00:00:00 Speaker 1: Hey, this is Tyler Jones and you're listening to the Element podcast. What's happening on my woods people. It's another brisk day here, dude. It is so human outside right now. Most of the day was pretty good, really, but like all of a sudden, the last couple of hours it's just cooking. But it was like it's been like just fat air all day. It just wasn't that hot. It's overcast, and then when the sun came out, it didn't burn it off or anything. It's just like, hey, let's just be ninety six and then have that unimity as well. It's been outrageous, man, But we've had a couple of decent days here. The rain was nice yesterday, man, it was it was and I ended up staying most of the day inside, which kind of I kind of wasted the super cool day yesterday, but that's owns. I wasted it. Did a lot of important things yesterday. But today I actually went and pulled the first trail camera on my property. I have a shooter on camera. Oh no, he's not a toad, but he's a good eight point and I'll probably shoot him if I get the chance. I know what, dude, And dude, here's the deal. We're we've been talking a little bit about if it's too early to put out corn. I put the corn out at seven thirty in the morning, and by ten thirty there were does on it. I had. It's like I had corn instant deer there does the same night I put calling out too. Yeah. Yeah, they're all over it, man over it. Yeah, yeah, I guess they just I don't know. I wonder if, like this time of year, if a lot of that stuff in the woods becomes kind of not so palatable because it's just grown out all the way, you know, it's kind of fibrous and yeah, and then you know the acrons are still not really dropping, which they're kind of starting, so like a lot of the ones that are falling are wormy. I kind of cramped to day. So that's cool, dude. There's also Porker's over there. Imagine there are I'm not shoot one. Are they doing the daytime thing. They're doing the dusk thing. So I think that you can make it happen for sure. And if that's out a new broadhead. With new Broadhead, we'll crank that uh A seven s too all the way up on night, So you do it. Do it? Yeah, for sure, that's cool man. That's uh. I ate some pork tinoline the other night, but it wasn't wild and it was good. Yeah. So anyway, m dude, I know you and now we're talking earlier, but and you kind of voice that you wanted to divvy out some inspiration here because we're coming off the back Country series and there's just been a lot of things in our mind as we're preparing for this lk hunt. That's right. There's been a couple of people reach out and I'm very glad. Um. Not that I'm an expert, but I've done this thing and maybe I can just be inspirational where on the the d I Y L cunt and stuff. Um. And here's the deal, guys, if you ever think about elk hunting, pretty much, a few of a thousand dollars that you can throw at something, you can go do it this year. It's not too late. You can go buy a tag on September twenty and go elk hunting if you if you want to. So, um, I just want everyone to realize that elk hunting is obtainable, even like well, we'll just say Zach Farrenball the other day posted on um Instagram he's been on the show a few times and uh. He posted on Instagram that he'd been dreaming about hunting. Colorado is a life and this year he's finally gonna get to I'm like, dude, why have you not done this already? What are you doing? Come on? I know you know and like and that's a dude who like literally hunts for living now right, So like, man, it's so obtainable. All you gotta do is just save a little money. I know a thousand dollars is a lot of money, but if it's if it's something you love to do, hunting is something you love to do, don't just dream about ilk your whole life because you never know when you're gonna break your ankle and all of a sudden you can't get a round in the woods for the rest of your life. That's a good point, man. That's something that you don't think about very often, especially if you're kind of young and you're just like, I'll never be hurt, you know that can it can happen? Man? I got uh guy, that's a friend of mine. I've told you about a few times and he's had a torn a c L for years, like seven or eight years, I think, And uh, he's finally like, I'm gonna go get the thing fixed because if I don't, I'll just never go elk hunting, you know. So, um, that's the thing. You know. I was talking to Jaco for the other day, who's also been on the show a few times, and that guy is gonna do some elk hunting this year. Yeah, right, So he apparently bought a course which from a guy another guy has been on our podcast, you know which one I'm talking about, And so, uh, and I guess just to learn how to elk hunt, maybe call and everything. I don't know what all is offered in the course, but I know that a lot of guys and me included, are a little bit intimidated by the calling aspect of it, because, you know, diaphragm is kind of the way to go most of the time, it seems like, and uh, there's a lot you know, like I can call Turkey with a diaphragm decent, you know, not crazy or anything. My specialty really in the calling world is a duck calling. I feel like that's what I practiced the most. But man, you know, in all honesty, like I mean, outside of the rut, I don't understand. I don't think there's a whole lot of like calling bulls in anyway, so like there's a huge season there, not to mention, even during the rut you can do this, but like spotting stock, you know what I mean, like look through the timber hundred yards away and find find ilk, you know, bedded or whatever. There's there's a different way to hunt them than most guys think about. You know, if you can get the wind in your face and just slip around, that's how most elk get killed. Yeah, most elk aren't called the in buglin. I mean we almost killed a cow doing that right, Well, yeah, remember the bull and two cows almost killed them. I decided to step back and call them, which was the bad choice. And if I had just snuck up there. You know, you have to learn things along the way, like yeah, more often than not, you just walk up on elk. It's the thing that makes videos is calling, but just not like the real world of l counting. Yeah, you know so, I mean point taking, man. I mean I think it's great that that you would inspire people because you can listen to this back country podcast all you want and and uh learn a lot of things from it, like we did. But at the same time, like it can be maybe a little bit overcomplicated, you know. I mean in Colorado especially, like most units go get a tag, drive to a trail head and just go in there for the day and then come back out and camp at your truck. You know, like you don't need to know how to you know, uh pitch some little tiny little tent that is kind of hard to put up in the back country, and and you know, camping the right spot, and you know, have this high quality equipment, you know, I mean you can go the Army surplus store and buy a sleeping bag and everything. Yeah, keep it at your truck. I'm pretty sure your white tail boots if you want to go in and day hunt, will work just fine. Yeah, your bow and arrow that you already have for whitetail will probably work just fine unless you're a smaller person or so theing like that. But even that, my mom's still going up there and hunting elk, right and she's gonna be able to kill one of she hits in the right spot. It's not that complicated. Yeah, just go up there and hunt, and like maybe you'll catch the bug. You'll learn a few things and you'll want to go back and do it differently. But for right now, go up there and hunt, put on your white toe clothes, walk around and shoot an Elka. Guys, don't miss a chance. Man, Go get a tag, you know, whatever it is, go get a tag and do it, man, if you want to do it. And um, we say all that because we're kind of coming off this back Country series. We've had some a lot of a lot of interest in it and we just want you guys to know that it's it's also it's also simple and it can be done in a many different ways. So uh, coming off of that series. Actually, during that series, we had we had a high pretty high milestone, you know, like something we we mentioned it several times. We had a hundred thousand downloads and and in a kind of appreciation for that, we decided to do a giveaway. Uh. You've guys have probably heard this a million times, so uh, bass clely, Uh you can find out if you're listening to these other episodes. We won't go through all the prizes, but just go give us review on iTunes and you're in the running for that. Just tell us you know what you like about the podcast, what's been helpful to you, what you might want to hear, and um, that'll be a good thing. We're looking like things have really since then taking off really well for us. I mean we're looking at hitting that many downloads just in this year. Man, have been hit the busy part of the year. So you'll be ready to be listening because this this fall is gonna be so cool. It's gonna be I cannot wait. I'm telling you right now, Like I'm I'm sipping on a fountain coke here, and I haven't haven't like I've been trying to not indulge in too many things at all in the last few days, especially because I'm starting to crack down on just elk shape and everything. And I'm drinking this coake because I need some caffeine because I haven't been sleeping well. And it's a lot of it has to do with just so many hunts and so many cool things that were Like I literally if I wake up up, I'm immediately thinking about the next time and I'm like, okay, well, this is this is something I gotta do I gotta order this, I gotta uh make sure this gets in the truck? Oh what about this detail? Do I need to map scout anymore? Like all these different things that are coming into my mind and I immediately am awake, you know, for for good. So it's been it's been, uh pretty tough. But um uh, if you're listening to this the first day this releases, we are actually doing a live Q and A on Facebook and that is uh Thursday night, August twenty nine. So for those uh some most of you will probably miss this, but there will be something that listen the first night that I'll have an opportunity just uh, you can send us any message on any platform, uh and we'll try to get to those. But it's also really convenient for you guys to just to comment on there and ask any question you want. I mean, we're kind of hoping that we'll get to answer questions about the upcoming season, um, the any hunts or how we would do this or what we would do or just anything. I mean, you guys, just if you want to chat, come hang out with us at seven pm Central UM on Thursday, August twenty night on Facebook. And I think we're gonna do Instagram live too, so it might even do YouTube live. I can figure that out. Yeah, so there will be there at least two platforms going at the same time, so we'll we'll do that, um and so we have we're gonna do the kind of a Q and A and then we have an important announcement to make in regards to videos this fall. So this um SO season is coming quickly. And with that said, you've got just a little more time to employ this tactic that we're discussing today. Casey, what's the topic, dude. So about two weeks ago, we went out and did what we referred to as thermal scouting. This is not scouting thermal betting. So you weren't, um looking for heat or cool or anything like that. But I've been looking for heat, but a different way. We wasn't looking for like the thermals changing in the morning, so you weren't dropping milk weed and didn't dropping a meal with that. Now, um, we actually were using thermal imaging. Two targets not the right word, I guess scout scout big bucks and it worked pretty awesome. Man, it was pretty fun. I'm glad you didn't say target because we had some people I guests thought we were targeting them. Yeah, okay, So first of all, before we get too deep into this thing, we're using a thing that people strapped to the top of an a R to shoot pigs with around here a lot. Okay, what't strapped to an a R? Uh, there's no Bretain's like I just came in over there in the same way every time. Yeah, and I say let's take it off there. So there's no no gun involved. It's not like we're pointing guns that dear at not right. So, the only way that this can be controversial is if you're already doing something wrong, like if you're up poaching, Yes, this is not a good thing. But if you're just taking it out, it's just a tool. It's it's just like anything else, right Errol cameras or whatever I mean, truck cameras take pictures at not. So thermal imaging is not night vision. There are two different things, right. Not vision is using ultra violet light that we can't our eyes can't pick up, but the sensors can pick up and you can look through it. We'll wear your eyes out. I used it a lot when I work for the state, and uh yeah, and it's just not very detailed. A lot of like what you see in the movies is really what it looks like. It's like green and gray and black. And where you out um this thermal stuff. Man, you can set it to all kinds of ways, white hot, black hot, whatever you want to. Um. You can even do that old school way where it's like, you know exactly and it's picking up the heat emitted from an animal's body. All right, So you probably can't see alligators or snakes, so be careful, all right, but for warm blooded things, right like hummingbirds or um, I don't know what else, feel mice or even big giant bucks, um, you will be able to see the heat admitting. Now, what's funny is I looked at some chickens through one the other night, and that was kind of weird because their feathers kind of held in some heat, so like the chicken face was different color than chicken body. Chickens are pretty creepy. It was that lama, dude. You couldn't hardly see that thing. Yeah, it was weird. Yeah, I don't want to be a lama in Texas holding all that heat. In that would be bad. But anyways, we actually went around with one of our good friends who uh couldn't make it on the podcast because he just just not the greatest answering phone calls her messages sometimes. Uh one day his phone actually bit the dust and we couldn't get ahold of him. It's fun. Yeah, we um uh old Brandon Rhodes. You all heard him a few times. Anyways, Um, we went out with Brennan uh and uh picked up some pretty good deer. Man picked up some really good deer. And there's a key factor, the key thing it has to be going on for this to work. Otherwise you're just looking at dear. There has to be velvet on the antlers. That's why we're doing this right now, because you've only got a couple more weeks of velvet. I've seen some some social media stuff of hard horn books already, but I think you know it's a bell curve kind of thing. Um, most dear are gonna shed like mid September. I think at least around here we've seen a lot and that I always have seen a lot in that like September seven to twelve range like right in there that like week and a half kind of range again, so we're not far off of that for sure. Um, but as long as there's velvet on the antlers and there's blood flowing through that velvet, you can see what the head gear is on these bucks. And it's really cool too, because what else is going on this time of years. You've got bachelor groups, so it's not like the fall when you're trying to pick up an individual buck. Like you can go by and if you spot a bachelor group, you can kind of see all the bucks that are in that area. Kind of probably you're at least in one of two three bachelor groups from that area, So it's pretty cool. It is cool, man. I mean, I guess technically you could use it to scout outside of the velvet season as well, but like right now, if you're interested in this kind of thing, this is the time to do it because they're pretty much fully developed and you know, in the next few weeks they're gonna lose what they've got. Not to mention, you know, there there are a lot of benefits to this, and I think there's a few things that you've got to be careful about as well. But you know, one of the one of the benefits here is that like if you're doing it here in this next little window before they all start shedding, UM, there's a there's a chance, especially if you're a mid September but even even as in October one opener, that you can figure something out very important to your opening for your opening day, you know, success or your plan or whatever. So you know, like, I guess what we kind of want to do is run through all the things that we noticed that were um, that were beneficial, and some of the things how we put them into action. UM. You know one thing that I think was interesting to note and you and I um had been talking about this a little bit today, but uh, um and we we were we went out several days and did this. We've done this a few times or whatever, but uh, one of the times that we were out, we actually um discovered a buck that has been around for a few years that we've been chasing. And uh, well, you know, we're not sure, but the same area, I mean, same type frame. We're talking literally like yeah, same type frame, and we're talking like where he was standing in my thermal vision was fifty yards from where I first picked him up on the camera. Maybe I mean it was right there from the first time I picked him up. But teenager has re entered the picture. It looks like, how crazy is that? It is krazy? Haven't seen since October twenty six of last year. Had a couple of early November pigs. Yeah, yeah, I had a couple of early November picks and then that was it. Yeah. So uh they man, the particular public he was on just got I mean destroyed by people last year. I mean we were we went in postseason and somebody had just come in there and hung a stand and just looked like they took a shredder into the every little oak tree and hickory in there, you know, I mean old McDonald had a stand in there. Man, here's stand, there'stand everywhere else and stand like, grief, how many shooting lanes do you need? You're not supposed to be cutting anything, man, you know what I mean. So what's cool, and it's also a little worrisome is that apparently he's smart and felt the pressure and got out of there. Yeah, I mean right, yeah, so I mean a corny bar cameras. Yeah, and and if this is him, right, yeah, he did survive, which kind of puts the pressure on. We always say this, like we want to kill a buck in October that way we can get a tag notch here locally, and it ever happens, it's so tough, right, but like we have to we have to figure it out for multiple reasons over there, because he's you know, kind of disappearing in November at least to us unless we can figure out something we weren't learning. Man, there's there's, um the thing that's gonna be tough over there in October. I feel like is that. Uh we if you've kind of followed us for the last couple of years, you you probably know we've talked about Schumart oaks quite a bit. And there's there're a red oak that puts off an acren that's about the size of a white hook almost. I mean, I guess it depends on where you're at. I mean they're big, yeah, and so um they're the biggest acrons that we kind of have in our area. And this particular area that that teenager lives around has got quite a few shumarts and that's I think an issue. I think we're going to see a good schumar crop this year. Um being that last year was was pretty lackluster. Um, the ones around town are loaded, are they Okay? So that's what I was figuring what was gonna happen this year. And so really, you know, there's I don't know, it's gonna be tough because that time of year, you can't just like see him cruising at seventy five yards because it's gonna be tons of leaves on the trees. Yeah, it's gonna be thick, especially where a lot of these shoe MARDs are, and so like you're not gonna be able to like grind him over or anything and then to laid October just if he gets inquisitive or anything. So if you've got to be sitting at the right tree and there's a lot of them in there, I don't know, like if you have any thoughts about where you would actually I do? They do? I think that I'd go in there as long as it's still greened up and I got hunt from the ground. Really I do. I think. I think with the tope of terrain and stuff in there, I think you can find some places to hunt from the ground. Uh, And that way you could be mobile, you know, get to a pleasure. You can kind of see and if you see deer heading to a different tree down through there, you can maybe make a move or something. I don't know. I think that that's just combine that with the fact that usually in October it's a hundred degrees and you're trying to hang a stand and you get so sweaty and it's so loud because there's leaves on everything, and I just I don't know. I just think that on the ground would be a better, better thing. Man. Man, it would be so nice to have a saddle, but you know, it's just one of another thing after doing doing a bad country high and I'm just not gonna have the money and do it. Like my saddle money kind of went into a nice pack. Yeah, but it would be it would be sweet to have one, man, because I feel like that would be that would be the way to go. Because I have actually, and I know we're getting away from our subject here a little bit, but I have actually purchased some steps recently, and I think they're kind of a game changer. They're just over one pound to think a piece, and I've got four of them, about four steps for twenty two dollars. Four steps pretty awesome deal. So yeah, it's a good deal. Um, And there's super compact and lightweight might linked to those down below. Yeah yeah, if we can remember to do that. Well, but yeah, I think that that would be maybe something that you might consider. You know, you could get up there and just like crop your steps, hook your harness up, and then just jump off the steps and you can just hunt from your harness. Have you ever thought about that? Yeah, you's got to sleep, but you don't need them. No, you don't not to shoot exactly. So yeah, that's a pretty good point. I might have to try that. So something I learned in the thermal scouting is that UM deer, oftentimes at night, are in places that you don't expect dear to be. Like, uh, I can think of a couple of occasions, but I know there was one where we saw a dough that was out in the middle of like I don't know what you'd call. It's kind of like a woodland park looking area or whatever. There's a couple of big oak trees, but a long way from a tree line. I mean we're talking like three quarters of a mile, right, um, but more specifically talking about bucks. Um, we saw a good bachelor group with some very big bucks close to public in um, you know, assuming they came off the public, uh, in very marginal areas, like very marginal, like a place that you'd drive by to go somewhere else for sure, you know, and we have driven by and we're just like, oh, this is stupid looking right here, Yeah, exactly, And it makes you makes you think, like how often are we doing that? But at the same time, you've got to find a way to be efficient and going to like the best habitat is the way to be efficient. Um. But with the thermal imaging, how many places do we pass that we're marginal? We didn't see dear a bunch, but that one specific spot we know that that is at least some sort of a home range at least early season for a couple of big bucks. And that's I mean, that's one of the benefits that I think inc um big time benefit that you can kind of use when you are when you use this thermal imaging that you can kind of take advantage of. Is that, like, um, you know, Other than like there there are several things that are just real basic about this whole thermal scouting at night. You know, you can kind of like just drive the roads. Is a lot of less sweat involved in that kind of thing. I mean, we drank like a gal and a sweet team, you know, um, and just hung out with each other and we got to talk, you know, instead of just whisper at each other once in a while. But um, you know, a big, big plus doing this is that you can cover a lot of ground, and you can cover those mediocre spots like you're saying, and find like which ones is a mediocre looking property that actually holds or draws deer? And I think that's that's important because as we've seen in that area before, Um, we're not the only ones drawn too good looking habitat there, you know what I mean, that's where everybody's going is that good can have tests. So if you can discover a mediocre looking spot from you know, in the daytime that actually holds bucks, man, you're like a step ahead everybody else. Man. And one of the things about this time of year is that you have to assume, well we're going to assume, maybe not you have to, but we're going to assume that bucks aren't just moving miles during the night or the evening or the day right, like during the summer, their home ranges are gonna condense, right, they gonna have a core areas. Would you hear a lot of people calling them? So whenever we're driving around it nine o'clock, those bucks didn't come from a mile to get where they were going, right, so, um Texas especially, I mean, they're probably betted within a quarter mile or where we saw them, maybe even closer. We actually went in to one of these places and uh did a little uh recommission after we figured out where those deer were. Actually a couple of places win, but one in particular we went to hang a camera. Walked way in there to this place, um found some food sources, natural food sources, and jumped upon and you found a deer super highway where deer were just going over this creek crossing like crazy. Right. We hadn't go through every camera. We had just to get one that one that works. That's rights. Carried two cameras in, carried one out. But we end up hanging a camera over that spot. And that's one of the ones I'm really excited to go back to me to uh you know, I I think that that place is a place that could really uh we could reap a benefit there in the early season, but also all season, you know. But I think that just the way that looked in there, uh, coupled with our scouting or thermal scouting and everything. Man, I think that that's that's a pretty awesome place. Man. And you know, kind of back to what you were talking about. I mean, how how long did we sit there and look at those bucks and they didn't move anywhere? They don't care at all. I mean, you know, it's what I mean as far as like moving distance. You know, Yeah, I see what you're saying. Yeah, yeah, they just built around the same little i don't know quarter acre. The betting and stuff. It was weird because it seemed like they would just stand up for five or two minutes and then bad, and then stand up five two minutes in bed and it's just like they're popping up and down in this tall grass and where you're like, well, there's another one, and then wait where the one go? Oh there's another one. You know. It's like it's kind of funny how they can you know, hot and teenages of grass or whatever it is. I just think I think that right there is for five minutes of doing that. I think that's proof to me that they didn't come from very far away, you know what I mean, So they and they were close. They were pretty close to public, and I think most of the the betting from the direction they were kind of coming from, that's where most of the betting would be. So anyway, it's pretty exciting, man. Really, I'm ready to check those cameras see if kind of we were able to take what we had figured out and like make it, make it work, you know, from a from a camera hanging perspective, so we'll see, I mean, we're hanging it on a trail still, so you know, they actually have to walk by, and if they're not walking much, then they may not actually walk by that or they may not walk about much. But we need one picture to know that they're in there, I guess, and make an assumption about where we should hang the camera next. But you know, another thing that I thought was really cool about this thermal stuff is that, um, you know a lot of times guys to scout or to hunt, you kind of have to use a kitchen pass or something like that. But I mean, this is stuff that like after the kids or the wife or the GF go to bed like you can stay up. You say, ketch a pass pass? What's a kitchen pass like brownie points, like a whole pass kind of the same kind of thing. Yeah, it's like, I mean, but with your wife, So, I mean that's kind of what that's kind of the point is that, like, are you implying the whys are supposed to be in the kitchen? Uh No, it's just the calmon term. I haven't heard it. I've never heard that. Yeah, yeah, I mean I heard. I was having our friend Jordan Kennedy. Uh me and him, we're talking about day. Yeah, okay, well I need to start using the kitchen pass from a coule time. Maybe it What it means is like you spend a bunch of time in the kitchen that day, make your wife something tasty, and then you can slip out the bed. Yeah. I don't even know why to drive that way, but it just means, yeah, you know, the past to go out and do such. Okay, continue on with the point. I'm sorry. Yeah, that's my point though, is that, like, you know, the kids can go to bed at eight, the wife can go to bed, you know, eight or nine, ten o'clock whatever, or your girlfriend can kind of like wind it down for the night and do whatever she does, and you can go out and scout for the rest of the night until you know, some comes up if you want to. We weren't doing that. Can do that. He does it, and I don't think it's smart, but he does that. Yeah, and some guys can. Man. So we're out to like one that night, and that was way too late for me, Yeah, way late, and I was, I was, I started struggling about eleven thirty. Yeah, but you know, I mean there's just there's so many different things that these these uh, these thermal imaging scopes can really help you with. I mean, locating food sources, uh in bedding for early season, you know, I mean, food sources are probably pretty pretty easy, um, unless you're looking at those mediocre properties that we're talking about early earlier. But I think the thing that was neat to me is how much ground you could cover, like when we go out and like do boots in the ground scouting. Yeah, you're learning a different side of things, but I mean, Colly, it were taken so much sweat to do the same amount of good that we did in about four or five hours of just driving around right, like, we covered more ground than we could even hope to try to get to in a whole day, going out walking around looking at stuff, evaluating stuff, And honestly, part of the thing is that you don't really get bogged down because it's not time, so you can't see all the other little details that like, oh, look at this, you know. You know, I am like, oh, there's a rug from three years ago. Well, what good doing is right now? You know. But when you're out thermal scouting, you can see what's in the headlights and then you can see what's hot out there right now. I did get bogged down on a rabbit or two I think, or something like that every once in a while, but it just like that long and be like, oh, okay, rabbit, keep going right, So I don't know that's I think that that was one of the things that I learned is that you're not gonna be able to just plan your whole hunting season from a thermal scouting session. But if you want to like maximize your time doing something, it's a great way to maximize your I mean, what you're doing most of the time when you're scouting, whether it's East scouting, map scouting, boot scouting is just you're eliminating ground more than you're actually figuring things out. You're just eliminating ground. And that's what you can do with this. I mean Britain was able to just look out the window and you were able to drive and he was just able to just look as we drove and we'd go a mile or two before we'd even seen anything, you know, and then you would be like, oh, they're just lick. So you know, it's it's definitely it's definitely a good way to eliminate a bunch of ground. And you know what we were talking earlier about the more traditional types like thermal scouting, UM one being that like thermal uh cover like betting cover or whatever, and UM, I think that you could you could use this thermal imaging to help you kind of discover that stuff as well, because UM, you know, obviously, uh this time of year, do you're gonna use uh things areas that keep them more cool and keep the bugs off them more often? But like when you get into that later season, um, when it's cold in the off season even especially but you know, even during that November December when it starts getting cold, you can. I mean you can literally see which trees are putting off more heat than others, you know what I mean, Like whatever, whatever you're looking at, whether it's grass, trees and all this in the mix that you've got inside your scope field of view, like you can, some of that stuff is pretty wide, like especially the bark of trees. Yeah. So you know, something I thought about two is that if you start talking about further north, like some of the hill country stuff, like an hour or whatever, you can literally drive around once the leaves have fallen and thermal the hills and see where deer betting or whatever you know, in the evening or whatever it might be, because you can look through it in the daytime, right, Yeah, feeling through the daytime, you know, heats heat, so it's gonna show up. Like for instance, we walked outside of one of my friend's houses the other night and I said, hey, look at this. A lot of guys are using these things, the cheaper versions, uh for housing. They'll look and see where their insulations light or whatever, and they'll go up there and spray some extra installation. You know. That was three o'clock in the afternoon. We're looking at and seeing that stuff, you know, So it has nothing to do with light. Sure, so it has nothing to do with daytime, nighttime whatever. Now I would imagine that you go outside on a hundred degree day and it's gonna be hard to see a nineties eight point six degree human out there, you know what I mean, Like it's gonna it might be something that's kind of I don't know. I haven't messed with it too much. You know, it's super hot, just because who wants to go out there and do that? But yeah, it didn't have anything to do with with you know, time of day. So as long as there's temperature outside, which if there's not temperature outside, we probably aren't too worried about hunting anymore because things things have changed. Um, but yeah, as long as that's happening, you can use it. Yeah, we Um, you know another thing that I think it could be beneficial for. But um, we actually had an encounter one of the times that we did this with some other uh I guess there are hunters, but like, I mean, you could almost do some hunter scouting with this thing. I think there's like an application that could be used there. Um, we actually ran into you know, a couple hunters or whatever one night. Um, but I think that you know, that's that's kind know one of those things that you might could use here and there to to look at, you know, like say you you gottah, you're hunting a small track, you know, uh, some kind of walk in or something like that, or open fields and waters whatever they are, and you know some there's a truck there and you want to see all was this guy hunting like the west side of this section or the east side or what because I really want to hunt that west side. I think that's where it's at. And if he's on the east side, I'm just gonna go over there because that's literally like a mile away. I mean, you could use that kind of thing in the mornings or whatever. So uh, there's I mean there's a there's a maybe some kind of application there. I guess. Let's not forget about like the traditional application too, for as a habitat or whitetail manager. Uh. The ability to go out and just kill hogs so much more efficiently and coyotes to than what you can, uh you know, in the daytime whenever you're trapping or if you're trying to hunt hogs or whatever. Like I've done it at night with thermal and it's like, I mean it's not hunting, it's it's holl control. But you kill like T seven. You know, it's crazy how how well it works. So I mean, I know we're trying to make this relate to wait tail, but those are like the that's like the reason Britain has it. It's just shooting hogs and coyotes. Right. So in that same vein, like if you're if you are like a property manager type or whatever, Like if you've got a property that you're able to manage for deer or whatever, um, you know this like this time of year your inventory and bucks and I think being able to do that in a certain area. Uh once they kind of break up, Like you may have a deer that like summers right here and you know, I don't know, ends up a half mile away on another property, kind of utilizing that you never really see on your cameras when you start running cameras during the season. Uh well, if you're able to like see him in that bachelor group during the summer then and get a decent look at him, like when the rut comes and he ends up you know, a mile on you're over onto your property or whatever. You don't end up shooting like a young deer if that's kind of what your your goal is is to shoot something that's five years old and you don't want this three year old, you know, hundred and forty echineer running in on you last second chasing a dough and you've got to make a decision. You make the wrong one. A couple of different thoughts there, I mean, I think in general, um, it just gives you kind of a new and a fresh perspective of just the landscape in general that you don't really see when you're looking at it in the daylight. You kind of mention hit on that a little bit earlier, but um, I think it definitely can like it was revelatory to like my hunting scheme, I think, you know, um, but there, you know, there definitely are some things that I think you have to kind of like take some of this with a grain of salt and make sure that, um, you're not deceived when you go in to make plans and stuff like that. Yeah, there are probably some pitfalls to it, Like, um, I can really see where you can be fooled by the here and now you know, like what if those that group of bucks that we saw is never there, but they were there that night and we have this one snapshot when they were there whereas a trail camera, Like you're looking for patterns, right, and you're looking to see and you're like, Okay, if they're only there once, that means we're not very close to where the steer's home ranges where we look at that it's just like an occurrence and like the way we saw it is how it is, and that really might not be the case. Yeah, man, I mean that's uh that I mean you kind of kind of in the same same light there, like you might be looking at bucks that are like doing something that they would never do during the day of Oh yeah, for sure. I think that's that's more often than not, right, Like you can't look at them through the thermal at eleven PM and say, oh, that's where they're gonna be, you know, seven am on a cold front, and it's not really right. Yeah, I mean there's a good chance that mature buck especially would never because I mean you're looking at Bucks a lot of times from a truck, so like most mature bucks are not going to hang out unless maybe they're in Iowa, within the side of a road, you know what I mean, So you have to think about that, uh you have. I mean we were able to watch those bucks for twenty or twenty five minutes or whatever, and I mean we were able to pretty much determine they weren't moving hardly at all, so that they you know, to know, like you said, there within maybe a quarter mile of betting maybe and so but in in cases that you may not be able to get a good look at them, then you can't. You may not be able to assume that you know, there may be a half mile maybe three quarters of a mile that they came from. So you just kind of gotta be careful of that. Uh. Still, I think that boots on the ground stuff is uh pretty pretty much an essential, you know, to kind of follow up this this stuff with. But I mean, you know, you also have uh dear this time of year like there I don't know, there is there a shift here when the velvet comes off. I think we talked about this this year, which is a reason we didn't hang any truck cameras really more than like a half mile all in Um, there's definitely I think a shift and that velvet shed uh time period. But um, a lot of regions of the US have like a pretty major, like exaggerated shift, you know. And I think that um, you know, if you're planning, you're hunting, your hunting strategy around bucks that you've seen in this uh, and you do have an October one opener, like you just gotta you gotta be prepared to not see a deer that day, you know what I mean, because they might they might shift out because as soon as they shed, like you said earlier, you're not gonna be able to see their antlers anymore. So I mean, technically you could go back out there and keep looking and and maybe seeing that same group of five bucks or whatever and just kind of knowing pretty much that that's the group. You know, whether or not you can tell their bucks or does um, but you know, either way, it's gonna be hard to know for sure. And a lot of deer you're gonna move from the time that they shed all of it and you've had looks at them to the time that opens up. So yeah, another thing that I think that you can get really fooled by on this is that, UM assuming because you didn't see a deer somewhere that there's not deer there because we saw pretty quick how like deer just disappear. You can't see terrain or lay of the land. Sometimes you can't even tell like that there's trees or bushes in some places it's just kind of gray, right. Uh So, like you might be dripping by a scanning a spot that you thought it was gonna be bad at the bone, there's nothing there. You're like, oh man, that's not very good. We when really the deer just two twenty yards inside the tree line. You can't see them, but there's you know, a one nine in there. That's a joke, but you know what I'm saying that like that we can just think about like the first place we drove by the other not like I thought we'd see deer all over the place. We might have saw it like two doughs, right, But it's because there's a big block of temper right there, and they might not have just might not have been out there yet, you know. And luckily we have enough sperience of that spot, no, and we know that there's deer out there, but it's a good like prover that it's not always perfect, Yeah, I'm no doubt. I mean, it was difficult to see past vegetation, you know, because it's just like I said, some of it holds heat and so to whatever extent that might be. I mean, the trees seem to be pretty hot, but like you said, the brush in general is just kind of a grayish wall, you know, so definitely difficult to see through all that stuff. And I think, um, you know, I think where this kind of shines, um and helping you, helping you at least locate bucks or locate deer, is in that field setting. So for a lot of people, uh, they actually have agriculture that matters to dear, we don't really so like, but I think that, you know, it can also it's another thing that could kind of trick you a little bit, um, if you're scouting these fields. It's my understanding. And I don't hunt or or I don't hunt or haven't spent a lot of time in like this kind of agg country, but being filled has become increasingly less desirable in the month of September, from what I understand is that kind of understand as soon as they start to yellow up, Yeah, that's when they get bad. They also smell kind of funny. They Yeah, I haven't been to beans in the Midwest, but when I work down south, there's beans to the hogs destroyed the beans when they didn't care if they were yellow. The hogs got in their way crazy. Well see, so when so the deer, from what I understand, as they become yellow, they're less desirable to the deer. And it's like guys talk about how like the first ten days of September usually the best because after that the beans start to change and they just get off their patterns or whatever. And so I think that's something that you have to take into account to uh, like September, there's a lot of food sources that are changing. I mean, you've got per simmons that are happening. You have several different types of oak trees that will start dropping, um and they'll drop all the way especially through October, all the way around here even into January probably UM. So you know, you've got a lot of different food sources that are changing at the time, and beans would be included in that um in other areas. So like if you're looking at a bean field and you got a big buck coming out into that thing, um, and you have an October one opener, just don't expect that that's going to be for sure what he does on October one. You know for sure what one of the things you can do from that is, Um, maybe what you should have done already is boots on the ground all the area around there, and maybe have a good idea of where his food sources are going to change too, because you can still like locate him and be like, oh, there's a big buck, right. But you the thing that I think that we need to get better at and if we're gonna do this, we need to you know, do thermal scouting. Thing we need to think about this kind of stuff is where those dey're gonna shift to once you know, the acorn start falling or punting pressure increases, or you know, once like they there is some type of winter agg or something now there, like, where are they going to shift to? You're like, it's what it is is it's locating deer in the here and now, and you have to take that and use your hunter's brain to apply it to what the white tails actually are going to do. It's not just it's not I mean, it's fun, but it's not a catch all. It's not like the answer, right, it's just another tool. Yeah, for sure. Man, it's and uh, that's that's a great way to kind of I think kind of summarize this whole thing is like this is a great tool. Um, if you have the option to get ahold one of these things, which luckily we had some friends. That's right, Let's talk about that for a second. So, um, there are different options. It's all expensive. It's like going to at least be the cost of a tag, right, depending on what state and what tag some of the our sheep tags and some of the roads you see deer. But so there's kind of three different price points you're gonna have. Like there's a loophold one that I've I see and have seen that. There's like that four in dollar range. There's the thing called a fleer which I've used before that works. I don't think it's gonna be great. Those aren't gonna be great for um, like really differentiating Like, man, that's a big tin point, right, but you can probably see a white dot if you're trying to figure out if there's deer there, right. Uh. Then there's like the entry level scopes that are around bucks. I've looked through those. They're okay, Um, they don't have a lot of features. But then the other night we're playing with this pulsar like XLR fifty or something like that. I can't remember what it was, um that one of our friends had that loaned you, and it's got internal memory and all kinds of stuff. Like we were able to record within the scope eight gigs worth of memory. Like that's bad to the bone. It's so cool, man, And I think that's about something like that. Yeah, so ye oh yeah. I think you can spent up to six or seven thousand dollars on one. And that has a lot to do with magnification and different things like that. But like the ones we were used and magnifict like I don't know what would that one do. I don't remember. It's like, yeah, I think they got something that will go way up art than that. But I mean even that one, you know, once you get past about five x like you're really starting to rain, yeah, granny, so you know that's but that's the thing is like if you if you if we found like we found those like real close to the road several times, and like the image quality was really nice. Like it was cool man. You could see their eyes and all the details. We had that video that one big buck and you can see it's crazy. Yeah, you know, he was like forty yards away or something. It's pretty neat. That was cool man. So but yeah, the best thing is just to find friends that have them, you know, especially like you and I don't really have like a multi purpose used for him, you know. I mean, if I had one of might go shoot hogs or something. But I've killed so many pigs. I'm just not vetty and I'm not that mad. Neither one of us are good at staying up late. That's right, that's right, man. So I think that, uh, you know, if you've got buddies, especially if you're in the South where this thing is really caught on because there's pigs around, Like, just find a buddy and take them out and you know, maybe blindfold them for a little while so they don't know exactly where you're at and just go look for look for dear for sure, dude, I just got free reign to the to the to the one I got to borrow. They they didn't have to even come with me, So it was it's nice. Yeah, I mean I think there's it's easy for us and Texas, maybe a little harder for the people. Like I said, there's pigs around here, so a lot of guys have them. Not to mention, we have a lot of good economy here. You know, you guys are spending thing, spending money on hunting gear just you know, freely or whatever. So uh, but yeah, you definitely want to try to get ahold of this, uh of something like that and use it if you can, because, uh, it's it is a tool that I think could be really effective and it's pretty new to us to be doing this um type of thing. These are kind of our first assumptions about what what this tool could possibly do for us. We have hunk lots of trail cameras because of that thermal scouting, the several sessions that we did, and I think that the proof, uh we'll obviously come this season probably, but there may be a little proof here pretty soon when we check cameras, you know that that hey, these uh, this is an effective tool because we got to hang these cameras based off of our thermal scouting, and now we have a lot of information, especially with that one group of books that was in a place we didn't expect, Like if we can go in there and pick up those deer on camera and then possibly kill one, like it's because the thermal, Yeah, no doubt bonus. I mean new area just because of that, you know what I mean. Like, and that's what kind of what we've been talking about for a long time, is that we go ahead not even new area, yeah, that we've known about forever. Yeah, And that's the that's the thing is that like we we drive a lot of different places to try to find spots that people aren't really hunting that have good buck u on it on public here in Texas, and I mean it's tough to do, man, And so the thermal you know, allows us to get one more spot. And we're looking, we're talking about this this you know, this year, like we've this is maybe the first year we feel like that we have several options for several wins. Whereas before it was like, Okay, we got a piece on this place, and we got a piece on this place or a spot on this place that you know we could hunt on south wind. Uh Man, if we get a north we really only have one spot, and I hope nobody's in there hunting, you know what I mean, So, uh, you know, or we can if we get this win, we can drive way over here and do this or whatever. So it's just kind of like we've had like four or five spots that we felt good about in the past, and then last year, you know, we had, like we were talking about earlier, we had people just rampage in on a certain spot that didn't have hardly any pressure the year before, and that just takes off one of year options for a certain wind or two, you know. And I think the more spots we can get, the better, and we feel good about this year, and part of that is because the thermal scouting. So we also have a pretty hopefully we hung a camera uh four teenager or a couple of cameras and trying to catch teenager and uh, we're hoping that, um, you know, if we can pick them up on one of these cameras, that it could be a really it could possibly be a really great early season spot, like opening weekend spot. So I think what we're gonna do is brought before we go to the helo. We're probably gonna go in there and check and if if those cameras show us what we're hoping they show us. Man, it could be the first time, uh, I've ever shot a buck before November, I think, so we're gonna move. Uh If either way we're gonna move a camera over to the Shoemard's down there, probably need to, I think. Oh, I mean, I think there's I think there's two cameras that probably should be moved if they don't show a whole lot, I know, one if they do. Uh, I mean, it's just gonna come down to like, if there's a camera that doesn't show pretty regular thing going on, then we move it. If they're if they're pretty regular, then then you know, might just stay there until we get back from the HeLa. And because it's still it's still going to be September when we get back, so not a whole lot. It's probably gonna change. But well we've got two cameras left camera. So yeah, yeah, I don't know. Man, we'll see, we'll see. We got a lot of hunting to do in September and really excited about it. Man, So you're gonna kill all kinds of stuff in September. We'll see, We'll see you're going to dove hunting, right, I am, yeah, going going. We're going to Breckon Ridge, Texas. Hang, that's a long way for some dovies. It's not as bad as usual. A lot of guys go out to Abilene and all that. This is, you know, three hours probably so not bad at all. We used to we went out there a bunch when I was in before I got to playing football in high school. And stop it talking a lot on the way, dude, don't even don't even tent me. Yeah, it's uh, that's I don't know. We used to go out there, was good, really great of hunting out there, and then we're going at the same same landowner. But it's been since I was in high school before did this so uh with with him or whatever. So it's, uh, it's pretty much like I don't know, I can shoot. I'll say this, you know, I don't. I don't say this lightly, but I can shoot a shotgun, dude, And um, I mean it's like usually you're limited out so quick it's not even funny. I mean that's cool. I mean obviously, you know, if you're a good shot, you know, twenty or twenty five birds fly by you within range, you should have a limit. Well, the last time you went out there, there wasn't ring necks either. Are they gonna be out there? Yeah? Yeah. Whenever we shot a couple in Abilene a couple of years ago, we went through Amarillo going el hunting. This year, it was like, what do they call it black skies or whatever, you know, like just ringnecks go and go really man, Yeah, so I know, I mean, I know we've they're an increasing species or fair game. You can kill as many as you want to. And what's what's surprising is they even though it look a lot bigger on the wing there, like maybe ten percent bigger, they don't rest. No, no, it's all. It's all puff. It's awfully. It's like I had trouble the last I think it was last year, maybe year four when we went um, I had trouble, like I had to look hard to figure out which one was the ringneck after I had cleaned them all. You know, So I think you might say that's all meringue, no filling. It's yeah, yeah, and they are. They're man, They're a good target. They're slow, you know they are. They make a weird noise though it sound a little bit like for a philosopraptor a little bit. I had to chase one down across the past year and then when I out there, yeah, I was like, that's weird. Weird man. One year I took when I was younger, I thought it was so cool. Man, I had a pellet pistol. You know, we'll see how doing it oh man a little uh yeah, yeah it was. It was sleeping like a desert eagle. Uh. It looked like a like a Baretta. I don't remember the model, but it was. It was kind of a James Bond looking pistol, you know. And dude, that was my finishing weapon. So I got instead of ringing their necks, I just walk up like, you know, just pop them in the head and hope, hope I didn't miss. You know. That was my finishing finishing the weapon. But man, it's uh, it's exciting. It's a it's a thing here in Texas. You're almost like a weirdo if you don't go dove hunting. You know, the other day you asked me, You're like, are you going dove hunting? Like kind of like a are you cool? Bro? You know? Yeah, I was asking like, yeah, yeah, if you're cool. Now. I was asking if you were like going somewhere, if you're just gonna hop around here, I'll just be hopping around here. Yeah, And I just don't like hunting around here much. I don't even a pretty good hunt share with Slade Daniel. Um to call that guy. He he took me to a place, a little farmer's place, and we shot. I shot seven in an afternoon. Yeah, it's not bad. I was shooting well that day too. But I mean, so we didn't have a ton flying pass this. But I grew a goat weed patch this year, so I think I'm gonna shred that a couple of days before. Yeah, I have I have a whole plan for this. So I've got, you know, two thirds of an acre of goat weeds. Now, I mean they're thick and fertilized because I had watermelons are and they're tall. Um, I'm gonna go get some food plot and hand spread that and then I'm gonna go in there and shred it. That way, all those goat weeds fall on top of that stuff, and yeah, a seed bed or whatever, so we're gonna have doves and unless it does get in there and need all my food plots. That would be bad unless you had a limited doves because of well, you know, I think I need to make some considerations on that because I need to make sure and get that stuff out. What is it ten days before season? Well, actually, I mean I don't know. I don't I don't. I know there's a ton of like guys that lease their land out out west and stuff that don't bide by that. But it's actually ten days from the time that all the bait is gone, so pretty cool rule. But well, I wonder what constitutes hunting over it? Yeah, I don't know. I mean I'm sure like you can figure out the flyaway and be hunting away from it because I'm really not trying to hunt the doves. Yeah, I don't want them to eat my food plots exactly. You were wanting to grow uh food plot for deer, so but yeah, they I was also gonna ask you, like, I wonder, like how like you probably should do it kind of far out because you want those doves to kind of get regular on it before the season, right, you don't want them to just be like have to find it in like two days. Yeah, I don't know. I was I was just thinking about it. But yeah, it's gonna be a fun, fun September. So I'm pretty excited. Um, guys, don't forget the reviews, um because at the end of September, towards the September after our hunt, we're gonna choose. The Thursday after our hunt will be announced the winner of the Vortex Banos. Are we going to get to the tows? I don't know, it depends on everybody else, but I kind of want to keep that prize for ourselves. Yeah, it's a it's a trail camera, really nice hundred fifty til camera. Looking at it. Please y'all don't get us three. We need another trail to nine and nine bring it all. Yeah. So there's that, and then you know on X some swag we're gonnaive away some T shirts and stuff Melon T shirts, which are, by the way, like probably the coolest two shirts out there are They're they're pretty slick. Yeah anyway, so so yeah, give us reviews and we will give you some of that stuff more than likely. Uh uh all this thermal stuff is uh we were we captured it in a couple of nights that we did this uh this this thermal scouting and uh we we put the video out I don't know, a couple weeks ago. Maybe it's just like thermal Scouting Texas, uh, Texas Monster Buck or something. I don't know, but it's on our YouTube channel a few videos back. It's got a The thumbnail has a big giant buck that we also video on thermal which is really cool. Get that buck. I don't know, I don't know, I'd like to better. We'll try. He's a he's a toad man, So yeah, you can go check that out. It's just kind of there's a lot of stuff in there, just us just hanging out with Brandon because he's a good time every time. So um. Also there are um there's a new series going on. We talked about the back Country series. It's over now. We started a new little mini series. We don't really have a name for it. It's just kind of archery series. It's all tech stuff. It's like really detailed but kind of cool and important stuff. I'm not a gear head, but this this was cooler than I thought. Well, I think we did it to where everyone could kind of listen to it and take it in. Like what we didn't get into like the densities of carbon on anything or whatever, you know what I mean. So it's actually been pretty well receife so far. I've seen a lot of people have liked. We've only released one episode. It was about stabilizers and it was with Leavin Newsom and Caleb Sorrels of shrewd Archery. Uh go chick. I think we called it a one like the steak sauce hardy thinking hardy yet and you and I debated on if that's hardy like a heart like h E A R T, or if it's hardy like h A R D y. I don't know. I need to go to check that out. I'm not a steak sauce guy, so I don't really know. I'm not I used to. I mean, I love a one. I'll throw it on a burger or something in there. But a good steak doesn't need sauce in my opinion, Yeah, no doubt it needs salt, pepper and butter, but at a ones for like when your granddad cooks a steak and it's like a medium whales and you're like, yeah, it's funny, you say, because the older generation does they will well do a stage Oh yeah, man, for sure, for sure. I don't I don't understand it. Like, man, this used to be a t bone. Now it's just like a bone, you know. Um. There's also a series coming soon called Big Buck Breakdown. I'm so excited about three of those, right, I think so. Yeah, So we're excited. We're gonna see who of our friends can be a third year repeat. Hot. I've got my money on a few people. Eric Barber, Eric Barber, Sam Hogan. Those two dudes are gonna kill Big Bull every year. Yeah. And speaking of Sam Hogan, we might see a little bit more of him in the future, might see Yeah, for sure, Sam has been up to some cool stuff. We're gonna probably trying to get him on the podcast pretty soon. I'm hoping if we can get our schedules to work out. Like I said, we got a busy September, But if we can get him on, we got a pretty cool little topic to discuss with Sam. Um. But yeah, anyway, Big Buck Breakdowns are coming soon as soon as our our friends start killing bucks, which I think a lot of the Deer Seasons or some of the hardcore deer hunters will be hunting this opening weekend of September, deer season stuff coming up. So it's an exciting on you said, yeah, so it's an ex exciting time in the Deerwoods. It is. It is Man season is here. So anyway, guys, I hope that you guys are getting excited. I know we are. Uh, don't forget to join us on Facebook if you're listening to this on Thursday the twenty nine, we'll see you at seven pm Central. And remember this is your element living Ita

Save this episode