: almost like it was, you know, the post rut cruise
Speaker 4: that we talk about. I saw a ton of that,
Speaker 4: but just not buy mature bucks.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so let's do this.
Speaker 2: Let's let's recap real quick, yep, kind of what our
Speaker 2: last month or so has been like, and then maybe
Speaker 2: try to break down a couple takeaways and then what
Speaker 2: that means for us going forward. We're going to try
Speaker 2: to put this into an abbreviated time slot since we've
Speaker 2: got stuff after this. But you have at least a
Speaker 2: happy ending to some of your story. Yeah, so I'll
Speaker 2: lead because I don't have any happy endings. So, as
Speaker 2: I mentioned, I haven't seen a mature buck since October fourteenth,
Speaker 2: I think it was or fifteenth or whenever it was.
Speaker 2: I killed that buck in mid October in southern Michigan.
Speaker 2: Since then, I have hunted my normal southern Michigan properties
Speaker 2: that I've hunted for years, the ones that I talked
Speaker 2: about with you this summer where I had two bucks
Speaker 2: I was after, and then I've hunted Kentucky public land,
Speaker 2: and then I've hunted up north at our deer camp,
Speaker 2: and then a really quick trip to Illinois. That was
Speaker 2: a quick kind of turnaround bust. But the big things
Speaker 2: for me, if I were to summarize everything done, I
Speaker 2: spent the most time hunting my southern Michigan local stuff
Speaker 2: where I've been after those two deer, and it turned
Speaker 2: into three deer. Actually, the headline of the story there
Speaker 2: is that the bucks are just gone, like I'm hunting
Speaker 2: a ghost.
Speaker 3: Or a non existent deer.
Speaker 2: It seems like I've never had something quite I've never
Speaker 2: had it happen quite to this degree. Those deer disappeared
Speaker 2: on October third and has not showed up ever since,
Speaker 2: So I feel like, probably a good chance that deer
Speaker 2: is dead. That was that really big, like one hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty maybe type class buck that I thought was
Speaker 2: a four year old probably this year that passed on
Speaker 2: a ton last year.
Speaker 3: My kid called him bear deer. He's he's a wall.
Speaker 2: Then the other deer that was the five year old
Speaker 2: I found his match set this spring.
Speaker 3: We were super.
Speaker 2: Excited about this big old bodied buck Bulldozer and he
Speaker 2: disappeared September third, and didn't see him for six weeks,
Speaker 2: and then late October he did show back up. But
Speaker 2: this is a deer that has been a homebody for
Speaker 2: the last two years. I mean I passed him a bunch.
Speaker 2: I have countless pictures.
Speaker 3: I went and.
Speaker 2: I should have have got these things on a piece
Speaker 2: of paper. I went and mapped out every single picture
Speaker 2: I have of him last year during the hunting season,
Speaker 2: and it was almost every single day he was so
Speaker 2: on these properties.
Speaker 3: I've permission on.
Speaker 2: Tons of daylight everywhere, same thing the year before, and
Speaker 2: then this year, like a light switch gone. So he
Speaker 2: showed back up like October twenty something, and then one
Speaker 2: more time at the end of October, and then twice
Speaker 2: in early November. So I think I have three or
Speaker 2: four appearances of him now from late October until November ninth,
Speaker 2: and that's it since September, So from September to almost
Speaker 2: the end of November. So in the three month period,
Speaker 2: he's been here three or four times that I can tell.
Speaker 2: And that's from you know, fifty times last year, fifty
Speaker 2: times the year before. I don't know what else to
Speaker 2: do about him. I don't know where he is. I
Speaker 2: don't know what happened. I don't know why he would
Speaker 2: change his behavior as a five year old like that.
Speaker 2: I've never seen a five year old totally change. Usually
Speaker 2: they get more and more tight to a core area.
Speaker 2: I usually get to learn them more, and I know, Okay,
Speaker 2: this deer really likes this zone.
Speaker 3: This dear really likes this zone.
Speaker 2: The only thing I can think is maybe that his
Speaker 2: zone that he is gravitating towards now is just not
Speaker 2: on somewhere I permission. So that's one possible theory. But
Speaker 2: to make a long story short, with this area, I've
Speaker 2: hunted a pretty good amount. I've hunted all the best
Speaker 2: like rot places that I would usually find these deer
Speaker 2: and just seeing nothing but dozing young bucks, dozen young bucks,
Speaker 2: dozen young bucks. I've not had a single mature buck encounter.
Speaker 2: I have searched into new places. I've moved cameras into
Speaker 2: areas I usually don't have cameras. I've been trying to
Speaker 2: hunt and observe some places that I usually don't, just
Speaker 2: trying to seek it out and figure out like where
Speaker 2: have these deer moved to?
Speaker 3: Nothing?
Speaker 2: So I'm running out of I'm running out of ideas
Speaker 2: with this. I'm kind of down to three thoughts with
Speaker 2: my local situation. One is to just keep searching, keep
Speaker 2: moving around, keep you know, glassing from afar, and the
Speaker 2: idea to hope that something will show up eventually. Like
Speaker 2: I am hunting tonight and I'm gonna hunt a part
Speaker 2: of the farm I've not hunted since the very beginning
Speaker 2: of October that I don't I don't think they'd be
Speaker 2: there because it's not where the best food is right now,
Speaker 2: and there's there's kind of like a really really strong
Speaker 2: late season food source on a neighboring property that I
Speaker 2: think is pulling mostly activity, and so this is not there.
Speaker 2: But it's a place that I've ignored because of that,
Speaker 2: And so I've got to think, well, maybe I just
Speaker 2: need to go to the place where I haven't been
Speaker 2: at all, And even though I have a couple of
Speaker 2: cameras there that have not picked them up or picked
Speaker 2: up anything, maybe maybe it's worth a shot. Just you know,
Speaker 2: can't trust the cameras entirely, So I'm going to explore
Speaker 2: a new area tonight and just see. So one, I
Speaker 2: just keep searching, keep moving cameras, keep scouting, YadA.
Speaker 3: YadA. The second thought.
Speaker 2: Is to just wait and basically hope that something's going
Speaker 2: to move into the area. Hope that the late season
Speaker 2: you know, move to food will make them return. Hope
Speaker 2: that once we finally get a really good cold front
Speaker 2: and snow, that'll get something moving.
Speaker 3: And again one of the one, the one.
Speaker 2: Big thing there was I guess two possible big things
Speaker 2: that I think could be going on here. Three I
Speaker 2: guess one these deer could have gotten killed, and it
Speaker 2: just might be that there just isn't mature bucks now.
Speaker 2: One of them, I feel pretty confidence is probably the case.
Speaker 2: The other one I haven't seen since November ninth. It's
Speaker 2: now like November twenty sixth or twenty seventh or something now,
Speaker 2: so it's been three plus weeks, so maybe he's dead too.
Speaker 2: So they just there just might not be a mature
Speaker 2: buck in this area anymore. So I might be chasing
Speaker 2: the complete ghost. But the other thing that could be
Speaker 2: is that there might be a hunting pressure change that
Speaker 2: has pushed these deer out of the areas that they
Speaker 2: usually feel comfortable. I do share some of these properties
Speaker 2: with other people. I was scouting earlier this month and
Speaker 2: found a pop up blind right on the edge of
Speaker 2: a betting area that has historically been a sanctuary that
Speaker 2: I never go into. That I've always viewed as like
Speaker 2: that core place, and now there's you know, a blind there,
Speaker 2: So maybe these other people are walking right through that
Speaker 2: and hunting more than I realized.
Speaker 3: That could be a thing.
Speaker 2: And then the other thing is that, like I mentioned,
Speaker 2: on a neighboring farm, there is a sixty acre farm
Speaker 2: field that this year has been planted in the cover crop,
Speaker 2: so it is basically a sixty acre food plot of
Speaker 2: you know, brassicas and turnips and wheat and oats and
Speaker 2: clover and all sorts of stuff. So it's a huge
Speaker 2: food plot in a place where there usually isn't. That's
Speaker 2: probably pulling a lot of deer activity in an area
Speaker 2: that's a little bit different than usual. Now I can
Speaker 2: intercept some of that, and I've hunted trying to intercept
Speaker 2: some of that and haven't seen what I'm looking for lately.
Speaker 2: But that maybe has changed some behavior, and maybe deer
Speaker 2: are betting in different places and accessing that food and
Speaker 2: just not hitting the areas that I hunt because there
Speaker 2: does not seem me much they're feeding on on my permission.
Speaker 3: Pieces.
Speaker 2: So one thought though, is that if I continue waiting,
Speaker 2: eventually the cold, snowy snap will happen and maybe bulldoze
Speaker 2: are still alive, or maybe some other bucks gonna move in.
Speaker 2: Maybe because I have left most of my property pretty untouched,
Speaker 2: maybe that gun season sanctuary that I've talked about in.
Speaker 3: The past will work.
Speaker 2: You know, we leave it kind of untouched and everybody
Speaker 2: else hunting all around me. Hopefully they would feel comfortable
Speaker 2: in my areas, and you know, one of these deer
Speaker 2: that's still alive starts moving. I've not hunted my pieces
Speaker 2: since gun season opened, which has been more than a
Speaker 2: week ago. So that's a hope. And so that's that's
Speaker 2: kind of where I'm at right now as far as
Speaker 2: trying to kill a buck in this zone.
Speaker 3: That's what's happening.
Speaker 4: I got a question, mark, I got questions, all right.
Speaker 4: Question is this is a long question. Iowa dry all
Speaker 4: August dry the first part of September. They did get
Speaker 4: lots of beans out in Iowa. But as they because
Speaker 4: usually beans get combined first in your area, is there
Speaker 4: a lot of standing corn because during harvest there was
Speaker 4: a lot of rain.
Speaker 2: We do not have that problem Okay, everything came out
Speaker 2: early here. Okay, So yeah, standing corn isn't the problem,
Speaker 2: all the corns down. We have the opposite, and that
Speaker 2: a lot of fields are have been chisel plowed, so
Speaker 2: there's a lot.
Speaker 3: Of dirt around if anything.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Iowa, my farms, the counties that I hunt, I
Speaker 4: mean we're talking beans got out, okay, but right when
Speaker 4: they started transitioning to corn, we're talking lots of rain,
Speaker 4: and then it dried out. And then right when I
Speaker 4: didn't even hear a combine running this year, wow, okay,
Speaker 4: And so we had a scenario where right has it
Speaker 4: started to dry out? It rained again? Right has it
Speaker 4: started to dry out? And it was substantial rain to
Speaker 4: where on the farms that I hunt surrounding these farms.
Speaker 4: Most of my main farm was in beans this year,
Speaker 4: and so something happened too in my farm where they
Speaker 4: combined the middle and then they left the edges of
Speaker 4: the beanfields. So I don't know if there was some
Speaker 4: kind of rot or mold or something on these beans
Speaker 4: and they just didn't pick them. But the deer are
Speaker 4: eating them. So this isn't this is a late season
Speaker 4: opportunity for me, per se. But we'll see what the
Speaker 4: shotgun season does. Outside of that, we have I mean,
Speaker 4: we're talking hundreds of acres of standing corn, and throughout
Speaker 4: my travels in Iowa down through Missouri into Kansas, I've
Speaker 4: seen more standing corn this year than I've ever seen driving.
Speaker 4: And so I think that that played potentially has a
Speaker 4: huge role in some of the spread out numbers. Maybe
Speaker 4: I know northern Missouri, southeast southern Iowa has been impacted
Speaker 4: by EHD. I typically don't see a lot of dead
Speaker 4: deer or find a lot of dead deer, but I
Speaker 4: know that on certain properties, especially all the way even
Speaker 4: up to where my dad lives in north central Iowa,
Speaker 4: massive amounts of deer found by pheasant hunters this year
Speaker 4: that were found dead. So that has and this is
Speaker 4: one of those scenarios that we talked about, like the
Speaker 4: death by a thousand cuts type thing. Where we have drought,
Speaker 4: we have standing crop, we have potential illness, and then
Speaker 4: just a variety of hunting pressures as well. I'll mirror
Speaker 4: the sentiment that you shared with October thirty first one
Speaker 4: on one of my farms, I had three shooters all
Speaker 4: show up on camera that day. I was down there, Honey,
Speaker 4: I think I started my rut vacation on November first
Speaker 4: with high anticipation. There had not been another four or
Speaker 4: five year old or older on trail camera on that
Speaker 4: farm until I got back from Kansas on November twentieth.
Speaker 4: Who yeah, so they all showed back up. So essentially
Speaker 4: I was hunting ghosts right Like, I didn't have trail camera,
Speaker 4: I didn't see him on the hoof. And this is
Speaker 4: a property where I can get a very good idea
Speaker 4: of travel of age class of what deer on the property.
Speaker 4: And and I don't know, man, it just it was
Speaker 4: a wonky year. Like I'll say this again. I rattled
Speaker 4: in one buck and it was a seven year old
Speaker 4: that I have Last year, it was a one seventy
Speaker 4: six this year, or he was like a one to
Speaker 4: seventy class six year old, like a beautiful ten with
Speaker 4: some junk. This year he dropped down to like a
Speaker 4: mainframe seven, same time link on tie lengthened mass on
Speaker 4: his G two's. But I rattled him in the last
Speaker 4: morning before I left to go to hunt Kansas, and
Speaker 4: he showed up. But guess what else? I rattled in
Speaker 4: a frickin horse on one of the horses that are
Speaker 4: on the property came to investigate all the noise, and
Speaker 4: so that buck was coming straight to me, but so
Speaker 4: was the horse, and so then that buck flanked me.
Speaker 4: I want to say sixty yards. I had no shot
Speaker 4: and I wasn't going to take that uphill through thickness.
Speaker 3: And did you have a shot at the horse?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Oh yeah, thought trust me, I thought about it.
Speaker 4: I thought about it. And so this horse has been
Speaker 4: a kind of a thorn in my side since I
Speaker 4: started hunting this property. Long story short, that was the
Speaker 4: only time I saw a deer, and I mean deer
Speaker 4: period respond to grunting, calling, snort, wheezing, anything, man, not
Speaker 4: even a dumb two year old came in to investigate
Speaker 4: rattling this year.
Speaker 2: And I swear to God, it's it's so funny you
Speaker 2: say that because I have I didn't have a chance
Speaker 2: to grunt to any deer in Michigan because I haven't
Speaker 2: seen a single deer I'm interested in shooting. But when
Speaker 2: I went to Kentucky, I was there and I was
Speaker 2: hunting public land, all brand new stuff. Had never set
Speaker 2: foot on any of this stuff. So it was basically
Speaker 2: like if any buck I would shoot, and I did
Speaker 2: see some deer, and I called to a bunch of
Speaker 2: them in zero interest from anything. I mean, I couldn't
Speaker 2: grunt in a one and a half year old, couldn't
Speaker 2: grunt in the possible three or four year olds I saw.
Speaker 2: So again, I mean, this is all anecdotal, it's probably random,
Speaker 2: but it just has been such a strange year, and
Speaker 2: I don't know how to hand I don't know how
Speaker 2: to handle that other than just try to like press
Speaker 2: on and try not to get frustrated by Yeah.
Speaker 4: So, so two things I'll add to this right. Number one,
Speaker 4: there is a recession proof type of conversation that I
Speaker 4: definitely think that needs to be had, and that is
Speaker 4: the people who hunt on managed properties with food plots
Speaker 4: have the ability to do habitat improvement, hingecutting things like that.
Speaker 4: They did not. And this is the people that I've
Speaker 4: talked to. They did not see the disparity that many
Speaker 4: of us saw. Okay, so, if you have the ability
Speaker 4: to plant food plots, plant, and I mean substantial food plots,
Speaker 4: I'm not talking about like the quarter acre clover vidield stuff, Yeah,
Speaker 4: that's on ten acres. I'm talking about the ability to
Speaker 4: manage a property they didn't see that. They didn't see that,
Speaker 4: and so maybe that has something to do with it, right,
Speaker 4: And then just from I don't know, like there was
Speaker 4: something else I was going to mention about the I
Speaker 4: got a brain fart here, but it had it had
Speaker 4: to do with like basically no three year olds. Right.
Speaker 4: There was people claiming that they saw the four year
Speaker 4: olds and older, and then the two year olds and younger.
Speaker 4: But there was a gap this year that and I
Speaker 4: saw one or maybe two three year olds this year.
Speaker 4: And usually I'm seeing a real, real good like next
Speaker 4: year's bucks pop up, and so this year I saw
Speaker 4: some you know, I saw good two year olds. I
Speaker 4: actually passed probably a low one fifties, high one forties.
Speaker 4: I was at full draw with him and I was like,
Speaker 4: he's three, definitely a young body. And I down and
Speaker 4: let them walk, knowing or and that was like day three,
Speaker 4: knowing that I potentially had other deer in the area.
Speaker 4: And so I don't know, man, I am okay, and
Speaker 4: a lot of it. Usually I have a sliding scale
Speaker 4: definitely when I go on my out of state trips.
Speaker 4: But this year I set at bar really high in Iowa,
Speaker 4: and I held that this year, my goal was to
Speaker 4: shoot fill four tags, two tags in Iowa, my South
Speaker 4: Dakota tag and I did it, and my Kansas tag
Speaker 4: and I did it. This year. I had high standards
Speaker 4: for Iowa. Could I have filled my tags, yes, but
Speaker 4: I want something that is baseline or higher than that,
Speaker 4: basically what's in my basement. And so I had high
Speaker 4: standards and I held to them.
Speaker 3: So we've been doing this a long time.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 2: We've been doing the Rout Marathon and talking about it
Speaker 2: here together for I don't know, ten to fifteen years
Speaker 2: something like that.
Speaker 3: We've been through a bunch of these How these days?
Speaker 2: How are you dealing these days with that Rout grind
Speaker 2: when it turns sour the way it has for so
Speaker 2: many of us this year, when it's been slow, when
Speaker 2: it's tough. I mean again, you know, I've been wrestling
Speaker 2: with this this year. It's like, jeez, it's just been brutal. Yeah,
Speaker 2: But I feel like I'm older and wiser now I
Speaker 2: should be able to deal with that better and recover
Speaker 2: from that better and not take it so hard. Some
Speaker 2: days I do, some days I don't. I'm curious where
Speaker 2: you're at with that now and now that we're approaching the.
Speaker 3: End of November. Where your head's at right.
Speaker 4: Now, That's a great question, because I was less frustrated
Speaker 4: and more curious and confused and wanting to know the
Speaker 4: answer of why the deer movement and deer behavior was
Speaker 4: so strange and less like, oh my god, because Mark,
Speaker 4: there were days that went by where I did not
Speaker 4: have a deer within shooting range yep, and I was,
Speaker 4: you know, and that's the thing, Like, you know, we talked,
Speaker 4: we talk about the strategy standpoint where I'm not hunting
Speaker 4: field edges anymore. So I'm not seeing like ten, fifteen,
Speaker 4: twenty deer in a single set. But I'm not having
Speaker 4: button bucks, young fawns, spike antler deer. I'm not having
Speaker 4: them in front of me. And when I'm not, when
Speaker 4: I have consistency over the course of a decade and
Speaker 4: then all of a sudden we have a massive change
Speaker 4: that happens, I am my frustration turns to curiosity and
Speaker 4: I'm like, Okay, something has to something has changed. I
Speaker 4: want to know what it is. And then you get
Speaker 4: in your car and you drive around the sections and
Speaker 4: you're like, okay, well they're standing corn here, and you
Speaker 4: start to look at precipitation levels, you start to look
Speaker 4: at drought. You start to hear rumors because hunters they
Speaker 4: bitch the most out of anybody that I know, right,
Speaker 4: and I'm one of them, where I just I'm like, Jesus,
Speaker 4: what is wrong here? What is wrong here? But most
Speaker 4: of the time it's just shitty hunters complaining. Some of
Speaker 4: the best hunters. And what I mean shitty hunters, I
Speaker 4: mean the guys who the weekend warriors, right, and maybe
Speaker 4: they're not shitty, but the guys who have less time
Speaker 4: in the field than we do, right. And so you
Speaker 4: start to hear guys like that who become frustrated. But
Speaker 4: then something happens when you have guys who are spending
Speaker 4: multiple weeks in the field and they are they're starting
Speaker 4: to be curious and confused, and they're starting to get
Speaker 4: frustrated because when you say to guys like us, it's
Speaker 4: just a matter of time, right, it's just a matter
Speaker 4: of time till something shows up, nothing shows up, and
Speaker 4: nothing shows up, and then you're not seeing you're not
Speaker 4: having the encounters with three year olds and two year
Speaker 4: olds that you typically have. The only person who's not
Speaker 4: affected by this somehow is Andy May that son of
Speaker 4: a bitch, Like I love that guy, but I hate
Speaker 4: him at the same time because he gets it done
Speaker 4: no matter what, and so I wish I had a
Speaker 4: little bit of his mojo, that dude can find him
Speaker 4: and kill him. But I also think that you know,
Speaker 4: when the honey holes dry up, and maybe it's maybe
Speaker 4: there is something to what we've already discussed, or maybe
Speaker 4: it's just you know, the timber, it starts to grow
Speaker 4: up and get thicker in certain areas and deer patterns shift,
Speaker 4: and I don't know, maybe it's one of those things
Speaker 4: as well, and then I need to shift as well.
Speaker 4: But when you have ten to fifteen to twenty years
Speaker 4: of experience on a farm, it'll usually allows you to
Speaker 4: have a good indication of deer behavior and movement and
Speaker 4: to features and things like that. And as again, I'm
Speaker 4: just beating a dead horse, but it was off.
Speaker 3: So how are you handling that? Mentally?
Speaker 6: Though?
Speaker 2: I guess it's like, what's your advice? Now you've shifted
Speaker 2: a little bit from being less frustrated more just curious,
Speaker 2: But how are you handling that in the moment when
Speaker 2: you've hunted Iowa day after day after day after day
Speaker 2: after day in incredible places and not seeing anything at
Speaker 2: all like you're supposed to. Yeah, what's the Dan Johnson
Speaker 2: mental game in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4: Well, the mental game is to accept that there is
Speaker 4: a change and to accept the fact that I'll be
Speaker 4: honest man, unless it's close to home. I've spent a
Speaker 4: week at in South Dakota. I spent basically fourteen days
Speaker 4: hunting Iowa off and on right. I had a couple
Speaker 4: where I had to come home for some meetings and
Speaker 4: some conferences or something like that, and then come back
Speaker 4: and then I went back to I hunted like three
Speaker 4: extra days at four extra days in Iowa. Then I
Speaker 4: left for Kansas for a week. So for me, I've
Speaker 4: used my time right, So I don't necessarily think that
Speaker 4: I am going to be able to get out and
Speaker 4: hit it again just from a time like I'm back
Speaker 4: into dad mode. Now I'm back into work mode. Now
Speaker 4: here's what I will say. I got home and two
Speaker 4: of my bucks showed up November twentieth on my farm
Speaker 4: and now they are basically parading in front of my
Speaker 4: cell cams on a daily basis. That farm is four
Speaker 4: hours away from where I live, so I just I'm
Speaker 4: not going to be able to go do it. Like
Speaker 4: if I told my wife today, hey listen, she would
Speaker 4: probably go, oh, okay, she'd accept it. She wouldn't divorce
Speaker 4: me because we're too far into the marriage, but she
Speaker 4: would be extremely unhappy with that decision to go do it.
Speaker 4: And so well, it's just something. The rut was in
Speaker 4: Gravy this year, right, it just felt like it was slow,
Speaker 4: and it happened the trust me deer getting bred somewhere.
Speaker 4: The bucks have started to show back up on some
Speaker 4: of my farms, and I really do think if I
Speaker 4: did have more time to get out there and hunt,
Speaker 4: I would start going into staging areas. I would go
Speaker 4: into terrain features because I do think they're still cruising
Speaker 4: right now, and I would not be afraid to hit
Speaker 4: a rattle. Probably maybe not right away in the morning.
Speaker 4: I would wait for the doze to come through and
Speaker 4: get settled, and then I would crack the horns sometime
Speaker 4: late morning or even early in an afternoon set, and
Speaker 4: that's what I would do. I would be monitoring trail
Speaker 4: cameras more often now to try to get something pegged
Speaker 4: down before the shotgun seasons. Or any time a firearm season,
Speaker 4: and then I would basically let the firearm season happen.
Speaker 4: I would go like, if for everybody here, they're probably
Speaker 4: going to participate in some kind of firearm season, go
Speaker 4: do that. But if not, like me, I'm not going
Speaker 4: to participate in the shotgun seasons. I would wait and
Speaker 4: not put any pressure on any of the properties that
Speaker 4: I have access to hunt, and then I would wait
Speaker 4: for the late season at that point to see if
Speaker 4: there is a shift in you know, the shotgun set.
Speaker 4: The shotgun and firearm seasons usually leave a heavy footprint
Speaker 4: on the landscape. There's going to be some shifting that
Speaker 4: goes on, some patterns that go on and over that
Speaker 4: period of time, you have the the crops. Like now,
Speaker 4: I always say this, I want the crops to come out,
Speaker 4: come out, come out, come out. But right now I
Speaker 4: don't want any more crops to come out until the
Speaker 4: season's over because what that does is that's just the
Speaker 4: giant beacon for deer at that point.
Speaker 3: So, yeah, I hope I answered your question. It did
Speaker 3: to to a degree.
Speaker 2: I'll tag onto that and just you know, when it
Speaker 2: comes to where my head has been at as this
Speaker 2: month has progressed, you know, went from you know, super
Speaker 2: high hopes, and you know, I was there was a
Speaker 2: really nice buck running around down here that I thought
Speaker 2: might be a three year old, might be a four
Speaker 2: year old, so I was on the fence about him,
Speaker 2: but I kept thinking, man, my big guys are going
Speaker 2: to show back up.
Speaker 3: My big guys are gonna show back up.
Speaker 2: So I didn't even get after that bucket all didn't
Speaker 2: even try to hunt that deer. In retrospect, I wish
Speaker 2: I had, because I ended up being the best deer
Speaker 2: that's been around here all year. But but I went
Speaker 2: from high hopes early to that slowly disappearing and towards
Speaker 2: the end, and where I'm at now, I've started kind
Speaker 2: of falling back onto something you said, which is acceptance
Speaker 2: to a degree and just accepting like, hey, this might
Speaker 2: just be one of those years that it isn't everything
Speaker 2: you hoped it would be.
Speaker 3: And you can do one of two things.
Speaker 2: You can either be miserable about it and bitch about
Speaker 2: it and complain about it and feel bad about it,
Speaker 2: or you can accept, hey, this wasn't what you wanted.
Speaker 3: How do you make the most of it? Moving forward?
Speaker 2: And so and so I'm trying to lean in that direction.
Speaker 2: So I'm accepting, Yeah, this wasn't what I wanted.
Speaker 3: What would it? What would this look like though? To
Speaker 3: have a really fun rest of the season.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah.
Speaker 2: So so part of that is doing the things I mentioned, Like,
Speaker 2: I'm still searching for these bucks. I'm still waiting and
Speaker 2: hoping that, you know, come late season, there's gonna be
Speaker 2: these changes and that they show back up. So I'm
Speaker 2: not going to explode my spots and ruin them now,
Speaker 2: you know. So I'm gonna keep observing, scouting, watching, doing
Speaker 2: a you know, a couple little hunts like I'm doing
Speaker 2: here today. But then also I'm getting pretty close to
Speaker 2: switching gears and getting to taking the kids hunting and
Speaker 2: shooting does and just doing like the simple fun stuff
Speaker 2: like inviting a bunch of friends out to go have
Speaker 2: a dough night and have a good time and do
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff that's less pressure filled that I
Speaker 2: can do no matter what. It doesn't matter that there's
Speaker 2: not a mature buck around, because hey, we can go
Speaker 2: out there and do something really important, which is manage
Speaker 2: the dos, have a ton of fun doing it, spend
Speaker 2: time with your buddies or your kids. Like, I'm very
Speaker 2: close to flipping the switch and shifting that way all
Speaker 2: the way, or at least starting doing that on like
Speaker 2: my outside exterior areas and leave a couple core places
Speaker 2: alone with hopes that something shows. But but yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: leaning more and more towards you know, I've been asking
Speaker 2: myself this question throughout recent years, especially this year, whenever
Speaker 2: I find myself stressed or frustrated with how the hunt's
Speaker 2: going and stuff, I'll ask myself, you know, what would
Speaker 2: this look like if it were fun? So, like, what's
Speaker 2: the fun version of this? Yeah, and so the fun
Speaker 2: version might be, you know what, I'm not gonna hunt
Speaker 2: all day to day. I'm miserable, I'm frustrated, this sucks.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna take the I'm taking an hour and I'm
Speaker 2: gonna go get lunch and I'm gonna feel good again
Speaker 2: and then I'll be happy and we'll the rest of
Speaker 2: the day. Or maybe it's Hey, you know what, I'm
Speaker 2: not going to do a running gun set at three
Speaker 2: in the morning into a brand new place. I'm actually
Speaker 2: gonna I'm actually gonna slip in at gray light and
Speaker 2: glass and scout my way in and that'll be kind
Speaker 2: of fun and different and it'll be a change of pace.
Speaker 2: And you know, I'm just allowing myself a little bit
Speaker 2: more flexibility in what I'm doing and how I'm doing.
Speaker 3: It to try to.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: You know, we've talked about this endlessly over the years,
Speaker 2: like keep this from being like a military mission and
Speaker 2: instead of being like, hey, this is supposed to be fun,
Speaker 2: do the thing that makes it fun. Yeah, work hard, yeah,
Speaker 2: do the right stuff. But you can take it too far.
Speaker 2: And so that's constantly walking that line. And so this
Speaker 2: year my question that I've been like, the little phrase
Speaker 2: has been like what would this look like if it
Speaker 2: were fun? And then I'll be, oh, yeah, it would
Speaker 2: be chilling the f out and you know, doing this
Speaker 2: or doing this, or you know what, taking this afternoon
Speaker 2: off and picking up the kids from school because you've
Speaker 2: missed the kids and that would make you feel better
Speaker 2: or whatever it is.
Speaker 3: And those things have helped.
Speaker 2: And I think this, you know, looking forward into the
Speaker 2: next month of hunting, that's really going to be where
Speaker 2: I spend a lot of my mental time and my energy.
Speaker 4: So one thing that we didn't talk about was and
Speaker 4: I just want to briefly mention it because I do
Speaker 4: think it's important. And that was over the state of Iowa,
Speaker 4: we had this stagnant low pressure where throughout the course
Speaker 4: of the first two weeks in November, usually what happens
Speaker 4: is I pray for an east wind, and I'm like,
Speaker 4: give me one east wind every or a front comes through,
Speaker 4: and that's going to give me an east wind. I
Speaker 4: had six days in a row of east winds.
Speaker 3: Wasn't that weird?
Speaker 4: We did too, and so we had this crazy thing
Speaker 4: happen where my farm is a vertical rectangle and on
Speaker 4: the west side of it is where all the cover is.
Speaker 4: So in order for me to hunt that farm on
Speaker 4: an east wind, I have to go through cover morning
Speaker 4: and afternoon to get to the stand locations so that
Speaker 4: that wind blows out into a pasture. And that's pretty
Speaker 4: intrusive when you're walking through, you know, timber, two times
Speaker 4: a day in order to hunt that property. Could I
Speaker 4: done it a little different, probably, but that would have
Speaker 4: meant I was also extremely aggressive on my wind, and
Speaker 4: I just wasn't. I didn't want to do it right.
Speaker 4: And so the other thing I want to mention real
Speaker 4: quick is a lot of this has to do with
Speaker 4: like filling a tag. And so I have my Iowa
Speaker 4: buck Archery buck tag, and I think that having it
Speaker 4: is making me want to fill it, Okay, And so
Speaker 4: something cool has happened over the course of the last
Speaker 4: couple months, and I got connected with a group of
Speaker 4: people who own a vineyard near where I live, and
Speaker 4: they have suffered a ton of a vine damage because
Speaker 4: of deer and the deer eat the grapes throughout the summer.
Speaker 4: They chew on the vines and they're they're basically it's
Speaker 4: a what it's that called a depredation tag. It's depredatd
Speaker 4: you know, it's depredation to their crop. And so they
Speaker 4: have started allowing people, basically employees to hunt that area. Well,
Speaker 4: they invited me to come out and hunt, because basically
Speaker 4: they're like, well, you're not some Joe Schmo, you actually
Speaker 4: have accuracy. We don't want you know, dead deer or
Speaker 4: some Well. This year, this year, I did. This year,
Speaker 4: I did. Uh, But it's gonna be cool because I
Speaker 4: have no problem putting my tag on some spike buck.
Speaker 4: It's five miles from my house, uh it is. It
Speaker 4: would just that and then I could fill my tag.
Speaker 4: I could get the meat, and then my tag's fill
Speaker 4: and then the only thing I have to worry about
Speaker 4: is a potential late season tag. And so it would
Speaker 4: be it would be cool to just get rid of
Speaker 4: that tag and then I don't even have to worry
Speaker 4: about my archery buck anymore, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Man, There's something to be said about how refreshing it
Speaker 2: is to change your standards for a hunt sometimes, Like
Speaker 2: some people are very militant about that and like you
Speaker 2: should never do that, but again, like who cares about
Speaker 2: how big a dear you shoot, how old a deer
Speaker 2: you shoot, whatever. If you're not enjoying yourself, if this
Speaker 2: is not bringing you joy, then you got to change
Speaker 2: it up. And the like for me, like when I
Speaker 2: switch to dough season and you go out there hunting
Speaker 2: and you know, like, man, any dough that comes in range,
Speaker 2: it's game on.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so fun.
Speaker 2: Or even when I was in Kentucky it was really
Speaker 2: hard and frustrating and all those things, but it was
Speaker 2: still exciting in moments because I was like, hey, you
Speaker 2: know what, I'm gonna shoot.
Speaker 3: Any buck that's like half decent.
Speaker 2: And so I was almost doing a full draw on
Speaker 2: a couple of deer that I would never even blink at,
Speaker 2: you know, here at home. But there, it made it
Speaker 2: a whole heck of a lot more fun than it
Speaker 2: could have been because I realized, Hey, this is a
Speaker 2: new situation, tough terrain, tough stuff. Let's go have some
Speaker 2: fun with it. And that definitely helped. So if you're
Speaker 2: in a funk, you should not at all feel like
Speaker 2: you are beholden to some standard that is set by
Speaker 2: the Internet, or set by a TV, or set by
Speaker 2: your hunting buddies. Just do the thing that's exciting and
Speaker 2: fun in the moment that can cure a whole lot
Speaker 2: of ills.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, and I think, to be honest, Mark, what
Speaker 4: you're gonna start seeing more out of me is a
Speaker 4: dude who's filling tags because I like the grind to
Speaker 4: a certain extent, but I also like, you know, I
Speaker 4: hope this doesn't sound bad, but I like killing deer, dude,
Speaker 4: and I like putting that meat in my freezer. And
Speaker 4: I got what's fun about my non resident trips Kansas
Speaker 4: and South Dakota. They were so much fun because I
Speaker 4: wasn't I didn't care one bit about Okay, this buck's
Speaker 4: a three year old, I think, actually, the buck that
Speaker 4: I shot this year, would I have passed him in Iowa? Probably,
Speaker 4: But he was a three. He's a big three year old.
Speaker 4: If he's a three year old, he's a four year old.
Speaker 4: Whatever the case is. My uncle thinks he's four. The
Speaker 4: other guy he hunts with thinks he's three. I don't
Speaker 4: give a shit. I turned around, I saw his G
Speaker 4: two and I said, he's toast. And he came in
Speaker 4: in ten yards and I smoked him and it was fun.
Speaker 4: Like that whole thing was fun. There was no standards,
Speaker 4: like I passed small deer because I felt I needed
Speaker 4: to because my uncle hunts in a place where they
Speaker 4: have good quality deer, and so I felt like it
Speaker 4: was my responsibility to hold to that standard somewhat. But
Speaker 4: I told him like, hey, man, I'm probably gonna shoot
Speaker 4: a three rolled off your farm if if I have
Speaker 4: the opportunities, Like, dude, go for it, right. And so
Speaker 4: this year was a ton of fun because I did
Speaker 4: have the non resident trips and then I was able
Speaker 4: to hold to a certain standard in Iowa. But that's
Speaker 4: because but what I think, what you're going to start
Speaker 4: seeing out of me is there's certain deer that can
Speaker 4: get big. And then there's deer that probably you know,
Speaker 4: if you got a if you got one hundred and
Speaker 4: twenty inch three year old, there's gonna be years where
Speaker 4: I'm gonna be shooting. I don't want to say management
Speaker 4: bucks because I think that's goofy. I will say lower
Speaker 4: genetic bucks to fill the tag, to get the meat,
Speaker 4: and to put that euro on my wall because knowing
Speaker 4: you know, like it's going to take that buck off
Speaker 4: the landscape, there's gonna be less pressure for the genetically
Speaker 4: superior deer. Uh. And so on top of that, dude
Speaker 4: shooting deer's fun.
Speaker 3: Man shooting ear's fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah, tell me about that Kansas hunt real quick before
Speaker 2: we get to go, because we haven't covered that.
Speaker 3: You had the rough Iowa, but Kansas, you turn it around.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So it's a six hour drive or excuse me,
Speaker 4: seven hour drive from where I live to get to
Speaker 4: where I hunted in Kansas. And so my stepdad was
Speaker 4: talking to me about it. My uncle in the past,
Speaker 4: he's been talking to me about it, and he's like,
Speaker 4: you're not going to see the number of deer that
Speaker 4: you saw that you typically see in Iowa. Iowa. And
Speaker 4: I'm like Okay, week before I go, my uncle sends
Speaker 4: me a picture. He dropped one hundred and eighty inch
Speaker 4: nine pointer with two flyers off his g Two's an
Speaker 4: absolute slammer, five or six year old. And so it's
Speaker 4: a buck that they passed the previous year and the
Speaker 4: other hunter missed it. And so long story short, like
Speaker 4: they hunt in an area. I'm telling you Mark that
Speaker 4: it's not a ton of deer, and it surprises me
Speaker 4: because they hunt on like thousands and thousands of acres
Speaker 4: that are that have maybe seventy total acres of huntable
Speaker 4: space unless you have a rifle. There are zero deer
Speaker 4: on this farm until they take the cattle out in
Speaker 4: late October. Once they get the cattle out, the rancher
Speaker 4: locks the gates, and then the deer come into it
Speaker 4: from the surrounding areas. Okay, they're somewhere, but they're not
Speaker 4: on this farm. And so you have seventy to one
Speaker 4: hundred acres of huntable space and it's just little fingers
Speaker 4: of cedars, black locusts, and osage orne trees, scrub trees.
Speaker 4: I was in a tree stand at one point that
Speaker 4: was eight feet off the ground right and I was
Speaker 4: probably ten feet off the ground when I shot my buck,
Speaker 4: So you're not getting high at all. Saddle Like, saddle
Speaker 4: hunting is great, but I went back to like this
Speaker 4: pure basic fun like I was climbing up ladder stands. Dude,
Speaker 4: you know how long it's been. It's been twelve too,
Speaker 4: I bet you. The last time I hunted a ladder
Speaker 4: stand would have been the late two thousand's, early twenty tens.
Speaker 3: Like, oh easy.
Speaker 4: Oh. There was one point where I they had that
Speaker 4: little thing that you could fold out, and I was real,
Speaker 4: I was straight, I was leaning all the way back.
Speaker 4: I could take naps in that thing. Oh dude, it
Speaker 4: was awesome.
Speaker 3: Huh.
Speaker 4: And the baiting thing, right, So I did hunt over
Speaker 4: bait a couple hunts, and so that was something different
Speaker 4: and unique to experience. And that's a whole nother conversation, uh,
Speaker 4: as far as that type of strategy. But it was
Speaker 4: so I that's a long way of saying, I got
Speaker 4: down there fully expecting to not see any deer, fully
Speaker 4: expecting to and really what it was is just a
Speaker 4: continuation of what had I had seen the last handful
Speaker 4: of weeks, very slow like, so it wasn't like this
Speaker 4: huge drop off of movement or a huge drop off
Speaker 4: of deer movement. I was seeing young bucks, I was
Speaker 4: seeing doze. I was seeing you know, some even some two,
Speaker 4: maybe some three year old deer past some you know,
Speaker 4: one hundred and thirty inch eight pointer or excuse me,
Speaker 4: one hundred and thirty inch would have been a nine pointer.
Speaker 4: I think he was. You can tell he's young. Plenty
Speaker 4: of deer. And my uncle is just telling me, like, dude,
Speaker 4: out here, deer just show up, So you put time
Speaker 4: in the stand and you're gonna see deer. And we
Speaker 4: bounced around to a river bottom ground that had egg
Speaker 4: in it, flat as a pancake, and then most of
Speaker 4: the time we had to wait again. We had to
Speaker 4: wait for a wind shift. We were getting tons of
Speaker 4: east and southern type hunts. We had a big front
Speaker 4: come through wind and rain and things like that. And
Speaker 4: then all of a sudden, here comes a day with
Speaker 4: a bright sunshine any northwest winds, and that's the day
Speaker 4: that I killed my butt.
Speaker 3: So in the setup was like one of these little fingers.
Speaker 4: Yep, it was. It was a crick bottom that was
Speaker 4: probably fifty yards wide, and there was cedars and thickets
Speaker 4: and the cattle had been in there all year, so
Speaker 4: it was stomped flat and you could see forever this
Speaker 4: under this canopy where it was like, I want to say,
Speaker 4: six to six to ten feet tall, and then nothing
Speaker 4: below it because that cattle had stomped stomped it down
Speaker 4: and rubbed against all the trees, and there wasn't a
Speaker 4: ton of vegetation under there, but it's still cover and
Speaker 4: that's where they were hanging out. And so I was
Speaker 4: along this creek bed and it was just the perfect
Speaker 4: funnel where all of these hills kind of came all
Speaker 4: these this pasture came down to this crick bottom, and
Speaker 4: then the crick curved on like a half circle to
Speaker 4: the north and came back to the south. And all
Speaker 4: it did was just create this perfect pinch point. So
Speaker 4: I got into the stand, I got to the bottom
Speaker 4: of the So two days previous we set it up
Speaker 4: no bait. We basically were just hunting a pinch point,
Speaker 4: and so we had to wait for that front to
Speaker 4: come through. And then the front came through an afternoon hunt.
Speaker 4: We finally got our northwest wind. I climbed up in
Speaker 4: it and I dropped my ozonics out of the tree
Speaker 4: at two o'clock. I climbed up, dropped my ozonics down
Speaker 4: out of the tree, climbed down, climbed back up, and
Speaker 4: I slipped off of my PSA where your safety harness
Speaker 4: or your lineman's belt, because it saved I don't know
Speaker 4: what would have happened to me. I wasn't very high
Speaker 4: off the ground, but still I have a huge scratch
Speaker 4: on my knee, and I had a puncture wound on
Speaker 4: my inside of my leg from the other stand. If
Speaker 4: it wasn't for a pair of pants getting snagged on it,
Speaker 4: I don't know what would have happened. I had my
Speaker 4: lineman's belt on, but I would have went straight down anyway.
Speaker 4: I climbed back up, sit, you know, like I got
Speaker 4: my saddle on. I'm sitting back, put my hat on,
Speaker 4: and I'm getting ready to record something on my phone
Speaker 4: and I hear a single snap. I look back. He's
Speaker 4: at twenty five thirty yards, stood up, drew back, and
Speaker 4: I had put an arrow in him at two fifteen.
Speaker 4: So I was in the stand fifteen minutes when he
Speaker 4: showed up and was cruising that bottom and shot him
Speaker 4: right in the heart and watched him disappear into some
Speaker 4: around a cedar tree that I couldn't after that, called
Speaker 4: my uncle, found him, drug him out, had Coors lights
Speaker 4: and bourbon.
Speaker 2: A great reminder that it can all just change in
Speaker 2: a minute. Yeah, after everything's going wrong too.
Speaker 4: Yep. Man, Now that's the abbreviated version of all what
Speaker 4: would happen? But I will say this mark Iowa was
Speaker 4: a struggle. Iowa was fun. But I enjoyed this season
Speaker 4: so much, not only because I got to hunt with
Speaker 4: a new guy in South Dakota who's a great dude.
Speaker 4: I also got to do my thing in Iowa, which
Speaker 4: is always a blast, regardless of how shitty I've said
Speaker 4: things are. And then I got to hunt with my uncle,
Speaker 4: who I shot my first turkey with him, I shot
Speaker 4: my first pheasant with him when I was like thirteen, twelve,
Speaker 4: thirteen years old, and it was just awesome to hang
Speaker 4: out with him again. And an absolute blast, man, absolute
Speaker 4: blast of a season thus far. And it's not over yet,
Speaker 4: so who knows what's going to happen.
Speaker 2: Well, that's another really important thing to remember when it
Speaker 2: comes to what makes this stuff so good oftentimes is
Speaker 2: the people that you spend time with.
Speaker 3: And it's easy these days there, at least it has
Speaker 3: been for me.
Speaker 2: When you're so obsessed with trying to kill mature buck,
Speaker 2: it can become like a solo endeavor. They can become
Speaker 2: a lone wolf thing, which just like you against the world,
Speaker 2: and you're out there on your own, traveling around or
Speaker 2: doing whatever in the tree all the time, and you
Speaker 2: end up sacrificing in the fun hunts with family or
Speaker 2: going to the family deer camp, or getting breakfast or
Speaker 2: lunch with the buddies, And man, that's always been a mistake.
Speaker 2: Like that's one of the biggest changes I'm trying to
Speaker 2: make is, Yeah, prioritize the trips with friends, do the
Speaker 2: things with family. Take a little time to be part
Speaker 2: of the social element of it, even if that means
Speaker 2: less time in the tree, or maybe you do a
Speaker 2: trip that has slightly less chances of killing a big
Speaker 2: giant buck. But if you're there with people you enjoy
Speaker 2: and care about, that's the stuff that makes this so special.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this deer camp thing, dude, it was so much fun. Iowa.
Speaker 4: This year, my dad pulled a trailer down to a
Speaker 4: local state park that was ten miles away from where
Speaker 4: I hunt, and I stayed in a camper with my dad.
Speaker 4: He didn't hunt, he doesn't hunt, but he cooked some
Speaker 4: great meals. I celebrated my Usually my birthday is November fifth,
Speaker 4: and usually I'm celebrating that by myself most years. This
Speaker 4: year I was able to celebrate it with my dad.
Speaker 4: He cooked me a steak on the cool out on
Speaker 4: the camp site. I stayed in his camper, electricity TV.
Speaker 3: Like it was.
Speaker 4: It was not this grind, grind. The time in the
Speaker 4: tree stand was the grind. But outside of that, man,
Speaker 4: it was absolutely and it's just one hundred percent success
Speaker 4: this year period. Yeah, I don't care how it turns out.
Speaker 2: That's the good stuff right there, and a great thing
Speaker 2: to leave us with here today. As we go into
Speaker 2: the rest of the season, I think thinking about that
Speaker 2: kind of stuff, prioritizing those types of memories and moments
Speaker 2: for the rest of the season. We'll do us all
Speaker 2: really good. So thanks buddy for making time to do this.
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, good luck the rest of the season.
Speaker 3: Mark, thanks man, you too.
Speaker 2: All right, and that is a wrap for us today.
Speaker 2: Appreciate you joining us, thanks for being here. As I
Speaker 2: mentioned at the top, Happy Thanksgiving. Hopefully you are having
Speaker 2: a wonderful holiday, eating lots of good food, getting out
Speaker 2: there in the woods for some hunts. Please be safe,
Speaker 2: please have fun out there, and enjoy these most wonderful
Speaker 2: final days of November. And until next time, stay wired ton.
Speaker 6: It's that time of the year again. I'm back, Marcus Kenyon.
Speaker 6: How are you your son of a gadwall? You look terrible.
Speaker 6: I'm just kidding her, Rema, I'm sorry, I'm late. I
Speaker 6: crashed my recumbent bicycle into the side of a quiz nose,
Speaker 6: and I know what you're thinking. I am as sober
Speaker 6: as a newborn blue crab. I swear to you this
Speaker 6: is just kombucha. I'm watching the gut health. You gotta
Speaker 6: do it as you get older. And also, I'm wearing
Speaker 6: this ankle bracelet that makes a beep beep sound if
Speaker 6: I have a drop of the stuff. Also alerts the authorities,
Speaker 6: who in turn alert my parole officer. So there'll be
Speaker 6: none of that in the studio today, I promise you.
Speaker 3: Let's get go.
Speaker 6: Oh, you're queuing it up already. Okay. I thought we'd
Speaker 6: learned a lesson this year, but I guess not.
Speaker 4: Here we go.
Speaker 5: Of those beagy, big white tails those eaky run beagy
Speaker 5: big big white tails. I love those beagy big yet
Speaker 5: eight chats eat tails. I love those beachy, big wide tails,
Speaker 5: big white tails, big white tails, big white tails are great?
Speaker 3: Hold?
Speaker 6: What fun it is to sit in the freezing cold
Speaker 6: tree all day? Big white tails, big white tails, big
Speaker 6: white tails are great?
Speaker 5: Hold?
Speaker 6: What fun it is to sit in the freezing cold
Speaker 6: tree all day? Dashing through the woods for the morning light,
Speaker 6: turns grave across the fields and draws, creep in all
Speaker 6: the way, climb into the tree. Big bucks are on
Speaker 6: the way. What fun he is to sit and wait
Speaker 6: for my gosh don deer all day? Oh big, I'm sorry?
Speaker 3: What is this?
Speaker 6: Piscato strings? Who do you think I am? And you
Speaker 6: get this out here? I don't want to hear it?
Speaker 3: Thank you?
Speaker 6: Big white tails, big white tails, big white tails are great.
Speaker 6: Hold fun it is to sit in the freezing cold
Speaker 6: tree all day? I hope sund dreams are high the rut.
Speaker 6: He's finally here, Mark said, it's the most wonderful time
Speaker 6: to kill o whitetail deer bingch points and pettings where
Speaker 6: you'll find me?
Speaker 3: Hang, it's want to feet.
Speaker 6: In a tree, grunt tubes my bowl inspector Camos really
Speaker 6: campy be he or two ago. I thought that this
Speaker 6: was fun, but now I'm frozen to my seat and
Speaker 6: the good times they are God. I've ate up all
Speaker 6: my snacks, my hands and toes unnumb and we're gonna
Speaker 6: climb down from my stand. That son of a bud
Speaker 6: decided to come.
Speaker 5: On those bagy b Wat tapes, those sky bagy big
Speaker 5: big Wait tapes. I love those be agy big dupe
Speaker 5: y'all eight shot gie eat tails. I love those big
Speaker 5: white tails all Dad.
Speaker 6: I don't know why this is happening, I swear to God,
Speaker 6: Oh officer, what seems to be the problem here? Oh this?
Speaker 6: I don't know why this is happening. It must be
Speaker 6: a malfunction, you know. Sometimes it happens when the batteries
Speaker 6: run low.
Speaker 3: You don't know.
Speaker 6: You don't need to smell that. That's just kambuocha. I okay, yes,
Speaker 6: you've got me. It's ever clear and pacific cooler, Caprice Son.
Speaker 6: I am so so sorry. I don't know why my
Speaker 6: life has brought me here. Mark Marcus, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 6: Enjoy the rut or whatever. Good luck boys, Good to
Speaker 6: see you, Hayden it's been a while. Hey, sorry, I'm late.
Speaker 6: I crashed my pontiac cast I could do a light
Speaker 6: pole and had to walk the rest of the way.
Speaker 6: But I'm here now.
Speaker 3: That's what matters.
Speaker 6: Give you a glass of scotch, please, Hayden, just two
Speaker 6: rocks in there. I don't my guys, we're starting already.
Speaker 6: This is happening. Okay, just give me the give me
Speaker 6: the glass, thank you. Okay, here we go. It's the
Speaker 6: most wonderful time to kill deer. With the run now
Speaker 6: just starting and dashing and dotting and veins cutting clean,
Speaker 6: It's the most wonderful time to kill deer. There's far
Speaker 6: too much ice in this glass. It's the half happy
Speaker 6: season of all. There's gotta be at least twelve cues
Speaker 6: with grunting and bleeding and call fronts and sleeting the
Speaker 6: last weeks of fun. It's the happiest seedsson of home.
Speaker 6: There'll be pictures for posting and bragging and boasting and
Speaker 6: truck beds with big bucks in toe. There'll be narrow
Speaker 6: miss stories and tales of your glories of booner bucks
Speaker 6: missed with our bulls. It's the most wonderful time to
Speaker 6: kill deer, not just one baby two. There'll be no
Speaker 6: dose of blowing and looming knocks glowing and blood trails
Speaker 6: so clean. It's the most wonderful time to kill dea.
Speaker 6: Excuse me? Can I have a napkin? Please? I just
Speaker 6: spilled some scotch on my loafers. I can't have dirty
Speaker 6: loafers in the studio. Thank you Tailgate beers for drinking,
Speaker 6: and big Bucks is sleeping and chasing and san jacking
Speaker 6: does They will be fighting and scraping and no more
Speaker 6: escaping and arrowshot true hitting, Oh key change. But no
Speaker 6: one told me that it's the most wonderful time to
Speaker 6: kill deer. I was very unprepared for this. There will
Speaker 6: be much morning sitting in cold fronts, are hitting the
Speaker 6: dawn crispin clean. It's the most wonderful time.
Speaker 3: Oh, the most wonderful time.
Speaker 6: Yes, the most wonderful time.
Speaker 3: To kill.
Speaker 6: There's too much ice in the glass
Speaker 5: Rocks.