00:00:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your guide to the White Tail Woods presented by first Light, creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First Light, Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host Mark Kenyon.
00:00:19
Speaker 2: What is going on? Welcome to Wired to Hunt. This is Jake Hoefer and building off of the theme for the month of June talking about failures and shortcomings and mistakes that all hunters likely make somewhere along their journey. How do I address them now and fix them or identify them for this upcoming season. I have Sean lucktele with Heartland bow Hunter and we flip through the calendar starting in June of some key things that he’s been able to avoid or do for each month throughout the rest of the year to have the best season yet. And we talk about some different trends that are sometimes works, sometimes don’t for different folks. So I hope you guys really enjoyed this episode with Sean. He’s very active in habitat work and just a diehard dear hunter that is trying to get better, just like everyone listening to this episode. So hope you guys enjoy it. As you know, Wired Hunt is brought to you by Moultrie. Let’s go ahead and jump right into this conversation with Sean. Sean, Welcome to Wired to Hunt. How’s it going.
00:01:25
Speaker 3: It’s going good, going good. Just just enjoying being inside today for the first time. We kind of just had some hot weather. It’s I mean it’s not terrible, but a little bit higher heat indecks. I think right around ninety degrees. It’s the first really warm day. And the older I get, the more I dislike the extreme heat. So you know that’ allow me a chance to stay in the office and get some things done.
00:01:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, that’s that’s all part of it. So I mean, really what we’re what we’re hoping to dive into. You know, hearing people’s success can be helpful, but also hearing different patterns and things that maybe impact your season. And so basically you know, failure shortcomings, things that you’ve since identified and have maybe fixed, or some things that you are still working in the process. I mean, hunting white tails is always maybe one of the most humbling endeavors that you can possibly go down. Before we dive into that, give me just a little bit about you, your style of hunting and that way, hopefully people can relate to Oh, yeah, you know Sean and I hunt somewhat in a somewhar way.
00:02:37
Speaker 3: Sure. So, yeah, my name’s Sean Lucktel. I’m sure that’s already been put on here, but I am. I’m from Missouri and born and raised here. In fact, I live like probably two hundred yards from where I grew up, So like my parents’ house is next door where my brother currently lives now. He bought the house from them and they live across the road. So I’m living on the pre that I grew up hunting. And yeah, pretty much strictly only bow hunt. I hunt mainly private ground. I do hunt some public, but mostly I’d say ninety ninety five percent of my hunting is done on private land. I do the food plots, I do the habitat management, whether it be TSI prescribed fire, the whole all that. I’ve just dove straight into that over the last gosh five to ten years and absolutely love it. In fact, I would say that I love it probably more now than I do hunting itself, just because of the endless, endless abilities to just change things and then the ground that we hunt and just better improve it and it’s also a good good way I feel like to give back. You know, as hunters, we obviously are taking because we are killing an animal and eating it. But it’s fun to go back out there and improve things and give back the animals and you know, hopefully create a better ecosystem for them. But yeah, just love bow hunting. And I primarily hunt out of a tree stand. If there is not an option for a tree stand or a saddle, I am typically in a blind, but I would prefer much more to be in a tree or on the ground in like a natural blind. But yeah, every once in a while, I’ve got to hunt out of a blind.
00:04:18
Speaker 2: So yeah, fair enough that it’s all part of the tools, because I I don’t know anyone that really truly loves hunting out of a blind. Maybe maybe if it’s late season and it’s freezing cold, other than that, I don’t think anyway that’s true.
00:04:31
Speaker 3: Or it’s pouring down rain and like, yeah, I mean I’m probably not gonna sit in a tree and just get dumped on. Yeah.
00:04:37
Speaker 2: So you You’ve done a lot of content of showing almost before and afters or throughout different habitat projects, and I think this conversation will maybe lead into some of that. But you had recently done one with you know, taking out a bunch of cedars and doing fire, and I thought it was really cool. You have the charred ground and you have a you know, deer bedded in the Is that the farm? Is that the one you grew up on or is that a different piece?
00:05:05
Speaker 3: That’s a different piece. So I live in central Missouri. That’s my parents’ property in northern Missouri that they bought probably thirteen years ago, i’d say, and just been working on that ever since, and obviously learning along the way a lot of different things. And there’s essentially like in the last three years, I’ve started working on a eleven acre monoculture of seedars. So it’s primarily all seedars, you know, I would say ninety percent of it as seedars. And I’ve been just working away on cutting those back with a chainsaw, dropping about at least seventy to eighty percent of them, and I let them sit for about forty five to sixty days to dry out, and then I mean vitam on fire. I have a good fire line around the perimeter and then light them on fire. It consumes the majority of the sedar because they’ve it’s allowed them to dry out, they’re still filled with quite a bit of sap, so that ignites and consumes a lot of the theater. What’s left is essentially just a stem of the cedar, so the trunk a charred trunk and barren ground. It stimulates the ground obviously for native seeds to come back, native plants to come back. You may have some invasives, but right now, what you saw in that video that you’re referring to was pretty well barren ground with stems laying on the ground, and then ashes and deer and turkeys were coming in there. Some of the deer were laying down. I just set up a trail camera in there right after I had burned, and within a week there were deer in there laying down, just hanging out. And I don’t know, I don’t have the full answer on exactly why, but my speculation is just because they’re away from the ticks so parasites. And then this was mid spring, so on those warmer days, I figure maybe they want to sit out in the sun and it’s just like a nice place to sit where they have visibility and everything else. So that’s my only reason for them or hypothesis for them laying out there like that.
00:07:07
Speaker 2: But it was really cool to see and unique. It was super unique. It was it was actually really cool. I enjoyed watching that you had mentioned. You know, obviously we picture, oh my gosh, we’re improving the habitat, we’re opening up the the sunlight to let whatever is in the ground come up. And you mentioned fighting invasives on that specific particular site. What are some invasives that pop up? And then how do you do the post management work? Like everyone loves should say everyone, but a lot of people enjoyed the fun work. So doing fire, running the chainsaw, but then treating invasives and maintaining that is tedious and boring because it’s not as instantly gratifying as the visual impact that you do with some of the other steps in the process.
00:07:48
Speaker 3: It really is. Yeah, I don’t enjoy that part. I don’t. I don’t enjoy treating invasives specifically because I mean, really, you have you have to use herbicide, and I don’t. I don’t know anybody that enjoys being around that. I definitely don’t. But specifically on that farm, in those areas, the invasive that I’m seeing predominantly come in right away already, even on that one walking through it, good vegetation in there that’s six to twelve inches tall already, and I’m seeing cerci alesperdiza and that one is I would say the most fast acting and what will well, obviously we’re seeing it right away, but I see it all over the farm. And the best way that I’ve found or am finding out to treat that is through a herbicide called MSM sixty. And it’s a herbicide that basically will kill a lot of broad leafs, and you run the risk of killing native broad leaves with it. But my plan of attack will be to go in in late August early September when Crici Lespviza has bloomed out and a lot of the native plants that are there beginning to go dormant, and it will hopefully not affect them. And I didn’t come up with this on my own. This is from my friend Matt Die with Landing Legacy. He was actually recommending that because I was like, man, I don’t want to kill a bunch of these native broad leaves that are in there, and he’s like, well, why don’t you just delay the process and go in and treat the cerisia then, And so that that’s my game plan in that generalized area and the rest of the farm as well. And another cool thing with that is I called up a guy. I found him locally. He’s going to come in with a drone and spots treat these areas where it’s mainly localized. So if there are you know, stems here here and there in areas, I’m probably not going to mess with those, but mostly focus on the areas where there’s quite a bit and treat it with a drone. So I feel like that’ll be the best application, most effective for many reasons. Because of God, a lot of the country is extremely hilly. You have a lot of vegetation that’s grown up really tall, so if you were to use a tractor or a side by side, might be harder to get in there to those areas, or even you run the risk of rolling over. So a drone would be great for that. And I don’t have to really come in contact with that herbicide for the most parts.
00:10:19
Speaker 2: So I think we’re in the very beginning stages of drones potentially improving the landscape at a rate that has not happened in the past where you mentioned, you know, like hilly ground where it’s hard to do a lot of this, and you know, there’s only a small amount of people that are glutton for punishment enough to do all of that by hand or you know, with a lot of tools. But I’m really excited about the future of utilizing drones to spray herbicide it, which I know sounds really crazy when you say it out loud, but way more effective than the alternative.
00:10:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree, and I’m pretty new to it, Like I haven’t actually been there to witness something like that. But the guy that I called, obviously is running a business locally I’ve never met or anything like that. But in the phone call that we had, I learned that I believe he has to be ten within ten feet of what he’s spraying, so he’s he’s very low. And then how he was saying, well, I asked him about price, I’m like, well, I am totally naive to this, totally ignorant. I have no idea what’s going to cost. So can you give me a rough quote just so I an idea so I know what to expect. And basically he said in the grand scheme, and I understand people are charging different across the country. He was saying that he roughly charges eighteen dollars per acre. I supply the herbicide he charges eighteen dollars per acre was actually far, yeah, far too reasonable than I actually thought it was going to be. So for anyone wondering on that, like, that was a huge surprise to me.
00:11:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, no, that’s exciting, so jumping in it. It’s June right now, and you know, white Tail’s kind of seemed like somewhat at the stands stif meaning like they’re growing their antlers right now, and you’re kind of putting together a loose plan. You probably have a punch list. But what did you believe, maybe like ten years ago, that you no longer believe when it comes to summer scouting. And this could be a dear behavior change that you come to realize is not true, or maybe a project that you’ve always done in the past and you’re like, dude, I don’t really think that really helps anything. So what has changed in the last ten years in the month of June when it comes to setting the stage for fall.
00:12:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, that’s a great question, and kind of I kind of have a I guess a mixed answer there. So, first off, I used to get a ton of pictures in the summer of the bucks that we could that we were going planning on hunting. So I had a great inventory list built up in the summertime starting now all the way through summery. Obviously that will grow and I get super pumped up, and then obviously they’d move off and get off their summer pattern and maybe move on to somewhere else, or you know, I just have them sporadically from there on out. Well, it seems like in the last ten years that’s actually gone the opposite direction. The summertime, I really don’t get that many photos, and I’m referring to the specific property in northern Missouri. I don’t get very many photos in the summer of the bucks that I’m gonna be hunting. I can only assume because they’ve spread out around neighboring properties, vegetation is everywhere, they have lots of options for food and then in cover, and then as fall approaches, those things start to dwindle. And thankfully we have the majority of the cover in the area and food, and so they just tend to all kind of congregate there as we get later into the year. But Son, I don’t worry too much from that aspect of what my summer inventory looks like or or hit list of bucks, I guess you would say. But the other portion to that is the last five to six years, gosh, I have I’ve put far less focus on fall plots. I used to put a ton of focus on that. Almost all of our eggs in one basket in that realm, and now with fall food plots, I mean, we’ve gone into a drought trend in the last five or six years every year, and so I just don’t worry about him as much. And my focus in the spring and even now is maintaining clover plots and alfalfa because it can be such a game changer to have that greenery going into fall with how gosh, how well it can withstand a drought like it’s very drought tolerant clover, particularly and alfalfa, And if you can have a good clover stand it’s most likely going to make it through those drought months and then very reliable in the month of October. So yeah, focusing on that stuff earlier on in the year is really my Yeah, that’s that’s my goal.
00:14:45
Speaker 2: A lot of times do we’re due for a good fall weather pattern for fall food plots because the last few years have been horrendous. It really has been. And when you sit back and think about it, it’s almost a ridiculous assumption that was, like, Okay, what’s the hottest period of year where the least amount of rain are We’re gonna plan all these seeds and we’re gonna hit the timing perfect and they’re not gonna get scorched when it’s still one hundred degrees late August or early September. We really do set ourselves up for failure. And you know, for someone that says, well that you know, that sounds great and everything, but you know, clover once a frost, ra alfalfa once a frost, you know, is it’s not as desirable. And you know, northern Missouri, I don’t know when your typical first frost is. I’m guessing third or fourth week of October roughly.
00:15:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, And you know, I I don’t I don’t want to like say that. I what I’m saying is like gospel and like not you know, are like the only way. But in my opinion, I don’t see a hard frost really changing too much, even when even when that clover shrinks up and UH is going into dormancy or even dormant for that matter, I’ve seen that the deer still hit them, hit it very hard on warm days and including even when we’ve got like six ten inches of snow on the ground. Like I have videos when I’ve walked out into those food plots and you can see where they’ve they’ve dug it up and they’re eating the stems and the roots that are left there. So you don’t obviously don’t have the tonnage. I’m not saying that it’s dwindled down to hardly anything on the ground, but they’re still they’re still going to it, and at least in my experiences, yes, it’s wild.
00:16:19
Speaker 2: So just so this makes sense to folks here too. So let’s say you had how many food plots, how many acres of food plots would you have on this particular farm where you’d go all in and on fall food plots?
00:16:32
Speaker 3: Gosh, which that’s even gone down as well, because I finally learned, like, why am I creating so many options for them? So initially when we first started planning them on there. It was like if there was open acreage that wasn’t either in ag or something like that we were gonna plant. It was flat and it was open, we were planning it. And so I would say there was every bit of gosh, twelve to fifteen acres Ofbraska’s or fall food pots, and now gosh, I would say that’s probably down to about six to seven. So cut in half and just trying to kind of localize those hunting spots rather than giving them multiple options all over the place.
00:17:13
Speaker 2: These are these are great things that we all have to learn. So that’s this is a good illustration.
00:17:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I came with trial and error. I’m like, wow, we’re in a great spot, and it’s like, oh, you check your trail camera. Obviously at that time, cell cameras or anything like that wasn’t around. You go back and check later on you’re like, oh, he was right over there, like you know, a quarter mile away, or you know, three hundred yards away on the other food plot. Like I gave him that option and he took it. Yeah.
00:17:37
Speaker 2: Have you have you noticed some changing that strategy? Have you noticed being much more effective with the having them, you know, with less places where they’re likely going to be feeding.
00:17:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, it sure seems that way. I mean I try to my I would say, my goal there is to create these plant these food plots with the intention of them being staging plots so close to a destination food source, which would be an agfield, whereas like these other ones that I no longer plant. For one, the soil wasn’t wasn’t good, and I wasn’t you know, I didn’t I didn’t do anything with the soil test. I didn’t go in there and actually fertilize. So I would take a soil sample and be like, oh gosh, the you know, the pH is way off. It needs lime or something like that, and I would neglect taking care of it. And so that was one factor. And then the second factor was just the main factor was the location. I was like, it’s in the middle of the farm, Like that’s great from a food standpoint, but I got to go through everything to get to it, and it’s all it’s doing is holding them up longer from getting to destination food. So I was like, I’m abandoning that, letting it fallow, and just going to whatever comes up.
00:18:49
Speaker 2: So okay, you answered my question my follow up questions. So the acres that are no longer in food, you just kind of let it go back up and then you monitor for invasives basically.
00:18:58
Speaker 3: Is that Yeah, Yeah, And it’s like after you know, four or five years, there’s a handful of natives that have come up in there, but also there’s ceresia less bit easy that’s come in there as well. But yeah, just treat it.
00:19:12
Speaker 2: And so you’re you’re six to seven acres that you have in food on that farm. Now, how many isn’t how many acres are in Clover or alf alpha of the of that.
00:19:23
Speaker 3: Right now, all of it, but there I would say, gosh, two to three of them just aren’t looking that great. Like in fact one in particular that I’m thinking of, I’ve had it in Clover for five years now, and I’m just like trying my best to maintain it. I’m spraying off grass and nuts edge that’s kind of taken over the food plot. And I was in there just last week and I was like, oh, man, Clover’s like fifty percent in here, like it’s it’s getting overrun, like it’s it’s kind of lived its lifespan. So I say this fall. I’m going to attempt to have a good fall plot of Braska’s in there. And I can think back to about twenty nineteen in that plot we had a phenomenal one, but that was also you know, a time a year with timely rains and just the right conditions. So we’re doing that’s happen again.
00:20:16
Speaker 2: We’re we’re doue for sure. So okay, that’s that’s pretty helpful. And for for anyone that’s like, man, well what about you know grains? Right? Everyone is Actually, I’m going to say just about everyone would love to hunt over you know, a staining corn plot or a staining bean plot. And then if you’ve converted all those acres into basically clover or alf alpha, do you do you miss that or do you have the opportunity to still hunt you know a destination food source like a big agg field or something like that.
00:20:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, So that that farm in particular, what I’ve done is I’ve arranged with the farmer there to leave some standing grain because we tried, my dad and I we tried to plant grain there the first few years in those smaller food plots. We even we even fenced them off. But I don’t live on that farm, so I’m there every other week. You know. We we’d plant it, or we’d monitor it, whatever it may be, and we were like, oh, this looks great, everything’s perfect. We come back, you know, a week or two later, and a deer is blasted to the fence. The rest of them got in there, they ate down the crop, or maybe you know, it took two to three weeks before we were there again, and we got in there really bad. We weren’t there to maintain it or spray it out, and it just became too much to handle without living right there. And so on that farm, we just have an agreement with the farmer to leave a handful of acres in the standing in the in the grain fields, and it’s been a great trade off. He can grow crop better than I can, and he’s obviously there to maintain it all the time. Whereas here at my house, I have quite a few acres that I plant in standing grain and have much better luck with because I’m here every day to maintain that.
00:22:13
Speaker 2: Okay, is there anything else in the month of June that you would tell folks to avoid or to ensure they do based off your experience.
00:22:24
Speaker 3: Make sure you’re shooting your bow. I know that everyone’s heard that a million times. That’s not that’s not new news. But I’m I’m probably talking to myself there with that, like I getting lately, Yeah, no, I haven’t. I have not in the month of June. I can promise you that, And I usually start to I mean, I’ll pick it up very heavily in July, but just just getting a few reps in here and there in June. I’m really yeah, I’m just speaking to myself when I say that, I’m I neglected a lot. It’s a busy month for all of us, especially with family activities and all that, because a lot of people are vacationing. But man, yeah, I gotta get out there and shoot a few times.
00:23:02
Speaker 2: All Right, we’re flipping the We’re flipping the calendar to July. How similar is June in July in your mind when it comes to white tail prep.
00:23:12
Speaker 3: I’d say it starts to change a little bit, because, well, for one, if I’m doing any fall plots, I have to stay on top of that in the month of July, because there’s been plenty of times where I’ve neglected it. I’m like, oh, yeah, I’m gonna get to it. I’m gonna get to it, and then August hits and I’m like, wow, I haven’t even started, and I need to First I need to mow this plot off. It’s you know, three foot of grass or weeds whatever, and I need to mow it off. Then I’ll have to go in and spray and then work the dirt. Whereas I personally would like to have my fall plots in by August first now to hopefully, you know, get maybe a late July early August rain, because it seems to just really dry up that second third week of August. So I’m I’m hoping to have that stuff ready to go by the end of July and in the ground. So that would be my main focus at the beginning of July, is kicking off or kicking off, is getting started on those those fault plots. And then my I was saying earlier, like my, I guess my chill cameras and whatnot in July they used to be a huge focus. They’re probably less of a focus now because I’m just not I’m not that concerned about what’s going on in the last of July.
00:24:26
Speaker 2: Cool photo, But did that take some time where in years past it’s like July and everyone’s like, oh, dude, check this steer out, check this steer out. And you’re like, man, I got nothing, I got nothing. I wish I could show you a deer I’m excited about, but I don’t. And that’s this is a trend that a lot of people, I guess, yeah, a trend that a lot of people just feel like, man, I’m really nervous about this upcoming year. And then it’s like a lot of farms, they seem like, you know, depending on what time of year and what food and what happitat you have, they get better while everyone else that was super excited that gets worse. And so it’s like which end of the spectrum do you want to be on?
00:25:03
Speaker 3: Now? I’m glad I’m on the end of the spectrum that I am on. I used to kind of freak out a little bit. I’m like, what’s going on? What are they? Why is this happening? This is crazy? Like I want them to be here. But I have like a small farm not far from my house that I hunt and I get a lot of great pictures in the summertime, and the majority of those bucks leave And that was kind of the game changer for me to actually or the testament for me to learn that. I’m like, well, yeah, that’s great to have them in the summer, but I’m not hunting them then, so if they’re going to leave, like, wow, awesome, I got some good photos and I know what those deer run around the neighborhood, But as far as them like living right there, that’s no longer. So yeah, I’m glad. I’m on the end of the spectrum that I am. Like, as Fhall progresses, the trail camera photos continue to increase and new bucks continue to show up, and I would much rather have it that way than the opposite.
00:26:00
Speaker 2: On maybe one of the deer, one of the bucks you’ve shot in the last handful of years, did most of them? Did you have pictures of them in July? Or did you not have pictures of them.
00:26:10
Speaker 3: At No, I didn’t. In fact, one that comes to mind, gosh, it was probably three or four years ago. It was three or four years ago, uh Buck that we called Caesar. I typically had pictures of him in the summertime, and then by the opening my opening day, which is September fifteenth here in Missouri, I would for sure always have a handful of pictures of him, and I I was like, oh, yeah, he’ll he’ll show up. He’ll show up the year that I’m hunting him hard, and uh, I didn’t. I didn’t have him at all. And then oh gosh, it was late September early October, and I was like, Okay, he’s dead, Like he’s not here, Like I don’t know what happened. I had his sheds, like maybe it got hit by a car, maybe he died from HD. I don’t know what happened, Like he’s gone. And then I don’t I’m probably off on the date, but maybe it was like October sixth or something like that. I got one picture of him and I was like, wow, that’s incredible. So yeah, like back back to the question, like it was it was wild to see that, Like I didn’t have him, and in the summertime and then as fall came in he finally showed up. And then I think I killed him about a week after that. So yeah, it’s it’s been that with him and then the buck that I killed the following year. I think it was I had both of each. Each of those bucks I had all the way through wintertime and they shed and and then going into the summer and early season, I had zero pictures and then they showed up and and I shot him, So it was it was pretty cool, and it’s Yeah, I guess it’s easy for me to say that I enjoy that because it is what it is and that’s what I’ve experienced. But I don’t know. I might have a different answer if I were like, yeah, I had him all summer and opening day, I killed each one of them like this yest. But given the experiences that I had right now, I think it’s it’s pretty awesome the way that it’s all played out.
00:27:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, with with July, can you think of a deer or two that’s like he lived here in July and I had him, you know, every couple of days in July, August, September, and maybe one you didn’t shoot too, because I know you guys opened earlier than a lot of states. But and then even through October, it’s like this deer one hundred percent lived here. Like, how many of those bucks a year that are mature do you feel fall in that category?
00:28:25
Speaker 3: Very very very very few, like very few maybe maybe once a year maybe if at most. Yeah, that’s that’s so seldom it seems like and I’m talking like our northern Missouri property is pretty big, and then even like the property they live on it is small. And then I had another small piece not far from here, like it’s seldom, very seldom that I have a deer that and it’s like that like maybe once every other year. I guess I would say.
00:28:54
Speaker 2: Dang, yeah, that’s not the answer people want to hear.
00:28:57
Speaker 3: Sean probably No, it just seems like a rarity, at least for me. People others may have different experiences. But I kind of like it that way. The reason being, I feel like it just kind of always keeps you on your toes and guessing and hoping, you know, something new is going to show up. And for instance, like right here where I live, I live on sixty acres, and gosh, like this past fall, there was a buck that showed up at the like right after Thanksgiving, and I only had a handful of pictures of him, probably like a well, yeah, I figure him to be like upper one fifties, like right at one sixty type buck and didn’t have a ton of pictures. Like I was saying, you almost daylighted here maybe once or twice. But I have no history with him years prior. I would love to shoot him. And I’ve my son and I picked up one of his sheds and that’s like, that’s the biggest shed that I’ve ever found here on this piece. And I’ve lived here pretty much my whole life, So stuff like that that’s fun. I mean, I love the years of history. I love that.
00:29:57
Speaker 2: But like you know, new surprises are always a black Yeah, well we’ll flip into August now, and this is more of a statement and I want to get your idea regarding that. But something I’ve observed as as hunters mature, their ability to embrace uncertainty I feel as a benchmark of growing as a deer hunter. And I feel like uncertainty is peak in August to some degree as far as preseason goes. Have you, you know, as you’ve matured and grown and everything else, like is just think back twenty years ago, fifteen years ago, like your ability to embrace uncertainty as it increased decreased, or say the same.
00:30:41
Speaker 3: I would say my ability to embrace uncertainty has has grown, but probably more recently than than a while back. Like gosh, in the last fifteen to twenty years, I feel like, well, most of us were growing trying to do better each year, and you know in our in our society as well, it’s like, oh, more and more and more, I want this, this, this, this, this, I want to do more and this and that, and gosh, like you have a lot of times, I think, especially as hunters, we have false expectations of what’s going to happen or what we expect to happen in the fall. And this may not even have to do with August, may have to do with the entire season as a whole. And you think, oh you, I mean, we all an automatically think opportunistically, I think, and we’re like, this is going to be my best fall yet.
00:31:36
Speaker 2: Well, gosh, I was just on the phone today saying I was saying, like, I’m so excited about this upcoming year, blah blah blah blah blah. Yeah. I was like, but I had the self awareness, like, talk to me again in January and there’s a very good chance I’ll say, yeah, it wasn’t that great.
00:31:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like last fall was the worst fall that I’ve ever had as far as what I was able to tag, but as far as the time that I got to spend out in the woods. I spent so much time out there, it was amazing. I had to spend time, a ton of time with my dad, a ton of time with my friend Chandler, sometime with my son out there. He’s young, and gosh, I got to experience so many cool things, take a lot of photography, which I thoroughly enjoy. And I wasn’t killing a bunch of deer, and you know, like there were I’d be lying if I was, like, man, that was that was that was great. You know that I didn’t kill a dear That was the most amazing thing. And it didn’t It didn’t bother me at all. Absolutely it bothered me, you know, like I was sitting there thinking like, man, is this ever gonna happen? It’s ever gonna happen? Am I going to get a buck? I didn’t kill a white tail last year? And I sat there and thought about it. I’m like, man, you’ve been doing this for twenty some years at the level you’ve been doing it, and that’s that’s pretty prideful of you to be like worried about not killing a deer though, well, particularly like there are so many hunters out there that go seasons without that happening, and and and that’s happened to me numerous times in my younger years, Like you you built yourself up to be something that you’re really not. And so to answer your question, there was a lot of uncertainty, uncertainty along the way with that. But in the end, I’m like, man, that was a huge, huge gosh. I guess the word would be like, uh, I’m trying to think what.
00:33:26
Speaker 2: Like like like yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:33:30
Speaker 3: Like I was at the end of the of the season, it was I was filled with humility, like, man, you were you are something that or you thought you were something that you’re not.
00:33:38
Speaker 2: So just uh, just realized did you make any daunting mistakes last year? To why that.
00:33:45
Speaker 3: Didn’t I had? I did have one mistake for sure with with a buck and it’s easy to obviously, but yeah, I hit a buck high. And this isn’t an e because at the end of the day, I shouldn’t have taken the shot. He had his head down, quartering away at like I think thirty two yards in the moment, like all of us would be as a hunter, as a bow hunter, and I’m thinking, oh, I’m licking my chops like I’m gonna, I’ve got him, and he ducked the string, you know, and I can I can say honestly say that because I can go back and watch video. But in the grand scheme I should have just not taken the shot at that moment. I should have waited till his head was up, because I’m sure most people have heard, you know, they can react and they have the momentum when their heads down, but the perpendulum, yeah, regardless, like it’s it’s on me. I shouldn’t have taken the shot, and so I hit him eye in the shoulder. He survived, I had him even after a season, so he made it and everything. But yeah, that was quite the reality check, and you know, it sucked. And that’s how you learn from instances like that. And even today after you know whatever, it is thirty years of bowl hunt, not quite thirty years, twenty some years of bow hunting, like, still make mistakes and if I didn’t, man, Yeah, what fun would it be?
00:35:06
Speaker 2: Like?
00:35:06
Speaker 3: That’s how we grow, That’s how we learn.
00:35:08
Speaker 2: So yeah, that’s two questions. So what was the date when that When when that happened? And then you mentioned his head was downe was he eating something? And if so what was he eating?
00:35:19
Speaker 3: October twenty third, And yes, he was eating clover.
00:35:23
Speaker 2: That was the case. I was hoping that was.
00:35:26
Speaker 3: Yeah. I killed the buck the year before in the same stand basically that I think it was maybe a day before that. So like pretty much identical setup. The deer coming out of this big block of timber, and they feed through the clover and they go out into the bagfield to it behind me. Well, all of the deer are have a generalized movement like that. He I you know, I assumed he was bedded back there. Well, he came from my left where there’s a pond in the timber about sixty yards away that I can’t really see because there’s some trees growing up there, and he popped out right there. I mean he was at thirty yards basically when I first saw him. He didn’t go to the actfield. He came to the clover right in front of me and walked right past me. And so I’m like grabbing my bow, like it happened very fast, and he just walked right out thirty two yards and quartered away, put his head down, just munching on clover, and you know, like all of us, you’re like, oh, my gosh, this.
00:36:18
Speaker 2: Couldn’t mean it’s gonna happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well, and you have the added element of trying to film it all and get awesome footage and everything else too, which is it’s for sure an added stress. You’ve been doing it for so long. I’m sure it’s kind of a second second ature, but still an added element that most of them don’t have.
00:36:33
Speaker 3: Element. But at the end of the day, it came down to me and just making the shot. Like everything everything else was lined up perfect. It was you know, none of that really should have had any effect on me, but I’m human, and you know, it happened, and I’m glad he made it. Uh, it was. It was a bummer. I knew once once I hit him, like, well, first off, it was weird. I knew it hit him high. But what we heard we thought were his lungs, like you know, if you double lung a deer, like you hear all that. It sounded just like that, and I’m like, wow, well maybe I double along them. So there was kind of a peak of excitement and then way back the footage and I’m like, oh no, that’s that’s not what happened. Then, you know, I found like virtually no blood, and within a few days I got photos of him again, so that was a good sign. But still just a just gut wrenching when that happens, like horrible feeling.
00:37:28
Speaker 2: I’m gonna I’m gonna put some salt in the wound. Hopefully that’s okay, I feel. I don’t know if it was you or I, if it was you or someone on Heartland be hunter or someone completely different, and I could be wrong. Did you were going from a heavy arrow to a lighter arrow? Is that right? And so.
00:37:46
Speaker 3: I went I went to a heavy arrow. Okay, gosh, that was probably in like twenty nineteen. I don’t remember what I was, what weight I was shooting before, but i’d moved to about oh, gosh, five hundred and five grains, and yeah, like if they’re I would say, if they’re within twenty five yards, like there’s pretty well zero chance they’re gonna they’re gonna duck my arrow. But my arrow is obviously slower now and that definitely could have I’m sure had had something to do with it, too. But I’ve talked about going lighter now, you know. I I did switch my setup for turkey hunting to a to a to a lighter setup given the fact that I’m shooting like a decap head. But yeah, I will probably switch to a lighter setup for fall as well.
00:38:35
Speaker 2: I feel like it’s an evolution. I’m not calling the failure, but I think there’s the evolution of messing with arrows and like, oh, but you know, like it’s just it’s it almost seems like a cultural pendulum that goes back and forth, where like gotta go light, gotta go heavy, and then it’s like everyone is constantly switching and obviously nothing’s perfect, but.
00:38:56
Speaker 3: Something something I completely agree because I fell into the whole.
00:39:00
Speaker 2: Gotta have a heavier arrow, shoulder doesn’t matter.
00:39:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s why I brought it up, because yeah, yeah, like I enjoy a heavier setup, especially when you know you make a great shot. But well, I mean, either way, if you make a great shot, whether you pass through or not, I know that argument’s still out there to this day. Accuracy over everything. You’re still going to kill a deer. So I fell into the whole, like god, to have a pastor gotta have a pass through. Yes, they’re nice, and I would obviously love to have that every time, but I would also love to have a perfect shot more than anything.
00:39:35
Speaker 2: So yeah, So another thing in August, I feel like a lot of people end up hanging their stands, readjusting stands, checking in on stands in the month of August. What’s uh something that you’ve maybe keep doing stop doing that would be helpful for someone if they’re thinking, like, okay, it’s June. Yeah, in August, we always make a trip and we always hang stands. What are some potential failure, shortcomings or mistakes that people can make when it comes to, you know, setting the stage in August and when you’re hanging it and everyone does like the fake bow draw, like, oh yeah, this is gonna be money. What what? What can you tell people?
00:40:13
Speaker 3: Well, gosh, there was a time where I would go in and and hang them all in in August, and then they’re being handful that I wouldn’t hunt. So uh. Mainly, I feel like the ones that that I know are going to produce or be really really good during the rut, those are the ones that I’m focusing on in August because I don’t really want to come back to those until it’s time to actually hunt them. That’s where I’m going to spend my time messing with any stands, and then as far as the ones on the perimeter are the ones that I’m going to be hunting, maybe over like a staging plot like I’m referring I was referring to. You know, I don’t. I don’t mess with those too much, in particular in August if I have time. Yeah, but gosh, we all look pretty busy lifestyles. Being honest, I don’t. I don’t get to all those that often. But yeah, the rut heavy ones the ones that I tend to want to focus on because never fails. It seems like about October, I’m like, oh, yeah, I wanted to hunt that. We want to hunt that stand coming up? Like, let’s hunt. I’m like, I haven’t haven’t trimed Blanees in there, so we got to go do that first. And yeah, neglecting those is is and should be my main focus in August.
00:41:36
Speaker 2: I will flip the calendar to September. Your your scenario is a little bit different because you guys have a mid month opener, and so in two different ways. For the Missouri listeners or Kentucky like some of the other states that opened a little bit earlier, the Dakotas what MHM like, all right, we’ve been waiting for this day, well, you know, since the end of last season, and this is the plan and this is like what’s your level of aggression right out of the gates? And has it? I assume when you were younger it was probably like full court press, blitz, screeg, let’s get it done. Is that still how you are today?
00:42:12
Speaker 3: Not so much. I’ll usually hopefully have a western hunt that I can go on, and so that’s usually where my time is spent. But even if I didn’t know, because I wouldn’t be so aggressive now with trying to hunt a buck. The first and most important reason is my life has changed a lot. I have a wife and children, so my time’s more limited now and so they need to come first in that time period. Unless I feel like I have a really really good shot killing a particular buck, I’m probably not going to hit it too hard, and so I spend my time with my family and at home if if if I don’t have something locked down on that. But another thing that I would probably I want to spend more time on if it’s in the woods during the month of September is shooting doughs. Honestly, I’ve I’ve neglected that in the early season a lot over the last few years and tended to do it more towards the late season. And at that time period, I’m having less of an effect on the deer that are actually living on the farm, and so I’d like to spread that out more, try to shoot some more does early and then closer to the rut, and then after the rut as well.
00:43:25
Speaker 2: So, yeah, do you feel like you’re more effective and efficient by having a busy life and you know, having to pick your strikes way more methodically than before where it was just like almost like a volume game, like oh we can go, we got to go, and then now it’s like okay, I’m gonna be gone for this afternoon. Like I feel really good about it. Have you noticed to be more effective because I’ve recorded a bunch of podcasts and like the guys that have twenty thirty, forty fifty years of experienced or like I hunt less and I have more success and as a as a young guy myself, like it just seems so counterintuitive, Like I hear you, but I unfortunately I’m not listening very well. But I hear you, We’re like, are you in the same school thought there?
00:44:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, as far as trying to kill a mature deer, absolutely, Now if I again, if I feel like I have one that I have a really really good chance at shooting, I’m for sure going to put my time in early to try to shoot them. I just don’t have really any options then. And then, man, I found it to be most effective. Uh man, those last like ten days of October, if you have the right weather, it just seems to be so good. And uh they’re still so patternable, they’re they’re they’re on their feet looking searching, you know, just getting ready for the rut and in my mind, on their feet looking for that very first dough. And uh so I feel like that’s the most the most effective time period out of the entire season to kill, you know, a particular mature buck. And so I tend to wait and not spend all my time hunting up until then. But I totally get it too, like for the people that have time. I mean when I when I wasn’t married and had didn’t have children, I had more time to go do that, and I just wanted to be out there. So if that’s what you want to do by all means like, go do it. We’re all hunters at the end of the day, and it’s it’s not all about just killing. So like, if you want to be out there, go out there and do it. I mean, that’s that’s the beauty of it. It’s it’s open and it’s fun to do. Go shoot a dough if you don’t have a if you don’t have a buck to chase.
00:45:25
Speaker 2: So here’s a random question. What what’s a trend that was maybe hot in the last twenty years that everyone was talking about and you’re like, I gotta try this. Everyone like this, whatever it is. It could be anything that’s like, man, this is everyone is talking about this, and this seems to be, you know, so impactful, so efficient, and you tried it and you’re like that was a joke. It’s a hard question because I don’t know what my answer would be myself.
00:45:54
Speaker 3: I know I have some that I’ve tried and been like, oh man, I’m just trying to think of what that would be. Uh gosh, that’s a really good question. I can’t I can’t think of one right now. Maybe come back to me on that one. Do you have on in mind?
00:46:12
Speaker 2: No, no, I asked a hard question I don’t even have an answer to. I think I don’t know. Like there’s always these different phases, like like rub post or water holes, and some of those do work for sure, and I think they’re when people try them, they’re skeptical and they’re like, oh, yeah, this does work. But I’m trying to think of one that’s like, oh, I got to get that a try. I don’t. I don’t have everyone.
00:46:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, like the two things you didn’t mention, well, I’m not a rub post but a scrape tree. I’m like a huge proponent of that, especially like I’ve even had friends they’re like, you’re putting a t post out there with a branch on it, like that’s gonna really work, And it does. I’m telling you, it’s crazy. I’ve I’ve gotten so many photos of bucks on those hitting those. Now you gotta get them out early. And then the waterhole thing, like I’ve tried that and I’m a friend believer of it as well. In fact, we might. I put one out here behind my house, within like a couple hundred yards of my barn, and it’s like a I think it’s a fifty or seventy five gallon tank, so like not that much water. I was just doing a test to see like how quickly they would hit it. If they’d hit it at all. It’s fiberglass, and you know how it would go. So I put it out. Deer were smashing it in September and October when it was dry, and I’d have to refill the thing because it isn’t very big. But the rut hit and I kind of started to neglect it, and then I would I would pass it my dad and I would pass it to go hunt in the mornings back in like this this funnel of timber, but you could see it from like two hundred yards and all the deer would go to that thing. They were just going to that. I’m like, why are we hunting this funnel? Apparently we need to be over there owning that water hole.
00:47:49
Speaker 2: But you know, that’s a good that’s a good illustration. That’s I feel like people are always skeptical water. And I learned I learned from that from Jeff Turgis and a long time ago, and I used it. I was like, dude, it works, it really really does.
00:48:01
Speaker 3: Yeah. But that’s that’s such a good question. On the bad, I know, I’ve fallen into plenty of them, but I can’t. I can’t. Well, I’m going to get beat up for this one. In fact, I have a friend that that makes them or sells them and sells different sense. But I personally I have tried like a scrape rope and I’ve had horrible luck with it. I’m sure it’s worked for other people, and I’ve had a lot of people, a lot of friends that say it’s worked, including my friend that gave me his his that he that he sells, and I was like, man, it’s just not working for me. Like the branch that it’s hanging from, they want to hit that. They look at the rope and they’re like what, And I’m like, the branch was just great before. So I’m not hating on it. It may work for some people, but it was a it was kind of a fad that I tried and it didn’t didn’t quite work out for me. I didn’t have the best results. But maybe I’m doing something wrong.
00:48:56
Speaker 2: There’s there’s a lot of ways to find success. So you you mentioned though with the mox grapes t posts, what type of tree branch or what species of tree do you like to use? And you said specifically, you gotta do it early. What is early to you?
00:49:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I typically try to have them all out by the end of August, and uh, I always try to focus on the gosh. I guess it’d be like a red oak branch or even white oak, any oak tree. It seems like they hold their leaves after you’ve cut that branch, like for a very very long time. I think I tried some soft woods and the leaves just fell off after they died. The oak branch seems like they die and they still hang on.
00:49:36
Speaker 2: And then shingle oak, Yeah, pink polak shingle oak are good. Burroaks could be good for sure.
00:49:43
Speaker 3: Yep. I tried that one as well, and I don’t know those seem to work best, but.
00:49:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, you do you use any sort of scent or anything with that, and like you just you just zip tie it to the te posts and bring a rake and open up some dirt and let it go.
00:49:58
Speaker 3: Open it up and they’ll start to naturally hit it. In fact, that the spot where I hit that deer last year and killed the buck the year before, I have a tea. So it’s like a gosh, probably like a fifteen foot white gap between the timber edge on each side, and the deer walk right through it to go out into the egfield. And I put a tea post in the ground with I don’t know what that thing was that I got, like maybe like a scrape scrape stick or something like that. It’s just like some mechanism that goes on the top of a tea page. Yeah, I know, you put your branch in there and tighten it up. Got one of those years ago, But no, I just stick it in there and tighten it up, and then yeah, just rake the ground right there below it, and they start hitting it. And both of those bucks were hitting that scrape and not when I shot them, but like I’d get pictures of him right there almost every night going through there hitting the scrape tree.
00:50:50
Speaker 2: So I think it was a scrape pix that makes that. But if someone wants to save a few dollars, you can go on Amazon and buy a flagholder plastic flag holder.
00:50:58
Speaker 3: I don’t even think about that.
00:50:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, that’ll do the trick too. And you have an Amazon Prime.
00:51:02
Speaker 3: To your door. Well my yeah, and mine have since rested out and like seized up. So I have to I’m gonna have to swap them out. I’m gonna I didn’t thought about that. That’s a great idea, I think.
00:51:14
Speaker 2: So we’ll kind of breeze through October, November, December, because I know that’s a long ways away. But you had mentioned October, that last bit of October with a good cold front. But what’s what’s something that people need to avoid, like the plague in the month about October that you know it’s second nature to you, but maybe someone that’s new where it’s like, oh yeah, I didn’t know that.
00:51:41
Speaker 3: Pushing the envelope when it’s hot number one, but one that I can think of, especially early to mid October. We still have tics and like the seed ticks are outrageous. I can’t tell you. Like my dad and I have tried at numerous times, like oh, let’s just go try to shoot a dough or somethinghe We’ll go like have an observation sit on a hot day and you know, if we maybe we can just see him across the field or whatever, and we covered in seed ticks. Oh my gosh, that those are Like I despise those in August, August, September and October if it’s hot. So I don’t I kind of refuse to waste my time messing with any of that then, because it’s obviously miserable and just a waste of time. So yeah, on the on the super hot days, I’m not I’m not out there hunting.
00:52:30
Speaker 2: You’re you’re holding onto all your poker chips until the hand is right in times limited to for me. So yeah, rolling right into November. Here it’s June, but November feels really far away. But we’ll blanket, like you know, it’s time here, it is, it’s November. Has your rut strategy changed over time? You mentioned time is a valuable resource, but I have to imagine you probably carve out a lot of time in November. Are you just time on stand kills big deer or you like no, I got to bounce around and try to still strike, you know with these minifronts or where are you.
00:53:07
Speaker 3: At time on stand kills deer? That’s where I’m at. I mean, it really does. But it’s gosh, it’s so good or sweet because like I don’t I enjoy November and there’s plenty of time where I’m like, okay, like this this is this is a lot of time spent away from my family, Like I’ve done this quite a few years. Yes, it’s a blessing of you out here, but I would also like to be spending time with my family and not being away. And I just know that, like it can happen in the blink of an eye. I think most of us obviously know that, and so spending time on stand is is most important because you never know when he’s going to show up, But you also don’t know he could be two miles away and you’re totally wasting your time. It’s just a total guess. But the deer are on their feet, so you got to be there.
00:53:54
Speaker 2: Our brains play a really sick trick when it comes to November, because I can think of November. I hunted eight bunch, I wasted a lot of time in the tree stand. But when you say November, I say November. I think of like the two or three days where it was this phenomenal and it was everything that we always dreamed of. But my brain forgets the fourteen other days where it’s like this is I have so many other things I should be doing.
00:54:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, come, yeah, yeah, But you know that I spent more time this last November out there than I probably have in years past because I hadn’t killed a buck and I’m like, it’s gonna happen, It’s gonna happen. It didn’t, But it also helped me gain perspective and appreciation just to be out there like you we all take it for granted, especially like I mean, I’m guilty of it. I’ll be there on my phone. I’m like, oh, it’s a slub just sitting here on my phone. And then I’m you know, there are numerous times where I’m like, why are did you come out here to sit on your phone? Or did you come out here to you know, like enjoy what’s in front of you.
00:54:53
Speaker 2: So, yeah, that’s it’s an excellent thing to stay grounded throughout that that mouth because it can be it can challenging, it can be awesome, all the things everyone’s always said before. But it’ll be here before we know it. And then so to close off the calendar for the rest of the year, December obviously we can we can touch on it very briefly, but are you just pretty much weather weather in front when it comes to December for the most part, and a.
00:55:19
Speaker 3: Lot of times during trail cameras, if if the right deer is showing up and I feel like I have a good chance. I’m going to be I’m going to be out there, but I’m yes, I’m very dependent upon the right weather and for the most part only hunting grain or or some sort of food source, because if if I’m not, chances are pretty slim. I’m going to be the on the on the on a deer that I want to shoot.
00:55:45
Speaker 2: I got a couple more quick questions for you. What’s the piece of advice that you would give people ten years ago that you would take back? Say, oh no, no, forget that, I take it back.
00:55:56
Speaker 3: Early season hunting, Okay, Mike and I I remember we used to give seminars all the time, and that was like our number one thing was like early season honeting, Like you can have so much success, you got to get out there early and do this. And it’s not to say that you can’t, because you definitely can, but like we were like all in on it and thinking like, yeah, this is when you’re gonna it’s gonna happen, and everybody else skips it, and no, I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t. Everybody’s time is so limited and mine mine at that time was not very limited. Just given where I was at in life, and so I had the time to go out there and do all of that. But no, no, I wouldn’t preach that.
00:56:36
Speaker 2: Now, that’s funny, that’s that’s interesting. It’s it’s and I think it’s just like the phase of life you’re in too, Like at that time, it worked and you had the time, and it’s almost like probably self fulfilling to some degree, because like those farms I’m sure were like doomed up for that first you know, snippet of season where you could have go out there and put a lot of volume.
00:56:58
Speaker 3: Out right, And then I can understand also in states where like, oh gosh, I’ve never hunted Kentucky. So so I’m just speaking out loud because I know a lot of people that have, and then Kansas up hunting Kansas. But people that can bait in those states, they’re probably like, that’s the best time you know they have they have of course they have a deer on a pattern at that point. But now as far as like patterning a deer to going to its food source here in Missouri early, which is what we used to give those seminars on, it can happen. And we’ve been effective doing it, but that would not be my number one time.
00:57:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, what is your number one time? Late October?
00:57:39
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, absolutely.
00:57:42
Speaker 2: All right, what’s one mistake almost every serious deer hunter still makes And obviously you may be guilty of this yourself.
00:57:54
Speaker 3: Letting your emotions get the best of you when when the moment counts and or human and like we’re designed to have those types of emotions and heart rate all that. If you aren’t, then you know, I don’t know, something, something might be off there. But like if I could better maintain those emotions when you know, it comes down to that actual moment, maybe I’d be a little more effective and and have have made better shots in certain instances. But again, I’m human, and and that adrenaline rush that we get when we’re out there and that stuff’s going on, like that’s one of the main reasons we’re there.
00:58:35
Speaker 2: So I would would you describe it as traditional buck fever or would you describe it?
00:58:41
Speaker 3: Okay, all right, absolutely, yes, Yeah, I’ve been doing this long enough to where like, yes, I can I can maintain and like, you know, focus on what I’m doing to a certain level, but like I’m not. I don’t know. I think people I’ve talked to friends and people before like, oh man, you’ve probably just got it down where it doesn’t even bother you anymore. I’m like, yeah, yeah, it does. Yeah, if I didn’t, it might be something wrong.
00:59:10
Speaker 2: So is there any way you try to combat that well going into the year, like this is a year I don’t get my heart rate to two hundred pets per second. I can’t think now there really isn’t.
00:59:22
Speaker 3: The Only thing that I can say is, uh, like, when I’m practicing, and I’ve always done this, I’ll go into like I try to go into that same mindset as to when you know the moment of truth might be happening, and then when that actually does happen, it I think you will you go into like your actual flow of the shot and everything much much easier. But yeah, I think the only the only thing that I try to do cognitively in that moment is just maintain focus on what the animal was doing. Hence I still didn’t still screwed up last fall on that, but like really focus on for instance, like a deer’s leg with the the leg is back. I’m always conscious of that. I feel like I’ve definitely trained myself to be looking for that, uh and and just my overall surroundings as well. But there’s no way I’m going to ever figure out how to stop buck fever. And I’m okay with that.
01:00:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, that’s you know, if there’s one condition to never fix, that’s the one that you probably want to stick with. You mentioned, you know, focusing in on that deer’s leg. Why do you do that?
01:00:25
Speaker 3: Because if there, if their leg is back, it’s covering more of their vitals, so like rather than having I don’t know, I’m I don’t know if this is the right answer, but three quarters or they’re long open with the leg forward, with the lake back, it’s probably covering you know, maybe maybe half the lungs or more. I’m not sure you know statistics on that, but that would be my guess. So that’s why, Yeah, why I would like to go forward.
01:00:49
Speaker 2: Awesome, Well, Sean, I’ve really enjoyed this. Hopefully didn’t pour salt into too many wounds. But we were talking before we started recording, like everyone, everyone feel makes massive mistakes and failures every single year, and it’s all about us getting incrementally better.
01:01:07
Speaker 3: Absolutely, Jake, I got an answer real quick on the trend. So I had a friend Adam Keith from Lannon Legacy. We were talking just a few days ago and he was like, if you had the opportunity to shoot a deer quartering away or broad quartering away, broad or broadside, which would you choose? And I said, well, maybe maybe slightly quartered away, just a little bit, but not very far at all. And back in the day, I used to always want that hard quarter away or quarter definitely quartering away shot because you know, you have the opportunity to connect with a lot of idols, but your shot window minimizes with that. So my answer now would be what I just said, just maybe slightly quartered away, almost broadside.
01:01:52
Speaker 2: Okay, that’s that’s a great, great answer to that. Yeah, because I think once again, there’s this always a different trends and different theologies that tend to catch a lot of momentum, and it always changes. It’s always changing a little bit. So Sean, if people want to follow along with everything that you have going on, I encourage everyone to go watch your guys YouTube channel. I really enjoy a lot of the habitat videos. So you guys are putting out, but where can people find you?
01:02:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can find us on YouTube and then Heartland bow Hunter on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. You can find my own page on Instagram. I don’t I’m not overly active there, but yeah, or you can just check out Heartland bow Hunter if you like.
01:02:33
Speaker 2: Awesome. Thank you so much.
01:02:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you Jay.
01:02:38
Speaker 2: All Right there, you guys have hope you guys enjoyed this week’s episode of Wire to Hunt. Once again, June is the time to lay the foundation, make a game plan for this upcoming year. Reflect back on the previous year of what you wish you were doing in the month of June or in the month of July that you pushed off. Make sure you do it this year and hopefully you’ll have a better year. Next week, we’ll have Mark back on Wire to Hunt to host this episode, so I hope you guys have a great rest of your week. We’ll see y’all.
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