00:00:00 Speaker 1: Hey, I'm Casey and I'm Tyler and you're listening to the Element podcast. What is happening, y'all? We are on an expedition, expediting. We're finding things and looking for things, and things are happening, Tyler, can we even tell people what we're about to do right now? We're going to metal detecting the hill country of texts and that's cool. I'm about to detect some metal broadheads in the size of some things. I think that's when I'm playing on. I'm excited about it. Man, we got to I got some new arrows. Our friend Isaac sent us some new arrows that are They're main and green. Dude, They're awesome. I can't wait to say something with them. I'm just going with my classics still. I didn't adopt the new colors yet, but I will soon. I just have some more to more to, you know, lose before I get. But just we're gonna roll into this quick, guys. Um, we did a Q and A a while back on Instagram, and uh, y'all had a bunch of questions for us. Yeah, we're gonna give the the answers today. Um. I was gonna say we're gonna give the a but that could be a little misconstrued to a lot of different things. So just to avoid the confusing for y'all, um, we're gonna give you the answers to the to the queues to the questions that you had for us. Uh. So, we don't have a ton of time because we're on the road about to go on a hunt. So we're just gonna get into this thing to this thing kind of rapid fire style, try to give you as much information, as much knowledge as we can maybe share as we can, as quickly as we can. So Tyler, Yeah, this is on the topic of the buck truck best the worst parts of the buck truck, all of them, all of them. And I gotta suppose this applies to the series, but I would probably apply to the truck itself. The worst part of the buck truck is the size of the back seat. That is the worst part of the truck. Now that has spoken from the guy who's the driver all the time, so that's that's actually kind of nice. But I've heard secondhand that the back seat size is pretty bad about the buck shot. So if you're a person who wants to give us a truck, with a big back seat would wouldn't be a posted bad too, though, So like you gotta have kind of both of those, you know. Um, I'd say best part of the buck truck is, Oh, man, what a toad creepy it is? Man, I saw tiger earlier just prowling the planes. I don't know what the worst part physically of the buck truck is, but I can tell you what the probably the worst part of the buck truck. Man, there's a couple of bad parts of the buck truck. Uh. I guess you call it figuratively or however you want to say it, um, spiritually, Yeah, the buck truck. Some of the obstacles are um, the fact that we pretty much hunted together. It was kind of like part of the challenge of the buck truck was that we would hunt together where wherever we went. So like if somebody tag doubt, then you get twitter your thumbs to the other dude tags out. Kind of So that happened in Kansas for me, and it also kind of happened in South Dakota. A little bit happened for me in Oklahoma a little bit too. Yeah, we ended up be leaving kind of early on that because it left the next day at the same stances, because we decided real quick that what you did was about the only place we could find that happened. It wasn't anomally at that moment. Yeah, so uh, I would say to kind of echo that, but just on the production side, it would seem that like matching everything up. Oh my god, it's to that editing. That was what That was my next point. So, which all goes hand in hand is like matching things up, editing the whole thing. It's a literal six hour disaster every time I, you know, get on the If you're any one of those wondering what the buck Truck he is, maybe you haven't tuned into what we do too much, or uh you're kind of new to to us. Um um casey. And that's Tyler said in the intro. And then we have a crew of guys Eric, Greg and Michael and a bunch of other friends that join us to do stuff as well. And um we this fall filmed a series called buck Truck that will be out on the meat Eator YouTube channel sometime this summer or fall. Um and so we are referring to that series. But that series, um metaphorically also applies to the buck Truck, which is a white Chevy pickup with a camper on top of it, So that's where it kind of came from. So um, you know, the best part of that truck, I think is having a camper topper. If you don't have a camper topper a cab as some of our friends with uh more northern latitudes call them. U Um, it's a real handy tool as a hunter. Uh. Now, the best part of the series buck Truck, I think really I enjoyed that it gave us direction. Like um, a lot of times, the way we do stuff is we fly by the seat of our pants and we just go crazy all fall and it's a ton of fun. But um, the buck Truck almost uh took the lightning in the bottle that we have and gave it a little bit of a funnel to direct one way or another. And that was actually kind of handy. I feel like it kind of made us or allowed us to do some really really cool stuff. We're never getting done with this thing, the podcast or the podcast. We got some construction up ahead. Any other good thing to say about the buck Truck. Nothing good. It was really fun I'll say that. And that's one thing I guess I will say if we're gonna go go on about it. Um, the the thing that you and I did a lot when we first started the element was we hunted together a bunch and in and twenty one we didn't. We spent a lot of time, you know, doing the thing where we're in camp and then that somebody tags out and go to the next state or do something, you know, where are you going next or whatever, what's whatever, whatever's best. And so I'd say it was kind of nice to just hunt together all year pretty much. It was a lot of fun. Man, all right, it's buck Truck coming back next year. Is it retiring? Uh, it seems that it's not really retiring. The whole concept is what we do. I mean, nothing we really do is to put on you know what I mean, Like everything that we film or you see on videos us doing what we pretty much normally do. So uh, that's the beauty of being able to do YouTube stuff as you get to do what you do, you know, and you don't have to put on like a Hollywood you know, movie or TV or whatever. So I would say the concepts overall are still there. The things that we've always done are still there. The buck Truck is just a continuation of what we did from sixteen to twenty one. It just happened in twenty two, Um, and it's going to continue on. But as far as like being called the buck Truck, I don't think it'll be like a series or anything. It'll just be like I'm guessing it probably won't be, but it will probably be more just like uh, the buck truck informal, you know, And and you'll see videos go out on Element and probably meet either YouTube channel stuff from it. Yeah, to quote the infamous sitcom character Chandler being, let's don't talk about what we don't do. Let's talk about what we do. Do do as they say, so, Um, did you see any exotics on Texas public land? We have seen exotics on public land before in Texas. Um do you locate bucks in a sea of beauty berry? Oh? How do you man? Tyler? You hate beauty berry? Tell me more? Okay quickly? Uh. I think beauty berry UM doesn't provide any cover unless it has leaves on it. Um. I don't feel like they eat beauty berry a whole lot. They browse it. Some, I think, but I think they're not really worried about the beauty the berry as much as they are like browsing the soft uh you know, wood woody stuff. Um. And I would say, if you're hunting to see a beauty berry, uh, you might not be in the right habitat at um. But if you were, you know, if you were stuck to that and you had to, I would say, uh, look for landmark trees potentially, um, depending on how much beauty berry. Usually that stuff grows in the shade, so you're probably gonna find too much landmark. But if you can find something like a big oak, um like a monster there may not may not just be a landmark tree, but maybe more of an acren uh you know, food source or whatever. Um. And then outside of that, man, uh just kind of you gotta take the whole thing as a whole. I think I need a little more context to help me with that. I would say topographical features maybe water uh. And if you have a sea of something, you need to pay attention to what's around that sea because uh that means that you know, every ocean has its boundaries, right, it has beaches in place there by God, Yeah, it's right man. Uh So if you have a sea, a beauty berry, maybe it's even you know, you might be talking public private. I don't really know, but the stuff around it is going to matter if what you have is monotonous. So if you you might have to just glass because it's on a piece of proper you have access to you. But if you can see, you know, if we're talking VD Bary, we're talking October usually. Um, so per simmons might be a thing. You can see some per simmons, see some water sources. You can see a deer failure, whatever it might be. Keep that in mind because I think a lot of times we don't look at things holistically enough, and we think about things property about property and dear using the whole landscape. Um. I don't know what this is context too, but it says how a new spot. Uh oh no, this is the next question. This is good new spot? Do you try to find a tree to hang from in the dark or wait until sun up? You're asking me, I've done them both, and I can't tell you which is the right thing to do. I I do like if i'm if I'm gonna try to hunt somewhere and it's new in the morning. Um, I would rather find a tree in the dark. Um, because you can tell real quick if you should be somewhere else. And it doesn't take long to break down. It takes a long you know, a little bit longer to set up, so you know, breaking down is nothing. Um. So I like to do in the dark. I like to get in there early. Uh, and then I just kind of take my time. I shined the trees. I try to. Uh, I'll walk out, you know, ten yards and make sure that the lanes are what I thought they were and everything. Uh. We don't really use red lights too often, being neither one of us, I think, um so, UM, you know, I'm I'm not afraid to just blast a pretty right white light up into a tree and and make sure I have my lanes. And we've done it so much that, um, we can kind of see that stuff pretty well. I think we've gotten better at seeing it, so uh, I'm not afraid to do it anymore. Um. It was definitely a pain in seventeen eighteen, probably nineteen even it was like one of those things that I really dreaded doing. I don't dread it as much anymore, but I definitely would prefer to hunt either the ground or um, you know a place that I've been in the morning, if I'm going in and I'm getting a little bit more to the point where I'm not afraid to hold off and hanging because I found that on public ground often it's not always, but often, um, you aren't seeing that like crack of daylight movement as much. Now you might depending on where you're at and all that, Um, but I often are you there crack of daylight from time to time. UM, But I do think that like for instance, and thinking of a place that Gregg and I hunted this year, we got there in really good time in the morning, got hung in the tree, and then ended up the We were really emphasizing like fresh tracks on trails in this place, and uh, as it got daylight, realized like there were no trails throughout where we were and that was kind of a disheartening thing. Didn't see a single deer and got down in it like a thirty because it was bad. So if we would have been staying, you know, staying on the ground and kind of made an assessment, then it would have changed. However, I do I still side with you most of the time on I'll just go ahead and find a tree to hang in. And I also feel as if um our strategy of not getting super high in a tree actually helps with this because the higher you are in a tree, the less distance you have for shots and you can't see as good. So if you only hang you know, ten to fifteen foot up, as long as you have enough cover to hunt effectively, Uh, you can see maybe deer that are off at sixty yards, maybe you're off a little bit on on your tree choice, or you can still shoot out to thirty five because you haven't like you know, canop beat yourself up in this couple of tree. How does Texas public work seems like everything is a draw hunt? You can go ahead. Uh, there's a lot of draw hunts. There's a lot of walk in stuff. Uh. It is done property by property, I'll give you that much. It's not units. So the tex spox in Whildife website is a little confusing. On X will help you find the stuff. So that's a good starting point without trying to you know, to be respectful of other public land hunters. Don't want to highlight stuff too much. I didn't know that you did that I didn't know you were respectful of other people. I am, but more in a like a realistic sense as opposed to like the self righteous sense. You know what I mean. So this is the one that I didn't quite understand the context. Maybe you have a better idea. Uh, you were you were on a fence crossing. What was the secondary feature? Do you know what that's on a fence crossing? Um? This would have been probably some somewhere where somebody was successful. It might have been man, I felt like it probably related to the picture that you used with the question. Yeah. Maybe, Uh, I would think if I don't know, I can't. I don't know if I can answer that in a without sitting here and having some awkwards. But I was taking a different direction. I can ask different or I can answer about what different things talk about, Yes, pairing up multiple features to make you more successful. Yeah. So for instance, if you're talking about a fence crossing, Uh, one thing that you might find on a fence crossing is um a plum thicket a hundred twenty yards away, which is a place that a deer off in beds. You know, plum thicket would be a place that deer in certain country off in bed. Look at those black bucks just just living the live v I n uh you you know there. But in any sense, if you're just hunting one feature, you're probably not gonna have not as much confidence as you should have. Maybe, so I like to have the most the more features that I can feel like are are giving me an edge, the better I feel about a spot and so like for instance, if I'm hunting bed to feed, I like to be like a half mile or so from from feed, especially like early season if it's hot, uh, to give yoursel of a good chance of being in you know, seeing a deer in daylight, a buck or whatever. So and then you know, knowing that there's bedding somewhere on the other side of you really gets you to feeling pretty good. So I mean things like that you could you can also take like oak trees for instance. You you know, and one oak tree might have uh, three scrapes around it, and you haven't seen a scrape on any of the oak trees, but all the oak trees have acorns. Well, maybe the scrape oak tree is where you want to be. Like, if they're all feeding the deer, then let's go where the one is that has a bunch of deer scent at it or whatever. You know, So any other ideas you got. Um, I just like to add as many good things that as I can to my setup. So uh A lot of times I'm trying to match three things up. Whether it's food source, trail, pinch point you know, that's that's kind of that's really the formula. Oftentimes it is food source trail in a pinch of some sort or boundary or something. A pinch is because we both hunt mostly, yeah, exactly, and you can apply it to rifle to just expand your ranges a little bit. You know, like if your rifle hunting and you have a two hundred yard pinch, it still counts for you. Uh So, but you know in archery, like if you can find a spot where the terrain or a field edge pinches something down to fifty yards like you are in the in the chips man, it's good stuff. Um yeah, good thoughts there. Um thoughts on deer hunting in Arkansas. Just like every state. I feel like Arkansas, uh is the South, So let's just take southern states. There's some good hunting and there's some bad hunting. A lot of the good hunting is done on private ground. A lot of big deer killed on private ground. There are some big deer on public ground which you gotta work hard for him. And how do you feel when somebody from up north goes, man, you'all live in Texas, you all must have awesome deer hunting right there? Man? Right there is the is the really problem with that? Um? Right now? The distance we're drat driving to go, we're going to good whitetail country where we're going to access hunt. Uh uh. And in this distance we can also drive to the Midwest and shoot two hundred and fifty pounds dear from our hometown. So, uh, Texas is huge, and there is some good hunting and some bad hunting in some just non existent hunting in Texas. In fact, uh Tyler talks about this lot. But you go to like uh Dallas Fort Worth area, it's like a wildlife desert. You know, it's just because there's no hunting for you know, if you walk out your back door, you should build with rattle bucks in because that's what I've seen on TV. Man, I have never rattled a buck in in my life on my property. I mean, that's and so it's just so different, right. So the same thing with Arkansas. It's like there's there's some places I think you could kill some nice bucks, but overall, like it's all gonna be different. It's a great states, the natural states. So it's got a lot of cool natural features like the Washtaw Mountains, the Mississippi River bottoms. Um, it's got you know, classic Midwest type stuff. So there's different there's different stuff you can kind of hunt. Um. I think overall it's definitely not Illinois, it's not you know, Missouri, Iowa. But uh, we've had fun and it's right out of our back door. So that's kind of what the reason we've got on there. That was to be the big point I finished with is that I wouldn't call it a destination state, but because it's close to home, it's another nice state to be able to go hunt in. Um, how would you rate the hunting pressure based on other places you hunt? I guess that's referencing Arkansas again. Um, I think overall there's a lot throughout the season. Yeah, I think it's high because Arkansas has a pretty nice gun season and a long bow season. Uh huh. And muzzloder season and all kinds of stuff in tons of taxis and a decent amount of people and not a ton of public ground south of tags. Yeah, lots of deer tags. So in a long season too, like it goes way into the new year. Um, so it's probably pretty similar to Texas or Louisiana or some of the other southern states. I would say, pressure wise, I think you're right. Have you looked into hunting the ozarks? We have? We have? How do you feel about hunting those arcs? Tier? Uh? I think could be. I think it's something that I would love to do. And um, that's you know, potentially. I mean I've hunted. I've hunted Arkansas for a long time, so I've hunted different types of habitats and that kind of thing. So without giving too much information, I guess uh, Um, the Washitas, those kind of hills are pretty fun. Yeah, I'll just say that, Uh sounds hard. Um. The biggest challenge to ground hunting big river bottoms and swamps, I would say, open the openness of those things. Like you you we both did a decent amount of ground hunting in those situations this year and getting deer within bow range was difficult seeing them, wasn't there's a question ground hunting swamps, river bottoms, and swamps. So yeah, so a lot of times in river bottoms and swamps if you're unfamiliar with this type of habitat in the south, the river's kind of spread out and get slow and they flood and all this kind of stuff, and it makes for uh high camp be no understory top habitat that the deer and stuff still living and they find these little pockets of habitat to be in. But um, it makes it where it's really open, like there's not a lot of steam count. You can see a long ways, so seeing a deer isn't hard, but getting them within bow range is pretty difficult. Yeah. There's also this thing where like even if you're not in the swamps and stuff, for big oak trees can rain down enough leaves that it keeps the understory down pretty good a lot of times, and enough shade and stuff. So you know, like for instance, I shot I was kind of above you know, floodplain, I guess or I or I ended up shooting a dough this year, But I mean it's just that time of year, December, it's wide open, you know, and so uh, it was very blessed to get a shot at that dough with as many eyes as we're in there and everything. Our elk blind compared to deer. Uh, if you watch spiked out you probably would say, no, I feel like they aren't. I feel like a cow ex really good of picking you off. I think that um bulls are in a hottened state of rut even more than white tills are. Whenever it's the rut, so like they are constantly trying to figure out if you're something they wanna chase off or chase. So that's why they kind of stand around sometimes. But elk or not dumb or have bad senses. Um any fishing rods in the buck boat there really haven't been. I don't know if there has either, but there will be, Yeah, there will for sure for sure. How do you navigate the swamps after dark? I'm guessing that means on foot more than it does in the boat. And the boat we had these big old lights that kind of worked. We're gonna have bigger ones this year. We're gonna have a little bit better system next year. I think this is a learning curve year for the buck boat um on X is huge on that stuff. One of the things that I like to do is use my tracker on the way in or out, depending um when it is daylight that way and it's dark, you can just look at your map a little bit more and fallow that line as opposed to having to uh you know, kind of navigate with the headland for whatever. Yep, I I would say it's a good thing. You know, sometimes you're gonna have to backtrack when you when you're trying to access or leave the swamps. And that's what one night we almost had to with Clay and everybody. My gosh, we had the whole crew. Yeah, we were like to the tops of the boots and we I felt like we went through about four yards of swamp that was supposed to be like eighty I don't know it not dude thinks seem so much further. Um So, uh, how would you rate the buck boat on the fund scale? I mean if um, I was thinking nine to ten for sure, you know there was there was the one thing that didn't like about the duck boat is you get down the duck boat on a day that's like, oh it's thirty chips rain. It starts raining, you're toasting. The coldness of it is bad, but um, you know a little preparation on the clothing front kind of helps with that. I put a lot of clothes. I felt pretty good. I never really got too cold in the boat. It's just the rain was like not my favorite first light. Windproof stuff works pretty good, and y'all wore some of those. Eric told my waterproof stuff is pretty bad to the bone. I know, I get wet, ever when I was when I had that stuff on. How old is the boat motor? That Boat Motors two thousand and four. I think it might be older than that. I don't remember. But about Michael's age, I mean it seems new to me because it was the new and my granddad bought. But if you know much about boat motors, and I don't really, but I do know that, Um, those Yamaha nineties are just beasts, man, they are just hammer time. Uh which mechanicals do you prefer? All of them? All of them? Three big three blades? Yepah, I would say, Uh, typically front deploy is what I've used. Yeah, I like the mechanics of a rear deploy better, but it's hard to get an effective three blade. So I think if you're shooting enough momentum kinetic energy. Actually it's just to say knnetic energy, not to confuse people. Uh, then you're doing good at that. It's it's interesting to say, so Tyler shoots a faster shooting bow than I do. Um or not his setups faster. We we shoot the same bow. Uh. Now, um, but if you look at the holes on the deer, your entry holes will be smaller than mine because your arrows zipping through there faster, and that you don't have time to open up as much. It's not like they're tiny, you know, but I have noticed that it's kind of kind of neat Um. So same um, same question. Pretty much best brought hit for white tail. Um, it's gonna be pretty Uh. What's subjective? You know, depending on who you are and what you shoot. If you're shooting a high energy set up than a three blade mechanical that is well made, let me emphasize the well made part. It is hard to beat in my opinion. Yeah, I'm with you. I mean it depends on who you are, what's shooting, or you're gonna aim. Yeah, I mean, if you're gonna if you would rather crowd the shoulder. Maybe not, but I can't. I mean, even if you want to crowd the shoulder, just shoot them quartering away. And that brought hitting me awesome. Uh, God wants me to shoot fixed q A D Exodus or iron will. I'll say this shot both at a target, never shot either at an animal, and I would say q A D probably um, although our buddy Isaaca plug in here too. The vector broadheads are pretty sweet. I've shot them quite a bit and they fly really well. I couldn't really go wrong with any of those choices, though I don't think so either. The q A D. I just like q A D because of the three blade aspect. That's the main reason I like. Yeah. I think to uh, make sure you practice and that you're pretty efficient if you're not used to shooting them, because like bow tork is real, man, and you need to make sure and understand what bowtrk does to the fly of an arrow and how that is affected. If I was shooting a dad, I'm two blade on the neil guy, Dude, it would have not even it wouldn't even come close to probably right man, I was so leaned over. Man. Another thing too, is that if you aren't used to shooting a fixed I would look at the swept blade exodus or the vented version of the iron wheel, because that will help you when it comes to air a fly tip. Um. And whoever screaming at me about an orang Tu boat, Well, not everybody has time or can do that or is defective. Man. If you're a blue collar worker, man, you might not have time. That's right. Uh, Gear and Camo, I guess this is more of a topic. Uh. It's First Lot, First Light as good as Sitka. Uh. It's hard to match things up. Piece for Peace. I'll tell you I like them both. When you lose use First Light a lot now and like the guys over there at First Light, and I can't complain about it. Man. Uh, if you choose the other brand, that's cool too. I got some friends over there as well. I will tell you this. Where I think First Light edges out sick of is that the white tail pattern can be worn on the ground. And I think that's the big difference. Yeah, that's ah, that's a good point, you know. And it looks good. That's the thing I noticed. Uh, there was a lot of scenarios where it looks good. And I'm not trying to be the guy to advocate for wearing the same camo and working everywhere, but I'm telling you this. In Arkansas it looked awesome. Yeah, it looked awesome. It also looked South Texas. Yeah, it looked good at South Tessa. Looked good in Oklahoma because there were cedars around, you know, and you get some of those greens and stuff. Man it I mean it looked good. So I think it does translate pretty well when I when it Actually when the pattern first came out a couple of years ago, I was like, you know, like anything, it takes them getting used to, like like a lot of things at least, and I was like, oh, it kind of looks weird. You know. I didn't think it, uh wouldn't work. I just thought it looked weird. Well, I can tell you after wearing it this year, especially that I think it matches up with a lot of cool stuff out there that we're going how to hunt in cold snow, crunchy snow. Um. I don't have a lot of experience with this, uh just a little bit, Tyler, you have a little bit more experience getting a tree, Yeah, you know, go in early let the woods calm down, getting a tree and listen. Yeah, I would say this is just send you maybe to one of our friends, Alex Comstock, who's a guy who you might know why till d n a Uh he um spends a lot of time. He's from Minnesota, so real cold and crunchy where he's at. He's got a real cool video where he shoots a deer from like an eglue looking thing. So maybe some there for sure because we get coldness. Thirty two Struggling to find the scrape? Where can I find community scrapes? Uh? You do kind of what we were talking about earlier, and you match up as many variables as possible in terrain or habitat features, and then you go check a hundred of those and maybe one or two might be depending on where you're at right where you're at the nation. But I mean you're in Illinois, you might find a few more. You're in uh, you know, Arkansas, you might find a few less whatever. But um, I think overall, like when you can find features that drive deer into a great trail, that's that's a place. So you take you take a great trail and walk it out and all of a sudden, you come across a fence, uh, a fence crossing or another another ditch that makes an X mark the spot kind of thing that's where you might find this stuff. And he also, you know another thing, if you think about our spot our scrape on Texas Public that we really like that we saw some stuff happening at this year um and you think about the one that I shot the deer off of in Illinois. Both those trees were kind of weird trees that had like one branch on them. They're kind of small and had one branch that hung over at just the right height. So something to think about as far as finding these scrape Now, if you find a good tree, like a scrub oak or something that's got low branches, they go out all sides of it. You might find three grapes and they might not all be that none of them may be big, but that's still a hub that's still it may not look like the scrape that's the size of the carhood that Mark Dreary talks about, but that is a hub. That whole tree is a hub because it's got multiple scrapes on it, and that means deer coming in from multiple directions. I also would say, if you are in a spot that looks awesome and you can't find the scrape and you're pretty sure it's not there, put it there. It works, man. I mean we've especially on in Texas, we've done pretty well with some mock scrapes. I don't know if it works around the country. I know other people make it work, but it's worth trying for sure. Um, what info do rubs give you and how do you use it at different times of the year. So I've talked some this season about paying more attention to rubs because I used to just kind of ride them off, um, because I was just like, oh, well, it just rubs are everywhere. And that's sort of true later in the season, but really, you know, up until like the middle of the rut, seeing rubs can actually make a difference as far as where you think deer are and when they're spending time. Like I'll go in places where it's kind of like that hill country type stuff or whatever, and there'll be a drainage here that doesn't have any and then you go over one drainage and there's rubs all up down that thing. And you know that at least excuse me, guys, the cough is real. It's that time of year. Um, you know that at least in a twenty four hour period, there's a deer spending some time in there. Now find them in daylight. That gets weird. And that's another thing you still have to kind of work on with the rub thing, because you know, if you find a rub out in the clearing in a place that just a deer probably wouldn't feel comfortable when the sun's high, he's probably not out there in the daylight, you know. But if you find a decent concentration of rubs back and cover, there's a good chance that there's a buck pretty close to there. There was a thing we there was an epiphany you had about rubs. You asked me if I thought that it was right this year, and I thought it was a really good idea. What was it was about whispys versus big rubs or something like that. No, I don't think so. I feel like I hope it's on video because I don't forgot. I think I think it's on a podcast somewhere. It's probably about around the time of October when you're hunting some Texas public probably and I think that's when it was and you were you had come across some rubs and thought that you had a really good theory. I can't remember what it was. Um, I would say, this is kind of something you talked about and keep a hunting journal. That's what I We got him. It's just we gotta let's do a podcast. Um. So they if you find a bunch of rubs, and they can be a little whispy's, but if you find a bunch of rubs in a very small area, that's gonna thicket. That's that's a lot of times an indicator that there is a buckbeda there in some form or fashion. So, um, you know, at home, that doesn't help us much because I feel like that any time a sound or hogs comes through it, it just locates deer. And we just don't have We just don't. I hardly have ever seen this. I think this is just because we live in Mexico and Dan in Fault lives in Canada pretty much. But like the dan In Fault style of there's a buck that you know, this is a buck bed and he's in there all the time, and I'm just gonna go in there and set up for the yards from his bed. When he stands up shooting out of his bed right for dark, that just doesn't happen. I don't think that we have the same habitual betting habits of bucks or generally you're gonna have areas they bed in. But dude, there's no like, there's hardly ever, just like beds where you're like, oh man, that thing lays there every day. I don't ever see that in Texas. So you know, it's it's, uh, it's something to take note of, but depending on where you are in the country, you may or may not really take much note of it. Uh. If you're up north you find a bunch of rubs around a thicket, you might need to be setting up there, you know what info? Uh so hold on, that's what just read how to hunting area that has a ton of rubs in no scrapes. Kind of branching off of what we were just talking about. Um, I think there's a decent chance that when you see this kind of stuff, it's later in the season and you have some repetitive violators in that situation, especially them little fork headed dudes and guys like that. They just get in there and have a lot of frustrations to take out. Uh. So I would say kind of back to the beauty very thing. When you see that, uh, you need to look at the whole picture and figure out where those deer actually are living. Uh. And at the same time, if you see a lot of rubs, maybe that means the deer in that area aggressive and you can do some rattling and calling to have some success. Good thought. Um, I think back to the um Illinois stuff. We found a robe line and never even hunting this spot, but found a really good rob line. And I think, what what you can do A lot of times is this is a hard thing for for us to do because we want to kill a deer now. We want to kill a deer today, right, Uh. But you can take that information and kill a deer with it next year. A lot of times and think that what you when you see that, Like Casey said, sometimes when that's the case, it's mid November on through the end of the year, it's later in the year, and you may have missed your window at that point because you're looking at sign that was made a week, two weeks, three weeks or a month ago. So with that in mind, though, that is an area that you have found, and if you find in the postseason, then you're you're a few months from getting to do this maybe, but uh, go in there and hunt it during the height of the rut because the reason there's a rub line there is because bucks travel in that direction. And a lot of times it's because they're traveling, you know, perpendicular across the grain of dough trails entering a food source or field or betting or whatever. So it's a lot of times can be I think a perpendicular trail that you could set up on and uh kill a deer in the height of the rut when they really like the the cruising and chasing is at the height. Yeah, I think um to that. Uh I should add a note on here that's kind of general about rubs. Um, get to know rubs a little better. Don't just look at them and be like, that's a rub. I think that for me paying attention to if I can date a rub, like they have like three classifications of like that rub is less than twenty four hours old, that rub is less than three days old, or that rub is kind of old. Like that means a lot to me, And I think can help you make some some pretty good choices on how to treat them. A friend from Canada says, do you need different permits traveling across the country to hunt? Uh? You do if you're unfamiliar with the system in the United States. Uh, the states managed wildlife, but there is all different types of ground public and private within those states. So pretty much each state has its own licensing licensing system, and then particular properties sometimes have different uh uh permit levels and stuff like that. Um plans for traveling to hunt? Uh Man? Right now, we're traveling to the Hill Country, Texas. And outside of that, plan on hunting elk in whitetail this year. And I don't know, It's funny how much planning I haven't done for twenty three right now? Do you have any more expansion on that? Um Man? I think you were planning on hunting Iowa. Yeah, but potentially, um but outside of that, I mean, I think there will be some similar stuff that we hunted similar to this year that we will hunt that we hunt it this year or whatever. I guess however you say that, UM, yeah, I don't really have a lot of plans. We tend to fly by the seat of her pants. Um a lot according to um Chris Webb, and uh, I think he's right. So that's all I know. Um, basic camera start filming hunts. Uh I started with an x Sony. It's a cam quarter with auto focus. It's pretty nice. I start with your iPhone. Yeah, but yeah, I mean as far as basic stuff goes, Uh, anything you can afford. The more you can afford, the better the footage is gonna be. But it doesn't make it any easier to understand how to run the camera really. Um, so I just gotta get familiar with something that you can afford and buy a camera arm and go do the thing. Yeah. I think a good camera arm is probably worth as much as a good camera, or maybe not. I shouldn't say it that way, but uh, don't skimp when he comes to the camera arm if you actually want something that's worth looking at. Dude, I walked around filming trees with sun flares and leaves and deer prints, you know, tracks or whatever, like just just film and stuff, learning how you know the aperture works with you know in regards to uh, I s O settings and shutter and all that. So I mean, if you really want to do it. You just gotta go out there and work it and try to figure out how things look best. You know, how do y'all self film and get it done? Uh? Because of God's providence right. In fact, we try not do that anymore, but we've uh, we got us a team together to be able to film each other and do some different things. Um. But kind of an extension of just the filming stuff is to practice, Um, if you want to get it done self filming, commit to having the camera in the tree and commit to getting the shot on film. And if you do that, sooner or later, you will get it on film. Yeah. You know, we actually talked to Buddy chris By about this one time and like he he kind of like he gets them on film all the time and shoot them on like in the frame and everything. And I I got to the point where, you know, I was like, in I had I was gonna do a lot of hunting, and I was like, you know what, Um, I'm just gonna commit to getting as much footage as I can, commit to being you know, telling the story. Well, but if the shot is not on footage, then I'm not gonna ruin my chance of shooting some of these big deer I'm chasing this year. So that's where there where I was at, Chris is a little more just gonna get it on footage if you know, no matter what, even if it messes up a shot for him. So you know, it just kind of depends on your goals. You want to shoot a big deer? Do you want to get a big deer on footage? So? Um, yep, I think that if you want to kill less, dear, you should start self filming in your hunts. Uh, hang deer with hide on or off? Um? I was trying to think of a joke to make there, but I would say I usually hang with the hide off. I don't have a walk in freezer. Oh and sorry, yeah on, but I don't have a walk in freezer. So if I had a walk in freezer, I'd probably take the hide off and let that nice little crust get on there. You know, I me get them crusty hide on. Personally, I know what you're talking about for the aging purpose, but you end up saving more meat because if you leave the hide on the old dude. Ain't that big a deal? Yeah? Um, what time of year do you do most of your scouting? Uh, jokes on them, jokes on them. We don't scout. No, we do do some scouting. I would say winter scouting, postseason scouting is super super effective. It's also nice, man, It's nice to just get out walk around when it's sunny in fifty five degrees. Man. But the the trick answer to this is summer, because I would say, and this is not me trying to make sure you go buy some map app or anything like that, but this is me being on it's uh, do way more scouting on a map than I do uh in the field, and I think it pays off. But dude, we've gotten to that point because of all the field scouting and the field yeah, like the hunting, the hunting side of things too. But we just spent a lot of time in the woods since sixteen and when we first started doing this. You know, for some reason some of you are still listening, and I thank you so much because we It's not that we didn't have anything to offer by any means, but we've learned a lot since then. A lot of got to grow with us, that's right. But we also knew, like, hey, there's some things we know and here's our experience and here's what we think about it. It doesn't mean that that's the way it is or you have to think that way. But we also knew inside our own minds that, you know, we had some stuff to learn, so we went out and worked hard to learn it, especially and like when I think back to and eighteen especially man like, we worked really hard those summers. We were we would drive hours a week to get to places that we could scout new stuff and learn more about deer and hang trail cameras and figure out, you know, how we should frame the trail cameras better on trails or whatever, like all these different things you learned. And I just think that that is stuff that put set us on the right path to where now we can look at a map and go this, this is what we've seen. You know, we've seen maps compared to the grounds scouting, the in person scouting in this manner. So now we can just look at the maps and figure a lot of this out. And it does change when you get somewhere. But you know, you can't. You can't drive fifteen hours away to scout during the summer most most people can't, and we can't most of the time either, so you know, when it's a hundred in July in Texas, we're probably watering the garden in the morning then hopping on the maps. Is late season calling worth a try? I think, depending on the situation, calling is kind of always worth try. But I wouldn't, dude, I wouldn't. I wouldn't put my bets on calling it a deer in the prime rut. I mean it just sometimes act like they don't hear you, and they just they did. Yeah, they literally are just either zombie mode out or they just ignore you because there's does right in front of them. Why would they pay? In turns? Man, Sometimes bucks are weird, man, And no matter how they are, they might not want to fight or have an encounter with a deer. You know, Like, Um, I'm not a super big mostly guy right now, but at one point in my life it was. But that doesn't mean I wanted to fight a guy, you know what I mean? Like, so it's uh calling, you never know, And I do think that uh um grunts are gonna be one of your top late season things because deer always communicate, they might not always fight. Yeah, calling is attractive to people more than it is, dear. Um how much info from show cameras is too much. I missed the surprise. I understand I missed it at times two, but uh, that's kind of the beauty of traveling the hunt is if you don't get to put a trail camera out first, then you go and you hunt and you shoot whatever makes you happy at the time, and that's super fun. It's also fun just to be in the tree when that's the goal, because you know that, you know, if your goal is like something that comes out makes me happy. Three year old plus dude, there's a lot more three year old bucks in in the world than there are four or fives. And it's just like you just excited because you know you've got a pretty good chance pulling the trigger on that trip. So it's fun. But you know, honestly, like you, here's the here's what things buil down to a lot of time. Man, It's it's like this, if you ain't hurting somebody, then do what you want. Let's go, like just why do we have to make a big publicity thing out of this truck? Every thing? Like if you if it ain't hurting you, then don't worry about it. And I know people are shooting your bucks that you know, wake up people. The state own the bucks, right, the state, and that that all that'll hurt you. I'll hurt your hard man to know that, right, But you don't own the buck, so the state does, according to the state, um, which the way y'all elected them. So uh, anyway, I'm just kidding. But my point is like these the people are going out and maybe being more effective because the trail cameras or cell cameras or whatever. Uh, if they're having fun doing it, they're going, we're hunting and we're having fun, and you know, we're not fighting about it, So praise the Lord. Man, Like, we got twelve million people that want to go hunting and our advocates for this on the political spectrum instead of a bunch of dudes getting mad and and or not killing dear because they're not very good hunters and they can't use their cell cameras because they're outlawed. And now we've only got ten million voices out there for us. So I mean, there's just there's ways to spend everything, man, And I just think we should all be a little more intent with what we got going on and quit worrying about everybody else self regulate. Yeah, that's all there is to it. Man. If you don't like it, then find the way that it does work. If I'm not criticizing this guy, he's act No, no no, no, I don't think so he's your question. Yeah, um, because we struggle with that too. And I just tried to get on my soapbox. Let's get on in his behalf on somebody else. I think that if you miss a surprise just going on out of state hunt that here and you kind of get to do both the things right or just in state on some public than you never been on. Yeah, oh I missed one. It's calling more effective on unpressured deer, absolutely, of course. Yeah, uh find some unpressured dear. Though, what's the biggest book you've ever gotten on trail camera? This is a tough question. We actually didn't prepare much for this podcast, but that question was when we looked at there's that. Yeah, yeah, boy mcwills. Uh so, I think there's been some big deer on camera that I've gotten over the years in Kansas. Uh. We Actually this is a kind of a story. When we first started running trail cameras, this was like back in the days when you had actual film, right, twenty four pictures is what you got, um, and we would hook up this trail camera. We'd hook up or put the trail camera, uh on this place in Kansas that we hunted, uh twenty years ago or whatever and had a film camera twenty four pictures. And one of the twenty four pictures that we put it was that we had that took was a typical seven by seven, but we couldn't really tell much about it. Like you could just tell there was seven points, Well there's seven on one side. The other side looked to be the same it was, But it was dark enough that because it was an actual flash camera, you know what I mean, And uh, it was dark enough that we couldn't really see. I don't think that dear is the biggest deer we've ever gotten on camera. I think for you and I, Uh, there was a deer in Ohio that on a map Scout challenge that was a pretty awesome buck. He's kind of a main frame eight, but he had like a little triple beam thing going on. He's probably a pretty high score. We actually got a buck on trail camera on public in Texas that they're hard to tell because they're smaller bodied, you know, but this deer is really big. It's hard to say, man, because um, we've gotten a decent amount of like the one seventy top deer across the country on camera. Not a bunch, but there are some, and it's when you're looking at picture it's pretty hard to tell pleasure minus five inches five inches, you know. So, but I don't think we've ever had like a one ninety, you know, I mean we haven't there. I wish I've seen a one ninety on the hoof because he got shot um by one of the hunters that I guided at one point. So thoughts on Santa, Uh, so many things come to mind. I don't know, Well, you celebrated Santa was a kid, and I loved it. It was so exciting, right, Uh. I let my kids know pretty early. I don't know. I think it's a it's a personal deal, but we personally were convicted at one point when kids are real little and we decided to let them know, um, because I didn't want Jesus to turn into Santa, and so we let them know and said, hey, it doesn't really change a whole lot of saying that the same spirit is embodied in Christmas that we wanted to be embodied in Christmas, and um, you know you're still gonna get presents. So yeah, we are newer parents, got almost three year old and littland and we weren't gonna do Santa. It's just not that we actually aren't gonna do Christmas. A lot of the Christmas tradition type stuff. But it's kind of like the truck camera thing. Do what you think's right? Um, what card do you use? Uh? An Amazon one like in or something like that. And it is seen better days as it has. It fell off going about seventy down the highway one time and uh took off about half the rubber off the wheel. Best approach to hunting timbered or timberland with minimal pre scouting justin justin timberland. Yeah, but minimal scouting. Yeah, I would say aerials. Yea map, start map that stuff. Look at a bunch of different aerials as you can, and um, it's gonna be pretty monotonous, So find the other things that differentiate where that's creeks, creek crossings, full weather trails, human trails, property boundaries, cutovers or whatever, clear cuts, um, private land that's around it. Any of that stuff, you can use some of the layers on on X for cuts, um burns, those kind of things that help you crops um also red oaks and or coniferous and deciduous trees, you know, and different types of So there's pigs and they'll do they're eating carrying on nasties. How about that nasty's eating a dead deer. Yeah, pretty droughty down here right now. If that's going on, Wow, goali weird mean critters right there? To hunt? Um? Similar question? How do you hunt timber when everything looks the same, find something that doesn't look the same pretty much? Not to be sarcastic, but but I mean, here's the thing about timber. Timber timber properties is like they're typically bigger, so you've got more space to find something that's that deviates a little bit. How to levitate over crunchy leaves? Uh, same as the snow. Yeah, I'd use all fours if I was you, UM use the forest season. Um, if you do have crunchy leaves, then wait until it's wet, or maybe you go in really early, come out really late or whatever it might be. Man, I like the crunchy leave stuff, um, like hunting afternoons and stuff like that because usually there's some wind in the after noon and you get a little more sound cover. Yeah, I would say also just uh, I don't know. Yeah, you try to just try to be there whenever the deer or not in the area, so you know when they're feeding earlier or something like that. Best strategy for hunting open country with a little to no trees UM rattle that would be I killed a deer this year on a place that had no trees by rattling them in. But you have to be there at the right time of year for that. Uh. And you have to use the land of land to your advantage on that because if you call it a deer and you can see where he thinks that calls coming from, uh, he's not gonna come any closer than what you can see. Yeah. So um outside that, use bait. It's a good way to hunt where there's no trees. If you got a destination for me to go to, whether it's bait, egg, water, whatever it may be, that'll help UM glass spot and scope tope. Use the toebo to find a place where you can see the most property you can. I think that all is good points. Um, best strategy for hunting open country tree I've just asked that question. Sorry, I'm not doing a great job. Okay, last question here we go. What types of soft masks do you find in the Midwest? Um, per Simmons. There should be some per Simmons around, um, maybe not far north regions got American palma. There should be some Prudis Americans up there somewheres in some places. Um. Paw pauls are especially in the eastern Midwest, are gonna be a thing, but they don't really drop at a great time of the year. Usually apples, h apples I think would be probably a number one primo um in my opinion, crab apples, regular apples, any of that stuff. Um, dearly cherries. Uh, people have some cherry orchards maybe, um, if they're hungry. Yeah, yeah, what are the kind of soft mass they got up there? Ah, there's not a lot of other types of soft masks really. Yeah, that's that's kind of about it. I mean, do you don't eat them? One? Is there nothing? And they don't have those in Midwest anyway, So yeah, that's that's probably gonna be about it. But anyway, what was that. We had a guy on the Refresh this year talked about some sort of bush that had a berry and I looked it up while we're on the Pennsylvania was it Pennsylvania? What was that tree? If you'll remember that, Jimmy Shyery talks about the the cucumber tree up there too. It's a different thing than what that guy was talking about. But um um that was Grant I think, wasn't it. Yeah, it might have been. It was like a it's some sort of bush from Japan or something like that. Yeah, so not ideal, but uh, you know, if they're eating it, kill him over it pretty much. But yeah, that's uh, pretty much the extent of it. Soft masses can be cool if you can find it. Those apples really seem to bring the deer. M Uh. That's about all we have for questions, So thank you all for tuning in doing these Q and A stuff. It's pretty fun to kind of recollect some things. It actually helps us to rethink some of the things that we've already done. One we'll do another one of these in a couple of months or something. If you have more questions or whatever, send us a message on Instagram or whatever you can. UM check out the media website if you're gonna see the links to all of our stuff and what's going on there. Check out the YouTube channel as well. Some Texas hunts, all kinds of crazy stuff coming out from that. UM And if you haven't get out in postseason, scout chase whatever you can right now to hunt and uh remember that the season really never ends. You just get to shooting something else. It might be phone or whatever. Right we're gonna probably I'm gonna, well, I didn't talk to Time about this, Uh, but I like shooting those tag events. They're pretty fun. Uh. This is no way an endorsement of you know, Tall Archery Challenge or anything. It's whatever. But we went last year. It's pretty fun. I'll probably try to go to one of them or two of those this year if I have time. So, UH might be thinking about some of that stuff, guys doing some phone shooting stuff because it's different than hunting, and uh, it's nice to still have like a competitive edge that's involved with UM some you know, lots of targets. Like hunting is competitive where you're compete competing against the deer, but there's usually only like one or two shots, unless you're on the forums and you competing. Yeah, that's for sure. For sure. Oh man, I love that. Yeah, you wanna talk about something that ruined hunting? The way before Chuck Cambers, This the internet for him, sir, the way before YouTube to anyways. Um, guys, remember to be nice and remember this is your element to live in it