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Whitetail Realm
Whitetail Realm is all about the passion and chase behind bowhunting for whitetails. Everything from camp stories, seasonal updates, strategies, and everything in between. Come join us for a listen in the Whitetail Realm.
Whitetail Realm
Season Changes
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Update for the season about how our sits have gone this far and expectations for upcoming weather changes.
Hi everyone, you're listening to The Whitetail Realm. I'm Mason.
SPEAKER_01And I'm Lane.
SPEAKER_00Yep, back in town this weekend at Lane's house, do a little studio podcast, and uh he had a fundraiser benefit deal for his uh cousin, so we're here celebrating that this weekend and kind of helped him move some cameras and stuff around today. But Lane's gonna kind of get into what what and why we're kind of gathered here this weekend.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so Mason drove in town again, saw him one. Um we had a benefit for my cousin last night. Um she passed away March of 2020, and during this benefit, we pretty much have a big raffle. Um raffle off a bunch of baskets, a gun, so it's for a good cause. Um we give scholarships to kids with the money and help other kids in sports, and so it's a good cause, and glad Mason got to come to town and he helped me today. We moved some cameras, um, got some new intel on bucks that are maybe showing up, not maybe the deer I want to see right now, but still some new deer. So we're gonna talk about our first hunts here and get um going on just how our seasons are going.
SPEAKER_00I've been on a couple of them, but this was a one I hadn't been on yet, and it's definitely a property. It's pretty cool to see what he's gonna be able to do there over the next couple years and a lot of fresh sun, and like everybody's seeing across the country, scrapes, and there's one trail of rubs there. There's probably 10 or 12 trees that were torn up.
SPEAKER_01Was it like three different scrapes we found fresh today?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was pretty cool. And like I said, maybe not the deer he's looking for, but you still get excited because you're thinking of the next couple of seasons. A couple of those were good deer, but they're just not mature yet.
SPEAKER_01One more year is what we say. Always one more year.
SPEAKER_00They probably won't be there next year. That's what you always work. That's the luck we always have. Uh but yeah, like Lane said, uh hunting seasons uh end now. Uh at we're recording this on uh October 13th. I've been in the woods quite a bit already. Lane's been kind of working around a work schedule, and it seems like the days he has off is when it's 90 degrees here, so he hasn't been out in the woods a whole lot yet.
SPEAKER_01One hunt so far for me.
SPEAKER_00I think I've been out seven times now, so and it's really every night I've been out's been really, really good. Besides the quad riders, right? Besides quad quad riders and trespassers, so but if you know me, that's only my luck, too. Yeah, opening night, that was a I'm sitting out in the woods and uh stand that I always have really, really good luck in in early seasons on a big oak flat, plenty of acorns dropping this year. The trail cams there have been awesome. About the last 30 minutes of light. I've I seen at that point probably 15, 20 does, and uh, you know, you're getting high. Yeah, you're getting excited. You're getting excited because the sun's going down, it's getting cool. That opening day, like everybody saw around the country. It was cool, it was awesome. And I hear big old crunching coming up the leaves, thinking, oh, but maybe it's a big buck or something coming down the road. Nope, some guy smoking a cigarette with his head lamp on, just walking down the trail. Was he on your farm or the neighbors? He was on this one, it was on the farm I hunt, and uh I hollered at him and he just kind of stopped, looked around, and then they just kept on walking at me. So I hollered at him again. Finally, he's he really stopped, looked around and saw me, just waved, didn't say anything, didn't apologize, just turned back around and walked out. The dumb thing was he had to walk right by my car. Really like what he he had to have seen that there's a car there. I don't know what the hell is.
SPEAKER_01Some people just don't think. Maybe they thought you were taking a nature walk.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01There's another guy back here walking.
SPEAKER_00He was he was ready for the long, he had a headlamp on and everything. He was ready to walk through the night. Yeah, there's a dedication. Yeah. Then the very last one I went out on a spot that I've been telling Lane, if I can get back there, you need an east wind, and like everybody knows, there's not a whole lot of east winds, and I was pumped to hunt it on an east wind. Was that Thursday night? Yes. Yeah, Thursday night. And the last 30 minutes come by, two quad riders come riding up. And it's it's right on the property line, and they were on the other side of the property, so I can't tell you if they're trespassing or not, but it was just another bummer. But the other than those two sits, uh, been really good. Got some really good footage of some younger bucks for the next couple years. Uh, actually, I've had three well that one deer looked pretty solid that you sent the video of. There's uh I've had three deer that you know, worthwhile antler size walk by, at least get you a little excited that I've passed on so far. Two really nice three-year-olds, a buck I call unicorns, kind of got a third brow coming out of the middle of his forehead. Then a smaller four-year-old that he he shows a lot of potential. His tines are real short right now, but he's got the width and the mass and everything already. So, but it's been exciting, you know. Anytime you get a big buck in bow range, you get your blood pumping a little bit, even if you're not gonna shoot him. But anything makes you pick up your bow, at least think about it for a second, gets you a little excited. Hey, I had a fawn in dough range the other night, and I was pumped up. Yeah, it it's been so far this season's been really good, and especially looking at the forecast for the next three or four days, it's it's getting us pumped up.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I hunted that Thursday evening too. I've only been out once, and um, so that hunt it was pretty pretty boring until like the last 30 minutes of daylight. And there's a little fawn come out, then I was she kind of went down the field and I was like, once she gets out of view, I'm gonna go ahead and climb down. Well, I go to climb down and then four more dough pop out. So I'm like, what am I gonna do here? Well, I'm about halfway down the tree, and three more little bucks come running down the field, and it's about pitch black at this time. So I'm like, I don't want to bust them out. So I start trying to howl like a coyote. I don't know if you've ever tried that before. It's uh I was barking and um them deer did not care one bit. They stood out in the field and the two dinks were sparring, and I'm like, what am I gonna do? So I finally tried to get out there kind of quiet, but they end up busting, going down the end of the field, and then next thing you know, by the time I was out of my truck, they were back out there, so I didn't booger anything up too bad. But hopefully there was a I walked that farm um two nights, two mornings ago, and there's a lot of fresh new sign, moved some cameras, so hopefully, I mean it there looks like there's a buck in there. I don't know how big. I know the um neighbor he sent me some videos and stuff. It looks like there's some good deer around, so hopefully they'll wander over. Um let Mason talk on.
SPEAKER_00This this last week, I know I've noticed a bunch of new bucks that I had at the farm this summer, but I hadn't seen since uh they were still in velvet show back up. So that's really, really exciting. I think each night this week I had a another buck show up, and heck last night I was showing land while we were there. I had four bucks that I knew from this summer all in the trail cam in less than a minute of each other out chasing around. So they're they're starting to you know realize this the weather's changing, they're getting getting back going here for the end of the month.
SPEAKER_01Especially like Monday night, big cold front's gonna hit. Um deer cash shows great on Monday, then really um good for Tuesday, Wednesday, I think Thursday morning too. So we might do our first actually morning since of the year. I not I usually don't hunt mornings till late October, but these big cold front coming in and such a big weather drop, what's there gonna be like a 20-30 degree drop in temperature? So it's gonna be in the low 30s for a couple of nights. Yeah, I think we might see our first frost. And I know Bark Drury always talks on that first frost of the year, you better be in a tree stand, so it'd probably be a good time to get out there. Um right now I got probably one buck that's a possible shooter um on that one farm. And he's kinda I call him Bubba Gump because he's all jacked up looking. He's got tall brows, he might have been injured last year. So hopefully that deer um will show up, and that's where I'm probably gonna put my focus on right now until I get something else to show up on the cameras.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I kinda got three that I'm searching around for right now, and uh two of them showed back up this week actually quite a bit. One actually daylighted at a stand that I hunted the night before. I just we had two north winds in a row, and I have two north stands set up, and uh I just chose wrong on the opposite nights of when to show up, but he would have been on the camera. He's 20 yards away from the stands, so it you know at first I was a little bummed, but man, it just gets you more excited knowing that you're in the right area, but uh even you gotta be out there to kill him. You can't be sitting in the wrong stand. They always say you can't kill one off the couch, but you can't kill one in the wrong stand either.
SPEAKER_01Well, and that's like today we checked them cameras on my property, and there was a lot of daylight pictures of a lot of just good young bucks. You know, I was strolling through there, I'm like, oh, these things look good, and then I downloaded the photos and I'm like, one more year. And I can't believe, you know, and daily just out then, you know, four or five o'clock in the evening hitting a scrape, but that farm is really secluded back there, you know, you don't have a lot of pressure, so them deer feel comfortable. It's just hard to access, and I'm waiting on one deer to show up. He hasn't showed up yet, but he's been there the last two years, and he should be pretty impressive, I hope. I mean, very hopeful that he ends up showing up. So I'm kind of feel like I'm hunting a ghost right now on that farm just because I know he's not there yet that I know of. And I don't even know if he's alive at the you know, it's just waiting on him to hopefully show up.
SPEAKER_00That's always wait and see is what I always say, and it's kind of the fun part with it, because you never know what what's gonna happen. So you sit out there and see what what you do have on the camera, and you know, when you first download them onto your phone or camera, and then that little small JPEG, you see some antlers and you're like, whoa, you get excited, and then you blow them up, you're like, yeah, like Lane says, one more year. But yeah, it's an exciting time right now, and I'm pretty punked. October 14th when I killed my buck last year, and uh tomorrow's October 14th, and that looks to be the best day of the year thus far, and probably for another 10 days or so. So I I'm gonna go sit a stand that I've got a lot of confidence in that I've already had the getting aggressive at the right time. Yeah, I've kind of waited to see. I so far this season I haven't got into the farm as much. I I say from the road, the furthest I've gone in is 150 yards, probably. Yeah, just kind of hunt the edges. But Monday I'm gonna go into a spot that I preset before the season that it it's my most active cell camera. We're gonna get in there after them a little bit on Monday. Got a good wind, good access into that point, so we'll shall see.
SPEAKER_01And that's what I'm thinking. I got a preset spot on um Monday evening that I'm thinking about going and hunting. Usually I don't hunt that spot till the last week of October, but off the sign that I seen uh two days ago in there, I just feel like it that weather front coming in. If I can sneak in there, there'll be deer in there moving in, probably moving early. I mean, it's that first front of the year, and it seems like a lot of big deer get killed on that first cold front. I agree.
SPEAKER_00And uh the property that I hunt, all the corn's coming around around us. So uh right now we have the only food left on that'd be the north and the south side, all the food's gone. The east and west, there's two little cornfields, but I mean they're it take for a deer to be on our property and to go to theirs, it's still a little trip for them. So most of the what I'd call the big ag fields are gone, so they're on our we got soybeans left. They still have some green leaves on them, still, so they're out they're out on those, and like I've said in the podcast before, plenty of big acorn flats for them to go after.
SPEAKER_01Well, and I think that's a big thing you gotta think about this time of year is these crops are coming out, and that you know changes a farm in a heartbeat. Once a cornfield comes out, I mean it it can change your whole strategy of hunting. And then I got farms like you know, I'm waiting on some butt deer to show up on, but last year and they were in corn and they were there a lot earlier, but they had a lot more cover. Yeah, well now they're in beans this year, and I'm just not seeing the amount of deer or deer activity than I was the year that they're in corn. So it's just a different way of thinking. And like the other night I was driving down a road and there was a guy cutting corn, and I looked over on the part of the field that he'd already cut, and there's a pretty good buck out there, and I threw up my binoculars. And I don't know about you, but I always carry my binoculars. If I don't have my binoculars, I feel naked. I mean I got a pair in each vehicle that I drive. Yeah, so I threw up them binoculars, and I mean I he's right there on probably that 140 mark, so he'd be hard to pass up if a guy he walked in front of a guy. And then my little brother can hunt a farm that buds up to it, and he got a picture about three hours later of a pretty good buck, and I'm not sure if it wasn't the same one.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's exciting times, and I I've noticed a lot of the neighbors around us are starting to get into the woods, maybe the ones that don't do all the summer prep and anything. So I think that's kind of why we I got a lot more bucks on camera this week because they were kind of bumping deer off their property. I saw three different neighbors moving in um blinds and tree stands this week, so I think that kind of bumps more deer on ours. And I didn't hunt much this week. The weather wasn't great, I was busy at work and couldn't get off early enough on most days to get out there, so it kind of was no pressure on our farm at all this week, so hopefully that kind of makes them feel safer and stick stick around a little bit more.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, all these uh guys that are just getting into it. I mean, and you know, we were doing scouting before, and then you know, a lot of people are just now getting excited for deer season, especially your your gun hunters, you know, they're a month away, and so they're getting their blinds set up, which helps us guys that's in the woods bow hunting because they're pressuring deer and I'm bumping them over. And I've noticed some of that too. And you know, I'm one of them guys, I got a farm in a county next to us, and I just put cameras on that farm this week, but they don't hold a whole lot of summer deer. Um so I went and put cameras out, seen a lot of good sign, had a couple nice bucks show up, but it's one of them farms that butt up such a big timber, you never know when a shooter is going to come through. So I might go hunt that farm maybe on Monday. I haven't decided yet.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I had speaking of neighbors coming in and everything, and there is uh there's been a big deer, probably two properties south of where I hunt all summer. I send Lane a picture of him in the same corner of a bean field, dang near every night, through my binoculars, and he's an absolute stud. But they harvested that field this week, and then the next property he would have got bumped to. That guy was in there uh putting his blind up and everything. So I went and hunted, I it was 90 degrees out, but I'm like just on the off chance, he gets bumped here. We're gonna sit and see what we can see. Just you never know. Oh, yeah, you never know.
SPEAKER_01It's getting to that point in time, you know, that you're not gonna know what's gonna show up. I mean, a lot of I have a lot of bucks that will show up in the next five, six days. And um, they're gonna show up, start hitting scrapes, and things are starting to get it gonna be getting excited here at the end of the month.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, a lot more scrapes are happening, and it seems like they're visiting them a lot more often as well.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that I mean the ones I've seen today, all my cameras right now are over scrapes. Um and I think that you know, trans you probably after I'd say middle of oh, probably the middle of the first week of November, I'm gonna start putting it in the good transition areas. I don't know if I'll I'll probably move some of them off the scrapes, but I'll put them in them good transitions and hopefully um find some deer cruising. So it's it's getting exciting. I'm I'm pumped up. I wish I had, I guess, a a big shooter, which I know some of the neighbors do, and I'm just waiting on them deer hopefully to float over.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and uh like Lane said, we're gonna just keep getting after it this week. Um are you going to hang and hunt Monday or are you going to get out there in the old sand you got hanging up?
SPEAKER_01Probably hang and hunt. So I um took my mobile set on Thursday and put in that tree and it's still there, so I possibly will hunt that tree in the morning. Yeah. Tear that mobile set down. And I'm running because I was running the three big sticks last year. Well, now this year I'm running four. Um I just feel like it helped me get a little higher and works out in my favor a little better. I think last year some trees I had good cover I was fine in, but there was a couple trees I just need a couple more feet up.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I felt the same way. That the last couple times I've been out, I I went with four big sticks to get up a little higher, and I even brought a mini, you know, to keep kind of use at the top of the tree to help you get into it just so you can use those four sticks so they're full length.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, B being a 300-pound man, it's uh getting up there on that four stick, I'm like, this might hurt if I pull a little bit. Yeah. I'm trying to be as careful as possible. But I might strap another mini on um just to help, like you said, get in that transition over to the stand because you put it up a little bit too high, it can be hard to get in sometimes, especially in little walk-ons.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. I don't know about you, but I've noticed a lot of bucks already hitting the ground so far this season. You know, there's been 10 to 12 nice deer I've seen on Facebook already.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, um, my buddy just sent me a picture of his neighbor killed a pretty good buck this morning. He was probably a younger deer, but a solid 10. A lot of in I think um we had a good growing year on antler growth. Um, we had a lot of good, you know, water and rain early, and I think it helped a lot of deer grow.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I like Lane and I've said we got a lot of young deer that look really, really big this year, and I like I think it's because of that growth we had. The crops stayed green a lot longer, it seemed like, and uh just had plenty of food for them, especially with the acorns too now. There's just plenty of food, water, never had a whole lot of stress, and really last winter wasn't hard on them either. So I think they came out of winter really uh reluctant and didn't have to put any extra cover on before they started growing.
SPEAKER_01There's a lot of them deer like, is that one three or four? Because he has a rack. Yeah, yeah. His rack's pretty good, and you're like body, skinny.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there's one today Lane showed me. I said, holy, I'm like, oh, he's skinny. Yeah, he doesn't look like he should be skinny.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, this deer, you know, looks like I mean he has a solid rack, but his body's just like he had it wasn't like he just had tines and everything.
SPEAKER_00He already had masks put on, everything. But I mean his my calf was as big as his neck was.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's kind of because I don't when I get them deer on camera like that, I hate hunting them farms because I want to pass some deer, and that'd be a hard deer to pass. So I'm kind of scared to go hunt there because I don't really want to walk one of them walk in front of me. You don't know if you'll be able to leave your bell on the hanger or not. So it I mean it's fun though. It it's even if I have the encounter with them, I can tell myself to pass them. I mean, I've done it before, but I just don't want to put pressure on them because they're not needed. And I know there's gonna be pressure come gun season, anyways.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, exactly. And uh especially since you got enough different farms, you can kind of pick the you don't have to hunt those farms every every time you go out, you can pick the farms that hey, there's actually a shooter on this one. Let's not pressure those little ones and get them smarter than they need to be.
SPEAKER_01Well, and my my little brother had a lease last year and he lost it, so I'm kind of giving up one of the farms with my k go hunt it. You know, we you have permission to be there just as much as I do. Go out there and hunt it. I got these other farms I can jump on, and it'll help me because then it eliminates me a spot to go. Now, if he gets a big old shooter on there, you know, well, hey Bo, sorry.
SPEAKER_00Hey, I still got permission on this place too, is what I'm gonna say.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but I uh I actually took a self cam off that farm today and I was like, go throw yours up because he wants to get in the woods, and I mean that's all you're gonna learn if you're not out there, you know.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. You never you never know what what's going on, and it's nice that you you got enough properties you can let him go hunt one that you've hunted over the last couple years and put time and effort into and you know let's go.
SPEAKER_01There should be some I told him there's a couple deer that were good on that farm last year, and they should be there any time. So I said you better get out there and get active because it'd be fun. And he just got him a climber the other day, so he'll get to experience the kind of the mobile game, you know, with the climber, old old school.
SPEAKER_00I I hunted out a climber in high school for a little while, and I I never want to experience that again. The the feeling when you slip a foot and you think you're going all the way down is not something it's something everybody should experience, but it's not the most fun thing in the world at the moment when it's happening.
SPEAKER_01Well, um I bought a climber the other day off a good buddy of mine, and I didn't pay attention, but it's a bone hunting climber, so it don't have the bar and the front. The bar in the front. So I'm gonna exp that's gonna be quite the expensive. Do you just use your your hands to set it into the tree on the side? I'm guessing I'm gonna be strong arming it. So we'll see how it goes. I don't even know if I'll be able to do it, to be honest. Yeah, I might just sell that one to Bo if I was you. Yeah, he's lost a lot more weight.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he he's scary looking. I want to mess with Bo right now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, my little brother, he he's a big boy and lost a lot of weight. Something I need to do. He lost it and I gained it, it feels like it's not a fun feeling when your little brother can carry. Your ass anymore. No, no, no. And I was like, shit, I was hanging that mobile set the other day, and I'm like, damn it, Lane, you need to lose some. I told myself last year, hey, I need to get down like 50 pounds, and if we're gonna go out, me and Mason, we're gonna go out west and do a hunt, and I'm just gonna have to get back in shape and get my head in the right place and just lose the weight because go out there, it's gonna be a different life.
SPEAKER_00The other day, I can't remember what day it was. Friday? What what was the first day you had off this week?
SPEAKER_01Uh so this week I had off Tuesday, Wednesday, and then um I worked Thursday, Friday.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So it was Saturday morning then when you called. Oh yeah, I was huffing a puff and got out of the bug. He called me a huffin' puff, and I didn't know he was chasing a sow or a dog or something. He goes, Oh, that's how to walk all the way back here instead of this trail camp. I was like, You're walking, and you sound like you just ran a marathon. Yeah, well, I did run a marathon.
SPEAKER_01That was my marathon the other day. Had to climb some hills. Like, I mean, I'm in shape just round, you know. I'm in a certain shape, just a round shape. But I I'll get it. I'll figure it out. I still get around fine. Just help get a few pounds off. As long as you get up in the tree, and it's all that matters. You probably the 15 bush lights last night didn't have that not probably did not at all. It's okay. You had a water before we left, you're good. Yeah, yeah. So water H2O, perfect. You know, that's part of my plan. Drink a water today, keep the doctor away.
SPEAKER_00Now, it's kind of off subject. Are you what do you take, what snacks do you take to stand with you every time you go? I know you gotta be a snack person.
SPEAKER_01Alright. So if I'm doing an all-day set, I like the old-fashioned peanut butter and jellies. Oh, you you put effort into it.
SPEAKER_00I'm just more than stopping a gas station and on my way.
SPEAKER_01No, I'll make a peanut butter and jelly. Now, I have a buddy that okay, I'm a snacker, but one of my best friends, he's the ultimate snacker. I was climbing, we were hunting in high school out climbers. I look over and I hear this rapper, and I'm like, what is that? And um he's got Snickers. I'm like, alright. Then he's got another Snickers, then another Snickers. So I'm like, guy. Is this bowlander? Oh, guy.
SPEAKER_00How does he eat that many Snickers? The guy weighs, he's about 6'4 and weighs 120 pounds.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, yeah. I have no clue. But anyways, about 20 minutes later, it's like I hear this crunch, crunch. I'm like, what? He's got a bag of Doritos. And I'm like, dude, we've been out here for like a half hour. Quit snacking. So I gotta get it and get them down before the hunting gets good. But my probably mean I try to keep quiet, so I might try to take a nail bar or something that some protein or an apple.
SPEAKER_00What's cool about you know, an apple is you have never taken an apple to an apple. There's not an apple in this house right now.
SPEAKER_01There is two. It might be rotten, but take an apple and uh you eat it, then you throw it out there for the deer. I'm getting done. That's probably baiting, even if it's one apple.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm more I I get me a box of those beef jerky sticks, and I take a peach body armor with me to the stand every time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm a bit I am so mad I forgot my water bottle in the truck the other day. So I was sweating, you know, balls off, and I get up there, and I'm like, I need my drinking water. I look at my bag, I'm like, I left it right in the freaking truck.
SPEAKER_00I uh this week I kind of cleaned out, I was reorganized my hunting stuff. You know, when you go out six or seven times, nothing's where it started, and I just kept pulling water bottles and trash out. I think there's more trash and water bottles in my bag than actual hunting gear.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, usually like my first hunt I'm pretty organized. Then after that, it's done for. Like organization just goes out the window.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the other night and I was tearing down my stand. I had freaking ropes all tangled up. There's still a rope wrapped around the riser of my bow that it's all tied and knots. I I was just trying to get out of the woods as quick as possible. And it's a mess right now. That's that's tonight's project to get ready again for this week. Get my clothes rewashed, hang them outside for about 24 hours, and tomorrow after work get back out there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I uh I'm hoping to come tomorrow. I'm gonna like a buck to show up tonight on camera. That's probably a lot to ask for. And then hopefully this cold front will hit. And I think I got an idea where I'm gonna go. Just I got some options. Some options. And I don't know which spot I'm gonna go to quite yet. So I might flip a coin in the morning.
SPEAKER_00Well, that's what I was just seeing as Lane was talking there. I was getting cell cam notifications, so I had to double check like most people in the middle of the day, it was just a squirrel or a shadow or something, there's no big deer on there. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Maybe if it was November 13th.
SPEAKER_00This is going off right now, too. So if anybody can tell us how to keep our trail cams from going off in the middle of the day, but still have them in the right spot, it'd be much appreciated. Oh, yeah, it's like any little branch or anything. We we have a raccoon problem, so I get about 60 photos a night from I'd say 12.30 to 2.30 in the morning of freaking raccoons on one camera. They are all around it. I'm surprised they haven't torn it off the tree yet.
SPEAKER_01I moved that camera um two days ago, and then last night I got a picture of a black cat. So I'm scared to go hunt that spot now. I think it's haunted.
SPEAKER_00Well, I don't know if it could have been that cow you had on there on this camera over to the city. She probably weighed every bit of 2,000 pounds, and I'm not exaggerating.
SPEAKER_01And cow's not even supposed to be in that spot.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's not in a pasture, nothing.
SPEAKER_01No, it's in the middle of the woods. One single picture of a cow.
SPEAKER_00She's ginormous, too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think um definitely a wild cow. She was hitting that scrape though. Yeah, she was right on the city. I bet she tastes a lot better than deer and a lot more meat.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I guarantee it. Your broadhead might not go in her very far, though. That thing was fat.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I probably wouldn't get a pass through on that.
SPEAKER_00No, definitely would not. Or just kidding here, I wouldn't do that to a cow. Not right now, anyways. Yeah. Maybe later in the season when if you still haven't found a buck yet. Muzzle or season. Yeah, muzzle or season.
SPEAKER_01Oh, shoot. I can't. What is it that you hunt in Africa? A big uh buffalo? I mean, similar practicing.
SPEAKER_00Freaking huge. Yeah. Kind of like that heck, that bull we saw this morning at breakfast. He looked like he could have been a Cape Buffalo. That thing was nasty horns on him, too. Coming, they were going the same directions. I think it was a little feral looking.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, speaking of a bull, um, we uh at the benefit last night, and our well, it'd be my father-in-law, his good friend, and another guy there that um worked for the same company showed us some pictures of one of their buddies, elk hunting um out west. What do you say you live in San Antonio? Yeah, lived in San Antonio, and then been out west just murdering some giant elk. Giant elk. I think it'd be awesome. Like we that's a pretty far-fetched getting them on the podcast, but it'd be cool if it was.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Lane and I are pretty pumped next. I I think we haven't decided what we're gonna do. This spring we're definitely going on a bear hunt up in Canada, but uh we haven't decided if we're gonna do mule deer or elk next fall, too, before deer season gets in.
SPEAKER_01Something we've always wanted to do, getting pretty excited, but yeah, we have a friend that lives in um is in North Dakota. Yep. And so maybe we can get lucky enough and get up there on his place.
SPEAKER_00That's a draw though, so we got I put in for points though, so I got one step ahead this year. Well, I might have to run a camera then. Yeah, and get you on the camera. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You aren't filming at all this year, are you? Well, no, but I was talking to Nate yesterday because we still got that nice Sony 2K handicam. And I might I kind of miss it. Yeah. I do kind of miss the filming thing. But it's easier if you got two people that's what we might end up doing.
SPEAKER_00Hopefully, especially hanging and hunting. I I'd say 50% of hunt so far this year. I I've been uh dragging a stand with me. And you know, getting the stand up in the tree, then getting your camera armed, camera set up. And it that that part's hard enough, but man, especially getting down, trying to do all that again in the dark, it's just miserable. So I'm glad I've taken I've gotten some really cool footage this year. Like the second night I was out, there's two bucks locked up that I I pass on both of them. They end up fighting underneath me for an hour. I was in the stand until I called Lane and he goes, What why you call me so late? I'm like, I'm just now walking out of the woods. They're underneath me for an hour after that. Yeah, I was like, what in the world?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you're out there late. So what do you think about the because you're kind of doing the mobile thing this year?
SPEAKER_00I enjoy it. I'm still trying to get down like how I'm carrying it all into the woods, but each time I feel like I'm getting my setup more what I like, especially in the tree. I know what I'm doing each time now, where I'm putting my my bow hanger, my camera arm, where I'm hanging my bag off of. And I've kind of got a bunch of cool tricks to make it all quicker. Because you know, it takes a while to get up to stand, and I'm doing this all as I'm getting off work, you know. So I'm not getting there the earliest every time. So trying to be in as as efficient as possible, carrying the least amount of stuff in the tree with me. Because I feel like everything I'm carrying in right now I'm all has a job as it's carrying in. Like uh my bow hanger kind of hangs uh my steps off my my stand right now. Uh what I'm hanging my bag off of uh holds my camera arm from being banging around the whole time. So I'm trying to minimize what I'm hit taking in the woods, so I'm only taking what's I need once I get into the tree, nothing extra.
SPEAKER_01And that's what I started running the extra like a fanny pack style bag last year because it's easier to get the stand on my back.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And with all the camera gear, I just need the extra room. But like I said, each time I feel like I'm getting more confident, and hey, this is how I need to go into the woods with everything. You get a little workout though when you're walking, especially on those 80-degree days, carrying a stand, all the camera gear, batteries, and tree stand arms and your bow.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that one farm I hunt down the county next to us. Last year I was like, I'm gonna have to hike all the way back in there. And I circled the entire property to get where I'm at, and I was wore out by the time I got there and got the and the thing is is like I'm learning you kind of gotta like scout your trees while you're hunting more because I had an idea last year, I'm like, I'm gonna get in this tree. Well, I got to it and the tree was too big.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And I'm like, oh, this ain't gonna work. So then I'm like putting more, okay, where's the next tree at? So I'm getting really good at like finding the size of the trees that I need to be in, and not knowing like that honey hole size of tree, like, hey, that one might be borderline too big, so let's try to jump in that one.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I know I was doing that a lot this spring, turkey hunting and shed hunting. Just kind of I probably got 20, 25 trees marked on on X of where I could potentially put a stand, whether it's gonna be one moving a ladder stand or whatever, but or ones that I could hang and hunt out of, and just making sure, especially hanging hunting, the the biggest thing I know, I obviously bring your bow with you every time, but make sure you got a little handsaw because those can come in handy. You can find the tree that's just one branch away from being perfect, so just make sure you got your handsaw with you every time.
SPEAKER_01I'm glad you mentioned that because I just realized I dropped mine out of the bag the other night and it's at the bottom of that tree, so I'm gonna have to go get that in the morning. Yeah. If you just go hunting in the morning and you'll be good. I probably will do that. I'm probably will. Being first cold front, I probably will. Yeah. I think it was what I don't think it's gonna be in the 30s yet in the morning, but maybe high 40s. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I gotta I gotta work every day this week, so I won't be able to get out in the morning, but definitely in the evenings, and I'll be a little I know Lane's got tomorrow off, so he he only gets he doesn't get as many days off or chances to go out as much as I do, so he's gotta make every bit of them, so I'll be a little jealous when he's out there tomorrow and I'm on a Monday morning call.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I gotta make everything count, which my schedule I never work more than three days in a row, but usually like them two days I do gotta work are prime, and then two days I don't.
SPEAKER_00Every day he's had off, it's been like 85 degrees out.
SPEAKER_01And then the next day it's like, hey, you should probably Deercast says it's great, you should go back.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like opening day there's a cold front. He was working for uh you worked like three days in the middle.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I had to work a day of overtime. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So he missed the first three good days we had, and then it got hot again. But luckily I finally got a good day with Monday tomorrow. Seems like it's gonna be awesome. Yeah, yeah, Monday should be good.
SPEAKER_01I just gotta figure out where I'm going. But um, I mean, anything else we want to talk about? Any exciting news, you know?
SPEAKER_00I don't think so. I think uh like we said, we're just excited for this week. It's still sunny out, so I think um after I get home tonight, go shoot my bow. I try to shoot it every day before if it's a day I'm hunting, I I at least shoot five arrows before I go to the woods just to make sure everything's you know, when you're especially when I'm doing this hanging hunting, I always feel like there's a better chance of knocking your bow on a stand or something. Yeah. So I shoot every freaking day. We got a buddy that deer hunts with us. He doesn't shoot his bow at all, and it dries me up a freaking wall. I every time I even um if I'm not calling about hunting, I was like, hey, you shooting your bow yet? No, no, no, uh, it dries me up a wall.
SPEAKER_01I always go shoot a good deer. Watch it. Yeah, I he's got a killer farm.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but I shoot my bow every I've shot my bow every day since June 1st this year.
SPEAKER_01I'm up two or three nights a week. Like I'll probably shoot tonight because I haven't shot in a few days. Yeah. And get it, um, get that bug out of my system. But I always try to like take my target with me. Before I go out, I'll take a shot and make sure at least my 30-yarding, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, luckily sp if I'm hunting around the home farm there uh I'm the furthest I'm driving is a 30-second drive, so I always got the target there, and I can just get out and check real quick before I head to the woods.
SPEAKER_01Well, and it's like kind of a relatable story. It's been three years ago now. I get up in a stand, hung and hunt, hang and hunt that evening. It's my first time ever using my mobile set. It was like the 28th of October, cold front. Get up there and I look over, and there's a big buck coming off the ridge. Hits a scrape, comes down the creek, grab my bow, draw back 30 yards, my entire sight housing moved as I draw back, and I'm like, oh, what's going on here? So I let in and I tap my sight housing and I'm like, it's moving. I can't shoot this deer. Gives me like three opportunities to shoot him. Comes in the next morning. I will go home that evening, get my there's an allen bolt in the side loose. Me and my little brother tighten it up, go back in the next morning, shoot the deer, make a bad shot, can't find him. Neighbor finds him a dead or deadhead.
SPEAKER_00This is the one you just got rebuilt.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but the rack got rebuilt on it. But yeah, cool story. Yeah. Cool story. I mean, we found it was in pieces from the squirrels chewing it up. There wasn't a whole lot left.
SPEAKER_00I got a a buck. Oh. It was the only deer I ever shot while I was in college still. I came home, I had a weekend off, so I came home and I think it was open weekend of gun season, and I went and shot them, and I was just gonna do like every redneck American, just bury them and do a euro mount. I had that sucker buried for two years. Really? And it it almost looks like the day you put them in the ground. Nothing's touching them. So I've been working on that this week. Tried power washing at first, it didn't work. I was gonna boil it like you're supposed to, but our burner's not working, so I had I ordered a new burner off Amazon. Finally gonna get that cleaned up. Luckily I've kept it nice, I had a barrel over it, and it left it in the shed with uh wraps over it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you remember when were you the I think your first year probably you were out there when I found that deadhead out of college and I tried to put it in the fire back and boil it. No, I don't remember. And I completely screwed up because I didn't take the bottom of the rack and I like burnt the bottom of the rack. No, I didn't know that at all. Yeah. You find it on the state park over there? No, no, it was actually on a farmer I was working for. Huh. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't know that. Yeah, he's like, yeah, look at this dead end. I was like, hey, I'm gonna go home and try to urimount it.
SPEAKER_00Did you ever hunt at all when you were out of school? I know we went we went to that state park and walked around for a while looking, but I didn't know if he actually did or not.
SPEAKER_01No, I wanted to. I'll I'll tell a quick little story. The farmer I worked for out there, he was a super cool old man, big old guy, and he was just a gun hunter. I walked in his house, and there is a 200-inch typical, like, I think he was 11-pointer on the walk. I'm like, what is that? And then I look over, he's got a 160, a 170 hanging next to the sides. And I'm like, oh my gosh, well this big deer, I asked him the story of it, and he said it was like only day of gun season out there in Illinois, and he was glassing this deer from his house on a field that he owned, and the deer was laying um in either uh I think it was a bean field that hadn't been cut yet. Every time a car would come by, he would lower his head into the beans, and then he'd put his head back up, and he said finally he snuck up behind him and shot him down the the hill, and that's how he ended up killing him. So it was cool hearing that story. And then so when I shot my big deer that year that went 180, I sent him a picture and he said, Oh, just a decent buck. And I'm like, Yeah, just decent, because you got about three or four giants in there.
SPEAKER_00Where where we went to school, there's a lot of big deer killed. I don't know why we ever left that place. You guys know where the working class guys are located around there and hear all their buddies killing big deer. That's the same area we went to school with, so a lot of big deer in that area, and we definitely should have been more after it and on it. Oh, yeah. Those Illinois had a state license. I had to buy one this year, and they're freaking ridiculous, though.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I would like to go back and hunt Illinois. And I I think I'm going to.
SPEAKER_00I am this year, especially after I'm focused on my Indiana deer first, but then after that, I'm gonna go over to Illinois. Like I said, that license took a big chunk out of the paycheck.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you gotta you gotta use it if you already paid for it. Exactly. That's how I am of Ohio, you know. I I'd like to hunt Illinois and Ohio, but golly, the amount of money I'd have wrapped up in license. I'd like to kill one here first and figure out where to go after that.
SPEAKER_00And I even though I got the Illinois farms to hunt this year, I'm still more connected to the home place where I grew up at hunting every turkey opening day I've been there, you know, bow hunted it for 10, 12 years now. It's just something exciting to get to do. Did you see where uh it looked like Trogden might have killed a buck? No, that was his one from last year. Oh, wasn't it? Everybody congratulated him, but that he he was just getting excited for deer season and posted that one from this year.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that was a big deer. Pops got to leave. He's a stud. That looked like a good area too, and we went down there and buy pigs off the room.
SPEAKER_00There's been there well, I showed you that. I I I don't quote me on this. I think that's where the new Illinois bow hunting record was killed after. He's dang close to it. So that county's got a lot of big deer. I I I couldn't I'm not a good numbers guy, so I couldn't tell you the score or anything, but there's a lot of big deer killed around there. There's a lot of our show pig people that live in that county, and all of them are big dick big deer killers too.
SPEAKER_01They're big dicks, okay. Yeah, I guess some of them probably are, but yeah. It's uh it's cool. A lot of the you know, the guys that we did go to school with, they got a lot of good farms and a lot of big deer to hunt. Um I got a Mitch, another good friend of ours. We'll have to get him on this podcast sometime because he's killed some really, really good deer.
SPEAKER_00Hopefully he's gonna get done harvest probably sooner than most years, and he'll be able to hunt a little more this year. But yeah, he sent me some pictures and I'm like, sh. Yeah. And he's just south of where we went to school there. Just we we always said we're dumb forever leaving Illinois, other than their stupid stuff Illinois' known for, but yeah, yeah. Big big deer, we we should have stayed there a little bit.
SPEAKER_01Well, if we were real smart, we would have gone, you know, stayed over to the Iowa and just landed home there.
SPEAKER_00We we never never were that smart. We got some buddies though. If we were getting drawn, we we probably got some connections with that. I tell everyone all the time, hey, we're moving to Iowa. There's a bungee plant out in Iowa and I'm like, let's go. I'm going. If you know Lane, he changes his mind like a popcorn fart, so he always he's always moving somewhere else. Yeah, I know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I've been at home for like two this far longest I've stayed stationary back at home. It has. Yeah. But yeah, it's fun. I don't know. I don't think I could leave the family, but I sure would like to think about it leaving. You know, it's fun to think about all the cool things you could do if you ever leave home. Yeah, go out there, maybe I can be neighbors with Lee and Tiffany or something. That'd be fun. I I'm sure they wouldn't a lot like it though. Me being neighbors and then being a deer hunter and wanting all their tricks. It'd be fun though. I like did you see that video last year where um well I think it was last year for Lee from Seek One hovering out there? That fake shed out there. Yeah, that was pretty funny. That was cool. He just killed a giant, dude. Giant enormous deer. Yeah. What did it say that was that in Ohio? I think so. I I don't remember though. We well, I saw one page said it was killed in Wisconsin, and one page says it was killed in Ohio. I don't think really anybody knows. Kind of funny. It is crazy when somebody kills a big deer, the amount. Rumors that'll go around about that. No one can be happy for each other.
SPEAKER_00They're just gonna start all this stupid shit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's like, come on, like we're all in one community. Let's everybody get along, and then you always got them a few that are they're just native Nancy's and then want to put down others. It's like, heck yeah, he killed a giant. That's awesome. That's a dream buck.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, give them a thumbs up and a slap on the back and say, nice job, buddy. Don't don't have to bring down everybody.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I think we're excited for the the season coming up here and what you know the rest of the season.
SPEAKER_00I mean we're we're still early. We're not even tomorrow is two weeks into the season. I mean, there's 90 days left or whatever.
SPEAKER_01I'm not good at math, but I'm getting excited though. Like it's getting close. Like it's about to get good, I feel like. Yeah, everything's coming quick.
SPEAKER_00I went and checked before I drove over yesterday. I went and checked we September we had I think less than an inch of rain the whole month, so our food plots were terrible. But luckily we got rain in October and it's been unseasonably hot, so actually our food plots are doing quite well. You know, the the weather's not helping the deer hunting, but at least it's growing food for them for the winter and the ri the late season. My clover plots are looking really, really good.
SPEAKER_01Well, and that's the I think a lot of people, you know, they get burnt out hunting so early and then they miss out on that late season. I think there's a lot of good hunting in the month of December that people miss out on.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Like I I told Lane there's some days when it's been hot that, you know, it was Saturday and Sunday, I could have been out in the woods, but just want to make sure you you you don't burger up anything in the early season when you know there I mean there could have been a buck that walked by that stand that night. They could every night, but just trying to plan out your dates a little bit more and not even if you got the chance to hunt. And if you're a guy that only has the weekend to hunt, heck, go out there. But I get some chance to hunt during the week, so I don't want to booger up anything. Because you like we said, you got all season to hunt.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. And I think you know, right now if you can't get a deer patterned, like their pattern's probably gonna change pretty soon here. And and I think going back to like the late season stuff, I think it might be almost easier to pattern a deer in December. Yeah, you you know they're going to there's only limited food at that point. Yeah. And that's when I killed my uh big eight was during muzzlotter season. Um been a few years ago now, but yeah, it was during muzzlotter season and they'll come out the food. About a hundred-yard chip shot. So I got that on film too. That was cool. That was cool.
SPEAKER_00Well, I think that's gonna wrap up this episode. We're like I said, we're excited for the next couple weeks, and I'm pretty pumped about the sits I've already had so far this year with good deer sighting. So I mean we are covered up with does at that farm, and as a turkey hunter, I get pretty excited too, because I've been seeing 15 to 30 turkeys a night, too. So that gets me excited for the spring. But uh excited for the rest of deer season. I know Lane's excited to finally get out there and really get after it. When feel like you got a chance, like the first time you went out, you're just going to go. But yeah, this week feel like you got at least a chance to see a good deer.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm excited to get out. And if you're not getting out, you need to get out there because you're not going to kill them from the cow. Exactly. It's uh it's getting that time. Um, and so get out there, put your boots on the ground. Because I think right now, scouting's just as much important as it is to be hunting.
SPEAKER_00So if you're not even hunting, at least get out there and be finding some signs. And I know the trees I'm hanging hunt out of, there's trees I'm like, hey, that was a like last Thursday. I told you, I've told Lane all summer, this is the tree I'm gonna kill a deer out of. And I finally got in it, and I couldn't shoot more than 15 yards away from me. It was just so thick with leaves. There's I had five does walk by at 15 yards and I heard them coming and did not see them until they were 15 yards away from me. So, you know, you you don't know that until you get out in the tree. So even if it's scouting for a particular buck or just like Lane says, scouting for a tree, you you learn something on each hunt you're getting out there on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, and there's a lot of sign coming up, like new sign every day. So hopefully uh everybody has a good and safe rest of the season, and hopefully, me and um I'll be hopefully coming to Mason's in the next another week or so, and we'll record another podcast and get it out to you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we got a couple banked up too, if in case we don't get together that kind of our pass hunts we can get out there too. But this is gonna be the one should be dropping tomorrow, Monday, the October 14th anniversary of my buck last year. So hopefully you can repeat it. I'm pretty I'm as excited for tomorrow, especially I I look at Deercast and the Drury stuff a lot, so that gets me even more excited. It's the same uh pressure and everything as last year. So if you get down to the science of it, there's a lot of similarities. I'm getting I'm pretty excited. I'm gonna hunt basically the same stand I hunted last year. I'm gonna it's a hang on that I got 20 yards to the north of it. I'm pretty I'm pretty excited.
SPEAKER_01Well hopefully I'll get another phone call.
SPEAKER_00Well, I'm Lane and This is Mason, and you listen to the Whitetail Realm.