Show Notes
Hey everyone, welcome to episode 196 of the Antler Up Podcast!
On this week's episode I was joined by PA native and host of the East Meets West Podcast Beau Martonik! What a fun episode to record with Beau as he shares his top 5 rut hunting strategies and tactics. Beau also dives into specific scenarios that I truly believe will help any hunter out during the rut, but also be mentally and physically prepared for the best time of the year when it comes to deer hunting!
We begin this episode by hearing Beau share who has made the biggest impact on him when it comes to hunting and how you can’t let stress bring you down during the season. We get into individual growth and what leads to his strategy when he prepares for hunting at the end of October and the beginning of November. Then we really dive into the good stuff as Beau shares his top 5 strategies and tactics to be successful this upcoming rut! Be sure to check out Beau over on his YouTube, Website and of course his East Meets West Podcast! Enjoy this fun episode and see you next week!
Thanks again for all the support and best of luck out there and Antler Up!
Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more relevant outdoor content!
Show Transcript
Jeremy Dinsmore: [00:00:00] Welcome to the antler up podcast brought to you by tethered the world's best saddle hunting equipment, and we have a fun show for you all today.
What's up everybody. Welcome back to this week's episode of the antler up podcast. Man, I am fired up. This is the best time of the year. I just freaking love the end of October, beginning of November when it comes to whitetail hunting. And what a perfect guest to have on the show for 196, none other than Bo Martonic, host of the East Meets West podcast.
What a fun episode this was to record with Bo as he shares his top five rut hunting strategies and tactics. Bo also dives into specific scenarios that I [00:01:00] truly believe will help any hunter out during the rut, but also how to be mentally and physically prepared for this best time of the year. We also listen to Bo share whom has made the biggest impact on him when it comes to hunting and how you can't let stress bring you down during the season.
And we get into individual growth and what leads to his strategy when it prepares for hunting at the end of October and the beginning of November. Then we get into the really good stuff as Bo shares his top five strategies and tactics to be Successful during the upcoming rut joked and said these are Bo's commandments when it comes to hunting the whitetail rut So really hope you enjoy this one Be sure to check Bo out over on his YouTube his website and of course his East meets West Podcast enjoy this fun episode everybody best of luck to you out there.
Now's the time to be in the woods. Good luck Ant we're up. Hey everybody. Before [00:02:00] we get into this week's episode, I wanna share some exciting news. The Exodus crew is now launching the Exodus Vault. It's a place to lock in significant savings on their website over@exodusoutdoorgear.com, Exodus Vault will feature some of your favorite products or Exodus gear you haven't considered checking out.
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So definitely check out the Exodus vault because again, some great savings on some phenomenal gear because once they're gone, it's gone. So check it out over at exodusoutdoorgear. com. Real quick, before we get into this week's episode, please, if you like what you hear, make sure you are subscribing to our YouTube channel, our Facebook, our Instagram, as well as making sure you go leave a review and you share this podcast.
It really helps me out. It continues to grow. Make sure you check out the Sportsman's Empire. Thanks again, everybody. We'll see you next week. Best of luck to you and Antler Up. Tether is a team of saddle hunting fanatics with a passionate addiction to white tail hunting. Designing and engineering products to be a more efficient [00:04:00] and confident hunter, Tether produces the most mobile, stealthy, and safest elevated hunting gear on the planet.
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You have deer prediction, journaling, and the best maps on any hunting app platform there is. Use code ANTLERUP to save 20 percent off your Spartan Forge membership at Spartan Forge. What's up everybody. Welcome back to the show. And I'm joined by none other than the East meets West podcast hosts. We have Bo Martonic.
Bo, welcome
Beau Martonik: to the show, man. Jeremy, thanks for having me on, man. I'm excited to be back talking to you again. Oh man.
Jeremy Dinsmore: I'm, it's thrilled to have you on. It's always a pleasure when we have the chance to cross paths. And like I said, just a couple of minutes for. For before we hit record here of just how much, it's honestly, as an outsider and someone that I three and a half, almost four years ago, I comment, I sent you a message because a colleague of mine, you two went to college together and man, I was laughing.
I was telling my wife and my daughter, I was like, Beau probably thought yeah, here's another loser trying podcast. And, here we are four years later. Still kicking, I guess I'm still vibing with it. And [00:06:00] you helped me tremendously even then. And I was again, absolutely no one.
I'm still really trying to get my bearings and stuff. But man I really appreciate you taking the time to do this and I'm, I respect the hell out of you and I really love what you're doing. And anytime I have other acquaintances that, we're similar with friends and everything like that, I just love hearing your success and it's awesome to hear Bo.
Beau Martonik: Yeah thank you. And, but one thing I want to say is, back when you contacted me on that, since that point I'm not joking. There's probably been a hundred people, it seems that is con, that have contacted me about doing a podcast. And I've always, tried to help out the best I can.
People have helped me to do that and everything. But one thing that I'll say to give you some congrats back is basically, I'd say maybe a couple of them are still rolling and it because it takes it's a grind to do a podcast and to be able to keep up with it and, do weekly show or whatever the cadences of it, it's hard and it's not [00:07:00] easy to be able to, so I don't want to, I don't want to say that I'm less motivating when I talk to people now, but I try to be realistic with people too, as far as Listen, just let's walk through these things to make sure you want to do it.
And it's not to deter anybody, it's just understand that there's going to be a lot. It's going to take a long time before you... Realistically see numbers or people listening and all that stuff. It's just a lot of consistency. And the last time I I talked to you, I remember telling you that I was like, man, I love seeing it.
You've been crushing it and keep rolling. And I've heard more people mentioning your stuff and seeing you everywhere. That's pretty awesome. No, man,
Jeremy Dinsmore: I appreciate the kind words. And like I said it's just so cool to see PA guys. Having fun and in all reality, we just love, we love this stuff, and if you have that passion and you're on that side of things where this is your full time gig obviously I'm still a health and phys ed teacher at the high school level.
But I, obviously it's turned into meeting some great friends from other companies and acquaintances of [00:08:00] just being able to learn, right? Like I've done, I did this. Out of the whole learning and growing and developing as a hunter. And, maybe finally it's been three and a half years that I'm finally applying things and not being a total moron with things.
And, finding your own niche. And I've heard you on a podcast a couple of times, especially when the, you're like, you have all these people on, you're talking mobile gear, right? And you, you sit, you're at one tree and then you want to bounce the other, cause that other people are doing.
And it's just no wait, this spot. I know this spot, right? There's just things that you learn and you grow and the best way that you could go to go through these things is actually experiencing it. And I feel like things are finally coming to grips with that.
Beau Martonik: Yeah. And you made a really good point there, and I think that we have one of the harder jobs and people might think, oh, harder jobs, but it's like, Harder jobs. When you talk to so many successful people, you want to try these different things that people say, even if you have something that has worked and sometimes it can throw you off a little bit because [00:09:00] not something that works for this person is always going to work for this person or situations are different and everybody is speaking based off of their own personal experience and how they hunt in the areas they hunt.
And that's why it's. It's so interesting because I think when it was the other day, someone had said something to me that they said some of the stuff you can say could be contradicting at times. And I was like yeah, actually it can be. It really is. And deer hunting isn't a one way type of thing.
And I'm evolving as a deer hunter and changing my tactics a little bit and trying different things and finding things that work here, but they don't work there. So it's it's a deer hunting is there's definitely not just a playbook that you can go by right and Figure it out and go by it's constantly adapting and learning those things But yeah, it can be tough sometimes when you talk to so many successful people That they live and die by this one strategy that you may have never done And going through
Jeremy Dinsmore: that.
Yeah, no doubt [00:10:00] about that, man. And I'll tell you what, one thing that I really never had the opportunity to really dive into that I've been really dissecting this past off season and getting ready to hopefully hunt and just learn from a couple of experiences in this upcoming year is going to be the whole like really.
Seeing how like the Creek bottom hunting, like with the thermals and how just seeing like how that's going to really play out because growing up a lot of the places that I hunted was just on big mountains and some of the streams and the creeks and all that stuff. I'd never. It wasn't on the property that I basically hunted.
So I never had that experience. And just listening to podcasts, especially things that you've done whether it be on videos and having guests on, but your personal experience and you teaching that stuff, I really been trying to really. Hone in on those, that ability, those skills. And I'm really excited for one little spot that I found.
And I'm excited to see how it goes and just when I scouted it and bringing the milkweed and just seeing [00:11:00] how, like when the wind's blown, it's getting sucked down into that, into the flow of the water and with the crick and everything like that. So it's just cool that things like that.
Again, I never did before growing up really as a kid that now, as a 36 year years old individual, I'm learning from you and testing things out like that. I'm like, Oh, it'd be cool to just kill a doe down here and just say, Hey, this worked. And how did it work? How did it work as well and why?
So those are the things that I'm, like you said, I love about this and one scenario that could be different for you in 10 different spots, like you just
Beau Martonik: said earlier. Yeah, no, most definitely. And it's so I obviously spend a lot of time in Creek Bottoms and I love hunting Creek Bottoms, but they're not all treated the same.
And there's some areas I'll go to, or I've tried some other states that looked similar and. It was not the same result that I was getting and other areas. So it takes such a, so many different things in your bag of tricks to throw out there and [00:12:00] try and go through and but it, that's, there's the positive side of doing this thing is because you get to talk to all these people and you can maybe throw another, trick in your bag, be able to throw out in a specific scenario, or maybe you would have.
Walked by it by that situation and not thought anything of it and work through it because crook bottoms are one of those things that I've hunted crook bottoms I learned this from my dad. I've learned this from my grandfather I've learned this from my whole family about white tails and water and during the rut and it's a really good set up in most cases and Then, once I started being exposed to more media and hearing people, everybody was like, you can't hunt the crick fog, you can't do that.
And I started thinking, hey, maybe I can't. I'm like, wait, no, I have, and it's worked. But it just takes a different approach to looking at it. And it's, again, that's what's cool. Everybody has their own opinions and experiences that they can throw at it. Yeah
Jeremy Dinsmore: That's so awesome, I know here's a question to get us rolling I [00:13:00] know we could go down so many rabbit holes in the main meat and potatoes of this episode Those of you that are listening is going to be like I was jokingly.
I want it to be but in a serious way, Bo's rut hunting one on one class. And this will, this is going to be airing here in the end of October. Bo, before we get rolling, I probably would know the answer to this, but I just want to hear your explanation of it. Who do you really consider to be your biggest impact like on your hunting journey and really
why?
Beau Martonik: That's definitely my dad. I can say that. With a hundred percent certainty that growing up, watching him figure out the woods in an age where there was no media that was associated with hunting the big woods or doing anything, just learning from experience. And I got to, spend time being in the woods with him and used to be allowed to hunt his spots and, spend time in there and get to see it.
And he's. And he's still someone that outworks me, to this day[00:14:00] probably puts two times the amount of miles on maybe even more in the woods and is constantly out there, constantly learning very data driven, which is where I've got a lot of that from. And, there's been a ton of people that have influenced me, but if I were to put it down to one person, it's definitely my dad.
And just over the last, 40 some years that he's been hunting, there's I don't, I think we were talking, but there hasn't been a year that he hasn't killed a buck and it's pretty, pretty phenomenal.
Jeremy Dinsmore: That is pretty amazing. I, and to build upon that for you, Beau is, those of you that are maybe struggling right now, like during this season, if you want to just.
Kind of disconnect for a little bit Reese hit that reset button and button go back to Last year's episode that Bo did with his dad with his cousin Mason, right? It cousin Mason and Johnny just because it was a two part episode But man, that is one that last year for myself when preparing for the rut and [00:15:00] getting ready you're right around the corner of those all day sits and you just You're starting to question yourself a little bit, right?
And you need putting that pressure on yourself. And that is a great episode. Just disconnect. Do you hear the laughs, but man, the knowledge bombs that are dropped in that, that subtle really good, done extremely well. Go back to listen to that. I know you're going to have some other great.
Episodes already right now, but just another one to go back to for sure, because man, I was one that I enjoyed and it honestly, really for me personally put me at ease because I was actually when that dropped that weekend I had a really awesome encounter with. With some crazy rut activity.
And it was so funny because I was like, Holy shit. Bo's dad was spot on. It was October 28th, whatever that Saturday was. It was just nuts in my, where I was. And and it was so funny because in that episode, he said something. About the font, like looking back to trail cam data of like when [00:16:00] fawns were born and I picked that weekend to go in actually specifically because of the first, I dated it back to my first fawn picture from that year prior.
And so when I heard your dad say that, I was like, okay, I'm in I'm doing something. It was like a, like pat on my back there a little bit. And dude, it was crazy. I, but your dad didn't, it was right. Take, that late October, he thought it was going to be good.
And it
Beau Martonik: was. Yeah, it was good. Our data from our trail cams and everything really showed those days were good. I wasn't I wasn't essentially in the right spots during those days. In the areas I was, but the camera showed me that the days were good. It just wasn't the particular area that I was hunting at that time.
But what's funny about that, that episode, we talked about a lot about just like our struggles with it. And I think that with social media and with all these things, everybody talks with so much confidence and you have all this confidence and this is what you do, this is what works.
But I don't care if my dad's been hunting [00:17:00] 47 years and been super successful. All of us struggle a lot and, and it helps, my biggest thing about that episode was like. Being able to talk to having good friends that you can call when you're in these struggles and bounce ideas off of and Talk through it because when you're emotionally attached to something and the rut really can bring that out of you 100 percent is Having someone that's not emotionally attached to your situation help guide you through it because a lot of the times You're doing the right thing if you put in the work and figured out these spots
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One being the MMTR, which is a 2 4 6 diameter shaft and the new NIS, [00:18:00] which is a 2 0 4 diameter shaft arrow. Use code AU to save 15 percent off your tailored arrow order at exodusoutdoorgear. com. All right. Yeah. I like two things. When your dad, I was just like, I listening to it. I was like, wow, that is fricking impressive.
Your dad was like, I, yeah, the other night I was going through my trail cam data to 2009 just to see if I could put something together. And I was like, holy shit. Like 2000. I was like, man, that, that is a, that is fricking awesome. And then the other thing was too, is the, you. It really has helped me go with my off season scouting and honestly, Beau led me into a great spring turkey hunting this past year, man was like, you guys really talked a lot about going with your gut.
And I felt like that was something that I. Continuously went against, I would help friends out like what you just said, right? When you have someone you talk to and you're disconnected, I was a little bit connected to certain things, but it [00:19:00] wasn't my situation. And I would say, go do this or whatever.
And maybe someone was successful or had a really cool encounter or something along those lines, but it always seemed like I always went against my gut and. That encounter, like I just mentioned earlier, that October that October 28th or whatever that Saturday was, I went with my gut and I had a really cool day out in the woods that day.
So that was awesome. And then it led into my summer, my spring scouting, summer scouting. And like I told you with my Turkey hunting, I went with my gut a lot in my first two hunts of. My day one of in Ohio, I tagged out within a half hour of PA, it took me till 11 o'clock on opening day, but I got it done.
And that's just, I was going with my gut and did certain things. And I'm hoping it will happen here in Pennsylvania and some other states for some whitetail. So yeah, I, like I said, going with that data, what your dad was saying and what You know, all of you basically were saying, but the going with your gut, going with your instinct, because we know our areas to an extent, but, and deer will do deer [00:20:00] things, but man, I know it's so weird.
And I know your buddy Johnny, he hates that word luck, but you just have to sometimes just go your gut and put yourself in there. And, but like he then says. You get lucky, but you did the homework,
Beau Martonik: right? Yeah that, yeah, I think that's what Johnny means by that a lot. Cause I would and he still, he'll correct me on this when I say it, but I believe that I do believe there's luck involved in any sort of deer hunting.
It's just like, how much did you create of that luck and how are you able to put yourself in that scenario? And I'm glad you brought up the gut feeling portion because It is that's where the emotional part of it gets hard and can sometimes get in the way of that gut feeling and what you Know you need to do But you don't want to do it because of this or that you create in your own head But gut feeling takes time to learn and to be able to get that confidence to make it a gut feeling, you know it takes having [00:21:00] these situations or having these encounters to really put all those pieces together and It just gets it gets better with time as far as like you I feel like you can trust your gut a lot more the More you do it the more you try and honestly failing is huge the best thing to be able to learn for me is like I'd rather fail fast and try to learn from it, but I've learned way more from my failures than my successes.
I agree.
Jeremy Dinsmore: 100%. I've actually been quoting that one on the last couple of episodes that I've been doing with people. It's just, man, I just feel and honestly, Bo, that's every day in life, like I, hopefully you don't make that same mistake twice or the third time and no matter what it is in life.
But as far as my hunting journey has gone, Oh, for sure. I feel like I've learned no doubt about it more on those failures than I have on my successes. So here's something before I just, man I love just chatting and I love getting the chance to dive deeper into certain individuals and stuff like that.
I know you've been doing this for [00:22:00] over two years now, I believe as far as a full time gig goes, are we at two years?
Beau Martonik: No, we're just over
Jeremy Dinsmore: a year. Okay. Okay. So we're just over a year, but I know you, like I said you've been doing this a very, being successful for a very long time. And man, you evolved as so much as a hunter, how do you really take that stress off yourself?
I may, I know we do put stress on, so I know not all stress is removed from your, from you, but how are you able to really disconnect that outside pressure Compared to putting that personal pressure on, right? No matter what, like we do put pressure on ourselves, but there is that outside.
I think that sometimes it is knocking on that door. And how do you disconnect that and not really worry about it and narrow things down to, to get.
Beau Martonik: Yeah. And I'll be honest I think just about every year I let that external stress get to me to a point and it's just trying to recognize that and take a step back.
I don't think [00:23:00] stress is always a bad thing, but it's if you can, you can't let it control you. And I won't sit here and say I'm the absolute best at it by any means, but sometimes it just, it took me just actually I'll quote something that when I was in Alberta last year, I was hunting with an outfitter that was I was up there with a trip for Sika and Jim hole, Jr.
Very well known outfitter in the bow zone of Alberta. And I was up there hunting with him and he had said something to me about. Shooting deer, I'd pass on a really big deer up in Alberta. And I was like, man, I really wanted to shoot this and everything. And he's Beau, he's like, when it comes down to anything any sort of things, he's you've proven yourself and you've done the thing so many times, you don't have to prove it to anybody else that, that you're worried about what you want to do and try to meet those goals, but really try to just.
Take the outside of it [00:24:00] when especially when if you're able to do something say you're on a streak and you've been killing bucks for four years in a row or whatever it is And the fifth year all of a sudden you're struggling. It's like when you can take that out of okay this doesn't mean oh, it's okay to fail, but more so Don't let that don't let that pressure get to you because it's going to start it's probably going to make you fail because you're thinking too much about it and you're trying to force things rather than letting the situations play out.
For example, I've been trying to get more efficient earlier in a season. I've always had rut success for a long time, but I've been trying to do better early season. Now I. I've I think in the last 10 years, I've killed two bucks during the first week. And that's it about all the rest of the ones have been later in the year.
So it's I'm trying to try to do that thing, but it's also, it's okay, that's when you have, when I've, focused the least amount of my time in the past. And it's just understand that you have more time and in the season will [00:25:00] unfold how it's supposed to, if you just keep putting in the work, maybe it'll happen early.
Maybe it'll happen during the rut. Maybe it'll happen in late season. But it's let it play out and also enjoy the season for what it's thrown at you. I think that the biggest thing for me when it comes down to the stress game, because even if you don't have external pressures of having a podcast and expect to produce shooting deer, like even if you're just.
A guy loves to hunt and you put those own pressures on yourself, those years that it takes you a lot longer to do it, you'll learn a lot more from it. And to be able to come back from and just try to adapt from it. I remember it was in 2020, I I didn't kill a buck during archery season, and that was the second year in a row.
I didn't kill one during archery season in Pennsylvania, and I was like, Oh my gosh. What am I going to do? I feel like I know nothing and I just, but I started, I hadn't rifle hunted in a while and I just started. Getting into that and having fun with it and taking that [00:26:00] pressure off and then it worked, it ended up working itself out and it was my biggest buck to date.
And it was like, then, at that moment, you're like, this is the greatest season ever. And and I think that especially when it comes down to the rut, it's that is the time of year when I believe that most people question themselves, question their sanity question there.
Tactics, they're scouting more than anything because it's typically when you're taking your vacation time and you're spending the most time in the woods and you always picture the rut as this magical time where deer are running everywhere like that experience you had last year all over the place and the fact is 99 percent of it is not that, it's silence sitting in the tree just It's silence.
Just looking out, sucking on your thumb, not really doing a whole lot. Yep.
Jeremy Dinsmore: No, man, that's, that is extremely well said. And man I feel like you're preaching to the choir and but man, since then it's been a lot better, and putting myself in better situations and growing and developing and and it's.
[00:27:00] Honestly, Bo it's almost like more so of the outside influences of non hunting things, right? Like how do I get mentally more tough? How do I control my human body in a sense of like when these pressures are in that situation, going back to my playing baseball days and man it's, honestly, it's helped out tremendous, like up in the tree for hunting.
Using that the same kind of analogies to, to help me grow that way. I know it might sound a little weird, but that's how my brain works. And I was able to do it.
Beau Martonik: No, you're, yo you're right on. And I, so I've always tried to show through the, through my platforms the messiness that comes along with it and how I make more mistakes than probably anybody when it comes to hunting and.
For example, by the time this comes out, I'll have my elk films from 2022 out on my YouTube channel. And it's not the cleanest film from the standpoint of, it's very well done quality wise from Justin, who did an amazing job editing and filming. But, I had missed a bull early in the hunt, [00:28:00] and then I ended up hitting a bull later that I did not recover.
And I remember being in that situation, where I was at the lowest of lows, and like, how can I, why did I shoot, there was brush there, that was so stupid. What is, what is my problem? And I'm like, what, people are going to just bash me and I'm an idiot. Like I just hurt this animal that, didn't, didn't, he'd lived, but that's, on a side point of it, I was so down on myself and it took just I really just, I took the afternoon off and was just like, all right, I can either sit here and cry about all these things, or I can get up and put another one foot in front of the other and get back to it.
And it sounds, it's so much easier said than done, but. It happens and during the rut in 2020 that year I was talking about I had actually had the buck I was hunting was bigger than the one that I ended up shooting a rifle season. I had him at 15 yards on the ground the full draw and I [00:29:00] was using one of those Garmin sites and had the rangefinder thing built in and I tried getting a range and there was some brush there.
I couldn't get the range so my scope housing was wide open and it wasn't the site's fault. So there's a fail safe. You hit the button twice and these pins come up. My brain was so scattered, I couldn't remember to do that. So I'm sitting there with the biggest buck of my life at 15 yards and then all of a sudden the doe takes off and he starts following her again and I never even released an arrow.
And I just, I wanted to cry, like I just sat there, I'm like, I've worked all year for this one opportunity and I just screwed it up and that was, just, but we have these things happen a lot. And I, I try to minimize those mistakes from happening, but it's the nature of it.
And I think that's hunting is such a good life teacher in that respect, because it helps you deal with these things and understand that. It's gonna be a rollercoaster and you [00:30:00] gotta figure out how you and yourself like how you can get out of that I don't think everybody's in the same Or I guess reacts to the same things or the same coping mechanisms to be able to get out of it but I've learned for me that a lot of it just comes down to Analyze it, figure out what I did wrong.
Maybe I need to yell at myself for a little bit, but not too long, that you start dwelling in it. And then just be like, cancel it out. And Johnny Stewart says it all the time, when I was texting him for my in reach in Montana when that happened. And he said you can't cry over spilled milk.
He's just keep going. And he's you're a good archer. That you put in the time just keep going. And things will work out and if they don't, then you'll do better next time. Yeah. Yeah. And they
Jeremy Dinsmore: did. Yeah. That's awesome, man. One more thing that before we dive into this rut, discussion, you alluded to it just a little bit ago.
And I had this written down and, I want to just say, over the season, again, as an outsider, as someone [00:31:00] that we've been in touch with over the last couple of years and done things together, I really do believe Bo. One you are already a well established great hunter, but I really do feel like again someone from the outside I've seen how much tremendously you've grown Especially when it comes to the or the earlier season the hunting the bucks obviously you killed that one on earlier early season and you're using the data and all that type of stuff That's phenomenal and you alluded to earlier too that you killed another buck earlier on, you know So when you look at this, what, when is your favorite time of the year now to hunt for these white tails?
Because I feel like when you have that success early on like that, and the data driven individual that you are, does the rut still just hold King to you? Or is it that early season? You love trying to maybe figure something out like that.
Beau Martonik: It's still the rut, man I there's no I don't think that's going to change any time.
That the early seed thing is more of trying to test myself and try to figure out some different [00:32:00] strategies on getting on these deer. But the rut for me is by far my favorite time of year because you don't know what's going to happen. The more time you're in the tree, the better odds that you have and you just don't know what could come by at that time.
And. That gets me fired up for how many trail cameras that, that I run and everyone runs, you can still have a complete mystery of a deer show up. And I like that mystique of it. Have
Jeremy Dinsmore: you ever scouted an area or hunted specifically, mainly hunted an area like a little bit earlier on in the year where you're like, you know what?
I might have a chance and these conditions allow me to get in here right now. Like maybe it's October 11th, right? You're just, it's that kind of maybe the first or second cold front, you got the right conditions. You potentially have the right Intel to go in there and maybe get after this buck. You might, put a little bit of pressure on during that time, but nothing ends up happening on that [00:33:00] specific hunt.
And you don't really go in there and obviously you don't know what other kind of pressures being put on, on, like on these white tail, is that a spot maybe that you might go back to come the rut to, to see if whether you have a cell camera or you go back in there and check data, have you had success, maybe doing something along those lines where you hunted a spot earlier in the year, didn't really work out, but then later on in the year it had, or he has some really cool encounters.
Beau Martonik: Yeah, I would say a lot of my spots are that way and because there'll be some places some certain scrapes that every couple years it'll have good data around the first cold front and the middle of October that October 12th to 18th timeframe there. And I always go in and I'm, I'll hunt them and whether, maybe I screwed up access or for whatever reason a deer didn't come in while that doesn't, I'll go back there in a week or two weeks and hunt and have had success being able to do that.
Or there's a spot [00:34:00] that I haven't hunted actually in probably four years. The five years prior to that, every year during the rut, I had great encounters and I've killed a three bucks out of this tree, but I tried hunting it early on and it was like a ghost and it was just like, and in the bottoms, The wind was swirly a little bit more when it was hot out and it just wasn't, it wasn't the place that it was, two, three weeks later in the year.
So yeah there's definitely those situations.
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It's that time, man and... We're gearing up for all day sits and bouncing around getting in on finding those dough groups or finding going to getting after that buck And I know we'll get down into talking about scrapes But before we do that man, what how are what is your process to getting ready for this as far as what Intel?
Or what Intel [00:36:00] are you using to develop like your strategy for that? Let's just say from that October 25th through I know your favorite time is that November 7th through plus couple of days, but let's just say that October 25th through October 8th, like right before your favorite timeframe, if that makes sense.
Beau Martonik: Yeah. So I'd say there's probably three things that I would think about for that. One is historical data. If I have it for the area. So historical trail camera data, what dates were hot. What weather conditions, produce movement as far as trail cameras and or personal experiences in the tree. I have all that data logged, so I'm looking at those things and, from there if either if it's a new area and I don't have that, or even if I do, the next thing I'm looking for is the time of year as far as what do I have from this year as far as block pictures?
Is there something in, in the area? That I want to go hunt or is there, a buck of a caliber that [00:37:00] I want to hunt in these particular spots because sometimes they're just not and particular areas, but I want to find, I want to find areas that have the most good bucks to I've not, I like to single out specific deer, but I will shoot other deer and during the ruts, it is difficult to focus on one particular deer and, single him out.
But. So I want to have that intel if possible. It's not 100 percent necessary, but if possible. Probably the biggest thing is real time intel on where the does are at. So during the middle of October, I'll be doing a lot of scouting with my bow in hand and walking through. And bumping does is good because I want to know where those does are hanging out at and figure that.
Even in the springtime when I'm walking around now, their bedding might change a little bit, but those are a little bit. more habitual than I think even the pucks are at certain times. And, there's certain doe groups that I know when a certain [00:38:00] one, one of the big does comes into estrous because it's always good around that timeframe.
So like that really comes into play. And if I have any historical knowledge on those does, that's even better. But having those doe groups in mind, more so than where the bucks are bedding at that particular time. So then as that leads into, and what I, then what I do is I have all this stuff in a document a hunt plan as I call it, and I'm sure a lot of others do, but where I have these areas listed out, and these particular spots, when are the right conditions that I want to hunt them.
Grade the spots and so then when you go into this and you get into the full swing of it and you're hunting day after day and nothing's working out, you have a list to go through and help be able to make those decisions based off of that, more so than out of panic and thinking that you have nowhere to go, even though you know you have a bunch of places, you're just not thinking clearly [00:39:00] enough to be able to go do it.
Now, will I, yeah. Go away from that plan sometimes. Yes, but I like to have that available to go through those spots. It's Oh, there's a Southeast wind and it's going to be, doing this weather conditions and stuff. I don't know where I can go. There's this tree that has this.
Yeah, I do. I just got to look at my sheet and understand those conditions and go in. Yeah. Look at your
Jeremy Dinsmore: pros and to the, to your cons, when you look at that, dude, that makes perfect
Beau Martonik: sense. Yeah and it is simpler than we make it out to be, even myself, I can get convoluted with all these different data points and all these different things.
But one thing I've come to learn, like for example, the wind, I try to find spots that have the wind in your favor, but in the mountains, in the big woods, you're going to get swirling. You're going to have, so I don't, especially during the rut, I don't think about it that much. Like I try to plan for it the best I can.
And then I just hunt and sometimes the wind isn't right, but it's in a traditional rut spot, you're not hunting right over this deer bed. If it [00:40:00] shifts, it's not the problem. He might be a mile away at that point when that wind shifting and you're hoping for him to come through. And I just, I tried, I chance it a lot when it comes to that time of year to, big, high risk, high reward type.
Yeah, conditions as far as setting up. Yeah, what
Jeremy Dinsmore: would you say are things that as far as your tactics go? Throughout the year for you bow here for whether it's Pennsylvania, West Virginia these specific whitetail states What kind of stays the same what gets altered a little bit and then what gets thrown out the window for you?
During this rut time, like early season like what you just said, you will not necessarily worry about that wind situation when it's, peak rut, what kind of things stay the same, what. What gets altered and what gets drawn out the window?
Beau Martonik: Wow. That's a good one. I would say that I'll compare and contrast West Virginia and [00:41:00] Pennsylvania to keep it simple because they are similar and very different at the same time. So for example, in, in Pennsylvania feel like in the areas I hunt have a good buck to doe ratio and low deer densities.
Which usually creates more aggressive deer, more sign laid down, and the bucks have to go further to find does and West Virginia where I'm at, there's a lot of does. And so the bucks don't really need to go, they will travel far, but like they don't, when you find a doe group, it's not as big of a deal as it is in Pennsylvania.
So in those situations, I'm less focused on specific doe groups as much as I'm trying to find these funnels in this really steep terrain. To be able to just get in those places and be able to be there versus Pennsylvania, I'm a little bit more strategic on. The doe groups and trying to find funnels that are associated with it.
But if it's not, most of the [00:42:00] spots I hunt aren't as gnarly of terrain as I hunt in West Virginia. So it's not like I can find these perfect bottlenecks that deer have to go through like I do in some places in West Virginia.
Jeremy Dinsmore: Yeah. And that's cool. I like that. So what would, okay, so now you're, you've, you made up your.
Your plan. You use your data, you're using what your data you find currently right now. What are Bo's top strategies? What are you going out there to give you your best opportunity to kill the buck
Beau Martonik: that you're after? All right. I'll start off by listing them and then I'll dive into them.
And the first one would be is finding rut funnels. And the second one would be the importance of scrapes. The third one would be don't bounce around. And again, I'll go into all these in detail. The fourth one is midday madness. And the fifth one is calling. So those are like my five, when we were talking beforehand, commandments, if you want to call it for rut hunting.[00:43:00]
And, looking at, so rut funnels is, I'm thinking about that first. This is like trying to find these places that you want to be set up. During the rut and hunting. And for me, it's want to be between doe groups. I want to know where these doe groups are and be in a place that a buck are likely to travel to check one doe group and go to the next one.
If it's, a little bit towards, the end of October, more pre rut timeframe, then that goes into that. The next section where scrapes are a little bit more important, but I'll dive into that in a second, going back to the rut funnels between doe groups. Terrain edges, or like funnels that go through, vegetation edges, and how all of those combine.
Where can I find a place that maybe I've bumped those here, maybe I've bumped those here. Now what is the most likely travel between these places that will funnel movement in this vast woods? Usually at first I'm looking at terrain. I'm trying, I'll just look at, [00:44:00] so like I'll have Spartan Forge pulled up, just look at topography.
And I'm trying to find these places that look like, okay, maybe you have some steep terrain above steep trend below and there's a bench system that goes there and those are the types of spots and then vegetation side of it. It's maybe it's a clear cut edge, maybe it's where hemlocks are butting up against some hardwoods as much vegetation kind of diversity and edges that you can find that bucks may want to cruise down the edge of or move down through.
And, but really what it comes down to in that is, where are the most trails crossing at one particular location? So me finding those things on a map as a starting point, it might not be this exact spot that I sit at. But I go there and I find a trail coming up the side of this steep valley or draw on either side, then it goes up and maybe on top there's a saddle and they go up over and then there's a trail that goes around [00:45:00] horizontally and to be able to move.
Okay, we have three or four trails that are crossing in this vicinity and maybe there's 175 yards over there and there. Okay. There's deer coming through this particular spot. Now, does it have the cover that I would feel like a mature buck would feel comfortable being in? And what I want to do is set up on the spot where I can shoot into the cover and then to the edge.
I used to just hunt the edge where I could shoot that side and all the time, not all the time, but a lot of the times these bucks would be just inside that cover, whether it was Blackberry Briars or Laurel or whatever it was, just. And when I say shoot into it, like that's hard to be able to do, but if I can just find a little pocket or a little opening that might be a deer length long, that might be enough for me to be able to stop them when he's going through.
So trying to find those funnel type places and the other funnels that I'm looking at with that we alluded to earlier in the podcast, our Creek bottom crossings, which again, this is where you have, a trail or two [00:46:00] that might be crossing the correct. And then you have some that run parallel to the water.
and being able to move. And if you have something else like a beaver pond or something else that makes them have to cross in that particular location, that's where I want to set up. So funnels are huge. And Do you want me just to go through the rest of them or are you okay? No. Go for it, man.
All right. And the second one is the importance, like the importance of scrapes as I was talking about. And I love scrapes. Big scrape guy. Yeah. And pre rut time frame, I like to sit right over community scrapes that are on the edges of where does like to bed or doe bedding. I'm not worried about the ones where I think bucks are at.
Sometimes those overlap, but. I want to find ones that are near where does are at that I'm getting through the middle of October. I want to have more does on that straight camera than I do bucks because that's where they're going to be. That's where [00:47:00] they're going to be coming to and it's funny if you look at my, which I'm never going to show anybody this, but if you looked at my trail camera photo catalog, I save, I don't just say buck pictures.
I save doe pictures in that. Usually from like October 10th on where I just say maybe one photo or maybe a couple that I'm like, okay in this daylight there's those somewhere right around here. I don't always know where the dough is laying down But I know that they must be betting somewhere close because they're hanging out in this area in daylight and it's okay So I want to hunt those particular areas because those bucks are starting to cruise and check on those spots Maybe the does aren't ready But they're laying down their dominance and now multiple bucks are hitting these scrapes and they're you know Getting their pecking order or say so that's when it becomes really important Now I, I will still hunt scrapes during the heart of the rut, but a lot of times I'm not hunting right over [00:48:00] top of that scrape, but it's, traditionally there's one in the area or I'll make one a mock scrape somewhere in there just to get them to stop or have them do it.
An example where I was hunting right over a scrape when last year, 2022, I shot my buck November 4th and I was hunting right in the bottom of a hub system. So I had a bunch of ridges that ran down into this bottom and there was a scrape that's been there for 15 years. This scrape is as gnarly as you can imagine.
It's a white tailed hunter's dream. And what I've learned about this spot is the camera pictures that you'll get on there, you might get some pictures of deer during the rut, but from sitting there... They're always coming through around it, but they're not always hitting that scrape and you know this particular buck I'm not sure if he crossed below because I couldn't really see or if he was just coming up parallel to it But alright, yeah parallel to the creek but when I Was doing some calling and all of a sudden I heard this buck [00:49:00] coming and he came out fixed up below the scrape And I've learned that there's a trail down there.
I was actually just talking to my dad about it. I was like, I need to get a camera on that lower end. Even though ran a camera there for years and years, I've never ran one down below and maybe I don't need to because the deer just do it, but. I just like confirmation data, man confirmation, but it seems like they'll cross below it and take where the some of those thermals are coming down and smell them.
And so they're still using scrapes during that time. It's just not as much of the active pawing and working the licking branches. So scrapes are still important. At that time, are you yeah, I was going to say,
Jeremy Dinsmore: are you still I personally have even hunted those specific spots where maybe I was getting a buck or middle October, let's say, and leading up to this and then maybe it goes dead for a little bit, but I've also then like at that point, if I'm still getting those to hit it, I'm getting more downwind because I'm thinking those bucks are even Don't necessarily even need to hit that scrape in a sense.
And [00:50:00] I've hunted, between that and I've had younger bucks in encounters like that. Is that something that you've done? And the reason why too, I'm asking this specific question. This was one of the listeners question about that. What is your take on? Those being set up downwind even before that, because of maybe seeing a buck earlier, but then it goes dead for a little bit.
Beau Martonik: Yeah. That's very situational as far as I, I used to think that when a scrape would go dead, the buck just wasn't in the area. And I do believe that the bucks that are around those grapes probably. Five times the amount that we get pictures of them. Yeah. And that's where I've started doing exactly what he was asking about is moving, whether it's downwind and sometimes it's not even necessarily downwind because things are shifting a little bit, but just a little bit off of the scrape and more of a place as Johnny would say it, that just.
This looks like a buck wants to walk through, like he feels comfortable going through that. So I'll [00:51:00] hunt off of it a little bit more than directly on that particular scrape, and I've been doing that more. In the last probably three or four years than I did in the past
Jeremy Dinsmore: nice. I like that.
Yeah, dude i'm with you, man. I'm a big scrape individual as well. Love getting them and you know using them to when you said earlier with the does and I was going preach because I'm with you. I get just as much as excited when I get a dough going nuts on a scrape as I do for bucks, just because I, they're laying that scent down and, seeing, Hey I'm ready.
And dude, when I've one time I had a dough bed in one, in a scrape. And like the next two days, it was insane. The amount of bucks that I had hitting that scrape. It was just like crazy. I don't know what that would cause, but man it's, I got a lot to say about
Beau Martonik: that. So the whole idea with does laying in the scrapes.
I believe that they're like, she's I'm ready. Yeah. Come find me because. I've learned that [00:52:00] when I get pictures of a doe and a scrape that in that following day, like it's usually during the night, they'll just lay there through the middle of the night. I'll get all these pictures. She's laying there half sleeping, looking around.
And then that next day it's like hot and heavy bucks around there going nuts. And what I was going to say on top of that is not as much do I see the bucks laying right in the scrape, but they'll lay watching those scrapes a lot. And so I have this. It's a pretty, and I actually, maybe I can share this trail camera now cause the buck's dead, but he just absolutely giant deer.
What my camera was sitting back a little ways right in this hemlock edge and there was like a grassy opening and a big scrape there and all it was getting was the side of his antlers. He was bedding right in front of my camera hemlocks. And watching the scrape and then he'd even, he was then a couple of days later, he had a doe locked down right around that [00:53:00] situation and all day he was just like bedded there and moving around, but there's, I was talking to another hunter the other day that was just not on a podcast or anything, but talking about where he'd go in to hunt this scrape.
And he realized, one time he saw this buck get up, realized there was a bed sitting up above it, watching down on it. And if you were to go in there and hunt it, you'd never see him, but he'd get pictures of him outside of that time. And it was like, sometimes those bucks are sitting there. Watching that screen before they go down, or maybe they don't ever go down to it.
They're just visualizing it and then moving
Jeremy Dinsmore: along. Yeah, that's good stuff, man. So then the third one was don't bounce around.
Beau Martonik: Yes. So this is, again, you alluded to this earlier is the craze, with mobile hunting and is, first time in best opportunities. I think that's probably true in a lot of areas.
In the big woods, when you have low deer densities, [00:54:00] I don't believe that's your best option to consistently have success in these areas, because these deer aren't patterned to the point where they're going to come hit this scrape every day, or they're going to bed in this spot every day. It might be every three days, it might be every five days.
They have these kind of cycles, it seems that they'll come through these particular areas. And sometimes you might just be chasing your tail and if you're chasing trail camera photos, you'll never catch yourself or catch up to them if you're just like constantly following like cell cameras have made this worse because you get a picture and you're like, holy cow, the buck was on that scrape.
I need to hunt there tomorrow. And then you go in there and you don't see anything. You're like he's already through there. He's on the one down, down the ridge or he's over here and. I, so I always joke about that because I love cell cameras, but it can be a mind mess. It'll screw you up sometimes too if you take that data to literally in some of these spots.
[00:55:00] And so just sticking it out and when you find a good, rut funnel or spot that you're sitting in, I like to give it at least three days in that spot, sometimes up to five days. And which is crazy because especially when you scout a lot and you have all these spots, you always think the next spot is better.
But when you're there and you're like, okay, I'm confident that a deer is going to come through here at some point. I need this. I need to sit here. And if you pay attention to your access, you're not, there's not deer blowing at you every single day. And it's starting to rot. Like even if deer are blowing at you.
Who cares like they forget about that in 20 minutes because it's you know, maybe an old buck That's not fully rutted up yet, but it's not the end of the world I've been in I've been in places where I'll you know I've blown does out knowing I was close to their bedding not carrying because a buck knows a doe is traditionally [00:56:00] bed there and they'll come through but The moral of that story is not bouncing around, whatever I, my, my note to myself is sit it and give it time but where this can, where I want to throw a little bit of a wrench in this.
And this is where people say it can be contradictory, but last year I did this where I sat all three and a half days in one tree, I never saw a single deer and, but what I didn't. What I didn't account for in that or what I didn't weigh enough was that this year there wasn't even dough activity in there there traditionally was.
But I was going off of historical data from the two years prior that this plot was good during these areas and I needed to be there. But I was almost manipulating the situation in my own mind because I wanted it to work and it seemed so perfect. But it wasn't. So that's where this is where you get the Should I stay or should I go and what my [00:57:00] thing is I list out, Johnny and I talked about this a lot.
It was like, list out the pros and why you're there, list out the cons and if the cons outweigh the pros move, if they don't, go and that's what kind of helps me figure out when I should stay in a spot, when I should go. And
Jeremy Dinsmore: I'm sure you get asked that a thousand million times.
Beau Martonik: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And that's when I get asked that it's usually during the rut with, I'll get messages, Oh, what's going on here? I'm not seeing anything. Honestly I'd have a thousand more questions for that person. I can't answer it. And by looking at a map or, in a very simple way, it takes a lot more to, to be able to ask those questions and be able to figure it out.
And really the simplest way, like I said, is, I look at the pros and the cons and that's just how I do it to try to simplify it. Because otherwise I can screw with my own mind and I can make it a problem. And that's where I literally was like three and a half days in there. [00:58:00] It was hot. I'm sitting there.
I'm like, I called my dad in the tree. So I was just sitting there in the tree like one o'clock in the afternoon. And I was like, I think I'm going to move. He's if your God's telling you to move. I'm like, all went to a spot and two hours later I drove. I don't know, 15, 20 miles and got into this spot a couple of hours before dark, an hour before dark.
I ended up shooting a buck. It was like, so it's hard to weigh those situations, but that's my third level. Yeah. My fourth one is the midday madness. So what I've shot, I've looked back and I've shot more bucks between 11am and 2pm than any other time during the rut. And that goes for Pennsylvania.
That goes for Ohio. It's really anywhere that I've been during the rut, that midday time frame, and going back to earlier when you said about, who I've learned from a lot, my dad was When, especially when I was younger, my patience was not at the level where it is now. And he'd be like, you got to sit in that [00:59:00] tree all day.
And I'd be like, no, I do not want to do that. And I've got caught twice climbing out of the tree at 10 AM or 11 AM and being part way down on the sticks. And here comes a buck in, or I'd leave and a trail camera would show me 20 minutes after I left, there was this deer. So honestly, if I'm. Say yeah, I have a week off and by day four, I'm drained.
I'm tired I would rather sleep an extra hour Walk in at daylight hunt my way in and climb up and sit the rest of the day versus getting there two hours before light Yep, and you know running yourself down because there's something to be said about quality sits to And, but at the same time, during the rut, the more time in the tree that you spend, the better odds you have.
So I try to like, if I'm in a place of just feeling drained, how can I maximize [01:00:00] that? Or when is the best time to make sure that I'm in there and I'm always going to be sitting there in the middle of the day. So another example, this is 2017. I was hunting. Most of the year not having a ton of locks and, had some opportunities, nothing I could close on November 8th.
I I always set so if I have a camera next to my tree, I always set like a goal of a time before I'll check it. I don't check it before I get in because I don't want to have usually you look at it and you'll get disappointed and then it screws up your mind for the rest of the hunts. But I, so I wait until a certain point in the middle of the day.
Or I'll climb down and I'll check that and get back up in. And I remember I was like, at noon, I'm going to climb down. I'm going to go check this camera. And literally I was just getting ready to pack things up. And I don't remember if I don't remember if I grunted one last time. Yeah, I think I did.
I grunted and did like a bleep, like almost like a sequence. And [01:01:00] all of a sudden I was right on it on a crack, so I couldn't hear, but I could see. Feet underneath these hemlocks and I could see a tree going back and forth being rubbed. I'm like, oh my gosh There's a buck right there. He's right. I know so I got ready and he comes out and At that point I knew I needed to go to full draw before I even saw his antlers because I could either let down if He wasn't what I wanted to shoot but I drew back and came out and there's this old five and a half year old buck and He popped out and his neck was all ruffled up.
Yeah, I shot him And it was like, it was this great time. And so the next day I drove to Ohio through the night. Got there. I don't know. It was like 9 in the morning or so. Went into this spot I found in the spring. It was this saddle. I was just off one side with a steep ditch coming up. Climbed up in my climber at that time.
Got up in the tree and three out, or no, I had [01:02:00] to take a work call. Yeah, I had to take a work call in the tree, which I was like, oh, whatever. Yeah. I had to do it. So I was like on the phone and I got off of it and about an hour before dark. Here comes his buck going around the rim of this ditch and he comes up and I shot him and it was this nice 12 point and he died right on top of the ridge there and I was like, holy cow and that was you know, I get that was less not right before dark.
That was two o'clock in the afternoon Yeah, so I was like, holy cow. There was two midday bucks And two consecutive hunt days in a row, which, like I said, the whole season leading up to that hadn't had any luck and then just all worked out and it was really cool. So I love the midday timeframe.
So I don't go back to the truck in the middle of the day unless I'm deciding I'm switching spots. Yeah,
Jeremy Dinsmore: nice man. Dude that fires me up. What's the number five of the bow commandments?
Beau Martonik: Calling. Big call guy. And so during the rut, I call every 15 to 20 [01:03:00] minutes throughout the whole day.
I do two different things. I either do just grunts or I do like a chasing sequence where I was brr, and then I'll dump the can, the bleak can a couple of times. And I just have one of those little primos cans. I just dump it over. The ones you get at Walmart. That's all I do. And then my grunt called and the reason why I do that so often is a lot of the place I'm hunting are thick.
I might only be able to see 30, 40 yards and a deer could be traveling just out of range and I can't hear them. I can't see them. I just want to, I want them to hear me. And if they're curious and they're in the right mood that they, could potentially come in. If I'm in. More open woods, which I'd rarely hunt that but if I were I wouldn't probably do it as often because they have a chance To see me first And I've never had any luck rattling, but I haven't tried it.
I don't even carry rattling antlers anymore But I might start playing with it a little bit again I've [01:04:00] heard Podcast guests that have made me think that maybe I can make some rattling work So I may try that but I haven't done much rattling or had any success with it But when I see it or if I see a buck out of range Kind of cruising along I'll give him some grunts and if he stops Kind of looks but keeps going that point I get real deep into a growl Just draw it out like I am and I put emotion into it like I'm pissed I'm trying to call him over to fight me Yeah And that and then my last resort is a snore weeds if those two things don't work I try that at the end, and at that point, he's either gonna run...
Or it's going to come in and hopefully, yeah. So those are that's my those are my five.
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You gotta, you have to [01:06:00] read these deer because. Like you said, men, sometimes you could do that and boom, they're like, screw this. I'm out. This guy sounds like he's going to crush me. And then other times, they'll come right in. I dude, I'm actually super pumped. One of all five of those.
I think they're phenomenal commandments, especially during this time here in Pennsylvania, private public, but I'm the calling that I liked that one, man. I that's good.
Beau Martonik: Yeah, dude, I'm I like it. Maybe it's a, that's why I think I love elk hunting so much. Like I like interacting with them, seeing their temperaments, understanding how they.
How they interact with it and trying to read deer, especially when you see them, like you just described and figuring out what kind of trips they're triggered.
Jeremy Dinsmore: Last question, Bo. When it comes to the rut, man, it seems one year we're either in the vortex of cold weather or we're. We're hunting Florida and it's 70 degrees, Pennsylvania.
We never, like we, like last year in 2022, we had better weather [01:07:00] in October than we did in November. I think we did at least how are you handling when it is a little bit warmer during those November
Beau Martonik: rut days? So I'd agree with both those statements that deer are going to rut.
No matter what. And then I also agree with that it slows down the movement. My thing is if there's warm weather for more than two days, then I'm going to shift to areas of historically seen movement during that time of year when it's hot out, which is to traditionally something that keeps a little cooler.
Hemlocks. And crook bottoms are usually like 10 degrees cooler, especially if they have some shade and a lot of Pennsylvania has hemlocks filled in their bottoms and stuff. And so I move lower at that time, lower in elevation. There's, more water available for him, especially if it's been hot and dry for a long period of time.
I'm not really going to be up on the tops where sun's beating down through even not, the clear cuts, all that stuff, not much for shade. I want to get in those [01:08:00] areas where they feel more comfortable traveling through during that, those hot weather. And cause I, I've seen, the deer I killed last year, that was 75 degrees that day.
And, but it was 10, 15 degrees cooler in that creek bottom that I was in. Yeah. I think a buddy of mine locally that we were both hunting the same spot in 2016, 15, 2015, and we're literally hunting the same spot and didn't realize it, but our stands were about 80 yards apart in the same Creek bottom.
So we text each other Hey, Who's going, basically who's hunting down there that day during the rut, we both had off the work and I said, Hey man, I'm going to, I'm going to keep my vacation. I'm going to go work. It was like 78 degrees November 6th, November 4th. And I was like, I'm going to, and he's I'm going to go hunt.
He was there in a t shirt two o'clock in the afternoon, 162 inch deer came down through and he shot it. And it was a deer that neither of us had seen. I ended up finding his shed [01:09:00] that following spring from the year before that. Yeah. So he was there the whole time or at least in the area, but nonetheless, it was just like, I do believe deer are going to rut.
It's just. Finding the places that they're going to be in now. One day of off weather. I'm not going to shift everything. I don't think they're going to just completely move, but I think they get hot and they're running around a lot. They're going to start to go down towards water and be in some cooler areas.
During that time. That's just that's my thought process north facing slopes things like that offer a little bit
Jeremy Dinsmore: more shade Sweet man, Bo man. I dude I feel like we could continue to talk and but man You hit the nail on the head with your bow Rudd hunting commandments. And I appreciate you sharing your wisdom.
You're just even before we got into that Rudd hunting, just the great conversation that I have again, just getting a chance to know you as an individual and obviously as a hunter, it's been awesome. And I appreciate you. Taking the time to do that. Your content is just been so helpful from to [01:10:00] not only to me, but thousands of individuals.
You're doing a great job. I appreciate you taking the time to do this. Where can people find you that are maybe just finally tuning in and just seeing what a Beaumart tonic and East meets West is all about, man.
Beau Martonik: Yeah. Thank you again, Jeremy, for having me on, man. I'd really appreciate this conversation.
It's awesome to get to talk to you and I've got getting to know you over the last four or five years, which is wild. It's been that long. So if people want to find out my stuff, East meets West hunt podcast, anywhere you listen to podcasts or I have the video version over on my YouTube channel. And by the time listen to this, it'll either be that under the name Bo Martonic or East meets West.
Look for, type either of those in, you'll find it. And then eastmeetswesthunt. com has just about links to everything that I do there, whether it's the scouting videos on YouTube, the hunting films, or the podcast, and then social media. Look up Beau Marnic or East Meets West and you'll find the stuff there.
So
Jeremy Dinsmore: one, one more thing, one [01:11:00] more plug that I do want to say because I found it for myself to be honest really nice and helpful. Be, and you do a phenomenal job. Something that I need to do a better job with. But go to Beau's website that east meets west dot com pot or, and website and sign up for his newsletter.
Bo does a great job of sending out. Weekly and monthly, if it if he misses a week, which I don't think you do it weekly you send out like that week's episode you send out some Cool partner things that you have going on and some maybe some written articles as well So definitely check that out.
It's a kind of like a one stop shop and boh, man Appreciate you so much and hopefully at this point in time we're getting ready to knock down a buck.
Beau Martonik: Yeah, man, definitely. And going to the newsletter, cause that's where I do release everything there first to anybody that's an email subscriber, whether it's the scouting camps I do or whatever, like that always goes out on there first.
Yeah. Thanks, man. Awesome. Good luck to you.
Jeremy Dinsmore: Yeah. Thanks. For tuning in, everybody go check out Bo and Tonya, some great stuff. Thanks again, everybody for tuning in. We'll [01:12:00] see you next week and antler up. Thanks for
Beau Martonik: listening to this episode of the antler up podcast. We hope you enjoyed it. Please go check us out on our Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and go wild and at antlerupoutdoors.
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