00:00:01
Speaker 1: All right, welcome back to another episode of Rough Fresh. I’m Jake Koefer, and we have three Big Buck stories and updates from Kansas, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, and we’re getting deeper into the month of November. Thanksgiving is just right around the corner, and I think this is one thing for everyone to consider when the calendars, which is two December, we’re going to be wishing it was November again. So a lot of the advice and updates here throughout this episode is to remember it’s November. Remember this is the time we’ve been waiting for, and to keep at it and keep just plugging away, Just keep plugging away, and I hope there’s some great intel here for you folks in this episode. As you know, Roughresh 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. My challenge for you guys this week is just to keep positive mindset, keep out there, working hard, keep scouting, don’t be afraid to call an audible on your game plan, and just give November everything you got on what you can do. I know, for myself personally, it’s getting to the point of the year where I’m starting to feel little guilty for hunting really hard responsibilities are falling on the wayside.
00:01:10
Speaker 2: But we’re gonna be missing this time period. So do what you can.
00:01:13
Speaker 1: If you can walk, walk, if you can crawl, crawl, And let’s kick this off with Anthony Warren and Kansas, who just shy his personal best.
00:01:20
Speaker 2: Buck.
00:01:20
Speaker 1: Here we go, all right, first up on the line, we have Anthony Warren who just shot a personal best Is that right?
00:01:32
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, pretty pretty close.
00:01:34
Speaker 3: I don’t score a ton of my dear, but he’s definitely gonna be in contention, and I’m super stoked about it. And he was a real, real nice basically main framemate. So just a giant, giant body of a deer and.
00:01:49
Speaker 4: And just really great rack for an eight point anywhere?
00:01:52
Speaker 2: Really yeah?
00:01:53
Speaker 1: No, and so and that was in Kansas, right, Yes, yeah, it was Okay, So Kansas, big Buck has hit the dirt. Talk a little bit about I know you had previous encounters with that deer in the past, but how did it come together here recently?
00:02:09
Speaker 4: Yeah?
00:02:10
Speaker 3: You know, this this season has been probably a little slower and I don’t know what you know, everybody else is talking about their experiences, but so far.
00:02:20
Speaker 2: It’s just seemed like everything’s been pretty late.
00:02:22
Speaker 3: And the week leading up to that, I was actually in Illinois and it was almost dead there. You know, cameras were telling me that deer on my farm in Kansas were starting to move. And you know, there’s not really a whole lot of secret sauces that goes into this one. You know, a little bit of a little bit of strategy on my part when it comes to, you know, the deer moving and kind of what I thought was going to happen, you know, mixed with some good fortune of some really cold days, you know, last week. But you know, really it just has seemed overall to me that the rut has been like a slow start off this year, like they just haven’t really they haven’t really been after it like they had in the past years this early. But I think I think we’re kind of getting into that. But for this buck in particular last year, I actually I actually shot this deer on November the eighth, and I rattled the deer in and he came and came in super pad and heated and just rubbing up against every SAT plane on the way in and uh, you know, nerves kind of got the best of me. He circled in kind of whide trying to get down the end and I ended up skimming, skimming at the top of his back. And so I just tried to stay on them all all season, and uh, just never materialized.
00:03:43
Speaker 2: But this year, fortunately, I think he came back.
00:03:46
Speaker 3: A little bit bigger, a little bit bigger frame, and I had him at a couple of locations where I was trying to feed and really for me, you know, if you hold those and you and you can, you know, have food for you’re gonna have bucks around. And historically this year has hung out on me from the months of October all the way through February. So, you know, I think the night before I saw the year on a on a trail camera, probably one hundred yards from where I shot him and where i’d hunted the evening before, and it was after dark, and I said, well, tomorrow is going to be the coldest morning so far of the month, and I’m just going to be between where he was last night and where he could be going. And it kind of was a strategy that that proved to be, you know, beneficial with that being said that, you know, kind of leading up the night before I shot him, I had a really great encounter with a three and a half three and a half year old ten point, just real pretty, and he was dog in a group of doughs that was I don’t know, there were probably eight to ten dos in this group. And one thing that I banked on the next morning going back to this spot is that previous hunt before I killed him, I saw all these dos and they were just peeing all over the place, and I was like, man, what a what a better place to be than you know, where a bunch of does a feed? Now a buck is bound to be over in this area. Wanting to sin check that. And so sure enough, the next morning that I ended up shooting him, I watched him come all the way across the field towards some does and some feed that I had, and he would stop at every single location that I had kind of mentally bookmarked that a doe had stopped and urinated, and he was just nose down and he’d run to the next next spot, and then he’d he nosed down and then you know, he just came full sprint and just grunning and it was pretty gnarly to see such a big frame buck doing that, especially for that first daylight.
00:05:50
Speaker 2: So but yeah, that that was kind of how that unfolded.
00:05:54
Speaker 3: But you know, really just the history of knowing, you know, where this buck liked to be, and then kind of putting myself between two points of interest where I thought he would be, and then kind of being.
00:06:06
Speaker 4: Around where I knew does wanted to be was kind of the name of the game.
00:06:10
Speaker 3: And I’d actually never hunted this particular part of the farm before. It just doesn’t really lend itself to being a great killing spot. But I was obviously pleasantly surprised I was able to intercept him between two major points, so it all worked out.
00:06:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, no, that’s that’s what we all hope for.
00:06:29
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, I think paying attention to the dose right, like a lot of this stuff, the advice necessarily doesn’t change year to year, but you still have to key in on that, like, Okay, there was a bunch of dozen here, and you know, it’s that simple.
00:06:42
Speaker 2: Sometimes.
00:06:43
Speaker 1: Obviously there’s a little bit of luck, a little bit of mental for two to be set up and be ready to rock and roll. But man, what a what an incredible buck and congratulations. Now for guys that have been struggling, maybe maybe they’re in the part of the season where it’s like, Okay, I’ve been hunting a deer and now I need to call an audible or I don’t want to lower my standards necessarily, but I do want to potentially shift around. And so now it’s November nineteenth and all the really exciting dates that are. You know, everyone has a favorite day. There’s not too many people that say, my favorite day is November nineteenth. So with all that being said, we’re leading up to Thanksgiving. Now, what’s on the top of your mind for any of the tags on your pocket? In your pocket here as we you know, get deeper into November.
00:07:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I’m kind of adding on to what I said earlier. I truly feel like we’re probably seven to nine days behind a typical runt schedule.
00:07:37
Speaker 2: I’ve talked to guys that.
00:07:39
Speaker 3: I met when I was hunting in Illinois and they felt kind of the same way. I’m still talking to buddies who are still trying to get it done in Kansas.
00:07:46
Speaker 2: They kind of feel the same way.
00:07:49
Speaker 3: Based on what I know right now at the time of us sitting down for this. Bucks are chasing, and I had seen, you know, even two days ago before I left Kansas, that bucks were starting to chase, but I had not been seeing really much more than three and a half to four and a half year old dear. So I know that I had a buddy that had a one seventy that was locked on a dough a couple of days ago. So I definitely think we are and everybody’s kind of like, you know, mentally their favorite days, but we’re just a little behind. You know, it’s not November the seventh or November the fifth. I feel like we’re kind of a week late. With that being said, my true gut feeling on this doesn’t really change. I think you just need to be where those are going to be, so that that can be betting, that can be food, that can be you know, a betting to food pattern. You know, if you can be somewhere between those two things, you know, and depending on where you’re going to be at in the country, obviously out in Kansas, it never hurts the being a pinch point between two betting areas or close to a food source.
00:08:59
Speaker 2: Again, my gut tells.
00:09:00
Speaker 3: Me that we are kind of in what I would consider like peak moving, you know, right into the lockdown stage of the rut in a lot of places across the country. But I do have I do have a couple of gun tags coming up for the next few weekends, and really my strategy is just to be in tight corridors and between bedding, and if you can be in that situation, you know, it’s it’s probably gonna be the best place to be until you know, i’d say mid December, where you’re going to start shifting back toward food. But I still think if you’re a guy and you’re discouraged and you haven’t seen, you know, a shooter buck yet, like it’s just about logging hours right now, because at this point in time, you can’t just rely on like the pre run or you know, those kind of tactics.
00:09:53
Speaker 4: Like what you really need is you just need to be in.
00:09:56
Speaker 3: A place where a dough is going to walk by and lead a big buck and that. And that’s frustrating and it makes for long hours and and I’ve been there where you just hate it and you feel like such a bum sitting up in the tree.
00:10:09
Speaker 2: And you’re like, man, what am I doing here?
00:10:11
Speaker 3: I’m driving myself crazy, and then at eleven ten am, you know, everything changes because the doe walks by with a you know, mature buck right behind her. So those things have a proclivity of happening this time of year. It’s just going to be about, like you can you last through the grind. You know, I don’t always love in all day sit, but if you were going to do an all day sit, you know, now it might be the time to do that, and then moving in toward the next week or so. I still feel really strongly about that. You know, time on stand is time towards success.
00:10:47
Speaker 2: I like that. I like that. Yeah, No, I think it’s it’s easy to get discouraged.
00:10:51
Speaker 1: Because I’ve logged a bunch of all day sits hunting a specific deer, and man, it’s it’s starting to I’ve actually enjoyed the process a bunch. But I feel we had a guest last week that said, right when you’re about to give up is usually when you find success. So I think I think that advice rings true, you know, for the whole season, just don’t give up. Yeah, absolutely, and and honestly, hopefully as we get closer to the Thanksgiving weekend. I still really like those dates a lot. You know, I still see a lot of a lot of really good movement, and depending on where you’re at in the country, like I didn’t see a lot of a lot of breeding still happening in the first two weeks of December.
00:11:30
Speaker 3: I mean it begins to taper down, but you know, like really, really, until you start talking about around Christmas time, I think you’re really in the game as long as you.
00:11:40
Speaker 2: Are willing to stick it out.
00:11:42
Speaker 3: So hopefully, you know, as the holidays are coming up, guys can get more time off work and just love more more hours. And that’s really I just think this time of year, unless you have one just absolutely pinned down, which I don’t think anybody does us, the amount of time.
00:12:02
Speaker 4: You know that you can be in the woods is going to make the determining factor.
00:12:07
Speaker 3: And another thing I do like about really this upcoming week that I didn’t say earlier, is there there’s gonna be a chance that guys see really big deer that they have absolutely no history with, because all of a sudden, you know that buck may have bread does and in his home range or summer range or and and like you hear a lot of guys talk about summer ranges versus ball ranges, and I’m a firm believer that, you know, whether you have a deer that lives on one particular property or not, like there is going to be some crossover where some bucks come in and they start looking for new dough, so you know, another gut filling. Is that really over the next week or so, you know you’re going to start to see a buck just show up at random and and that’s really where it’s going to pay off just to be in the stand, because it’s it’s gonna be one of the most frustrating things to see that deer on camera and then you you missed him, you know, because you weren’t there, and you’ll never see that year again. And that happens every single year where I see giant bucks and I’m like.
00:13:08
Speaker 4: Like, dude, where did that deer even come from? I’ve never seen him, And then you never see him again.
00:13:11
Speaker 3: It’s just because he’s frantic looking for you know, the last available dough and and then he’s probably going to go back to where wherever his home range was and then kind of settle down for the year, maybe try to bread a few year ling dows that come in late and then really.
00:13:26
Speaker 4: Just focus on food at that point.
00:13:28
Speaker 3: But that’s kind of you know, the last week point I think I make is over the next week. You know, you just don’t know what’s going to happen. You could you could end up having a chance at that one that you’ve looked at all the year, or you could have you know, the neighbors one sixty Uh, run you know, run over, you know, from a couple of miles away and be in your lap.
00:13:48
Speaker 4: It’s just a matter of if you’re if you’re there or not.
00:13:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it. That’s great advice, wonderful advice. So looking here in the next week leading up to Thanksgiving, scale one to ten, ten being the best week of the year, one being one of the worst weeks the year, what do you put the potential big buck activity?
00:14:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I couldn’t give it a ten because I just think that deer are gonna be locked down those right now, but it will be tapering off. So I’m still gonna be pretty optimistic and say probably somewhere around.
00:14:18
Speaker 2: An eight and a half to nine.
00:14:21
Speaker 3: You know, it’s with the deer being locked on, you’re just you’ve got to be committed to long hours in the stand because you just never know when something’s gonna change. But you know, with that being said, I still think there’s a really good chance that you know, we are in the best week right now, and then over the next seven to ten days, it’s still going to remain high.
00:14:44
Speaker 4: You know, you’re gonna be somewhere.
00:14:46
Speaker 3: Around at eight and it’s gonna feel like a ten for some guys, and some guys it’s gonna feel like a five.
00:14:52
Speaker 2: But that’s just kind of the nature of this year.
00:14:56
Speaker 3: You just have to you just kind of have to be where there were they want to be and where they are.
00:15:01
Speaker 2: At that particular moment to make it happen.
00:15:05
Speaker 1: Well, congratulations once again, man, that was an awesome buck. Congratulations and hopefully good luck to everyone else out here that’s got to tag in their pocket and you have some words of encouragement and advice for to help them.
00:15:17
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:15:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, Well, good luck to everybody this season. And I know I’ve got a couple of tags remaining. My boat season kind of got cut short. I just located my shoulder, so I actually I’m picking up. I just bought a crossbow last night, so I got to become a crossbow hunder the rest of the year.
00:15:34
Speaker 2: So well you oasher out.
00:15:37
Speaker 1: There and uh sh hopefully your shoulder heels up to because I know you probably not enjoyed that.
00:15:43
Speaker 5: It was.
00:15:44
Speaker 2: It was a bummer. I’ve been through the ringer on it.
00:15:46
Speaker 3: But but yeah, I mean, good luck to everybody, and uh, you know, just lock those hours if you if you can, and.
00:15:53
Speaker 2: You know, callin sick, do interview you got to do to.
00:15:56
Speaker 3: Get out in the woods. But good good luck to everybody. I think we’re we’re about in the thick of it right now.
00:16:02
Speaker 2: Wonderful man. Well, thank you so much.
00:16:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, Next up we have Lane within the presence Hunt Lane.
00:16:09
Speaker 2: How’s it going?
00:16:10
Speaker 4: Oh, good buddy, how you doing?
00:16:12
Speaker 2: It’s doing great? I know you You shot a giant Pennsylvania buck. How was that?
00:16:17
Speaker 4: Oh it was wild man, Yeah, it just an absolute unit.
00:16:20
Speaker 5: Man.
00:16:21
Speaker 4: It was insane. I found him in the summer and then he shifted on me like once Velvit came off and I was able to pick him back up and pretty much just wait till the conditions right slid in killed him.
00:16:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, how many times when you say waiting for the conditions we’re right, and slid in there and killed them. Was that like a multiple count cat and mouse game?
00:16:42
Speaker 2: Or was it like? Nah, it just it just worked.
00:16:45
Speaker 4: It just worked, to be honest with you, Like when I said I picked him back up, Like I didn’t even have any trail cams up there. I never got another picture of him, like once velvit came off. You know, I just kind of had a feeling he was in this clear cut that I found where he was like living close by in the summer. So I kind of flipped to the other side of it and found a whole lot of rut sign, like old, old historical rut sign, and I knew I just had to be in there, like when the conditioners were right. So, like I said, I found that spot probably October or like went in and scouted it and found it exactly where I needed to be, like early October. And then I tried it one more time right before the day I killed him. But I just tried it like further on down a little bit, and then I mean it just set up perfect. The morning I killed them northwest wind, it was cold, it was later on in October. You know, it just set up perfect. I was actually supposed to leave for Illinois that day, but I really wanted to try to hunt this buck and kill him, and yeah I did it. So it was freaking awesome. Man, I couldn’t believe it.
00:17:40
Speaker 2: That’s super cool.
00:17:40
Speaker 1: What have you been seeing for RUT activity here in the last couple of days? I mean, do you feel like we’re starting to maybe break through lockdown or I mean, and I hate to categorize it because I know every area and everything’s a little bit different. But for people listening, you know, what have you been seeing here for activity here the last couple of days?
00:17:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, I definitely. I think they’re a little bit more on lockdown right now. Like I drove past my grandma’s house just probably three or four days ago, and I mean it’s there’s two roads on each side of it, you know, and there’s a just pretty much a field with like a little fentro and I’ve seen a buck and a dough out there, you know, and he was a good buck. So I definitely lockdown right now. And then he still catch bucks moving, you know, once they’ve done bring their dough. But I’m just you just got to get tight to betting, is my best advice. To anyone who’s hunting right.
00:18:25
Speaker 1: Now, get tight your bidding and then as far as you know, the nineteenth leading up to Thanksgiving, I feel like this one people are digging deep and like, more than likely people have been hunting pretty hard. And what advice do you have for those folks that are still trying their darnest and they feel like maybe the best has already been behind them and it’s like still good.
00:18:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, but the the.
00:19:01
Speaker 1: Fatigue And I feel like that’s such a cheesy way to say it, but like the fatigue of the season is definitely setting in for people right now.
00:19:07
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, one hundred percent. I’d just say keep going, man, Like all it takes is a split second of your whole season to change, you know, Like I just I know it sounds a cliche, but just keep grinding. In my experience, I find a lot of the bigger books are moving in like daylight, and a lot more towards the end of November. You know, it kind of seems like there’s waves of it, but it seems like the majority historically, what I found is a lot of the bigger deer. You know, I get a lot of showking pictures of them running doughs and stuff later on November. So it’s never over, you know what I mean, till fat ladies singing and you’re done for the season. So just keep grinding the minute it could all change and split second.
00:19:42
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And as far as you know tight to betting, you feel that like, obviously downwind of predominant betting areas, are you concerned, Like deer have probably been kind of messed with, pestered by humans and pestured by little bucks and it seems like, you know, dose are a little bit of no, as far as you know the increased pressure in the woods, and having that in mind, how concerned are you to get tight to betting? Or how much longer does it take the set up? Or are you bounced around from betting area to betting area? Like what does that look like?
00:20:14
Speaker 2: Yeah?
00:20:14
Speaker 4: I mean it kind of just depends, to be honest with you. Uh yeah, I meant like, just like I find I’m finding deer right now and just the thickest, nastiest stuff ever and as far away from human pressure as possible, Like I kayaked in a river to day and it was probably I don’t know, two miles from the access all the deer I bumped. We’re pretty much right next to that river bedded down, you know. And then there was a little betting pocket right in there, and I got on the backside of it and bumped a couple more, you know. So just thick, nastiest spots you can find as far away from human pressure as possible.
00:20:46
Speaker 1: M do you do you get discourage when you’re bumping deer when you’re going in to set up on something new, Like, you know, you throw in the kayak two miles and you’re like, man, I gave all the way back here and I parked my kayak, I walked ten feet and I busted one right away.
00:21:00
Speaker 4: I wasn’t even off the kayak and I’m blowing deer. I was so pissed. But yeah, it’s one of them things where it’s it’s hard not to get pissed. But you just got to think, like you’re already seeing deer. You’re in where deer want to be, you know, don’t don’t hang your head. It’s not like, you know, it’s not like the deer are just gonna run forever and just be tear like tear off out of the state, you know, out of the country, like they’re still in there.
00:21:20
Speaker 1: M yeah, No, I think that’s good advice as far as food sources or or even you know, I feel like there’s you categorize a few strategies. People are going to be deployed here for the next couple, you know, the next week, depending on whether potentially food sources may have some pull and attraction, and obviously it’s dependent on where you’re at in the country. Another one to be travel corridors in between betting areas. And then you know, tight to betting, and you think tight to betting is probably the one of your best approach for this time period leading up to Thanksgiving.
00:21:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, for right now, and then once late season comes and I kind of shift to food, you know what I mean. But as of right now, do tight to betting is my best advice, Like you know, down winside of betting, let bucks either crew is to your come in the betting area and check it out, you know, or maybe even they’re found a doe in there and they’ll squirret out, you know. It just it just really just depends. But tight to betting always have seemed to be the key for me.
00:22:10
Speaker 1: So mm hmm, do you think do you think it even carries more merit this time of year than earlier, or like, how would you rank that in terms of, you know, specifically this upcoming week.
00:22:20
Speaker 4: What tight to betting? I would say, I mean, it just really depends. Like early season, you know, morning sits, I’m tight to betting too, you know, the October, you know, early October, late October, I’m tight to betting. Like I’d say the majority of the things tight to bedding right now, you know, Like it’s stupid to say it sounds like I’m just saying like a bunch of rubbish, But like, dude, that’s that’s where I’m flying. I’m just just tight to betting, man, Like it’s they’re just out and about in the betting areas, you know.
00:22:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you’ve had an incredible year. How many bucks have you knocked down this year?
00:22:53
Speaker 4: I killed six?
00:22:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that’s a crazy season, dude.
00:22:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, wild dude, I can’t belie that. The biggest one was that PA one and then I killed like one hundred and forty inch out in Illinois. I killed like one hundred and thirty velvet and uh Delaware, and then I killed it a decent Kansas bug. He was probably like right about one hundred and fifteen hundred and twenty inches and then uh, I killed like two Maryland bugs. I mean, they weren’t the biggest bucks in the world, but they’re still good to hear, pump me up.
00:23:21
Speaker 2: So that’s that’s an unreal season.
00:23:25
Speaker 1: And the follow up question I was, were they all type to betty?
00:23:30
Speaker 2: Where they all types of betting?
00:23:33
Speaker 4: No, well, the one was not too were okay, all right, three but all right, so pretty much five of them were. I’d say like the last the last ones were that the one I killed early season, like I killed him September. Second that wasn’t tight to betting. I was still probably three hundred yards from betting, but I was pretty much sitting right next to a sway beanfield and they came right down the buffer zone. You know. I shot him in the woods, but I was still probably three hundred yards from betting. It’s more betted.
00:24:01
Speaker 1: So yeah, And for people listening to when you say tight to betting, and I’m picturing I’m picturing more Eastern hunting in my own head right now. But when you say tight, is that I understand it’s situational based off train and how close can you really get without you know, getting busted. But as a rule of thumb, is tight to betting to you one hundred yards, one hundred and fifty yards, sixty yards.
00:24:23
Speaker 4: Just to get someone to rule with them, Yeah, I’d say under one hundred for sure. You know, the closer the better, closer the better if you can get right on top of them. You know, if you have a bed picked out, you know you’re bed hunting it, like, you know, getting tight as possible. But yeah, if you’re just hunting a general bet betting area like a dough betting area, I’d say within you know, seventy five hundred yards, I’d say if you can get closer by all means, do it. You know, a lot of times you’ll find edges right on the edge of the betting area, and a lot of times I can get right into there. That’s the ticket for me one d percent.
00:24:54
Speaker 1: So looking here, the next week’s scale one to ten, ten being the best week of the year, one being the worst week of the year. November nineteenth to blackout Wednesday. What do you what do you rank this week coming up for run activity for big Bucks?
00:25:10
Speaker 4: I’d probably say seven. I mean they’re still they’re ad meant they’re definitely on lockdown, you know, but like they’re still out and about and like I said, like the majority of the big Bucks I find do you know, pulling troil cramps and stuff like, I get a lot in that timeframe just moving. We see them out with those two, you know a lot of midday stuff too. So i’d say i’d say seven, depending on how the weather is. You know, if you can get a cold snap, it’s on fire man, I’ll guarantee. If it’s seventy degrees, I’m sure it’s going to shut things down a little bit, you know, but they’ll still be running at night. But I like it.
00:25:42
Speaker 2: Where can people follow along with some of the hunts here that you had this year?
00:25:45
Speaker 4: Yeah, if every hunt and I’ve talked about so far, you can go on our channel just in the presence hunt pop right up for you. We’re also on social media. If you type you know, Instagram, you type that in, will pop right up. Facebook type pop right back, pop up for you.
00:25:58
Speaker 1: So aw, Yeah, Well, dude, what an incredible season, and good luck the rest of the year. I don’t know if there’s any more Bucks safe with the tear you’ve been on, but congratulations.
00:26:07
Speaker 2: And good luck the rest of the season.
00:26:09
Speaker 4: Hey, thanks by I appreciate so much. Thanks shoving me on all right.
00:26:12
Speaker 1: Next up we have Shane Albert who just tagged this personal best buck in the state of Illinois.
00:26:18
Speaker 2: Shane, how does it feel.
00:26:21
Speaker 5: It’s a huge relief.
00:26:23
Speaker 6: I mean, getting a deer down before for the Illinois gun season is seems like always the goal. So to do it and to do it do it with the bow on my personal best is Yeah. Man, it’s been a big weight off the shoulders the last few days.
00:26:37
Speaker 2: That’s awesome man. Congratulations.
00:26:39
Speaker 1: So before we get into the story and how it went down and what the activity has been here recently, I’m gonna I’m gonna ask you a tough trivia question in the state of Illinois.
00:26:49
Speaker 2: What is the.
00:26:51
Speaker 1: Surveyed your population in the state of Illinois, and it’s hundreds of thousands.
00:26:57
Speaker 2: I’m going to give you a little bit of a hit here.
00:27:00
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, I think I know it.
00:27:03
Speaker 6: Once upon a time, I think we used to shoot about one hundred thousand deer, just under a one hundred thousand deer. I think those numbers are down and I’m going off of memory there.
00:27:14
Speaker 5: I’m gonna go with I’m gonna do a round number. I’m not gonna I’m not gonna.
00:27:21
Speaker 6: Get the prices right here. I’m gonna guess seven hundred thousand.
00:27:29
Speaker 1: It’s actually two hundred and ninety thousand, which seems really that is I think that’s too low personally.
00:27:35
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, yeah, just drive a drive at night during November.
00:27:41
Speaker 5: I see feel like I see that man serious.
00:27:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, So.
00:27:46
Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit about the breakdown here. I know you kind of hunt throughout the state of Illinois, and you had packed up your bags and went to a different part of the state.
00:27:54
Speaker 2: Break it.
00:27:55
Speaker 1: Break it down because I think showing up and hunting on the fly is maybe a benefit in November or maybe a detriment obviously worked out for you.
00:28:03
Speaker 5: Yeah.
00:28:04
Speaker 6: Yeah, It’s chaotic, for sure, but it is. It is nice to have the options. So yeah, I live in northwest Illinois. I’ve got to I own a small farm up here and been hunting that pretty hard. Got a good deer on it and have had a couple encounters with him. But the middle of November I usually just take a mini ructation and then I’ll take the gun season. So I had the days off to kind of just bounce around and do what the encounters and the cameras told me.
00:28:39
Speaker 5: So I hunted hard at home.
00:28:42
Speaker 6: I had some good encounters with several bucks, and it just wasn’t it just wasn’t there yet. I wasn’t seeing the activity. The mature bucks that I was seeing were not doing what I thought I needed them to do to kill them. And we we have a I’ve got an uncle who owns a good farm down in south central Annoy It’s about four and a half hours south of me and my cousin and I hunt that pretty hard and we manage that one as best as we can. And it’s tough for me to get down there as much as I want to, but we spend a lot of time on the food plots and the trail cameras and the box lilnes and all that fun stuff.
00:29:20
Speaker 5: And we did we did have some good deer on camera.
00:29:23
Speaker 6: So about that time that my farm was kind of slowing down a little bit, I did decide to pack the bags and head down there.
00:29:32
Speaker 5: And uh yeah, So I headed down.
00:29:34
Speaker 6: If you want to just straight into the that few days that I had. So I left here on Monday morning, took a morning hunt off and dropped my kids off at school, and I was like, okay, doing the math and stop for lunch and fuel up. And by the time I get there, I’m like, it’ll be about about time to hop straight into into a stand. So the whole drive down there, of course, I’m looking at wind directions and talking to my cousin about where to go, and.
00:29:58
Speaker 5: He’s like, I just go to food.
00:29:59
Speaker 6: We had a big cold snap, heavy winds, a thirty degree temperature drop. He’s like, I bet you there’s gonna be deer on food and Bucks will swing by and see what they can find for doze.
00:30:10
Speaker 5: Right, It’s just that time of year. And he nailed it.
00:30:14
Speaker 6: Give him, Give him that credit. I want his head to get any bigger than his doorways are. But he called it, and I raced all the way down there, and I’m kidding, I kid you not, Jake. I was pulled up to the parking spot, walked up, walked out to the blind. I didn’t have the door shut on the blind and I looked up and are number one or number two, depending on if you talk to me or My cousin was walking across, walking into the food plot from the corner right in front of the blind and I had my backpack on. I did an arrow still in the quiver, no release nothing. I mean, I literally was didn’t even have the door shut.
00:30:52
Speaker 5: So I’m in panic mode getting arrow knocked.
00:30:55
Speaker 6: The deer ends up angling towards the blind and cutting out about fifty yards.
00:31:00
Speaker 5: The wind was so heavy and he was through.
00:31:03
Speaker 6: A pretty good amount of weeds in the food plot that I was worried about a deflection if I were to were to shoot one, but not getting a good range on him and the wind and the panic that I had, I was like, I’m not going to shoot this year unless he happens to come into, you know, making make a move and angle into about thirty yards or less. So he comes in just got to fifty was about the closest that I was able to get a range on him, and he was able to basically check the whole food plot, didn’t see a single dough and walked out. So that was at one thirty on Monday afternoon. So I was not expecting that obviously. Yeah, yeah, very early and by himself just doing what big bucks do on you know, that was November tenth.
00:31:47
Speaker 5: You know, he was just cruising.
00:31:48
Speaker 6: He was my guess, he was between doughs, and he was he was looking for his second, second or third one. By that time of year, it could have been the third. Even so a bunch of come out. He never comes back to check the plot. Had a great hunt, saw twenty to thirty deer, but no mature bucks ever ended up stepping out a hunt of the next morning in a big timber ridge in a saddle, saw another pile of deer, saw a good three year old chasing doze right underneath me. Small bucks cruising and I and I had an encounter with again.
00:32:24
Speaker 5: He now looking looking. Now we’ve got one, dear down.
00:32:26
Speaker 6: I would say that this is our the one that I saw Saturday, or I’m sorryday Tuesday, Tuesday morning, Tuesday morning, the one that I saw Tuesday morning. He’s probably our number one now that I’ve got what and I think our number two is on the ground. But he shows up straight behind me in a saddle came in straight down win.
00:32:46
Speaker 5: I don’t know if he ever got my win. He never spooked, but.
00:32:49
Speaker 6: The closest he got was about eighty yards. So I got a really good look at him. Saw a big split on one side. Thought it was my dear at first, because that was the most distinct thing about him.
00:32:59
Speaker 5: He’s got double split g Tues.
00:33:01
Speaker 6: And so when I saw him on Monday afternoon, I thought this year on Tuesday morning, same year, I’m like, I saw a big split running through the woods.
00:33:10
Speaker 5: So I’m like, there he is again.
00:33:12
Speaker 6: Well, I got some video of him and we can actually tell he’s only got one split on one side, so we’re like, that’s a different deer. So we kind of have a beat on two different bucks on the same side of the farm.
00:33:23
Speaker 4: Now.
00:33:23
Speaker 6: So my cousin comes down on Tuesday afternoon and I actually send him a pin. I’m like, I’m thinking about going right here in my saddle or a or a hanging hunt situation. And he’s like, man’s that’s about where I was gonna go. And I’m like, all right, no big deal. I’m like, you go there. I was actually thinking about going back to that food plot and doing a hanging hunt.
00:33:44
Speaker 5: So the big thing.
00:33:45
Speaker 6: On Tuesday afternoon was that we had a wind shift from from northwest to southwest, and it was still a very strong wind. So with the south wind, I knew here’s my big takeaway is that.
00:34:00
Speaker 5: I knew there was a good deer in the area.
00:34:02
Speaker 6: The odds he was going to do the exact same thing twice, we’re slim, and even if he did and I was in the same spot, he’s gonna skirt me at fifty yards again, right, So I had to make a move and do something different. So with the south wind, I was able to get on the northwest side of this food plot in the woods, just a little bit to where all the deer that entered the food plot come in straight up wind. So if everything happened at the same I had great wind for it.
00:34:30
Speaker 5: So that’s exactly what I did.
00:34:31
Speaker 6: So my cousin went to my initial spot I was looking to go. I jumped back over in that food plot that I saw that big deer the night before. And this is where it got chaotic, is I got out of the woods from my morning hunt. I went and grabbed a tree stand that I’d hung somewhere else for my hanging bang set up. And I was back at the truck and I got my bow out. I shot a couple of arrows just to pass some time and make sure my bow’s good after the you know hunting and all the drive and everything. Set my bow on the table I get all my game playing together.
00:35:06
Speaker 5: Get my tree stand packed up.
00:35:08
Speaker 6: I head to the woods and I throw my stand and my pack on and I’m like, all I just got to grab my bow and pull my open my back door my truck, pull my bow out, and it’s not there, and I’m like, oh my gosh, left my.
00:35:23
Speaker 5: Bow at the cabin.
00:35:24
Speaker 6: I knew I was sitting right on the table where I left it after I got done shooting.
00:35:27
Speaker 5: So I’m like, all right, mind you.
00:35:29
Speaker 6: I wanted to be in the woods by one o’clock since I saw the deer by one thirty the day before, and so at this point it’s about twelve forty five, I run back to get my bow. Come back now, I got everything right, So hike in about four hundred yards, get the tree stand hung. Takes I’m not super efficient at doing a hanging hunt yet, but I hang.
00:35:51
Speaker 5: About twenty minutes or so.
00:35:53
Speaker 6: I get set up, and I’m not super happy with myself for forgetting my bow.
00:36:00
Speaker 5: I’m sweaty. It was warmer that day.
00:36:03
Speaker 6: I was I was like, I just didn’t feel super confident just all things considered, I was rushed, you know, the feeling, and you’re covered in sweat. You just hung a stand, you know, straps in the way, and I’m all frustrated. And about that time I was like, all right, we’re here, We’re good, We’re set up. It was about one thirty at that point, so of course I’m looking for deer and I’m like, all right, I got to get my binos out, start glass and see if this buck’s going to come through. And that was about the time that I went in my backpack realized that my binos are not in my backpack. So I’m beyond frustrated now, and I think I even texted you that you know, this is going to be the day that you know, I think I called it. I said, I if this is as this as cluster, as clustered as I was, as this day was.
00:36:57
Speaker 5: I was like, this is the day that I’m going to randomly shoot a big deer. Right.
00:37:01
Speaker 6: Ended up standing there for ten minutes trying to look through the woods and see everything that moved that wasn’t a deer, and I could not do it. I could not go ten minutes without binos. And I was like, you know what, the other than that big deer, the other deer that came out was at three h nine it is it is a one. I think it was one forty five. I said, I got plenty of time. Let’s just go ahead and go get those binos. So I got down, went and got the bino’s and the range finder.
00:37:31
Speaker 5: Min knew the rangefinders also in there.
00:37:34
Speaker 6: And I get back in the woods and I had a I remember time stamping this because I had sent a buddy a text message about forgetting my binoculars at two oh four, and I turned around to get some water out of my backpack because I was sweat like crazy just a walk. I went to grab a water. So I turned around and I see a deer walking through the woods and I was like, that’s a big body deer. I got the binos that I just had to have. I got those vinys up and I realized I saw the double splits, and I was like, there he is.
00:38:05
Speaker 5: He’s he’s he’s he’s doing it. And so he comes and angles through the woods. And this is.
00:38:14
Speaker 6: Another part of it that I’ve reflected a lot on that I’ve I’ve evolved as a hunter and I’ve and I’ve gotten better, is that when I realized that I was in the game, I really focused on how things went from there up into the shot and post shot instead of just overwhelming, like getting overwhelmed with a big buck and the rack, and in the moment, I really harnessed everything and I and I executed as best as I could. And by that, I mean he was angled towards me. But I didn’t just watch the deer. I really looked at the route he was taking and all the possibilities that he could go. And I remember thinking vividly like, he’s gonna come check this food plot. But looking at the edge of this food plot, it is full of multi flour rows and it is it is thick.
00:39:05
Speaker 5: So that limits them.
00:39:07
Speaker 6: It kind of funnels them to the corners of the food plot. And he’s angled to the corner that I’m sitting on. So I start ranging shooting lanes and I realized, I’m like, Okay, there’s gonna be one at forty one, there’s gonna be one at thirty three, and if he.
00:39:21
Speaker 5: Takes this way, I’ll have a chip shot.
00:39:23
Speaker 6: So I’m doing all that stuff as he’s coming in about seventy yards and he’s angled to me. So instead of just watching the deer walk through the woods while I had.
00:39:30
Speaker 5: Time I start planning what’s going to happen.
00:39:33
Speaker 6: I try to predict multiple scenarios, and sure enough he comes to it, comes to the right angle, and he comes to forty one, and I start to realize. I’m like, sure, I could shoot him at forty one, but the multiple rows is going to funnel him even closer. So five years ago, I might have just just said I got a shot, take it. But he was upwind. I put this stand in the perfect spot for this wind. He had no idea I was there. I mean, zero clue. He was just doing butt. He was just doing buck things in November, just checking out. He wasn’t moving fast, he was just checking out, nose to the ground, see when he could smell and.
00:40:13
Speaker 5: See right, comes up to thirty five yards straight at me. Rubs on a seater.
00:40:18
Speaker 6: Gives me even more time to play out different scenarios.
00:40:21
Speaker 5: I ranged everything that I could.
00:40:23
Speaker 6: Of course, bos in hand releases is hooked, and I’m ranging everything I can. And I said, ninety percent chance he’s gonna take this angle and he’s gonna go right between those two trees at thirty three yards, And that’s exactly what he did. So everything was played out perfect. The deer walks into the shooting lane. I draw as he gets to the first tree. The deer did not stop naturally in the shooting lanes, so I gave him the map. And the mistake that I made, this is the one mistake that I made, and it was a big mistake, is I did not let that deer stop. I predicted he was going to stop, so it was so windy, I don’t think he heard the map, so I went map shot rather than map wait for them to stop.
00:41:11
Speaker 5: Shoot.
00:41:12
Speaker 6: So when he when he was when he hit my pin, I expected him to stop, so I shot. He didn’t stop. He took another step, so I hit him about ten inches back. Not a good shot right off the bat.
00:41:27
Speaker 5: You know.
00:41:28
Speaker 6: Wasn’t happy. But the second thought into my mind was dead deer. For sure, a dead deer. The next thing that he did was he sprinted into the food plot and I could see a big entry, a big entry hole.
00:41:43
Speaker 5: So that was good.
00:41:43
Speaker 6: I was happy with that, trying to get another arrow in just in case I could get another shot out of me, even if it was a long one. He didn’t get in a good shooting window for me, so I just watched him. He cut into a draw and I was able to watch him for about one hundred yards. I saw the entrance again and it was it had it had blood coming out of that a big entrance hole. So I felt confident that this was a fatal hit at that point. It was just a matter of how much time to give him. So that was at two twenty so mind you, I got back in the tree at two o’clock with my bino’s and I had an arrow in that deer at two twenty, so again really early first year out. I made a phone call my cousin who’s hunting on that that other spot on the farm not too far away, and told him what happened. You know, we kind of we kind of had some predictions on where he’s gonna go.
00:42:37
Speaker 5: A lot of deer have died in that draw that he went to.
00:42:40
Speaker 6: It’s just a real thick draw between two food plots that they like to bed in and and and.
00:42:45
Speaker 5: They’ll they’ll hang out there quite a bit.
00:42:47
Speaker 6: Uh, there’s a good chance that he could have died right in there in his first or second bed and then there’s another bedding area about it’s a it’s a big long tree planning that’s about fifty ten years old. So it’s a bunch of small saplings. It’s really thick. There’s a creek on one side. It’s just a heavy betting area that we we tend to find a lot of dead deer in from either obviously deer that we’ve hit or the neighbors. This was this was one of those scenarios where we knew we just had to wait and if we played our cards right, we’re going to find this year.
00:43:22
Speaker 5: Never had the doubt in my mind that it wasn’t fatal.
00:43:26
Speaker 6: And you even, you know, said start the twenty four hour clock, you know, after I told you that I got to hit in one and where it was, and so that’s what we did. We called a couple of dog trackers in the area. Obviously this time of year they are swamped, so just getting them on the phone is tough to do. But I give a shout out to those guys because they save a lot of hunters this time of year. But I talked to a couple of them just out of you know, it’s like, hey, even if you can’t help me, I’d really like to just get your opinion on the time stamp that we need to be here, that we need to be waiting here, right, And that gave me the confidence to do exactly that, which is wait twenty four hours. So we waited twenty four hours. We had a we had a dog tracker on the way we went. We ended up going back down to the cabin while you know, we beat him down there by about an hour or so, and we decided to just kind of drive down there just see, just check the area out.
00:44:25
Speaker 5: There’s a lot of hunters around the area.
00:44:27
Speaker 6: We just want to check and see if we check some fields, see if we see any big bucks running.
00:44:31
Speaker 5: And of course we weren’t hunting.
00:44:32
Speaker 6: My cousin worked that day, and I was just in weight mode, right, so I wasn’t I wasn’t really interested in getting back out in the woods for even even though I have a second buck tag.
00:44:42
Speaker 5: Right, just I was focused on this, dear.
00:44:45
Speaker 6: And as we’re driving down there, we drive past that second betting area that I mentioned earlier, and two buzzards popped out of there and we and it was right along a creek that that borders that betting area, and so we talked about it and we said, you know, if we go in there, the main track where we think this deer is is not boogered up. It’s good for a dog. If we go in here and this year is not there, then I don’t think we messed anything up. So we literally just wanted to go in and just we glassed a lot, and we were able to cover a lot of this bedding area with the glass instead of instead of tracking across the whole thing. So I went in one side, my cousin went in the other, and we like I dropped him off on one side, and he walked towards the truck, and I walked away from the truck, and we just this is one hundred yards wide and maybe five hundred yards long, so we were able to cover it pretty quick with the two of us. I walked down one side, he walks down the other. Neither one of us had any luck, no blood, no nothing. And so I’m like, all right, well, I’m just gonna make my way back your way, And I just took a little bit different route that’s a little bit closer to where he was. And he was walking the edge of the creek, looking into the creek, expecting a deer to be down in the in the water in the creek. Bed and then he’s glassing up into this bedding area. At the same time, I came back through more in the bedding area and I was about sixty yards away and I called him. I said, all right, I didn’t have any luck. I’m gonna make my way back to the truck. We’ll just wait for the dog come in and go to the hit. And I hang up the phone, and thirty seconds later I look over and I’m like, that really looks like a tye with the naked eye no binoculars.
00:46:30
Speaker 5: And then I was like, no, that is a tie.
00:46:32
Speaker 6: And I put the binos up and I’m like that that’s a pretty big time. And I could just see two points sticking up out of a bunch of brush and weeds, and so I angle back to where I can see a little bit better.
00:46:45
Speaker 5: I get my arrow I had an arrow knocked.
00:46:47
Speaker 6: I get my release on, not knowing if this is a dead deer, alive deer, if it’s my deer, and I kind of take an angle over and I could see I could see a body that’s laying down sure enough, is dead or in a door nail.
00:46:59
Speaker 5: And then I was like, I don’t know what deer it is.
00:47:01
Speaker 6: And then I could see the exit hole in the in the stomach, so it was it was at that point I knew it was my deer. And then I was able to knew it was dead. Took another step and I could see those big split g two’s awesome, man.
00:47:15
Speaker 5: And and then it was I mean a million pounds.
00:47:19
Speaker 6: Off my shoulders, right, So a lot of a lot of thought after after the shot went into how are we going to recover this deer? So we were able to do it very uneventfully without you know, wild goose chase.
00:47:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, well you gave it time.
00:47:31
Speaker 5: It was awesome. We get a lot of time.
00:47:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, well, no, man, congratulations And I think there’s a lot of really key lessons in that for everyone on. You know, you just got to be out there. You got to trust your gut and then if something does not go right, you got to give the deer time, especially when you know where you hit them and you did everything right there.
00:47:50
Speaker 2: So congratulations.
00:47:52
Speaker 1: So looking here, you know, Illinois is a two bucks state, so you still have a buck tag here in your pocket. Looking from the nineteenth to the day before Thanksgiving, what what is top of mine?
00:48:04
Speaker 2: Here?
00:48:04
Speaker 1: Obviously are gun season kicks off this upcoming weekend. What what on a scale one to ten, what do you think the activity is going to be? And if you’re a guy in Illinois with a tag in your pocket, what what?
00:48:17
Speaker 2: What do you tell that guy?
00:48:19
Speaker 5: Yeah?
00:48:20
Speaker 6: I think, uh, I think I like it, probably more than most Illinois hunters. I’m pretty partial to the second third week of November as opposed to the first. And I know, trust me, we all love when that calendar turns over and and the statistics on the sixth, seventh, eighth, the ninth, And I’ve killed on those days more so I should say I’ve killed on the ninth. I historically on multiple farms that I’ve hunted, have seen more activity from the tenth through the twentieth, and then then you’ll you’ll get into that gun season period. And we’ve had some really good gun seasons down there. Even if we don’t we don’t harvest everything we have in mind, visual sightings just happened to uptick in that in that timeframe. My personal opinion is, and there’s a lot of opinions on it, but I really think a buck is most visible when he’s between dose as opposed to looking for that first one I think my opinion is that in the first week of November we see a ton of running activity, but me personally, it’s mostly small bucks that that I’ve that I have encounters with the mature bucks.
00:49:36
Speaker 5: I think they snag those dose without much effort.
00:49:39
Speaker 6: I think they snag those first doze without effort, so they don’t have to travel very far to get them, whereas the small bucks got to work for it in that first week and then the the second and third doze. Whenever, whenever those bucks are coming off of the first one, I think that’s when they’re most vulnerable. And that’s whenever I’ve seen and or killed more of my dear I’ve got. I was actually just talking to a buddy about it the other the thirteenth, the fifteenth, the eighteenth, now the eleventh. Obviously I killed on the eleventh. Those are the days of my four biggest bucks, so we’re heading into the backside of that period that I really like. That being said, I think that you’re with the if the weather’s playing, the weather plays a big factor into it. I think that’s gonna matter if they rut during or if they move during the day or at night.
00:50:27
Speaker 5: They’re gonna rut.
00:50:28
Speaker 6: Either way, I think coming into this gun season, I think it’s gonna be pretty good. I think most of our activity has been about a week or so behind where we would normally see it. I didn’t see any mature bucks start to do much running activity until I think the seventh I saw one mature buck bumping a dough not even not even.
00:50:52
Speaker 5: Like super interested, like hot on her tail.
00:50:56
Speaker 6: I’m starting to see that now, both both in the last couple of days of hunting and on my cameras too.
00:51:02
Speaker 5: So I think it’s I’d be pretty.
00:51:05
Speaker 6: Optimistic, and I’m naturally a pretty optimistic person, but I think that depending on what the weather’s going to do in different pockets. So hunting two different areas in Illinois, it’s pretty crazy. It’ll be a twenty degree difference from where I live to the farm down south.
00:51:23
Speaker 5: So that was one reason I went down there, is.
00:51:26
Speaker 6: Because it got to seventy degrees, Like it’s seventy degrees down there now, and I was like, I’m gonna hunt it while it’s in the forties and up here it’s going to be in the fifties, so.
00:51:36
Speaker 5: I’ve got much better weather.
00:51:38
Speaker 6: Better weather hunting up here whenever it’s seventy down there. So if that weather’s doing what it’s, you know, what you need it to do where you’re hunting, I think there’s a good chance if you’re out there, if you can catch that buck between does, they’re pretty vulnerable.
00:51:55
Speaker 5: I think that this.
00:51:55
Speaker 6: Buck was between dose and I saw him twice in about twenty five hours. And I saw another mature buck doing the exact same thing, did not have a dough with him, was was cruising the woods, and and I think I think there’s a good chance that that this this gun season could be pretty good for for a lot of guys in Illinois.
00:52:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, food or betting if you had, you know, just for someone that’s like, okay, I still have a tag. I’m gonna be able to hunt, maybe a boat hunt a couple of days here before gun season, whether it’s you know, Wednesday or Thursday, and then for the gun season.
00:52:31
Speaker 2: Betting, food, right place, right time, throw a doll.
00:52:34
Speaker 5: Yeah, well everything situation right, yeah, both right. I like to hunt the doze right now. And I’m and and I’m not.
00:52:45
Speaker 6: Like like hardcore got to be on the dose, but that’s what he’s looking for. And I like to be one big lesson that I’ve learned this year, and I kind of reflect and try to get better every year.
00:52:57
Speaker 5: I think we probably all do.
00:52:59
Speaker 6: And what I’ve realized this year is that if I have an encounter with a buck, I’ve got to do something similar to what he did, because he’s gonna do.
00:53:06
Speaker 5: Something similar to.
00:53:09
Speaker 6: If we both do the same thing, that that deer is not gonna do the same thing two days in a row, I mean, the exact same thing.
00:53:16
Speaker 5: I think he’s gonna do something similar. He’s gonna be in the area.
00:53:20
Speaker 6: But if if if I just go do the exact same thing, I don’t I don’t think I’m gonna be in the chips. And what I’ve decided this year is be more mobile. So I’ve got a saddle set up, I’ve got a hang and bang, I’ve got lock ons, I’ve got ground blinds, I’ve got box blinds, I’ve I’ve got I’ve got all the tools that I can think of to put me in the in the right spot wherever that is. I’ve got hang ons that are that I just think I’m gonna I want to get a visual on him and then I can make a move from there. That’s That’s one of my big takeaways this year is mature bucks are are not on a pattern this time of year, but they are in an area and they do kind of tend to stick to that area if they’ve had if they found a dough there and they’ve been in the area, they’re gonna look in for another dough in that same area. So I like to just move around with what the wind allows me to do and what the thermals allowed me to do. And that’s exactly what I did on that buck the other day. I again, I knew he was going to be in the same area. I knew we had a I knew he had a really good I knew he had a really good chance to see him again. So my job was to get in the right spot, per the wind and hope that he makes the right move and you know, all the stars aligned perfect.
00:54:41
Speaker 1: Well man, congratulations once again, and and good luck everyone out there with the tag still here in Illinois firearm season, it is an exciting time to be on the woods and it’s just one of the its opening days is truly one of those days of the year where you just truly don’t know.
00:55:00
Speaker 2: What could happen.
00:55:00
Speaker 4: Go to a bath, anything, anything awesome.
00:55:05
Speaker 2: Well, congratulations once again, Shane.
00:55:07
Speaker 5: Yeah, thanks, Jake, appreciate it.
00:55:09
Speaker 1: There you guys have I hope you enjoyed this week’s episode of Rough Fresh. I hope you have a great Thanksgiving. I hope you get a chance to sneak out and do a little bit more dear hunting. If it is a firearm season for you, like it is here in Illinois this upcoming weekend, Be safe, be a good neighbor, be a good friend, and we’ll see you next time.
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