Hunts On Outfitting Podcast
Stories! As hunters and outdoors people that seems to be a common thing we all have lots of. Join your amateur guide and host on this channel Ken as he gets tales from guys and gals. Chasing that trophy buck for years to an entertaining morning on the duck pond, comedian ones, to interesting that's what you are going to hear. Also along with some general hunting discussions from time to time but making sure to leave political talks out of it. Don't take this too serious as we sure don't! If you enjoy this at all or find it fun to listen to, we really appreciate if you would subscribe and leave a review. Thanks for. checking us out! We are also on fb as Hunts on outfitting, and instagram. We are on YouTube as Hunts on outfitting podcast.
Hunts On Outfitting Podcast
Tales Of Triumph And Strategy: Ken, Ryan, And Logan's Deer Hunting Adventures
What does it take to have a successful deer hunting season? Join Ken Marr, along with friends Logan and Ryan, as they unravel tales of triumph, close calls, and the meticulous planning that shaped their hunting adventures. From Ryan's quest to down a deer with his grandfather's old PSE Nova bow to Ken's strategic stalking of an elusive buck, listeners are treated to stories of dedication, practice, and the emotional highs that come with hitting the mark. Discover how Ryan's nightly routine of shooting 50 to 100 arrows not only honed his skills but also deepened his connection to his hunting heritage.
The episode also delves into the unpredictable nature of hunting across varied landscapes, including Ken's unexpected buck encounter on public land during a frosty November morning. The satisfaction of spotting a seven-point buck serves as a testament to the importance of adapting to new environments and conditions. Meanwhile, the camaraderie and humor shared among these passionate hunters are evident through anecdotes of dragging deer with tractors and the shared laughter that lightens the challenges of preparing food plots.
As the conversation unfolds, the focus shifts to strategies and new techniques aimed at enhancing future hunts. Ken and his friends explore everything from the advantages of trail cameras to the art of calling, promising an engaging experience akin to a duck blind, but for deer. Whether you're a seasoned hunter or someone curious about the thrill of the chase, this episode captures the essence of hunting through personal stories, humor, and the promise of more memorable adventures to come.
Check us out on Facebook and instagram Hunts On Outfitting, and also our YouTube page Hunts On Outfitting Podcast. Tell your hunting buddies about the podcast if you like it, Thanks!
this is hunt on outfitting podcast. I'm your host and rookie guide, ken meyer. I love everything hunting the outdoors and all things associated with it, from stories to howos. You'll find it here. Welcome to the podcast. Okay, thanks so much for tuning in. We greatly appreciate it. We'd appreciate it even more so if you guys like these podcasts in any way, shape or form. Just share us out with friends, family. You know that's always helped and if you have time, leave us a rating review on Apple Music or Spotify. It helps a lot just to get the podcast out there to more people like yourselves that could possibly enjoy it.
Speaker 1:So I love when a plan comes together and in the hunting world when it comes to wild animals and unpredictable weather, that rarely happens. But today on the podcast we will hear that sometimes prior preparation and planning that prevents piss, poor performance, aka having a plan it does come together sometimes. So with a little bit of luck and hard work, we will find out about that today in these stories about some deer taken this year by myself and two of my friends, let's get into it. So a tale of three bucks that is what we are talking about today on the podcast. Joining me are the people that if you listen to episode 33 on the podcast which you don't have to, but if you did, you'll recognize these people's voices who I have with me because we talked about, among other things we talked about our fall season chat and updates one. We're talking about goose, we're talking about coon hunting and all that, and we also talked about we had a plan for this year's deer season and we all kind of stuck to our plan this year and it came together. We all got bucks.
Speaker 1:We are going to start off with who's talking. We're going to go around the room Myself, Ken, who's next to me? Logan, Logan, Elliot, Okay, Logan, quick thing about you. These guys have been on the podcast many times before, but if this is your first time listening in, just get to know these guys real quick. Logan, farm salesman. Next, we've got.
Speaker 3:Ryan Wasilius.
Speaker 1:And Ryan is the farmer that Logan makes the sales to. So how convenient. So, yeah, guys, we had a good deer season. Who wants to go first with their deer story, their deer success story?
Speaker 1:well, ryan, you got your deer first, so I did, yeah, I did my first so, ryan, when we were talking before on the podcast, when we were doing our fall season chat, um, you had talked about uh, you planned this year, you planned on shooting it with a bow. That was your goal, that was your big thing and you made it happen. But there's a few things that had to come together to make that happen. So you want to start us from the beginning. You started practicing a lot. You were shooting. How many arrows were you shooting a night?
Speaker 3:I probably shot 50 to 100 arrows a night through the summer.
Speaker 1:That's a lot. That's a lot of commitment.
Speaker 3:I had time in the evenings and it was something to do, I guess. You had time to shoot, literally yeah yeah, yeah, just shoot the shit, I guess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right, uh, so you're doing a lot of shooting with your bow and you weren't using a real big, state-of-the-art bow, you were shooting. What are you shooting?
Speaker 2:uh, it's an old psc I don't even know the old psc, it's psc nova the psc nova.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was. My grandfather's bow is what it was, and uh yeah, we didn't even know it doesn't?
Speaker 1:we were all pulling it back. Logan, you got more experience with bows than anybody. I couldn't even guess the draw weight on it, because ryan didn't know and I pulled it back and I was like I don't know either.
Speaker 2:I'm 55 no, it was like we kind of played with it about 65 it was about 65 yeah, I think we had cranked down about a half turn to about 65, but okay, I was guessing, yeah, between 55 and 60.
Speaker 1:So I guess.
Speaker 3:Logan had set it up for me over the winter. I guess we kind of tuned it up a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we were playing with some, got some arrows and got it locked in Because we've been at Ryan to buy a new bow for two or three years. He said, nope, I got to get one more deer with my grandfather's bow.
Speaker 1:So Ryan's in the bow shopping market. If anyone has any suggestions let us know, because you're not brand particular, you're just whatever works.
Speaker 3:I want to shoot something comfortable. I guess I'm not real picky, I guess.
Speaker 1:You guys kind of run your farm like that. You guys aren't brand loyal, just whoever has the best service and comfortable. Best service and best deal, yeah, that's right, that's how you shop for your bows. Um, so you, that was the first thing. You're you know lots of practice, lots of shooting. Then the second thing you actually spent a little money on this deer season.
Speaker 3:You went out and, uh, you got a ground blind yeah, I got a ground blind only because of so, through the summer I ran a lot of trail cameras and I was. We have a couple different properties and I was running cameras between the different properties and then, I think it was around end of August, I finally got a picture of a deer that showed up out of nowhere and all of a sudden that was kind of the deer I tried to lock into.
Speaker 3:I was hunting in a spot that I'd never hunted deer before, and there was really no big trees around, so that's why I thought Behind your house.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you'd never hunted there before. Never hunted there before. Okay, okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a 100-acre block, 70 acres of corn, and then there's a little four or five-acre grass field and that's where this deer was crossing before it would go out to the corn.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, I mean you had a great spot there, and then down in the woods too, there's even, like this, thick woods for bedding and for cover, and then there's even a brook in there. I mean it's pretty ideal, yeah, even though there's a lot of hunting pressure all around. That was part of why you wasn't it? You really put the push on to get this deer in bow season, because here in New Brunswick our bow season starts. Is it two or three weeks, three, three weeks before rifle season, just to give the bow hunters that little bit of advantage. I guess you could say and you knew with the amount of hunting pressure around you, ryan that if you didn't get them during bow season, you probably weren't going to get them.
Speaker 3:There was. I think there's four or five other guys probably within 500 yards of where I was hunting. There that would hunt rifle season. No one was. No one was around during bow season. So there's no pressure at all and the deer are acting very, very natural.
Speaker 1:Right, they were in their, their habits. They're, uh, as predictable as animals could be.
Speaker 3:I guess you could say yeah, Well, I, when I was hunting and when I was seeing this cause I seen the deer, I think six or seven times before the night that I actually shot him and he would come out relatively the same spot, relatively the same time. And you know, it took that one time, I guess from a slip up early, but I was hunting in between a grass field and cornfield, right on the side of kind of a pond.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so everything Ponds in there too yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, everything kind of met right there, so everything kind of naturally funneled to that area.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah, yeah and then you end up having to move your blind because, remember, you know you're giving me and Logan updates. You're like, oh, I saw him again last night. He was 100 yards, he was 150. This time he was 60, but the wind was blowing a lot and I wasn't feeling good about the shot. Like he kept. You were seeing him steady. It's just getting that blind moved and trying to predict you know where is he going to pop out at it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it took. I hunted, I only hunted, I think 12, it was 14 sits in 12 days is what I hunted this year and the first five sits. I was set up in completely the wrong spot and I think I seen him I guess on the fourth set or the fifth set, whatever it was and I seen him come out, probably 600 yards from me.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And then it was like well, it 600 yards from me. Yeah, and then it was like well, it's a little far for a bow a little bit. And it was the next day that I pretty much I completely moved all my stuff and then set up in this spot next to the pond right there, because I was kind of setting up in a spot where I I don't know why I picked the spot. Really I had a really good cover there and I thought that's where that deer was bedding at.
Speaker 1:But the wind was good too.
Speaker 3:There was it not yeah, the wind was really good. Where the blind was set up was almost in a bit of a hole, so, yeah, it was really only my shoulders and head sticking up, so I was really really well hidden. But yeah that's just not where that deer wanted to travel right.
Speaker 1:So I mean, yeah, you had to move it around a few times and then on the night that it did all come together, I mean because, remember, you were getting closer and closer and this was your target buck that you've had pictures of, and all that I remember, was it the night just is? A few weeks before, uh, deer season, we were out coon hunting and then, after we were done with the coon hounds cause they do not affect the deer movement you had, was it that buck on camera?
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:That night yeah, it was like what half an hour after we left.
Speaker 2:There was one morning you didn't hunt in those 14 days too, and it was out right at 30 yards when you were working.
Speaker 3:No, I wasn't even working. I took the morning off to go duck hunting. Oh, that's right, I was sitting in the duck blind and I have the tactic cam so that cell camera sends you pictures to your phone. Yeah, and I was like I might take a look at this. Anyways. He was standing in front of the blind. That's the first time he daylighted in the season and he was standing 30 yards in front of my blind that's all.
Speaker 1:That's how it is the logan that happened to you last year too.
Speaker 2:This happened to me this season. I got to work. We were out goose hunting last year and then oh yeah, ryan convinced me to go duck hunting and that hunting and then we get back and you're like and then Logan gets so mad he just threw his phone into a cornfield he's like well that was smart.
Speaker 3:But it would not have been the blind you were at.
Speaker 2:No, and that's the way it works, too right, still dumb, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So then, the night that you did get him, ryan, you just kept moving and you were seeing him steady, steady enough.
Speaker 3:I only moved it once. I was sitting in this spot here for I don't know how long it was, but I was seeing him almost every night and he would either be a little bit too far and then there was three or four times where I had him come and I could see him come in for probably 90 yards.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And then by the time he got to me, or by the time I seen him even come out of the woods and get into the field, it was dark, right, and I would just there's nights. I sat probably an hour or two after dark just waiting for him to feed and leave.
Speaker 1:Okay, Almost sounds like some illegal activity but, we're going to take your word and your story for it. That's what you were doing, just waiting for him to leave. Um, good thing he had a bit of time to kill then.
Speaker 3:Well, I, I had, I, I had worked out well that I had the time and I didn't want to spook that deer. I was really I was spooking it, so I was really careful with how I was accessing my blind. Yeah, I paid a decent amount of attention to scent and I never spooked that deer once when I was hunting, which worked out well.
Speaker 1:You hear about that a lot too. People like they're watching the deer, okay, it's not what they're after. So you know, darkness comes, they get out, bam scares them, the deer all blowing, tails up and everywhere and all that. You do that so many times when you're leaving and like, yeah, they, they will, kind of they'll change, they just won't come in there, so it does happen. Yeah, that's why, um, yeah, entry and exits important.
Speaker 3:Where stand plate with stand placement and I and I had a lot of does, and I had a couple other smaller bucks that were always around too when I was. I treated them all the same where I like. I want everything to stay as natural as it possibly can, cause there's no one else in the woods around the stands around me, so these deer don't feel any pressure. Yet I don't want to be the one thing causing pressure, making them leave.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So then the night that he finally did come in, was that the windy night. I can't remember if there's one that you're hunting, like it was no, it was not super windy, this was a really nice night okay, yeah it was.
Speaker 3:I think it was like it was fairly, it was relatively warm out even that night. We just got through a really big cold snap and then it kind of warmed up again and it was. It was an evening evening, so it was a sunday night.
Speaker 1:I think it was a second sun, second sunday or first sunday we can hunt on sundays here in New Brunswick up until December 31st.
Speaker 3:And it kind of was one of those things. I wasn't even going to go. I had a family over and we kind of planned out supper and then they were going to have supper about the same time I was leaving for the stand.
Speaker 1:It was the in-laws, wasn't it? Yeah, I was like well, I think I'm going to have supper. About the same time I was leaving for the stand, they're like oh, you're in laws, wasn't it?
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, I was like, well, I think I'm going to go hunt and they were just about to make supper. I'm like I guess I'll eat when I get back and turned up supper ended up being real late that night.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So he came out and you know obviously something was different. He kept getting closer and close enough for a shot.
Speaker 3:Yeah well, I was watching a smaller buck that was, I think he was like 30 yards in front of me and this one here come out at about 100 yards away. Anyway, as soon as they seen each other, they took a full sprint at each other and they started fighting.
Speaker 1:The little one.
Speaker 3:The little one and him.
Speaker 3:He wasn't that small, but he was smaller than what I was after yeah yeah, uh, at about 50 yards away and it was coming on dark, I was like, well, shit, they're 50 yards away and this had happened before a couple times already where they were just fight. Yeah, like I didn't. Maybe it's a little farther than 50 yards, it's probably about 80 yards away, where they would just fight like out of my comfortable range and then it would get dark and then they would come back in. But this night here they fought and he beat that little one down pretty quick and then they both came running in towards me.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, coming in just what to eat, or that was the trail.
Speaker 3:Uh, they just kind of fed everything, naturally fed that way, and then they would cross there into the cornfields.
Speaker 1:Okay, they would go to the cornfields. So how far was?
Speaker 3:I don't have the exact yardage, but I ranged him just before I'd shot. I'd ranged him and he was like 32 yards or something like that Okay, that's pretty good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's real close. So you drilled him and then was it. How far did he go?
Speaker 3:The shot was not great, but he did not go very far. He probably went. He went less than a hundred yards. I think he it would be like 50 yards. He went, okay. Then I found him in the woods at 15 yards. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You basically stepped in the woods, went over the first hill. He was just there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I stepped in the woods, seen a lot of blood, made a couple of phone calls and then got impatient. I was like I'll take three or four steps Cause I didn't want to bump him and it hadn't been very long since I shot I know, especially with bow, like you try to give. Just to step up on a little knoll in the woods and there he was laying there there he was, and then I hadn't told. The only person I guess I called was my father and my brother.
Speaker 1:Hadn't told any of the guys yet that I shot a deer. Yeah, because you messaged me or something. I was trying to call and it wasn't going, and then your phone had died.
Speaker 3:No, it never died. I was on like 2% battery. Oh okay, yeah, that to tell the guys, and I was like I don't want to individually message them all, so I just took a selfie with the deer yeah, I just set them up they had no idea, I shot or nothing like that, because I was yeah, and then you got six phone calls within 40 seconds yeah, had to make it short and sweet yeah, no, I remember getting that picture like, oh, geez, like it came together, but you had a plan, you stuck to it.
Speaker 1:You know you wanted to shoot a deer with a bow this year you did. And then you wanted to get that particular buck and you were working all summer and everything and yeah it came together and it worked, and that's what we talked about on our fall season chatting updates and you did it. Logan, you're next.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wanted to shoot a deer with a bow too. I didn't.
Speaker 1:No, but your plan. When we were talking like we were saying earlier, you were saying like the year before you were, you know, adapt and improvise and overcome. You were, you were ready to move your stand, you know what you had to do, you're able to move on the fly, and all that if need be. That's what you did the year before, and that's what you did this year too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it ended up working out like the first, the good first period of the season. I got my piece of property is kind of a long rectangle and I got two kind of separate plots in different spots and I was just kind of watching doe traffic. I don't have that many does that really cruise around my place, but the ones I did have were pretty steady in spots so I was kind of following them and just bow season was fairly slow in spots so I was kind of following them and just bow season was fairly slow on activity Few good bucks, of course, like day before I was off work 8.30 in the morning, get to work, get the picture on your phone. He's in front of the stand, just 10, 15 yards, just kind of never lined up in bow season. Rifle season came around and it was actually slower for me than last year and I was getting yeah, I remember you saying I was getting.
Speaker 1:I was just getting.
Speaker 2:It was like I think I shot mine Remembrance Day yeah, it was definitely Remembrance Day weekend. I think it was the Sunday Remembrance Day weekend or Monday, sunday, and I was getting really frustrated and every good picture I had a couple really really solid mature bucks come through and every single time I noticed cause my property's one big rectangle that jots out in one back corner and there's a piece of crown land that has a bit of a cut, old clear cut kind of to it.
Speaker 1:Crown being a public land.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just a public land, it's just a. It's a big pasture for cattle in summer but the backs all just kind of butts along my wood. So I just kind of I said screw it, I'm not getting anything on camera. Anything that does come through comes out of that side. There's gotta be deer around. I know there was, I just wasn't seeing them. So one afternoon, the day before I actually shot my deer, I said screw it. I got home from town and uh I just decided to grab a camera and just take a walk around the corner, just go looking for a sign, cause it was getting into rut. There was rut action. I knew there'd be rubs around somewhere. I just couldn't find them in the normal spots. I usually see them around home. And uh I walked about 200 yards from my food plot at one in the afternoon and uh, I wasn't even really paying attention. I and I wasn't even really paying attention.
Speaker 2:I was just kind of walking along Kicking rocks yeah basically, well, I just came over this little hump, about 200 yards from that food plot where I was hunting, and I spooked more deer than I've seen in one day all season, right on the corner, right into the woods.
Speaker 2:It was four does for sure, maybe one smaller buck, but anyway, I was like well, they're in the woods, I already scared them. I was like I'm gonna, I don't care, I'm just gonna walk around the corner, set up this camera, take a quick look. And as soon as I got around that corner and as a crow flies, this is three now I'll be like probably half a kilometer. And uh, anyway, I got down in there and it was just trails and rubs all along the woods line, everything, and this is about one or two o'clock and I said screw it, went back out to the truck, drove across down along the field, grabbed my other bow stand from the season, drove back across the field, went up in there, set it up. It was already kind of late. I did. I just took my rifle with me and I actually sat as soon as I put it up, just because I was already there.
Speaker 1:It was like, it was like half a hailstorm.
Speaker 2:It storm it was one minute it was sunny and one minute it was just blowing snow sideways for november, which is just we had. We had a lot of rain this year. What are you shooting for a gun? I had my rifle with me for that.
Speaker 2:I got a bergera b14 hmi with a night force nxs on it 6.5, 6.5, creedmoor and um, I set up a hang on stand and, uh, I went and the next morning was going to be real nice and cold and I got down in there real early sat and this was my first morning in it. That night I didn't see anything, but that didn't mean anything. I was down there being noisy.
Speaker 1:What was?
Speaker 2:What.
Speaker 1:What did you say?
Speaker 2:I was just down there being noisy the night before.
Speaker 1:Normally don't you have to worry about your dad, kind of walking through your food plots.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, he always goes. I didn't tell him I had a stand.
Speaker 1:He has a game where he tries to find your trail cameras. Does he know it?
Speaker 2:He loves that game. Anyway, I just went for it. So the next morning I went out. It was probably the coldest morning of the season. I think it was about minus 8 or 9 in the morning. What eight or nine in the morning?
Speaker 1:What's that in?
Speaker 2:Fahrenheit? I don't know.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I just don't know we have American listeners too.
Speaker 1:Logan says A little inconsiderate, but okay, go on.
Speaker 2:It's cold, there was frost, it was a very frosty, white, frosty morning.
Speaker 1:Ryan, do you know? You looked.
Speaker 3:It's summer's low twenties for Fahrenheit.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, and I was there for about sunrise came and it was about 30, 40 minutes and I just looked back over my shoulder at the bottom and I just saw the antler turn and I was like, oh geez, there's a buck, and I got the binos up on him. It was a seven point and the wind couldn't have been any more perfect for that day. It was coming straight across the cut right into my face, and he kind of started at the bottom and just kind of worked his way up through and I was just watching him and he was. He was definitely looking for does because he was head up, looking his nose head up sniff, put his head down, head up, sniff for about 40, 45 minutes and then, uh, he got about right in front of me, broadside, like 60 yards. I was just looking at him. Then all of a sudden he just kind of turned around. He started stomping. I'm like, well, I know he didn't see me and I know he definitely doesn't smell me, so what's his problem?
Speaker 2:go down there and ask him yeah, basically and anyway, and then he just took off running, blowing, snorting, right down in the far corner until he disappeared and I was like geez, that's weird. And I was just looking at him in the rifle scope, just kind of just looking. I was just bored at him in the rifle scope, just kind of just looking. I was just bored and sitting in the stand and uh, anyway, he ran in the corner and then as soon as I hung my rifle up, I just heard crashing and banging coming through the woods on the far side.
Speaker 1:There was your dad looking for your cameras.
Speaker 2:Basically. And then, uh, three does came running out and I'm like, oh, he probably got wind of them coming up to him so he probably went down looking for them. Anyway, it's the three does come right out and they're just crisscrossing kind of everywhere in front of me. It was kind of hectic for a few minutes and then I saw that seven point just kind of coming out, just strutting through the cut again, which was, it's still fun to watch.
Speaker 1:Still gets, still gets your heartbeat going, just stuff like that.
Speaker 2:It was super fun to watch. And then right at the same time, like I just hung my rifle up my binos in my pouch and just kind of just put my gloves back on hands in my pockets and uh, and then all of a sudden I just see trees moving in behind him and then one doe come out and then the buck, I shot with his head down, just running straight, and then everything just kind of turned into a blur and I knew, I knew I was going to shoot him because he just had I could just see big, wide, tall antlers and I was like well, that's definitely a good mature deer. I got the rifle up, set on this little notch I had in the side of the tree, and he was kind of quartered quartered towards me. The worst part is I had the scope on 22 zoom, looking at that seven point just for fun. So I had trouble finding him at first because just so zoomed in he was only, he was only 100 yards and brushy and I was just trying to find him.
Speaker 2:And then I found him. I found his antlers. He picked his head up, took a quick look at him and then just went down, found the top of the front shoulder and he was quartering towards and I was angling kind of down at him so just kind of clipped just the top of the shoulder blade on the top and right down through both lungs. And then I saw him run and I kind of went crap, because where I was it's not really a fun spot to get a deer out of yeah Well, I was going to talk about that because Ryan.
Speaker 2:Ryan showed up.
Speaker 1:Came out. Didn't you ask a few people to uh to come out and help and Well, everyone came out.
Speaker 2:It's just, ryan got there first and then we just kind of went down in and by the time it was quite a pain, wasn't there way before everyone? You were there way before everyone else. But anyway, I shot him. And then I, pretty quick with the deer ryan's ryan's always my first phone call and uh, I was said I was like oh geez, he ran and I kind of looked on the other side of the tree and he just disappeared, lost him. I watched him run like eight yards, front shoulder looked like down hurt. So I was like I I know I hit him solid and uh, and then I was like I'll give him 15 minutes. In 15 minutes turned into one and I'll like I'll go look for blood quick, then make a couple phone calls, yeah. So then I got down.
Speaker 2:Got down, got a kind of across the little ditch, because there's a little brook that runs through that and then, uh, I was just kind of looking for blood and I kind of went too far and I'm like no, he was in front of these trees because it all happened so quick, I wasn't really sure where he was in the cut. And then he came and I'm like no, he should have been right here. And then I kind of walked back and then I stepped up on one old stump that was in there and he line dead like oh he like he was lying, he was lying dead like expired right, yeah, like two yards in front of me ran like a total of eight yards that's perfect.
Speaker 2:That's what you want and piled up and uh then the work began.
Speaker 1:But yeah, from what I hear, heard from ryan, ryan showed up way before the other people showed up, as it was done, and you guys had a hell of a time getting him out, like you were not set up by any four-wheeler trail uh, any way, shape and form accessible by anything other than by foot, and you guys drug him through it was hardly accessible.
Speaker 3:I got.
Speaker 2:I got his like my land is a cedar swamp, like it is not fun walking with just by yourself, like it's just so next year are you going to set up uh, an area that's easier for a deer recovery?
Speaker 3:no, I'm going to make a four-wheeler trail down through my woods but even Even the clear cut, it's like a five-year-old clear cut now.
Speaker 2:Oh, you weren't getting through it and just the old skitter ruts.
Speaker 3:And the brooked across.
Speaker 2:It's just like straight down bank, straight up bank. But no, me and Ryan got down in there and we just kind of looked at the deer, blah, blah, blah. And then we just kind of looked back and like, oh God, this is going to be. Brian would be putting his phone on mute next deer season. And anyway, it took us like 12, at least 12 separate. Like all right, picked a stump in the woods, drag it as fast as you can to that stump, take a break.
Speaker 3:I think you're on the low side on that. I think 12, 15, 17. It was a lot. It probably took us 10 to get to the clear cut.
Speaker 2:I remember I was just lying down on a log halfway through. It was just I was dead.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was laughing hysterically because he was lying on a log. I was so tired we were dragging this deer and we had so far left to go still.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, we kind of looked at the map once. We're like we are just halfway, and then anyway, there's, I have a. I kind of parked the truck and well, basically the edge of my food plots where we bring them out to Cause there's, I got a woods trail going down to a duck pond we hunt, and uh, we were basically kind of angling straight through the woods to come out kind of at the top of the trail where the field meets, and anyway, we were. I think we were about 10 yards from the trail. Once we got on the trail we were about 15 yards from the truck and then my buddy Chad was walking down the trail, my buddy down the trail, my buddy brody was getting out of his truck and it's like yeah, they're watching with binoculars to like, yeah, they're almost done yeah, just like great timing boys.
Speaker 2:And then they just latched onto it, just drug it to the back of the truck.
Speaker 1:Oh, thanks for the help guys well, you know, it's always that last 15 feet right that that matters the most. No, it's like ryan. Well, I yeah, ryan's popular guy during deer season. I called ryan too and I'd gotten mine.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna tell my full story in a minute well, I shot my deer early, so everyone knew that I was sitting around so remember we were dragging out mine like the antlers.
Speaker 1:You know it's not a bad size buck, but his body was. His body was really big compared to the antlers. We're like dragging him. Then I was like oh wait, I got a tractor, let's go get the tractor I think we dragged it all of maybe 40 or 50 yards, yeah, and then I remembered that there's a tractor at the house that's ready to go, so I was like you want to drive me up to the house.
Speaker 2:Even your father. How far after did he shoot his buck? Like two or three days, four days, five days, next weekend.
Speaker 1:And Ryan's dad got a nice buck too.
Speaker 3:Oh, when he shot his, yeah, that was like the next week yeah, week yeah, so I get a.
Speaker 2:I get a call from you. I was at work and this is after I shot my deer. And then Ryan called me and said yeah, dad just shot a good deer. I was like, oh yeah, send me a picture of it. It's a nice 10 point. Ryan drove the tractor up the trail through the field, drove the bucket up to the boys. They put it in the bucket.
Speaker 3:Ryan's like yeah, I like this a lot better. The year before with yours, when I showed up, you and Kyle had the tractor there. The 105.
Speaker 1:Yeah, usually a tractor, four-wheeler truck.
Speaker 3:We try to keep it in the field. Logan, yeah, yours was easy it was.
Speaker 2:The ones I shot in the field stayed in the field, just back the truck up to us. That's good.
Speaker 1:All right, I'm going to try to tell my story now. Ron, you want to just hand me another beer there, I'm getting ready. I always hosting this podcast. I always want people's stories See if I can tell one. So there I was. Deer to my left, deer to my right. One bullet left and a buck with his antler.
Speaker 2:stand with my name on it, I just have one bullet left.
Speaker 3:You missed all the other ones. He just missed a bunch of deer the other one.
Speaker 1:He just missed a bunch of deer. Yeah, because that's all you need. That's all you need, um, no, so, uh, anyway. So this year I'd said so this is the first year doing a food plot. I said I wanted to do a food plot and I've been, you know, meeting to do it.
Speaker 1:There's this section where I rent some land down the road and I keep my some of my cows there, another section of my herd I keep the main herd at the my parents house, and then the other part of the herd down the road, my Angus, so I had them down there and then you go through the woods I'm giving away my spot here. You go through the woods and then there's another little field there and it's an old field and I've kept it brush cut but I mean it hasn't been turned over. I'll bet you in like 80 years or something, it's just an old old I uh, they could talk about this in the fall season, chatting updates, like you know. Turn that over. Learn that. Furrowing land is um really difficult and I was pretty mad. The neighbors could hear me swearing, uh, but I got it done.
Speaker 3:The neighbors are half a kilometer away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I got it done, Lost my voice Um so so I got that done, got a variety of things planted.
Speaker 1:I had a clover, a chicory, I had a beets, I had turnips. All that stuff did really well, so I hunted out of that. Now I am a houndsman first and foremost and I'm not really great at sitting still for any amount of time. My time in the stand an hour hour and a half, tops, I'm out. My time in the stand an hour hour and a half tops, I'm out. So I was planning on shooting the first buck I saw. That wasn't a four point or a spike, basically Anything over that is good to go.
Speaker 1:So our season this year we had a lot of rain. We had a lot of rain. So I tried a ground blind for the first time this year. I liked it.
Speaker 1:Normally I like being up in a tree stand so I can look around and all that. I like to spot and stalk. But if we don't have the snow and all that and then you're crunching through the leaves, you know it's hard to do Right. So I had the, I had the ground blind there and I had a really good uh entrance and exit to it without spooking the deer, and and I did have a trail camera out, but I did not have any bucks on it. And then one night I was walking out to put out some acorns.
Speaker 1:At my house I have a lot of acorns, so I just put some, rake them up, put them in a feed bag and put them up for the deer and the food plot just to I don't know, try it out, I guess we have so many. It's like walking on marbles in the front lawn you got to kind of watch yourself or you'll break your neck. So I was putting those in. As I was going out I saw a buck and I'd never had him on trail camera and I was like, yeah, I'm not using my trail cameras anymore around here because the trail camera just means that he was at that exact spot where the camera is and it's like what would you say? Right?
Speaker 3:Two acre, three acre food plot. Uh, the whole area would be two.
Speaker 1:It would be that big the food plot was roughly what half of the yeah, yeah, so and I brushed, yeah, where I didn't till up and plant, I brush, cut the rest and that was nice grass growing.
Speaker 2:Or you got tired of furrowing.
Speaker 1:Yep, I was pretty mad. I'm going to get someone else to do it this year. So, uh, so the I saw the buck and I never had him on camera. I was like, yeah, I'm not relying on the camera, but I don't anyways, I planned on hunting the amount that I was going to hunt there, regardless of whatever I got on trail camera when I got it on there. So I saw him and uh, so I did a couple sits, nothing. And then, uh, I got off work one night and one. I got off work at a good time because I did plan going hunting. So I went out and I was taking a bale of hay down to the cows down there. When I was down there, just on the other side of the fence, I could see this buck.
Speaker 1:I was like oh nice, there's a buck right there. I fed the bale out, raced back up to the house with the tractor, came back down with the truck. The buck was gone, I'm like oh shit. Then I snuck into my ground blind and I'm overlooking the food plot and cause. I don't like sitting there doing nothing. I got my my buck right. I was just like uh, uh, uh, uh. I was just. You know, I was going full duck commander on this. You know I was just beaten away with it?
Speaker 3:How long were you calling for?
Speaker 1:Not that long. I mean a little bit, probably more than I should have. I'll admit that you know, basically using it like a coyote, call you know rabbit in distress, just wailing on it.
Speaker 2:I've done it too with Adobe. I shot a buck up, I mean.
Speaker 1:I was doing it enough. Um, so I'm doing that. And then it was raining then, so I'm waiting around. Then I was like you know what it's raining? And I was like calling it the north, like, but nothing. So then, um, so I was like you know what it's raining? The leaves and stuff are all wet, so you can kind of sneak through the woods a little bit, right. So I was like, all right, I'm going along and then I'll start looking through my food plot as I was walking, did you get out of the blind?
Speaker 3:because you thought you heard something in the woods, didn't you?
Speaker 1:No, not at that point, well, maybe earlier. But I don't know if it was a squirrel or not. So I got out of the blind and I'm walking through and I wanted to look at my food plot a bit to see what they're eating the turnips and all that and they were. They were really going at that, the turnips and the radishes and everything. And then so I'm walking through and then all of a sudden here's and I can hear deer blowing and running off. I'm like shit. So I'm, like you know, just calling away. Like you know, it's okay, it's a friendly, it's a friendly you. Is that what that?
Speaker 1:call is Well, that's what I was letting them know it was.
Speaker 2:Deer whisperer yeah that's right.
Speaker 1:So I'm like shit. So I crouched down and I'm scurrying off to the blind. I'm almost like army crawling back to my blind. I would get in there like, like that. Just like I said, I'm going full out.
Speaker 3:Duck commander on their ass. It's a comeback call. Yeah, that's right, hail call, hail call yeah.
Speaker 2:Feed and chuckle.
Speaker 1:So I'm in the ground blind. I'm like shit, I didn't want to sit still any longer, I wanted to go walk and might have blown my chance. So I'm in there. I'm like, oh Lord, whatever was coming out, I just hope it comes back out. So I'm just in there, calling away and just letting everyone know. It's cool, it's a deer. It's actually a deer that you heard. It wasn't a human, anyways. And then all of a sudden, hey, how are you?
Speaker 3:I heard they're crouched in the field.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just give them a little hey, how are you? So yeah, hey, how are you? Who's your father? But anyway, so also this year I calling away and all that and I was just like in there like shit. I think it blew my chance. Then, all of a sudden, it was about what did we say, ryan? I figured it was about 110 yards.
Speaker 3:Yeah, about 15 minutes after dark. No, no, it was not. No, no, no, I'm just kidding with that.
Speaker 1:Jeez, no, definitely was not. I've got a. Oh my God, if it's pretty near dark, I'm not seeing shit. So yeah, it's about 110 yards and I see this buck come out with his head down, going along, and he wasn't going to eat. I don't know if you really heard my buck grunt that I was chirping away at.
Speaker 2:I was like who is this buck with the speech?
Speaker 1:This is a really chatty buck. But he was going out and he was heading right for one of my mock scrapes that I knew had been freshened up Anyway. So I saw he had antlers, I saw that he wasn't a spike. I'm like that's him. So I put up my Browning 7mm 08 X-Bolt and I was shooting about 144 grain Browning what's it? Xp, it's the rapid expansion bullets and just drilled him and then he felt it it and I know he did because I could hear the impact and he turned. He's like, oh shit. And he turned, he's coming towards me. I just racked another one shot again. And well, I know you only needed one bullet, that was yeah well.
Speaker 1:And then I found one, the lucky one, in my pocket no, last season yeah, uh, so he was.
Speaker 1:and then he turned, he was like coming towards me and then he looked pretty bad about it. I shot again, I shot again, then he went down and it's funny. So I took it to my friend Lane after. And you're looking and, ryan, you thought we couldn't see another shot Like you only hit him once. And I'm like man like that gun's really accurate and I am with it too. I shot twice and I hit him twice. I'm pretty sure and I was going to have me convinced you and Lane that I did miss the second shot that he just went down. It was just timing, right, yeah, you know. But nope, it turned out later that I did hit him twice and that was the final one. So then, yeah, he went down and right there in the field, it was easy. And then, yeah, I called you Ryan and then you came out.
Speaker 3:You didn't even know how, but here's the thing.
Speaker 1:So the buck that I saw earlier that day when I was out feeding the cows, that was not him.
Speaker 2:Oh, really no, that was a different deer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this one was a little bit smaller than the other one, so the big one's still out there.
Speaker 2:Maybe Even bigger next year, the deer I shot this year.
Speaker 1:But that wasn't the one.
Speaker 2:Very yeah, the deer I shot this year, but that wasn't the one Very similar to one I had last year. Could have been very similar to the buck I shot last year, but never seen him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you never had yours, I never seen either those two bucks I saw that morning never saw either of them. I looked back. I might have had one picture of him in like July growing, but it was still kind of hard to tell at that time. So he has one real defined grab claw on one side. He was a nine point, yeah, but one real really defined grab claw.
Speaker 1:I'd go shed hunting and see Well, his ends turn right in.
Speaker 3:But this was the first year where I had a buck over summer that I had consistent pictures of that I normally don't. Like I've never really. I've targeted deer before and then never had any success. I've ended up shooting something different. Yeah, but this was the first year where I really actually used trail cameras effectively.
Speaker 1:I guess you could say yeah, I mean, they're a tool, not a crutch yeah you said that before logan let's like that's if I they're fun.
Speaker 3:They're fun to run they're.
Speaker 2:They're fun to run um, they're fun to use. I almost like them.
Speaker 1:Like it's nice to know what you have around and what you can look for after, but really like if you see a deer in the middle of the night, like he's probably if you show up there the next morning.
Speaker 2:He's probably not going to be there as hopeful as you are, realistically, unless something, unless there is a doe hot that randomly comes through and he just stays on her maybe. If it's that early season and you have a deer consistently coming at midnight, he's probably not that close to you.
Speaker 3:I had my camera sitting 30 yards out from me, so basically anything the camera took a picture of was technically a deer. I could kill out my blind if I was there, and there was a lot of nights I was sitting in my blind watching deer and then I'd be like I want to see the pictures this is taking and I might be getting only one deer on camera, or it wouldn't even take a picture of these deer, they would be just set of range of the camera. They just kind of they scooted around it out of its range or went behind it and I was like wow, there was a lot of nights that I seen different smaller bucks that I didn't even get a picture of on my camera but that walked right through yeah, well, if I was only relying, if I was only relying on, only relying, if I was only relying on the camera.
Speaker 3:if I was only relying on the camera, I would have never had a picture of these deer, or I would have never known they were there.
Speaker 1:I guess I had lots of does on camera. I never had one buck on camera ever and clearly there's some there.
Speaker 2:Most days for me, hunting, I was either there was a spike that always came through, there was two does and a button buck I saw every single day. I hunted, no matter what they were just out. But then, like I said, like I just, I went 400 to a kilometer, well, half a kilometer from half a kilometer from where I was hunting as a crow flies. I walked that afternoon 200 yards away, saw five deer, which is more than I saw most nights. And then I went down around the corner I saw that seven point, the four does and then the buck. I shot all within four hours of sitting.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Just from just cause I was getting frustrated with my cameras and I wasn't getting anything and I knew the direction. Like I did have a couple of really good target bucks kind of come through, just one of those ones that gives you kind of hope. But anyway, they all came from the same direction. I direction. I'm like I gotta go take a look or do something different because just what I'm doing is not working. And then I just found fresh rubs, fresh sign, fresh scrapes, all on that wood zed.
Speaker 1:So that's that's why I moved, and then two hours later yeah, so the plans came together. I planned on building a food plot this year, which I did, and then getting a buck over it. I was hoping to that happened, logan.
Speaker 2:I planned on shooting a deer with a bow.
Speaker 1:Well, no, but you planned on having to move your stand, basically, and that's what you did.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, you just kind of got to Ryan planned on shooting a deer with his bow.
Speaker 1:You can't steal Ryan's.
Speaker 2:Well, I always wanted to shoot a deer with a bow I own.
Speaker 1:well, I always want to shoot you with the bow, but I know it's tricky well I mean it can be, but some I find an easy thing, but you, think in a way it almost be easier sometimes because when we're hunting that there's not as many hunters in the woods so there's not all that pressure and they're still kind of in their summer uh habits well, they're in feeding. Yeah, you can almost trace, but there's also food in abundance everywhere, but you all see.
Speaker 3:It's a whole different game too, though, though, of having to get them so much closer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And when you, when you're bringing them in that close like you got to have everything working for you like scent, noise like the wind got to be right, big time your setup has to even allow them to come in that close.
Speaker 2:And with a rifle, most people like even if you took someone out that wasn't around, rifles you, you could spend 10 minutes with them and probably get them to shoot a kill shot on a deer within 10 minutes. Realistically Most people. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Average IQ.
Speaker 2:Yes, you know what I mean, though, if you put if you put a bow in the hand, under the circumstances of where that deer is, how he's turned.
Speaker 1:Well, if it's the first time with a bow, it won't happen. That's what.
Speaker 1:I mean it takes and it's out with the bow versus a rifle agreed, even the stress of when the deer's there, knowing you have to make all this movement to draw that bow back there's, just there's, yeah, and testing out, making sure, because some people don't, they'll buy a blind and like, yeah, this blind's great, but you don't gotta have enough room to pull back and people don't think of that you called me losing it, laughing at me this summer because you drove by my house and you seen the blind in there moving around in the yard.
Speaker 1:It looked like Cousin it going with all the anyways, you know, cousin it off the Addams Family with all the hair just moving around. That's what it looked. I just see this blind like lift up and like do-do-do-do-do-do-do Scoot across the yard. I was in my blind with the range finder clicking in my ranges.
Speaker 3:I would stand up in the blind wiggle across the yard and then we'd sit back down because I was practicing shooting.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you, it looks so funny going by, but it worked. Yeah, it did.
Speaker 3:But you can't shoot, you can't practice standing up all summer and then come deer season if you've got a blind with a chair and everything and never practice that way, because it's a whole different shot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I did a little bit of bow hunting too, like, even if you don't shoot for a while and to go out, your first few arrows are bad, but then you get back onto your rhythm again. Well, you got a deer in front of you. You got one.
Speaker 1:But I mean, like Ryan was saying too, like yeah, shooting in a chair, like I practiced this summer, it back, like that it's. It's different than standing up, that's for sure.
Speaker 3:Well, and I had you have to learn the height of cause. I had. Just I tried to hunt with the smallest possible opening in my blind, so it's getting comfortable. Okay, where do I have to have that opening set? How do I shoot with that? Like during the season, every single time that I got to my blind, the first thing I would do is, when I got there is I would take my bow, pull it back and I'd scan side to side and just make sure that my chair was comfortable. I was comfortable shooting through my shooting window on the blind, like just everything felt right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, was it basically how I started off every hunt the other half of bow too, that you never think to practice too, like, like the sitting down thing is actually holding the back.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Cause like I've been. I've been fortunate enough I've never really had to hold my bow back that long Like I. My last bear was about 15 seconds, but when you're actually sitting there for a whole 15 seconds and or 30 or 45, like you got to sit there and actually practice that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, big time Cause you never know.
Speaker 2:Like as soon as you draw that back, that deer could just tuck the shoulder back and turn a little bit or do whatever. Could walk away 10 yards, Like it's. There's a lot of variables to it.
Speaker 1:There is, yeah, and just being responsible bow shooter, you've got to take those variables into account and practice and prepare for those you know before the shot. I think that some people might not enough, you know and there's always, still, there's always.
Speaker 3:You never know what can happen.
Speaker 1:I mean, some people will go out, they'll be standing out, they'll be nailing their target at 30, 40, 50 yards. Every time they're great, yep, good to go for bow season. But then if you're up in a stand, that's completely different when you're shooting down with a bow right, or if you're in a blind and you're sitting down. That's completely different.
Speaker 2:You got to think about the angle of where your arrow is traveling through, because even with a bull, if you shot a little bit low out of a tree, stand angling down, bullets can do a lot more expansion and damage and can catch a lot more stuff than a bad arrow shot can do. Like a good arrow shot is just as effective, in my opinion, as anything else.
Speaker 1:I always thought if I had to get I don't think I'd ever be in this position. I shouldn't be. If I do, I did something wrong. But if someone said you got to get shot by a bow or a gun, I'm choosing the gun, because the gun you know the impact, right, the bullet, but the bow it just slices and people that don't know anything about hunting and all that find it's kind of crueler, but it really I think it's more effective the way they slice.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's brutal. A proper shot will make a very fast kill. Yeah, oh yeah, big time. That's the thing. There's just so much cutting and the technology we have in bows now, it's just it's, it's.
Speaker 1:They're very efficient.
Speaker 2:The bears I've shot. I've never had a bear go more than 80 yards.
Speaker 1:The only thing with the bow is I find there is a little you know obviously is a little. You know, obviously there's a little less room for error.
Speaker 3:It's a more challenging shot.
Speaker 2:If you hammer a bear or a deer in the front shoulder with a bow, there's a good chance. You're probably not going to find that deer if you didn't have anything vital. If you hammer a rifle bullet through a deer's shoulder, you're probably going to find it a little sooner.
Speaker 1:Well, you see those little pictures all the time of somebody that does shoot a deer and they'll show like you know, there's no broad headed or bow injury and they're still going. You don't see that quite as often with a gun. That's the thing.
Speaker 2:Now usually well usually someone finds him dead weeks after. Yeah, right, yeah.
Speaker 1:Which brings me to another little story of the dead head that my friend and I found this week. I guess Ryan's seen it, so we were. So I was talking to this guy where we coon hunt at his place and there's this beaver dam that was blocking off this brook so it was getting kind of difficult to go through with the coon hounds.
Speaker 2:They could go through fine but I was, you know, you were the issue.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was the issue. I had the issue with that issue. So then I asked him. I said do you mind if we trap some beaver there? He's like no, fill your boots, go ahead, cause I've been trapping, as you guys know, um first year, having a lot of fun doing it 16 beavers so far. So we went down. We were looking for the this was just a few days ago we were looking for the beaver dam and, uh, couldn't find it. Then, sure enough, he, the, the landowner, had told me about two deer that had been jacked out of there that he'd heard about. He said one was a bit smaller. I said, apparently the other one was a fair size. You're freaking right, it was.
Speaker 2:And for those who don't know the term jack, that is a legally shooting deer.
Speaker 1:Yes, that night.
Speaker 3:They weren't lifting weights. No.
Speaker 2:No, they weren't jacked.
Speaker 1:No, so we ended up going down along the brook there and then we found it. And Ryan, you've seen it, logan, you've seen a picture, but what do you figure that deer is at least 150 plus it's a 150-inch deer 150-inch deer.
Speaker 2:What a shame. Just mass. So we're getting it cleaned up. It's going to be in the podcast room, but it's thick too.
Speaker 1:It's so thick.
Speaker 2:Great mass to it, not the old kind of bubbly.
Speaker 1:Real typical 10 point.
Speaker 3:It's a similar size to the deer you have up there, like that you have hanging on the wall in here.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, my deer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a little lower and wider maybe, but mass, so much mass 10.
Speaker 1:He's got 11 points. That 11th point took some marks off, but yeah, this one here, smaller brow tines, real small brow tines on it, but what a shame. But the nice thing is, if he was jacked which, from the sense that he was, whoever did it will never have the antlers He'll be in the podcast room, then he'll come jack them. Yeah, yeah, he can come claim them.
Speaker 2:Come tell a story on the podcast.
Speaker 1:Speaking of stories, guys can't thank you enough for coming on here and telling it, and hopefully we can have the same conversation next year. We'll do a pre-season chat and then we'll have our update and it's going to be similar Everyone tags out and it's successful.
Speaker 2:Bigger deer. Bigger, deer, bigger and better, bigger deer Ryan will have one with his new bow. I'll just shoot him with a bow.
Speaker 1:I'll have mine. Ken will do fantastic things, as always. Well, another new and improved food plot that someone else furrowed. The rest of it.
Speaker 2:New and improved calling session. He's going to practice. Ken's going to do a calling session.
Speaker 1:That's right. He's basically like a duck blind out there in the deer, blind. All right, thanks guys.