00:00:02 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host, Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm your host, Mark Kenyan, and this is episode number three fifty nine, and today in the show, we're catching up with Dan Johnson on summer trail camera work, summer scouting, summer preparations for the season, and a little bit fun in between. All Right, welcome to the Wired Hunt podcast, brought to you by on X. Today is one I've been looking forward to for weeks now. Um, we're gonna talk about summer white tail prep. We're gonna talk about trail cameras and scouting and Velvet bucks and all good stuff. But that's the kind of thing you know, you get to hear on a weekly basis on this podcast other podcasts. But what you don't get to hear is often, especially anymore now that we're busy fathers and business owners and all this crazy stuff we got going on. What you don't get to hear as much is what I need more in my life. It's Dan Johnson and Mark Kenyon talking about stupid stuff like peanut butter and kids and who knows what else Have we ever talked about peanut butter before? For sure? I'm pretty sure. For some reason, I'm thinking of some kind of weird kids store with peanut butter. Do you have? Isn't there something like your kids were doing with peanut butter? Or maybe maybe think of the dog food one, the one time you open up a can of dog food and thought it was human food and eata that one? Maybe? Yeah, that, yeah, I can I can see that happening. I really don't even question things anymore. If someone told me, dude, you're a murderer, I'd be like, yeah, I probably did. I don't even remember what happened last week. So how are you, my friend? I'm good, dude, Just sitting here with a nice glaze a sweat here in Iowa. It's hot, it's humid, it's normal, and uh, I don't know, just live in life. I guess, just living life. You know, it's funny, we're just talking before we started recording. We've been doing this podcast for six years now or seven I mean the spring of ten, fourteen fifteen, sixteen seventy, so seven seasons now worth of the Wire Dram podcast. And you've been on a ton of them. Um In all that time, we've probably gotten a little smarter. Maybe we've gotten a little bit better deer hunting. We've we've grown our families. But we're still doing some super hill billy ship Like I'm recording my truck. You're recording with like fans and a C units run in the background. We just no shirt on today, no shirt, no shirt on, dude, I wish you could. I'm glad this isn't a video podcast all right where you can see me in my all my love that God has given me. Well when I'm I'm recording Idaho right now. So our place out here is so small that I can't record in the house when the kids are napping, so I'm in the truck. And then when I'm at home, I still have to do the same thing you do. I have to turn off my little mobile a C unit in my home office when it's super duper hot because that's too loud. So I usually record shirtless in Michigan too, So maybe we should do a shirtless episode, man video video episode shirtless. You know, I think that's the only thing that we haven't really done. Suppose ourselves physically to our listeners. That might be the straw that broke the camel's back. The dude like we've been we've been riding and but what did they say, riding on buying geez, writing on bought time. But yeah, I don't know. I thought you're gonna help me out with that one. I don't I don't have the words. Dude, you're the guy who wrote a book. I can't barely talk. I yell at my kids. I I tell I'm yelling at my kids, and I don't even say their names right, So no one's looking at me. Everyone's ignoring me, and I just sound like I'm having a stroke. So what's what's new with the kids, because that's something we haven't got to catch up on a while. Family Dan Johnson family stories, any crisis, any crazy stuff, and he destroyed furniture. Um, A good, well, it's nothing. I mean, there's literally a crazy story every single day in our house. But we've lost two remotes, so we had to buy a third one. So we get home from the store and then my two boys they start fighting with each other like they're like wrestling hard, and then you know, the wrestling turns into a fight, and then my oldest son picks my youngest son up and throws him against the chair. The chair breaks and what pops out one of the remotes that's lost. So so there's that over ning. Yeah, there hasn't been a lot of Fece stories. Um I had Fec stories. Oh I love a good Fece story. Well, ours is just so we're out in Idaho, we're trying to do the whole hiking and still getting out in the wild of the kids. But ever it is two and a half now and a little over two, I guess, and then Colt is five months old, so as you know, it just gets harder when you've got kids in those age ranges, and we're still just we're testing, like what can we do? What can we get away with? And so we decide, all right, we're gonna go and do a longer hike than we usually try to do, get more elevation than usual. We're gonna go kind of ascend this ridge way up above treeline um in the t tons and but it was it wasn't too long of a hike. It was still a reasonable distance, but you were kind of going up there and I was I was confident. I was telling Kylie you know, they've been so good. We can do it. We won't have that too many issues. You just gotta assume something little is gonna go wrong. We'll roll with it. Um. Well, we're getting up there, we get to the top. It's beautiful. We take a break, we're resting, and then all of a sudden, I think I'm trying to remember if this before Colt like Colts writing a chess pack on Kylie. Um. And then Everett, if he's not walking, he'll ride on in the backpack on my back, and so could. All of a sudden, just hear this enormous bowel movement, just rumbling, thunder erupting. And usually you've got a little time, you know, usually it's like gonna happen. You hear it, and then it continues for five ten seconds, and then you go find stuff, You find a diaper, you find wives, and then you go and change them. Well, this was the sound was still emitting from his ass and their stuff squirting out all over Kylie. And we're, you know, four miles or whatever it was away from the trailhead. And I think we only brought this is done. We only brought one extra diaper for each kid. And explode, like explosion all over him, all over her. We deal of that, and then my son, we're still trying to get potty trained with him and stuff. Um Son number one, we have the exact same thing happened with him, but instead of an explosion, we had just I just had forgotten to check on him, and for whatever reason, I've been paying attention. And then we're walking around and I see he's pulled his shorts down, but his diaper is like a balloon that's sticking out over top of them. So his shorts are kind of riding just below his butt with his balloon diaper sticking out the back and you can see brown stuff. What I call that the double blowout miles from civilization. Not enough equipment at all, not enough wives, no extra clothes. So we're riding coming back down the hill like one kid's wearing shorts, one kids wearing nothing. Uh, he just you just have a roll. We should have. We survive who made it out? So I feel like that's been the name of the game for all the stuff we've been doing this summer. It's just survival. It's just like get through it and move on to the next thing. Yeah, that's all you can do in a scenario like that, because what's that There's a famous quote uh in the movie uh point Break where you know, he's like I do, but he's just like, uh god, I'm gonna screw it up. And I love that movie. It's like failure leads to hesitate, or hesitation leads to fear, and fear leads to death or something like that, and uh, it's uh, I gotta I'm screwing this up. Someone's gonna roast me for this. But um, fear causes hesitation, and hesitation causes your worst nightmares to come true. That's what it is. So you can't you can't hesitate in a scenario like that. You just gotta you know, scoop the poop go. Yeah, man, I was thinking we need to do another episode with you, myself and uh Andy Bradley. Remember we did that Raising Outdoor Kids episode a couple of years ago. I was thinking we should try to do one like every two years updated, yeah, and see, like, what have we learned in the last two years, And that was almost exactly two years ago, So maybe the next one we do in a few weeks, we should try to do that because there's so much kids stuff that I'm slowly figuring out now that I'm catching up to you a little bit. Um. But yeah, it's always an adventure, that's for sure, trying to trying to just get out and in doing the stuff you want to do still in finding some way to make it happen with the new constraints of parenthood is probably the biggest thing that I'm thinking about so much more now. It's going from like I don't know knowing the right stuff to do or doing what Am I doing enough of it? Now it's all just like efficient. How can I become more efficient? How can I get the minimum amount done in the minimum amount of time, just so I can keep my head above water? Yeah, I gotta I got a little story for you. Um, how long did you go during the COVID you know, pandemic here that we're in How long did you go without a haircut? Uh? I went a pretty long time. I don't know, two months, two months, I'm trying to think, I don't know, two months, three months, something like that. Okay, So a quick story here. I'm my wife is in the kitchen trying to cut max hair and she's not doing a very good job. I take the clippers from her, I start going to town and crazy enough it comes out looking like a professional haircut. Okay, I mean it is the crazy story that you're about to announce a new part time job. No, no, no, no, the crazy story is coming. So the second now it's Knox's turned a couple of weeks later, and you know he's too so he's gonna move around a lot. And it turned out great except for it, you know, a couple hey he moved type of situations. So a month has passed, it's time for Mac to get another haircut. Now I'm cocky, right, and long story short, Mac now has a mohawk. Uh is I feel like Mac has been deserving of a mohawk like that seems like something he would rock on purpose. He's rocking it. It looks real good. Actually, um he he flinched real hard with and then the guard was pushed down back into the clippers, and then I followed through with my stroke and it just took this big chunk right out of his head, like big chunk of hair down to the one guard out. So there's not much you can do to fix that except give, you know, follow through with full hawk. I went full hawk, spiked it up, and now he looks, uh, he looks like a badass. I believe it. I believe it. Isn't that funny that that's the same kind of thing we've started, was doing the self haircut. My wife has started doing the haircuts, and you know, it's not perfect, but it's it's kind of serviceable. Um. Yeah, I could almost see myself just sticking with us. You just it's good enough. I don't need it to be perfect, right, save you the trip in some time and money, I guess in the future. Yep. So, my my wife came home and she took a look at it, and she said, you're never cutting the kid's hair again. I was hoping that she was gonna let you have a free pass. No, no, no, there's no free pass with that in my life. I got xed. Are you disappointed by that? Are you glad to be? It doesn't bother me. It's just one less thing I have to do now. I think I should fail other things more often, so my her, her expectations of me can be much lower. Well, you know that's the trick that allow us to rights you do such a horrible job with the dishes or something that they're like, oh, just let me do it and they move on that. That's like, that's always a good strong move to play during household stuff, parents stuff, I try, I try, UM, and life I lift. What about trying to say here? I find myself needing what you needed so often years ago where you would get on the phone me for these podcasts and just be like, I need to talk about something other than kids. What's going on our kind of craziness. Yeah, and that's definitely what we're at right now. UM. Okay, so my first, my first questions for you, because we're gonna talk about white tails, right yeah. Okay, So my first question to you is, you're out in Idaho right now. Do you have a designated designated trail camera checker who goes in while you're out there, checks the cams and sends you back the intel. I should, but no I don't. UM. In past years, I've set cameras before I take off and just let them sit and then I come back in August and check them. Um. But this year it was just such a cluster with so many different things going on on and you know, kids and everything. I just didn't put any cameras out at all. I said, you know what, forget it. I'm just gonna put them in August when I get back because I'm gone to cameras out right now. I have zero cameras out. I know that almost like stings a little bit here in that. I don't like it either, Dane, I don't like it either, not even a soaker. No soakers out there. No I should have soakers. That's on me. That's on me. But but I'll tell you. And one of the things that one of the things that I thought maybe would make sense to get into is those pictures that you get, you know, in June July, especially June July, not as much, but June. Really that's just like, uh, I'm anxious to get pictures. I just want to see something for fun. But they don't do a whole lot for you, like you can get away. There's nothing. Tell me I'm wrong, prove me wrong here. But I would say that I am losing no value whatsoever and not having cameras up until August. I can get everything I need as far as summer inventory in the month of August, and then you know, it changes in September. But in August at least I get everything I need to know as far as full potential of what the bucks will be. I'll know every buck that was there in the summer, and I don't need to look at a half grown buck and think to myself is it gonna be one or one thirty or whatever? You know, how how far into August are we talking here? First day or two? Okay, first day or two? Uh yeah, maybe maybe? But man, there are still some deer that make these these rounds, and I'm talking from you know where I hunt. Where they may be there late July, mid July, disappear, maybe come back in September, disappear, and then they won't show back up until the ruts. So it's for me, it's all about knowing what is out there still, like oh dude, he's back, he's back. But that's just that's just me. Well, don't you put your cameras out often, like at least in the past Umber, usually like early July, and then you do your first check in early August? Is that right? Well? I got my out in June this year. June one, I was down there, dropped my kids off at the moms, had to go do a little work on the farm. I volunteered to help the landowner do some stuff, and while I was out there, I did some tree stand and trail camera stuff. So not this coming weekend, which is the fourth of July, but it would be the following weekend. I'm heading back down there, dropping the kids off at their grandparents, and I'm gonna check some some cameras. Do you have any I mean, do you have any other intael from other people or from settings in the winter, or anything that tells you like you're expecting any certain bucks to have made it okay? So the only thing that gives me a you know there, there's there's obvious there's some obvious ones, right that if things go well, Yeah, well every year for fifteen years, he'd be eleven years old this year. That's insane. But didn't you get a picture of him last year? Yeah, a couple a couple of pictures of last year, and he looked healthy. I mean, he looked old, but he looked healthy. Um and then obviously gnarly, Charlie. I'd love to see him again. He'd be like a six or seven year old, probably no seven year old this year, and then other than that. Uh. I left a camera out all winter long, all spring long, you know. So the last time I checked it was the day before I shot my buck this year, and then I let it so the entire spring, and it gave out somewhere about oh, late mid to late April, right, that's was that on purpose or did you forget about it? And then all of a sudden one day like, oh man, there's still that camera there. No. I felt confident in this spot. It's just real deep in the farm. It's hard to get to nobody. Nobody goes back there except the farmers when they plant and harvest. And that's about it. Um. Because I was gonna say, those are the best surprises. I love it. I don't forget a camera. And then all of a sudden I walked and like, I didn't know this is he yere? Yeah? Yeah, No, I knew this one was here. I had it marked on on X right, So I walk up to it, I throw it in my truck, get back home here check it and there, oh man, late December, and I'm gonna have to say that this this buck got displaced during shotgun season, but I had And then I start looking through my my pictures right, And I have three pictures of him coming through the farm on two different trail cameras well, three pictures on each camera, so a six six total making this big loop through the farm. And then he came let's say he he came through one way uh aft like during the second shotgun season. Three days later, same trail right back across the creek into the neighboring farm. And so I think I got one other picture of him in February and then all of a and I had this big buck kind of coming through back and forth kind of on a regular basis, but he had he had dropped, So I'm not a hundred percent sure it was him or not. But he's an absolute giant nine pointer. I think he is with a split G two just a crazy like he's a he's a giant. He's won seventy as a nine pointer. Yeah, so, and I had to I guess at five or older, But I mean, he's not. He's big. And he came through the farm one time during the season and then one time just looks like he had been displaced from a shotgun. So I think I know where he's living on, what farm he's coming from. It's just a matter if he's coming through the property during daylight, which he's never done before. Really, So okay, well it's it's July when this comes out. It's the time. It's the season of dreaming. Let's let's just dream hypothetically. Let's say he rolled through your property last winner. He liked the looks of it. He really as if there wasn't another top dog that was going to steal the best betting area or whatever. He decides he's going to shift over here and hang out. He's back for two thousand twenty. He shows back up in September. You get your first look at him. What does he look like this year? Dan? If you had to guess, so this is this is a hypothetical, Yeah, this is hypothetical. What do you what do you imagine he's going to look like this year? Because this can be like I say, I say, be by, be blindly optimistic about it, blindly optimistic. All right, let's see here, I'm gonna average. I'm gonna say he's gonna pop into a ten. Because it looked like he had a little nub on the end of his uh you know, right between on the four point side. He had a little nub that looked like it could have even either been broken or it's gonna pop into something. So I'm gonna say he's a ten pointer now, Uh, he's gonna still have the split, maybe a little junk around his bases. Does the does the ten points include the split? Or is he like a main frame ten with main frame ten with extra Sokay, technically the eleven point and maybe just some small junk, maybe not even scoreable junk, but more junk on the basis, and he'll probably be in the eight as a ten. How deep is that split? It's not very it's not very deep even it's just well, it may go a little bit deeper this year, but it's not huge. I mean, he'll be you know, I would be getting cocky here if I said it's a deep flat mark. Okay, that's pretty cool to me, Pretty cool, right, And I just I just imagine him really like liking to rub cedars. Right, he's a homebody. He doesn't like to wander off, but he'll fight for that first hot doll, of course he would. What about the bases though, I just I imagine if he's a cedar rubber, he's got to be one of those coke can bases, right with all that junk and stuff. Right, you know, Mark, I've never been one to brag about the deer that I hypothetically create my head, but I'm I'm guessing him to be just a little bit smaller. Then you know, he's not gonna have coke cans. He's gonna have maybe like red Bull bases. That's that's that's not bad, not bad. I'm gonna assume it's the big red Bull, not the tiny six ouncers or whatever, the bigger red Bull cans. And in that case, then yes, I support that hypothetical bass measurement. Um. I'm excited for the trail came and pictures of this guy. Yeah. If somehow, if somehow, you nailed it, I don't know how we can commemorate it or how we can celebrate it. But if this buck looks exactly like that, I don't know. I'm gonna be floored right right, And uh, I will defecate myself if I shoot a split. Yeah, oh man, that's awesome. I love one of my favorite things, just like driving back and forth, especially when used to do more like those Ohio trips I used to do so often. With Ory or Josh. When you're born, it's like midnight and you're almost home and you're trying to think of something just to stay awake. We'd always do these hypotheticals where we would do something like that, like tell me about your hypothetical bucker, would you rather shoot a drop time or a split tiner? Would you rather this or this? And just a stupid conversation like that was just what you need to get through that long drive. Yeah, I don't ever, I don't. I don't do the typical verse non typical thing in my head. You know if I I don't even know. Like for me, it doesn't matter. I don't care if they're typical or if they're non typical. But what I like to do is exactly what we just did, and that is try to shoot. Try to figure out what that dear is gonna be like next year. Like if you say for for me, it would be all right. So I had a three and a half year old that I passed, what's he gonna do this year? Is he just gonna do the same, be the same and blow up? Because I have that eleven pointer that in the same tree, uh, in the same area that I got this big one seventy I have, I now have, uh that buck, that three year old that I passed, Yeah, early in the rut, right yeah, right early in the rut. You know, he came right in and you know I was filming him straight down with my cell phone, and I'm imagining what he turns into because he also made it through the the shotgun season. Well what so I can't not ask? Now, what's it gonna look like? Oh, jeez, Mark, We're just gonna ride this horse till it dies. Another hour of hypothetical, right right, Okay, let's see here, he's gonna be the exact same tight racked buck with more mass. He's not gonna be out past his ears. He's gonna have more mass, and I'm gonna guess he's gonna have a couple five inch five and a half maybe even a six inch mass measurement on some of his measurements. But he's also going to have maybe ten to eleven inch g twos and then they'll be slowly work their way down from there. That's a beautiful deer. I love a titan tall buck like that. Now, you and me, we've we've said a thousand times on our podcast. It's not all about the Anglers. That's not what it is, but it is still cool thing like they're a little bit about the Anglers. It is cool. They are awesome critters to watch, and I don't know, you can't help but be fascinated by them. Um, can I can I do one? Yeah? Because it's Tran, right, yes, Tran? So what did Tran look like this year? And what is he going to look like this year? So? Tran was just a tight and tall eight pointer. He had really long G twos and then shorter G three's um and good brow twns brow times and like five inch brow times maybe maybe a little more than that on some of them are on one side. Um. And he had a little kicker coming off of his left side base about an inch long. So I'm looking at him right now, I thought, as you know, I found his match set, both of them sitting right next to each other in the cornfield. Um, he's gonna stay a big eight, big main framemate. His G two is, like I said, are both like I think I think one was ten and one was eleven or nine and a half and eleven something like that. Both of very long. I'm guessing those are gonna just be foot longers. Twelve or thirteen inch G two is just daggers. But one of them was starting to blade out a little bit this year, so I think they're both gonna get like fully bladed, so like twelve inch bladed G twos. His G three's are both gonna get like really respectable, like five or six inch really good G three's. And then again he's got these tall brow times that kind of curl out a little bit, so I'm gonna stay they're just gonna grow maybe another inch each, so let's say six to seven inch brow times. But that little sticker on the base, he's gonna match on the other side, so he's gonna have these kind of unicorn points from the bases, one on each side, about two inches long. So if I were to see this buck for the first time ever, I might jump to a cliche name like hook or something. Uh and good, good, good good mass. I say, it's kind of average mass this past year, and I think he'll kind of continue with that. So in two thousand twenty, you know, he was just over last year. Uh, he looked bigger than that, but that was what he scored out to be. For whatever that's worth, I'm gonna put him as like a hundred and forty ish eight pointer this year, maybe a little bigger than that with those G two I don't know, Okay, I thought maybe with your imagination, you would have thrown like well maybe late in the season. He was wounded and it's gonna cause him to grow a twelve inch drop time. See, I thought I was. I thought I was pushing my luck with the bladed G two. So I don't know, man, if that if a buck like that is running around, that's gonna be enough to make me lose my mind. So I'm excited. I'm excited to see these summer trail camera pictures. And and the cool thing is that the property that that buck is on has beans again on it, and it has had beans on it it usually, you know, usually flip flops. But last year because of the wonky spring, you know, how, what was it really dry? I think, why was it everything gotten so late? I'm trying to remember it was it was drought? Right, Yeah, I think there was a two wet Why can't I remember this? You mean last year? Yeah? Last year? Remember all that no one got their crops in on time and everything was all messed up. I think it was. I think it was July. We went through a kind of a drought, and then September in October got wet. Ye. This shows you how much mental damage I've gotten over the years. The kids point being, they didn't plant the fields like they usually do last year, so they actually split the farm up. Half the farm was corn, half the farm was beans instead of the whole thing. So this would be my third year in a row now with beans on some portion of the farm, which just makes for that really cool summer viewing. So I'm hoping I'll get my third summer in earrow that I can watch him, which is just a lot of fun to be able to do that, and uh, you know how that is. That's that's just a fun thing nest time here. Yeah, absolutely, man, I'm just uh, it's the trail camera thing, right, I mean, for me, this year is going to be about trail cameras and and and basically just sitting and waiting because if I get a if I get a summer pick of Gnarlie Charlie, it's gonna dictate a lot of what I do. I'm gonna be able to cut off the farm in half. I'm probably going to ignore it, and then I'm going to just focus on the routes that he's been running for the past couple of years and put myself in the best possible position for him. Okay, so you're you you believe that the intel you got last year. I know, last summer we had a podcast just like this, almost the exact same time when you said you were creating your Dan Johnson points on a map, connect the dots between the trail cameras strategy, and you did that. You crossed off half the farm and then last fall you started hunting that zone and then you had your first sighting of him. Um, that takes us to now this year. So if you get the confirmation he's alive, he made it, then you cross off that map again the part that he wasn't on. But what different, like, how have you tightened the news anymore since last November when you saw him? Are you gonna do like the circle of cameras in the area and keep on adjusting or what they're So what I'll what I'll do is I will cut the farm in half, really focus on you know, because I put more cameras in that area this year, So I have more intel this this past year on him than I did the previous year. So it's just more of the routes that he's taken king and I'm putting myself in in just continuing to shrink down that area and hopes hopefully find the dough group that's working its way through the area and pulls him through. Or I still don't think he's betting on my property that I have access to. I think he's coming from a different property, and but it's really close, it's really close. I just have to try to find where he's coming, you know. I think he's traveling a long way in a in a day, going from where he feels comfortable in in his betting area on a different farm, coming through the properties that I have access to and making it like being nocturnal there, and then kind of coming working his way back. Is is what I'm thinking he's doing, or what he'll do is he'll come through for like a three day cycle. He'll work the farm for three days and then two days maybe and then go back. So is there anything you can do right now or you know, over the next two months to prepare for that, like are you going to I don't know. Are you doing anything different with your summer trail cameras that you used than you usually do to confirm his presence or is it kind of the standard approach do you take? Yeah, it's a standard approach, because, like I've said a million times, the September shift hits and things just shut off, right, and then it isn't until so I guess the not last year, but the previous two years he didn't show up in the farm until late October. Well, this year, I added a couple of trail cameras, right, so I don't I don't have any intel until I get a trail camera picture of him and then so so the additional trail cameras that I added caught him early October, like October three, middle of the night, October broad daylight, middle of the day, so I think he got bumped, right, and and then he started making his rounds late October, so he's around And the only the only reason I think that one was a daylight is because I don't know farmer farming activities or you know, a dog running through the woods or somebody else you know running through the woods. Don't know, but Yeah, have you have you considered trying to see him in the summer in the evenings at all, to see confirmed presents like glassing on your property, your neighboring properties or anything like that. Yeah, it's just this year it's tough because I would have to go through a corn field to get to the bean field, and I really don't want to bump him. And if what I'm thinking is right, if I'm thinking he's coming off of another property, he's not getting to the bean field until after dark anyway, gotcha? So yeah, what about you? Have you been thinking about strategy with with Tran? I have, Um, I think my my dilemma with that one is there's two things. I've like, two competing pressures. I've got one thing being that there's an increasing number of people that I know that are hunting that deer I guess, or the deer in the area, like the deer I could hunt, are also now on the radar of other people who I'm hearing from, who are also like serious hunters. So there's just more competition from people that kind of know what they're doing. And maybe that was happening before and I just didn't know it, But now that I know it. There's this new sense of crap. If I don't get them such and such, will you know? Um. So that's telling me hunt earlier, take it, try to try to get it done sooner than later. Um. But then on the other side, I have you know, last year's observations and trail camera datat which other than opening day, I didn't get any daylight pictures or sightings of him all the way until Halloween. So I got no daylight confirmation with him all through October UM. The year previous to that, I did have October daylight movement. Last year no October movement, and then once Halloween hit though, he was very active for um most of November and then a little bit in December two. So that tells me play it safe, wait till late October, and then it hit it hard then. On the flip side, though, another reason why I should maybe be more aggressive early is that I've got a really packed slate of back forty hunts that I'm going to be you know, on that property for that's gonna keep me from the tram property for a lot of the good stuff in November. So so that said, I'm a little bit up in the air, but I'm probably gonna be probably gonna be more aggressive. Um. I'm gonna take the stab early, and then I'm going to probably push a little bit more here and there in October when the when the conditions are I think the one thing like, I've started hunting a little bit more in mid October than I used to for a while early on there UM, but was pretty careful. Again we you know the story listeners in the story of this particular property small a lot of fields. I just can't get into too much of the betting areas. But there's a couple of spots that I think I can push in a little further than I used to. It might just be thirty yards further in forty yards further in UM, but I started to get a little more confidence in my ability to do that without spooking him. I've confirmed one or two other spots that I'm pretty sure there are bucks betted um deeper in the core of one of these locations where I was worried that want to be some of them might be a little bit closer to the edge that would keep me from getting there safely. I think with some scouting I did this winter, I found two buck beds that would very well be his on occasion, um that are on the property can hunt. I know he spends a lot of time in the neighbors, but he must be on mind some of the time. And I think I found one of those spots. Possibly, um so I might take a stab in there, and I don't know. I'm I'm a little less paranoid than I used to be about taking a swing, you know, a couple of times in October like that and go for it and may blow it up. But I think I've been coming back to both what I've seen and a lot of other people tell you is that these mature bucks, they get big and mature for a reason. They found a spot they feel safe. If you don't bug him over and over and over, you know, you can get away with maybe one of those aggressive moves every once in a while. So right, I don't know. It's a pretty vague way of describing it, because I'm still on shore. I don't have like a annual pattern that is going to be like, oh, definitely gotta do that. You know, in two thousand eighteen, I got daily activity of him, and in October I think, like this fourteen there was a cold front the hit. So I tried going and back in around that time period this year, didn't see him, didn't get a daily pictures of him or anything. Um, so there's not anything that's super solid like that. I'm gonna be working on. It's gonna be more so make some adjustments in the fly, be more mobile. I'm not adding any more permanent sets anymore. I'm just gonna run and go in my saddle. Uh, just trying to get more quiet, more efficient with that so I can move in and out and just kind of get better and all those little things. That's another thing I'm trying to improve on this year. But um, what about his routine compared to what holy Field was doing? Any similarities? Very similar, very similar. Yeah, There's there's this neighboring property that his is tough to get into for the person that hunts over there, and this section that they get into just like lots and lots of thick brush. It's there's always a good buck the beds in there. And so it was holy Field for a number of years. And I could see him in there because from my seat I could see into that stuff. But I just can't hunt it. And so holy Field kind of come in and out of that, and every once in a while he'd bumped over into my stuff. Every once in a a while he'd come passed through a bedding ear that is on my stuff. And once holy Field disappeared that you know that very next year, Tran was there, and now last year and the year before basically doing the same thing. So I've seen him kind of moving it out, and you know the times. It's interesting. The closest I ever came. Let me think about this. I passed on holy Field once and that was the very closest I could have come to shoot h him, I guess. But the second closest. Let me make sure I don't have this stuff wrong. With a bow, I was closer to holy Field with a bow. Well you know the story. This is the time that was. It was the rout. It was midday and I was on your phone, was reading a book on my phone because I was bored, and then I hear a snap and I turned around holy Field standing it is behind me, so from that exact same tree, so that I could have killed holy Field from that tree if I was paying attention, from that exact same tree as the closest I came to Tran as well in the rut. Tran was with a dough in this little thicket right next to that tree. And I couldn't get a shot at him. Um. So, so i'm I'm I'm identifying a couple of these weak spots where they're gonna come in every once a while during the rut. But there's no like clear cut he's going to come from that bending here and come in to mind every other day or once a week or every night or something like that. It's it's much more random, but it's I know they're gonna they're gonna bump over every once in a while. But despite all my studying, despite all my long distance observation, I've yet to be able to pin it down to you know, I guarantee the're gonna come out this way. I think that that's gonna happen for sure. So it's more so of how do you get into those weak spots enough times without blowing things up so that the one out of four times that he comes through, you're there and you have him stuff. Yeah, Um, I don't know. It's kind of a weird spot to hunt. I'm putting more of my eggs in the basket during the rut there, I think than I used to because like last year, you know we talked about I passed on several really nice bucks back in those betting ears. Like I figured out the rut there. Now you hunt these back betting ears that are hard to get to, but you just get in there super early and stay all day, and these bucks are going to check those. Um. So if if I can make it to that, you know, early November, and I still haven't killed him, that's a pretty good way. If I put in my time, they're gonna come cruising through there. Um I could have killed that big ten pointer a couple of times. It could have killed a big nine back there a couple of times last year. So I don't know. It's a limiting little spot, but there's opportunities. So we'll see. I'm sure it'll be more of the same frustrating stories. I saw him, couldn't get a shot. I saw him, couldn't get a shot, And we'll talk about it for three months and then be stuck talking about the same deer for five years. Yeah. And I think the cool thing is is I'm I'm doing something similar right have like two tree stands right now pre hung, and I think that's the only only pre hanging I'm gonna do. Excuse me three And I say, I say too, because one is not gonna be where I hunt probably this year. If I'll tell you this, if Gnarly is alive, I probably won't even hunt that stand. But if he is alive, I have to. One is already up in a bedding area. I cannot wait to get in there for the first time. There was a mature buck in there the first time I went in and hunted it, and then and then I have a pinch point stand set up. But other than that, it's gonna be different tree every day. I just know it. Trying to find out where this guy's coming in and out. And uh, I just I hope at all. I hope. I hope all the data stays true and I can continue to you know, and I and I have these encounters, because what was it, no encounters with him the first two years, for the first three years. Last this year, excuse me, for first two years this year had encounter. He's on he was on like this little spur ridge when I saw him. And so I'm gonna be over there more this year on specific wins, and Uh, that's the goal, man, is just to keep tightening the news. Now, it's a lot of fun. I love like having the spot, you know, and a buck you know, and you're rumaging through all the dead and tightening the news and trying to figure it all out. But the other thing that's a lot of fun is trying to find out and learn a brand new area. Uh. And I saw you were doing a bunch of scouting in public Land recently, talking about rubber bottom stuff and trying to figure out this new zone. What was the story over there? Well, um, it was awesome. I mean I love getting out there and scouting. I loved putting in the work. But right now it's underwater. So you know, how optimistic am I that this area is going to recover? You know closer to October is gonna be interesting. But I went back there, I did some scouting, and I had a bit of a dilemma. Right. I get out there and I'm on I am on uh public ground, and I'm way back in there. I mean I'm like two miles back from the parking lot, and you know, I'm I'm finding all this great sign, finding these trails where it's like high ground in between two marshes, right, these these little bottlenecks, marketing my spot, following the river and just doing all this awesome scouting. And then I come up against some tree. I find some tree stands, which it's illegal, and Iowa to have tree stands on public all year round, right, you have you can only put them up like five or seven days before the season starts, and you can you have to have them down I think thirty days after for the season's over or something like that, which I'm not gonna wrap that out right, I'm not gonna go and and turn that in. You know, I guess I'm not that guy. But the guy, the guy that had since planted a food plot. So he's he's coming back this far on the boat he is, that's how he's accessing this tree stand, and he's got a trail camera there and he's got a food plot. Now on public land. This person planted a food plot. And you're sure this is public land? No, sure it's public land. And I said, okay, I'm just gonna keep walking, not gonna bother with this. But it just kept stewing in my head, like this dude came in and he planted a food plot on public land. Like, I can't do that, dude, right guaranteed if this guy is crazy enough about white tip else to take a boat into this public land, to have a trail camera running this summer and to have a food plot to publicly or to plant a food plant in public land. You know, he listens to this podcast. Yeah, so he's listening right now. So what do you want to tell him? Well, uh, don't cheat, sorry, dude, don't Yeah, don't cheat. And so I had this dilemma, right, I was like, should I turn this guy in? And I posted a questionnaire on Instagram, you know, or a pole, you know, should I turn him in? Should I turn him in? Seventy people said I should turn him in and said I should just ignore it. And there was like six hundred people who did that. So whatever, whatever those numbers are. You know, sevent thought I should turn it in. The other seventy or the other said I should just ignore it and keep walking. Here's the other. Here's the other alternative, Dan, Yeah, just hunt the ship out of it. Yeah yeah, and that's and well hey, and that's the thing, like so yeah, so that's so I go. I don't have a boat, though, so I can't access that the same way that he is. However, so I I go to I go to the dn R and I eventually point out a map. I said, there is a food plot right here. They don't they don't like spray it. They're not gonna go and spray it. And I said, so, is that like area legal to hunt now or do I do I have to stay away from that? And he never, he didn't really give me an answer. So I'm gonna follow up. Well, right now, it's all underwater. It will all die. It's gonna die, So it's not a big deal. I mean, it's all just so I I hunt the All this public land is basically high water runoff area. So when they like right now, they'll raise the damn so there could be more boating traffic for the holiday weekends. And then after that they'll lower it down a little bit and so then that water should recede. But I don't know, man, I just felt, you know, I felt like a rat. But at the end of the day, I don't give a ship. So hey, man, I get it. I totally get it. It's frustrating when you see people abuse the You know, now that's a kind of weird thing because you could someone could say he's trying to improve it, but he's improving it like a selfish way. Yeah, I mean it was. It was a setup. It wasn't like a plot. And in on this public land, the d n R plants food for these deers. So there's corn fields, there's bean fields, there's alfalpha fields. I mean they these these deer have enough to eat. So I probably would have walked right by if I didn't stop and see this guy's tree stand. I mean it was this luscious clover plot about half an acre of it just right, maybe a little smaller than half acre. So here's the question. Was it a good setup? Like did he set up on a well did you think about wind? And it sounds like decent access it was taking the boat. But was it approved? Is it Dan Johnson approved as far as far as a smart set, Well, I mean it would let's let's just say what he did was legal. I would I would have given it a shot on a northwest wind that he set up kind of right on the curve of the river, so his wind would have been blowing right into the river and following it down, so it would have turned out you know, it would have turned out internet Like I don't know, dear. There was a heavy trail near it. I mean it was it was a decent spot and with that clover there, I can just see it's sucking deer in man. Yeah. He he probably listens to nine Finger chronicles too. Yeah, he had this whole plan in place. I'm gonna get my house burnt down now or graffiti rat uh huh um. I love that river bottom stuff though. It's that is an awesome country. Yeah, that's where I cut my teeth on on hunting. Man. Everything I did back in the day was river bottom ground learning how to hunt. Uh, not necessarily river bottom, but you know like riverse system, creec system, flat land. Uh been between the egg and in the waterway and that's where that's that's where I did a lot of my hunting growing up until I started moving up into the eggs and the finger. But you know, that's where I cut my teeth turkey hunting, That's where I cut my teeth deer hunting and uh, being able to go back and scout this public land and put a little bit of effort into it. Uh, it was really fun. I believe that I wanted to go do some of that stuff. The other day, I've got an Idaho white Tail tag here, and I've found a bunch of public land on on X and I went and did my first year drive out here and had my heart broken. Just like everything that looked possible on the map ended up being inaccessible or just way less appealing than I thought I was going to look, I saw almost no dear. There was not a single spot I went to that I circled as a spot I would come back to an hunt. Um. So I'm I'm right now without a single plan for my Idaho tag right now. And you didn't You didn't get a montage in a tag this year? Yeah, I didn't draw, That's correct, Okay, So yeah, some brand new state, brand new area have no real intel at all other than a few little Oh yeah, there's white tails out there, um, and a couple of pictures of people that have shot some that kind of prove it. So over these next few weeks, I've got to do some serious driving. Um. There's an area about an hour hour and a half from where I'm at that's supposed to be pretty good where it seems to be a lot of public land. Um, but that's you know, it's kind of hike. I would have been nicer to have a place close to where I am, but a little disappointed by that we're speaking of. I don't know, I don't mean what we haven't We haven't really talked about this. But I did a thing, Dan, Um. I did a thing which is why I'm hunting white tails in Idaho, which is we had to upgrade from a camper. We couldn't do the whole sleeping in a tent camper with two kids and two dogs. Um, So I bought a little cabin in Idaho. Nice. So yeah, we've got like a permanent base of operations out here now. Um So yeah, that's why I'm gonna try to figure out this idahole white tail thing, because it would be really nice to have something close to we're at here. Um, I got an Elk tex. I'm gonna try to explore what the Elk opportunities are here. But if the white tail thing doesn't pan out, I'm selling this piece of ship real fast. I thought you would be uh buying something in Montana. Well, I mean, for a long time we were trying. I've been gosh, probably I don't know, three four years now. We've been looking, looking and looking and looking. That the trick is that we need something really cheap because I, you know, we have to we have our house in Michigan. So I needed something that was affordable but also would be big enough to fit the family. And the biggest thing for me was I wanted like good acts. If I was going to buy a place out here, I didn't want to be in town. I didn't want to be surrounded by people. Like the reason why I come out here is because I like to be away from people. So for years we were looking at things and it was never, you know, it was never the right fit. Was that either too expensive or just wasn't what we wanted. Um. So I figured there's no rush, might as will just wait, um until the right thing comes along. And then this past year we decided, well, maybe we need to expand our search outside of the Bozeman, Montana area that we're looking because that's just like crazy crazy expensive, like little tiny things are just tons of money, um. And I wasn't gonna buy a tiny, like a tiny tiny thing there that costs like four times more than my full size house in Michigan. Um So we thought, all right, well, let's expand the radius and look at a couple of the other areas in that like Montana, Wyoming, Idaho zone we usually go to. And um, long story short, found a little place that's right on the edge of the National Forest that's less than two and a half miles from four different really great trout rivers. Um, I can walk to the public land. I can. You know? I could walk forty five miles straight without hitting a paved road and end up in a national park if I wanted. Um, so super cool from all that kind of stuff we like to do out here. So decided take the leap. I've been saving up for a lot of years to try to do something like this someday and finally found something that wasn't going to uh you know, what's gonna allow us to do with the things we want to do. So so it's crazy, that's a that's awesome. Well, I'm glad your wildest dreams have come true. Mark Kenyon, I appreciate that, Danum. I've been dreaming of poopy diapers and sitting in my truck and all these things that the much less glamorous reality of it. But yeah, it's cool, it's got It's interesting though, because there's there's just there's a little like living space like your kitchen living area, and then there's one single bedroom and so the bedroom is where we're putting our son and then once Colton is old enough to put both of them in there. But that means my wife and I have to sleep in the living room. And we ordered a couch, like a pull out couch that you could turn into a bed, you know. Yeah, after we place the order and you can't cancel the order. It gave us like a back order notification. So we're not getting it for well, we've been out here for a month now, we're not gonna get it for another couple of weeks. So we've been sleeping on the previous owners two couches for the last four weeks. Uh, way too to get a pull out bed. So yeah, you know, you make it work, right, Yeah, you can make anything work, man, You can make anything work. So wait, okay, So whitetail Idaho elk Idaho right, whitetail Michigan. And did you get Iowa this year or not? No? No, just no Iowa just because there's so much back forty stuff that I've got to be around for I just wouldn't be get enough time. I think I'm gonna try to do a little mid October John, maybe the Nebraska I still kind of up in the air and that, but possibly public land hunt somewhere in mid October, and then um, you know, for I don't know how long I've been talking about wanting to do this December track a buck down the snow hunt. I've made no progress on planning that yet, but I still want to try to do it. So if you want to come on to New York or Maine in early December, let me know. Yeah, man, I've interviewed, uh some people from Maine and New York and Vermont, and uh, I think I'll just stick with Michigan. Doesn't that sound cool? Though? Yeah? I mean, yes, that sounds that sounds awesome. But uh, I don't know. It's not Iowa, I know, I mean, I why don't I do it? And why don't you do it in like North Dakota or yes, or there's cool things out there. Yeah, I don't know, but it's just like it's this is the cultural thing. You go out there. It's like the big woods, lots of snow, follow a big track for five miles Comorial hillside. There he is. He's got a dusting of snow on his back. His nose is big and broad, and you know that that Roman knows. And he's got like three little nubbins on each antler. Buddy's a big bodied buck. And that's the hunt I want right right. I can't get muled. You're out of my head right now, dude. I'm so jacked about this upcoming hunt. I mean, we we figured it out the first year, and if if it's as half as crazy as it was last year, man, we're in business again. So all I've been doing is is just tweaking my gear my gear list. I got some new packs, I got um uh some more you know, some different equipment. I need to buy a new pair of boots, uh, a new water filter. So I'm looking at all that stuff right now, and then I'm still like in the process of planning out. I'm thinking that far ahead. Man, So were I met my bad? Um? Are you giving enough mental time to Michigan in Yeah? Uh, I'm I'm i gotta come right. That's not the kind of excitement. I was looking for it. Well, the shitty thing about this is is that we have got We've gotten this survey back from the school that says, you know, here are three options. What is your comfort level with COVID, you know, with COVID nineteen and you know how you you know feel that you know your kids, you know do you feel so? Me personally, I am okay with my kids going back to school full time, writing the bus, going back amongst their regularly scheduled programming, right, But the others, the other uh options were like fifty fifty, Like your kid goes back a couple of days a week, and then it's on a rotation, so a day off, a day on, day off day on whatever, and then they and then the other days you would be the parent would be required to run through the curriculum with them at home. I'm just like, are you kidding me? I'm number one, I have no patience. Number two, I'm not a teacher and I'm busy, right, I have other kids too, Like I got my youngest kid to take care of, So while I'm doing that, I'm gonna have to put him in front of cartoons or feed him just so he's quiet. And then the other option is full time at home curriculum to start the year out with. And I just I just hope that they bring the kids back to school full time or I'm in trouble, like me and the wife are are gonna, like from a from a job standpoint in the time we need to give to the jobs we're gonna be, We're gonna kind of be in trouble. So okay, yeah, I hear you. But let's look at the silver lining here. Okay, what there's like eleven million white tailed deer hunters in the country, give or take Somewhere in that ballpark, there are something like three hundred and what does million total people in the country or something like that. All right, and how many what percentage of that three million do you think our parents I'm gonna say, I don't know, or something like that. Maybe, So you're looking over a hud million parents out there. That's the target audience for the new version of nine Finger Chronicles, which is all about training your kids at home. It's all about teaching your kids at home. So you've got a much bigger pool of potential audience members. Then you're eleven million deer hunters like I do. Just pivot, Just pivot, man, straight pivot, quit talking, Quit talking about deer, and start talking about how much of a shitty father. I. Yes, that's exactly what I'm recommending, you know, from one friend to another. Try it. Trust Okay, I'll do it. Let me just talk to my sponsors and ask them first, Hey, hey, uh you care if I stopped talking about deer hunting? And hey, this uh you know, I just want to say, my name is Dan Johnson. This is the Nine Finger Chronicles, brought to you by Lone Wolf Tree Stands. And on this episode, we're gonna talk about what you can do to keep your child occupied while you're teaching the other child. But first, I just don't I don't see that flow. That flow. But first, in advertisement from Gerber Baby Foods, I'm telling you, is that opportunity? Um? I think. On that note, it's time for our next segment. Dan, what's the next segment? Mark call further and Cefo answer, we're doing that again? Why not? Let's do it? Uh? That will be very disappointed if he doesn't pick up, because it's such a great surprise last time when he did. Um, So I said question to ask him, yeah, in in second questions. If he doesn't answer, we can leave a voicemail. Still, Yeah, what county does he live in in Michigan? Do you know? I don't know if I should say that publicly or not. I don't know. Honestly, I'm not quite sure. Um, well, I'll leave him a message east side, east side of Michigan or whatever. You don't. I don't need the I don't need the county. I don't need the county. Yeah, it sounds like some kind of authoritative figure. He's in trouble. Maybe maybe it's Michigan I R S. Maybe it's the I R S. Just federal government. Could be taxes. I don't know. Let's calm sea violations. That's all possible. Let's see. Let's see what happens here. This is the thing. This is the thing. Now, let's it's absolutely thing. Is it working? I can't hear it ring? All right? Hold on? How cool would it be to have a podcast where all we do is prank call further it's a spinoff that would probably be a lot more successful than this one. He already hates you, you you know that? Right? Oh god? All right? I don't know why I can't get this to work, but hang with me here here we go, all right? Add are you still there doing? I'm still here? I don't know if it's downing again? Josh you there? Hello? Hello? Hello? I don't see anything on my end. Oh it's saying two of three in the call, so it looks like it's ringing, but it's not. He hasn't added. He just texted me and said he's on the phone. What an ass? All right, let's old. We got one alternative. You're still This is the part where if you got to go take a pooper pe, then you go do it and then get comeback. Alright, I got one more opportunity here. We're gonna go with the phone number and stuff Skype and he may be on the phone, but we can still leave a voicemail to annoy him. Yeah, I know, I love how Okay? Since this is Skype, is it gonna show up as unavailable? I'm not sure about that type of truth. You know they say in broadcasting dead air isn't good? Mark this is this is this isn't audio? Now, dude, I I guarantee you you marked this time down on your podcast director with the you d M A can't unable to take your call at the moment. Please leave a message with your name and number, and I'll be sure to return your call as soon as possible. Thank you and have a good day at the tel and please record your message. When you finished recording, you may hang up or press one for more options. Yeah. Mr Hilliard, this is Officer Randall with the Michigan Department and Natural Resources, and we have a couple of questions we need to ask you about where you were at and what you were doing June nineteen. Excuse me, go ahead and give us a call at you know the number. Uh, call me back. That's dumb. That was dumb. I know I could have done better. I could have done better. Should we just call him until I get it right? He has nine voicemails right right? Oh? Man, I think I think it's probably Um. I I think that's a good spot to wrap it up, Dan, unless you've got any other big summer updates. No, man, I'm just slowly getting jacked. I'm slowly getting jacked for October the Mule to ear Hunt, the Michigan Hunt in Iowa. Um. Yeah, I've been baking those brownies, getting the brownie points it's good. So what you gotta do this time of year, I'm right there with you, although I've been getting trouble for fishing too much, so these these distractions sometimes they're throwing me off the game. But yeah, man, let's let's circle back up in a few weeks to talk more about some of the parenting lessons we've we've gained over the last couple of years, because since that one, I think when we recorded that one, was Knox born yet or was he just about to be. I'm not sure. I think it depends on when it was launched or when we recorded it, but I think it was just Macineva, and if it was, he was too young to do anything with anyway. So lots to learn since then. Three kids for you, two kids for me, and uh maybe we'll call further back in for that one too. He's got a kid on now and he's got a thing or two. Maybe he's learned over the last few years. So alright, buddy, good stuff. I can't wait to see what the trail camera poll shows you here soon. Keep keep me posted, all right, man, talk to you later. Let's see you alright, And that's gonna do it for us. Today Thanks for tuning in. This is a little change of pace. The last handful of weeks have been pretty serious strategy. Today it was a little bit more of just kicking back, laughing, telling some stories, and kind of getting you guys up to speed on how Dan and I are progressing towards the season. So hopefully you still enjoyed this one. We'll be back with some serious how two's coming up soon, and until then, thank you so much for listening, and stay wired to hunt.

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