We’re Going Public

On this episode of The Nomadic Outdoorsman Dan sits down at his first ever public land deer camp to talk with the guys about their strategies and stories of chasing mature bucks on new property.

Tom Lalond with XOP gear, Tyler Bentley from The Rise Hunt, Clifton Denney from On Your Own Outdoors and Nick Queen with XOP join Dan as they recap the first few days of their Wisconsin public land hunt. Dan picks the group's brain about how to finally connect with an aggressive early season buck and the group compares strategies of the hunt as they plan for the incoming weather. This episode is full of knowledge, experience, woodsmanship and even a few offers to join one another on future hunts.
 

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Connect with Tyler Bentley

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Connect with Clifton Denney

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Connect with Nick Queen

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Connect with Tom LaLond

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[00:00:00] All right, guys, welcome to today's show. Now on the show with me today, I'm surrounded by a table full of talent, a table full of hunters, big buck killers, and public land, big buck killers. You're going to hear some tips and strategies and tricks and things that they implement on maybe their home farm on a public land hunt, a float in hunt, who knows, but I'm actually going to be putting some of these to use tonight.

Nick and I are going back out to this Island that we've just been but hitting smart. And I think tonight is the night for me to finally connect with a great buck. Oh my gosh, I'm just pumped. I like these guys are out hunting right now. I had to stay back and sleep. Nick and I got three hours of sleep a couple nights ago.

Didn't go to bed until probably one 30 or two last night. And I just said, if we're going to really get aggressive tomorrow night, I'm going to get a full night of sleep, not hunt the morning. So I'm getting this [00:01:00] podcast out. Then I'm going out hunting and hopefully you guys see some pictures dropping on social media of a big public land buck down.

So I don't need to spoil any more of this. We're going to do a lot of very in depth recap episodes where we talk, how did you hunt? Where did you hunt? What did that look like? Did you see anything? Did you go to an area where you were hoping to see dozens of deer or only one specific deer? So that's to come for now, though, let's jump into today's show.

He was doing things that were just badass. That was one of the coolest moments of my life. I was really scared, but knowing that Dane had the gun, I did have the rifle we would be okay.

Alright guys, welcome to today's show. On the show [00:02:00] today... I've got a table full of guys here, which is sweet. 'cause when we do a podcast, what? What are you looking at? This guy. You're welcome. You're welcome. Yeah, you're welcome. Now it's like Lil Wayne when he flicks the lighter. Yes. Now everybody knows where the stage says exactly.

Anybody who's listening to this is exciting. Heard that beer crack and they already know Camp Vibe are hot. This be good podcast. I just wanna say, One thing, this is how I know Nick and I are best buds, is because his first thought reference went to Wheezy and Lil Wayne. It's like the lighter flick, you got your own look at that first line, you got it.

Oh my god. E7P. That's what I said. We should probably start by telling everybody who's here. It's me and Tom, my biggest fangirl. I thought it was a fangirl. I thought it was friend. Hey, but you're like that with everybody and I love it. Like you're friends is like biggest fan. I love that.

You're also my friend, but the way that Tom and I met, we were at BowFest [00:03:00] and I was walking around looking at the different vendors. And I remember I passed the booth and I walked around the backside. I'm looking at the food trucks. And he like, circled, watched us walk away, and then he came back around the other side, and I was like, I was talking to my wife, I said, Babe, I'm pretty sure that guy wants to talk to us.

And I walk over and he goes, You guys are Dan and Sam, aren't you? What? Yeah, do you not remember this? That's, that makes sense. This 100 percent happened. He's I watch your videos on TikTok or on Instagram. Oh yeah, he came back over to the booth like, hey, they're famous. There it is. Sign them up.

We've got to invite them to the hunt. Okay, folks, this is a tag team match is what you see right now. Nah. We are mad at you because it's late. But we still love you. I don't remember any of that. You were hanging out. It's because you were so flustered because you saw me. I remember you being at the booth.

Seeing our stuff. Dropping your [00:04:00] glasses. Oh, yeah. Remember you forgot them there. Yeah, he was trying to get us to talk to him. Oh, I lose a lot. That's perfect. I really want to partnership with those guys. That's why I buy Walmart glasses, because I lose them or break them all the time. No, it's a really good intro.

Hey, that's a lie. Yeah. That's a lie. Those orange glasses are sitting in your truck right now. That's why I don't wear them because I will lose them on. Nah, look at it. What really, So this is Tom. This is Tom, XOP. Go around the table. Just go around the table. We got, You can introduce me, Tyler Bentley.

From, The Rise Hunt. Clifton Denny, with On Your Own Outdoors. Nick Queen. And nobody else. Yeah, plus one. And Nick Queen, I'd just say from Lethal Prairie, but XOP. That's my, yeah. And then we've got Myspace Tom. Myspace Tom. Tom from Myspace. Everybody that is. Hey, listen guys. Hey, [00:05:00] real talk though.

This is like the nicest guy you'll ever meet. Yeah, he is. Thank you. That's why we give you a bunch of but. Yeah. That but he also did show up in a very dope minivan that I thought was somebody else's. The man van. I thought he was gonna be in a truck. I did but he was in a minivan. Man van dude. Yeah. But Eric's using it to kill a deer tomorrow.

Would you get in trouble if you had a deer in the back of that? Nope. About a Bought a tarp. Look at him. You right now. We're doing that tomorrow. You want to talk about content? I want to throw a deer in the manhole. shoot at a deer in the middle of the desert. I'm not saying he's going to hit it, but he's going to shoot at one.

I thought he shot one. It's got to be 25 and in. But didn't he shoot one the other day? Yeah, no. He killed one already. Yeah. 22. Over, over 25 that's God's work. It's over. Yeah, it's God's work at this point. It's a roll of the wheel kind of stuff. Yeah, exactly. Love it. The reason we're all here. But put it close to his mouth, he'll bite it.

Oh, every time. We can totally get into [00:06:00] that story. Let's that's probably like an after hours podcast. I'm gonna. 35 in single podcast. There you go. But we're all here because of XOP. That's the common denominator between all of us. And Tom, you're like the backbone behind the event and you orchestrated everything.

Which is why you didn't tell people to bring Blaze Orange. Yeah. I wanted to see how all these guys... Could work with the least amount of information and just a waypoint. Dude, you actually want to know what's really funny? That's a lot because we didn't even get the waypoint. We didn't get the waypoint.

But, like, when you first sent your email out, and I was like, God, I love this guy. He gives so much information. I literally thought that to myself. I really did. I'm pretty sure that he I called her an email. I called him. In that email, I thought I put Blaze Orange. Maybe you did. I didn't. I got reminded a couple of times.

When I get stuff like group chat stuff, I just ignore it because. Here's a perfect example. Remember the intro where [00:07:00] we were begging on the how we met? Yeah. You don't remember real well. I'm just saying if you're not, you're. You know what? That's the story in his is That's the end of the day, right?

You could be a dog if you wanted to. That's what they say. That is what they say. To clear it up. When Dan and I met, he was walking around a hundred percent walking around. And I knew, I remember seeing your name on the ads for BowFest and what say wife. Yeah. Everybody recognizes her. I remember seeing Dan Matthews and, they always go, how did she get a guy like that? There it is, that's right. Yeah, that's what they say. Talking about the product and then. There was a rock wall. Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. See, two guys just said, so you're not crazy. That was the meeting though. Two guys, one rock wall, I specifically talking.

He already, yeah, we already knew who you were at that point. Yeah, because I had already came up and talked to you because was after to me and say, Hey, can you come over here and beat me on a [00:08:00] rock wall in front of everybody? Yeah. That came later. Yeah. No, he made Jack do it. Remember when I found Dan, Walking around boss.

I knew, I saw him and I said, okay, his wife's doing him some favors, but through marriage. Sure. And then I said, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna help this guy's ego. Okay. I'm going to chase him down. And I'm gonna, and I'm just gonna pump them up here a little. Chasing men seemed like a common denominator.

Hold on, you're, yeah Oh, I thought you were saying. You were watching me pretty closely to figure all this out. Hey, listen, I'm gonna tell you what though I met these guys here at hunt camp. It's pretty simple That's right. And that's what we're here to talk about, Tom. So let's

just get out of here. Let's Get out of here with the he said, she said stuff. We met each other at, Dan and I met each other at BowFest. We had an absolute blast. Tyler and I met through [00:09:00] his YouTube channel, having his, Nick Had a one of our harness, XOP harnesses on and I reached out to them Clifton was working with XOP before Randy, you were working with Randy.

Randy, I did a video of y'all's climber on my review channel And then Randy reached out to me. And then so we met through that And then at a sssshhh... It was at the ATA. Yeah, that's where we hung out. We had Mexican food and beer together. Oh, that was great. And it's actually funny, because I said Tom was my favorite one.

And then I met everybody else. Yeah. Got him. And then Nick's been here since... 2017. Day one. Wow, really? That's when I bought my first stand and I was part of the team. That's awesome. He's the OG. I have like one of the first XOPs I was like, made. I've killed some bucks out of it. The Clamor or Lock [00:10:00] On?

No, like the Lock On. Lock On? Okay. I think that was the first, 2017 was the first year that they, Came out. I think so. It was 2016 or 2017. Yeah, they came out with the first like lock on a day ever. Hang on What'd you call it? Cool. So and then we all know we're just doing dan favors here. So that's how we yeah, just trying to Yeah, no i'm waiting on dan to blow up and then it makes all of us famous Yeah so So back to why we're here exactly like you said This the idea really started in my head with seeing you have to say what it is It's this is xop deer camp 2023 first extremely out of pocket Can I go xop extremely out of pocket?

I like that. So It started xop deer camps 2023 Extremely Out of Pocket started from, put that on a t shirt. Derek [00:11:00] Zoolander Institute for Continuing Good Culture. I told you I was going to, I said it earlier. I said, this is going to be the thing. The mantra. Go ahead. No, it's, I love it. I'm just laughing.

So it started from the idea of we've got incredible talent between all these different people from, Filmers to photography to now podcasters, killers and killers at heart, right? Obviously that's why we're here. That's first art. Exactly. E7P. And and so it was like, okay, how can we leverage everybody's talent and develop it, make it, make everybody better, make everybody, help everybody grow.

And I just, I was in the Fish and Wildlife Service interning for a while. I know the government let me in. I know. And We would go to conferences and stuff. I'm like, man, this is sweet. Like the app, like hanging out with everybody, talking to everybody. [00:12:00] But the, the daytime stuff is boring.

Like sitting in a, watching a presentation and whatever. And so how can we do that? Make it just as valuable and more right. And more is awesome for the rest of us. Like I'll speak on that. So like Dan and I have had a big long conversation. You and I have had a big longer conversation about stuff that will help me and help y'all.

You know what I mean? Like the, and I think that's a huge like kickoff of this from XOP that, I'm appreciative of for sure. Like you with the photography and everything else I've picked up so much in the last couple of days. You know just from that alone So the other than the meet and greet and hanging out and trying to shoot deer and just the deer camp stuff that you guys can't see Of us drinking beer and just hanging out and leaving the deer hanging all day That was wild to me because I'm from the south, right?

That's right, yeah, we can't do that down there. It's 90 degrees. Turkey bolsters will get it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, [00:13:00] maggots and everything but but no, I think it's been awesome. So what y'all are doing here, I think is phenomenal it's been a blast for us and I love that XOP is so big on like product development and actually wanting feedback Yeah, because you've got a channel where you give honest feedback And you were telling me the story about that But on top of that helping develop product share our opinions about it the connections that we've made so far and The desire to just learn how to hunt better Yeah.

Yeah. Tyler and I were talking on the way out and he's dude, after this and we'll get into the details of how we've been hunting so far, but tonight we floated out. In a two person kayak and a canoe mine wasn't quite two persons

Children one kayak double children[00:14:00]

Calls me when they first got in the water and he's hey, man, we're not gonna make it All right, we're coming to get you cuz we have the canoe you put three people in there and one in the kayak And then about five minutes later, I get a text and he's Hey, or probably not even five minutes.

He's Hey, I think we're going to be all right. I said, Hey, you're acting very like we went and done it. And I heard somebody delivered y'all McDonald's. Yes. And the man brought us cheeseburgers, McDonald's. What else do you guys need? Water, dude, we didn't put you on deer. I show up in a sinking kayak.

If anybody's ever seen a loon swim and only the head is sticking out of the water, that's what these two look like. We look over and it just looks like two people are completely submerged from like the chest down and we're like, there's one inch of clearance in that kayak. It's a loon and the baby's on the back, from the second I left the dock.[00:15:00]

I was just full ab workout. I was like, oh, I'm gonna die out here. The timing of that and then Tom calling me from the clinic because he was getting checked out. That's a different story for later. But was perfect because Eric's never been in a kayak. And so Eric went with me to go get my stand and we were literally like he was getting in and I was gonna push him across had a rope to pull it back to myself, and he's scared shitless and then Tom's Oh, they're delivering food and a kayak over to these guys.

And I was like, what? And Eric looks back at me while he's in the kayak and he was like, you'd have to be dead. You'd have to be dead. And I was like, thanks. And just kicked him off.

But like this whole hangout, we've got hunt camp. It's awesome. We've got targets outside of fire pit deer hanger. Like it's been really sweet, but we're all hunting public land and we're all doing it our own way, but also giving pointers. This is my first ever. I grew up in Wisconsin.

I've [00:16:00] never hunted public land for white tails And the fact that I'm around a bunch of people who actually know how to do this successfully is awesome to me because this is not at all the same as having private land in Missouri. So that was it. That was also part of the idea, right? There's so many, and that's what gets me fired about, fired up about building something like this year after year is the layer.

So Clifton is a phenomenal scouter hunter on new properties. Tyler's a phenomenal property manager. Nick's a really good, Dan

and Nick. So Nick has cool tattoos and Dan's attractive.

But for, the polar opposite in some ways, But then [00:17:00] also okay, how do you apply your property management techniques to this? And then how do you learn from Clifton? And that's the whole idea. Hey, we've got all this new. Unreleased product here that y'all can play around with, test.

We, hey, by the way, guys, we just found that out today. Like I was whining about a product because that's what I do. I do product reviews, so I whine. And then Tom was like, Oh, we brought all these upgrades. For y'all to try out. And I was like, that's cool. My back hurts

Hey guys, I'm being, I'm exaggerating. Back doesn't hurt that bad. But yeah, so I'm gonna test that out But no for real like that is the cool thing about that is y'all did bring that for us to try I think your back hurts from pushing air

Eric, Eric's lost 30 pounds. Yeah. Oh, hell yeah. And so that's what it was about, bringing everybody in. Because, personally for me, like Dan, very similar, as of [00:18:00] lately and growing up, it was mostly private. And that is a hundred percent, Nick and I were talking about this, a hundred percent different in terms of learning deer and how they are.

And you can learn, if you focus on public. And focus on studying how successful public land hunters hunt and their whole technique and you apply it as best you can in your area, you will grow, I would say threefold. Like you could, it's about consistency. Yeah. That's what I always say. It's about consistency.

Like you, you will realize. From the public land stuff like not taking away from it because if y'all don't know this Tom makes fun of me because I killed a deer over corn last year, but he'll hunt a food plot like but it's that kind of stuff like and it's about consistency You know you take what he does with property management like something took me out of the game up here.

There's cornfields everywhere I don't have that at home, right? Where [00:19:00] you're probably used to that kind of stuff. So you know how to hunt around Yeah, where's cornfields at? That's my game, bro 20 million acorns every acre That hey, so I'm a public land guy and that is a struggle up here because it has the deer So like they don't have to get in a pattern they get up, they move 80 yards and they go back and that's what I like I think you're saying like you'll grow tenfold.

I think that's where public guys excel is that and not taking anything away from like management kind of thing. But when you manage a property or you hunt private, the deer are going to do what the land provides them. And then they'll stick to that pattern because there's nothing pushing them off of that.

When on public land, you have no idea how many derelicts have walked through there and done something crazy. And so to me, it's like the deer should be doing something. That's what they should be doing, but they're not they're doing that and so instead of going well a deer does this I can Because of how many times that hasn't worked for me and I failed at that it's turned into a strategy that I use to just be going [00:20:00] but okay.

What is this? What is that? We got to move okay with the deer doing this and to no one does not do that but one thing about that talking about that I just vocalized in a video So it's like perfect timing is that? It is very difficult to be great at all of them, right? So like every person Has like their thing.

They're really good at rather that be private public, whatever It's like I've been doing this urban hunt thing, right? I can go kill a big buck on private right or on public but urban I've been doing it for two years still haven't You know what I mean? So like I guarantee you this dude over here would whip my tail if we went to a managed property Because I don't know what to do anymore You know what I mean?

You put me around usually like around feed piles around managed property and it's hey This specific buck, blah, blah. No, I want to shoot the first one 30. It comes by me. What do you mean? We're managing deer, you mean? So it's different. 110 percent and then learning from everybody.

It's. Yeah, I would say it's a lot like, tools and your tool belt, you hunt different [00:21:00] times. This is, I've known, I hunt a lot of private, a lot of public, a lot of different States, six, seven States sometimes in one year, but. Never have I kayaked in or walked two and a half miles one way through a marsh.

So it's just a full new experience for me Yeah, the whole marsh thing blew me away. It's crazy, man. It's Totally different world. So this whole experience for me has been awesome Just well and one of the coolest things for me so far. This trip was when we were talking on I can't remember now if it was the way in or the way out and you were like dude I have Bucks on my trail cameras right now.

Fighting. Yeah. Killable Big bucks. They're two of my shooters. Big bucks. Like they're two of my, two of my biggest bucks listeners. And he goes, I would rather be kayaking into an island to hunt public bucks than to go home and eat right now. And he even said, even if I shoot a 120 this is awesome.

I don't want to be the cliche guy, but it's about the experience. It's not about killing big deer. I got the rest of my life to kill big deer. So I'm here at deer camp having a frickin blast, [00:22:00] and we're kayaking coming out. You're like, turn the headlights off, turn the headlights off. And it was just like all of a sudden I was romanticizing this thing.

I was just like, dude, we're freaking kayaking out piece of, there's three dudes in the water and we're bullshitting about all this stuff. It's it was just so cool. I was like, wow. So I wanted to soak it up live in that moment. It was cool. Yeah. We're different people and that's why I wanted you to cut the lights off.

Yeah. We're different people because Eric and I got some big bucks on camera yesterday and I'm crying , he's mad his back in Arkansas. Stupid xop that cold front basically hit the entire Mississippi all of my followers were like you're leaving to go to wisconsin and the cold front's hitting arkansas and everybody's dropping In one of the most highly pressured But it's it's been cool, but I think that honestly is a blessing because Early October on public ground, boy, it'd been lucky to see the deer that we've got to see.

So the fact that we got that cold front, some of the experiences, this perfect. Yeah. Like Tom, Tom voodooed [00:23:00] this weather for us. Yeah. I put the deer on the feet. I didn't do that's right. I'm the only one from the south and this is miserable.

So I get called he's coming because he's 16. Oh, 12 and a half, 12, 12 and a half hours. So he left like Thursday someday. And he's, he calls me at one point. Man, I got a gas station and I had to go get, I had to open the camo bucket and get my jacket. Every. And I'm like bro, I'm like bro.

It's 50 to 45 degrees, whatever it is. I'm in a t shirt right now and pants. I'm telling you like once, once we left Arkansas, so like Missouri was like 10 degrees colder. And then Illinois, we come to Illinois. I don't remember whatever. Yeah. Illinois was like another 10. And then we finally three and a half hours from here, I was like, Hey, we can't get here on Thursday.

We got to wait till Friday. And we stopped to go get a hotel room, and yeah, I'm like a rat in the back, like trying to find a [00:24:00] jacket to put on. And Eric's laughing at me because he threw one in the back, right? He's got a hoodie, I've got a hoodie. And I'm like, Hey, by the way, folks, that's Literally, quite literally how air cuts, like it ain't all.

Yeah, no, and I'm like, yeah, anyways, yeah, no, that was funny. So for us back home, like one of my buddies texts me this morning, he's dude, it feels great here. And it was 83. He was like, he's what's it like there? And I was like, it's 46, the wind. Everybody I've seen in the last three days has red cheeks from wind chatter.

Oh, yeah. My lips are. Are gone. Same. They were gone before you got here. Hey Nick, I gotta ask you, how do you feel about Clifton's pronunciation of Illinois? I actually , I even thought about it, but he's from the south and that's First Sergeant. I ain't gonna say nothing. No. E seven P . Do you call it Arkansas's?

No. What? Arkansas's. What the hell is that? What the hell is Illinois? No, it's the same thing. It's not. Yeah, my dad's from Illinois too. We talked about this. Oh yeah. He, that's the one thing I remember every time I hear somebody say that. [00:25:00] It drives him nuts. Bro hey, it was Illinois when their tags were 400.

Now it's 750 for a tag? When did that happen? Because it's annoying. I just checked. Yeah, it's like 700 for a tag over there. When did that happen? I don't know. Hey, Missouri. I don't know if you got right information. Now I could be wrong, but you used to be able to get a hundred dollar tag. Hey, that's here.

Two, two, two Turkey tags as a nonresident and in the fall, you could get a hen tag. And hey, you can do that here. It's 86 bucks for your first year. First time. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I've ruined that seven years ago So it was not 86. Oh, we should have waited three years to have you because it's every ten years So what does it go up?

You don't buy if you don't buy that exact tag For 10 years you get the first time discount again. Oh, man, I missed out Listen if you're not coming here because you want to save 60 bucks, right? Like you're really missing out because we I mean [00:26:00] everybody's seen deer. Oh, yeah Everybody's seen a lot of sign and we've also been seeing running activity.

Ridiculous. Running activity that I would have never expected for this time of year. I didn't believe you. For first of October. I said it on a podcast now. Yeah, he said it on a podcast and he tried to claim that I tried to lie and say I didn't say it. But he was talking to his lady on the phone and I'm driving the truck next to him having to listen to this conversation.

And he's I'm not going to lie, when Dan said that he heard Buck's voice. Fighting. I didn't believe it. I did not believe him at all. And I actually said up, and then I tried to call him on it and he's I didn't say that. I never said that. . I never said that. In his defense though, all of us, like we got back to the trailer.

Oh yeah. So Eric and I stay our little trailer, right? So we get back to the trailer, like as soon as I climbed the pump bed, I was like, man, that dude's full of shit. Somebody was over there with a rattle bag. That's what I thought. Yeah, I thought that because like I'm a public land dude I can't tell you how much that's happened to me.

Oh, yeah, like you'll hear something You try to get in a grunt sequence with something. It's wait, what was that? That's gotta be you know [00:27:00] what I mean? And then there's like this 250 pound guy slipping through the woods. It's like There it is. I mean it's like out west when people are out calling each other in all of these guys converge on one dude and they're all like It's right here.

Do a cow call. And I'm telling people, and I'm like, this this was happening, and I could hurt here. No, it's confirmed. He was smashing, and Nick didn't tell me this, but he was calling BS. And he shows up to, to hunt with me and film. And the first sit. All of a sudden we just hear commotion. And this is after dark by the way.

Spike comes in literally right after dark and no, we're just calling him these deer come running in. He's 11 pointer and it is a buck tending a dough. And hard like he was running. I remember looking at Dan shocked. I'm like, you're not a [00:28:00] liar. He, I go, he's, that's tending, he's grunting. And he was just ah.

And it was awesome. That happened. Seven, but it didn't surprise me because No way. It's crazy. It didn't surprise me because I had, I knew what I heard. Yeah. And there was nobody else out there. No. There was nobody getting done. And yeah Nick saw that and then his eyes lit up. And I think we're going to talk about all of this on the podcast because we've been hunting for a while together and we've been putting puzzle pieces together and we'll see what happens in the next day.

All right. If you're not using tax cams, reveal cell cameras on your hunting property for scouting or monitoring the wildlife. You are seriously missing out when you pair that with the reveal mobile app, you can see the action as it's happening, no matter where you are. In fact, I've got trail cameras up in Wisconsin on the land that we hunt.

And not only do I get pictures from those cameras sent to me, I can also track the progress of [00:29:00] the camera, the battery life. How much memory is left on the SD card and I can see what the weather's doing at the time that a picture is taken. So I can't think of a better tool for scouting whether it is close to home or in a totally different state.

So if you want to stay tuned into the action or just get into the action, go to revealcellcam. com Or tact cam. com and use code nomadic for 10 percent off at checkout. 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. 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 deer using it and not just one nocturnal buck.

Also, don't be afraid to take the day off [00:30:00] 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 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, right? Head over to euro optic. com and use code nomadic 10 at checkout. Now let's get back to the show presented by Vortex.

It'll be fun to talk about that. Yeah. Yeah. What have you seen, Tom? I, so I like what you did where you jumped ahead. This is like a, this is going to be fun. Because we jumped ahead and went to the excitement, right? Hold on, how was it, what you've been doing, is it hiding? I think so. No, it is, you're right.

No, so that's exciting, the hunting excitement. We jumped ahead to the hunting excitement. But the first two days I think is a big piece to why we're at where we're at. [00:31:00] Oh yeah, no, you and Logan killed it. No, not even, I mean everybody is, was scouting hard. I'm saying now on the podcast, I've told everybody, like Dan's been slaving away.

Yeah. They gave you intel? You didn't want it, mister. Yeah, you're right. Nah. Nah. To be fair, he only gave me a point that he scouted in August and then me Tom later to be like, oh, Clifton killed that big deer because of me. You're welcome, Clifton. Listen, the fact that any of you guys got intel, I was told that Tom is not holding anybody's hand.

Dang. S. E. sent you to an island that had a big buck on it. This is what he did. He brought me to the island and then he's yeah, I just think I'm going to scout for the next three days. And he left me there by myself. And I was like, okay, no, you got left for one said I came and got it. I said, you know what?

You can go scout and I'm going to kill a big buck on this island because There is more sun on that [00:32:00] island. I was sitting next to you when he showed you that. And I remember you going, there's a big buck here and you ain't even seen it yet. And you're like, there, there's gotta be. Yeah, we spent. So the first the first few days, and that's what I, honestly, I've learned this from Clifton and we spent the first few days, my mindset coming in was, I am just going to learn how to, a couple of things still hunt and how to scout new land.

really well without, without having intel and how to scout it fast and cross off the no's, find the yeses. And Logan was probably perfect for that. Yeah. He's a beast. And his experience is, and like here or there, quote unquote, like I've been on four WMAs. Since I've been here. I've been here four days.

Eric and I have hit four WMAs, and I have not done a full sit yet. So exactly that point it was like, okay, so I'm going in with that and because Logan and I talked obviously before the hunt Yeah, and because he loves like steel hunting [00:33:00] and that kind of style and I said I want to learn that kind of show me what some of you, you know what you look for and then obviously Clifton with your style of an approach to hunting It was like, okay, my mindset, my goal is to scout for, I was here since Friday, so I'm going to scout till the next Friday and then have Saturday, Sunday to hunt if that's how it plays out, right?

Obviously, this is a work trip too, so there's that too. And so we spent the first few days, and we did have a day in August that Logan, myself, Logan Brock and myself came up here and ran around some pieces and found some good stuff. But I think that was huge is just getting, putting that time. And I think that's so important for any of the listeners to understand is that, yeah we're, I'm going to tell you, we are in them and we are in them thick, but that is because of Miles for piles, man.

Miles for piles. Miles for piles. And also other things coming together, intel from [00:34:00] locals. That's what brought the island up. Yeah, and not even locals you gotta think about the amount of people we've got here. You know what I mean? And for me Eric and I picked up on the first two days.

Without really talking to anybody, it was like, hey, it's big timber. You know what I mean? You've gotta find the mature oaks. All the oaks are dropping, but you gotta find the mature ones. And then Dan and Nick came in. And y'all were both talking about the two places you were at, Nick and Brock were on an island, had mature oaks, you were on an island, Dan, that had mature oaks, and it's oh, okay, and not taken away from you, because I just didn't hear what you were hunting, but you killed a deer yep, first one, yep, punch that tag we take what we have, because at this point, I've been here four days, I've put down 64 miles, Right and on foot traffic and that's just how I do but I take what I'm seeing and then I hear all y'all talking about it And Eric and I go back to the trailer and I was like, hey, man Like this is real like we got to find mature timber and the wma we were on really didn't have that it was a swamp it didn't have it And so we tried [00:35:00] another one tried another one now, I think you know judging by the video I showed you earlier.

I think we definitely found deer and a lot of them. So yeah this is it was so new to me because like I've heard on podcasts and i've watched videos and people are like man first sits the best sit, and I, for basically my entire life, rifle hunting with my family here in Wisconsin, we'd have ten people on forty acres, and I was assigned my bucket, or a stump, or a dead log until I made a homemade tree stand out of two by fours and plywood.

It wasn't like I didn't move, and even hunting private down in Missouri I had stands that would hang and I would change the ratchet straps out right before season and seeing The way that you guys talk about your approach or hearing the way that you guys talk about your approaches to hunting.

I Came into this confident oh, dude, I'm gonna show up and kill a big buck [00:36:00] And within two hours of being here, I was like, I am the worst whitetail hunter in the city. That's not true. Tom's here. Tom's here. I don't know. These guys, you guys really put the pieces together and it challenged me immediately.

I'm like, man, I've got to learn this stuff. You got to remember, and this is just my opinion, right? So that first time is the best time. That's big timber. public land, you're walking in the first time, you find the sign, and you sit the sign. And I preach this all the time is don't just go blow an area, you know what I mean?

Like when you find that, that sign, like I was messing with Tom the other day and this is real, Tom's asking how I scout and I'm like, as loud as possible with the wind in my face. And I could tell Tom was like, what the hell did he just say? But the reason for that is, is they don't see you and they don't smell you.

They just hear something abnormal coming towards them. I'm stepping on every branch. I'm breaking every limb. I'm not touching stuff. I'm not trying to leave a scent trail. But [00:37:00] as loud as I can. I blow those deer out before they lay eyes on, Oh, this is a hunter. And they associate that with a hunter.

And then, when you do come back to an area like that yeah, those, I always tell everybody, You got 72 hours, kill a big buck. If there's a mature deer in there, you got 72 hours. And then, he's hunting you. Yeah, he's got you figured out. Here's a point that I got. I feel like I had a question about, and I'm curious, I love that approach and then I love like Logan and I's approach, which is slightly different.

What is the, and what's the, is there the lag time or the return time, if any, on the deer that. You've seen, does that make sense? Yeah. Like bump and dump kind of stuff. Yup. So so I think that depends. I think if that deer smells you or sees you and it's a mature deer, right? I don't think he comes back.

Like the likelihood that deer comes back is probably pretty slim. Now, if you're walking through a pot and pans and banging them, and he just hears a noise way off in the distance, and then [00:38:00] you're, you end up walking so say there's a deer in a bed, right? Let's just say there's a ridge and there's a deer laying on the point of the ridge.

We all know that mature deer like the points of ridges, just like elk. So say there's a point of a ridge and you're walking through and you're doing like the slip thing and you're being as quiet as possible and you get 40 yards from this deer's bed and he smells you, sees you and blows out of that bed.

Or 10 feet in the ocean. Absolutely. Yeah, that's a human. That's right. Yeah. What's the likelihood he's going to come back? From my experience, it's very slim. However, I can't tell you how many times I have been just crunching through just doing my thing walking through I do try to keep the wind in my face, right?

Cuz I don't want to smell me And then I get up and I see a bed. I'm 10 yards from this bed, but I didn't blow him out by sight I see the bed I turn around and leave because now I know where he's bedding and I wouldn't know where the does are feeding I just got to be in between those two things to be successful.

And so so to add to this I agree and disagree in a only different way and I don't say it's necessarily disagree. I do it a little bit different. I [00:39:00] think it depends on where I'm at according to the deer that I'm chasing. And I was gonna say the terrain or the cover. Not about terrain. This works better in like tall grass.

Yeah, but what I think of is am I in a high area of humans already? Then I don't give a shit. I don't care if he smells me or any of that, cause it ain't gonna bother him. Is this a sanctuary bedding area that you haven't walked in? Exactly. Then I'm different. Then you're skirting the edge, walking in I'm skirting the edge, I'm popping in, I'm not trying to the same thing, it's just I kind of base it off maturity level.

Sure. But I've seen. A buck get bumped and knew exactly what I was and then tomorrow, I'm like, he's not coming back there. And then I'm like, what, why is he there? Yeah, and I think a lot of that just has to do with Absolutely, especially like if you're on one of those, like we've seen them here.

It seems like everybody in Wisconsin, I'm hating on you guys right now. We'll walk 350 yards and then they're back to their truck. It's that's where the trail dies. If you jump a mature deer off of that, hell, he's used to it. Five guys did that yesterday. Yep. And you're talking like in a specific [00:40:00] scouting situation.

Yeah. I'm a big timber guy. But you're not going into hunt after doing this. That's right. You're going into scout this land, be loud, bump deer with noise. That's right. You're not going to go in and be loud and then try to hunt that spot. That's right. So I guess what I was saying wasn't disagreeing with you adding to.

Yeah. For sure. Absolutely. Because I think there's a time where you have to stop and be like, Listen, I can't be loud in here. That's right. Because he's back on an island. Yep. And the only sound he's used to is maybe someone on the water. Yeah, no, the island thing, like we did that where we're at right now, like I'm not gonna lie, like we went through the island and blew it out.

Yeah, 110 percent and Eric was like me staying with you guys in the morning and Eric's what are you doing? And I was like dude, we blew that whole island out today And I did it intentionally because I want to know what was on the island You know what I mean? But with me doing that I'm going to wait 24 to 48 hours before I get serious about that area Yep, no, and they're gonna come back to it.

That's right. Yep. Yep. Here's a follow up question to that. I feel like that was a good Have you, so you said you find [00:41:00] the doe where the does are feeding. That's right. And then you find the buck bed. That's right. Have you found anything in between? See, look, now you're gonna get me to where I differ from a lot of people because I don't follow.

Sorry, let me back up just a minute. So that tells you that's okay that's a buck bed. Yeah, like you'll see the single last beds. So like mature deer, and I think this is something that we can all agree on that a lot of the hunters hunting industry Messes up with right? So like why don't you get that mature deer on your camera, right?

So there's deer on your camera all the time mature deer don't want to be around a whole bunch of other deer That's why when your mature deer come in it's him and his buddy Or it's him by himself or whatever, right? So when you're scouting and you're looking for these bedding areas and this again, this is my opinion There's a whole bunch of us in here.

So and mine's all public land I don't know I don't know what you're looking at, you know but like my experience is if I'm going through and I'm seeing three four beds together, right? [00:42:00] Dough bedroom. That's right. Exactly does I get over and there's a dead fall And there's one big bed. Boom.

Exactly. Yep. And Hey this is the private land guy. And so it matches up. It's the same, like today with Eric and I, we went through that whole Island. I found one bed on that Island. And I told Eric, I was like, Hey, so we can't hunt here because that's where that deer's access. And we're gonna have to wait until he leaves out the back door because now, and that's my opinion.

Cause we came in through the front door. Yep. So now he's going to be skeptical of that for, in my opinion, again, the next 72 hours. So like now I want to be at the back door because we've seen the buck bed. We exit stage left. He still thinks the other 40 acres out the backside safe and he's still going to go check those does.

He knows what those acorn trees are, the typical feed trees that I think everybody messes up on a lot of times because they'll find a feed tree and you go hunt a feed tree. I'm not saying you won't kill a big buck or a mature deer, I won't say big buck, but a mature deer on those feed trees, because [00:43:00] you will occasionally, but where your mature deer is going to be is 150 yards from there.

It's no different than a feed pile on, private ground or whatever, unless you have them patterned. Obviously that's different, but if they're not patterned, like you need to be 100, 150 off of that because it's like the grunting thing. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to get in a whole deal here, but like grunting, I can't tell you and I have video evidence of it where.

Bucks grunt to call the does to them. The mature deer. Now I'm not saying, and that's you start thinking about it. It's like how many five year old plus deer have you ever seen just running the piss out of a doe? By itself now in a chain of bucks, you'll see that but he's actually running the bucks He's not running the dough, and I have one video particularly that's on some public land there in Arkansas Because I like to hunt the downwind Ridge So like I'll find the big heavy feed Ridge and then I hunt the next one over because whenever the winds coming across that mature Buck's gonna be on that Ridge He doesn't care to be up there with all the rest of the deer because when he smells that hot dough come in he [00:44:00] grunts Once he meets her halfway, they exit stage left, so I think it's all situational dependent, obviously, but I don't know if that answers your question. It's really cool to hear like the explanation behind things that I've seen in the past that I didn't fully understand because even on private, and I have a 230 acre chunk where I have one bordering proper property and it has a single bow hunter on it.

And so I've got these deer that are completely unpressured and they're actually conditioned to be around people. There's farmers out there doing crops. I go out there all the time and I went out two years ago now, brought my spotter and my phone scope and I just sat and watched the bean fields.

And when I did, what I saw was a bachelor group of nine bucks. And all of the bucks were working one way. And there was one buck that was clearly bigger [00:45:00] rack and body wise. And he went the opposite way of those bucks, jumped the fence and went in the woods. All these other bucks all hung out. For an hour and a half, I watched them.

And I was like dude, what's that guys? I told you the story about my Kansas deer Yeah, I won't do that right now We can do that a different time But you know all that added up and that wasn't the story a puzzle that I put together That was you know, the locals and all that stuff to put that together.

But yeah mature deer Typically don't want to be around a bunch of other deer and you know I talk about that on my stuff all the time is you know now with that being said if I'm on public land 90 percent of the states I hunt if a three year old 135 inch deer comes by like I'm gonna take that like I'm happy with 135 inch deer, but like at the end of the day That hundred and fifty inch deer is what we all want You know what I mean? so like in order to do that like you've got to get out of that area where all of the Concentration of your deer hang out because he doesn't want to be there You know if that was the case, like I said when you see him on your cell [00:46:00] cameras I'm sure everybody's listening this you run a cell camera And you've got a feed pile or you've got a main trail or whatever and like that big deer if he does show up there He's by self or he has that one buddy because you will have that every once in a while, especially early season But he's got that one buddy and he's running with that one buddy But after that like that dudes by himself until he finds him a doe, you know I heard it.

I heard it recently on a podcast or maybe it was on a clip on YouTube Somebody was talking about them and they're like think about deer as guys Okay And they're like, Is this the boar thing? Is this the boar thing? Cause I told you it's the boar thing. I don't think it was. So basically he equated it to like high school, right?

In high school, what are all the guys doing? They're all screwing around being dumb with each other, right? There might be a girl or two around, but for the most part they're just being stupid. Look at a college guy, say a two and a half year old deer, three and a half year old deer. What are they doing?

They're all hanging [00:47:00] out Making stupid choices. Once you get into that five year old range, you're talking like a 45 year old guy. He just Dude, I'm not gonna go out to the bar with you guys right now I'm not gonna go out and do this and that with you I'm just gonna stay home and have a couple beers on my own watch the football game.

It's personalities. Yeah, and hey that leads into what we were talking about Yeah, which is reading your son and knowing what to do with the deer. So you go in and you see a scrape And it's just a clean scrape. You've got like that hump around the outside of it I'm not going to be aggressive with that deer If I call it's tending grunts because I call all season like I start in september and I will call all the way through the end of january Depending on the side i'm seeing but when you go in and you see that scrape or that dude's throwing stuff four and five foot That's the asshole at the bar, right?

That's the guy that's looking for the fight So go in and bang those horns together. That's probably what's gonna get his attention damn lip. Yeah, exactly run a horn through your face That's what we saw. So the buck come [00:48:00] in last night And then today we found Fresh scrapes and there were a couple that had pretty significant branches broken off.

You remember what I told you yesterday? I was like dude go in there and bang those horns and we haven't yet We haven't and you even said you were like I want to find this core area first, which isn't wrong like at all That's why I didn't argue with you But like dude like if I was on that island Like y'all would think I was nuts because I would just be going to town.

My biggest thing is I want to get close enough to where It piss him off. One, he's off one. It's gonna piss him off. That's how I look at it. And he's gonna hear it because I knew today the wind was gonna be or last night I knew the wind was gonna be pretty significant and it was hard to hear anything in the woods.

On top of that, the cat, the ground is soft. We're hunting, the ground is soft. It's a lot of sand, and then there's cattails everywhere. So unless it's completely calm, you can't hear anything. So I'm like, I don't want to be just like thrashing branches, smacking horns together. [00:49:00] When, something might be walking in, not hear me at all, and they just see me making a commotion in the tree.

But, everyday, we've said, we're just gonna get more and more. I'm not a caller. That's my problem. Dude, I would get Nick, and I'd be like, Nick, turn around and put your foot up against the tree. And just rub it as hard as you can while you literally bang the horn as hard as you can because you have a bully buck on that island from everything y'all have said, that's what I call them, right?

And those are my favorite deer to hunt because they're the easiest to kill. I don't care what anybody says. Because they're assholes and they're stupid. That's exactly right. They're the asshole at the bar. That's just, they're looking for a fight. Everybody's different. Like you were saying a while ago, one guy's there looking for love, one guy's there looking for the one night stand, and one guy's there looking for a fight.

The one y'all have in my opinion is looking for a fight And I think if you could get the wind right and that's the thing like I haven't seen y'all's area, right? But obviously you have to have a good backer, but if you get the wind right, I think that being aggressive with that deer might be the ticket We've talked about it like he's only got a couple more days.

So we'll probably do [00:50:00] it at some point, but we haven't gotten Wednesday afternoon. Yeah, that's what I was that front's coming in. Yeah, Wednesday. We're gonna sleep in tomorrow morning We hung out until what one o'clock and then we woke up at four four and We were both Not to mention we're canoeing all over the place trying to still scout and figure out the other areas See and this is where like I think it's cool because like I learn and stuff like that with you I don't think to call because I'm not a caller.

I've used it and I've had it work But I don't think to do it. So for me like when I go in that situation, I'm trying to think of okay Where's his bedding? Where's he coming out of and I'm like to be a little bit sneaky about it Cause I think that's slick. I don't care to bring him to me, but he didn't know I was there.

Got him! That's right. And that's cool to me. And that's the cool thing about the different tactics though. Yeah, but your tactic in that situation makes... Way more sense than [00:51:00] me trying to be a little bit less timid because like you said what's funny Is it's like what you do is what I should have done where I'm at.

That's not what I did I'm just aggressive. The only thing running through my head is time of year. Yep. That's weird, too That's what's the role like I agree with everything you said other than the time of year and I'm like, nope I'm just like pulling it back and forth. I can't no, you're right though.

Cuz like I told Tom yesterday I was like this isn't the time and For everybody that's listening right now. Yeah, exactly, and that's what I was about to say. It's for me, my perfect time of the year, and the reason why you hear my tactics is the first three weeks before rut. That's where I usually Do my best and then the two weeks after that week and a half rut or whatever the lockdown everybody calls it I'm a late.

I'm a late like post rut thing. I love yeah. Yeah, absolutely But then again, like you just said like they're laying down scrapes here. So I know it's early like a lot of scrapes a lot Yes, it's not just those community scrapes. There's aggressive [00:52:00] stuff since we're all in a room together I want to get your guys's take on this because I think I brought it up Tyler in the intro video Because this is an island, I wonder if there's almost a different time Timeframe on everything.

So I know it's I know for a fact It's not a fully isolated population because we watch does come onto the island and leave the island But the does that came in Freaked out with the other ones when the does cross to the island They split and went right back out. The does that were on the island, they didn't follow them.

They stayed on the island. And so I'm like, I wonder, this is just so weird because like I said, I've hunted Wisconsin all my life. A bunch of you guys have hunted Wisconsin and everyone's blown away by this rutting activity and the amount of sign. That's on the island. I'm gonna tell you my opinion and it's just because I [00:53:00] like to talk guys I'm, so sorry and no but my opinion is like everybody talks about the rut Right and I am a firm believer in the trickle rut Because look at when deer are born.

Yep. Three month window. In all honesty, it's a three month window. In my opinion, where you're at, because I have a doe on camera that's 12 years old. She's still dropping babies. And that's on my private 20 acre plot that I've got. You know what I mean? In my opinion, the reason those bucks could be acting like that there is maybe you have a doe that was an early season doe back then, and she's just coming in early.

You know what I mean? Every year. And these bucks are on the island. She's starting to smell a little funny. And then the other does, cause they're probably younger, and they're like, what the hell is that? And they're like, nope, I'm out. You can give your opinion too. Yeah, no, I agree with that.

Pre rut, late October into November they're breeding well, like you said the earlier does let's say just two weeks. Yeah. That's now then Yeah, you know before that if those are I don't know [00:54:00] if it feels like it's too early, but I But you also kick start with this Cold front that when's the last time you've had a cold front in October that lasted not this cold in a long Time but even the length of It's two three days and every time I've said this over and over this week Every time you get a real good cold front, them bucks think it's on.

And they'll do it for a day, and you'll see all these rubs pop up, and then they go away. Because that's about the length of your cold front. True. Very true. And see, in my opinion, it's those young bucks. They don't know any better, right? But... Now we've got one that's 10 days long, right? So after three or four or five days, these old bugs might be like, hold up just a minute.

Maybe this guy's on to something. I ain't never seen this in a minute. Yeah, exactly. Maybe this guy, hold up. You just fought that guy? No, that's my turn. You know what I mean? And then that one doe that's early, smell a little funny. These guys over here are fighting. Hell, I don't want to fight everybody.

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Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't care what time of the year it is. That's why [00:57:00] I came to Missouri sitting in 90 degrees. Hey, add that moon phase that's coming in tomorrow. Is it tomorrow? Yes, tomorrow afternoon. Listen guys, I'm telling you, the best days we're having... Dan, I'm so sorry. Dude, I am so pumped right now.

Listen, mark my words. Yeah. Thursday through Saturday, Bucks will die. I... 110%. Without having a moon and you've got cold, rain,

moon phases hitting right. And we've done all, I, the way that I feel like... Thanks for doing all that scouting, man. I've literally never paid attention to any of this and I feel so dumb right now. No, so for me... Dan, come to Arkansas. So for me, I've been saying, dude, when that rain hits, it's gonna be a different story.

Because... You got the moon you got your they're laying down scrapes. We got this cold weather now You're getting rain And what I think we've done right is we've hunted our asses off and scouted our asses off and now When the time's gonna be [00:58:00] right we're should be in position. Yeah, that's why I feel that we've done a great job And that's why I was a part of you

Hey, Dan has been so jazzed on this island. I don't think you, you haven't, I haven't touched another spot, but this island, although it's 70 acres, it hunts but I'm telling you right now, he has hunted with me and I'm the quickest person to back out of somewhere that I'm like, Nope, I'm out. Cause this is dumb.

And I haven't. And on three hours of sleep, we're sitting in the tree tonight and he goes, Are we hunting in the morning? So the fact that he's this jazzed about it And then the look on his face when he saw that buck because I didn't get a look at the rack and when he saw that buck He's like that buck you have on trail.

Yeah, Dan. Dan skipped that whole story. You're gonna tell that story. Yeah, I don't Cuz you just say when he's seen that buck. These people are like, what do you mean? We'll [00:59:00] talk about it in an hour. I briefly touched on it, but barely. The buck came in. Yeah There's so many intertwining stories right now.

This is for another, wait for the next episode. I wanna kill it. Yeah, this is like at the end of a series every week when you're like, or every episode you're like It's 2am, but I better watch the next one. That's right, yeah. For sure. But, going back to what I was saying, that's why I was saying like I'm really pumped that you and Logan had made a sacrifice and done that because now where we're at we have A plethora of places.

He got put on a place that he went in. He's mediocre on, but he would have never been there, done what he did. That's what I was just about to say, is the area you scouted, I killed on. And that was my first go in. You gave me directions, hey, here's what I scouted, here's what I've seen. And I, worked the edge of it, winded my face very carefully, and was able to kill a deer, and confirmed or denied, what the sign was [01:00:00] saying. And that was so much, honestly, so much more fun for me. Dude, you were more jacked than I was, I think. Oh, dude, yeah, you guys have to watch it if you haven't already, but I, that's, that track job is a whole nother podcast episode in itself.

It was in... Same, and it looked, and going back to that Cliff said it he said, how many, four different WMAs? Yeah, four. Four different WMAs. And a state park that I found out we weren't supposed to be on. Ooh, we getting out of here. Yeah, you were bummed. I have video of you walking in the house after all that and you were just not happy.

You can see it all over your face. How often do you elk hunt? He'd be a beast! If you're putting 64 miles on in 4 days, public land whitetail hunting, you need to be out in those mountains, man. So let me tell you a secret. So I went elk hunting one time in my life. Never even watched an elk video. To me, they're cows with horns, right?

But with that same thing, I call white tailed goats with horns, right? So me and [01:01:00] two buddies went, neither one of us had ever even been in Colorado. We went on a nine day MRE only I've got some pictures that are, like, his quality that I accidentally took. But but, yeah, exactly, Nick's got it.

But in all honesty, so we went for nine days and just like this, like I, I get cocky about public land because it's like what I love to do. And I passed on some cows, call them some cows and then satellite bulls. Cause I saw these two bucks fights, coolest thing ever before I started filming and one of them broke off his, what do you call the fork at the top?

Tail. You said bulls do? What's? Bulls? Bulls. Bulls. Yeah. What do you call it? Thing? It's very top. The no, the very top. Oh, the top tail. Oh, whale tail are the back scratchers. Yeah. Yeah. So I have a knife in my truck that is made out of that horn that I watched in elk break and my first deer antler shed.

That's very cool. Yeah. Yeah. And and I skin all my deer with it. But anyways I watched that, it took me a day and a half to hike the 250 yards. Those bulls were from me [01:02:00] because it was a big bluff. And that's the only time I've ever been elk huntin Cause I can't ever talk to anybody and going back, and then I'm like, dude, if I ever go back out to what I call the Midwest, I don't know what y'all call it, but if I ever go back out there, it's after Mule Deer.

Cause that's my dream hunt, same Zs. Elk, you got, I'm assuming, four other guys with you right now that would probably do that. And Mule Deer is my bucket list too. Mule Deer is definitely my bucket list. That's a whole nother side trip. You're going to need to make brush pants or something, because I don't think we're going to be saddle hunting for elk.

Yeah. But maybe next year we go out with some brush pants. Hey, you say that, but I sent a buddy of mine, I'm not going to say his name on here because he's probably going to listen to this because I was on here, right? And I want to name driving people know, but whenever I went I found a watering hole and I sent my buddy the pin because he is a wanted to go out west, blah, blah.

He has killed either an elk or a bear over that watering hole for the last six years. And he sits in a lock on like he goes out there six and a lot. I've seen guys are [01:03:00] doing it now for elk and it is the coolest thing. My thing with the, I just love light. I love putting on miles and seeing all kinds of different animals and don't get me wrong You can do that at watering hole, but when i'm in the mountains, I just have this weird desire to go Explore.

I hunt with guys, and they're like, let's go back to the, not all of them, there's a lot of killers. Listen, y'all hold Dan to this, Dan and Clifton's gonna go on a fuckin El Con, freakin sorry. I'm in. Yeah, Tom's coming, Nick's coming, Ty's coming. Am I becoming part of your channel, or are you becoming part of my channel?

I'm going to Arkansas with you, you're going to Missouri, we're going to... Listen, hey, what y'all don't know is Dan... Hey man, he thought you were full of shit

at the trailer. Listen, I have heard this dude consistently talk about shootin out. And I've never really cared about it, but I think now being around you guys and this vibe, as Tom [01:04:00] would say, I've never said vibe in my life, but Tom be like, we're vibing, I love the R and Y space Tom.

Yeah. So like with this vibe though, like maybe I'd be into it. Like I, and I think part of it for me is it's like turkey hunting has always been so miserable. Like I told you, I finished my Grand Slam this year, we went out and we went in September. The end of September. So we heard a bugle the first morning, but like we did this five mile miserable hike, got up, had this beautiful camp, and then this elk bugles, and I was like, it's screaming.

Yeah. I don't know. Sounds like a dinosaur. Yeah. You know what I mean? It was like, oh, that's cool. And then the next morning, like we wake up the next morning 'cause a bug right outta dark. Wake up the next morning, one bugles, and then I hear the squeaking. And this giant walks by me, yeah, it was the cow, I love people from Arkansas. It is a squeak, it's a squeak. I don't care what anybody says, but She's squeaking as she comes by, and so I'm thinking of it like Whitetail. And I'm like, oh, I'm just gonna stand right here. And obviously the buck aka [01:05:00] bull is gonna come by I was completely wrong he just stayed up on top like the mature whitetail and kept screaming until the squeaking went to him You know and and anyways, I was an idiot back then but I had a blast Yeah, it was fun lost like 15 pounds like nine days.

Oh, yeah mres. Yeah It's Dude, I just love being with other people who are this passionate about hunting. Yeah! And I think I was telling you I put one of my buddies through hell that was gonna hunt with me and stuff. And I think in situations like that even out here, it's been a grind no matter what.

Yeah. And to go out there, I couldn't do this and grind and be wrong with someone who's crying and complaining and don't want to do that and it's gonna hurt to go, everyone's... We're all gonna... Bitch a little bit. You know what I mean? Cause we're just whatever, but there's a difference between really complaining and having a bad time because of it other than it's fun.

We've been here for four days and I've seen one deer [01:06:00] from the stand. No, not now. I've only set three and a half hours. Eric, I keep putting that dude in spots. 87 million deer. No, at this point, Eric has seen 29 deer. From the stand. Dang. 29. And I'm like, Eric, shoot more deer. I've seen 115 on the road, on the way to our hunting spot.

Have you really seen deer off the road? Oh my goodness. We came across... There were three bucks and one of 'em was a nice buck on the road. Did you look around there? Big one. I seen a rack buck. I couldn't see what he was. He's good. He one 30. Tyler is like the nicest guy I've ever met. Send him to knock on a door.

Oh gosh. That is, I pet it work. That is true. You got next time, Dan, bring Tom too. Tom. I'm doing remember, just take a stand. Just take a stand. I sent you an invite. 2009. Alright, so what we're gonna do is we're gonna bring Dan's wife next time and we're gonna see Dan's wife and Tom. Oh, [01:07:00] to go knock on doors.

Yeah, that's perfect. We're just gonna keep Eric away from my wife. . No nibbles. No nibbles. I think it was. And Dan's, I was just thinking about this. Dan and Sam and who's ever gonna do the editing of this is gonna have a heck of time. 'cause they're like, okay. Here's part of this episode. There are, there's going to be a lot of consistencies and not really used To be continued.

Yeah, like 10 minutes here is gonna be this episode. Okay, then we went to this one And but wait, we went back to this one. No because now that we're all friends. We're gonna do follow up episodes Yeah, you have to so I think what was cool and this because part of what like Brock and I's heart of What we want to portray What we want to highlight of the hunting world is the cam camaraderie.

Yeah. That's obviously what this is. How many, but also the different guys are here that all get along and we're all hunting for the sake. Nobody likes you. , but also the other thing is is the education side [01:08:00] of it. And so going back to that too, honestly, of what Clifton said about the four properties and.

That he scouted before and been on and that's honestly what like going back to Tyler's we scouted, I don't even, it was probably six to set to eight different properties that we looked at and crossed off and we probably landed on, we landed on two properties out of that where we're like, okay, not including the island at this point, right?

And obviously whatever Clifton was doing because this old boy just is on his own and he's and he's doing it He didn't he don't want you in today. He Want you up in today and that's I think what we like what one of the coolest things about this was is that So many people were just going hey, we're just And that was the mindset.

It wasn't being [01:09:00] disappointed about, Oh man, I thought this property was going to be great. It looked great on the map. This the bigger chunk of public, it was like that you guys spend time on. It was like, man, this should be good, but it's not producing. So it's okay, go to the next one.

Yep. And that's, I think that's one of the biggest things for new hunters that I think that positive mental. Attitude. Yeah. Is there some hard days? Y'all don't think that I'm a prick. So exactly what Tom is saying now is the reason that I do that. Like the joy that I find in hunting out of state and hunting public or private, really is that to me, it's the first time every time, right?

So like we all of us have harvested animal, right? You never get that first one back. But the closest thing you can do that is going and relearning again. And then you take every bit of that and I tell everybody this all the time and so I'm gonna say it here I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to interrupt But if you get the opportunity if you're a private land hunter or you're a public [01:10:00] land hunter You don't have to pay the money to go out of state drop three hours from your house to a different type of terrain Yep, challenge yourself Learn it, and then take that back to where you hunt normally, and you're gonna be a better hunter at the end of the day.

And you'll be happier. And, oh Tom everybody's happy. But seriously I could have come and done the same thing. Hey, show me where to go or whatever, and there's nothing wrong with that. I don't have an issue with that. And I would have done that if I only had four or five days.

You know what I mean? But I had seven, so it's man, I want to take this as an experience, and not just as I'm going out to harvest an animal, I never, I don't do good early season, like it's not my thing, so it's I want to go out and learn this and scout it and figure it out and then take all of that knowledge back with me the next time that I get to go hunt all of Dan's land, he's got all these giant bugs, or if Tyler over here ends up inviting me out and just dropping some hints here, whatever, but, you come out there, Illinois by my boys.

That's whenever you want. I'll [01:11:00] put you on some deer. Hey, don't think I didn't hear you say that you farmed. I heard that. Yeah. Yeah. I heard that. Yeah. And I think that's the other thing too is to remember as if you are a new hunter or just getting into it is going. There's there in every single state.

There are adventure hunts. Yep. Waiting for you. Yeah, we are literally 10 minutes from a crazy wild kayak into a public. It's a 15 minute drive from the you keep saying a cab and this ain't no cab, but it's a 15 minute drive from here. Thanks Logan. Thanks Brian and Michelle. Y'all are great. And then the other thing I think that is, is pretty important, honestly if you're looking to get into something like this and to approach it.

Is time I think time and don't be afraid to mess up. Yeah, like that's what's wrong with this generation Am I right? You know what I mean? It's like everybody's scared of felling. Yeah. No, that's how you learn Yeah, fail. Yeah, go [01:12:00] out. Don't kill a deer. Like I literally was telling a guy day before yesterday in Facebook messenger, he was like, oh, I just don't know what to do about public land and I'm like, dude Tell yourself next year.

You're not gonna spend the 800 to get in a lease You've got the rest of your life to go back to a lease and guaranteed that 115 inch steer. This is Arkansas we're talking about, right? And just go hunt public. Just go do it. Why not? You know what I mean? Even if you're a weekend warrior, just go do it.

If you see these guys on TV that are doing this stuff or they've got these big farms that they're knocking on doors and asking questions or whatever, just go do it. Why not? What's the worst thing that's gonna happen? Everybody's scared of no, and everybody's scared of felon. Don't be scared of it.

Think about this. I feel like the. The prospect of failure is what makes the success so good. The knowledge you gain by failing is worth every bit of money you spend on that tag. And what you were talking about, Tyler was when you were like, man, I was soaking in the adventure of it. Yeah, that's it, man.

It was just a different thing. [01:13:00] If, I think probably everybody in this room would agree, hunting would not be fun if every time you went out, You killed a deer right away without putting it in any effort. Oh yeah. No. My worst trips are the ones that I killed first day. Yeah. And that sounds terrible.

And everybody's ah, whatever. But I swear to God, we ain't got no stories to tell. That's right. You didn't have all these toing experience. What happened? Oh I showed up at my campsite. I pitched my tent the next morning. I killed 150 inch deer. Yeah. I was right. Wait, what? I walked out my, I walked out on my back porch and there was a big buck in my yard and I shot it.

Yeah. And it's We were just talking the other day about me screaming whenever I shoot a deer, right and I get so much grief about it, right Eric would be in here. He'd be like, oh my god, that's what he heard from 600 yards But like my thing is like people don't like people I feel like that passion industry so you watch these TV shows and these are guys that have properties where they can consistently go kill 150s [01:14:00] You're everyday average guy.

That's not gonna happen. Like I can't tell you how many hours I spend in the stand You know what I mean? So like when I finally do And still struggle. Yeah, exactly. And still struggle. 110%. This is day four. Yeah, exactly. And I haven't seen a shooter. Yep you go out and you do this whether it's on a lease, on public, on private, whatever, but You put in the grind, you put in the work, the emotions that come over that, I'm just not one that's going to hide it.

You know what I mean? I'm excited, and I'm, the day that I lose that excitement, I don't want to do it anymore. I think one big thing that I learned from some actually totally different industry work. Is every no, you're just that much closer to your yes, that's right. And that's exactly it Like so we like for every bump every buck that you bump is one step closer than one.

You don't exactly And so you cross off those properties where you're like, I'm just I'm not finding that hot sign of man. That's there's Yeah, there's a rub, but there's two more scrapes right next there. And then another rub and another rub. [01:15:00] And it's okay, this is something I got a key on. And the other ones that you thought would be better for whatever reason, they're not.

And that's okay. Because now you only, you have one place to focus on and put your energy to it. As long as you adapt every time you don't hit a. Blocking the road and go, dang it. I quit as long as you go. Okay. What can I learn from this and keep going? What can I learn? Keep going? Remember what you saw on that property.

I'm sorry. Yeah. Oh, no, I was gonna say consistency Is part of the recipe for success no matter what you do. I have people all the time say How do I have a successful podcast? How do I become so and keep going I go I was, I read a statistic right when I started my podcast and it said that 95 percent of podcasters quit before episode 100.

Is it a hundred? A hundred. Okay. I saw a different one. I thought you were going to say something else. And this was a couple of years ago and I said, okay. I think yours was videos. Videos. Because I've seen the number you held up. Okay yeah. It was the same thing. That was a YouTube thing. You know what?

You know what I took away from that? I could have been [01:16:00] like, oh man, that means I've got a really high rate of failure. No, what I took away from it was if I get to episode 100 I am in the top 5 percent of podcasters. That's awesome. That's so awesome. And what people don't realize is it starts as a hobby, right?

Just like my YouTube, just like your hunting, just like your photography. Videography. Videography. I am so sorry. Your pictures were great. My pictures are amazing. I do take pictures too. I was just giving you shit. But like in all honesty, it's like you said, like What I like to do is make it a job and everybody's if you make it a job, you're going to hate it.

Not if you enjoy it. Yeah. You know what I mean? You can make it a job if you enjoy it, but the moment that you do cross that bridge where it's this is miserable, change what you're doing. Keep your same, goal, but change what you're doing. You know what I mean? I think this is a great spot to end the podcast.

One, because people want to hunt tomorrow. This episode is recorded on [01:17:00] Tuesday. It's going out on Thursday and when you guys are hearing it live, a lot of these guys are going to be out in the woods chasing after deer. And that's cool. And it's going to be right in that window of Wednesday to Saturday when the consensus is bucks are going to die.

So as you're listening to this, Somebody might be pulling, drawing back on a big buck. We're gonna be. I think, I'm with Cliff on that, bro. do another podcast and somebody's got a success story. Agreed. Bro, it's gonna be, it's gonna be Eric. I'm telling you right now. That'll be so sick. It's gonna be slow talker.

It's gonna be slow talker. I just, I love when people make predictions. I'm a big prediction maker. Like, when people ask me what I'm gonna do for a hunt, I'm like, I'm going to go out and I'm going to kill this buck and, or I'm going to go kill the biggest bull in my life or I'm going to go do this. And from day one, you guys have been talking and you're like, listen, this is our plan by Thursday.

We're going to, we're going to hit it [01:18:00] hard. Like we're going to make that move. And I'm like, I seen that rain. I seen that rain and I went to Walmart. I don't have any like wet gear anymore I ruined it all and I bought 20 frog togs Cuz I got I know that's where we gotta be. I actually told Eric I was like we ain't go by to get on ziploc bags.

Y'all remember Eric's new to filming And he was like, for what? And I was like, poop bags. And he was like, what? I was like, I'm kidding, just cover the cameras. Yeah. Two gallon Ziploc bag, you can cover it, pulled it for the shot. Hey. You didn't say two gallons. They got some in the kitchen. I already found them, they're in the kitchen.

Are they? No, I think so. Outstanding. Before we hop off, why don't you guys share where everybody can find you? They can find your channels your content, and see what you've been up to because I think everybody would like to look. Tom? Tom, look up, just go to your Instagram. Let's go to the next guy, I'll put my order in.

Alright, we'll go Tyler. Tyler [01:19:00] Bentley the rise hunt. We're on YouTube, carbon TV, Instagram, all that good stuff. Sweet. Clifton Clifton Denny and or Clifton, the Aaron Denny on Facebook because the first one got deleted. But no, on your own outdoors is Clifton Denny on your own outdoors on YouTube and then on your own outdoors in multiple ways on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

And I'm Nick Queen it's LethalNick on Instagram. I also help YouTube channel, or help produce a YouTube channel called Lethal Prairie, so a lot of my... Full length contents on there, but mainly on Instagram your last name's Queen. That's my eyes That makes the most sense out of anything. I've heard all we drill sergeant used to call me private princess cuz I

Was gonna wait till we got off here, but there it is Dan, where can we find you? Just look up my wife's stuff. She's far more successful. He didn't mean it. He meant there's a lot coming. That's [01:20:00] it. Do I have to say the underscore? I don't. Look up. He had to look up your name. I love it. I just have to say.

It's Tom Lalonde. So from our last podcast, I got a lot of grief from the guys I hung up with in Whitehall about not, they're like, Oh, it's your farm. So I just want to say a big thank you to Rick for letting me help work on his property and tell me how you have a farm in Wisconsin. Sure do.

And we're all on public land? To hell with Rick. Yeah. We just, didn't we just get invited to private? That wasn't Tom, Rick. Rick, that was somebody else. That was Clifton. Who invited us to private just the other day? I couldn't remember who it was. One of the guys from Bofess. Yeah. Nobody. Yeah, that's right.

Who? I'm not gonna say his name. Oh. Nobody. That's right. That's right. You're good. I don't wanna throw him under the bus. Yeah, you're good. Nobody invited on your own outdoors to a private land just so everybody's aware. And I've been dropping hints to Tyler and Dan since we've been here and nobody's been like you've like[01:21:00]

Come to Arkansas, I put you on a 120. I don't promise you anything better than that If I'm going out of state, I'm down for whatever That's right, yeah,

you gotta put in the miles for the piles No, this is gonna be the first of many and I think we're gonna be hunting a lot together in the future. So thank you guys. Cheers boys. Yes, sir Yay, get some sleep

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