Show Notes
In this episode, Jon Teater (Whitetail Landscapes) and Eric Hansen (Just Hunt Club) discuss Box Blinds and why they are a primary consideration for hunters. Eric explains how he started with man-made box blinds and why he has changed to manufactured build blinds. Eric explains his style of hunting and the benefit of hunting blinds and how manufactured blinds have made hard to hunt areas much easier.
Eric explains why he prefers wooden platforms versus metal stands. Eric identifies the height of his blinds and Jon discusses why box blinds within food plots, like corn, may not be the best option for hunters. Eric discusses using terrain and vegetation to create cover around a blind and how to create movement patterns that move deer more efficiently toward and past blinds.
Eric identifies pros and cons of each type of manufactured blind and what attributes of each blind he uses that are beneficial. Eric explains why Redneck blinds are his predominant choice on his property and how he is excited to use their larger version. Eric explains crop rotations and how he uses corn and why interseeding into corn is very difficult for most. Therefore, it is important to think about food plot layout and food preferences.
Eric and Jon discuss deer hunting differences in locations they are familiar with and the safety benefits of hunting out of a box blind. Each contributor gets into various topics about taking kids hunting, as well as other styles of hunting and things they are focused on this upcoming season.
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Social Links
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https://www.youtube.com/c/justhuntclub
Show Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to Maximize Your Hunt, the podcast dedicated to those who want the most out of their hunting property. This podcast explores land management habitat improvement and hunting strategies that will help you maximize your time in the field. Follow along as industry professionals that live and breathe Whitetailed Deer, share their secrets to success.
And now the founder of Whitetail Landscapes. Your host, John Teeter.
Hi, I'm John Teeter, Whitetail Landscapes. This is Maximizer Hunt. Welcome back everybody. Let's see. Today I've been cutting timber on a client property. I. Then I got home and I did some maintenance on my own property. We've gotten a ton of rain here and in these periods of rain, high rain, a lot of it, starts to get me a little bit worried because I want a dry out period so I can actually cut more timber.
I don't like cutting timber in the rain. I think most people would agree with that. [00:01:00] I'm on the road tomorrow and a client, I'm headed up to Adirondacks and I will be working up there for the day and Back home and then another client in a few days after that. So just constantly on the road and trying to finish up this season.
It's been a good habitat season for me. I'm actually gonna cut a few more clients before the end of the year, and then hunting season begins October 1st for me. I will have to admit. I was gonna work on trail cameras tonight, getting 'em start, started and set up, et cetera. So I can deploy some more cameras.
I run a lot of cameras. I have about 45 cameras that I run. So it's a lot of data intel and analysis. And pretty much, the month of October and November, that's pretty much when I'm doing I'm not necessarily working but I am doing preparatory work and habitat plans, et cetera, for folks that I just finish up on.
I don't know, I figured I'd share, where I'm at and I I did a podcast before this on box blinds and it was Rocky Burrs and myself. [00:02:00] We talked a little bit about our preferences, Rocky's units that he designs, some of the commercial products that are available, what I'm providing to my clients and what I've experienced with, certain types of blinds and preferences, et cetera.
Again, I think, to each their own, we want people to get out there. See how they feel in the blind. But we're gonna talk more about, blinds today. So this is a part two discussion on box blinds. And I have a brand new guest on, Hey Eric Hanson. How are you doing? I'm great.
How are you? Good. I want you to introduce yourself to the audience and just get people familiar with you. You're gonna be on the podcast again coming up. So I want to talk a little bit about you now. Oh, all so I'm a farmer by trade. That's my main job, so to speak. I've got about 3000 acres in Ontario County.
Flat farmland, very rich soil. I own some timber. Not a lot. I've got a lot of fields. And then I'm lucky enough to also have a place in Steuben County, more of a [00:03:00] hilly mixed ag area. So I've got those two places to hunt. I do travel some, but I just put so much time and effort into the local stuff that it's hard for me to leave, plus being a farmer.
I'm just out there every day. So I started filming my hunts probably 15 plus years ago. It just came about 'cause I think we were seeing stuff and quite frankly, people doubt what we told them. So a friend of mine and I said, I would just start filming this stuff, and one thing led to another.
We started with Midwest White Tail back when they were just getting going. We contributed there. Bill Winkie obviously got out of that and we went our separate ways and actually got together with some people that we met on that show based out of the Northeast. And I contribute now to that group.
It's called Just Hunk Club. We're on YouTube. It's been going for, I think three years now. It's been fairly successful. So you can check out our stuff on Just Hunt [00:04:00] Club YouTube. So that's yeah, that's kinda where I'm at. Yeah, that's great. It's nice to know your history and I remember watching you on Midwest White Tail and then obviously on Just Hunt Club as well.
And you've had some great hunts and it's been nice to follow, your growth and strategy. And, being a New Yorker and I, people are listening all over the place, right? We've got people in Canada, Midwest, the south, right there. There's people all over the place listening to this podcast.
This is not intended to just be New York centric. I wanna be clear on that. Just so happens to be, I'm in New York and I know some people in New York, like Eric. And Eric's gonna be on again, we're gonna talk hunting strategy. This season. I've got actually a bunch of new guests that are gonna be on for that hunting strategy session throughout the season.
So that's gonna be exciting and Eric's gonna contribute in that. So Eric, I want to dive in. To, you've got these properties and a lot of them, I think there's a lot of fields and I know that, one of your key areas that you hunt, I think is down in that Steuben County area, and I know that you use box blinds on a lot of your properties, but not always.
I wanna talk [00:05:00] a little bit about your box blind selection and choice in your properties. Are they manmade built? Are they purchased? You know what? What are they? It took us about a year to realize that the, we went to cheaper, the man built wooden ones, and we did this, oh, probably eight years ago or ish, seven or eight.
And that was our first time doing it. We actually started with some wood ones and then we actually had a grain cart, an old grain cart on the farm, and we constructed a top over it and it was, pretty crude. That was the start of it. But then once we got into, Buying. I think the first, professionally made one was a redneck and we just went from there.
Mainly rednecks right now. I do have some banks as well. But those are just so much better than the manmade ones. And I'll tell you, I was thinking about it before we came on here. From, for my style of hunting, which we're gonna get into, I know the, [00:06:00] those box blinds have been, a huge, like I would rank 'em right up there with trail cameras.
Just the technology and what I'm able to do in those and the strategies with 'em, especially in these fields or geez, I call 'em rough fields, like just overgrown fields. There's no trees. And then you throw in the fact that down in the southern tier where years I try to hunt those hills in the switch wind directions and everything.
And I literally made places I could not hunt huntable by having those box blinds. Yeah. Yeah and I think. In the prior podcast, same topics, echo what you're suggesting and identifying is key, and especially in the field settings. A lot of listeners on this have, some areas that are very open and in order to facilitate movement.
You talked about natural structure, letting things go, fallow, et cetera, screening, those type of strategies. To get [00:07:00] in and out of a location and hunt it or just have an option, just having ability to get elevated, these box blinds, give you that, that feasibility to, access some area and have success.
And I'm gonna say that I agree with you. I think box blinds are a game changer. So let's talk about, your setup specifically. And I want to get into, are you putting box blinds on? Are they just on skids? Are they elevated? And then I want to get into your layout within the box blinds.
Are you using, they have padded systems, what accessories are you making? Any modifications to them? Anything along those lines for the box blinds themselves. And I also want to hear things that you don't like about either one of the brands you just brought up. Yeah. All right. So I have both stationary, what I would call stationary and movable blinds.
Most of the stationary, I prefer a wooden platform. It's one of the rare occasions where I, [00:08:00] like wood the metal is loud, I think, and you get ice on that and just I don't like it. I do have. I think two 10 foot metal ones. Just 'cause I needed the height, but I'd say on average, the majority of mine are like in that six to eight foot off the ground just high enough, to get a little better vantage point.
But not super high because you gotta remember. It just crushes me sometimes. This is a little bit of a tangent, but guys spend all this money on these box wines and they will put zero thought into how to get it in and out of them. If you're gonna invest the money and station one of these expensive wines and not have it very portable, the most important thing you can do is you better have a planned entry and exit to get in and out of those things because, The first time, some, eight year old doe pegs you in there and every time they come out, they're just gonna be on edge and staring at you.
So you have to take the proper steps to [00:09:00] secure that entry and exit. And I can go down, a bunch of ways we do that, but In terms of movable ones, we have, I believe I've got three now that I can move. One is just a banks on the skidder system, so that one's basically on the ground and I can pull that around on my tractor or four wheeler.
But we've also got these that we've made elevated slightly, and they're just on I have one on top of that grain wagon that I told you about to begin with, that gravity wagon. And then I've also got 'em just on, like those basic trailers you buy from runnings or from, tractor supply and you just build a little, elevated wooden system on those.
And I'm telling you, the deer, they just, they don't mind them. They really don't. If you get 'em out there You, I would literally hunt on the first night. You pull 'em into the field and the key to that is the fact that they seem to be on some sort of a farm type wagon and the deer just, they accept that way more than they do some pop-up tent blind.
If I was to go out and put a pop-up tent blind out there, those deer would [00:10:00] blow at that thing the minute they came out. But something on like a farm type structure, they just, they don't seem to mind it as much. Yeah, I think that's really interesting. Now let's talk more specifically about the blind setups.
What are you using? I'm even interested in the type of chairs that you're using. Do you do anything to quiet the blind down? Any camouflaging, anything along those lines? I don't bother with camouflaging. I'm really in terms of insides I like the redneck stools probably the best.
They're not overly big and they have a little swivel to 'em. I find that every now and again, you get one, a little noise to it, but it's not enough to. It's not enough to blow your hunt by any means. But once in a while they'll just get some sort of a a noise to 'em. But most part, those have been my favorites.
One thing I do, I always have the padding. I always have the rubber floor and the carpet. I will, however, Seal up with any sort of venting on 'em. [00:11:00] I'll use like Flex Seal or something and just seal those things up. I'm almost always, unless I've got a flat ground hunt with steady winds, I'm almost always keeping those windows closed the entire time.
For me, in those hilly areas where that wind swirls, I just I can't. And that's, That is probably the biggest challenge with them, is when you've got multiple deer in front of you and you've got the windows closed and you have a, your target buck comes out. Or if you're shooting doors, getting the windows open without deer, like on a light wind night.
That's very difficult. And I've actually missed some opportunities at Bucks. Because I had deer so close and I couldn't get the windows open without blowing the whole field. So that's probably one of the, That's a challenge. Yeah, that is a challenge. And even if you have the window open to crack, they see that.
Let me ask you another question. And we're talking about setups, a lot of times. And I, a lot of times we're accessing our [00:12:00] properties from the east sides, right? That's, that seems to be a predominance in at least a lot of properties that I'm on. And you get that West wind, that West Sun setting, and it just shines right into the blind.
And, and all my blinds, on the backside, on the non shooting side, I typically have blackout windows or some type of covering, and that's been helpful at least, concealment wise. But still, there's quite an obvious situation where you're opening up that window and. I think we talked previously on other podcasts I've talked about, when you're cracking those windows, make sure you flex those windows, especially on cold days to, make sure they're exercised.
The other piece of it is, the sun penetrating. And so thinking about, aspect in relationship to the blind, putting the blind, I. Maybe where it's facing a little bit north, so you're not getting those kind of southernly, western type suns penetrating in the blind, at least, reflecting off the blind or reflecting off some surfaces within the blind.
And that may be basic for folks, that concealment piece of it, I've done a whole bunch of different things, Eric, [00:13:00] and I put trenches in front of blinds. I've put in berms, in front of blinds just to keep space between me and the deer, right? Creating that separation and space is hard to do.
Using vegetation or some physical barrier, like I said a second ago, burn or fencing for that matter. Just trying to keep that fencing. I really hate seeing, and I know a lot of people do this, and I'm, this may offend folks, but I really hate seeing where they got these giant corn fields and, they cut this trail through the cornfield and they put a blind in the middle of it.
And our states, my familiarity with that is one, you're, I don't like putting. A food source and a hunting location in concert with each other directly on top. I just don't like that setup. But I've seen it work in many instances as well, and I also find that in those instances where you create those trail systems, you get a lot of flow and movement for deer up to that blind, and you find a lot of tracks because again, it's, it's a path of least resistance.
In these setups that you have on your property, I wanna dig into one of your key setups where you've been successful. Maybe think on that Steuben farm.[00:14:00] What's your layout, Ben? How have you set up these blinds for success relating to the access and diagnosing kinda where you can get in and out of a blind without getting nailed or, opening up the window, getting a shot.
Like what are some of the tactics that you're using in a particular setup that you have? Yeah. So I've got one I'll talk about a couple specifically. One, I literally had to go like blaze a trail with a mulcher through honeysuckle that was, totally impassable. And I just made a thin trail up the backside of this blind.
It's lower than the blind, so I'm, I can literally come up to the base of the ladder and just my head is looking out over it. I can see if it's clear and I get up in it. This year I've got a brand new setup that I'll talk about where I've got an eight foot redneck. It's a, it's actually a six by seven.
I went to a six by seven this year, and I can explain why later. But that particular one, [00:15:00] it's not even that far from the house, but I have a switchgrass field. And pine trees behind it. And I'm gonna make a mow, like a six foot walking corridor through that switchgrass to the base of that thing and just climb up in it.
One thing with that blind that's a little different in the past is it's not directly I have hunted with success on food. Okay. However, this particular one I made a. About a eight foot wide strip of clover that winds down through this overgrown field and that I'm gonna be, that is gonna be my shot.
And then I've got the food source in sight, but not in bow range. I'm trying to set these things up almost always for bow shots. I just look at it like, if I can. Setting 'em up for a gun is way different. It's it's quite, it's easier. It's easier, you knows it's but the minor detail going to get them in range and that's what.[00:16:00]
I think that's great because, we're talking about that transition, and I had this epiphany this year where I've got a similar setup where actually, I took a three acre field and shrunk it down to three quarters of an acre. Then I have a whiny trail system. So in, in some similar sense, like you're talking about, and I've set all my box planes up for bow hunting because what I've always said, I've said this to clients, is as we get through the season, Their movement, their predictability and movement decreases.
Early to midseason, and I'm talking about October, right? Because I'm just talking about bow hunting in our, in my particular area, their movement and, the predictability is a factor in how I want to set up my strategy. So most of my setups are for bow hunting. Now, the gun hunting setups like you're talking about in these big fields, you can be some distance away and it's thinking about.
Your relative effects, effective shooting range in concert with your setup. You could have, just think of an easy setup where you've got, east access, you sneak up a hillside, and then on top of this hillside there's this, I guess this [00:17:00] metropolis field and you've got it meandered and.
And figured out where you've got food systems and linkage and the whole nine, but literally walking off that road, sneaking up a hillside into a box blind, that's a little different strategy when you're hunting with a gun. You've gotta put these deer in close range in proximity. So I'm interested in kind of more of your setups and you talked about the six by seven size and its benefit is what's, what is, what's the change there for?
So first of all, the, one of the guys I hunt with the majority of the time is six foot four. And he is got like an eight foot wingspan, so Oh. That, that's part of it. But the really the main reason is I've never found you can have too much room in these things. I've got kids now my daughter's gonna be 12 and she's gonna first year bohan, so awesome.
I'm gonna have, all my hunts are filmed, so I'm gonna have, now, when I go with her, it's gonna be me and her and a camera guy. It's just, I can see this coming, to get the kids and we're gonna continue to film this stuff. So I just went to the six by [00:18:00] seven. I don't think I'm gonna regret that.
One of the challenges with those blinds too is, you've got windows, so you've got designated shooting openings. You have to get dear, move, and sometimes the challenge we've had is, which window are you gonna open? And you can guess all you want. You can take educated guess, deer, they do what they do and all of a sudden, bam, they're through the corner window and, oh crap.
Now we gotta get the horizontal window in the front open. And that's a different kind of style opening, and it's, it can turn into a fire drill pretty quick. So it's as good as they are there, there are those challenges. One thing I did wanna bring up too is you talk about, light and stuff coming in.
I don't like, I, my real preference is I don't like, I. Where you could technically see 360 out of a blind. I really like to have it with some background cover, and for me, in a redneck, it's gonna mean about three, maybe four of the windows I can actually see out of, and the rest of 'em are totally [00:19:00] blacked out, preferably with a.
Some sort of cover behind it. So I just wanted to throw that in there. No, I think that's a good point. I think a lot of people skip the cover piece of it, and I complained last time about those, see-through options where you have that, material that they apply on the bank's blinds where, it's one way, but those don't work well, particularly in low light conditions.
And I've also seen in conditions where you know that again, a waste west facing, blind where you're looking through those windows, I've seen where you can actually see, movement and in the blind, from a deer's perspective. It's interesting for me to think through each one of these setups.
I like your idea with having some cover so it blends in naturally. Another strategy I think a lot of people are doing, and I see this quite often, is they're putting miscanthus grass, in relationship, the height of the bottom of the blind, right? For in and out coverage and screening, et cetera.
And then what I'm doing in my setup specifically is I'm taking that same kind of. Structure and using that as a a a masking system on [00:20:00] my blind. So there's not a bad idea of actually using that material where you're, putting some type of banding around it and stuffing in corn stalks and that, those type of things.
I think that works actually great, and I think that kind of adds to the overall look of the. The blind, at least it makes me feel like aesthetically it actually makes sense in that setting. The other piece of it is, maybe using like long term fixtures, like putting in spruce trees and letting them elevate and making that part of the scenery.
I don't and this has happened to me quite often, talking with clients is. I'm, I want those blinds somewhat portable in every instance. It's the same scenario where I have, where I'm going, picking out a tree stand location. I want four options with every single location that I can get. Now that's ideal where I can move the stand around a little bit.
'cause you will get picked off and I've seen people get picked off in blinds like you're suggesting earlier. And it becomes this, this focus point for deer and they become, more accustomed to, seeing what's happening at that blind [00:21:00] location and then backtracking you and cutting your track.
Validating it's being used for, it's got human disturbance, et cetera, et cetera. They're getting you after hours as well, and I think people should recognize that. Alright I want to go, I wanna go into things you don't like about box blinds. Particularly the block, the two types of blocks, box blinds that you discussed earlier the banks and the redneck.
And I don't mean, you disparage anything. I just wanna talk about things that you wish they could improve on or things that you see better with other blinds that you wish you had, based on your experience. The one that intrigues me, I don't, it's just so much, it's more money is those grizzly blinds.
Like from what I can see, and I've been in one, I think those. So far seem to me like maybe the Cadillac version, but they are more money. They just seem to be very tight. They're solid. But like I said, I do not own one of those. So the, what I noticed with the banks blinds I like. I think they're very solid.
I think they're stronger than a [00:22:00] redneck in terms of just if you were to tip one over per se, but not that you're planning on that, but I just think they're very well built. But what I don't like is they're circular, so they may be a, quote unquote six by six blind, but it's very noticeable when you're in them versus a redneck, which is an octagon, that corner space.
Is noticeable. So I guess I switch back to buying the Rednecks Plus they've got that six by seven option now. The bank's blind door, I wasn't overwhelmed with. It was a little bit noisy. The seals on these blinds are very important. One thing I've gotten into doing is to put some oil on them in the off season.
Just some like whatever, vegetable oil, olive oil, whatever you want, and try to keep those seals from rotting. I've had some seals on the doors. On a redneck come off and you just gotta glue back on because let's face it I'm in these things and it's almost like I, it's almost like you're in a [00:23:00] capsule.
It's like you're you, literally, some days you hold your breath until you get to the blind and then, 'cause you're like, oh, I don't want anything to see me or smell me. And then you get in the blind, you close the door and it's this relief, it's oh we're safe now.
But you just, if you see daylight, if you see daylight or those seals aren't working, then well, it's not ideal. I have started to spray like a nose jamer product in them a little bit. I don't know if that helps or not. It's just a, it's a mental thing for me. I don't know.
Have you done that or had any luck with that or are you just trying to keep it No scent? Yeah, I just no scent the blinds themselves. So I'll go up and I'll vacuum out all the blinds. This is my next week's chore. Get everything vacuumed out. All the seats come out, they get washed down. I don't know how far people go.
That's as far as I go, is clean out the blind. Clean out the interior of the blind. I preset in each blind milkweed and containers. So when we go in the blinds, we have milkweed set up one blind. I just put up a Titan blind. They're similar to the Grizzlies. [00:24:00] And I've got a, I just bought tonight, I bought Redneck has a bunch of good accessories.
They're really the only company that has a bow holder for blinds. So I got that bow holder. And it's funny because your daughter's starting this year. My son's starting this year, he's 12. So I'm actually building. A location for him. I want him to kill his first deer in this location. It's a deer's never been shot here.
It's I want a challenge. So I'm actually cutting timber Sunday after I get back from a client. And I'm setting up a location just for him to kill him. And I also got a couple other projects in this location as well. I can get a whole area, I can get a couple acres, clear cut in a day, put in the trail system, and we're ready to rock and roll.
And I wanna have a long range shooting in concert, and this is all within a forested stand. I think, when you're getting these blinds set up and you're worrying about concealment and access and all that kind of stuff, I just really focus on, I. My boots and ensuring that, the noise aspect of it and that suggestion with making sure those, do, those doors open and [00:25:00] closed without too much noise.
I have an old stump three and it's got the, it's got like a levering system and a roller, and that thing makes all sorts of noise. So that would be a banks blind stump three. And I just don't like it at all. And the grizzly blinds. I have a grizzly blind and Josh Stryker, my partner, he also has a grizzly blind and he has a redneck blind.
We've compared and contrast those back and forth. And on the grizzly blind, I've actually had one of the seals break on the door. I also realized with that blind, I think new ones are a little more rugged. They've, I think they've upgraded some aspect of it, it has to be perfectly level in order for the door to close.
So I, I didn't really like necessarily that aspect of it. But to your point, the octagon shape and spacing I think you're totally correct and right on with that. Versus those really circular blinds. I'm a big fan of that. And I also think window treatments are, A good thing. Looking at, the, the shape of the slope on the sill.
Any coverage, anything [00:26:00] deflecting rain, so to speak. I think those are all important attributes of these blinds. Alright, so let's get into one of your setups. You, we talked about one setup. I wanna, I want to hear about another setup that you might have. That you think you're gonna have success on this year and what's gonna lead to that success?
I'm preempting you for your hunting season. So I wanna see what your thinking is gonna play out here this year for you. And I wanna talk about the box blind setup specifically. No pressure. Yeah. No. Okay so probably the one I'm the biggest deer that I'm gonna be hunting this year is gonna be, anticipate anyway, is gonna be in, in farm country.
Okay. So this story, I'll tell it, but it's probably not gonna relate to a lot of people because, just 'cause I own the fields, but I'll go down. It's okay. I'll be quick with it. So what happens on farm fields is, and Bill Winkie was the one that got me onto this years ago, but you have a standing cornfield.
Okay. A deer is used to that and a combine. [00:27:00] Comes in there, or let's just say it's a food plot. You got a corn food plot. I have those too. I have 4, 3 4 acre corn food plots. All right? If you go in there and whether you're gonna mow corn or combine corn, that's the first day that a deer has seen that.
In that sense, in that condition, right? The day that happens, whether you're doing a food plot mowing or a combine in a 50 acre field, that is the day you wanna move your blind in because a deer isn't gonna know. They're not gonna know that. Like it's all new to them. The corn's down, okay, it's brand new, so there's this blind sitting there.
They're not gonna know any different and it's okay, the corn got harvested, there's the blind. So I've got a particular buck in farm country that's. Let's just say he's really big. And I am going to it's surrounded in corn this year and I have a eight acre woodblock that at some point [00:28:00] that deer's gonna be in, and it's surrounded by corn.
I'm talking a hundred and some acres of corn. Okay, I'm going to have the luxury to go in with a. When that combine starts, or even prior to it, I'm gonna make a little section of corn. I'm gonna mow it over and I'm gonna put that blind there and I'm gonna be able to walk through the standing corn, get in the back of the blind and have some corn mowed down in front of me and the timber.
So that's a particular setup that a lot of people don't have, they can't do, but you can you can still do it with a, a food plot of corn as well. So that's, I also have a couple blinds that are on staging food plots that are long and narrow that lead out to big ag. Those are, within obviously bow range of these, whether they're clover plots or brass or something.
But there's, they're plots that deer will show up in daylight. Hopefully by dark they're gone out, move [00:29:00] past you into the bigger ag. Again, go to entry and exit. If you have to, you can always talk to somebody and have 'em pick you up. That's the last resort. Somebody can come with a truck and pick you up and scare the deer off that way.
Yeah. Yeah. Then that seems to work well, at least in the experiences that I've had. Let me ask you this question. Our corn is still green. And I'll say that in the nicest sense, and we are, we're coming into kind of that later part. We're not that far from harvest when we think about it.
We've had a lot of moisture, but as things start to dry out, some of the corn's gonna get harvested early. Have you ever walked into a situation where, You've harvested the corn early and put down, some type of, other grain, maybe grass, like a let's say a combination of oats and wheat.
Maybe even some red clover, in strips within that corn food plot to give yourself a little shooting opportunity in concert with maybe just knocking over the corn. Maybe just brush hogging the corn for that matter. Have you done that early season? Have you ever [00:30:00] tried that tactic? No, I haven't.
I look at corn as a, this is gonna be a little side thing here, but corn is very tough to get any sort of cover in, or, cover crop in afterwards. Yeah. So I just write it off when I have corn in there. It's. I'm not gonna have any cover crop. I got no green. It's just, it is what it is.
And then the following year I'll try to get it into something green. Maybe it's soybeans, intercede, Nebraska. I just kinda write that cornier off. It's just tough, it's hard to get anything to grow. Look at commercial ag, if somebody had a way to do it, you'd have these.
You'd have a way to get cover crop down in there. And I know people have flown it in and stuff, but it's very mixed or salts very expensive for what you're getting outta it. Yeah. And I so I have none. Yeah. I've just, I've heard some mixed things recently. I've had some clients reach out to me and ask me for strategy and.
I've have some opinions on this. Not that I'm gonna relate it on the show right now, but I just wanted to get your opinion. Alright. So we're nearing the end of this, Eric, and I appreciate your insight into some of the blinds. I'm gonna ask you one [00:31:00] last tough question 'cause I, I think that's that's important.
With your daughter this year, she's 12 years old, she's gonna have her first year, she's gonna be bow hunting, I'm assuming. Are you gonna have bow hunt, or cross bow hunt? What's she doing? There's no crossbows allowed in this household, so no. Okay. Anti crossbars. It's ver yeah, it's vertical bow.
Yeah. Okay. You're friends with the people in Iowa then. So vertical bow, and let's talk about her, your plan for her this season and what you're gonna do to make her season a success and how. How is she defining her own success this season? Have you guys talked about that as a team?
Yeah, so a couple things. The blind. Some people might look at it like, oh, there's, they're spoiled. We never had that. But for me, if on the safety end of things, I would, I know what I did it. When I first started running and it was up in trees and there was no safety harnesses and all this.
Yeah. So like I fit, yes. So I don't want her doing that. So I want her in these blinds. Is it, is it like spoiling her? I don't care. I don't look at it like that. I [00:32:00] just look at it as a safety aspect. We can sit there, observe deer. And, be outta the elements.
I can talk to her and coach her through and do this. Pretty much what I told her was, you can shoot whatever dude you want, the first time after you get your, one or two under your belt, then you're gonna have to, abide by the quote unquote, standards or rules that we have on these farms.
So she's all into it. And, it's, I don't know how your son is, but it's like, They're just this generation, of course she listens to me and sees how we do it. So she's very much she's got her strategy laid out. I just wanna, I wanna shoot a dough first, and I just wanna watch these bucks and decide which one I want, and I was like, it's not gonna be know. If you see one you want, you're better do it because you may not give out a chance, but Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, that's what we've discussed. And she can do whatever she wants to start with and she seems to be very much on board with.
Shooting a decent one to start with and then step it up from there. That's great. Yeah. And I asked my [00:33:00] son the other day, we're in the car, and he's actually taking his oh hundred safety course Sunday, so this is just in time training. I. And, I, we, I asked him, we're, he's helping me with the box blind setups and I'm in the same boat as you, like I, I call it Cadillac hunting.
I never Cadillac hunt my whole life. I still do my hanging hunts. I still like my old climber. And I, I go off and I hunt these farms that are unmanaged. Tough hunting just so I can get back to my roots because this like strategic design setup stuff that I'm doing, I'm like, Hey, why is that deer not, it's four minutes late, and I don't wanna have my son grow up in that environment and think it's that. It's that simple because it's not that simple. And it's taken me a long time to get to the point of making this, process and flow easier. I don't want him make it easy on him, so to speak. So yeah, what I'm talking about, and the reason I brought up that other setup earlier was the fact that no, no deer's been killed out of this particular area.
It's very, yeah. Hard to get into. It's gonna be a difficult place to, his shot's gotta be a quick shot. It's gonna, it's gonna press [00:34:00] him and I don't want him to screw up. I don't want him to, have a bad experience, but I want him to experience more difficulties in some aspect of it. But I also want him to, reap the benefits as well.
Other than maybe not shooting a fawn, the first year that comes his way is a dead deer. The only thing I did notice, at least with my son in Turkey season this year, is the fact that. He killed this bird and I begged him to go out again and he wouldn't go. And it's just okay, I got the spoils, I'm good.
And I guess it's a little bit from a conservationist mindset, but the fact is if he shoots a deer, I don't know if I'll be able to get him out again. So I'm I'm I'm going through that contemplation. So maybe it's, yeah, it's better to let 'em grind a little bit and don't give 'em the easy option and we'll go from there.
Yeah. So I remember reading Bobby Worthington. Yeah. Are you familiar with him? I do. I met Bobby. Yep. I remember. Yeah. I remember reading his book and talking about he would intentionally send his kids to the farthest spot away where he knew they were gonna see no deer, and he'd make 'em sit there and sit there.
And his approach was totally different. [00:35:00] It was like, I want him to, I want him to grind, just like you said, like struggle with it and see if they want it. I'm not sold in this generation. That's gonna be a good idea. I, I'm not saying that, but that's the one extreme. I do think that it's important though, that the kids see the work that we do to make it happen.
Don't just stick 'em out there and. Stick 'em in the blind and wonder what all this stuff is. Show 'em, the work that goes in and how much time it takes. And I think that's gonna be very important to make 'em appreciate it and realize that they don't just walk around the corner and show up in front of you.
Yeah. And I'll throw one other thing, and this is a series that I followed on another podcast. Somebody, I don't know him personally, but obviously I know of him. He's pretty well known as Joe dto. He's outta New York State and he's part of the Adirondack Tracking Club. And for anybody that doesn't follow some of these guys, these Adirondack tractors there's guys up in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine.
Some may know the Benoits. We'll [00:36:00] talk about Hal Blood. Probably, maybe have some of those guys on this podcast at some point. Those guys get to grind, during certain periods of time and walk the woods and learn dear movement and strategy and how to cut deer off and, understanding the cadence of movement.
You knower discerning speed, the male or female based on cadence of walk, size of track, just their body imagery across the landscape. They get to see all that. I think, there's an opportunity for us to take our kids and have them experience that style hunting or that is a grinder style.
And one of my strategies, and I don't even know why I'm talking about this right now, but I just talked to one of my neighbors and he owns some state land. There's, I'm in central New York and that's not really good hunting. And there's a state land area around here.
I won't name the name, but it's very bad hunting. And I was thinking about, bringing my son up there for him to experience some of that environment because last year one of my buddies and I, we walked some state land and we walked about six miles. I didn't cut a single deer track. And it gives you an idea of some of the [00:37:00] environments that I'm.
Familiar with the big forested land and not cutting a single trek. I got plenty of human tracks. I didn't cut one deer track. It's maybe a little extreme for some folks, but, six, six miles I walked and I didn't cut a deer trek. Just think about that kind of in light of, your hunting.
Philosophy and maybe something, to introduce kids to and the variety of styles of hunting too. I think that's important. We're talking about box blinds and I think it's great. I think it's in fantastic, especially during bad weather and these big strategies sessions that we had earlier talking about fields and layout and all that stuff, but I really think it's impressive.
Yeah. To get these kids to experience different style hunting. And maybe that's, maybe Eric, you come up here to the the Central New York area and we'll go for a stroll with your daughter. That would be interesting. It would be. I'll tell you a funny story. You mentioned all those guys, right?
I was, last weekend I was just at hunt stock Oh, cool. In Massachusetts. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. And so You wanna talk about a fish outta water? I'm the farm boy, right? Yeah. Going into all these tracking guys and I'm like, and the Just Hunt Club, we had a booth there and I'm asking [00:38:00] like, who's this?
I was not familiar with those guys at all. The Benoits I've heard of. Sure. But they thought it was so funny that I didn't even know who they were. And obviously all the people there were, they were there to see those guys. Yeah. Their guy tracking them through. Yeah. They're know where the heck they were.
But anyways, no it's different style and it's great. Like I say in the videos, deer hunting to certain people it means different things to different people. For me, as a farmer, a land owner, a land manager, The ultimate for me is to see the, get a buck, see 'em, use your ground, get 'em to a mature age, learn about 'em, and all the habits and the strategies, and you go and try to kill 'em.
The box blinds for me are a huge asset in doing that. We, for all the reasons we mentioned they're a game changer. They're a game changer. I just try to get, you save your money, you try to go in and buy one or two every year. Eventually we're going to get to the point probably where we don't need many and then you're gonna start replacing the old ones.
Yeah. I'm not to that [00:39:00] point yet. I did have a muddy blind that I didn't really like, so we replaced that one. But rednecks Banks, that's the name of the game for us right now. And it's fun. This season for me is, yeah, it's gonna be my daughter and then I'll be after something.
I'm not sure which one yet, but there's some good ones. There's always something. And You never know. You never know how it's gonna play out, but we'll be smarter at the end of the year. Yeah. No, that's great. I'm excited to talk to you again. We're gonna get back together sometime, just before, during early hunting season, and we're gonna connect and we're gonna hear your strategy, look an outlook for your season and things that you're gonna do.
That are gonna be kinda next level tactics that are gonna help folks, achieve their goals of shooting that big buck or, managing the herd, et cetera, whatever their goals are. So I look forward to those next discussions. Yeah, same here. Sounds great. Alright brother, we'll talk soon.
Thanks man. We'll see. All right, thanks ya. We'll see. Bye. Maximize your hunt is a production of Whitetail landscape. For more information on how John Teeter and his team of experts can help you maximize your [00:40:00] hunt, check out whitetail landscapes.com.
