Ep. 939: What Would Troy Pottenger Do?

This week on the show I’m running Troy Pottenger, of Whitetail Addictions, through our What Would You Do gauntlet, giving us insight into exactly how he'd handle some of the most challenging deer hunting scenarios I could throw at him.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
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.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. This week of
the show, I'm joined by Troy Pottinger and I'm running
him through are what would You Do gauntlet, giving us
insight into exactly how we'd handle some of the most
challenging hunting scenarios I could throw at him. Absolutely all right,

(00:39):
Welcome back to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to
you by First Light and their cameo for Conservation. It
is their season opener sale this week. By the way,
if you're listening to this right when it launches, which
would be to Thursday, August twenty first, twenty twenty five.
If you have to be listening to it that week,
season on, check it on out over at first light

(01:02):
dot com. There's some good deals going on. But in
more relevant news today, we are continuing are What Would
You Do? Series. The gist of this series is that
I talked to different expert whitetail hunters and give them
very specific hypothetical deer hunting scenarios or challenges or circumstances

(01:25):
and ask them to detail for us how they would
handle them, how they would think through this challenge, how
would they act on this challenge, What would be their strategy,
their thought process, why would they do these different things?
All of that we've had it so far. We've done
one of these with Ted Zanyerlei, we've done one with
Terry Drury earlier this month, and today we have Troy Pottinger.

(01:47):
And last week with Terry that was a little bit
more of a private land focused conversation. Today we're back
to more of a public land focused conversation because Troy
specializes in hunting big country, big timber, big hills or mountains,
and finding really big bucks in these pretty darn tough circumstances.

(02:08):
So it's going to be a very interesting one. Troy
comes to us from the White Tail Addictions Crew. He
is a proven DIY deer hunter who has gotten it done,
not just in his home state of Idaho and the
surrounding area of Canada, Montana, Washington, but also he's headed east.
He's done it in Ohio, He's done it I think
in Iowa or Illinois, some of these other states in

(02:29):
the Midwest. So his tactics will work for you whether
you're on the West coast or the east. The terrain
that he's specialized in, these big hills, rolling topography, mountains,
it's stuff that I know that people in southern Ohio
or Virginia, or Pennsylvania, or New York, or the Appalachians
down Tennessee, Georgia, whatever. This is something that can apply

(02:52):
to many of you. And I think there's some other
ideas that Troy shares with us about using scrapes that
can be applicable even in flatter country, whether you're in
Michigan or Mississippi or somewhere in between. So he's a
great hunter, a great storyteller, and communicator around how he
develops his plans and his processes. There's a lot we
can learn from Troy today. So I don't want to

(03:14):
beat around the bush too much on this one. I
mentioned already that our first Light season opener sale is
going on right now. If you are listening on the
twenty first or twenty second of September, or sorry it's August,
I guess now twenty twenty five. Also, the Wired Ton
hats've been telling you about. Those are still in stock,
but we have these brand new T shirts. If you

(03:34):
are watching, you can see the brand new Wired Hunt
T shirt just dropped this week as well. You can
find all of that over at the Mediator's store. I
hope you guys, alikam, I appreciate you showing your support
for this podcast and what we're trying to do over here.
So thanks in advance for that and thanks for tuning in.
I hope you're gonna enjoy this one. I know you're
gonna enjoy this one. Troy's a great guest, He's got

(03:56):
a lot to share. So why don't we just get
to my chat with me Pottinger. Here we go, all right,
joining me once again. The show is mister Troy Pottinger.
Welcome to show.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
Troy, Hey, Mark, thanks for having me. It's great too,
great to get a circle back and talk to you again.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Oh yeah, absolutely. I always enjoy our chats. We've had
some good ones over the years, and excited for today
though because it's a little bit different than usual, as
you know, and we're just you know, jumping right in
no formalities here today. We're just gonna we're gonna get
right into the fun stuff. The format for today's show
is this what would you do gauntlet, in which I'm

(04:42):
gonna throw you into the throw to the Wolves. With
all these different hypothetical situations, some might be like fun
to consider, some might be stressful to consider. I think
plenty of them. You've probably experienced yourself, and I've ran
a number of the white tail addictions through this one.
I know we've done Andre, we've done justin maybe Heath,

(05:06):
I can't remember. But you're in good company and I
think it's gonna be it's gonna be interesting, So I
just want to jump into it so we maximize our
time here. Imagine this one. Imagine that the season is
coming soon. It's August. I know, opening day of archery
for you in Idaho is August thirtieth. So you're excited,

(05:28):
you're amped up, everything's prepared. But a week before opening day,
I pick you up and I say, hey, Troy can't
hunt Idaho. I'm flying you to New York State and
you've got to hunt the adirndecks of New York this year.
But you've got one weekend here in August to prepare

(05:50):
for your hunt coming up. Later that year. Okay, so
you got Saturday and Sunday in the Adirundecks of New York.
What would you do in that two day window to
prepare yourself for your week long return trip Let's say
in November out in the mountains of the ad Airundecks.
Walk me through thought process and plan for maximizing two

(06:10):
days in this brand new mountain area.

Speaker 3 (06:13):
Okay, so I've got two days to get out there
do my due diligence of scouting to prepare for a
November hunt. What what time in November?

Speaker 2 (06:24):
I'm going to say, you were going to be there
from November first to the seventh for your return trip,
And and you can, you can. You can do anything
digitally beyond the two days, but you only have two
days on the ground to do your work.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
Right, So obviously, the the easy thing that I know
I'm gonna be able to do is do a massive
amount of East scouting outside of those two days.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (06:53):
But those two days are crucial. And this kind of
plays into my hand because thirty three years as a teacher,
I have had to teach, force, train, whatever word you
want to say, myself to figure out deer in the
summer when I have free time to be able to

(07:16):
kill them in October November. And there's a lot of
people out there that don't like to scout hard heart
in the summer, but that's been my life. My whole
life has been can I scout effectively in the summer
and translate that to late October November type hunts? And

(07:36):
I do that, but it takes a lot of effort
and paying attention to details that are hard to see.
So let's say the e scouting side of it. I'm
a big Google Earth, Google Earth. I love Google Earth
because I can really look at the right now habitat
and conditions of what's going on out there, and then

(07:57):
I like to overlap it with you know, whatever your
favorite hunt app is. So I would do a ton
of that as much as I could before that two
day trip out to get my boots on the ground,
and I would do a ton of that after I
got to put boots on the ground on those two
days to try to make sure it all made sense

(08:20):
in the big picture of that early November hunt. So
that's just a given that's going to happen because I
have ample amount of time to scout this before and after.
But to me, the crucial part would be I would
if I had two days, I would use every ounce

(08:41):
of daylight till dark to cover ground. And I do
that all the time out here right now in the
summers in August on Bucks. But out here right now
I'm trying to get within one hundred yards of a
bucks betting zone to killing August thirtieth. That wouldn't be
my focus as much in the Adirondacks in August, because

(09:05):
I'd be hunt in November. I would scout the living
daylights out of the wind, how it worked in the Adirondacks,
how it positioned deer. I would do a ton of
research behind the scenes of my free time on the
favorable food sources. I would get on the ground out
there every second of daylight I have, and I would

(09:27):
just cover a ton of ground based on my eat
scouting prior to get in there. And then I would
break down first how the wind is working in those
mountains and how the thermal is working, because that will
always position whitetail deer for safety in mountain country no
matter where you're at, really anywhere, they will always live

(09:49):
their life around wind the thermals. And then of course
the obvious, the water, the feed, and everything that's going
to be available to them. November window I get a hunt,
so I would hit the ground running and I would
cover as much ground as I could, and I would

(10:09):
look for historical, traditional, long standing evidence sign of community
running areas. All the sign's gonna have to be there
from the year before. I need to. I need to
find the licking branches that most guys will walk by

(10:30):
because the leaves have the ground covered up. I need
to find the old scrapes, all the traditional rubs that
have been pounded over the years. I need to walk
with the wind and the thermals, so let it walk
me into those areas that give a give deer herds safety, solace, food, water, security, cover,

(10:53):
habitat all of it for November. And I can't and
I wouldn't focus on Like if I bunked a buck
out of his bed while doing it, no bother at all,
wouldn't bother me a bit? I would ask myself, you know,
where would this deer be based on the dough family
groups that I'm finding evidence of and the community type

(11:15):
hubs that I'm finding evidence of, where would this deer
probably stage based on the topography the Terraine to cover
how the wind works in there to service these doughs.
So I would really focus on the dough family groups
evidence from the previous running time of the year to

(11:37):
circle back and hunt them in that first that first
week in November, because I'm gonna hunt. I'm gonna be
hunting for one week, hardcore on where I believe a
big buck would feel safe servicing dose in the daylight
that time of year, checking scrapes, and really doing his
work that time of year.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
So I know you put a huge priority on those
community scraping areas, but as you as you mentioned in
the summer, it's a lot harder to see them. You
might be able to see the liaking branches if you're
really paying attention, but it's probably not gonna pop like
they normally would. What what would that I know, I
personally know what that looks like when I'm out there
in October or November. But if I'm out there for

(12:21):
listeners out there in August, what would a community scrape
area look like, a primary scraping area, whatever you want
to call it, What would that look like in August?
How do I know, like, oh, yes, this is actually
a really good one, even though it's really overgrown and
it doesn't jump off the map like they normally would,
right you know.

Speaker 3 (12:39):
The uh the number one thing I see when I
like teach my boot camps out here in Idaho and
when I'm working with guys when I walk them through
the woods this time of year, because I do the
boot camps in June and July, they walk right by
laking branches all the time. They don't even they don't
understand what they need to be looking for. So I

(12:59):
teach them so that that whole strap science, that hub
science of deer and how deer use that like you
and I do on social media to communicate, to know
each other, to you know, send messages. It's all about
those licking branches. So I would be looking for and

(13:21):
not trying purposely making sure I don't walk by those discrete,
hard to see in the summer, weathered well used decades
of you signed on specific liking branches. Now, I'll do
my due diligence before I get out there too, on

(13:42):
species of favorable licking branches and the Adirondacks. And I'd
talk to some guys that I know hunt the Adirondacks
that know there's that would really know their stuff, and
they'd give me some species to look for. I would
do all that ahead of time, so then I would
really know what to key in on on those licking branches.
And that's the key in the summer, all the scrapes

(14:03):
that I run year round, all of the scrapes that
I find in my scouting, I do a ton of
prospecting to stay ahead of the curve out here. Year
after year after year, I stay way ahead of the curve.
I'm always keying in at eye level. And it's nice
because liking branches are usually at eye level. I'm five
to ten, they're right there, so I'm not gonna miss them.

(14:25):
And it's only because I've trained my brain to really
focus on those because it's been so successful. So I
would focus in on the torn, tattered, beat up, even
if it's got leaves growing back on it. Let's say
it's some type of a brush or whatever they love
to use, or it's a specific tree that is deciduous
and grows leaves drops, And I'm still looking for those tips,

(14:46):
those little ends of the licking branch that have been
beat to heck and a lot of times deep best
community hub type scrapes that deer use decade after decade,
are positioned such to where the wind the thermost, the feed,
the security cover, everything plays into the deer's favor. The

(15:06):
deer favor that time of the year, and I'm looking
for those places where I would fill that lower light,
heavier canopy, little darker timber. Potentially I see that a
lot out west, at those corridors where it's not so
wide open that deer are a little spooky about using it

(15:28):
in the daylight. I would really key in on those
types of licking branch scrape hubs, if you will, But
I'm breaking down those details on those actual branches.

Speaker 2 (15:39):
Okay, Now you mentioned covering a lot of ground over
those two days. Would you devote anytime to taking things
the next step, which would be either deploying cameras on
those scrapes or in other areas and or picking trees,
prepping trees, anything like that.

Speaker 3 (15:59):
Yes, And to be fair mark in this question, I'm
not dealing with any agriculture, am I at all?

Speaker 2 (16:05):
Correct?

Speaker 3 (16:05):
This would be just big woods, big woods, no destination
food sources. Yes, I would obviously obviously if there's oaks
out there. I'm looking big time for community scrapes around
isolated white oak type pockets things like that. Yes, I
don't go into the woods, and I can say this
from my heart. I don't go into the woods ever

(16:28):
without intent, specific purpose. Always. I never go into the
woods anymore just to dick around. Excuse my language. I
don't do it. I don't have time for it, and
I care too much about being proficient with my time
that I have because my family, my kids, everything comes
first before that. So I would be My pack always

(16:52):
weighs about twenty to thirty pounds when I go into
the woods. Why I go in heavy, I come out light.
I'm probably past. I can at least four or five cameras.
I'm packing my scrape synthetics. I don't go anywhere ever
without that stuff, because it is so easy in the

(17:13):
world of scrape science to jump in the game with
the deer when you find a spot that screams you
need to hunt here in November. So yes, I would
deploy when I come across something that gives me all
of the like not just instinctual but proven past checks
all the boxes for me that this could be a

(17:35):
spot that I want to come back to. I would
set it up over market. I would open up their
scrape in august on them because it's getting close to hardhorn.
I would open stuff up everywhere, and one thing I
didn't touch on. When I find those linking branches, I
immediately inspect the ground below it, even if I got

(17:56):
to move all the needles and debris or leaves to
see if they're there's a big scrape there. And usually
you can see through that stuff and identify it without
moving moving it. But sometimes the groundcover is crazy. But
I would want to see that dirt from the past.
That identity of that scrape being there too on the
ground is what I'm getting at. So yes, I would deploy.

(18:20):
I would open up over mark and even build some
mocks in the right terrain type funnels that you know.
I haven't even said the world were trails yet. Trails
are huge to me. When I walk through the woods,
I map out all the trails. I map out all
the lateral trails on mountains. I map out all the

(18:40):
vertical decent trails on mountains because during the rut, the
white tails run the lateral trails to cover the most
ground to pick up scent on the mountains, on the terrain,
if that makes sense. So I would be mapping out
all of those lateral trails for November, even more so
of in the vertical ascent and decent trails that you

(19:03):
would hunt August September. And then it all just comes
into a big picture scenario to where I'm prepared and
in ten minutes i can build over Mark Fresh and
do all my work, hang a camera and I'm going
to the next one. And I would do that from
daylight til dark each day, and of course i'd be

(19:26):
running either an off grid saved offline map, and i'd
be running all of that in my hand nowadays, which
I'm kind of happy that I grew up in an
era before all of this because I actually don't have
to use those, but they're extra confirmation for me now
of seeing the big picture on my map. But I

(19:47):
used to do all of this one hundred percent without
any type of electronic device, and I just store it
all right here in my brain or in my head too,
and I just memorize it. So that's just a great
addition for me. So that's what I'm taking into the Woodsmark.
That's what I'm deploying. I'm definitely gonna leave cameras, and
I'll be honest, if sell service is out there anywhere,

(20:10):
and if sell is legal, I'm not going to sell
camera with me to just in case, absolutely, especially being
a two thousand miles away in Idoh.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
Yeah, let's take let's take this like one step further.
You described a number of different things you would do.
I want to give you a little bit more of
a set of specifics and then have you kind of
break it down a little bit more so. So imagine
this this area that you went and checked out. Let's
imagine that there is a main ridge running north south

(20:43):
and then it's got two finger ridges coming off to
the east. So it's kind of like the letter C.
All right, if you were like a like a flat sea.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
Almost got a big basin.

Speaker 2 (20:54):
Big basin exactly, That's what I'm trying to paint here,
big basin here, and you've got you've got a short
window of this day of your two days. Let's let's
say you dedicated a quarter of your day excuse me,
a quarter of your weekend was to this basin. I'm
curious how you would break down that basin specifically, So

(21:16):
how you would do what you described doing, but now
put it in this picture for me. And then also,
how would you prep and pick the one best stand
location in that one basin. So so again looking to
take what you described kind of high level and apply
it to this specific north south running basin picking the

(21:38):
best spot and how you would prep that best spot
in this short window of time. Does that make sense?

Speaker 3 (21:42):
Yeah? So if it's a quarter of the day and
in the summer, you get about fifteen hours at daylight
in August. Correct, I'm pretty close there.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
This sounds about right, Yeah, pretty close.

Speaker 3 (21:54):
Yeah, so a quarter of it is quite a few
hours that'd ads that I could use in there. I
would not on that boots on the ground day those
seven hours, let's just say seven and seven a half hours,
I would not be as concerned so much as to

(22:17):
how I entered east west north south. I would want
to cover it. And I'm I'm of the mind of
find find the pocket, find the honey hole, find that
safe security spot that those deer will breed and chase
in the daylight November based on the Dough family groups,

(22:37):
and I'm gonna look for all their sign their tracks,
their trails, even in the grass. Even in the tall stuff,
you can see I can see a buck walk through
tall grass or a dough. You just got to look
at the grass and you'll see where they're working through it.
So I'm not sure what the Adirondacks look like on
the ground in August, but out here there's a lot
of vegetation. So I would get in there, mark that

(23:00):
drik in that basin and those ridges, and knowing me logically,
I would go high right out of the gate so
I could work my way downhill all day, so.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
Back on top of the walk, on top of the ridges.

Speaker 3 (23:14):
Yeah, I would go high. Early in the morning, I
would uh, I would analyze the thermals. I might hike
in and I would get up high. Then I would
run those you know, It's kind of like when I
el kind. I like to get on big ridges and
stay high above the animals and work at them right
across the tops. So in that scenario, I would be

(23:35):
deciphering the thermals and I would keep closed track to
when I fill them switch and I would get up high.
And because if you work high early, your energy that
you have to work you get up. You get up
there early, and then you have all that energy that
next five six hours out of the seven hours whatever
it takes to get up high to break that entire

(23:58):
basin down working downhill, and I would probably do great
big ce type not exactly a grid, but kind of,
and I'd work that whole basin and I'd want to
come out at the bottom where I entered in the
evening at freaking dark. I plan on walking out with

(24:18):
my head light on, my headlamp on, because then I
would so let's say I did from two o'clock till
nine o'clock at night when it got dark, you know,
one of those half days in there. To me, that
makes sense to get high, work my way down, have
the whole day to work downhill, and then I would
be packing everything I need on my back. I probably

(24:39):
have my spy high stick as a walking stick, so
I could put a camera up high if I need
to it's public. I would just literally lay that sucker out,
and I believe in seven hours, let's say six seven
hours of actual really working that basin over, I would
know how the prevailing winds work, for the most part,

(25:02):
how the thermals and when they switch. I would study
the slope that I'm on the north south east west slopes,
because that dictates wind and cooling of the thermals and
heating of the thermals differently at different times. I would
read all of the trails, the lateral trails, the vertical
trails to sign. Obviously, I'm looking for those hubscrapes, those
licking branches, and I would be blowing those up, setting

(25:25):
cameras and trapping. I'm literally a whitetail trapper. I would be.
I would be setting a trap line in that basin
and then let all of that foot you know, boots
on the ground, strategic movement through that basin, laying out
of the cameras, refreshing, opening up, creating a mock scrape

(25:49):
if I think it has to be there, based on
what I find with trails and how the timber and
the ridges funnel everything, how the wind makes it, you know,
will always position deer in their betting zones, always wayndon
thermals does. So I would That's all rolling through my
mind as I break it down. And when I come

(26:10):
across the sign and it's from November from October, when
the sign is there and I can see that old sign,
I'm keying in on it, because that's when I'm hunting
this November.

Speaker 2 (26:33):
If I were to, if you and I were looking
at the topographic map of this basin together and I said,
pick the four best looking places on this topographic map
right now, put a pin on it or circle it
on the map, and then you went back there and
actually scouted on the ground as you described. And now

(26:53):
you went and you checked all the spots and you
found the single best place. Do you think that in
your map pre work, do you think that you could
have picked the best spot? Would the best spot in
real life actually have been one of the four places
you picked ahead of time?

Speaker 3 (27:08):
I believe I can, yes, And I do it a lot.
Do I always hit it perfect? Note, but I really
focus in on wind and thermals where it positions dare
for betting, and how you know how mature bucks really
like to have the high ground and the wind and
thermals on doe betting, dough family groups and dough betting.

(27:29):
So they like to they like to be able. It's
simple common sense. A thermal blows up hill during the
day way more hours than downhill, So if you want
to kill stuff in the daylight in mountain country, big
bucks use those uphill thermals to travel and sent check
before they drop, before they bail off. They run those

(27:51):
high lines, those lateral lines like crazy in the mountains,
and I see it in Ohio on a two hundred
foot elevation gain on Ohio, I see the same thing.
I see the exact same thing, just a smaller version
of it. So do I believe I could nail a
really productive spot with the maps one hundred percent? But

(28:14):
what might What I think I really need more than
anything is finding those white oaks or whatever type of
food source is the best for November for those dough
family groups. And then if those correspond with the terrain
features and the prevailing and thermal winds that I think

(28:36):
would really make a buck want to be there with
those Dough family groups close, then it's going to be money.
But where I think I might run into trouble with
a map only quest is I got to go find
where the best feed is going to be in November
two And it's I'm assuming correct me if I'm wrong.

(28:56):
I don't hunt a lot of oaks, but I'm assuming.
You know, so, how long do those oaks drop in
that kind of country? You know, how long is that
food stores there, So I would have to do all
that research too, Mark yep.

Speaker 2 (29:10):
So so where I'm getting where I'm going with that
is this last file, which would be could you just
paint a picture for me of what that place that
would jump off the map would look like from the
map perspective, because because I feel like I've got a
good understanding now of what you're looking for on the ground.
But what I do want to make sure folks understand
is what are the key things on the top on

(29:30):
map or even the you know, aerial top all hybrid
that you would say, oh, yes, this is the spot
I need to go ground truth. Can you paint that
picture for me real quick and then.

Speaker 3 (29:38):
We'll move on to it. Yeah, I think I could
paint one that would probably work. I would on a map,
I would be looking for off that big ridge system
within that basin, I would be looking for finger ridges
and benches that come down off of it yep. And
I would be mapping out in my mind based on

(30:00):
those terrain features where the best security cover and happy
place for doze are where a buck could position himself
to monitor them without having to be right in the
middle of him every day. And then I would probably
hit first that halfway two thirds of the way up

(30:22):
in those mountains, on those ridges where I believe i'd
be pretty close to where Bucks felt very good about
betting hanging out even you know, checking on those I
would probably not be in the very bottom unless I
thought that I could get a wind to work down there.
I would most likely be looking at saddles within saddles,

(30:48):
finger ridges that have nice benches, things that are terrain
no things is the wrong word, terrain features that really
aid in the movement and monitoring of right tail Bucks
overdose and that dose are close proximity to them. Then
you got to look at the habitat. You have to
get on that, Like I say, get on Google Earth

(31:09):
and look at the actual habitat. Try to find pictures
from November of what that habitat looks like. It might
be wide open with no leads, what kind of brushes
in there? So there's a lot this is, you know,
these questions are there's a lot loaded into them in
my mind of the stuff I would have to break down.
But I guarantee I would be on terrain features that

(31:30):
are conducive for Bucks, Comfortable daylight type observing dose, monitoring dose,
and even chasing a breeding dose. I would want to
be right in the middle of that to start, because
I want to find daylight movement, and I want wind
that I can hunt. I want wind in thermals that

(31:51):
I can enter and exit and be able to hunt
it without just wasting my time at a spot. I
have to be able to hunt in my mind on
a map. I have to be able to get to
that location, exit ander it, even on a map before
I ever walk there. I have to be able to
look at it and go, yeah, I could get there
and get out of there, hunt off to the edge
of those prevailings and thermals and kill something. And I

(32:12):
would also look for terrain barriers that would protect me
from deer wanting to walk and directly downwind to meet.
Might be an opening, might be a you know, a
bunch of blowdown timber. Might be a bluff, might be
a deep ravine with a creak in it that really
steers deer around it because it's so steep and they'd
rather travel a trail just above it. I would look

(32:34):
for all of that.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
Yeah, okay, let's let's let's pivot something a little bit different.

Speaker 3 (32:40):
Here.

Speaker 2 (32:40):
Let's put you back home. You're an Idaho or one
of your you know, other areas you hunt there, Montana, Washington.
You've done your work, you've prepped, you've got your cameras
that you've got your trap line set. You're good to go.
Season opens. You start heading out to whatever your best
spot is that you thought for that part of the
season would be, and you start driving by a number

(33:02):
of different trailheads that you've historically used. Maybe you're not
going to be there today, but you drive by one,
there's two trucks there, kind of surprising. You keep going
your heading towards your best spot for that particular day.
You drive by another basin, two trucks there. You get
to your spot that you're gonna hunt and there's two
or three trucks there too. Yep, a bunch of hunting

(33:22):
pressure in your zone now. And I don't know what
it's usually like there, but let's say there's more than
you would expect. Right, Let's say it's the COVID year again.
Whenever one came out of the woodwork and started hunting again, right,
what would that do to your plan for that day
or the next couple of days. There at the beginning
of the year, when you're flooded with an unexpected amount

(33:42):
of hunting pressure, does that change your plan at all?
Or do you still stick to the program, do what
you're gonna do.

Speaker 3 (33:49):
That's a good question because I'm not so big a country,
and if it's opening day that's August thirtieth, I have
till December twenty fourth to kill the back Cup. After
eight I usually have a group of bucks that are
on my list that I want to hunt, So that
kind of answers your question right there. If I saw
that type of scenario in the vast public that I hunt,

(34:11):
that guys literally park right where I want to park.
First thing is is, in my case, just for my
past of being successful with mountain white tails, I don't
want to park by those guys and leave my identity
with them. What if they hunt half a day and
walk out, Oh there's Pottinger's pickup, they take your you know,
So first of all, I'm not leaving my identity there,

(34:36):
and I'm just going to plan B. It's I've done
this for years. I always have a Plan B, C, D,
and sometimes E. And because I hunt such vast country,
it's pretty hard for me based on all of the
homework I do on these white tails and effort I

(34:56):
put into finding them early them year after year, I
usually can go to Plant B or C mark and
go find a quiet place be only because of that
work that I put in to have that going. Yeah,
it would never be that way if I didn't put
all that year around working to have that stuff established

(35:17):
and working for me. So I would go to Plan B,
and if Plan B wasn't good, I'd go to C.
But I'm not going to give away in my case
where I'm at, I'm just not going to do it.
I don't need to because I have four months to
hunt a deer that that I may be targeting. I
would have now if it was at the end of
the season and I had three days left. That's a

(35:40):
little different question.

Speaker 2 (35:43):
Oh now, what about this. Let's let's say it's similar
but slightly different. Let's say you go to your best
spot and maybe this is let's sweeten the deal a
little bit. It's opening day and a cold front happened
hit on August thirtieth, So when from maybe eighty degrees
to high fifties and you just know it's gonna be
good and you get to the trailhead and there's no cars.

(36:06):
Looks good going to plane A. You hike up to
your spot and you get to I'm just gonna make
an assumption here, kritma if I'm wrong, but let's assume
it's gonna be some kind of you know, community scrape
area near some buck betting, and you had a camera
set up and you see, we'll say, what could be
one of two things. Either a someone set up a

(36:28):
camera right on your setup, near your camera, and or
someone set up a tree stand in that same zone.
So there's a camera or tree stand right in your zone. Now,
there's not anyone there right now, but you see that
someone has found your zone and set up on it.
It's the afternoon of opening day and you've hiked all

(36:48):
the way in and it's a banging cold front.

Speaker 3 (36:50):
What do you do now, Well, I'm gonna hunt it,
and I'm gonna obviously wonder how the heck somebody's found
me there and why they would want to set up
near me. And I've had that happen And I came
in on one of my incredible I came in on
a just an incredible spot I had set up one
time to get my tree and hunt this deer. And
and to be fair to your listeners, I never go

(37:11):
to spots. I go to the deer I'm after, So
I don't really have a honey hole. I hunt specific deer,
so my spots. The nice thing about that is mark
some of my spots get moved year to year, even
on a specific deer, even if it's one hundred yards
two hundred yards quarter mile, because I'm working on him

(37:34):
with his changes with his as he gets older, he changes,
he mixes it up based on pressure. But back to
answer the exact question, and I've had this happen, had
it happen. I've had it happen where I've walked in.
And this is a shout out to most of us
Western guys, which I really like, because guys are we

(37:55):
have so much ground out here that nobody needs to
set right unless they're just being an ass. I mean, seriously,
they don't need to. But anyway, I've walked in on
a guy before in my spot, or let's say it
was a camera on my spot, I would hunt it.
And if I walk in on somebody sitting right next
to me, I just talked to him and say, hey,
I you know, been running this for a long time.

(38:17):
I'm like, I've hunted here forever. Did you notice it?
I would just ask if they noticed my setup, and
I don't care really what they say to me. I
could tell by the way they act if they're being
honest or not, and then i'd have to play it
from there. Obviously, I don't want to sit right next
to somebody, but let's say I do talk to him.
And this has happened to me before. I literally had

(38:38):
a guy say I am so sorry. He was in
a climber, he goes. I literally thought I'd just set
up on the greatest scraping spot in the world. He goes,
I've never seen sign like this, and it's because he
found one of my spots that I'd had been working
deer for years. And he was again back to this
Western culture out here. I was like, man, I'm sorry,

(39:01):
he goes, I'm gonna get down and I'm out of here.
I'll go hunt somewhere else because I can see that
you will put so much work into this. And I
pointed out my cameras, I pointed out my tree stand.
I had all the stuff hidden so well he couldn't
see it. So I have ran into that a little bit.
But let's say it's just a camera on my spot
and it's that day and I see a camera right

(39:23):
on me or close to me, I'm gonna hunt it.
I'm gonna hunt it, and I'm gonna probably assume that
they probably didn't even see my cameras are stand because
I do on purpose so stuff doesn't get stolen. I mean,
I try to really keep my stuff hidden, and I
sit in trees or I have great back cover, and

(39:44):
you know, I never leave sticks on a tree, or
you know, I climb a tree and hang that day
and hunt and leave or whatever. So I would hunt it.
I would hunt it, especially with that cold front that
opening day. Bucks are gonna move. Nobody's there, he has,
somebody has a camera, say off to my side of
me out, I'm gonna hunt it, and I'm gonna make
sure they see me on their camera. I'm gonna make

(40:06):
I'm gonna make sure when they check that camera they're like, oh,
somebody's here. And again I'll go back to mindset culture.
Us Western guys, we don't want to hunt their people.
We don't want to be next to other people. We've
grown up. We grew. That's how that's how we do
things out here. For for the most part. I mean,

(40:27):
I have been hunting this country for forty some years, Mark,
I've never had a guy be an asshole about wanting
to set right next to me. Ever. Now have I
had guys follow where I'm at and hunt within a
quarter mile of me, hundred percent. But I've never had
anybody want to be right next to me like usually
guys in this country will leave you a note or

(40:49):
read or reach out to you if they think, oh,
that's that's a Lone Wolf custom gear camera, and I know, Troy,
I'll just reach out to me. I've had I've had
multiple good people reach out to me and say, true,
I think I found one of your setups. It was awesome.
I'll stay, you know, and they literally they say, yeah,
I'm not gonna hunt on top of you. It was awesome.

(41:09):
I think guys come to my boot camp that have
found my stuff before and said it all made sense
once I found it while you were there. So Mark,
So Mark, I've been fortunate. I would hunt that spot
if it was a camera, if there was somebody there
already sitting there. I talked to him and just be
a good human about it, Like, why not just be

(41:30):
a good And if they were, you know, if they
wanted to get all I would call it immaturely defensive
or act ignorant. I just I got lots of options. Yeah,
and I would move and I would move on that
same deer and just get away from that person. If
they were going to continue to hunt there, I would
just move on him and hunting, you know, maybe a

(41:50):
quarter mile away somewhere else, because there's always room to
move on on deer in the big woods. Always, there's
always room to move on.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
Them, all right, So speaking of movin, I've got one
here that that I feel like I know exactly what
a Justin Hollinsworth would do, or I know what a
Andre Dequista would do. I'm not one hundred percent sure
I know what you would do with this one. Imagine
you have one of these very well put together sites
that you've described several times. You've got the community scrape

(42:20):
area dialed. You've been working this maybe for years or
at least months leading up to this hunt. Right, we're
to say, yeah, at least months, and we're gonna say,
we're gonna say this is a November situation here okay,
and your camera has been there, your scrapes have been there,
your stand is prepped, it's perfectly hidden. You've obviously dotted

(42:41):
your eyes and crossed your t's. You show up to
hunt in November and you see three different bucks this morning.
One of them is a shooter, to others like pretty nice.
All of them are forty to fifty yards out of
range for some reason. Everything is just outside of where

(43:04):
you would typically want it to be, and they're not
coming into your spot. Would you, I guess I won't
to even give you options. What would you do in
this scenario where in the same morning you see three
different bucks do the same thing, all out of range.

Speaker 3 (43:19):
Right right, and now you're you're also adding in that
I try to call them to me and it still
didn't work.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
Yeah, yes, because I'm imagining like an Andre or a Justin,
they might right away tear down their set and go
move to where they're seeing this moving. But with you
having invested so much time into picking these spots and
making them so good right where you want them to be,
I'm curious if you trust your spot more than you
trust the eyes, or or what your process would be.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
Yeah, I really trust my preparation. My preparation has always
paid off. I'm extremely patient and as long and that
you know, if you're gonna move on him, even if
it's one hundred yards fifty yards, that move has to
work with the win, the entrance and the exit just
that far away, Like you got to map that out

(44:09):
in your head to even consider moving on them. Two
fold answer here, I have moved on dear big time
in November because they moved on me. Fifty yards is
a different scenario than a quarter mile. Fifty yards fifty yards.
He's right there in my wheelhouse, and based on the

(44:29):
intel that I have on that shooter deer I'm after,
I'm just I'm going to play the odds. If nobody's around, nope,
I'm going to look at their demeanor. I'm going to
look at their body language and if they're just doing
what white tails should be doing in November, and they're
just outside of where I want to shoot them, or
I didn't have a shooting lane at fifty yards fifty

(44:49):
some of poke, in my opinion for white tails out
of a tree stand, A lot of guys do it.
I usually kill everything at under twenty that's because my
setups are set up for that. I would play much
more of the patient game on that deer because I'm
right with him and in the mountains, in the vast country.
Fifty yards is nothing like. That's like a yeah, he's

(45:11):
basically dead if he doesn't know I'm there, if he's
been frequenting there, If he just happened to get lucky
that day and get a trail just out of where
I wanted to shoot him, I would. I would believe
wholeheartedly if he showed no behavior whatsoever of being nervous

(45:31):
in there. When I'm in there, I would actually be like, yeah,
he's in trouble, because I'll kill him tomorrow or two
days from now or three days from now, based on
everything he shows me. Yeah, I probably wouldn't just tear
down and move over for any reason at a fifty
yard range. Now, let's say I'm in Ohio and I

(45:53):
have limited space, and I need to be thirty yards
over to kill this deer, and I'm on a short
one week window to kill a specific deer, I'm tearing
down and moving just like Andre and Justin. Because you
hunt the situation, you don't hunt blanket statements you hunt

(46:13):
the situation, so if I'm limited on space, I need
to get over there. That's the trail. They like, I'm
moving on them right away. Yes, is that fair?

Speaker 2 (46:23):
Yeah? Oh yeah, I'm gonna throw one more kind of
wrench into it for you. And let's imagine, And I'm curious.
I liked how you broke that down on what you
would do at home where you have this you know,
long window and a lot of prep versus like a
shorter hunt in a new place. Imagine this slight tweak

(46:43):
on that scenario. Let's imagine you only have one buck
you're after. It's one really special buck you're after, as
you often are, and it's again this November time frame.
It's evening, you've been sitting. It's an evening hunt. The
last couple hours of daylight are just ahead of you,
and you see the one buck you're after, but instead
of just passing by out of range, he's actually with

(47:06):
a dough. He's locked on a dough and they were
kind of walking slowly straight away from you. Two hours
of daylight. What are you do in that scenario? He's
right there, but he's locked on a dough, walks away
from you. Slowly. They're just doing their thing. What are
you doing?

Speaker 3 (47:21):
All right? I'm smiling because I don't know if you
can see this buck back here now you can't.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
I can't.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
Back there in the corner.

Speaker 2 (47:30):
Yeah, okay, yeah, so three years.

Speaker 3 (47:32):
Ago that happened. Okay, that's a buck I call half rock.
He's hidden up and down in a corner. You can't
see him. But he was just to give your listeners
and he grows to hirred and seventy two inches. Jeez,
mountain buck, just to I mean, you're talking. And I
shared that with you, not to be cool. I shared
that because it's a buck I wanted to kill. I
wasn't going to shoot any other deal. He did it

(47:55):
to me, came across above me, was with a dough
and I really study a white tail's wants and needs
based on his body language and behavior. And I knew
what he was wanting. I knew what he was doing,
and it was I posted a picture of this after

(48:15):
I killed him two days later, three days later. It's
a short window behind that I killed him, might have
been four or five days at the most, just there
with me here, I posted. I took a picture of
him because I looked at him, and that's who I
wanted to kill. And he was with that dough and
I had about two hours left in the daylight. He

(48:36):
was beautiful out afternoon, snow on the ground, looking up
a steep mountain face. They came across the lateral trail
above me that drops down to my community scraps just
off to the northeast of me, probably twenty yards away,
and I thought, I ain't saying a word. I'm not

(48:57):
making a noise either that doe is going to come
down through here and I'm gonna kill this buck or
I'm gonna wait, I'm not gonna blow him out of here.
I got him. He's in here, comfortable with two hours
of daylight left, and all of that process through my
mind based on his body language. So I took my
camera and took a picture of it, and I videoed,

(49:18):
and they walked across the lateral trail above me, and
I think I posted this at fifty three yards and
I thought about, you know, I could he came across
the glade and mark. You know, Idaho it has open
glades in some spot, So there's this little tiny glade

(49:39):
that's about thirty yards wide, there's just no trees above me.
And I used that opening because most of time then
bucks will skirt it and come right down to me
instead of walking across it. But we all know why
he walked right across it. He had his nose with
a dough. So I played the odds. I said, I'm
just very patient, and I never or I don't anymore

(50:01):
at all. I'd never let like, I really try not
to make foolish mistakes when I'm after a buck of
a lifetime, you know, for most for anybody, even me.
You know, anytime I get into that quality of buck,
it's like this is again a buck of a lifetime
out here. So let him go. He went, the dough
went into the timber above me to the right. They

(50:22):
went to the north of me, and he followed her.
I took that video. I think I took a video
of him, and it did a steal off the videos.
What I did, I did it real careful, real careful,
because I want to get some I want to get
some be roll of him, you know, I wanted some
be roll. Yeah, well I did that and they never
came back. I sat there till dark. I listened to them,

(50:44):
and you know, this is something to share who You
really learn a lot about dere when you're patient and
you don't allow that adrenaline to take over and try
something that's iffy. I really hate. I really hate wounding
deer like I like to slam dunk kill him close.
So it paid off. I can't remember the exact days,

(51:06):
but within one week I killed that gear right there,
and instead of him coming across the lateral trail with
that dough, he had serviced her, taken care of her
as soon as he left her alone, and he was
done with her. It probably was five or six days later,
because that I think that's how it played out. He

(51:28):
was already checking on my other does in the family
group and hitting the scrape again. So I capitalized, in
my opinion on leaving him be not messing it up,
knowing I was in his wheelhouse, knowing that he had
more does to service there, and I killed him within
a week. To be fair to listeners, within a week,

(51:52):
I killed him. He was at fifty three when he
hit that lateral trail. I killed him at thirty three
to thirty five. Coming down off that lateral trail a
week later, down to hit the scrapes on his way
down at thirty three to thirty five. And you know,
to me, I made the right play on an old

(52:14):
mountain buck that everybody was trying to kill in that area.
I know multiple hunters that were trying to kill him.
I was in his pocket of comfort. Reverting back to
the Adirondacks, Yeah, I would look for those places that
I just sense and feel hard to get to really
good cover habitat thermals wind breeding areas in early November,

(52:37):
those pockets of comfort where those deer just feel safe.
I was in the right pocket to kill that deer
when I killed them. And I had multiple doze on
the community scrape on the laking branches year around there.
And he knows it. He grew up on me. I
knew that deer from when he was younger. But anyway,
I hope that answers it. That's my play. I didn't

(52:59):
move my stand because my stand is just bulletproof there
for almost every wind situation because of some terrain features
and barriers, I just stayed. I stayed put at that
tree where I was hunting and killed them a week later. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:14):
That and also I think another important thing is that
you didn't in that moment when he was walking away
with that dell. You weren't sending out hail mary grunts
or rattling or making any racket trying to make it
happen right then, either, which I was a lot of
people do.

Speaker 3 (53:27):
Yeah, I was quiet. I was quiet, Mark, I was quiet.
And if there's anything I've learned to kill these old,
real savvy, mature mountain bucks out here, I only talk
to them when I think the time is right, and
I usually only soft social dough grunt if they're by themselves,
because that never threatens them. Or if there's multiple deer around,

(53:52):
in a younger buck around in this scenario, I will
snort weason and they'll use it. Come right in. If
you have other deer, like stay down at your scrape
or in the in the invisibility in the area, have
that deer scent right there in November, I will snort
weeze at a big mountain buck with the right scenario.
Two to me, he was so enthralled with her, he

(54:13):
was willing to walk across that open glade two hours
in the daylight. And that immediately told me this guy's
in love. So I just left him be, and I
was hoping that dough would pull him to me without
me saying a word. I didn't want to figger it.
I didn't touch the grap too. I just let him
do their thing.

Speaker 2 (54:42):
What did you do that next day? Did you go
right back in that same spot?

Speaker 3 (54:47):
Well, because of my work schedule, and this is three
years ago, so I'm going to try to get this
as accurate as I can. So if somebody goes back
and listens to another podcast, don't bust my ass on it.
But it's I. I looked at my I remember, I
was like, yes, and I've never text and tie and Jess,
that probably gonna kill him. He's in trouble because he's

(55:09):
he loves it in here and he's got he's on
this dough. I okay, I believe I went back and
tried to hunt him on that dough after work for
a two hour window. I believe one time, because that's
all I had with work schedule. But then I was

(55:29):
freed up being teaching only four days a week. We're
on a four day work week out here. I was
freed up to hunt him for three days on a weekend,
if you will. I killed him on the first day
I had off that. That's great. So I think I
killed him Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I think I killed him
the first day of the three. I had to hunt him,

(55:50):
so almost almost a week later. Yep, interesting, I remember, right,
and he uh, he was in there on the camera too, Mark.
I got to watch the intel I had. I had
three cameras in there, and I got to watch him
service that dough for a couple more days, you know,
after I looked at all the intail. This is after
the fact, after I kill him and actually pulled cards. Yeah,

(56:13):
and then I got to see how it all played out.
He was in there the whole time, even at least
at night when daylight. He daylighted a couple of times,
not on the little two hour window I had to
hunt him. I didn't see him that day, but I
didn't lose any hope. I know it was just a
matter of time with with this area, and because I
had those other doughs, he was that I got to
look at after the fact. He was a hearty snooping

(56:35):
for those other doughs. Within three or four days after
I saw him with the dough once he serviced her. Yep,
that's why he came back to those scrapes.

Speaker 2 (56:45):
Yeah, so this is this is another scenario. Then I'm
gonna take a little bit of something you inspired me
to think about, which is a scenario that I've experienced
and I frequently debated how I would approach this differently
based on the deer density of the area I'm in,
and I have some assumptions about the deer density in

(57:05):
a big woods place. I know, northern Idaho is a
little bit unique when it comes to I think it's
a little bit unique compared to other big woods place
they've hunted. But ah, I guess rather than me giving
this whole preamble patist, she just ask the question. The
question is this. Imagine Imagine you're hunting. You're hunting one
of these great spots that you've prepped. All Right, You've

(57:27):
just said you have a lot of patience and you
have a lot of confidence in your spots. Let's say
you have a spot where there was some cell service,
so you have a cell camera in there, and you
have confirmation not only that this is a great spot
because you prepped it well and you picked it well,
but also you have pictures of the buck you're after
several times in the last week in this spot it's November.
You go there to sit, and you sit three full

(57:50):
days and you don't see hide or hair, not just
of him, but nothing else. You set three full days
during the rut and see nothing? Yeap, do you what
do you do? What do you do in that scenario?

Speaker 3 (58:02):
Well, the first thing is if you go three full
days and see nothing, it's your problem. You're screwing it up.
It's me. It's my entrance, my exit where I'm parking.
Something from where I park to get there, to get
in the tree is burgery, ruining everything. There's something in
my game plan that's wrong. If you don't see anything

(58:25):
for three full days after consistency. Now, if it was
one day mark, that could be And I do need
to add this in unless a pack of wolves or
a mountain lion comes in. So I do have to
add that in. And sometimes that happens to me because
I don't always get the predators on camera. My location

(58:46):
just goes dead. But when I have snow almost always
marked that time of year, all I have to do
is go in there and like everything's dead, nothing is right,
the tracks aren't there in the snow. I'll go for
a little walk. If it isn't right, I'll get out
of that stand or get out of that tree or
wherever I hunt. You know, sometimes I'm going in hanging
to set and this just isn't right. I don't see

(59:08):
the sign. Let's say it was a cell camera and
it turned off, or excuse me, the sign and the
turned off. I got to go find if a predator's
been there, and usually that's the case for me. Usually
usually it's wolves or lions that run all my stuff
away for up to a week or two. But back
to the original question, it's my issue. I am doing

(59:32):
something wrong. If I go sit three days on a
freaking cell camera that's been proving to me all the
deer want to be there until I get there, that's
on me. So then I got to break down, what
are you doing wrong? How are these deer identifying that
they don't want to be here when you're here. Usually
it's going to be wind, it could be sighted, it

(59:52):
could be both, it could be sound, it could be
all three. So I just play off of their senses
and ask myself where am I making mistakes? To circle
back to that deer we just talked about that I
killed two weeks prior to me killing him, he tracked

(01:00:12):
me in the snow down to my pickup. One of
the first days I hunted ed. He tracked me all
the way down to my pickup at night. After I
hunted him really early in November, and because I came
back to hunt him and saw his tracks all the
way down to my truck in my tracks, and then
he walked down the ridge further, I started packing or

(01:00:34):
parking an extra half a mile back instantly because I
knew he I knew that he bird dogged me. He
picked up my scent, my ground scent, tracked me. That
was the first time I hunted that deer. I just
talked about that I killed. Then I parked way back,
walked in a little bit of a different route, and

(01:00:54):
then I had him, you know, with the doe that
one day, and then killed him a week later because
I made a change instantly because of his tracks in
my tracks, in my foot tracks.

Speaker 2 (01:01:06):
Fascinating the things that they do. They are survival machines.

Speaker 3 (01:01:10):
He literally walked down my entrance trail in the snow
to where my truck was parked and literally walked in
my pickup tracks in the snow, then veered off and
went down a ridge off the road. Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
Wow, here's one that I hate to throw out at
you because it's something we never want to have to consider.
But I'm curious just how you handle these moments. I'm
assuming maybe you've been in this at least once most
of us have. You're hunting one of these spots, your
big old target buck comes in just like you wrote

(01:01:43):
it up on the script, gives you that beautiful twenty
yard shot that you want, and God forbids, something goes
wrong and you clean miss that deer. Yep, it's nine am.
It's November first, nine am. Clean miss. He runs off,
He's out of there. You're sick in there at nine ten?

(01:02:03):
And what's going through your head? What do you do next?
What is your what is your process post miss for
the rest of the day, for the next couple of days,
for how you deal with.

Speaker 3 (01:02:15):
That that happened to me four years ago? I had
not I had not missed a white tail buck in
a couple of decades. Yeah, because three years ago I
killed the one we just talked about. The year before that,
I was hunting a tremendous dare that a buddy of
mine ended up killing, so I got to you know,
I know what the deer, I me. He and I
both knew the deer, and we always were very respectful

(01:02:38):
each other and where we were hunting, so we never bothered.
We never messed each other up, and I was glad
he killed it. But anyway, long story short, I did
shoot right over that buck, and it did happen to me,
and I ended up killing another great buck there. And
this was what I'm getting at. If I shoot right
over a buck, clean miss, that is not disturbing the

(01:03:02):
woods very much. If I have another potential shooter in
the area, or if it's rut and I just think
a big trespasser could show up, clean Miss, I'm not
getting down and tracking a shitty shot. I'm not disturbing anything.
The only two entities in those mountains that heard me

(01:03:25):
miss him or he and I. He might even come
back later if he doesn't know what it was and
doesn't smell me. If he doesn't smell me, see me,
or know quite what that bow was going off and
just get spooked. What time of the day did you
say it was? When I'm sitting all day, I am leaving,

(01:03:48):
especially if I'm in a great you're talking ruddy time right,
November time. I am not leaving, especially if I feel
super confident about the the bucks that are in the area,
even if it's not him. So I'm not leaving. I'm
just getting quiet again, probably laughing at myself and texting
my son and I just effing missed freaking one of

(01:04:10):
the biggest deer in my life, which I did, and
I'm I'm one hundred percent eating humble pie, and I'm
probably talking to God a little bit about all right,
what do I need to clean up in my life
because that you're telling me some Yeah, you know, I'm
probably I'm probably going through the whole scenario of laughing

(01:04:31):
at myself in my mind, but staying, staying in the game,
knowing that it is good to be humbled, and it
actually is. And then I'm also evaluating me in my mind,
like what did you do wrong? Why did you miss?
Have you even shot your bow the last couple of
days because you're hiking up through this brush? See all

(01:04:52):
that went through my mind when I missed that big
deer four years ago. Sure enough, Mark, I went home,
shot my bowl in the dark at my else that night,
and I was eight inches high.

Speaker 2 (01:05:03):
Yeah, I had.

Speaker 3 (01:05:05):
I had had one of my microadjusts on my site
completely come loose. That's on me. That's on me, that's
you know. And I did talk about it in some podcasts.
But no, I'm not leaving Mark. I stayed where I'll
stay right in there. I actually went back to kill
that deer and had what I thought was a trespasser

(01:05:27):
that I later realized I did have him on camera
a tiny bit, but not enough to say I had him.
I ended up killing a different buck on that spot
that same year.

Speaker 2 (01:05:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, not not a situation you ever want
to find yourself in. But usually what matters the most
is what you do in the coming hours and days
when you have to make or break. What are you
gonna do next?

Speaker 3 (01:05:50):
I will say this, since that miss, the last three
big boys I've killed back last three years since him,
have been very well hit, very well hit. Like get
my shit wired tight wired to hunt, you gotta have
your fit wired tight, especially especially when we're you know,
you start hunting August, You're going so hard. It is

(01:06:15):
so easy to not go shoot that bowl. When you're
wore out, you're tired, you're getting home after dark. You'd
leave them before daylight. Shoot it under your street light
if you have to at twenty yards to make sure
it's on. That's all I would have had to do.
I had no idea. I literally, I was literally was
eight inches high. It was stupid. My whole sight was

(01:06:35):
just crazy off. And yeah, and it's it's my I mean,
I'm sure I busted at loose walking through the brush
to get up in there, because I had to. You know,
there's spots in there where i'd get to I'd hold
my bow above my head to get through the brush,
and I'm sure I snagged it, busted it loose and
didn't realize it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
Okay, this is the last this is the last phase
of the gauntlet. We're just going to do a quick
set of rapid fire questions. It's four or five questions here,
one word answer. I'm going to tell you like this
or this, and you've got to pick. We'll go through
that very quickly, and I've got one last funky question
for you to really expand on, and we'll let you
get off to the rest of your day. Right, one word, right,

(01:07:15):
one word for this first set of questions here, Okay, okay,
does the moon matter to deer movement? Yes or no?

Speaker 3 (01:07:24):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
Would you take a fifty yard shot at a white
tail with your bow? Yes or no?

Speaker 3 (01:07:30):
Don't need too No.

Speaker 2 (01:07:32):
If you had to pick one of these two and
it would be the only tool you get to use
for the rest of your hunting days, would you choose
the rattling antlers or the grunt tube grunt expandable or
fixed blade broad heads fixed? Should you stop a buck
that's walking with some kind of sound before shooting with
your bow? Yes?

Speaker 3 (01:07:53):
Or no? Situational?

Speaker 2 (01:07:59):
Fair enough? All right, and this one you can expand on.
You can paint as big of a picture as you want. Here.
Imagine that I am in control of your hunting privileges
and I'm gonna take away your hunting license for the
rest of your life unless you can kill a five
year old buck this year. Gotta kill a five year

(01:08:19):
old buck. Okay, you have to do it in one
day from one location. So you get to pick the
date and you get to pick the location where you
are gonna kill this very high stakes five year old
or older buck. Tell me what date you're gonna pick,
and then paint for me. Is as detailed of a
picture as you can of that best possible stand site

(01:08:42):
on that best possible day.

Speaker 3 (01:08:50):
For that scenario, only that it costs me my life
to hunting opening day Mountain butted up against alfalfa up
in the timber, a little closer to his betting, I'll
kill him coming to the alfalfa had a scrape opening

(01:09:12):
day August thirtieth, if I have to do it, but
I have to have a destination food source like alfalfa
for it for me to pick that. If not, if not,
mark it's community scrape middle of November. Any day in
one of my community scrapes that are really hard to

(01:09:33):
get to that I get daylight every day of old bucks,
and I would make sure because you didn't say one
buck he just has to be five years old, Yep,
I would hunt. I would hunt my roster that had
the most five year old bucks at that best community
scrape in mid November.

Speaker 2 (01:09:50):
Yep. Makes sense. A quick file up on that early
season hunt though a scrape back off of the alfalfa.
If you had to pick the usual distance, how far
back off that field would you want to be? Ideally,
give me a window there are we talking one hundred yards,
five hundred yards fifty?

Speaker 3 (01:10:11):
Yeah, out here in these mountains. Of course, it'd be
the laking branch that I would have, that unbelievable destination
food source that he is so drawn to. And there's
the biggest white tail I've ever killed my life. That's
how I killed him September first. But I killed him
on top of the mountain that led down his main

(01:10:33):
trail to the alfalfa in the bottom. So I was
four hundred yards from the alfalfa because that's where I
got him daylighting on a liking branch in a saddle.
That's why I brought that up. And he was to
this day mark and I still see it to this
day when I have alfalfa in the basins of mountains,

(01:10:55):
and I do have some places I hunt like that
where I'm on a mountain but great feet below, and
alfalfa is such a great draw as the Canadians, you
get them those old bucks, especially when they like this
buck was eight years old. That was his life and
that was his happiness was getting eat that alfalfa when

(01:11:17):
he was older and he had no idea somebody was
going to hunt him. August thirtieth. I killed him September
first because I had the right wind. But My point
is the dude was doing it every day, and I
watched him do it in the glass from the middle
of July on literally almost almost every day that I
scouted him from a long ways away with the binoculars.

(01:11:42):
It was his routine. So his routine was just phenomenal
for a mountain white tail, and it was because there
was destination incredible food below, That's why. But I had
to hunt him way high. I had to get up
where he was. He would never get to the alfalfa
in the daylight, not even close. So I did a
hunting probably four hundred yards up on the mountain in

(01:12:03):
a saddle. But I could glass, So I had glass.
I had glass evidence I'll mean before trail cameras.

Speaker 2 (01:12:10):
Yeah. Interesting this, Uh, this is exactly what I was
hoping to be Troy. I've thoroughly enjoyed this chat. I
love the thought process you put into the stuff, how
you think through it, and I communicate very very helpful, Troy,
So thank you for that. If folks want to see
some of your past hunts or see some future stuff,

(01:12:32):
you know, where can people do this? What should they
keep an eye for moving forward?

Speaker 3 (01:12:36):
Well, first of all, Mark, I want to thank you
for giving me the privilege to be on your show.
You do an amazing job. Thankyle to like it. I
also like that we have a little bit of Idaho
in common with each other.

Speaker 2 (01:12:48):
Yes for cool anyway state.

Speaker 3 (01:12:50):
People can find me the easiest for anything Hunt related.
Just on my Instagram MTN Underscore Man, Mountain Man thirty three.
I try to answer anybody that asked me a question. Always,
try to give back always. And then I worked for
the Quisto family, Long Wolf, Lone Wolf Custom Gear, a

(01:13:15):
team leader on the addictions show, and then you know,
work with sponsorships and things like that for addictions. So
we have our white Tail Addiction show on YouTube. Our
first episode just aired this week with Andre, so please
people go out and watch that episode. It just came out.
Andre's just been an amazing guy to my family and
to me over the years. Yeah. So just the Addictions,

(01:13:38):
Lone Wolf Custom Gear, White Tail Addictions, and then my
Instagram and I try to keep it real simple and
in those in those lanes of where people can find
me and talk to me. And I got an episode
coming out this year. I don't know when my episode
will roll out, but it'll be on that big Mountain
Buck I killed last year at almost five thousand feet
elevation up in the high mountains. Awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:13:59):
I'm looking forward to that one, Troy, and looking forward
to following how this season goes for you. I'm sure
you've got sure you've got a good one or two
that's in big trouble this year. So best of luck
and thank you again.

Speaker 3 (01:14:10):
Thanks Mark. I've been working hard at it, and this
year is the first year in either fifteen or sixteen years,
I do not have a son having a football season.
My son, Tyson, has graduated from Montana State, and we
are going to really have some time on our side
this year, and I get a hunt with Tie again,
so it's going to be a blast.

Speaker 2 (01:14:31):
That's so cool. Good for you guys. Well, have a
lot of fun with your boys. That's the most important,
the best thing of all.

Speaker 3 (01:14:37):
Right there, hey man, Thanks Mark.

Speaker 2 (01:14:42):
All Right, that's a wrap. Thank you for joining me,
Thanks for tuning in. Hopefully you learned a lot from
this one, and stay tuned. We've got another great episode,
a conclusion to our what would You Do? Series coming
next week, so stay tuned until then, stay wired to
Hunt