00:00:01
Speaker 1: What is going on. Welcome back to another week of rutfresh. My name is Jakoefer and we have four great guests. We have a lot of coverage from Wisconsin this week, so if you’re from Wisconsin, you should be excited. If you’re in the area, that’d be all right too. But we also have Jeff Thomas from New York to give us his rough fresh report. And so it is getting to be the time. This is the main event. This is the time we have officially been waiting for sound the alarm. We have some quick tips and strategies to hopefully help you maximize any time you’re able to sneak out in the woods or whether you have a vacation scheduled. This episode should help you maximize whatever time you have in the woods, whether it’s scouting or hunting. And I’m going to kick it off with a little bit of a challenge, my challenge to you. So this every week we’re gonna be doing a little challenge. My challenge is for you to text your hunting buddy. Maybe you haven’t talked to him here for a little bit, but you know he’s been hunting. You know he’s been trying his best to set a text of encouragement and say, hey, man, I know you’re getting after it. It’s a matter keep at it. Games small, miss small, whatever variation of that, send it to him. Send a little word of encouragement, because we do put too much pressure on ourselves throughout this time period and just a little words of encouragement may go a long way. And as you know, Rofresh is brought to you by land dot com, the leading online real estate marketplace to find your perfect rural, recreational, agricultural, or hunting properties here in the US. We’re going to kick things off with Eric Barber with a public land buck from Wisconsin. Here is Eric, all right, first up on the line, we have Eric Barber, who recently tagged a big buck and the kind of a crazy story. I read through the story and you had to spend more time looking for the deer or less time looking for the deer than you did a time that broke off, So I think that’s kind of funny. But Eric, how you doing today?
00:01:51
Speaker 2: I’m good man, I’m pumped to be here, Jake, thanks for having me.
00:01:54
Speaker 1: Absolutely so. I’ve been asking folks a tribute question at the beginning of each interview, and I had someone already on Wisconsin. So now you get a question about a state that you don’t live in because you’re you’re headed to Kansas next. So this this one will actually be kind of fun. What year or county or score? You can answer any three of these any variation. I’ll give you a right answer on any of those. Was the state typical record? Buckshot in Kansas? And I’ll give you a hint. This has recently been resurfaced and officially submitted actually earlier this year. So I’m putting you on the spot because I think.
00:02:34
Speaker 2: Oh boy, man, my knowledge at Kansas is limited. I’m going to guess the year is. I’m gonna go with nineteen ninety four.
00:02:48
Speaker 1: You’re one year off nineteen ninety five, No kidding, yes I could.
00:02:52
Speaker 2: I couldn’t tell you the county because I don’t actually know a Kansas county.
00:02:57
Speaker 1: Fair enough, Yeah, I was shot in nineteen ninety five and Franklin County with an exact score of two hundred and zero eight eight inches. And then uh, mister Daniel shot that year. And then actually we did. I did a podcast from earlier this year and kind of like chronicling and how the deer kind of didn’t get officially entered until very recently, so little little white to history for you. But enough crazy, let’s stop living in the past. Let’s live right now. Let’s do it. Tell me about your most recent successful hunt Man in October. Yeah, it was.
00:03:29
Speaker 2: It was a kind of one of those hunts where you don’t expect to punch a tag but ended up doing it. So the day of the hunt was October nineteenth. It was just this past Sunday for me. My I’ve got kind of a unique hunting situation where my wife and I have a small thirty two acre lease that we do some of our hunting on, but I would say ninety percent of my hunting is done on public, and I’ve got cameras all over, you know, a bunch of different public pieces obviously on that thirty two acres of private, but everything has been dead, just like deader than dead. I have been kind of out of the game. That’s definitely switched here in the last couple of days. But going into Sunday, my only rule was I’m going to hunt nowhere near where I had a camera because I just was feeling totally out of the game. And then my other rule was I just need to find fresh sign. Kind of go in blind, and if I can find the sign, I’m gonna set up on it. If I didn’t find sign, I wasn’t going to get in a treat. And so it’s Sunday, around three o’clock. I hit the first piece that I wanted to go to and there were three vehicles in the parking lot, so I kind of scrapped that plan went to a different lot. There were more vehicles in that lot, so I just kind of kept, you know, bouncing around until I finally found a place that didn’t have vehicles in it. And it’s a place that I’d turkey hunted a little bit, but never deer hunted, never scouted during the fall, anything like that, so I had a little bit of familiarization with it. But I just went in blind. And the setup was, you know, as the crow fly, not super far off the road, maybe within you know, four or five hundred yards from the road, but as you the access was really tricky. You got to kind of jog around some private so you know, on foot distance is probably just over a mile, and you got to cross some pretty rugged terrain and once I crossed this big ditch, I’m hunting in the driftless region of Wisconsin. Get up on this big ridge top and there’s a CRP field up on the top. That CRP field then turns into corn on the adjacent private land, and that corn was still standing. And then that ridge falls off to the west and goes into a big chunk of private land. So I was kind of hunting near some some private public boundaries. But when I was cruising that ridge, found a pretty like a couple of fresh scrapes and there’s this old like abandoned, overgrown logging road. It just looked like you you don’t picture a deer kind of cruising that, especially this time of year. So everything looked good. Got set up in the tree, and at about five o’clock had two young bucks, you know, a year and a half old bucks, just a little basket. You know, four pointers come by, but nonetheless early movement, you know, five o’clock on public deer on their feet is always an encouraging sign. And at about six o’clock, you know, a hour later, had a real heavy wind, like.
00:06:22
Speaker 1: Out of the west.
00:06:22
Speaker 2: It was gusting up to eighteen miles an hour, so your you know, ability to hear was was greatly decreased. And I was with a buddy co worker of mine, Cole Booth, and he was on the other side of the tree. He was actually filming, and he’s like, oh, there’s a buck coming down that road, and he reached to go grab for the camera. I reached for my bow and I had to kind of go up and around my saddle to shoot on the weak side. It was kind of a goofy set up there and caught that buck creeping into the crp. I was gonna throw a grunt at him, but I couldn’t tell if he had actually stopped or if he just kept going. My assumption was that he just stopped right there, because I just immediately lost visibility on him. So I decided against the grunt, you know, because I didn’t want to grunt with him still right there at sixty yards. And eventually, after two minutes of just kind of glassing up into that thicket, I caught a little flicker of movement and it was him just browsing. He came down hit that old logging road. It was going to come right down the pipe at about twenty yards, but he picked up our grounds and just kind of bird dogged around a little bit and ended up kind of skirting further to the north, and I had to thread the needle through a couple of trees that kind of formed a little v and got lucky, made a great shot, and you know, he went tearing off this ridge, and I knew he was headed towards some like pretty rugged steep country. You know, big Boulder Field probably drops about one hundred and fifty feet in elevation pretty quick. I mean, it’s it’s definitely a big time bluff country. And you know, it was so windy that I didn’t hear crash or anything, so I’m like, hopefully he didn’t make it to that, and I was wrong. Get down look at the arrow. Great Blood felt really confident in the shot, was able to watch the footage back, so it felt good enough to just like pick up the trail right away. And he only went about forty yards. But as we’re you know, getting to this this bowler field, you could see where he started to stumble.
00:08:21
Speaker 1: He actually blew through like a rock bog.
00:08:23
Speaker 2: They were just like rotten wooden and blood kind of like just scattered everywhere. And sure enough that he was like tucked in between two like rock bowlers. And we actually even had to tie pair cord to him to like, you know, make sure he didn’t slide down the hill. But as soon as I picked up his rack, like, man, where’s this G two? Like he sure looked like a ten pointer when I was looking at him, And sure enough, he had clean broke that G two off right at the base. I mean just like even took out part of the beam. And we probably spent an hour and a half two hours. We killed flashlight batteries, did the whole thing, and finally were able to recover that time. Like literally on the last pass, I was just coming to terms with, well, he’s now a nine pointer.
00:09:09
Speaker 1: But uh, it was cool man. It was a super fun hunt. So yeah, that is awesome. Yeah, Sunday Sunday seemed like there was pretty good activity. Uh here in Illinois. The wind died, you know, within that last little call a thirty minutes or so, but it was it was Hollan and I was thinking the same thing. I was like, I can’t I’m not going to hear him at all. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, No, that’s that’s super cool man. Congratulations and I that’s that’s a really fun and exciting time and probably a good lesson if you’re feeling discouraged, just go out and hunt. So you went and looked for the hot sign, you set up on it and uh and it worked with great success. You didn’t have a bunch of intel to say this is where I needed to be other than your gut. I mean that’s a that’s a good word of encouragement, especially as we get deeper into this time of year. So looking looking here out the next week or so, you already filled you know, archery tag in Wisconsin. What would you you tell someone to pay really close attention to over the over the next seven days, whether it’s specific sign, food, source, train, feature, tactic, what kind of jumps out to you for the next seven days.
00:10:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, I mean look it into like October twenty nine through those first couple days in November’s that’s like my favorite time to hunt, especially as a public land guy. Like that twenty nine thirty thirty, first those last few days of October right before November, you can kind of beat the public land craze of everyone that saved their vacation for you know, the first few days in November. So I always look like index on that, and I’ll kind of, you know, build my strategy around hunting pressure. That way, I’m going to be in the woods for those days, you know, pretty much regardless of weather conditions. Unless it’s just crazy rainy, that’d be about the only thing that would keep me out. But even with that, I did look and there it looks like there is some rain in the forecast. I would definitely be keen off that rain ending and getting out there right after. I always like hitting scrapes that those last couple of days of October and even into November, you know, those first few days I feel like of November are still pretty good scrape hunting days too.
00:11:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that’s great advice. Are you you know you had your grunk call with you on the nineteenth. Is that something that you’re not leaving home without? Or are you bringing rattling antlers or where do you stand all that for this time of year. Yeah, I’ll bring them both.
00:11:24
Speaker 2: I’ll definitely have my drunk call, Definitely bring my rattling antlers on public. I’m not above the blind rattling sequence on my private pieces. I’m a little bit more conservative with my calling tactics. But the way that I look at You know, my public land strategy is I’m a lot more vocal, I’m a lot more aggressive because I feel like if I burned that spot out, there’s nothing telling that, Like the guy can’t come in behind me and do the same thing. So I’d rather kind of take control of that situation and at least try it. I’ve had some good luck doing that, and I just think it’s fun. It’s always so well man. When you get a buck coming into like either a grunt caller or rattling sequence, it’s like my favorite time.
00:12:05
Speaker 1: Of year to do it. Yeah, that’s super cool. Now you mentioned something I think that’s want to I want your reasoning behind this, because I think this is a mistake that a lot of people could do. You mentioned, you know he was sixty yards away and you thought he was standing still and you didn’t want to grunt. Why is that? And I guess what’s a hard rule for you? When it comes to grunting. When you see it, people get excited, right, They’re like, I need anything to get him to come another thirty year yards closer. What can I do? Yeah?
00:12:32
Speaker 2: I much prefer to grunt to a dear that I can tell that he’s moving because it’s just like, you know, picture yourself walking through the woods. If you’re walking, you’re hearing your footfalls and like the crunch of the leaves and all that stuff, and you hear that first sound and it’s enough to stop you and you’re kind of like trying to pinpoint that exact location Versus if he’s sitting there stationary at sixty yards just browsing, he’s still kind of.
00:12:56
Speaker 1: In that buffer. You know.
00:12:57
Speaker 2: I’d almost prefer to be like, you know, seventy to one hundred. It seems to be like a sweet spot of grunt thing. Get too close, I feel like they can pinpoint it a little bit better. But I do like when they’re moving for that initial contact run because it kind of like you’ll you’ll stop them in their tracks and they’re kind of like, what was that, And then I’ll just gauge their body language. In an ideal scenario, they’ll start coming without having that location pinpointed. There are times where you’ll have to do that follow up grunt when they are actually stationary, and that is when they do pinpoint you, and that’s when they can come in downwind or you know, do something a little bit funky but you just got to be prepared for that. You also got to kind of vision envision your shooting lanes and assume that that year is going to come in downwind and uh and kind of plan accordingly there.
00:13:43
Speaker 1: I like that. I like it well so in the next seven days many people’s favorite seven day stretch here that we’re getting to on a scale one to ten, ten being this might be the very best week of the year for activity and opportunity, one being the worst week of the year.
00:13:58
Speaker 2: Where do you put it from one to ten? Man, I am the eternal optimist. I’m actually going to go ten.
00:14:05
Speaker 1: It is you know, you’re you’re looking.
00:14:08
Speaker 2: It’s it’s like this is the week we’ve all been waiting for, right you know, it’s late October, early November. I just did a quick look at the forecast. It looks like Camp’s here and Wisconsin are going to be in the fifties. There is some pre sip kind of in the mix a little bit. But man, I would be thinking about that only to my advantage getting out hitting those scrapes after that raining blows out, you know, hunting mornings, hunting at evenings. I wouldn’t really be worried about you know, getting in there in the in the dark in the morning.
00:14:35
Speaker 1: I think that’s something that people should be thinking about. Time on stand.
00:14:38
Speaker 2: You just got to do it right now, so I would be going into it with eyes wide open.
00:14:43
Speaker 1: I love it, man. Well, good luck in Kansas. Congratulations once again, what a sweet start the season, and I’m wishing you the best.
00:14:52
Speaker 2: Thanks man, I appreciate it all right.
00:14:54
Speaker 1: Next up on the line, we have Thomas Milsna with Untamed Ambition and you just shot a buck.
00:14:59
Speaker 3: How’s the fa feels pretty good? You know those emotions that come with filling your tag. Especially me, this is kind of the end of my hunting season when I fill my home state Wisconsin tag. You know, I do my Western hunts early in the fall and then I I dedicate the rest of my time. However long it takes two hunting white tails here in Wisconsin, so you know, it’s a little surreal but also kind of sad.
00:15:24
Speaker 4: Like we were talking about, you know, I look at my cell.
00:15:27
Speaker 3: Cam pictures in the morning, and I only run a few cell cams as like a sample or like temp check what’s going on in the property. But I you know, every morning I open it up and I look and scroll through and see what happened, and I’m like, you know, I no longer get that excitement of this deer showing up on camera.
00:15:44
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:15:45
Speaker 3: So, but at the same time, I’m sitting here looking at him, so I have my hands on him. So you know, it’s that emotional rollercoaster of hunting that you know, just kind of does this the whole time.
00:15:54
Speaker 4: Yeah, but no, it feels good. It feels really good.
00:15:57
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, that’s awesome. So we you were on the back forty mini series earlier this year, so hopefully people are familiar with some of your ideologies as we you know, burned through eight different burning questions lad enough in the season. But what was your strategy and how did this come together? Because I know it was a morning hunt you sent me. When you sent me the video of the of his breath coming out, I was like, that’s one hundred percent of the morning And so tell me, tell me about how you were able to put this together. Yeah.
00:16:24
Speaker 3: So this year, you know, we’re coming into the pre rut time right now, right or like that early seeking chasing phase, and this year was quite a home body throughout the year. Early in the season, I was after a different buck at a different number one target book. This was my number two Plan B. Like, man, I don’t know if I want to see him get another year because he’s got so much going on.
00:16:45
Speaker 4: But at the same time.
00:16:47
Speaker 3: Everybody in the entire area wants to kill him, and I can’t hold that against them. But I had some really good encounters with my target book early in the year and made a big mistake on him, and then I kind of shifted. And the reason I shifted early I talked about how I usually shift to my Plan B buck if I don’t think I can kill Plan A by Halloween. This is a week ahead of schedule because this particular buck was spending a lot of time in the most huntable area I thought was right next to our hunting cabin on our property, and all my cousins that come and hunt the property are going to be showing up here really soon.
00:17:20
Speaker 4: And then you know that added.
00:17:22
Speaker 3: Pressure in that area is absolutely going to alter the deer behavior. And then I just don’t know if my intel is going to be accurate. Right anytime you had pressure, you know these theories that come up with on what de you’re doing or why they’re doing it.
00:17:36
Speaker 4: It’s all subject to change.
00:17:38
Speaker 3: So the main thing that I was looking at with this buck in particular, this area is right next to a really good betting area. It’s a really good layered betting area. Where I’m hunting specifically is the doe betting area. The buck’s bed in the general vicinity, but a little bit deeper in this pocket. And this pocket is actually backed right up against our farm, a really active dairy farm, and it offers these bucks super secure cover even though it’s close to the farm. You know, I always talk about how topography is the greatest form of cover. This actually backs right up to a giant earthen built manure pit, right so it’s like a man made damn. Essentially, it’s a forty foot mound of dirt from their perspective, and that’s that snuffles out and covers up a lot of the noise from the farm. It can be kind of deceiving because when you hunting that area at an elevation, you’re looking at more of the farm, But when you’re down at the deer’s elevation, then a lot of that stuff is mitigated. So these bucks bed in this tight little pocket. The dose bed on both sides of it.
00:18:44
Speaker 4: There’s food. I’ve got a couple of food plots.
00:18:46
Speaker 3: In the valley, and then there’s obviously egg fields and stuff in the area that they kind of flow to and from. And my strategy in the spot. I’ve actually kind of started hunting the spot a little bit more a couple of years ago, and we went in and did some habitat improvements, did some select cutting, and then TSI and thinned it out to create more forage value and more cover with it. But I went in there about I don’t know, probably fifteen days ago or so, basically right after I screwed up on my initial target book, because I was really confident that I was going to take out earlier in the season, which I should have if I didn’t fail to execute. But I went in there that same day that I screwed up, or actually it was the next day after I confirmed one hundred percent that the deer was alive and I was trying to get ahead of him, and this is an area that I anticipated him shifting into from previous years of data, and I also knew that this buck was in the area and figured I would cross paths with them at some point. But I went into the fringe of this dough betting area and looked around. There’s always a primary scrape in there. You know, those bucks transition into the betting area, they checked that scrape or they come out and they’re checking what the does are doing, what does are in the area, and whatnot. So I went in looked for a scrape, found one, a couple of them actually, But the problem is there’s not a lot of good spots to set up in there to hunt.
00:20:05
Speaker 4: There’s not a lot of cover.
00:20:06
Speaker 3: The trees that are standing in there are you know, for so long it was a close canopy that they’re all telephone poles, right, So finding the right spot to hunt, the right wind direction, all those things come into play. And ultimately the tree that I selected based on the wind direction to hunt that didn’t put me in a good position to make any shot without clearing some massive shooting lanes. And I did not want to do that that close to betting and go in there and alter it. So what I did was I went, I broke the licking branches off of these other two scrapes, and I added a mock scrape in a previous shooting lane that I had maintained there through a cell camera up over it and got out of there, and a couple days later this buck showed up, and then basically every four or five days he’s been in there, and I go back and look at the data. You know, I like to talk about those four key elements wind, pressure, food, and timing. Wind is king, wind is always king, at least for me, where I hunt high pressure dear. Everything has to do the wind, how they move, where they bed all this stuff, and the higher the pressure is, the more they use the wind. So when I looked at the trail cameray or the weather history and reference the trail camera data, every time that buck was there, there was either no wind or there was an east wind, which plays right into the theories I also put together without bucks, you know, they like that wind coming from a potential threat. That’s why they like to bed with their wind at their back, and then they get the thermals rising up in their face and the east wind would have been pushing from the farm into this betting area. And the theory behind that, or at least what makes sense to me, is that those bucks are there on that wind because then they they can surveil what’s coming from the farm. They hear all that noise all the time, but how do they know if that noise is just noise, or if it’s noise associated with a threat that’s coming towards them or whatnot. Right when they have that wind, then they can smell all the things that are going on and decipher that. And you know, the way that their nose and their brain works is way different from ours, right, So however they figure that out, I don’t know. But and it wasn’t like he was there every single time there was an east wind, but he was only ever there on an east wind or no win.
00:22:20
Speaker 4: So I went back to the farm.
00:22:22
Speaker 3: This last Thursday night or Thursday afternoon, checked a handful of cameras on the fringes of this area, trying to get a game plan put together, knowing that we had this cold front and things we’re going to be picking up here. And I always try to scout from the outside D hunt from the outside D. I don’t want to go any deeper than I have to, even though I knew a couple of spots. I’m like, I think I can get in there and kill this deer, but it’s high risk, and I didn’t know if it was worth the risk that early in the season, because if you don’t have the encountery need, or he gets by you and busts you, he’s not going to be back there again.
00:22:54
Speaker 4: Just too much pressure. It’s one and done. This time you’re with these bucks.
00:22:58
Speaker 3: So I went back on third scouted from the outside, checked these cameras, and then I slipped down and did an observation sit scanned food plot, saw some bucks, not the buck I was looking for, but the whole time I could hear a buck grunting, and obviously I don’t know if it was him, but he was making this like really aggressive like huffing, almost like a gorilla noise, like if you can envision that noise that the gorillas make, like the huffing.
00:23:22
Speaker 4: He would drunt and he would make that noise.
00:23:24
Speaker 3: I heard it three or four different times throughout the evening, and I slipped back out of that valley and drove all the way home. Had smaller stuff going on, had to get all wrapped up, got up at two thirty in the morning, got some stuff ready, drove all the way back down, and I was a little bit late getting down there, but I got in and I hung the stand the day I hung the cell camera, so I was already set up for it, which saved me a little bit.
00:23:48
Speaker 4: It’s easy access.
00:23:49
Speaker 3: Slipped in there, got in the stand, and sure enough, right away in the morning start seeing movement down the valley. Mostly I can look down behind me and there’s some deer moving around. And then I had three doughs work up into this betting area. And that’s what makes me really nervous. Well, there’s two issues with that. Is One, usually when I hunt this close to betting, I commit to an all day sit because if these deer come in and bed down close to me, I don’t want to bump them because if I bump them, I burn a pressure credit. In that area, you can only bump them a couple times. And then that betting area is not nearly as secure to them. They’re not there, the bucks aren’t there. So I was really nervous. But I had prior obligations that afternoon, so I couldn’t commit to an all day sit, so I was really kind of going for it in the spot right And then on top of it, it’s very close to our cabin, so these guys are showing up to hunt, So it’s going to change the dynamic in that valley anyway. But these dos come in. There’s three generations. There was a dough faon, last year’s dough faon, and the old nanny dough, and you know, just the experience that comes with age was very apparent. The little dough comes in and instantly like beds down like five feet from the base of my tree behind me. The other dough comes in and she’s kind of checking things out a little bit more apprehensive, doesn’t really catch on. The big dough comes in and she is just like scanning every single nooking cranny, every tree, and she picked me out immediately.
00:25:07
Speaker 4: Something’s different. Okay, it’s not moving. I think we’re okay.
00:25:11
Speaker 3: You know, that’s after a fifteen minute stare down and I strategically normally I hang my pack low so I can reach it when I’m sitting, but in this situation, I hung it off my bow hanger so that I broke up my background a little bit more up in the tree and kind of gave me some cover. So ultimately, these dos they’re hanging out in there, and the little one’s bedded. The next one up in age was just betted down, and then the nanny was still kind of milling around browsing, and I hear this like gorilla huffing again, you know, and then the scrunt, and I’m like, oh, you know, in my brain, I already painted the picture.
00:25:48
Speaker 4: That that’s got to be this buck, right, So I’m like, okay.
00:25:51
Speaker 3: I’m looking, looking, looking, And I’d seen a couple other bucks milling around, so I knew they were on their feet. But I had to make the decision at that point, do I pull up my bino’s and risk bumping these do or do I sit still longer? And you know, that internal debate lasted about thirty seconds, and I was like, well, if I’m gonna if these doughs are gonna bust me, which inevitably they’re going to as soon as I reached for my bow, it’s easy to make a move on one single deer, just washing what they’re doing, moving when they move stuff like that. But I knew I was gonna get busted, so I had to do it sooner rather than later.
00:26:21
Speaker 4: The wind was good.
00:26:22
Speaker 3: These doughs weren’t gonna smell me unless they circled up around me. And where this buck was coming from. He wasn’t gonnamell me until he circled down.
00:26:28
Speaker 4: So I brought up my.
00:26:31
Speaker 3: Bios in just that subtle movement, you know, I went like this, but I wasn’t looking through my binos. I’m looking at this dough and right away she’s just on me. So I actually what I did is I just put my hand down behind the tree and I just started flagging my hand to make her nervous. And they kind of spooked, like really fast, and they ran about halfway down the hill and blew a couple.
00:26:50
Speaker 4: Of times, and then they left. And the buck then I had my.
00:26:53
Speaker 3: Binyls on and I’m watching him and he’s, you know, he’s ears up on alert, just looking trying to figure it out. But he can’t smell me. And these deer are so switched on on this farm. They’re you know, when I was watching that observation plot the night before, I had two or three different times deer would blow out of the plot and blow and they were spooked by other deer coming from like the creek bottom and stuff, so on edge.
00:27:13
Speaker 4: They’re always on edge. And anyway, so this buck, you know, it didn’t.
00:27:17
Speaker 3: Deter him, It just put him on high alert, and you know, from the time I saw him to the time he got into bow range was probably eight or ten minutes. You know, mature bucks do that, right, they stand, They just surveil the situation for a long time, licking their nose, smelling the air, all that stuff. So he kind of worked his way in and I didn’t even grab my bow. It was one of the few times I’m a I’m a shoot first, video second kind of guy.
00:27:40
Speaker 4: M but I and I had really only video for.
00:27:44
Speaker 3: My own personal you know, like challenge and the satisfaction of like showing that. I mean, I sent you the video, and that’s really all I do is show it to like close friends most of the time, and and use it for educational purposes for my clients. I was like, Okay, I’m just gonna let him come in. I’m in a really good situation. He’s going to commit to that. It was like a dialed in, fine tuned situation, Like it’s not like the panic, where do I think he’s going to be.
00:28:06
Speaker 4: So I videoed and then you know, grab my bow.
00:28:09
Speaker 3: When I was ready to take the shot, and twenty five yards perfect shot. He didn’t know what hit him. I didn’t have to stop him. He wasn’t on alert. He ran thirty yards and kind of settled in a little bit and just tipped over and.
00:28:20
Speaker 1: Like, okay, that’s awesome. Okay, it’s over right.
00:28:24
Speaker 3: H And then you know that’s when the flood of emotions really hit. And for me, I don’t really get buck fever until after. You know, it’s like you just try to Okay, it’s that deer.
00:28:33
Speaker 4: I know that’s a deer.
00:28:34
Speaker 3: I want to shoot now, and focused on watching his eyes and moving when he’s not looking at me, doing all the things I need to and I double checked my range, you know. I was just like kind of working through everything like I’ve got time, take my time.
00:28:45
Speaker 4: All this stuff came and you just just played out perfectly.
00:28:48
Speaker 1: So man, that is awesome. If the footage is really sick and so real quick. So October twenty ninth to November fifth, what is the most important thing for people to pay attention to if they are maybe they’re hunting this upcoming weekend, maybe they’re starting their vocation, there was one thing for these people to focus in on. Whether it’s a speed scout, whether it’s an observation sit, whether it’s a food source, a terrain feature. What is the single most important thing right now as things start to ramp up even more.
00:29:20
Speaker 3: There’s two strategies I would employ the same, which is what I was in the process of doing. You know, this buck and my other main target book their territories overlap quite a bit, so I was still pursuing my number one buck, but number two just happened to kind of fall right on top of there, which worked out really well for me. But that main strategy, I’m really looking at those primary scrapes. Scrapes next to doe betting areas are going to be your best friend, and you have to get out in scout. You absolutely have to get out in scout. You know, if your camera is in the right spot, then you know do because you’re getting the activity on it right. But if you’re not getting the activity you want, case in point what I did where I destroyed a couple of those scrapes and hunt a camera over one scrape in this area. All the bucks coming and going from this one spot, we’re checking that scrape. You know, are they checking it every time they walk through the area. Absolutely not, but they are occasionally checking it, and that gives you that temp check. But if you don’t go out and scout, you’re gonna have a problem. And actually, after I killed this buck, the next morning, I went out and I checked a couple of other cameras a little bit deeper that I wouldn’t have checked. And you know, if I didn’t see him on Friday morning, then I would have went and slipped into these spots at the timing I thought would be the least, you know, invasive, like when deer aren’t going to be there. Maybe it’s in the middle of the night, maybe it’s in the middle of the day, you know, just certain wind direction, whatever it might be. But I really want to make sure I’m getting the intel off these scrapes because they’re all these communication hubs, and these bucks right now are moving all over the place, and they’re they’re leaving their signature, they’re communicating, they’re doing all these things with these other other deer in mind. But ultimately it’s you know, what other bucks are in the area and what does are coming into heat. So that’s the first thing I make sure I’m getting my intel from those communication hubs. And then the second thing is I’m looking at my historic data, like you know, or do that first? Essentially, right, like, where do you anticipate these bucks being this time of year?
00:31:11
Speaker 4: And it’s so is so consistent every time.
00:31:16
Speaker 3: If if you had a lot of mature buck activity and a certain pinch point on your property last year and it’s not there this year, it’s because something changed on the landscape, right, pressure went up, food quality went down.
00:31:28
Speaker 4: You know, something’s changed.
00:31:30
Speaker 3: But if those things remain the same, expect that consistent activity and on our farm, I’ve got to dialed into where I know, like this specific betting area is really good. From the twenty third until about the thirtieth, those bucks are checking hard in there and at that point most of those dos, you know, they’ve already been bred and then they’re kind of moving on. So if you missed that window of opportunity, then you’re looking for the next betting area, you know, and is that I also understand that a lot of people don’t have acreage where they’re bouncing here and bouncing there right where you Really that analogy I use all the time is it’s like duck outing now the chimney of your cabin, right, Like, if the pressure and the food aren’t controlled, you’ve got a really narrow window opportunity. The same goal is like, if you don’t have you know, a lot of diversity and food sources, which comes with having a smaller property.
00:32:15
Speaker 4: It’s a very narrow window. Do you really want to dial that in?
00:32:18
Speaker 3: But you can see on our farm like it’s this week here, it’s that week there, you know, and you’re kind of bouncing around and I’ll follow the same bucks from different areas a lot of times.
00:32:26
Speaker 1: So for someone that does not, maybe they’re hunting a brand new spot. Maybe they’re just struggling and like, man, something changed my area and this should be good, but it has not been good. You would say, go in and strategically, guilt free do some scouting.
00:32:42
Speaker 3: I always, you know again, I always encourage scout from the outside in. So if I’m going out and scouting mid season, it’s not just with reckless abandonment.
00:32:51
Speaker 1: Right.
00:32:51
Speaker 3: And this is the big thing I see guys make that mistake is I’m not getting pictures on my trail camera.
00:32:56
Speaker 1: Screw it.
00:32:56
Speaker 3: I’m just gonna jump on the ATV and go buzz out there quick. Well, you just screwed up the whole picture, right. One of these other trail cameras that I just checked for this buck. When I went in there, there was another scrape that had opened up a tree.
00:33:07
Speaker 4: Broken branch fell off of a tree.
00:33:08
Speaker 3: And got snagged down a branch on the way down and it basically made another liking branch. So there was two scrapes ten feet apart, so the same thing. I just broke off that branch and then they you know, they were using bolt scrapes still, but you just don’t know if the licking branch gets broken off of that one and the new one opens up. So if you don’t go out and scout, you don’t know. So if you’re not getting the intel, go a little bit deeper.
00:33:29
Speaker 1: But what I would.
00:33:30
Speaker 3: Strongly strongly recommend, you know, and looking at the forecast at least here southwestern Wisconsin, well, by the time this comes out, it’s gonna be a day after the rain that’s in the forecast, and then after that it looks pretty consistent. But you know, I’m looking for a rainy day or a high wind day to do my most aggressive scouting. And I would take the windy days over anything because you can really get away with a lot when the winds moved.
00:33:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, most of the time, Yeah, Yeah.
00:33:55
Speaker 3: A mutual friend of ours actually just sent me a text the other day where he was trying to scout in an area and walked up on a bedded three year old buck. Right, it was a windier day. They bed pretty tight, and I see that too. Look for those windy days, look for those rainy days. If you don’t find those days, then I’m carrying a tree stand on my back. I’m going out there. I’m scouting my way in, or if it’s a morning, i’m looking at a map. I’m scouting with what I know, the best theory I can come up with. I’m gonna start here. I’m gonna get in this tree before daybreak, and then I can observe an area. And now I know that you know that deer went into there, That deer went into there. I’m gonna move a little bit deeper once I get down from my stand. And now i’m gonna you know, I’ve got a cell cam in my backpack or regular cam my backpack.
00:34:35
Speaker 4: I’m moving in.
00:34:36
Speaker 3: I’m scouting fresh sign, Fresh sign, fresh sign. Okay, here’s a primary scrape that cover there. I watch those dos go into it. I watched that buck push that dough into it. Here’s a scrape on the outside. Boom dropping that camera and I’m trying to figure out where’s in the best spot to hunt right here, but are with wind directions to hunt it? And I’m getting out of there, and I’m looking for that you know, those conditions the next three to five days, and then I’m you know, I’m looking for that next and while you’re there, move that stand like this.
00:35:02
Speaker 4: It’s a big thing.
00:35:03
Speaker 3: A lot of it’s just the details and the ambition involved, right, Like I’ve been there before, Like, ah, I’ll just wait, I’ll get confirmation that I get pictures on that camera before I hang the stand. Well, you’re already there, you’re already making a commotion. Or maybe it is one of those windy days. Pull that stand down, move it to that tree where you can shoot that scrape so that when you get that picture.
00:35:20
Speaker 4: Of that book, all you have to worry about is getting there before he gets there the next time around.
00:35:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, So this is the reminder, don’t be lazy, get out there and make it happen, but still be calculated, like to boil it down. That’s kind of what I hear.
00:35:33
Speaker 3: Absolutely, because we are reaching the climax of the season very quickly. Right, things are going to peek here and then we’re going to all go into deer depression the dark short days of winter. So you’re either going to be there and sitting and looking at you know, how your season panned out, yep, or or you’re going to be wondering what could have been if you would have made that move?
00:35:56
Speaker 1: Right?
00:35:56
Speaker 3: How many days you know the stories I’ve told you, how many times I’ve stood at the bottom of that hill, the tree stand on my back and just went, Man.
00:36:01
Speaker 4: It’s been a long season. I’m tired.
00:36:04
Speaker 3: I should be at home getting stuff done. I should be spending time with my family. We’ve already wasted that much time, and it is. It is a waste if you don’t push a little bit more, right, Yeah, Or you just don’t know.
00:36:14
Speaker 4: Because anything can happen at any minute this time of year.
00:36:17
Speaker 3: Put yourself in the best situation possible and don’t let any form of laziness.
00:36:23
Speaker 5: Hold you back.
00:36:24
Speaker 4: You know, it’s easy to say that, right, I mean, yeah, everyone on the.
00:36:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, I still got to go out there trying to kill Yeah.
00:36:33
Speaker 3: I slept in today, man, I got up and then I went back to bed.
00:36:36
Speaker 1: I was like, I’m good, well, Thomas, congratulations once again. I appreciate you hopping on here and I think those are some great words of encouragement and I will have to stay in touch here and yeah, thank you, sir, congratulations once again.
00:36:51
Speaker 4: Thank you.
00:36:51
Speaker 1: Take care all right. Next up on the line, we have Brett Smith from wild Life Whitetail Land Management Services calling in from Wisconsin. Sir, I’ve been torturing every guest with the trivia question, so we’re just gonna rip the banded off right now. What year was there the record amount of deer harvested in the state of Wisconsin. I feel like Wisconsin’s kind of a unique state too, because of what they had done shortly after this time period. So because there was a pretty big decline in deer populations based off of a state management practice.
00:37:30
Speaker 6: I remember reading this, but like, there’s no date that’s even coming remotely close to close to mind, I want to say it was semi recently, but given what you just said, maybe I’m wrong. I’m just going to throw a number out there, but the way off, I’m gonna say two thousand and fifteen.
00:37:51
Speaker 1: Your way off, You’re fifteen years off. Two thousand the year two thousand was the record amount of deer harvested.
00:37:57
Speaker 5: Given it away, Okay, yeah.
00:37:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, thousand. There was six hundred and eighteen thousand deer harvested in the state of Wisconsin and the lowest lowest total on recorded history, which is Wisconsin. That’s probably the richest hunting heritage out of all the states, in my opinion, was twenty five hundred in the year eighteen ninety seven.
00:38:18
Speaker 5: That’s insane, dude.
00:38:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, how’s what’s the deer? What’s been? Like, it’s it’s it’s getting to fever pitch status here. You know when this is going live. It’s October twenty ninth, and so this report, here’s the twenty ninth to the fifth, Like, this is arguably one of the weeks everyone has earmarked for since last year. So where are you at, where’s your head at? What have you been seeing? What’s the game plan?
00:38:40
Speaker 6: Yeah, I’ll pick that late October over November any day if I had to be honestly, But you know, if I had to be honest, like trail cameras you know, are slow, but we know, like we know these bucks exist.
00:38:51
Speaker 5: I had them early season.
00:38:52
Speaker 6: It’s just time to get out there, so Kentucky farm I got a real one of my Kentucky farmers. I got a real, real and solid, like five year old I’m after. I bought some ground over in like where I used to live in Kentucky. Got some dang good deer over there. Got some nighttime photos of some good bucks in southwest Wisconsin and around home.
00:39:11
Speaker 5: You know, we just got some some average bucks around here.
00:39:13
Speaker 6: They’re around, but like nothing that’s gotten me super jacked yet. But that doesn’t mean they’re not there. We know from trail cameras, like you’re just not catching everything. So they’re there. They exist.
00:39:21
Speaker 5: That’s all that really matters to me.
00:39:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, so what have you seen an influx of activity on scrapes? Have you? I mean, what, where’s the white tail psyche right now? Or I guess the buck psyche in your opinion.
00:39:35
Speaker 6: Yeah, the cameras that are still going off for me, like consistently are those ones in the bedroom, and I’m monitoring scrapes closest to the bedroom, Like I have mox scrapes that I’ve made in food plot scrapes and stuff like that, exterior.
00:39:47
Speaker 5: Ones outside of that bedroom.
00:39:49
Speaker 6: But I always talk about that first scrape outside the bedroom, like that’s generally the not the most huntable, but the one you should probably hunt. Like that’s what I’m monitoring right now. And also in those bedrooms, like it’s still a lot of bedroom activity, at least for me me.
00:40:00
Speaker 5: Not a lot of food plot daylight stuff going on. Not yet.
00:40:05
Speaker 1: What if you had to tell someone said, hey, Brett, I’ve never shot a wallhanger yet, whatever that is, whatever that is to whoever is listening to this, no matter where they’re from. And I have October twenty nine to November fifth, what is the one tactic? What is the one strategy that is going to have me have legitimate opportunity versus throwing a dark Do.
00:40:26
Speaker 5: You remember the strategy we’ve talked about in the past.
00:40:29
Speaker 1: I remember, I’ve pretty good memory. But go ahead and tell everyone.
00:40:31
Speaker 5: Guard at your areas of congregation.
00:40:33
Speaker 6: That might be a clear cut in your neck of the woods, and it might be a crop field, it might be a food plot.
00:40:37
Speaker 5: Find the sign.
00:40:37
Speaker 6: Along the along the exterior of that food plot or wherever that area of congregation is. It might take you two or three tries, but try and follow that back to your to the betting area that like you’re picturing in your head, and maybe you’ve never been to this area before, and maybe you have, but like try and look at a map even prior and say, I think the dear, you know, educated guests are probably better here. So we started the area of congregation, We’re gonna find a little bit of sign and we’re start following it back to the areas that we want to go or towards that direction of love. Betting, we’re gonna start running within about one hundred hundred and fifty less yards or less, we’re gonna start running into generally double sided rubs. When I see double sided rubs, like to me, that means a buck’s coming and going. Like he’s on the tree trunk trail, that tree will branch out. We’re on that last trail that heads into the bedroom. Generally I’m paying attention as I’m walking down that trail. I’m looking for licking branches, and this time of year, I’m looking for the scrape closest to his bedroom.
00:41:37
Speaker 5: And how do you know where his bedroom is?
00:41:38
Speaker 6: One of two ways, it’s either condensed rubs of you know, condensed sign of ten fifteen twelve rubs, or you see the buck and this time, you’re I don’t mind bumping him like, I’ll go in there like I’d rather be sure that he’s there. He probably comes back tomorrow, if not later that day. And I’m setting up on that first scrape outside the bed off wind when I access that spot, I’m doing I’m doing it so I’m even I sent off that trail on parallel paralleling that trail on.
00:42:03
Speaker 5: The way in.
00:42:04
Speaker 6: That’s that’s the most like step by step plan that I that I follow when finding a lot of these books.
00:42:10
Speaker 5: Public, private, doesn’t matter.
00:42:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that’s a really good starting point for someone just to dive in and key in on that, because there’s so much anticipation for this time of year, and then you know, there’s a lot of people that say, hey, it’s it’s just luck, right, But there’s people that find success most years. Obviously there’s luck involved, but I feel like that’s an awesome foundation for someone to break that down whatever that is to them, no matter where they’re at, and you.
00:42:33
Speaker 6: Might kill them in those areas of congregation this time year like that, you might not have to go far, but at least now you have that intel for future years if you want to go make an early season play, a late season play.
00:42:41
Speaker 5: You understand the pattern, you know where to go.
00:42:43
Speaker 1: So as if you can name maybe two food sources for October twenty nine to the fifth, I don’t think for a lot of the country we’ll probably have a hard frost yet. So with that in mind, what two food sources. Maybe think of a big Woods food source and then think of a more country food source that you favor throughout this period of time.
00:43:03
Speaker 5: If I’m hunting the egg country, I’m hunting alfelfa.
00:43:05
Speaker 6: And if you plant in food plots maybe clover, chickory, alfalfa like perennial plots. Man, that’s that’s the king, and we all like to get fancy that now that you need to have that. But if you can find a good hayfield freshly cut corn this time of year, people are combining. So if you’re in an egg country monitoring that, I mean, you’re gonna see a lot of deer in either one of those fields. If I’m in if I’m in the big Woods, this is starting to start.
00:43:27
Speaker 7: You know.
00:43:27
Speaker 6: If I’m in the big Woods, I’m picturing maybe I’m a little bit farther north.
00:43:30
Speaker 5: Maybe not.
00:43:30
Speaker 6: But if I can get on red Oaks and red okay coins. I’m a big fan of those. As the season progresses, and I’ve seen some insane like almost food plotting activity digging up in the snow as the season progresses on red oaks. But otherwise you’re clearcuts and your white oaks. Man, let’s not overthink it, like you just got to be out there at the end of the day. But big woods. I throw the red oaks out there, the clear cuts and the white oaks, and then you know elfelfa and corn. If you’re the private land or egg country guy.
00:43:57
Speaker 3: M h.
00:43:58
Speaker 1: What As far as this time period, I’m trying to because I want to give as much value to people because this is like a lot of people there’s season rides over the next three weeks, whether they’re successful or not. And that’s the reality for many people, myself included. It’s like I could start to get nervous over these next three weeks I don’t connect with something, so there’s a lot of self pressure here. Do you have any mental things that have for people to have in the back of their mind. Obviously I mind is don’t get pinched up, like, remember, this is what you enjoy. But do you have any other mental mental things that they need to keep in mind. As you know, there’s level of excitement and then a level of frustration if you have don’t have success throughout some of this time period.
00:44:37
Speaker 5: First of all, just breathe, man, this is what we love to do.
00:44:40
Speaker 6: The media side of things makes us all feel like we got to live up to somebody’s else’s standard.
00:44:45
Speaker 5: Go have fun. Go have fun, like more than anything, man.
00:44:48
Speaker 6: But if I had to be honest with you, if I had to get on the tactical side of it, like remember that mentally, like you do this because you have fun, Like you feel like you have to go hunting, you have to go hunting, and half to hunting like maybe chill maybe not this time yere, but like yeah, think about it that way. But from a tactical perspective, use trail cameras as a tool, but do not do not like bank on them. Be out there, and I’ll tell you right now, I hunt the wrong wind even a lot of times being out there, because those aren’t consistently coming from the areas that they were early season when you expected them to come from X y Z area, So you hunted it on this win. I’ve hunted my best spots on the exact wrong win. Guess what the bucks coming like, they come in from a different direction. So here you are, you’re sitting on the coach because the wind wasn’t Now this is the time of year, guys, go because I gang out there ain’t gonna kill them.
00:45:35
Speaker 5: Bottom up.
00:45:35
Speaker 1: Must be present to win this time of year, and.
00:45:38
Speaker 6: I have to, and it’s ingrained in our head. Play the wind, play the wind, Play the wind, and pay attention to the wind. Try and be strategic as possible. Don’t go out there willy nilly. Pay attention to your thermals and stuff, but don’t be afraid to hunt on the wrong wind.
00:45:49
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah. As far as vocalizations, grunting, snartweeze, rattling, where does that fall within your your bag of tricks this time of year.
00:45:58
Speaker 6: I’m keeping them all in the pocket until that bucket unless that like, if that buck isn’t naturally coming my way, then I’m busting them out.
00:46:04
Speaker 1: Now.
00:46:04
Speaker 5: It depends on the state. Like in a state like Wisconsin, I don’t even carry rattling antlers.
00:46:09
Speaker 6: Maybe I’ll bust out some rattling antlers in the In the big buck states, you know occasionally if I’m bored or things are slow, unless it be realistic, But otherwise, like, I’m not probably busting out blind calls because those big bucks are smart to a certain extent and they’re gonna get down and win. If you’re going to catch them off guard, it’s to be this time of year. You know, you get away with it. Maybe they don’t come in down win, but keep the calls in your pockets. Unless you feel like you’re not going to get that opportunity, do your best to bring that deer in and if you’re in a big buck stake, crack them together from time to time and see what happens.
00:46:38
Speaker 5: It’s always fun.
00:46:39
Speaker 1: Let me rune in a really quick scenario. Pass you October twenty fifth. You got a picture of a buck you’ve never got before, showed up on a scrape middle of the night. What are the odds are you riding that one piece of breadcrumb throughout this next week or is in the back of your mind are you abandoning it? And this think of the guy that is w killed good buck too.
00:47:04
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean I don’t care when I get the pictures. I’m that guy. Like everybody waits for daylight pictures. You know how many times they walk find these things. You know he exists, get out there and hunt, and that’s what I’ll say. So you know, it’s one photo, but he might have been there for three four days. Hell, I got a deer that just showed back up a neighbor sent me a picture of them, or five, six, seven days ago.
00:47:23
Speaker 5: He’s been there.
00:47:24
Speaker 6: So yeah, it might be a breadcrumb, but in reality, like the whole puzzle might be taking place on your property and just steps around around those trail cameras. So lean into it. If you know he’s there, that’s all you need to know. This is the time you got to be out there. He exists, Go hunt, go kill him.
00:47:40
Speaker 1: I like it. Any other party words of advice, have.
00:47:43
Speaker 6: Fun, have fun, shoot straight, breathe, don’t black out, and don’t trust in those trail cameras and uh yeah, man, just have fun.
00:47:54
Speaker 1: Go get them. I love it. Good luck, Brett, Appreciate it.
00:47:56
Speaker 5: Appreciate it, man. All right.
00:47:58
Speaker 1: Next up on line, we have F. Thomas from New York. How’s everything going in the Empire State. It’s going great, man, it’s going good. Have you been out much here? Legly? What have you been seeing.
00:48:10
Speaker 7: So I mean getting out as much as I can.
00:48:13
Speaker 8: You know, I got a two year old and a three year old at home, so I’m trying to pick my spots and make sure that when I when I do hit the woods, that you know, things are right and I’m going to a good spot with the right conditions. But I’ve been able to see, uh, you know firsthand some of the behavior uh changing over the last couple of weeks.
00:48:33
Speaker 7: You know, last week, Friday.
00:48:35
Speaker 8: Morning was gonna be the coldest morning in kind of a ten day span, and I wanted to hit the woods and you know, I’ve been looking forward to it the whole work week, and then something came up last minute and I had to cancel that because of work, and so it was it was Thursday afternoon or nothing. And uh, I said to my wife, and you know, you’re gonna be okay without me, And she just sent me the the meme of Independence Day with the president talking to Augy one said we will survive, and uh so that’s all I needed. And you know, work ended and I was in the back of the truck getting geared up, and uh, I said to my buddy Dan, I go, oh, the only thing I don’t have is my black rack.
00:49:15
Speaker 7: And he went in the shop and pulled out just a little set of of.
00:49:19
Speaker 8: Antlers off a tiny little basket six point I said.
00:49:22
Speaker 1: You want to take these?
00:49:23
Speaker 8: And I said, day, it’s better than nothing, And that ended up coming in handy.
00:49:28
Speaker 7: I was hunting the edge of a little winter wheat field.
00:49:31
Speaker 8: It was just a little panhandle of the bigger field that has woods on three sides. And a button buck came out, and then a spike came out, and I.
00:49:38
Speaker 7: Said, all right, well we’re moving in the right direction here, uh. And then a dole and a yearling, and then.
00:49:43
Speaker 8: A shooter came out. And this was, you know, a solid half hour before sunset. And I just let him go and he fed in the winter wheat. You know, that was the only thing that he cared about. And after a while I said, all right, it’s not gonna happen naturally. I got to go to the bag of tricks and I under at him. A little bit could not have carried less, and I pulled out those two little sheds and up tight against the tree, and I’m looking over at him, you know, with looking over my shoulder at him, watching him and I’m just tickling those antlers together. As soon as he heard him, he lifted his head right up, started right in my direction, and then went back to feeding. And I did that two or three times until I really really gave it to the antlers as loud as I can make those things go. And he dropped what he was doing. He started coming across the field, and if he had come right for me, it would have worked out perfect.
00:50:35
Speaker 7: You know, he covered the distance he needed to cover.
00:50:38
Speaker 8: But you know, these these bucks are smart, and he caught a little bit of an angle just enough to get down winded me, and you know he he froze up about twenty yards off the edge of the woods, about forty yards away from me, and I didn’t have a shot, and you know, he took off.
00:50:54
Speaker 7: But that was a cool encounter to see.
00:50:56
Speaker 8: You know, he didn’t really care about the dough in the field, you know, he did, don’t really care about the grounds. But you heard a couple other bucks that were we’re playing around, and that got him interested.
00:51:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, that’s that’s exciting, man. That’s a that you’re rattling antlers for everyone listening. Are hilarious. That’s awesome.
00:51:16
Speaker 7: Actually, I use them to train my dog for his headhuntings.
00:51:19
Speaker 8: So they’re they’re chewed up, they got keieth marks all over them, but you know they did what.
00:51:23
Speaker 7: They needed to do that day, that’s for sure.
00:51:25
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, that’s that’s super awesome. So what I’ve been doing here with each guest, I’ve been uh making up trivia question each each step of the way. And you’re gonna get a hard one. So I’m sorry, what year, what year, or any information that you can tell me about the typical state record for New York. You can either say the county, the year, or the score. Because this is it’s a it’s a hard one. I think people will find maybe a little bit interesting. So this is a typical state record.
00:51:53
Speaker 8: Yes, sir, So I’m gonna go down in the southern part of the state.
00:51:56
Speaker 7: I’m gonna go stupin county the year.
00:52:02
Speaker 8: Why do I want to I want to think that this is like a legendary buck of classic bucks. I’m gonna go like seventy three and the score, you know, I mean it might surprise uh, it might surprise even me. I’m gonna go like one eight five.
00:52:18
Speaker 1: Okay, So it was in a hopefully I pronounce this correctly, Alleghany a lll e Okay, that’s right down there. And it was a nineteen thirty nine. Okay, this is a very very old record and it scored one ninety eight and three eights inch just uh not typical, which I don’t I’d have to google this year because I don’t know what dear it is off the top of my head. But what a uh that’s And what’s interesting too is the non typical record was the same year, nineteen thirty nine, and it was a two forty four non typical. So Alleghany in nineteen thirty nine was the place to be.
00:52:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess.
00:52:52
Speaker 1: So, yeah, that’s a long time ago. So right now. Obviously, you know you had a really good hunt and you were able to you know, call in a buck to the bubble, like really really close to having it come together. Obviously, it’s a very exciting time of year. It’s October twenty ninth. It’s like peak anticipation. People are still super fresh for the next week. What are you keen in on when you get an opportunity to go? How are you prioritizing sits? Because it’s only seven days and once the seven days are gone, it’s like maximizing each day in opportunities. What top of mind for everyone’s how are you going to do that?
00:53:26
Speaker 8: So I have you know, I have about three hundred acres of private land that I have access of permission to hunt, and those are spread out over you know, a two hour drive across the state. Some of them are as small as seventeen that are just door knocking permission, and some of them, you know, my folks farm out in Wayne County. You know, that’s like one hundred and forty acres. So I kind of get to you know, there’s like five spots I get to pick. Okay, where can I go? What’s the wind doing? And sometimes that’s a game time decision. If I’m going to hunt the afternoon, I’m not making a final call between a few of the spots closer to home until you know that afternoon.
00:54:06
Speaker 7: But you know, I’m I’m just trying to play the wind.
00:54:10
Speaker 1: I’m trying to make.
00:54:11
Speaker 8: Sure that that the set is right, and if the set is right, then anything can happen.
00:54:16
Speaker 1: What what how do you know the set is right? So what are what are some check checkboxes for that click off?
00:54:23
Speaker 8: So that that winter wheat field and that small little panhandle inside of a forty acre parcel has been as productive for me over the past four or five years as any spot I’ve ever hunted. And so because it has three sections awards around it, i’m I can set up on what side of it that I want and I can kind of even get myself where that we’re you know, if the wind is not perfect this time of year, I will I will push it a little bit, but it’s you know, it’s at this time of year has been seared into my memory.
00:55:00
Speaker 7: The end of October began November.
00:55:03
Speaker 8: A few years ago, there was a buck out of my dad’s that was, you know, once in a lifetime buck and.
00:55:09
Speaker 7: The end of October I was supposed to be out hunting.
00:55:12
Speaker 8: The guys that were replacing our furnace asked if they could come on a Saturday morning to finish the job, and I stayed at home.
00:55:18
Speaker 1: And when I.
00:55:19
Speaker 8: Pulled the cards for that camera, that buck was on its feet October twenty ninth, at eight twenty in the morning, walking down a logging road checking sign. So you know, monsters will be on their feet at the end of October looking for deer. And when I did get out there November second, that buck was on a dough The doe was coming across the field in broad daylight at nine o’clock in the morning, and it was six yards behind her.
00:55:44
Speaker 1: You know.
00:55:45
Speaker 8: So I am still a proponent of if you have dose that are doing things in the morning, you know where they’re going to be, you know where they’re going to be passing through.
00:55:54
Speaker 7: You know, you have to just hope to.
00:55:56
Speaker 8: Be lucky enough that one of those dozs is hot and that there’s a shooter with it, and that’s you know, I’m just hutting the best I know how to do, and I like to hunt tight.
00:56:05
Speaker 7: I’m not a big you know, I.
00:56:07
Speaker 8: Don’t care if I can see ninety yards or one hundred yards. A lot of my sets, especially out of my dad’s, are on the edge of thick cover.
00:56:16
Speaker 1: You know.
00:56:16
Speaker 8: There’s a chunk of land out there that was plowed and planted in the early nineties and it has never been touched since then, and that is so thick that, you know, me and my buddy Carlo joked that the deer, like the Vietcong, they tunnel through this stuff, you know, and a three year old could walk down these trails and not scratch her hair on his head and a grown man would have to get on his hands and knees.
00:56:38
Speaker 7: So I hunt the edges of that, and I’m not opposed to.
00:56:43
Speaker 8: You know, I’ll go to a set that I can have early access, easy access to, and I’ll hunt it until eight or eight thirty, and then if I can climb down and I can move quietly one hundred yards further back in and get in another hang on that I have, I’ve done that, and I’ve come to full draw on shooter bucks that I had. You know, I saw at nine thirty in the morning, and I moved stands that morning, so I try to see mobile. You know, I’m hung with a saddle, and I’m trying to not hunt the same place twice this time of year if I can help it. Unless it’s unless I think it’s you know, a make or break opportunity. And you know they say that luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity, and this time of the year, you just got to give yourself the opportunity to get lucky.
00:57:28
Speaker 7: And that’s all I can do.
00:57:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, it’s a it’s a very exciting time. So on a scale one to ten, how aggressive would you say your style of hunting is for this next week, because obviously, once we get into deeper in November, it’s basically the gloves are off and people are doing whatever they feel like they need to do and have really no remorse. So it’s just kind of chaos the deer chaos, and people’s approaches tend to get a little less disciplined, which sometimes works really well. You know, we’re not We’re not quite there. So where do you fall on one to ten? Ten being is I will do anything, go anywhere because I think that’s where I need to be. And one being is like, pretend it’s the first day of the season and it’s one hundred and twenty degrees.
00:58:06
Speaker 8: So I think that the I think the actual on the ground activity is going to be an eight eight pointy five, but I’m going to hunt it like it’s an eleven. You know, I’m going to go that the end of October beginning in November is what I had been waiting for for the last eleven and a half months, you know, because gunk season rolls around in New York, especially about my dad’s you know, I have stands that are two hundred yards from state land and bucks just typically don’t last. And you know, I in the years past, I’ve said, oh, this is my target buck, and I’m not shooting anything but this buck. And that can make for some boring sits, especially when you passed on a really nice eight you know, and I have I have a hard time, especially during both season where you know, if it if it looks like a shooter, then it’s a shooter. And I like that for the last couple of years where you know, some of the some of the nicest bucks I’ve got in the last five years have been deer that I shot that I you know, brought home, put in the tree and then I checked the card so that I swapped out from that property and the first time I saw it on camera was after I already killed it, you know. And it’s I know, a shooter when I see it type of hunting. And if it makes you shake in the tree, and it gets your blood flowing, and it’s a mature deer, you know, three and a.
00:59:27
Speaker 1: Half year old.
00:59:28
Speaker 7: You know, textbook definition. You look it up in the dictionary and.
00:59:32
Speaker 8: There’s a picture of a beautiful eight point white tail that’s good enough for me, I would take those and happily full my tag on those all year, especially here in upstate New York.
00:59:41
Speaker 1: I love it man. That’s yeah, it’s a super exciting time of year. And I think you’re exactly right in terms of the amount of big deer in the landscape. This week, right now is probably when there will be the most amount of big deer in the landscape that are alive. Because deer get big bucks gets shot, you know, progressively more moving forward. So if you we were just trying to say, hey, I want to kill big buck, this might be arguably the best week of the entire year in terms of odds and the amount of good bucks running rounds. That’s super exciting. Man. Is there in New York and kind of where you’re hunting is there? Are you gonna are you plinting to hunt food sources or are you pretty much shifting your strategy to downwind of thick, nasty betting cover.
01:00:21
Speaker 8: So out out of my folks place, it’s standing in corner right now and right and you know every year that it’s corn, it’s the corn bean rotation, And every year that it’s corn. When the combine shows up, my dad calls me, and I look at the guys I work with and I say, I’ll see you later, and.
01:00:38
Speaker 7: I am in the wind. I’m gone.
01:00:41
Speaker 8: And that’s that year that that big buck was that was there. I know all about it because they end up getting killed in December with the crossbow about, you know, three quarters of a mile away.
01:00:52
Speaker 1: It was six and a half years old.
01:00:54
Speaker 8: That year was the largest buck killed at the crossbow in New York State. It scored like a one to seventy seven and change. And that deer was in that cut corn. I’m not kidding. Twenty minutes after the combine was gone and he was on his feet chasing doze all over the place. So I’m I’m you know, I’m just with staring at my phone every hour, going, man, I hope my pop calls. Hope my pop calls, because once that happens, that’s where I’m gonna go. But until then, you know, I’m I’m just I’m hunting. I’m hunting as if every haunt is the most important hunt.
01:01:30
Speaker 7: And uh, I just got a chunk this past weekend.
01:01:34
Speaker 8: I took my son with me kind of the secret weapon of door knocking. A cute a cute three year old boy and UH and picked up seventeen acres. And you know when I went on that for the first time with my saddle and UH and the cell cam, you know, I treated it like there was a big deer on it, you know.
01:01:51
Speaker 7: And and that’s all I can hope to do, you know. And if you treat every.
01:01:55
Speaker 8: Haunt like it’s the best hunt and the next tount is the best hunt, I think you’re setting yourself up for for success.
01:02:01
Speaker 1: I love it. Man, Well, good luck it’s gonna be you’re hunting like eleven. You think activity is gonna be an eight and a half. That’s really great and I tend to agree, So good luck the rest of the season. Maybe you might need to upgrade your rata Houain analysts, or maybe not. Maybe you’re onto something. So good luck to you. Jeff, Thank you very much, Jake.
01:02:20
Speaker 7: Appreciate you having me on there.
01:02:21
Speaker 1: You guys have it. I hope you guys enjoyed this week’s episode of ret Fresh. Be sure to text your hunting buddy, send some words of encouragement, and get out there and enjoy it. This is going to be an exciting, awesome week, So we will see you next week on the rough fresh report and if you find success, send a message in We’d love to have you on here. We will see you next time. See you
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