Early Season Hunts & Preparation

In this week’s [UNCENSORED] podcast by GoWild presented by GunBroker.com, we talk all about you guessed it..hunting season! We open up with Jacob highlighting just exactly where he was when bucks started showing up on his trail cameras..spoiler alert..he wasn’t in the stand! We talk about whether or not cows have an effect on which way the deer come into a spot or if they just don’t care at all. What do you guys think? For Jacob it seems that the does do not seem to mind but the bucks seem to only want to come from that direction when the cows aren’t there. Jacob brainstorms on if he should possibly hang a second setup or move depending on where the cows may be but as we all do during bow season he worries that if he moves they’ll come right underneath the other tree!

Next up Brayden dives into his recent trip taking a youth out for youth weekend. They headed out to a private farm that he’s done some scouting on and climbed in a blind in a primo spot. Setup next to a couple soybean fields but with unfavorable wind they hoped for the best. Listen in to see what kind of luck they had! Brayden loves taking youth out hunting and really believes it’s one of the most rewarding things you can do as an outdoorsman although he does have a few spots that are off limits for the newbies!

Derek talks about not shooting the first buck he sees in Kentucky, with only one buck tag he’d like to draw his season out. However, he has been kept pretty busy lately with waterfowl, bear, and whitetail in other states that may change for this season. He talks about his upcoming bear and deer hunt in Tennessee that he has been scouting for all summer long. He’s going to do a few local hunts first to work all the kinks out before he heads south to hunt.

Closing out the guys talk about the best way to get in and out of the woods. They go over the different ways they pack in and if they wear their saddle in or wait to put it on when they get to the tree. Long hikes coming up for Derek he’s trying to make his walk in as easy as possible. What ways do you guys get into the woods?

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 [UNCENSORED] by GoWild kicks off your week with shameful nonsense, inappropriate convictions, and unfiltered tales from the woods, waters and whatevers. [UNCENSORED] is a behind the scenes look at our adventures, failures, wins, embarrassing moments at trade shows, hilarious tales from the warehouse, and a good rant or three about the most recent tyranny from the Dark Lord of the Sith himself.

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[00:00:00] Talk of the office this morning, boys, deer on tarot cameras. Yeah. And a squirrel. And a squirrel. Yeah. Yeah, you had a nice buck past your stand and where were you when it, when that buck passed your stand and shooting line? I was. I, like I told you, being a good father. Pfft. Overrated. A good father takes his son hunting.

Oooh. This is fair. She shots fire. Not during archery season. You don't know my sons aren't there yet. I know your sons. Yeah, I'm sitting on the couch watching football, I don't know if you're aware of this, but you can't shoot them from there. Is that also a good dad? Sitting on the couch watching football?

Yeah, actually, in our family, we don't watch a ton of TV like that together. And to be fair... Liz has always talked about how she remembers watching football with her dad on Sundays and it was like a special thing. She enjoyed it and she still likes watching football [00:01:00] today because of that time. And so that's like an excusable TV time in our house to all sit down and watch football.

Imagine the memory your son would have of you absolutely blasting a giant buck. Yeah. Still season to go. Yeah right in front of my tree. 745. Different than the one from three weeks ago. I've had this one on camera before, so I don't know which one you're talking about. This was not one of the ones that I saw last week when I was actually out hunting.

Very different rock shape. This one would've, I probably would've fallen out of the tree. Did you tell the story of that and like your strategy and stuff around that on the last one? No, cause we talked strategy about that after that last hunt. I guess you guys haven't really probably talked about it with us much at all, but Brayden and I were talking in the way there's like a pinch points and a couple of like fence rows and tree lines and Creek bed.

And so there's these natural spots where I think I'm going to try moving. From the one corner of the creek, I'll call [00:02:00] to the other corner because if they come from the neighboring property and cut that corner, that's how I missed on that time. So I'm gonna try to get over to the other side of that little pass through across the creek.

But I brought up a question this morning that we decided to save for the show today is we've had discussions about cows deer, like cows, deer, hay cows, the way. My ideal scenario for this one position is that they would come from these woods that also parallel a cattle farm. When I was hunting that evening and they didn't come that way, I could see cow legs through the tree line.

So I know they were right there. And I don't know if where those cows are grazing on that farm, if it's bumping them to travel a different direction, because I do have them coming that way other times on the camera. So I'm debating on... Should I try to move myself to the other side? Should I hold out on that spot?

Do I need to pay attention to, like, when I get there, if I see the cows move? [00:03:00] What do you think? You want to buy cows? Yeah, I don't think having a second spot as an option to get away from the cattle is a bad idea. Just having multiple options so that when you get out there you can assess and be like, okay, where are the cattle?

Where's the best spot to hunt? As far as like the comment about deer hating cows, deer loving cows, I don't necessarily think it's either. I think that they're, I think their opinion towards cows is our opinion towards cows. We'll go through them if we have to, but let's just avoid them. Not because we don't like them.

It's just, they're there, they're in the way. Let's just find a quicker, easier route around where the cattle are. It's my opinion on them. Deer are very familiar with cows and they're around them all the time. I've seen them tons of times out in the same pasture fields with cattle. But that's not to say that they're not going to avoid them also if they don't have to go through them.

Okay. Deer, in my opinion, they're, we all know this. We've all seen it. You've seen it [00:04:00] braiding out with hunting on logging roads and stuff like that. We've all been in these scenarios where we've seen that deer, these animals that will take the path of least resistance. And in that scenario... The cattle could be resistance for them.

They're just, they're going to avoid them. Not because they don't like them, but just go around them. I think having two options for you as to where the cattle are is a good option. It's a good idea, but that's not to say that they're not going to come from the direction where the cattle are as well.

Yeah. The direction where the cattle are is the direction where the does have been coming from, right? Yeah, I had two does come that, from that way. that night. Have bucks ever come from that way? Yeah. But you don't know, you don't have enough information to know if they're coming from that way when the cattle are there.

Cause I'm assuming that, I don't know the size of this cattle farm you're talking about that's next to you, but I'm assuming they're doing some kind of rotational grazing. So the cattle might not always necessarily be in that pasture field. That's the first time that I've been out there and noticed seen the [00:05:00] cows right there at the property line.

I don't know how they rotate them. I haven't really looked. A ton on X as far as like how big that property is and sometimes you can tell like it's fenced off and they Will physically move them from field to field. Yeah, they're doing range rotational grazing. Yeah. Yeah that's where when you were out there You said you had bucks come by from that direction where the fence is off to the right side Yep, and that you saw the cows off to the left And you had the buck come onto your camera from the cows Yesterday.

Yeah So the guess there may be that the cows weren't there and the bucks came from that direction. The cows were there and the bucks came from the opposite direction. Yeah. So I don't know if you can go back and look at your cameras or not, but I wonder if it's like rotational. Is it like when they're rotating cattle, is it usually one day of the week?

I guess it matters. Matters for the different, everyone does something different. Yeah. How many cows, how much they're eating. Yeah. But is it like there probably is a whole podcast series talking about rotational grazing for cattle I won't get into the all of [00:06:00] that but it varies for everybody It's the best way to put so you wouldn't be able to look at the cameras and say okay But from this direction buck from that direction does from this direction dough from that direction and build a a theory on okay, I'm seeing bucks come in from this direction on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I'm seeing them come from this direction on Mondays and Wednesdays and build off of it.

It's not like that simple. I don't think it would be that simple. I think I need to get that farmer's phone number and talk to them. They're a neighbor to the property, so I'm sure they would just like, hey, this, yeah, this is what we're doing. They might also say, yeah, you can come hunt here too. I mentioned to Brayden, I was going to take a stroke out of your book where it's I'll send letters to these people, tell them that I'm hunting on a neighboring property.

Can I get permission to come get a deer if it comes across the fence or whatever? And then maybe parlay that into some permission because that starts small where those three bucks came from last week. Is tons of gobblers when I [00:07:00] was out turkey hunting is in the trees on just over our property line. So I would love to have that for all hunting, but definitely turkey season.

That's how it always is. Just over the property line. That's where the honey hole is. Come here. Come here. Yeah. So I don't. You get permission there and it's the next property. Yeah. Yeah. I think the point and the strategy I need to lock into for the rest of this fall, at least leading up to rut, is that. Go in to that spot that I have cleared out well with great shooting lanes, check it.

Check the cattle base off wind and then also have myself a spot on the other side but what I was telling Braden is There's not great tree access over there So I'm probably gonna be hunting from the ground and trying to wedge myself into the creek bed and just so is there no trees? Over there.

There are there's some there's a couple really big sycamores that don't think I can get my Steps on to be difficult. Yeah, and then a lot of a little brushy stuff So I might have to just the [00:08:00] creek bed is very enclosed. Yeah, and so I might just Literally stand in the creek bed and hide myself Hopefully there's something over there that you can get up into and it wasn't even on my radar my plan Like that's the thing is like I go out preseason and get all this stuff ready and know where I'm gonna go And then of course you go in there and hunt and they do something totally different and you know how it is too is you're gonna you're gonna pattern these bucks out Or these deer in general, and you're going to figure out, okay, when the cattle are in this pasture, they're coming from this way, you're going to get over there, you're going to get a spot set up, and then the first evening you hunt it, they're going to come from the direction they're not supposed to come from.

They're going to walk right under the tree that you would normally hunt from. This is the problem with bow season, because if it was gun season, you'd have killed that buck. Oh, yeah. Trying to get within 30... Yards for us, about 30 yards is about what we're, but I was telling him too, there's there's two kind of like peninsulas of trees, two sets really of peninsulas of trees.

And you have a gap in between each and they come out into the field and then work through those peninsulas and then come through like the pinch point in the middle of both of those. Path of least resistance. I was like, [00:09:00] dude, I was like, maybe put like a mock scrape out there. And I know like early right now, it's not necessarily going to matter, but if you know that they're coming from that direction, you might be able to get a little.

So these are the two. Yeah, I think I see what Brayden's talking about, cause you can get out on like that point right there. Cause that's they're gonna hug that. Yeah, that is, that's just rushy old barbed wire fence line, and they scraped the heck out of this, that point of that tree line.

Yeah, it's one of those things, I talk about this every time we Preseason. It's yeah, I didn't get out there and do as much as I want. I'm doing stuff last minute and I get out there and start hunting and everything's different. So this is the second year I've hunted this farm, and last year I hunted it one day and had remarkable success

So it was like a buck within 20 minutes. Yeah, it was like book open, book close. And that's true. You didn't hunt it all year so you don't have all that data. Yeah. Yeah. And that was rut. And so it was, yeah. Who knows? Totally different. It's all just putting pieces of the puzzle together. And it's fun, man.

If I walked out and every [00:10:00] hunt was like last year yeah, that'd be sweet, but I like this part of getting out there and seeing deer that are just out of your reach and then you're like, ah, I gotta get them. You're amongst them though, man. You're amongst them. Yeah. I feel good about your odds. You were out this weekend.

You seasoned. Yeah, we we had a really good plan. We were going to go out to this public spot. Actually close to where Phil, for those that listen to the turkey stories, Phil actually pulled the trigger on a turkey that went click. And he actually didn't even make the round didn't go off.

But, we were not far from this oak flat that Phil actually shot his first public land deer out of this oak flat. And then me and him have gone out there two or three times. The first place I went with him, er, second place I went with him on public is this oak flat. And we've seen deer every single time.

And not had shots every time, obviously. But we were gonna go out there for youth and get him up in a tree. And, he has a crossbow the odds that... He'd have had a doe, a good shot, a doe would have been nice. It would have sucked to carry it out, but we have a deer cart that we're going to bring and felt [00:11:00] really good about the plan with the wind.

It was perfect. This is Phil's stepbrother, right? Yeah. Phil's stepbrother. Is the youth. Yeah. He'd be the youth. The youth. And but he had a sports injury and wasn't able to really track out pretty far. It's a little bit of a. A little bit of a hike. And so we audibled and went out to this private farm that we've been Scouting and Phil shot his buck there last year on this like easement that kind of runs through the I guess it would be the east side of the property and I'm sorry be the west side of the property we have a blind that we've had set up there for months like brushed in really nice and we've got Just tons of pictures of deer rolling through this area, but not a great wind really for what we were trying to do.

And we were just we're making a bet. There's this big soybean field. That's the very backside of the property that the easement connects to different soy fields. And we were like, maybe we can, maybe they slept out in that soybean field. And if they did, we'll try to catch them coming.

to their, [00:12:00] secondary bedding position or coming to the woods or whatever. And it, we went out there and got set up and got him all, ready to go on a tripod with his crossbow and had good shooting lanes and everything. But we might have heard a couple before shooting light.

Not sure, could have been squirrels. And we never saw anything, never heard anything really substantial. But the cool thing was... He's almost 16 now, and so this will be his, I think his, this will be his third season hunting with us, and it's always been that thing of like where his parents like want him to come out with us, and it's like something to do, and he, you can tell like he enjoys it.

He likes The whole like process of being in the woods and everything but this year was different like he felt more like on our level a Little bit. We're cracking jokes. We're hanging out and at the end of the day like we're walking back and he's like man I told my mom this morning When I woke cuz we were making fun of him He was super grumpy in the morning like we're like dude who pissed in your Cheerios this morning.

What's going on? And He was being a turd like getting ready. He just he doesn't want to do this anymore We're gonna [00:13:00] stop like pressuring him in to do it And he he perked up about first light, and he was having a great time. We had an awesome time in the blind. Phil about busted our whole hunt.

He was laughing so hard. He was crying we were just having a great time together, and we were walking out, and he goes, man, he said, I told my mom this morning I was never going hunting again, and waking up this early, it's stupid, and I hate this. And he's I'm actually really excited for this season.

He's he made some comments about turkey season of oh, this is, this is where the turkeys will be, right? This is where blah, blah, blah. And he starts, he's connecting dots and cause we're always talking to him when he's out there of Hey, do you see this?

Here's why that's there. Hey, this is a scrape. Hey, this is a rub. Hey, here's why it's there. Here's why we're going to hunt in this area. And we're always talking through like how we're thinking about stuff. Basically how Phil taught me to hunt really is the same thing. You're just explaining why you're do.

doing things and I started noticing him like giving input and feedback, thinking through stuff and getting excited and so it's, I'm excited for this year with him, I'm [00:14:00] just like, it really seems like the tide has turned, he's kinda got the bug a little bit with us and he's gonna be kinda you know He's gonna, he's gonna have his own stand this year.

He's going to be in his own blind this year while me and Phil are in other places where in the past he's either been in the tree with me or been in the tree with Phil. And so it's like we're trying to get him on a deer or he's there just like hanging out with us or, crazy situation of doubling up or whatever, but.

It was obviously wish we would have seen a deer and got him one but I'm excited with just the way he was talking and how he's gotten the hunting bug. Especially after a hunt where you didn't see a deer. Yeah, I was worried with the way he was the vibe this, that morning of how he's feeling.

If I was expecting him to be like, ah, guys this year, I don't. I don't really know or he'd be saying no coming out with us more often, but yeah, I think I think he's turned the corner a little bit and getting excited to get out with us which is cool because we're more than happy to take him out with us.

And both of us would freaking die to get him a buck. Like it would be. Awesome to see that happen. And your, does your season open this weekend? [00:15:00] Sunday, this Sunday. Okay. So the youth season, was it just this past weekend? Yeah. Okay. And it's, you can use guns. But Phil just bought him a crossbow tag and he's just going to use a crossbow all season.

It's just, I don't know, just a little easier for getting him up there. A little less to worry about, I guess safety wise. Obviously it's still a dangerous weapon, we, it's, I don't know, it just, him being in a stand by himself with a crossbow feels a little bit better.

I don't know if that philosophy actually lines up or not, but yeah, he's got a crossbow tag and so he's gonna be going out with us a lot more. And having that private is so nice for taking new people out. Like I've got three guys that over the past year have been like, you hunt, right? I'm like, yeah.

And they're like, man, I would. I'd love to get out sometime. And I'm like, man, we got putting somebody in a blind, or like sitting with somebody in a blind. You just don't have to worry about hardly anything. It's like we can carry the crossbow in. We can tell them to show up in like a dark colored hoodie and we can set them down on a tripod in the blind.

And one of us will sit with them. One of us will go out and beat another spot hunting. And, It just, it really [00:16:00] simplifies the process. It makes it easy to get people out. And this farm, these people just want us to kill as many deer as possible because they just kill their crops, eating tons of their crops.

And so we're gonna, we're gonna try and take as many deer off that property as possible, which hopefully translates to us. Taking a bunch of people out with us and getting people, their first or one of their first experiences out hunting. So I'm excited for that element of this season, but more excited for some of the bucks we've got on camera and some of the spots that me and Phil will be hunting.

Cause I'm not going to take some newbie out to some of the places that. that we go. They would probably say this sucks. Yeah. Never doing this again. Me and Phil are fine to go out there and not see anything and can muster up the excitement to get back out there and everything. Now, do you all know where you're going Sunday?

Are you waiting closer to forecast the wind and stuff? No. Yeah, probably going to wait closer to the wind. We're getting to the point now where we can like start to check and see like The apps we use will tell us. I think it's seven days, seven, eight days in advance of the [00:17:00] wind to expect, but it actually changed up for us.

We were expecting a horrible wind out there and really, just a complete crapshoot of man, I don't even know if this even makes sense to go out there, but we're going to do it cause you never know. But the wind flipped that morning on us and it was actually a pretty favorable wind for that spot.

So you just never know, man, I don't, we're going to try to. Make the best decision we can with the apps and the wind that they're telling us. But we have so many spots now and we've learned our lesson, getting up in a tree and the wind being horrible or whatever the morning of, and just pigeonholing ourselves into this is where we're going to hunt.

We've tried to do more of the triangle approach where we can this is roughly the spot we're going to go hunt. And then based on the wind that morning, we can, pick the stand. That's going to be the most favorable wind for that particular set. So I don't know we'll see how it goes, but.

High hopes for this season. Yeah, it's exciting, man. It's funny I've taken it for granted. You said you're going out for the first time this evening? Yep, I said I was going to be the first to sit for... Deer, yeah, and it's [00:18:00] been open for a month almost and it's like it there's it's great that it is so long But sometimes I almost use it as a crutch and I don't put as much like hard drive You've got days marked off taken off on the calendar, but I don't have kids and yeah It's a little different.

There's one month left in bow season, right? No, it goes to January here, Indiana Okay. Yeah here. Yeah, I was told January once it opens up it's good till January. Yeah, that's the plan really. I'm pretty much planning to bow hunt the whole year So if there's a spot where like the wind is, this is a spot We've got a hunt and there's not great bow hunting lanes.

Like I'm not above taking a gun out for sure But I'm gonna try to I just really like bow hunting so I'm gonna try to do that as much as I can all the way through January and Hopefully I don't have to worry about it by the end of the year, beginning of next year. What's funny is I'm talking about these deer that are here in September and October, and I'd love to get one early, but [00:19:00] I love hunting rut so much.

And yeah, I know I can go, I can bow hunt in October and some of them be getting into it, but there's just something about like. When, most of the hunters in the state are celebrating that same weekend that you are. That's, and getting out there I almost have to participate even, yeah. I think you made a comment of, I don't want my season to be over this early. And I'm like, dude, oh, I've done that kid out. What do you doing? I've done that before. I've had bucks walk by, opening day. And I pass, I'm like, I don't want it to be over. Especially with us only having the one buck tag here in Kentucky.

Now, I'm in a bit of a different situation this year. I'm going to be a little more, should I say liberal, with my buck tag here in Kentucky since I also have Tennessee tags and a short drive down there that I'm going to try to fill as well. You've been duck hunting this whole time. Yeah, that's the other thing too.

I'm chasing all kinds of things from September till, the end of February between deer, bear again this year, ducks, [00:20:00] geese, everything. Yeah, I did, we had the early wood duck and teal season here that just ended. Which I mean, I'm sure there's some spots in Kentucky that you can get on teal, but where we are, it's...

You're not going to see a teal. Yeah. So I just hunt those, I hunted four days straight for wood duck and had some success, but I was definitely feeling a lot better going into it. And then I've also been doing some early Canada goose hunting. And then honestly, I wouldn't even be considering deer hunting yet this time of year it's still too hot for me.

It's going to get, it's going to be like 83 today as a high. And that's the math that I do every time I either go out early or talk about going out early is you start thinking like from shot to getting that deer, you have to shorten that window so much. Yeah. Get that thing out of there quick.

It's a high of 83 today. And that's not just here in Louisville. That's where I'm going to be hunting at Southwest of here. I don't think it's going to get down below 65 tonight out there. So let's just say I do shoot a deer and I have to let it lay overnight. I'm not going to sleep.

Yeah. And, but the whole reason I'm going out now.[00:21:00] I'm hoping to get two hunts in. I'm hunting this evening and then tomorrow morning for sure. And then I might get one more hunt in this week. But that's because, I think I'm leaving Saturday. Friday or Saturday, I can't remember. But driving down to Tennessee for this bear and deer hunt that we've been scouting for all summer.

And I don't want my first hunt of the year in my saddle. Being down there knocking the rust off trying to remember everything and oh, I forgot this and I need to get that because it's a lot more There's a lot more into it now than just going out to my farm and hunting so trying to get a few saddle hunts in You know this last week of September here.

I'm not going out with the intentions of killing a deer If the opportunity presents itself great I have my criteria. I've talked about this before in other episodes about where I think about, mentally going into a hunt. What do I want to let an arrow fly on for this hunt? I've got that figured out, but mainly I'm just going out just to get through the motions, remember how everything works, get up the tree, remember how to pack my pack, work all the kinks out to where, going into this hunt in [00:22:00] Tennessee, I don't have to think about it as much.

Yeah. Because that's going to be pretty much all saddle hunting while we're down there. What's your criteria? For right now, this last week of September, just these few hunts that I've got going on right now, I'm not shooting a doe. And I'm only gonna, like I said, I'm being a little more liberal with my buck tag this year in Kentucky.

Derek is a liberal. So if I see a buck that gets me excited, I'll let an arrow fly on it on these two hunts. But I'm not talking some big ol monster. Yeah. I'm also, if a spike or a fork or something walks by I'm gonna let it walk. Yeah, that's fair. Have have either of you used Amsteel with your sticks before?

I have am steel on my platform. What's that? Is there a significant difference from like the cam buckle strap or whatever that, or that's what you've been using, right? What do you mean by am steel? Am steel is like the daisy chain. It's like a wall. So I'm talking like am still, as far as like the actual [00:23:00] material, like the rope, I'm not really necessarily talking about how it's attached to my, how does yours attach on my, where the am steel is on my platform or whatever.

It's just hooked in with the carabiner, and then when I fold the platform down, it just kinda... Bites into the tree. It's with a carabiner? Huh. Huh, I hadn't seen that. Yeah, the carabiner is like on a prusik cord That's attached to one end of the

platform But then the am steel is attached on the other side. Gotcha. Okay, mine's just daisy chain And so that's what I got to figure out. There's all these methods of you know You can get in these awkward situations with a specific tree of where it's just in between, that daisy chain.

And so you've got to figure out like, do you double wrap it around the tree and figure all this stuff out. And I'm used to using just just cord, just what is that rope? It's I think it's eight millimeter. Yeah, just tie that half hitch knot or whatever. That's what I'm used to doing.

So it's just, you don't have to worry about the size of the tree. You can just put it on there, tie that knot, seed [00:24:00] it, and you're good to go. But there's a little bit of flex, there's a little bit like I don't know, that it, with Amstel apparently you just, you don't have the flex, and you've got to get like the tightness right around the tree to figure it out.

And I got them recently and I haven't had a chance To test it out, but I'm going to do that with my three sticks. I have the 30 inch three step Hawk Heliums, and then I'm actually going to use it with my platform too. And on my platform, I've just had a cam strap. And so again, it's just adjustable and you can you don't have to worry about the size of the tree again.

You're just like, to an extent, but it's going to be really different this year. So I've got to, I've got to figure that out. I just didn't know if y'all had messed with it before. No. And I looked at it a little bit because I've got a couple of trees that I would like to hunt out. Out of that are way too big for my cam straps and so I like the idea of having something that I can get Cut to length for what I'm gonna need to be able to get around some bigger trees, but I haven't used it Yeah, all my stuff for the most part.

It's just like a webbing material that just goes into the Whatever you call that buckle. Where's the button? [00:25:00] No, the ratchet It's a ratchet, but and then yeah, basically everything just camped down on itself and tightens up. Yeah, I don't know We'll see if I like it. It's not a weight thing for me It's a lot of people switch to am steel because of the weight which it is significantly lighter.

Yeah for how strong it is Oh, it's super strong. It's a lot lighter. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah But I don't know, ultimately it's not saving me that much weight, like I'm not going on 10 mile hikes where it's going to matter, like I, it's fine but the speed is what I'm after and it seems as long as it's not in an awkward spot of that in between of where you got to figure out like how to finagle it and get it, that exact length or whatever it should be as simple as just like wrapping around the tree, pull tight and then get that daisy chain.

In the right spot and boom, it's on there. So it should be, theoretically, it should be faster, but I don't know. We'll find out. That's my big change this year that I'm going to try to practice a couple of times before I actually go hunt. But other than that, I'm pretty much running the same like saddle system.

I changed up the pack and all that, which I've talked about on another episode, but that's all worked [00:26:00] out. I'm just a little worried about. How all that's gonna play out when I'm hunting, but that's my big concern going into this Tennessee hunt Is this is gonna be the most hiking through some pretty rough stuff that I've ever done with the saddle So I'm gonna have my pack with my sticks my platform Everything that I'm gonna be bringing with me into the woods in my pack because I mean it's we're probably gonna be out there all Day sun up to sun down so everything I need for the day is on my back and then on top of that now I also have my bow right And we have to get through all this, we're looking at several mile hike, like four or five mile hikes.

Some days, some to some of the spots that were, we've got marked that we want to hunt. And you're going to hike that before sunrise. You're going to wear your saddle. I don't know. I, that's part of, this trial run that I'm doing tonight and tomorrow morning is I'm going to, I'm going, cause where I'm going to be hunting tonight and tomorrow morning is a very short walk from where I'm going to be parking the truck, but I'm going to be treating it as though.

I'm going to do everything I would do that we're going to do in Tennessee. And so for normally when I'm hunting out of [00:27:00] my saddle, I just wear my saddle in. Cause we're talking maybe a mile, right? Maybe that's generally usually more of a half mile or shorter of a hike. So wearing your saddle in for something like that.

And a lot of these hikes that I'm doing out of our property are on pretty clean cut trails or through fields or something like that. Whereas. Going through some thick brush that we're going to be doing up in the mountains in Tennessee. It's going to be a whole different animal, so I'm thinking I might.

have my saddle and everything in my pack. So are you worried about snagging or are you worried about comfort? Yes. Both? All of the above. Yeah. And like I can attach my bow to my pack, which is what I want to do, but when I attach my sticks in my platform to my pack, I don't know that I can get the bow on there as well.

I have successfully done that once where I've had everything on my pack, that same pack, the Diablo BT from Badlands or whatever, we have the same pack. And I've figured out like how to do both, but it was never like... I don't know. I didn't feel like it was sustainable or something [00:28:00] like that. I can continually do.

It was just like it was a hassle to get it off and then for whatever reason when I'm in the woods, like I always had a hard time getting it back into that like stable, comfortable spot the way I had it because it's really easy to do it on the floor in the garage. But then when you're on a hillside in the mountains, exactly.

So in darkness yeah. In darkness. But I don't know. I've always I've done that like twice maybe, but yeah. Ever since I've just carried my bow and this year I'll just be carrying my bow. And that is, if I could find a way to comfortably do that consistently. I thought maybe that what is that spider?

That part of the bow spider, dude, I've seen that at trade shows, like two or three times. And I've listened to that guy do the demo and I'm like, man, I see people doing it out West and I don't know, it seems great. I just, I don't know that I could do that in a way that with all my other stuff, it be out of the way and actually hike and everything.

What's this bow spider? This is, it's like this. Puck that you can put on your pack or your belt or whatever it's really versatile as far as where you can put it Yeah, and then you put one on your bow and the bow is like a [00:29:00] peg connection point And then the puck has like a funnel So as long as you get that peg close and then it sits in that puck and can freely swing Which to me that seems great for if you stop and you just don't want to put your bow on the ground Yeah, whatever you just want like you're just quickly stopping You just want to hook it and you want a glass or take a break or whatever you're doing, like I get that application and for out west, obviously that makes tons of sense.

Like you're glassing a lot, you're, getting to certain spots and you're just like scouting or whatever. Like I get that, but the actually hiking in with that, I don't know, I've never tried it. So I'm sure people have figured it out. But what I considered doing for the Tennessee hunt, I didn't do it and it's probably too late to try to get one order now, but I consider doing a bow sling.

So I have a bow sling, if you want it I can get it. It's a Badlands it should fit your bow. So my problem with it was just a little too loose. Just like the, just a little too loose. And that's actually how I Loose as far as like how it attached to the bow? How I, so I was using it to, this is how I successfully attached my bow to my pack, is I used the bow sling and then [00:30:00] used the straps from that and then attached it tightly to my pack.

So my thought was pack with platform sticks, everything on my back, bow sling, and sling it around on my front. So you have your bow on the front? In that way, it's just there, it's easier. I'm not holding the bow, cause I'll bring it, I don't use it. The bows we're using are great bows, I love them to death.

But they're not made for long hikes. They're a little on the heavier end. Whereas that's where some other bow manufacturers have kinda, they've made lighter bows. But I'm just thinking hiking four or five miles in the dark, with all this stuff on my back, and now I'm also carrying a bow. It's going to be doable.

I've accepted that we're going to have to do that. Yeah. But I've just been trying to think of ways to make it easier on myself. Yeah. I'll bring it. You can try it. See what you think. But I just never could get it in a way that I could, for me, I'm thinking about it differently. I put mine on my back.

I use mine to put the bow on my back. So thinking about putting it on the front, that might work better for you. So you can see how that works. But. front and then so I know like when you shoot you take your quiver off and [00:31:00] I know when you go to your Saddle and everything you hang your quiver up there on like your HYS strap or anything like that But when you're hiking in do you have your quiver attached to your bow?

Yes, okay I do you see I keep my quiver on at all times It stays on the bow even when I'm shooting I shoot all summer with the quiver on It stays on my bow when I'm in the tree, and that's just a preference thing. That's just what I like to do. I like to know that it's always there. I don't like to have, cause I, years ago I hunted where, similar situation, I'd take it off, and I had a situation where I didn't know where it was.

Oh, yeah. So now it's and I have a similar story with my release also. So I have a whole system of, there's nothing worse than getting up in a tree of shooting light and realizing that your release is. It's just, a mile away in your truck still. So that brings up a great point.

We talked last week about how expensive releases are. Some of them, 300 bucks or more. You can do that easy. And so I almost, I remembered last second where my release was and grabbed it, shut my truck [00:32:00] doors, getting ready to walk away and I was like, Oh no. And then got my release. But I was contemplating getting one to just keep in the bottom of my saddlebag.

I keep an extra release in my bag. Under my ropes, down in there. In case I get up in the tree without it. That's what you're hopping a hundred bucks I mean you run the same release and my release never comes off my d loop So I actually live it's my new loop and I just leave it on there I have never had an issue where it's come off or anything like that But I'm constantly checking because it would suck if I keep it just falls off.

I keep an extra one in my pack It's like in this really random path pocket on those packs, those Diablos that very front little zipper pouch that like you can't really fit anything in there. I keep a release in there and it's a, it's an old release. It was like my first release with my first bow.

It's not ideal, but it's better than nothing. And so this good, this goes back to when we went shooting. It's been probably close to two months ago now when I was thinking about switching up my releases. This is my whole system on how I don't forget my release. Now it's my watches on my left hand. [00:33:00] I'm left eye dominant, I shoot with the left eye, er, left hand at bow, so my release has to go there, and I use a wrist release.

So I have to take my watch off, and put it on my other wrist. So if I'm at the truck in the morning and I realize that I have not moved my watch, I know I haven't grabbed my release. That's a good key. Dude, I was thinking about this, just at the beach, okay? Stick with me here. This stuff keeps me up at night, dude, I get it.

The way that I pack for everything now is the way that I pack for hunting. I think through what are we going to use the most? What are we going to use the least? How are things stacked in bags? How are... If this thing isn't in this place, then that means that we forgot this thing. I literally, I can't turn it off now, once I learned that whole hunting system.

Because when I first was going out there, there was nothing. It was just like... Make sure I have everything and then it's just in pockets. And then I found like I'm in the tree and be like, Oh, where's, and I'm digging through all my different. And I heard I think it was I think it was Tony Peterson telling the story on wired to hunt, but he went through an entire episode of 30 minutes of like in my left pocket on [00:34:00] the one that's on my thigh, I keep this thing.

And then this, and so now that's how I am. And now I can't imagine ever hunting. Not like that, but now it's how I do everything. It's like at the beach where we're packing to go down and hang out with snacks and everything. It's I get it from two sides too. Cause the fire department's the same way.

Everything we carry on our trucks and our medical bags, on the ambulances, everything is in a certain spot for a certain reason. And you hear Jack Carr talk about, like, all zippers come to the middle and they're all lined up in the middle of the bag so that in the dark you're not fumbling looking for zippers.

Everything's right just over time you learn these little quirks of being lighter and faster and, more efficient. That's why I'm... So OCD about things. Yeah. No, it's it makes sense, dude. It could be the difference between killing something and not, like having your stuff exactly where it needs to be, even if it's just that snack or whatever.

And if you're spending a bunch of time looking for it and all of a sudden here comes a deer that you're going to shoot, like just all those little things add up cause it's such a freaking hard thing to do. You don't want all these little variables being in the way [00:35:00] that could mess it up. But and with a thumb or, trigger release too, it's, If you are getting it out, and it's not hung on your D loop, and you drop it from the tree, now you've got to back up.

And so I'm leaning more and more towards just having an extra one in there. They, there are cheaper ones out there. If you don't want to spend that much money on a release, it's just gonna sit in your bag. I don't know, man. I like the known, just knowing that it's the same thing and I don't have to worry about this tension on this one is a little different.

Yeah, there is that element to it as well. It's whatever you're comfortable, like whatever you want to do is for me it's a thing where it's like, Oh, I really should not be in this scenario in the first place where I'm having to use this backup release, but I have it now. Yeah. Yeah. Two is one. One is none.

Yeah. I think, but the one we use, what is it? Like 180 bucks? 110, 120. Oh, it's 110? Yeah. It's not crazy. True ball. What is it? True Ball Hunter. Yeah, it's a thumb release or whatever. He's the True Ball Predator. And that's the index. Yeah, it's a wrist release [00:36:00] with the index finger, yeah. Yeah. That's just what I've always ran, and I tried to hear.

You hated it. I hated it. I hated it, and I thought more about it, and I was like That's gonna mess up my routine about my watch. Yeah, it's gonna open this door of now I'm gonna be more susceptible to forget my release. Yeah. We've been talking a lot. What do you got going on, Dan?

You haven't said much this podcast. Dr. Dan. Let's get your head Nothing looked like you zoned out there for a while. . Yeah. I mean you guys just talk about bow hunting 'cause I'm not into, yeah, I'm not into the bow hunting yet. Yet, yet. I didn't really do much this weekend. I did get a random trail camera picture.

Yeah. Because when I set up my trail camera picture, I was in a valley. No cell phone signal. Set it. About a week ago. Never got a picture. Cause no, no signal. And then randomly in the middle of the day I got a picture of a squirrel. Yeah. So I must have just gotten a signal for a second. So it means, Good news is the camera hasn't [00:37:00] been stolen.

It's on public land. Yet. Unless it's in somebody else's backyard and that's why that signal. Yeah. That's funny. Somebody else's squirrel. But, potential bad news is it's had signal a lot, and just nothing's come through the area where I set it up. I'm going out there with a buddy Saturday, and we're gonna pull the card, we'll probably put the camera in a slightly different spot somewhere in the same area.

You have friends besides us. I pay them. He's cheating on us. He's in a fraternity. An adult fraternity where he pays to have friends. No that you taught me something this morning. I didn't realize with those reveals that they'll sit there and store, which is dumb. Think through this but they'll store pictures on that card.

It's dumb that you didn't think of it. That's what I'm saying Yeah, it's not dumb that the camera does that. I don't know, that's what I was saying. That's for reiterating. Let's clarify again, Brayden's the dumb one. Like I said, I'm dumb and didn't think through it. I don't want you talking bad about the camera.

No, I'm not. But we have that one camera out [00:38:00] there where we got the literal last picture and video we have is this gigantic buck that we're stoked about and we literally have not got a check in picture since so don't know if it's sell, don't know what the deal is, but we're going to definitely be taking a card reader out there this next time we're out there and pulling that card and seeing, I'm sure we've got stuff coming through there, but we haven't even gotten check in pictures.

So it doesn't seem so weird. I'm still standing by the deer stole it. Yeah yeah, that one buck could've wrapped his antlers around it or something and he's just running around the woods. That'd be sick, if a deer took your camera off and it was just on his rack walking through the woods and you have a mobile trail camera.

I'm sure it's happened before. Oh, yeah. You've got a mobile tracker on a deer. But, yeah, so that. Yeah, I did also apply for Taylorsville Lake again, the quota hunt, which I did last year. I'm wondering if it'd be worth it to go to the spot we were trying to turkey hunt. Yeah, that swampy area, that swampy swamp donkey.

Yeah. All right. I feel like it [00:39:00] probably gets pressured because it's so close to that parking lot. But dude, when we got back in there, like you can just picture in your mind some gnarly old deer walking through that swamp. Yeah. And really that whole. Coastline, because that boat ramp's not too far down from that spot.

That whole coastline's probably all swampy. I could probably take my kayak. In to somewhere that's not quite as close to the parking lot and get out, but we'll see it depends because I applied for the early and late hunt and early's November 4th and late is like December 4th, and there's a big difference in temperature between November and December.

Temperature and movement. Yeah. And November 4th would be primo, but, and then before we jump off, you're going to ak. When is that? It's three weeks out still. Three weeks out. Where's noac? North Dakota. North. North Dakota. Dakota. I thought it was like a trade show or something. . It's noac. Now we're headed to [00:40:00] North Dakota on a big old waterfowl hunt.

We're gonna go hunt the factory. The Duck Factory. A little different than our Kentucky hunt. Yeah, which you need to put in for still. I'm going to. Dad, go ahead. I'm just going to keep reminding you until you actually do it. But the videos on YouTube seem pretty nutty. Oh yeah. In North Dakota?

Yeah. He sent me this guy up there. I've been following these guys up there. I think it's two brothers. I don't really know quite the dynamic, but the one guy is pretty much the guy that does most all the filming and editing and everything like that, but they're up there in North Dakota and the hunting's incredible.

What's the limit? It's a federal limit or whatever. Oh, is it? Every state's pretty much the same. So it's a six day, or six duck daily limit. And then that bag count's kind of broke down more. And then geese kind of have their own different numbers and stuff like that. But yeah.

Yeah, what's the name of that channel? Mindac. MINDAK. M I N D A K. MINDAK Outdoors. Minnesota, Dakota. Y'all should, if you got some free time, check it out. Because it is, and the editing is sweet. They'll put almost like a reticle on the camera, and it'll show him [00:41:00] like, looking up at this giant freakin swarm of ducks.

And it'll, he'll just be like, DINK! And the reticle will be on a duck, it'll drop, then he'll pan up and pick the next one he's gonna shoot. It's they'll shoot like three, four at a time. Or not four, three. Probably. You can only have three in your gun. Only three in the gun, but if you have time to reload.

They probably have time to reload. A lot of times when you're dealing with, especially with geese, these huge wads of birds, they don't know what's going on. You have time to reload. They're just laying them down. This sounds like fun. It's incredible. I've never

experienced anything like that before. And that's what a lot of... These videos that these guys are doing, they're doing a lot of dry field hunts. Theoretical non legal advice for the answer. If you are on your, you're at the verge of your limit, and you shoot one more duck, and that pattern spreads enough and gets you a bonus [00:42:00] duck, what do you do?

You just report it? Call the game warden. You just let them know? Yeah. Okay. Wonder what they do in that scenario. I'm sure, hopefully they're nice. It probably happens all the time. And you have stuff too where you're shooting a certain amount like, of this particular, subspecies or whatever.

You accidentally, you miss ID a bird or something like that. That has got to happen all the time where they just shoot. Yeah, I'm sure it happens, but the Technical correct response to that is know 100 percent what you're shooting at. So don't pull a trigger if you don't know what it is. For sure, that's the advice, but I bet that happens all the time.

When I get off this podcast, remind me to show you a video. Oh. Oh, gosh. I got a meeting coming up. Let's wrap this up. Yeah. I didn't say at the beginning of the podcast, we are presented to you boys and girls by our friends at gunbroker. com. Make sure you get in to go wild and log this episode, get your points.

We've got a sweet reward. That's getting ready to drop here soon. Have y'all ready for rifle season and then [00:43:00] plenty more stuff coming the rest of the year. So get in there, earn your points, be ready to. Hit up these rewards when they drop. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see y'all next week.

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