00:00:00 Speaker 1: Come on, Hey, this is Tyler Jones and you're listening to the Element podcast. You Stole my heart? What's happening on my woods people? It's a little bit late, but we are finally getting to the Iowa podcast, the recap Um. Currently we're doing this driving down the road, um so coming back from Iowa. So essentially it's gonna be almost a week before you guys here this podcast. So if anything sounds out of order, I'm sorry. This time of year, we just gotta we just have to try to stay ahead of our game a little bit so that we can do some hunting, because, uh, the whole point of being doing this hunting podcast is so that Casey and I can hunt more. Yeah, I mean we're already enough of jokes that you have to listen to this anyways, if we were jokes who didn't hunt and had a hunting podcast would be way worse. So who don't like to talk about hunting? Right that it's a good day to talk about a hunt. I don't know what you just said. It was Tyler's mouthing things and that's never good. But we are going to give you all the deeds on what it's like to go out of state on a big buck hunt, and Tyler might let us see a little bit on the conceptual stuff, like what it's like to feel that pressure, what it's like when you finally get there after dreaming about something for five years, and uh, how it feels now. So Tyler, what's all like? Oh, it's a it's a very moderate state. It's uh politically, Yeah, we talked to people, well else, let's see, this was actually a Missouri There was people with Fox News on. We talked to people who who did not see that they would be like this, but they thought that, Uh, the worst president we've ever had is in office right now. I know it. There's all kinds up there there. Um, you know, they talked about the Iowa caucuses and I'm not sure if you're talking about peasants or if we're talking about that. That's where the work came from. For sure, there are deer out there in that pasture. I think all I think so all DearS. But anyway, yeah, I don't know. That might be CRP, which we've got a word for a huge amount of what we do. I have it, I do, but it's something that you created. Anyway, we'll have to get to that some of the time. Okay, where are we Where are we starting? You just gave me like three big concepts and I wasn't ready for any of them. Um, so let's talk about the pre hunt stuff. Man. Take me back to um spring oh Man, So springeen, we we start to Um, I guess maps got a little bit no that this is something that I might draw in the next few years. And what's weird is that like people were drawing this tag when I when I was, I was basically I feel like I was about a year behind a huge influx of people and point creep essentially, you know what I mean. UM. I may be wrong. I'm no expert at the Iowa situation, but from what I understand, there was point creep happening while I was trying to draw the last few years. And so I didn't end up drawing for five years. Um so six technically because I missed a year putting applying. So that's real cool. I gone last year and maybe UH done things right. But um anyway, twenty seventeen, we head up to Scout in early March, and we really want to just find some big sheds stomp around a little bit. So we did, but maybe we're a little bit more a little less naive if yeah. So, uh we did some stuff around on some of the public lands up there. There's a huge chunk called Stephen State for us. We did a lot of looking around on um uh, there's a bunch of big chunks up there, but there's also some smaller stuff some I have which is like a kind of a private least uh walk in program stuff and um so we did. We spent a lot of time in the big chunks thinking that we could get back away from people, and as as time went by, we kind of uh maybe developed into more of like, well, we could not walk people. But it's like people are so proud now of the fact that they can walk them and a half and hunt out of a tree harness whatever it's called, yeah, saddle, Sorry, I don't even know what they're called. Um you know, people are so proud of that, Like they're so proud to sit there and take a picture in their tree saddle and show their rope you know or whatever. And which a good idea, man, it is. I would love to have one take a picture of you know, but I don't have the money right now. And that's just where I'm at. So um. But the fact of the matter is that people are all about being hard public lands do. That's the thing, man, Like public lands. Public land is what I've always the s is something new to me, but public land lands pretty plural. Um, you know, it doesn't really end so yeah, yeah, exactly, but like it. It developed as a necessity for me and still very much is. And I feel like over the past i don't know, five or six years, it's much it's become much more of a cool thing, you know. And that's okay too, because whatever it takes to make sure that we still have that access is good with me. But um, it comes with some difficulties to and and in that is exactly what you're talking about, where uh man, everybody thinks it's cool to walk way back in now, you know, and now that's no longer a secret. Like I don't know why everyone was a secret, but uh, sometimes you just have to find the more interesting ways of finding a place to hunt. So that was kind of our mentality coming into this a little bit. Um, we were able to solidify a might good to jump ahead to last week, you might say, what we saw in Okay, so we we found no sheds. Um. I'm not sure if they're hawked or what, but like or if they hadn't dropped, but we uh, we didn't find any sheds. We found one cool dead head of like a young buck that had a lot of potential and he wasn't getting any better at that point. Um, there was so much good signs. Oh yeah, the sign was overwhelming. And so we've been kind of you've heard if you if you're a listener, you've heard USUM try to kind of I guess we've our way through all of that by asking people from Iowa or that have hunted Iowa, you know what does this mean? What you know? How do I assess this? And so um fast forward, Uh this summer where we do a lot of map scouting, we're looking at smaller pieces a little bit more because we've kind of got all these crazy dots all over these big pieces as well. Um, and so we've got dots all over southern Iowa at this point, and we we Uh, anyway, we had on up like October twenty three or something like that. Maybe uh somewhere in there, um maybe it's the twenty five. Sorry don't know, but it was. It was yeah, like mid middle of the twenties of October, and UM it was We're supposed to get really good weather, like all week and we were gonna stay like six or seven days and come back. Ended up staying seven days. We stayed an extra day. But UM, we get there and there's like nothing that has been combined. UM. Over the course of the first couple of days, UM beings were getting calmine a little bit. So uh, we spent some time on UM on public. At first. We had solidified a contact for private land a few days prior to UM the hunt, but we weren't eight. We were not able to get up far enough north and hunt that evening on private and do all things we need to do to meet landowners and stuff like that. So we hunted public the first two hunts. UM. First time was literally like four pm. Let's hop in the woods a couple of hundred yards and hope for the best. You know what I mean. We did He saw saw a few deer, a buck, a few deer, super thick whatever. First time we're here where and I was staying staying at a hotel. Get up the next morning, head to a spot that I like the west side of it. But we hunted the east side because of the wind and I liked it too. Um saw a few deer, jumped a pretty sizeable buck on the way out. Probably not a shooter, especially at that time that point in the trip. And um, and then we end up working our way up and uh, meeting landowners and that kind of thing, getting this access to this private and it's good and they're they're starting to cut beans on it. I don't know anything about agg really, so I don't know why they're cutting beans and not corn, but we could assure use some corn cutting going on while we're up there. Uh. It made it tough, we found we I guess I'm not gonna make the story too long or longer than it should be. But we hunted several days back and forth on private and public without finding like any deer that we wanted to target. Some sometimes not even seeing deer. That was tough. There's a couple of hunts. You just think when you're going to Ilwa that you're gonna watch deer and you're gonna have to like pick out the one you want, you know, like, and that's kind of being a little bit tongue and cheek but it really seems that way in media, and um yeah, there's probably some places that are that it does come that way. But there were some factors, man, and I think the crops were the big one. And one of the other big ones is we went to this really great ace that was fingers of timber off of a creek into cornfields. That's a buck in the field, right, things giant body man. Anyways, Um yeah, so it's October thirty one when we're recording this, so there's deer going everywhere anyways, Uh, giant cornfield. So the deer probably bed in the corn some, but there still ought to be some deer using this creek system. Right. We're walking in in the dark and looking around, and we hate doing this, is hanging hunting the dark stuff, but sometimes you gotta do it. And sometimes it looks like it's gonna be okay because there's just a select few trees to pick from in this creek in the middle of the cornfield. So we go in or whatever. Well, as we're walking in, i'm leading the way, my head lamp hits the main bean. I think it's a shed at first, and then I see the other main bean. It's a giant deadhead, and we don't have time to stop and look at it. It's right next to where we're probably gonna hunt, so we decide we're gonna come back and look at it later. We have that whole hunt that morning, never see a deer from that location. And it's I mean, granted we couldn't see near as far as some other places we hunted, but we could see seventy or eight yards one direction up up this edge of the cornfield, and never see her here A dear right, tough, tough, tough cold does all get out Frosty City and then we get down kind of regroup. We're gonna look at this deadhead. It's I mean, there's no way to know for sure, but in my opinion, it's clearly in the h D kill. Yeah, and that's the time of year he died, at the time of year that the HD. Yeah, we'll post a picture of this buck probably is already on Instagram at this point in time. But he's like gnarly bases, big like like there, you don't want to call them kickers, what they're like stickers at the bases that are like inch long plus like multiple ones of those, like a one fifty class ten points slicked in. But the ends of his times are all like kind of gritty to where you can tell he wasn't finished growing out like he he hadn't shed and hearted out whenever he died. So that was like the first Like, well, back up a little bit. We talked to the farmer landowners earlier that day and they said they had already hit three deer in their combines that were that had died in their fields. So we start putting all these pieces together. Um, then on the walk out right there, compared to our twenty seventeen experiences, there's like zero deer sign comparative, like like like buck sign, Like I realized, we haven't hit the heart of the rug yet, but there should be quite a few rubs and it's scrape season right now, like this is when that happens. And there was none of that in a place that looked like primo habitat. The trails were weak too. Yeah, yeah, for sure, man, And I mean we were in a little bit different place when we were in seventeen, but I mean it's still the same country. Right, Like we about have decided that E h D has had a very large impact on the deer population there. And remember you were saying we were talking to friends and stuff. You were like, man, e h D is the real deal up here this year? Like it's not just a um overhyped or under hyped thing. Like it's a thing that has happened and really taking some deer out. Yeah. Well, and so another thing is that all the scouting we did, all the pre scouting, the east scouting in the boots on the ground and that kind of thing was done in the southern part of the unit that we were able to hunt, so around Albia, around that Stephen State forced stuff, and um, all our map dots were down there, right. Well, I start hearing about the HD we had. Terry Drew on the podcast few weeks back. He talked about the h D a bunch um we had road wide on the podcast a long time ago. He's been mentioned any h D. Several people that we know have been mentioned in the h D thing to us, Bill Winky as well. Yeah, And so I make a call to a biologists um that works so southern part of that unit. And this has been maybe two or three weeks, not very long, and I call him and he's like, man, he goes what area you hunt, and so I tell him these areas that I wanted to hunt, and uh, one of the one one of the places I wanted to hunt that we never made it to was Sedan Bottoms. W MA was just being transparent because this is a hard tag to draw, and I don't expect that I'll be drawing it in you know, in another Sure they're big w M A s I mean so um. I I told him that, and he was like, man, we hadn't had any calls from there. He's like, really, frankly, a lot most of the southern part of the unit, southern part of the state here hasn't had a ton of h D. He's like, it's real spotty, it's real pockets. Really got a lot of pockets pockety um, which is something we used also, um, but it's a lot more located centrally in the state, a little more up towards I guess the Des Moines area. And um. So when we got this private permission stuff, we were north like an hour of where all the southern to where, So we kind of got out of our country that we had pre scouted because we were because we were gonna have the opportunity of private and I mean, frankly, I like the thought of not having to walk a mile in And I mean, if I walk a mile in, that's fine, But there that's you pretty much know, there's probably not gonna be a guy, which we did a couple of times. We walked I mean even more than a mile at that one place into a private land peace, which is you know, it wasn't about being tough or trying to get back away from people. It was about that was the best place to be we thought to get to deer. But one of the interesting things about this private hunt that we did, uh, and it's not really private hunt because we like we intermixed a bunch of public hunting in there too. Um, we just kind of tried to hunt the best place to hunt deer and that they're all good. But anyway, it's one of the interesting things about this private hunt is that it's a place we'd never been to, never set foot on. It felt a lot like a public hunt. I'm not going to tell you it's the same, you know whatever, because we had that huge advantage that they're not being other people in their pressuring or have to worry about other people, and I love that and if I can get that more, I will. I just probably won't pay much for it, you know. And we didn't pay anything for this. It's just a permission thing. So um, we had that really great advantage of that, But we were also at the disadvantage of, Hey, this isn't a place we went in and prep stands and had the ability to do all that, which I have nothing against that either. I'm about to go actually already prepped a stand before we hit it up here on my my personal property. But my point is is that we had to hang and hunt every hunt. We had to figure this out on the go a lot of times in the darker and on maps right and one we didn't hang a stand on one hunt we well too, because one of them we like on public. We went in on foot kind of on a hunt slash scout mission, and then the other the other one we hunted uh stand in the evening and left it there for the morning and then moved it right away to actually compet on the deer. So we were there eight days and probably hunk stands twelve times. I don't know. There were. There was a couple of mornings where we took down stands and moved on my hundred yards you know whatever, and hung them again in the morning. So yeah, I mean, we we got after it is what case he is trying to the point he's trying to make. And the private land stuff did feel a lot like public. We walked a long distances into these because of the cut means and the fact that we didn't wanna drive the muddy fields of the farmers, you know, and that kind of thing. So I mean it was very much similar to it. The main difference is, like you said, probably know we're gonna be in there when you get in there, and also the fact that there's a chance that a five or six year old deer lives there probably a little bit better than there would be on public and we figured that out towards the end of the hunt. Um, we went to the private stuff and I'm not gonna everything we got duped by private, but like there was definitely some times for me. Now I wasn't the hunter, but like when we go places, we hunt like you're the shooter, I'm the caraman, but we're hunting like we're both helping each other make decisions, but you get the final call when you have the boat. Um, Like, there was definitely points in time when I was like, Okay, this is private land, so it is better, Like that was going through my mind. We hunted it quite a bit and then um decided with some wind directions and after being on a couple of the properties, like hey, when you go check out this public stuff too, So went and did that. Had one of those no dear sits over there. That was terrible, after the worst walking of the whole trip through the field of kuckle Burr's. Dude, I'm talking, it was outrageous how many we picked out of our clothes. It was a few days. Like there was a point in time where I was a human bird and they were so stuck to my clothing it was ridiculous. Yeah, and then we didn't see anything on that walk, which was not fun either. And I guess to the point I was trying to make earlier is that we're we're now in a place that we have like no pre scouting, and we also have what appears to be some pretty extensive e h D because we've moved up into that area where the h D has been a little more prominent, and so you know, you were talking about how pick your deer earlier kind of tongue in cheek. I mean it was like it was not even remotely. I mean I feel like from what I understand and some of the videos I've watched, the people more in the southern part of the state. Uh, there's more, dear, you know that made it through the h D about this summer down in that area. Just I mean, frankly, like we were hunting well, I mean, and we there were there were times that I was I remember a day that I looked at you and I was like, dude, I'd rather be in Texas hunt in public right now. You know what I mean it is. I mean when you're thinking, were we there have been Uh there was a three hunt span where we saw like two deer in three hunts. I mean it was it was tough. In one of those, the deer did exactly what we wanted him to do. He just wasn't the deer we wanted to see. We found a place that had like the scrape city like you want to see. It was bad to the bone, but beautiful. Um. You know, we didn't need truick cameras on this. This is on public. Um. I don't know what's in there, what's going on. We hunted a different spot a couple hundred yards and the other night before trying to catch a cruiser and didn't see a thing. And then we went in this this place and saw the same two or three year old that we saw the day before in there. UM work at scrapes. So it's almost like he's the king of the castle because big Getty's may or may not have passed away from e H D. And uh, he can just run the ruse. Now. I'm sure there are some other big deer in there. And if you want to go and targeting mature buck, which is something we'd like to do, UM, you sometimes just needle lot of time to figure out where they're at and that they exist, and we don't really have a lot of time, so we have to go maximize our sins. And uh, so we didn't spend a lot of time in the timber stuff too much because of that. Yeah, yeah, and so I don't remember what day it was, maybe three or four. We hunted a piece of private and had the opportunity to UM see a few deer from a long distance and they weren't on our property, but We're like, man, we might could hunt that tree line and shoot them, uh, you know, if we get lucky them coming on that tree line and we get in that situation a lot, it feels like where we're like, man, is there like a baby corner with a tiny you know, hackberry tree in it that we could set up? Um, so with we we we saw a nice buck. We did. It was a long ways away. We could not tell how big that that nice buck was. He was only like looked like twelve inches wider. So and so we're we're thinking, oh, maybe it's just a three year old. And I'm looking at him like, man, he's pretty square bodied. But maybe that's just Iowa, you know, and maybe we're just used to Texas deer looking slick, you know and sleek. So um, we didn't really know what to do with it. We went and did it like the public land hunting and stuff like that that we just mentioned. We also saw another day that night too, that was that was actually early in the hunt, and we saw two pretty good bucks that night. We saw a really big six points well yeah, you spotted him kind of over in the corner and making a rub also on a piece of property we didn't have access to, but we could see into Yeah that was had a small corn patch on it, which he'll be importantly there. Yes, and so this what's kind of key to the way we like to hunt. And I don't think it's right necessarily because we had a buddy that was kind of helping us out, um, just trying to you know, help us understand that how deer move and everything up in that local our guy. Yeah, it's huge, huge, huge to have somebody who's just local and understands. Yeah, you know, the deer will be in those beans all year long. Really, it's not just an early season lass. You know. That was a huge thing. I thought the deer never touched beans d November, but that's nothing the case to you. Yeah, so, um, but he was. My point is that he, um he hunted a public spot and uh ended up shooting the buck the first hunt in that he's hunted. I think like this year pretty much, I'm pretty sure you're on public at least, and uh shot a shot a nice eight point. He actually shot the wrong deer, uh in rut chaos. But um, he was trying to shoot a deer that he said was a teen point that was probably pushing one fifty and I was like, dad, gum it, man, that's that's awesome. So in other words, people have and this was in like a like timber Ridge City, you know what I mean, like thick woods, and so people have their own ways of hunting and as long as it plays to your advantages and you feel good about it and have confidence in and that's fine, uh are. One of our ways we like to hunt most is to be able to see so that we can make moves and once we see deer, and so we like to hunt a little bit more open country sometimes if we can find it. That's not necessarily field edges, right, We're not like trying to sit a field edge hoping something comes by that edge. We're sitting somewhere we can see a lot of habitat. You know, maybe that's over grass, maybe that's through the timber, open timber or whatever. But we can maybe put a pattern on a deer and make a move to Yeah. Yeah. And I mean like that's even in Texas where we hunt where it's kind of feels like big woods at times, you know, we're trying to find like, oh, well, here's a little bit of crp or whatever, you know, like we can see ninety yards or whatever. So anyway, my point being, we saw these deer, we were able to kind of keep that in the memory log while we went and did some other things and tried some new stuff. And basically day day five maybe six, uh, well, day five, I think we had gone through day five five and we were like we hadn't had anything happened, and we were pretty much in desperation mode at this point. I mean, I'm I'm thinking, you know, everything I I've had people, there's people from Iowa, our buddy, everybody has told me like, dude, if you shoot a deer under one thirty, if that's your goal under one forty, and this is you know, obviously we're just talking about things that you can so you can visualize. But yeah, if you shoot a deer under one forty, you'll be done in a few days. Is what I've heard over and over and over again. So I'm like, Okay, well I need to hold out for a deer. It's gonna be upper end for me, you know. So I'm so glad you did pass. Yeah, exactly exactly. So that's my thoughts right well, that at this point day five goes. We get done with day five and we're like, dude, we haven't seen a single deer that would even push one thirty probably, you know, I mean, we don't know what that one was from a long distance. We know he was pretty decent, but he had a weird side, so who knows what's going on. He's a long way is off. So we kind of I think it believes. Day six we decide, I mean we're literally like, man, we have like no footage, we don't have anything. We don't know, Like, we can't even show people what we've been doing because we're just interviewed the whole time, you know, telling people how, Hey, here's our tactic, and watch this in two hours, you're gonna know that it doesn't work. Um. So anyway, we we get to like day six and we're like, we gotta do something. Um, maybe this was just day seven, day six, Okay, So day day five we went in and okay, day five is the desperation day. We're trying to figure out what to do. Uh. We've been really happy with having these permissions, but we're kind of running out of places in win directions, and we know that these deer are living pretty much on the other property next to this one, really good property, but there just aren't using it as much. So what do we do? We kind of revert back to our old tactics of hey, you know what, let's try to figure out who owns that property and give them the land on a call and figure out something. So long story short, I couldn't get ahold of the landowner, but we we talked to the landowner of our place. He says, yeah, I think I know who who who farms that um And we end up getting permission to chase our buck on that property. Did we hunt eight days? Uh? I think it was a thousand, So I don't really know. I think this was day six. No, because here's why I know. You switched to day six arrows for this trip, and we had a certain encounter on day six, and that's why we we thought it was a big deal. I don't know, I promise you, I promise you. Yeah, I thought it was. That was when we got permission on day six. That's why I was such a big deal. I don't I don't think so. But we left on we left on thursdays that right, So so one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, today's eighty day really matters. I'm just trying to I'm just trying to make sure go in on day five and we say, okay, we're gonna we set and figured out this whole property if we just have observed it from a different property. So we go in and we hang on this creek system because in other states, I mean dead gum, that's the place to be, right. Uh. So we go and hang on this creek system near some scrapes, near where we saw that six point rub, and we're like, all right, big bucks are gonna cruise the south side of this corn right in front of us, and pick up does well because there's a north wind. Because there's a north wind, um, and they're bedding in the corn. Sorry, yeah, they're bedding in the corn. That's the whole one of the big e h D in the cross beginning is our two big issues on the trip. All right, and the deer are betting and spending time in the corn. Can you remember what we saw that night? Yes? Okay, um we saw? M hm um what did we see? I'm with you? Okay. So that night is the first night that a snowstorm blew in and as the snowstorm is blowing in. We from that stand. We did not see a deer within probably four yards of us. That that's that night, but it was still effective because we could see a ways. Um we saw two maybe three different bucks cross this back corner um of the north end of the property that we can hunt. So we're hunting creek. There's a drainage another creek that feeds into this bigger creek that goes north and south along the edge of the cornfield if you can picture this cornfield hunt, and it heads up to the north and there's a corner that it kind of makes. It's that's a really kind of a not a ninety at all, but it's just got a little corner as it hooks back to the northwest, so exactly there's a big spot of timber up there. We're kind of playing it safe because we don't really know how the deer using this property. We kind of thought we could kill right there, but that didn't happen at all. But we observed some things. We decided it's getting late in the hunt, right and you and i, um, as every deer hunter does, we start to grow weary towards the end of the hunt, not because we're tired of hunting, but because we're tired of the tiredness that comes with hunting, getting getting up early, and it sounded so good to leave our stands in the same tree and come back and hunt the next morning, which wasn't a terrible choice. I think it's a pretty good choice because we figured some things out. But you and after the next morning, made a statement and tell us about what happened the next morning there. I'm not sure if this is a good statement or not, or what statement I made exactly about the culvert. Okay, so man, I don't know if I if that's if what I'm thinking, if you're thinking, is me taking credit for this? I think you actually said this. But um, the next morning we come back, um, and it has snowed right, yes, And it started snowing that evening. And then we come back the next morning and it's like it's not deep snow, but everything is wide right. We get up in the stands and we sit there, uh as it gets light and we see I think a couple of dos maybe they're just working their way through green stuff, pretty pretty far off. And then it gets kind of still and we're like I'm like Dad, coming another day where we don't learn anything. We see two does and that's it. In the morning, Like what is this Iowa that everybody speaks. Let me tell you something about Tyler. If if it ain't popping by seven in the morning, Tyler, he's done, He's ready for pop darts. I kind of And this is just kind of a thing as hunters. But like um, in my experiences and everybody's experiences are relative. In my experiences, there's a lot of movement later in the mornings, So I feel better about later in the mornings. Tyler doesn't. And that's neither of us are right or wrong. It's just about what we have dealt with in our lives. So I think just the weather depends to like if it's if it's hot, I'm definitely feeling Sometimes I forget that it's cold and things can still be you know, or if it's rud or whatever. But yeah, you definitely, I'm I don't. I don't have a ton of patients. Uh. Sometimes when it comes to sitting, like mornings in general better than you do. Yeah, you're you're a big fan of evenings. You say it always gets better, and uh, I kind of joke in it's like mornings always get better too. It gets lighter and lighter as a day goes anyway, So no, so, uh it snows, we get up in there, we see the deer. Uh it slows down, and I'm like, dad, come another day. So we get to about eight thirties something like that, and um, I see a buck or I see a deer run down the hill behind the north and South drainage. So he's kind of on the east side of it. We're on the west side of it, but he's way way up the hill and I see him running down whatever it is. I'm see it running down, So I like grab my binos and just rip them up and take a look. And I see a couple of deer running and I'm like, hey, there's chasing going on right there. So we get we get to looking and they chased through there and it's a little buck and I'm like, okay, whatever, it's better than nothing, you know. And within a few minutes, am I right telling this right the way? Within a few minutes, chaos breaks loose, and I don't know how many does, but there was at least four bucks, right, yeah, The little one, a small eight, a huge eight, a big ten who is about twelve inches wide that we thought was an eight. Interesting, so we still this is the deer that we saw a few days back, the big we think. We were pretty sure this is the deer um. He's super narrow, and we think he's an eight point at the time. So these deer like rut rage for uh forty minutes maybe or more. It's crazy. They're out in the been, just galloping through snow, and this big buck is it's almost much more ilk like than it is whitetail lock. It's like he has a herd or a harem of doze and he's defending off satellite bucks the whole time. It's very very cool, and they are very scared of him because he is twice the size of the next biggest and thinks the biggest buck is a big buck. Yeah, you know, the next biggest buck is like, just to give you a picture, is a big frame eight that I think would go about one. I mean just as a slick age like a three or four year old eight. Yeah, big frame. And so this big deer that we think is another eight with ti rack it just squared off body looking just like a you know, just like a bowl man and he's in there just nobody wants to mess with him, but they want those doughs pretty bad. And so anyway, they just kind of rut chaos, ru rut rage around for a while and they finally disappear. The big big dude, he just piers pretty early, kind of up the drainage, and so, uh we watch it all out and stay until about ten thirty, which is definitely on my max end, and uh we go. We said we're gonna go grab it's cold, we're gonna go grab lunch at the truck and warm up her toes for a second, and then we're gonna grab the stands and we're gonna we're gonna go back grab the stands and then head back up. These aren't easy walks to the truck. I mean they are easy, but it's still like what like for two thirds of a mile or something like that. Yeah, yeah, it's the truck. And then so we're gonna you know, it's a pretty good hall. They come back in, grab the stands and then take a right angle and head up the drainage and uh, hang stands up there. So pretty good hall. But we needed to warm up, So we did it um and we go in the snow kind of melts throughout the day. We emphasize this a little bit more. We had a very good bearing on where all these deer were going for the daytime. Yes, yeah, there was at the head of this drainage. There isn't like a flat down in the creek area that is just too rough to ever be cultivated. So there's a pretty large amount of timber and brush up in there that I can tell on the map exists and you can see it. And that's where they all headed for the day. So we kind of had a really good idea that that the deer were betting and they were in that draw because all around it was was crop and like a cattle pasture and stuff. So like we were closing in on where they were. Yeah, we we we had a real good feeling that those deer were betted right up in that draange. And uh, you mentioned the culvert earlier. Yeah, are you talking about that as being like a travel pass through. Yeah, I believe you said that morning that you said, Man, I should have known like that, we should have moved the stands there for the next morning. I think I remember yeah, yeah, And I told you, man, I should have been able to cover though you figured out the fact that it was a cold Well, it's like I I pride myself on my map scouting abilities. I should have looked at that and been like, hey, deer are going to use that for sure, But we still were trying to learn how deer used that area, and the night before we didn't see the deer using it, but you are to know sooner or later they will. Man, if we'd have been able to sit there earlier in the trap, the things that we would have learned probably would have helped out tremendously. Who knows, you might go in there and mess the whole thing up because different decision or whatever. But anyway, I did kind of think, man, we should have moved those stand instead of being lazy. I was kind of mad about that. But I mean, like said, day six, you start to get to the point where you've moved stands every single day. You've hunted public, you've hunted private, you've been going back to public. You know, just crazy. So you're tired, man, And the hotel is a long ways, you know, it's it's it was a half hour to the closest hotel. So anyway, Um, so we go out, get lunch, we come back in, we grabbed the stand and we take off and our plan is to go in pretty early, take our time, walk up this drainage, and uh go in and hang a stand near a point of timber that we could see from where we're hunting that morning, which is and we were actually gonna hang halfway between that point and the corner where we saw bucks Cross. Yeah, that was kind of the idea. We're gonna try to get to the point and see if we can get any further. It felt like we're can gave for it further. So we get up there and we're you know, starting to see some scrapes a scrape line, you know, alongside of this creek and everything. And we get up there and we're real close to the culver and we're taking our time. Um. It's kind of weird because you're like, you want to take your time, but at the same time, you feel kind of like you're in the wide open being seen because exactly, and we're trying to use creek access as much as possible, so in other words, getting in the bottom of the creek with the rubber boots on and just walking through this four inches or water. You know, the whole time. Found some more h buns down there, we did, and but there's just some pretty there's some you know stuff that some log jams and rose bush and stuff like that. Every once in a while she kind of gott to hop out of the creek and go around, and you're trying to be quiet, stands and stuff. And we get right up close to the colvert and at like thirty yards or so a I see movement and a buck and a dough or busting out full speed, and it's the huge a point and I'm like, he's he's one of the two shooters that I decided. Uh, But in all honestly, I had my heart set when I saw the dominant buck and how just toad body was. That was the deal. I wanted to shoot you. And if he didn't score as much, which he at the time, I didn't think he would score as much because I thought it was an eight. But anyway, this deer hops out and takes off behind this dough. The dough is flying. The buck doesn't probably really know what's going on, even he's just falling this dough there's been been uh laid up with a dow Is scalded. She's like, not the tail up, bound away, it's the tail tugged. I'm getting out of those. She looks more like a greyhound than she does, you know, like her her legs are crossing while she's running, you know what I mean, Like she's And that's just like I can remember. Here's another thing about Tyler and I where we differ. Um in the moment, I don't hardly ever get down because I'm kind of an optimist and I'm always like, oh, it's okay. And then we hit the time like right now when we're driving home, and it just really my heart sinks, and I just kind of get down about the way things go sometimes. Um in that moment, Tyler's the opposite. He like he has a real tough time as soon as something bad happens, but then like within thirty minutes, he's like, Okay, it's all right. You know, it's it's meant to be that way. That's the way it's going to happen, and we're gonna glorify God whatever we can do, you know, when whatever scenario we're in, right, And that's kind of where it takes me a lot of process everything. And so as soon as that Buck busts out, I can just tell Tyler is like defeated. Pretty sure. My mouth was open for like five minutes, you like get the whole like Tim Tebow kneel on the ground thing for like five minutes. Uh you, it's because I was. It's because when I see a deer, when I'm walking in the field and I see a deer, immediately hit my knees every time. That's just the first thing I do. So thing was not like we actually like going, all right, let let me kneel down, Philippian on you. But yeah, no, but at that moment you were really down. And I think that's why you and I worked pretty good together because, like I can in that moment, like, dude, there's a toad body beded up here. It's fine that Buck doesn't have a clue what's going on. Let's just go and then you get up and we go do it. And then like you can tell when I'm like all right, I've had enough of this, you know, or whatever, and you lift me up and it works good. But we had to do a little bit of that right there. But then we kind of regrouped and uh, didn't really change our plan of action, just kind of had to talk ourselves in the fact that that buck was still around and and we needed to push forward. Yes exactly, Yeah, I mean that was yeah, that was the key man. It's like we had to the hardest thing about pushing in on buck betting when you haven't been scouting all summer, you know, you don't know where the bed is. Yeah, it's like there's this huge swath of timber up here. Pretty sure he's betted in here, but he could be betted here, or he could be betted a quarter mile from here, so who knows. And frankly, they're still likely to come out right at dark here in October or whatever. Um, so you kind of need to get close, you know what I mean. So anyway, we kind of finally get our gumption back under us, and and or I do, and we start to push forward real slow again. We work our way up through this creek bottom, over the culvert, up through the creek bottom, and we um, we are trying to assess how close we can get. Two Basically like, I want to get close to this corner because that's where I saw a bunch of deer go by. And from our other stand way down by the big creek, we could see dear Um that morning and the evening before we saw it too, and we saw those bucks. They come out near that corner, and it looks like from where we're sitting that it's in the corner, and they walk kind of uphill and then they disappear behind this this green grass hill that comes off the corn about halfway up. And so my hindsight tends to be a lot better sometimes than it's weird that works that way. And and uh, and so we set up in a big cotton wood that just sometimes we get and this is I mean, I'm not saying we made a bad decision necessarily, but sometimes we get enamored with a tree being the tree, you know what I mean. And I think it's really more about the spot than the actual tree and what it looks like. But man, don't underplay the fact that like a big, good tree is really good to hunt out us, because, like man, some of those nights, I believe that night wasn't, but we had some of these stillest days I've ever heard. And if you're not in a tree, that's at least as big as your waste. You're gonna wiggle that sucker and they're gonna see it. Right, And in that day, I think we had a little breeze. It wasn't heavy or anything, but we had something. But either way, you got a big tree to hide behind, you can climb it fairly easily for two guys. It's like way quieter, there's less brush, Like it's not just like wow, that's a pretty tree, like there's a good there's good reasons to hang in that tree too. Yeah, we we did. We made a good decision. It's just it's just like I said about the hindsight and the forestiere. So we we set up in this cotton wood and it's it's it's really perfect, you know, like it's it's a solid tree. It's so it's like just we can barely get our straps around it, you know what I mean. So we head up the street. We get up pretty high really um for what it was. We were able to use the uphill side of the creek to get up pretty high on the tree. Um. And we had another big cotton wood right in front of us, like six ft away. And so it was perfect because if he was to come down from his bedding back down the way he had come up from that morning. Uh, it's literally just drawing my bow with no way he can see me because there's a conboy between between me and him, and smoke him at twenty five yards. No big deal. I mean it's it's like money in the bank. This thing is going to happen. All we got to do is get him to come out and come down this way. And so, um, we get we get set up. It's a beautiful day. All the snow and clouds, you know, had stopped and and departed, and we had sunshine, and uh, we get set up pretty good, and we're ready, and we've talked about some scenarios and this and that. Um, we are probably about thirty five yards from the very corner of that where the where that creek turns back to the northwest. And um, but there's really not a shot to that side of that other cotton wood that's in front of me. I gotta have them come down to the south to where I can shoot out to the left of that cottonwood. And we've got a north wind. It feels good. Everything's good, man. And about five o'clock, like pretty early, um golden hour. I mean it's beautiful, like just gold lie everywhere. We're sitting there looking overlooking corn and a big like CRP type buffer between the creek and the corn, which there's been deer and that like we hung with a deer in that pasture. Yeah, yeah, oh that's right. We had a wait, yeah, we had a I'm hanging with a dough at a hundred yards in that past year. She had come out of her bedding, you know, which it makes you feel pretty good when you can do that. We felt not like we're good hunters, but like we felt like we got in there clean because that mine is bumping those deer on the way in. But that also made us feel a lot better, at least me knowing that we bumped those deer but they're still deer here, Like it's not that big of a deal. Yes, that's a big, big relief. So we um pm five pm and we see a dough that's actually maybe even before five pm. We see another dough. She's right on the edge of this fence line that kind of parallels of creek right up the creek got CRP and stuff around at trees. We can barely see her. She's moving slow. Casey watches her through his bino and through the camera for you know, ten or fifteen minutes, and about five minutes and he's like, man, there's another deer down there. She keeps looking back down there and just staring down into the crew. Is there anything cooler than a doe looking back? Like, I mean, there are cool things, but like it's very high on this scale, like minus seeing the big buck. Having the doe look back is well, it's one of those hunting feelings you can't explain to people. Is there anything cooler than that dough watching her for like twenty minutes look back and just going, man, I bet it, bet it's that big deer, you know, like a redneck would do. But it's that big buck. And then what walks out behind her? But the big buck, said Casey, it's him. And that's like, I don't know who he mean is, but that's a big deer. I don't know. I guess you didn't really know who I was talking about, but I thought we were on the same page with like the deer of my dreams on this hunt right now is the one that we saw this morning that was just bulldozing everybody around. It's you know, anyway, Casey knows it's it's at least the shooter, right, it's it's him, means a dear tyler is going to shoot. So anyway, uh like, and I just I had just seen him kind of start popping out. I was like, there's another deer. I pulled my bonos up and immediately I knew it was him. He could just see his his his main beams just sticking out from you know, near the fence row there from the trees, and so Dough, I think it's hopped out at this point into the field. He hops out. Can I add a little something? You had just grunted not long before that, and we kind of thought possibly that that because you did some little tending grunts, you know, just like some little soft things. We thought possibly that Dough had come up out of the bottom because she came to a fence or looked around kind of possibly that that's why she had came out. So anyways, a little details. Yeah, So uh, they both pop out and they start kind of just feeding, and that he's really not like red rage and like you know, he had been in the morning, um and so not too worried, but also kind of like, man, I hope they mosey down this way. They're just I thought it would could get a little more like amped up as it got later, and he was, you know that, it's just that time of night. All he's gotta do is nos er and then everything breaks loose, right, and uh so, I mean it wasn't hardly any time at all, a couple of minutes probably, and all of a sudden, up the hill from them, past them, we see another deer and it's two deer walking out, and it's the big eight that we had spooked earlier. He had only run up with that dough a couple hundred yards and got back into bedding, and they are coming out and he is chasing this dough and the dough runs off and he looks down at the big buck, and the big buck turns and starts walking to him, and I don't know, they're probably what seven yards apart, six apart or something like that, And so he starts walking up to the eight point. That eight point sees the dough and he starts coming down and well, I'm like, they're about the fight, dude, you're getting this, so you're getting this, you know, like I was asking you getting this? This is awesome, you know. And uh, and so they started doing the whole like I'm gonna walk sideways at you kind of thing that we've all seen, at least on TV. I mean it was it was slick, dude. And so, uh, they get pretty close and all of a sudden, you can tell who has already won this battle without even a fight happening anything. The eight point put up a pretty good effort. He did. He tried to so like, I don't know what happened, but I think that that big deer might have looked at that other dough that he chased off or something. And as soon as that happened, this eight point tries to just slip around him. There's footage of it. He kind of looks at the big buck and then it looks at the dough, and it looks back at the big buck, and then he's like, oh, I'm going I want to sneak in there. And uh so he tries to slip by, and that big buck, you know, hears him or whatever, and he kind of squares up on him again and cuts him off, which at this time we know is a ten point. Yes, that's right, good, good detail there. So he's a ten point um and he's I guess I'll go ahead and explain what he looks like. Um, he's just like just a picturesque big G two, big G three, nice G four on one side. I think he's left, um just like what you would consider like if he had the matching sides, he's gonna be right at probably the one fifty marks a ten point even though he's even though he's pretty narrow, similar deer and score, but different shape wrack than what name was, yeah yeah, yeah, um, but just real pretty and on his right side, same thing. He's got a typical ten, but his main beaven goes way up higher than his other side, and his times are shorter a little bit, and so just kind of a weird lopsided just probably old deer. I mean, I don't know, but anyway, um cuts that deer off that deer. I don't even neither of us know what happened after that, like because was diverted. Oh it was no nobody knows where the eight point went because I mean he's just standing there and the next thing, you know, uh, he kind of like he kind of like retreats a touch, just to let the big buck know that he doesn't want to get his bow w uped. And the big buck all of a sudden turns his attention back to this dough. No, no no, no, no no, he chased that eight point off. He chased him like he was about to like gore him if he had the chance. He did. He ran after him, and I was just like, are you getting that? And that? And that's why the dough ended up further down because she didn't like all that going on? Yeah, and she she I mean, she naturally was going to walk that way anyway. She buy while she was eating, and then she kind of had heard all that going on. She kind of trotted just a little bit and then started feeding again, back down towards us. And I'm like, dang, this is getting good for us man, And so we um we watched him kind of chase that deer off, and I don't think he disappeared or anything, but he went back up the hill and next saying, you know, big boy turns around, looks down at the dough, who has now gotten like eighty yards are worn from him probably, and he's like, I gotta catch up with this dough that I've been with all day. So he takes off running towards her, and then he does the hole. I'm gonna put my nose six inches off the ground as I'm coming up on her, and she does not like that and takes off running towards us. And it when that happens, Casey just goes it's about to happen, buddy, and we and I'm clipped on and they're at like forty yards, forty five yards running towards us. They're gonna run down a trail. It's twenty five yards on the opposite side of this cottonwood out in the field that you would think was planted by me this summer, but it wasn't. I mean, it's just beautiful, picturesque gold line, like I said, and and I so I was kind of leaned over and get ready for my shot. On the left side here this tree, and they don't show up. And I look back to the right and this that gum young dough takes off and just instead of going down the trail that she was coming in in that past year, she takes off towards the creek to lose the more than a ninety degree turn yeah, like a one tin like went and then came back, and she hits the woods at like thirty five yards from us, and there's no shot, and the buck falls her to the edge and stands there behind. I don't know what those were, a bunch of hack berries or something, something little shiny trees that are all on the line on the edge of this field, on the edge of the creek. And he stands there at thirty five yards for a couple of minutes probably, and then um, she kind of goes up in the timber. I won't make this part of the story any longer. It needs to be essentially. I grunt at him a few times to stop him, and over the course like ten minutes, he looks, but he never wants to come back. He chases this dough all through this this little bottom of these two where these two creeks kind of conjoined, and um, and I'm thinking, man, it's five o'clock. We've got an hour and forty five minutes still shooting light ends like these dudes are gonna come run back by at some point if they do the rage fest that happened this morning again, it's gonna he's gonna come by us, so I didn't want to get too aggressive and like snort weason or anything, you know, which maybe I should have. UM, but they kind of head north up the drainage, and I'm thinking he'll be back in a minute. Will they'll run right back out into this and do their raging out and open and um they never did, uh, And so I just, uh, it was pretty sad about that, the fact that they never came back down, and kind of beat myself up about it. But more than that, I beat myself up on the fact that we we missed the tree. We should have been in a different tree and looking at it when I was sitting there after he left. Where she went in the woods is where all the deer had been coming out that we were seeing from like five hundred yards away or whatever, that she was coming out or she went in where the deer were coming out in this very corner. And I could tell now that I was sitting there looking at it, that they came out in this corner and they were going back up the creek drainage, and that's why they disappeared like halfway up up this hill that I thought they were kind of going up from long distance and that it made so much sense because if they had come out where we were at, they would have been visible for a long time up that hill, I think, and on the angle that they were going. So I really just kicked myself so much for not setting up where we could shoot. Not to mention, there was two creeks that kind of came in right there where it was real flat and you could just tell that was the crossing. It wasn't steep, that's exactly where it was. And I was just so mad at myself. I don't know. I know you could tell it I was mad at myself, but I don't know if you could tell. I was literally like my muscles in my jaw were fatigued from just gritting my teeth at how mad I was at myself. You wanted even real bad? Yeah, And um, and the fact that we couldn't trim anything or didn't have any stands prepped was huge in that scenario, and it really made for some pretty big implications for the next evening as well, because, Uh, if it wasn't for some twigs, you would have taken a shot at that deer and I have full confidence smoked him at thirty five yards. Um, so it's had the opportunity unfortunate that we had a big buck in bow rains and bow range and he stood there broadside for like two minutes, not knowing where your sound of your grunt came from. He was not looking up for us, you know, like it was perfect man. But that ended or not pretty much after that you just had doze blow at us down the hill a lot, which kind of was stupid. That's another thing and I will you find out is that when you are in dear like, deer can kind of come from everywhere, especially when there's ops in. So we don't want that a little bit that night and we were we were being aggressive, like we went in there to kill one deer. We didn't go in there to have a bunch of deer go by by us, you know what I mean. So uh, and it worked except for that we just didn't have a shot. So the the idea was the next morning that we would we would move our stands back down the creek to the south by the culvert where we had spooked the eight point that the day before and where we had seen all the just rut rage and action happened. And um, we decided that if those deer. Those deer were not spooked as they went up to the north at all, um, so I wasn't worried about that. So we thought, well, maybe they're just hanging here, and there's a chance that they dipped back down to the south. I mean, we don't know their patterns really yet, um, but they came from the south up to the north during the morning, so I'm thinking when they leave out a they're going back down to the south. It's kind of what you would assume would would it would possibly happen. Plus that's kind of the only way to get back down to more timber and creek system and stuff like that, and and also more agg fields. So we um assuming that thought that the best decision was to leave the stands in the tree, get down quietly, and get out quick, and then come back in the morning and quietly grab the stands and move them back down you know, hundred yards or whatever, back down to the culvert. Which was supposed to be the last morning of the hunt. Yes, but since we were so close on this big buck. We have wonderful wives who are very understanding of the fact that, hey, we're gonna stay a little bit longer because we're gonna get this thing done. And uh, I had to call back and make some arrangements to have somebody kind of help cover youth class for me and stuff. But Tyler and I have a whole another full day to commit to kill him this buck. Yeah, and so so we we do that. We come back in the next morning and we grabbed the stands. It's windy and cold as all get out, man. Uh And and the first windy day we had, and so I was like, man, this is good. It's like ten to fifteen gust into fifteen to twenty kind of thing. And I'm like, this is good weather. This is gonna be awesome. We're gonna get back down there. We're gonna kill the steer. Um. It's kind of it's still a pretty aggressive set, but this is I mean, if we just sat this stand the morning before, we would have smoked any deer, any buck we wanted to in that group. And so we moved back down there in the morning comes um, and long story short, it is super cold and there are dose everywhere that are busted us. Not everywhere, there was several dose that were coming up in a little young buck chasing them and uh, some of the doose didn't didn't bust us, but some of them came from down when the opposite side of the drainage that they had come the morning before. So it kind of, you know, our plan didn't work exactly as we wanted it to. But one thing that Casey and I both noticed, and Casey made the point verbally first um, was that there were those coming from the north of us UM that morning. And so he found it pretty interesting that that was happening and thought, well, you know what, at night, all bets are off as to deer relating to cover. Sometimes you know, they'll get up on top of these on top of the stuff and and not to mention, there's corn up there anyway, like there's still some cover and some of these areas up on top. So maybe these deer leaked out to the north of this big hole and drainage and stuff and you know, hung out in the corner all night up there, came back down embedded in the same spot. And so it's a long it's a long shot. I don't feel super great about it, but his his, his, uh, his, um. You know, thoughts there are very plausible that it could be that could be what happened. And at this point where this is our last hunt, it's the evening the last day before we leave, we we pretty much are not gonna abandon this area, you know what I mean. So, um, although there were some places that I was like, oh man, that looks good. But anyways, um, you had your heart on that big buck and I don't blame you one. Yeah. That's another thing is man, it doesn't have to score that much. A deer for me, doesn't have to score much at all if he's got a little mass and he's got a big old body, you know what I mean. Um, So anyway, I uh, we decide that we're gonna go back in there and uh try to get even more aggressive than we did the morning before. Um, and just get right in there where you know, we we can feel pretty you know sure that um if he comes out that he's gonna be pretty much pretty quick in bow range. So um, we go back to the truck. We decided that we're gonna go get a hot lunch to kind of pick our spirits up because it was super cold with that wind and everything. So we go into the closest little town we get um some food, at a convenient store, which I think I told the podcast about the anchor down of my pocket already told the story on the podcast. But that was that that store. We get somebody kind of cruise around and look at some stuff and go back in there, um warmed up. We um had it started snowing yet as we walk in? Was it snowing? I guess I think as we were setting up, So we we uh grab our stands, we take them, and then we start using our creek access further up that that drainage. We pass our stand location today before and we um we go, I don't know, we're still in that creek, but we're trying to kind of figure things out because like it really gets the point where um, so a lot of the leaves with the wind had gone, had blown off the trees, and so you're looking at like the possibility of getting seen as well as um, you know, just making a lot of noise. Luckily, that wind was blowing to give us a little bit of noise cover at least so we thought, which it did to an extent surely. So we actually um, we actually get up to this hackberry that's real straight. It's behind a big, huge, boat arc that's got a lot of leaves in it still, which was pretty neat. So we thought. Casey was like, man, that's the tree, you know. I was like, I think you're right. It's got a lot of cover and everything, and it's real straight. And then I started looking at I'm like, you know what, I don't think we can get above that boat dark limb. And so it was so such a close call that we decided we would hang a few steps, go up it and see if we could and get a shot over that boat dark limb. And after two steps we figured out pretty quick it was not gonna happen. So we went back down. We're in pretty early, to keep that in mind. So we go back down. I look over. There's a tree. We think it's an oak tree. It's a weird hackberry. We figure out, um, and we decide that that's the tree. It's a big one. It's got some shots back to the creek, it's got shots out in the open, uh you know, field or whatever, and um, and it's tall enough and got enough limbs that we can get pretty high in it. And so we, uh, we get up in there and I get it starts snowing, I get the sand set, Casey comes up. We we then um start working on He's working on sending him the camera arm. I'm working on getting a few more shooting lanes. So Casey and I talked about it. We're like, you know what, we can't let that happen again. We gotta make sure that we have shots. We can't just say okay, well here's one or two shots. We gotta be good with it. So I start making lanes and it is tough. Um, I've got a little saul. I've got a lot of pear cord and a tree step and a tree step. So I'm like trying to knock down stuff, trying to cut stuff, trying to break a few things. So we've got a bunch of wind so we can make noise. Yeah, and so I'm trying not to cut too much because it's just a kind of unnutural sound, unnatural sound. But I'm breaking a few little small limbs and stuff, not making a whole lot of noise. Um, I hang one of our tree steps, um in a tree, I think, thinks to Casey's idea, and uh, pull this limb down and tied off to a limb close to me, It was like a imagine a ball toss at Yeah, it's like a grappling hook batman uses. We tossed it out there and grabbed the limb and he pulled it back and hied it off. It was really cool. Yeah. Yeah, So did that use the pear cord several different times. One time to just grabble them so I could cut it on, another time to hold them down to give me a little more space. And that was the last thing I did, was was to tie that one with the with the pear cord. And it was already had a shooting lane there, but it just gave me a little more shooting lane. It gave me, you know, a little more left and right and probably like a little bit closer shot as well. And so I, um, I get that tied off and I'm freezing at this point. It's snowing pretty good, and I grabbed my clothes and start putting them on. I finally get fully clothed, and I'm like, I'm warmed up in Casey at this point, he's pretty much ready, you know, um, probably just kinda you know, doing a few last minute things and stuff. Yeah, yeah, I think that's that sounds about right. So then, um, you know, the next thing I do is like, okay, well, I'm gonna range some spots. Keep in mind, it's three thirty pm. Um, it's cold and snowing, but it's three thirty pm on October. I believe, and um, and so I ranged a spot. I ranged the corn and it's like fifty one. So that's pretty good. Like that's the closest point that you can get to the corn from the creek. Really, it's like, man, that's almost I can almost shoot to that, you know. So that gives me a good feeling about getting a close shot. Here. I see some trails, I see some clumps of glad grass, so I'm gonna start ranging those. I ranged the clumps of grass. I literally ranged three spots, guys, and um, I was gonna tell Casey how far one of those spots was. I don't know why. He probably didn't care, but I was just gonna mention that. And I pulled the the range finder down and I turned and as I'm turning, Casey grabs my arm and says, big buck right there. When I turned around, I realized quickly that it's too late. He is running away, and he was at thirty yards. When you saw him at thirty I never saw him not scared, like it wasn't like okay, he doesn't have us, like he's snuck in on us. When he wheeled, you saw him, I saw, yeah, I saw that movement at thirty yards. So essentially, this is immediately you can tell. We can tell because his rack is twelve inches wide. And Nick, by the way, that's actually the thing that gave it away for me was his his body sauce before anything. It's just this giant buck wheeling and turning away and we, I mean immediately are just completely just I mean like no, hope, you know what I mean. It's like just the worst feeling. I can't even I'm not gonna lie. I was in Tyler mode at this point in time. Yeah, like kind of work. I was not that being Tyler mode is a derogatory thing, but you know what I'm saying, like it was, I was. I was instantly down. It wasn't like, oh yeah, it's okay, he didn't really know what happened. He's gonna come back now. This it's it's a miracle if we see this year again, you know, And uh, yeah, it was. It was a bad, bad feeling at that man, it was. And um, that was another case where I, um, you know, pretty much held my mouth open for several minutes. I just could not believe at three thirty what had happened. That's the closest I've ever seen you to using profanity, I think right there you were so just not like mad, but just disgusted. And uh, you actually got over it quicker than I thought I did. I was proud of you, man, but it did take some minutes. I just didn't even know what to say. I know, man, I know it was such a strange thing because I know you. I knew you had your heart set on that deer so much, and we made so many good moves. We made so many good moves that we encountered that deer at three thirty in the afternoon, the deer we went in there to kill. I was about to come out of a trail at twelve yards from from where we were hanging in a tree into a shooting into a pasture, all right, and we were five minutes late. But here's the thing, And don't let me put words in your mouth on this whole thing. Express how you felt about it, uh, as well, but you you talk about like all these details about, man, if we've done this, we've done that, we've been there three minutes earlier, if I hadn't got gas there whatever. Um. Yeah, But honestly, what you and I determined brought that deer in was the noise of you sawing or breaking branches and stuff, and he had to come down as the mature dominant buck in the area to see who else was down there and making a ruckus. And that's why he came exactly to where we were. It wasn't he probably was gonna come down that way either way, but it's almost like we rattled him in. Yeah, it's kind of weird. Yeah, I mean, I think Mark Drewry talked about the buck that he shot called danger Um, and he said, I think he had like a three year old buck that was rubbing a tree in there, and it called that buck in. And essentially that's what we did, was acting like a bunch of three year olds in the stand three year olds and called the buck in. I think that's what I mean, that's the only thing that we can think of. I don't know why else he would have been like coming down a trail on the inside of the timber Um at US at three thirty in the afternoon. Yeah, I mean, unless he was just adjusting his betting and it was I mean it was snow man. I mean we'd already had a good cold front, but this is a real cold front. I mean he got cold last night, you know. So this was the time. This that was the reason that we went to Iowa when we did, amongst other things, with other conflicts, all this stuff. But like whenever you were talking to me about this thing, You're like, hey, we can go in October and get this thing done in late October because of cold fronts and catch these bucks up moving and cruising. And that's exactly what we set ourselves up for. In that scenario. We were just so so close. Is a bad feeling. At that point. The only hope we had for the rest of the night, as we sat in the snow and cold, was that either some rando showed up at that eight point I would have shot um or And really, but I was so I had a heart set on that deer so much just because of how big body he was, that and just the matter that we were hunting him and that you know, it feels like you're making a good moves if you can do you know, get in on his bed and kill him right. Um. And it just was like when the only hope we had for that deer to actually come back by was like if rutrage happened, and he he just forgot about it because he was chasing the ough and he was just you know, love drunk or whatever. So really, uh, really tough pill to swallow. At three thirty in the afternoon, it's hard to even just continue sitting there in the snow freezing, but we were there and so we just sat it out. Um. Actually had several bucks cruised by. All of them were little except four. Um. I don't know what time that was, Like five was a six, maybe it was later because I had a little issue with lighting. Yeah, it was like six. We still had like forty five minutes left a shooting light. And UM, I'm sitting there in the snow, just trying to be still not I get seen again moving my range righting around, and all of a sudden, across the creek, a deer dips in like dive bombs in, running into the creek and stops. And literally the first time I could see even see him was at thirty five yards jumps into the creek and stops at like and I like, we laughed hard about this because I'm pretty bad about this. But I'm like right here, right here, right here, and so I was I said that like three times. I was like, buck, there's a buck right here. There's a bus, big big buck right here, and so which has has a great mean I mean like right here, big bug. I'm like old baby. Yeah. So my my first my first intention is always to say like right here, so that you know you can't just whip your head all over the place and move all over the place, you know, um, But then to direct you to where that deer was so you could see it. I'm hoping that you see my head and I kind of nodded a little bit, you know, but it's still very vague. Um. And that's right. It's about agrees you can be looking uh there. So uh what you always call me a wide eyed sucker every time you pull my bonos up are up and my head my head is big, so you know they're not too disproportionate. Um. Anyway, So that's like the next thing I'm thinking, well, okay, just give me a little grace here because I'm trying to get my bow off of a homemade hanger here out of a stick, you know, Like I'm just Tyler. Tyler always says that I have like this uh get it done thing about me to where I will know you say, I I like a challenge, so like I'll like walk through something stupid because i want to make it work. And you know, I gonna trail or something like because you don't go through the briars, just walk around. You're that way with bow hangers, all right. I've noticed that Tyler will like find like the weirdest little stick thing or whatever, like I'm gonna hang my bow here. I've got but like you in a tree, only the trees we had this this week, there was not many options. And that's the problem is whenever it's freezing booty cold, you can't just hold your bow all the time. You gotta have your hands in your pockets. Uh, not just because you're weak, but partially that, but not just getting up. No, it's because like you need your fingers to function to be able to shoot, you need your hands to function, so you have to stay warm, right, and so you can't hold you bow all the time, but you were trying to pull your bow off of this stick. That was like a yeah, yeah. It was low and far out, and so the focus that it took to do this was tremendous, guys, And and Casey is like, where where where? Where? I'm trying to get foot here. My job on this trip is cameraman, right, Like, I'm trying to trying to make this happen, trying to make a good production and hold up my end of the deal. I'm thinking Tyler's about to rip and I don't even have this dear in focus or in frame. You know, I'm freaking out a little bit. I keep telling him it's at thirty yards. Hey, granted he was probably twenty five or less, but he wasn't less than twenty, so I was a little off. But I'm trying to focus on grabbing this bow without knocking everything off, and I just keep saying at thirty and I'm like looking at him, like, please see my head and look at him, but he's behind this really leafed out bush, so it's hard to see. He's behind his big head, and because it's time, he's standing there real still um And so finally I get my bow off the hanger and I'm like, okay, he's behind this bush. But until I got my bow off the hangar, there was no way I was gonna tell you any other details. Like I could not. There was too much going on, which I need to be a little bit more patient about that. But I didn't know if this thing was cruising through right like he I thought he was going to. I didn't realize he was stationary. Yeah, you know, well he he wasn't when he first. I mean it was he acted weird. This bucket acted weird the whole time he's in there, which was a while, but um, he was like came in real fast paced man, and then just stopped locked up and like I don't know if he's like he was smells smells something for forever right there in that spot. You finally picked him up, got some footage a little bit, and then I can't tell him what he is, but you immediately pretty quickly we're like, it's that big six that we saw the other night. It's like he sure is. Well big six actually turned out to be a seven. Uh. He had had a you know, four inch G three on one side or whatever, and but he's pretty big. This is the first, um, this is the first bigger buck we saw the whole trip back on day two of the hunt. Yes, yeah, yeah, one of the first days of the hunt. And so he I'm like trying to debate, like, did I pay six hundred bucks plus fifty bucks every year whatever I've spent on this tag for this deer? And so it's just one of those things that you can only make the decision personally. And I looked at him, and I couldn't see him very good through that bush, but I can tell every once in a while and he would turn like, man, he's looking away. He looks big framed, and he looks okay, he looks pretty good looking at you too, but looking away especially like they all do. Um. And anyway, by the time he came out from behind that bush where I could get a look at him, he cruises through my shooting lane at twenty yards that's the size of a balloon, and he cruises through that pretty quick. He stops for a brief second right there, and I'm just like, man, I need to see him on and see how old he is, Like if he's a real old deer, then I'm probably just gonna give it to him. But I think he was three or four years old, you know, I don't think he was super old. And he was just a fat you know, three or four year old and um with kind of a lopsided little deal going on. But he was, you know, not a bad deer at all. Like probably would have shot him just about anywhere else in the country, you know. And so but he passed through my my lane before I could make a good decision, and he gets out to about forty yards, doesn't hit any of my other lanes back in on the creek. Super thick. I try to I decide, you know what, I think, I'm just gonna shoot this deer and just have enjoy it. And I tried to grunt him back and I just never was able to. But when I decided, when I couldn't make up the decision, you know, I don't feel bad about especially now because now that I'm looking back at it, I would have been happy to shoot that deer if I had grunted him back in and he had shot, and I'd have shot him. But um, looking back, I'm kind of glad that there's still this like like glimmer of hope of opportunity that I get to go back and maybe shoot a big, big big deer here. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's for That's a good point man. And um, I thought it was kind of untypical of you two, um say no, but then yes, And I know that that had a lot to do with the pressure that had to do that, that that this hunt comes with, because I mean, guys, in full disclosure, like we're trying to get to a point where where we can do this for a living. That's the dream, right then, and that's the dream for a lot of us. Um, if you got dreams, pursue them, and we are pursuing ours. So there's some pressure to like go up and get these hunts done because I mean, honestly, guys, if you don't kill stuff, nobody, here's what you do. And that's just that's the the that's just the fact of matter and kind of the sneaky thing about it. Um. Luckily at least Midwesterners think we're real funny. I think it's because of our accent, we think so we can make people laugh. But otherwise, like, I know that there's some huge pressure for you to go and get this stuff done. And you put a lot of pressure on yourself just because that's who you are, and that's what made you a great athlete in high school and college and it's kind of what makes you good hunter. Um. So, like I thought, it was kind of strange that you you kind of changed your mind on the deal. Well, there's also some pressure. I didn't get any pressure from Kaylee on this trip at all. She was she was actually just you heard her on the phone the other night and she was like, yes, another day, get it done. You know, it's better if you can get it done this trip and I have to go back. But you know, really the more of the pressure on the other front would be like a financial pressure, man, just because you know, I had to buy a tag early this summer. Well, I kind of you know, when you spend money a few months later, you just don't even notice it usually, you know, like that, but um, anyway, just coming up here spending a few hundred dollars in gas, um, several hundred dollars in hotels, you know, it's like you start to really feel this pressure of like, man, can I afford to do this again with as much hunting as I've got going on this month? You know, and not to mention like there's uh, you know, it sounds like a good chance that you're not gonna be able to make it back and man like you're a big part of being able to get on the deer keeping a positive attitude like uh, and then not meant not to mention, just obviously getting like there's there's hardly a way I could have self filmed. Uh. You know that buck in particular and made a shot. You know, he was just moving too quick when he got into the shooting lane. So you know, the self film thing makes it tough, and that kind of thing, so all those things start to weigh on you, and not to mention, I'm looking at a deer that I'd be willing to shoot just about everywhere else and I passed him. Well, something that you did you haven't really mentioned yet, is like that there's at six pm and there's still forty five minutes left in shooting lot and cruising, you know, yeah, exactly like you You know, I look at it this way, and I and I did to immediately look at it this way, and I still do. But um, you pay all that money and you wait all those years to go to Southern Iowa, to have a chance to shoot maybe your biggest buck ever and or maybe your oldest buck ever and or just coolest. Yeah, like that's what the the trophy buck that we were hunting. He wasn't the biggest antler, but he's had great antlers and he had a giant body. So just in general, he's like the epitome of a buck for both of us. And they get the experience of him like dominating other bucks and does and stuff. You know, like that's that's why you pay the money. So you know, do I end it right there? Did I give myself forty five minutes more chance to to shoot a one fifty or something like that, you know, or something that I haven't had too many opportunities to do. And and that's what I think. That's why you pay the money. And that's why I held off until you know, I had a I don't know that I think I could shoot a deer like that, a three or four year old big seven in Texas. You know, sure, so oh we've we've had that deer on camera a couple of times. But I think that for me, Um, I really understand what you're where you're coming from there, because um in the HeLa on dates was seven, I guess it was or eight. I had that opportunity at the five point that I was going to shoot. I would shoot that thing. I was going to shoot him day nine. It was a day nine. Yep, Oh my goodness, we there so long. So sorry we kept you. I kept that long. Um it's fun, but yeah, um no, it was a great time. It's type too fun and type one fun. Uh. But we called that bull in and he never gave me a great shot. And um, I had that one baby window through a bunch of oak brush and I didn't take it. And I told you later, I was like, man, if that was a bigger deer, I would have took that, I mean bigger elk. I would have took that. But I didn't because there's a lot of factors in play. And I know it is day nine of the hunt, but like, I don't want to risk that. And it'd be that kind of a shot on on a smaller ball when I could have a whole another you know, full day, evening and morning of hunt that I could maybe have a better shot at another ball and maybe that will might be bigger. Like it's not all about the size but let's be honest, if it wasn't about the size, we'd stay at home and shoot those you know. So there's all of these factors that play into this, and it's not just uh, it's not just a thing that we go out to just obtain meat, right, and that's the that's the that's the the um the InVogue thing to say right now, right, um, But honestly, it's so much more about that, And it's a matter of experience. And I know you wanted a specific experience from Iowa and you weren't gonna leave without getting it. Yeah, And that's and I still have hope that that might happen. So that's a that's a good thing, you know. So um yeah. I mean as far as like a wrap up to this story, I guess it's just, um, you know, there's a big idea there that we we kind of ended on and and hopefully we get a chance to go back, um and give him one more try. And I think, you know, if we do, it'll be in a really good time of year. I mean, from what I understand, mid November is a great time of year to be in Iowa. And I think that uh is ret rage is we encountered. It's probably gonna be even more ret rage that time of year. So, um, you know that's exciting. If we get to go back and we may even not encounter as cold weather as we did this time around. They never know, so um, but we do have some some uh some fun times coming up. And I think by the time you guys listening to this, we will we will be in Kansas, I believe, um, hunting big deer as well. So pretty excited about that. I'm just excited to spend some time with my padre up there and with old Drew. If he's listening, he better not be listening. He tried to score on us one time. You remember that, you said you wait you you were never getting on the podcast, sir. Ever, No, actually, I hope we get to do a podcast from hunting camp this year, man, because that's that'd be a lot of fun. Those are some some cool dudes up there. Yeah, it's fun, fun times. And uh, if you don't have a deer camp that you get to be a part of, man, it's something worth doing at some point in your life. Man. Just joining some some good friends and uh, you know, going on a trip out of state, or something like that, or just out of county, stay in the night and in hunting for a while. So um, anyway, as far as all that goes, I don't really know what else to say about Iowa than the fact that, um a little bit harder than we thought it would be. And I think maybe that has to do. It's just going up and see a new territory and and uh maybe some less dear you know, thinner deer population than we thought there would be. And yeah, let's end it with this. Um. What everyone has told both of us about Iowa is that managed stinks to put in for the draw and it's like a long time, a lot of money. But once you go experience it, you're gonna want to go back. Where are you at on that ten point scale right there? Ten point scale? Huh? Well we we we were hunting a big ten points. So it's appropriate. I think that I think that, Um, I definitely want to go back, man. I mean we pretty I don't know. There's just not a lot of places in this country man that you can go. I feel like, and UM, get after a deer that's five, six, seven years old, that's over one in uh in a week of hunting, you know what I mean. I mean essentially, if we didn't figured out what that deer was on day two or three or whatever and started hunting him from there, I mean, we would have found that deer on day two or three and started hunting him. And there's not a lot of a lot of places you get that chance, man So. And I mean, frankly, our buddy that was up there, you know, said his first day on public and had a chance to shoot one fifty, you know. I mean, it's a pretty pretty incredible place, no doubt. So I think it's definitely a place I'll want to go again. Who knows if I'm gonna want to do that, you know, in the in the same unit, same place or whatever. But um, it's something that you want get to do every year. So I think that like that's part of it being special and and um worth it, I guess. So yeah, yeah, it's kind of how I feel. That's cool, man. I can't wait to go back. Hopefully get to go back with you this season. If not, you know, maybe I'll drawn in in a year or two and uh we'll get to do it all over again. Yeah, I hope so, man So. Anyway, far as uh. In regards to ioway, I guess there will be some videos that will be releasing. Um, hopefully by the time this podcast airs, will will be able to have released a few episodes or at least one. Maybe. Um, there's not gonna be probably a whole lot of episodes because, like I said, for several days we struggled to see there. But we'll lamp some some days and evenings and mornings together in case he did his best at video on this thing. But there's just so many different angles you can get to leaves for be role. So until it it's pretty boring, guys, So it might not be just a day one to three four, which I don't know, that's kind of overplay kind of thing, you know. Sometimes it's just more fun to just kind of break it up the stories. Yeah, so, but there there is some big book footage. There is cool big buck footage. So I'm excited. I haven't even watched a whole lot of it. I can't wait to watch it on the biggest TV screen we can find. And that's that's another thing that I would mention, uh that maybe I guess this is a tip for you guys here who like to watch hunting stuff. Um, don't just watch it on your phone, you know what I mean? Like, man, a lot of times I'll I'll work up something a video of ours or whatever. And uh and even on my computer screen, like I got like a I don't know if it's a thirteen or fifteen. I think it's a fifteen inch screen. I don't know, but um, it's not huge. And even from if even when I go from my computer screen to hooking it up h g M I and put it on my my TV, which is not a huge TV, like, it just looks cooler. Man, it's just way cooler. Yeah for sure. Um yeah, that's my tip. If you get a chance, go watch some hunting stuff on TV. It's way way better. So, uh, anything else we got going on, casey, No, there there should be, uh just some there's some backlog stuff that's coming out. A really good hunt I had on on Texas on my own property, uh said, did a little scheme in saw a really good buck there. Um, guys, just have a good rut. This podcast is coming out in the heart of the rut. I hope y'all are having a absolute blast and you're seeing deer everywhere. If you don't get a deer this week, it is okay. If you don't get a deer this year, it's okay. But I just know that this is something fun that we all are blessed to do and just enjoy it, man, Because I think, honestly, Tyler and I've talked about this before about how it's not a grind, it's it's a blessing. It's fun. But I think this year we flipped on that a little bit, and I think maybe we need to kind of get back in that mindset. They're like, man, this is enjoyable and we're we're blessed to be able to do this stuff. So you're whoever you are, if you're listening, you need to hear this. You are blessed to get out there and have fun with it. That's right, man. Man, that's a good message. You know we talked about as well, like, um, you know, people have that believe in that and believe in blessings tend to only talk about them when they shoot it here. That's right, man, you know, but that gumm it just to get out there and breathe the fresh air. Man. How many times yesterday did I go, Man, it just smells like a like a deer killing day. It's like you just smell the cold, you know. So, but yeah, man, that's definitely something to keep in mind. I like it a lot um, just so just remember to have a good time and remember this is your element living it

Save this episode