August 4, 2025 • 36 mins
The difference between consistently successful hunters and those who struggle isn't luck – it's preparation. In this detailed conversation, we break down our proven pre-season routine that consistently puts us in position for trophy blacktails.
The journey begins with strategic planning. We discuss the critical importance of understanding "Red Moon" phases – periods when the moon's magnetic pull is strongest, triggering increased deer movement. This astronomical phenomenon, favored by hunters who consistently take 200-inch whitetails, has accounted for nearly 90% of our trophy buck harvests. Best of all, you can plan for these phases months in advance, scheduling your premium hunting days when bucks are most likely to be on their feet during daylight.
We also dispel common misconceptions about the rut. While many believe cold fronts trigger rutting activity, science tells us it's actually the changing daylight hours that stimulate the hormonal response in deer. The dates remain consistent year after year – what changes is whether you'll see that activity during legal hunting hours or if it's happening under the cover of darkness.
For those seeking practical advice, our trail-cutting strategy protects your hunting locations while ensuring silent entry and exit. We explain proper stand placement timing (2-4 weeks before season), how to implement effective scent strategies, and systems for organizing gear to prevent those dreaded "forgot my bow" moments that happen to even the most experienced hunters.
Whether you're a veteran hunter fine-tuning your approach or a newcomer establishing effective systems, this episode provides the blueprint for stacking every possible advantage in your favor. Remember our mantra: "Success is no accident." The time you invest now will pay dividends when that target buck steps into range.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the Blacktail Coach Podcast.
I'm Aaron and I'm Dave.
So this week we're gettingclose, we're talking about
prepping for season and this isabout the time we start prepping
things.
So we're going to start off andkind of work our way as we get
closer to season as to whatwe're doing or what Dave's doing
(00:21):
, because Dave has the backstoryand I just do what he tells me
to do every year.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Dave's dreaming of big bucks and bulls every night.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
And potential bears.
And bears, yep, and everythingelse, yep.
So one of the things we do withour guys who go through
coaching is we have them do ahunt planner and they actually
start that now, but it's puttingdown on to a calendar when
they're going to be doingcertain things.
(00:49):
The season gets closer, but oneof the things thinking about
and this is something that youcould, you could almost do as
soon as the regs come out isstart planning on, like when
season is, and then looking atone of the things talking about
red moon, uh-huh.
And so first, why don't youactually tell us why we're
(01:10):
looking at red moons and whatdoes that mean?
As far as and I know we'vetalked about it in the five
facts, right, but when you'replanning for your season, why is
that for you, like?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
looking ahead Right, how does that factor in yeah?
And especially when you'relooking ahead Like looking ahead
, how does that factor in yeah,and especially when you're
looking ahead like well in ahead.
Right, right.
So before I do that, I justwant to say, as far as the hunt
planner is concerned, at thevery least the hunt planner
helps if you're married.
It helps your spouse realize,okay, he's going to be gone or
(01:43):
she's going to be gone at thistime, whether it's a weekend,
you know, every Friday, everyother Friday or whatnot.
That way they can look aheadand say, okay, he's already
planned this.
So it frees it up.
At the very least.
That's what it does.
Yeah, but what it?
Our ultimate goal with thathunt planner is to have guys
begin to, like you said, withthe red moon, that moon phase
(02:06):
and a rut phase and all that,start planning ahead at what is
your most optimum time of seeingyour target buck and putting it
on a calendar and looking atthe moon phases and looking at
the rut phases and all of that,cold fronts and that kind of
stuff.
You really can plan out yourseason and say, okay, this is
the time that I think he's goingto daylight and I'm going to
(02:27):
get my opportunity.
So you just start planning that.
It gives you a goal and apurpose and you're not wasting
any time, because when it's onpaper, when it's in front of you
.
You're like, okay, I've reallygot to start getting this stuff
done because I really expect him.
Whether it's shooting, whetherit's cutting trails in or
whatever, it's a great tool tomotivate and so that's a lot of
what we do.
But as far as the red moon goes, so Adam Hayes has a show 200.
(02:56):
And Adam Hayes, for those thatdon't know, his show 200, or
maybe it's Team 200 or somethinglike that, but anyway, he
shoots.
He's killed a lot of 200 inchwhitetail and he attributes a
lot of it like 95% of it to thefact that he hunts what he calls
a red moon.
And if you don't have the appon your phone it's Deer Hunter's
Moon Guide you can go onlineand look at the website and
order the physical dial calendarthat he produces.
(03:17):
It's like $17 or something likethat.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
You know it varies.
Eventually it ends up beinglike $10 or $15 on sale.
Okay, varies eventually it endsup being like 10 or 15 bucks on
sale, okay, but I thinkoriginally it starts at 30 and
then.
But it's always on sale fordown to like 15 to 20 bucks
right on and so anyway.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
so he offers you know , like I said, the, the app for
your phone or the physicalcalendar dial, and basically
what he's done is he's done allthe work for you.
As far as the red moons or themoon phases and the red moon is
significant because that's whathe labels as a red moon week or
a red moon day, a red moonafternoon, what it is it's when
(03:53):
the moon cycles two times a dayclose to the earth and its
magnetic pull is strongest atthose two times of the day.
Well, there are times when thatmoon is closer to the earth
than other, and essentially whatAdam Hayes is saying is that at
those particular times during amonth there'll be two weeks out
of a month, generally speakingthat the moon phase will come so
close to the earth that thatmagnetic pull is actually at its
(04:16):
strongest.
And they say that it gets bigbucks or deer up out of their
beds, when they would normallyget up anyway, but this is just
an extra influence to get themup.
Now, for those of you who watch,like Lee and Tiffany the Crush
I know they use it and they arereligious about it I know that
I'd say probably 85 to 90% of mybucks.
(04:37):
My big bucks have been killedon a red moon.
Okay.
And so I absolutely believe init.
You know, and some guys don't,and that's fine.
You know it's all aboutconfidence and whatnot, but with
our system we take in and we'retrying to stack the odds in
your favor.
So this is just one more cardin a deck that you're trying to
(05:00):
swing the odds swing, you know,all the momentum so that you
have an opportunity at killing abig buck.
I know I speak for my wife, mykids they've all killed on red
moons.
It's not saying that you can'tkill on a day that isn't a red
moon, but what we are saying isthat the chances or the
probability of you seeing thattarget buck go up a lot.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
You know it's interesting.
So while you were talking Iactually pulled it up and I
scrolled back, because I havethe app on my phone.
I scrolled back To the day youshot your buck, to the day I
shot my buck.
So two days before shooting mybuck I had a two by three come
in and I missed him.
And then two days later I wentin, which was Saturday extended
buck, extended deer and I shotthat spike.
(05:40):
So the next day, sunday, whichwas the last day of season, was
the first day of the red moon,and at one o'clock in the
afternoon I had the biggest buckall season come in on my set.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
At one o'clock in the afternoon and, looking at this
just out of curiosity, 1.54 PM,transition zone field edge and I
was in a transition zone and itwas about between 1 and 130 and
he hung out for about 15minutes so yeah and I didn't
even think about looking at thatuntil you just started talking
(06:13):
right, right and see a lot ofguys would say, well, you know,
it's extended buck, of courseyou're going to see a big buck
out walking around that time.
You know, chris killed bambino,number three, all-time
non-typical for archery,colombian black tail on a red
moon.
I would have killed if theyhadn't shut everybody out at
that gate.
I would have killed Hightowerthat night.
(06:33):
He came in two hours beforedark.
Yeah.
That was a red moon evening, andthat was in September.
You know, but ultimately, if youlisten to the five factors,
what I'm trying to do is I'mtrying to stack as many factors
in my favor that just take myodds of seeing that red buck or
that target buck and multiplythem tremendously, so like rut
(06:54):
phase, if you're thinking, okay,I want to take time off.
You know I've only got a week,or maybe I get two weeks or
whatever.
When do I really want to focuson my deer hunt?
When do I think is the besttime?
Yeah whatever, when do I reallywant to focus on my deer hunt?
When do I think is the besttime?
Yeah, Well, you can pull up thatred moon calendar in January
and start planning for October,november or December whatever
(07:17):
weapon you're using for thatvacation time, and then you can
sit there and say, okay, so therut happened, the heart of the
rut happened.
I feel like this week last year.
Guys, it's going to be the sameweek the next year Because,
well, it's all depending on thecold weather.
That's not what triggers therut for deer or elk, it's the
amount of sunlight that hits theretina.
So as the days get shorter,there's a hormonal release and
the deer go into rut.
The deer go, or the animals gointo rut.
(07:38):
Elk go into rut.
In September they have anearlier rut and as the days get
shorter in through October ithappens again with the deer.
And you know it's nice when wehave cold weather because it
seems like we see more deeractivity, but the the rut is
still happening that same week.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Now because I've wondered about that, because I
thought in the past that you hadmentioned that the cold weather
can trigger the rut.
Can that trigger intensity ofthe rut?
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yes, because.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Or influence not necessarily trigger, but does it
influence the intensity of therut?
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yes, that's exactly right.
Okay so if you're not seeing itin the daytime because it's
warm, they're just rutting hardat night.
Okay so if?
you're not seeing it in thedaytime because it's warm.
They're just rutting hard atnight.
Okay, you know.
But if the heart of the rut was, say, wednesday of October such
and such, or November 5th orwhatever, it's going to be the
same next year because you'renot in control of daylight hours
or how many minutes are in theday.
(08:30):
You know, that's just a naturalthing.
That goes on is you know, everyday there's 24 hours.
That doesn't change, yeah, andso it just every year.
When it gets to a certainamount of daylight, it triggers
the rut phases, and then theintensity of the rut can I don't
even know if I want to sayintensity the appearance of the
rut can be, can give thisimpression that it's a harder
(08:52):
rut or a softer rut, becauseit's, you know, you know, hot,
warm or cold, whatever.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
And the reality is is if they're not rutting in the
daytime because it's hot,they're gonna run at night okay
and then eventually they'regonna do it both day and night,
okay so, and you know, for these, for hunt planner, this is
stuff you can be thinking aboutlike in january, like phase of
the rut, red moon and actually.
So, like I mentioned last week,that we're going to replay the
(09:20):
four episodes that we think aremost pertinent to your season so
you don't have to go back andlook for them, and then that
gives us kind of a little breakfrom recording and then we'll
come back with some new episodes.
But next week we'll bere-releasing the five factors so
that everybody that's all freshin everybody's mind right
before season.
But yeah, phase of the rut andred moon are two of the five
(09:42):
factors that you can see aheadof time and a lot of them are
weather-based.
We have barometric pressure.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Right.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Cold fronts, cold fronts, yep, yep, things like
that, but it was interesting,things like that, but it was
interesting.
And this just kind of hit me asI'm watching my YouTube videos
and I have the algorithm thatsends me videos just according
to what I end up watching andstuff.
But I watch weather-relatedvideos and they are predicting
(10:10):
like last year.
So two years ago we had a verystrong El Nino year, which means
in the Pacific Northwest itmeans different things in
different parts of the country,but Pacific Northwest we had a
very strong El Nino year, whichmeans in the Pacific Northwest
it means different things indifferent parts of the country,
but Pacific Northwest it's awarm, dry winter.
Last year we had a La Nina,which is cool and wet, not cold
but cool and wet, and I just sawthis the other day that they
(10:31):
were thinking it was going to bea normal winter this year and
everything's kind of shifted.
Now they're predicting anotherweek, like last year, la Nina,
and so I'm guessing you know bigpicture weather.
So that's one of the thingsthat gives you kind of an idea
of big picture weather, thatyou'll be seeing some of the
same things that we saw lastyear.
So maybe the ways that we werehunting last year we can
(10:54):
duplicate those, whereas La Ninaor El Nino we might be maybe
shifting some of our methods.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, El Nino is definitely more difficult
because it is warmer and a lotof the activity happens at night
.
La Nina, because it's cooler,we see a lot of day activity and
whatnot.
But the colder weather we getis typically a year when we
don't have an El Nino or a LaNina.
Those will be the years that weget more snow.
Yeah.
(11:22):
And much colder temperatures,which a lot of guys like, and
it's great for hunting, you know, it just happens to coincide
with a good rut, because theycan move around in the daylight.
Yeah.
It's not that the rut isn'thappening again during an El
Nino year.
It's just transpiring more atnight because of the cooler
temps.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So we're kind of getting off topic, but this is
kind of interesting.
If it is colder, so cooler andwetter.
If it's warmer, it would seemlike during the rut, that, or at
any time the does, they wouldbe more likely bedded down.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Because they can stay warm, just bedded down Now if
it's colder.
They want to be up moving justto keep warm.
Potentially, maybe yes and no,Okay.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
So the thing is is that what makes an El Nino year
difficult is because by the endof September they've pretty much
shed that summer coat andthey've got that winter coat
coming in.
As soon as they start gettingthose chillier mornings they
start growing their winter coat.
Now that winter coat is superthick, so they're really hot In
an El Nino.
(12:27):
They're really hot in thedaytime because it's, I mean,
typically our El Nino is goingto range anywhere from 60 to 75
degrees, which, if you have awinter coat on, that's really
warm.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
But what I'm thinking about is, say it's cold out,
they've got their winter coat.
That if the does like, ifyou're cold and that's how we
get cold, because we're justsitting there Sitting still.
Yeah, yeah, you want to get upand move, but we want to get up
and move because we warm up.
So if the does and I'm justkind of spitballing- if they're
(13:02):
getting up and moving more.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
That's why we might see more during cold weather,
because the bucks are trying tolock them down.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
So we have a pro staffer named Jimmy and Jimmy is
a licensed veterinarian, but heworks for the state.
Usda.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
USDA, I'm sorry.
And he goes around to for lackof a better term slaughterhouses
or whatnot and he's alwayschecking that everything is up
to par as far as cleanliness andhygiene and all that stuff.
But Jimmy, he and I sat downone time and he made this point.
He says you know, dave?
He says they don't need to getup and move around because of
the way their digestive systemis.
They regurgitate food thatthey've already chewed up and
(13:33):
swallowed.
They regurgitate that and startchewing on it again and then it
goes to a different part of thestomach and that part of the
stomach, he says, is like alittle furnace inside of them.
And so, yeah, he says they don'teven need to get up, they're
just this little furnace thatsits there and stuff, and I used
to think that that was the case, though that they're probably
(13:55):
up and moving to maintaincalories because it is colder.
I've actually said that atseminars and that was my belief
for a long time, and hecorrected me on it and thank you
, jimmy, I appreciate it, whichis also how you found out that
they could eat corn.
Correct.
Yeah, we kind of had the corndebate so I wasn't entirely
wrong what I was telling guys,because I have read several
things I've heard.
(14:15):
Boy was it?
You know I want to say it wasDr Deer, but I'm not going to
lay that at anybody's feet.
You know I said it that it iscorrect If they did.
If they do eat too much corn,they will develop, it can cause
a bacteria and it makes the deersick.
Okay, but according to Jimmyit's like a large amount of corn
.
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Okay.
So that's kind of the huntplanner aspect of it.
Now that we're getting intolate summer we kind of go into,
I would say, summer preppingphase.
So we're doing our last minute,scouting if we need to, before
other people are getting out inthe woods, because bear here
starts on Saturday.
Yep, actually, when this comesout, bear has already started
two days ago.
People who are getting out inthe woods because bear here
starts on saturday.
Yep, actually, when this comesout, bear has already started
(14:59):
two days ago.
But we're doing differentthings with, with our summer
prepping, cutting in trails ifwe need them, and why don't you
give a brief rundown of, like,how you cut in trails, what
you're?
Speaker 2 (15:12):
so cutting in trails sounds really easy, but there's,
and it's not hard.
There's just some basic thingsthat you want to remember.
So we, we, we only we huntpublic lands.
We got no private property.
We're on the same lands thateverybody else is the
timberlands, the state land,national forest.
That's where we hunt and wherewe go.
We're generally not going thatfar past any gates, you know
(15:34):
we're relatively pretty close tothem.
And so what I like to do becauseI can hear people walking by
all the time you know they'rewalking by the habitat that I'm
sitting next, you know that I'msitting in they're walking right
by that habitat and I can hearthem walking and talking and
whatnot, you know, and theanimals have learned to deal
with that.
But I don't want anyone comingin on my set simply for the
(15:54):
reason that I don't want anymore scent laid down or, you
know, spoiling a hunt.
So what I like to do is I liketo take the first 30 yards or so
and leave it as natural aspossible.
I don't like cutting anythingdown.
Then, once I get out of sightof whatever it is a skidder road
, a main line, a road periodonce I get out of where I feel
(16:15):
like nobody can see.
If I start opening a trail,then I start opening it up.
Now I'll open that trail up tonot necessarily my set.
I'll open that trail up toeither the ground blind or the
tree stand, the tree that I'msitting in.
Yeah.
And then after that I becomejust this staunch minimalist.
I don't really want to take anycover out.
(16:36):
You know, I want that buck tofeel like that claustrophobic
feeling so that he feels safe.
I need him to daylight, I needhim to stage there before he
heads out in the open.
So I want him there, you know,two, three hours before dark.
And so, yeah, the way I view itis is the more limbs that you
cut down, the more trees thatyou hinge cut and all that stuff
(16:57):
, what you're doing is is you'reeliminating cover and letting
in light, and brightness isreally not.
Big bucks want to hang whereit's nice and thick and dark,
and you know that's where theywant to stay.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
And they daylight in that all the time yeah, we're
just cutting in trails, mostlyso that we can get in there, get
in and out quietly.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yes, get in and out quietly.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Yes, yeah, for that last, depending on how far like
mine might be 40 yards, I think,the last 40 yards of the trail
to get into my set so that I cando that quietly, right, and I'm
not brushing up against thingsso spreading my scent, but even
like there's some that they'regoing to tolerate some noise, I
(17:38):
just it's kind of unnaturalnoise is what you want to.
So there's a lot of and Ibelieve Heather mentioned a lot
of this where she wraps a lot ofher plastic type things,
whether it's cauls or whatnot,in felt.
Yeah, to muffle the noise, yeahso it doesn't sound like an
unnatural noise, because if itsounds like a natural, like just
another animal coming in, we'llbump deer off of our set, but
(18:01):
they'll just casually walk offand then they'll come right back
in.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, all the time that happens all the time.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Yeah, we see that a lot on our cameras where, oh,
right before I came in, fiveminutes before I came in, there
was a deer on the set hangingout.
So we're also now looking atordering things that we need
Hopefully we've got, and I wastalking to Asha about this and
she said, boy, if you don't haveyour gear yet, yeah, they're
(18:30):
starting to run out of someserious hunting gear.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
She's kind of an extremist though at times, but
you know, but no, she makes agood point.
You don't want to risk.
Yeah, by the time you get toAugust, I mean it may be okay,
they've already sold out in Julyyou may have to wait another
three, four weeks before you getthat, you know.
Yeah.
And it's like well, I don't havethree or four weeks you know,
I'm hunting next weekend or twoweeks from now or whatever, or
(18:55):
you know, you just want to havean opportunity or time to like,
if it's arrows, you want to getsome shots downfield, and you
know, get used to that and seehow they fly.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Or if you need your arrows, put together.
Archery shops are real busyright now yeah.
Yeah, things like that.
One of the things I don't thinkactually we mentioned this I
think I'm meant to mention thisas we were talking about gear
last week camofirecom and theyalso have an app.
It's one of those sites thatthey get discontinued items or
(19:24):
bulk leftovers and they discounthunting gear and camping gear
like drastically.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
And I've ordered a lot of stuff off there.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
And it's some good gear.
I mean Sitka's on there all thetime.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah, they just had their sleeping bag.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
You have have the arctic oh, you're talking heater
body suits.
Yeah, heater body suits.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
They just had their version of the heater body suit
on theirs.
But yeah, if you're looking forgear, that's a really good site
and they're usually prettyquick to get it out to you and
if they put it, they changetheir products every day.
So if you see it today, orderit today but you'll have it
within like a week.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
They're really quick about shipping stuff.
But we're also looking atscents.
If we need any type of bait oranything for those guys who are
in Oregon who can bait, theymight be looking to start
sourcing that now, but with ourscents, because now we have to
look at synthetic and they mightnot be carried locally.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah, you'll probably end up ordering it and whatnot,
and typically you want to startscents.
Okay, guys, let me just— andthat's right before season We'll
talk about that.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
But again, it's one of those, one of the advantages
of synthetic is it supposedlylasts longer year, year over
year.
So if you order some of it thisyear, you can save it till next
year and it's still going to begood.
Yeah, whereas synthetic stuffyou didn't want to order it too
early or the real stuff youdidn't want to order it too
early, and then you just threwit all away.
(20:51):
If you had, any yeah but yeah,that's something that we would
be if especially if you're goingto do well you wouldn't be
using some of them.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
You might do a bedding pheromone for early
season, but it's differentskills yeah, but you know, as
far as for archery, yeah, yeah,when we get into october you
guys can start slowly putting alittle bit of doing estrus and
that kind of stuff out.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
And then you know, of course, it's practicing with
your weapon, busting out the bow.
You do yours year round, I do,I do.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
But yeah, I mean, there's, you know, and it don't
matter if it's rifle,muzzleloader, archery there's
always those guys that a weekbefore season, two or three days
before season, I'll go andsight it in or shoot you know,
get my bow sighted in, my gunsighted in, and it's like, and I
just try and discourage thatbecause you may only get one
opportunity at that target but,you want to make it count, you
(21:43):
want to know that, you know that, you know that muscle memory is
going to take over and you'regonna close the deal when the
the pressure's on you know whatI mean.
So that's my thing.
I feel like you owe it to thatanimal because you're asking
that animal to give his life upfor you.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Yeah.
So another thing is with nowthat bear season started, it's
organizing your gear.
So at the end of season,hopefully we've looked over all
the gear to make sure thatthere's no damage to it, but it
goes into totes and then intothe hunting shed and we got a
whole mess of totes.
(22:17):
So now though, it's breakingthat stuff out and I know this
was more Asha doing this, but asfar as like, give them your
system of, because you have awhole system down with prepping
the garage with all your huntinggear and like that whole
organization.
So we have a two-car garagethat has never had a car parked
in it at all.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Just because we have so much hunting gear and whatnot
.
And so when season comes, wewheel out this rack that has
hangers on it.
We put all the camo on there.
After it's been washed anddried, it goes on the rack, and
so this rack.
We're about to two racks now,but we have this rack that's
just crammed full of all thesecamos.
(22:57):
First it's early season andthen as we get deeper into the
year it'll be late season andthey all hang there.
So you know exactly wherethey're at when you need them
Now.
And that's kept in the garage.
It's kept away from anythingexhaust fumes, kitchen smells,
dog smells, any of that stuff.
It's just hanging out there andit gear as far as clothing that
(23:21):
I'm going to wear, from longjohns to socks, to gaiters, to
early season extra shirts, hats,everything, extra pants, yep
Stocking hats All that stuffgoes in there that I'm going to
(23:44):
use on that hunt the next day.
And then that goes into mytruck and I don't change into
that stuff until I get out tothe gate, just before I walk in.
I'll change out there and thenwhen I get done with that hunt
if it didn't rain I will get outof that I will change back into
my regular clothes out there,put my camos back into the
(24:07):
scent-free bag and they stay inthere.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
But if it's wet, then it has to be, depending on
whether you wash it or dry itand using the dead downwind
Right, but you also.
It's not just the clothing.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
No, it's tubs of gear .
Speaker 1 (24:21):
You have like an area where your bows and the arrows
are.
There's an area where you well.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
All the dead downwind products are An area where we
have all of our scents.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
There's a wall that looks like it's straight out of
Bob's or a sporting goods storewith all the same type of yeah
Like the hooks, the pegboard,the pegboard with the hooks and
all the products hanging onthere so that it's just easy to
grab Bow hangers.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Yeah, backpack hangers, dri hangers, drippers,
drags, broadheads yeah, it'squite a bit of stuff.
So I I think I have myself likethree tubs of just equipment,
and then my son he's, I thinkhe's got two now, and then I
have another three tubs of camosand then I have a tub for packs
(25:12):
and then I have two tubs I gota tub for trail cameras, yeah, I
mean, you know, and of coursethis is just stuff that that's
accumulated over the years andstuff and and I've got a clothes
tub and an everything else yeahso.
But I mean I got an aero bin, anarrow bin out in the shop.
(25:33):
That's probably got.
Oh my goodness, it's easily gotover 100 arrows in it.
Yeah.
I share that with my wife andkids, but it's loaded with
arrows.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
But it's prepped so that you can easily see what you
need.
Right, you can easily see whatyou're going to grab, and it
takes a lot of the thinkingabout everything, like the
morning of.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Right, and the searching for it.
Well, I thought I put it here.
I thought, oh, dang it, I gotan elk tub, I got a deer tub,
because if you get up at 4 am or3 am, you don't want to fudge
with stuff.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
You just want to grab it and be able to go.
So now, right before season, sothis is two weeks up until the
day of.
So a couple weeks before iswhen, by then, we're putting out
blinds and hanging stands andbasically getting the set ready
two weeks before.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Yeah, yeah, at least two weeks, sometimes as much as
four weeks.
Yeah.
And it just I mean, it's a lotof work, it's fun work, I enjoy
it and everything.
But back when it was just me,it was so much easier yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Because you have your set.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
We got nine tree stands, we got three ground
blinds and they all get used,you know.
Yeah.
And then we got you know treesaddles and whatnot, and I mean
we got sets set up.
By the time season gets here, Ithink eight to nine tree stands
will be out and they will behanging in a tree somewhere
locked to it, and then theground blinds.
We usually have at least two ofthe three blinds out.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Yeah, I always borrow one because I've given up on my
.
The ladder stand is just, it'sgood.
It's comfortable and everythingbut it is a lot of work.
It's a lot of work.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
You need at least three guys to go put that up.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Any lesson, that would just be.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Oh, I'd be a nightmare.
Nope, I'm done, I'm out.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
So right before season it's that last, like
getting the stands up and thengetting making sure kind of
everything's ready to go Right.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
And the thing is, is we don't just put the stand up?
I mean, the day we put thestand up, that's when we start
our scents.
Yeah.
That's when we do our scentdrags.
That's when we set our drippers.
That's when we do our scentdrags.
That's when we set our drippers.
That's when you know the trailcameras are already in place and
ready to go.
I mean the whole set is done.
We've established a kill spot,you know.
We've done our drags, not goinginto the bedroom but just right
(28:03):
on the edge of it and bringingit back to our kill spot.
So there's I mean it's a lot ofwork, it's a lot of fun work.
So there's a.
I mean it's a lot of work, it'sa lot of fun work.
We have a great time doing it.
But I'm not going to lie tosomebody and say, well, you know
, you can just wing it, or, or,you know, coast on by and it'll
happen.
Success is no.
Accident is exactly what wemean.
You have to work for it and thereward is when your hands are
(28:25):
on your trophy buck or your bullor your bear, you know.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
And there is, I mean, even if and we were talking
about this earlier off air forguys who are new to hunting, who
might not like what do I do?
I just all I know is I want togo hunting, but I don't really
know what to do.
They might be starting out likeglassing clear cuts Uh-huh, but
it's still.
There's still prep work.
This still applies.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
You just might not be cutting in sets yet, or cutting
in trails and doing sets.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
But you want to set up where you know, as we've
talked about, you might bewanting to look for edges.
So it might be practicing goingout and glassing clear cuts and
doing that type of thing andyou know you're making sure
you've got those binoculars.
But there's some practice thateven guys who do that should be
doing ahead of time, so they'renot even just winging it right,
(29:17):
right.
You know how do you how do youpick up an animal that maybe
he's a couple yards or you know,two, three yards off the clear
cut, but you're able to pick upand and I say this because
you're very good at like, ohthere's, there's a deer and
everybody, where Nobody can seeit, but oh, it's right there, oh
, okay.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
And I remember it's imaginary yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
You say well, I'm not looking for color, I'm looking
for shape.
And as soon as you told me that.
Then I started seeing deer liketucked away in the woods and
whatnot Right right like tuckedaway in the, in the woods and
whatnot right.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
But there's some still, some things to kind of do
ahead of time.
Oh, absolutely, you know, ifyou're going elk hunting in
september, so you're doingarchery or you're going to call
for somebody, you know you wantto pick that read up and start
blowing on that read forprobably I'd say at least two
months in advance.
You know, guys say and I tellguys this all the time well, I
don't, don't know how to useREIT, I don't know how to call
you know what.
It takes 10 minutes a day fortwo months and you will be
(30:17):
better than 80% of the guys outthere calling yeah.
Then it boils down to knowingwhat call to make and when.
You know that part you canlearn by trial and error, but
there's so many videos out there.
Oh yeah.
There's so many you know you goon YouTube.
There's so many helps onYouTube and whatnot and so many
guys that are willing to teachthat that are successful hunters
(30:40):
that it's really not thatdifficult.
If you spent 10 minutes a dayfor two months, you would be
good enough to call in an elk.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
You know something I just popped into my head about
cutting in trails is good towait until summer, I would say
until July or August, becauseeverything's done growing.
Because you wouldn't want to goin there in April.
Cut in a trail because in amonth, it ain't going to be
there.
It's's not gonna be there yeahand it was interesting this year
(31:12):
because I I really needed tocut in a trail to my halfway set
just because it's so thickgetting in there.
But I went back out this yearand even before everything
started growing but just therain, and it was like all the
foliage shifted and it kind ofwhere I I needed to go in and
cut in the trail a little or atleast clean it up a little bit.
(31:33):
From last year the trail youcan still tell where it was, but
it was plants could startfalling in and filling out the
filling up the space.
It was just kind of aninteresting where I wouldn't
have thought about that, whereoh, I've.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
It's kind of maintenance for the set, if
you're going to keep using ityear after year.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
So how are you making sure and we'll end on this part
how are you making sure you'renot forgetting stuff the day of?
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Boy, I'm probably not the person to ask that I'm
terrible about it.
Inevitably, no matter how muchI plan, I always forget one or
two things.
Oh, I forgot my wind check, ordang it.
You know I was gonna bring this.
You know whether it's a markingtape or well, my goodness, I've
gone out one time and forgot mybow.
(32:20):
And here at the house I goteverything else, got out there,
got changed and everything andrealized here it is four in the
morning.
I left my bow at the house, youknow so, overthinking about
what I needed and everything, Ijust I left my bow at the house,
you know so, overthinking aboutwhat I needed and everything, I
just I blanked the mostimportant thing, you know and
thanks be to my wife, she's theworld's best she was gracious
(32:41):
enough to get up and run it outto me.
But you know, I always forget,and this is probably why I try
and prep at least the day before, if not two or three days, so
that it doesn't happen over andover again.
But I'll forget something small, you know, inevitably.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
but I remember the big stuff, yeah, except for the
bow except, but this year youwon't forget your wind checks,
because I've given you some ofNilche's wind checks, because
they can attach to something.
Don't use the one that attachesto your bow, because then you
might forget.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Yeah, I didn't.
I forgot my bow and the windcheck.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Use the one that sticks to your backpack or your.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
So Smokey Cruz, one of the guys that has taught me,
probably the guy that's taughtme the most about hunting in
general he was gracious enoughto take me deer hunting with him
when I was younger, andeverything, and I was just
enamored with Smoke.
You know, I love him to deathand he's still easily one of my
hunting heroes, you know.
But I was like telling my wife,I was telling Asha I says, hey,
(33:46):
I get to go hunting with Smoketomorrow.
I was just jacked, I was soexcited and everything.
And I got everything packed andeverything.
And the day before, boy, I wasat his house nice and early,
just like he wanted, didn't youknow?
It's like, okay, I'm here, I'mhere.
So I hopped into his rig and wedrove up to a spot that he was
going to show me.
I got all the way up there andit says you do this, this and
(34:07):
this, and then I'm going to sitover here and do this, this and
this and if it hasn't happenedby such and such a time, we're
going to meet back here.
I says, okay, so I go do mything and he does his, and we
come back and everything, and Iwalk up.
He's back at the truck before Iwas and I walk up and
everything.
He says well, how'd you do I aswell?
Speaker 1 (34:34):
he says I didn't see anything either, but it wouldn't
have mattered he's, I left myquiver at the house so it
happens, even to the best, tothe best of us.
It happens, you know but okay,well, like I said, next week you
will be replaying a lot of ourbest of the to help get you
prepped for season.
If you have any questions inthe meantime, feel free to send
those in.
If we have a lot of questions,come in, we'll pop on and we'll
(34:55):
throw out some bonus episodes ofthe Q&A and we'll do that.
But five factors the nose knowsand I'm not sure what the other
two will be.
But anyway, that's what'scoming and we will talk to you
again in about a month.
Welcome back to the Blacktail Coach Podcast.
I'm Aaron and I'm Dave.
So this week we're gettingclose, we're talking about
prepping for season and this isabout the time we start prepping
things.
So we're going to start off andkind of work our way as we get
closer to season as to whatwe're doing or what Dave's doing
(00:21):
, because Dave has the backstoryand I just do what he tells me
to do every year.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Dave's dreaming of big bucks and bulls every night.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
And potential bears.
And bears, yep, and everythingelse, yep.
So one of the things we do withour guys who go through
coaching is we have them do ahunt planner and they actually
start that now, but it's puttingdown on to a calendar when
they're going to be doingcertain things.
(00:49):
The season gets closer, but oneof the things thinking about
and this is something that youcould, you could almost do as
soon as the regs come out isstart planning on, like when
season is, and then looking atone of the things talking about
red moon, uh-huh.
And so first, why don't youactually tell us why we're
(01:10):
looking at red moons and whatdoes that mean?
As far as and I know we'vetalked about it in the five
facts, right, but when you'replanning for your season, why is
that for you, like?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
looking ahead Right, how does that factor in yeah?
And especially when you'relooking ahead Like looking ahead
, how does that factor in yeah,and especially when you're
looking ahead like well in ahead.
Right, right.
So before I do that, I justwant to say, as far as the hunt
planner is concerned, at thevery least the hunt planner
helps if you're married.
It helps your spouse realize,okay, he's going to be gone or
(01:43):
she's going to be gone at thistime, whether it's a weekend,
you know, every Friday, everyother Friday or whatnot.
That way they can look aheadand say, okay, he's already
planned this.
So it frees it up.
At the very least.
That's what it does.
Yeah, but what it?
Our ultimate goal with thathunt planner is to have guys
begin to, like you said, withthe red moon, that moon phase
(02:06):
and a rut phase and all that,start planning ahead at what is
your most optimum time of seeingyour target buck and putting it
on a calendar and looking atthe moon phases and looking at
the rut phases and all of that,cold fronts and that kind of
stuff.
You really can plan out yourseason and say, okay, this is
the time that I think he's goingto daylight and I'm going to
(02:27):
get my opportunity.
So you just start planning that.
It gives you a goal and apurpose and you're not wasting
any time, because when it's onpaper, when it's in front of you
.
You're like, okay, I've reallygot to start getting this stuff
done because I really expect him.
Whether it's shooting, whetherit's cutting trails in or
whatever, it's a great tool tomotivate and so that's a lot of
what we do.
But as far as the red moon goes, so Adam Hayes has a show 200.
(02:56):
And Adam Hayes, for those thatdon't know, his show 200, or
maybe it's Team 200 or somethinglike that, but anyway, he
shoots.
He's killed a lot of 200 inchwhitetail and he attributes a
lot of it like 95% of it to thefact that he hunts what he calls
a red moon.
And if you don't have the appon your phone it's Deer Hunter's
Moon Guide you can go onlineand look at the website and
order the physical dial calendarthat he produces.
(03:17):
It's like $17 or something likethat.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
You know it varies.
Eventually it ends up beinglike $10 or $15 on sale.
Okay, varies eventually it endsup being like 10 or 15 bucks on
sale, okay, but I thinkoriginally it starts at 30 and
then.
But it's always on sale fordown to like 15 to 20 bucks
right on and so anyway.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
so he offers you know , like I said, the, the app for
your phone or the physicalcalendar dial, and basically
what he's done is he's done allthe work for you.
As far as the red moons or themoon phases and the red moon is
significant because that's whathe labels as a red moon week or
a red moon day, a red moonafternoon, what it is it's when
(03:53):
the moon cycles two times a dayclose to the earth and its
magnetic pull is strongest atthose two times of the day.
Well, there are times when thatmoon is closer to the earth
than other, and essentially whatAdam Hayes is saying is that at
those particular times during amonth there'll be two weeks out
of a month, generally speakingthat the moon phase will come so
close to the earth that thatmagnetic pull is actually at its
(04:16):
strongest.
And they say that it gets bigbucks or deer up out of their
beds, when they would normallyget up anyway, but this is just
an extra influence to get themup.
Now, for those of you who watch,like Lee and Tiffany the Crush
I know they use it and they arereligious about it I know that
I'd say probably 85 to 90% of mybucks.
(04:37):
My big bucks have been killedon a red moon.
Okay.
And so I absolutely believe init.
You know, and some guys don't,and that's fine.
You know it's all aboutconfidence and whatnot, but with
our system we take in and we'retrying to stack the odds in
your favor.
So this is just one more cardin a deck that you're trying to
(05:00):
swing the odds swing, you know,all the momentum so that you
have an opportunity at killing abig buck.
I know I speak for my wife, mykids they've all killed on red
moons.
It's not saying that you can'tkill on a day that isn't a red
moon, but what we are saying isthat the chances or the
probability of you seeing thattarget buck go up a lot.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
You know it's interesting.
So while you were talking Iactually pulled it up and I
scrolled back, because I havethe app on my phone.
I scrolled back To the day youshot your buck, to the day I
shot my buck.
So two days before shooting mybuck I had a two by three come
in and I missed him.
And then two days later I wentin, which was Saturday extended
buck, extended deer and I shotthat spike.
(05:40):
So the next day, sunday, whichwas the last day of season, was
the first day of the red moon,and at one o'clock in the
afternoon I had the biggest buckall season come in on my set.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
At one o'clock in the afternoon and, looking at this
just out of curiosity, 1.54 PM,transition zone field edge and I
was in a transition zone and itwas about between 1 and 130 and
he hung out for about 15minutes so yeah and I didn't
even think about looking at thatuntil you just started talking
(06:13):
right, right and see a lot ofguys would say, well, you know,
it's extended buck, of courseyou're going to see a big buck
out walking around that time.
You know, chris killed bambino,number three, all-time
non-typical for archery,colombian black tail on a red
moon.
I would have killed if theyhadn't shut everybody out at
that gate.
I would have killed Hightowerthat night.
(06:33):
He came in two hours beforedark.
Yeah.
That was a red moon evening, andthat was in September.
You know, but ultimately, if youlisten to the five factors,
what I'm trying to do is I'mtrying to stack as many factors
in my favor that just take myodds of seeing that red buck or
that target buck and multiplythem tremendously, so like rut
(06:54):
phase, if you're thinking, okay,I want to take time off.
You know I've only got a week,or maybe I get two weeks or
whatever.
When do I really want to focuson my deer hunt?
When do I think is the besttime?
Yeah whatever, when do I reallywant to focus on my deer hunt?
When do I think is the besttime?
Yeah, Well, you can pull up thatred moon calendar in January
and start planning for October,november or December whatever
(07:17):
weapon you're using for thatvacation time, and then you can
sit there and say, okay, so therut happened, the heart of the
rut happened.
I feel like this week last year.
Guys, it's going to be the sameweek the next year Because,
well, it's all depending on thecold weather.
That's not what triggers therut for deer or elk, it's the
amount of sunlight that hits theretina.
So as the days get shorter,there's a hormonal release and
the deer go into rut.
The deer go, or the animals gointo rut.
(07:38):
Elk go into rut.
In September they have anearlier rut and as the days get
shorter in through October ithappens again with the deer.
And you know it's nice when wehave cold weather because it
seems like we see more deeractivity, but the the rut is
still happening that same week.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Now because I've wondered about that, because I
thought in the past that you hadmentioned that the cold weather
can trigger the rut.
Can that trigger intensity ofthe rut?
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yes, because.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Or influence not necessarily trigger, but does it
influence the intensity of therut?
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yes, that's exactly right.
Okay so if you're not seeing itin the daytime because it's
warm, they're just rutting hardat night.
Okay so if?
you're not seeing it in thedaytime because it's warm.
They're just rutting hard atnight.
Okay, you know.
But if the heart of the rut was, say, wednesday of October such
and such, or November 5th orwhatever, it's going to be the
same next year because you'renot in control of daylight hours
or how many minutes are in theday.
(08:30):
You know, that's just a naturalthing.
That goes on is you know, everyday there's 24 hours.
That doesn't change, yeah, andso it just every year.
When it gets to a certainamount of daylight, it triggers
the rut phases, and then theintensity of the rut can I don't
even know if I want to sayintensity the appearance of the
rut can be, can give thisimpression that it's a harder
(08:52):
rut or a softer rut, becauseit's, you know, you know, hot,
warm or cold, whatever.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
And the reality is is if they're not rutting in the
daytime because it's hot,they're gonna run at night okay
and then eventually they'regonna do it both day and night,
okay so, and you know, for these, for hunt planner, this is
stuff you can be thinking aboutlike in january, like phase of
the rut, red moon and actually.
So, like I mentioned last week,that we're going to replay the
(09:20):
four episodes that we think aremost pertinent to your season so
you don't have to go back andlook for them, and then that
gives us kind of a little breakfrom recording and then we'll
come back with some new episodes.
But next week we'll bere-releasing the five factors so
that everybody that's all freshin everybody's mind right
before season.
But yeah, phase of the rut andred moon are two of the five
(09:42):
factors that you can see aheadof time and a lot of them are
weather-based.
We have barometric pressure.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Right.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Cold fronts, cold fronts, yep, yep, things like
that, but it was interesting,things like that, but it was
interesting.
And this just kind of hit me asI'm watching my YouTube videos
and I have the algorithm thatsends me videos just according
to what I end up watching andstuff.
But I watch weather-relatedvideos and they are predicting
(10:10):
like last year.
So two years ago we had a verystrong El Nino year, which means
in the Pacific Northwest itmeans different things in
different parts of the country,but Pacific Northwest we had a
very strong El Nino year, whichmeans in the Pacific Northwest
it means different things indifferent parts of the country,
but Pacific Northwest it's awarm, dry winter.
Last year we had a La Nina,which is cool and wet, not cold
but cool and wet, and I just sawthis the other day that they
(10:31):
were thinking it was going to bea normal winter this year and
everything's kind of shifted.
Now they're predicting anotherweek, like last year, la Nina,
and so I'm guessing you know bigpicture weather.
So that's one of the thingsthat gives you kind of an idea
of big picture weather, thatyou'll be seeing some of the
same things that we saw lastyear.
So maybe the ways that we werehunting last year we can
(10:54):
duplicate those, whereas La Ninaor El Nino we might be maybe
shifting some of our methods.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, El Nino is definitely more difficult
because it is warmer and a lotof the activity happens at night
.
La Nina, because it's cooler,we see a lot of day activity and
whatnot.
But the colder weather we getis typically a year when we
don't have an El Nino or a LaNina.
Those will be the years that weget more snow.
Yeah.
(11:22):
And much colder temperatures,which a lot of guys like, and
it's great for hunting, you know, it just happens to coincide
with a good rut, because theycan move around in the daylight.
Yeah.
It's not that the rut isn'thappening again during an El
Nino year.
It's just transpiring more atnight because of the cooler
temps.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So we're kind of getting off topic, but this is
kind of interesting.
If it is colder, so cooler andwetter.
If it's warmer, it would seemlike during the rut, that, or at
any time the does, they wouldbe more likely bedded down.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Because they can stay warm, just bedded down Now if
it's colder.
They want to be up moving justto keep warm.
Potentially, maybe yes and no,Okay.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
So the thing is is that what makes an El Nino year
difficult is because by the endof September they've pretty much
shed that summer coat andthey've got that winter coat
coming in.
As soon as they start gettingthose chillier mornings they
start growing their winter coat.
Now that winter coat is superthick, so they're really hot In
an El Nino.
(12:27):
They're really hot in thedaytime because it's, I mean,
typically our El Nino is goingto range anywhere from 60 to 75
degrees, which, if you have awinter coat on, that's really
warm.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
But what I'm thinking about is, say it's cold out,
they've got their winter coat.
That if the does like, ifyou're cold and that's how we
get cold, because we're justsitting there Sitting still.
Yeah, yeah, you want to get upand move, but we want to get up
and move because we warm up.
So if the does and I'm justkind of spitballing- if they're
(13:02):
getting up and moving more.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
That's why we might see more during cold weather,
because the bucks are trying tolock them down.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
So we have a pro staffer named Jimmy and Jimmy is
a licensed veterinarian, but heworks for the state.
Usda.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
USDA, I'm sorry.
And he goes around to for lackof a better term slaughterhouses
or whatnot and he's alwayschecking that everything is up
to par as far as cleanliness andhygiene and all that stuff.
But Jimmy, he and I sat downone time and he made this point.
He says you know, dave?
He says they don't need to getup and move around because of
the way their digestive systemis.
They regurgitate food thatthey've already chewed up and
(13:33):
swallowed.
They regurgitate that and startchewing on it again and then it
goes to a different part of thestomach and that part of the
stomach, he says, is like alittle furnace inside of them.
And so, yeah, he says they don'teven need to get up, they're
just this little furnace thatsits there and stuff, and I used
to think that that was the case, though that they're probably
(13:55):
up and moving to maintaincalories because it is colder.
I've actually said that atseminars and that was my belief
for a long time, and hecorrected me on it and thank you
, jimmy, I appreciate it, whichis also how you found out that
they could eat corn.
Correct.
Yeah, we kind of had the corndebate so I wasn't entirely
wrong what I was telling guys,because I have read several
things I've heard.
(14:15):
Boy was it?
You know I want to say it wasDr Deer, but I'm not going to
lay that at anybody's feet.
You know I said it that it iscorrect If they did.
If they do eat too much corn,they will develop, it can cause
a bacteria and it makes the deersick.
Okay, but according to Jimmyit's like a large amount of corn
.
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Okay.
So that's kind of the huntplanner aspect of it.
Now that we're getting intolate summer we kind of go into,
I would say, summer preppingphase.
So we're doing our last minute,scouting if we need to, before
other people are getting out inthe woods, because bear here
starts on Saturday.
Yep, actually, when this comesout, bear has already started
two days ago.
People who are getting out inthe woods because bear here
starts on saturday.
Yep, actually, when this comesout, bear has already started
(14:59):
two days ago.
But we're doing differentthings with, with our summer
prepping, cutting in trails ifwe need them, and why don't you
give a brief rundown of, like,how you cut in trails, what
you're?
Speaker 2 (15:12):
so cutting in trails sounds really easy, but there's,
and it's not hard.
There's just some basic thingsthat you want to remember.
So we, we, we only we huntpublic lands.
We got no private property.
We're on the same lands thateverybody else is the
timberlands, the state land,national forest.
That's where we hunt and wherewe go.
We're generally not going thatfar past any gates, you know
(15:34):
we're relatively pretty close tothem.
And so what I like to do becauseI can hear people walking by
all the time you know they'rewalking by the habitat that I'm
sitting next, you know that I'msitting in they're walking right
by that habitat and I can hearthem walking and talking and
whatnot, you know, and theanimals have learned to deal
with that.
But I don't want anyone comingin on my set simply for the
(15:54):
reason that I don't want anymore scent laid down or, you
know, spoiling a hunt.
So what I like to do is I liketo take the first 30 yards or so
and leave it as natural aspossible.
I don't like cutting anythingdown.
Then, once I get out of sightof whatever it is a skidder road
, a main line, a road periodonce I get out of where I feel
(16:15):
like nobody can see.
If I start opening a trail,then I start opening it up.
Now I'll open that trail up tonot necessarily my set.
I'll open that trail up toeither the ground blind or the
tree stand, the tree that I'msitting in.
Yeah.
And then after that I becomejust this staunch minimalist.
I don't really want to take anycover out.
(16:36):
You know, I want that buck tofeel like that claustrophobic
feeling so that he feels safe.
I need him to daylight, I needhim to stage there before he
heads out in the open.
So I want him there, you know,two, three hours before dark.
And so, yeah, the way I view itis is the more limbs that you
cut down, the more trees thatyou hinge cut and all that stuff
(16:57):
, what you're doing is is you'reeliminating cover and letting
in light, and brightness isreally not.
Big bucks want to hang whereit's nice and thick and dark,
and you know that's where theywant to stay.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
And they daylight in that all the time yeah, we're
just cutting in trails, mostlyso that we can get in there, get
in and out quietly.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yes, get in and out quietly.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Yes, yeah, for that last, depending on how far like
mine might be 40 yards, I think,the last 40 yards of the trail
to get into my set so that I cando that quietly, right, and I'm
not brushing up against thingsso spreading my scent, but even
like there's some that they'regoing to tolerate some noise, I
(17:38):
just it's kind of unnaturalnoise is what you want to.
So there's a lot of and Ibelieve Heather mentioned a lot
of this where she wraps a lot ofher plastic type things,
whether it's cauls or whatnot,in felt.
Yeah, to muffle the noise, yeahso it doesn't sound like an
unnatural noise, because if itsounds like a natural, like just
another animal coming in, we'llbump deer off of our set, but
(18:01):
they'll just casually walk offand then they'll come right back
in.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, all the time that happens all the time.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Yeah, we see that a lot on our cameras where, oh,
right before I came in, fiveminutes before I came in, there
was a deer on the set hangingout.
So we're also now looking atordering things that we need
Hopefully we've got, and I wastalking to Asha about this and
she said, boy, if you don't haveyour gear yet, yeah, they're
(18:30):
starting to run out of someserious hunting gear.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
She's kind of an extremist though at times, but
you know, but no, she makes agood point.
You don't want to risk.
Yeah, by the time you get toAugust, I mean it may be okay,
they've already sold out in Julyyou may have to wait another
three, four weeks before you getthat, you know.
Yeah.
And it's like well, I don't havethree or four weeks you know,
I'm hunting next weekend or twoweeks from now or whatever, or
(18:55):
you know, you just want to havean opportunity or time to like,
if it's arrows, you want to getsome shots downfield, and you
know, get used to that and seehow they fly.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Or if you need your arrows, put together.
Archery shops are real busyright now yeah.
Yeah, things like that.
One of the things I don't thinkactually we mentioned this I
think I'm meant to mention thisas we were talking about gear
last week camofirecom and theyalso have an app.
It's one of those sites thatthey get discontinued items or
(19:24):
bulk leftovers and they discounthunting gear and camping gear
like drastically.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
And I've ordered a lot of stuff off there.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
And it's some good gear.
I mean Sitka's on there all thetime.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah, they just had their sleeping bag.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
You have have the arctic oh, you're talking heater
body suits.
Yeah, heater body suits.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
They just had their version of the heater body suit
on theirs.
But yeah, if you're looking forgear, that's a really good site
and they're usually prettyquick to get it out to you and
if they put it, they changetheir products every day.
So if you see it today, orderit today but you'll have it
within like a week.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
They're really quick about shipping stuff.
But we're also looking atscents.
If we need any type of bait oranything for those guys who are
in Oregon who can bait, theymight be looking to start
sourcing that now, but with ourscents, because now we have to
look at synthetic and they mightnot be carried locally.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah, you'll probably end up ordering it and whatnot,
and typically you want to startscents.
Okay, guys, let me just— andthat's right before season We'll
talk about that.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
But again, it's one of those, one of the advantages
of synthetic is it supposedlylasts longer year, year over
year.
So if you order some of it thisyear, you can save it till next
year and it's still going to begood.
Yeah, whereas synthetic stuffyou didn't want to order it too
early or the real stuff youdidn't want to order it too
early, and then you just threwit all away.
(20:51):
If you had, any yeah but yeah,that's something that we would
be if especially if you're goingto do well you wouldn't be
using some of them.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
You might do a bedding pheromone for early
season, but it's differentskills yeah, but you know, as
far as for archery, yeah, yeah,when we get into october you
guys can start slowly putting alittle bit of doing estrus and
that kind of stuff out.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
And then you know, of course, it's practicing with
your weapon, busting out the bow.
You do yours year round, I do,I do.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
But yeah, I mean, there's, you know, and it don't
matter if it's rifle,muzzleloader, archery there's
always those guys that a weekbefore season, two or three days
before season, I'll go andsight it in or shoot you know,
get my bow sighted in, my gunsighted in, and it's like, and I
just try and discourage thatbecause you may only get one
opportunity at that target but,you want to make it count, you
(21:43):
want to know that, you know that, you know that muscle memory is
going to take over and you'regonna close the deal when the
the pressure's on you know whatI mean.
So that's my thing.
I feel like you owe it to thatanimal because you're asking
that animal to give his life upfor you.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Yeah.
So another thing is with nowthat bear season started, it's
organizing your gear.
So at the end of season,hopefully we've looked over all
the gear to make sure thatthere's no damage to it, but it
goes into totes and then intothe hunting shed and we got a
whole mess of totes.
(22:17):
So now though, it's breakingthat stuff out and I know this
was more Asha doing this, but asfar as like, give them your
system of, because you have awhole system down with prepping
the garage with all your huntinggear and like that whole
organization.
So we have a two-car garagethat has never had a car parked
in it at all.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Just because we have so much hunting gear and whatnot
.
And so when season comes, wewheel out this rack that has
hangers on it.
We put all the camo on there.
After it's been washed anddried, it goes on the rack, and
so this rack.
We're about to two racks now,but we have this rack that's
just crammed full of all thesecamos.
(22:57):
First it's early season andthen as we get deeper into the
year it'll be late season andthey all hang there.
So you know exactly wherethey're at when you need them
Now.
And that's kept in the garage.
It's kept away from anythingexhaust fumes, kitchen smells,
dog smells, any of that stuff.
It's just hanging out there andit gear as far as clothing that
(23:21):
I'm going to wear, from longjohns to socks, to gaiters, to
early season extra shirts, hats,everything, extra pants, yep
Stocking hats All that stuffgoes in there that I'm going to
(23:44):
use on that hunt the next day.
And then that goes into mytruck and I don't change into
that stuff until I get out tothe gate, just before I walk in.
I'll change out there and thenwhen I get done with that hunt
if it didn't rain I will get outof that I will change back into
my regular clothes out there,put my camos back into the
(24:07):
scent-free bag and they stay inthere.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
But if it's wet, then it has to be, depending on
whether you wash it or dry itand using the dead downwind
Right, but you also.
It's not just the clothing.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
No, it's tubs of gear .
Speaker 1 (24:21):
You have like an area where your bows and the arrows
are.
There's an area where you well.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
All the dead downwind products are An area where we
have all of our scents.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
There's a wall that looks like it's straight out of
Bob's or a sporting goods storewith all the same type of yeah
Like the hooks, the pegboard,the pegboard with the hooks and
all the products hanging onthere so that it's just easy to
grab Bow hangers.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Yeah, backpack hangers, dri hangers, drippers,
drags, broadheads yeah, it'squite a bit of stuff.
So I I think I have myself likethree tubs of just equipment,
and then my son he's, I thinkhe's got two now, and then I
have another three tubs of camosand then I have a tub for packs
(25:12):
and then I have two tubs I gota tub for trail cameras, yeah, I
mean, you know, and of coursethis is just stuff that that's
accumulated over the years andstuff and and I've got a clothes
tub and an everything else yeahso.
But I mean I got an aero bin, anarrow bin out in the shop.
(25:33):
That's probably got.
Oh my goodness, it's easily gotover 100 arrows in it.
Yeah.
I share that with my wife andkids, but it's loaded with
arrows.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
But it's prepped so that you can easily see what you
need.
Right, you can easily see whatyou're going to grab, and it
takes a lot of the thinkingabout everything, like the
morning of.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Right, and the searching for it.
Well, I thought I put it here.
I thought, oh, dang it, I gotan elk tub, I got a deer tub,
because if you get up at 4 am or3 am, you don't want to fudge
with stuff.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
You just want to grab it and be able to go.
So now, right before season, sothis is two weeks up until the
day of.
So a couple weeks before iswhen, by then, we're putting out
blinds and hanging stands andbasically getting the set ready
two weeks before.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Yeah, yeah, at least two weeks, sometimes as much as
four weeks.
Yeah.
And it just I mean, it's a lotof work, it's fun work, I enjoy
it and everything.
But back when it was just me,it was so much easier yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Because you have your set.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
We got nine tree stands, we got three ground
blinds and they all get used,you know.
Yeah.
And then we got you know treesaddles and whatnot, and I mean
we got sets set up.
By the time season gets here, Ithink eight to nine tree stands
will be out and they will behanging in a tree somewhere
locked to it, and then theground blinds.
We usually have at least two ofthe three blinds out.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Yeah, I always borrow one because I've given up on my
.
The ladder stand is just, it'sgood.
It's comfortable and everythingbut it is a lot of work.
It's a lot of work.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
You need at least three guys to go put that up.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Any lesson, that would just be.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Oh, I'd be a nightmare.
Nope, I'm done, I'm out.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
So right before season it's that last, like
getting the stands up and thengetting making sure kind of
everything's ready to go Right.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
And the thing is, is we don't just put the stand up?
I mean, the day we put thestand up, that's when we start
our scents.
Yeah.
That's when we do our scentdrags.
That's when we set our drippers.
That's when we do our scentdrags.
That's when we set our drippers.
That's when you know the trailcameras are already in place and
ready to go.
I mean the whole set is done.
We've established a kill spot,you know.
We've done our drags, not goinginto the bedroom but just right
(28:03):
on the edge of it and bringingit back to our kill spot.
So there's I mean it's a lot ofwork, it's a lot of fun work.
So there's a.
I mean it's a lot of work, it'sa lot of fun work.
We have a great time doing it.
But I'm not going to lie tosomebody and say, well, you know
, you can just wing it, or, or,you know, coast on by and it'll
happen.
Success is no.
Accident is exactly what wemean.
You have to work for it and thereward is when your hands are
(28:25):
on your trophy buck or your bullor your bear, you know.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
And there is, I mean, even if and we were talking
about this earlier off air forguys who are new to hunting, who
might not like what do I do?
I just all I know is I want togo hunting, but I don't really
know what to do.
They might be starting out likeglassing clear cuts Uh-huh, but
it's still.
There's still prep work.
This still applies.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
You just might not be cutting in sets yet, or cutting
in trails and doing sets.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
But you want to set up where you know, as we've
talked about, you might bewanting to look for edges.
So it might be practicing goingout and glassing clear cuts and
doing that type of thing andyou know you're making sure
you've got those binoculars.
But there's some practice thateven guys who do that should be
doing ahead of time, so they'renot even just winging it right,
(29:17):
right.
You know how do you how do youpick up an animal that maybe
he's a couple yards or you know,two, three yards off the clear
cut, but you're able to pick upand and I say this because
you're very good at like, ohthere's, there's a deer and
everybody, where Nobody can seeit, but oh, it's right there, oh
, okay.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
And I remember it's imaginary yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
You say well, I'm not looking for color, I'm looking
for shape.
And as soon as you told me that.
Then I started seeing deer liketucked away in the woods and
whatnot Right right like tuckedaway in the, in the woods and
whatnot right.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
But there's some still, some things to kind of do
ahead of time.
Oh, absolutely, you know, ifyou're going elk hunting in
september, so you're doingarchery or you're going to call
for somebody, you know you wantto pick that read up and start
blowing on that read forprobably I'd say at least two
months in advance.
You know, guys say and I tellguys this all the time well, I
don't, don't know how to useREIT, I don't know how to call
you know what.
It takes 10 minutes a day fortwo months and you will be
(30:17):
better than 80% of the guys outthere calling yeah.
Then it boils down to knowingwhat call to make and when.
You know that part you canlearn by trial and error, but
there's so many videos out there.
Oh yeah.
There's so many you know you goon YouTube.
There's so many helps onYouTube and whatnot and so many
guys that are willing to teachthat that are successful hunters
(30:40):
that it's really not thatdifficult.
If you spent 10 minutes a dayfor two months, you would be
good enough to call in an elk.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
You know something I just popped into my head about
cutting in trails is good towait until summer, I would say
until July or August, becauseeverything's done growing.
Because you wouldn't want to goin there in April.
Cut in a trail because in amonth, it ain't going to be
there.
It's's not gonna be there yeahand it was interesting this year
(31:12):
because I I really needed tocut in a trail to my halfway set
just because it's so thickgetting in there.
But I went back out this yearand even before everything
started growing but just therain, and it was like all the
foliage shifted and it kind ofwhere I I needed to go in and
cut in the trail a little or atleast clean it up a little bit.
(31:33):
From last year the trail youcan still tell where it was, but
it was plants could startfalling in and filling out the
filling up the space.
It was just kind of aninteresting where I wouldn't
have thought about that, whereoh, I've.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
It's kind of maintenance for the set, if
you're going to keep using ityear after year.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
So how are you making sure and we'll end on this part
how are you making sure you'renot forgetting stuff the day of?
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Boy, I'm probably not the person to ask that I'm
terrible about it.
Inevitably, no matter how muchI plan, I always forget one or
two things.
Oh, I forgot my wind check, ordang it.
You know I was gonna bring this.
You know whether it's a markingtape or well, my goodness, I've
gone out one time and forgot mybow.
(32:20):
And here at the house I goteverything else, got out there,
got changed and everything andrealized here it is four in the
morning.
I left my bow at the house, youknow so, overthinking about
what I needed and everything, Ijust I left my bow at the house,
you know so, overthinking aboutwhat I needed and everything, I
just I blanked the mostimportant thing, you know and
thanks be to my wife, she's theworld's best she was gracious
(32:41):
enough to get up and run it outto me.
But you know, I always forget,and this is probably why I try
and prep at least the day before, if not two or three days, so
that it doesn't happen over andover again.
But I'll forget something small, you know, inevitably.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
but I remember the big stuff, yeah, except for the
bow except, but this year youwon't forget your wind checks,
because I've given you some ofNilche's wind checks, because
they can attach to something.
Don't use the one that attachesto your bow, because then you
might forget.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Yeah, I didn't.
I forgot my bow and the windcheck.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Use the one that sticks to your backpack or your.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
So Smokey Cruz, one of the guys that has taught me,
probably the guy that's taughtme the most about hunting in
general he was gracious enoughto take me deer hunting with him
when I was younger, andeverything, and I was just
enamored with Smoke.
You know, I love him to deathand he's still easily one of my
hunting heroes, you know.
But I was like telling my wife,I was telling Asha I says, hey,
(33:46):
I get to go hunting with Smoketomorrow.
I was just jacked, I was soexcited and everything.
And I got everything packed andeverything.
And the day before, boy, I wasat his house nice and early,
just like he wanted, didn't youknow?
It's like, okay, I'm here, I'mhere.
So I hopped into his rig and wedrove up to a spot that he was
going to show me.
I got all the way up there andit says you do this, this and
(34:07):
this, and then I'm going to sitover here and do this, this and
this and if it hasn't happenedby such and such a time, we're
going to meet back here.
I says, okay, so I go do mything and he does his, and we
come back and everything, and Iwalk up.
He's back at the truck before Iwas and I walk up and
everything.
He says well, how'd you do I aswell?
Speaker 1 (34:34):
he says I didn't see anything either, but it wouldn't
have mattered he's, I left myquiver at the house so it
happens, even to the best, tothe best of us.
It happens, you know but okay,well, like I said, next week you
will be replaying a lot of ourbest of the to help get you
prepped for season.
If you have any questions inthe meantime, feel free to send
those in.
If we have a lot of questions,come in, we'll pop on and we'll
(34:55):
throw out some bonus episodes ofthe Q&A and we'll do that.
But five factors the nose knowsand I'm not sure what the other
two will be.
But anyway, that's what'scoming and we will talk to you
again in about a month.
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