Ep. 978: Post Rutcation Therapy Session with Tony Peterson and Dan Johnson

This week on the show I'm joined by Tony Peterson and Dan Johnson to break down their 2025 rutcation hunts and their greatest lessons learned.

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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,
Welcome to the.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Wired to Hunt podcast. This week on the show, I'm
joined by my longtime collaborators and co hosts of the
Wired Hunt podcast at one time or another, Dan Johnson
and Tony Peterson, and we are breaking down their twenty
twenty five rut hunts, having a little bit of a
therapy session here, having some good laughs, sharing some stories,

(00:40):
and discussing the lessons they've learned from these past couple
weeks of epic rut hunts. All right here with me
now on the line are two questionably chosen friends of mine,
to people who I frequently thought over the years, you know,

(01:03):
why have I chosen to spend time around these people?
They say that you are the average of the five
people you spend the most time with. And while I
don't get to spend as much physical time like in
real life with these guys as I wish, I have
spent a whole lot of hours digitally with them and
so I do wonder if I'm becoming more like them
by virtue of that, and that raises a lot of

(01:25):
red flags. But I digress. The point that I'm trying
to make here is that we've all just come off
of our big old rucations, and both Tony and Dan,
both you guys had some success, I think, some struggles
along the way. So I wanted to debrief, see how
you're feeling, see how it went, see if you learned anything,

(01:47):
or if you're still as blockheaded as you were when
this whole month started. So tell me this on a
one to ten scale, Dan, how are you feeling post
rut cation right now? Ten being you feel amazing? One
feeling like it kicked your ass.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Mentally, I was telling Tony before we started recording. Mentally,
I'm back in I'm back in Dad' zone, husband zone. Mentally,
I'm okay. Mentally I'm stable. Take that how you want
to take it. Physically, I'm a broken man, like dude,
I'm not joking. This year I had to use a
crutch to get to a tree stand and lay down

(02:35):
my crutch and then basically on my right knee every
time I had to do a step. I had to
do a pull up to get on to the next step.
And if you guys know anything about the old school
lone Wolf's stands that have the alternating sticks, that's how
all my setups are. And so I struggled getting into

(02:58):
stands for like three three days and it sucked, man,
it sucked, but I toughed it out.

Speaker 4 (03:05):
A crutch, a crutch, a straight up crutch. Day one.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
The first day was a trekking pole that didn't work
because I was like having to put two I couldn't
put any pressure on my right knee.

Speaker 4 (03:15):
What did you do to your knee?

Speaker 3 (03:17):
Well, other than just years of abuse them all?

Speaker 4 (03:21):
Right?

Speaker 3 (03:21):
So you know on some of these split trees that
maybe about four foot up they split, and so I
went two sticks on the left side and then two
sticks on the right side, and then my stand faced
the left side, so I was like wedged right in there.
It makes for like a really good tree stand placement

(03:43):
and going up no problem, but coming down I have
to cross my legs and maybe angle a little bit.
And then when I went to pivot back to straighten
my foot out on that stick, my foot didn't go,
but my knee did. And it's just it's like bone
on bone in there anyway. And I just ordered another

(04:08):
I just scheduled another knee injection for next month. So
so aside from that, I mean, it just took me
longer to get places.

Speaker 4 (04:20):
That's about it.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
But I've got a lot of questions.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
Yeah, was good, man, I mean, well, I say good
because I shot a deer. But the first week in
November suck, man, it was slow. This whole nonsense that
you you do about sitting all day, that's all. That's
all lie, That's that's industry bullshit, right, Nobody like I don't.
I'm never gonna sit all day.

Speaker 4 (04:44):
Man.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
I hunted all day, but I never sat all day.
And but then second week, dude, one of the best
days of hunting I've had in several years took place
on November tenth, and great day, a lot of movement,
great coming off that cold front. And aside from that,
just really like that's a long way of saying I
had fun. It was a great it was a great time,

(05:04):
good rut. First week was slow, second week was better.

Speaker 4 (05:08):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
So I want to follow up on some of that stuff,
but I first want to get to Tony. Tony, what
was your just you know, one to ten scale of
how you're feeling post your couple of rut trips.

Speaker 5 (05:20):
This is going to sound crazy, but I feel like
I'm out of ten.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
Whoa.

Speaker 5 (05:26):
I accomplished everything that I set out too for this
rut in a way that I didn't think was possible.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (05:37):
So I'm not we'll get into this. I'm sure.

Speaker 5 (05:40):
I'm not saying I didn't get my ass absolutely kicked
at certain points. But I had big goals in Nebraska,
and I had big goals in Wisconsin, and I knocked
him all off the list, and I feel good about it.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
Man, He's so good, isn't he?

Speaker 4 (05:55):
Dan?

Speaker 3 (05:55):
He just do just geez from way downtown. Tony just
man crushing his goals in life. Congratulations. I wish I
was more like you, buddy.

Speaker 4 (06:05):
Well, you probably just never get there, Bud. I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
Bravo, Tony, Bravo. We've got a lot to learn from
Tony here. But let's let's start low.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
I don't know about you, guys, but I just showed
up and shot too great, dear, and I mean ship,
I have the best rude ever.

Speaker 4 (06:23):
You guys didn't.

Speaker 3 (06:24):
That's funny.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Let's let's start in the pits and work our way
up to Tony's perfection. So so Dan, uh, give me,
give me some more details. He just told us how
you destroyed your knee. Uh, walk me through it. It
seemed like like following you from Afar, watching you know,
through Instagram and stuff, you had some struggles along the way.

(06:47):
I had a friend. I had a friend texted me
and they said, man Dan's Instagram meltdown last night was
must see TV. Oh yeah, although I do feel bad
for him, that was.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
That was just one hunt though. That was just one
hunt with a rookie mistake. And aside from that, it
was just like, I mean, we've all had it, those
seasons where you go right, they go left, you go left,
they go right, And it was a lot of that,
to be honest with you.

Speaker 4 (07:17):
The deer were there. You know.

Speaker 3 (07:19):
It's like, and this farm that I was hunting, I'm
in a position on one of these stands where I'm
in this awesome pinch point that connects two pieces of
terrain together, and I can see a long ways down
this pasture edge, and then you got deer popping out
way down there. And then I go hunt way down there.
And then as I'm coming out of the timber. All

(07:40):
the deer over there, right, and so it's just like
this zigging and zagging and things like that. But that's
not saying that I didn't have opportunity. I definitely had opportunity.
And if I had a little more time and a
little more patience, then I'm sure I would have connected
on one of the target deer that I was after.
But meltdown came on the best day that I talked

(08:03):
about on November November tenth, and that was.

Speaker 4 (08:08):
I sat this one tree.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
So we had this conversation a long time ago about
being too mobile. Yeah, and like in the past, I
would sit a stand, move, sit a stand, move, move, move, Well,
they're not here that night here and a little bit
because of my knee, and a little bit because I
just didn't want to move around a lot. I said,
I'm gonna I'm gonna try this out, and I'm going

(08:31):
to sit one stand with a lot tight access route
on a great wind, either a southwest west or northwest wind.
And it just needed to be out of the west,
and I wanted to see just see if that changed things, right,
because deer were coming through and every day I had
encounters that with you know deer in shooting rangs. And

(08:52):
my goal during the rut was this. It was one goal.
I want to have a couple dos then shooting range
every hunt I go on. And I felt like if
I could do that, then I could be in the
same in a good spot where bucks were going to
be coming to investigate. And so sure enough, on the

(09:15):
evening of the tenth two dos came through. A really
good three year old ten pointer, probably that one forty
five class came through and he's just like he's a
bigger buck than the one I shot. He just had
something a little extra that I wanted to see what
happened to him next year, and so I just let

(09:36):
him walk.

Speaker 4 (09:37):
And then out of the back of the sticket, I.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
See a little movement and there's this ten pointer shows up,
probably one fifty class ten great great deer, four year old,
I'm assuming. And so these doe walk down this trail,
cross this creek and there's this a gap in this
thicket and I ranged the gap. I didn't range the deer.

(10:00):
I ranged the gap, but comes through he just stops
perfectly and I'm already at full draw. I arranged that
gap thirty three yards, put the thirty thirty yard pin
just a little bit above center line on the body,
let one go fucking foot over his back, and I'm

(10:23):
just like, you gotta be kidding me, Like I felt
like I was pretty in control of everything. And he
bounces back into this thicket, but I can still see
him and he wants those dose here. He comes back again,
same trail, draw back, same gap right before this little
crit crossing, but I put the thirty yard pit in
dead center this time, maybe even a hair low over

(10:47):
his back again, And I'm like, what like I And
that's where the melk dot came from. I said some
bad words on internet. But so here's the deal. Instead
of arranging the g yeapore.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Before you explain that, Okay, I want to understand now,
for people who saw your Instagram meltown, they they they
got this. But for those who didn't see it, ye,
walk me through your mental state and like your state
of confusion or just like you your self analysis after
all that happened, Like you were talking through the how
could this happen? How did I do this? What's wrong

(11:22):
with me? What happened?

Speaker 4 (11:23):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (11:24):
Talk me through what that was?

Speaker 3 (11:25):
Like?

Speaker 4 (11:26):
Yeah, So the first shot.

Speaker 3 (11:29):
The first shot goes off, and I'm a foot over
the back and I'm just like, Dan Johnson doesn't miss
like that, right, He's he's on that Tony Peterson level.
He just doesn't Yeah, he doesn't make he doesn't make
those kind of mistakes.

Speaker 4 (11:42):
Dude, I miss like that a lot and so and
so I just was like, what the hell.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
But I didn't have enough time to like break it
all down before the second shot, because it was fairly quick.
It was like forty five seconds goes by, he pops off,
He looks back at the does, and he's back in it.
I don't know about where you guys were hunting, but
os George balls or hedgeballs or whatever you call them.
We're dropping and they make a ton of noise coming down,

(12:13):
and these deer are just now ignoring that noise. And
so that arrow goes and my bow goes off and
crashes into the grass and in the thicket behind it,
and he's just like, oh, it must be something falling
out of the tree. He's got his mind on these does.
He comes back and that whole time, all I'm thinking

(12:33):
about is get another arrow in, get another arrow in,
because if he comes kind of away from me. I
had another shot as well, and he came back down
the same thing, drew back again, and the second time
he was just he really wasn't like crazy spooped. He's
just like I think I'm just gonna leave and just
turn around and walked away. No tail, no running, no trot.

Speaker 4 (12:54):
Just walked away.

Speaker 3 (12:56):
And so as I'm sitting there having this like what's
going on, my thought process just goes through everything and
I'm just like, dude, I must have bumped my sights.

Speaker 4 (13:10):
I don't like.

Speaker 3 (13:11):
Because the first miss I could have chalked that up
to like buck fever, because I get pretty fired up.
But the second time they came through, I was like,
I was like, okay, I get a mulligan and all
that all that tension is now gone. And so I
I was just I don't know, man. I just went

(13:33):
into autopilot again, got got everything straightened up, went back
into the same you know, same form, same shot process.
I do this little thing called like touch, pause, release,
and so like I'll draw my bow that's touch, get

(13:55):
my nub where it's supposed to be, and then pause
it's like an exhale, and then go through the trigger,
the thumb, the thumb release, and it just it's another
bad shot.

Speaker 4 (14:09):
And then that's when I just kind of fell apart.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
You gotta use different words when you describe this mantra
in the future. Dam when you're saying that your mantras touch, pause, release,
and it's all about your nub, A lot of a
lot of I use the other hand. But anyway, yah, anyways, so.

Speaker 4 (14:29):
Hold on, do we do? We know what happened? Did this?

Speaker 3 (14:34):
Well? So I go back to the truck right and
in the headlights, I am. I set my target up.
I had it in my truck in the headlight of
the car. Go back to thirty range. It dead nuts,
dead nuts, you know, Like I shoot like three or
four arrows at this target at thirty yards and no issues.

(14:54):
And so the only thing.

Speaker 4 (14:58):
That I can think of that happened is that.

Speaker 3 (15:02):
The deer walked through and instead of arranging the deer
at the angle of the tree stand, I ranged. I
was kind of on a very slight slope, so through
the gap I ranged thirty three yards. But when a
spike came through, like I don't know, like not a spike,

(15:24):
this big laid down tree, I ranged itad at twenty
and they were just on the opposite side of this tree.
So when I ranged the gap, I ranged basically through
the deer thirteen yards further than where the deer were
actually at. And so that's where the mistake calculation of

(15:47):
what pin I should have been using. I should have
been using my twenty yard pin, and so that's where
the calculation came back. That's where I'm just like rookie mistake.
That's where I had my melt down. And just you know, Dan,
did you stop him? Did you murp him or did
you shoot him?

Speaker 4 (16:03):
Naturally?

Speaker 3 (16:04):
Nope, naturally both times because he was getting ready to
cross this creek. So right before he crossed, he just
he didn't like bound into the crick and bound out.

Speaker 4 (16:16):
He walked right to the cricket this dry creek.

Speaker 3 (16:18):
Bed stopped and like same with the doze, they stopped
and then they slowly worked their way down and up,
almost like a little momentum going down then right back up.
And I feel like that's what he was going to do,
and he did it the same thing two times. I
didn't have to stop him. And that's where it was
just like this rookie ranging mistake where I ranged through

(16:41):
the hole, and the deer was way closer. If I
would have ranged the does in that gap, I would
have had an accurate measurement instead of ranging through it.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
So if we were to ignore the shot mistake there, yep,
would you say that this hunt validated your idea of
during the rut sometimes just sticking it out in one
spot and giving it more time.

Speaker 3 (17:04):
Oh, yeah, absolutely, especially with a lock tight access route.
I mean this thing on a west wind, this stand
is easy to get to. Deer typically don't get to
the east of its location. They kind of peel off
north or south and they don't go east. And it's
just a stand where you could I feel like if

(17:24):
you you could hunt a lot of a lot on
good winds. And I had, I had good backing to
the trees. I felt like I was exposed. But then
when I got down and looked up at my tree stand,
there was a lot of backing behind me and with
other trees, and so I was.

Speaker 4 (17:42):
Able to get away with a little bit more drawing back.

Speaker 3 (17:46):
And and I've had encounters in that stand before, so
I know that, Like there's good trails that kind of
crisscross through this area. And yeah, like I definitely like
that spot and definitely going to it again. I'm going
to make a micro adjustment to it probably March when
I go back there. But other than that, just just

(18:07):
you know, like you talked about finding that spot within
the spot, I found it.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
So yeah, yeah, So how'd you end up killing the buck.

Speaker 4 (18:16):
That you did?

Speaker 1 (18:16):
Kill?

Speaker 3 (18:16):
The same stand, same spot, same spot next night, and
so I just went back in there, same exact wind
direction the pre that morning, I had a different wind,
so I went to a different stand and I had
to wait until it shifted in order to get back
in there because it was too far north. There was
no west in it, and these deer almost come right

(18:40):
towards the stand and then they peel off away from
it just a little bit, and I needed a little
bit of west in that. So I waited until the
wind rotated back to the west. Later that afternoon, got
in that stand and waited, and that that do group
came through again. This time that buck wasn't with him

(19:01):
with him, but and then a button buck came through
and was kind of milling around right in front of me.
I had a spike buck bedded at like fifteen yards
in this tall grass.

Speaker 4 (19:12):
The buck. The spike buck left.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
The button buck was still like milling around at like
five yards in front of my stand. And then I
saw some movement in the back of this little open
spot in this it's not even timber, because it's all
locust trees and like those thorny black locusts and o
sage orange trees, and it's just it's like thirty year

(19:35):
old cattle pasture, is what it is. It's just gnarly.
It's all multiplower. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So it's a habitat
guy's worst nightmare, but a big but a big bucks
just love it.

Speaker 4 (19:51):
Deer.

Speaker 3 (19:52):
That farm is loaded with deer. And so I see
this rap coming through and and I had passed an
eight pointer similar to him, like the previous week, who
was all over the farm on trail cameras and stuff.
But I ended up I ended up looking at this
buck and he's just a little bit wider passed. He's

(20:14):
right at the ears, maybe just a little bit wider
than that other eight pointer. And I said, I looked
at my broadhead and it was drooling and it kind
of looked back at me, and he was like, dude,
it's time. And I was like I'm not going to
question you each time. Yeah, And I was like, it's
go time. And it was just one of those things
where and I'm sure we'll talk about this later, but

(20:36):
I just, dude, I just stop giving a shit about
all the things that people talk about, you know, like
the big buck craze and the age class age. Dude,
I wanted to throw a fucking arrow that day, and
I did, And so I got jacked up when I
saw him drop down out of off this hillside and

(20:59):
then he came, he disappeared, and then he popped up
at about thirty yards and he was wide, and he
was a beautiful eight point on and and and that's
when that old Dan Johnson, He's like the.

Speaker 4 (21:10):
Jaw dropped and the blood started boiling.

Speaker 3 (21:12):
Man. And I was just like, let's do it and
boop double long, wash them fall over, and I felt
very happy.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
So did you have did you have any like did
any of those thoughts go through your mind at the time?
You were like, I usually would have passed this buck.
I passed bucks like this earlier. I shouldn't shoot it,
but then you like, ask, screw it, I'm going to
do it anyways. Or was it like none of that
at all and just instantly, Oh, I just want to
shoot this deer.

Speaker 3 (21:34):
Well, the expectation, I mean, I've talked to both of
you guys about this on previous episodes where I'm just like,
I'm I'm gonna go out, I'm gonna hunt the best
spots and if a great deer shows up, but I'm
past that, Like, I don't have the ability to manage farms. Okay,
I'm a I'm a bow hunter. I'm not a land manager.

(21:57):
I'm not a white tail like grower or whatever you
would call those guys, right, I'm not here to get
a like whatever is available, I'm gonna take it. And
I have also said that I am on a sliding scale.

(22:22):
I'm going to go out for my number one, number
two bucks every like as I'm going to go in
those spots and I'm going to go. But as that
week in my time starts to fade, and I like
week one was great, as I went back to a
wrestling tournament, week two started, you start to feel the
pressure as a father and as a husband and as

(22:43):
a volunteering for coaching multiple sports. You're like, I should
probably start thinking about getting home, and I don't want
to say that that buck was my ticket out of here,
but it was just an opportunity that I was like,
this is good and I had this conversation with a guy.
I want to hear what your guys' thoughts are.

Speaker 4 (23:03):
He was good enough.

Speaker 3 (23:06):
And when you say it like that, it's almost like, ooh,
that just doesn't that almost sounds a little icky.

Speaker 4 (23:11):
He was good enough. But for me, I was just like, dude,
this his meat's.

Speaker 3 (23:16):
Going in my freezer and his euro amounts going on
my wall, and man, this is what I wanted. I'm
a busy human and a ninety five percent of my
life is outside of this tree stand, and I wanted
to get back to it, man, And so I shot
a deer that otherwise, you know, previous years I may

(23:39):
not have shot. But people change, goals change, life changes,
and this is a result of that life that makes.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
Love that it does. I love it. I think like
that's such a great for people who have listened to
you and us over the years too. I think we've
all each all three of us, have been going through
our own kind of journey. As we've been going through
this and learning this stuff and having families and all that,
but hearing you, you know, back in like twenty thirteen

(24:12):
when you were you know, passing Giant Bucks and talking
about how you had to shoot a one seventy or whatever,
chasing shipwreck and all these other deer, and then to
have this trajectory that you've been on. You've had all
sorts of great success, but then you've also had all
these other things in your life that you're realizing matters
so much too. I think it's just a really great
example of you know, it being okay to change and

(24:36):
to go through these different things, and that you had
an awesome hunt and it was your awesome hunt, and
that's all it matters. It doesn't matter what I think,
doesn't matter what some jerk on the internet thinks. So
you set a really good example, I think, for people
to hunt their own hunts, to enjoy whatever it is
they want to enjoy.

Speaker 4 (24:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
I just I really like that.

Speaker 4 (24:55):
It was.

Speaker 3 (24:56):
It was fun, man, And I think I don't know
about you, Tony, but at our age we start thinking
about at this halfway point, we start thinking about things
a little bit differently, and I just can't, like, I
don't know, I've had this crazy mindset change just about

(25:20):
about everything in my life and how I've approached it
yesterday and previously and today and tomorrow and moving forward.
It's just this, it's just a complete different mindset on life.
When I call it a mid life crisis, I guess
I don't.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Know, you know. And when it comes right down to it,
this whole deer thing, it it's so stupid. It get
matters so little in the big scheme of things, whether
or not you shoot a big buck, right, And that's
what I've just like started realizing over the last half decade,
or whether is that it's just we put way too
much pressure on ourselves or whatever to do this thing

(25:58):
that ultimately doesn't really matter. If you're not enjoying it,
if you're not doing it for the reasons that really
truly satisfy you and your family, then what in the
hell are we doing?

Speaker 4 (26:11):
So?

Speaker 2 (26:12):
Yeah, cool story, cool to see all that come together.
I'm glad that you filled the tag and had a
great hunt.

Speaker 4 (26:18):
Yeah, And it's cool that.

Speaker 3 (26:24):
When you don't go into that you had you went
through this a couple of years ago where you felt
like you had to go shoot a big buck because
you were Mark Kenyon of Wired to hunt and I
in order for me to validate who I am and
what I talk about.

Speaker 4 (26:40):
Inches of antler matter.

Speaker 3 (26:42):
Dude, I shed that shit and it feels so good
sitting in a tree stand knowing that if dude, there
was a spike that came by and I almost wanted
to just shoot him and just be like got him,
you know, like love Ye had a great time, did it?

Speaker 4 (27:02):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (27:02):
And you know it's like you when you think about this.
I'm sure both of you guys get a lot of messages.
And I'll end on this. How many people every single
year go out and attempt to bow hunt white tails,
and of those people, there are a lot that are unsuccessful.

(27:23):
And to be able to be successful on a white
tail with a bow is is something you should anybody
should be proud of, no matter what the inches or
sex of that animal is. That's a win, dude, that's
a win.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
So yeah, there's also say though, on like the alternative side,
when you look at how many people kill big Bucks
quote unquote big Bucks. There's a whole ton of people
that kill big Bucks now too, right with a bow
And what I'm also realized is that's not that special either.
By that, I mean like it doesn't really matter, Like, yeah,

(27:59):
any time Dick or Harry can kill a big giant
buck doesn't make you special, doesn't make you an elite
deer hunter, doesn't make you someone who you know, Yeah,
I don't know. So it's like both sides. It's like, man,
it doesn't really matter that much either way, whether you
can shoot a big giant buck or you choose to
shoot small bucks. It's about your own hunt. I mean,
it's something like we said, like a decade ago hunt,

(28:20):
your own hunt. And I feel like I'm better understanding
that every single year. And there's few people that understand
this better than the spike killer himself. Tony Peterson.

Speaker 5 (28:30):
Yeah, so that's a great sentiment, Mark to give Dan
a bunch of love for shooting a buck that he's
a little bit self conscious about it, and then immediately
try to give me.

Speaker 4 (28:38):
Ship for shooting spikes. Uh huh. Anyway, I thought you'd
appreciate that. You have the nicest prick.

Speaker 3 (28:48):
I know.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
He deserves it, Dan, you know that you know that.

Speaker 3 (28:55):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
To tell us about Nebraska, Tony, you said, have went
so well, You are so good. You not only killed
a big giant buck yourself, but you guided two other
people to big giant Bucks. As I understand it too,
tell us, tell us all about it.

Speaker 5 (29:08):
So Nebraska was NonStop stress for me since Steve called
me last December. But I felt pretty qualified to set
this hunt up because it's a low deer density deal.
I mean, that place just doesn't have very many of
a year. Like I kind of got to know all
of them, but I had We had three guys. So

(29:32):
we have Steve, who's not, you know, big into white
tail bowl hunting. We have Pottery Pat his neighbor who's
an awesome dude who's never really bow hunted white tails
this way right their Western dudes whatever, and then myself
And so we have three hunters, three camera guys. Who
the most experienced in a tree stand out of those

(29:52):
three camera guys I think was Max Barta, which is
pretty light I mean anyway, So it was there's going
to be a challenge, and I knew we had big Bucks,
but I also knew it was going to be like
You're gonna sit all day and maybe not see one
kind of deal and until one shows up.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
Is this the is this property that you guys are hunting.
It's similar to some of the other Nebraska stuff that
we've hunted that's like pretty wide open and then cover
all by the river. Is it that kind of place?

Speaker 5 (30:22):
So yes, but this whole place is a working cattle ranch,
so there's no like you walked through it, you're like,
there's not hardly any cover, I mean on the entire thing.
So the sand hills type sand hills type stuff for
further east, it's it's east, but it's like sand hill,

(30:45):
Like one half of this entire ranch is a moonscape
that sand hills. There was no deer on there, there
was a river bottom in there. There's some cat till slews.
It's an interesting property. It was a cool property, but
it's really light on good habitat.

Speaker 4 (30:58):
If there weren't.

Speaker 5 (31:01):
Cattle in there and they left it about three years,
it would be unreal, like literally unreal. Anyway, went down
there a couple times the summer hun cameras, went back,
hung stands, put up blinds, and then Steve for like
a month and a half before this haunt is like,
send me pictures of coyotes, fox, bobcats because I'm going

(31:24):
to trap. And at first I thought he was messing
with me, and I was like I'm not sending you.
Just on the off chance that he's not joking, I'm like,
I'm not sending you any pictures of coyotes or anything.
I'm like, no, way, don't trap this, Like, don't freaking
do it. So as we get closer, he's like, send
me pictures of coyotes, and I'm like, no, I'm not

(31:45):
gonna do it because I had I had all the
I had all the cameras, so I have the Moultary
app So we get there, drive down there Monday night, right,
those guys have like a fifteen hour drive from Bozeman,
however long it is.

Speaker 4 (31:57):
Pull a camp or big production deal whatever.

Speaker 5 (32:00):
The night before, you know, we're looking at wind and
it's like I learned my lesson in the last couple
years on the RUT. I'm like, I'm setting up for
south winds and I'm setting up for north winds because
we've been getting a lot of south the last couple
of years, and I'm like, I'm not gonna get burned
this way, right, So we have a limited number of
setups for each wind, and you know, you look at
the forecast and you're like, okay, we got a north
in the morning. And a south in the afternoon, north
in the morning, south in the afternoon, or vice versa.

(32:22):
So I'm like, we got to be we have very
few spots where you're gonna sit all daycause you're gonna
have to shift anyway. So we're going through the plan
and I'm like, okay, I have two really good river
bottom stands with killer pinch points by them, but they're
not that easy to get to if you've never been there,
Like you got to cross this big river. And so
I'm like, I'm going to go into the farthest river

(32:44):
crossing stand. I'm gonna map, you know, put my tracker on,
map my route so you guys don't get dunked in
the night, you know, or when you're walking in there
in the morning.

Speaker 4 (32:51):
Whatever.

Speaker 5 (32:52):
And then I'm like, okay, Pat, I'm gonna send you
to this ground blind I have on this pinch point
on the other side of the ranch that just turned on.

Speaker 4 (32:57):
There's been tons of deer going by there.

Speaker 5 (33:00):
And then I had a spot for Steve, and Steve's like,
I'm gonna go set a trap line in the morning
on November fourth, of course, so I'm like okay, So
I go out it takes me way longer to get in.

Speaker 4 (33:16):
I gave it a lot of time.

Speaker 5 (33:18):
A couple fall starts in the river where it got
too deep, and you know, you're filming stuff in the
dark and whatever. So it's like getting to that point
where I'm like, we got to we got to get
in there, right. We get to the stand. Camera guy
goes up. He's never been in a tree stand before.
He's kind of banging, clanging around tree arms, the whole thing,
and it's like starting to look light. And I looked
at my phone and I'm like, by the time I
get into that stand, it'll be shooting light. But I'm like,

(33:41):
I don't I don't know what to do, like whatever.
So he gets up, kind of gets settled in. I
send the camera up. I climb up, pull my bow up,
hang my pack up, hang my bow up. And I
hear something and I look and there's a deer like
forty yards away, and I tell I tell Drew, I'm like, hey, buddy,
you gotta get your shit together because we have something
here right now. And he like clangs his carabineer on

(34:03):
a safety harness on the on the stand, and so
I reach up and I moved his lifeline up so
he wouldn't keep banging on the stand, and he's like
doing three sixties up there right, and I bring my
binos up and I see this great big time and
I go, dude, you got to get your shit together
because this buck's coming now.

Speaker 4 (34:21):
And he's right there, and so I have.

Speaker 5 (34:24):
A beautiful little lane right in front of me where
I mean, the reason I set up for it is
like a twenty yard shot. They go through this pinch
point where this low land meets the river, so there's
like one little high spine they cross, otherwise they're waiting
a swamp.

Speaker 4 (34:38):
It's like it's money right.

Speaker 5 (34:40):
Well, that deer starts walking up and I'm like, man,
I should shoot him in my first big window because
it's low enough light where I'm like, if he gets
into these other smaller ones, I'm like, I might clip
something that I can't see or whatever, you know.

Speaker 4 (34:53):
And so he walks in and I don't stop him
or anything. I shoot here it hit and.

Speaker 5 (35:00):
He runs about twenty yards and stops, but he stops
like not very far away, and I'm just like, you
can you'll see it on the film. I'm kind of like, uh,
just reach and grab another arrow. Like I didn't. I
thought he would be gone, you know, So it like
took me a second to catch up to the moment.
I'm like, I better get another one in him because
I know I hit him pretty good. So I grab

(35:21):
an arrow, put the you know, put my pint on him.
Shoot arrow, cracks into him. He runs twenty yards to
my left and stops. So then I'm like, okay, grab
another arrow. And I had to lean out because I
could only see like two thirds of his body, so
I had to lean out to get you know, get
a little closer to the shoulder.

Speaker 4 (35:39):
I lean out and shoot My arrow.

Speaker 5 (35:41):
Goes right underneath him, and so I range him and
I'm like, oh, he's farther than I thought. I was
just guessing twenty because I was in total panic mode.
So I dial in, lean out, shoot the fourth arrow,
and that ro oh my gosh. So I shot him
three times and I missed on the third shots. I
shot four. That arrow looks like it's good. Every one

(36:03):
of them had looked like it was good.

Speaker 4 (36:05):
Hits.

Speaker 5 (36:05):
He runs off, and I was just like it was
like the whole thing happened within like four or five
minutes after I climbed into stand and so we have
this whole week, we have like a full week to hunt,
and I'm like, I just killed a deer. And then
so the second guessing started to come in. I was like,
you know, what if he's not that big? Like my

(36:26):
initial impression was he was big. But then I'm like,
what if I shot like a scrapper the right of way?
And then I'm like what if I don't get him?
And I shot four times at him like kind of.

Speaker 4 (36:36):
You know how it is.

Speaker 5 (36:37):
You're like, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna get down
yet because I don't want to blow this spot out.
I don't you know know. So we're trying to look
at the footage and it's like I can't tell on
the little screen and I'm like, you know, we have
another little buck come through, and then we have some
doze and I'm like, let's just ride this out, give
it a couple hours, get down and you know, go
find the first arrow.

Speaker 4 (36:57):
It's broke off and covered in blood. Well it's a
good sign.

Speaker 5 (37:00):
Find where he stopped and I shot him the second time,
found another arrow covered in blood. So after the second arrow,
walk over to where the third and the four shot happens.
Find my third arrow that I miss clean with and
I just like, look down the blood trail, or look
down where this deer traveled, and I'm like, I can
see blood like sprayed all over.

Speaker 4 (37:22):
I can see part of a lung.

Speaker 5 (37:24):
I'm like, Okay, this dude's you know, this dude's in trouble,
right walk down little ways. I mean we're only I
don't know, sixty seventy yards from the stand and he's
laying there on the river bank. Awesome buck, like the
same buck that literally, this never happens to me, you know,
because I don't get to run trail cameras and kind
of do a lot of setup work like this hunt specifically,

(37:45):
you know. And that buck that I killed super unique.
I actually watched that buck. It was the first deer
that I ever saw on this ranch. I watched him
stand up out of his bed on July fourth weekend
when I was in hanging camera us and I was like,
that is a giant deer.

Speaker 4 (38:03):
Walked back in.

Speaker 5 (38:03):
There, hung a camera, got a picture of him. He
was the first year I got a picture of And
so that buck had been he'd been like consistent then inconsistent,
then consistent, and then inconsistent where he was there and
then he disappeared for like three weeks. But leading up
to the hunt, that was the buck we talked about, Right,
he's just bigger than everybody else, and he seems pretty

(38:23):
pretty much like a resident. So Pat and Steve are like,
we're going to hold out for that you know, split
browtime buck. And I was like, literally driving down there,
I'm like, guys, I haven't had a picture of that
year in three weeks. And he was there, I mean
obviously showed up like four or five minutes into my
sit killed him the biggest deer there.

Speaker 4 (38:43):
And it was great because I.

Speaker 5 (38:44):
Mean, not only you know, like you know how it is,
getting one on film right away is like a it's
like a blessing, right, But also then those guys were like,
now they're not holding out for that deer because I'm like,
you're not going to get that many chances here, you know,
it's like a low density thing. So that was like
a like the pressure was kind of off, but you know,
I still had to get Pat and Steve on deer.

(39:05):
And so Pat, you know, he sits all day the
first day, never sees a deer in this blind that
had just turned on like there was the trail cameras
showed a lot of activity, but I think they must
have known they were in there or something. Anyway, you know, whatever,
he blanks all day, Steve traps, goes out, sits a
little bit. The next day, I put Steve in a

(39:27):
natural blind on this place that just had like a
I found a scrape in there in August, a bunch
of old sign And then I put Pat in this
crossing where they kind of just go through this swampy part.
Steve has a pretty good one walk up on him,
gets busted. He's pissed about that, but that deer runs
off and goes down the next pinch point, which is

(39:48):
where Pat is. Pat smokes him. So we have a
seventy five yard blood trail there. And then we're two
days in. We've got two dead bucks. And Pat's buck
was great, like a great deer. So then I'm just like,
and now it's just Steve, right, we have Steve left
to fill his tag. But Steve's been trapping, and every
day he's leaving his stand or is blind to go

(40:08):
run that trap line. And you know, you know how
it is like, you know me right, Like I'm pretty
keyed up a lot of times. I'm like, let's get
out there, get this done, like next, next, next, And
Steve's like gonna tell you all about the trap line
and the badgery caught, and you're like, dude, it's freaking
November fifth, November sixth, whatever. But anyway, so Steve. I

(40:30):
put Steve in a couple spots, you know, for the
wind whatever. On day three does not go well, He's
he's getting Steve feisty, right, I'm like, just gotta we
gotta get you down the river. It'll happen. Day four,
I put him in this stand. They just had this
really cool pinch point on it. You know, it's a
river place, so you have good wind blowing out over

(40:50):
the river the whole thing. And like an hour into
the hunt, just like just like it's supposed to write
through that pinch point, here comes a nice buck fifteen yards.

Speaker 4 (40:58):
Steve smokes it.

Speaker 5 (40:59):
I'm like, four days in, we have three good dead
bucks and we've hardly seen a deer, you know.

Speaker 4 (41:06):
What i mean.

Speaker 5 (41:06):
It wasn't like the kind of hunt where you're like, oh,
they're chasing here, they're chasing there or whatever, Like it's
literally like you're not gonna see one, and then when
you see one, it's probably gonna be a good one
and it's gonna come through.

Speaker 4 (41:17):
And so it was. It was a very successful hunt.
Let me put it that way.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
I got a question for you real quick. How does
Steve handle you putting him places by that? I mean,
does he just say, hey, Tony, worship hunt? Or is
he going to argue with you about it? Because I
feel like, you know, Steve likes to have opinions on things.
Has he given you opinions? It's been a while since
I've white tail hunted with him, so I'm just curious
how does he take your suggestions these days?

Speaker 5 (41:45):
Steve is a He's an interesting guy to guys. He's
actually very willing to sort of accept like hey, I'd
go here or i'd sit here, or don't do this
or don't do that. He's always looking for something else,
like should it be rattling?

Speaker 4 (42:03):
Should it be?

Speaker 3 (42:03):
Like?

Speaker 5 (42:03):
He's always looking for something because he's got that Western
impatience kind of where he's like, I gotta make something happen.

Speaker 4 (42:11):
And he's really good until.

Speaker 5 (42:13):
It's not going well, and then he starts to question
you and start to needle you a little bit, like
do the Steve thing like the sunshine, and then that's blind.
It's terrible, Like I don't like, what do you want
me to do, buddy? Like I have to set it
up for certain wins. I have to do certain things.
So on the third day he got a little spicy,
but I ended up just telling him, hey, go trap

(42:34):
some skunks, and I left him alone for a while.

Speaker 4 (42:36):
I'm like, I'm not going to.

Speaker 5 (42:37):
Talk to you. And then the next day he killed
his buck. So it's an interesting dynamic guiding Steve.

Speaker 4 (42:46):
Most it's mostly.

Speaker 5 (42:47):
Good, but you can feel where it's about to break bad,
and you're like, I got to head that off because
that could get ugly.

Speaker 6 (42:52):
Yeah, okay, I got a question.

Speaker 3 (43:08):
Is this like an official trip that's going that has
been recorded and like Buck walks out, cameraman's not ready
tough shit for Tony type of type of hunt.

Speaker 4 (43:19):
Yeah, I mean it was.

Speaker 5 (43:20):
We filmed it for a meat Eater episode, and it
was a big ask because you know, three hunters, bow hunters,
three camera guys, and you know, we had three guys
who have pretty limited experience in tree stands. And because
of the you know, you guys have been to the
sand Hills and you've kind of been to this area.
It's like you don't have a lot of trees to

(43:42):
work with. You sure don't have a lot of trees
where you can put two people in them. So it's
a lot of ground blind stuff. And it was just
like a tough hunt, but yeah, it was. It was
the kind of deal where, you know, if that buck
that I killed had you know, come in five minutes earlier,
we'd have to let him go, you know, or if
he would have been if just like if the camera
guy hadn't been ready, which is probably a more likely

(44:05):
thing to happen, where it's just.

Speaker 4 (44:06):
Like you're getting there and he's just setting up.

Speaker 5 (44:08):
Then you you know, you gotta let that deer go
and that happens, you know, I mean, Mark, you know
this when you when you film, like filming costs you deer.
It just does just like a different kind of stress, right,
Like we put pressure on ourselves to kill big Bucks
and like kind of represent the brand and all that stuff.

Speaker 4 (44:23):
But like that kind of hunt where you have a
meat eater.

Speaker 5 (44:27):
Episode sort of hinging on your calls and you're setup
and like do this, don't do this. It is a
weird It is a hard to describe, and I don't
want to bitch about it because I don't want people
to be like, oh my god, you think your job's
hard or whatever, like I don't.

Speaker 4 (44:40):
I don't want that.

Speaker 5 (44:41):
It's just a different level of stress guiding Steve Vanella
to a deer and setting up a whole meat eater
shoot like that.

Speaker 2 (44:48):
I think it's the exact complete opposite of the freeing
sensation that Dan described earlier when he said that he
didn't care about any other people and all that stuff
and he could just hunt free. You were experiencing is
the exact opposite emotional state. So give us the give
us the quick rundown of Wisconsin. You're back on your own.
You're not filming. This is just a Tony for Tony hunt.

(45:12):
And that was tough until it wasn't.

Speaker 5 (45:14):
Yeah, man, I mean that That's part of the reason
that I went right from Nebraska to Wisconsin, no cameraman,
no kids, just like I'm like, I'm gonna go hunt
for five days, do dark to dark, sits hunt whatever,
we'll walk by. And it was very tough until it wasn't.
I mean, I blanked for almost four full days, which is.

Speaker 4 (45:39):
I shouldn't say it's like uncommon over there.

Speaker 5 (45:41):
I mean a lot of times if I go sit
over there, I won't see a deer all day, or
I might string together a couple of them.

Speaker 4 (45:47):
So but during the rut, you.

Speaker 3 (45:48):
Know, I was.

Speaker 5 (45:49):
I got over there on like November eleventh or tenth
or whatever. You would think just by sheer chance a
four ky or somebody would come swinging through at some point.

Speaker 4 (45:58):
They just didn't.

Speaker 5 (45:59):
But I started thinking about it, and this won't be
that quick of a rundown, So sorry, Mark, but I
got to it's there's a lot of lessons in this hunt.
I started thinking about it, and I had dropped off
a couple cameras right when I got there, and i'd
found this scrape earlier when I was hunting with one
of my daughters, and it was in a place where
I was like, this just this is like a curiosity
to me. You know, you kind of go over and

(46:20):
you hunt a place, you bend do a lot, and
you're like, I'm hunting off memories and usually they use
the swamp this way and whatever else. So I hung
this camera and I'm like, man, it's pretty active. And
not only that, I had another camera not too far
away on this crossing between these two you know, lowland
spots in the swamp, but a weight away from the
main swamp, and I kept getting coyotes, like coyotes in

(46:43):
the day, multiple coyote pictures when you kind of just
don't expect it. And in fact, the night before I
saw a coyote come out there at four o'clock and
I was like, why why are the deer here in
this spot where historically I just wouldn't even con and
why are there Like why is there so much coyote
activity out here? So I started thinking about it, and

(47:06):
there were two things that came to mind. Uh, we
we have a farmer up there around us who's taken
out so much woods and planted crops in places that
they're just like historically wasn't. And one of those places
was a standing cornfield still and it was like I
measured it on a X, it was it was eight
hundred yards from where I was hunting. So I'm like,
they got across the highway, they got to go between

(47:28):
some houses, Like is that the thing?

Speaker 3 (47:30):
Like?

Speaker 5 (47:30):
Is that keeping them there? But the other thing was
I took my daughter down there in October, and uh,
we heard a pack of wolves light up in the swamp.
And we have we have wolves right like, you'll get
pictures of them sometimes we'll see them grouse hunting or
you know, fine tracks in the winter or whatever. But
it's not like you're never like we have a constant

(47:53):
presence of wolves right here, you know, like there's like
it's like a different thing. But hearing a whole pack
light up in the swamp when we were blanking again
for like four days, I was like, okay, So I
started to put this together. I'm like, maybe those wolves
push those deer out and those coyotes out, and they're
all kind of hanging closer to civilization, closer to houses,
closer to the highway. And so I just on a whim,

(48:15):
took a stand into a place where I was like,
I had such low confidence. I didn't even bring my pack,
I didn't have my camera gear. I didn't even have
a deer call with me. But I put the decoy
out because it should be visible set up, and I'm
sitting there and you know, keep in mind, I am
almost four full all day sits deep on this hunt,
and I haven't laid eyes on a deer yet. And

(48:36):
I hear something and I look to my right in
this kind of swampy patch of you know, brush and whatever,
like really good kind of betting looking stuff, but it's everywhere,
and I see this buck running and he's like a
one forty which over there is like a giant deer
right like you just I was like, oh my god,
holy shit, like and the wind was blowing like thirty

(48:57):
miles an hour, so it was like I did everything
I could to get that buck's attention. He was chasing
a dough I'm I was screaming. I was like me, me,
like look over here at this decoy, you know, and
he was mouth open chasing all day. Like you could
tell he was not gonna look like. There was nothing
I was gonna do that was gonna get that buck
to look over at me. Doe runs through the tree line,

(49:20):
crosses the highway and I can hear cars coming and
I'm like, I'm gonna hear this bucket hit. And he
kind of weaves his way around and then makes it
through the tree line. Gone out of my life, you know.
They crossed that highway you're like, they're not coming back, right.
But I was like, I can't believe that I had
that encounter. And almost instantly I looked up and on
my side of this like waterway, here's a buck standing

(49:43):
there and he's like a ninety inch two year old,
which I will shoot all day over there, and I'm like,
this dude's here with me, and he's gonna look over
see this decoy. It's gonna be over because he was
like two hundred yards away, this freaking deer. I would
call to him and he would look over like eighty
five percent of the field and he wouldn't turn his
head to the left and look at my decoy. So
he would stand there and I'd go me, and he

(50:04):
would look pick his hat up and look over the
whole field except that part. I'm like, just look over here, asshole,
Like right here, there's a dough. And finally he walked
straight away from me and disappeared. And I'm like, I
cannot believe I couldn't get that dear to see this
decoy because I'm just like, if he sees it, he's
coming right.

Speaker 4 (50:21):
So he disappears.

Speaker 5 (50:22):
I'm like, oh my god, Like I had two cool encounters,
they're gone whatever, sitting there. Like two minutes later, I
look up that buck walks back out and I'm like,
I'm giving him everything. I'm like me, and he won't look,
and he's like looking across the field, and so I
glassed him. And then I just turned to my left
and here's this buck standing like one hundred and twenty
five yards away another like a good one, and I'm like,

(50:45):
holy shit, there must be like a hot that must
be like the hot dough. Right, So I switch my
attention to that buck because he's in play. If he
just takes a right, he's he's going to see that decoy.
So I snort whe he's at him. He looks over,
looks back at that other buck. Snortweez again, and it's
like this thing where he's like, do I go fight
that guy? Do I go over there? And you can

(51:06):
see in his head like he knows where he wants
to go. He wants to go cross that highway, and dude,
I threw every call I could at him, and he
started to walk out, and I looked and that smaller
buck walked up to him and they squared up, and
he did the whole sideways kind of side eye crab
walk thing, you know, like they were gonna fight. That
littler buck takes off and I'm like, okay, start grunning,

(51:29):
I start bleeding, and that buck takes an interest, but
he's like I'm gonna just cross this field and not
coming over there.

Speaker 4 (51:34):
So he walks way out.

Speaker 5 (51:35):
I'm like, he's out of my life, but I have
nothing to lose, right, so I keep calling. He finally
stops and he just turns like ninety degrees to the
right and starts walking, and so like I'm like, now
he's in the right direction, but he's still going to
pass by one hundred yards.

Speaker 4 (51:49):
Away, and so I just I keep hitting him.

Speaker 5 (51:51):
I've never in my life called to a deer that much,
cause he was like you could just see He's like
I don't want to.

Speaker 4 (51:57):
I don't want to. I don't care what you say.

Speaker 5 (51:59):
And I'm like get over here, like get your ass
over here, buddy, And he finally got straight in front
of my decoy, but like one hundred yards out, and
he took another ninety degree turn and started walking in.
I'm like, I called this buck in like a square,
like it was crazy, and he walks up and I'm like,
oh my god, like I thought he was. I thought
he was like one hundred and ten inches. I didn't

(52:20):
know he was like a one thirty Like I didn't
he was. He was way big for over there, and
I kind of stopped paying attention to what he was.
That dude comes in and I'm like, should I shoot
him at forty cause he's like kind of squared up,
But I'm like, I don't like taking forty yard shots
at white tails anymore. I'm like, I want twenty yards,
so I'm like, I'm not gonna do it super windy,
blown around on that tree, and he just does it

(52:42):
perfect where he squares up again and swings all the
way around like they're supposed to, and you could tell
he's like, I don't know if I'm gonna fight or
this is a doe, Like I don't know what's going on.
But he walked into twenty yards and I just I
shot him really well, ran fifty yards and tipped over
and it was one of the cool like literally one
of the coolest encounters I've ever had. And I've been

(53:03):
hunting that area since two thousand and eight and I
have never gotten a shot at a pope and young buck,
and I've spent more time there than anywhere. It's like
it was like the most like vindicating, like satisfying kill
that I've had in a long time.

Speaker 2 (53:21):
That's nuts loves. So, uh, where does that rank, like
with all of the bucks that you've killed. I mean,
it's not the biggest buck you've ever killed, but is
that maybe one of your most hard earned or appreciated
of all time?

Speaker 4 (53:37):
That deer is one of my favorites for sure, I have.

Speaker 5 (53:42):
I don't other than maybe some of the first bigger
bucks I killed when I was younger, I don't know
if I've ever earned one more like I literally when
I tell people, you know, like a couple of years ago,
it took me twenty one days over there to see
a dough like I almost never see deer there, and
so to kill a buck like that that way after

(54:03):
so long, was it was like I rediscovered you know,
like there's just certain things that happen in your life
where you're like, I want to kill a buck here
at the you know, the the family land, or I
want to kill one at like you you know, you
travel somewhere and you're like that that thing gets its
hooks in you and you're like, I got to get
one here, and for whatever reason, it's like your nemesis spot.

(54:23):
This place had had my number, yeah for so long,
So yeah it was I ranked that one way up there, buddy.

Speaker 2 (54:30):
Well, I think like the story of our three different
rutcations are really interesting illustrations of maybe like the whole
theme of this conversation, which has been like this idea
of like success is going to be different for everyone
and maybe different different parts of their life or in
different weeks of their life, even right. I mean, like

(54:51):
your hunt there in uh, Wisconsin wasn't because it was
like so hard earned, like years and years and years
and years and years and you finally kill a good buck.
Dan's was hard earned but also fun because it was
kind of like this this culmination of like just hunting
for the fun of it and shooting a deer that
made him happy in the moment and not worrying about
all this other stuff. My rut cation was really really

(55:14):
satisfying because I went into it kind of similar to
Dan and that I was like, you know what, the
most important thing for me on this trip is actually
like the friends I'm with and like just having fun
and doing stupid stuff and hunting things that I wouldn't
hunt in the past because I thought I had to
be tough, macho guy. And instead this time I just
did the fun thing to enjoy the full experience with
the guys and had so much fun. And whether the

(55:37):
buck I killed was one twenty or one sixty, I
would have been just as happy because of the laughs
along the way and like getting to share it with
my buddies. And all of us had these different things happen,
but we all left our rut trips very satisfied, very happy,
having great hunts, even though they were completely different. And
I think that's a pretty cool thing, Tony. I'm going

(56:00):
to give each of you guys like a set of
like rapid fire questions here to wrap this up. Just
kind of want to tie a bow on some things,
so so kind of quick succinct. First thing that comes
to mind here, but what is the biggest learn sorry,
the biggest lesson you learn, the greatest lesson you learn
from this year's rut so far? Like one quick thing.

Speaker 4 (56:17):
Ah too, It's a lesson we all learn over and over.

Speaker 5 (56:21):
But to not hunt off of memories, to just take
what they give you and work with that instead of
being like, I'm going to force this old program.

Speaker 2 (56:30):
What is one thing you wished you did differently, If
there's anything you could have changed about the last two weeks,
what would that have been?

Speaker 5 (56:37):
You know, it just ties into my last answer, right, Like,
I just wish I would have adapted earlier instead of
just like trying to make something work that wasn't working.
Like I just I thought I could out I thought
I could wait them out right and just be super patient.

Speaker 4 (56:51):
And it's like it's a low deer density thing. You
got to go find them.

Speaker 5 (56:54):
And so I wish I had just like accepted my
fate earlier and went looking.

Speaker 2 (56:59):
Yeah, but thinkingnes see did finally pivot? Uh, And then
what is one thing you're really glad you did do?

Speaker 4 (57:06):
Man? I know so full. Here's a disclaimer.

Speaker 5 (57:10):
We own Dave Smith Decoy's right, Like I get it.

Speaker 3 (57:15):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (57:15):
Using that dough decoy and plugging a Doe decoy into
my strategy has changed everything for me. Like two years
ago we started using it. My daughter killed one, I
killed one, brought it home and started working. I think
I think we've killed five bucks off of it in
the last couple of seasons and it and it really
has opened my eyes to different types of setups where

(57:36):
I can sort of play it a little more safer
and try to get them to work in exactly how
I want them to. And it's like the with the
right buck and that decoy, it is like hunting on
a cheat code. Man, it is just different and it's
and it's fun. So I'm like, I think, I think
that's the thing I've been most excited about, Like leaning
into is like how do you how do you plug
this decoy into these different situations because man, the right

(57:58):
buck lays eyes on it and it is.

Speaker 2 (58:01):
Yeah, I gotta try it. I tried a dough decoy
for the first time a couple of weeks ago in Iowa.
I didn't have a DSD with me though at DSD dough,
so I just used kind of a you know, cheap
plastic one that was okay, but I could see the
utility and so I want to try that someday. Okay, Dan,
the greatest lesson you learned on this raccasion?

Speaker 3 (58:23):
Who this was a year of just doing it. I
don't know if there's a lesson. There's not really a
lesson there I mean I could, I could say don't
ever give up, because then I went back out and
I shot a deer the next night. But I've done
that before. I'm just like, the lesson is is that

(58:45):
this season comes by, comes so quick and it's over
so quick, and it's just like now I've tagged, you know,
I did my mule, my annual mule deer hunt archery season.
My tag is punched, and it's over, right, like my
I checked the box, I punched the tag. Yeah, I

(59:08):
could go out and maybe try to shoot another dough.
I'll probably go out for a firearm season. But as
far as bow hunting for bucks in Iowa, dude, it's
over for me. And it's just the lesson there is
to just stop for just a moment and just be
thankful that you're in a tree stand because someday you're

(59:29):
not going to be. I don't know, you know that.

Speaker 2 (59:31):
Was It's funny you mentioned that because I remember being
in the tree one day in Iowa and thinking to myself,
you just need to stop a second and stop obsessing
over like constantly scanning, constantly searching, constantly thinking about what's
the wind, where should I go next? What should I do, next,
where's the deer looking this way? That way? This way?

Speaker 4 (59:50):
That way?

Speaker 2 (59:50):
Is like just stop and close your eyes and like
take a deep breath and listen, like listen to the leaves,
listen to the wind. Just take a second and look
at it all and just look at the scenery, like
I don't think about the deer, just like take in
the moment. And I tried to do that a few times,
just like reminding myself to just soak in the setting
and the place and that that day rather than thinking

(01:00:12):
all the time about you know, the actual hunting side.
And that was really nice to do.

Speaker 4 (01:00:16):
There was a couple moments like you're your search for
these they're the.

Speaker 3 (01:00:22):
Moment of clarity where I wasn't on my phone, it
was tucked in a pocket, and I wasn't thinking about anything.
I was just there. Yeah, And those are the moments
that like for five minutes, there was no stress, My
blood pressure was low, Like it was just an amazing

(01:00:43):
it was just amazing to be out in doing what
we were doing.

Speaker 2 (01:00:47):
That's the good stuff right there. Yeah, all right, one
thing you wish you did different, one thing you're glad
you did.

Speaker 3 (01:00:55):
Okay, the one big, big This is big because I
think it's going to alter my trajectory on how I
hunt my Iowa farms moving forward. And I probably, like
I say this, it's gonna be hard to do. I
say it now, but I truly don't think I'm even
gonna start hunting until November fifth or sixth next year.

(01:01:17):
Well as far as as far as rut is concerned,
I have had two. I've spent too much time sitting
in these pre rut type conditions where you're just hoping
a big dog steps up into some kind of staging
area or thicket when the dough groups are not ready yet,

(01:01:38):
and so I feel like I would rather put more
time into this. I don't know when this is going
to launch, but we're recording this on November seventeenth. I
would rather go from November seventh November seventeenth than from
November first to the eighth or something like that, right,

(01:01:59):
I would go the second and third week. And I
think I'm gonna I'm gonna try to force myself like
I even left a note in my phone on November
one next year that says, don't start hunting yet, and
maybe I got a year on camera and some things
like that. But I just feel like I spent way

(01:02:20):
too much time hunting iffy type conditions when if I
would have waited an extra week, it would have just
been prime time.

Speaker 2 (01:02:30):
Very interesting. That's a that's a hot take, Dan, Yep,
that's a hot take. One thing that you're glad that
you did do.

Speaker 4 (01:02:38):
I'm glad I kind of stayed put. Man. I had
a lot of encounters on.

Speaker 3 (01:02:43):
The fourth, fifth, sixth time hunting a tree stand, and
I feel like the thing that I'm glad I did
is I'm glad I kind of slowed down and just
sat good, good, good good my best tree stands. And
I just cycled through really four tree stands the entire one, two, three, four. Yep,

(01:03:09):
I only sat in four different tree stands this entire year,
and so well four on one property. And I'm glad
I toughed it out and I just rotated through the best,
the best possible stand locations.

Speaker 2 (01:03:23):
I feel like that's something that I'm I've been dabbling
more and more with.

Speaker 4 (01:03:27):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:03:28):
I feel like a lot of us start and want
to hunt like the same spots a lot, and we
do that too much and screw it up, and then
we're all of a sudden we realize like, oh, yeah,
being mobile is great. You should bunce around all the time.
And new spot, new spot first it's the best sit
and then you go too far that way sometimes yep.
And I kind of feel like I'm kind of finding
that middle ground where there's there's utility to both, but
balancing it. Knowing when to move and when to stay

(01:03:50):
is maybe more of an art than a science.

Speaker 4 (01:03:52):
And yep, starting to figure that out.

Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
So very good, guys. I feel like we all had
a heck of a start in November. Great first half
of the month. I appreciate you guys sharing it with me,
talking about it, breaking it down. Uh, that's all I got, gentlemen,
So best luck the rest of the season. Congrats you

(01:04:15):
two fellas, and congrats Tony. Really big big round of
applause here for Tony though, because he really did knock
it out of the park ten out of ten, achieved
all of his goals. Piss shit smells like roses.

Speaker 3 (01:04:27):
So when are we going to get the book how
to Hunt White Tails in the Rut coming out?

Speaker 2 (01:04:32):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:04:32):
What, don't don't ask me to rate it, Mark if
you don't want the honest answer. If you want next
time be like on a scale of two to four,
tell me how.

Speaker 2 (01:04:47):
And on that note, everyone, thanks for being here, Thanks
for tuning in. Until next time, stay wired to hunt

Speaker 3 (01:05:00):
Y