Ep. 681: What Would Jared Mills Do?

This week on the show, I’m running Jared Mills 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 Whitetail 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 on
the show, I'm running Jared Mills through our what would
you do gauntlet, giving us insight into exactly how we'd
handle some of the most challenging deer hunting scenarios. I
could throw it all right. Welcome to the Wired to

(00:42):
Hunt podcast, brought to you by First Light and our
Camera for Conservation initiative, which means every purchase of first
Light gear in the Spectra pattern, which is the whitetail
camera pattern, a percentage of every single one of those
sales goes to the National Dear so helping support their
mission to make things better for deer and deer hunters,

(01:04):
and they're doing a good job of it. I actually
was with a bunch of the guys from the NDA
just last weekend way up there in Idaho for one
of our Working for Wildlife Tour events. I'm sure you've
heard all about it, but we have had some great
opportunities so far to volunteer on public land improve habitat
for wildlife, and that was certainly a good example of it.

(01:26):
There was I think more than fifty volunteers. We improved
some aspen stand habitat which a lot of white tails
and elk and other critters are going to benefit from.
Man we had a good time doing it too, so
kudos to the NDA. And speaking of working for wildlife
tour events, we've got another one coming up this weekend.
If you are in Missouri, we are going to be

(01:47):
getting together this coming Saturday. That's Saturday, August twelfth, down
the BK. Leach Memorial Conservation Area. We're going to be
doing some habitat improvement out there. That's just outside of
Saint Louis, Missouri, I believe. So I'd love to see
at eight a m. Saturday morning at the BK. Leech

(02:08):
Memorial Conservation Area. This is in partnership with backcountry Hunters
and anglers. We're going to do some good work for
wildlife and then later that afternoon get together for social event.
Some storytelling should be great. You can sign up over
on the BHA website. They've got an events page there.
For it where you can register. Hope to see you there,
I guess in other news, since we're talking news. This

(02:31):
past weekend, so two weekends ago was the Working for
Wildlife Tour event in Idaho. This most recent weekend, I
was down in southern Michigan for the Field to Fork
program at the Back Forty, which has been such a
cool thing to see grow over the last couple of years,
and this year we introduced I think thirteen or fourteen
new hunters this past Saturday to this whole hunting lifestyle.

(02:55):
So we got to spend the day with them, giving
them experience behind a rifle and a crossbow, answering all
sorts of questions about hunting, taking them for a tour
of the property, talking through different deer behavior and habitat
and strategy questions. And then there will be a whole
series of hunts happening this fall in the early season
and late season where there will be specific partners or

(03:17):
sorry mentors partnered up with each one of these new hunters,
and it's very cool to see the Back forty property
being used for that. So that's what I was doing
this past Saturday. That was a lot of fun and
other than that. We do have a podcast episode to
get too, which I know you guys are chomping at
the bit for and it's a good one. We're continuing
our what would You Do? Series, which is this thing

(03:40):
we do every August. Hopefully you heard last week with
Bobby Kendall. What we're doing is running our guests through
a series of specific hypothetical hunting scenarios to see what
they would do and why they would do it. And
today's guest is Jared Mills. He is a great deer
hunter who just came off of a really really great
hunting season and he's got some insights, some ideas and

(04:03):
perspectives that I think we can all learn from and
apply to our own hunting situations. Jared's over there in Iowa.
He is probably most known for his participation in the
Midwest White Tail Series for a really really long time,
probably a decade or more. He's now doing his own thing.
He's got his own YouTube channel. You can find that

(04:25):
just by searching Jared Mills over on YouTube. And he
documented his hunting season last year on that channel and
it got a lot of interest in Buzz because he
had one heck of a year and showcased it all
really well there on the channel, so if he haven't
seen those videos, you gotta check it out. He killed
three really great dear on video, told some great stories,

(04:47):
so definitely worth checking out. And I think that will
give you some really good context either before listening to
this or after listening to this. But that's plan. We're
talking to Jared. I'm gonna run him through a whole
bunch of different situations, see what he would do with
him out there in the White Tail woods. And man,
we had fun. I learned some stuff, I got some
good ideas, and it got me even more excited for

(05:09):
this coming season. I'm out there scouting beanfield seeing some
nice deer. The hit list is starting to fill up
here in southern Michigan, which is exciting. And can't wait
to share some of those stories of you too. So
that will be for another day though. For now, let's
get to Jared Mills or running them through the what
would you do? Gauntlet? And here we go, all right

(05:40):
with me now on the line, I've got the one
and only Jared Mills. Jared, thanks for making time for.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
This, absolutely man, it's good to chat again, and I
appreciate the invite.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah, this is this month of August for the last
few years has become this month when I do this
series we run people through these hypothetical scenarios. It ends
up being maybe my favorite month of the year as
far as the podcast, just because you get to geek
out alongside you know, you the guest. I get to
geek out on thinking through every one of these different

(06:11):
scenarios too. It's kind of like when you're sitting there
with your hunting buddies, or I do this thing where
we dig road trips where we're gonna go to hant
Ohio or some different state and they'll be me or
another friend or two in the car and we'll just
sit there for hours on the highway and be like,
what would you do if this happened? Or what would
you do if a split brow time and a drop

(06:31):
time buck came at the same time? Like what's cholm?
Just shoot like all those kinds of things. So basically,
I'm taking my road trip game and applying it to
work with you, Jared.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
So that's perfect. I love the idea. I think obviously
it's a great way for listeners to learn. But I
think at least from my perspective. The coolest part is
it just points out how many different ways there are
to do things. I mean, especially if you're offering very
similar or the same situations to each different person. I mean,

(07:02):
I'm willing to bet most of your answers are pretty different.
So I think it just speaks to you got to
know your own hunting situations, your own properties, your own deer,
whatever it is, all the factors you have to deal
with this specifically before you are able to make those
decisions on what to do. And this series, to me,

(07:23):
really highlights that.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Yeah, it's a great it's a great point and it
is funny though. And I don't know if you've experienced this,
but I bet you have, given how many different hunters
you've worked with at Midwest Whitetail and through all the
different things. You know, there's so many successful guys and
gals out there, Like you said, they all do it
in different ways, but maybe fifty percent of them think
they are ways the only way still, you know what

(07:46):
I mean, Like, there's some people that are so dead
set on like, oh, this is the only way to
do it. I'm shocked by that still, Like, how many
people are so set in that you know perspective.

Speaker 3 (07:58):
Well, I mean, if they don't know anything else and
they you know, maybe don't branch out on a lot
of different situations, they're probably right. I mean, what they're
used to on their home turf is probably the right
way for them. But yeah, and I think part of
it's just the world we live in too, you know.
I think everyone kind of wants to be the expert
on it and you know, wants to be the source

(08:19):
of that type of information. So I'm sure that plays
into it.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah, there's some truth to that before we get into
the you know, the scenarios here. You know, given your
kind of life changes over recent years, I know there's
been some career shifts. You've got a young child one
or two one okay one, So if you were to
look back over, say that the last decade or so

(08:45):
up to now, what has been the biggest change for you, Like,
if we're talking about how there's so many different ways
to do this, is there is there some major difference
for you as far as how your life has or
circumstances or anything has led to a shift in your
strategies or style of hunting. Anything like that come to mind.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yeah, I think the biggest one that comes to mind,
and I probably wouldn't shorten that timeframe down, you know,
ten years is a long time. I'd look at maybe
the last few years. But for me, it's really trying
to keep the enjoyment of it first and foremost, because
there's so many things we can get wrapped up on that.
The world of hunting is changing so rapidly and continuing

(09:25):
to evolve. Technology is coming into play so much, the
amount of information available, social media, all that type of
stuff has really changed what hunting is. When I think
about what it used to be growing up and when
I was cutting my teeth on learn how to bow
and all that type of stuff, that seems like it's
such a different experience now than it was, And I

(09:49):
think for me, my eyes have been opened up like
it doesn't have to be that way. I think that's
the biggest thing that's been a revelation for me is hey,
you can make it harder on yourself. And I don't
want that to sound wrong. I don't want it to
seem like it's gotten too easy, because it certainly hasn't.
But there are obviously things you can do to make

(10:10):
it easier or harder on yourself if you want to.
You need to figure out what's best for your experience.
And for me, it's just don't get don't mix hunting
too much with work, don't put stress on yourself. You
have to kill dear, don't you know? All those types
of things. Get back to the enjoyment of hunting and
what it felt like way back when. I think that's

(10:33):
that's I've been lucky to have come across that and
bring that into focus more. And that's certainly going to
be a goal of mine, you know, here in the
new near future and hopefully for a long time, and hopefully,
you know, hopefully I can help hunters along the way
with different tactics and strategies and stuff. But if nothing else,

(10:53):
you know, I want to just bring that awareness to
guys that you can make this experience what you want
it to by doing things your own way, and you
don't have to do what everyone else is doing. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
I couldn't relate more to that. I mean, over the
last two years, I've kind of gone through that same
sort of epiphany where I reached like a mega burnout
stage where I just felt all this pressure because like
you mentioned, it was tied up in work and expectations
and worrying about what other people think and YadA, YadA, YadA,
and all that stuff was like sucking the fun out
of it for me. So last season, like my main

(11:26):
goal is like, Okay, I gotta just shove aside any
of the stuff that's bringing me down, like any of
the things that are taking this thing that I love
so much and making it miserable for me. Sometimes like
that's you can't have that anymore. And I just tried to, like,
stop caring what other thing, what other people think, Stop
caring about if I kill a big enough buck or
enough deer, whatever it is. Stop trying to impress people.

(11:47):
Just do hunt your own hunt, enjoy it, do it
for the right reasons, and you know, let the chips
fall where they may, and lo and behold, I had
a blast and still had like a great hunting season
by you know, all other metrics too. And it's it's
funny how that probably works out in many cases once
you just got get your head back to normal, things
work out.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
Yeah, And it's I do I think things fall into
place when you prioritize it the right way, and even
if they don't work out. You're gonna be way less
frustrated because you enjoyed the experience rather than you know,
stressing yourself out. So yeah, that's that's the page of
mon I feel lucky to be in a spot where
I can see that, because when you get to that perspective,

(12:28):
you look back and you realize how silly it was
to think otherwise, or to make hunting this thing that
we all have this crazy passion about, to make it
not fun like it's it's just seems so silly looking back.

Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yeah, this is uh, this is not brain surgery, this
is not a life or death thing. We're not saving
the world. Nobody really cares whether we kill a big
buck or not. Do it for yourself, have fun with it,
and that's the best you can do. So yeah, that's right,
I'm right there with it. All that said, then let's
add some pressure though. Let's put you in the Let's

(13:04):
put you through the gauntlet and see what you would
do in these scenarios because that's kind of fun sometimes too.

Speaker 3 (13:11):
Yeah sounds good.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
All right, So I think you know the basic rules, right.
The idea here is is walk me through your thought process.
Once I present these scenarios to you, you know, the
more details the better, the more kind of behind the
scenes thinking out loud, the better. And we're gonna start
kind of pre season and sort of work our way
into different parts of the season itself. So my first question,
my first scenario is gonna be this. Let's say you

(13:36):
get the very good news of picking up access to
a brand new farm. So you just picked up something
brand new. Let's just say it's gonna be one hundred acres.
To keep it simple, it's gonna be Midwest, you know, Iowa, Illinois,
Indiana kind of stuff, mixed timber and agg It's one
hundred acre square and there's gonna be a creek that

(13:56):
runs snaking through the middle. All right, that's our property.
What I'm curious about to start is how you would
go about learning this place, scouting and learning it. And
I'm curious what your process would be at different start points.
So what I'm gonna ask you to run me through
is what your plan would be to learn this place

(14:18):
if you got access on August thirtieth with an October
first opening day. So that's the first one, and then
my second one after that, I'm going to be curious
to hear what you would do differently if you didn't
get access until October first itself. So all right, August thirtieth,
that's a few you know, a couple of weeks from now,
as far as when we're recording this, you get to
step foot on it for the first time. August thirtieth,

(14:40):
you have about a month before opening day. Walk me
through what you would do to learn this place fast
with one month of go time.

Speaker 3 (14:48):
Okay, so yeah, August thirtieth is its earlier than October first,
but still late in the game, and you know you're
not really going to do any property improvements much at
that point anyways. So I always like to start big
picture first, just to establish a starting point I guess
on a new property, and by big picture, of course

(15:10):
aerial maps, but also I think a focus on the
neighborhood in general, especially when you mentioned it being you know,
a timber egg set up. Usually there's destination feeding areas
or food sources for deer in that type of habitat,
you know, big egg fields or whatever. And I think
by spending time looking at the general neighborhood, whether it's

(15:30):
driving around the blocks, you know, looking at aerially whatever,
figure out where or at least guess where the deer
might be going to end up, because I think having
a general direction of movement on a property can give
you a really good starting point on how to hunt it.
You know which way to come in, which way to
go out, where to focus potential stand set up. So

(15:53):
I'll try to establish, you know, what are the deer
doing each evening or each morning when they're either leaving
their bed or coming back to bed by looking at
the neighborhood. And then, of course, with it be in
August thirtieth, I'm still not worried about running deer off
and them not coming back. So I'm gonna spend a
good amount of time with boots on the ground walking

(16:16):
the property figuring out those things, either a confirming what
I found on the aerial map, or be picking up
those little things that you can't pick up on aerial map,
little pinches and things like that, whether it's I mean
something as simple as a down tree can create a
really good pinch point. You're obviously not going to see
that on aerial map, So boots on the ground to

(16:39):
figure that type of stuff out. You know, I'll try
to figure out signs. Not the most visible at that
time of the year. But I'll try to find what
would be some potential betting areas, because if you can
figure out, you know, maybe the where the one, two
or three, you know, one hundred acres the primary betting
areas that you're not going to want to go blowing

(17:01):
into early or again, it still gives you even more
information with the general movement direction. So if they're going
from this spot, you know, there's a really big agg
field on the west side that's probably their destination food source,
you can figure out, okay, how are they going to
get from point A to point B? Where can I
put myself in the middle of that? So I think

(17:22):
those are probably the main things. Of course, you know,
getting some cameras out. August thirtieth is a great time
to start establishing mock scrapes, so that coincides well with
with putting cameras out for the first time. There's a
lot of properties that that's about the time I put
cameras out anyways, on properties I already have access to,
so very very good time to start getting inventory. Scrapes

(17:45):
are my number one tool for inventory. You know, I
think that you learn a lot about deer just based
on their interactions at scrapes. I think most of the
mature bucks in the area will eventually come to that,
So try to get as many cameras out on mock
scrapes to learn what deer in the area. So I

(18:07):
think those are probably the main things. If I come
across some really obvious stand locations, I may go ahead
and hang on right away, But more often than not
than a new property, I don't get too crazy about
getting those locations set up, at least not permanent locations.
I do a decent amount of moving around mobile type hunting,

(18:28):
even just small adjustments. It may be fifty yards, but
I have very few even the properties that I have
access to, and for years I don't have a ton
of permanent locations. And I think the primary reason for
that is because I like targeting individual deer and they
all seem to use a property a little bit different. Yes,

(18:49):
you know, pinch points and funnels are still going to
be there year after year, but each deer may use
it a little bit differently depending on where he's betting
and just the end of visuality. The personalities of the
bucks lead to different styles of hunting. You know, maybe
some spots, but buck is really callable. You're gonna want
to be in a location where you can see further
and potentially call them in. You know, little examples like that.

(19:13):
I think for the primary reason I don't get too
crazy about permanent locations until I really learn a lot
more than maybe I'll hang a stand and leave it
up for the season and take it down after. So
those are kind of the first steps that I guess
I would think about off the top of my head.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
So two follow ups. First, when you do that boots
on the ground part, is that like a one day
thing or are you going to be making multiple trips
and checking it over the course of that month leading
up to the season, or would you have a cut
off date like I don't want to walk any sooner
than September fifteenth because it's too close to the opener
anything like that.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
I don't know that I would have cut off date
prior to the season unless I found a deer I
wanted to hunt and he was there, then that's where
I'm probably gonna be a lot more careful. But if there,
as long as there's still more for me to learn
by walking around and looking, I'm gonna keep doing it

(20:14):
until I feel like, Okay, I've got a really good
idea of how this farm sets up, how the deer
use it. Now, I'll make adjustments based on what I
see from the stand. That's when you know, I'll call
it good. But during that time period August thirtieth October first,
unless there's a deer I want to kill right away
and that he's living in there, I'm not too afraid

(20:35):
of impacting my fall based on going in and out.
And you know, it's it's similar to hunting. Like you
mentioned the creek going through the middle of property. I'm
still going to try to be smart about access. If
I can go in and check an area out with
the wind in my face, I'll do it. If I
can use that creek to get in initially and then

(20:56):
pop up and check an area out, I'll do it. So,
you know, I guess there's maybe a little bit of
a difference there between being like super aggressive and you know,
just sloppy. I want to learn so much as I can,
but maybe with a few precautions taken.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
Yeah, yeah, I follow you. So last one on that
piece hunter acre new property, how many cameras would you
be putting up to try to like get an idea
of what's happening there.

Speaker 3 (21:28):
I would say due to you know, my primary use
of cameras is for inventory. I'm not always trying to
figure out every hunting specific piece of information that I
can from trail cameras. I also want to know that
there's a good deal around. I don't need to know
is every step on the property. In fact, I'd rather

(21:49):
not know to be honest, you know, I'd rather, you know,
figure it out based on other factors. But I would say,
hundred acre property, you know, maybe half a dozen cameras
to start out with, and that's just trying to kind
of cast a net, you know, maybe six to eight

(22:09):
cameras to cast a wider net, just to during that
initial time frame. But you know, in theory, if you
have them on good scrape locations, good travel locations, you're
gonna get most of the dear on that property, you know,
for inventory purposes on one of those six cameras.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
Yep. Okay, Now, let's say same scenario, except you don't
get access on the thirtieth of August. You get access
on opening day of both season October first. So in
that case, how do you approach this differently. Are you
just gonna start hunting it from the outset? Ind are
you gonna blast in there and still learn it all

(22:49):
early and then plan hunting late, like what's what's your take? Then?

Speaker 3 (22:54):
No, I might even be a lot more careful at
that time frame, for sure. Again, I'll still try to
learn as much as I can, I just won't try
to cover every square end. So if I do go
in on a hunt again potentially using that creek for access,
depending on the exact situation and wind direction. I've done
it a lot where I'll sit for a morning hunt

(23:15):
or something and then just slowly maybe take a longer
route out, just see what I can learn, see what
I can see. But the reality is October first, a
lot of my learning is probably going to be be
coming from tree stand observations and and you know, just
sits and adjusting from there. You can get You can

(23:37):
learn a lot whether you see a targetbuck or not
from a hunt. You know, againting back to the general movement,
A lot of times you'll you'll see whether it's a
movement an evening hunt or morning hunt. You're going to
see which direction most of the deer are moving. You know,
it changes a little bit once you get to the
ret time frame November time frame, and the cruising becomes

(23:58):
a little more random direction. But you know that early
October timeframe, that stuff is relatively consistent and that can
give you a lot of information on that property.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
Yeah, all right, let's kind of continue on with this property.
Let's say and for whatever reason, you're scouting your way

(24:32):
into a spot or something. You're moving your way through
the property and you stumble on an area that screams
out like big Buck bedroom to you, Like alarm bells
start going off in your head and you say, holy smokes,
I'm in the bedroom. M what would it take, like
describe to me what would take to see for you
to think that's like paint for me a picture of

(24:53):
what that kind of place would have to be to
set off those alarm bells for you. And then number two,
what would you do in that situation? Because let's say
it's October, sometime in October, and now you've stumbled into
a big Buck bedroom. You're seeing something that makes you think,
oh wow, I'm in the thing. What do you do
next or how do you use that information if you're
not going to do anything immediately with it.

Speaker 3 (25:13):
Yeah, so I guess the first part of the question.
You know, a location that I that would come to mind,
especially if the property has some topography to it, would
be a higher point where a buck can see in
multiple directions but is somewhat protected by thick cover. A

(25:33):
lot of times I find those locations really close to
where you know, let's say, maybe it's a spot with
with a bunch of briars or some type of really
thick protective cover, but it's on the edge of where
it opens up, so you might have Basically that's what
creates the visibility for them, is you know, they're protected,

(25:55):
but they can see through, see you know, danger, see
other deer. Whatever. Of course, a lot of big rubs
would would help give that spot away. The other thing too,
it just seems like a lot of mature bucks are
very off on their own. So if I'm seeing a
bunch of other you know, a bunch of beds together

(26:16):
or something like that, I'm usually gonna guess that's not
a spot where a mature buck is. But it's usually
a spot that's not overloaded with deer sign. In general,
it's going to have you know, sign specific to him,
but it's not going to be uh, you know, crazy traffic,
as far as just the deer herd in general. So

(26:37):
I think those three things are the first ones I
think about. It is important that location is important to
me during the October timeframe, for sure. I think, you know,
the month of October is usually your better opportunity to
kill a local resident mature buck. Of course, they're going

(26:59):
to be day very light active through November, but it's
it's hard to figure out where they're going to be.
They could be miles away. Just there's just so many
random factors are out of your control. Where As if
he's living there and consistent and you catch him before
a bunch of dose coming to Estris, it's it's good
to know exactly where he's betting and coming and going to.

(27:21):
So yeah, that information is definitely important. How I would
hunt it, I've never been big on trying to dive
right into that core area. I think I think they're
there for a reason, and I think that reason is
it's hard to get to, you know. I'd rather just
know it and hunt intercept him to where he's going.

(27:44):
But knowing is a big piece of that puzzle, right,
just not I just don't want to hunt right on it.
So if I know, hey, the dough betting areas over here,
as we get towards late October, he's going to be
looking for that. Usually he's going to be the one
that gets that first sessious know on that property, that
local dough. He's going to be going and checking this

(28:05):
more and more regular as we get to the last
couple of weeks of October. That's really good to know that.
Even like I was talking earlier, the destination food source
is really good to know. But yeah, it's an important
piece of information, but I don't typically get in the
habit of hunting right on that location.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
Does Does it change things at all? If you saw
the buck like get up out of his bed and
run away. So if you actually bumped the buck out
of its bad you see, he's a he's a target deer.
Would that change any part of that? And would you
have you know, if you were going to try to
hunt that deer? Now, how would that impact the timing

(28:47):
of when you would try to hunt him again?

Speaker 3 (28:52):
It wouldn't affect the timing. I'll give you example and
explain why. But the first part of the question, I
think it does doesn't change it. It confirms it. For me,
it's like, okay, this is where he's at, and usually
it's going to confirm like okay. It was hard to
get into. I bumped him, you know, trying or accidentally
bumped him, but kind of the same thing there. It

(29:16):
does not. I think these deer, especially in this area,
farm country, whatever, they get bumped a lot more often
than we know about. I would rather bump them walking
in or doing some type of activity as opposed to
spooking them from the tree stand by being sloppy with
wind direction or movement or something like that. I can

(29:40):
think of an example. It's been a few years now,
but I was hunting a target buck. I did not
know this was a property that was pretty homogeneous, and
so it didn't have like what I would call designated
betting areas. There's a lot of really good betting areas,
and they seem to bounce around quite a bit, even
the mature buck. He's still better on his own, but

(30:01):
it just it just seemed to be a little bit random.
So anyway, I was walking in to try a new spot,
tree standing on my back, you know, sticks, everything, just
a hanging hunt, and I bumped him and of course
you had that feeling of kind of devastation, you know, man,
that was a deer I came in for. There's also
a little bit of you that's like, I should just

(30:21):
go home now, right, like what am I doing here?
But instead I sat down. I mean I was definitely upset,
don't get me wrong, but I sat down and just
thought about where would he go? Where's he going right now?
You know, where's he running to? When is he going
to stop running? When is he going to settle down?
And so I made the move on the entire opposite

(30:44):
side of the property. And actually there was another tree
stand already set up, so it wasn't a complete hanging hunt.
But I hopped in that tree stand where I had
good visibility on a really thick area that I thought
he could have ran to, and sure enough he came out.
He was one of that came out that evening. Didn't
get a shot out. I never worked his way into
bowt range. You know, probably sixty yards is probably the

(31:07):
closest he got. But I got to watch him do
his thing. He ended up getting with a dough and
but that was one of the first eye opening experiences
for me, Like he was completely fine. I mean it was.
It would have been like if I picked the right
spot and he got up out of his bed and came.
I mean, he acted no different. And this was only
probably an hour hour and a half after jumping out

(31:28):
of his jumping him out of his bed. So I
think we tend to think we ran run a buck
into the next county, and more often than not that's
not the case. I'm not saying every time you're going
to have a situation like I just laid out, But
the reality is, I think they forget about some of that,
some of those types of spooking activities fasher than we think.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
Yeah, man, what a good feeling that must have been.
Though when you had to you had that like low
point where you bumped him, you're all bummed out, and
then you made the pivot and then that like that
was right, you made the right call, and there he was.
I mean that must have been.

Speaker 3 (32:06):
At first I was like, man, I'm gonna kill this thing.
There's what a crazy story. This is? Right, they jump him,
and then you know it was probably I don't know,
five hundred yard four hundred to five hundred yard move
from where he was initially betted to where he came
out that night. So he went in decent ways, But
I obviously I have no way of knowing how quick

(32:29):
he settled that, Like, you know, did he run for
one hundred yards and then just me and er the
rest of the way, or did he run hard for
a few hundred yards? Hard to say, but you know,
nonetheless it was it was a cool learning experience for me.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
Yeah, okay, let's shift to one of your longtime properties.
Let's say, like, I know, you bought a new farm
last year. I think it was, So let's say we're
there maybe, and let's say we're going into the season.
You've got your target bucks that made it back. You've

(33:03):
done all these food plots and TSI, you've done all
this work. You've got stands prepped or trees prepped or
ideas in place. You've done the work, you have a
strategy laid out, you're just counting down the days till
opening day. And then let's say a week before opening day,
a few days before opening day, all of a sudden,
like a mega giant starts showing up on trailt camera

(33:26):
like a brand new buck you've never seen before, never
heard of this deer before, and he's like multiple levels
above anything else you have on the farm, Like he
is a world class deer. He'd be your biggest ever.
He's really really special, a deer that in your mind
you all of a sudden say, whoa to I have
to focus on him and him alone. In that scenario,

(33:48):
what do you do now it's September twenty sixth or
seventh or something like that. How do you try to
close in on him or learn something fast or shift
cameras or shift plans to now figure out this brand
new specific buck but with zero background or history.

Speaker 3 (34:06):
So first of all, I hope you're speaking this into
existence here with this scenario.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
Yeah, I'll cross my fingers for you.

Speaker 3 (34:15):
Uh No, I don't know that it would change a
whole lot for me because with they're being so close
to the season, I'm not going to move a ton
of cameras around and being a property that I know
pretty well already, I know the best camera locations, right,
That's where I'm That's that's where I'm going to get
most of my information. And my property is not I mean,

(34:38):
it's it's not big enough to where you know, it's
one hundred acre, so it's not big enough to where
I'm going to completely change where I have cameras or
I need to add a bunch of new cameras to
try to get this information. You know, I already have
cameras in the pinches on some of the best scrapes,
et cetera. So from that standpoint, I don't think it's

(34:58):
going to change a whole lot for for me, and
I have a good idea of how the deer used
the property. I think it's just going to be more
or less monitoring, you know, if he stays around. I mean,
normally you get some deer like that that you don't know.
It could be a really small window that he's usual

(35:19):
utilizing your property, and he could be gone back to
where he came from. Uh So, I guess, having said that,
maybe I'll be a little bit more aggressive early to
take advantage of him being on the property. You know,
sometimes you're able to take information you learn about a
deer from previous years, you knowing when he shows up,

(35:41):
knowing what he does on during certain strutches of the season,
and apply it. Obviously, that's not the case here, so
I think that probably would As I'm kind of thinking
through it, I probably would be a lot more aggressive
than I had planned to be initially on that property
with some of the other target deer.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
All right, opening day arrives and you have a plan
in place. You are walking to the tree stand that
you either have prepped or the tree that you've got
ready for your hanging hunt or whatever it is, and
you have a strong reason for going there. You feel
great about the wind, you feel great about your access.
You're going there for a reason. And then you know

(36:22):
like you're about to start walking down that trail, and
then you get the ping on your phone and we're
going to say it's uploads on your cell camera from
the night previous. And so now all of a sudden,
you're looking at all the pictures and you see the
night before, this buck was somewhere totally different the night before.
Do you chase that cell cam picture from the night

(36:44):
before or do you stick with your original plan and
reasons you had for that.

Speaker 3 (36:51):
I think initial plan two things. First, the property that
I have and that we're playing this scenario out on
isn't big enough to completely go relocate. But two, from
the night before, they can cover so much ground in
that time frame. You know in a day or half

(37:12):
a day or whatever it is. I think in that situation,
I'm gonna trust my gut. I had a plan in place.
I never really like to make a lot of adjustments
off cell cam photos anyways, for a variety of reasons,
but especially in that scenario, I'm going with my gut.
There's you know, that could have been a one off

(37:33):
deal that he was over there. It could have and
maybe I'll be wrong, I won't see him and I
should have made that move. But I'll take those odds
every time that my plan was solid enough to outweigh
one single trail camp photo.

Speaker 2 (37:49):
Yeah, all right. Now, instead of being a cell cam picture,
let's say instead the night before the opener, you sat
out somewhere and Gola. Let's say there's a hill or
somewhere where you can get a good visibility of Smarus
and you get eyes on this buck on the night
before the opener, you see him do something, come out

(38:11):
to one of your little food plots or something to
feed in daylight. Very exciting to see, great piece of
information to get the next day, though, the wind isn't
going to be the same. So let's say it's gonna
go from I don't know, from like a north wind
on the night when you saw him to a west
wind the next day. Do you push in there and

(38:34):
hunting him with the different wind because you don't care
about what the wind was as long as you can
safely hunt. Or is that shifting wind direction going to
make you predict him showing up somewhere different based on that.

Speaker 3 (38:48):
I think I'm probably going to not shy away from
him doing that again, just based on the wind switch.
I think he may access it differently based on the
different wind direction. But I think if that's where he
wants to be during that time, I mean, who knows what.
Maybe it's a freshly picked cornfield or something that's I mean,
those super hot for four or five days, they're gonna

(39:11):
be there, you know. Maybe maybe they'll wait till closer
and darker after dark, or maybe they'll just access it
a little bit differently so they can have a quartering
wind or win their face or whatever it may be.
But I still think that's where If that's where he was,
that's where he wants to be for a certain reason,
and in that time frame, that October timeframe usually is

(39:32):
in a random reason. You know, it's something. It's usually food,
social related, or whatever. So I think I'm gonna I'm
gonna take my chances if and this is a big if,
if I can get in clean with whatever wind direction
that is, I'm not I'm gonna consider that way higher
than I am. Is he going to use it just
because it's a different wind direction.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
Yeah, So you mentioned if you can get in clean,
What if the wind's risky? What if it's a situation. Man,
he was just here and conditions are still good except
the wind. Now you know, maybe there's like a fifty
to fifty chance. Now you're not exactly sure where he's better.
If he happens to be here a little south, you're screwed.
If he happens to be a little north, you're golden.

(40:15):
Do you still swing for the fences that night? Or
what do you do? Then?

Speaker 3 (40:19):
Yeah, that's a good question. I think the answer would
be very obvious to me if this wasn't a deer
that was completely random and maybe gone right away. If
it was a really good deer, shoot your deer. But
I had confidence he was going to stay and at
least be around somewhat throughout the month, I would not

(40:41):
push it that early in the season, I would I
would not risk messing something up there. But the kicker
to it is this, in this scenario, it's this deer
that literally you have no information on and could be gone.
And that may make me be a little more aggressive there.
But I think I had to pick one thing, I

(41:02):
probably wouldn't push it on a fifty to fifty on
October first or second, whatever day we're talking about, I
think I'll take my chances he'll be around a little
bit longer for a.

Speaker 2 (41:13):
Safer Okay, all right, So I hate to tell you this,
but we're going to erase the mega giant off the table.
He's no longer part of the scenario. We're going to
start a new place, new situation. I'm just gonna assume
you killed that buck, all right, He's dead. He's on
the wall. Let's say it is mid October. This is

(41:34):
like a controversial time of year. People either love to
say it's horrible or they love to give shit to
people who say it's horrible. Right, So let's say it's
October fourteenth, and there's a cold front pushing through overnight.
So the next morning, the lows are going to be
like twenty or thirty degrees cooler than they were yesterday,

(41:55):
the fourteenth, and then your evening lows again are gonna
be cold. Say it went from like a seventy degree
day in the fourteenth and now it's going to be
like in the forties, maybe forties, fifties, something like that.
So we're talking like the first big big cold front
of October. But it's happening, you know, October fifteenth, that morning.

(42:16):
Let's say you don't have any daylight pictures of your
shooter box yet. Let's say you have. You know, you
had some target deer a year after, but they have
not been daylighting yet, or at least haven't been dayletting
maybe since like early October. Maybe you had a couple
of things that are going early it didn't work out.
Now we're in mid October with this situation, first big
cold front. Are you hunting October fifteenth, that morning or

(42:36):
that evening because of the big cold front. Are you
taking a stab at one of your target bucks given
that weather front, or are you still playing conservative because
there's no daylight activity and you're waiting till later in
the month or anything else. What would you do in
that scenario, I'd.

Speaker 3 (42:51):
Be hunting for sure. You only have a few of
those days during that October October time frame, and they're
as good as they get. So you have to be
in your best spots on those days. Now, you know,
I have multiple permission properties in different places that I
helped manage and hunt. I'm going to go to the

(43:12):
one where I have the most likely chance. You talk
about not having any bucks daylighting, I'm probably gonna go
to where I at least have one close, you know,
maybe showing up half hour after dark, an hour after dark.
If it's too much mill of the night, I'm going
to assume that I'm nowhere close to where he's living.
I'm assuming he's you know, on neighboring property or something

(43:34):
like that. But if he's close, my assumption is that
he's going to be up on his feet a lot
earlier on those conditions. So yeah, the short answer is absolutely,
I'm hunting some of my best spots where I have
a good target buck living on that day. I'm not
going to miss that one or haunt somewhere else.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
Okay, same time of the year, middle of October and
you're out there hunting, I'm gonna say it's not that condition, though,
we're gonna say it kind of average temperatures for mid October,
somewhere between the fifteenth and let's put it between the
fourteenth and twentieth, somewhere in that window. And you're out
there and you spot a mature buck and several other

(44:18):
younger deer harassing a dough, like chasing her, the bucks
like the big boy standing around her, and you're seeing
like ruddy kind of stuff happening. But it's October sixteenth
or seventeenth or something like that. If you were to
see that on that evening hunt, how would that change
your scenario or how would that change your hunting strategy

(44:39):
if at all, for the next day or two? Or
does that factor in zero because you're not worried about
that behavior at this point, it would.

Speaker 3 (44:49):
Change it from the standpoint of, Okay, he he's got
to at least know that that dough is close. You know,
a lot of times what you see during that timeframe
or maybe even a earlier, is the younger bucks doing it.
I mean, and I never really pay attention to them,
but those maturity are almost never wrong, and they just
they know. So if he was there standing next to

(45:13):
that though, and run another little bucks off. I know
there's something to it, and I know that he's probably
gonna follow her for however long, So it's going to
change my strategy from the standpoint of yeah, I know
where he's at, he's probably not going to go too far.
What is she going to do? Is she going to
be coming to this green food source? So she you know,

(45:35):
that's more or less how I'm gonna hunt him is
based on what she's going to do, because my guess
is that he's not going to go too far from
where she's at for a few days.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
Yeah, So so give me a little more detail in
the situation. Let's let's let's zoom forward. Say we're in November,
when we just know it's you know, it's on, and
you do spot a buck that you're after, locked on
a dough like he's doing all the things like he
used to said, he's he's scaring off every other buck.
He's standing over top of her in some little pocket

(46:09):
of brush. Everywhere she goes, he goes, So you know
what's happening. How do you try to kill a deer
in that situation? I know some people get super aggressive
in that case, and then some people actually get kind
of conservative and wait for him to break off almost
and start moving around more. What do you do in
that scenario?

Speaker 3 (46:32):
And my experience, it is very very tough because a
lot of times that doe won't It just doesn't seem
like she does the normal things, like you know, maybe
every other doe is going to still go to the
food source same time, but she's going to lay up
in that thick cover so she can you know, at
least minimize the harassment from other deer other bucks. So

(46:55):
that's very very tough. I think during that timeframe, I
just want to be in a tree in the area
because you know, you obviously want to be there when
he if and when he breaks off. But if I
it's so situational. I think if if I could safely
hunt a nearby food source that she could potentially drag

(47:20):
him out to, I think that's probably what I'm gonna
focus on. It just becomes more about hunting her, like
I said, than it is about hunting him. Uh So
maybe it's I think in the evenings that's what I'm
gonna do on an afternoon hunt. I don't morning hunt.
Maybe I'm gonna put myself in those spots to try

(47:42):
to catch him breaking away to go find another dough.
You know, maybe it's those good pinches or funnels or
down inside of bedding areas or whatever. But an evening hunt,
I've just seen it too often where she will get
antsy and need to go out and get some food
and he'll be right in toe. You know, we've probably

(48:03):
all seen it. So that's probably the situation I'm gonna
put myself in, just based on odds thing and just
based on my personal experience. That's probably how I would
break it down. Is, you know, what's the food source
she's probably gonna go to. How can I hunt that
and hope that she just she just brings him by

(48:24):
with her.

Speaker 2 (48:27):
She brings them by. Let's say you're sitting in your
evening spot. She comes out to the food source. She
got him in tow, but she brings him out of
range from you. So they're out there in the food source.
She's feeding, he's standing there. Maybe they're you know, let's
say one hundred yards away. You're up in a tree,

(48:49):
tons of thick cover. There's really thick brush underneath you
that kind of goes all the way around this little
food source. There's a couple of things maybe you could
do in this situation. Let's say that the wind direction
and speed and cover along the edge of the field
is such that you hypothetically could climb out of the

(49:11):
tree and try to stalk on him and round the
edge of that thing. You could also hypothetically call try
to pull him away. You could hypothetically do nothing at
all and just wait. But let's say all those things
are on the table, plus anything else you can think of.
What would you do in that scenario? Do you get
aggressive because he's right there and he's going to be there,

(49:32):
or are you gonna play conservative?

Speaker 3 (49:34):
Yeah? So I'm obviously purely going to speak on my
typical hunting situation, and that is that those chances come
and go, you know, very fleeting, like to have a
target deer out in front of you. I don't hunt
enough acres and enough unpressured ground to let him do

(49:58):
his thing without trying something, because I may not get
another chance. Now if I was in a different situation
where and he's probably gonna do this again in a
few nights, if I don't mess it up, you know,
maybe I would think differently. But that's not my situation.
So my situation. I think first and foremost, I'm gonna
think about calling to him, even though it's a lot

(50:19):
lower odds, because he is with that dough, you can
sometimes get them to come just a little bit. Maybe
you only need him to come twenty five yards and
then he's in bow range. So again situational, I don't
know how far he is in this scenario. But the
other thing I'm considering on the calling is can he
get down wind of me to where if he does

(50:41):
make the big circle, am I gonna? Am I screwed?
Because there are certain situations where I just don't call,
because you know, every mature buck is likely gonna if
he's committing, he's gonna come in downwind of you, And
if you don't have a shot on the down wind
side or before he gets to the down wind side
or whatever, you have really really really limited your chances

(51:02):
of that scenario playing out successfully successfully. Again, you know
he's not gonna he's now been educated to that stand
location and you being in that tree. But if it's
stick enough cover below you, he may commit just a
little bit, not to completely leave that though, but just

(51:23):
to get a better look. He may not be coming
in for a full on commitment fight type of situation
where he's gonna circle down wind, but if you can
draw him just a little bit with curiosity, and probably
what I'm gonna either try is a grunt, caller, snort wheeze,
one of one of those two. You know, maybe I'd
start with a really non aggressive grunt just to see

(51:45):
if I can peak his curiosity, and I'd probably build
it into a snort wheeze if that wasn't successful, and
just see if I can just pull him up. Because
you know that situation where you were talking about earlier,
when it when it's the mid October or mid to
late October, and he is kind of with that though,
but you know, she's not quite in heat yet. I
think he's more likely to pull off of her temporarily

(52:08):
as as compared to you know, we're talking November eleventh
or whatever, and you know he is not letting her
get a few more than a few feet away, your
chances are probably a lot lower than so, you know,
obviously everything we talked about situational, but I think that's
what what I would try in that situation. Low odds,
but I'm not I'm not letting him just walk out

(52:31):
of there at those those chances are too few and
far between for me to just watch it happen.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
Yeah yeah, Okay, we're still in November. Let's say it's
that first week in November. This is a snare that
happened to a lot of us last year. First week
in November. You got your vacation time in Maybe this
is it. This is your big week and we've got
like seventy degree temperatures the whole week. Hot, creuddy. How

(53:01):
does your hunting strategy change at all for that time
of year? How does your approach? How does your mental
game change when you're stuck with hot temperatures for your
big rut trip in November.

Speaker 3 (53:15):
I think in general, it affects us more than it
does the deer, you know. I think it's it becomes
mentally taxing on us because we just think that it's
not the perfect conditions. It's you know, we're not going
to see as many deer. They're just going to lay
there until dark or whatever it is. I think that

(53:36):
we paint a worse picture than it is. I think
they're still going to do their thing, you know, if
it's if it's noon on a hot day and he
needs to go find a dough. He's going to go
find a dough, you know. I think there's certain things
you can do to up your odds, though, like be
around water. I think they obviously will, you know, tend

(53:57):
to visit water, either water holes or creeks or whatever
to drink out of more frequently during those hot conditions.
But you know, if that's my vacation, I'm definitely not
sitting it out. And I've seen way too many big
deer and I've killed big deer on hot days to
think that I'm out of the game.

Speaker 2 (54:20):
Okay, I like that. I feel the same way. I've
gone into so many hot November periods and been like
just bumming out in my head about it, and then
the deer prove the deer prove you wrong. Now, yeah,
sometimes they prove you right too. Let's stay with that

(54:47):
kind of mental side of things a little bit here,
because I think one of the things that rained true
for me a lot last year was just all the
expectations we put on the RUT. I think we've all
seen so many like hunting videos and we've heard so
many stories about how amazing the rut is. That every
year we go into it thinking it's going to be
slammed dunk, It's going to be chaos the whole time.

(55:08):
It's gonna be just like you know, we saw on
Midwest White Deal, just like we saw on juries whatever.
It is, right, And I think there probably are some
places where it actually is like that all the time, maybe,
but for most of us, for most of us, at
least in my case and everything I've seen in my friends,
you know, it's usually a whole lot of slower days
punctuated by a few moments of that magic, you know.

(55:32):
So let's say, though it's November seventh, which is one
of those days that a lot of people point to
is like maybe the best day of the entire rut
in a lot of the Midwest and a lot of
the country. So let's say it's right in there, and
they are very high hopes for it, very high expectations.
It should be amazing. Conditions are good. Let's say it's cold,
it's like in the forties, the winds just like the

(55:54):
way you want it. Maybe there's been a little bit
of snow over the last couple of days early in
the morning when it's a little bit cold, So it
just should be on but for the last three days,
you've been sitting in a primo location, like a pinch
point downwind of a doe betting area kind of situation
that's like you couldn't paint any better and it's dead.

(56:14):
You've sat three days in great rot conditions and you
don't understand it, but you're just not seeing the activity
that you should. What do you do in that kind
of situation where like you're for some reason the rut
seemingly is dead it should be on. How do you
address that mentally? How do you change your strategy if

(56:35):
at all? Or do you just stick it out because
you know, like eventually it'll happen.

Speaker 3 (56:41):
Are we talking like a big property where there's multiple
locations like that, like you know what, Let's say it
is a down wind side of a really good betting area.
We are we talking the property is big enough to
have multiple of those type of spots. Are we are
we talking about, Hey, this is your best thought that
based on all your scouting, all your knowledge of the property, everything,

(57:04):
this is the best spot you have.

Speaker 2 (57:07):
I'd be curious to hear your answer for both. Let's
say there's one situation where you have other options and
then one situation that is what you just described, like
this is the one spot.

Speaker 3 (57:16):
Yeah, I think in general the situation you described is
the rut. If I could sum it up, you're either
in the game you're out of the game, and that
can change on a dime anytime. So my short answer is,
I'm not going to get discouraged and think that there's
something wrong with the spot if I haven't seen anything
in three days. However, that is extremely mentally challenging to

(57:43):
keep going to that spot over and over again. And
so if I had other access to other spots on
that property where potentially, you know, if I'm hunting a
target buck, he could be at that one or all
the bucks in general, there could be a hot do
over there that I have access to us just as
good as a spot. I may pop over and try
that if I'm able to, maybe maybe even just for

(58:08):
a change of scenery and a confidence boost, just to
get me back in the game. But I guess my
short answer is that it's just I've seen it so
many times where you just you can feel like you're
so far out of the game, and then one morning
it's just on fire and you see every buck within

(58:30):
the neighborhood in that same spot that you just watched.
You know, you saw three der in five days. It's
just it's just the nature of the rut. That's why
it can be so challenging. But it's also such a
fun time when when it does happen, it's it kind
of makes up for all the slow times. But it
can be it can be slower than you know, that
October low timeframe, you know that you were describing. If

(58:53):
you're just not in the right just and a lot
of it's luck. It's just the the nature of of
you know, where the hot though come into play, and
you know where the bucks kind of run them off to,
and you know a lot of different factors like that
that can be out of your control. But I guess
my short answer for the question is, don't just get
discouraged by the spot just because of the lack of activity.

Speaker 2 (59:16):
Yeah, I think the rut is kind of like the
way my wife describes pregnancy in that you uh, you
you know, my wife had had one of our babies
and it was like the worst thing ever, right, so
painful and so hard and all that kind of stuff.
But like a few weeks later, she completely forgot about
the bad stuff and only remember the good stuff. And
I think that's kind of how it is with the

(59:38):
rut probably for us, right, we forget all those miserable
long days and all we remember is like the twenty
seven minutes that were incredible, And so when the next
year rolls around, like, oh man, it's gonna be incredible,
and we just forgot about those other fifteen days.

Speaker 3 (59:50):
Yeah, there you go. But it's expectations too, like you described,
it's you know, when we think about November, we have
a certain picture in our mind based on on what
we've seen or watched or whatever. So the expectations can
be a little bit skewed there. But yeah, I agree,
and you can you can quickly forget about all those

(01:00:12):
slow times.

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
Yeah, So speaking of like sitting one spot for a while,
I know I think this is correct, Correct me if
I'm wrong. But I think last year, on November thirteenth,
you killed a buck and you had sat that same
stand for three days in a row.

Speaker 3 (01:00:29):
Correct.

Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
So I'm curious what is the situation that has to
be in place for you to sit one place for
that many days in a row. Because I know you've
talked about in the past liking to bounce around a
decent bit. I know a lot of people you don't
like to do that for good reason. They don't want
to burn out a spot. So what scenario would you like?

(01:00:52):
You know, just like just just bum rush a stand
over and over and over again like that.

Speaker 3 (01:00:58):
Two things access and confidence in the spot. So your
access is probably the first thing that I would say.
Your access has to be so good to be able
to hunt a spot over and over again without decreasing
the effectiveness of it or how good of a spot.

(01:01:18):
It is really fast, even when you're not spooking deer.
You know, just by hunting a spot, there's some residual
effect to you being there, you know, whether a deer
comes by later that evening or the next day or
two days. I mean, there's there's definitely some residual from
you coming in and out of that spot. Maybe you

(01:01:39):
laid your gear on the ground before you climbed up,
or whatever it is. You're having an impact on that spot.
So your access up to the tree, getting in from
where you're parking, all the way up to the tree
and back out again. You know, I think sometimes people
think about getting or or forget to think about the

(01:01:59):
getting out part. They can get in clean, but they
forget about the access out and where the deer going
to be, you know, six hours later after you came in.
So in and out has to be the number one
factor for hunting a spot over and over again. Otherwise
each time you hunt it, you're going to see fewer
and fewer deer, and especially in mature bugs. The second

(01:02:21):
thing is the confidence in that spot. So that's the
example that you brought up, is I knew at some
point that deer had to come by that tree based
on the terrain, based on where the primary betting areas were.
If he's checking these areas, eventually he's going to come

(01:02:41):
by this spot, just because of the way the creek
funnels and how it was pretty much in between two
of the best betting areas I know about. So my
confidence in that I was able to tell myself just
be in the tree, just be there. Eventually it's going
to play out. Keep keep going there as long as

(01:03:01):
the wind directions right. And I was fortunate that had
three straight days of some type of westerly wind. It
did vary from southwest to northwest, but as long as
the wind is right, you need to be in that
tree because my confidence in that spot. So I think
those are probably the two things that I would quickly
point to to where I'm not going to bounce around.

(01:03:24):
I have enough faith that that's that's where I need
to be.

Speaker 2 (01:03:28):
You killed them one day, three what like how many
more days? If you didn't kill him that day? How
much more time do you think you would have given it?
Assuming that the wind stayed good.

Speaker 3 (01:03:40):
I would have probably kept I probably would have kept going.
I mean, maybe I would have found another spot that
was a similar setup along that creek that wear it
pinched down and you know, maybe he was having not
seen him for four or five, six days whatever, you know,
knowing that he's around, but maybe he's just not coming
by this, but maybe he's beering off to where I

(01:04:01):
can't see him somewhere. I'd maybe it just but but man,
I had so much confidence that he was eventually going
to walk by. Maybe he'd be slightly out of boat range,
but so much confidence I was eventually going to see
him from that tree. So I'd like to think I
would have just stuck with it and just you know,

(01:04:22):
just assume that maybe he was with the dough that's
why I wasn't seeing him or you know something, I
just knew if he was searching, he was going to
come by that tree.

Speaker 2 (01:04:31):
Yeah, well it certainly worked out the way he wanted to.

Speaker 3 (01:04:35):
Yeah, that's just that's one of those spots. I don't
I'm not going to say every property has one, but
probably probably more properties than a guy thinks has one
of those spots. It's just access has to be really good.
And that's that's probably the biggest challenge in most guys face,
is being able to get in out clean enough that

(01:04:56):
you're not affecting the quality of the hunting.

Speaker 2 (01:04:59):
Yeah, all right, December, we're now in the late season,
and let's say you still haven't filled your tag yet,
and for whatever reason, you have lost access to any
of your properties that have ag on them or food plots,

(01:05:20):
so you're stuck hunting properties that are just timber, old fields,
swamp grass, stuff like that. Basically, I'm trying to put
you in a situation that you know, most people would
not want, right because December is when we all want
to hit. We want to hunt those standing food sources
or whatever. But let's say you just don't have that,

(01:05:40):
what would you try to do in that scenario to
get a deer killed.

Speaker 3 (01:05:45):
So the and I've been in these situations before, you know,
when it comes to the late season, and especially here
in Iowa, that early December through mid December time frame
is probably the most pressure the deer face all season.
It's the two and a half weeks of shotgun season
where everyone's out pushing them around, just NonStop pressure, and

(01:06:09):
they're moving to the best cover that they had that
time of year, and there's not much of it obviously
being late season, but they're finding those areas where they're
not disturbed and they're pretty much going to stay in
those spots through the end of the season here in
Iowa the end of the season of January tenth. So

(01:06:29):
a deer, especially mature buck, is cover. I think I
think it is probably higher priority than easy access to food.
I think a deer will travel a long ways, even
if it's after dark to get to that food, and
they'll be back in the safety of cover before daylight.
But if that cover that's a mile away or half

(01:06:53):
mile away is the best cover and a lot better
cover than the stuff that's acent to the feeding area,
they still think they're going to be in that cover.
So I'm gonna look for areas like that. You know,
I don't have the food, but maybe I might have
the cover. Maybe I'm gonna have some of those little
pockets that that didn't get disturbed or those pockets that

(01:07:13):
the deer potentially moved into during those pressure days or
weeks of the of the gun season. So long distance
scouting and trail cameras are probably gonna be my two
best friends with regards to finding those spots and finding
the deer in those spots. And then it's just, uh,

(01:07:34):
it's just the challenge of figuring out how to get
to them and how to catch the deer coming out
of them. You know, you usually can guess where the
nearest food source is even if you don't have access
to it. You know, maybe you can drive right before
before dark and see all the does that are out there.

(01:07:56):
That's probably where he's going to be going at some point.
But if you can get close enough to that thick cover,
you'll have a good chance of catching him in the daylight,
especially if he has a decent ways to go, He's
probably gonna get up and at least start moving around
somewhat early. Even if he doesn't hit the opening until
after dark. So that's that's probably how I play that situation.

(01:08:19):
I can't think of any specific examples to go off of,
but I've certainly had that. I mean, I haven't always
had access to properties where I could plant food or
do anything like that, So it's it's a common scenario.

Speaker 2 (01:08:39):
Let's let's flip it a little bit and give you
the food back. So let's say you now have properties
with crops. But let's say that you were after Let's
let's bring back our mega giant buck. Let's say he
was around all year. Now you hunted him off fall,
never could catch up with him, and then during gun
season someone kills him finally, so he gets killed during

(01:09:03):
that December gun season. And now you've devoted the last
two and a half months or whatever to that deer.
Now you're picking up the pieces and have to like
start from square one. And let's say now you have
to find a new deer to target. It's late season.
Is it just kind of what you just described, but
now you're glass and fields and putting cameras on fields
to try to find something new or what does that

(01:09:25):
specifically look like when you are now hunting you know,
like you just said, very pressured deer, and you're trying
to kind of refigure them out because you've been ignoring
everything else as you were focused on this one deer elsewhere.
What does that look like now?

Speaker 3 (01:09:40):
But I still have the food in this or I
do have the food in this scenario.

Speaker 2 (01:09:43):
You do have food in this scenario.

Speaker 3 (01:09:46):
So if you do have the food, you still got
to have the cover obviously, like the scenario I just
laid out. The reason I end up hunting a lot
of times on the food source during late season is
because it gets too hard to access anything else. You know,
all the foolage has gone. The deer pressured. A lot

(01:10:08):
of times, they're they're kind of grouped up, and there's
you have a lot of a lot of eyes and
ears and noses in a small area compared to earlier
in the season. Earlier in the season, I'd prefer almost
to not be you know, I spent a lot of
time playing food plots for myself and for other guys.
I haven't killed that many deer on the food plots

(01:10:30):
in my career. You know, a lot of times I
think the biggest benefit, well, a couple of things I
love food plotting just because it's you know, I love
seeing things grow, I love the experimentation of it, all
that type stuff. But the primary hunting benefit for me
is just keeping the deer around and on or near
the property for a longer period of time in the

(01:10:51):
season as opposed to not having the food and they
have to go somewhere else to find it. But I'd
still always rather hunt them going to or from it
if I can. But late season I tend to be
on the food just because it's hard to get into
those other spots. But yeah, finding the deer in that case,
if I'm starting over to find the deer, I'm obviously

(01:11:13):
gonna have cameras on the food source and and just
watch them, you know, try to find a spot where
you can see long ways. Maybe it's multiple food sources.
Maybe you have a cornfield you can watch them, a
bean field you can watch you know, whether it's the
picked standing doesn't matter, they're all they're all good food
sources at that time frame. But yeah, because of the

(01:11:34):
way I hunt, I'm still gonna want to find a
deer to go after and not just not just sit
a random food source hoping something comes out that I
want to shoot.

Speaker 2 (01:11:46):
So let's say you spot them, you spot when you're like, yeah,
that's that's one. I'll I'll take a stab at. Let's
say you have a decent number of other bowhunters still
around this area, so you find one. You found a
pocket where these deer deers still feel safe, but you know,
like there's gonna be other guys in and around here still,

(01:12:07):
so this isn't This might not stay a secret forever.
And now we're down to those final days of the season.
Let's push it later into the late season. We're down
to maybe you've got like seven to ten days left
of the season. You find one, you know there's a
chance other guys are gonna be in and around here.

(01:12:28):
I know a lot of us, at least I'm assuming
you maybe not, but I'm assuming you would love there
to be a big cold front or some snow or
something coming in that'd like make it very likely he's
gonna come out. But let's say that's not in the
forecast at all and we're just not seeing that yet.
Are you going to keep waiting and waiting and waiting
and hope that happens before the last day of the season,

(01:12:48):
or are you going to start taking a swing because
you have to because the season is running out, and
there's also other guys that might be poking in this
weekend when that comes up too.

Speaker 3 (01:12:58):
Yeah, for sure taking a swing. I mean, if you
don't with a few days left, you're you're almost just saying, hey,
I'll get him next year. And there's so much that
can happen between you know, then and your next opportunity
that Again, it is just I don't have that type
of situation where I could just throw my hands up

(01:13:19):
and throwing a towel. But I think specifically what I
would do is probably try to get closer some way, somehow,
whether it's even if it's having to hunt on the ground,
get closer to where he is entering the food source,
get closer to where he's leaving the bedding area, whatever

(01:13:43):
it is. You have to get aggressive there. At least
in my eyes, you have to, just because your your
chances of that happening in the last few days. By
sitting and not being aggressive, it just seems it would
have already happened likely if if you're if it's going
to you know, sitting in the same spot or watching

(01:14:05):
from a distance, hoping he's eventually gonna come into Bowt range.
So yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna get aggressive there, whether
it's moving stand locations or hunting from the ground, even
even potentially trying a morning hunt. You know that that'd
be something that maybe guys don't think about during the
late season, is it's it's evening. It's evening. But maybe
you can get in super early through the back door

(01:14:27):
and just be in there waiting for him, and maybe
you don't beat him in, but maybe he gets up,
you know, mid morning to stretch his legs and mosey
around a little bit, or maybe you switch his betting
locations based on a wind switch or something. So I'm
gonna try to get creative on what I could do
to make it happen those last few.

Speaker 2 (01:14:45):
Days you mentioned liking to hunt those evenings, you know,
on the food or right around that stuff. What's your
what's your approach?

Speaker 3 (01:14:56):
Now?

Speaker 2 (01:14:56):
I know every property, every situation is going to be different,
but what kinds of things work for you for exit strategies?
You know, on the food late season, a lot of
deer out there. Hunting on the food is really hard,
especially like you know, you get crunchy snow or crunchy leaves.
It's cold out. It's hard to beat the eyes, let
alone the ears too. What kinds of things have you

(01:15:19):
found work in that? You know? Harder about as hard
as it gets, as far as the exit on food
will be the late season exits unless you have you know,
the car or someone driving up that kind of thing.
What kind of things have you found to work?

Speaker 3 (01:15:33):
So I lost you for a few seconds just to
make sure I have got you back at the end.
So are you asking about how what have I seen
to get out of tricky situations? Late season started getting
out at night?

Speaker 2 (01:15:44):
Yeah, if you're hunting close to the food, how are
you exiting safely without destroying the whole thing?

Speaker 3 (01:15:49):
Yeah? Very very tough. I'd say more often than not,
if I'm in a situation, I try to not put
myself in those situations. Is by you know, creating a
good entry exit spot. You know, maybe I have a
screen you know, covering the food source and my hunting
locations that I can when I climb down I'm out

(01:16:11):
of sight, or maybe it's a hill that I'm coming
down the backside, or maybe my stand drops right down
to a ditch. Whatever it is, but certainly that's not
always a case. I have shot doze before, you know,
to clear the field, just shoot a dough that's close by.

(01:16:33):
A lot of times the rest of the deer don't
really know what happened. I'd rather have all the deer
run off because of a noise and all the other
deer running then them sit there and watch me climb
down from a tree or climb out of the blind.
So as long as I have an easy way of
getting their in and out, you know, maybe I have
you know, I like using an electric four wheel UTV

(01:16:57):
or equad to be pretty quiet. If I have that
part clearby, I can shoot her and make a good shot.
Maybe it's a close shot. I know she's not going
to go far. I can get in hook onto her
and get out of there quick before. A lot of
times the deer will be back in that plot in
half an hour, you know, they're not bothered by it.

(01:17:17):
Other times I'm just forced to wait until well after
dark and then just go really slow from there and
just kind of take your chances. There's you know, sometimes
if you just don't have good exit, you're you're you're
just doing the least amount of damage kind of taking
the lesser of two evils. And for me, the deer

(01:17:39):
seem to relax a lot after dark. It seems like
you get away, you know, either after dark or before daylight,
you can get away with a lot more. And that
tends to be the case. Sometimes I'll wait hour hour
and a half after dark where I can't even you know,
see my hand in front of my face, and then
I'll just go really slow and try to try not
to make noise. And you know, a lot of times

(01:18:01):
I think the deer aren't bothered at all. They they
may or may not be able to see you, I
don't know, but they don't seem to act the same
as they do in the daylight in terms of spooking.
So those are probably the main things if I get
stuck in a situation like that.

Speaker 2 (01:18:19):
Yeah, it's always a doozy.

Speaker 3 (01:18:21):
I've tried the kyo kyo calls or howling with your mouth.
Sometimes that works, but you're still drawing attention to where
you're at. You know, even if they may you may
get lucky and they think it actually is a kyo,
it still is that spot you're hoping to go to
tomorrow night, you know. So I don't love that one.

(01:18:42):
And sometimes they just look at you and you're not
close enough to scare them anyway, so they just keep feeding.

Speaker 2 (01:18:51):
And you sound so awful. They're looking up in the
tree and saying, look at that idiot humans.

Speaker 3 (01:18:55):
That's the reality. Probably.

Speaker 2 (01:18:58):
Yeah, all right, man, Well you made it through the gauntlet.
You survived. Great, great insight. There. I've got one last
thing for which is like the rapid fire session, where
I'm going to ask you a series of quick questions
and you have to answer with a one word answer. Effectively,
you can't explain yourself. You just have to give me
your first quick, gut instinct answer to these and then

(01:19:20):
followed by one normal question after that. So good for that.

Speaker 3 (01:19:25):
Let's do it, all right?

Speaker 2 (01:19:26):
So, would you take a fifty yard shot at a
white tail with a bow? Yes?

Speaker 3 (01:19:32):
Or no? It's situational, but I'm just gonna go with no.

Speaker 2 (01:19:40):
Ok. If you could only have one of these tools
for the rest of your hunts, for the rest of
your life, you can only pick one of these. Which
one would you pick? Would it be a grunt tube
or set of rat ling antlers?

Speaker 3 (01:19:53):
Got two.

Speaker 2 (01:19:55):
Expandable or fixed blade broadheads.

Speaker 3 (01:20:00):
In situational, but I'm gonna go fix blade.

Speaker 2 (01:20:03):
Okay, should you stop a buck with some kind of
sound before shooting if it's you know, walking, Yes or no.

Speaker 3 (01:20:10):
If it's walking, I'm gonna go yes.

Speaker 2 (01:20:15):
Does the moon matter for deer movement? Yes or no?

Speaker 3 (01:20:20):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:20:22):
All right, here's the lengthier one. Let's say that I
rule the world and I have control over your hunting
privileges for the rest of your life, and I am
going to take away your hunting license in Iowa and
any other state you could want to go to forever

(01:20:43):
unless you can kill a five and a half year old,
like you know, a shooter buck, the buck that you
would shoot in Iowa, whatever that might be, a big
giant deer that you would shoot. You have to kill
a deer of that caliber this year. If you don't
kill that deer this year, you lose your privileges forever.

(01:21:04):
If you do kill that deer, you get to keep
on hunting forever. Here's the thing, though, I'm only going
to give you one day to kill that buck. You
get one day, and you get to pick one stand location.
So tell me what date on the calendar you would
pick for this day, and then describe for me. This
can either be an actual tree stand location or place

(01:21:27):
you've actually hunted, or this can be like a hypothetical,
make believe perfect situation that you'd want for that date.
So tell me the date you're going to pick, and
paint me a picture of what that best possible stand
site could be to get this buck killed in this
very very high pressure situation.

Speaker 3 (01:21:46):
That's a tough one. One quick clarifying question, is this
any shooter buck or is this a specific shooter buck.

Speaker 2 (01:21:55):
I'll let it be. We'll let it be any shooter buck,
but I am curious if you had to pick a
specific shooter buck how that would change this, because that's
interesting to me too.

Speaker 3 (01:22:05):
It may not change it a ton. And I'll give
you two kind of answers on this one. Probably the
one i'm gonna pick for this question because I don't
want you taking away the hunting rights forever. I'm gonna
pick probably the less fun scenario, but the more effective scenario.
It's probably going to be that late season hunt on food.

(01:22:28):
You know, let's say January fifth, snow, cold weather, the
deer just have to feed, They have to feed, they
have to feed early. It's hot pressure. You know everything
we talk about. I think your odds are so high
that every deer's going to be in that food source
in daylight. Every deer that's living near that food source

(01:22:49):
is going to be there. It's not what I would
pick if I was, you know, just wanting the most fun,
most exciting hunt, if I'm going that direction, and I
want to, but it's still any buck, Like I still
just need to kill any five and a half year
old deer. I'm gonna pick let's say November I go

(01:23:17):
a little bit later. I'll go like November sixteenth, you know,
kind of on the back side of that where the
deer really starting to search for those last few days,
or maybe even November eighteenth, a little bit later. But
I'm gonna, you know, pick a really good pinch that's
obviously gonna give me a good chance at a bow
range shot that's close to dough betting areas and areas

(01:23:40):
that those deer are going to keep seeking. I think
that's a lot more fun hunt, but still high odds,
just not quite high odds, high enough odds compared to
the late season need to feed type of hunt. As
far as the individual buck versus any mature buck yeah,

(01:24:01):
any immature I'm not going to take. If I'm trying
to kill an individual book, I'm not going to pick
that November day. I'm for sure going to go late season,
or potentially my next option might be late October, perfect conditions,
cold front, of high pressure, all that type of stuff
for that individual, that one specific target book.

Speaker 2 (01:24:22):
So for that January fifth hunt, you said, you know,
by food, cold, snowy day, what would like that perfect
standsite be though? You know, how how would you like
that's that's both season for you guys too, right, So
how would you set up perfectly? You know, a lot
a lot of big late season food sources can be
hard with a bow because they're big, a big beanfield

(01:24:44):
or something. Right, how'd you get it done from that scenario?

Speaker 3 (01:24:49):
That goes way back to your initial design stages on
the on the food line, how it sets up. You
know a lot of times if you're if you're in
a bigger field that is obviously too big to just boha,
you can't cover the whole thing. Most likely still the
deer gonna enter and exit, or let's just say enter,
because that's normally what you're you're playing off of. They're

(01:25:11):
still going to enter in specific spots. Maybe it's one area,
maybe it's two areas, whatever, it's not like they're coming
from three hundred and sixty degrees around that. So in
that case, you know, a lot of times I'll try
to maybe set up the plot to where it's narrow
and then expands out, because you can't just have one

(01:25:32):
super long, narrow plot that's going to provide enough food
to last to January fifth, but you need something that's
gonna keep on by that so that you know. Different
things that I've done or tried or have helped other
people set up would be that situation where it's narrow
at first and you're almost letting the deer work by you,
and then you know out into the bigger part and

(01:25:54):
that allows you to normally sneak out back that other
way too. That's one. Or you could have either an
L shape where you're on the corner of the L.
A lot of times deer will you know to see
what other deer in the plot or whatever they're eventually
going to come by that middle point, or you can

(01:26:14):
you know, hour glasst to where it pinches them down
in the middle. Different things like that. Other scenarios if
you're not lucky enough to design the shape of it,
would be you know, scrape posts out within bow range.
Even late in the season like that, there's still good
chances deer at least gonna just come check it out
out of curiosity. Just says more of a scent check

(01:26:37):
or whatever. Other thing you could do is maybe overseed.
Let's say it it is a grain field. You could
potentially overseed some some greens, whether it be cereal grains
or brascas or something into a spot that is in
bow range. So you have this big field, but you know,
deer are naturally browsers, so a lot of times they'll

(01:26:57):
they'll feed the grain, they'll come get a bite of green.
You know, they'll kind of go back and forth, but
put something there. Another one would be you have a big,
let's say, swebean field, and you go in in August
and you till up you know, strips, Maybe there's spokes
of a wheel that all come back and meet to

(01:27:17):
where you're hunting. Location is whether it's a blind or
a tree stand. Eventually they're going to hit those and
kind of use those as travel paths. So a lot
a lot of different things you can do it's just
it's pretty situational, and I'd probably look at a spot
each time and you know, try to decide what's best
for that particular spot. But a lot of things you
can do to try to get a deer to eventually

(01:27:40):
be within bow range at some point in that evening
to work past your stand or blind.

Speaker 2 (01:27:47):
I like your plan. I think you get it done.
It's it's a nightmare scenario kind of. But also like
when I listen to people's answers, especially like yours, when
you when you're talking through all the different things you
could do, would in a weird way, it would be
a pretty fun challenge just to take, you know, to
have like hundreds of days of work to try to

(01:28:08):
fine tune down to just one day to execute. It
would be an interesting challenge to try to pull off.

Speaker 3 (01:28:13):
I think you should do.

Speaker 2 (01:28:14):
Stacking every little thing. I guess I should should taste
the poison I've been sending out that I would.

Speaker 3 (01:28:23):
I would watch that series. It would be fun, especially
like it'd be cool if you gave like some type
of deadline to a guy to where he had to
pick either the property or the deer he had to
kill on that day and and see how it changes,
like how much additional scouting he does, how many more
observation sits he does like leading up to that date?

(01:28:47):
That would be pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (01:28:49):
Yeah would Yeah, that is is a really good idea.

Speaker 3 (01:28:52):
I'm not volunteering, you just wouldn't want.

Speaker 2 (01:28:56):
To sacrifice all those days hunting or Another thing I
thought about too, would be like what if you restricted
people to like, hey, you could only hunt October and
you have to get it all done October, or you
could only hunt November and you can't. So how would
that change your strategy and your scouting and all your plans,
Like if you were pushed into different parts of the
season too.

Speaker 3 (01:29:16):
I would love to see it because I think, and
I'm not saying people are lying, but I think the
way we talk about it, it would be interesting to
see if you actually had to do it, if that
backed up what you thought in your head you would do,
because I bet more often that it'd be different. I
think it's easier to talk about than you are forced
to do it. You may do things completely differently.

Speaker 2 (01:29:38):
Yeah, I mean, can you imagine, like if you had
no November to be kind of using as a crutch,
you know, knowing that November's coming and you just had October.
I mean, you'd be taking some big swings. You'd be ye,
be really interesting, And.

Speaker 3 (01:29:52):
There are certain situations where that may be more effective
for a guy. You know, it would not be fun
in a situation you have multiple tags, you still can't November.
But for guys that have one tag, you know, very
limited spots to hunt, you know, maybe you would serve
them better to be more aggressive early on. Yeah, it
could be a better situation. So that'd be pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (01:30:12):
It would be interesting. Well, Jared, this is a This
has been fun. I enjoyed it, really really good insight
you shared there, and it's got me even more jacked
up than I was beforehand, which is hard to believe
because I'm pretty amped. Yeah. Man, you had a hell
of a season last year. You killed like one hundred
and ninety four inch buck, I think a one seventy,

(01:30:34):
which is like a dream deer for me, like matching
flyers off the twos. I think it was at the
threes something like that. Then another big old late season Buck.
Do you feel like you can match it this year?
Do you feel like, uh no, you can't match it?
Do you have do you feel like across your new farm,
I mean that it's not new anymore, but across your

(01:30:56):
home farm or your other permissions and things like that,
you feel optimistic about what's coming up or where do
things stand.

Speaker 3 (01:31:03):
Yeah, I am, I'm super excited. Like a lot of times,
it gets back to what we were talking about at
the beginning, you know, just just there were times where
this time of year I was still so stressed about
what had to be done and what. Now I'm a
little bit past that to where I'm very excited just
to get out and then getting a tree stand again

(01:31:25):
and enjoy it. I think there's there's certainly potential, there's
good prospects around. But regardless, I'm I'm just super excited
to be back in a tree and hunting and chasing
some of these deer. And yeah, things are looking good.
It seems like it's this Most of my properties aren't
great summer properties, so I don't have a ton of
really good ones on camera yet, but they're slowly but

(01:31:47):
surely starting to show up. These next thirty days for
me are always really good as far as deer popping
back in for the first time. They start to make
a few excursions here and there before moving back in
full time, you know, later in September early October. But
this is the time frame where I get to see
him for the first time. They may pop in and

(01:32:09):
you know, maybe it's just for a night, but at
least get to see what they look like this year.

Speaker 2 (01:32:13):
Cool. Well that's exciting. Yeah, Well, where can people follow
along with all this, Jared? Where can they see the
past videos and any other new things you've got coming
up this fall?

Speaker 3 (01:32:23):
Yeah, the primary spot is just the YouTube channel, just
the Jared Mills YouTube channel. I'm gonna start really ramping
up the content here over the next few weeks as
I start to prepare for the season, and then of
course the hunts will be on there. You can follow
along on social media. I'm not super active on their
YouTube is probably the best best place, but yeah, I mean,

(01:32:44):
I love interacting with guys. I love helping. I love
hearing about different scenarios, hearing about good stories, all that
type of stuff. So you know, anybody's more than welcome
to reach out at any time. I'm not the greatest
timely responses, but eventually we'll get back and I enjoy
talking with everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:33:03):
So wait, none of us are good at that last thing,
so you're not alone. That's hard to do. Yeah, well,
I'm excited to see what happens. I'll be crossing my
fingers and toes for it. Jared, best of luck and
thanks for doing us awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:33:18):
Thanks for the in by. Best of luck to you
and everybody out there.

Speaker 2 (01:33:24):
All right, and that is a wrap. Thanks for tuning in.
I appreciate it. If you're down in Missouri and if
you're listening to this right when it comes out, I
hope to see you Saturday, August twelfth for our working
for wildlife to revent and if not, happy scouting, shooting, prepping,
whatever it is you're doing right now, living into the season.
Hope it's going well. Hope you're having fun. Until next time,

(01:33:45):
stay wired to Hunt.