Show Notes
There's still a lot of season left. But for many of us, the passing of the rut means it's time to return to the real world. Work, family, holidays, and all those obligations we neglected in October and early November now demand our attention and we simply can't spend the time in the woods like we did earlier in the year. The season isn't over, but it's a great time to reflect on what you've learned, and how you've grown as a deer hunter.
In this episode of the How to Hunt Deer Podcast, Josh talks with Pierce Nelles about lessons learned the hard way from their rutcations. Tune in to hear what they got right, what they got wrong, and what they plan to change moving forward.
Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more relevant outdoor content!
Connect with the How to Hunt Deer Podcast on Instagram.
Big thanks to our partners!
Show Transcript
[00:00:00]
The best part of the hunting season is finally here. We've waited for this all year long. Now let's make it count with some great gear from our partners. First up, Tacticam is our title sponsor and their point of view cameras are my go to method for filming my hunts. Their new 6. 0 camera has added a one inch LCD touch screen that has totally changed the game for me.
Its lightweight design, weatherproof housing, and one touch operation really simplify the self filming process and make sure that I have high quality footage to share with my family and friends. My personal favorite for archery season is two 6. 0 cameras, one on a stabilizer mount on my bow and one on a bendy clamp mount for an over the shoulder angle.
And I pair this with a Tacticam remote so I can turn both cameras on with a push of a single button. To learn more or pick up your 6. 0 today, head over to Tacticam. com. Share your hunt with Tacticam. Now, as the temps begin to drop, I know I'll be hunting in comfort with my Huntworth camo. Huntworth is making high quality, technical hunting clothing at a fraction of the price of other brands.[00:01:00]
This time of year, I'm making sure to layer smart. I start with a set of base layers, either the Casper or the Bangor, which I have found to be very comfortable and moisture wicking. Next, I'll have on either my Elkins mid weight top and bottom. Or my Saskatoon heavyweight top and bottom. Either way. I'm also going to be bringing my Saskatoon vest and because the hunting often gets better when the weather turns nasty this time of year, the Winstead rain suit lives in my Hickory pack all the time.
And I can honestly say that this is the best rain suit that I have ever used. You can learn more or grab your Huntworth gear today at huntworthgear. com. And finally, the Onyx Hunt app is an absolutely indispensable tool for me this time of year. If I'm not in the action, I'm going to be making a move to go find it.
And the Onyx Hunt app helps me identify those terrain features that I want to key in on with their latest aerial imagery additions. The app now has fully functional 3d on both iOS and Android low resolution satellite images updated every [00:02:00] two weeks with historic look back and leaf off imagery, all in addition to the base maps that you've always had in the app.
Get more out of your maps this season and know where you stand with the Onyx hunt app. Now let's get into this week's show.
All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the how to hunt deer podcast. Pierce. It feels good to be recording this. In my own podcast studio and not in the car or in some random house where I'm staying. Just gotta say. Yep, I believe that, man. We were burning the candle at both ends.
Yeah, we both were, man. We both were. It was a wild couple of weeks for a little bit of rut hunting there in, in Wisconsin. And I don't want to lead folks astray. into thinking that their season is over at this point, right? Like gun season in Wisconsin is still going on. There are gun [00:03:00] seasons that are just opening up all around the country.
We got a lot of hunting left. I'm going to be hunting clear into February. So the season is not over yet, but I want to talk today. lIke it is. Because I put so many of my eggs in the rutcation basket, right? I set aside 12 days in November to hunt. Now, any given year, if I hunt 20 days, I count that as a really good year.
And that may not be 20 all day sits. It may be, 10 all day sits and 10, afternoons or, an afternoon and an evening here or whatever but days total devoted to actually sitting for deer. I'm not a 40 or 50 sits a season kind of guy. I wish I was, I would be if I could sit in my backyard, but I can't effectively.
And so I put all my eggs in that basket of trying to get it done during my, quote unquote, rut, rutcation every year. [00:04:00] The rutcation is over Pierce. I'm back at home. You're not hunting like you were. We learned a few things, right? I don't want to wait until the end of the season, sit back and say, okay, what have we learned?
Because I learned a lot during this trip. I don't want to forget it. I don't want to lose it. I don't want to not share it. With people who have been listening along and have appreciated what we've had to offer in the past of saying here's what we picked up. Here's what we learned about ourselves as hunters.
What we did right, what we did wrong, all that kind of stuff. Pierce, I thought what we would do today, if you're up for it, is to say, okay, we are past what I would say is probably our peak. We're past our prime, Pierce. And I don't mean that physically as men. What I mean is that we're past our prime in the deer season.
Okay. The rut is in many ways behind us. I'll, I still have a rut to hunt in Alabama, but it's not like the Wisconsin rut at all. It's going to be very different. So the best of our season very likely is behind us. [00:05:00] So what did we learn? I want to talk about what we did well, what we didn't do well, and maybe what we're changing up this year.
So let's kick it off with what did we not do well and Mr. Pierce Nellis just for the record here, how many deer have you killed with your bow this year? One, one doe, correct? Yeah. We're not able to seal the deal during. Maybe you're ration too. I don't know if you call yours a ration, but like I wouldn't call it a ration.
You would, yeah, you would. I'm not gonna be hunting that hard for Yeah. For the rest of the year. I don't think I I just don't have the, don't have the bandwidth for it at this point. Days and shorter and there's lots of other work to catch up on. Exactly. Exactly. We both put our eggs in that basket, right?
Yeah. And so we'll call 'em rut ations for both of us. You shot a dough with your bow. I shot a very small buck with my bow. So we do not have the [00:06:00] 150s on the wall at this point that we thought we might. So let's discuss Pierce. What where do you want to begin? I guess I should say.
I'd like to begin with the stupid blind optimism we had all early fall. And how that came back to just slap us in the face. No kidding. But yeah and we've talked about that a little bit on this show and on the Wisconsin Sportsman. If you've podcast, you really need to go listen to it. Like we've had some really good conversations here lately.
Revolving around our hunting and we've talked about this blind optimism piece. I don't know that it did kick us in the face though. It didn't man. I needed it bad. Like I, if we did anything right, I think that blind optimism maybe not from the sense or the standpoint of it's just going to happen magically or whatever.
But at the same time, I think going into, if you're going into a rut cage where you're doing. 10 all day sits or whatever, like you got to gear up mentally for that. If you don't have a full head of steam going in there and just, I don't know, [00:07:00] a little bounce in your step, just something kind of fuel in the fire of just Hey, it's going to happen.
I don't know. I don't know when, why or how, but it's something's going to work out. I know it. I think you need that to get through a rut. You know what I mean? And. And here's where I'm at. I need to remind myself, here's the rut you've got. However many days you're hunting a good area, right?
If you put those things together, you got a couple of days, four, five, six, 10 days, In the rut, in a decent area, you're going to get an opportunity, right? It's not, am I going to get an opportunity? You're going to get an opportunity. Will you capitalize on it, right? So I think that's lots of reason to have that optimism, right?
Like we can go in and be like really assured, like it's going to happen. We're going to have that moment of oh, crap, there's a buck I want to shoot, right? How are we going to [00:08:00] capitalize on that? And I think we're both in a position where maybe that happened and we didn't capitalize.
We could maybe do a couple of things different. Maybe tell me a little bit about your blind optimism. Like, how did it serve you well? And then are there ways in which you're eh? But I can't really do that next year.
That's a good question. I think it really served me well from the standpoint of just having confidence for better or worse going into the woods, not being cocky, but just having confidence in, like you said, I'm going to this spot. And at some point a deer is going to come through here.
I'm like, I know that for a fact. I think a lot of things contributed to that, both from the standpoint of preparation and, both of us were shooting our bows, not as much as we had in years past, but we were both shooting really well. And I, we've talked about it several times before that we've each kind of gotten bitten by the the target panic bug and had to work through that whole process and refine our whole shooting process [00:09:00] as a whole.
And that's, that's been a. Two, two and a half year process. Like it's a, it is not something that's easy to to just, you don't fix it overnight. And so I think having the confidence in how we were shooting going into it so that if we're in a position where things play out, we were confident enough to make those shots.
I think just being confident in our, our. Or woodsmanship was a big one this year. I think just in general, this whole year, like if there was a theme around any of it, I think it's woodsmanship and just being able to pick out where the best sign is and find sign and spot the subtleties.
I know both of us were looking at tracks more than. At least I can say for myself, we were eyeing up tracks and sizing them up and stuff and just read and sign, in that regard, which like normally like I'll look at the ground and go, okay, deer trail here. And okay, there's a scrape over there, but this year actually analyzing okay, no, there's a couple of really big tracks [00:10:00] on this trail.
I'm going to stay on it. And, even looking in scrapes to like, okay, has a big buck. Hit this recently. Yeah that was a big one for me. That was a big one for me. This is the first year, maybe not the first year, but like anytime I came up on a scrape, most of them had some kind of leaves in them, right?
And I'm talking, I was grabbing individual leaves and pulling them out of the scrape so that I could, so that I could save whatever tracks were underneath. And look into what's in there and usually that's not my MO, but yeah, so I think, just having the confidence, like I said, in the prep from, the shooting standpoint the sign identify identification and interpretation standpoint and Honestly, just we each had some encounters that kind of fueled the fire big time early on, like first times going into a spot and seeing a buck that we would be very excited to send [00:11:00] an arrow at I think stuff like that is, for better or worse, because that can obviously just drive you crazy and.
You can't get too hung up on one specific thing, but, at the same time, you need those encounters. You need that kind of stuff to fuel the fire and keep you going throughout the whole rut. Yeah, no, that's good. I think for me, the blind optimism helped me in some ways because it was like, I know that if I take these steps and if I do these things and I go to this place and I push myself to get back in here, I'm going to have encounters with deer.
So that was really good and helpful. I think there is an element, though, where the blind optimism maybe dulled my edge just a little bit. And I don't want to blame it for it, necessarily. But, one of the things that I didn't do well, and I guess we'll transition into what we didn't do well this year, right?
What we didn't do well, what I didn't do well was when I started my hunt, I did not go [00:12:00] in in kill mode. I did not have my head in the right place to kill something. I Was sloppy. I was lackadaisical maybe like I was, so for instance, like the first evening in, I get to a spot where I'm going to glass want to see something different.
So I like get up, shimmy down this little hill and set up in a different spot. My pack is 10 yards behind me. My grunt tube is 10 yards behind me. Yeah, I have my bow and my binos, but like I didn't flatten out the spot. So when I do see a deer, I dropped my binos and they fall, two feet. Instead of just setting them on the grass, like I thought was going to happen, I didn't expect them to roll down the hill kind of thing.
So I would just, I was, the edges were soft, man. I wasn't dialed. And I think that is linked to my optimism. I think I had this idea of it's just, it's going to happen. So just be here for it, just be here when it does, but I forgot the execution side of things.
And so it dulled my senses [00:13:00] maybe just a little bit. And I think that cost me, I know that cost me dear, I know for a fact that cost me dear in my first couple of days. So that's something I'm going to work on next year. I do want to go into next year being very optimistic, the blind optimism a little bit again.
My dad this year, man, didn't put out any trail cameras. He's had more fun this year than he's had in any years past. Like I'm legit thinking about, you know what, I'm not going to fool with trail cameras until, not on my trips anyway, until I get there. And then once I'm there, if I want to hang some cameras and check them and see if deer are coming through great, that's fine.
I'm not going to pre hang, right here at home. Yeah. I'm going to put cameras out and watch them all year and see what they do and blah, blah, blah. I don't think I'm going to do that for the distance thing, man. I just want to go in like I was this year. But I want to have an edge to me. I want to be confident, but I also want to be dialed and like sharp.
That's what I didn't do. Man what's one of your. What's one of your things because you know we joked [00:14:00] about the blind optimism But I think that's something that we did and we didn't do well like that. That's boom, right? So what's one of the things that like you're thinking to yourself?
You're maybe kicking yourself for now. You know Before we move on to that there's something to be said too I think it's a lot harder than people want to admit to kill on day one Maybe that's just me, but I'm someone who, I'm like you I need a day in the woods of getting my bearings and everything to, really knock the rust off more or less and feel lethal for lack of a better term.
Dude. I felt like a child. I felt like a child out for a walk in the woods. Like looking back at it now, that's the best thing I can equate it to. I was a kid out there with a bow in his hand. Yeah, Yeah, I think it's, I think it's difficult to kill on day one. I really do. Because like I said, like I'm somebody who takes time to settle in, but also [00:15:00] I like hunting, man.
I don't want to end my trip day one, as much as that sucks. And I know there's the old saying, I'm like, Oh, don't pass on the first day. What you'd be happy to have on the last day. Yeah, I get that within reason, but I did it a bunch. Steve, you drove 15 hours if you would have shot one first evening and packed up and been like, all right I've got another 11 days up here.
So what now? I know you had plans and we want to harass some fall turkeys and chase some ducks and try to stack up the does. At the same time. It's tough to do it right off the bat. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah, it is. But, and I don't know, but then it's here.
Here's my thing. Here's my thing. If I had, if I had not been sloppy, lackadaisical, like a child in the woods, I would not have left my grunt tube and I would not have set my binos down the way that I did. If I hadn't set my [00:16:00] binos down the way that I did. I would have been able to pick them back up and look at what was following the doe with my binos instead of trusting my eyes.
I would have probably picked up on more of the rack of this buck because of that. If I had my grunt tube, when he started to go in a wrong direction that I didn't like. I could have thrown a grunt his way that can be extremely helpful. And so combine those two things and actually just the binos.
If I had thrown the binos up, seen more of the rack instead of just thinking it was a little fork, I would have sent that arrow perfectly. I would have sent the arrow, right? I don't know how perfectly I would have sent the arrow. And been tagged out on day one. It was just, I wasn't lethal yet. I was soft.
Do you use a bino harness or any sort of strap? Yes. Yeah. Yes. I had no excuse not to have them on Pierce. Yes. Thank you for bringing that up. I have this awesome vortex bino [00:17:00] harness. That's super comfortable. And keeps them exactly where I want them all the time. So there's no chest back or to use like the, you know how they've got that.
It's like super minimalist, but it's almost like a sling or like the, just the straps that you can slide the binos up and then let them hang back down. Then what you mean, the ones that are just like super convenient where you don't even have to look. And use your hands. Yeah.
That's the one that I use. But the, is it like the tan one? That's got the flip top that the vinyl is nestled in. It's just the strap. It's just the strap one. So if I'd just had that on, it would have been just a quick, like back down. That'd have been, yeah. Yes. Pierce. Thank you for bringing that up.
I really appreciate that. That's going to go into another one. We're going to talk about gear here in a little bit. Yeah. Didn't mean to throw into the bus there. Literally. I just had that. That realization of maybe he had his hot or his bino harness off, but yeah, it's like one of those guys who just stuffs by nose in his backpack.
And no, I'm an idiot. I just wasn't wearing my harness. [00:18:00] Oh, I just wasn't wearing it. Just a dumb. That's tough. Just a dumb. And that would have been sweet too, man. Cause that would have been like a one 40 plus deer. 145 plus deer on the ground, right? That would have been sick. Yeah, that would have been incredible.
But anyway, and yeah, the thermal play that went into that. Yeah, it doesn't matter anyway. Alright, so that's what I didn't do well, Pierce. What can we throw you under the bus for? I think I did try to force. Some spots when I maybe shouldn't have there were times hunting out of my folks place that I it was the very start of my retication that, that.
November 1st there we'd discussed it. I basically I went in the dark, got set up well before first light, felt great about it was in there. And then as light started to creep [00:19:00] in, I didn't really realize that I guess until the first couple of deer started moving through, but a scrape had opened up honeysuckle bush directly below my trees.
So that when a deer came through. And they went to paw up the ground and then they tilted their head up to lick this branch. They looked straight at me and I think I, I tried to push it thinking like if I'm really still, or if I'm like tight to the tree, it's not going to be an issue. Or if I see one coming down this trail, like I'm going to shoot it before it gets to, this certain, basically before they reach the scrape and.
I think had I had a buck come down the trail that I wanted to shoot, yeah, it probably would have happened, but I got seen by enough does that I think it bumped them off their pattern. And obviously if you're hunting the rut, you're [00:20:00] hunting does right? You got to be where the does are at.
If you're going to be, drawing a buck near you and. So I think I just forced it. Like I underplayed the impact that I really put on the land there. And, I think after I got spooked that first time I should have moved, should have completely torn down and like hopped trees and bumped around a little bit there.
And, my wind was swirly as well, which I think in hindsight, like if I've got a wind that swirls like that, rather than. jUst banking on thermals and banking on what the weather says, because it was the kind of thing where it was like, yeah, the wind's going to be blowing to the Northeast.
Eight miles an hour. And then you're out there and it's gusts of eight miles an hour, but then it's dead in between. And then thermals grab hold and they're causing issues. And so I think I was just sloppy in that regard. I think that caused me to burn out that spot a lot quicker than I probably should have.
Cause normally that's a spot that you can, like in years past [00:21:00] to I've, before I really even paid attention to thermals and wind and all that stuff, it was just we were on the Wisconsin sportsman yesterday about. The gun strategy for that spot, because it's on a five acre parcel is put your butt in that stand, no matter which way the wind's blowing and get ready because, suddenly the whole property is pretty much unlocked to you rather than archery season where you got to wait for him to get close.
And yeah I used to bow hunt. That property just like that. And yeah, I would like maybe spook some deer, but I didn't get spotted. Like I did. And so I think hopping trees after I've been seen, like getting out of a spot and like trying to find somewhere better, I realized now that I was pretty backlit and that spot too.
So I think I would like to. Down the road work on what's behind me. And as the season went on, like after that hunt, like the rest of the season, I think I did make those changes pretty well when I was hunting public. But yeah, I think just trying to force it on that [00:22:00] private. It's like the number one thing that I did to screw that, that property up.
That makes sense, man. I have something similar. I feel like that hunt that I spent the day on the ground in the marsh, I feel like I was forcing it. I feel like I should have. Now, was I on the X that day? Absolutely. Was I gonna get away with it if a mature buck stepped through there? Probably not.
It was a tough one. I probably should have backed off the X a little bit, gotten in a tree. Cause I busted every doe that came through there. The only deer that didn't pick me off. Was the forky that stepped out at six yards like I felt like I could trip I felt like I could stick my arm or my leg out and trip this thing as he was walking in front of me But it was one of those places that it's like, you know what?
I probably should have backed off just a little bit a price should have taken my pressure into account I don't know you just you get sloppy and you feel like you can just get away with it Like you just have that like I can get away with this no, that's a good one. That's a good one. I [00:23:00] think access, coming off of that is, is another thing, right?
It's just, especially like on public and stuff too. And just being mindful, like I didn't pay attention to ground scent. I was like, there's squirrel hunters that, are all over this property all the time. Like the deer are used to human scent, whatever. They don't give a crap. Let's get in here.
And I'll just, my, my strategy will be get in there quietly without getting winded. But I'm still laying down grounds and, I'm still walking. The top of this draw to drop down into it when maybe I should have been granted, Bottom access is impossible on this place.
But yeah Yeah, no, that makes sense. I will say I didn't do much for I didn't worry much about ground scent now If I was going to be hunting a specific spot I didn't walk through that spot to get to the tree, if I expected them to walk right there and I was going to get my shot right there I wasn't going to walk through that and then climb the tree but like I didn't worry about it a lot when it came to access.
Some of these places are just so hard to access anyway, that it's like, you're only, if you're like I don't have [00:24:00] perfect access. It's okay, your other option is just not hunted. liKe just not hunt that bang up spot over there, like that's your other, that's your other choice.
And so if you've got private land yeah, make that choice, like you can do it, but if you're on, if you're hunting public, like we were doing, then you don't, you don't have an option, it's not like you can go in there three months beforehand and clear yourself a nice, quiet lane and, have it all dialed in and ready to go.
Let's see, what else did I not do? Man. I might catch flack for this and I hope it maybe just sparks some discussion, some thought in people's own minds. I did not stick to my own standards, um, when it came to this hunt. I've always said, I've always been the type to say, don't pass on the first day what you would shoot on the last.
At the same time, I shot, so like counting it all up, I really had one day left to hunt because Dude, I spent a whole day dealing with this deer [00:25:00] afterwards, like trying to get it cleaned up and get all my stuff, then get all my gear packed back in the car. There was a whole day's, a whole day worth of work that went into getting back on the road.
So I was talking like I had two days left on, I really had one day left to hunt and even that would have been pushing it close. So this was my last afternoon, really, I probably would have hunted the next morning and then started packing. So I got to that last day and I had that buck walk through and I did shoot the buck Even then my excitement was tinged with regret.
And I'm trying to work through personally whether that's related to, like you alluded to earlier, saying do you think that's related to the pressure that you feel because you host a podcast? You know what I mean? And I just want to put that out there on the air for people. There is a pressure that comes with it.
And I know you guys do not give a rip what I shoot. Nobody listening to this cares what I shoot. But at the same time, I host a hunting podcast and I feel like I should be shooting bigger deer,[00:26:00] and I had opportunities at bigger deer early in the week. In fact, like four days in a row earlier in the week, I had opportunities at bigger deer.
Some I passed some, I just couldn't pull the shot off. And yeah don't pass on the first day what you would shoot on the last, but then there's also this element of I shot on the last day, what wouldn't have normally shot on the last day. You know what I mean? And that now would I rather have come back with this buck than nothing?
Absolutely. 10 days out of 10. I'd rather come back with something than nothing. At the same time. I am kicking myself. It's what could it was three in the afternoon. What would have happened at four? What would have happened at four 30? What would happen at five? I don't know. What would have happened the next morning?
I don't know. So I don't know, man. It, part of me is kicking myself for that. Not sticking to my own standards and my own standards weren't high. They were, I wanted to shoot a deer that was a hundred inches or more, that was my goal. [00:27:00] And I shot a deer that's probably 75 inches.
And am I happy? Yeah. Is he going to be Euro mounted? Yeah. Am I sad too? Yeah. So I don't know how to deal with that. They're like, that's a weird that's a weird. tear, in me mentally. And I haven't felt this kind of a tear since I shot my last rifle buck, which was in 2019. It was a six point, smaller buck, but it was in, it was deep South Alabama.
So like he was a two year old for sure, possibly a three year old. So good buck, but I shot him with a rifle. It was my first afternoon in the stand. My dad was like, Hey, I got a picture of this buck coming out at this time on this food plot. And I was like, cool. And I went out there and the buck was like five minutes early and I shot him, and I shot him at 75 yards with a 30 06 and it was over.
There was no skill strategy, nothing of my own in that. I felt, I feel that same kind of like tinge. [00:28:00] And I don't know what to do with it. This is basically a 10 minute therapy session for me. No, I, I don't think you're alone in those feelings. And I think that's, something that's maybe overlooked by a lot of people because it's the expectation of for in this field, we better know how to, for in this field, we better be.
Good enough to. Put a good deer down. And so you're wrestling with that, but you're also wrestling with the it's my tag. It's my hunt. And it's not buck shame people. And let's not make people feel like crap. It's their tag. They can shoot whatever they want.
And at the end of the day, you still make that decision. It's still meat in the freezer, which is great. You can't eat antlers. It's not worth, I think you don't forget the feeling because it's going to influence how you hunt next year. I think. Maybe, I don't mean to speak for you here, maybe it's the kind of thing where it's like, all right, next year I didn't [00:29:00] see what I wanted.
All right, last two days of the hunt, I'm hopefully gonna be hopefully I fill my buck tag. But otherwise, like I'm dough hunting and it's on, and it's meat mission for this last couple of days. Yeah. I don't know. It's a tough thing. I literally just had the same kind of thing happen, the same sort of feeling of tinged with regret, partially because.
My shot wasn't where I thought it was on my Wisconsin rifle opener buck. But, it's the kind of thing where you see those deer, you get up to them and you're like, ah, it's maybe could have waited a year. Maybe I should have waited another couple hours for something to come by. I think no matter how long you've hunted before every hunters had that moment.
Unless you are super, super strict and you're like, nope, I'm never shooting anything that's smaller than what I've shot previously. Like I'm only shooting bigger and bigger deer. It, it, for a lot of everyday folks, like it's. It's tough to do. Yeah. It's really [00:30:00] tough to do. And especially with social media.
Now it's, it seems by November 8th, it seems like everybody's got to buck down. Oh dude. It was, it Everybody's got a slammer. Yeah. And so it's, yeah. I, Ryan Glitsky, like he, he would even. Put out on his story is like the best thing you can do to keep your mind like at this point in the rut is stay the hell off of social media, right?
Like it's true, right? It really is and I think, it's important to if you feel bad about. Not feel bad, but if you have this tinge of kind of regret, uh, over the buck you shot it's, it's your feeling, yeah. And I don't mean to say that to um, to make it sound like nobody cares, but you said it yourself.
Like most people don't like, I know for a fact, nobody gives a crap, what kind of buck I shot. Nobody cares. You know what I mean? You look at your buddies who, yeah, they shot a slammer, but you're never going to go over to that guy's house. And yeah, and maybe you do. I don't know.
[00:31:00] Like the number of acquaintances on social media or whatever, who are, they shot a big buck and it's like, all right that's a hell of a deer, but I'm never going to go over to his house and have a beer with them. And, put my hands on that and, talk about the hunt with them.
You know what I mean? Like it's, it is what it is. It's the social media is the highlight reel, right? Hey guys. Just want to take a quick minute to let you know that the how to hunt deer podcast is brought to you by Tacticam. Makers of the best point of view cameras on the market for hunters and anglers.
They're on the cutting edge, making user friendly cameras to help the everyday outdoorsman share your hunt with friends and loved ones. Their new 6. 0 camera has a ton of upgraded features this year, but the one I'm most excited about is the new LCD touchscreen. In my mind, that's a total game changer.
And one area Tacticam really shines is with their mounts and adapters that are made with the sportsman in mind. If you've tried to film your hunting and fishing excursions in the past, you know how frustrating it can be to get an action camera aimed just right or get it attached to your weapon or in a good [00:32:00] spot for a second angle.
Tacticam makes all of that a breeze with their line of accessories. This fall, I'll be using their stabilizer mount on my bow with a 6. 0 camera and their bendy clamp paired with a 5. 0 wide camera for a second angle and to make sure I don't miss any of the action. To learn more and check out their full line of products, head over to their website, Tacticam.
com. Share your hunt with Tacticam. Yeah. Oh, for sure, man. And you know what? Anybody else that shot this buck, it would be all high fives. If I saw anybody else shoot this buck, I would be stoked for them. And I think, so here's part of it too. I thought it was a two year old, but when I got up on him, I was like, oh, okay, that's a yearling.
But he's a yearling buck that was not a forky or a spike like I'd been seeing all week long. No, he was a big yearling. He was a big yearling. And so I'm like crap. There's part of me that feels that regret because he is such a big yearling. He's got like a 13 and a half inch inside spread, decent tine length. Like he was a good yearling, like he's one of those that at two [00:33:00] years old, he's 115, 120. And you're like, boy, at three, four, he could have been a toad. So part of me feels that just from a deer management perspective. Then again, it's public land. There's limited time.
I was just about to say that it just, it is what it is. Anyway, that's me. I didn't stick. And I think that's probably the disappointing part of all of it. I didn't stick to my own standards. Not anybody else's I didn't stick to my own. But you know what I made a good kill. That's an important distinction.
Oh, yeah, for sure. Your standards are unique to you. Anyone listening to this, your own standards are unique to you. Doesn't matter what people are killing on social media. It doesn't matter what your buddies are getting. It's your tag at the right. So You're not happy with it. It's on you. You got every right to complain about it.
Yeah, don't do it too much. Move on. But yep. Yeah, it's your feeling. For sure. For sure. All right, Pierce, next thing that maybe you didn't [00:34:00] do so well. I'm gonna stick to trying to force it just a little bit here because I did that in a couple of ways. I'm not trying to remember how much I discussed the, that big buck that we had on our private land on this show, but we had a really nice I'm sitting here I'm like, I don't even know, honestly, but it wasn't even the other one.
That was a nine. I think I want to say this guy's a nine. I really should know this. Honestly, I was more so just looking at the frame and being like, yep he's a tank. That's what's good. But anyways, just, yeah, giant, like biggest buck we've had on our property ever. And I was keying in on him and I was.
Really starting to pattern and we had photos of him cutting through our little perfect [00:35:00] five acre parcel and I was like he loves this spot on a South wind South winds. The only time I'm going to get in there and hunt him and sure enough he only showed up on our camera on a South wind.
Yeah, cameras only. That's what's one spot on the property, right? He may have been all over the place. 10 yards from the camera or, 50 yards from it. Who knows? But I really. Got keyed in on that deer and then after it blew out our private, I went over to public, saw a really nice buck first day I was in there and was like, okay, that's the buck.
This is where he is on this wind. I think this is where he beds. I'm going to make game plan after game plan based around this buck in this draw on this point and try and just slowly tighten the net. And I did, I had another great encounter on the same exact wind, [00:36:00] very similar conditions, had him at 36 yards.
He was just standing in some tall stuff, decided to walk away from me rather than down, like basically he was at a fork and two trails, he went. Down the left one, instead of coming down the right one to me and I didn't get a crack at them, but I was very obsessed with hunting that deer as well as on the private hunting that big one.
I had these two bucks and I was like, they like these conditions in this area. Here's when I need to be in there. And I was just really locked into those areas rather than maybe being like, okay it is also the rut. Let's go sit a funnel, let's go sit, along some bench some sort of a travel corridor instead of trying to bed hunt this bluff buck, which was weird because we've talked about it too.
I, I don't know that buck was really like ruddy on public by any means, because he was hanging out in his bedroom, like [00:37:00] just after first light, just milling around. And then he would go and lay down. He was not mouth hanging open. He was not all bristled up. He was. In his bedroom, just chillin out.
So I don't know if most of the rutting activity just takes place at night over there, but you would still think, but November 5th and November 12th is when I saw him, you would still think that throughout that time, he should be out cruising. During the day, and maybe he's just, he's, he could just be an old bluff buck.
And I think he is, I think he's definitely an older deer. But I just got so locked in on that buck and that draw and those conditions and trying to like sneak in and bed hunt him rather than maybe being like, okay, I should go sit. Somewhere with a higher concentration of deer rather than throwing all my chips at this is the spot.
I'm gonna kill him on his way back to bed in early November. You know what I mean? Yeah, let me ask you, let me ask you this. How do you do you enjoy sitting rut [00:38:00] funnels? I do, yeah. Okay. I, Dude, this is the first year that I really had, that I've really jumped in with both feet on the public.
Gotcha. Gotcha. At least during the rut. Cause normally I, I'll hunt public in the early season just to, knock the rust off and, see what I can see. But then come the rut, I go to the, the private and I just grind it out and wait. This year I did the total opposite. I shot a doe off of the private.
Hung out there for the first three or four days November and then it was all public from there on out. Yeah I'm just wondering like how much of this is like man You should have done something different and how much of it is like Pierce is discovering What like how he likes to hunt? Dude, I do picking out a specific buck that's you mentioned that when we were talking last night like yeah, you mentioned that last night and I'm just wondering is it [00:39:00] really a bad thing?
Yeah, you, so results wise, right? Like having a book on the ground, what's that? I think there's a time and a place for it, probably. So maybe you should have played everything exactly the same until Ol Sun was in there every day. And then maybe you should have bailed for the rut funnel.
Is that what you're thinking? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, exactly. Because I did pressure that spot. Dude, I got that spot dialed. I got it absolutely dialed. I figured out too that one of my favorite things, like my favorite thing in the woods for like access and like scooting around is finding areas that have been logged and have a bunch of downed trees because I love just jumping up on a downed log and running across the top of it, totally silent and then dropping down.
Into some thick stuff, moving a little bit more, popping up on the next trunk, scooting along that for another 10, 20 feet. Cause it's especially when it's dry. Like it has been this fall, all the leaves are down. Dude, that is like [00:40:00] the best way to get around. Yeah. It's quiet. It's not necessarily low viz.
No, not by a long shot. But if you're going in at night and what's that if you're going in at night going in the dark, like no big deal Pierce. All right. So we've talked about things we've done wrong and I don't want to leave the podcast there. We've got a lot of, like, we've got a list of more, I've got a lot of things that I did wrong that I would want to do different.
That I just, I'm just not going to get too much into them. Those were the big ones that I've shared for me already. I want to talk about what we got, right? Like I want to walk away from this season with a win. Now, obviously I've got a win in the freezer. I just got done processing this buck, yesterday, got a win in the freezer.
I've got. His antlers and his meat in my freezer right now, which is great. But I've got a couple of other wins that I got really right. [00:41:00] The first one is I'm going to play a kind of off of what you were saying that you forced things quite a bit. I did not force my shots this year. I had two opportunities, a third, if you count.
I'm not even going to talk about that one. Two opportunities at two bucks that I would have been happy with. One was at 25 yards with a little bit of brush and he was moving at an uncomfortable pace. The second was about 35 yards, under 35 but over 30 yards for sure. Probably more in that like 33 to 35 range, right?
Yeah. A little bit further than I am comfortable with. Both of these bucks were much larger than the one that I ended up shooting. Both of these bucks would have been a different story. Had I shot them, I would be sitting here man, I met my goal for the year. My goal was a hundred inches plus these are in that one 15 plus range.
Okay. Got video of the one work in a scrape [00:42:00] frigging beautiful. I did not force those shots though. I did not take the 25 yard shot through brush because I'm shooting expandable broadheads this year. I wouldn't have taken it with fixed blade either. But the expandable part went through my head when I like drew back and I was like, oh, no.
And I let down. anD then I didn't force the long shot, And so I am really proud of that. That is a huge win for me in the past. That buck would have come in, I would have drawn back, and that arrow would have been gone, and I would have been like, what happened? I would have zero recollection of what, what went on.
buT I didn't do that, man. I did that I was controlled, I was calm. I didn't try to force those deer to come home with me. Granted, those were both, Mm, no, one was actually the last day of my hunting. Yeah, so I was proud of that specific point because that highlights a growth area for me.
Peers I'm [00:43:00] curious what highlights a growth area for you when you look back on your season any instance, I think Just touching on what you just said there too I think the feelings that you had there too of sticking to your own standards and like That sort of feeling of remorse or a little bit of after you've, took that deer down and all that is, I think that's another sign of growth too.
And just having that awareness of that's, it's not quite what my standards are. Yeah. Establishing those standards, I think as an outdoorsman is, a room that an area for growth that never really goes away. You know what I mean? Like just having in your mind.
This is what I'm after. As far as myself I do think I, I'm very proud of how hard I got into that public and how much I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and, really tack. I basically I was, I had two public properties that I was targeting. [00:44:00] Polar opposites. One was a bunch of islands, like a whole chain of them in this marshy area.
The other was bunch of just like bluffs. Like it was like straight up bluff country. It was a super steep half mile hike to get up to where it needed to be. And, just. Really diving in to both of those areas throughout the early season. And then during the rut and everything and finding, finding fresh sign, finding where the deer are at, getting the confirmation of, yeah, at least in the bluffs of the first morning in there, granted, I forgot my Forgot to wear my saddle in had I not forgotten that and I would've gotten set up in there I probably, I don't know that I would've seen that buck.
I really know. I have no clue. I got in there a half hour before first light, had to hike all the way back out to get it, got back to my car at first light, not a couple minutes after, and then hiked all the way back in. So it was probably 20, 30 minutes after first [00:45:00] light and lo and behold, there's this buck and so I don't really know, maybe I would have seen it.
Maybe I wouldn't have pushing into these areas like we said, getting out of my comfort zone, finding these spots. I'm honestly, I'm really proud of how much better I've gotten at. E scouting and picking out here's where if I, here's what it looks like deer are using the stuff and just getting quicker and quicker at identifying different pinch points and, trying to figure out where the benches are at.
And I think that's something that like, you know, a lot of people, especially if you're. Newer to hunting and stuff. You hear everybody talks about, Oh, there's a pinch or pinch point. Here's a funnel. There's this bench and there's these saddles and stuff like that. But dude, I remember, not that long ago, all those terms were just like buzzwords and they were completely foreign to me.
I'm like, okay, I know deer like pinch points and yeah, you should sit in a rut funnel, but like, How do I get into a rut funnel and how do I [00:46:00] like set up on it? Do I set up on it? How do I set up near it? What's close enough? What's too far? I'm very happy with the growth that I made in that regard of picking out spots on the map and saying like, all right, this looks pretty darn good.
Let's go in, get boots on the ground confirmation, and then figure out what tree I need to be in. To set up off of that spot. And I think there's a, there's that growth process too, where, we think about it in a single season where we're like tightening the noose around the deer that we're after.
But I think that's, I think that's probably a good way to look at what we're doing with map scouting and that kind of thing too. Like we're slowly tightening that noose of understanding when it comes to okay, where are the deer going to be, and every year we're a little tighter and a little closer.
But man, you called it like. In both spots, like you called where you were going to find deer sign and like where you were going to get on the deer. Yeah, I think you did a great job with that. Let me ask you this. Do you think it's more beneficial when you're [00:47:00] going into public or you're trying to break down an area?
Do you think it's more beneficial to pick a certain spot and be like, I am going to figure out this 10, 15 acre block and I'm going to learn it like the back of my freaking hand. Or looking at the property as a whole and being like, this looks deary. I'm going to go here today and see what happens there.
And now it wasn't that great. I'm going to go over here the next day when, cause I'm, I almost have like that, that FOMO where I'm like, I'm missing something like there's gotta be something more in here. There's a trail that cuts through here and there's trails branching off of it.
Like, where are they going? There's gotta be, something, some part of the puzzle that I'm missing in this one little spot. What is it? Yeah, man. I laugh at that because
so I've got a piece of public down the road. It's 30, 000 acres. I'm literally warring right [00:48:00] now with like, how do I approach this? Yeah. Do I decide, okay, this is the area, this is the 500, this is my 500. And I'm going to learn it like the back of my hand and know everything about it, or am I going to hunt this spot over here and then check out this spot over here and then this spot over here and that spot over here?
I don't know, man. I don't know. I feel like generally speaking, anywhere that I go, if I section off a 500 acre chunk, there is an animal in there that I would be happy to shoot. Yeah. And so is 500 acres learnable? I think so. I Think you can take 500 acres and learn it like the back of your hand.
May take you a couple of seasons, may take you two, maybe even three seasons, but I think you can learn it. So I think long term that's probably the best approach. At the [00:49:00] same time, I think a lot of it probably has to do with temperament. Are you the adventurous type, what's your specific goal for that specific property?
And, for me, it just happens to oftentimes be like, I want to learn this spot, like the back of my hand so that I can, where I hunt in Wisconsin right now, I know of four killer spots. I've got a spot for any wind that I would feel confident sitting on any given day. Access is simple enough that I can get in there somewhat clean.
And feel confident hunting it. There's a lot of other really good spots that I'd love to learn. It's a beast to get in there. You just, you're not going to do it quiet and your hunt is blown. Like maybe you get back in there and get lucky, but to me, a two mile hike for hoping to get lucky, not good enough.
So I've got that spot dialed. I know it like the back of my hand. [00:50:00] Hopefully that will free me up to in future years when I'm hunting this spot to say now I can go be adventurous. Like I've got a spot that I know I can make targeted strikes. I can also, head out there to where you're hunting and, go blow up that go blow up that drainage that you were trying to hunt that way.
I will say this too, had I not seen that buck. In there on that first day, I would have probably dipped. You'd have just ridden that place off. I don't know if I would have ridden it off, because there was some massive sign, especially up at the top of it there was a huge heavy scrape.
And, that first morning after I saw that buck, I moved around to the other side of the drainage where he'd gone. And... As I walked past the scrape, I stopped, took a leak in it and got set up, sat there for another like two, three hours. And this is probably like a hundred yards or so from where I ended up setting up on that other side.
Dude, when I walked back out, that scrape, [00:51:00] like the branch over top of it had been snapped and ripped off and was laying on top of that that scrape. Deer were using it, like they were all over the place and there was, biggest. Biggest, most aggressive rubs I've ever seen in my life. And so I was feeling confident in there.
I think I probably would have neglected the side that I ended up actually hunting, like where that buck was, do you. A lot of late season. Yeah. Do you think that other guy that was in there is pretty much the only other Hunter in there? I know, no, because there's one, cause I tried setting up over that scrape one day and I was set up in this tree it was an, it was an okay set, but I looked to my left and like level with me, like probably, I don't know how this dude did it, but like probably
15 to 18 feet up in this tree, there's [00:52:00] a trail cam I think it was one of the lone wolf ones, but there's a trail cam up on top of that shining down, not on the scrape, but on the on the trail that led out of this draw or this drainage and branched off to go to the scrape. Interesting. So I don't know if that guy's just a gun hunter or what exactly, but I'm guessing I just, I heard it as you Give me that look, this guy with the lone wolf camera.
I don't think he's just a gun hunter. I'm wondering. Yeah, we're gonna have to talk about that off air. Yeah. No, I think I know where you're going. Let's put yeah Anyway, all right, so Moving on. Anyway, i'm gonna talk about the last thing that I did well to wrap this up then we'll get back to you and Man, one thing that I did do.
I hunted midday a lot, right? I even sacrificed a couple of evenings so that I could hunt midday because like I would hunt until two, three o'clock and then I was like, there's a [00:53:00] little bit of intel that I need. I need to do a little bit of scouting. When am I going to do that scouting? I would do it in the evening or I would do it on my way out at two or three o'clock in the afternoon.
Then I would, not necessarily hunt the evening or I would go do like an observation sit or ride the roads or something like that for an evening. The reason that I liked that approach so much, number one, I wasn't always getting back so late, getting back from the woods so late.
Number two, I saw deer every mid day that I hunted every day that I hunted middle of the day. I saw deer every day that I hunted middle of the day. I saw bucks. THey weren't always big um, but you know what? I got a shot at a friggin toad at 2. 45 in the afternoon. Yeah. And then, and here's the kicker.
2. 45 in the afternoon, he comes running through, I take the shot, I shave his back, I look over into the bedding area that he just came from, and I just see a right main beam [00:54:00] that's angled down, and it's a buck walking, and I can't tell how big it is. But I can just see the slow lumber of when you get that big, that, a big boy and he's walking with that stiff legged kind of walk.
That's all I saw was just that slow cadence of this big rack sticking up and walking through. So my thought was potentially at least a more mature deer was up in that bedding area that day and had pushed that other deer out. And that's why he came. Cruising by me. Now, granted the deer that cruise by me was 135 plus inches with a sweet little drop tine.
And so I'd have been real happy with him. But the slow lumbering of the, of that right main beam that I saw, man, it's just been sticking with me, but yeah, so hunt middle of the day. Stick it out. If you're hunting near food sources, maybe don't hunt near the hunt in the middle of the day. Yeah, that might be dumb, but for sure[00:55:00] hunt middle of the day. If you're in and around bedding areas and that's what I saw with that, I will say I saw more bucks who would come and check the entrance and exit trails of the bedding. Then I saw bucks cruising downwind. Sure. Yeah. They were often on the downwind side, but a lot of times they were on the upwind side just because of where I was positioned between them.
And they would stop at the little entrance and exit trails and walk it two or three feet, five feet, six feet, 10 feet. And then go back out. They look like a bird dog trying to find one. I also saw bucks not cruising the downwind side or not checking the entrance and exit trails, but just barreling through the bedding area.
Just haul off and run straight through it. Those weren't necessarily the big ones. But they were, there were bucks up and moving. Yeah. Anyway, hunt the middle of the day. I did that really well this time. I'm going to keep doing it really well. And a lot of it was the morning movement was kind of garbage.
this year. Like I did not see a lot [00:56:00] of bucks. I didn't see a lot of deer before 9 a. m. on any day and a lot of that could be because my whole strategy, like I was in and around dough betting every day, right? There wasn't a day that I wasn't. Basically in doe bedding or just on the edge of it.
So it could have just been more of my strategy and like what I was, where I was putting myself, that was putting me on midday deer, but definitely hunting midday was a big one. Last one for you, Pierce, something you did really well this year that we need to continue to do for next.
I'm going to touch on yours, but you just said again that's. On midday is something I didn't really do this year and I'm kicking myself for that big time You know, it was just the it was just the kind of thing where yeah And part of it was I got so keyed in on that buck and his betting But man, like I it's one of those things.
I did not sit a single ruffle Midday this year and I probably should have I really probably should have. [00:57:00] I had probably, I did have a couple of midday sits out on our private land, and I saw a couple deer then, but it was after I'd blown things out. That first day, actually, when I saw that big nine, um, I saw Hammond.
Two 53 o'clock, something like that, shoving a dough around and okay. Yeah. Then I, blew my scent at him. So it's on me. It is what it is. Yeah. The one thing that I, it's a double edged sword there, whatever, with getting keyed in on this these bucks and their specific areas and their specific patterns, I do think I did a lot better job than.
This year than in years past of like actually identifying the patterns and keying in on, okay. A buck likes to be in this area with this wind. So I can set up I can figure this out figure out what tree I need to be in based off of that. I'm going to intentionally hunt on these specific winds and make a play in the setup off of that.
Go from there, yeah, highly strategic. [00:58:00] Yeah, that and I mean knocking the rust off early and shooting a doe. Yeah, I felt good Yeah, that was a good one. I need to do that next year. That's one of the things that I'm going to do next year For sure get out for a couple of hunts knock the rust off before And just busyness didn't allow me to do that this year.
It just is what it is. Next year we'll hopefully be a little bit different, but a couple of things that I'm going to do different this year, I'm just gonna throw these out there real quick and run through them and maybe you've got a couple as well, number one, I know we both talked about off air post season scouting, we're going to hammer the post season scouting this year.
I did not do that much this year. We had, I've I guess six months ago or a year ago I had just moved here not long ago and trying to figure out the public here and trying to figure out like when the freaking, gates are open so I can drive my vehicle onto the 30, 000 acres because parking at the edge of 30, 000 acres and then trying to go scouting for the day is not fun.
30, 000 acres is a lot of land. So I don't want to walk, I don't want to walk five [00:59:00] miles down the road before I want to go into the woods and walk another mile, right? That sounds and feels really lame and like a waste of time. so Post season scouting is going to be big for me. Number two, I'm going to get my shooting dialed.
As with all the research that I've done the last couple of years, I have missed, wounded, or grazed several bucks that were all really good. And it's all been shooting high, like directly over the vitals, like just across the top of the back. And I'm thinking that's a form issue. So I'm going to spend a good bit of time shooting from an elevated position at about 15 to 20 yards.
Cause that's the way I'm setting up. I'm getting shots at 15 to 20, most of the time. Like those are my shots. 15 to 20, 25 is a longer shot for where I'm like really positioned. And so I think 30, just over 30 was my longest shot opportunity of the entire trip, period. And so I'm going to spend a lot of time shooting at that downward angle because of all the research that I've done, I think I'm dropping my bow [01:00:00] arm instead of keeping good T form.
And when I'm in practicing in the backyard and shooting off the balcony and stuff, I keep good form, but I'm not doing that in the heat of the moment. I'm certainly not doing that. Practicing, getting wrapped up in my tether, spun around with the back to the tree That's leaning towards me and taking weird angled shots.
I'm not doing enough of that. So I need to do more of that And then the last one I need to get my gear dialed in man Like i've got to ditch the full length lone wolf sticks. Those have got to go. I'm too short for full length sticks I know a guy who might take them. Hey, they're yours. They're all yours, man.
They're great sticks. Like they're wonderful sticks. I really do dig them. Yeah, they're I'm just too short for it. Like they either hang down too far and so they catch on stuff beneath me. Or they stick up too high and they catch on stuff above me, or if I turn them sideways, then they're way too wide, how long are those sticks? 32 inches. Okay. Yeah. Real long. [01:01:00] Yeah. Real long. When my torso is 32 inches, I'm 5'7 so that's a lot of, that's almost 3 feet. That's, half my height. Anyway, um, yeah, that's it for me, man. Any fast, rapid fire, a couple of things you're going to be doing different this off season that you're committing to now that you want to put out there in front of thousands of listeners and say, I'm going to do this so that next year we can give you crap for not doing it.
Yep. I'm right alongside you. I'm going to be doing a lot of post season scouting this year. I'm going to. Really? I just really want to have those spots dialed in. I want to have a good idea. I want to have visual confirmation going in. Okay. Last year, this is where things were. This is the general area where, you know, uh, post season, these were the big intersections these were, this is how the deer were using the land, especially cause I've got some new areas in mind that I'm going to be trying to dial in here.
The other one, honestly, [01:02:00] I want to shoot more 3d next year. I really do. I only shot the block this year and was shooting at dots. And when I hit that dough, that was, I felt good about it. It was a good shot. She was down in seconds. She only ran 60 yards, but I still I hit her just a little bit high and a little bit further back than where I.
Would have liked to, and I just think, I think a big part of that is not shooting more 3d and not just getting that visual practice of putting my pin where it needs to be an animal shaped target. And doing that other than that, I'm with you on the gear front as well.
I'm just trying to get things dialed in there. I feel pretty good about where things are at now. I figured out, like I run the sticks, which last year, Drove me freaking crazy because of how loud they are and the like suction cup attachment thing. Like it just drove me up a freaking wall. And so then I figured out.
Taking a little sandpaper [01:03:00] and sanding out those cups. You're going to do that for yourself. Be very gentle with it because it's really easy to do that too much. And then you lose that lip and then your sticks don't stay together. So that's a pain in the butt. But I figured the best way to separate those things is basically to hold the stack sticks between my legs and then.
Pull them from the top up so that way they can't rattle and go flying off or anything like that and just squeeze them between my thighs. Pop one loose, pull it off, set it down, get the next one, pull it off, separate them, hook them on my saddle, get up the tree. I don't know. I think doing that kind of stuff, I'll probably be investing in some more stealth strips going into the season.
Just with my platform and stuff, that was like, honestly, the loudest piece of gear that I had all season. Like it drove me absolutely crazy. And still is. But that's what I got and we need the gear. We need the Latitude boys to send us some sticks, man. I'm just [01:04:00] gonna be honest with you.
That's, I'm just going to throw it out there. You guys are listening. Send us some sticks. Yeah. Let's send me, just send me some sticks, man. I just want some sticks. Or if you're a listener out there, I've actually had some guys reach out and recommend different sticks and stuff.
Guys who've got multiple, like Lone Wolf Custom Gear, Latitude Sticks, blah blah blah blah blah. If anybody's got some latitudes that they're like, Hey interested, maybe selling these part ways with them, something like that. Let me know. If you're one of those, if you're one of those guys that works for latitude, send me send me some sticks.
You know where to find me. I know you got my email address. Like I know for a fact, you got my email address. Cause we've talked so anyway, send me some sticks Pierce, man. Thanks for coming on the show today. I hope folks have picked up some things, guys. I encourage you to be thinking this time of year about.
What did you not do well this year, but then make sure you're circling back to what did I do? Did you put yourself on the deer? Did you put yourself in the right places? And for me and for Pierce, man, we did that. We put ourselves in the right [01:05:00] places. We were on deer. We had opportunities.
Wonderful. We can build on that. That's a foundation that we can improve from going into next season. Yeah. But before that Pierce, we got turkey season and that's all my mind is thinking about right now. Hey, one last thing though. Yeah. We wrapped up the Wisconsin sportsman with it yesterday, but folks.
In this season of giving, give each other the gift of some shared time outdoors, especially there you go. Wisconsin rifle season is alive and right now. Iowa's got a shotgun season coming up. I know there's a lot of gun seasons going on right now. If you're in the South, basically everybody and their brother can legally carry a firearm to shoot deer right now.
So yeah, do yourselves a favor. Do your friends a favor. If you've got a buddy who's never gone hunting before, offer to bring them out. Invite them to come with on a hunt, share that experience with them, show them what it's all about be good representatives. To the sport of deer hunting, because as we've all heard, I think a lot of people, I feel like this year [01:06:00] more than ever, we've been hearing about like how much deer hunting really does do for conservation.
Yeah. I forget what the stats were, but it's 80 percent of all hunting licenses sold are deer tags. So that's a lot of conservation dollars at work right there. So get folks involved. Go put some deer on the ground, go put some meat in the freezer, donate it if you want. That's what I was going to say.
Go shoot a bunch of deer, take somebody and then shoot a bunch of deer with them. Shoot, fill all your dough tags. Yeah, it'll be fun. Especially if you're in a CWD high area, take care of business. Boy, the politics around CWD. Ah, yeah, whatever. Go kill a bunch of deer folks. Cheers.
Thanks for coming on the show. Yep, absolutely brother. Thanks for coming back on the show. Yeah, cool. We'll see you next time, everybody. That's all for this week's episode. As always, thank you so much for tuning in. If you dig this show, be sure to subscribe to this podcast, wherever it is that you get your podcasts.
If you can leave us a five star review, I would very [01:07:00] much appreciate that. While you're at it, you can follow along with my outdoor adventures on Instagram at HowToHuntDeer. That's also the best way to get ahold of me, suggest topics that you want to hear, guests you want to hear from, or questions that you'd like me to explore on the show.
Big thanks to our partners, Tacticam, Huntworth, and Onyx. Please go support the brands that support this show and help me bring you great content each and every week. If you're looking for more outdoor content, check out the sportsman's empire. com where you're going to find my other podcasts, the Wisconsin sportsman, as well as a ton of other awesome outdoor podcasts.
