Show Notes
On this episode of The Nomadic Outdoorsman Dan sits down at a public land deer camp with Nick Queen from XOP and Tyler Bentley from The Rise Hunt to talk about how the hunt is going so far and strategizes for the upcoming days.
Dan and the guys have been hunting public land in Wisconsin for the past several days. Between shots, deer encounters and early October rutting activity, this episode is full of stories from the field and a game plan to target island deer in the upcoming days. Dan, Tyler and Nick recap the mind-blowing activity that they have been seeing and put a plan in place to finally have an encounter with a mature public land buck.
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Show Transcript
[00:00:00] All right, guys, welcome back to the show. Now on this episode, we're going to be doing a hunt recap, basically so far this hunt now next week is going to be a full recap of how the whole hunt went, what my last few days look like there. And Nick and I, we were side by side like the entire time. So we're going to cover all of that, all the events that unfolded.
And unfortunately, even now there's not a solid ending. To this hunt and you'll see why if you want to get a sneak peek of what I'm talking about You can go and check out Tyler's page and watch the video that he released man. What a roller coaster This is one of the coolest hunts of my life because I mean I was floating into a public island that I had never been to And only with the info of a duck hunter saw a big buck there And so I was like, man, better go check it out.
And so Nick hung in the tree with me [00:01:00] every single day with the camera. Got a lot of cool footage. We haven't released that on my pages yet, but you'll see some of that. On Tyler's most recent video, it was crazy. And I plan to go back and hunt this island every year. I saw so much sign, so much activity, and I might even be going back this year, it all depends on what my trail cameras tell me that I put out on this island.
So before I spoil anything, you guys are going to have to wait till next week to hear the entire hunt recap, but let's jump into today's episode where we talk about what the hunt has looked like so far. And the upcoming days, what our plans are, it's a good one. Let's jump in.
Like he was doing things that were just bad apps. That was one of the coolest moments of my life. I was really scared, but knowing that Dan had the gun, I did have the rifle. Like [00:02:00] we would be okay.
All right, guys. Welcome to today's show and back again, to repeat guests from last night, we've got Tyler and Nick, and we're going to be talking about what the hunt. Has been like so far because we've all seen deer the island episode the island I was singing it on the way out island boys, dude if we Listen next year if we come back here.
I'm totally getting their outfit and doing like fake tattoos on my face and stuff I'll get real ones I'm just kidding. I'm just waiting. Dude, I would have neck, face, everything tattoos, but my wife doesn't really want it. I will be covered from the neck down eventually. I'll get covered from the neck down.
And I think if I have something like on my shoulder, chest or back that kind of comes up my neck, I don't mind so much, but I, there's no, I got a little funny tattoo joke is. You wouldn't put a sticker on a Bentley, a bumper sticker. Oh, this isn't, do you see the S dime outside [00:03:00] that rusted thing?
That's a very fair representation of your boy. Yes. Listen, but you drive a Bentley around. What type of people are going to appreciate it right versus just a really sick like old F 350 square body that does have some rust, people are gonna be like dude. Oh, that's a funny bumper sticker, right? Oh true.
I think I don't know. I think bumper stickers are I think tattoos aren't for everybody It's skipped a generation in my family. My grandpa My dad, not a single one. Yeah. And he gave me a really hard time about getting my first tattoo. Yeah. I I made stickers for 10 years for a living. Yeah, so I can't take decals off.
So that's why I don't have any tattoos, because it freaks me out. I can't take them off. What if you get a tattoo of a sticker? I'll try to peel it off. That'd be ironic. I do the hyper realistic tattoos. I would never get a monarch butterfly. But the ones where it's like a monarch sitting on her.
Dude, that wolf is sick. [00:04:00] Yeah. The monarch butterfly. Oh wow, dude, that is awesome. I saw a forearm tattoo of it. And it had the shadow. If you look at it from the right angle, it looks like a monarch is sitting on the chick's arm. Oh, Yeah, those guys do really well. That's cool. I definitely appreciate them.
And then there's some that are really... I have a few trailer park tattoos. When I first got a tattoo, when I first got my tattoo, I would, I used to disc golf all the time. Oh, yeah. You love to get disc golf. I would go and we'd jump the cliffs before, and then we'd go disc golf, then go back and jump the cliffs.
I'd wear swim trunks, and that was it. And I got my tattoo and it was so funny because when you have tattoos everybody tells you about their really crappy tattoo ideas And this guy's like dude, I think so I'm gonna get like all the pink floyd album covers on my chest and i'm like, oh no, man That is awesome, dude.
That would look so cool. Like I encourage it man. I love it. I'm like So my response always because I obviously have a bunch of tattoos. I'm always like I couldn't do that. I feel like that would hurt and they just look at you because I'll say I'm [00:05:00] super serious and just stare at them until they break And i'm like nah tattoos for not for me.
That's funny, man. Oh, yeah, I like that But this episode isn't actually about that we're gonna be talking about the hunt so far because we've all had Nick, you and I have had similar hunts because we've hunted for a couple of days together now. Yeah. But we have, we hunted together, so our stories are pretty the same.
Yeah. But Tyler, you've had a totally different experience than us so far. Yeah. Although we're now Island boys together. That's right, man. Yeah. Went into the, to the Island and. Like you guys said, scrapes everywhere. You guys come back from the island, first off. You're like, this is the greatest place on the whole planet, you're not going to believe it, there's deer everywhere, there's scrapes everywhere, there's sign everywhere.
Jurassic Park of white tailed aminals. They're on a different island, they have different rutting activity, they're totally isolated, did you call BS on it? No, I mean you guys hyped me up. I got on a kayak that was sinking and I went out there with you guys. That was the best. I'm having a good time.
It's I was supposed to go home today actually and I'm hunting tonight, yeah. That didn't take a lot of [00:06:00] convincing. No, not really, man. It's, I just know the workload sitting at home. Yeah. And every day that I'm not there, it's just oh shit. Oh, for sure. But. You and me are the opposite.
Because like my podcast network's been hitting me up all morning. Do you have an episode for tomorrow? Yeah. And I'm supposed to get it to him 48 hours ahead of time. Oh, geez. But I knew I wanted to put an episode out of the hunt that would air while we're still hunting. And so I was like, my goal was to do it earlier in the week, but most people are in bed pretty early because we know we have to get up and hunt right away the next day And for me, I'm like dude, I'm not gonna I don't want to inconvenience people by being like, hey Can you stay up? And so Tom was my scapegoat last night. He wanted to he drill sergeant Make that podcast happen.
That was right, but it was fun. That was fun. It really was it was just rough getting started It took us an hour and a half just to get going Yeah, even hit record is what I mean. Yeah, but the whole thing was good I think people enjoyed it, but we're gonna actually get into details of how the hunt has been so [00:07:00] far because you shot, you've killed so far.
Yeah. Yep. Shot a doe. My third sip, second set. I think it was your second set. Second set. Shot a doe off public land. Obviously we're saying where we're at. Wisconsin Public Land And that was my first. Public land, Wisconsin deer in general Tom was jacked. He was jacked. Dude. He bought blew me off my feet when we did the recovery.
He was so excited. I thought it broke my nose. He hugged me so hard. And he took pictures of it like it was his deer. Yeah, that's cool. He definitely liked it. Like it. I had a good time too. So it's It was cool. It was really cool feeling. Like he was a big part of that hunt from scouting, everyone that scouted that land and he's a part of it because he scouted it.
And he's Hey, go in here. I think it's good. I went in there, I killed a deer. So it's that makes him a part of that hunt makes him a part of that harvest. And then we go in for the recovery and all this stuff. So it's like when we found it. He was just as jacked as if he shot it because he's a part of it.
Yeah. And I'm glad he was. Cause that was really cool. That is sweet. So he gave you, did he give you a general idea of where to go or did he have like [00:08:00] a set up already? So they speed speed scouted him and Logan, I believe, went in there to this big public piece. I think they walked the fringe of it for the most part and got really deep.
And they're like this looks good here, but halfway in, there's a lot more sign. So I could see like their walking path, what they scouted. And we had a North wind that night North, Northwest wind. So I accessed from the South wind at my face, just crap in there real quiet. Cause I was going into hunt, obviously.
And I skirted it same way they did. And I'm planning on going 1. 5 miles deep, skirting it, also scouting, walking in, stand on my back, sticks, camera guy, intern, all this stuff, as quiet as we can. And I get halfway in and right where they said the most sign was I'm seeing red hot sign, rip, ripped open scrapes, couple of rubs.
And I'm like, no, I'm like battling with myself. Do I set up here or do I push 1. 5 miles deep? Because I don't want to be the guy that's three, 400 yards off the road just because it was easy. Yeah. And I'm like, Oh man, there's good sign here. But I don't want to cheap out and not go the whole way. [00:09:00] So I'm like, I'm standing there over hot, ripped open scrapes, like trying to decide what to do.
I take four or five more steps and I bump deer. Dang it, dude, I knew it. I knew it. No, I'm assuming it was does, I'm guessing. No blow, just like a, a noise bump them is. They jumped off and I backtracked 10 yards. I'm like, all right, scrapes here. Tree's here. Perfect. Set up, got up, got set up and those deer that I'm assuming that I bumped come right back to come right back.
Come right into five yards. Nice mature doe shotter bump and dump to do bump and dump. It's pretty amazing. The bump and dump in like how do you react if they don't smell you or see that you're a person. And obviously it changes depending on how much pressure there is. Yeah. If they're used to people already.
That's going to, that's going to change how they respond. But like I've watched deer out in the field and had a coyote come through and push the deer out in five minutes later, they're back doing the same thing. Like they're so used to. Being alert [00:10:00] and having predatory activity around them that it's just oh, gotta go for a little bit.
We'll be right back. This was like such a soft bump too. 'cause it was like, like they were like, it was almost like they were betted and they're like, whoa. And they look back and I'm like, just stood still for like maybe two minutes. Yeah. 'cause like they, you can even hear the, I'm like, they're still like analyzing what the heck was that?
Yep. So I just waited it out just for a second. And then work my way back real slow, just 10, 15 yards. Yeah. This will work, set up as quiet as possible, and they come right back. That's awesome. And deer bump at all kinds of crazy crap. Yeah, it's not a big deal. Skunks, yeah, raccoons walking through, if they would have reacted slightly differently, like blowing or screaming bad out of hell out of there, I'd have been like, okay, can't hunt right here. Yeah, maybe a buck would come through from a different area later, but those deer are probably gone. Yeah So it's just nice if you're bumming something specific yeah that so that was what day of the week was that?
What's today? Today's Wednesday. Was that Sunday night? Yeah, Sunday evening. Okay, so you got your Saturday, right? [00:11:00] Saturday you guys Friday, maybe Friday. Okay. Yeah. Yeah Friday. Okay, so Tom gave me Intel that he was passed on through one of Logan's guys. Yeah, basically a big deer guy was out there shooting ducks, seen a big buck trying to cross on the Island or not trying to cross, but on the Island and bumped him back into it.
But he said he was a big shooter. And this, from what we've known, this guy isn't a BS or, and he shoots big deer. So he's. Wouldn't lie to you. Yeah. When people say, Oh, there's a big buck. I'm always like, what does that mean? It's real. It's relative. What a big buck is. And I'm not a big deer, so he's not, it wouldn't have been a basket rack.
Good buck. He's yeah, probably a pretty solid buck. And I'm not a hunting snob by any means. After what I've seen, I believe the guy, oh my gosh, yeah. It's It's been a sweet spot, but So I went out there with Tom day one. And we hunted didn't see much. When was that? That would have been Sunday.
Okay. No. I drove up [00:12:00] Sunday. Monday. No, it would have been Sunday because... Yeah, it would have been Sunday. Just kidding. Because Monday was when I started hunting with you. Yep. So I actually drove up Saturday, hunted Sunday. We found a spot. It wasn't like there was a ton of sign. But we could see from the aerials that there were paths coming across the cattails because well describe what it's just an island.
It's a 70 acre island of cattails with Oak Islands within the cattails. And you can see from the aerials that there are very distinct. Trails connecting all of these islands. They have to walk through a couple inches of water. The main island is cut off from like the main part for the, from the river.
Yeah. So it's, we do know that they cross there, but it's probably more incentivized to stay back there. And if they get any kind of pressure on the main public up there, it'd be the first place you would go. Yeah. And I know people aren't going that far. No. So we, when he told me about it, I was getting pretty pumped, and I was like, if we can float [00:13:00] into a hunt, if we can float into a spot, like I'm all about it.
Just for the adventure side of things, I would love to come through and find a deer on public land and a float, a canoe into it. Like I've always thought, man, imagine having a rack hanging out the front of a canoe. I've said it forever. I've wanted to give a boat ride out to a deer forever, man.
Like that, that just the thought of that, I think Matthew's archery, a couple of years ago on the cover of their catalog was a big, 150 inch white tail on a flat bottom boat from a drone, and it's just that's just like every bow hunters dream. It's just to give one a boat ride out, especially a big one, especially a big one.
Yeah. So I like, I went out and the day after you shot yours, I went out and Aaron came out and. We got him set up. So Tom and I did a little bit of scouting. He was more hesitant to scout fully. And find stuff and I was like, dude, I want to know I want to know where to hunt But we had found [00:14:00] plenty of sign.
So i'm like there's deer here There's bucks here and I went out that night and dude, it was just chaos. I mean like bucks fighting Trees breaking like they were in an all out battle and I still haven't found the spot Like it would be very distinct. We could have been that big Patch that we've seen that was matted down it could there was a spot that was like all of the tall grass the whole Area was a lot of tall grass and there was probably a 15 foot area But it wasn't like a bunch of dirt was tore up.
There just wasn't grass like standing there Okay, so I'm like it could have been that area That's all of picture I want right there. So that's from the public land up there that we hunt. That was like me and my buddy. Oh man. That's a sick story. That is so cool. So I go out there and I'm like, I'm looking around for deer obviously.
But all of a sudden I see these three does across the marsh on the other island. They're at 46 yards and they're just [00:15:00] as calm as can be. I mean they hang out and feed and feed and feed. And then I'm hearing bucks fighting very clearly. And if it, there's always the thought in your mind because you're on public, it could be somebody.
Making that noise, right? If this dude was making that noise, he had three other dudes and they were actually wrestling while he was rattling. Like it was that realistic, it was that good. And so I'm like, dude, and these does were definitely paying attention to it. Their heads are up, they're staring and it wasn't close enough to them to where they would have seen it.
But then that kind of commotion. They've heard it before and so it didn't spook them off, but they were very alert to it. Okay, and when you say they were fighting, they were like fighting, fighting. Oh, I'm talking like there's probably tips of antlers busted out there somewhere. Like that kind of fighting.
And that goes on. A doe and one of her fawns, they go down the island towards it a little bit, just out of my sight. They could have only been five yards. Based on what we've seen [00:16:00] so far, that's probably what it was. They just moved a little bit closer and then they came back and they got behind the cattails.
And I'm like, okay, I can't see them anymore. They crossed what? 10 yards of cattails on this trail. And I didn't hear a single noise when they came across. They just were in front of me all of a sudden. Snuck right in on you. So I'm like, okay, this is sweet. Those bucks are still going at it down on the end of the island.
This. In my mind is an hour and a half process, but it was probably closer to 15 minutes. Like that's cool though. It was just nonstop, but it was several fights that happened. Like it would stop and then it would pick up again. And I saw at one point a deer came from that direction, a big, it looked like a big gray body deer, but the sun was starting to go down and I didn't get a look at the head, I just caught the movement and saw basically.
from the torso back. And, these deer are, [00:17:00] now the does are sitting underneath me. This other deer is, definitely didn't come across the trail to my island. And then I continued to hear fighting. And so I'm like, shoot. That could have been a buck that got it's butt kicked. Another buck came in to the fighting, and now they're fighting.
And I'm like trying to put this all together. I'm like, dude, I just want to see what is actually happening over there. And so anyways, I wasn't going to shoot a dough. But Tom, I had been giving him updates and he's dude if you don't want the meat, like we still would love to have a dough for camp meat and then I'll take the meat.
I'd be happy with that. And I'm like, Oh, maybe I should decided I wasn't going to shoot. And then she just stepped out at 20 yards, gave me a broadside. And I'm like, I'm going to shoot this. So I draw back and I shoot well, because the, because they were alerted to the fighting, I think they were, they didn't [00:18:00] seem on edge when they were feeding underneath me, but they must've been because dude, she ducked that arrow, like hard duck, that arrow was she had up or head down.
She was head up, but not like alert, head up, just head up, just walking. She would feed and then head up and then feed and then head up. And so she was walking and picking up acorns and then she just happened to have her head up when I shot and she, she ducked and started to spring forward.
And I looked back at the video, it caught the top of her back, but all I saw was a tiny little bit of fur on her back, but I saw the arrow deflect up. And so I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. Like I've, I had my first buck I ever shot, ducked my arrow, caught its back like that. but then stuck around and gave me a shot and I shot it, double lunged it.
And I'm like, in my mind, that's exactly what happened. And on [00:19:00] him, it just broke the skin. That's all. Okay. And so she ducked the arrow. I was like, what the heck? I'm still hearing crazy activity. I wait a little bit, get down and I go and check the arrow. And only one of my veins actually had. Any sign of impact on it.
Just the slightest amount of super light pink. And it was already, it was like not blood, but it was like tissue, right? You're thinking above the spine, like backstrap area, just barely caught a little bit of muscle non lethal. And I was like, obviously I'm going to do my due diligence, but I know that she ran straight towards Aaron and I heard her go through, heard her go through the marsh.
Went straight towards Aaron. So then I'm thinking, all right, he might get a shot. I hear deer blowing over there now, but it sounded like they were way past where these three deer went. And so I, I messaged Aaron. I'm [00:20:00] like, dude, have you seen deer? He's yeah, I just had three, maybe four does. And I was like, oh, okay.
So I'm thinking, okay, they're there and they were just feeding at that point. So I'm like, she's not even... She's definitely not fatally wounded if she's just feeding right he decided not to shoot a doe and I get to him after dark, talk to him and turns out it was her, she was just in there feeding like nothing had ever happened.
He's got video of her with just the slightest amount of hair displaced on her back. At one point he's she was sitting there licking it and he showed me the video. She was licking the fawn. She was licking her back and then they just. Fed and just kept going. So after watching my shot video, watching his video, I'm like, just barely broke the skin.
She's fine. She's totally fine. I just had, it looked like you took Mark, a pink marker on a [00:21:00] board and then erased it. But that little bit was left, like that's all it was. So I'm everyone's she's fine. He watched the video with me. I watched his video. He's Oh yeah, dude, she's totally fine.
She wasn't acting bad at all. I go out the next day and that was when I came, that's when you came with and Monday evening that day was a totally different ball game. We went to this Island and we found Just an insane amount of sign and we're like we're set up in between We've only walked 40 yards onto this other Oak Island and we from where you were with the does you just moved across them?
Yeah, that move the same pad that you said that they came through Silent you moved across to the other side and that was just ridiculous sign as soon as we got across there were scrapes And we had only walked, what, 40 yards onto that island and found six scrapes. Yeah, for that. And we set up within four scrapes, find a good spot that we can shoot in all directions.
And it was just slow. [00:22:00] Really not a lot of action. It was quiet too, though. The day you went out there, there was a lot of wind. A lot of wind, yeah. And then the next day, there was no wind. So that, that definitely changes the dynamic. So we get set up. I think at that point, you guys had gone and got your deer.
Actually you had the, your deer the night before here and we're sitting there and it's we can hear some crunching. And I was like, dude, there's deer in here right now. And at that point, the sun had already gone down. It was past legal shooting light. So we're already getting ready to come out of the stand.
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All right, guys, here are a few quick tips to help you increase your deer encounters this fall. A lot of people like to set up on an area because they found a scrape or a rub, but I'm telling you, you need to put more of the puzzle pieces together. If you can find a scrape line or a rub line, especially one that comes to or from water bedding or a food source, that is going to tell you a lot of.
And not just one nocturnal buck. Also, don't be afraid to take the day off from hunting and do a scouting mission instead, if you can set up from a distance and glass the area that you're hoping to hunt, you might see exactly where the deer are coming in [00:24:00] and out without just walking in and. Randomly setting up in a tree, hoping that a deer comes through.
And if you want to save money on the right optics to get the job done, head over to euro optic. com and use code nomadic 10 at checkout. Now let's get back to the show presented by Vortex.
That's so he looks at me and he goes, there's deer over here and we're sitting there, him and Han and I don't hear nothing. And I'm trying to get out of this freak a tree. I'm not a saddle guy and I'm in a saddle. So I'm like, I'm just trying to get out of this thing. And I'm like you want to see and I have my headlamp on just boom and just flash my light nothing shut that light off as soon as I shut that light off.
It sounded just like the whole woods just erupted here. But it wasn't the thing is it wasn't from the direction that he was these things came as soon as he shut his light off. We heard these here. I bet we heard him like 80 yards off barreling through. From the total opposite direction and they came [00:25:00] sprinting in and we hear Sprinting and grunting and there's clearly two deer like it is tending grunts do the grunts you do it good
You can't mistake that sound no, you know what that sound I looked at him and I go Tending is he tending a doe and that's the point in nick's mind where it all came together that I didn't fight was actually yeah, I didn't believe him at all. I was like this dude's full of it There's no bucks fight now here october 10th.
I was like, maybe some tickling Like you could see little bucks push each other around, but he's no, I'm like, he said, there's antlers broke out there, dude. I could hear one inch branches snapping. I'm like, they're crashing through all kinds of stuff, stepping on things. Just beating each other up.
And so that happens and he's dude, is that thing grunting? And I'm like, yeah, it is. And they just happened to stop at 32 yards. I think we arranged it the next day where they were. And so he's dude, that's a. That's a decent buck. And I'm like, [00:26:00] you can see it? And I'm like watching his face.
I didn't know if it was a buck. I seen a blob. Oh, sorry. You saw the, you go, there it is. There it is. He's there it is. And it's behind a pine tree, so I can't see anything, but I'm watching him. And now I hear them eating acorns. You could hear them just crunch. And I'm watching his face and he goes...
And I'm looking at his face and then his eyes just change, dude, like as serious as things can get. And he's he's a giant. Yeah, like that's a big deer, buddy. And I'm like, where is he? And he's like telling me and I'm like, dude, I can't see. And so I'm like, with the binos trying to see, but it's behind a pine tree and it's dark enough to where it's like, You wouldn't be able to fully see everything.
But he's like Once So like, how I even seen him, is he looked like a blob, and I could tell it was a deer because it looked like it was moving, but I'm thinking it's a doe, but he was You know how they turn around and itch their ass, and they're like, biting at it or whatever? That's what he was doing, and when he looked [00:27:00] back forward, his whole rack moved So the frame came back.
And I was like Oh. But when he stopped again and started looking toward it, blended right back in and I couldn't see nothing. But I, when he moved his whole head, I seen it. You seen it? Okay. And I was like, oh my God. So then I'm thinking like, dude, this, they're here. I knew it already, but now they're actually chasing do, not just fighting each other.
They're chasing those hard. Yeah. And so we're sitting there and we can just hear like a footstep every now and then. And when you watch 'em, I don't know how many. Deer were just feeding in front of you. It's dude, they'll just sit there. And there's so many acorns that they don't have to take a step and they can pick up 20 acorns.
Oh yeah. And so that's what I'm assuming they were doing. They just sat there and sat there. That's the problem about hunting these deer out there. Obviously you've got the isolated, Oak islands and stuff, but you get a couple of deer in these little. Pockets here and they might eat there for fricking four hours or, however long bed down, get up, eat a little bit.
Like the couple of deer we seen in there last night, a little six point in the [00:28:00] dough, maybe two does not herbs. Not sure if it's same dough or not, but come through, they come in running, don't come in first, but come in second. And I'm like, what the heck, first thing. And then they just hung out together and ate a bunch of acorns.
And, but they stayed there forever, worked around through 30 yards and ultimately they just disappeared too. They're like ghosts in there, man, with the pines and the Oaks. And there's nowhere they can go and they pop up on you. They just slipped through. You're like, Oh, he's over here now. I was just staring over here waiting for the next movement.
And he's actually, yeah, 10 yards in that area, man, you have to be so smart about your movement. Like when you're hunting a field edge, you typically know what's coming or you hear them coming from behind you. But on these islands, there's just, there's patches of pine needles, and patches of moss, and they can move a long ways without making a single noise.
We were even thinking that buck... When we are in a tree could have easily been 60, 70 yards and we could see through the pines a little bit up there, but it does cut off a little bit, but they could have been up there and you would think it was dead silent that night. You would have been able to [00:29:00] hear them deer.
Probably not to be honest with you. Cause we never even heard him go off. And when we got down from the tree and moved on, we never kicked them. We never nothing. So they. It did move on eventually, but we never heard him do it. That spot's real pockety too. Like walking out, it's super thick, pines, you can't get through, can't get through, you pop through and then there's a little room, a little 12 by 12 room, scrape in the center of it and you're like, Whoa, scrape right here in this little bedroom looking area thing.
Yeah. Go through the next set of pines. There's another one. Another scrape. Yep. You're like, holy crap this whole place is just lit up with scrape. Not, it's ridiculous. Not rubs like you'd expect to see. No, but I think that's in me, in my opinion. I could be dead wrong, but time of year, they're not just laying down sign like they do late October.
Yeah. This cold front's gotta move and it's gotta make it scrapes fired up. Maybe even fighting. Maybe there is big rubs on this island. We've just not seen 'em have found, because we haven't Well, and we haven't walked the grass in my mind. I've seen it in thick cover where they'll just rub a ton of stuff, but I see it almost as like a street sign on edges [00:30:00] where they'll go and they do it in such a highly visible area where you can see it from a long ways off.
Yes. And it's they'll just pick out one tree that in, when you're walking, Everybody sees it. Yeah, we see it. Nobody's gonna miss it. It's a very distinct like marker if you will and We just haven't walked a lot of those areas, but I would imagine there's other ones out I don't know the thought we would see it more if it was just covered in rubs, right?
We did find one yesterday perfect segue into what we plan on doing today hold on before we segue into that. I need to wrap up my dough. Oh, yeah because we're in the tree and Nick, I can't remember what you first said. It was literally as those deer were the, that buck was probably moving off and Aaron texted me, he said found Dan's doe and you said that and I was like, found it like that.
That implies that it's dead. Yeah. And I was, that's what I was saying. I would've never guessed [00:31:00] that it would've died. Like I, the reason I didn't go in and continue to look is because the consensus was no. She's not gonna die. It's not even close to a fatal shot. You had like video verification that she was alive and A hundred percent.
Yeah, and so we're like When he said that dude even now thinking about getting that like I'm getting nauseous thinking yeah Like it was just a sickening feeling Then to find out she wasn't dead when they found her and that made it even worse Yeah, put a second shot on her. They had to put a second shot on her and thankfully, you know They harvested the deer but going back and looking at everything and talking with everybody about it I think what happened is it weakened her back muscles?
And over the course of the next day, she, I don't know if she bounded wrong and it just dislocated. You got a buck pushing does in there. It's very, I've seen spikes kill does trying to push them around. Like I've physically [00:32:00] seen that. So I know if a big buck was pushing on her, I've seen them, they're trying to tend them or whatever.
Dude, that could have happened for sure. They set their head on them and push on their back like that. But, the trauma on her back was insane. It wasn't from what the video showed, from the night before. It wasn't all from the arrow. There's no way. Something major happened to her. That ended up doing the rest of the damage but good news She was harvested and she was blind in one eye and she was blind in one I'll tell you what I thought make it anyway when I pulled back in the driveway and I see the doe on the tailgate I'm, sorry to jump ahead on you.
I'm like did this thing get attacked by coyotes? That was the first thing that ran through my head because her back was so split open It looked like to me from 30 foot away that she'd been chewed on or nibbled on or something. That's what I thought Okay, and that's just crazy. I mean zipped her and then You've seen the video of her licking and she looks like she's closed.
It wasn't even just a side video. It was a video from above her and you could just see what looked like a little lick mark [00:33:00] on her back. That's all that it was. And in the video that I have, it's the same thing. It's just a little, like two inch tuft of fur, not even like a bunch of blood or nothing.
Not like literally no blood. And they even said there was no blood leading up to where she was. Straight through the back straps above the spine. That is not normally lethal. It's not. The only thing that I have seen deer die from it and the only one... Infection. Yeah, it just gets infected.
But it's not one day later though. No, it takes weeks. That's crazy. So anyways, they recovered her. Still makes me sick to think about like I none of us Some people think that hunters are just like brutal oh, we just want to murder everything and it's like dude No, we want a good clean death for these animals.
Yes, and it's not why I do it But in thinking about it, it's like when a hunter harvests a deer, aside from them getting hit by a vehicle and dying instantly, it's the fastest death that they're gonna have. Oh, yeah. Period. Yeah and I've had bad shots on deer and it's solely the reason I pay [00:34:00] much attention to like how I shoot, what I shoot, and my equipment is very important to me because you can go to Walmart and get a setup that'll kill a deer, but the likelihood of Something failing and hurting that deer is way higher.
And so now, like over the past couple years, because I've made bad shots and it does make me, I can't, do, I hate it. You don't forget. No, I don't forget. And so I'm way more picky about my shots. I will pass up a deer, even though I could've shot 'em at, I practice at 60 to 45 yards. So if a deer comes out at 50 yards, I can hit it.
I have no problem. I, but if it's just not right, it ain't happening. They're so wiry and , the variables is, But that's from making those bad shots. I wouldn't pay any attention to any of that if I wouldn't have had that sickening, I hit a deer in the neck one time because I switched to a four blade and didn't realize that it starts to plane at like 32 yards and the deer was 36.
And, I have video of, my shot looked good, and the way that I shot, I didn't pull my head, nothing. And I hit him in the neck, and we never [00:35:00] found the deer. I don't know whatever happened, but, I know it. 36 yards, I can hit that. I go back home, I put the target at 36, missed the target completely.
And it was just because, it plain, because I had a four blade broadhead. So now, I've tuned and I'm doing that because I can't. It makes me sick. And it's not about you getting a trophy. No. It's about that deer not suffering. I don't care if she does it. You know what I mean? Like the fact that it wasn't even about getting the deer.
It was about like, I hope she, oh my God, she was suffering or oh my God, I can't believe she actually was like, that's what makes you feel. And you did that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And like that's going to keep me. It's not going to keep me up at night, but it's going to just check me and make me go, okay what is ethical to do here?
Because everybody's got those moments where a buck steps out past your range and you're just like, I want that thing so bad. So much worse than not getting a shot at it [00:36:00] is getting a bad shot on it. And the opposite of that even is when you're after a big buck and one comes in limp. Yeah. You know he ain't gonna make it.
You know he's not gonna make it. Yeah. So are you gonna hold off or are you gonna shoot that deer because what you're about, you're gonna help him in the long run, otherwise he's gonna get ran down by coyotes or he ain't gonna make it. It's gonna be a horrible death for him. Very. Yeah. When I talk to people about how far I practice out to, They're like, why do you practice that far? And I'm like, it's not for first shots. One. I like to see the arrow flight. And there's just something about watching an arrow bomb into a target. Oh yeah. I absolutely love it. I do long range rifle shooting the same way.
But as soon as I shoot a deer, It doesn't matter if it's 50 yards or 80 yards, if it stops and gives me a follow up shot and isn't tipping over, I will take it a hundred percent. There's no reason not to, like my goal is for that deer to die as quickly as possible. If I put a shot in it and maybe say it ends up being a single lung shot.[00:37:00]
If it stops at 73 yards, I'm going to dial my site, send another arrow at that. The worst thing that happens is I miss it or I hit it again. But if I hit it again, no matter where it's going to assist in leading to a quicker death. Agreed. I've seen Deer Duck. I watched a video, probably last season, and this guy had a big buck in there.
It was slightly quartering away, and he sends the arrow, and that buck ducks and turns away from him so fast that it hits it in the back of the head. And drops it where it stands. Oh my goodness. And I'm like it's a crazy video and you watch back. And if you go frame by frame. You watch the point of impact that it would have been, and that deer ducks so much and starts to turn that now where the bottom of its chest was right behind the shoulder is where the back of its head is.
Crazy. And I'm like, dude, it is, it's absolutely bonkers, [00:38:00] man. I've full on missed deer at 50 yards. I'm like staring at the shoulder, looking at broadside, not quartering away. Is his head up? Is his head down? Settling the pin? You go through all these things and you think you're throwing a perfect shot and that deer can react so much in two, three seconds.
Yep. You look at shot placement and then you go frame by frame, like you said. Completely miss an animal at 45 plus yards. Just, they can react insane amounts. Yeah. Insane. Even at 20. Yeah. Yeah. That's what my doe was. My doe was at 20 yards. And if you would have told me that she could duck that much in that fraction of a second, I would have been like, I've seen it.
I've seen it at 30. I've seen it at 40. I've had it happen one time at 37. But to see it at 20 that really messed with my mind. Yes So all that to say we're going back out tonight and we're gonna this is your last time Yep, so tomorrow morning is my last time. So really this is like last sit we put all of [00:39:00] our Scouting everything that we've seen from the stand We're going to put it to use tonight and hopefully connect on something.
So while you guys have been chatting away, I've been looking up at the weather. We've got an east wind tonight, completely different than what we've got, completely east wind. Dude, I've been saying all week long that I want 180 degree shift in the wind. Just got going to make the deer do something different.
Yeah, they're not really going to know what to do. I've heard a lot of things about, killing bucks on east winds because it's a rare wind, you don't get. For most, almost all of the country, aside from the east coast, that's a very rare wind. And the deer don't really have a good bedding area for it.
They just are very uncomfortable. I'm getting so pumped right now. Yeah that definitely changes the game because we're not going to be able to go. To where we were specifically, but I think if we just move, I think for sure we can kill one. What do you guys think? Do you have a game plan because you guys pulled stans yesterday?
No, we did too. No, mainly because that [00:40:00] stans was a little sketchy Dude, I wasn't playing on an east wind man. I really wasn't playing on an east wind, but this is gonna be interesting how to figure this out we're gonna have to paddle further. Would you guys agree? I think less, right? You think less? I think we could come in, I think this time we come in from the East side, like off the, between the land, like the So not drop in where we dropped in?
No. Okay. So we're in agreement on it. If we do we come, we're closer to the boat launch, is what I'm saying. Okay. Because so enter in on the west side, you mean because where we dropped Aaron off? Yes, the west side. You're where we drop Aaron off. We drop him off on the east side. Yeah, we enter if on the side, if we're on the east side still, we just need to be as far north as we can for sure.
Agree. Just to preface this, we can access this island from Southeast and west, but just not north. I guess you can come in. So you can, it's just not easy. We can access it from all sides, but it gets [00:41:00] really tough because basically the entire almost 100 percent of the west side of this island is at least 10 yards of thick cattails, right?
Like that you'll sink through. We had to pull the kayak and I was grabbing the sides of stuff and the roots to pull the you need waders and then make a ton of noise going in What's the wind speed on the east? Let me look hopefully there's a good amount of it would be nice I don't think so.
I think it's five to six. I think it's much it would have been awesome if it was like 15. I know. Can you imagine if it just 15 continuous 15 mile an hour East wind tonight? I would say the one thing good about five to 10, I think, but let me get here. Low wind speed out there in the island is you're going to get more wind coming off the lake.
Yep. So five might be like only going to help us. So what's crazy though? Two to five. What's crazy. Oh, I don't like to know me neither. What's crazy with hunting an island too is like yesterday we saw it. It was almost no matter where you entered the island from it just seemed like the lake [00:42:00] was pulling the wind out to it Yeah, and you'd think oh, okay on this side.
We Put out some milkweed last night It's been it yesterday was west almost all day and as we were going through the channel between the mainland and the island You sent some milkweed out. , what did it do? It went the, oh, are you talking about on the water? Yeah, on the water. Yeah. It went straight west.
Straight west. It's like a big old vacuum instead of blowing east. Yeah. That's the only good thing about this not having any wind is that you can get up against that water and it'll, the thermals will take over, but you also have to understand that it will pull in front of you too, if you're too close to the marsh on the opposite end of where you want to be.
But the other thing about the thermals in a marsh like That is the marshes so much warmer than everything around it or inside of it. There's a constant draw up, even at night when the temperature is dropping, you send that milkweed out and you watch it clear the trees over the marsh and all of a sudden it just starts rising.
I never [00:43:00] even thought about that. Yeah, because think about how much heat, like you go into that marsh, if you just go and stand there. It's insane water sun's hitting it. It's like warming the water up for sure And so while everything else is cooling down That's a constant higher temperature and the grass just insulates and keeps that heat in no kidding So yeah, when you walk across it like early morning It's almost hard there's so much fog that we were having a hard time at the marsh that me and Brock went to get across because we couldn't see exactly what direction we were going to get to the point that we need to, we couldn't see the point at all.
You could shut your lights off and you can usually see a just the outline, couldn't even see that. No kidding. Yeah. That's interesting. If 45 yards in front of me, I couldn't see it. That's actually good, though, if you can get set up. Anywhere near that, in your wind and thermals are going anywhere in that direction.
They're going to pick it up I just don't know how to play it because that channel has a Continuous draw to it. It seems like even on the west wind when it would hit above the marsh in between the islands It would draw it south. Yeah, and I just really [00:44:00] don't know because it's only two to five miles that changes it also All right.
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Close to home or in a totally different state. So if you want to stay tuned into the action or just [00:46:00] get into the action, go to reveal cell cam. com or tact cam. com and use code nomadic for 10 percent off at checkout. I think the other interesting or difficult thing about hunting this island is, the honorable trees are centralized.
It'd be sweet to be able to hunt these edges or by the pond or that, that wet spot. You have to be in an area where there's trees to hunt. So it's it's just tricky. And they're, it's hard because you, so we were thinking, we were talking about being, getting aggressive with Collin tonight and trying to set up you guys and us in a position where if we called Both sits are gonna be able to have, even if it's just a visual, yeah without blowing each other out.
I think there's a way to do it, I really do. I think it will be hard to coordinate how to get in though. Will be the hardest part because from where I feel like we need to get into, because of the wind, it's, that's [00:47:00] where the most amount of cattails are. Could it negatively impact us by going in there and slamming horns and making a bunch of noise?
I don't think so. I don't think it could. So what do we got to lose? Yeah, it's not going to negatively impact us because this is your last time, right? This is throw the kitchen sink out of it. And I've been wanting to get super aggressive. Thanks guys. I'm here till Sunday. I appreciate it. No, I'm just kidding.
Ever since ever since I heard those bucks fighting and then especially confirming that with the buck chasing hard. I've wanted to just get crazy aggressive. I wanted to get close though. Did you guys bring horns? I just asked First Sergeant. You got some, okay. Yeah, First Sergeant got it. First Sergeant.
He's gonna, he's gonna let us use horns. I had Thomas Blackrack with us. And I've used all kinds of stuff. We got scoffed at. I don't do a lot of, I don't do a lot of calling. I really don't. Unless it's like right in the middle of the rut. I don't do a lot. And so I've bounced around from all kinds of different calls, like the fake racks, the bags.
Oh yeah. And so I don't really care. [00:48:00] I'm not a call guy, but I think it'll be interesting. Yeah. The deer where I'm at, they respond when. the action is actually hot. And so it's you could probably use whatever you want and they'd come in. Yeah. I've never called this early in the season in any state.
Me personally. Yeah. It's always been like a November morning cold morning, November in the hills, right? So October 11th or is it the 11th today? Yes. On an island that we boated into which we, heard bucks fighting. And you seen a good buck in there. There's scrapes everywhere.
So we have all this verification that there's big deer in there. The big deer are aggressive. They're fighting, making scrapes. It makes sense to me and you've seen you saw a six point yesterday, right? Yep, and aaron saw several five in forks, right and so it's like dude, there's no way there's not a couple bucks and we saw one on the way out on the float out We had our headlamps on the first night that you came out We saw what was it?
A one, probably one, one, 10, [00:49:00] one, 20. Yeah. And so it's like probably closer than one 20. He was good. I'm telling you it, the bucks that were fighting. Sure. They could have been like, if they were crazy aggressive, they could have been one twenties. But I think there's two mature bucks out there that are just not having it.
You said they were fighting for how long? I wish I would have timestamped it. Yeah. Or it felt like an hour. It felt so long, but it was. Three, maybe four distinct battles. What's weird is. I don't know how much truth there is to this, but I haven't seen two 120 inch deer fight. I've only seen big deer fight.
No, I've never seen small deer fight. I've seen not aggressively tickle. But dude, they don't want to make that commotion because they know big boy is going to come over and oh man, dude, I just don't, so that this is where I wish probably decent deer. These deer have never seen, I would say that what I seen and yeah, I would say that these deer have never seen a decoy and it would be so great to have just a small buck with three on one side [00:50:00] decoy right now and put it out in the grass, dude.
Imagine putting one of those out in the grass and just smacking horns. If there is. A bully buck or a couple bully bucks out there. Yeah, they're gonna they might not even give you a shot They might just run right through that deer That'd be so sweet Get it on video. Dude, that'd be sweet. Yeah, you gotta hit that record button, man I mean we're fixing to go out like right now Yeah, I'm looking at the, I'm literally looking at the map now to see where we can place ourselves to benefit said calling sequence.
It's going to be good to, once we get out there on the water, we're going to have a better idea of what the wind's currently doing. And so the nice thing is I've got two pairs of waders in my truck. So even if Nick and I both had waders on and we did have to enter through cattails, we could just make a ton of noise.
And just book it through the cattails, pull both boats in, and then we could split and find a setup. I think we hunt, I would like to hunt the big [00:51:00] island on the west side. I think, remember where all of the big buck activity that we know for sure has happened. Has happened there so far, you know where we popped in there and looked at that little opening That was right off that point of on the M.
We would call it the end of W whatever Which is like three tiny little fingers that are islands I think one guy goes up to those islands and then one guy goes and sits almost where we walked around we came in on the very south side and we walked all the way around and it was like Real small trees.
I think if one guy got on the big island that we've been hunting close to those small trees and one guy got on the top part of that island on the W and We smacked antlers. I mean deer This is the thing he was even saying if there's two bucks in there that are willing to fight one might not and so if we pull the deer that wants to fight or even if he doesn't want to fight the Exit route is to you And they're going to [00:52:00] book across there.
So you got 130 inch deer that got his ass whooped the other night that ain't having it. And so he's going to get up and he's going to try to move to the mainland. That only way that they go across that mainland is on the North, not only way, but the main trail to go across. And if he's just sneaking out the back the water is so much deeper as you get farther South on that Island, the water is deeper and wider where they only have.
What is it? 10 feet across. Yeah, they got to walk through some cat tails for 10 yards and then they're in the water and then they're back in cat tails and they're back on mainland. Yeah. And that's maybe 45 yards altogether. If you would have asked me what I thought would be a good game plan, it would be that same thing.
We sit those grass strips that we know the deer are using, that we've already seen a buck on, and we just get close to where they were fighting the other night, and then we get close to where that buck was heading the other night. And. Both spots I think would be good and the visibility like you're not going to have shot opportunities in every direction, but the direction [00:53:00] that they're traveling, you should be able to see them coming.
From maybe up to a hundred yards away, right? Which only benefits like someone either to get one shot or like you said if you don't get it done tonight Then somebody else can go in there and do it the next day or something But I do think if we get on this the south in there get our wind, right? They sit on the north in there get their wind, right?
We just smack them horns and go crazy Do what old first sergeant said and just get real aggressive and loud and obnoxious and we'll either Have one come into us ready to fight or one's going to slip out the back and they're going to go straight to you. Yep. And you could even have both happen.
That's what he said. If there's two of them in there, which there probably is, if there's two big bucks fighting, then odds are maybe one of them don't want to fight. I think There's a loser to that fight and he ain't having it. I think there's quite a few hundred plus inch deer on that island.
I would say that, for sure. There's no way that a couple forks and six pointers are making 60 to a hundred scrapes. Like it's just not [00:54:00] happening. Yeah. I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it. And I got tons of film of it if you don't believe it. Especially, I don't think that there's, I don't know, I don't have enough experience like watching scrapes or having cameras on scrapes to know, but I don't think that all of those small bucks are going to be marking that heavily when we know there's bully bucks on the Island.
That's true. It makes sense. If it was me, I if i'm a if i'm a 110 pound dude walking into A bar. Yeah, i'm not gonna be going in there puffing my chest to everybody Right when there's a couple MMA fighters in there, it depends. I know some stupid people. Oh, trust me We've all seen the videos online But I got some friends like that.
I think we've got a solid plan. We get out there in the boats We figure out what the wind is doing, but I really do almost like hitting both And north and south but I think let it rip tater tip what I like Or what I think might be a good idea though, is if we get in between the food and those points,[00:55:00] yeah. I, because we don't wanna be at their Destin point. I don't be on destination bed. No. We don't wanna be at their destination bed. 'cause you'll never see 'em before. Daylight. No. I want to get so even like with him, I think you guys need to come in from the north and figure out a way whether we had to give you guys the waiters to get you off the canoe.
To hop up on top of that. So you guys are going to be a little bit closer, more aggressive, and we're going to be like yourself. I don't know if, but we don't know that. We would be on opposite extremes of the island. Yes. What I'm saying, we don't know what, that bucket, we haven't found his specific bed yet.
I got three options that I think that he's going to be on. Which one it is. We don't know. I could be just as wrong as you are right, we're gonna sit the two best options, I feel that's how I feel. The only other thing that we could do is get close to that pond like you said. Yeah. But we haven't been in there to know if it's grass all the way around.
And we got a bunch of rain coming to get our scent out of there and I think it would be a perfect opportunity if this whole thing don't work, we let the rain soak in and go in and I'm gonna get real aggressive with somebody once you guys leave. But I'm thinking we, I'm [00:56:00] thinking like, if you and I go to the south end of the island, We go as far north in the grass as we can get.
I think we go right here. Can we get in from the north there? And then you guys need to pop in right here and get in this finger somewhere where you can see across this because the pond's right here. So you guys, this is where you sat last night. Okay. So where do you want to put us at? And then I think you guys need to go on this finger.
The north side. Yes. And be here somewhere with your wing going that way. It should suck into this water. And then us, I think we come down here And we get basically where we sat almost just straight across and get in this, or we can go further. But I think if we get in right here, if he's in this or if he's in this, he's coming this way or he's coming that way.
Cause there's this exit route is up on the North end. It's like right there. You can see it right there. Yeah. That choke point. That's what I want. That's where we're putting you. Okay. That's where we were thinking about putting you. The only thing that I was going to suggest that you could possibly do.
is get [00:57:00] in the center of the M. You could get in the center one. I would almost get in the center of the M but get down a little bit so that if your wind is blowing this way, anything here isn't going to catch you. Is that a big oak pocket right there to the north? Yes. I want to be in that. It's, I don't know how thick it is, but I think you can get on, I think if you come in here and get on the edge somewhere, if you, if we scare deer rattling in this cattails, you're going to be able to hear them or see them if you get high enough.
I would be on the middle. Of that M, or on the left drop of the M. I think you should be, when you go in there, where the trails lead. Yeah, I agree. That's, wherever that is, be there. I'm a big visual guy, I know I keep saying that, but if I can get in an area where I can shoot 50 plus yards that's ideal for me.
That cattails, I don't know if you can shoot into it from the, I don't even know if you could get on the edge of it and still see really far. But you can get damn close. Don't take Tom's advice. Because he'll put you in a spot where you can shoot four yards and see 12 . I showed you the showed yesterday.
That's not the tree that, that's the tree. That is the tree. He [00:58:00] wanted to, and that's the tree for sure. He wanted to be like 10 feet up in this tree with no foot rooms you're talking about. That's basically what he wanted be he be on the edge of the 12 foot room. I would hunt a 12 foot room if I knew there was a big bug smoke in the scrape, I will.
But that would be that honestly, one of those small rooms could be a really good spot if there's an aggressive deer and you just. Smash antlers cuz he's gonna come through you're gonna hear him coming through and you're gonna have to be You're gonna have to be drawn in there before he clears that gap.
I thinker comes to I just picture him popping in be like Oh shit, like I done fucked up. Yeah, I think you're right though If you can get into those Oaks on that West Edge of the M. Yep. You're going to be golden. You just see a butt pop in there. This is what went through my head. You see a butt pop in that room and gets halfway through and you hear MAAH!
And then it freezes and it's that's when I knew. I fucked up. FWAP! It was this moment. He goes... He knew. Do you know the... What we were hoping yesterday was that you would shoot [00:59:00] a deer, get it on video. It would sprint across to our island, and then he would get a video of it tipping over. Oh, that'd be crazy.
You know how sick that would be? Like, camera, switch to camera two. Oh, here. Yeah. I was like, what just happened is we kicked a deer to them, getting in here, and we're about to film, this stud come flying in here, and I'm like buck, and then he stopped. He just tips over. He just pored like a two liter.
Yeah, I would just shoot it and be like, that was my, I just slide, I'd slide my mechanical blade through it and be like, no, look, man,
we're not just talking about how much we love animals. And here's Tom sliding is just call me Tom. I did call you Tom Thomas. That's because what you said was a Tom saying that is, yeah, that's something Tom would say. But, I'm pumped, man. I think we got it. Oh, dude, we're at an hour. It's two o'clock. Yeah, let's do it.
We got a [01:00:00] boogie, man we got a guys it's happening tonight. I think I hope so. I think we're gonna see If we don't get if we don't both get deer. I think one of us is gonna get a good deer and Both of us are gonna see here's my observation. I probably shouldn't say it out loud, but I'm going to see a good deer in there and I'm not going to go home tomorrow.
Yeah, that's what we like. I like what you're saying. I'm going to have to edit all night long so I can stay here. Oh my gosh. If you need help. But that's going to be worth it, isn't it? Yeah. It's just a cool experience, man. It's, like I said yesterday, it's something I've never done and it's new to a lot of us.
Something cool. And I never thought about it. I honestly did it because that's what I like to do. But when we were boating out, I was like, everybody just shut your lights off. Dude, that was like, I almost got chills. Bro, like when you turn it off and we were sitting there and like my eyes started to adapt and we're just like boating out We're just bunch of bodies hanging out.
It was just like this nostalgic feeling. You're just like whoa Like this is what we're supposed to do. You don't need lights to see where you're going because you can see on the horizon You can see where all the points of the [01:01:00] different islands and where the mainland is. And so you're like We just have to head to that.
Yeah, like I said, it was almost like a Romance romanticizing this feeling it was like the wind and we're bow hunting. We're both kayaking into this It takes you to me like doing that. I said this last night. It's like when you read like Adventure books or watch adventure movies, whatever and then That's what it should feel like I used to brag that I could walk 40 yards off the road and my pre hung blind and see a 150 but this is just a totally different end of the spectrum that I've never experienced.
Yeah, and it's just That's how I hunt like I was saying last night like I do a lot of water access with a canoe and a kayak and John boats and stuff, but like for me I didn't realize over the past couple of years, I've been taking a lot of new guys out and even you're not a new guy to hunting, but to be able to show someone who's never done that experience that I get a coolest feeling from yeah, like that is so to go one level deeper is we [01:02:00] bow hunt because it's difficult, right? Yeah. So then we hunt, private land or public land, whatever it is. Public land's typically a little bit harder. Sure. And then you start throwing in the boat, and then the island, and all this stuff. And it's like harder.
Yeah. And it's just it's just a cool feeling. What it Makes you feel manly, I think. It's Matt Rinella, right? Matt Rinella has the, Steve Rinella? No, his brother Oh. His brother has like the hunt I can't remember what he calls it. He calls it like the hunt score. Like you go to high fence, sit in a blind, shoot deer over a feeder, very low hunt score.
You go to a private piece and you shoot deer out of a tree stand, higher hunt score. If you do it from the ground, higher hunt score. And he does all of this. Treadbow. Dude, this is a pretty, it's not the highest, but it's a pretty high hunt score. New piece of ground, public land on an island, canoe and kayak in.
Early October. Oh, we didn't talk about the canoe, dude. So we we had to talk about this because if we don't, Tom will think we're leaving it out. Cause we feel like we're sissies. Tyler brought us out some McDonald's out there, which was awesome. But dude, that was amazing.[01:03:00]
You're a pretty tall guy. You got in there with your intern. And I remember when. You called me like, this isn't going to work. You're going to have to come. I was like, absolutely not. And then I get a text, man. I was like, all right, we got to go get them. And we start paddling. And then he texted me.
I was like, I think we're going to make it. We'll be all right. So we're sending it. Yeah. We're sending it. And when you come across that point, me and him were sitting out here after scouting, we were just hanging out on the canoe and you laughed. Your reaction from my perspective was like, because All you could see is like a centimeter of boat.
I'm like, just look crosshair. I'm like, give me some gear. You guys are going to sink. If you would have wrapped a piece of duct tape around the rim of that, you would have had twice as much out of the water. Dude, if I rotated my core like One inch water would have poured in the back. Oh, easy. You know what I mean?
I was just like full ad flex. And then my backrest, there's no backrest. I'm like, when you go to relax, then you get more shaky. Oh yeah. I [01:04:00] got the lefty righties right when I got in the water. I was like, no, not happening. There's really good single man canoes. That would be perfect for this stuff.
If you're doing it solo. Oh yeah. And that flat bottom one with the does like this, even if I have land access to it, to approach it from the water, just makes it so much better. I have a private piece that I do that with. And I have an oxbow and I can get in down the road. If it's like a public access you can get down on the road.
And I have no reason to do that because the deer are not used to me. It's a a property I don't go on very often. But I still use that water because it's so deadly. They don't care when they see you floating down the river. You'll bump bucks off of the the river, the water unit that they're bedding up against it so you can see what's in there.
And they don't booger them because they've just seen you and they're like... There's somebody floating back here, whatever, right? Yeah, they'll come right back. And they don't, they're not going to come back and smell around and not smell you. You know what I mean? And it's bulletproof in situations because the water takes scent.
And then sometimes, especially during the rut, they're running those waterways. Yeah. You [01:05:00] put your kayak or your canoe right on the edge there. Pop right there. Like how many physical yards are we actually walking on land? I've done it. I've done where I'm sitting like my you can see the roots of my tree coming out of the creek Yeah, and I'm right there.
So there's there's no scent left behind. That's awesome. Essentially. That's yeah compared to you know Pushing two miles deep in this piece of black and you walk past you Think of the scent you're leaving the deer your bump and all the stuff you can we kayaked in how far yep And we just pop in 70 yards 40 or whatever it might be.
It's not a long walk No. It's like you're not doing a ton of damage. Nothing. I think tonight, I mean it's gonna be, you guys are just getting in that tiny little strip. Yep. We're probably just gonna hunt right, I would guess, right on the edge. Pretty much what we're talking about. Get your boat where you can hide it and hop in.
That's kinda what I'm doing. We're gonna hunt right on the edge of the grass. If I wanna make sure that the deer can't circle us. Okay, that's what I'm trying to that's why I want to be up against that water as much as I can Nice because with that with the thermals the east wind not having a lot of wind They're gonna be able to hear a long ways.
They're gonna come they're [01:06:00] gonna come barreling ass. I'm hoping yeah But I don't want a big buck to try to slip us and he ain't gonna be able to slip I'm not gonna be reckless. He's gonna go to you and get shot I'm not gonna be completely reckless, but I want to be extremely aggressive. I agree So we're gonna try out first.
I don't have calls So i'm gonna sit quiet let you guys make all the noise better be perfect. You've got an extra tube if you wanted to. No, I'm not worried about it. I think I want to get in there, find a good trail, decent sign, somewhere I can see, and I'm going to set up and just sit and wait, let you guys make a ton of carnage noise.
We'll all text you, let you know we're gonna, hey, we're about to hit, so you can have your bow in your hand and be ready. Yeah, good deal. Yeah, because I don't know how much you'll be able to hear. We're relatively far away, but. Yeah, regardless. First, it feels like
you to do a line distance and see. Yeah, probably like 400 yards, that's my guess. I think close to four. I'm probably way off. I just learned on Onyx, did you guys know the two finger deal on Onyx? Instead of opening it up and dropping waypoints or doing like the line distance on Onyx? [01:07:00] You can literally just hold two fingers on the two points and it gives you the measurement.
I did not know that. 555 yards. That's not that bad though. No Tom got me onto that. I was like, cool. I just did it. It's super cool. You literally look, watch. No way. That is cool, dude. You learned so new. That is cool. Cool trick. So I wanted to say something before we get off here. Just a little quick.
Tip that I was talking to him about yesterday, and we actually did to get in the middle of where we hunted that mucky Nasty crappy water that you sink in or whatever go do that Like when you go to walk that 20 30 yards in the cover your boots in that nasty swamp water and for some reason Dmd, I don't know if it's a I don't, you can't beat a deer's nose in my eyes, but they just don't pay attention.
And when I come, like I hunt a lot of coves, if I come all the way up that cove and I get into that mucky, nasty, I leave it on my boots, I'll grab some and pull it up my leg and get it all over me because it just seems like when you touch stuff with that, they just see it [01:08:00] as that nasty swamp water. Yeah.
I do the same thing with cow pies. Yeah. If I'm walking in, just step in a cow pie and you just walk through. Yeah. That smell is so overwhelming. Think we got, we drove a truck there. So our truck has sent on our boots, our kayak has sent, our kayak everywhere that you get that muck covers it creates a layer.
Now you take that muck with you all the way to the stand, then you don't get that truck sent and all that stuff. Yeah. Makes sense. It's going to be good. Let's do it. Let's go. And that is going to wrap it up for today's episode, man. What an awesome time getting to sit down at deer camp, do in person recordings.
And like I said, at the beginning of the show, you need to tune in next week to hear how the following days after this recording played out, it was a wild ride. Nick Queen and I are going to sit down and talk about that and Tyler, he was there. He won't be on next week's podcast, but he was there about 400 yards away from us.
And he could hear all of the action as it happened. [01:09:00] One of the craziest hunts of my life, a hunt that I hope to do year after year. And hopefully recreate a lot of the aspects of that hunt. So stay tuned for that. Hopefully you guys are finding success in your neck of the woods. In the past three days, I've actually had two different people reach out one shot, an absolute giant don't know the full score.
I'm guessing somewhere around 200 inches here in Missouri. And I had another guy reach out from Oklahoma and this buck has to have 20 something points. I don't know. The full story behind that, but who knows, maybe I'll get them both on an episode and we can hear all of the details, how those played out, but the deer are moving.
It's insane from what I saw in Wisconsin, from what we've been seeing on trail cameras, from the stories I've heard from other people, it is not too early to be seeing insane rutting activity. So stay tuned. Good luck out there. Be safe, be in a harness. If you're in the tree, please wear a harness.
It's not worth having some [01:10:00] crazy injury falling out of the tree and go check out the XOP stuff. That's what all of us were rocking this week and I highly recommend it. So until next time guys, always choose adventure and God bless.
