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, sixties seven and today in the show for our annual get together on this topic, I am joined by Dan nine fingers Johnson to discuss our goals, hopes, and hit lists for the deer hunting season. All right, welcome back to the Wired Hunt podcast, brought to you by on X. Today, we are taking a break from the you know, interview and experts see what they think about stuff too, instead dive into what we think about stuff that we being myself and my compadre, Mr Daniel Johnson. Dan, glad you're here. I like how you said. We're going to take a break from people who know what they're talking about, and we're gonna have Dan Johnson on the show, Dan Johnson and then other bozo and if we're gonna run our miles and see what happens. Right, how about yourself? I'm good, I'm getting excited. It's that uh, it's that time of year, you know, m hm uh speaking of it during that time of year. It's also that time of year that we do this episode that we're about to do. Every year we've been since I think twous fourteen, we've done this goals, hopes and hit lists conversation each year, and I like this because I need to go back and listen to those early ones. Can you imagine what we must have been talking about in two thousand and fourteen when we discussed our goals, hopes and hit listening. I would love to listen to the trajectory over the last seven years. Um. It would be an interesting time capsule to go back and examine how far we've come, hopefully, hopefully, how far we've come. It would be funny if we could, over that period of time listen to our voices mature, like going from teenage boys to men. Because I remember a couple of times in some of the first episodes, your voice would crack every once in a while. It was it was yeah, you know, it's hitting puberty there around round seven. Hey, it took you twenty seven years to grow? Uh or twenty how ared you now? Two? Okay? Took you thirty three? Ship Okay, it took you damn your thirty years to get your goatee where it needed to be. I still don't even think it's quite Let's let's be honest about it. I'm just trying to prop you out, but I do appreciate that I need that pat in the back every once in a while. Uh. Yeah, So that's what I want to talk about. I want to catch up on any projects we've been doing here over the last month of the summer leading into the hunting season. Uh, and then go over you know what our hopes are for this year, our finalized plans for this year, any specific bucks that the two of us have on our radar. Um. I've got a lot of updates since we last talked. I'm sure you probably do too. Um. So we got a lot to cover, got a lot of talk about my first hunts in ten I leave in ten days. And what's that for the Idaho white tail hunt man? Yeah? Are you ready for it? I think so? Actually, I feel I feel very ready. Actually, um, my shooting has been really good. I'm feeling good about where I am from our troop perspective. Um. I just got some new arrows though. I decided to switch up the arrow thing and it got those a little while ago. And they're like heat seeking missiles. I went with a really small diameter and a heavy broadhead and uh insert on the front, so I've got a much higher foc so front of center, so I think it's front of center. Um and man, these things are just sinking. It's pretty it's pretty fun to see. So honestly, I don't know that. Yeah, I'm not I'm not good enough with numbers and and the little tiny details to figure all that stuff out myself. So I've got a guy that I trust who helps me make sure everything, make sure everything's right from my setup, and I leaned on him for that. But I switch to victory arrows. I got some victory that elites, so yeah, we'll see how that goes. But but yeah, the bow is ready to rock and roll. I got my gear, all my other gear, kind of final lines. But I'm gonna take out there for that trip. I'm just gonna run the saddle and a new set of sticks, different set of sticks i've ever used. Um my platform. And I can tell you all about the scouting I did, but I scouted out some stuff out there. I feel good about Idaho. Now, last time we talked, I was not feeling good. Um, I'm feeling really good now. Um. So yes, to answer your question, yes, I feel ready. Okay. Question, is this white tail hunt that you're going on in Idaho a like in the elevation actually like in the foothills of the mountains or is it your traditional out west you know, crop circles, river bottom type. So it's a little both. Actually I've got three different spots I've zeroed in on, and two of them are river bottom stuff, and one of them is like in the foothills. Um, So it's actually like in you know, you might saw the pictures I posted of a mountain lion and a bear on trail camera by one of these spots. That's the ones that like in the mountains. So there's there's everything. There's wolves, bears, lions, the whole nine yards cruising through that spot. Um, and actually some pretty decent bucks. So that is one location, and then there's two locations in the river bottom, and I just have the trail camera pictures as far as intel for the mountain spot the river bottom spot. I was able to glass some crop fields adjacent to the public one night and spotted several nice bucks. Um, probably a couple and like that one teams one twenties and then one that was definitely like the one thirties, like a definitely mature buck. And then I moved to another location and glass from a longer distance, and you couldn't see these deer as well, but could see like a huge frame deer. When I say huge, I mean like a definitely mature I don't know, one forty plus type buck um, and then several other more of those type of caliber kind of thing. So long stories or I mean anything like that would be awesome for a hunt along those lines public land up there first time. So I'm feeling good about numbers good similar to Montana. I feel like lower numbers than I've seen in those Montana spots. That definitely lower numbers um, but decent um for the river bottom stuf. At least the river bottom area seems to be like a little bit higher numbers the mountain white tail stuff. I think it's lower numbers UM, and it's gonna be much more difficult, I think, to patter on those deer because there's no crop fields, there's no you know, easy food source. It's like big timber. There's a big there's a creek, and like a canyon that runs through this chunk of of woods where I can hunt and or where I'm looking to hunt. I can hunt a whole lot of area, but where I found some white tails and they're they're moving through here for sure, but it's gonna be a situation where I don't know, they're just feeding on plants and random leaves and trees and things along the creek, and then some up on these ridges and these meadows. You know, there's no lf A field the key in on Stresa Um, So that'll be different, but kind of cool. It's it's right, it's you know, it's relatively close to our place out there, so I can get out there and check it out quite a bit and excited to learn that spot. So that's that's what's going on, the Idaho spot. I mean, what as far as number of states that you've actually hunted white tails in? Now, what does Idaho make? Ah? It's a good question. Um, Okay, I've hunted Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, UH, Minnesota, Uh, Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Nebraska, Iowa. Uh. Uh. I feel like I'm missing something here, Surrey, did you ever hunt Missouri. No, I don't think of Hunter, Missouri or did I remember? I don't think of Hunter Missouri. Um, I'm missing something here, But twelve twelve states, dude, somewhere good? Yeah? Um so yeah, a pretty decent swath of Voitel Country. So yeah, man, I'm excited to get out. There will be new adventure and I like those things. So absolutely. Now when is your first trip? I can't remember. I leave the let's see September twenty nine or thirtieth or something like that is when I leave my house to drive out to South Dakota to make it there for the October one opener. So hold on, that's different. That's different than when we last talk. So when do you do When do you push from Michigan to uh, Michigan is gonna be pushed back to like the seventeenth I think the third weekend in October. Okay, yeah, it's the It's the only way I could do it, man. Um. The guy that there could be a possible change. But the guy that I am gonna go with he lives in New York, and New York has some crazy strict rules about leaving the state and then coming back for it. So if he leaves and then comes back and gets checked, then he may have to quarantine for fourteen more days, using fourteen more days a p t O. And you know what I mean, Like, no one wants to do that. Yeah, that's that's so we're we're gonna, you know, we're gonna play it by ear. We're gonna see what happens, basically, shoot from the hip. If things change and I go to South Dakota by myself, I'll probably come to Michigan for the opener or like the third, fourth, and fifth or something like that, and then come back for a couple of days and then go to South Dakota. So it's honestly, it's still up in the air. Really well, I've got that first week planning on being around for you, but I will be gone for Chunk in mid October, but we'll hopefully we'll be back by the seventeen or eighteenth or somewhere in that ballpark. Your wife's gonna be home. That came out, but it came out kind of right to wow. Man, Yes, make sure that if I'm gonna trespass on your property, there's no one going to be at the house. You got cell cams too, right, I got cell cams. I've got people that are gonna be watching the house. People will watch all my hunting spots. There's no way that you're gonna be slipping in there and killing trans like one of your buddies if I just go. Yeah, Mark wanted me to come out here and check out the property for a couple of days. Uh, Like I got it covered. They would they call you. I'm gonna I'm gonna have further on Dan patrol. But speaking of that, you know, we haven't actually talked about Trand on the Wired Hunt podcast yet. We talked about on your podcast a week or two ago, but probably people know from social media or listening to your show. But Tran, that buck that I was after all last year, he's back. He made it and I've seen him a bunch now. Um yeah, he the first week that I got back, first week of August that I got back from Idaho. Um, I was able to get out in Glass. They're a bunch and he showed up like four times over like an eight day period at night to feed. And then he disappeared for a while because I had to go back on that property and I had to do a bunch of food plot prep, and I hung trail cameras and just got all my stuff done. And then he disappeared for a while. But then he has showed up the last two nights, back in daylight, feeding out in this bean field. Um, so he's he's not you know, when we did that prediction, we're trying to predict what he would look like. Yeah, he's not quite that, but a little bit like when we were talking, I said that he had a little sticker off one of his bases last year, and I was guessing this year he would have two big ones. That was true. He's got he's got a sticker off each base and they're probably an inch to an inch and a half long. Maybe those are pretty cool. And then otherwise he's just like a big main frame eight pointer. Hard to tell exactly how long those times are, but they're long. Um. I mean you saw the picture, just a big framed eight and uh, just a cool just a cool buck. So it's a it's game on, yeah man, And he's a main mainframe eight yeah eight, And then those sticker points the base base. Yeah, yeah, he's a beautiful, absolutely beautiful black man. Um. I like eight pointers so you should shoot him. I'm I'm gonna do my damnest. He's on your property every day. I mean, I don't know about that, UM, but he's he's somewhere pretty close at least. I mean, if if I look historically, he was always frequent, he was frequenting it, I believe that he lives. If I had a guess, like based off of my scouting, based off a trail camera data, based on the last two and a half years of observation, I think there are two potential zones, two to three potential zones that I feel pretty confident he's betting in. And one of them is that on neighbor's property, and one of them is on the property I hunt, um, and and it's close to the edge both of them, so I you know, I know where his home zone is for most of the time. I've got a lot of data work off of as far as past year history, UM, and now just a matter of making it happen. I made a bunch of not a bunch of I made some changes to the to the farm to specifically try to set myself up for a better chance to get a shot at him, UM, which I mean, we can just get into it. Guess since we're talking about it, um So, this is that same property you know where the Holy Field saga happened, where you know, I would see that deer all the time in some neighboring cover, but I couldn't hunt it. Um So, I have just like a lot of edge and farmland and then a couple of little grassy areas that I've been able to convert to food plots. So in the past, you know, one of the big changes on this property was when I converted this old grassy field into a food plot system. Um That was probably seven years ago. I did that and that started getting some of these deer that hung out on the neighbors to come over to my side, and I started, you know, I've killed a few bucks in this food plot system. That's where I killed Frank, that really big one a few years ago. I killed about an Opening day out here. I've killed a lot of doughs. It has become like a really good spot that in the past didn't do anything for me. But I have found that while I have I had a few encounters and usually like opening day, the first couple of days this season, you'll get a big boy in there. Um. The big ones, the mature bucks, more often than not don't end up coming out there, um, or if they do, it's quick or it's not of range. And I was just trying to sit and think, you know, what can I do to just make this a little bit more enticing or a little bit better so that if a deer does come through here and I'm hunting it, I guaranteed to get that shot. UM. So I made two changes. Um. Number one, this whole little system of food plots. It's only about a two acre area, so it's relatively small, but it's a circle on one side by this food plot screen of sorghum and Egyptian weight that I plan every year. So I've got that. But what I used to do was just kind of plant that whole area into food plots. UM. And now each year since I've started adding more and more cover on the inside to try to make its small, smaller openings so deer will feel more comfortable coming out there in daylight. I don't want them to have to feel like they're going from this really great thick, brushy cover into a wide open field and and not feel comfortable doing that. So I've continued to let more and more cover girl back in this chunk and then create kind of narrower, strategically designed food plots. So I went from this food plot, I could sit in my tree stand and it would be sixty yards to the edge of it, and I would see lots of bucks would walk that edge and they'd be out of range. I shifted the plot design this year too, make sure the farthest range from me would be forty yards away, So I moved that outside edge in closer, so if they come out into that area, they've got to be within range. I've added a couple of cover corridors, so basically I've broken up the food plot into almost a four leaf clover with big chunk of grass and brush that I've left in between each one of those leaves of the clover. So now instead of it seemed like a two acre field, it seems like four you know, quarters to third acre, little curvy winding openings. Um. So again, hoping this is like almost like a maze that deer come into and they feel they're never feeling like they're very far from cover. They can't see very far, so they need to move through it to look for other deer. Imagine a buck coming through here instead of you know, walking down wind or stepping into it and just looking at the whole field. Now he's got to move around. Um. So I did that. And the second thing I did was I took Steve Vartilla's advice he gave me a few weeks ago and added a bunch of licking branches into the food plus system. So in the past, I know you've heard me talk about these like fake scrape trees that I put. I'll put one of these things right in the middle of the food plot, and they used to do just one per field. I put four in this one. So the idea of being this is like a communication hub on steroids. Now all kind of in a small area. So it's gonna be a lot of sign a lot of you know, information being passed along here. So I'm just hoping between all that it's it's more conducive to daylight movement. Hopefully there's gonna be a bunch of scraping activity. It's gonna be great food. I planned these food plots oh ten days ago or a week ago, and I just checked in the germinating and coming up nice. Um, it's I don't know. I'm hoping it's going to be a little bit more. I mean it's always worked pretty well, but I think it's gonna be a little bit better. I'm trying to get that one or two percent edge you know that maybe gives me the shot at Tran or at whoever. And it's a spot that I'm not gonna hunt a ton. You know, it's gonna be like an opening night hunt maybe you know an e name during the rut or late October when they're coming out to feed in the evenings. Um. But it's it's a spot that's pretty central, at least from a scouting perspective too, because I can glass this area from afar Um. This is the place that if you remember last year, I didn't hunt Opening night because it was bad weather. So I thought I'll sit in the hill and watch it and then the next day when the cold front hits, I'll hunt it. And I watched it opening night and watched Tran walk right by my tree. Uh So so yeah, I'm not going to make that same mistake this year, hopefully. UM. I got a question, Yeah, I know, was it this spring or early this summer? The power line Company came through and was doing some work in the area. Did that affect you or is that going to affect you at all? So I wasn't sure how it would affect me. But they finished up in June. Um So it kept me from like being able to do any maintenance work on the plots because actually, like they were doing work basically in my plot areas because I can use that power line for for food plat stuff. Um, So I couldn't do any spring prep. I just came in late this summer and they were gone by then, and they had moved out there big. They especially laid a wooden pallette road across the whole power line, and that kind of messed up the soil. Is huge ruts through the food plots and a bunch of weird kind of holes now, But other than that, it hasn't impacted me at all. Um And And honestly, by having that road there and then taking it out, they killed a bunch of stuff. And then when they removed that road, it allowed new stuff to grow up. So a bunch of new plants grew up where they used to be just grassed. Now there's a bunch of milkweed and different things. Like that. So that's kind of cool. Um, so ended up not being a big deal. Now, if they come in and do more maintenance work in season, like cutting trees or something, then that will really throw off my whole game plan. But um, as of now, fingers crossed, it's it's gonna be okay, got you okay? Um? Yeah, so that's where trans gonna be. Uh there's another pretty nice nine point I've been seeing there. Um. I'm guessing he's probably just three though, so I think he'll be a pass um. But if it gets closer hunting season and he just looks like a tank and appears more mature than I think right now, then you know, if if train disappeared, maybe I'd take a crack at him. Ah. There was that last year in late November, a new buck showed up. I was calling the brow list eight just like a big eight porn. His brows busted off. He was mature last year. So if he shows up in season again, he'd be a buck on that farm might be after two. So if we're talking hit list, I guess on that farm, Tran is number one. I have everything, and then that browless eight would be number two. If he comes back. Um, and then I don't know about that nine pointer. Um, A bunch of good young bucks too that I've been seeing that hopefully we'll stick around for future years. So stuff looks uff, stuff looks pretty good there. We'll see how it goes. Um, what does your gut tell you about tray? And you think you're gonna have an encounter with him where you're gonna be able to shoot him? I think so, yeah, I think, Um, you know, unless he gets killed by someone else, if that's the big trump card, I don't know. But if someone else doesn't kill him, I feel very good about my chances. I know the buck, I know where he's at. I'm I've you know, fine tuned a lot of stuff and move sets and prep trees for saddle hunts deeper and deeper into the cover. Um where I think, you know, I'll get I'll get my potential opportunities. You never know. But um, he's he's a homebody, he'll be around. So historically I'm talking not about train but in dear movement in general. Has the dear movement on the farm that you hunt stayed the same or has it changed over the years? Um, well, I think that in general, there are some basic trends that have stayed pretty consistent. UM. Although like one thing would be, you know, when I added that food plus system, that added a whole new area that deer started using a ton Like that's now like one of the main hotspots on the farm that in the past never was, So that is a change. UM. Otherwise, it's it's a pretty simple There's there's lots of good betting on some neighboring properties, a little bit on mine, and then all the crop fields are kind of on mine, and so you've got deer moving off of the neighbor's betting coming out to these fields where I can hunt, and I can hunt around the edges, and and that's always the same. UM. I've just have changed how I hunt a lot. I used to hunt just the edges. Now I hunt some of the edges still on occasion, but I've been every year I've kind of pushed further and further back UM, And I'm going to continue to do that, and I think be more aggressive this year than ever. So, so I see different movement because of that. UM. As far as like deer activity, there's always like a lot of great activity early in the season, um, and then you know, I hunt a few times early in the year. Usually mature buck sightings dropt down again through mid October, at least out in the spots that I can see easily. I'm sure they're doing stuff back on the cover. Um. But then historically, right around that last week of October, it just seems like there's always a dough that comes in early or something gets them going, and it just seems like this farm is a little bit better earlier than other places. So I like to make sure I'm hunting there that last week of October um, because that just seems to be when it when it gets exciting. So it goes through November, and then gun season hits and everything shuts down, and then usually late season picks up again once the pressure settles down a little bit. So that's the typical pattern I see. You know, sometimes your gut can tell you a lot man and uh, I think you I mean, you've been hunting this farm for how many years now? Oh um, this might be my tenth year, nine years, ten years, something like that, So you got it. I mean, for the most part, I would say, you've gotta figure it out. I know the basics at least now it's just like trying to figure out what each individual buck does, but I definitely know the basics. Um, But it's it's it's I like to bounce around a lot of different states, and I like that new adventure. But for some reason, this place continues to be a fun challenge because I'm I'm still finding ways to tweak or I'm still doing different things and I'm still trying new things. It's it's remained interesting for me, which is which has been cool. And I think a big part of that has been I've been lucky to have bucks make it year after years, so I get to, you know, learn a specific buck and and that just as you know, gets me excited. Yeah. And let's see, I'm thinking about the main farm that I hunt. This will be season. I've hunted it and I've gotten somewhat of it figured out, but it just becomes just like any farm. Really, you can have it figured out, but it's a matter of that deer has to walk by your stand while you're in it all at one time. Yeah. Always easier said than done, right, absolutely, So So let's talk about that farm then a little bit. What's uh, anything new that you've scouted out there, figure it out, or basically going in with your mobile hunting strategy as usual and uh just gonna pick it up once the season starts. Yeah, I mean that's typically what I do anyway. Um Man, as far as prepping for the season, I just feel I'm way behind. I've only checked trail cameras one time this entire summer so far. I'm gonna try to sneak out today and maybe take my boy with me and go do it. I got a wedding down there anyway, so I'm gonna try to, I don't know, try to get out and maybe at least check them. But the shift, you know, the the trail camera shift that we always talk about, I don't think I'm gonna be able to get to it until closer to October now, just because of the schedule. Um with work and that storm that came through eastern Iowa, we're just way behind. I'm I'm just way behind on work. So it's hard to say, Okay, I'm gonna go out and check trail cameras or I'm gonna spend a day to go do this when I know I got a ship tonnel work to do at home and and catch, you know, catch everything up. But other than that, man, it's just I'm behind shooting my bow, I'm behind with work, I'm behind, you know, I'm just I don't know that's that. Those are all excuses, by the way, which nobody wants to hear excuses, But that's a fact. I'm just I'm a little behind. But as far as that farm is concerned, I'm gonna try to get some trail camera out in some in some places to start catching. But the good thing is is I know where the good funnels are, I know where the pinch points are, I know where the the deer movement is for the most part, and knowing that allows me to almost it allows me to be unprepared from what I'm normally doing because the way I hunt, I could just get caught up real quick. Right, throw some trail cameras out on a couple of days, go check those trail cameras. Come late October early November, when I make the decision to start hunting, and then just start that that rotation, right, find the deer on trail camera, move in and make those minor adjustments until you connect with one. Did you get to listen to that whole conversation here with Andre the other day. Yeah, yeah, I did, and I get well, not the whole. I don't know if I listened to the last fifteen minutes of it, but I tried. So I'm curious, based off of the stuff he was talking about, do you see any of his you know, he's got kind of a similar approach to you, except for instead of trail cameras, you know, he's using just sign he sees in the ground and moving based off that. Do you foresee adjusting anything basiness on the things he was saying, Is that anything that might influence what you do there? There's one thing that he said that I kind of like, and that is you'll never spook a deer out of his core area. He'll he'll run away and then he'll come back, or he'll go hide somewhere, or he'll back Doria, or maybe just you know, go not turnal for a couple of days. But he's not going to just leave and go five miles down the road, right, So that is something that I've always kind of thought anyway, But I think I'm it's it's hard to be more aggressive than what I already am, other than with time of year, right, I mean go into the betting area October or something like that, right, which I won't be just because of time constraints. But if I could, maybe I just start hunting and making those more aggressive moves earlier in the season to try to try to find where they're at. And for me, it's hard because in certain states. And this is I hope I don't come off arrogant when I say this, but when you have five deer that are four or older on your property, you don't know which one of those deers making that sign, right, You can you can try to, you can guess or whatever, but the only real way is with trail cameras and with like in person encounters. Right. So yeah, it's uh, it's And what I what I found is I guess you want to say, is my bread and butter is to go in and just start the rotation. Just get in the timber, go to those historically good places first, and then start crossing parts off the farm. Now here's what I will tell you. If Gnarlie Charlie shows up, I get a cut off half the farm because historically he doesn't go through. He went through the main pinch point one time. Last year and that was it. But other than that, I get a chop that farm in half and and just focus on more so how big would that chunk be there? The focus area would be like fos So, I mean it's still a lot to think about. Yeah, that's a lot to process. I mean I can spend my whole year drumming my brain trying to figure out how to hunt eighty acres uh let alone. But you have to remember, not every not every acre in that four acres is really good for tree stands. I mean it's some of it's wide open timber. Some of it is like the bottoms, you know, the crick bottom. Some of it is wide open egg field. So you take you take your knowledge of the past years and minds being thirteen years, and you're able to see where the deer moving, what ridges they prefer, and you just use that information to put yourself in the best possible position. So gnarally, Charlie's your number one buck for sure, right if if he's there, If he's there, um, hopefully this weekend I get to come out and check some more trail cameras and confirm it. But yeah, I mean, if he's back, he's number one. But there's also a mammoth eight pointer out there. Who Now, I think I told you this in a previous episode that the first card poll I have other than like this one class ten, which is absolutely great deer, and if he come by, I'd probably shoot him. But there are three other deer that made them uh, so a total of five deer I would say that have made themselves known last year. And if last year is the same as this year and all these deer showback up, uh, it could be a really good year as far as putting the the pieces of the puzzle together using the data that I collected last year. So, um, I gotta let's just assume they made it. Yeah, what what would what would be the other deer um that you'd be looking at? So not if Narali Tcharler is back he's number one, what would be the next buck you'd be the most excited about. Yeah? So there's this ten pointer and he's a hilarious act drawing of a ten pointer. And I don't mean like he's not a tw ten pointer, but he is that hundred and seventy typical ten beautiful Iowa white tail, and he'll probably a five year old this year, and he was one seventy last year. He was probably about one sixty two or three year a little one sixties as a ten this year, you know, just if if he does make it, another one is an absolutely giant eight pointer, well passed his years. He's just this cage, another perfect frame with a split G two on one side. Um, he's one of them that was running around last year. And then what was the other one, uh, probably another one sixty class nine pointer that had a big series ten total points, but he was the main frame nine with a split G two on the on the four point side, so he's running around. And then there was another so that's four. And then there was another ten pointer really tight, probably just out to his ears, but really tall. And he was a three year old last year at a probably one fifty class one one maybe, but you know, at another year, he'll be a four year old this year. If he makes it, then that would be awesome. And then you have your other deer that are mature but not necessarily a you know, anything to brag about in the antler category. Yeah, man, well you've got some options hopefully, yeah, And you know, I hope that doesn't come off ar again, It's just I live where I live. He can't falter for that. Um. Now, here's here's a question. And I know we've we've talked about this in the past a little bit, but I'm just curious to see where it stands right now. Let's say Gnarly shows up on camera this summer, but to get out there and start hunting, he's you know, showing up on camera here and there, But one of these other bucks show in shooting range. Is this the year that you're going to pass on some of these shooters because you really want to get Gnarly or what. Yeah, I'll tell you right now. I'm not gonna pass on a one seventy class tin pointer for Narlie Charlie. I'm not. I'm not gonna do it. If any one of those hit list deer show up, I'm gonna go after. I'm gonna attempt the shot, right Um. But one one thing I won't do is if Gnarly Sharp Narlie Charlie is active on the farm for some reason, I will be putting myself into position to hunt him, not these other deers. So my decision making is going to be for him, not anything else. The good part about this area is that these deer, these five deer from last year, all run the same circuit, right. I don't think they all live in the same core area, but I think their core area overlap in that on that farm. So certain parts of the rough vacation, certain parts of them come in and they come out. You know, they're checking them for those and whatnot. And you know, if there's a good chance that if I put myself in the right position, I'm going to be able to have an encounter with one of those one of those five deer man that's uh, or any bonus bucks that come through, which would you never know around there. The buck eye shot last year was a bonus buck. So yeah, that's exciting. And the hunting season, so you'll be gone early season, you'll be gone mid season. So when are you gonna start hunting the Mainiowa farm Then yeah, probably not. Um I'd love to get out there and check some cameras. I'm gonna be putting some cell cams out just to see the deer movement pick up, But other than that, I doubt I'm able to hunt that farm until after November three or something like that. So I'm gonna vote on November three, I think it is, and then I'm heading down to the farm. So man, you know what I remember back in the day, you would there have been some other year where you said you weren't gonna be a hunt in October at all. You weren't gonna be a hunt until November, and I was pissed at you. Um, but I'm not so man now, because you are hunting your hunt all over the place, just not there in Iowa. So it's nice to see how life has changed for it and that way at least. Yeah, man, trust me, if if things were different, like I can I'm leaving the state to go to Michigan. If I told my wife I was going to go down to the farm an hour south to me for four days straight, she would not have that. But because for some reason, because this is a planned excursion, that that she's okay with it. So whatever. So you know, I'm gonna be gone for e or nine days on this mule your hunt, and then I gotta come back. I gotta work, I gotta play daddy. Daycare school is going to be starting up with just some crazy as schedule like three days on for two weeks and then three days off. So it's gonna go three three two two three three two two until they decided to go back full time or do this remote thing whatever that is. So that has to I have to play that into the cards. There's the potential that my season just gets totally left if if classes don't resume full time, because that means someone's gonna have to watch the kids, my wife is going to I'm gonna have to get a daycare provider, my wife's gonna have to work from home, like all these things. That's gonna really cripple the season. To be honest with you, and how likely you think that is kind of thing. You know, I'm not I'm not one for politics, but I live in one of the most liberal counties in the state of Iowa, which when they make decisions, they tend to make them more towards the liberal right. If we were gonna say this is just you know, hypothetical or you know, stereotypes, let's just go by stereotypes. Republicans they want school to go back in session, you know, full time, no restrictions. Democrats they want the schools to be closed and go remote right or some kind of hybred model. Well, the counties that I live near, the two main ones high they're the highest populated counties in Iowa. There they always vote liberal or Democratic in every election. So every decision that they've made thus far has scared heared me into, you know, like hunting season maybe close to home or just way more trips, way more one or two day trips down and then come back. So yeah, we'll see. Yeah, hopefully it works that okay for you, and I hope so too. But either way, I'm equally as excited for the upcoming season. Um, you know all of I think we talked about it like three years ago, four years ago, they did all that logging on the property, and it is beautiful now in there. I mean it is thick, it is nasty. It is what you want for deer cover on your farm. I remember how stress you were when was happening, and I was like, man, just wait, just wait. I'm glad. I'm glad. Um, I gotta see a picture of that. I'd like to see what it looks like. Yeah, well, just stand in front of a bush and take a picture. I mean, I'm not I'm not joking. They're like it is six ft high, just straight wall of patches where they took the wherever they took one of these big mature trees down that area where it's canopy was is a wall of smaller trees bushes. You know. Uh, Woody browsed and it literally holds deer and it's awesome. No, speaking of what you're just saying a second ago, the Michigan trip, your travels, Let's let's circle back on that a little bit. Um, we talked this spring about your game plan. Has ever anything changed in your mind if you've done any more eat scouting or anything like that since we talked last time about it? Um, Where where's your head ad on all that? Yeah? Man? Uh? Along with the east scouting, you know some people giving me tips on where I should hunt. Uh, you know some near you, some about forty five minutes north of you. Even had one guy come up and he's like, dude, you need to come to northern Michigan one of these antler restriction counties. I'm telling you it would be it would be worth your trip up there. So I've gotten a lot of Um, I've gotten a lot of advice from people, everything from you're wasting your time, You'll never see a deer to you know, to don't sleep on Michigan. If you do everything right, you'll get a crack at it, like a one pointer or something like that. So, um, you know, I'm I'm just excited to do I was talking to my buddy Bob Polanic, and I was like, I'm just excited to do something different. This would be the first ever trip that well, other than the combination mule deer white tail hunt I did in Nebraska, this will be the first white tail focused trip I've ever taken out of state. So I'm just excited to do something different, Excited to see new terrain. Excited too, you know. You know, I don't know, just sided for everything. And uh as far as what I'm looking for in a buck, you know, I used to give me ship for that comment. You know, if it makes me go, uh, you know, I'm gonna shoot it. Well, this is gonna be probably you know, I'm gonna say it's gonna be a one percent mood focus decision, Like what's my mood that day? Does that? Well, here's a here's a four corn. I'm gonna be able to take meat home? Why not? You know what I mean? That's a the Michigan pointer right there, go for it, man. Yeah, you know like you're saying, and I know we talked about this before, but you definitely could get into them and you could see some nice bucks. You know, I wouldn't I wouldn't be shocked if you could shoot a hundred. At the same time, it wouldn't be shocked if you just saw year and a half olds and does and not a single good buck. You know it could be. And there are big bucks too, I mean you certainly are so you never know, you could shoot a slammer, um, but it will be interesting to see, you know, Bob and I we go from Michigan and hunt Iowa. Here to go from Iowa and hunt Michigan. I've never I don't know a single person who has ever gone the reverse order. Here the first person I know who lives in Iowa that travels out of stage on Michigan. And I'm glad I can take a little credit for that, pre precious. I'll tell you this as as just a fan of bow hunting in general. Right that time of year, Let's just say I strike out on that first trip, first three day hunt, and for some reason, I'm lucky and I tag out early in Iowa. There's nothing stopping me from getting back in my truck and going back to Michigan and potentially hunting some of the rut up there. Yeah, do it. I mean, I'll tell you what, whatever size buck you kill, if you kill a buck here in Michigan, that one's gonna be pretty sweet. You're gonna feel really good about it. I tell you, I don't care what I shoot. You know, if I shoot a buck in Michigan, I'm gonna get it euro mounted and I'm gonna put it. I don't care what size it is. I'm gonna get it euro mounted. I'm gonna put it in my office. I like it. I like it. I'm excited. I'm excited for that one. So, no specific goal except for where you want to kill. You want to fill a tag of you know something. It's new experience and if I can, if I can leave with a full full cooler, man, that's a win. If you ask me, yeah, i'd i'd have to agree. Well, good, I'm looking forward to that one. UM. No restrictions as of right now, right yeah, yeah, no restrictions. UM, over the counter tag, I can just show up and buy buy yep, yep, by your kid when you get here. Gas stations, grocery stores, all that stuff. Um, yep, there's yeah, pretty much most not all grocery stores, but your Walmart's, certain gas stations will we'll get you figured out there. The only thing that you have to be aware of and will cover it once you get here, just be the c w D restrictions, Like what you can transport across county lines. You know, if you want to bring it home, you'd have to have the skull completely skinned and cleaned out. You could bring like the antlers and skull played back and boned out meat, but you you're not supposed to take that stuff across county lines throughout the state. Maybe I'll just find a taxi or must there to do my if I if I shoot a buck, hey, just do it there and then, you know, give me another excuse to come up to Michigan. Yep, I got you. I got good recommendations for all that stuff so perfect. I love it. Um. I was talking a little about the back forty. Talk about the back forty a little bit. I got a question about the back forty. So you guys have done all this really high folks, you know, you've really focused on the habitat there over the last couple or over this last year. Has it since because I think the last time that we talked, you mentioned that it really hasn't brought more deer into the farm quite yet. But now that we've had a growing season under our belt, I'm curious if if it's holding more deer as of right now. Yeah, and I think the answer is yes, I think definitely. Um, I saw two things this winter. So after the first hunting season, after we stopped hunting and left it alone, there was a lot of deer in there, and a lot of deer sign When I was scouting in March, I mean, there was a lot of deer in there. So they're definitely in there at that part of the year. Um, since I've been back in the summer, there seems to be a decent number of deer. I'm getting deer on trail camera. I bumped a pretty decent buck the other day when I went in there and do some work. Uh, like a nice five point side on his right side and like a weird funky fork dagger thing on his left. Um. So right now, we haven't been able to make all the changes I wanted to because the whole COVID thing this spring completely shut down our spring plans, um like, just changed a lot of the stuff we want to do. So I got a little bit done the spring, and then we're gonna try to do more over the next ten days. We're doing some more stuff, but it's definitely not the ideal. I still think though there's gonna be some noticeable progress because of three big things. UM. This spring, I wanted to address these old fields. So as you know, a lot of the property just like old farm field that was growing up just from whatever was out there, and it had been mostly almost all this weed called Mayor's Tale, and it's this invasive weed that has very has no food value to deer, has very little cover. Um the leaves dropped early, then you're just left kind of bean stocks. So like once the leaves came down in October, it was basically a like a bean field, um, you know, with no beans, and a lot of the deer didn't want to travel across that. Deer weren't betting in that deer weren't feeding in that. UM. I wanted to try to change that. So this spring, my plan was to plant switch grass across a lot of these areas. So I frost seeded switch grass, which basically means I just excuse me, I broadcast switch grass seed over the ground um early in the spring when I was still freezing and thawing, freezing and thawing, and then it just takes in the seed. And then I sprayed this pre emergent herbicide that would kill the mayor's tail and that stuff, and you know, reduce the competition for the switch grass to come back in. So I did that, and then I also planted a variety of little lines and coves and visual barriers of that switch grass sorghum stuff that I talked about earlier. I did that across different places on the across the farm to create just more structure out there in these fields. Um. And when I came back from Idaho and went to go check it out just recently, what I saw was a couple of things. Number One, those screening areas came in mostly very good. I tried it last year, they pretty much didn't come in it all last year. This year they came in pretty damn good. So we've got a lot of these kind of like corn patches scattered throughout our walls of corn scattered throughout. It's not corn, but it looks like a So right there, it went from these like being ten acre open fields and now not feeling like ten acre open fields. Just with that. Secondly, by spring this spring, I essentially eliminated almost all the Mayor's Tale and what replaced it was some of that switch grass. But switch grass is notoriously slow to grow, and I've I've remember talked to it seems to be like you'll get some the first year, but you'll get a lot more of the second. So there's some switch grass in there, but it's definitely not full of it. Um. But a bunch of other stuff came in once the Mayor's tele competition wasn't there. You know, I've got a bunch of different kinds of grasses. I've got a bunch of different forbes, a bunch of golden uh, golden rod, a bunch of shrubby stuff. I mean, it's just diverse, all sorts of different plant types out here, lots of tall, thick cover in all these fields now where last year that wasn't the case. So the fields are a lot better. So I think that that almost doubles the amount of cover we have on the farm compared to what it was last year. And then last I am about quadrupling the amount of food that we're planting. So last year I probably got just over an acre of food plots in and they didn't even come in that well, this year, I'm closer to almost four acres of food plots that I'm planning. Um, just because I did not see the deer activity. That deer we're not hitting our food plots higher, They're moving off to these bigger food sources on neighboring properties. So so this year, I've, like I said, significantly increasing at I've got a better understanding of how to plant with an no tell drill. I'm planning another one of these blends, but I feel good about this one. Um. So if all this pans out, I'm gonna have four times the amount of food out there, two times the amount of cover out there, and these strategic you know, walls of corn looking stuff making it even more broken up. And then finally next week we're gonna come in and plant I don't know, maybe forty fifty trees across the farm in these old fields We're to create various like little pockets of tree. So like a cluster of five on this little knob, a cluster of four over here in this corner, cluster four or five over here, and create all these little pockets of evergreen cover two. So you take all that, and I think you've got a really diverse farm with a lot of cool stuff going on with food and in in good places that can be hunted that will hold there on the property, but lots of covers scattered throughout. Um. And still that there's that swam but naturally is right there in the middle too. Um. And then then the last big thing we did is that we did a prescribed fire across this big ridge system we have that has some native prairie. I removed a bunch of like this invasive tree essentially called buckthorne, and then another bush called automotive, removed a lot of that, and then we came in and burned this prairie area on the ridge. And now it's come in just flush full of stuff. So you've got like a three acre ridge that has got like I don't know, nine ft tall prairie grass in there and cedar trees. And and then that's right next to a swamp which is next to these overgrown fields with four acres of food plots tucked inside of all that. I mean, I don't know. That sounds like a white tail and wildlife mecha to me. Yeah. Man, well, is now are there any deer from last year? If you already checked cameras on that far? So I've only checked. I've got one cell camera that I've been getting pictures on, but all the rest I have not checked. Um, but yes, you're wondering about bucks. Yeah, so there is a big ten pointer that I was getting pictures of all the way to the end. Not big, but there was a three year old ten point that was still showing up on camera to the end of last season. He was like a nice salad kind of tight and tall ten pointer last year, and I haven't heard of anyone killing that deer. He was showing up pretty much almost to the very end of the season. I think I got pictures, so I feel good that he probably made it, and he did. He'll be he'll be a really nice buck. So I'm really hoping that buck shows up. Um, there's that funky buck that I just mentioned to you that I bummed the other day. I you know, I couldn't see his body size, so I don't know if he's like a huge body mature buck, he's you know, he'd be a shooter. I couldn't tell for sure just by watching him run away. Um, there is this big uh fork buck that we were getting a bunch of pictures through most of last year. Like he was like tall, imagine like a I don't even know how to like what he looks like, almost like a mule deer with like a fork dantler mule, like a four point what they would call two point mule deer almost except for the forks were farther out on the beams, not like super deep on the beams. Just a big four pointer last year. Um, if he is back this year, he would be a really cool deer. And I think he might be um. And there was like a nice six pointer that showed up on trail camera on the cell cam the other day that I don't think would be a shooter for me, but he'd be a shooter buck for um my dad, who's gonna come and hunt again? I brought him out there to hunt last November for a couple of days and it didn't work out. But I'm gonna have him back to hunt for like five days right around that time period of early October when you were gonna be here. He's gonna coming on the fifth and hunt for four or five days during that period. And I'm really hoping to get him a crack at something so that that bucker, you know, any nice like two year old, would be like the biggest buck he's ever shot, So that would be that would be super cool. Um, you know, everything else that I know of last year, there's like this really big eight porter I saw not that I saw got pictures of last year. I heard from a neighbor that someone shot him and never found him, so he might be dead. Um the funky sided that there's like a funky nine. Someone sent me a picture of him getting shot by someone. And then I killed the wide eight. So basically everything we got pictures of last year was was knocked was knocked off through hunting season. So so yeah, I don't know. I will hopefully know in another week or two when I do check up, but I'm much more hopeful this year. I really think if if we get rained and the food plots coming okay, um, I think we're we've got We've got some cool stuff in there that that should make it should make it promising. So it's another one situations like it was last year, a little bit where it's not me. It's not just me hunting it. So I'm you know, I'm not gonna bull hunting it quite the way I would normally do it. You know, that first time we go in there will be mostly just trying to get my dad a buck for that first hunt, and then I don't think I'll be going back to hunt it again until we start filming in the second week of November, and at that point a couple other people are gonna be joining me out there, and we'd be trying to get them a deer. So you know, it's it's it's a little bit less about me killing a deer out there and more about sharing with other people and learning some stuff and seeing how the property grows and changes. And so I think my goals up there for the back forty would just be for it to be a much better experience for people. Last year, and we went out there and hunted, it was a lot of slow hunts. You know, we killed one guest hunter killed a doe, and I did kill buck but it was like that was like the one flash of greatness that one day. Um, I would love it if this is a place where, like, if you go out there, you better have your seatbelt on because it's gonna be an exciting hunt. I'm hoping it'd be nice. Man. That's my goal for the back four this year is like, give me an exciting, fun place for people to hunt, um and shoot. If there's a nice but sure buck out there, that's a bonus. Yeah, yeah, man, that's awesome. One one thing I thought of real quick that has even has me even more excited about the farm that I hunt is crop rotation here. Um the farmer, like the farmer doesn't take the corn out of this forty acre field until mid November. And it's awesome because it creates this wall between a road in the timber that is just this travel corridor for that I've that I've kind of figured out. They come upper ridge, they cut this ridge. It's where I it's where I shot my buck in two thousand eighteen, that big nine. So I'm excited to get back and I'll start hunting that particular piece of the farm just because of the crop rotation. Now the crop rotation on the farm near your home. Is that a does it matter as far as crop rotation or do you see like if it's a corn ear there's more deer, or it's being here it's more more dear. Yeah, you know what, I have not seen it really influence things every single year regardless there's there's something. UM. What is nice though, is that UM I like it when whatever is on that farm is different than the neighboring farm. And that's what we have this year. So I've got a neighbor with standing corn, but on our farm it's just beans. UM, So at least there's a little bit of both right there, and and it is kind of nice. Like in that front section where that front food plat system is, Um, what you have is basically my two acre. Like there's a finger of timber that comes out, and then there's this food plat system tucked into the inside corner of that finger of timber. And so I've got this two acres of food mixed with cover and brush and all this stuff, my four leaf clover food plus system. And then right across the creek from that is a sliver of beans. But it really is only like I don't know, a hundred yards wide, and then it hits a standing corn field on the neighbors. So there's a bunch of stuff in small proportions, all stacked in this little corner, and that's right next to this primo bedding area. UM. So these deer are coming in and out and they can feed in the open bean field, but it still feels pretty secluded because that standing corns right next to it, and then my wall of sorghum in uh Egyptian wheat is just on the other side, and then this thick brush on the bedding airs right next to that. Um. So there's been like a ton of activity in there this summer that I think is because things just worked out nicely to have standing corps next to this and my standing stuff on one side. Um, it feels it's not as wide open as it is some years, which I think is going to be a good thing. Yeah, So we shall see, Um, we shall see. Yep. So you know, I think I mentioned that earlier. You know, I I typically have a ton of mature deer on the farm this time of year or whenever I check my trail cameras by now, and I haven't checked him since ship for early July, and I was a little disappointed. I had the one good deer that was on camera. That was it. But this is one of those years where I call it a being year on the farm, and I think what I'm hoping is that it redeems itself, like the farm kind of redeems itself, and once the um the beans became palatable, more dear kind of come and show themselves on the farm and work their way in into it. So I'm hoping that that will make a big difference. And uh, tomorrow or whenever I go and check my cameras, I will have more intel and uh more information and hopefully the big dogs show up. Man, if the big dog shows up, I might need to get you back on the horn and talk to you for five minutes to think about it, right right, I know, because I'm excited to see um. So this year is hopefully going to be the year of Gnarly Charlie for you. In November, well, October is going to be the year of travels for you with South Dakota and the Michigan Adventure. And for me it's gonna be Tran year three and hoping to see the back forty bloom into something special this year. Um, other than killing you know, one of your big mature box in Iowa and having a great experience in Michigan and filling a filling a cooler. Um. And I'm sure, well, yeah, I guess do you speak to this too? Do you have any other main goals this season? Probably something with your South Dakota hunt, of course, but anything, anything, they're worth noting. I'm just excited. Man. The older I get, I get a different vibe off bow hunting, and it's more of this weird connection than it is to let's go slay some giants, you know, like the old Dan Johnson and this, Like like I'm gonna turn forty in November, so I'm really just going out right. I'm really just going to enjoy myself. Man, This this hunt that I do in South Dakota is awesome. Yeah. I mean it is one of those hunts where your backpack in, you're doing the whole back country thing. You you get up on a knob, you glass and there's no human structures, Like, you don't see farms, you don't see antenna's. You you gotta look real hard for him, but it's just you're in the middle of nowhere, and there's something about that. I made a Facebook or Instagram post the other day where I don't know what I like more the actual hunt of the hunting season or the fact of this isolation, being able to isolate yourself and just be alone in nature. And I don't know, man, I'm starting to love that equally to the chess game with some of these animals. So it's just I just look forward to this stuff every single year, and the passion really hasn't died down. It's just changed and and I am I'm just so geeked for, you know, that that drive, that anticipation. I mean, the other or yesterday, I cleaned my water bladders out, I got my uh you know, I got my food organized. I got my backpacks organized, some of my gear organized for the muleeer trip. You know. I I put a new site on my bow. I got confirmation that my new arrows are coming in. So all, as much as I feel like I'm behind and say I'm behind, you know, it's just a matter of you know, checking the boxes and putting the pieces of the puzzle together so that the you know, the two days before the I leave for South Dakota. I know that, Hey, my mobile setup is ready for Michigan. My trail cameras are out in you know, in Iowa, and I have all the gear I need for South Dakota. I am just at that point on Auto Islet, and I just go where the wind takes me. So tell me this, What is one area of improvement that you are hoping to focus on in some way this year? Is there anything that you thought about leading into this year that you want to try to do a little differently, or that you want to learn from last year, or something like that. You know, I think it's hard because you don't know what to improve on until you make those mistakes, right, So you fail, and then you learn from that failure and you make better decisions the next time you set foot in the timber or a field, so to speak. I don't I don't know that I've necessarily improved or gotten better at anything. One thing that I'm going to do is to just slow down and absorb, you know, absorb that, you know, not necessarily sit in front of a phone all day looking at whether, looking at maps, you know, just deciphering all that talking about that equation that if the wind is doing this, and the terrain is this, then I need to do this and all that stuff, just like go and make my decision with every step. If that makes sense, I think so okay, Um, I think not react or I want to react not playing, If that makes sense. I think I follow you. I think I follow you. That's kind of in line with one of my areas of improvement is I want to take my uh kind of like the stuff I talked about with Andre and some other guys earlier, take my scouting to the next level, like like not be so dependent just on trail cameras and what I see and try to get my ground game up a little bit and some I'm really trying to folk us more on paying attention to tracks, trying to pay attention to what's the sign telling you, and being willing to push in and and and and lose. This goes back to something from last week, lose the fear of failure. A lot of my hunting, especially early on, and every year I've gotten better as I've gotten more experienced, but there was always this fear of failure. You know. It was like you hear all these people, and you read all these magazines that preach, don't spook a mature buck, don't let those bucks know you're there. You've got to make sure that you know they have no idea because if they catch you once you're done. So so much my hunting revolved around, you know, keeping pressure as low as possible, never letting a deer know I was there, and and and stressing out all the time about that. Not that that's not important, it's I think it's still very important. But I'm also learning that you you can get away with things if it's done in the smart way. And because you've got to take stabs to get the kill, um, you gotta get aggressive sometimes to make it happen. So so I want to this year lose a little bit of that fear of failure because sometimes you do have to swing for the fences to hit a home run. Um, you can't always just sit in the sideline. So that's I want to. I think I've been taking steps there each of the past few years, and UM, I'm wanting to take another step this year in that kind of way. So I'm gonna be a little bit more aggressive. I'm gonna get deeper into things that I have in the past. I'm going to explore just a little bit more, um and if I bump something or if I screw it up that day, well learn from it and adjust and we'll see what happens. Um. So that's that's what I'm hoping for. Any last things you want to cover off on for our goals hopes and hit list d you know, I have one more small goal, and that is to get my son and daughter out for a field edge hunt where I'm not expecting to shoot anything per se, but I want to get them out and get them in a tree stand for you know, for an hour or so and let them see like hopefully the goal is to let them see deer in a in their natural environment, you know, and say, oh look, hey there's a deer right there. Watch him. Let's just watch even if he's a hundred yards away. Let him put up the binoculars, let them do all that stuff. So a little bit of the you know, the father teaching their kids how to hunt stuff, um while the weather's good, and uh, get some of that going to Yeah, that's awesome. I was I was thinking about trying to get Everett out for a little sit at this sometime this fall too. If if somehow it worked out were schedule and weather came together, and to do something that's sitting, like a box blind or a blind that would be comfortable for him and we wouldn't spook ten tho deer that would be that'd be awesome because he is like my son is nuts for here right now. Um. Every night before bed, he wants to watch a deer buck show, as he calls him. So we watch a little bit of deer Buck before bed, and he when there's a buck on screen, he's rattling. He's got his own rattley antlers. He goes to bed, he brings his rattling antlers to bed with him. He's got a grunt tube. So he's grunting, and he'll I swear to goodness, swear to goodness. I have to say goodness because if I say I swear to God, or if I say, oh my God. By accident, he's starting to repeat everything. So I'm trying to make about that. Yeah, I'm trying to be more careful my language these days. Um. But he he will do a regular grunt. He knows how to do this basic bra he knows how to snort weez, so he'll snort weez at bucks, and then he also he'll try to stop a buck to get a shot, so when the bucks getting close, he'll start going, Matt, Matt, it's so funny. Um, so that's it's funny you say that. Okay, So I got all my mouths in my living room, right, and I asked my daughter, which which deer of all these mounts do you like the best? She points to one and I say why she's like, because it's got big anglers. Like okay, my my oldest son, Hey, what what do you like about? Or what's your favorite deer on the wall points to the same buck and says it's because it's got big anglers. And my little my my two year old, I go, which one is your favorite? And he points to the mount with the uh, probably the smallest rack up there, and I go, buddy, why do you like that buck? And he goes, big neck, big neck, and it is it is. It is the two thousand sixteen. I shot this buck and his neck is just all swollen and huge, and I lost it. I was like, y, so funny, that is great. Oh man, it's gonna be so much fun when these guys are out there hunting with us. I had a conversation with a seventy two year old the other day, um, who his kids are my age now, right, and he's now transitioned into grandpa mode where he takes his grandchildren out sometimes fishing and hunting, and he's he's telling me his favorite the thing he remembers the most is when they start to get into their teenage years and they still really like the outdoors, and they really haven't. They've made a decision that they want to be an outdoorsman. It's okay to not go hang out with your friends, right every single weekend. They want to do the hunting thing. Right. He's like, that's awesome. But what I love even more is when we have arguments, or when we used to have arguments over where to go set up. He's like, that stuck with me, and that showed me that they were just as passionate as I was about, you know, getting into hunting, because they they started forming their own opinions on on how animals moved and where they should set up and all these things. And he's like, it was stressful at the time, but I absolutely look back and I absolutely loved that stress. That's awesome. That that will be cool, That will be cool. Well, we've gotta lot to look forward to, my friend, several more years until that though, But man, I'll tell you this, Mark, good luck this upcoming fall. I hope you have a blast. Thank you, sir, same to you. Let's let's make sure we're checking in as frequently as we possibly can over these coming months so we can keep the progress updates coming. And uh, hopefully next time we talked for one of these things, I'll have an Idaho story for you. Absolutely. Man, all right, Bud, thank you, And that is today's episode. Hopefully enjoyed this one, little lighthearted, a little bit focused on Dan and not a little bit completely focused on my season and Dan season. But uh, this is something we try to lay out there so you can follow along with us throughout the rest of the season and kind of see some of the things we're thinking about, and then as the season plays out, you can kind of compare and contrast to what we're hoping for or what we were thinking to what actually happens. And then when the season is done, we're gonna do a postmortem and talk about what we learned. Did we meet those goals, did we fail to meet those goals, What do we learn from all of that? What kinds of mistakes do we make? There's sure to be a lot of that, so be sure to tune in see how this thing pans out, see what stories come to life, and uh see if maybe Dan and I can feel a tag or two, and hopefully you as well. So thank you for listening, thanks for joining us for this one. We will be back next week with all sorts of interesting new topics, and until then, thank you and stay wired to Hunt.

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