Killing an Early Season Buck

Shane Loney swung by the studio in this week's episode of Michigan Wild. Nate reached out to Shane after watching a YouTube video of Shane shooting an early season buck last fall in Michigan. 

Nate and Shane go in depth with their tactics and mindset hunting older bucks in Michigan. They both break down mock scrapes and trail cam strategies throughout the year. Shane has had great early October success based around food plots paired with mock scrapes. 

The conversation leads into the specific details of hunting the buck Shane shot in 2022. To see the video look up Michigan's Best on YouTube to see an awesome hunt. 

Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more relevant outdoor content!

Alright, welcome to another episode of Michigan Wild. I got a guy that came probably like an hour and a half drive. Yeah, about an hour and a half. We have Shane Loney, rock on. I, let's see, this goes back to a year for me. I came across this YouTube video of a guy that was frigging fired up after shooting this giant buck, self filming it.

And I I saw the video and I was like, that guy likes to whitetail hunt. And then fast forward to right now, I doing this podcast and you were one of the guys that I was like. I need to reach out to you and do a podcast. You were all about it. Yeah, man, I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

What deer was that? Did you have a name for that deer? No, I really didn't. I I always talk about naming deer, but I always I never really ended up doing it. I just ended up hunting them, yeah. You you don't have a for names for me, it's more of if I got multiple bucks that are like multiple 10 points, but typically in Michigan, you don't have [00:02:00] multiple 10 points.

So you just, all your buddies know, Oh, the big 10 or that 10. Yeah. The tall, like this year I was showing you some camera pictures. There's a tall eight, there's a wide 10 frame here looking deer, and then there's a 10 that has a kicker off the back. I don't know, I was saying maybe I'll call them like kickback or something.

I don't know, but I always like in the moment, if a deer comes out and. I have a name dub for him. I never ended up saying it just because it feels cheesy. It feels like too much outdoor life going on a little bit. So I want to do this podcast because you shot that buck.

Was it the first 10, it was October 10th 9th. So we're leading up into, we're a month out from that timeframe. October 1st is a few weeks away. Yeah. What is it today? It's actually 11th today, September 11th. So I wanted to talk to you about. Getting out of buck early October, because obviously it worked really well for you last year.

That video you got, you had bucks all over that food pot you guys did and then you also do I love hunting scrapes. Yeah, and you do as [00:03:00] well, but you have a little tweak that you do with a scrape of the food plot So I get into that but first let's like how old you are what you do for a living Maybe how long you've been bowhunting for that kind of thing.

Sure. Yeah, I'm 27. I sell real estate for a living Been bowhunting, you know since I was you know, when I was growing up, you had to be 10 years old to bow hunt 12 years old, the gun hunt, I believe is what it was. But I may have, or may not have shot my first bow buck or bow deer before 10.

But yeah, so I, I've been doing it my whole life. My dad's the one who got me into it, that classic story. And just had a passion for it ever since and it's just been ever growing and yeah Just something I really love to do and my girlfriend's sitting here next to us her name is Kat and she is very supportive of it and Listens to my rants and my not so much rants, but yeah my sessions yeah, my new ideas and how I want to do this how I want to do that, but Yeah, that's pretty much it.

That's good. So did you grow up like [00:04:00] family property to hunt or what kind of, how did, where'd you go hunt a lot when you're young? No. And a lot of what I do now, it's the same as it was back then. My dad would door knock and he would take me around as a kid, when he's door knocking and, almost use me. That's like a, hey, looking for a spot for me and my son to hunt type of thing. I may do that with Henry right now. Oh, 100%. Yeah, I can't wait to have a kid to be able to do that. It does help, especially for rabble hunting. Yeah, now I do that with my girlfriend, but. Yes, we're just, I really want to get her into a tree and, do that.

Yeah, you got to take advantage of that. So you've grown up with. Knock on door permission like that's correct. Yeah, that's probably a good skill set that you've you have. Yeah Yep, never have had a family farm. I grew up on two acres is all You know one day I have 20 acres now But we just got it like this would be the second season that last year wasn't even a full season on it But yeah, I do plan on owning more ground as I get older and not just from a hunting standpoint, but I think Land is a great investment, and something [00:05:00] that you can pass down to your children And you know the way I look at it, even if they don't have any interest in it, you know Let's just say you buy 80 acres now for 300, 000, who knows in 40 50 years What 80 acres is going to be worth, and If it's all paid off, I think that's a great thing to enjoy, for one, but two, to, pass down to your kids.

And if you ever get in a bind and need money, I'd, land isn't probably going to go down in value. You think about like rental portfolios and stuff like that. And, that stuff can, I think, go down in value. We see something like we did in, 2008 or whatever, which I was too young at the time to understand it, but, just looking back on it but yeah, LANS, I think, is a pretty solid investment, and I plan on doing more of that I don't have to grind so much, knock on doors, yeah.

Cause I grew up on, my, my grandpa was a dairy farmer. So we had some property north of here and that's where my dad and grew up, my uncle and stuff, huh? And that's where I cut my teeth. However. I feel like if I didn't, if my dad didn't live down, a hundred miles away, I was [00:06:00] forced to do what you did probably if I wanted to hunt more, I had to knock on some doors and get permission closer to home.

So it forced me to do that. And once I started doing that, I actually became a better hunter. I feel like, because I'm not just going to the tried and true tree or the same property over and over, I was had to learn, if I want, there's deer here, I got to learn how to hunt them.

So now learning that, that property up there actually hunted a lot better now because don't just do the same old, but going back to you talking about the value, my grandpa bought that property. There's, he's got multiple properties, but the one property I'm talking about was strictly for just hunting.

Like he bought it cause he wanted a hunting property and he does do a little farming on it. I don't remember what the price was, but it was like, felt like dirt cheap when I told me, and he's had it for like almost 40 years. So now you look at the price of that and it has just absolutely skyrocketed. And you get to have fun on it every year and do something you enjoy.

Rental property, that's not really that fun, or any kind of other investment. Like I like to, have stuff that I enjoy, you can blow a lot of money on dumber things. No [00:07:00] doubt. At least you're going to get your money back out of it, more than likely. And I almost look at it almost as like a savings account, because you're putting money into it and yeah, you're paying for it, but at the end.

You can either, if you sell whatever you get your money back. So it's almost like a savings account But you know again, you're probably going to gain, more in the end anyways than what you paid for it usually And you know eventually we're still young so like walking around finding stuff hustling But I feel like it's a little harder for us to get permission when we're 60, Like in that grind, you know be nice to have a property that is just set up and you know Do that but so At what point in time did you start shooting bigger deer because my first experience with you was this buck that's video was giant.

So I'm assuming there was a ladder climb that went into that over the last few years, but... Yeah I think 2015. So I did shoot one nice buck in high school, one nice eight point. But in 2015, I killed one that was 140 and then with a gun. And then the next year in 2016, I killed one that was 136 with a [00:08:00] bow.

And so really from there, I've shot a buck every year except for 2021. And as we were talking about earlier, I had two really big ones to chase. And one was in there on two different properties, unfortunately. One was only three years old, I thought, and, 150, and Yeah, I didn't hunt him much because the other one was 150's and I thought he was a five year old, and That was the problem, though, is he wasn't living quite on that.

Peace. So what year was that? 21? That was 20 year. So that's the only year I haven't shot a buck since 2015. And then up to 2015, like growing up as a kid, did you shoot some, were you was your dad like, Hey shoot, whatever buck you want? Oh yeah. How'd that kind of work for you? Yeah.

Buck Wise, I didn't shoot too many. I shot the hell out of those though. ? Yeah. . Every year I was just, putting the beaters to 'em, you know what I mean? Yep. But yeah, and I still love doing that. We've got a buddy Ty Heiser, that they've got a big dairy farm.

Yep. And we go out there and shoot a bunch of deer and then do they say that they're eating them outta house home? They say that they're eating them out of house and home. I grew up being a farmer, [00:09:00] dang deer eating me out of house and home. You need to go out there and shoot them. He threatened me cause he's an old dairy farmer.

He's, he's 83, I believe. And he has only stopped dairy farming for three years. He still does his crops and stuff, but he threatened me this summer when we were over there doing some food plots, he's you ain't allowed to shoot a buck until you shoot four does. Yeah, that's what he was telling me.

But so you, you jumped it, so were you, and when you shot your first big buck, was that, did you pass a lot of deer to get to that point or was it like happenstance? I was starting to pass deer at that time, yeah. Like I'd probably pass some two year old eight points or whatever.

But actually it's funny because I had just gotten permission. Like I, I'd kinda dough hunted there, like he'd let me, him and his brother would gun hunt and stuff like that, and that first year, 2015, he actually said, yeah, go ahead and go gun hunt, and we, they hunted the first week pretty much and called it quits, so I put up a pop up line.

And put up a couple cameras and I found one, I thought he was like mid one twenties. It is just hard to tell sometimes when you don't have a bunch of pictures of a deer. , just how much mass and extra points they have. And yeah. You're like learning. It's a, yeah. [00:10:00] There's an art to learn in that.

Yeah. Yeah. And when when he stepped out, I was like, holy, holy crap, that's him, and. I looked at him in the scope, I was like, at first I thought maybe it was just because, he was there in person, but he ended up being, 15 inches bigger than I thought he was, and just because he had extra junk, and his bases were beer cans, and so that was pretty cool, but yeah, I didn't pass a bunch of deer, really, at that point.

But probably a handful. So we shot that buck and you were like, I like this. I'm going to keep doing this kind of a thing. Yep. And then the next year on the same property, he let me bow hunt it. And I ended up killing one October 25th with my bow. Like I said, that was 136 inches. And from there it's okay, I'd really start, any two year old date point that came by me was getting passed.

Yeah. You don't even pick up your bow anymore at that point. It still gets me excited though, don't get me wrong. And but two, and one thing I'm a believer in, everything's relative. So like the property I've been hunting the last four years. Oh, there's a couple property to the two main properties I hunt, one of them.

It's like I passed three year olds on it like, you know pretty religiously, but on the other property if 125 [00:11:00] 130 inch three year old walks by me. I'm probably gonna shoot him, and that's just one size of the property and two Neighbors, all that stuff goes into it. But so what you're saying right now I feel like it's rare, at least for my circle of friends.

Like I do the same thing. Like you're talking about passing three and a half year old bucks. Sometimes you do that. People look at you sideways. Yeah. How are your group of friends and like the people you're around, do they think you're absolutely nuts? Or do you have a really good core group of neighbors who are all on board with that?

That's no, not really. I send videos of deer that I pass and my buddies are like, you're just, they can't even believe it. Yeah. My buddy's all well, it's real, it's relative because. It's, if I'm trying to explain this, if if there's a bunch, not a bunch, but if you have a handful of three and a half year old deer and you let them go, there's a good chance one of those will make it to a four and a half year old.

And then when you see the jump from three to four, and then you get close to that mature, four, I feel like four and a half to five and a half is you're a mature buck. The guys talk about now in Iowa that we're trying to let deer go to [00:12:00] seven and a half. Sorry, we're not doing that in Michigan yet.

Maybe in 20 years, but I doubt it. There's just not enough. I think if you have the right property, button up against the sanctuary or something, maybe I would consider it. You know what I mean? But that's just not my circumstance at this point. So you pass three and a half year olds, which is what it takes to get to these, four and a half year old.

I don't know about you. I guess here's a question of obviously the first couple, maybe not, but recently the bucks that you have on camera that are four and a half or the bucks you've shot that are, in the age group you want, have you passed those bucks before or seen them before, man, so like just talking about like the one from last year, there was one buck the year before that was three years old.

That might've been him. Okay. But if so, he jumped like 40 inches, so it's like I haven't really I've been over the last few years really saving a whole bunch of pictures and you know These last couple years I've been able to put you know deer together from years past But before I wasn't really doing that as much, and not as [00:13:00] particular about it.

So yeah the one I shot last year Yeah, there might have been one there. That was him but I can't really say 100 percent with confidence. This deer here, this 10 point, I passed him the year before. That deer, he got passed the year before. That deer got passed two years before as a two year old. And then, yeah, then that deer there got passed as a two year old.

At least we're pretty sure. He didn't grow at all from two to three. For me, in my circumstance if I didn't have the trigger control or my neighbors, None of us would have been able to enjoy it, so that's what that's the point I've made tried to make to people like The reason why you might not see a three and a half year old buck or a four and a half year old buck is Because you're ending the only chance.

Yes, because you might be the guy that keeps it from getting to be that age You never know who it's gonna be right now I have a list of probably 10 bucks that i've passed at younger age that neighbors have shot That so I've shot maybe a handful of them. There's double that I have passed that have been shot by neighbors, but guess what, it's part of the journey and that's the, the networking that you [00:14:00] got to do to get to this point.

Yeah. So did, when you when you shot these couple of big deer, did you. When you were hooked on it, because obviously you're hooked out while you're talking about it, passing deer, how did you learn or what did you learn? I guess it's looking for a pointer to get on deer that were older, get onto a four year old or three and a half year old.

Is there a certain way you like to hunt a property or set up a property? Do you have any kind of thing that works for you? Nothing. Really specific I guess but mainly it comes down to getting on that property that has them You know, you can be the best hunter in the world But if there's only two year olds running around and you know The neighbors are shooting everything else and you're shooting them as well Like you guess what?

You're probably not gonna shoot a four year old, so Yeah, that's a big deal. Obviously is getting on a good property and the two that I hunt are both pretty good they're not like amazing out of this world, I'd pay a million dollars for them, but they're, they're good enough to where I can pass some deer.

And if there's a big one around, I can usually get a chance at them. So you've found [00:15:00] your... A nice area that works for you. But still at the end of the day, don't cut yourself short. You got to hunt it the correct way, do those kinds of things. And especially cause you're shooting bucks in October.

I don't know, have you shot most of your bigger deer in October with a bow? Yeah, I'd say so. I've only shot my, the 140, like I said, that was gun season at the end of gun season, so how he even made it through gun season in the area that he was in is beyond me, but yeah, a lot of my deer have come in October the first three weeks I've shot two of them, the last week of October, and then I've shot a few more that have been in the first half of October.

I shot a 130 inch buck I think he was a four year old, he might have only been three, but I shot him October 12th. It was a warm night. I don't even know why, I almost didn't go and he ended up walking by me an hour before it got dark. So you, I don't know, it's crazy, you I had the same experience, For me, for some of those bigger deer, like my, I have a really good opportunity of seeing them early October.

Like that first three weeks of October is really good. And like up to the [00:16:00] 18th or 19th, then they'll be like, it depends on the weather. Once you get past, like probably in the teens, if it's super hot, it slows down a little bit and then it'll pick back up like the 22nd, 23rd of October for me.

So like my lull really is weather dependent and it's usually only like the last it's literally like the 19th. 20th and 21st, I feel is the only slow time I see. And that could be a multitude of things that could be because I feel like I've already hunted hard up to that point and I don't necessarily have the right conditions, so I don't hunt very much that time, but yeah, early October is just dynamite for me for getting on bigger deer.

Yeah. And too, like thinking about the low period, oftentimes that's when, bucks are. Making the biggest change of the year in terms of what they're doing, how they're doing it, where they're living, what they're eating, all that stuff. So it's just a matter of, staying on top of them.

And, you go a week without in, you hunt a few times and, you don't see very many deer, you're sitting. on this food source that you've been seeing deer on, and all of a sudden you're just not, it's probably not because they're not moving, it's just [00:17:00] because they're moving somewhere else at this point, they've shifted.

And you got to find that. Yeah. You got to find it. That's I think that shifts going on right now too. Absolutely. All through the fall. Really? Yes. Yeah. I think, either beans or whatever ag or like certain acorns are dropping. Yeah. Like I noticed we got that big windstorm that came through and a ton of acorns dropped.

So like I have a few food plots and I have I have cameras on three food plots and they're like in security cover they're not like your typical wide open, they're like in spots. Do you like to be in the daylight already? They, I think they just left those for a few like days, maybe a week because a bunch of acorns fell.

They went and scooped those up. And now, yeah, now last three days, they're right back to being where they were. So it's if you're hunting in Austin, you go from, man, these deer out here every day in Austin, something happens. You're like, ah, it's ruined. It's over. But they probably just went and were eating acorns somewhere.

Eating acorns or some sort of forage or actually a spot my girlfriend hunts, there's a, we found a spot that, god, I can't even, like they're the little burrs and deer eat the heck out of those. We found a spot and it was like [00:18:00] mowed down, like not mowed down, but like a bunch of it's knocked over and she stuck a camera on it and we made a scrape in there and yeah, like you'll get a deer on the scrape but then you'll get five other pictures of it with its head down in the weeds, eating that stuff and them little browse pockets, with something like that, that they're, is highly desirable to them are important too.

And they hang out there for another 20 minutes. Guess what, they're not coming out to the field until after dark. So there's, it doesn't take much and it can change that. Yeah. So you talked about scrapes. How do you feel about making mock scrapes? Over the last few years I've really come to putting I've got, I don't know, huh.

Let's see, I've got. 19 cameras and probably 15 of them are on scrapes like right now. Yeah Because it's I do the same thing. Yeah, I think I have I think I have between me my dad We have 20 some odd cams like yeah, we share cell cams and then I have some just cheap OST cams I think all of them but two are on Scrapes.

Yeah. [00:19:00] And the only reason the two are is because I couldn't find an area that I liked. The scrape is like within 80 yards of it. I just put another camera up to see catch something. Yeah. Yeah. There's certain instances where. So how many of those scrapes have you made? Most of them probably. Especially this time of year because I mean they are scraping and you know I have found a few scrapes, you know over this last month and there's one spot where I always make scrape every year and put a camera Yeah, I went to make my scrape and in two trees over there was already scraping It's actually within shot of the camera Yep So I left that obviously didn't even touch it and then made my scrape where I normally do Yep, and it's funny they you know, I get pictures of deer and they hit both of them on their way through and Yeah, but yeah, I probably made, I probably make 75 percent of them.

Take me through how you make a scrape. Are you talking over an over existing, like a, or an existing overhanging branch, or like you want to make one in a spot where you... Oh, perfect. I wanted to start, because I do something, I wonder how similar we are here. Yeah. Okay, so let's just say you, let's, you do property.

[00:20:00] And you haven't found a spot I guess when I look at a new property, I first look for a sign and that's old rubs or scrapes and I look for licking branches and I try to find one of those scrapes that is not obvious that's in cover. And if I can't find one, I will make my own. So let's say you've got a property and you're making a scrape somewhere where you feel like it should have one.

That's either good. I'm assuming you do it because you can have a good bow shot there or whatever it may be. So how do you attack that? If it's, I guess I'll start with if it's in cover, cause that's what you just mentioned. If it's in cover, usually there's trees around. I'll get as high as I can on the quad or now we have a pioneer and hanging paracord from one tree to the other and then hang a vine off it.

The Jeff Sturges special. Yeah, I think my philosophy on, vines versus like an oak tree branch or something is if it's on a trail, like a beaten deer trail deer are going to be traveling on it, I'll hang a vine on it cause it's sticking right in the middle of them anyways, and they're going to stop at it.

And stick their, face on it and [00:21:00] smell it and do whatever, just cause it's right there in their face. But if it's on a field edge, I'm more of a, I like a bigger branch because I think it's more of a eye. It's a visual, especially if you're, if it's not right in, the path that they're normally going to take anyways.

I've hung multiple vines on the side of the field where they don't come through anyways and not gotten crap on them, but then you get cut off of Oak branch and stick it somewhere and they're there. They're like glued to it. It's like the beacon when they see that. So when you do the interior cover scrape and you're talking about, so you actually will take paracord and if you find the trail, you will make it.

Just hang it off the paracord. Yeah. Nice. I haven't tried that. I've done some kind of similar. I've actually taken like a tree branch and I'll go between two trees and tie each end of it to a tree and hang it down. Yeah. But similar concept. So I've had good luck with that too. Whatever it takes to get that vine or, branch, whatever you're using.

How high off the ground. Where it needs to be. I like, like the belly button height. Yeah. I don't know, that's the thing. Jeff Sturgis talks about like waist high, belly button and, so the [00:22:00] fawns can do it too. And honestly, I really don't think it matters. No, as long as they can reach.

What do you do with the dirt? Do you do anything with the dirt? I do scrape the dirt up. Yeah. And, I don't have this down to a hundred percent science, but I do feel confident that, like the last two years what I've been doing, I'll scrape the dirt up. Put some sort of urine attractant in it which I don't think is as important.

But then I've been putting, like the forehead gland, preorbital glands in the licking branches, obviously. And going with that. And that's what I did for the 10 scrapes that I made this year. And all of them are getting hit. So I have, like what you just said, I've done the same thing. And I went around and I tested that philosophy.

I just make a big pile, like I'll do a four foot area. I'll dig down to the dirt. Just get as much fresh dirt smell as I can. It doesn't matter time of year. Cause I just want, like you said, I feel like that's like a beacon to smell that fresh dirt. Yeah, that, yeah, exactly. So I haven't put a thing on the dirt at any of these scrapes, just focused on licking branches and.

It has worked dynamite for three years. I [00:23:00] believe in a hundred percent. So I think that you're on the, so I think that is a legit, that's not a gimmick, right? No. There's a lot of gimmicks with scents and stuff, but that forehead gland works like a champ. And licking branch, I feel like is the most important part of a scrape.

At least that's how I've always looked at. I've been, I didn't even realize, I forgot how long, but my wife reminded me that when we were dating 18 years old, 19 years old, the first year we went hunting together, she, she reminded me how I would go and I would just pee in a scrape and I would do that kind of thing back then And it worked and I shot deer off of it.

So I've been doing the scrape thing for a long time But so now let's roll the cover thing. So do you when you find When you're doing the one on the cover, do you have a tree in mind for that scrape? Or are you doing more for inventory? It depends. There's some that I have now that are for inventory that, yeah, I do have a tree stand nearby and if they still happen to be using it in October, it'd be more, I probably have an early October spot, if I do decide to hunt a morning, which is pretty rare and in that early part of October yeah, I'll hunt them, but Yeah, most of the scrapes I [00:24:00] have, though, in general, are in a spot I can shoot from, I can shoot them from a tree stand.

And yeah, I think what we're getting at here is, that, like what I shot my buck over last year, how I made that. Let me just say this first. I do think it's ideal. If you have a scrape tree, I can see this on the video. If you, I think you have a video on YouTube showing how you make one too, right?

Yep. I will say, I think it's ideal. If you have a scrape on the edge of the field, overhanging that, and you can get a camera on it, that's ideal. But like with this spot, these deer, I put a couple of scrapes on my side of that food plot and they just don't hit them for whatever reason.

I was like, man, I want to get a scrape, out there, but within bow range. And so what I did is I took a. A big log, I don't know, 10 inches in diameter, cut it like 6 foot tall, 7 foot tall, dug it in the ground, hung a long branch off of it, and I cut a hole in the main trunk, in the main tree that's in the ground And stuck a camera in it because I am a big believer that, these big bucks, or more [00:25:00] mature bucks, I should say, they they don't like a trail camera sitting belly button height, so I stick it, I cut a hole with the chainsaw in that tree and stick the camera in there.

You look at it from the side, you don't even see the camera and, you look at it from the front and it just sits flush with the It sits flush with the tree, and, that's the thing they do still look at it, they still look at it, and you can get that, you can tell just by looking at pictures, they don't love it, that's why I say if you can put your trail camera on the edge, yes, and, still be overlooking a scrape, that is ideal but I think I'm actually going to take it a step further with them couple setups I have, and Thank you.

Take a piece of bark off of another tree and cover up half of the camera, you know from the bottom up just to where the top part of the camera is out and I think that's going to help a lot. Yeah, cause that's a good point because I feel like I would learn this but every year there are certain areas that I will only get one set of pictures of a buck and it's That's the buck I know is in the area.

Get them. He will not be back on that camera for the rest of the year. Oh yeah. And it's because it's usually those cams that you don't have a good [00:26:00] spot to put a camera. Yep. So you're like forced to put it out either on the tree at the licking brand. It's always, it's not on the ones I make. It's always like ones I find.

So that might be part of it too, because of deer know. Hey, I've never smelled anyone here before. All of a sudden you go set the camera, you're close, but they will bust you out that camera, they lock onto it, never see him again. They're looking at the camera and they're side eyeing it, and it's like that deer knows that camera's there and he doesn't like it, so now when you bury this chunk of tree, it's essentially just like a chunk of a tree. It's pretty big. Yeah, it's heavy and it's a bastard to get out there. Yeah. And then when you do your, he's talking about how you've had the long. Branch that is coming off. Did you drill a hole for that or how did you fasten that to that?

I think drilling the hole would probably be ideal But I've just taken I've just pretty much screwed them to the top of the tree trunk or whatever Okay, I ran screws through and honestly just hillbilly rigged them in there, you know I'm not the most Organized, or professional looking kind of person, but, [00:27:00] it ain't pretty, but it's pretty effective. Yeah yeah, that's just like my golf game, it's ugly, but it's pretty effective. It works for you. Every time I hit a shot that's like a low stinger or something, but it goes 200 yards with, an iron. It's oh, it's not pretty, but it's effective.

Yes, sir, I love it. So now when you, do you tie like another, did you zip tie like a dead branch to that other stick or do you try to do like a one, one thing? Yep, and so I'm going to backtrack just for a second and say the reason why I put a really long branch, overhang branch is to get it away from that camera a little bit, but then yes, I, have that long branch and then I'll take like a, oak branch or a vine or whatever.

And tie it off on the very end of that, so it's still, Is this a cell camera usually? Do you have a cell camera you try to use for that? Yeah. It's like you build it and you're just like, you're done and you just walk away. Exactly. And that's the thing too, like I'm making all these scrapes and stuff, like right now, I might go back and revisit them and freshen them up with, some branch, the licking branch preorbital gland stuff But I'm making all my scrapes right now, and I actually have already made almost all of [00:28:00] them.

And, I call it, the way I look at it, it's like you're setting a trap in every spot. And, you got a camera in every spot. And, you're essentially just waiting to see what buck's gonna use it. And you know which buck you want to shoot, usually. You have your little hit list or whatever you want to call it.

And you figure out which one he's using the most and, get in there at one of the times, and kill him. So have you found like any kind of a particular way that these bigger deer like to use a scrape or like what they like? Cause like we have a high deer population. So like most properties have a lot of scrapes already on them.

And when you set one up, you get. All the deer, like the does, the little bucks, the spikes, all that, but then I've had it where. I've found a few like scrapes. These are usually in the cover, like the field edge scrapes. I feel are a little different, but once one of those bigger deer move in, do that shift we're talking about, it's like his area.

And then I will not have any other bucks, but that one buck. And sometimes it's a buck I want to shoot. Sometimes it's a buck I don't really care about. So I don't know if you've [00:29:00] experienced that with some of your scrapes that you've made. Not a ton, but I, it's. Probably because most of my scrapes are on field edges.

Like I said, I do have some in that are deeper. But, when I'm hunting that deeper stuff though, it's, end of October into November and I don't have as much luck on scrapes anyways. I don't think they're hitting them as much into November when the ruts really kick in.

So I'm really not hunting much for scrapes in that early November timeframe anyways. I'm hunting more of them. Just transition areas between bedding areas, I hunting in bedding areas, like just really pushing the envelope and being a little bit more aggressive.

And there's so many people that are afraid to, go and hunt, but the way, a bedding area or close to it, but, I think if you can get to it and get out of it, relatively.

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