Blacktail Locating and Tactics with Bud Braaten

Not every buck is meant to be chased. We dig into Bud’s hard-won blacktail system—how a season of empty sits became a framework for finding “killable bucks” on pressured public land. The shift sounds simple but it changes everything: hunt the animal that proves he’ll move in daylight, in places he already feels safe, on a route you can protect with wind and access.

We walk through the Elvis vs. Charlie saga to show the pivot in real time. Elvis patterned every exit and showed up minutes after dark. Charlie started to daylight when we nudged a stand 40 yards up the hill—proof that micro-moves beat marathon effort. From there, we break down how to read October like a live map: fresh rubs, crisp tracks, and the narrow, quiet trails that skirt heavy doe traffic. We get specific about “dark” cover, why alders lie, how to use mushrooms and holly as subtle habitat tells, and how to read satellite texture to find edges worth your boot leather.

Gear and shots matter once you’re in range. Bud explains the comfort curve at 12 to 18 yards, why nine yards can feel too close, and how heavy arrows and broadhead construction impact penetration on big-bodied blacktails. We compare chisel-tip versus cut-on-contact failures, talk quartering-away priorities, and outline a shot plan that keeps tracking short and clean. Along the way, we cover managing multiple sets without diluting effort, refusing to ask a buck to cross exposed features, and balancing late-season grind with early-season opportunities when a summer pattern gives you a green light.

If you’re heading to our classes or Hunter’s Gathering, bring your pins and 360 photos—we’ll review your actual spots and walk through an e-scouting workflow that blends OnX, Google Earth, and fresh sign. Subscribe, share this with a buddy who’s chasing ghosts, and drop a comment with the one change you’ll make to turn your next buck into a daylight certainty.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Welcome back to the Blacktail Coach Podcast. I'm Aaron. And then this week, there's no Dave. We have Bud here with us to talk about locating and your success story. Because you've been of all of Dave's students probably the most consistent in getting it done. Because you've gotten three bucks in six years. Six years. So before we actually started the Blacktail Coach podcast, Dave would just take out friends one-on-one and kind of mentor, do the mentor hunting. And that's how you got in. So before even taking the class, and you got to learn from him directly and stuff. And then was it the first year that he showed you what to do? You got that four by four?

Early Struggles And The Elvis Saga

SPEAKER_06 0:56

No, the first year was a absolute garbage year. Okay. I did everything he said to a T, and I sat in stand all season long, every day that I could, and I did not have one deer walk in front of my stand. I stayed committed to it. I just kept doing it, and it was horrible. But at the end of the year, I did another set, and that's when I found Elvis, the buck that I had a four-year battle with that he ended up winning the battle.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

So yeah. Just threw in the towel. Well, you had other bucks come in.

SPEAKER_06 1:26

I had other bucks come in. He was the buck. The problem I had the buck I shot was Charlie, was the second buck I shot. And I had Elvis and Charlie in the same years, and it was very hard to choose which one to go after, but Charlie was the more killable buck. Okay. Because he was more he was actually in the daylight. And he was three and a half. I'm guessing. That was Dave's guess.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Yeah, but a hundred and twenty-eight-inch, three and a half year old. So there are worse things. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_06 1:57

He was my goal buck. He was everything I wanted about the him. Uh-huh. About Blacktail, I wanted him.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Yeah, you were telling me that deep four by four that looked like a mule deer. Yep. Which you accomplished that was year four. That would be year four. And so this past year was year seven. Seven. Okay. So it's every other year.

SPEAKER_06 2:19

Yeah. And that's what I was trying to convince my wife that I just shoot a buck every year every other year, so I'm not going to put a lot of effort into this year. Uh-huh. But she forced me to go hunt anyways, which is good for a wife. Yeah. She told me I can't just rest. I gotta keep pushing on and keep digging. So I didn't get nothing.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Still, you're learning something about that particular area, I guess. That's how I feel about it. Although I'm throwing in the towel after two years at the same spot just because next year it'll probably produce.

Public Land Pressure And Lost Spots

SPEAKER_06 2:51

But I had the cougar this year and that kind of and my Elvis spot that was my go-to, I could find bucks. I hunted that so hard. I shot one buck out of it. My other buddy shot a buck out of it. But I think another guy came in, it's public property. Another guy came in and figured it out also. Oh, okay. And I think that might have happened to Elvis. Oh, okay. Because when you find another tree set on the property that you're hunting, it's state land, so when you find another tree stand on it, it's disheartening. Yeah. So especially yeah, in that range. Yeah. And I gave it like six years straight of hard effort and had multiple bucks on it.

Managing Multiple Sets And Bait-Era Tactics

SPEAKER_01 3:33

So I was gonna ask you about when it comes to locating, how many and I know Dave j has joked around a lot that you'll have eight or nine sets going at a certain and that's when we did baiting, and you were taking how many actually were you taking apples out to?

SPEAKER_06 3:51

At my peak, it was like eight sets.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Okay, that's legit. So quite a few.

SPEAKER_06 3:56

It's get it gets hard to manage that many.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Oh yeah. Yeah. I'm beyond if it's beyond two, I'm struggling to manage it.

SPEAKER_06 4:06

I like four. Four is a good number for me because I could do two a night and just boom, boom, boom, every other night. And okay. But the eight was a lot, and I was just trying to do everything I could to find a buck. Uh-huh. And I just couldn't find one. And then finally I ended up I was going to take down a set, and that's when I discovered that buck that I shot last year. 2025 C.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

2024.

SPEAKER_06 4:31

2024.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

Are you talking about your big fork and horn? Yes. Yeah, okay. Yeah. 2024, yeah.

Last-Minute Buck And Season Strategy

SPEAKER_06 4:37

Yeah. He came in, like I said, I was literally there in the morning to take down the set. He came in, I got him on camera. He was pretty consistent, so I kept nurturing that set, and I actually had to run over to another set, grab the tree saddle equipment down, run back over, try to clear shooting lanes, do all this, get it set up. I ended up calling sick the next day to work to try to shoot this buck, and I end up getting him on the last day of season with 35 minutes left of season. I held true and just knew that was the buck I wanted to shoot.

Seasons, Units, And Home-Life Balance

SPEAKER_01 5:07

And that's December 15th in that unit. Yeah. Yeah. Are all your units up there in that same area, or do you have in multiple units?

SPEAKER_06 5:15

I hunt till December 15th. Okay. I just did that. I did hit the Mossy Rock unit a little bit before the 31st, but then it's family time. And my wife she lets me just hunt as hard as I want, so it's like we need to shut it down on the 15th so I can do it to go to the Christmas stuff and be a be a husband.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

That's probably a good idea. Long long term.

SPEAKER_06 5:34

Yeah, she'll let me go from September till then. And she'll let me go past then too, but then guilt really starts coming in.

Charlie, Clooney, And Plan B Sets

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Yeah. So gotta balance it all out. Yeah. So because it's been every other year, and I know you found Charlie and you didn't get him one now. Did you find him and then you pursued him the following year and didn't get him, and then you got him the year after, or was it just two years of discovering him till you harvested?

SPEAKER_06 6:04

So the full story with Charlie. If you want to I was going to my wife hunted that year, and she was joking, she wants a five-point black tail.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Okay, like a true five point.

SPEAKER_06 6:15

A true five-point. Okay. She just put a number on it, I think, just to they don't exist. A five-point black tail are very hard to find.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Yes, very hard to find.

SPEAKER_06 6:23

So I did I remember that day I hiked around seven miles, and that's back when we could bait. I had 10 gallons of apples on my back for seven miles, and I just walked everywhere I could looking for a spot to put these. I don't know if I just found them by accident because it was fatigue. Like I was just getting to the point where, like, hey, this looks good enough. But then I all the good signs that I needed to put a set out. I put a set out, and I went back and checked the camera. I usually let him soak for a week, is what I call it. A week or two weeks. And he popped up and he was a three by five. Okay. So I was like, well, that's cool. About a hundred inch three by five. And you can tell he's a little bit younger, but he's still, you're not gonna on public land, you're not gonna let him walk. No, he's just too good of a buck to do that. And so that was the first year I hunted him, and that was the same year I had Elvis.

SPEAKER_03 7:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 7:09

And then the buck that Dave called Clooney before was Biggie 3. It was the same buck. Biggie three and Clooney are the same buck. I had him also.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Wasn't he going after, or were you guys just too close with your sets?

SPEAKER_06 7:22

No, so Big E three was on a that's when we started doing plan B. Okay. And I think this might have been where you'd have to ask Dave if this was where the two-set rule kind of came in.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_06 7:33

Because I just started doing another set.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

The non-competing sets.

SPEAKER_06 7:37

Yes. Yeah. And that's when we found Big E three or Clooney. And Dave ended up really getting him narrowed down to where he was able to get an arrow in him, I think the second year that we knew about him. Yeah. Or something.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

He changed his name from Big E three to Clooney. Clooney. He did get an arrow into him on the last day of season. Yeah, the last day of season. But didn't recover.

SPEAKER_06 8:00

Unfortunately. But he didn't die. Like it was he was a big buck, a big bodied buck, and I think the arrow he just not enough penetration.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Yeah. Yeah, I know he had a lot of issues with because he was trying to dial in some new arrows that he was using. And not the broadheads, but it was the arrows that he was having issues with.

Broadhead Lessons And Penetration

SPEAKER_06 8:18

Well, we discovered too that so we shoot the same exact broadheads, uh-huh. NAP kill zones, two-inch cutting diameter, but there's chisel tips and then there's cut on contact tips.

SPEAKER_02 8:29

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_06 8:29

And I didn't know that they had the two different tips. Dave didn't know until we compared each other's arrows, and I'm like, oh, you're shooting a different broadhead almost completely. And he didn't have the chisel tips in, he had the cut on contact, and when you hit bone, it like broke.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

Oh. Yeah, you can't have that. No. So didn't he hit like the shoulder nick the shoulder blade? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 8:51

And it should have blown through, but I think I mean big bodied bucks is just like an elk. It's gonna bounce out.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 8:57

It wasn't very good.

Choosing Killable Bucks Over Ghosts

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Yeah, just it was like an inch or two of penetration and then Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 9:03

So going back, I that was the year I had Elvis, uh Big E three, and then Charlie all at the same time.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_06 9:10

So I was split on what I could do. I was trying to I I was getting greedy. I was trying to shoot the buck that was daylighting.

SPEAKER_03 9:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 9:18

And that's when I switched to the next year. I actually watched a Whitetail video and he was talking about he switched his game from trying to go from 200 inch bucks all the time to killable big bucks. And when I did that, that's when the very next year I was able to shoot Charlie because Charlie daylighted so now when they daylight to me, that's a killable buck.

SPEAKER_03 9:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 9:36

Rather than trying to Elvis had me so figured out that he I don't think he was ever killable. Unless he just you got dumb lucky. Yeah. Because I had cell cameras. He would show up ten minutes after I got down from my tree stand every night. So he was standing somewhere within the vicinity of me. Yeah. Watching me get down.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

Out of your sight.

SPEAKER_06 9:57

Yeah. And just never came in for I think we did that for three years straight.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

And uh we busted you at some point and knew he would do it every night.

SPEAKER_06 10:05

Yeah. And just wait for me to leave. I had three different sets set up, three different locations on him. Oh. And he would still just wait for me. So he had me figured out more than I had him figured out. Oh. But I was still, that was my goal. But then Charlie showed up in daylight, and that was the killable buck. He had a scratch on him from a cat, a cougar, I think, was trying to get him. So it's like, okay, we need to do something about this. And the very first opening day he daylighted. And that's when I was able to put an arrow on him.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Oh, that's right. That was the opening day at Slate Archery. Yeah. Yeah. Were you making any other adjustment? You moved your set for the second year, right?

SPEAKER_06 10:41

The second year we moved it up the hill 40 yards. And that's when he is the first year he'd only daylighted one time, like the last five minutes of daylight.

SPEAKER_04 10:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 10:49

And then the second year we moved up the hill 40 yards, and that's when he started daylighting at noon, one o'clock. Okay. For during modern season, which is a very stressful time on public land. Uh that you just have your buck out running around. Yeah. Yeah. But luckily I was able to get him.

Trails, Cover, And Buck Versus Doe Travel

SPEAKER_01 11:05

So we were talking about because I wanted to talk about locating, scouting, all of that. Because you have a few nuances. Again, you've been successful with finding these big bucks and getting them, finding them during the daylight. But when you're out scouting, and this surprised me, you said you don't go out scouting until October.

SPEAKER_06 11:28

Yeah, usually. I'll wait for them to show me where they're at as far as sign, like new fresh rubs. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

And then you can go out and which is a little different because I know like Dave and we've talked about and you can get it done. I mean, that's definitely possible. But going out now and looking around just because everything's down and it's easier to see I would say last year's sign of renews and whatnot.

SPEAKER_06 11:55

Yeah, you're looking for signs, but to me, when you're going out in October, you're seeing the fresh signs when the what the kind of the mood of the deer herd is. Okay. And you're seeing tracks. And tracks. So that's a huge giveaway. When you could see a fresh track, okay, I got buck tracks here. Let's follow it. Yeah. That's a way easier way than well, I got a deer trail. What's on this trail? What's using this trail? And we know mature bucks and does we use two different trails. Yes. So it's like they just like to be different, hang out different areas. When you have rubs and tracks and different trails that you could I don't know if you could tell they're buck trails, but they're definitely just different looking trails, if that makes sense. They're not as well used.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

They're not as well used.

SPEAKER_06 12:36

Yeah, but they're still a deer trail.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Uh-huh. That's interesting because a lot of from what I've seen that they will use a lot of the same in my sets. A lot of the same trails as the does. Yeah. That's weird because I don't know if that's just I know one of my sets, well, it might just be a lack of options, because they're with the drainage and the skitter road and this swamp that they're by, there's only really a couple options to get out of there. Out of that. Yeah. So there's a bedding area behind the swamp, and I hunt along the skitter road that's on another side before they drop down into another drainage. But there's really only two ways in and out of there. And that's my plan for next year is to set up camp, figure out both of those. I also did the thing where I could hear them moving along to my left as I'm sitting up in that ladder stand and realized, yeah, I need to be about 50 yards over. Yeah. And so I moved, and that's when I started seeing stuff. Yeah. Unfortunately, I wasn't there when a shooter walked through, but I had plenty during daylight on camera walking through.

Safe Corridors And Stand Placement

SPEAKER_06 13:45

If you remember Jimmy's story that he told about his first buck that he shot, his first mature buck, and how he thought they were gonna go around the blowdown, I believe, is the story, and they actually went through it. Yeah. Or something along those lines, which kind of threw him off of like how these bucks travel differently. Like you think that it just path to least resistance, which they do, but that also they like coverage. So it's like they're gonna choose a paths that are a little bit closer to the edge, a little bit just off the beaten path, I guess, of what the does do. You know, because you don't see mature bucks with does or on the same trails, it's like it's just it just doesn't happen. Yeah. Unless it's during the rut, you just throw everything out the window as far as buck movement.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

Yeah, and again, that's what's interesting because I've seen at least my riverside set and hilltop sets, I've seen does and mature bucks using the same trails.

SPEAKER_06 15:07

Yeah, and they will, yeah, especially if the dough's hot.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

But even not, and it's not rut related. They'll just come walking through and different times. Yeah. I think a couple of times, now halfway, when I saw my big bucks, they were locking down a doe. But especially Riverside, now they think of it, and even Hilltop, it's just bucks walking by and does walking by. Now, Hilltop, I think, lack of options, like I said. They've got two trails walking in. So if that's their bedding area, that's their bedding area. But yeah, Riverside, that's a little different because I've had I have two really nice mature bucks down there, but there's a lot of does, a lot of younger bucks, and they're all using the same trails right there.

Distance, Comfort, And Shot Windows

SPEAKER_06 15:58

So yeah, they might be. Yeah, and like I said, we were talking before, I don't get a lot of does on my set. I don't know why. It's just this year I did get more does than anything, and I got very few bucks, so I don't know if there's a correlation there. But usually I just don't see a lot of doe, so I don't know how the does travel compared to bucks. I just know that if if you're looking for a heavy deer trail, I don't know what the results would be. Okay. But I don't know. That kind of contradicts what I say sometimes because X marks a spot.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Yeah. And we talk about like finding that heavily used game trail, but sometimes it's like if they have a lot of options, I would say, leaving an area, they might leave in different spots. Big bucks versus the does and the younger bucks.

SPEAKER_06 16:49

I definitely do know they have their own path.

SPEAKER_01 16:51

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 16:52

They have their own escape routes. If you spook them with a doe there, they're gonna go separate ways. Yeah. You know, where the buck's gonna go back to his where he feels safe, and the doe's gonna go where she feels safe. Huh.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

That's interesting. But yeah, it's again that nuance of learning, I would say learning the bucks and the deer in your area. It's all part of management.

Arrow Setup, Lethality, And Recovery

SPEAKER_06 17:13

Yeah, and maybe I've just been fortunate enough to where I don't get sidetracked by does a lot. Yeah. So I'm not getting lost of okay, I'm on deer trails, but deer, does and bucks are two different trails. I'm just not wasting a lot of time on those where I'm like more focused on the bucks.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 17:28

If that makes sense at all.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

Yeah, it's just it's interesting because that's what you're seeing, but I'm thinking about my spots and they're using a lot of the same trails, and I don't know if it's the options, and or I'm just happening to be in this one spot where those trails all merge together. And I know where I hunted the last couple of years, my halfway set, that's where it's at, is they all have to merge right there. They drop down skid a road, and then they're dropping down, I know from there down into the drainage feeding area. Yeah, so interesting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 18:12

I'm trying to think now. The bucks that I've had come in, they just do their own thing.

Classes, E-Scouting, And Homework

SPEAKER_01 18:18

Yeah. And that is true, where they are, except for once or twice, the bucks I've seen have always been solo. The mature bucks. They've always been solo, they don't come in with anything else.

SPEAKER_06 18:33

And they come in very cautiously, and they'll just Yeah. And even the one I shot two years ago, my daughter named him Duck the Buck.

SPEAKER_04 18:40

Duck the Buck, okay.

SPEAKER_06 18:41

Yeah. I was watching him come in because it was no most of the time I'm shooting these deer 15 minutes, 20 minutes before dark. Right. It's a legal shooting light, but it's just it's getting dim. Yeah. Where Duck the Buck was the first buck that came in where it was still like just normal two o'clock daylight, even though I shot him at four, right around at four, but it was still plenty of daylight. And I gotta watch him come in, and even the trail I thought, because I was in the more open timber, he didn't take the path that I thought he was gonna take, which was crazy. He I thought there was a perfectly good trail for him to come around, and he just went right through the thick stuff, kind of like what Jimmy was talking about.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 19:20

Which shocked me because I'm like, why would you not just take the path of leaf least resistance?

SPEAKER_01 19:24

But and I had when he was locking down a doe, one of them came from the trail that the doe's usually he was following her, and I had another, he was a mature, he wasn't one of the dominant bucks, but he was a big, I called him brick, big fork and horn. He came in from the well-used the trail that all the deer were using. But the biggest buck, and not a great picture, but I called him high and tight, very tall, probably one of the tallest bucks I've ever seen for his rack. But he came in completely different spot, yeah, following a dough. And on a very minor game trail, yeah, not used very well.

SPEAKER_06 20:10

Yeah, you look for the major game trails because that gives you doughs, yeah. But where they're gonna be at, you almost have to like think you're thinking like a buck, you know. And when I'm looking for spots, I'm trying to think where does a buck feel safe at? And that's where I choose more than almost anything. Like, and where I shot Duck the Buck was ironically where I put the arrow at Duck the Buck is where Charlie died. If you had a GPS map, they would probably be feet apart. Oh, okay. It was that close. So I lost my train of thought there.

Reading Imagery: Edges And “Dark” Cover

SPEAKER_01 20:43

But it's where finding where the dominant bucks are traveling, yeah, where they feel safe coming in in the daylight. So the safe travel corridors. Now I will say this for the hilltop, because the bucks are moving through there, like even the dominant bucks, they're moving through across that skitter road through those spots. They're not stopping, they're moving through pretty fast. Yeah, they don't want to be there. No, it's pop out from the thick stuff, and they've got to walk 50 yards, and there's still some cover, but it's not that core area.

SPEAKER_06 21:20

So from where you predict their bedding is to where your set was, they had to cross a skitter road.

Year Of Heat, Patience, And Enjoyment

SPEAKER_01 21:26

They had to, yeah, go across the skitter road, and then they're walking up into the edge of a bedding core area. Oh, okay. A little bit above me behind the swamp. Yeah. And I'm right at the end of the swamp. I was that's where I was set up. And so the trail is walking right in front of me. But that was during modern, I could hear them walking across, and I thought I'm in the wrong spot because I can't get them to come over to where I was at, and so I went to where they were at for that late modern. Yeah, and then I was finally, I did see a doughnut yearling walk in front of me. I had a few on camera. Actually, I could have been there for a couple of smaller bucks, but I did have one of the dominant bucks. He did a snort wheeze behind across the water from me. But so he'd come in from the other end of that swamp. Okay. And but he had a doe yearling, a doe he was following over there. But I turned around to where I could see his legs, but I couldn't see his body. Okay. But I know that I could just tell because she went up into that bedding. And he was just following her right up there.

SPEAKER_06 22:37

So for me, I won't ask a buck to cross anything, if that makes sense. Yeah. When I choose my spots, because it's like you're already trying to ask him to come out where he's not comfortable. So trying to get him to cross anything is just a really hard ask for a buck.

SPEAKER_01 22:53

Yeah. And if I hadn't have caught him cut crossing multiple times during daylight hours, I probably wouldn't have sat up there. Yeah. And I'm trying to figure out where to go down below that skitter road. Instead of being up on the skitter road or up top on the edge of that swamp, I'm going to try to find a spot down below to go looking for him.

SPEAKER_06 23:17

It's fun.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

Oh, it is. It's that chess match.

SPEAKER_06 23:20

This is all part of it.

Early-Season Velvet Goals And Patterning

SPEAKER_01 23:21

And this was me waiting too for Anakin. Because when I first spotted him, he was a year and a half. And next year he's four and a half. So it's time to go get him. Yeah. And I did set up a camera, I don't know, December 31st to try and catch a picture of him to see where he's at or see if he's still in there. But he was the youngest buck I saw in there. And there's still two or three that are even older than him. Now, not as impressive. Yeah. But it'll be one of those where like he's my target buck, but I don't know if I'd be able if another like mature buck walked in front of me if I wouldn't. Yeah. If I could resist shooting, yeah, getting that first dominant buck. But that's the thing. I think a lot of us for pro staff, and that's why I kind of want to talk to you about all of this. So we've gotten a lot of really big bucks on camera. And even daylighting, and some of us have harvested, you've just done it consistently. Like you know, sit back for a year and figure things out, then you go out and you go kill one, then a year off, and then go kill one. But it's that getting to that next step of the consistency. Like year in, year out, we're all finding stuff, but it's that dialing it in just a little bit more. So another thing that you talked about, kind of the nuance, is and I'd never heard Dave say anything even remotely like this, is that you, when you go into your sets, holly trees kind of tip you off that you're in the right spot, and mushrooms.

SPEAKER_06 25:02

Yeah, mushrooms. You will find holly trees and mushrooms, but I don't think very close to each other. I do look for those too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Not and, but or.

Hunter’s Gathering Details And Discounts

SPEAKER_06 25:09

Yes. The mushroom, they eat the tops of the mushrooms, so that's where the deer are eating. So there's deer here. Then we find their bedding area. Now we're gonna find their staging area, and then that's where I'm gonna go.

SPEAKER_02 25:20

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_06 25:20

And usually where you find mushrooms, I'm not a mushroom hunter at all, but I've been coming across more mushrooms than I've ever seen in my life because it's just where I'm finding deer at. So it's like, let's go there. And usually it's in where the forest floor is almost bare. So in my mind, now the buck's able to move very quietly and quickly, and it's still dark in there. Even at two o'clock in the afternoon, it's still dark. During late season, it'll be dark. Yeah. And when that buck feels comfortable in there, the trees aren't that big. So you do have to get close and personal. I haven't done a ground blind in there, I've done saddles.

SPEAKER_04 26:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 26:27

Most of it, if you don't clear brush, you're like within nine yards, I think. Oh, okay. And the deer freak out when they send something to nine yards, they don't like it at all. Yeah. So that's a little too close for me. Just because they don't know what's going on, but they know something's going on.

Wrap-Up And Live Podcast Invite

SPEAKER_01 26:42

See, and that's crazy. Like my halfway set, they would come in and be nine to twelve yards. No clue I was there. And they'd come in very calm and easy, which I last year it was interesting. Two years ago, I used Evercom. And then this year I switched to Doughy, which is the Tinks. I think the Evercom seem to work better. Yeah. And I don't know if one of them is just the dough urine, if it's supposed to be a bedding pheromone, or because I know the Evercom is the bedding pheromone. But I I was thinking of trying to find where I'm going to do my set and do that during all summer. Yeah. Just get a bedding area going. Yeah. Get a bedding area going.

SPEAKER_06 27:27

Yeah, I've discovered at nine yards, they're not comfortable. 12 to 18, they seem comfortable. You can get away with kind of a lot. That 15 yard mark is really good. Then it's almost like 20, you're back in their peripherals. Okay. Towards like they could see more.

SPEAKER_01 27:46

Yeah, they're catching more.

SPEAKER_06 27:47

Yeah, they're catching more movement out of you. But it's like when you're closer, I don't know. That I like to be that 12 to 15 is where I really like to be. Okay. Because I'm very confident shot most people are at that distance. You can almost throw arrows at them.

SPEAKER_03 28:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 28:01

So that helps out a lot, especially when it's low light situations. You have great penetration with the arrow or bullets or shouldn't have a problem there.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

Which, yeah, I hole punched that I got last year. Then I I realized, oh, I need different ammo. Yeah. One that doesn't poke a hole all the way through them.

SPEAKER_06 28:19

Well, I shoot a very heavy setup and I need to change that because Duck the Buck took a hard hit where I probably lost 10 to 15 pounds of blood shot. Oh, that yeah, I remember that. From a broadhead. It was almost where I'm thinking about changing broadheads because it was so devastating for blood shot that it wasn't good. How far did he go before he piled up? 40, 50 yards. Okay. And I hit him in the heart and the liver, and I think one lung. Oh.

SPEAKER_01 28:44

Or maybe he was just heart and liver. Wow, that's like the what was it, the magic bullet from the JFK shooting?

SPEAKER_06 28:51

Yeah. Bounced around in there. Charlie was the best one. He I took heart, both lungs and the liver. Wow. Which I don't know how. His angle, or I could be, I could have been, he could have been one lung and everything else. Okay. But he only went total from my tree stand, he was 30 yards away before he died. Wow. And the same with Deuce. I double lunged him. He went 15, 20 yards. So Duck the Buck went further than both the deer previously combined.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

And so Deuce was your first buck. Deuce was the first one. Okay. So one of the things I I was thinking about, so we have guys who are going who are going to be taking the class here pretty soon. So right now our Olympia class is about 80% full. Woodland is still open. The field day, locating field day, and the online class are both full. If you want to get on a wait list, we if we get enough people on a wait list, we'll add another class potentially, either online or add another field day. Just email us to let us know. So if you're taking a class, if you're already signed up, one of the things we thought we wanted you to do, and so Bud started this where at the first boot camp you had guys just randomly, hey, can you take a look at my spot on Onyx and tell me what you think? And it just provided that feedback. And so we started doing that as well at the one-day trophy tactics course. So if you're listening and you're signed up for the class, here's some homework before you come to class, not only have your waypoint on Onyx ready to show, or Google Maps or Hunt Stand, whatever you're using, but go out to the place that you're hunting if you have one. Take some pictures or take video of your spot and do a 360. And that'll give us now. If you're glassing clear cuts, you don't, but if you figured out, okay, I need to go into thick stuff. Yeah, get some pictures of where you're hunting, what you're thinking about as far as thick, because we want to provide some feedback for that during the class. And that's a lot of what you had done just randomly talking about that. But we found that that ends up being really good for guys about where to look.

SPEAKER_06 31:05

Yeah, because it's their spots. It's hard for them to look at our spots and then try to get a picture.

SPEAKER_03 31:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 31:11

But I've looked at enough Onyx now and done enough e-scouting. I can see what the land looks like. Yeah. And I can show you how I e-scout with the Onyx tool, and then I'll use Google Earth and whatever. I have Onyx Hunt off-road, I think Hike or whatever the other one is, plus Google Earth to try to get as much information about that spot.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

And Onyx can be a couple of years old or some of those satellites. Yeah. Sorry. Hunt stands actually better with all of that. And they have more current information. But Onyx is the one that most guys use.

SPEAKER_06 31:45

Yeah, I have so much information at Onyx that you they got you because you can't get away from it, you know, so much data that you've collected.

SPEAKER_03 31:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 31:52

But but out west, they do use old maps. You don't get property lines, but they'll update the pictures differently.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

Yeah, they update a little bit more. But I found so when you're looking at Onyx, the smoother it looks, the thicker that that habitat is. So if it looks really textured in the picture on the screen, that's usually old growth. Okay. And that's been the thing that kind of clicked for me is I just start looking for edges.

SPEAKER_06 32:21

Yeah, I look for the lines and the smooth stuff. I look for lines where Buck would be, where I think he would be and where he feels comfortable. And then I have to put boots on the ground.

SPEAKER_01 32:30

Yeah. And then it's boots on the ground. So we talk about this is the time to go out. Now, if you haven't taken the class yet, you're gonna be a little lost because you don't know quite what to look for. But I would say you'll be taking classes March 7th, March 21st. You've got till early April before it really starts, everything starts growing. Because then everything looks thick and it's yeah, and that'll throw you off. Yeah, it'll throw you off because you think that it's gonna be thick, but it has to be November thick or October thick.

SPEAKER_06 33:03

For me, on just a hint. If it's alders, I just I don't hunt alders. No, just stay away. Alders look really, really thick when they're grown. When there's no leaves, yeah, it's just wide open. Just stay away from it.

SPEAKER_01 33:14

Yeah. And it's bright, so thick and dark. Yeah, it's dark.

SPEAKER_06 33:18

Dark is the best, easiest way to identify thick.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

Yeah, but both, because sometimes it can be old growth and it's really dark in there. Feels really dark. Yeah. But that's just because you got a canopy over you. But you can see 100, 200 yards in between all the trees because there's nothing growing on the ground. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 33:36

Where I shot Duck the Buck and Charlie, you would think that they're gonna log that. That's how open it is.

SPEAKER_03 33:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 33:41

So it works. That's where you want the thick stuff, but then you gotta go look for where the deer are. Yeah. Fed Fredbears, hunt that where they are, not where you want them to be.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

Exactly. And that's okay. So I'm hoping that just through our chatting have given guys a little more clue on what to look for. That was my goal. And to also talk about your success, how you've been consistent. This last year was a take-a-break year.

SPEAKER_06 34:09

It was a little bit of a reset year. I still found bucks. I did two sets that I actually took care of as far as with sense and all that stuff. But yeah, I just relaxed a little bit on the effort. I think I just enjoyed it. It was 60 degrees. Yeah. 60 degree weather does not.

SPEAKER_01 34:27

There were a couple people, I think, who I know who just took the year off. And it was a good year. Yeah. Because with all the 60 degree weather where they'd only get up at night when it was cooler. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 34:39

It was Yeah, I just enjoyed my season to be honest. It's kind of a waste of time. No pressure. Just go have fun.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

Yeah. But it worked out well for rifles. So have you ever thought about just doing the like uh early season hunt?

SPEAKER_06 34:55

For like September. I'm archery guy, so that'd be September.

SPEAKER_01 34:58

You could do.

SPEAKER_06 34:59

I've thought about it. A goal of mine is it'd be hard because you have and it changes from year to year, but if I can get a mature buck in velvet, it would be cool. But that's seasonal, I think, because sometimes they shed their velvet a little bit earlier or later.

SPEAKER_01 35:12

Yeah, probably depending on the heat.

SPEAKER_06 35:14

It would have to be two days, three-day hunt. You'd have to know where that buck is living every second, which is hard to do in the first place.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

Yeah. And I say that we had a lot of guys who did a really good job this year patterning bucks for their summer patterns. Yeah, Mark shot a buck early season.

SPEAKER_06 35:31

Shooting a mature buck in early season when the rut's not going on is the most impressive thing to me that you could ever do.

SPEAKER_01 35:37

So he got one Cully's buck. That was opening day. Another guy, and I can't remember his name, but he got an early season buck. Of course, Bambina was an early season buck. That's a great one, too. Dave, if he hadn't been kicked out of the locker room, would have gotten an early season buck. And that's the whole idea. If you've got them daylighting in early season in your spot, don't hesitate. Go hunt them when they're daylighting. Don't wait till late season.

SPEAKER_06 36:04

I do like their coats better. Yes. But when you're talking 120-inch on up deer, I don't care about a coat at that point. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 36:12

Just go kill it. Yeah, the antlers look cooler on the wall than in a darker coat.

SPEAKER_01 36:17

So, like I mentioned, our online class, field day, our classes are filling up, but we still have hunters gathering. And if you are interested in learning from not only Dave, but Trent Fisher from Born and Raised Outdoors, Heather Aldrich, who again, if you've attended any of her seminars, this is going to be five hours worth plus field work. Alex Chaney talking about turkey. You're going to learn a lot about hunting. And so I was thinking about our classes. They're$400 for the class. And if you go to the hating field day and the establishing a set field day, well, that's$750. For twice that, you get four times as much learning because all of them are going to have classroom work. All of them are going to have field work that you're going to learn from, QA sessions, room and board, you're actually going to get Hunter's Essentials, something to take home with you. It's a really great deal. Plus, it's just a lot of fun to hang out that whole weekend. So if you're looking for something to do for a way to learn this, really, Hunter's Gathering is the way to go. It just is a bargain compared to the other ones. So veteran active duty military discount of$250. We also have family discounts. So bring your son, your daughter, your brother, whomever, but$250 discount for bringing a second family member. Yeah, it's the way to go. But thanks for joining us. If you could like, subscribe, follow, do all the things that your platform asks. We really appreciate that. If you have an idea for a podcast, send it to us. Let us know. If you're going to be at the show this coming week, down at the Portland show, please stop by the booth, say hi. We're going to have two booths, one for the Blacktail Coach, one for the Hunters Gathering. I'll have everything set up for the podcast. Who knows if you come in and you want to talk, you've got a great idea for a podcast. We can record right then and there. We didn't run into the unknown hunter up in Puallop. So who knows? Maybe he'll make his way down to Portland. That would be great. But anyway, thanks for listening and we'll talk to you next week.