Post-Season Scouting to The Max

On this episode of the Nine Finger Chronicles, we chat with public land machine Josh Profitt about taking your scouting missions to the next level. This episode gets as detailed as possible on the topic of post-season scouting. Josh walks us through his start to finish scouting strategy. Josh breaks down what he looks for in food sources, staging areas, travel corridors, and deer bedding areas. As complex as this may sound, scouting for deer is very similar to hunting itself. It's not rocket science, the more time you spend in the woods during the off-season, the more prepared you will be in season. It's that time of year, so get outside and find where next seasons shooter bucks are living.

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I don't know if you can hear that. That motor running, but it's my neighbor Chad, and he is [00:01:00] plowing my driveway. Thank you very much Chad for plowing here in Iowa. We have a ton of snow that just got dropped and the temperatures dropped and the snow got dropped. I think we're on pace to get eight inches today.

If we haven't already gotten it, I haven't been outside yet today, but snow in Iowa. And so as we sit here and we start to talk a little bit, The topic at hand today, which is post-season. You know this winter scouting, post-season scouting, and how important it. Realize that if you have snow on the ground, you know you wait a week or so, and if the snow is still there, you can go out into the woods and know exactly where deer are moving.

The more snow, the more you're gonna be able to watch where they go. Find out what their food sources are. It concentrates 'em all the good all good things. Now, if you get too much snow and too cold of weather for too long a time, it might be a detriment to the deer herd. But from a scouting stand.

This is the time to get [00:02:00] out there and into this early, early spring where we can go shed hunting and things like that. Use this weather we have to your advantage, use no vegetation on the trees to the advantage. But today's guest he's been on previously, his name is Josh Prophet, and Josh was telling a story out about a buck on public land that he had been chasing for several years named Bones.

If you haven't listened to that episode, I strongly suggest that you do, but the emphasis throughout the year, Of Josh's hunting strategy is scouting and hardcore serious data gathering, scouting. And he uses that to put himself into position the best possible position to, not only to locate with trail cameras, but to put himself in the best tree to kill one of these big mature bugs that he's.

Going after it. And so that's what today's podcast is about. We talk about new properties, we talk about old [00:03:00] properties, we talk about public land, we talk about hunter pressure. We talk about the meat and potatoes and the details of what to look for during scouting. And I know that it's gonna benefit.

If you not only listen to this, but then go out into the field and Im implement it. So a really good episode today. I know you guys are going to enjoy it. Let's get right into the commercials. Vortex optics, man. These guys have been a partner for a while now. Huge shout out to Vortex and the entire team there.

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If you wanna get mobile, go check out tethered, and that's it. We're going to go ahead and we're gonna get into today's scouting to the post, I think it's called Post-Season Scouting to the Max episode with my man and Josh Prophet, 3, 2, 1. All right, back on the podcast with me today. If you didn't catch the first time we were on, I strongly sugo suggest going back to listen to the Story of Bones, a big old buck where that he did not get to harvest, but he's out looking for new big bucks to hunt this upcoming year.

Mr. Josh [00:07:00] Prophet, welcome back dude. 

[00:07:02] Josh Profitt: What's up 

[00:07:03] Dan Johnson: man? How's going? It's going good. All right. So before we started recording, you mentioned that you. , you finished barber school and now you've officially started working as a barber. What's that like? 

[00:07:20] Josh Profitt: Man, it is. I've worked for the man my whole life and coming into, to this career and this industry it's just I don't even know how to explain it.

I can't even really put it into words. I have my independent contractor's license, so basically I come and go as I want. I'll work off a schedule. , if I went off, I just block it off and take off. I really don't think I could have made a better move as far as being able to see my kids and 

[00:07:49] Dan Johnson: hunt more.

Yeah, and that's nuts, dude. Like every guy I know that is serious or wants to get serious, they're making life moves [00:08:00] to try to put themselves in the best position to do. Not only do this as much as they can, Do it as much as they can with their family. And so it, and whether that's hunting or spending just more time with the family.

And I just for me I cannot even imagine going back into any type of cubicle or factory or anything. I like my mind just would shut off and I'd black out.

[00:08:31] Josh Profitt: My anxiety talking about it. Yeah. Is shooting up through the clouds 

[00:08:35] Dan Johnson: right now. . That's funny. All right, so I do have to tell a quick story. You had to go to a barber school first to, before you can say you're a barber. 

[00:08:45] Josh Profitt: Yep. It's basically 1500 hours. If you show up every day, go eight hours a day, it takes about 10 months to 

[00:08:52] Dan Johnson: complete.

Okay. So I had a friend who.[00:09:00] I don't remember if I've told this story or not. I had a buddy who his sister went to so it's, I think it's called La James and it's a hairstylist school and they trained them there to cut hair and, do all that stuff. I, and I don't know, do you have to cut an you have to cut x amount of heads before you can get certifi?

[00:09:26] Josh Profitt: Yeah, I'd have nine, 980 hours of haircut 

[00:09:30] Dan Johnson: time. Okay. Alright. So she had to do something similar. So me, my buddy and my buddy's dad all donated our head to go and let her cut it. . We walked out of there with the worst fucking haircuts, like anybody has ever had. And as like after the cut, they take the mirror to the back of the head, say, Hey, what do you think?

Her dad goes something like, [00:10:00] yeah, maybe this isn't for you. Wow. In front of all these people. Dude, these were horrible haircuts. Horrible. And thank God hair grows back. But let's just say that she tried it for a little bit longer and now she's doing something different. She's not in the, in that field anymore.

, I don't know. I thought that was, 

[00:10:20] Josh Profitt: I can't, I won't lie. I've put out my fair share of bad ones. Especially, when I, when I was in school and starting out. Yeah. Thanks. Kudos to the people that let me, chop up their head for 

[00:10:32] Dan Johnson: practice. Yeah.

Now I have a question for you. When it comes to hair and cutting hair, is it more art or is it more technic?

[00:10:44] Josh Profitt: Man, I it's a tough question. I feel like you gotta have an knack for it. Probably a little bit of both. Turns out I feel like I'm really good at it. Yeah. , I got that eye for it. And I'm so O c D and the shop that I work at, [00:11:00] it's more of a premier shop. You, it's a, it's an appointment shop.

You set an appointment with me. Typically you pay a little bit more for the haircut, but you leave with a better haircut and a better experience. 

[00:11:12] Dan Johnson: Yeah. And because you're a barber, are you doing like straight razor shaves and things like that? All that. 

[00:11:19] Josh Profitt: All that hot towel shaves. Yeah, whatever you need.

Head shaves, massages 

[00:11:25] Dan Johnson: you name it. I'll do it man. I might have to come to Kentucky and cuz that's where you're at Kentucky? Yep. Yep. I might have to drive to Kentucky to get worked over. 

[00:11:35] Josh Profitt: It's not bad being laid back with a hot towel, a steamer blowing on you for 15 minutes and getting your face shaved.

It's it's a di it's an experience. I 

[00:11:44] Dan Johnson: will say that. Yeah. Yeah. It's not like what I typically do and go to sports clips and have some lady who has made a shit ton of wrong life decisions cutting my. Yeah. 

[00:11:58] Josh Profitt: Man, they're they can't [00:12:00] even touch a straight razor of 

[00:12:01] Dan Johnson: sports clips, so I'm not allowed to use one.

Yeah, I I wouldn't allow it. There's no way I would allow it. I'd be like, anyway, before I go off on a tangent let's just hard pivot into today's topic, and that is scouting. All right. I know that, from previous conversations and following you on social, you are out in about this time of year, you're putting miles on, you're looking for the next deer, you're looking for the next honey hole and things like that.

And so just a real right off the bat question, why are you putting so much time into this postseason? Pre green up timeframe looking for whatever it is you're looking for.

[00:12:53] Josh Profitt: I'm gonna say number one, I just 

[00:12:55] Dan Johnson: can't sit still. . Yeah, that's a fact. 

[00:12:58] Josh Profitt: And I always say that, [00:13:00] the more you put in, the more you're gonna get out of it and you can learn, you can learn so much this time of year, you can dive into places where you poked around that.

And then what I like to do this time of year is, everybody's, so we're all on this east yachting everybody's dropping pins and they're checking locations. This is the time to where I can really put the boots on the ground and I can hit these places that. Looked a little less appealing to me on a map or on my phone.

And man, I will say it is, it can be eyeopening, man, when you get out there and really walk around and, you may be in an area that looks horrible on a map, but when you get there, you're like, oh man I should have been here in October. Yeah. 

[00:13:44] Dan Johnson: Yeah. And so it's just, It's just data gathering, right?

I mean is or does it go beyond? . 

[00:13:54] Josh Profitt: It's just every little piece of the puzzle you can get. The deer, the whitetail has such [00:14:00] an advantage above you. I just feel like any, anything I can do to, put the cards in my favor, I'm going to do it. And it's either stay at home and look at my phone or go out there and scout and try to 

[00:14:13] Dan Johnson: figure things out.

Yeah. Okay. And so when it comes to that do you feel that the, that more is better when it comes to scouting? Or is there a limit where it starts to be detrimental? 

[00:14:31] Josh Profitt: I think in season it can be, you can mess some things up for sure. It's a little harder to mess things up in November.

September, early October and late de December. Yeah, I think that you can definitely mess it up because it, you know what people don't realize is, or what PE a lot of people don't talk about is, their ground set and. How, moisture affects it and how long? I don't know how long it can stay on the ground, but I know it can stay on there a hot 

[00:14:59] Dan Johnson: [00:15:00] minute.

Yeah. Yeah. And okay. And so that's why, you prefer to get out there this time of year. I 

[00:15:09] Josh Profitt: prefer to get out there anytime I can, but this is just such a good time because there's literally no bars, there's nothing holding you back. You're not worried about bumping deer or running into any other hunters.

You, it's, you can literally, it's literally a free for all. And. , there's just typically not, that many people out this time of year. There are, I hunt a hundred percent public land for deer. So y yeah, I have to keep that in my mind too. I may pull up to my favorite place and there may be two trucks in the parking lot and I have enough respect where I'm just not going to just bounce off cuz who knows where they are and I don't want to ruin 

[00:15:48] Dan Johnson: somebody.

That's a good thing, man. And I think a lot of people, man, that's a tough one for me because I feel, I don't know, I feel like the [00:16:00] best time to scout if you had the opportunity to, would be let's say you tag out October 15th, man. I would think that the best time to scout would be in.

that timeframe where the sign is really starting to pop up and usually deer and this is just my opinion, I'd love to hear what you think about it, but deer tend to leave sign in the same areas for multiple years in a row, right? Unless there's some big kind of habitat change or a huge food source change.

And I know like in Iowa, that usually doesn't happen. So for me I identify a lot of sign in the same area. Every single year and the best time to go out and identify that is as it's actually happening. So if you tagged out early, I would assume it would be the best to go out and start scouting for next year immediately.

What are your thoughts on that? I. . 

[00:16:57] Josh Profitt: Yeah. Dive, dive right into it. I'm right there [00:17:00] with you. But it just goes back to what I said. You just gotta to be mindful of, other hunters and what's going on. The only thing to touch on what you said, a lot of times I do find a sign in a lot of the same places year to year, but.

2019 was a wake up call when we got e h d in. That completely changed everything as far as where the sign was, just, I don't know why, if it was the e h d in the deer dying with added hunting pressure, but I felt like everything changed that year, but, I mean there's the more in season scouting you can do, you have no clue how many people tell me.

It happens multiple times to me. Yeah, every season, dude. Why aren't you just hunting? Because, I put a video up, I'm checking cameras or doing a little scouting or, and I mean it. I better have six people message me this [00:18:00] year. And I was like, man, you just need to be in the tree. Yeah, but if you, I would rather know exactly where to be than poke around and not, feel good about it.

Yeah. And that, that goes back to what you say, what you said as far as, get out there, find the fresh 

[00:18:19] Dan Johnson: line and get on it. Yeah. And that's such a, I don't know, I feel like when you gather that inform. Previous, it just cuts down. Like you don't have to hunt as much during the season if you don't want to because you have all this, I don't know.

And I'm sure you do as well, you have some kind of hunt stand or you have some kind of hunting app on your phone that allows you to document every single. That you do and or sea or rubs or scrapes or deer movement or trail cameras or tree stands, you have all that documented.

And then for me what happens is [00:19:00] I do all that pre-season work or I collect that data over previous seasons and I don't need to hunt as much as I would if I didn't have that. . 

[00:19:13] Josh Profitt: No, it just goes to just having the more quality, stuff. Yeah, and I think the good point the more that you, the more that you scout, the better odds you are going to have to come shooting the deer.

Like a lot of times, I don't care what time of the year it is, I do it all the time. September, October, November and December. If I got two days to. Scout probably one of those days. Now it may be a morning and an afternoon or a morning, but it's not four solid sets or an all day set. I'm typically bouncing around looking for hot sign, checking some Montreal cameras to see if any of the deer have shifted or what ridges or drainages they're running.

And you don't need, you don't know. Unless you [00:20:00] actually do it, 

[00:20:00] Dan Johnson: but yeah. All right. So you are out and about. You hop onto a first, I wanna, I want to break this down into properties. You've already scouted and hunted and properties that you have. You've never been. And so when we talk about prop scouting on properties that you've hunted multiple times, maybe that's one year or two, 14 years when you're going out, what are you looking for on properties that you've already hunted?

[00:20:33] Josh Profitt: Man, it's I, whether I've hunted it or I haven't hunted it, I always start at the food source. Yeah. Or where I, what I think would be the food source would be. And because number one, I, that's pretty much one of the dearest, probably top two things in its life is, they're a slave to their stomach.

And the deer are always going to leave, sign around food. And that's where I start. And I actually. backwards from food [00:21:00] to vetting. Okay. 

[00:21:01] Dan Johnson: All right. And why is that? 

[00:21:05] Josh Profitt: It's easier. Yeah. I feel like you're cutting a lot of the guests out of the game because they, they have to eat. Yeah. And if you got a secluded field over here, that's beans or corn or clover, or let's just say, one ridge is, it's got five or six white oaks on it, and they're, those are the only five or six white oaks on 60 acres.

It's the same thing. I'm going to go there every 

[00:21:26] Dan Johnson: time first. Okay. All right. And so you work your way from food to bedding. What are you looking for in that line? Specif. 

[00:21:41] Josh Profitt: When you get to the food, you can obviously tell how hard it's being hit. Those fields, man.

Private or public man, they draw two things. They draw the deer and they draw the hunters . Yeah. So a lot of times that's where you can do inventory on both. You can, actually see how the deer [00:22:00] browsing the, whatever food source you're on, you can look at the trees that people climb or cut branches on or hang trail cameras on, and.

How I go about diving back from there is I typically have, places marked on my phone, whether it be drainages or points or what, where I think the deer might bed or some sapling thickets. And I literally just walk around the field and try to find, where the deer or coming and going from and just start executing back through 

[00:22:31] Dan Johnson: there.

Yeah. All right. Now even getting more detail. what items are, okay, so we've talked about this line, right? We've talked about the food to bed line that you're taking. We've talked a little bit about the terrain that you're looking for now, within that terrain, is there even something that you can break it down to the next.

To be as detailed as possible in that line. [00:23:00] 

[00:23:00] Josh Profitt: Absolutely. Rub lines, you can't overlook 'em because I really don't, I personally don't think a deer's real territorial over an area. I think that it may be territorial over a dough. And those rub lines, we all know that they lay them down on their travel.

Yeah. And so that's, that's where I, that's where I'll go. I'll start looking for the rubs and then I'll be looking for it. There's typically a community scrape somewhere and, I'll typically drop a camera on it. And a lot of times, it's not rocket science and I can't say that I.

Know exactly where the deer's bedding. Like I could sit in this tree and shoot him in that bed, but I'll typically have a pretty good idea of where they're bedding. Okay. Whether it's on a hillside or a 

[00:23:52] Dan Johnson: sapling thicket. Gotcha, gotcha. Okay. And so you're [00:24:00] looking for rub lines. Awesome. Does that correlate, do rub lines, taking it even a layer deeper?

Do rub lines or old scrapes tend to happen from your experience at certain areas within those. That characteristic terrain feature, are, if you're looking at a food source, are they at the, are they usually on the same place at the food source or a staging area? Are they usually at the same place on a staging area or in a pinch or a maybe some kind of ridge?

Are they always on the what I'm looking for is themes or trends. 

[00:24:41] Josh Profitt: We're always gonna be able to find 'em on field edges, but I find a lot of mine on like edges, and what I mean by edges is, where the hardwoods meet some thicker timber, either where they've done some. actually, done a clear cut or done some select cutting any kind of [00:25:00] transition.

And that transition may even be a ridge or anything. Typically any type of transition is where I find a lot of my deer, sonic, especially buck sign. Okay. 

[00:25:16] Dan Johnson: And then that hypes you. So you've you've identified Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And so you've identified these things and then how do you go about, and I think this is where people tend to get a little confused, and I know this is for me, this is where I had to learn a.

When I started scouting heavily and when I started, trying to identify, sign and identify terrain features and things like that, how does that then translate into a tree stand location? , 

[00:25:55] Josh Profitt: So a lot of times, like you, you will get on a good sign or you'll get on a good [00:26:00] or a good trail, and we've all done it, and then it just dwindles out.

Man, these rub lines were, I went 200 yards and. These rub lines, it couldn't have been no better. And man, now it's just filtered off. That's where you really need to start trying to put the puzzles together, the pieces of the puzzles together, because more, more than likely the things I see, like that's typically, where the deer's beded at and you know the deer.

They say that, check these points and this and that. I'm not a great bed hunter, but a deer wheel lay like a lot. I feel like he will lay a lot of sign down if he's on a couple acres. Like he likes to bed in this one sapling thicket or this one ridge line. You can actually look for a bunch of clusters of rubs.

You can look for browse pressure, and then you can look for, the actual bed. Yeah. 

[00:26:55] Dan Johnson: And I don't know if that really answers your question. Yeah. And so cause [00:27:00] this is where I feel it gets tricky. It's the, it's where the head is, right? Your head is looking down for sign, you're looking down at terrain, you're looking down at , you're looking down at trails and things like that, crossings, whatever.

And then you have to focus. If you're gonna hunt in a tree, you have to move your head up and you have to find that that perfect tree that gives you a shot to where you feel that these deer are gonna be moving through. Is there like an equation for that or do you feel like that's something that is.

how do I put this? That is it's actually not as complicated as people make it out to be. It's one of '

[00:27:45] Josh Profitt: em things where it's, I think it comes with time. And it's something that I, it's very hard to explain over a podcast. Yeah, you get to a point, and it took me a long time, like majority of my hunting career, [00:28:00] it took me to get to a.

a point to where everything actually clicked. Just like the buck I shot this year, I knew exactly where they were feeding. I. Caught their trail. A couple main trails in the snow. I looked on my phone, I seen a couple points on my phone. I seen a couple thickets on my phone. I'm instantly thinking like I'm gonna follow this trail in.

I'm gonna find old sign from bucks in October, November. I should find some fresh sign and the deer should be beded here and. It was, I walked in there, I found all the good rub lines. I got to the point to where I could, I was right on the edge of hardwood timber and a big sapling thicket, and I knew that about two or 300 yards of me was some shoot potential good bedding on ridges.

And then, so I'll just, I picked a tree that this is where I felt like a lot of hunters. [00:29:00] Mess up. Like I feel like they try to get the deer or the wind right for them versus the wind, right for the deer. So you gotta think about what the deer is going to do with his wind. And I feel like a lot of times the, my places I set up, like it's real.

My wind is real iffy. Like I only have a small window. , and that's because the deer, most of the bucks use the wind to their advantage. And I feel like more times when I was trying to get my wind perfect, for me personally, I'd be 80 yards outside the game. 

[00:29:38] Dan Johnson: Yeah. Oh man. And so again, now we're throwing all this strategy talk into it.

Right. , and so it's just, , it could potentially get overwhelming because, you see the sign's there for a reason, but just as important as the terrain and in that bed to food [00:30:00] pattern. You said that food is they have to eat right?

And so they're going from this bed to food pattern. The signs there for a reason. Scouting, you think you found the good spot you set up? and the wind is doing something crazy and that's why they're there and you're, and you start to get busted. Is there any, is there anything that you've picked up over the years that would tell you, Hey man actually this looks like a good spot.

There's a lot of sign here, but maybe it's not because the wind or the thermals might throw you off during the, in the fall when it's time.

[00:30:42] Josh Profitt: Man, a lot of times those real good places and you can mess 'em up is where your wind does swirl real bad. . And that's typically in some kind of, bottom or a hub or some kind of ridge system where you got a couple hard ridges coming [00:31:00] together where it's going to keep the wind bouncing around.

And when you run into those type of places, the. The late season, early season, the rut, my opinion and my opinion, only the best time to hunt those is the am on sunny high pressure days. That way you're, you get a little bit of advantage from the thermals pulling your wind up. 

[00:31:24] Dan Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:31:26] Josh Profitt: And I've messed up a lot, man, like I, but I'm a very aggressive hunter.

And I do, I know I pushed deer around without a doubt. And I typically am able to get, back up on 'em. It's just to the point to where are they gonna move in the daylight. 

[00:31:44] Dan Johnson: Yeah. And again, so going back to that then, do you feel it is important to spread your wings and scout multiple times of the year and, and not just in this [00:32:00] no vegetation postseason, pre green up timeframe, like February and March.

Oh, absolutely. I 

[00:32:08] Josh Profitt: just, I've always told everybody, like I, the reason why I only deer in Turkey hunt and I don't get into anything else is because I'm a deer hunter and the whole time I'm Turkey hunting, I'm really deer out. And to put things in perspective, like a thousand mile season is common for me, and that's hunting, scouting, but I typically keep up with it, and I typically do around a thousand miles a 

[00:32:33] Dan Johnson: year.

Okay. And that's just boots on the ground for Turkey hunting, deer hunting, scouting and. . 

[00:32:42] Josh Profitt: Yes. But you both believe anytime I'm out there, my mind's on deer. Yeah. I've found big sheds before and been on turkeys and just quit Turkey hunting and started looking for the other side of shed

[00:32:53] Dan Johnson: We've all done that, or at least I have anyway. . Oh yeah. 

[00:32:57] Josh Profitt: So the more scouting you do, [00:33:00] I really think the more successful you'll be. But when it gets to be, the end season scouting, I just think you're gonna have to be approached a little different. Yeah. And be mindful of where the deer are at and what you're doing.

Yeah. . 

[00:33:14] Dan Johnson: All right. And I think a lot of the, a lot of the answers are gonna be the same here as far as the I think a lot of the question or the answers are gonna be the same, but how do you then go into a property that you've never hunted before? Is there a different strategy or a different approach when it's when it's virgin?

[00:33:39] Josh Profitt: Oh, it, yeah. There is. And we're, I guess we're primarily speaking about public, because that's how I hunt. Yeah. Number one, I'm gonna do my research on the property whether that's with hashtags or TikTok or Google searches, because man, I, the way that these hunters talk about places these days just 

[00:33:59] Dan Johnson: [00:34:00] blows my mind.

and you're talking about. Really detailed information about where good deer live. 

[00:34:08] Josh Profitt: It blows my mind, man. I can, it blows my mind. And the information that you can find and you know it right or wrong, the information you can find on a place via social media is mr. It's mind blowing to me.

You can find out everything. Yeah. So typically what I like to do is I find, I try to find a place. Doesn't give as much hype. Yeah. Or that may offer a certain part of the season that doesn't allow any hunting or quota hunting. But because the less hunting pressure you have, private or public the better the deer hunting's gonna be because they're gonna move more in the daylight.

That's just common sense to me. So that's where I start at, man is some inventory, doing some homework doing some networking. And then, once I find a pit [00:35:00] place, I typically have set points on my phone to where I want to go, and that's where I'll, that's where I'll start at. And.

Every time, 10 outta 10, it's gonna be, I'm walking back to this food source, or I'm gonna check this ridge for some white oaks or red oaks or pin oaks. And a lot of things that people don't talk about, man, because it's it is harder to find as like the browse pressure. Okay. . And a lot of, and a lot of, a lot of things eat, gr the brows real low to the ground.

It's hard to tell. But if you find a place that cause deer, man, I don't care what people say, they'll freaking eat anything. . They'll eat anything. And if you can find a place, if you really take the time and look, and I do if you can find the stuff that's like waist high that they've ate up in early season.

You can almost guarantee that's probably a deer that's doing that. 

[00:35:57] Dan Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. And [00:36:00] let's see here in that line, we've, we talked about that line that, you you work from food source to bedding area. Are you right to kill them? Yeah. Are you. less aggressive or more aggressive on a, on your scouting tactics, I guess you would say, on a property that you've never hunted before?

I'm more aggressive. 

[00:36:23] Josh Profitt: Okay. Yeah, for sure. Because I just, I feel, I don't like to guess. I would rather know. Yeah, for sure. And a lot of times, What I see is you can run a good buck or a group of deer or hurt a deer out of ar out of an area, and as long as you or somebody else doesn't keep hounding that over and over, like they will come back and they will come back relatively quick because they're there for 

[00:36:48] Dan Johnson: a reason.

Have you ever, I don't know why this came up, because we're talking about pressure here. Man I've been on both sides of the fence and honestly, I've been on both sides of the fence. [00:37:00] On app you throw a scenario out there of a big buck doing one thing, and I could share not only an ex example of that thing, but I can share an example of them doing the complete opposite thing as well.

A lot of us guys who are serious about this, we start talking about trends and we start talking about things that big Deer do on a regular basis. I want to hear your opinion on this, but my opinion is now like just changes every year because they, there is no trend and there is no thing, one thing that Deere do the same all the.

[00:37:39] Josh Profitt: No I think it's just you and I think it's all situational and in it's individualized, like I've seen big Deer when I say big deer, a four year old boomer that doesn't want leave 200 acres, and I've seen a four year old, 180 inch deer that wants to run 2000 

[00:37:57] Dan Johnson: acres. Yeah. Okay.

And [00:38:00] so then when we. And this kind of leads up to my question, if when you bump a deer are you tend to see them return after a certain period of time. 

[00:38:14] Josh Profitt: Yeah. And I think that depends on, I think that if they see, if they smell you, it's a little different. But yeah, I shot a deer. . Oh man. I think it was about 2013 or 14.

He actually come into the base of the tree downwind. Just come directly straight at me. There was no shot. Busted me every which way you think a deer could. He smelled me. He smelled where I walked. He looked up and we looked each other in the eyes. And then exactly one week later I thought the deer was in a different county.

I shot him outta the same tree. 

[00:38:55] Dan Johnson: And then could, do you have examples of a deer like cuz I have, I've had examples [00:39:00] where I got trail camera picks of a deer for, 10 days in a row coming out of this little thicket. And most of it was nocturnal information on trail camera. But he'd come.

Out of the bedding area, and he would walk across this little, I guess you would call it, a two track that connects these two fields, and I bumped him. Walking into a bedding area to set up. One day I saw he, he jumped up out of the bed, out of his bed and took off, and I never saw him until the, to the spring of the next year.

Have you had a, have you had encounters where, like the, your target buck just goes m i a for the rest of the season?

[00:39:46] Josh Profitt: Not really, but you gotta keep in mind that I'm hunting over 5,000 acres and I typically have, , 95% of it covered. Now I have done that and [00:40:00] seen 'em move a mile. Yeah. And it may, and what I have seen a lot, and a lot, is there may be. A bachelor, groups of bucks living in a very small area.

They shed their velvet. Two of the five bucks stay in that area and then the hunters pound it and they're gone. Yeah. And I pick 'em up. I pick 'em up. A mile or two away. Okay. 

[00:40:26] Dan Johnson: So you're just, you're taking this to the next level. You're scrubbing every now, are you scrubbing everything, even if it typically doesn't produce good sign or maybe in the past, maybe it's been two years since you've scouted it.

Are you going into all these places every single year, or are you just targeting these high value. 

[00:40:49] Josh Profitt: I hit it all. I grid search. I grid my cameras out. Now a lot of these places that typically don't do very good, that's the places where I may only go a couple times a year. [00:41:00] My cameras mainly get checked once or twice a year.

Yeah. Or may not get checked at all because, I'm obviously, I'm going. I'm gonna be on my high value places, on my high, on my priority places. But I think there's things to be learned about areas that you didn't think were good in a situation like I got. The deer could show up there for various reasons, like hunting pressure.

Okay. 

[00:41:28] Dan Johnson: Okay. All right. So is there any other magic. that you're looking for. And let me back up before I ask that question. Do you feel that these principles that you live by, if I brought you to Iowa and I asked you to scout, or if I brought, I put you in the big woods in Pennsylvania or northern Michigan, you could bring these same principles to any location in the United States and get.[00:42:00] 

[00:42:00] Josh Profitt: Get on deer. Yes. Kill deer. No, you throw me in Pennsylvania in the mountains. I think I could get on some good deer now even seeing one, maybe a different question. Yeah. . 

Now you throw me in southeast Iowa on a piece of public, I'm probably. Going to have a slaughter finish. . 

[00:42:18] Dan Johnson: Yeah. Yeah.

And so the whole point here is what I'm getting at is that even though you feel that you could find the sign in the big woods, it seems to me like the trend here is that scouting just works, period. Obviously if you go into a new environment, you have to learn that environment.

the more scouting you do will help you learn that environment better. A as opposed to not scouting it. 

[00:42:48] Josh Profitt: Correct. There's no substitution for Yeah. Getting your boots on the ground and scouting. There's nothing. A magic bag of pixie dust isn't going to do you any better than that?

[00:42:58] Dan Johnson: Yeah, I feel you. [00:43:00] Okay. So let's see here. What is. Is there any other, I don't know, I, you said there's no pixie dust, right? But is there any other type of thing that we didn't discuss today? And I know I could sit here and drag this out for another, 15, 20 minutes talking about all of this cra all of this craziness that goes into a deer hunter season.

my, is there any other tips, tricks, tactics, shortcuts that a guy can implement when it comes to scouting that will, lead to him having the best season of his life. 

[00:43:43] Josh Profitt: Yeah. So don't be close minded, think outside the box and do not give every bit of inform. out that you have.

Because if I was to sit here and give every little tip and trick I have right or [00:44:00] wrong then I don't have an edge over anybody. And if I'm just ahoo, if I'm shooting you straight, that's not necessarily a competition, but I want to keep some things to myself and if I was to tell a new hunter that, or somebody that's been doing it as long as I have, yeah, that's what I 

[00:44:19] Dan Johnson: would tell 'em.

Yeah, and I'll be honest, I man, sharing information could be the worst thing that you could do, especially on a home farm like close to your home where you're hunting a lot farm. Man, there are pictures. I post a lot of deer pictures, but there are pictures every single year that I just don't post.

because it gets people worked up and I can remember one farm that I have when I was chasing this butt called shipwreck. I was pretty vocal a about what I was seeing on this farm, who, where I was [00:45:00] seeing it. Next thing I got more tree stands on the property. I got other people with access to it.

And I am, I don't hunt with a, like a group of people and so I don't necessarily. A lot of information with anybody. Period. And so I feel if you wanna keep a good spot, good, and you found a honey hole, why would you?

[00:45:26] Josh Profitt: I wouldn't, and I would keep some of my tips and tricks. There's some things that, like all due respect, like I'm just not gonna talk about on here. Yeah. That like I've recently had really good success about, because. You put one of the best podcasts out there and thousands of people are gonna listen to it, and then thousands of people are gonna do it.

[00:45:47] Dan Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:45:48] Josh Profitt: There's just things that I feel like I need to, keep to myself and that's what I would urge, people to do. And the, and once again just get out there, man, because that's, you're [00:46:00] going to learn. About getting out there, walking around and making mistakes, trying.

Then you are going to, listening to a podcast or 

[00:46:10] Dan Johnson: going to a road show. Except this podcast, right? Except this podcast. Oh, yeah. 

[00:46:16] Josh Profitt: Dan Johnson has the best podcast 

[00:46:18] Dan Johnson: Ever. Make sure you go leave a review on iTunes. Oh, 10 star. 10 star. Yeah. . Hey man, and I'll tell you this, you're right. You're obviously right and I think this is, I think this is just a great place to end it, and everything that we've talked about today holds value and holds.

Is weight. The more work you put in, the more success you're gonna be put out. Hey man, good luck this upcoming season. Thanks for taking time to hop on the podcast and good luck with your good luck with your new career cutting hair, man. All right, 

[00:46:55] Josh Profitt: man. I'll see you in happy season for this haircut.[00:47:00] 

[00:47:02] Dan Johnson: And there you have it. Ladies and gentlemen, he's still snow plowing my driveway. A huge shout. To Chad, my neighbor, for plowing my driveway every single season. Really appreciate that. Huge shout out to Josh for coming on and sharing his knowledge about scouting. Huge shout out to tethered wasp and Vortex.

If you're looking to give back in 2023, go check out 2% for conservation@fishandwildlife.org. Please go do that. And then What else are we looking at here? That's it, man. I talk a lot about good vibes and. I think the world needs it right now. Let's let's throw those good vibes out.

Let's treat everybody equally. Let's treat 'em with respect. Good vibes in, good vibes out. Wear your safety harness and we'll talk to you next week.[00:48:00] 

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