Field Notes 9: The November Frenzy – Six Tags, No Sleep

A brutal Halloween storm gave way to a November surge, and our team caught fire with a string of kills anchored by a tight, suburban-style buck recovery and a five-yard heart shot. We trade trail cam dogma for aggressive rut moves, ethics in meat salvage, and practical filming tips that actually help.

• crew hot streak after storm
• small parcel strategy around orchards and marsh bedding
• target bucks Mr Perfect and Warrior weighed up
• shot details, rain, and recovery plan with thermal and dog
• meat salvage decisions and reporting process
• aggressive rut tactics over camera dependence
• saddle setup with screw-in steps and close-range shot
• trail camera grids, timestamps, and off-path placement
• calling preferences in doe-heavy regions
• filming challenges, Insta360 workflow, and power management

Stay looking out for the announcement to our game dinner. I should be announcing the date probably within the end of November

Chapters

• 0:39 Crew’s Hot Streak Kicks Off
• 2:10 Halloween Storm And November Shift
• 3:35 Squatch’s Private Approach And Setup
• 5:06 Target Bucks: Mr. Perfect And Warrior
• 8:20 Stand Choice And Bedding Intel
• 11:31 The Shot, Rain, And First Tracking
• 15:45 Doubt, Prayer, And Overnight Plan
• 18:48 Thermal, Beagle Track, And Recovery
• 22:10 Meat Salvage, Ethics, And Gratitude
• 26:08 Pressure, Banter, And Team Dynamics
• 30:07 Mike’s Doe Kill And Rut Tactics
• 34:30 Camera Failure, Midday Intel, And Setup
• 38:18 Five-Yard Heart Shot And Tagging Out
• 41:36 Season Outlook, Travel, And Gear
• 45:12 Trail Cams vs Aggression In The Rut
• 49:05 Ratios, Calling, And Regional Differences
• 52:05 Squatch’s Camera Grid Strategy
• 55:10 Connor’s Midwest Update And New Parcel
• 1:00:05 Filming Challenges And 360 Solutions
• 1:04:30 Closing Notes And Game Dinner Tease

Transcript

SPEAKER_03: 0:39

All right, everyone. Holy hell. What a week it has been for the Boondocks crew. I gotta say, I think I was looking early. I don't who started this just killing trend. It was either Peyton or Connor that just started it all off. I think you guys tagged here close to the same time, both both shooting bite. Peyton was the day before. Yeah, Peyton was before, yep. So Peyton was the day before. Then we had Connor, which we talked about uh last week. And then Halloween came. We had that big northeastern storm that made Halloween just like horrible for hunting. Like I remember I was I was setting up a spot and I literally was just flying in the air like Batman. Where I was just like, I'd just like the breeze would come and I'd get off the platform a little bit and just throw my hands and just like I was completely just fucking around and I was like, damn, like this shit is this shit is crazy for for for Halloween and everything. I was like, this is this is no good. We got all that rain and everything like that, and November 1st just kicked it off, and things we have not looked back since November 1st. Um, you know, and there's what six, I think we got six deer down in four days um on just the streak. Uh Zach got it done, which I'll wait uh for him to tell his story and everything like that. But Zach has gotten two in the last four days. I've gotten two in the last four days. We got Squash that got one. We Ethan got another one, another trad uh bow uh kill and everything like that, which he'll he'll come on one of these days. Um, and I know he's got some hopefully some exciting news that that he wants to share and everything like that, um with you guys and and things like that. But we have been on a roll. So, boys, congratulations. I wanted I wanted to take a shot and have my heart alcohol, but I I completely got uh sidetracked with food comingly and and things like that. So cheers, boys. Cheers. Yeah, but um so squat, let's get into you. I had no idea. I know you called Frank and everything like that, but when you posted that picture, I was like, motherfucker, he didn't say anything last year. Where everyone was was so dialed in on everything this year, the same thing. Everyone's so dialed in. Every time Frank calls me, I'm like, all right, this guy killed something, Ethan calls me. I I know Scratch didn't even put out a text or anything like that. Kudos for Frank for keeping it under wraps and not even saying a single thing. But damn, brother, could even say, hey shit, a letter arrow fly tonight, or any were you nervous or or something?

SPEAKER_01: 3:36

No, I I'm a I'm a very private kind of dude when it comes to my scenarios and like how things go, and it's nothing against anybody here uh or on Whitetail Advantage or anything. I just it's hard when you get like so many people involved, and you're you're trying to answer questions and you're in the moment, and everybody's going, Well, I don't know, you know, it looked high, or you know, ah gee, it looked, you know, I just you get too many, you know, people just involved, and and I don't want to I don't want to put people through that either. I mean, you guys are all trying to concentrate on your hunt. Frank is just a pawn in my of you know my hunting realm of of chess.

SPEAKER_04: 4:32

I'm used to it.

SPEAKER_01: 4:33

I totally abuse Frank anytime that I can. And absolutely, you know, he he's just mentally and physically, he's literally he's like a voodoo dog meeting today in chat. He's just like a voodoo dog. You know, I think no, honestly, I mean, and that's all bullshit. Everybody knows I love Frank. Um it was I've been I've been really I've had a lot of like you know, the rug pulled out from underneath me this year. My my prime area that I used to hunt just you know over the hill here got destroyed. Um, it is still manageable enough to hunt. The gentleman is still kind enough to say, go ahead, but it's a motocross track. His kids are tearing it up in there on the weekends with quads. My cameras are still up, I'm watching movement up there, but I had to really what did I call it, Frank? Like suburban guerrilla warfare on white-tailed deer.

SPEAKER_04: 5:38

That's exactly what you called it.

SPEAKER_01: 5:40

I think that's what I said to you. And I changed, you know, I always knew the deer come through a little section here by the house, and then I have a big orchard out behind me. It's a perfect bottleneck, and then an adjoining property across the road is prime bedding area, and I put my cameras up in strategic places. Um, I procured some stuff from Rack Getter, Gerard, and I had a nice chat. Um, I asked him what he would do in the situation to hold these bucks here because they I'm I'm I was behind the eight wall and getting sent. Um, and it was just because we're him and I were both busy. I had reached out to him, but it was actually a night that he had shot a deer. And he's like, I'm sorry, brother, hit me up tomorrow. And then I got busy, and then you know, it was like trying to catch up. So started getting, I got a buck that I call Mr. Perfect here. I've been trying to get him for two years. He showed back up by the house, and I was like, Wow, this is great. He's still here. Then out of nowhere, this massive tank eight comes in, and I told Frank, I said, dude, there's no mistaking that's the buck I shot high in the shoulder last year that got away. He came back, and I'm like, I cannot freaking believe it. All summer long, I've had cameras running, never so high the hair of him. The rut starts, and he comes back in here, and I'm like, I gotta kill him. So I nicknamed him Warrior. His his name's Warrior. So the two target bucks here are Mr. Perfect and Warrior. I also had some good, decent three and a half-year-old eats in here mixing around, of course, with your scrub bucks and other stuff here on camera. I'm what you know, I sit back, I'm like a shadow, I'm watching you guys. You know, your Mike's going here, you know, Peyton's going there, Zach's going there, Connor. You're hunting by your place, and you know, we're all like kind of paying attention, but I really, really, really had to knuckle down, and and and you know, I had to figure this these bucks out. You know, I I gotta figure them out. So Frank and I were going back, and yeah, we got our little you know, niche, him and I, and you know, not like I said, it ain't nothing against you guys, it's just we just do that stuff. We're close by each other within an hour, and you know, we confide in each other a lot. So I was picking his brain, and I'm like, dude, look at this onyx map. Tell me if you think I'm right that this buck's moving this way. He's like, I would set up there, yeah. And I'm like, all right. So the other property that I grew up on had some good bucks, and then they disappeared. And I'm like, Well, I'm not wasting time over there, I gotta concentrate here by the house. So, fast forward, I start seeing more of Warrior than of Mr. Perfect. Mr. Perfect now has been on a walkabout for over a week and a half. I haven't seen him. Got me worried a little bit, but he's done this before to me. Warrior has been pretty religious about coming in at certain times of the night close to the house here. And when I say close to the house, he's 35 yards down in the woods off my back porch. I throw a rock and hit him. So I have a ladder stand that's been out in the back corner of the property, right that meets right up to the orchard edge. I'm sure you guys saw the shot I made for everybody who's listening. I have a ladder stand set up on the edge of hardwoods with a window that I could shoot out to in the brush. When I say a window, it's an opening, and it kind of ambushes them, you know, to the side as they come up through the last lane of the orchard. I had a really good feeling because the buck was showing up, he was betting in between two houses in a marshy swamp that's in there. When I say swamp, golden rod, real thick, nasty briars, stuff like that. And I'm on the edge of that, and then he's coming out to the food, which is the orchard. So I've been all I was off for a couple days, you know, took off for the for uh election day. We had off, and I took that Monday off and had the weekend, and uh went up. I got up into the other property where I used to hunt, and uh had I passed up a beautiful six-pointer, nice buck. Let him go, had a four-pointer come in the next morning up there, and that afternoon, uh, which was um Sunday afternoon, I had hunted up there, and then Monday I said, I'll go back up. I hunted up there in the morning, and then Monday afternoon, I said, you know what, I gotta clean the leaves. I got so many leaves on the lawn, let me hit them with the zero turn. It was crappy wind. It wasn't really a key wind that I wanted to be in for hunting the standout behind the house. Um, I came in, I wasn't even gonna go out. I was like, nah, I'll go sit in the ladder. I got a feeling that bucks coming out of that swamp. So I came in, took a scent-free shower with uh, you know, my sense ass and stuff that I use and sprayed myself down, got my clothes on. I I literally can walk not even a minute. I'm in that stand out behind my backyard into the orchard. Well, I set my Insta360 camera up. I think I talked to Frank. Said I'm I'm set up over you know by the house or whatever. And it it started getting cloudy, and I'm like, is this supposed to rain? Nah, it ain't gonna rain, you know. And then I saw like a slight chance at six o'clock, and I'm like, I didn't gonna do nothing. So it's like that last good 15 minutes where you can see, I hear something stand up, not maybe 60 yards away from me, and start walking. And I'm like, that's a deer. I'm like, there's no doubt. I had squirrels around me. I go, that's a deer. I know that sound. That's a that's a deer coming out. And if it's who I think it is, I better get the camera on because shit's about to go down. I turn the camera on, I double-checked it, and when I when I produced the video and get it out there, you'll see all this go down in the video because it was filming the whole time. So from my left, he comes out of the hardwoods and I catch a glimpse of him and I see horns, and I'm like, it's warrior. I I figured him out. He's coming out of his bed, just like I said he was. What's he gonna do now? He comes to the corner apple tree on the corner of the orchard, dude, where it makes that that where he walked out from. He gets an apple and he starts eating it. And I'm just like, it's your last apple, bro. It's your last apple. So at that moment, you guys know I'm a very religious person. I believe God does a lot with everything in my life. And I just said to God, I said, Okay, look, you convinced me to come out in my subconscious that tonight was gonna be a good night. Now you put a deer that I'm after out there in that corner. Don't let him walk straight, Lord. If you want me to kill him, I'm gonna kill him. He's gonna come to that mock scrape that I just made. And then lo and behold, he turns, he starts coming up, and I'm like, okay, this is gonna happen. So my emotions are starting to ramp up. I'm starting to get pumped, and I said, Don't do that. You're not that guy, you're calm, cool, and collected. You will kill this buck. But stay calm and think this through. Be patient, excuse me. So he kicks a scrape, and I'm like, dude, I already got a scrape, don't bother. He puts his head down and he comes up and he comes to my scrape, and I'm like, that's it, it's go time. He's gotta clear one limb. Sorry, I got a tickle in my throat. And uh he comes up to the tree and he's almost broadside, he's quartering two very slightly. And I'm like, better draw back, Squatch. Get him, start drawing back. So I pull back real slow on the bow, I get back to full anchor, and he stopped. And I'm like, mm-hmm, something's up. He knows he knows I'm here, but he doesn't see me. He doesn't know I'm up in that stand. How he don't see me, I don't know. He just stopped. Like they've got that sixth sense. He turns now like he's gonna come in the trail that I walk into the stand. And I'm like, oh man, now he's quartering harder to me. And he's alert. I said, remember what Frank's gone through. Remember what a couple of other guys have been dealing with. Don't pick that spot mid-body, drop it down to his armpit. Hold steady, make a good shot. You gotta make this count. He turned a little bit more, and I tried to lead the very head of the shoulder towards his neck, and I squeezed off. And man, the lighted knock went through him like a tracer round. I mean, it never even slowed down. The next thing I know, I seen it hit him. He squatted and he bolted like a freaking freight train. He got to the second lane and ran straight down it until I seen him go out of sight. And I was like, okay, I hit him. I heard that crack. I mean, I just freaking knew. I was like, that was a good shot. I know I hit him good. Um now I'm like standing there, and next thing I did was I re-knocked an arrow. And now the film's still going on. At 360 shows me, shows everything that's going on. You'll see me. I put my hands together. I just prayed. I said, God, you made this all come together. Please don't make it be a waste of time and make me wounded animal. I just asked that that shot was 110% on the money. Next person I called was Frank. And I said, I got him.

unknown: 16:05

Who?

SPEAKER_01: 16:05

I said, I shot Warrior. Oh my god, really? I said, Yeah, man, it just all came together tonight. I got a good shot, pretty sure. I'm gonna get down in a minute and look at the arrow, and then I'll go see what I got. Okay, as I start to climb down out of the stand, it torrential downpours. Oh, I mean, pours. And I look up and I'm like, why? Why? I mean, you just made this happen. Now this. Really? I mean, this is this is how this is gonna this is gonna play out. I'm like, okay. Get down to the arrow. It is covered from one end to the other of just nothing but solid blood, all the way up. The arrow doesn't stink like gut, it's very clean, and it's just blood. And I'm like, okay, we got him. I get down, I look on the ground, I can't see blood. And I'm like, all right, don't panic. Go home, review the video. You know, my son, uh, the boy that I call my son Corey, he he was hunting on the other property. He says, I'm coming, I'm coming, I'll help you. Okay. He got here. I was already reviewing the video, watched it over and over. Now I'm frustrated because I'm not a guru with computers. I'm trying to send this to Frank so he can see it. And I don't like to say anything to anybody until I absolutely know that the deed is done. You know, I just I it's hard. You get so many opinions, you get so much going on, and you need to concentrate on what's going on. And I've just learned tell people when it's done. You know, it's a little easier, you know, unless he fell over dead there, then of course I'm gonna you know go and tell you. Well, we went back out, the rain had let up a little bit. We found blood for about 45 yards, nothing crazy, nothing crazy, and I think a little bit has to do with the broad head. I'm not you know blaming it, but it was a really hard quartering away from shot. You know, he was quarter two, the arrow went out towards the hip. Okay, let's put it that way. Um, between that and the rain, there was nothing there. I had I had minimal traces amount of blood. Um, started raining harder again. So, come on, let's go. I'm not wasting time out here. I if he's gonna die, he'll be in the orchard, or if he'll he's gonna go somewhere. We gotta wait for better conditions. It's too soon anyway, you know. Double back, we come back home. Now, uh, you know, playing the phone tag game, talking to Frank, talking to another, my cousin, and uh, you know, watch the video. Yeah, oh dude, he's hammered. Okay, I feel that way too. Judging by the arrow, he's dead. Um, the rain let up, and Frank's like, he goes, I think he hooked to the left. I said, That's what I oh boy, yeah. My cousin goes, my cousin goes, I think he hooked to the right. I'm like, You think he went to the right? I'm like, why would he go uphill? He's hurt, and he's like, It looks like he went to the right in a video. I'm like, okay, so this is what I'm talking about, you know. Yeah, I'm like, okay, guys, thanks. I'll uh I'm gonna go back out. So I grab my flashlight, grab my stuff, I went back out. I brought my thermal with me, and I'm actually impressed, Frank. I remembered the name of it tonight. It's a thermal, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 19:33

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01: 19:34

Um, you know, so I I go out with the thermal and I'm looking down the lanes, and you know, for people who don't know, it's a thermal imaging binocular, it shows the heat signature, like a FLIR camera, if you guys are familiar with that. I use it all the time while I'm predator hunting. I don't see anything, and I'm like, here we go. You know, I'm like, son of a bitch, you know. I I don't know what I did wrong. I I made the best possible shot I could. I'm cool as a cucumber in the video. You guys can watch. I don't flinch. I I don't I I'm not shaking, I'm just cute, I'm cool, you know. And I'm really pissed off at myself. Now I'm back to Frank. Frank, he's like, Don't, it's not you, you know, it's you're gonna find him. I'm like, yeah, this don't look good. And there was one key factor that I didn't like about the deer when he ran away, his tail was up. Yeah, and he was bounding, and usually it's a hard like neck out, tail tucked, swirly tail. I was having my doubts. I'm like, something ain't right. I don't know what's going on, but something's not right. Okay, I stopped for that part of the night. I said, I'm not going back out. I'll find them tomorrow. The temperatures were dropping a little bit, so I was kind of like thinking, eh, I may lose them, but I can't do anything about it. Just no blood, it's rained everything out. I I can't do this. I got up the next morning. Now I'm on the debate about should I call a dog tracker? Should I do this and do that? Now you gotta remember, it's country here, but there are still some houses. And I don't like to lead on what I'm doing too much to other people that I don't know. And I'm like, if I get a dog tracker in here, now it's gonna be oh, can I go on your pro? I don't I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that, and I'm a good enough person, tracker, but stuff. I think I got the confidence to find them. I go out with my side by side, I start riding every freaking lane of that orchard, up and down, up and down. I I covered like seven acres, dude. Nothing. And I'm looking at that swamp, the golden rod, and I said, if I was a buck, I would button hook down in there where I just came from, where I was bedded all day, where I know it's safe, and I'm gonna die in there. So something doesn't get me. Called Frank. What do you think? Yep, I think he went there too. Called my cousin, gotta be, he's not in the orchard, right? So he did go left. He went down in the swamp. I called the landowner. I'm gonna be behind your house. Is that okay? Can I look for the buck? Go ahead, no problem, man. Great. There's no blood leading any of the trails that go down in that thicket. I found a ton of sign. Yes, that's where he's living. I knew it. No deer. Son of a bitch, right? Get back on Onyx. I walk the lane that he ran down. It's 250 something yards from where I shot. We're starting to push the envelope of a deer should die in that amount of time. Okay. I go back. Now I have four beagles. I get my youngest Kona. I'm like, come on, Kona. Kona is a rabbit. They're all rabbit dogs. They never track blood before. I said, let me give it a shot. I let her smell the arrow. I let her smell the blood. What's Kona do? Takes off like a freight chain on the leash with me behind her, straight down that apple orchard lane. And I'm like, she's just pulling too hard to be on some kind of spoof. I think she's on this bar. Well, she made it all the way down to the end of that lane, 250 something yards. And I see her keep turning her head, and I'm like, damn it, it's by that golden rod, but it's too thick. I can't bring her down in there with me, right? My son calls, said Pop, I'm done hunting. I'll come over and help you look. All right, I'll bring the dog back. We're gonna go look. We'll go look. Come back, put the dog back here at the house. We jump on the side by side. We go through the orchards. We went up high. Let's just rule it out. Let's rule it out high. There's nothing there. We double back, checked everything again. Nothing there. I said, son, he is in that goldenrod up here. I think so too. I said, All right. He goes, I'll go in there, Pop. I said, All right, I'll stay up here. I'm trying to see if there's blood coming out of the orchard. You're thinking the deer's gotta be bleeding going downhill, crossing over these rock walls, crossing over these limbs that are laying on the ground. I gotta find something. So he starts milling around in there. He goes past me, he doubles back, and I hear pop, pop, pop. I said, What? He's like, I got him. I said, No, no way. Yeah, he's right here. So from the edge of the orchard where he keeled over and died, he was in that golden rod about 65-70 yards. And I said, How warm is he? He goes, He's not. I said, He died last night. I said, Okay, I'm coming. No, Pop, stay there. Okay, I'll bring him to you. So I see the horns come up out of the golden rod, and I'm like, Okay, when I keep leaving out in this story because I get ahead of myself that night at 1:30 in the morning, my camera went off. Warrior was on there, and I went, What the? I'm like, is he okay or is he wounded? So now I ran out of videos. I had to buy more videos. I get the video to play, and he's walking fine. I'm like, Well, who did I kill? You know, so I see him dragging the buck out of the thicket, and I'm like, Oh, that's Warrior's son. So he's a three and a half-year-old buck, warrior's five and a half. Okay, they have the same gene pool. You can tell the way his G2s and G3s come up out of his rack. And I'm like, okay, it's a decent three and a half year old mature buck. I'm like, shit, yeah, okay, I'm happy. And you know, I was like, great, this is awesome. So as he we get him up to the orchard. Now I'm concerned of the condition of the deer. I I my first concern, I look, antlers are nice and everything, but I took an animal's life, okay. For me, I I don't want to waste something. I I gotta try to manage what I can out of this buck. So we get him out, and he was stinky, like because the arrow exited out before the hip. So when you talk about it, it went just behind the shoulder, went through the lungs, went back through the liver, and then out, you know, it didn't really like get gut, but I think it got some of the intestine like out towards that way. I looked at him and I was like, Oh, I'm like, I don't want to gut him. I I there's no point in gutting them. And he's like, Well, what are you gonna do? So I'm gonna show you what we do. I skinned him out behind, I just cut straight down his backbone. I felt the temperature of the the back straps, and they were perfectly cool because he laid down in that bottom and it didn't get hot in there yet. He was on that cool marsh, you know, and that stuff. I said, He's fine back there. I'm happy with them. They look good, they don't stink, there's nothing wrong with them. So I stripped the fur back, cut the back straps out of them, and then worked my way down to the rumps, and I could feel they were cool, which I was super shocked that they were cool. And I said, Okay, we're gonna take the rear hindquarters off, took the hind corners off and the front shoulders. Nope, nope, that was warm. And I was like, that's it, that's all I'm using. I'm sorry. You know, I I I I prayed for the deer. I mean, I always give the deer their last rights, and I felt horrible, but there was just under the circumstances, most guys, most guys wouldn't do what I did. They wouldn't have they wouldn't have found a deer first off. And I put every effort forward to to use as much of the deer that I felt was safe, usable, meat, because it was the furthest away from the heat zone of the chest cavity and all that. And from years of butchering deer and stuff, I know when meat's no good. That meat was fine, it was fine. So uh I had to cut the head off. I'm not getting them mounted, I'm just gonna do a European mount, which I'm happy with. I'm fine with that. I got enough deleted dust collectors. Um and that was it. And uh, you know, we we disposed of the rest of the carcass. Uh, I called the deer in uh to the to the environmental conservation, reported it, and um now all I gotta do is just uh cape the head out and everything and prepare it to do the European mount, and I'll have them up on the wall pretty soon. But uh it was it was a blessing, man. And and you know, I know a lot of people have been really pulling for me, and you know, it's hard. I I gotta, you know, you guys, you know, I mean you guys really give me a lot more credit than what I am. I'm not that good. Um I'm an average hunter, I'm just a guy that's been around in the woods a long time. Um God made me who I am. I'm I'm not. I have I have there's people uh that can run circles around me in the deer woods, okay. And I do appreciate the way you guys build me up and say who you think I am, but I only know what I know. I don't bullshit anybody. Um and I I try to stay as true as I can to what I tell everybody that I do. And that's another reason, like you get people who post buck after buck after buck. I'm seeing this, I'm seeing that. Look, I'm happy to take my picture with it when it's dead. You know, I I can show you tons of deer around here, but until I'm sitting next to them on the ground, you'll see what I kill, you'll find out. But Until then I'm not doing it. We do we do inside inside, you know, a couple people inside. We we s we trade stuff back and forth, but the social media in it, I don't do it. I don't care only after it's dead because it just, you know, I I think it's I'm a I'm a I'm a finicky kind of guy. It's not why I'm not even in the competition this year because I I just feel stuff like that jinxes me. It's nothing against any of you guys. I love all you guys. I I just it's it's it's the agreement with nature, God, and how I roll. I just I don't I don't do it. Um and I was I was blessed. I mean that was a very hard-earned buck, but it paid off, and I'm very proud of myself for God instilling in me the knowledge to take and pull the carpet out from underneath me where I was very comfortable and grew in my deer, having to readjust and kill a deer in a postage stamp piece of land that's a quality deer. And by all my friends, you guys, all the stuff we talk about on these shows, all my people who support me as far as supplies, arrows, broadheads, scents, you know, all that stuff. All makes sense. It comes together and it makes us who we are, and it and it combines the quality of what we put out there as a crew. This crew here, boondocks, is absolutely killing it this year. Last year, you guys were doing good. This year, I I don't know what it is, but it's like the mojo is flowing. We've we've got it going on, we've been blessed, and I think it's because we do a lot of good, we spread good knowledge, we don't bullshit people around, we build each other up, we help each other out, and you know, besides Frank just being a total prick and you know, pressuring me all the time, you know. There's actually threats. I can play it back for you. There's threats. Squatch, get up. We're fat, you're fat, you need to get the exercise.

SPEAKER_02: 32:28

I think he's gonna whip your ass in the shape.

SPEAKER_01: 32:31

Yep. I don't want to hear that the saddle's gonna break with you in it. Get up the tree here.

SPEAKER_02: 32:35

Yep, of the don't pick that tree, you're gonna fucking break it.

SPEAKER_01: 32:42

You know, I'm I'm I'm a pretty strong guy, you know. Um you know, can hold my own, but he scares me. So there's I don't just have the social media pressure. My co-host of the show, Frank, is you know, basically it's close to death threats, really.

SPEAKER_02: 33:02

Yep. Listen, somebody's gotta fucking keep you in line. I keep telling you. It's gotta be me.

SPEAKER_01: 33:07

Look, you go, you know, the last I think the last conversation before this all went down was squatch. I've had you know, shot a bear, I've had opportunities on deer, and what have you done? All I hear is these scenarios that you think this deer is going there. Yeah, if you don't shoot a buck within the next day or two, I am gonna come down there and kick your ass in New York. And I I firmly believe that so I just had to kill that deer that day.

SPEAKER_02: 33:29

That's all it was. I told myself, I'm starting to think you're all talk.

SPEAKER_01: 33:32

Yeah, he also called me, he called me a girl. So, you know, not only do I have the pressure of social media, just remember, Frank is like you got the angel. The angel's like Mike. Okay, good luck, guys. I hope you kill something. And then you got Frank. Yeah, you're a dick.

SPEAKER_04: 33:53

No, you won't. No, you won't. You suck, you suck.

SPEAKER_01: 33:58

I thought you were a good hunter, you killed all these deer in the past, it's all bullshit. Yeah, don't it's not all, it's not all like he plays the pretty boy, and you know, I'm a nice boy.

SPEAKER_03: 34:13

The pretty boy is wild, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 34:18

But that's my story. Sticking to it. Thanks for all the support. Thanks, everybody. You know, I I try to do you as all proud. I I it it's a pressure thing. I believe it or not, it's not just hunting in the woods, it's the pressure. I gotta keep the old squatch legend shit going, you know. I don't want to be that guy that comes out and eats tag soup and be like, Well, this guy says he does. What's he at one time he was a good hunter, he's got some good heads on the wall, but what happened? He fell off. So, you know, just nah, you guys keep me going. You know, I there's been days I've just been like, frigate, I'm taking up bowling. Um I'm done.

SPEAKER_03: 35:03

Taking up hey, at least you're not like Bretton taking up golf.

SPEAKER_01: 35:06

No, yeah, golf is gay. So in bowling, you can have a you can like kind of still be a man and bowl, but golf, no, no. I might as well put a fucking kilt on and pink panties and fucking run around on a fucking golf cart. No, that ain't me, man. But no, really, guys. I like I said, thanks, thanks for letting me tell my my story, my craziness on here, and uh I appreciate all the support, man. And and you know, I I I just thank God, man. God yeah, it's he likes he likes messing with me, man. He really does. He's we're gonna have a good chat someday when I get up there. He's probably gonna hit me with a lightning bolt, but yeah, no, but I it's genuine, man. I tell you, I tell you, you guys know I don't I don't joke around with that stuff, it's it's serious. So thanks, thanks everybody. The support's awesome. Thanks for all your help. Thanks for letting me pick your brains. Don't be hurt if I didn't single you out to ask you something. It's more of just uh trying to keep things on a simple basis. I know. Well, well, hold on, hold on, Frank. What did I say that night? Mike called about the deer, right? Holy I said, holy chip. Well, he called he called Frank first. He called Frank first, then he called me, and I was like, Holy shit, Mike actually called me. And he's like, Yeah, and I said, That's cool. He does he he believes in me.

SPEAKER_04: 36:39

He wants to know I exist.

SPEAKER_03: 36:43

And it you know, it's the crazy thing, like the last two weeks for me has been it's been uh just uh you know whirlwind of emotions. I you know, everyone knows from last episode and and everything like that, but like, and not to like of course when things go right, you know, everybody, everybody knows, but you know, there is so much knowledge, you know. At the end of the day, you've been outing just I mean, so many more you know, years than me, and there's just so much knowledge. So, like when things come down to the nitty-gritty of like who I really like at the end of the day, my grandpa, my grandpa's no longer here. And like I could ask my cousin or my uncle, but they they're not bow hunters, you know. I mean, they they were they you know gun hunt and everything like that. So, like, besides like you, if I could I could always you know call Gerard and ask him his pick, his brain and everything like that, but everyone else is like doesn't have the experience, especially for hunting YouTube. I think from who I personally know like that and have the most hunting experience. So, like on something like that, who I am I who am I going to call? It's it's you know, one of my first phone calls is going to be squatch because I really want to pick his brain up. All right, what what went wrong here? Like, let's dissect, and he's gonna dissect it. And he even ended up calling me back after he goes, Oh, I blew up on the big screen and everything like that. And this is what we we have here, and everything like that. So we're able to do that. I I actually was able to find that arrow the the two days the next day, I think the next day or whatever it was. Um, I fully believe that deer is still alive and and well, and everything like that. I think it just clipped the bottom of his brisket. And and this is a crazy thing, people. And I I replay this shot in my head constantly. And I know uh Frank and Squatch, you guys were talking about last night on on your show and everything like that. Of you know, Frank has had the issue of deer uh jumping the string and everything like that. No, this deer did not do what you would think a deer is going to do, especially at 50 yards. Nope. Right? If he would have jumped the string, I think he would have jumped real right into that pocket where it would have been a great shot. The fact that he didn't react until I think the arrow was literally like right on him or or or or already like touching him, which is which is crazy. Like everyone you look at every video, aim here, aim here. You always want to aim lower, and you know what? 99 of the time, you're probably a hundred percent right. That I got that one percent of that deer did not drop when he was supposed to drop, right? Shit happens. Um, you know, so we we go we go from there, and I'm like, I'm on a mission at this point. Um, you know, I I hunted that spot like I think one more time, not the same action, everything like that, which which is okay. And I moved on and I went to to get my number one target buck at that point. Um, he had showed up on camera and he too had taken a shot, and he has a big scar or a big wound on honestly, looks like a perfect if it was maybe an inch lower. I think that I'm I'm surprised that deer survived. Like I I generally it does like I have hit deer that high at but I guess at an angle, it depends on you know the distance of shot. And the guy said he was at 50 when he shot that deer. So um I just the the problem there is I'm limited on what I can do, and everyone knows like I love to run and gun and I love to move, and I'm very I'm very such a mobile hunter. Um, and that's with my cameras and just myself. Like I I put on the miles and I just get new trees. So if I'm gonna find a deer, I like to go find a deer, and then I'm able to move on him, especially at this time of the year. Um, I wasn't able to do that with this deer, and then that kind of made me uncomfortable because like it was a waiting game, and I just had to sit there and wait. Where I believe he's betting, there's two two uh possible spots. One is a golf course, which is highly possible, but I can't go on, and then one is up a uh rock cliff that the guy said when he shot that deer, he actually went up that cliff. Um, and then there's private houses all over there. So I was kind of at that situation of just just sitting there. Um, and it came out morning hunts are great, deer removing everything like that, and then it would go dead, not much food in there, and everything like that. And the the day before, and I'm sitting there and I watch these five does from the golf course, and I'm like, all right, there's gonna be a buck chasing them. Like, all right, cool. I want, and they worked all the way to where I wanted to go the next very day and set up a spot. And maybe like 15 minutes later goes by, and I look behind me, and all five of them are probably like 50 yards behind me. And I'm like, all right, God, this is this is if this happens, it's it's going to happen. If this deer, and I don't shoot deer, deer during the rut, but there's just so many does in this area, so it's like, all right, let's let's do it. I said the last doe, whatever it is, it could be the biggest, it could be the smallest one, it's getting an arrow. Like, I just want to take the last one out. Four of them come by, they're feeding right in front of me. The fifth one comes, I get the cameras all set up. She stops, maybe like 15 yards. I put it on her, and I just I let it just fly right through her shoulder. Got her lungs in her in her in her heart, and she takes off, and she does a big loop and drops. Maybe I get it on film, she drops like 30 yards away, and I'm pumped up. Um, I'm fired up. Like you would have thought I shot a big buck. Like you generally would have thought I shot a big buck. Oh my god, yeah, I'm still trying to be quiet because just in case of deer, but I'm shaking my hands. I'm fired up. I called Bianca, I'm like, let's go. I go, but now we're gonna, I'm gonna let it sit. And you know, I I watched a video from Growing Deer TV, and they shoot a lot of doe's during the rut. And what they do is they're like, we leave it there for we'll shoot it and leave it there. And they've had bucks come in and scent check that dough and even try to mount that dough. They don't care. Like, I've seen videos of they run does like to death, and they're still trying to get at them and everything like that. So that fresh sign, I sat there for a while, nothing was coming, so I was like, all right, let me get down. I'm gonna gut her open, I'm gonna throw in the truck, put her on ice, and I'm gonna climb right back into a tree. Um and got her to the butcher, everything like that. Happy. Uh I was super happy. Like, all right, net, we're really on a roll. I'm on a roll. I feel good. We got a new killing hat here. I always, always my thing is I have, I think, four killing hats right now that have all killed multiple deer on it, and I rotate my hats. Everyone knows I'm a big hat guy. Um, and when I feel that luck, it's like, all right, this is it. So this hat was riding the wave. So the next day, I'm like, all right, I'm not gonna hunt the morning. I'm gonna get up, whatever, and I'm gonna go check a camera that for some reason was not sending me pictures at all. And I know there's a lot of deer in there, I know there's a big deer, there's big deer in there. Um, and I was like, this is weird. I know you know, I'm gonna just go pull that set for my saddle and I'm gonna go put it in the in one of the um the river beds where I know that giant buck cruises through. I get there, I'm on the phone with Bianca, ha ha ha, whatever, yada yada yada. I get to my my sticks and I hear this like weird. Like, I'm like, what the hell is that? Like, that's all you hear. And I'm like, what the fuck? And then next thing I know, there's a buck that comes 15 yards from me while I'm on the ground, looks at me for a second, and then just goes back doing what I'm doing. I'm like, I'm like, oh shit. I'm like, all right, like let me climb up in the tree real quick. Let's let's see what I can see. I climb up, then next thing I know, there's another buck behind me, and uh and and a much bigger buck, and I'm like, oh, like that's a shooter right there. Like he's behind me. I get him on film and everything like that. I'm like, I'm texting the boys, I got deer like all around. I'm like, oh hell no, it's like I'm not pulling this set. I go up here tonight. So I'm like, all right, let me get down. I checked the camera. Basically, what happened was I guess when I exchanged the batteries, popped it in. I guess I didn't fully pop it in, and I guess majority of it, like a small amount was still out, so I was getting no pictures since Halloween. Um because my own my own fault, I didn't push it all the all the way in, right? Popped it in, and I'm heading out, and then across the river is a giant six-pointer. The six-pointer that I that I really wanted to to kill, and I'm like, oh, I'm like, I'm like, yeah, let me hurry up. I get I get the going, I get all my stuff. I'm like, Bianca, I'm calling you right now because I'm not calling you until I kill something. Like, when I kill when I call you next, it's gonna be killing something. I texted that you know, Zach, I'm talking to Zach. Same thing. I'm like, listen, I'm going in, I'm killing a deer. So I I head back in. I see an another buck in the river chasing a doe. I'm like, oh baby, it's it's freaking on. I got Gerard's um the rat getter hot, hot to trot. I spray the foods. I spray that. I even have my um my ruts up. I'm spraying that. So I'm just the sprays are going right now. Like I'm trying to make it as smelly as I possibly can in this area. And I get into a tree, get all set up. And now, mind you, this set doesn't I don't have platforms in this set, so I just put my sticks in there, and I have what I did was there the the screw-in ones that you can screw in. Yeah, I love those, those are gonna be something that's gonna be added to my every year hunt because that's what I did is I basically made a ring of steps around with just those screw on things. If I want to stay light, I can and I used a hunt where I I didn't use sticks or anything like that, and I just screwed them all the way up uh in the early season, and that's how I hunted. Simple, very simple. I loved it. Um, and that's what I did. Now, at first, I only had the two, and I had a good six pointer where Frank was like, Yeah, I probably would have shot that fucking I go. Frank, if I could have, I would have. I uh my goal is to shoot a six that's exact looks exactly like that. The only thing is where he came in, he came on my offhand side. So I tried to move around, and I didn't have I didn't yet set up the third uh screw so I could step over and have that shot on the on the opposite side because I can't stand up because I only have the sticks on like the platform where you can stand up and and shoot on your offhand side and everything like that. So that deer goes by. I'm like, oh let me let me do this real quick. Let me, I was like, all right. And I think I texted Frank. I was like, oh, I I or I texted you guys, like it's I got it. Like, if a deer comes on this angle, it's going down. Another deer comes by, and then we probably get to like 345, maybe four. I can't, and I look behind me, and there's a big buck, and I'm like, oh, it's a shooter. And now the the problem is, and I didn't get to get it on film, which sucks, is because he kept switching on which way he was gonna come on the side of my body, and he was beeling, but it looked like he was gonna come to the left. So I'm like, all right, like let me reposition. Then he switches where he's gonna come on my offhand side. So I'm like, I'm just gonna get the camera rolling, get some film of him walking in, and then I'm just gonna set it up, and and that's it. I forgot to turn on my overhead camera and everything like that. Rookie move by me, and this deer walks to five yards, five yards. So now at this point, too, I can't move to get my cameras all set up and everything like that. Any little movement more than me drawing my bow, because I drew my bow right when he was on top of me, right? Which was risky too. But that's I'm not passing up a five, I'm not passing up a five-yard shot, right? No, I put it on him, I look and I'm like, oh, like I I knew the minute and I just let it fly, it goes in, double lung, smoked his heart, he runs maybe 20 yards. I get the film on and he stops. And this is what my buck did last year, too, is they just stopped and all of a sudden he he got woozy. He tried going a little bit and then he just toppled over. I think he died within 45 seconds of me shooting him to him dropping and not moving after that. Um, and it was just on. I was so pumped up. Um extreme big. I think it's the body-wise, I think it's probably my second biggest uh body-wise buck, and and point-wise, he's my biggest point-wise buck. Um, I don't think he's as big as antler-wise as moose, but he's definitely taller than than Moose. And I am fired up, couldn't be happier. Um, you know, and it's just one of the easiest track job of my life. The the the back-to-back days of of killing the doe, which was nice because able to bring the truck up. This one, I actually had to work and to get out. Um, and it it was incredible. Shout out to my best friend for coming in and helping me drag and everything like that. But uh absolutely phenomenal. Um, the sever 2.0 hybrid did its thing and just absolutely delivered. Um broke another arrow. Um, you know, I'm down to I'm down to two arrows for the Hoyt, and I think three or four arrows for for the Matthews. But I got it, I got a call in today. So hopefully I'll be getting 12 new arrows within the next couple weeks. Uh, because the boy is off to Delaware um either tomorrow or Friday, and potentially Maine. But I will be if I go to Maine, I'll be with 30 odd six, so no, no, uh, no bow in my hand for for that one. But there's still tons of season left. I plan, I still plan on getting after it. PA Delaware. I just was talking to Frank. Last year I killed my buck and it was all waterfowl. This year, it there's something different about this year. Of I the woods just feel just magical and it just I don't know if we've just gotten cooler weather besides today. Today was a little warm, but for the most part, we've had that really cold temperature, that real fall deer hunting weather, and it only from the predictions only seems to get better and colder and everything like that. So I think it's gonna be an incredible year. Um, I I definitely need to thank um, you know, everyone from from the team to my family and and friends and everything like that, especially the the family. They take up a big slack of I'm on, I think, sit number, I think I've sat 43 times this year. I think that was sit number 43, and I'm trying to break a hundred this year with deer, waterfowl, everything like that. Last year I got to 70 something. So if I can break a hundred this year, I'll be I'll be pretty happy. It's gonna slow down. Like I got the next couple weeks, and then it's it's it's gonna be slowed down. You know how it is, Frank. Once you know the holidays roll up and everything like that, it's it's just that time of the year. But boys, I mean, I I could go on and on about this deer, and there's probably some things I'm I'm just forgetting, but it's it feels good to be tagged out uh two years in a row in November. Sweet. I've I've killed the majority of my bucks in November. Um November for me is a great time. Um now I just I'm missing October, haven't killed a buck in October yet, and I'm looking to tag my first winter buck in the snow, is one of my goals, uh, for sure. And hopefully we can get we can get one more down in Delaware too. I'm gonna be running out of arrows, but it's all right. I'll I'll I'll man I'll manage if I have to use my knife, I'll I'll jump out the tree and just ride it and try to slit its slit its neck. But um uh I I just absolutely incredible. Um, all the boys from Connor to Squatch. Frank, I know you haven't gotten your buck yet, but brother, you know, it's coming.

SPEAKER_02: 54:33

It's coming, it's coming.

SPEAKER_03: 54:35

You know, some something that that we talked about in you know our early predictions. I even told you, I was like, listen, it's you had such a high last year, too. Like you were on fire last year. Like, literally, no, no one unless you are Lee Ellis or some of the guys where yeah, they get to travel, and the only thing they get to do is hunt. Yeah, they're gonna kill, they're gonna stay on fire every single year. But you know, for doing what you did last year was absolutely incredible. You still have the rest of the boat, pampermit, winter boat, and gun season, everything like that. Um, you knocked a few down last year for it with gun and everything like that, too, as well. So, like, you know, it's gonna happen. I know um Zach Zach's out in Oklahoma right now, so we're hoping for for good news from from him and everything like that. He started off hot, and I imagine he'll he'll get back there and and and get hot and everything like that. And you know, the the rest of the guys were we're really pulling for Craig uh to get one. I know he's had a few good encounters and everything like that. So hopefully soon he he knocks one down, knocks one down, and then some of the other guys too. Uh, I think everybody else except for the the other Connor um has has knocked one down. Um, and I talked to him yesterday. He's just been super busy at work and everything like that. So it the time will come for the guys that haven't yet. Uh guys, there's still plenty of season left. I I mean we we're only on November 5th. Um I definitely have to agree, like there, there is oh, oh, before I forget, this is what I'm gonna say. And I love trail cameras, right? And I do, and I've I've known for the last couple years of how misleading they are, but it is like a needle in a haystack when you're talking about trail cameras. And I love Moultrie, I I love love them all, but it is I did not get one picture of one of those bucks on camera yesterday. Not one went past that camera. At this, especially this time of the year, I think how much you're actually missing, and if you're going off solely off your camera intel, you make things a hundred times harder for yourself. And I believe, and and I'll I'll say it again this is the time of the year to get super aggressive. If you were gonna make a bold, at least in my belief, if you're going to make a bold move, now is the time to make a bold move. Um yeah, because not one of those deer went past the the trail camera, and I think maybe that deer that I shot, he looked like he was going to it, so maybe we would have had one. I think he was going to that scrape, yeah. Right? So that's one at one of six deer went to that to that camera. And if I was just hunting off of that, I would have never have known. And who knows what the camera would have looked like the days while the battery pack wasn't out. Now, I do have cameras set up in transition and off trails and heavy heavily used trails, like you know, Squatch was talking about. Yeah, yep, and those are areas where the minute I see the first buck during shooting late, especially between 10 and 2 o'clock during this time of the year, that means there are multiple bucks usually in that area for me, and that's a spot where if you are going to sit, and now I've done it two years in a row. If you are going to sit, go out and sit. Your chances of encountering a big buck are just through the roof. You know, they're gonna get locked down in a little bit, probably though. Once that first dough, you know, I don't think any of my doughs have really gotten hot yet because I've seen so many damn doughs without anything even trailing, but also New Jersey and you two can uh Squatch and Connor, you guys can kind of talk about this because I don't know what it looks like in your area, but for Frank and us in New Jersey, our dough number two buck number is not even close, right? You know what I mean? So it it's not like it is out in the Midwest, where I do have heard where yeah, that that number is more balanced, so the bucks really do have to fight for what they what they have and everything like here versus us. They'll fight, but like rattling doesn't work for me. Snort wheezing works for me. Rattling doesn't work for me, and it really doesn't bring many deer in for me. Um may get a curious one, but usually not. It is the when you see a mature buck that snort wheeze, that big middle finger to that mature buck, that gets him going more for me than it does the the rattling. So I don't know what what you guys see see out there and what your dough number versus your dough ratio number looks like.

SPEAKER_01: 59:42

I I cut uh so the beginning of this last hiatus of being off. Uh, so it started Saturday. I cut down here by the house. I bumped a deer. There was a deer on my camera, it was a doe. And I I thought she cleared out by the time I got down there. She didn't. I ended up bumping her. She must have bedded down down there. When she went through right in front of me, it was like opening up a bottle of hot to try. I was like, wow, that dough is in heat. And I start seeing these bucks up here in the back, the young adolescent bucks, the six, and that that uh four or five, whatever he was the other morning. The doe came in first. And I had so there was a set of uh it was a mature doe and two yearlings were the first ones down. I had two more mature doe and then two more yearlings come down after that. Then that buck intercepted him coming through the bedding area. But he was like a lost puppy. He was just like, Oh, I smell something, I smell something, and he's you know going left and right, and he's got his head down, and he he was just trying to scent check those dough. So I this is lack of experience on his part, probably chasing, but they're starting to get hot here. I mean, without a doubt. Um, the buck that I shot, his hawks were not black, but they were dark brown, and you know, he he was musty, so I mean he's in rut, okay. And I want to just go back, Mike, to what you were saying about the trail camera thing, okay? Hear me out on this, and it may only work for me, but it's a suggestion. I set cameras for my homeboys, like the the bucks that I know that are staying here, my general population of what's here, they're on runs, okay? And I know, like, basically from hunting that area, I know where they are, and I watch their movement. I also set up cameras off the beaten path. That it's a secondary idea that I might have in my head, and I go, Well, maybe when the ruck kicks in, that buck's gonna shift to this pattern and come through here. And today, I got a young eight on the other another property that I hunt. That that camera has just been crap. I mean, I've had it's been there since July. I think I've had a total of like three bucks on it the whole time it's been out. But at like 11:30 this move this afternoon, he was there, and I'm like, okay, there you go. Now your other cameras have been quiet, but you know, this buck shows up just out of nowhere in that spot. So it's just stuff to keep in the back of your mind. Yes, you want to try to pattern a buck and try to timestamp them. If you can set cameras up to timestamp a buck like I have set up here, just imagine I have cameras from east to west in the property. So if he crosses a camera low, he gets high. I've got 20 minutes in between that camera. I know he went up through that way. I can timestamp him. So it just gives me an area of direction of travel. That's that's all I'm trying to say. But also on that, I've got cameras set back further than that, like on a different area, because if I think he's gonna do something funky, I'll catch him on that. And then I know, okay, that typical pattern is now broke. We gotta start going in other directions here. We gotta get off that typical path, and let's go find out what's going on. So it's just it's food for thought. Don't always try to set your cameras up, like you know, time stamping cameras, set some up off the beaten path, put them where you just don't even think something's even gonna come, and you may be surprised you'll learn something from it, and that's you know, I don't want to take up too much. Connor hasn't really spoken. Connor, talk about what you're seeing too, with with everything going on because I know you've got a lot of Midwest action. You had some tonight, actually.

SPEAKER_02: 1:04:00

Yeah, uh, just an absolute stud a point. Um, probably the last 40 minutes of light. Um, I I would have had a shot, um, but I was obviously fortunate, as you boys know, to take a nice big eight last week. Um, but yeah, it would have been a 40-40 five-yard shot, had no idea I was there, it was perfect. He came in from uh the north, yeah, and the wind was out of the west-northwest, so he had no idea I was there. Um, in terms of like the uh original question that Mike was asking, like in terms of buck to dough ratio, that's a really hard question for me to answer on on my buddy's uh farm, just because of the fact that there's just a massive public area to the north. Um, my buddy's property is not, I don't think there's a lot of deer that actually bed there. Um, there's one main bedding area that I've sat a couple of times, actually where where I was tonight, but there's absolutely no way in hell you can get to that stand in the morning uh because you're gonna bump them out of there. That's the one main area I know um of bedding. And as I was saying before the show started, you know, I've seen a number of doughs, you know, on camera, whether they're nocturnal, some during the day, whatever, but there's been no consistency. And as I said at the start of the show, I have not seen a single dough yet in all of my sits. It everything has been a buck. And then tonight that absolute stud came through. We thought it was initially, I thought it was the wide 10 that ran behind me at 50 yards on October 28th, literally, like 10 minutes after I shot my buck. But then I looked back at it when I got home, and sure enough, I was like, holy cow, this is this is a totally different deer. Plus, I remembered that uh the wide 10 has a kind of like a unicorn goofy uh brow tyne on one side, and these were both jetting out. I'm like, no, this is a brand new deer. So I can't answer that about this property. That that's one of the things that's frustrating is I know there's a shitload of does out there in 3,000 acres of that marsh, but they just you know, they just you know, and it's been that way early season. I'll I'll see a couple here and there, but this year I didn't. Um now I did, I think I in the text last weekend, I just picked up uh that small parcel on one of our good friends who owns another farm. And you know, he I brought it up to him um probably like four months ago and just asked him about his property. And you know, as you guys saw in that picture to the north, he's got massive ag fields there, plants everything under the sun. Um, but if you look at the woods, there's there's woods across the street that's kind of like a kind of funnel. There's probably 10 acres of corn, and then you cross the road, and he's like, Connery's like, I don't, you know, and of course he's farming all the time. He's like, I don't know if it's that I don't pay attention, but he's like, I don't really ever see a ton of deer. Now, if you look at it on Onyx from a higher aerial view, you could be like, Okay, yeah, I could see why he would say that. But one of my buddies taught me um four or five years ago, he said, Don't ever overlook a small patch of woods like that. He's like, Those are those are the patches, and it's not just the rut. He's like, There could be a giant that lives there or knows that patch of woods and will always come through there during the rut. So he's like, You can see a field that's like 50 acres of corn or beans, and there's literally just a fence row of oaks or poples or whatever. And he's like, I'm telling you, people would look at that and laugh if you told them you were you had a set there, and he's like, But I'm telling you, so I'm really excited about uh this property for next year. Um, you know, the the camera thing is is something I'm kind of going a different direction. Uh everything you guys said before, I I absolutely agree with. You know, for me, like the the camera sometimes I almost think it it's plays tricks on you a lot of the time. And of course, yeah, it's it's very hard to pattern deer again on this property. It's just it's a really different farm, it's harder to describe. Um, but you know, that was how I changed my strategy um last week when I got that buck. I was like, you know, going in here, um, especially once the corn is down, which it came down today, it's next to impossible to get in there for a morning sit because you're gonna they're gonna bugger out of the field. Well, what I what I what I did last week, it worked. I you know, a lot of people say, Oh, they don't go in an hour before, but they'll go in kind of at that gray light. I waited, I didn't get on stand. I was set in my stand at 9 14. And then literally 20 minutes later is when my buddy texted me from one of the other cameras, only about 200 yards from me, and that's when that hot dough came through, and then those and then those five different bucks, and then it was less than an hour later. I shot it. So I'm kind of at the point, you know, with this new property, I'm gonna definitely put a few cameras in there. But on my buddy's farm, I've kind of gotten to the point where it's like it's it's so frustrating to see like the inventory that you get, and then to your point, squatch, you know, things totally change the fall patterns, the rug, whatever. But I almost kind of like I said to my wife, I was like, I think I'm just gonna pull cameras, you know, from our friends. She's like, Why? I'm like, I almost kind of just I get frustrated, and I was like, Nobody knows that more than you when I come home f-bombing this and that. And I was like, part of me is like the element of surprise. Like, I almost want to for one season, yeah, put a single camera out there and just have no idea like what could be there. Now that can suck in case, yeah, you could shoot a really nice buck, but then there's another one that comes through 10 minutes later that you had no idea was even there.

SPEAKER_03: 1:10:36

So it's like a catch 22, which, if you're gonna do that, makes Jersey so great. But I will say this. I wish now more than ever that Jersey was just a two bucks state, any weapon, and not and not because of you know whatever, but one I feel super depressed now that I I'm not chasing deer. When you sent those videos, I was like, the only thing I want to do is be in the tree right now.

SPEAKER_02: 1:11:09

I literally Mike, I literally picked my bow up. I kid you not, and I was about to like put my release on the D loop, and I'm and then in in my mind, I'm like, Connor, what are you doing? Like both my butt, you know, my buddy that owns the property, and the one other guy have their tags, but they don't they're not like we are, like they hunt, but they're my other buddy, he's like a hardcore musky and walleye fisherman. He you know, would bowl on it since he was a kid, but that's not his true passion. Yeah, and I was like, God damn, I was like, I want to hammer this thing. I mean, this thing is a stud, and then I was like, I can't do that. That would be the ultimate dick move. Now, later, you know, after the rut, I'm sure both of them would say, Hey, you know, you if you see one, get them, and you know, we'll do what we need to do. Hopefully, the DNR isn't listening. Um, but anyway, um, yeah, so that it's just it's kind of exciting, you know, with you know, getting finding a new property for next year. And again, it's very good friends of ours. So he's like, Yeah, you can do whatever you want. So, um, so yeah, we'll see. Uh I'd like to see more does because that was my goal tonight. I you know, I wanted to, you know, I picked up a fourth arrow camera arm, so I was just kind of starting to get into that and and learn the ropes of how to be able to film while on stand because that that's very new to me, very new to me. So yeah, that was my goal is to try to just get some you know cool rut footage if anything came out, or to shoot a doe.

SPEAKER_03: 1:12:45

But it's just like you saw I could have shot two hens tonight, but I'll I'll tell you, and you know, I've I've talked about it with Frank and you know a bunch of because you know, for me now, I've been filming now for probably the law the longest by far out of out of out of the crew and everything like that. And you know, I do pride myself in in my filming abilities and everything like that, but yeah, I straight up tell people it is one of the most difficult things. Now, I love I love filming for for many reasons, but it does add a whole different challenge to hunting. Now, yet again, if I was getting paid, I would not have been able to shoot that buck yesterday because it wasn't on film, right? So, like, I'm still in that that mindset, and you know, Frank and I've had this conversation. Like, if you got a we we don't have the ability to pass deer because it's not on film, but when you watch a lot of these big shows, yeah, they're able to pass deer because they don't have it. Oh, it's not not in the frame or or or whatever the case is because they're they're fumbling around. Now, for instance, I didn't have John with me today. We do have it interned and everything like that, but you know, I don't think that set would have really worked with with him also in the tree. So, like, I was actually kind of grateful. Um, and and I might have had to to pick a different tree and everything like that. But filming is you're going to find out, I I love it, but it is the most frustrating thing. It's you gotta keep your batteries always charged. Big key to anyone out there. Yep, do not leave your batteries in your truck during the early season. You can because it's not that cold out. But the minute it starts getting cold out, you bring all your camera stuff. So I have all my camera stuff and everything like that. I bring it back and forth, which is a pain in the ass, right? Two setting up, setting up is going to take you at least 15 to even 30 minutes longer than you normally would, especially if you're shooting b-roll while you're setting up. And I do, I haven't done it as much this year, but usually in the years I am setting up and also shooting b-roll, me climbing up, climbing down, doing this, doing that. So give yourself time always to and you know the third for me, which usually helps, except for yesterday, was my secondary cam usually catches way more film than my main camera in those instances. For some reason, yet again, I just was my the brain was not thinking, and I've honestly never have not turned on my b-roll camera to to shoot something, and I just didn't yesterday. Um, whatever. But it it's just one of those, and the camera arms, they're they're annoying. I like to be quick, quiet, and everything like that. So I how I set my stuff up and everything, but you're going to eventually find your own way to do it and how you're comfortable at it. How you're comfortable at it is gonna probably be different than how Frank is for me as how squatch is how how all the other guys do it. But just like everything else in hunting, nothing works how it says it's actually going to work.

SPEAKER_01: 1:16:11

Well, that was the other thing, too, with with with the camera set up. Um, I bought that Insta360. So you're you've got, like you're saying, your b-roll camera, your secondary camera over your head. Dude, that thing is so freaking amazing. I had it set up on those mounts, Frank, that we use for the cell cameras.

SPEAKER_03: 1:16:32

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:16:32

I had it screwed in on that on the limb. That you can in the editing when you go in, you just scroll, and it's it's already taken that 360 picture, so you can just turn it to CU. Like, you could see me drew drawing back on the deer. You can see the deer down in front of me, and then in the editing, like you know, that deer ran off to the right side of the frame, ran down the trail. Just in the editing, I just scroll over now. It's like the cameraman just turned. The the 360 thing is a game changer, man. For filming, I don't have no fancy arms, I just got that little thing and it worked. It worked great. I was really happy with the setup.

SPEAKER_03: 1:17:10

Yep, I'm looking in to get one too now.

SPEAKER_01: 1:17:12

And and the yeah, the other thing, like I said, with the pressure of everything, that was another thing Frank got on me about. He told me, Do you see those bottles over his shoulder there on the on the wall? That's why rack getter. He said, Oh, yeah, not only do I want you to go out and shoot a buck, I don't want to hear this bull crap. You can't get one. If you don't get footage of it, I'm gonna squirt that rack getter stuff in your mouth.

SPEAKER_02: 1:17:34

Yep. That's what he told me in his eyes, too. I said he didn't hear that part.

SPEAKER_01: 1:17:39

My eyes, my eyes, forgot about that part. So I had to get the footage too. So I ended up getting the footage and shooting a buck. Well, Frank's threats.

SPEAKER_03: 1:17:51

Yep. But all right, boys, we're we're let's let's end it here because we're we're getting a long one, guys. Uh, announcements. Stay looking out for the announcement to our game dinner. I'm gonna talk about it with the team in the next probably couple days, or maybe even real quick running by them now. But I should be announcing the date probably within the end of November. We're hopefully gonna have the date set and matched and everything like that. We're looking to do a little earlier this year than than usual, way earlier than what we've done before. Um, just because we keep doing it during the trout season and also lacrosse season and all these other sports and everything like that. So hopefully we'll we'll be doing it earlier. So stay a lookout for that. Everyone, good luck out there, boys. Congratulations. Um, everyone stay safe. Happy rut, happy uh November. Hopefully, the boys can can keep it up and we can uh stay slaying and and Frank can uh stop being an asshole to to swatch and maybe he'll maybe maybe he'll get it there. Um but we'll but we'll see we'll see.

SPEAKER_01: 1:19:02

Um we may have to look at the uh the the the the uh cruise you know updates too because there's gonna probably be a squatch support group from all the abuse I take from Frank.

SPEAKER_03: 1:19:14

Hey, what one episode we might have we might have to have a boondocks hunting uh court session where Frank's uh for the court and everything like that. Yep, he can't prove shit. Oh no, I got text. I got text for him. Yep, yep, yep. Frank's gonna sneak into your house and uh delete or just throw your phone away.

SPEAKER_01: 1:19:38

Yeah, yeah, he probably he probably got hitmen, if I know he's one of those jersey boys, you know. He's gonna the Goombas are gonna come to my house.

SPEAKER_03: 1:19:51

All right, everyone. Hope you guys enjoyed this episode, and we'll see you guys next week.