Show Notes
This week’s episode is with a couple Ohioans who have experienced their first ever archery deer success this year. Philip and Peyton share their experiences and how everything came together to help fill the freezer and decorate the wall early this year. Philip has been archery hunting for a few years, and the stars hadn’t aligned until this year. Peyton got his first verticle bow buck in the bag this year, with help from big brother. Both have some great stories to share and provide inspiration for all of us this fall in the woods.
As this show releases we are in the heart of the rut!!! Time should be good in the woods, and be patient if it hasn’t come together yet this year. The guys will be back with more up to date reports of what they have seen next week. Good luck as you get out in the deer (and turkey) woods!
Show Transcript
[00:00:00] What's up, everybody. Welcome back to the O2 podcast. Andrew again again, this is one of our shows pre recorded to get you guys content. It should be about November 9th when you hear this. And I hope the woods have been good to you. We are in the heart of the rut and Just should be inching up that bell curve of activity.
I can't even tell you what the weather's cause I'm two weeks in the past at this point, but real quick, here's here's where we're at. We're going to get you a quick rundown of the partners of the show. Followed by a introduction of what today's episode is going to look like. So thanks to our guys at go wild.
Love those guys. They're the best. Get on there, check out all the deer that are falling. People's harvests come through this exciting time of the year. You never know what you're going to see on there. [00:01:00] Some really big deer, cool deer. all ages, everybody posting their stuff. And what a great community everybody over at go wild has built.
Also you got your shop on there. If you're coming across any gear that you might need, a lot of our partners are on there, but. They got a one stop for all the things you need. Half Rack another partner of the show. They are one of those companies that you'll find on Go Wild. And they've got the little knicks and knacks that you might figure out you need along the way.
This time of the year you got long sits, don't forget the snack pack. That's definitely a big one in my world. Once you're going for these prolonged days out in the woods. And also the meat lug is hopefully being filled or has been filled at this point. Black gate hunting gear. Oh you know me, I always screw this up.
So let's go back to half rack real quick. If you get on half racks website, half dash rack. com [00:02:00] Ohio outdoors 15 is your code. Black gate hunting gear. The code there is O2 podcast will save you 10%. I know cameras probably have already been placed in the woods and hopefully you're getting lots of pictures and daylight and bucks.
But if you're looking to upgrade your cameras or. Need a few more out there in the property. There's no better on the camera on the market. If you ask me than the black gate cameras, super clear quality, awesome app, total user friendly, good people, Ohio based. And I just I can't say enough about them.
I wish I had them everywhere, but again, Oh two podcasts, maybe 10%. on those cameras. The Midwest Gunworks, again, as we're getting closer to gun season, you got any pieces or parts you need, it's, that's your place to find all your gun parts. And, or if you're thinking about upgrading, they can ship firearms as well.
Obviously through [00:03:00] proper protocol, but midwestgunworks. com, Ohio outdoors five, we'll save you 5%. we are getting closer to those January, February days and nights where coyote activity will be up, right? And in Ohio, that's our big nighttime hunting gear or hunting opportunity, but x vision optics.
is going to be your place for thermals and night vision. Awesome quality. Very cool product. Super easy to use. And I've had the privilege of using them for coyotes as well as hogs down in Oklahoma. So definitely give those guys a look. Timber Ninja Outdoors. The code there is Ohio and I'll get you free shipping.
So just O H I O, nice and simple, but saddle stuff as we get closer to Christmas and the [00:04:00] holiday season, if this is something you need to be maybe putting on your list or you've got kids that you are thinking about looking into the saddle world, definitely take a look at their selection. They've got a couple of different models.
I run the Nano, love that thing, super light, and comfortable for me. Paul has the, I think it's the Ultimate, I think that's what it's called, and he likes that. He's a little bit bigger guy, I'm smaller, so they fit both of us well, they got sizes for everybody. They're, and if you need to upgrade your climbing sticks the carbon fiber sticks are out of this world.
Those are my babies and they go with me just about everywhere and they do not stay in the woods because they are very valuable to me. But so yeah, the code is Ohio there at Timber Ninja. If you're looking to get into that last but not least, we have deer nuts. So it's not crazy to think you'll get more deer this year.
[00:05:00] 12 point buck will soon be smiling at you from over the fireplace. It is, however, nuts, deer nuts. The savory acorn flavored de attractant deer can't resist made with advanced extrusion technology. They're easier to eat and harder to dissolve and reign. Grab some nuts@getdeernuts.com slash Ohio while they're check out some cool merch, like the No Nuts, no Glory Truck Decals and more that's get deer nuts.com/ohio.
Deer nuts. You could try hunting without them, but you'd be well nuts. So there's. Those are our partners of the show. They help keep Paul and I going help us to get out and see different things, talk to different people. And I'm trying to think, I don't have any up to date news because I'm doing this show two weeks in advance.
So we will fill you back in with anything from there. And we'll ODNR.[00:06:00]
And that'll be fun to track and see how things are going. This week's show though is with a couple people I've known for a few years. Parker and Peyton are the brothers up in North Central Ohio. And then Phillip is out in a kind of Northwest Ohio. So Phillip and I went to school together and him and I communicate.
Actually, we work a little bit now together in our real jobs, but the Philip has been a saddle hunter for quite a few years now. He's been in, on the archery. I think he said since 2015, and has not been able to take a buck with his bow. So he's Had a lot of challenges and bumps along the way. He's very, his story this year is interesting.
It's a reminder to all of us, like to just be persistent. And sometimes you [00:07:00] never know what's going to happen. We talk as it gets going and tells you about the properties on and. Even the challenges he had that day and how it ended up working out. It's just the persistence and Phillip is as cool as a cucumber, man.
And he is very chill and doesn't get real wound up about, about a lot. And I think that showed in his his story.
And then with Peyton gets his first vertical bow, buck kill, and a little bit different scenario, family farm, but him and his brother Parker had been
And I think I talked about it in the show, but Parker had been texting me telling me, tonight, and he was right a couple hours later, I got a text that, the buck had gone down deuces was the deer's name had gone down. I'll let them tell their stories. I, we got a lot of P's in this episode, maybe I should have [00:08:00] titled it something with the P's, but one of the things that I took from both of these stories, really, as we move through the month of November and closer to the month of December with deer camps coming around and stuff, both these guys utilize mentors and with the brothers, Parker was the mentor to Peyton.
I know Parker's dad's been a very good mentor to all three boys, but Phillip, same thing. He's been, didn't come from a hunting family and utilize mentors. So if you're on them, we'll say, call it more experienced side of things. Remember that. There are people, they could be little people that are listening to you and picking up what you say and watching what you do in the woods.
And they could be people that are not little. They could be people that are just new to hunting and they want to learn from you. So keep that in mind. It's really valuable. And I think as [00:09:00] hunters in general, outdoorsmen, women, we have to rely on each other to help build that next generation and keep.
Things going the right way not to get in a big discussion about that But this is a time of the year where you know, don't clam up on people. No, you don't have to be you know Holding all your secrets in you know it's it's okay To share especially with new people the little tips and tricks that you've picked up along the way because somebody probably taught you how to find deer sign or play the wind or any of that kind of stuff, give back, so that's all I got for this week. I hope you guys are having great success in the woods. Please share with us on Instagram or go wild Instagram. It's the dot O two dot podcast and go out as O2 podcast. If you've got [00:10:00] questions, thoughts, comments, anything like that, share away, take reviews if you want to throw them up there on whatever you're listening to our show on, but we appreciate you guys very much and Paul and I will be back next week.
Hopefully giving me an update from Michigan or at least where things are at for us in the woods. Have a great week everybody. Be safe and shoot straight.
So hold on, we're going to back up where our little previous conversation there. All right. So you took down your buck six days after your child was, your first child was born. Yeah. So I was born October 2nd and I shot the buck October 8th. So it's been a wild ride. You got to keep her right there.
Yeah. She's letting you out six days after to go deer hunting. Yeah, and it was Southern [00:11:00] Ohio, like three and a half hours away. And that's not right around the block for you. No, it's not. Her mom was in town, so that's the saving grace. So there you go. So that's how I got let off the hook. But tonight I'm joined with a friend of mine, Phillip.
Phillip, I've known you for I don't know, probably 10, 15 years at this point, Ohio. We go back to Ohio State. I think back to school and all that. And now you're running a successful company and we have mutual love of deer hunting and I get to work with you at work and then also talk about deer, which is just, I love when those two things come together.
But I want to hear about your Hunt this year. Okay. So congratulations on the baby. And that's very exciting, but you also, this is your, is this your first buck? First archery deer. So I killed a spike with an opening day of gun nine years ago. [00:12:00] And you are. It's been a long time coming. A few deer have been passed in the meantime.
Yeah. Wow. I know you and I've talked for a couple of years now you've been hunting on a saddle. I actually, I relied on you for a lot of input on that. And it just seemed like you were doing everything right from what we talked about, but you just kept having mishaps or something would happen or not see something.
Yeah. There was a few deer that were missed or hit along the way more misses. But yeah, it finally all came together. Wild story this year. Very thankful. And I know in my time hunting, I went about six years without getting, before I got my first deer period. And that struggle is a lot to overcome. At least for me, you're a very chill person and, patient.
I can see it, just from I know, knowing you, but can you talk a little bit how you overcame some of those? [00:13:00] Ups and downs along the way and because to me that there's a psychology of deer hunting that I think a lot of times we don't think about it's all about. Let's just get the grip and grins and that kind of stuff.
But it doesn't always go the way you want it to and to really push through the down times. Nobody talks about that, right? No. Yeah. So it's, I started bow hunt in the year after I killed my first buck. Our first year so 2014 so I bought my boat 2015. This is the ninth season I think so it's been a long time coming.
But as far as the patients. I think it's like they talk about a lot of things in life is enjoying the journey, like I'm not. I don't hunt just for the kill. I enjoy being in the woods. So the whole time you're enjoying that part of it, but there's so many frustrating moments, like where a deer doesn't come, on the path.
You want it to you miss an opportunity on a buck. I've had to happen multiple times where I screwed something up. But it's just about staying in the course. [00:14:00] Like I can't even believe how everything came together this year. Finally, it was one of those things. It's got to stay at it. How old are you?
33, 33. Okay. Your wives behind your years, probably way wiser than I am. But the if there's any kids out there listening, or if they, anybody, if you go through a period where you have down times, learn from it, enjoy the ride. I think that's one of my problems. I get in the woods and I'm like, all right, if you don't.
Or I have had this problem in the past. This year seems to be better, but if I'm not successful, or if I don't harvest an animal, this is not a success. But that's not how it should really be based on, right? It should be like you're saying, enjoy the ride, learn from it take it in just being in the woods, turning the phone off or whatever.
Turning the outside world off and enjoying your time out and looking back, if I could give I guess wisdom to anyone would be to take the opportunities that you're given as a young hunter, because [00:15:00] I went quickly like podcast, the podcast ascending. So I went quickly into deer podcast university.
So I know a lot about deer hunting, but then putting it all together. And making the opportunity happen is a lot different. So like those reps, when you can, harvest your first dough, like there'll be times that I didn't harvest the dough cause maybe there was yearlings with her and that moment might be the right decision.
But over the course of time shoot that forky, and your second year bow hunting, just to get those opportunities, cause it will be easier and things will come together probably a little quicker than they did for me. Because as you start, consuming all this podcast information, then you start, your goal is like a three year old, right?
You start holding out. And being in northwest Ohio, it's a good deer area. So as there's, we got big ag fields. So there's an opportunity for something like that's there, but just take the opportunity that you're given if it's something you're happy with. And then pull the trigger for sure.
Yeah. There's no [00:16:00] shame in that learning experience. I actually think the idea of taking a forky or a younger buck early, if you went out and shot a one 80 class deer on your first time out spoils a lot of it. Yeah. All so this year your wife has a baby six days later, you're out in the woods, right?
Yeah. Was this the first sit you'd had opening night? I believe on 1 of the properties, not too far away from. So to back it up, we had my dream had been to buy a piece of ground and lands expensive where we're at. So I'd always I've been hunting way national Southern Ohio for years and we stay at a farm down that way.
So I was looking in that area because we already knew a lot of public ground and it would make sense. to buy something in that area because we have a place to stay the downside is it's such a long commute limits the amount of times you're going to be able to get down there it's like the value crosses within convenience right [00:17:00] so it's like you buy a piece of ground 2500 bucks an acre it allows you to at least get into the game get some habitat work so we had put an offering on a property i walked it on labor day this year so I'd went down, I had gotten permission from the realtor and landowner because we hadn't closed yet on the deal and, but it was pretty much ours contract was signed.
I was just waiting for stuff to go through. So I had went down there on a Sunday, the 8th with my skid steer quad, had some family in from out of town who were already hunting Southern Ohio. So we took the bush hog down there or picked up a bush hog at the farm. We were staying because my skid steer was on my trailer.
Bush hog was Southern Ohio, but this farm had been logged in 2018. I believe five years ago. So there was, there's a lot of like telephone pole type trees. Most of all your mass producing trees that are any kind of size were taken down. But what it did was it opened up the canopy. So tons of sunlight to the floor.
raspberries, [00:18:00] vines, all kinds of stuff like just total deer cover. So we took started bush hogging trails about three hours in. I break a hydraulic line on the skid steer. So the night at that point is done other than a little more handwork. So me and one of my cousins he's a hunting, I have a couple of mentors from out of state.
They've been really big in the development of my, just sharing ideas. Because I didn't grow up hunting, like my dad wasn't a hunter. So these relatives have been really big and guided me along the journey. But he was filming for me that Sunday night. And yeah, about right where the hydraulic line broke on the skid steer.
About right in that area. We had mowed a trail. But came out about 20, about 30 minutes before end of shooting light and smoked him about 20 yard shot. So back up here, just a hair. But the had you, you hadn't closed on the property yet, but you were working on it where you blew the hydraulic line. No, we ended up closing on That [00:19:00] same week, end of that week, I think the property was yours at that point.
No, it wasn't. So we had permission from the landowner and the agent to hunt. Got it. Got it. Got it. The property closed five days later. So it's doing some habitat work though. Yeah. Yeah. We were seeding trails and oats and mowing bush hogging. And then from the time we parked on the property, the seven hours later shot a deer.
Is that crazy? Incredible. It's one of those times, I swear, whenever I, if I do everything right, I won't even see a deer, right? I'll just be like, everything's perfect. Sand control is good. The wind's good. I climbed in quiet. I got through the dark, whatever. Everything's perfect. Then there's been times where, you know, I'll drop.
My coat out of the tree, drop a glove out of the tree. One time I got to the stand late when it was, the sun was already up and I was like, in the [00:20:00] morning I wasn't going to see anything. And it's those moments where it seems to come together. Out screwing around in the woods, you should be kicking everything out and there should be a mile away.
And here you go. So were you. You were in your saddle? Okay. Yep. And did you have a pretty good idea of what tree you were going to head to? Or is this one of those things as you're working on the property and seeing Scott in kind of real time, decide, eh, we'll go over here? Yeah. No, that's what it was.
So Joe, who was, ended up filming for me, there was some large oaks that were either right on the neighboring property line. Or like maybe five yards off, their canopies are overhanging ours, right? So as we're like going down the trail, essentially it's a logging road that had been opened up along the property line years, whenever they, logged the property years ago.
But he, we had seen a bunch of big white acorns laying in that area and a small rub kind of all along that trail that we had [00:21:00] been mowing. So we were just trying to, we had, I think we had a west wind that evening and we were just trying to set up. Somewhere in sight of one or two trails coming off of the neighboring ground, with the idea that deer would be coming to feed on these white oaks at night.
So that was the idea. So I'd only been on the property one day previous. So I didn't have, there was areas of the property I liked, but there was no like certain trees. It's hey, this is my saddle tree. And did you have any cameras or anything out? No. No, there was nothing. So we had no intel.
I didn't know. Obviously you could see some deer signs, some deer trails on the property. No active scrapes that I saw, deer are using it. It's super thick. Yeah, and he had a food source. But nothing to tell us that, Hey, there's going to be deer here tonight. So it's just relying on, some of my hunting knowledge, but these people that you're rubbing shoulders with, they have done it for years and it's Hey, this makes sense. But he's also Hey, I don't know if the hydraulic oil is going to mess the deer up tonight. And then [00:22:00] boom, three hours later, they're right on the trail where the oil spilled. Yeah. Using real woodsman skills to imagine that, I don't know if that considers as bait, but yeah, no, as I sit here in my camera keeps buzzing and buzzing which seems to be a nonstop at this point.
Which is good, right? That's a good sign. Yeah, I think they're really going to start moving here in the next few days. I get through this warm weather. But even at that, they were still up and going when it's, as it cools down. All right, so you guys blow the hydraulic line. Then you say, all right, let's go hang the trees for the evening.
Yeah, so me and one of my other cousins kept working on the property for a bit. Joe ran back, changed at the house we stay at, which is like 10 minutes away. I changed at the property, head up. paying for a couple hours. But then the last so shooting light that night was 7 30. Or so, and maybe 645, some does start coming out.
Where he was sitting was closer to the quad trail, the logging road. So he could see, he also saddle hunts. He won sticks. So he ends up [00:23:00] further up the tree than I do, but he was looking down the logging road and he tells me there's a shooter. He's maybe 10 yards from me. So he's Oh, shoot. And so he's like watching it.
I can't see the buck, but I saw a couple of does come out and then about 15 yards away from us, another doe comes out. I'm in an Oak tree. That's this big, like not a lot of cover and he's in it. He's and you're showing that you're about four inches, five inches, right? It was maybe eight inches diameter.
It's pretty small. But he's in a hickory. So he has tons of green leaf cover still, but which is also inhibiting his view down the trail. So this doe pops out onto the trail about 15 yards from us and he can't see her. I'm pretty sure. So he's like whispering to me about the buckers and I'm like locked onto this doe.
She blows. After she, decides this isn't right. So all three dos bust back onto the neighbor's property. . Were they in your wind? Were they in your wind or did they see you? No, it's just from that one doe that [00:24:00] one do saw us or saw something, me or him. But then this butt, he just stays on the trail looking back up towards us.
So then Joe grabs his grunt call. And just starts letting out a series of grunts that property super thick and then that buck just started working his way right up the trail. You feel like 1 of the deer blows that you feel like it's over sometimes, right? Screw the pooch, but that buck just started working its way up and meandered into the neighboring property and then back out and just work trying to stop looking, seeing if he could see, where the ground was coming from, but eventually stepped back out on the trail and gave me a.
20 yard broadside shot,
so you're in the tree are we going to the left behind my strong side? So I'm a right handed shooter. So I was he had come to a point where he was in some, he was real close to the property line at this point, he was facing me. So I'm like there, just hold my bow drill still, you [00:25:00] can't see what's making the grunt noise.
So then he circles back parallel the property line and eventually jump comes back out. But I haven't drawn on many active deer, and that's another thing you should probably do. If you're not going to shoot the deer, still, if you can get a safe draw, draw just for the experience. And it can be on a squirrel, it can be on anything.
But the deer walked through the first window where I probably could have given them a shot, or probably could have taken a shot at it. It continued on to a second window and I stopped it and even then if you go back and watch the video The time between me stopping the deer and shooting was super fast.
Like I should have let that settle for another second Before pulling the trigger because they ended up being he ended up quartering away from me slightly and I didn't realize that. So my arrow went in too far back, but it came out through the liver. So it was about a 20 yard shot, past my cameraman.
That's crazy. Did they, did any of the deer pay [00:26:00] any attention to the hydraulic oil? Not that I saw never. Yeah, unfazed. I'm sure some of those smells they're used to. Maybe not that one in particular, but even though this is Southern Ohio, there's still cropland. So stuff's going to spill diesels, off road diesels getting spilled in fields.
I, it's one of the, I just wonder sometimes if, we try to keep sense and stuff away, but if something. Almost in entice them, to come in and start licking it. I don't know, but yeah, I think they were, they wouldn't have been downwind. I don't think the way they approached it, but they never, I, the deer that spooked was because of seeing us or hearing us.
Like she locked on to where we were at. That is such a demoralizing feeling to when they start blowing at you, you're like, dang it. Cause it's how it's going to end. Anyways, but all so you pull back and you, do you have any remembrance of what was going through your mind? Yeah.
What I remember the most was the pop. They sound like you were like popping a balloon, [00:27:00] hitting a punching bag. So based on that, I don't have lit knocks. So the video didn't tell us a lot. Like you could tell the deer mule kicked, so it seemed that combined with like he didn't hunch up, like it would be a gut shot, right?
But that combined with the sound, which was super memorable, it sounded like it was probably a good shot, but the deer ran and then stopped. And I lost track of him here, but then Joe saw him just walk off. So we went down, we got, we stayed in the tree, he headed towards neighboring property, so right away I'm like, I had happened to meet One of the neighboring landowners that day that already that morning.
So I contacted him, got a hold of another neighboring landowner just in case, because it was like where it went together was where three properties come together. So it's I think at that point, I touched base with a couple of different people. But not knowing we didn't go in right after it, not knowing if I hit [00:28:00] too far back, What was going on just because of the way the deer reacted, like you didn't hear him go down the hillside and pile drive into the ground.
So we found my arrow is complete pass through. And what kind of arrows are we shooting? What's your setup look like? So Deer Crossing Archery is what I use. It's just an Easton. Okay. Easton Arrow with AQAD, Broadhead fixed blade. Let's see. I'm just curious. Fixed blade like single bevel or one of those?
It's a triple double. It's like triple cut, like just yeah, just like a pyramid. Gotcha. So it gets you, you find the arrow pass their blood look good or dark or Yeah. No, the blood wasn't dark. It looked like good blood. Oh, good. But we pulled out not knowing, if it was a great shot or not.
So did you leave it for that night then? Yeah, so we went back to the house where we'd stayed because then Steve, our other hunting partner, he had hunted I think on public land. National that night. So we met back up at the house to show [00:29:00] him the video, tell him about it, see what he thought on the shot.
And then two hours, three hours later, we were back at the property start looking. Okay. So you did go back that night? We did go back that night. If we would've known how far back it was, we probably would've, we would've held off longer. But, right as we start looking, you can hear the coyotes start going off, too.
If we would have left it lay, I don't know how much of it would have been left. Yeah. Did you see that one that Mark Canyon put up where he shot the doe in the morning and then, whatever it was, a couple hours later, he went to find it and it was, like, half eaten? No, it was a doughy shot. I think shot at Doug Durn's farm earlier this year.
Crazy, craziest. That's crazy how fast they can. I just saw someone post something on Facebook about that where they had shot a buck. Part of it was gone by the next day or two. They'd found it nuts. All so you shot it, you find the blood, you go back, chill out for a little bit. Then you head back out to the woods.
Is it dark? It's dark at this point. Then [00:30:00] obviously starting to rain. No, even better. What's going through your mind at that point? I was excited at that point. I wasn't too worried about finding the deer because the blood was pretty good at first. But as we tracked, you could see where the deer stopped and you'd have a pool of blood, maybe like a small dinner plate wide, and then it would walk on, there was still some decent blood, but by the next time it had stopped, like after that time, the blood pretty much had disappeared.
So that's when I'm like starting to pray and being like, I'm never going to deer hunt again. All those kinds of wild thoughts that go through your mind. That rollercoaster is real. Oh yeah. Cause you're so excited at first. You think you have this awesome book, right? Like you think it's in the bag.
You just gotta go find it. And then all of a sudden the blood dries up, starting to rain. You don't know where it went. New property that you're not even super familiar with, right? At this point we're on the neighboring property, so it's we had permission to be there, but it's [00:31:00] what do you do?
You just can only work with the evidence you have. It's we have to come back in the morning and grid search maybe. Yeah. So the blood's drying up and it's starting to rain and all ever, all the, cards are falling against you. What happens? So just keep working that area. At this point, I'm just grid search and just looking for whatever weird me and Steve and Joe were out there.
And they called me back up the hill and near where one neighboring property went to another, there's a fence line. And at that point he had found some real dark blood, like three inches wide, drop three inches wide. And it's like gritty. So that's where, finally the stomach blood's coming out.
Then he shined his light across onto the other neighboring property and 20 yards over there was the white belly. Pretty good feeling. a heart's sake. And you're like, thank you, God. But they had found it first and waited to tell me, but. Ah, that feeling is such a relief, isn't it? Finally to grab one and just enjoy the moment.
It was pretty [00:32:00] special. Call your wife and say, thank you, honey. You'll never guess how this worked out. I did. We have cell phone service at the top of the, like that logging road right there. So I called. Made a call back home and she was pretty excited that we had found it. So she's super pumped for you.
Yeah, she was. She hunts too. That's great, man. That's awesome. The, it's beautiful deer. Congratulations. I'll make sure when we post this, I'll put the picture up on the social medias and stuff so that people can see what we're talking about. But when you sent me that, I was excited. I was because I know I felt your pain, man. Like I have gone so long without a buck and everything. And it's just that feeling and all the hard work you've put into even to buy land. And although you and you're so far from home when you're doing that, because and I just, man, that was like the greatest text message I got that day.
All right. Thank you. Part of it's like in business, right? Like social media, Facebook, you just see everyone else's successes. You never see the [00:33:00] years of sacrificing or failures or experience they're gaining along the way. And that's what this is, right? If someone didn't know how long, like you, how long I've hunted without finally cashing in on one, it's not as simple as buying a piece of ground and stepping foot on it and shooting a deer and we had put hours of work in just that day to make something like this a possibility. That's great. So what's next on the docket for you? Are you heading back down this weekend? Southern Ohio? Yep.
Doe hunting? Yeah, I will be. We have family deer camp, our family archery camps this weekend. We got relatives from Delaware, Pennsylvania, Ohio, all coming down to the archery hunt, both private and public land. So I will, man will you be going out of state at all for, no, not with that baby. Like this has been the perfect year.
Yeah, this would have been like, obviously I've never taken out like this. If it's next year, the year after I would buy an out of state take for sure, whether it's Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, [00:34:00] somewhere, that's great. But what about you? Are you going back to PA this year? Yeah, I'll be in Pennsylvania and then we're going up to Michigan to do.
A couple of days up there during their rifle season. I still have to, I still got tags to fill here, but I just got to find time to get in the woods. That's been my challenge. So I'm super thankful for the opportunity. I would never turn down if it was opening day after nine years, I'm not turning down a buck.
But the downside is like your season's over when you don't have other when you don't have other states to go pursue It's like whether still they're still seeing other, taking other people onto the new piece of property Hopefully someone harvesting a nice deer doing management work.
There's a lot to look forward to still this year. But oh, yeah. Oh, yeah congratulations and Like I said, man, that's so pumped for you and everything and look forward Hearing what happens down the road, maybe you just have to pop out another baby [00:35:00] and then it's like a good luck charm thing, just time it up for the first day of the season.
We'll get you down there.
I won't turn you down on that. Maybe Paul and come turkey hunt. There we go. Oh, don't even talk. You get Paul going on turkeys, man. He'll be down there in a second. So that's exciting. I appreciate it, man. Yeah, no problem, man. Thanks for coming out and we will talk to you soon. Good luck the rest of the season.
Yeah, you too.
Sorry about all that. I was out in the woods. I was about an hour from home. I got stopped by the landowner on the way home. Wanted to talk. I didn't really want to talk. I wanted to go home so I could record and eat dinner. Stopped and got some Chipotle on the way home. Trying to like house [00:36:00] that down real fast, but it's all good, right?
That's how it is. Yeah. I take corn out to my grandpa's, my, my mom's dad. And every time he's out there, he wants to talk and he's a talker. He'll talk here for an hour every time I'm over there. I cherish it though. Good stuff. Yeah. So what have you guys been up to? Hunting, obviously, huh?
Yeah, a little bit of that. Yeah. A lot of work, a lot of school, all right, so we got Parker and Peyton, and you guys, I've known you for a while, probably, you were little when I first met you, and you thought I was Slim Shady. Now you're getting big, I'm getting old. And you're putting down big deer.
So this is awesome. Parker, you were on last year with your with your stud of a buck. And then this year, Peyton, you're the, are you the first one to get it done in the household this year? Yeah. I got it done on my second hunt this year. Second sit. So pretty quick. There you go, man. Now you got to find something to do for the rest of the [00:37:00] season.
Yup. He'll make us breakfast at deer camp. He'll make what? I said he'll make us breakfast at deer camp. There you go. Camp cook. That's what happens. You actually relax on your your vacation down to the cabin. All right let's talk about this. I want to hear the whole story. So how long you've been following this deer?
And I want to know it all. So I'll let you, Peyton, you can start. Parker, you chime in wherever you need to or however you want to do this. All right. It was early September that we first had the deer on camera and he was running around with another buck that we had from the year before that we called the Reggie and they were running around for most of September.
And we had them on camera fighting and then Reggie is vacant now and he's gone, he hasn't hasn't shown back up. He ran him off, and won the fight. And he was, he started showing up in daylight pretty consistently. And pretty [00:38:00] much like once every week at least and on cold fronts and stuff a little bit earlier.
And then I got it done on a big cold front that came in. So there's so much more to that story. I know. Okay. So you talk about getting them on the camera in September. Was that because you had just put the cameras out or is that because that's when he started showing up? No, yeah, that was the first time that he was started showing up.
I think I don't think we had him on camera last year. Gotcha. Yeah, and starts daylight and I'm looking at the videos and stuff. You have this. You got a little buck and then another. It's like a buck train. They're just coming down the line here. Yeah, I think that I think the third buck in that video is the buck that was Reggie.
Okay. And he was the second one. Yeah. Yeah. Do we get did we give him a name? Yeah, his name is Deuce. Deuce. Why do we go with Deuce? So he had a little point coming off of his, which one [00:39:00] which point was that? Was that the one coming off his brow tie? Yeah, his brow tie. And it looked like a peace sign.
So they called him deuce. Like deuces. Gotcha. Yeah. Gotcha, gotcha. I, I give you guys credit that you can like, name a deer and be able to tell the difference. Usually it's I don't know. I'm not good at that, but so you got 'em on the camera. They're starting in September. Your big boy, Reggie, he leaves.
And then you got deuces sitting, coming in at daylight. So let's see, were you able to pattern pretty well? So the, this is the same property I shot my buck off of last year. So we have historic, year after year, we have these bucks doing the same deal. They're at the. End of October.
And I we patterned them mostly on cold fronts. He's day, he daylighted on days that I wouldn't say are ideal days. But we stay out of the woods and we [00:40:00] give them the false sense of security on the property. I think that was literally the second time that anybody had sat on the property for the entirety of the season, and we just sat back and watched them.
We have the historic pattern, and then aside from that, it's just sitting back and waiting for the right time to sit in the woods. And were you monitoring the wind direction on this? Yes. Yeah. So the, it was all just stand related wind direction. I wasn't paying attention to what winds he was coming in on or anything like that.
It was more just. What wind direction works so we're not blowing our scent toward the deer when we're after them. I know this is your story, but I'm going to tell you right now, like when I went into the woods today, everything was telling me southwest wind. I'm not joking. When I got up there and I threw the milkweed, it came from the northeast.
I was so mad that I thought I played this perfectly. And I don't know [00:41:00] that's why I didn't see any deer tonight. There's a combine going through the field too, but when we talk about wind, I don't know. That's still very fresh in my mind, anyways, what wind was good for this stand that you guys were at?
A west wind of, a southwest wind, a west wind, or a northwest wind. Any of those would work. I think we were getting a northwest wind on this night. So the, any of those wind directions would work we were blown wind direction into the field directly behind him.
And he was sitting on the food plot actually, though which we don't do very often. I really don't like sitting over food. I know how backwards that sounds. But it's it's the highest risk that you can take when you're in after a buck. And in my opinion, so he he was coming to the food every night.
And last year was a little bit different when I shot my book I caught him on a morning on his way back to his bedding area but he was coming into the food store so regularly that [00:42:00] we were 90 percent confident that he was going to show up over the food. That night and he did really early.
It was 5 30. So it was pretty cool. We just sat back, watched them and went in when the time was right and it happened. It was pretty cool to watch it turn out that way. Now, were you guys hunting together or? No. So I talk like we're hunting together because we talk about it every single day, it put our brains together on what we think is the best thing to do. So to me, I feel like I was there hunting with them, but I was 30 minutes away in a different tree stand. We confer a lot on what we do with and when we sit and where. Peyton, I don't know if Parker told you, but he literally called that shot that night, he was texting me and he's like.
I can feel it. He's going to put one down tonight. He's going to, he's going to get one. And sure enough, it was, I don't know, a couple of, maybe not even a couple hours later, text me. It's he shot one. He shot one. I'm like, all right, here we go. [00:43:00] Yeah. So me and my brother were pretty confident that that day we were after like the Browns game or whatever we were we were talking, I was like, Oh, you should probably go down to the shop and get your light and Lighten blades for your knife.
And he did, and I was pretty confident. And it happened like we thought it would. Beautiful. So Peyton, you're sitting up in the tree and deuces comes out. Were you pretty nervous? Is this your first buck? This is my first vertical boat. So it means the most to me for sure.
The last time I saw you, I bet you couldn't even pull the vertical bow back. Oh, no way. Yeah, no way. Yeah, so I've been shooting pretty regularly practicing up to that moment, at least I cooled down now, but I was pretty nervous. I was talking to Parker. I was like, yeah, I just, I hope my shot's good.
That's how confident I knew that he was going to be there. I was like. Yeah, I hope my shot's good enough. And my shot was a little off actually, but it got it done. It was a lethal shot. So when you're, [00:44:00] isn't it crazy when you start walking yourself through everything, no matter how many times you walk through it, when the moment comes and you're like, You almost go into freak out mode, or were you able to keep it together?
I kept it together more than I thought I would. I see the deer at like 40 yards, and I was like, Oh I know this is about to happen. I knew he was going to come into the food. He looks the other way, and I grab my bow off my hanger, and I just get it ready, and I'm not drawn or anything yet.
And he he walks behind, he walks around to the feeder that we have. So he doesn't walk straight at me. So I have time and he goes behind cover. So he couldn't see me. So I drew when he was behind the cover, knowing that he was going to come like right up to the food. So it does like a half circle and he's walking up and I'm already drawn.
And I look away and I take a big breath and I'm like, all right, calm down, like you got this. And he's walking, and I give him a little meh, and he stops, and I shoot, and I was like, [00:45:00] holy crap I know there's so many things to focus on, but I I felt so congratulated, and I, it was surreal moment, trying to see where he goes, and look at my shot, and it wasn't a pass through shot, so I was trying to look at the arrow.
As it was stuck in the side of them. So you what kind of draw weight and stuff are you shooting? It's 55 pounds right now. I'm up at this season. Okay. How fixed blade or mechanical? Fixed. Fixed. Okay. It's a hybrid. Okay, cool. But I got the job done, right? It doesn't matter.
Yeah, I've shot perfect. Yeah. So where did you hit them? So I hit home a tiny low, but mostly far back was the air. He was courting away and I hit him a little far back. I hit him liver and I think I got into the chest cavity and it long on him. Okay. So you see him take off and you can, the [00:46:00] arrows in them.
Do you, did you use lighted knocks? I didn't have any, so I was not using a lighted note. I go back and forth on those, but man, after the moment, after that arrow goes, that sure makes a difference. Where, how you remember things and where it goes. Yeah. Or where, how you can see it. How, what happens next.
I'm sure instantly it was like Parker. Parker. Yeah. I I knew Parker was hunting and I didn't wanna ruin his hunt, so I called my dad twice. He didn't answer. I called Parker and I was like, I started whispering, I was like, Parker, I shot him, like I, I shot Deuce and Parker was freaking out and I was like, all right, I got to hang up and call mom.
And I called my mom, get ahold of my mom and dad and started talking with them about it. And right after that, I took a picture of where he entered like the brush line, and so we can know where he went. I go back to the house. My, my dad came and picked me up. Cause he dropped me off in the woods and we were waiting.
Parker's coming back cause he was hunting, but he just, [00:47:00] he left the woods. He came back. He aborted. What a brother. So my wind was off just slightly. It wasn't blowing exactly where I wanted it to. And then I just didn't have a good feeling. I was going to see anything. I was like, I can't miss this. I got to head back.
So just I, I'd coached him up before we went to the woods a little bit, because this is his first time doing this. By myself, for sure. Yeah I had you have to be calm during the shot. I told him, if you take a picture of where you think he went exactly from the stand, it helps a bunch.
Once you're on the ground, everything looks different. And So yeah, then he calls me, we're freaking out. I get out. I do a few over the speed limit on the way home. I was pumped and yeah, we got back. We just chilled out. We gave him at least an hour before we, I told him, I'm like, don't go look for blood, don't go look for an arrow when you get down, just get out of there.
And we gave him, it was about [00:48:00] an hour exactly. We had up there, we took it really slow looking for blood. And what was it? It was like 20 yards before we found first blood. Yeah. There was no blood for at least 20 yards. And when we found it. It was, I can tell it was just liver blood and that was it.
And he said the arrow stuck in him. So the blood that we found, there was a decent amount right at first, but it was all that gritty, really dark liver blood. So we stayed up there, we looked for a little bit more blood, but we didn't go much farther than that. And then we just backed right out and came home.
We were debating on whether we were going to give them two hours and go back up and look, because it was still early, he shot him at 5 30. We headed up there at 6 30. We were back by 7 7 30 and we were debating on whether we were going to go back up. And we said, yes, we're going to call it off and wait till morning.[00:49:00]
Which I'm glad we did. I'm pretty confident he was dead when we went up there the first time, but I always like to err on the side of caution in that situation. Absolutely. And I think if I recall that night, it actually was pretty cool. It was, yeah. Temperature wise. Yeah. I think it was in the forties.
So compared to some of the other nights, it definitely was there. So Peyton, tell me how well did you sleep that night? So I I stayed up pretty late, but I was confident that my mom would let me have all school cause she's pretty relaxed about that. So I was like, all right, I'm not going into school.
I can just, I can stay up. I can I can game plan and I, I was in my thoughts. I was watching all sorts of videos on YouTube about liver shots and whatever. I already knew a lot, but I wanted to know more after that. I was like, all right, I gotta really pay attention here. And I fell asleep probably like 11.
I woke up just pumped up. I [00:50:00] was like, all right, let's go find this deer. And I took my shower and me and my my, my brother and dad just got home cause they went into work like before we went out cause we, we wanted light and then we headed up to the woods. Yeah. So we, I, my dad and I, we have the luxury of working together, which I'm sure you can imagine how that goes, but we headed back at.
I think, what was it about 7 30, 8 o'clock? Yeah. We waited for the light. We actually had a really good frost that morning, but not so much in the woods. , my dad and I had game planned the night before. I told him, I'm like, you and Peyton start at the blood, which was our first and last blood. 'cause that's all the farther we had went.
You guys start there and then I said I was gonna start. On the backside of the property and backtrack and work my way towards about where I thought he might've ran. And so that's what we ended up doing. And so they started there. I started and I [00:51:00] was working my way pretty quick because I had a good idea of where he was going to be going.
And I knew that we didn't bump them. So I, I made my way pretty quickly to about where I thought he would have been. There's a trail that kind of cuts through the property. I searched there for a good while looking for just blood. I didn't find any blood. I worked my way down, there's another trail on the backside of the property that intersects the other trail.
I didn't see any blood on that, and I looked back at my trail cam video, my cell cam videos, and another buck that we had on there, who's a three year old, who we called General, he's a nice eight point with a few extras on him, I make him a ten. Two minutes after the shot, I had him on camera near where I was standing and he was standing alert.
He was looking around. I could tell that he was somewhat spooked. So I couldn't hear anything in the video. I couldn't hear any crashing or [00:52:00] thrashing or anything like that. I started looking in that area, which had some pretty thick cover. There was a bunch of rubs. And there's a pretty good trail that cut through the thick cover in there.
I walked through that trail and about 30 yards in front of me, I saw his buck laying there without a blood trail. I just found him by stumbling upon him, basically. Which was pretty cool. I had an idea where he was going, but I'm pretty sure I just got bucky, payton, when you and dad are walking that blood trail, how was that going on your end?
There was no blood trail. It was rough. I was, I started panicking a little bit. I was like, I, this deer isn't losing any blood. I can't find anything. And Parker, after he found the deer, he calls my dad and my dad's on the phone with someone for work. He was talking to one of our drivers or something.
And so I called Parker cause dad, my dad told me to. And he's you find anything over there? And I'm like, no, like [00:53:00] we got no blood. And he was like, yeah. I was already standing over the deer. And he was like, Oh you can probably just come over to me then. He's dead right in front of me.
And I was like, no way, dude. Like you're messing with me. I'm like, I was like say you're serious right now. I'd like, promise me you're serious. He's I'm serious, dude. So I make my way over to him. And it was a good moment right there. It was my family and the deer that I just.
Parker, that was good. You got him good there, didn't you? Yeah. I've never seen him move so quickly through the
woods. It was pretty cool. Did you find the arrow? Yeah, the arrow was still stuck in him which I'm surprised he didn't get a pass through it after further investigating, it hit the rib on the other side of the cavity and it cracked his rib and, after we skinned him and everything, the whole side of him on the opposite side.
Was all, it wasn't bruised up, but it was all bloody and, on the outside [00:54:00] where his rib was cracked. So it if it would have slipped through the ribs, I think we would have had a lot more blood. But it just, it hit that rib, cracked the rib and just stuck in them. Which it actually wasn't a bad shot.
It was a little far back. It went in, hit the liver, which we were getting all the liver coming outta the entrance wound, all the liver blood. But it got lung it went through the diaphragm. Got a lung inside the chest cavity. He didn't go far. He died pretty quick with the liver and the lung shot.
So how far was he from the stand? It was about 23 yards. I walked it off because my dad was like, are you sure that's 20 yards? I'm like, I've walked this like 30 times. Making sure that's 20 yards. I don't even use a range finder. I just walk it off and I know about what 20 yards is. So we all know what 20 yards is.
We've been playing football and watch football for a long time. That so the deer died 23 yards from where you shot on Peyton. No, he was 23 yards on the shot. Oh, [00:55:00] okay. Okay. Gotcha. How far it was 23 yard shot. He ran less than a hundred yards. Yeah. So yeah, it was pretty quick.
Awesome. Awesome. That, so what do you think, Peyton, now you check that off your list of things to do yeah I guess improve next year same morales though. And I guess it all worked out in the end, me and Parker got the day off of work and school and we went around, we skinned my deer, we took it to the butcher, took, hide and whatnot to the taxidermist.
So that'd be a good one to put on the wall for sure. Parker, you got your eyes on one then? Actually, so while Peyton was staying up worrying about his deer, I was sound asleep. I was exhausted. And he came into my room that night because we shared the same cell cam account. He comes into my room that night and he's showing me this buck that's showing up on our camera.
Who we're thinking about 150 inch 10 point. I'm pretty excited about him, but he came in to my room and [00:56:00] woke me up and I did not care less that or I could not care less that there was a buck on this picture. I'm like, get out of my face. He's showing me this big buck and I'm like, I'm going back to bed, dude.
I don't care. Which I was half asleep. So I didn't even know what he was showing me, but I wake up in the morning. I'm like, dude, did you see this book? He's yeah, I was trying to show you. Yeah, I got my eyes on him now. I'm hoping he shows up tonight. And get after him this weekend, potentially. Yeah, hopefully that rain cooperates or whatever the forecast look great, but got to do what you got to do, man.
And they're starting to move. There's no doubt about that. Oh yeah. And next week. That weather that looks like it's going to be fire in the woods by fire. It's gonna be really cold. Do you see that? Yeah. Yeah. Morning lows down to 28. So yeah, real cold. So a little different than some of the weather we've had the last couple of years or 75 [00:57:00] degrees.
Yeah. Yeah. Peyton. Congratulations, man. Parker. Good job. You're being a mentor and a good big brother and good luck to you out there the rest of the way. Thank you. Payton, go out there and take out some doughs, all right? Yep, and thank you. Hey, no problem. We'll talk to you guys soon, and yeah, have a good rest of the season.
Sounds good, we'll talk to you.
