Show Notes
On this episode of Michigan Wild returning guest Brandon Travis and Nate recap the 5th week of the season. This week was the start of Brandon's bow camp down in Indiana and also the same week Nate's camp headed down to Illinois. Brandon has past hunting experience on this property along with good history of how bucks act during the rut. He breaks down each day and the mindset he had as he arrived on the property.
Brandon eventually settles on an awesome rut funnel that the deer were using and he had the stereo typical rut hunts that every bowhunter dreams about. Paired with the determination to sit all day and go to an area that the deer wanted to be in eventually led to success on the last day of his hunt.
Thanks for listening to the episode, if you would like to support Michigan Wild farther check out Michigan Wild's shop at michiganwild.hollercommerce.com.
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Show Transcript
[00:00:00]
Welcome to the Michigan wild podcast.
We're just here walking around. We're going to go set a tree stand. Don't worry. My dad's weird. He never shot a huge buck. I just shot a fricking big buck.
Oh, you got a. Go get that one, Henry. Right here.
Boom! Look at the size of that deer. Welcome to another episode
of Michigan Wild. This episode is going
to be another last seven days. This is going to be for the fifth week of the season.[00:01:00]
Yes, the time frame is a little off on these. They're not coming out as quickly as the ones in October did, but that's just the nature of it when guys are out of town hunting and doing all this stuff and chasing their dream. But, this is still a great episode with Bran Travis, returning guest. He had a great rut hunt down on his Indiana property, and we break down that hunt and how he attacked it and how he You end up being successful and shot a great buck.
And yeah, I think it's it'll be a good thing for guys to listen to recap what happened to the rut and how If you're in the right spot it's it feels like you're on top of the world and can do no wrong. And he got all the bucks running around and doing that kind of thing.
And you could be, a couple hundred yards off and not seeing any of this stuff. So that's just how it how the rut goes. And that's why we [00:02:00] love it. Cause you just always hope that you put yourself in that position to see what Brandon got to see and do. But yeah, hopefully you guys liked the last couple of episodes.
Hopefully you've listened to the one about my my buck. I believe that'll be episode 22 that I just I did before this of my buck, my second, but archery buck tag here in Michigan end up getting Jake, the deer that Henry named the summer and the deer I hit the 10th of October, more like a Nick.
But yeah, that was a crazy story. But yeah, super, super happy with that. And then that kind of leads us into the opener of gun season. I believe me and Bran recorded this the day before the, on the 14th. But, yeah, me and Henry got to go and we had a great time. He's a trooper. He woke up early.
He was super excited. I know driving up, he just kept saying how he was so excited and know what to do with himself. But just what you want, yeah. He is only seven, but he's been going with me hunting since he was, three years old. So he's he's got quite a bit of seat time in already, but yeah, this is [00:03:00] the first time he had a gun and we were pretty lucky to have a great couple of days of hunting.
Unfortunately, first thing opening morning, we had a great buck, a high tight eight point. Now with Henry, like he's got no, no shame what he shoots. Like we always say this is a good Henry buck, but he kept saying how he just wanted to have a buck that was, for him.
And unfortunately for the circumstance he did have a great, first buck that we see. Is just this great 8 point, he's with a doe laying in the field as light cracks and, you get to see quite a cool thing. He bred the doe in front of us and... The deer was at, 130, I think it was like 125 or 130 yards cause I had to range that spot.
But yeah, we proceeded to wait, probably 20, 25 minutes until he finally presented a shot for Henry. Cause he kept running like a little bucks off and stuff like that. But, I, Henry's shot at deer target, and he hits it perfect. He knows where to aim. He's always, in the, right behind the shoulder, nice and tight, pretty much a heart shot. And I did not do a good job [00:04:00] as a parent, in the moment of explaining to him how to aim high. I kept telling him, make sure you aim a little high, cause he's dead on at a hundred, 180 grain bullet at, 130 yards from a 350 legend.
There is some drop there. I'm primarily a rifle hunter. So using a 270 or 30 at six, or I use a 270, 243. Usually, a very flat shooting gun, but I'm like, Hey, make sure you aim high. And he's okay, dad. And I was like, yep. Use that spot. There's your quartering away shot.
He squeezes off. And the, you can tell he hit a hit the deer and Hunter's Oh, that felt good, dad. That felt good. And we're all excited. He ran a little bit and stopped and just stood there. No other shot was available for probably three or four minutes. And then finally the, he comes back walking through the opening that he shot on the first time.
And I was like, okay, Henry, make sure here's your shot. It's coming up and he's good. The deer stops. And I was like, okay, aim high. And he said, he's like behind the shoulder. And I was like, yep, behind the shoulder. And I, he's young and this is the first time we've been through anything like this.
And he shoots the second time and I could [00:05:00] see that he hit low underneath the deer that time and the deer runs off. So at this point in time, we, knew he hit the deer the first shot. Unsure of how. And he we're excited, but, very reserved. And he's damn, we got to do. And cause he's used to seeing deer, fall with a gun.
So he wasn't sure, but I was like, it definitely hit him. And then we waited two hours and start tracking and all we could find was hair on where he had shot at it. And a lot of white, gray hair, which, most people who've done this for a long time, that's not necessarily what you want to see.
That means, your exit, you can have some of that hair, but with a gun, you don't want to see a lot of that kind of hair. And no blood anywhere in the little, in the field that this deer was in. So we started tracking and unfortunately, two and a half hours later from time of shot.
So about 30 minutes of me and Henry looking, Henry's good at looking for blood. So we were like easing through. I was in the tall grass, he was on the edge of the grass in the woods and we're just checking every trail. And I didn't even hear it. Cause like I said, I was in this like grassy stuff and Henry's dad.
Big [00:06:00] body deer just jumped up and ran away and I was like, okay, was it, did you see a rack? He's no, I just, it just looked like a big body. Not a doe body, a buck body. And a lot of people might not know, but like Henry sees, has seen a lot of deer. Like we jumped deer up and we're scouting, he's tracked quite a few deer with me.
He's, he's seen a lot of deer in, in the wild, not just video. He's just, like I said, he's been taking along with me for years. He's bow hunted with me. He's gun hunting with me, all this stuff. There's a little bit of reserve okay he's a kid, was he right?
Then a whole fiasco ensued because there was other deer that got shot at, and we had a crossing. We had blood trails going certain ways, so we had to sort through all that. It's just the, when you have multiple people hunting the same property, that's not giant, you get some of this sometime, but long story short, I went back to what Henry had said about jumping a deer, then it snuck away.
And he said, it was running really fast, dad. I don't know if it's one of Hicks. It didn't run like it was, hurt or anything, I did my due diligence and I did a loop back to that area and sure enough, I ended up finding a a bed [00:07:00] and just the littlest amount of blood. In that and it was probably the size of a Coke can base, saturated leaves in the blood.
And then you could see where the deer had jumped over a deadfall and there was a little bit of blood thrown across that. And then I found a couple other little drops of blood after that. So I only had blood for, 20 feet maybe, and I backtracked, couldn't find any more blood. We, we had multiple people coma in this area.
We'll do a shot and we never did find any blood. Unfortunately I, we did progress the track and we did our due diligence looking. And being that it was not a gut shot or a far back shot. Being that front of the body, we just determined it was a, probably most likely a brisket shot or something like that with the white and there was white hair in the bed too.
So it was just one of those things that has like in Henry, he took it like a champ. He was like, dad, when he, we couldn't find blood. He's dad, if we should be finding blood he's I don't think I killed this deer because we should have blood. And then I was trying to say [00:08:00] sometimes with a gun, you don't get blood and do all that.
So he, we kept looking. But yeah, come full circle that deer is, hopefully is still alive. Thankfully, we have good relationship with some of the neighbors around. You talk to them and they'll keep their eyes out and that kind of thing. We still got a lot of season left, but yeah, so we went back in the blind and Henry.
Henry had to, face the adversity with that. And it was like, okay, we started, unfortunately we saw some does and stuff like that. So like we started going through the process again and I'm like, okay, unfortunately this happened like the first thing in the morning on a buck. There was not, he did not get a chance to aim at a live deer before this happened, which I was under the assumption we were gonna have does come out and you could practice and aim and do all that stuff.
But no, he gets thrown right into the ringer on a nice buck. But, so we went through the system again and I started talking to him and I said, got to aim higher. And, the scope that he's using has, dashes and stuff on it. So I started looking at deer and, I wanted to aim probably two or three inches higher than what he had aimed, like more center body and a little above, [00:09:00] and, started pulling up videos and of, live deer staying broadside or quarter way.
And I said, okay, buddy, where'd you aim? And he showed me and I do. Money like perfect. If that deer was at a hundred yards, I'm confident he would've killed that deer. So we had to go through the system and I ended up, saying, Hey, if we have a deer at that range again, cause I had thought 150 yards was the max I was gonna let him shoot.
So he was in the wheelhouse. I just did not account for the drop enough as the parent and his guide, a thing. So I learned, I feel pretty bad about that, but we went through the system and he, he was really good at aiming at some does. And using this hashes and then I compared, looking through the scope saying, yep, that's about, two, three inches higher and did all that stuff.
So it was really good. And then that night we had a great night too. He had, we had little bucks chasing does all over the place. Obvious, of course they would stop outside of his range on their own. And then when they would run in range, try to grunt, stop them or whistle at them, they would stop and right before Henry's butt would be already to shoot, cause I didn't want him to rush a shot that was, safety off, [00:10:00] after the deer has stopped and you're on them, safety off, then go back to the trigger because I just don't want to rush it for him because he's little. And right before he'd be ready to shoot, they'd run away. He had a couple other little opportunities, and then the second day we saw deer and saw little bucks, but same thing, they were just too far away.
So no, we had a great time and he ended up getting this really bad cough, he was bad on that the whole time, trying to cough into a jacket or a blanket or something. Cause we have nice blinds for him to be in, he's coughing and then trying to go to the gun to shoot a deer. It was really, it was definitely some adversity he faced.
So we got through it. I think we're going to be better for it, but yeah, we're looking forward to the rest of the year and hopefully get them an opportunity to pull the trigger again. I remember when we called his mom, Ashley, as soon as he shot, let her know, cause she was on her way to work and.
She's what do you think? Would you do that again? He's yes. He's I really liked the kick. So he's, he likes shooting a gun. So that's that makes me feel good as a parent. So yeah, we're just now, it's just my part to keep him, don't force him to go out there anymore than he wants to, but when [00:11:00] he shows a desire to go hunting, I'm going to go full force with him.
So we got a lot of season left. But yeah, so that's a quick update, to try to bring this kind of a little bit more relevant. To what's going on, but I know I talked about in the last episode about my, the Michigan wild shop. So yeah, if you guys want to go on there and support this, that'd be awesome.
It's a, you're going to be in the show notes. The link will be in the show notes, but it's just Michigan wild Michigan wild shop now, I forgot I should look it up, but it's a shop that has a bunch of hunting stuff, all sorts of them. And you can, go through and find some things and they have, they have pretty good, deals on some stuff. I've scrolled through a lot of it and just comparing and contrasting to what's out there And there's some there'll be times when stuff's, cheaper there than elsewhere But this the main thing is everything you guys do end up buying through there just helps the show and does that But yeah, it's michiganwild.
holler dot com not Michigan wild shop. So Michigan wild dot holler commerce. com. And yeah, you go there [00:12:00] and you can see like a list of some of the things that I've picked out that I like on the homepage there, but you can go and search and there's lots of things. And then for the month of November, you can use a use discount 10 off.
So one zero OFF that will take 10 percent off whatever you guys end up getting. So I know Christmas is coming up, so I like to get a lot of things. For Christmas through for people or for myself a thing. And go through there and check that out. But if anyone's interested in maybe getting mobile hunting a little more saddle hunting, there's like climbing sticks and Saddles and platforms and all that stuff.
There's all sorts of little accessories you can get for People for, gag gifts or white elephant gifts. If you do that, I always try to be the guy that throws a nice knife in the pile or some honey related thing. So it gives me something to go after, but yeah, give that a shot and check out that website.
And yeah, I'd appreciate it. Whatever you guys do helps me out. So hopefully you guys have had a great, first few weeks of November. Hopefully it's been everything you want it to be. And maybe if it [00:13:00] hasn't been, see what you can learn take that back and, stock it away for years, upcoming years and say, Hey, I didn't have a really good, rut hunts this year because.
Maybe I didn't, access something right. Or the deer weren't really here. Like they were in October or you pull some cameras and you notice that, man, all the bucks are over here post over here on this property and just try to just learn as much as you can. Don't let a year go by without learning to be better for the following year.
So thanks for supporting this show guys. And I hope you enjoy this episode of Brandon.[00:14:00]
All right. Welcome to another episode of Michigan wild. This is going to be the last seven days, week five, and I have Brandon Travis on again. How's it going, man? Good. How's it going with you? I'm on cloud nine, taking out Michigan. I think the PI, I just recorded a podcast by myself about the buck I shot my second buck.
Pretty, it's pretty tough to beat that. And we have opening day of gun season tomorrow. It's like Christmas for me right now.
Yeah, that's great, man. You've had a unbelievable year so far, so that's pretty awesome. Yeah, you
don't, these, you gotta share some when that happens, cause it's not an everyday occurrence or every year occurrence.
I think Michigan is getting better. Like you've said that too learning properties and getting more opportunities, but it used to be, man, I went all year, grinded all year, bow season, gun season, late season, if I got one shot. Or one chance at a three and a half year old buck. I counted that as a success.
So it's a definitely feel pretty blessed getting two opportunities that good bucks. Yeah, more than two though. More true. Yeah, exactly.
That's pretty [00:15:00] sweet. Yeah. Hitting a buck, missing a buck the 5th of October and then Nick and this one, the 10th and then getting a shot at them, the eighth and killing them.
That's yeah. Quite a rollercoaster. And, but I think that just goes to show like having. Having, finding a good property, but then hunting it smartly, with access and not over hunting it and waiting. Cause I think I hit, so I hit this deer the 10th of October and then that property only sat probably twice since the 8th of November.
I killed my other deer close by to this property, but I don't completely different property with different access and all that stuff. I think you just got to learn. And it's taken me years to learn this. That's not like it was like, Oh, surprise. I know what I'm doing. No, a lot of error in that way.
But Hey, you had some success. So I want to use this as an opportunity to go through like the week, the fifth week of the season, typically is. That end of October going into November. So you get some run, a lot of guys go out of state and start doing that. I didn't leave until the third for Illinois, but you had left earlier [00:16:00] than that.
And you ended up going to Indiana, correct?
Yep. Yeah. We left the I left the 1st of November to head down there. So I worked a couple of days that weekend and then did the Halloween thing with the kids. Packed up on the 1st to head to Indiana for my rut hunt this year. Yeah, it was a little abbreviated this year.
Normally I spend, 10 ish days down there if I can, with bear hunting this year and everything and kids being busy, I had 5 days. So I was going down the 1st through the 5th. I was gonna hunt the evening of the... First and then hunt through the morning of the fifth and then head home the day on the
fifth.
So now typically when you do like the 10 days, do you always try to do like November 1st, you're like they're heading down there or does it just play on the weekends or when do you like to be there for your 10 days? I like to
try to get down there the first couple of days in November, depending on how work, work falls and everything.
I try to get there like the first or second. Of November and hunt then through the 10th, 11th, 12th, depending on what happens. Sometimes their gun [00:17:00] season opens, I think it's like the second Saturday. It's always close to the 15th. So a lot of times what I've done is I've gone down for.
Say six, seven, eight days of bow season. Then if I still haven't killed one, a hunt a day or two, a gun season.
Now, is that a tag you have to buy a separate tag for the gun tag? Or is your one tag work for all seasons?
It's so you can do either, or so there's a, so this year I knew I wasn't going to gun hunt, so I only bought archery tag, which is just good for one deer.
So essentially a buck, or you can buy what they call a bundle, which is for all three seasons for archery. Muzzle loader, and you get one buck and two doughs with it. So in, in years past, I've done that bundle, but this year I knew I was only bow hunting. And actually I think it was two or three years ago.
They raised the prices quite a bit too. So it was definitely Better this year for me to just buy the archery,
keeping all of us mission guys from going, if we're going to go, we got to pay
for it. They almost basically doubled the [00:18:00] price. Yeah. It's getting up there.
Unfortunately. It, it makes sense though. They hadn't raised the prices in a long non residents there. It made sense. It would have been a little. Better on my end, if they'd gradually, it is
what it is. And I think my tag for Illinois. So we just did the archery tag.
You get a buck and a dough and you can't, you can only use that. There's you can't use like your bow during gun season. So like this tag is only good for the archery season. And I'm not sure about muzzleloader. I'm assuming it's the same for muzzleloader, but I'm not sure. But yeah, I was like four 65.
For that. So it's pretty pricey, you add that on top of lodging. We did the Airbnb. It was like 250 bucks a person. You got, you're knocking on the door with fuel and, we, we cooked our own meals. I don't think we didn't go out to eat at all when we were there. We all like.
Team effort on the, on food, but you're knocking a hole in, a thousand dollars pretty quick with just getting there and, being there tag and stuff. And then that, we ended up having the lease. So you add that on. This stuff adds up quick, but I think Illinois, from what I [00:19:00] saw, the tag price might actually keep some non res, not as many non residents, when there's other states that are cheaper, like Missouri or, Indiana, I don't know what Indiana is now, but.
Kentucky, I know, isn't that much. So it definitely it's crazy. I gave all that up to come home early from Michigan. You just got to be in the right place at the right time. But you got there. So the, when we do our breakdown of our hunt, we were there the sixth week cause we got, lead into the sixth week November 3rd, is when we arrived and none of us hunted until that Saturday.
But yeah we did not get any of that cool weather. We got hot. So you were in the lead edge of that. So let's break down what you what you obviously this property you've hunted before with family and had anyone been hunting or shot anything up until you
got there?
Yeah. So let's see. I think it would have been like the second or third weekend of October. So they're seasoned. And opens the same as ours, October 1st. So it was, I think the second or third weekend, one of our buddies was down with my [00:20:00] dad and my brother, and then our other buddy had been down on and off on the weekends and our buddy Steve shot a nice nine point down there that like second or, I can't remember second or third weekend.
Okay. And then the guy that actually lives on the farm. So my aunt doesn't live there anymore. There's a guy in his family that rent the house and they're able to hunt. He shot one. I think the week before we were down. So he shot a nice, that was a nice buck. It was one we had pictures of. I sent you a picture.
Yeah. He was a good deer. It was a good deer. Yeah. Yes. So yeah,
two bucks are two bucks down before November.
Yeah. Okay. So then, yeah, my, see, my younger brother got there the day before I did. So he went down Halloween hunted that night. It actually, the. That first morning of the first, he got drawn on a nice butt, but got busted drawn.
He had it come in right, on a doe and ended up before he knew it, it was like seven yards. And he so he just started hunting with a compound again. [00:21:00] Last year, I think, or two years ago, we shot a crossbow for a few years. And so he's still trying to figure out that getting drawn thing and he got busted trying to draw.
And and then the next day, so we got down there that night. And as soon as we got down there, I knew we were hitting it pretty good. One thing that, one thing that we really noticed down there, cause there's always tons of scrapes everywhere. You can walk like tree lines, field edges, and they're all over the place.
And they had been hit, it seemed like the last two, three days. But like the day I got down there none of them had been hit like that day, which I've really noticed there that tends to mean that they are on the dose. That they've lost interest in other bucks, lost interest in market territory.
And those are at least getting close and they're starting to chase, starting to get into that, that real heavy, what people call the rut, but it's the pre right, the chase and the cruising. And so I figured walking in that night that's what was going on. Cause those, [00:22:00] I walked by probably 15 scrapes on the way in.
And and only one or two of them had been hit like that day.
And then to me I love how you brought that up because I'm a big scrape hunter, like I love hunting scrapes, Michigan, everywhere I go, I'm like really focused on scrapes cause probably because I, that's the best way for me to get Intel on deer, like I'd have no other way to do it, but the pre rut.
Is it's such a hard thing to explain to people, but I, you get like a trickle of a pre rut. So like October 22nd, I shot my first buck. He was grunting in like tendon. Like he was with this doe because he was the most mature buck in this area. And. I happen to be fortunate enough that the one doe that was probably coming in a little earlier than everyone else, he was with, so he was keeping every other deer off for her.
And he was in an area that had scrapes and had rubs, and that would pop up every year at a certain time. And I'd always miss it. I got to always be just off. So like I did the same thing. I slipped into the spot, like hopefully I'm here between, but then as you [00:23:00] like, like you said, as you go closer November, when the most of the pre rut activity happens.
All that stuff dries up. Like I'll get pictures of deer on scrapes and if anything they do, they just touch the licking branch and then they're moving or you'll catch a buck in the background because they're still around the scrapes, but they're not like focused on making their territory known they're just, it's chaotic.
And yeah, that's a good place to be when you're out of state in a spot.
Oh yeah. I was like, I walked in and I'm like, man, this is, I'm catching it good this year and I had an idea, I got buddies that are down there and I'd talked to a buddy of mine a couple of days before and. He didn't know I was coming down.
We were just chatting. And he's man, he's like the next Three, two, three days is going to get real good down here. And I was like that's perfect because that's, and then that night it was I don't remember on the time because so times an hour different there, and then we had to change.
So I don't, but it was at least two and a half hours before uh, it got dark that night. I had a doe come out of a cornfield into, I was hunting over like there's a bedding, I was right on the corner of, and then sitting over a picked bean field. [00:24:00] And a doe came out of that corn across the ditch and out into the field with a nice buck right behind her and he was locked down with her and she bedded down right in the middle of the field.
And I watched him, run two or three smaller bucks off and just, oh yeah, just he, another buck would come out downwind and start working towards them and he'd turn and get all bristled and push them away and then turn right back around over the doe. And I watched that for.
Probably an hour and a half. Oh, that's so cool.
Yeah. Did you have a play possibly to go sneak up or too far in the middle? The wide, no,
it's too wide open. That's the thing down there, man, is it is, everything is flat and open. And it, even that property I was on is hard to hunt. We only usually get a few good hunts on that small chunk because it's all open.
It's just. Small chunk of woods that's thick bedding, but then it's all open and it's, the road, then the field, then the woods. So inevitably going in and out, you can do your best, but you tend to bump the year [00:25:00] out of there. So I knew it was a good night for it, but I, you only get a couple good hunts in that little property,
but.
I don't know. Do you think it's because of, so like every time I've seen a buck lock down with a doe, like it's never in thick cover. It's always in the middle of a field and it's like impenetrable. And I almost wonder if it's because there's just so many deer, like I just saw a buck locked. So I shot my buck on the 8th, the 9th in the morning, there was probably a three year old buck laying in the middle of a field wide open by houses and road.
And there was three other little bucks around them. And they were laying right in the middle of field like. He's untouchable, like you cannot get up on them. And I wonder if that's just if the doe obviously it's like sick of being harassed and chased. And she's finally, I'm just going to go and build this field because I'm not, I'm just like a run around in the woods.
I don't really know. But like you see the videos from like other States, like Missouri, I saw a buck. Locked down with a doe in cover. I seen it in Illinois, but, and in driving around, you'd see like little patches of woods. So you'll watch a doe and buck just be in there. And it's man, [00:26:00] I could probably sneak up on them there.
But here in Michigan, it's they're always in the middle of a field. You're like, yeah, there's no, I have no chance.
Yeah. I think it's, I think the doe gets sick of being harassed and she probably figures out. You're just guessing at this point, right? But she probably figures out that if she can get out in the field, she can lay down, not get harassed, and he can just run other deer off and can see him from a ways away.
Cause yeah, I've seen both down there where they've been in thick cover and out in fields, but it seems like they tend to end up. Out in those fields, at least,
and we know they do that at night. Cause how many times are you driving before you hunt or on your way home? You catch a buck and a doe crossing a road or, doing something.
So that definitely happens at nighttime, but okay. So first, first rip, you have a good hot, right?
Yup. Yeah. And I ended up seeing like seven, seven bucks that night. Two shooters. I saw that one was a nice buck. And then I saw one bigger than him chase a doe across the field. I don't know about a half hour before dark.
I saw him, but so we had good chasing that night. And then the next day would have been [00:27:00] the second. I saw bucks basically every sit, I don't think I saw a shoot. I think I passed like a nice two and a half year old eight point that next day. And then that evening, my dad actually shot one.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to. We're able to find it. It was one of those things where, he shot and he texted. He's dude, I just smoked one, drilled it. I'm like, all right, man. And then it ran onto a neighboring property. We ended up having to get permission to track it. So he couldn't go track it till the next day.
And he had good blood for, 200 yards. And he said he was, he said he shot it right behind the shoulder. And it just kept going and going. And yeah, after, yeah. I think good blood for 200 yards, blood for 300 and then just dry it up and was done. And it, we talked about getting a dog with the guy that owned the property and didn't want us getting a dog, which was completely understandable.
That was my next question. When you said dog, I was like, how'd the property owner think about that? No, because
my. My brother has a dog. And so my brother was going to drive down and the guy said, no, and that's fine.[00:28:00] It's, he's got it set up sweet for deer hunting. It's all CRP with like mode, pad lot stuff.
And he was like no, thank you. But I don't think the deer died anyways, based on where he said he hit it. I'm guessing he hit low and he's shooting across bow with a a mechanical broadhead. And I think he hit something and it deflected down. So I don't think it even made it into the chest cavity cause it didn't where he hit it should have been lung blood.
It wasn't lung blood. I think it hit either a rib or that scapula deflected down. Brisket, I think,
yeah, buddy had a dough, a doughy hit. And he said, he's I think I hit it really good, but it was talking to him a little more and looking at the arrow and stuff like that. It's okay, what let's slow down and think about it.
And he ended up being forward and low. So it was like the dog tracker guy was like, yeah, that's a brisket shot. Like you have good blood at first. A couple hundred yards gone. And he said the deer, how the deer run away and explains how the deer runs away, the trackers like, yeah, like we're probably not going to find this deer, but we'll give it a good effort because they hear this kind of stuff all the time and you have, [00:29:00] you think you have this huge area to kill a deer, but when you break it down into moving animal and all these other things that your kill zone really isn't that big, you get lucky, but there's a lot of room for error and that room is at.
You're an inch and a half away from being a hero,
yeah. So that was that, that second day and then the third day would have been the third, right? Yep. Yep. So the third day was get, it started getting warm. It was cool in the morning and the wind picked up like during the day and it was like super windy and started getting warm.
Still saw deer. It was, we were seeing pretty decent chasing, couple of good bucks running around, but nothing too crazy that day. But we knew going into Saturday, the, which would be the fourth that it was looking good. The wind was going to die down. We were going to get the wind was going to actually switch directions at about nine, 10 o'clock in the morning, which, I like, the switch in wind [00:30:00] direction. It usually means a front, right? Some sort of fronts coming through and any change in weather. I think that time of year we'll get at least maybe some dough is moving, which we'll get some bucks finding them and some stuff going. So I knew that Saturday was gonna be like the day, right?
The wind was blowing like crazy that Friday night. It got warm. So I actually hung a stand in in the summer back in the area that we'd never hunted right there, but I've seen a lot of deer come from there when I'm hunting another spot. And so I went back there and I hung a stand in the summer and my.
that Friday night, I was going to go in there, get all my sticks up and get my camera arms and everything set up and hunt that night. Basically setting up for the next day. I like to do that if I can with the film and stuff, because it's just, and it's open hardwoods and it's there's five inches of Oak leaves on the ground.
So you can't get in there quiet and it takes a while to get up and get everything set up. [00:31:00] So I like to, if I can that time of year. basically hunt the night before setting up for the next day. So that was what I did that day. And I think that night I saw five or six does nothing crazy, but I did the does it did see were by themselves, right?
I was seeing, I saw a couple of mature does that were by themselves and I saw fawns that had been picked away from their mom. So I, I knew that's always a good sign when you start seeing the does breaking up and.
So you saw enough that night to be like, yep, I'm coming back in the morning.
Yeah, for
sure. Yep. It was supposed to be cool that next morning. The wind was supposed to die down and yeah, I saw enough does in there and our buck to doe ratio down there is a lot different than Michigan. If you see five, six, seven does in a night, that's a good amount of does.
Okay. We don't have a ton of deer. The deer density is not like it is in Michigan. There's less deer and the buck to doe ratio is a little closer to what it should be. So yeah, if you're seeing does it's that time of year, it's just a matter of [00:32:00] time before something comes looking for them.
Yeah. And then, like you said, that wind switch gets a move in. So the bucks are having more areas. They can check those are going from one section to the next section. And you, all you need is for a buck to come. Either chase a deer that way, or come across one of those doe trails and start jogging them.
So I'm the same way. Like every time I can hunt on the switch or if I'm in a tree and the wind switch happens while I'm in the tree, it's Oh yeah, like now it's time for them to get up, they might not feel good in the bed they're in. Or they might want to be like, Hey, we're gonna go hit this food source.
We haven't hit in a while because the winds were feel safe going towards it. All those things are just, and then the sugar on top is the front that usually follows that. So even before a warm front or after a cold front or before, there's sometimes you can have good luck before the warm front Cause my buddy, he got down there a few weeks early in Illinois, and he had some pretty good hunts the first two days before it started getting really hot.
And I think it was just because he was hitting it right before that came through. So then, so my question is, you say it's like this open [00:33:00] woods. Illinois was the same way. Gobs of leaves dry. So it was like impossible to be slow and, meticulous going through. So what made you like the spot?
Did it like butt up against something that you liked or was it like an inside corner or what was like, Hey, this is a good spot, even though it was like open
hardwoods, So it pinches down there's a corn. I cut cornfield on the one side of cut cornfield on the other. There's a big section of what's a big section of woods.
And they, there's a ditch that runs into there too. And everything pinches down through there. Yeah, everything that is going from the woods to the woods, checking the fields, checking the ditch. Everything's got to go through there. So this was right.
Your classic rut funnel.
Oh, that
was like nice. Absolutely. So
Going into this with what was the wind? It's you can have a great rut funnel, like everyone talks about, like you have to also be smart on how you get there and what your wind's doing in it. Were you like, was it below you, above you? Like, how are you playing the thermals or like catching a buck cruise?
No, no thermals.
There's too flat, right? It's flat, man. There are, you still have your thermals, right? But nothing [00:34:00] like
that will dictate. Okay,
sweet. It's flatter than flat, your access is probably the most important then. Yeah. Okay. Basically coming from. coming through the big section of open woods, and then coming from it'd be the South into that pinch. And my wind was blowing would have been from like the. So a parallel and I guess where they would be coming through.
So you, so the deer would feel safe going through that pinch because they had the wind, but you were below them or, south of it.
I love it. That's that dude, when you're sitting in a spot like that, it's your confidence is so high because you're like, man, the chances of a deer coming from downwind are very slim and anything that moves through here is going to feel safe. So you just feel good
in that. In that spot is just that area is just cruising, man.
That bucks always are cruising through there. It's like this deer. I don't think, I don't think I had the one I ended up shooting. We might've had one or [00:35:00] two pictures of them but he's just a stranger, but just cruising through, man. And we saw, yeah. So that next morning. Last
day, it would've been last or second to
last. Would've been second to last. I was playing second last on the Sunday morning if I needed to, but Okay. That morning we had which should've been
November 4th. Fourth, yeah. November
4th. Yep. Yep. So my younger brother was like on the other side of the pinch off on an inside corner on the.
field where the woods opens up on the other side. And then my other buddy was further to the south of me in the woods. And it was wild. It was one of those mornings that you just wait for all year, man. We had it was like, as it started to get light, there were does in the woods coming in off the fields.
And it's like, all right, man, here we go. And it was probably about. Like nine o'clock, it just blew up, just deer running all over Grunton. We had, uh, we had one, actually one deer that we'd been getting pictures of. It was a nice 10 point, but he was [00:36:00] busted off. One of his antlers was completely busted off.
He had a dough locked down between a couple people I was hunting with and he was running bucks off and they were just all over the place, man, that morning. Love it. Oh my gosh. So it was so
fun. Yeah. Because y'all, you're all texting each other like you're going, you got the group
check, it's oh yeah.
It's here they come. They're coming your way, man. Sure enough they come flying through and actually, my buddy, Josh, that was with us that morning had. It was three or four bucks chasing a doe came flying past him. And it was funny, man. I'm sitting there and I was probably 200 yards from him.
And all of a sudden I hear him yelling, chasing the doe past me.
And
Like two minutes later, they ran, 60 yards behind me and ended up running over past my brother. Like they were just
all over the place. So like you said, just the classic chase and like they're going, they're not locked down yet. Maybe a few bucks are, but the majority of them [00:37:00] are seeking hard and you're just, you're in a perfect spot.
Yeah, so then they, but it started to get, it was probably like 10, 11 o'clock, it started to get warm and we ended up so my brother had. twO or three bucks in a doe or two bed within 40 yards of him. I had three does bed like 40 yards from me. Then they things settled down.
But we were, we were set up to hunt all day. So we just stayed out. And unfortunately the, so it was, I figured, I told myself if it got to be like noon, one o'clock and the does that were bedded under me, hadn't moved. I was going to try to at least get a snack out and get, sneak my coffee out.
Cause they were like, 40 yards. I was like, if they get comfortable, I might be able to, so it was like about noon, they got up, started milling around. I was like, all right, they're going to, move on. And they started eating some acorns. I was thinking there's acorns everywhere. And so they started eating [00:38:00] acorns and then got closer and closer.
They ended up bedding down back down at like 15 yards from me. So at that point I was stuck. So I sat there, it ended up being like seven hours. I had, oh geez, I did within 20 yards of me. So I sat there and we saw a couple of bucks cruising like during the day, but nothing big. Most of the deer were bedded down.
Like I said, it got pretty warm. It was like 62, 64, somewhere in there in the afternoon. So I think had it stayed cool, had it been in the forties, I think we would have seen all day, but it just got, it got warm. So they bedded down. And then let's see. And then. Actually, the deer that were bedded under my younger brother he was pretty close.
He was probably like 50, 60 yards off of the property line. And the guy behind him ended up walking his dog along the property line and kick those deer up. And they ran through past me and that kind of got everything going [00:39:00] again. That was probably two, three hours before dark. Thanks. They got up and they ran past me and they ran over to my buddy, Josh.
anD he ended up shooting shooting one of the bucks. He should, he ended up he was the one that he's the guy that was sitting in like a couple hundred yards from me. So he shot one and he ended up, he hit it. Yeah. Let's talk about
this a little bit, cause this is worth noting. So he shoots this buck, gets spooked up by someone else.
Yeah, chaos ensues and he gets a shot on this deer and yeah, it gets a little Western after
that. Yeah. So he shot it, he made any good shot on it. It was like 30, 36, 37 yards, which, in that situation, especially as a poke, you're in the deer wound up. And so he shot it, it ran about 80 yards back behind him to the, to a fence line and it couldn't get over the fence and it fell down.
But he kept trying to get back up, like kept trying to get back up and get over this fence and was just kept going. And he, he said he drilled it. So he called me [00:40:00] actually. And it was like, what? And I'm like and I can see, I can see one of the other deer that it was with, but I couldn't see the deer and he's he's he keeps trying to get back up and he's dude, I drilled him and I'm like I'm like, if, if you can get down and sneak over there, you might as well try to get another arrow with him, it's one of those things that you risk bumping them and, pushing them away, but if he's all rutted up, do you, you don't want him, you don't want one.
Going, so I, he was able to climb down and sneak over and walk up to him and get another arrow in them and ended up putting them down, but I sent you the picture, it dude, the first shot was right through the deer's heart, right?
Through it. I couldn't, I wouldn't. So I had the similar thing happen with my second buck.
We talked about this, like I, podcast leader drop right after this or before this one, but yeah, 14 yard shot. I was like, heart shot him. And then he runs off and does the same kind of thing, like lays down, head keeps going on the ground, picking his head up, but I end up sneaking up on him. And then he gets up on his own like 35, [00:41:00] 40 minutes after I shoot him.
Cause I had no shot while he was laying there. And I sent another one at him and he blows at me and runs. And I was like, Oh my gosh, I didn't hit him good. Fast forward next morning, found with the dog went 300 yards from where I shot him to where he was, we found that was 300 yards and I sliced a whole blade, did a slice through his whole heart.
And both lungs had brought in three blade broad had went through both lungs and slices her and he lived that long. So he was alive at least an hour, almost after I shot him and that picture you showed me, it was like, dude,
that was money. I know like you couldn't shoot a deer to better. And it was, yeah, it was.
Probably 45 minutes after you shot the first time, when you shot the second time. It's just amazing when they're rutting like that, what they'll do and how
far they'll go. And like you said, too let's say you think you smoke a deer. Thankfully there was a fence there. Cause he would have, that's probably what, that's what hung them up or he couldn't jump.
But like you get down and track a deer, you bump that deer, they can cover a hundred yards in no time, even [00:42:00] half dead or dying, so that's why it's so important to wait. Because like for me, if I would have Oh, I smoked that deer. Thankfully I saw him, I always wait 45 minutes to an hour before I track the minimum, or at least look for blood or look for the arrow.
But yeah, if I would've got down right away, I'll pumped up. Like I said, it looked like a heart shot and it was, and. I kept bumping that deer. He could have covered a mile before he died. Easy, 45 minutes. They can, even if they're not even moving that good, they can still cover some ground. So that's crazy.
So you have one bug down. So it's like you had a chaotic morning. You guys were all sitting all day, grind it out. He ends up getting deer, which was an awesome buck. So you're feeling pretty good.
Yeah. And actually it worked out for me too, because when he went down and snuck over to shoot that deer, he, there was another smaller buck with him and he ran past me and he.
Took the dough that were betted under me with 'em. So they didn't s spook from Josh. They just, the deer ran past 'em and they were like chaos. Okay. Yeah. So they took off too. So I was able to stand up, stretch my legs, get get a drink [00:43:00] coffee and, have a little snack at, four o'clock in the afternoon.
Finally. It was probably tasted really good. Oh yeah, it was real
nice. Uhhuh . So some people might be thinking like why don't you just just, who cares if you spooked the dough? You can tell me what you think, but like I, from what I've seen in Illinois, my dad had a dough laid down by him one day and she laid there for probably, I don't know how long he said, but he threw out the rest of his all day sit, he saw seven bucks come check that bed that dough was laying in.
So we're assuming she was just in a spot where her scent was just hanging out and every buck that came within eyesight of him, got downwind of where she was bedding and it was like on a line right to that bed and checked it. Having those does hanging out and just leaving their scent in the area is never a bad thing
in the road.
No, it's not, man. That's the I tend to hunt in a way that I try to like cause the least amount of commotion as I can, right? Like I want to get in there. I want to be quiet. I don't do a ton of call and I don't use a ton of like sense. I just like, I'm. Super [00:44:00] picky about my scent regimen, I try to not stink and I try to be quiet and I try to get in there where they want to be and not spook deer.
So if I, if I have does bedded underneath me, I'm going to do everything I can to not for seven hours. Yeah, so then, so they got, they took off and I got up, stretch my legs and Ended up getting some food and then not long after that, I had another buck and that was actually when we had a bunch of pictures of come cruising through probably like 60 yards.
This actually, this spot, the stand I hung sometime between when I hung it and when I went in there and hunted it big oak tree next to it had fallen and it It was almost the way it fell. It was almost pushing a lot of the deer like out past about 60 yards behind me. sO he cruised through down there.
And yeah, I tried grunting at him. I'll grunt like. If I see deer, I don't [00:45:00] do a whole lot of blind calling, but if I see a deer, I'll, try to grind at him, maybe rattle, try to get his attention. He didn't care. He's I don't care if another buck's over there or not. I know what I'm, or, and you're not it.
Yeah he didn't even stop. Didn't care. Kept cruising right on through. And he was a nice deer is actually bigger in person than he looked in the pictures. He he's a nice buck. So yeah,
I love that. There's something about when you see a deer, you think, and then when you see him for the first time, you're like, Whoa, I way
misjudged him.
And then it just gets you fired up. You're like, Oh my gosh. Yes. He was a Tank of a deer, man. Big old body on him. Cause it's just one of those deer that you see in pictures and you're like, Oh, that's a nice buck. And then he's coming through. Holy cow, man. That thing is, it's like a horse. And he's got, got nice tall rack is G the one G two on the one side was probably 13, 12, 13 inches.
Yeah, it was nice. He's real distinct. He's got like a crab claw on the one side, it's a buck. You guys keep tabs. Yeah. Yep. Holy cow, man. I definitely would shoot that thing, but he [00:46:00] ended up, yeah, he didn't care about me. So he he cruised through and then and then maybe a half hour later, I had a dough.
Through along the fence feeding on acorns, just, and actually, I think it was a fawn. It was a small, small, young doe came through and it was just feeding on acorns, hanging out. And man all day, they're just squirrels. And they're like crazy. And in those leaves, it's just it's a constant racket.
And it's I feel like I spent all day just looking without squirrel. Here's something look up squirrel. So I'm sitting there watching this doe feed. And I hear something behind me off to my right. And I'm like, Dang squirrel again. And I turn and I look and he's at 80 yards coming right at me.
I was like, holy crap. So yeah, he he'd come and with the wind switching, basically the wind had switched to where he was right down window that, where that doe was at. So she was feeding out in front of me. And he had cruised through just like the rest of the deer had, but she was standing there and he must've seen her and [00:47:00] smelled something.
And yeah, so he turned and he was coming right towards her. And it was nice. Cause he was distracted. He was paying attention to her. Cause I was not ready. Like I'm standing there just relaxed, filming her. I got my boat hanging up and I look and he's coming right at me at a 60, 80 yards and yeah, so he.
Started walking through and
were you like instant, like shooter when you first saw him coming?
Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, and we'll talk about him a little more. He's not going to score a ton, but I saw he's got the frame on him. I was like, as soon as I saw him, I'm like I know I'm shooting him. It's
You see a deer, deer come through the woods.
Yeah. Deer comes through the frame like that. Like you're
shooting. I'm like, yep, I'm shooting him. So he's walking through and I've got like one opening. It probably 20 yards where he's coming through. A lot of my shots are over where that dough was at. So I knew he eventually get over there.
So I was filming him walking through and then he got out into that opening and he was like, I 18 yards is what I ended up finger, but I knew he was inside [00:48:00] at 20 yards. And so I drew, I got the camera on him. I drew. And as soon as I drew, he started to trot after that dough. Like he got close enough where he like started to try and was like after her.
So I, I had to stop him. I, he stopped and looked right at me. And when he stopped at one sapling, that was like on that back edge of his shoulder. So it was like, It wasn't where I wanted to shoot him, but it was like close to where it was there. And so in my head, I was like, dang.
And then I told myself, I'm like that's not where you want to shoot anyways. That's two inches in front of where you want to shoot anyways. He's at 18 yards. You can miss that. So I just went a couple inches back from that and let it rip, man. And and just, I just drilled him and, but it was, dude, it was wild.
So he tried, Crowded ran for about 20 yards and then just started walking, just walking. It's just tail was flicking. He looked a little wobbly, but he was just walking slow walking. And I'm like, [00:49:00] what the heck? I kept waiting for him to go down, kept waiting for him to go down. And he didn't fall down.
And I was like, my goodness. And then, replaying all the things that all the week, right? Like my dad had shot that deer and thought he drew. And didn't, and I'm going, what did I did I screw this up? Like I had him at 18 yards. Did I mess this up? And so he ended up walking through made like a circle around and walked through a lane at 45 yards.
And I grabbed another arrow. I was like, I'm going to. shoot him again, right? I'm like, he's got to be dead on his feet, but he was still looking like he was moving pretty well. So I drew, but as I drew, he stepped out of that lane and walked off where I couldn't couldn't shoot him anymore.
And I was like, you've got to be kidding me. And then five minutes later, so I texted everybody. I'm like, I just, I just shot one. And five minutes after that, my dad texts me and he's Hey nice buck just came. From your way chasing the dough out into the field. [00:50:00] And I'm like, are you kidding me?
He's Hey, so it looked like a nice big, big eight point. And I'm like, no way. That's what I shot. I'm like, that's what I shot, man. I'm like, no, no way. So I'll just, I'm in like, I should be pumped. Because I drilled a nice buck. And I, but in my head, I'm just like. This is, there's no way this is crazy.
So I sat there for a while and, just contemplated my life. And it was like, I like, it's one of those things. It's man, he's gotta be dead. But then I'm like, I can't believe I screwed this up. Yeah. And I believe I screwed this
up, dude. Same thing went through my head, my buck. I'm like, your gut is like great shot, but then you hear all the times you've lost a deer in the past.
I think some of the times I've lost you in the past I'm like, Oh, I made a great shot. But I'm telling myself I made a great shot. There was no telling yourself you made a great shot. Like knowing you made a great shot. And even though, we've all seen the pictures of a deer with a hole in its ribs and like watching video of people hitting deer, like that thing should be dead.
They [00:51:00] never find them or the next year they see them on trail camera. So you have all this doubt. Yeah. And yeah, when you smoke a deer 18 yards, you do not expect them to just
walk away. No. And and I always tell people, it's like your first instinct is typically true. If you're able to be honest with yourself, yes. If you honestly felt you drilled them. Typically you did. If your first reaction is to go, Oh, no, that's typically, the case. And my first reaction was like, He's done, right? Like I thought like a heart shot him. So all that's going through my head and I'd sit there and starting to get dark.
Packed all my stuff up, climb down, I'm the same way. I tried to take my time, right? My first thing I always want to do is go check it out. But I try to sit there, try to calm down, try to. Think through and just wait, because if they're, if he walked off and tipped over dead, just out of sight, he's going to be dead.
If he didn't, right. And you're going to push him. So if he's dead, he's not going to get any more dead. He's not going to come back to life. Like you're better off. Just wait.[00:52:00] So I got down and it is about an hour after I shot him, I went over and checked my where my arrow was because it passed through.
It was in the dirt and the arrow looked good. There was blood on the arrow. But I looked right around the area where I shot him and there was no blood. There was just hair and I'm like, what, I'm like, Oh my goodness. So I walked back, I grabbed my flashlight out of my backpack, threw my backpack on.
I walked over and shined in the direction he went. And there was a blood trail. Three feet
wide. Okay. So you went from Oh my gosh, there's nothing
to, and I saw that. And I'm like, okay, I'm like, okay, I'm like, okay, that's good. I'm like, that's good. And so I'm like I'm like, I'll just, walk and see, I knew where he crossed in that lane.
I almost shot him again. And I'm like, I walk up there and see what it looks like. And there was a blood trail, three feet wide that you can, you could jog and follow it. That, and I'm like, there's, I'm [00:53:00] like this there's no way this,
I'm like, so the motions are going back up, like we're going
back up.
There's still that little bit of doubt in my mind because I've seen good blood trails that. Peter out, but not like this is one of those ones that it's it's spraying both sides out. I'm like, Oh, thank goodness, man. I'm like, and so yeah, so I just, I, at that point I'm like, there's no way he's still alive.
If he's alive, I can at least sneak up on him and yeah, you'll be able to sneak up on him at this point. Yeah. Yep. So I followed the blood trail for about about a hundred yards and he was laying there dead in the doornail. So
did he tip over you think, or did he lay down or what?
It looked like he tipped over.
So I will, how do you not hear that? You can hear a squirrel a hundred yards away, but then sometimes you just cannot hear that. I blow
my mind. He was in a little bit. So there, he was in just a little bit of a, like a bowl. It was almost like he went up and there's no, it's, I say a bowl. It's probably like a two foot depression, just a little bit.
And it was like full of [00:54:00] leaves and it was softer. So I think he went up over the rim of that and just fell over into that. Yep. And it was laying there. Oh my gosh. And you're just like. And I'm like. Yeah. Oh yeah. And it was nice. He was dead like 50, 60 yards from where Josh's buck died.
So oh damn. So yeah. So they were close to each other and yeah. And I was dude, I was pumped. I was like. What a run.
Like you guys are in the zone. That was the that's what you always hear. People say that if you're where they are, it's going to be the greatest week of our day of hunting.
But if you're not there, you're just like, there's no deer in here. If you're sitting, a quarter mile from there, you might not have seen any of this movement. No, it doesn't mean the deer only move in that whatever that little. Section you guys are in, they're moving all over, but you're just in the line of travel and that, what a good spot
to be in, man.
I do that. That area is just like the first week in November, there's like nowhere else I'd rather be, but that spot, because it's just, everything happens right there. It's you could sit in there the whole month of October and maybe see, a [00:55:00] decent buck here or there. But like that first week in November, when that cruising and chasing is happening, man, they're always.
Always
deer going. That's why you want to be a bow hunter right there. Oh man. It makes it worth it. There's
nothing
better, man. Okay. You find this deer, you go over this rollercoaster of motion, which I mean, I've been there, like I get it. I was there last week, yeah. But it's almost like you get rebuilt up.
So like you see deer go down and you're just losing it in the stand, and then you walk up to it and you're excited, but you're not. But there's something like that when you're like, man, I don't know. I don't know. They're all said, boom, there they are. You just can't control yourself. You're just like, Oh so many air fist bumps have happened.
Doing that. That's such a cool feeling to get that. Yeah. But tell us about this deer a little bit that, cause he's got a good frame. You said that
already. Yep. So he's I think I didn't put a tape to measure him. Like I say, he's not going to score the best. It's not going to be the best scoring deer I've ever shot, but he was, he's probably a, about 18 inches on the inside.
So probably, right around somewhere between, I would say 17 and a [00:56:00] half and 19 inches on the inside. Yep. He's got. like probably 99 10 inch G twos, 67 inch G threes. But just not a ton of mass. And he actually He doesn't, didn't have brow tines. I know he's it's like an inch brow tines.
And I'm like that that kills the score right there. Yeah.
But he's still in the one twenties as a six way. Yeah. I think, like with no brow, like maybe if he had like good brows. Like normal, like five or four inch broad times. I'd be like, yeah, you shot 130 inch. Eight point, which dude, those are good deer.
That's so cool. And especially on a rut hunt like that, where comes trotting through, like they cover that ground quick. Like when they're, it's not oh, there's a deer over there. It's no, they're moving. Oh, you see that frame coming through? I just put myself in your shoes. I'm like, dude, you can't ask for much more than that.
Yeah, it was, yeah, it was, he's a great buck, man. It's just a big frame on him. And I looked back at the video again and it's just watching him come through the [00:57:00] woods. It's just, this looks freaking sweet.
So you got the shot on camera and everything. Oh that's always my question. Now that I tried to film a thing, I suck at it.
So unfortunately when he started to trot. He literally took one step out of the frame. So it did, it's something we'll be able to use it, but it's like he was in the frame. Perfect. When I do. And then of course he started to try, I stopped him and he was like, literally one, two steps out of the frame.
That's the, I don't understand how people can do it so well. Self filming like that, because you literally have like little, from the point you leave the camera to get your boat and make your shot sequence happen. So much goes on and like that, like couple of seconds. So for every time I see it, like a Chris self film thing, I'm just like, dude, I'm not talking like Mac zoom, or like a GoPro zoom talking like when you try to get the good footage is bad, dude.
And that's a lot. A lot of those hunts happen. Over food plots or in places Yes. In bait. Where you've got the time. Right where I'm hunting, [00:58:00] man. I've had it happen in there a couple times. It's just like they are moving through so fast, it's just hard. Happen. So I had a camera up over my shoulder that got, at least me shooting it and I Oh sweet.
I see. I like that man video of me videoing it coming in and you can see walking in and so it'll make for a cool video and it'll be sweet because Josh shot his, and he got his whole thing on video too. Sweet. It'll make for a good. Good episode. It'll be a cool hunt. So sweet.
So what do you have? So like now we're a day before opening the gun season.
You got your buck in Indiana. What is looking like for the next like week or so for you? Like you're going to do some gun hunting up North or what's your plan?
Yup. Gun hunting up north, man. I'm going up leaving pretty basically as soon as we're done with this, I'm heading north for the next few days and going up to deer camp with my grandpa, my dad, my brothers.
And so I know last time we talked about that that big buck that we had on camera up there my uncle ended up shooting him. So I can talk a little bit about him now. He was, 18 and a half on the inside had 12 inch [00:59:00] B twos and had two drop tides. He's double stops. We had one, one that was like five, six inches and one of those like three or four inches on the other side.
And yeah, he ended up killing him with a bow. Unfortunately, a couple of points for busted off. But dude,
so that was like a, was that middle late October? That was in the twenties of October, right? Late, yeah. Late. Yep.
Late October. Late October.
Yeah. So same, that same kinda thing. Like we talked about, I think the first time, how you like attack the food plots early season.
Yeah. And then you kinda lay off, tell that later October. Yep.
Before you go back in there yep. Yeah. And he shot him in one of. In one of our food plots. Yeah, yep. Or one of our it'd be like it's a Michigan mix from Michigan Whitetail food plots. It's got like rye and radishes and all that stuff.
And yeah, he shot them in that food plot.
So do you, how old did you think that deer was? That was the one you had before? Or was that a new one that showed up? We
don't, I don't know if we had them or not. We never had. That's the one you said you weren't sure about. Yeah, I wasn't sure. Nothing that I could find that that.
Seemed like it was him when he didn't ever [01:00:00] had anything with drop tines, never had anything. He had his brow tines were a little like crooked, a little like off. Have anything that was like that, that we could find either.
That's the testament to your guys work for habitat. Like you're pulling you.
I think that's, there's, that's why a lot of guys like to do it. It's worth an investment because not only do you have good stuff for the deer you have, but you can. You draw in other deer and then look, you got a great opportunity. Your uncle shopped
For Northern Michigan.
Yeah.
And also the taxidermist figured he was five and a half.
So I knew he was at least four and a half. Yeah, dude, those
pictures. No doubt. Like you're like, yeah,
that's a mature deer. So I figured him at five and a half. And he was busted up. So you guys have
had a good year. I've known, I've been seeing some stuff on social media with through vital shot.
And you guys have been, you guys have put us down some nice bucks.
So yeah we've killed some nice to you this year. It was slow to start. We had a couple of youth hunts and then usually we kill a handful of them early October and it was slow, but yeah, the end of October and the end of the first week of November.
[01:01:00] We've put down some nice bucks, so
it's, yeah. So next year we're gonna have some good stuff to look at.
Next year, starting in July, it'll be on start airing on TV and yup. And then soon after that, like September, it'll start being on YouTube.
So right now, yeah. Where are you guys at right now with some of your stuff?
Right
now we're about halfway. So the YouTube is about halfway through our hunts from last year. So we're. Every Thursday at seven, we release new video and we're about halfway through last season. And then we're the pursuit channel started, I think the first week, October. So I think Saturday is it like three o'clock in the afternoon?
We're on the pursuit channel and then our Michigan our WLLA and then our Northern Michigan Fox stuff is starting to wrap up. This season there and then, yeah, and then we'll put some turkey hunts on YouTube in the spring. Once the, once last season wraps up there and then we'll be right back into from this year.
So yeah, I'll have probably my turkey hunt from this year will be on YouTube in the spring and then my bear [01:02:00] hunt and then this deer hunt will be on next
season. So are you an all day sitter for gun hunting?
Typically. Yeah. Yeah. Typically the first, at least the first day for sure. Yep. What do you bring to eat?
Oh man. I'd bring coffee. Like I gotta have coffee, right? Usually coffee. And I'll bring a Red Bull or something for the afternoon. And then usually some bars and then a lot of people laugh at me. My brother and I he will usually bring a block of cheese, like a big giant cheese. It's just
A
few years ago, we went with a bunch of guys down to Illinois and Josh brought a bunch of blocks of cheese for us to eat in the tree because we were doing it's and that's
it just, that's
a good idea though, because you can it's easy to get out and, store and that kind of stuff. And yeah, take a big old chunk of cheese and you're pretty good for a little bit. Exactly yep. You don't even have beef jerky or anything to mix with it.
You're just like straight cheese.
Sometimes, I'm weird. Beef jerky's got that smell. [01:03:00] It does. Trying to, it's like I said, I'm weird about the smell thing. And I try to keep that to a minimum. Hey, that's
so that's what keeps you confident in a tree, and I think whoever, whatever that may be for the individual, if you're there, if you're sitting there confident, it's, you can make that seven hour sit with a dough in front of you, those in front of you, then you. Come through and make that shot. That's how I was in Illinois and just I never really got to the point where I was like super confident. So instead of just burning time, and whether there's a lot of other things to go into, knowing that 83 degrees that you're an early movement day.
I just started scouting and the amount of stuff I learned in those few days of walking. It's going to be something that I can just take with me wherever. If I ever hunt another state or any other area that has terrain like that, I'll know where to go. So I'm just learning to get confident, doing that kind of stuff.
So I go a little more hard on the snacks though, for my we have we have nice built blinds and we got a little stove in there. We do Mac and cheese and all that. But we sit all day, so he's hopefully he gets one. He's like [01:04:00] I said, on the podcast, he shot the gun. Great. And we we're leaving tonight.
He's got parent, we got parent teacher conferences tonight. And once that's done, we're bombing north. So I think it'll be, it's, I think the first day or two will be okay. It looks like we got a little bit of heat coming in, but I think that week of Thanksgiving. I like what I'm seeing for that. So
yeah, I'll be, so I'll be hunting, I think the next two days, two, three days up North, I got to come back.
I got to work a day and then and then for the weekend, I'm bringing my kids up and taking, that's going to be the plan is take the kids out and I'll be over by in laws and they've got big blinds and yeah. Leaders. And yeah, that'll be about all about the snacks and
your backpacks, your camera gear in one bag and
I make them their own snacks.
Like I bring them here and I give them a backpack and throw all the snacks, at least do a little bit of the work.
Nice. What kind of a gun do you have? Your kids use what caliber? So
I had a two 43 and my girls each [01:05:00] shot a deer too, with that. And I, man, they killed them, but the blood trails were like non existent with those.
I've got a 30, 30 lever action, 30, 30, that one of my daughters is going to use. And then my wife's uncle actually has a bolt action. 30 six with a break on it. So it doesn't, he had the stock cut down and it's got a break on it. And so the recoil is like non existent. It's the so he lets me use that when his daughter's not hunting with it.
So I don't know what we're running right now. Yeah. The
two 43 is a great round for killing deer. You have to be a good shot and typically we rifle hunt. There's fields around, we do a lot of field edge sitting with a gun just because we have lots of people on a property. So you can't just go on the cover.
You got to just be on the outskirts of it. So fortunately for us, nothing runs farther than 50 or 60 yards with a 243, but you don't get any blood. Yeah.
That's minimal. Yeah, like I said, my, my daughters have each killed deer with that gun and it's a good round. It [01:06:00] just, man, the blood trails are non
existent.
Yeah, we do the high shoulder shot, not the high shoulder, but high lungs behind the shoulder. And we're always shooting them at over a hundred yards. So I think it's like that perfect blend of speed. So like an energy. So all energy goes into the deer. Every time you shoot a deer, like with a hot, like even with a four 50, if it's like all my buddies who shoot deer, like 50 yards, anything, it just goes through them so fast.
That there's no energy displacement, and then you have no blood. I know my, I know Ashley shot her first deer. She shot it with a two 43 perfect shot. And that deer ran like 80 yards maybe. And we saw it like flip over a tree dad, as it just made it into the cover. And I never, we wouldn't look for blood, no blood.
No, but we get up to the deer and there's blood all over where he died. And then we gutted the deer and it's like the trauma caused internal trauma was just like, Whoa. So yeah, but yeah, it'd be very, that's good. It depends on what you're hunting, but I'm trying to 350 legend for
[01:07:00] Henry.
Yeah, dude. That's a great, that's a great round. Good
gun. 180 grain, just a soft point. I figured. So he's only going to shoot. He shoots so good. He could probably make a 200 yard shot. If he, if I cranked the scope, I don't even have that. I have a one to eight power, like first focal point scope.
It's really easy for him to see. And it's got the dots. I guarantee you, if I was like, Hey, 195 yards and I was go. Okay. Click it for him. He's got to execute a shot. He could do it, but I'm just not going to do it. We're like, I told him, I was like, we were going to see deer, but we got to make sure they're at that range.
And he's okay, dad. He's used to it, but yeah, that's, it's like seeing a little kid, shoot this gun. He's learned on a 22. He's got the 350 legend in the AR with a suppressor. It doesn't make a loud noise. He's still weird or whatever, but dude, he's so he's got that trigger figured out.
Nice young kids, just squeeze his thing. It's Oh, I'm so jealous.
I wish I would've learned how to shoot when I was a kid. Yes. We had [01:08:00] smooth board, 12 gauge shotguns with slugs and knocking you off a bucket trying to shoot it, You didn't milk cartons and stuff. And it's I didn't learn, I didn't learn any of that.
Yeah. I'm watching my kids shoot there. They're way better off now than I was at that age.
I don't know what I was doing. Yeah. We were just like, I was a really big kid. Like I, talking about how I shot my first, I shot a two, two 70 when I was. 14, like it'd be 14, but like I learned how to shoot shotguns and 22 is before that, but man, when you started citing in a two 70 on a bench, even as 14 years old, man, after like the first couple of shots, you're like, dude, this is rocking the crap out of me.
And you just develop some of that bad form. And then. As I got older and learned a little bit more, I started just getting better triggers, guns to help with that offset that a little bit. But yeah, those kids, man, and that's why my sisters and my wife, they're such good shots because they just go up there and just squeeze and
you tell them how to do it.
And they, they listened and they do it right. Where, yeah we all. Didn't learn that no,
I still,
yeah, I still fight it as an [01:09:00] adult. You know what I mean? I just still have to fight that urge to jerk that trigger. You just want
it over. You want to hear that boom and get it over and get your deer.
But no, man, I think this is a great, this is a great episode. I love it. I always love hearing success stories. It's perfect time of year for it. So congrats on that buck. Thank you. Thank you. Hopefully whettle shot keeps putting them down.
So yeah. Yeah. I'm sure tomorrow we'll at least get a few more down.
And so
sweet, dude. Hey, enjoy your trip, up and do your thing and we'll keep in touch. Sounds good, man. All right, guys. Thanks for listening to this episode of the last seven days. The fifth week, Brandon had some great rot, like you go out of state to witness that. And not everyone has, awesome property in Michigan to see what you got to see.
But hearing that story, I think I smiled the whole time, just listening to all the rot. Rut activity going on or the pre rut chasing and that kind of stuff. So anyone else who got to do that, hopefully you guys had a great rut. And yeah, I look forward to listening to you or seeing you guys next week.
Thanks, Brandon. [01:10:00] Thank you.
