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 fifteen. Today we're joined by Jeff Danker of Major League bow Hunter, and in this episode we're going to dive into how to break down a strategy for hunting mature bucks. I really enjoy this discussion, and I think you will too. Let's get at it all right, Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. Here with me is my co host Dan Johnson, and also our special guest today, Jeff Dncher of Major League bow Hunter. Welcome to the show. Jeff, play up pretty that you guys have me on. Absolutely we're excited to chat white tells of you and see what you've got going on. And you know, as I mentioned in the intro, you're one of the hosts of the Sportsman Channel TV show Major League bow Hunter. But for our listeners out there, you know, could you share with us a little more about your background, how you got into white tail hunting, and maybe what led you to working on Major League bow Hunter and outdoor television. You know my deal is is it might be different from a lot of people. Says. I really never set out to be a host of a television show. I was, you know, my dad brought me up coon hunting when I was four years old, and I loved the outdoors, and of course you got me into hunting, uh White tells. But then basically I was, you know, all we did was rodeo. I mean we we grew up as calf ropers and team ropers and and then my dad had a roof and company, so we learned to work hard. And man, I was just as I got older, I was still hunting and and and how I got in the hunting industry. O guy called me in Oklahoma City and said, hey, I got this this uh local hunting show. Would you want to go to work for me? And Uh, I was like no, I really don't you know, I'm a tent where I'm at, I'm rodio on any time. I wanted working for my dad. And long story short, he said, well, I tell you what he said. I know you're killing some good bucks. He said, if you would go to work for me, I'd give you a percentage and he said, I will pay for all your hunts. I was like, well, I ain't. Why did you say that from start? And so anyway, I met with this guy and um, and he he give me a camera, and I mean, give me one of them big old cameras back in the day. I didn't know nothing about it. And he said, just pointed and shoot, which is absolutely wrong, we all know. But I took to the field and uh, basically, we spent thirty one thousand dollars filming for this little local show and and had fourteen kills without knowing what we're doing. And the guy never paid me. And that's how I got in the hunting issue. I had this footage and he wanted it. And you know, I was born at night, but it wasn't last night, so I wasn't given it to him. And uh, and that's how I started my first show, Buck Ventures Outdoors, which led to Major League bow Hunter and and my friendship with Chipper Jones and and Matt duff and and we're just now it's our life and and uh, you know I haven't set foot in the woods without a video camera over my shoulder since two thousand three. Wow, so how long before that you said that this guy had known you were killing some good deer. How long before this kind of trial in the in the video side of things, how long before that were you starting to kill those good deer? Well, you know, and really back then, how wouldn't he consider it good? Dear to me now? But what I'm very fortunate. I grew up right here in Lincoln County, Oklahoma, where we have deer, but big deer few and far between. And when I started hunting, guys, if if you've seen a dough, you were shooting a spike and and so I got to hunt those, and I got to even seeing a glimpse of deer. I had loved it. And then, uh, back in the nineties, I moved out more northwest, or i I say moved. I still lived here, but I got grounded northwest up by the Kansas line. And I'll never forget what changed my whole deal. And this was about when he called me, is I shot a deer up there my first time in northwest Oklahoma, and I was proud. It was like eighteen inches inside, you know, probably looking back on a maybe a three year old one, and I was proud, and I checked it in that morning in the state up there in northwest Oklahoma, and it was the third littlest buck check in that morning. I think there was one sixties, one seventies and I right then I told myself, you know, and that's when I started learning. That's when I started being able to pass deer. And you know, we've all read the magazines, we've watched shows like ours, but the experience that I started getting and kind of where we came up with our slogan never stopped learning. That's where I started to learn is letting a one twenty walk out and watching his behavior and then the bigger one come later. And and that's where it all started. So probably when he called me there, you know, I was shooting maybe some one forties by that time, and we were we were in oh And I mean I was hunting public ground. I said. Wherever I went outside of Oklahoma, I was hunting public ground. I would research, I would find those public areas where there was no big towns or big cities, and I would sneak up there and i'd find those places in the summer, and that's where I was killing these deer. Wow, that's awesome. I'd love to to dive a little further into that. But before we get into the real meat of things, we do like to kind of throw our guests a curveball, usually here in the beginning, to loosen things a little bit up. So that said, Jeff, I'm curious, what's the most embarrassing song you have on your iPod, phone or computer. Oh, my goodness, that would probably be And oh man, I hate to say this, but it is embarrassing. It's Whitney Houston emotional my my wife, my wife and me. That was way back in our high school days. Uh. She she always had that, So she has that. I'm gonna blame it on her. It. Oh that's great. At least it's a good song. Yeah, I guess. Yeah. All right, well we'll we'll do the same one then, Dan, what about you? What do you got? I have Taylor Swift teardrops on my guitar. Taylor Swift. All right, don't tell anybody. I was thinking about this one before we before we started recording. I think for me, it's not a single song, but a whole album. I have the in sync Christmas album back from Like. That's embarrassing, Yeah, it really is. Yeah. Uh So some from there, we'll we'll try to get back to white tails before we say anything else worse, but with that other way. You know, as we were just talking talking about Jeff, you know what I've really enjoyed about Major League bowners is one of the things you just said there the fact that your motto has never stopped learning. And I think you guys do a pretty cool job of breaking down properties and hunts and you know, showing how your set up isn't everything and that set I was hoping to kind of look at that way of thinking throughout this episode. And so, you know, to start off, one of the things that I've seen you and Matt and Schippard do a lot in the show is you're hunting new properties, going to some new areas, and I was hoping to to kind of hear about how you start that process. So could you talk to us a little bit about how you identify new properties that you're interested in hunting, whether that's maybe back in the day when you were hunting some most public spots or today, Um, you know, how does that process get started for you? Well, the first thing with me is is I'm not your typical or maybe i am, but I'm not going to be an outfit or type guy I'm not. I don't want to be around anyone. I mean, and even breaking it down to meet Chipper and Duff in camp, I mean, and they'll tell you, and really I think they're becoming more that way too. As far as I don't want to be on a piece of property with you, Chipper or Duff, I mean, I want options. I want and and so what we do is the new pieces. I mean, obviously we're we're looking at the right states and then breaking it down from the states to the right area where there's uh, not only good bucks, but a right area, whether there's not a lot of people or or whatever. Whether we're in Nebraska, you know, we're discovering some new stuff there and then you know from there. I truly believe, like in our line where we're leasing or buying at times is if you're leasing, you've got to have a good relationship and a straightforward relationship with your your guy that you're leasing from, because you know we're serious. So when we when we drive ten hour somewhere, we are expecting there hadn't been one footprint laid on that piece of gram. So that is one of the most important and even back to my public days of going up there. I mean I researched it all on the computer, and I found those far places, those big places, and then found those pockets where I didn't think anyone would be, and then that's where I hunted. I would go hunt all day. I would sneak around. I would I was that guy that my pickup might be parked over here, and you're thinking I'm hunting here, but I'm two miles from where that pickup is. And uh and just and and that's really how we hunt today. I mean we just again, just the no pressure is such a big deal. I mean, a hundred and seventies deers no harder to kill than a one forty if he's not pressured. I mean it's you got hav him and then you gotta keep him not pressured. Definitely. So you mentioned that you're just in leasing. Are you doing any just by permission property or is it mostly going to be purchasing or getting those leases? Well, you know, we we we get all kinds of requests for you know, people when they find out we're gonna go hunt somewhere. So we have a lot of people that say, man, and you can come hunt my farm, and so we have taken a few of those opportunities, and we were real careful and making sure that uh again, that it's legit. It's a deal. I mean I always tell people this. I mean I always say, listen, I'm a big old baby. I tell him that's straight up. I don't hunt after no one. You know, I'll come in, we'll set the place up, and then as soon as I'm hunting, done hunting and kill my deer, I will leave all my tree stands for you. So so that's where we're careful. But well, you know I did that in hole. Last year. I went to two forty acres in Iowa and a guy said, I'll let you hunt, and I told him my deal, and he said, okay, we won't set foot on her. Here's a house you can stay on. And I went up in the summer. I actually meet Chipper and my brother and a couple of others and and we filmed the whole deal, which I air this year. And you know it was different for me. It was it was terrain. It was big terrain. It was over and unit uh five and uh so it was it was not mountains, of course, but you know, big old Ridges and and that was a different kind of way of hunting for me, and and uh and it wasn't, I guess in my little honey hoole type hunting. And anyway, we spent six days there and we shot a really nice deer, hundred fifty five inches deer, and and uh, you know, I end up just signing my bow and giving it to the guy, and I got a friend for life out of it. Very cool. So I guess. Now, let's say in that type of situation, Let's say you've you found this about whether it be that one in Iowa or you know, maybe you're looking Nebraska. You picked out a property that you're gonna hunt. How do you start that process of scouting? Is that something you're doing, you know, all through the summer, or do you since you're hunting in a number of different places, are you doing you're scouting and prep maybe right before the hunt? You know, what does that look like for you? Well, that deal is where I break down all my stuff. Is I break down my states and break down my familiar property. So when I'm talking Kansas Oklahoma, I'm always going after my big big deer there because they're close as the places I know, and then Iowa is another one. It's a place now that I know more. Um. But so so I got about three or four, uh that I'm going after big deer because I'm running all these trail cameras. And then there's a few other ones, like you know, obviously when I go to Alberta or North Dakota, you know that is going to be more getting there a couple of days early glassing, trying to find those deer, and then hanging on the fly um. And you know, so there are several of those, but it kind of goes both ways. I mean, we're we're gonna leave out here next Monday and we'll probably gone seven days. We're going to Oklahoma, we're you know, running their trail cameras, putting up a trail cameras of Kansas. Then we're going to Iowa, and then we're actually going to a brand new piece and ohao that I'm hoping we'll fit into that same mix of that being kind of our home and um and going after those big big deer. I always tell people, and I've learned this is you set your goals based on what you have. I mean, you know, Kansas, I know all the deer as long as they've made it. The deer that I found a cheft too, that are going to be there. Oklahoma, same way, Um, But when I go to Alberta, I'm not gonna put a number on the deer that I'm gonna shoot before I leave. I'm gonna get there, We're gonna scout a couple of days, and I do set a goal from there, um, but I don't set my goal to early on those places. Now Oklahoma, I'll tell you I probably won't shoot nothing this year because of the kind of deer I have on it unless he's you know, a hundred sixty five ines deer. Wow. Okay. Interesting with all that travel that you guys are doing, how do you how do you spend your time? I mean if if you know, let's say there's a nocturnal buck in Iowa, and um, but he's big enough to to keep you staying as opposed to you know, you've traveled all the way out even Iowa, Ohio or North Dakota, which or even Alberta. Those are longer trips and it starts to get slow. Are you guys pretty aggressive? Um? And you know, make make some aggressive moves or do you just pack up and head out. Well, I'm I'm that's a great point because i mean, everybody always and what you see on the show a lot of times is is you know, we're always making decisions on what you stand to go to, what win the play or whatever. But some of the most important decisions will make all year are just what you're talking about. So I have one hunt booked that I have to be there. I mean, I know I'm gonna be there September two to September thirteenth, and that's Alberta, Canada, So every one of them other ones, Guys, if it starts to get slow and I'm seeing the weather's cold and Kentucky, I'm leaving. Um. You know, I think that's a lot of a gut deal. Now. You know, I've gotten stuck in places before, but mainly I'm we're not set to be nowhere. We're not that the you know, like Michael Widell, I mean, you know his his Hunters or book right now, he knows where it's gonna be. Well, we're not that way. We're you know obviously, you know I'm gonna try to be in when I get back from my bird, I'm gonna try to be in Kansas today at open September seventeen, because I got a really big deer there. But if I go along there and it ain't happening and I can't see that's going to We're going to either bail and go to a different place, or you know, I got two little girls at home. I'm going to spend every ounce at my house with my girls. When it's no good, I'm not just gonna bang my head against the wall. So and that's how we all are. We're we're not that typical TV show that's got all these bookings and we have to be there. And and the big thing there too is we we lease our own pretty much every piece of ground other than we have an eye in a Kentucky where people let us hunt. But but other than that, we can go anywhere we want, just based on our gut and the weather. That's a nice situation of being for sure. So how many states this year? I think you've mentioned a handful of that. I'm not sure if it was last year this year? How many stays do you think that you will be hunting this year? Well, always, me and Chipper and Duff we sat down every year, and we we tell ourselves that we need ten possibilities of peace with this bow and era, because you know, if you can go out and kill three to four mature bucks with your bow every year, you're having a great, great year. So we have keen possibilities of piece UM this year might include Alberta uh too in Nebraska, too in Oklahoma, one in Kansas, one in Missouri, one in Ohio. And then I I'm putting in for a governor's tag in Iowa. UM. And then we have what we call our lean to places. We have a really nice place in Arkansas that dot hunt it last year uh and and so we're gonna we'll possibly be there. We're also gonna hunt with for gout squincher in uh Mississippi, UM December ninth, which is when the Rutt starts there. So there's about my pen possibilities. Nice. It sounds like a pretty fun possibilities for fall right right definitely. So so taking a step back to UM, you know, once you're breaking down of these spots, whether whichever one of these different states you're hunting, let's say you're you're there, you how are you using trail cameras at that point to, you know, figure out you're hunting strategy for the week or a few days that you're there. So when I'm when I get to a place, yeah, well, I mean, the biggest thing with truck cameras to me is they are the most revolutionary type tool that we have today. But I'm as guilty as anyone in the past. You've got to be so careful of going in and out with them and getting them so right now, what we'll do is we'll put out all these truick cameras on what we call our home places that I've mentioned, and they're just inventory cameras. They're not in that good looking place where you want to hang to stand. They're they're in big bulk over big bulk feeders um uh. And so we're just checking the inventory so to allow us to know what's there, what's really blew up. And then from there when when I get to a place, um, you know, it's all gonna matter at the time. If I get to a place and it's early, then I'm still gonna be so careful. If I take one in that is close to uh, one of my sets, I'm still gonna be doing inventory type deals. But if it's rut, then I'm gonna be more aggressive. I'm still gonna go check that camera with the right wind, but I'm going to be more aggressive. I'm gonna take it in and what we call kind of like speed scouting during the day and I can get by with more that bucks not so sensitive and um so, so we're we're still using the truil cameras then, but we're just the biggest thing. I just I am real careful with the truil cameras. They they help us tremendously. But if you're in and out of your honeyhouse spots, uh, you know, big boys don't get onto you really fast. Yeah, it's definitely one of those catch twenty two is, like you said, so many people get over excited bout him. I want to check them all the time or I'm careful. Um so, yeah, it's something you definitely have to think about. And you know, one of the thing I'm curious about, how often typically are you checking those cameras, And you know, is there a certain area that you'll never go into to push a camera into. Are you always keeping them outside of a bedding area, or will you ever, like you mentioned, get more aggressive and push them into different spots. Well, and yeah, I mean obviously the year and the time that like September, I truly believe that you only get one to two mistakes with the big deer. I mean, I'll just bring up Kansas. I mean Kansas. I shot a buck we call Huckleberry that most people have seen by now hundred eighty three and five eights ins deer. I've never seen the deer in my life. But what I did with him is I put I put several trucks. I was actually sent two fitthy acre farm there on the Arkansas River, and and I put up five trail cameras, one of them over a twelve pound boss buck feeder that was on the oasis to some soybeans. And I end up getting several pictures of him in August and in September. There was wrong winds to check four of those cameras, but I can only check one with the right wind. And and I was really waiting on windy days because he wasn't in my mind, wasn't better too far from there. And ended up checking this camera, and he had moved to this camera, and he was he was coming through there, going to soybeans, and and just so happened that I had a back door into this place to hunt him with a south wind, hot south wind, and and end up killed him off of that trail camera. I mean, I truly give it up to the Moultary for that, because I was I had in my mind he was in a different place, and I was hunting him with the right winds but in a different place, and he was just a no show. And and anyway, so that night I killed him my acts. He'd laid my eyes on him for I think fifty four seconds is all I ever saw that deer on the hoof, but I have three pictures of it. So you know, being real careful in September going into your aggressive state of mind, absolutely, man, when it gets November first, and that that that air changes. If I need to go in somewhere and hang something on a scrape or wherever it might be, I'm going to do it. I'm still using my head. But I said that time of year, if you bump a dough or whatever it might be, deer used to running deer. They're used to even snorts, and uh so I'm I'm way more aggressive when that is sure, that makes a lot of sense. I think that's pretty well in line. Uh you know what what me and Dan have been doing too? What what are your thoughts on all this? Dan? You know, I myself am a huge like I don't have enough stands for all my hunting locations. And I know that our listeners love the details about what a person is doing on on your running gun setups where you're you know, you may you come to a property, Um, are all your stand location is already trimmed out by the time the season starts? Or are you running and gutting, running and gunning? Are you cutting shooting lanes? What kind of tree stands? Are you using that kind of stuff? Well, I'm I'm the same way as you, Dan, I'm not. I don't have everything trimmed I mean, you know how that is. Things change anyway. So you know, if I were running and gunning, I mean, I'm I'm cutting those limbs just like anyone else and being as careful and as quiet. And you know, the one thing I'll say, I never go in morning or evening. It's always gonna be um in the middle of the day with the best possible win I can get. You know, whether it's raining or whatever, is always a good time. But I'm I'm trimming those limbs and and uh, you know, and I'll just tell you a lot of times what I do these days is instead of going in the typical way we used to do it, as you'd go in going I'm gonna go hang a set there, We're gonna back out of there and give it a day or two and then come back in and said it, I am glass and that tree that I want to be in, I'm looking at the map and then I'm going in to hang that set and hunt it. So whether it's piking a stand, me and my camera, guys and you know, some of we well use the sum of hawks most of the time. And uh, but we're hanging and hunting, and I have been. I just can't stress enough that the amount of success you can have by that, because by the time a big buck gets there and he's not put it all together with his brain, he's getting there now you're already in the tree. Even if he's picking up some syn that you might have laid down, he's there and you're there, so you have a percentage to kill him other than you're going in laying a bunch sent down and then two days later come back, he's already been there, he's put the puzzle altogether and and he spooked. So I do that a lot. That's good. That sounds I mean, that sounds a lot like the way myself and Mark uh hunt as well. Yeah, it's all about the power of that first set. It's pretty incredible. Yes, And that that brings up another question. How often or how many times will you hunt a stand before you get to the point where you figure it's it's worn out? Or will you if you find a spot that he thinks the spot, will you just hunt that for the rest of your time in that area? You know what, what's your thoughts on that? Well, that goes a lot. I mean, you know a lot of it. Man. I truly believe in a gut feeling. But my sets, I mean I have sets that are called observation sets. I have stands that I call bulletproof sets. I mean, if I mean one of my bulletproof sets, which is basically like the set I described in Kansas, where I can slip in, I cross a river that and I went through an open field to get there, and and I crossed this river and in twenty yards in the side of this rivers this stand, I can hunt that stand is any times as I want. With the right wind. I mean it truly is. You don't spook nothing getting in, you don't spook nothing going out. Um. So as long as I got that right wind, I'm good to go. So um. And you know there's others that I said. I think I go on gut a lot. I mean, I'm studying a map, just like I'm sure you guys do, especially when you get into that state of confusion. You know, I know for the listeners, you know, everybody gets jacked up. You're ready to go hunting and go all of a sudden, you're in the hunt three days and and and all this day dreaming that you've done over the last month ain't happening. So it creates this state of confusion for all of us hunters. And that's where a guy has just gotta go back to the map, gotta keep that positive attitude, and you know, you just put your best foot forward. And when I say that, always have the wind. I truly believe if a hunter follows the wind, I mean, if the guy has got forty acres and he's got a stand for east, west, north, south on on each side of it, and you might have we all got that favorite set. But if you let that wind dictate where you're gonna go, you're that wind will kill big bucks for you, no matter design might not be in that place as it is in your little honey hole stand, but those right winds get it done for you. And so that's what I'm always breaking it down to is, you know, I might have you know, twenty sets hung on a place, and then it breaks down to these three are good for this wind, and and then just going with my gut, and I think it's hunters, you know, that's what we're all going to have to do to some point. Yes, you bring something that I think is worth diving into a little bit more. I'm just being you know, playing the wind. And there seems to be a lot of different ways that people look at this. You know, some folks are just trying to make sure the wind won't get them caught by dear. Some people are trying to think, more so, how is the deer using the wind? You know? What's you know, howard? How do you look at that? Are you focused on a combination of the two or one or the other. How how does that go through your head? Well, my deal is, you know a lot of people ask me gooff and stuff about this, and I just think, as the hunter that's hunting, he has to have a plan. You know, so many people they could tell you where they're gonna hunt right now, guys, opening day, and that's not a good plan. I mean, you've got to have a plan broken down of Okay, mornings, this is where I think the deer are. Evenings, this is where I think the deer are. So you have to have this inside your head in my opinion, and then my deal is my goal and objective every time I hunt is to not spook one deer none. So I'm definitely looking at as I walk in, making sure I'm up flooding any betting area, making sure when I walk out that night that I have a good access point to get out. Uh. You know one thing we talk a lot about on all the properties that we get to view is you know, you you'll be scouting the property march and all the signs lay down and you look up and there's that perfect tree that has a perfect place for two stands. You know, it's just awesome. But that's not the most important thing in our mind. It's it's the access. So we start with access. Yeah, we find those honey oath places, but that that place might be a little too deep or whatever. So you know, really I was looking at it from a whole, not to ruin a farm, not to step on a one eighty or one ninety class deer that you're hunting, or you know, as the one forty whatever it might be, that mature buck is is being so careful. But but my key here is the plan. If a guy goes in not thinking, uh, he's got to come up these old plan, people ask me, well, how do you know where all them dead dear? But why I don't know wherever deer on the place he is. But I I put in my brain where I think they're going to a destination field at night, how they're getting back there, and where they're laying, and I based my wind for that. Now I've went into stands before with that plan, and all of a sudden a deer coming out in a different place, and I get busted, and you know, obviously never stopped learning comes into play there. I learned from that and then change to to elaborate on that a little bit. What kind of UM hunting areas I guess you would say, do you find yourself in the most like pinch points? Field edges are like food plot edges, sign hunting sign or travel areas betting areas well, my dear might be different than than some others. Is you know obviously in the rut, I'm gonna be your typical guy. I'm gonna be your typical in a paint. You're a funnel travel area with a great wind. That's my philosophy in the rut, and I'm gonna spend as much time my philosophy and the rut is get a good wind, getting a high travel deal and set all day is many days and you will have success success doing that. But where I concentrate on killing my biggest deer is never during the rut. The rut, it is something we all get hyped up about, but it's the most unpredictable time of the year. So I'm trying to kill my big deer in in September and early October and even late December. So I'm I'm very careful uh those times of years or that time of year. UM. But my number one tree is what I call an observation tree. It's the tree that you can see along ways. It's the tree that you're probably not gonna kill a deer out of. But I spend more of my time in those trees, and and I might spend three or four days in those trees. And then when I move, it's because I've seen him or whatever and I'm going in to kill him. So I end up in all kinds of different situations. Uh, you know, but but those observation trees have been really good to me over the years, and and not just moving in to kill. But then you take that observation tree in the ruts, see what's going on, and you're you're calling in, dear and kill him. I mean I've I've killed two booners out of an observation stand that I ended up late October with one of them, uh early November the other one, and called into decoy on both times and and use that observation tree. I wasn't word per se you would want to be, but I was in a safe tree where I had a great win great access or I could see and I called him to me. That brings us something that um when it comes to hunting new properties and maybe need to be a little more aggressive the idea of decoy and to kind of push the issue. I would love to hear a little bit more details about exactly how does he use a decoy, what your what your strategies are on that. Well, my decoy, and is, first of all, I started decoy because I loved the footage. The decoy had got me into more trouble in my hunting career than any other piece of equipment. I mean, you know, we all love that deer coming inside way he's licking his lips, air blown out. And uh so, my biggest deal to to anybody from my experiences, be careful when you use it. I mean, you know, basically pre rut when when the bucks are by themselves, um is a great time, but you just have to be careful that they're not still busted up. And and the way I use them, you know, everybody sees it. Turned back to the hunters. They walk out there twenty five yards and they pointed back to the tree with the ears back, and I absolutely disagree with that. On the way I've killed all my bucks is I take the decoy. And again, my big theme anybody talks to me. I'm real careful. I don't want to spook nothing. So I take the decoy five to seven yards from the bottom mount tree and I face it away from me, and I touched the back legs only and and I only stake the back legs. I never put a footprint. I'm very, very careful. But that way I don't have to walk out there and put more sent down a great way. One of the booners I shot was I had a fence line that was on the other side of my tree where I wanted to shoot the deer. But I walked up that fence line, which is about five seven yards from bout my tree. I reached over with the decoy. And I do this every year. I've killed lots of bucks this way. But I just I stay on my side of the fence and then I stay his back legs down right on the other side of the fence, and uh put his ears back and then climbing a tree. And again it's a barrier that they can't get my scent because you know, you guys have used him. You know that you don't always get that shooter. And then you get that curious buck stomping around, and that's what I'm trying to avoid. Yeah, that's definitely, Uh, the curse of decoys is when that happens, that's awesome. That's that's a pretty interesting idea that that goes, like you said, counter to what a lot of people says, but it makes a lot of sense. The other big thing I just want to touch on him, because I think it's the most important part of decoying, is there's a time and you guys know the time when all of a sudden the deer are disappeared. If it usually happens around November seven through somewhere in the fifteenth, where the doze, the button bucks, everything has been harassed so much because every buck in the the woods is you know, looking for a girlfriend. So that's when then does go into hiding and they're just ballied down and trying not to even be visible for anything to see him. Well, that is the best time to decoy because then you're not having to deal with the old dough that's blown at your decoy for forty minutes because they're all hidden away. And that's when you can get by with being on the corn field or being filled and you won't have to deal with a lot of does looking at your decoy that's a great point. That's uh, that's something to look for for sure. Yeah, so continue on the seam of breaking down the hunt and taking a little more of a micro look at this. I was interested maybe taking a look at one of your recent successful hunts and diving deep into that. So, Jeff, you know, is there a specific hunt maybe that we could take a look at, And if so, can you share with us you know when and where this hunt occurred, and then we'll kind of go from there. Okay, Yeah, I mean one that I thought about when y'all mentioned this segment is, you know, last year I was gonna talk about my Alberta hunt and uh, you know, this is a place that I went the year before and shot a nice buck, but I ended up on a new farm over there this year. So I went to the old farm that I was hunting, and an activity just wasn't happened. I was in the observations stand. I had some one thirties, but the biggest deer I could find. You know, you're in Alberta, obviously your your expectations are high, and uh, anyway, we just started driving around one day we we just covered as much ground in the morning as we could to see if we could lay our eyes on the deer. And and sure enough we laid our eyes on two really big deer and uh that was hitting the barley field. And we we started, uh, we started a plan of attack as soon as we saw this deer. Uh. We we started with a plan of attack. That was the wrong when I looked back, it was the wrong plan. But we started with observation stands. We we started, and we thought we kind of knew where he was living. But we were absolutely wrong. But that observation stand we hung. It was a safe play, it was, and we end up watching the buck come out of a big cup block and coming all the way across this c R p UM and then hitting the barley obviously a dark and then vice versa in the morning. So three days into this uh, moving back and forth the two operation stands. One morning, one evening. UM, you know, the buck was doing the same thing. He would come out of his cup block and was really interesting about this deer's He would when he come out of cup block, it was short grass and he would run all the way across. He had hit four ft c RP and he had slow down and the easiest way all the way to Barley, you know. And just that to me is amazing watching a five year old deer, just the smartness of him versus those two year olds that were just gandering ran. And so anyway, the next play, we were actually looking to the north out of this set and and and he was coming out of the northeast way over there, probably seven hundred yards. So instead of I couldn't pinpoint where he was coming out of this cup block, so I tell him my camera guys like listen, Brandon, we're gonna go in. We're gonna set up on the north side of that field. And you know, it looked like he was probably paralleling this tree roll that's on the north side of maybe a hundred fifty yards, and you know, my my camera guys like, dude, we ain't gonna kill him rest now, we ain't gonna try to kill him. We're gonna go tonight and we're gonna watch him go by us. And when he comes by us, we're gonna let him get long gone. And then we're gonna pinpoint right where he came out, and we're gonna take this stand down we're gonna take a circle inside the wood, so we don't put any prints down, and we're gonna hang this sep and and we had a back door out so that exactly what I did. That I went in and we hung that set. The problem was it all sounds good up to now, but he never showed. We had this whole plan together and he didn't show. And uh so my camera guy was getting drindy. I'm like, dude, we're staying. I don't care how long it takes. We're sitting here. So I crawled down out of my tree. I got to the bottom of tree, and this this tree row, I like a skyline more and anyway, in a higher twenty minutes after daylight, I glass him in the and and watch him go across. And um, so we give him another thirty minutes and then we we pulled that set, had that ear marked right where he came out, and we hung that set in the dark. Got back about midnight that night, and then we slipped in that back door and got in that tree. And you guys, I'm sure you've hung sets a dark. You're always hanging that set it dark, and you wake up the next morning in it and it's not what you or you got to trend this name in the dark. Well this was the one time, guys, no joke. When it broke daylight, I was like, oh my gosh, we hung We couldn't hung it any better in the summertime. And uh, anyway, long story short, the buck that I was hunting didn't come, but a bigger deer came came right down that same deal, come back from that barley, and uh, I get the deer shot at fifteen steps. That's actually the episode that aired last Friday night. But um, anyway, that that scenario was, it's just a perfect plan of attack for especially early and really late season hunting. That where your pattern goes deer. Wow, yeah, that's um. Sounds like it was a heck of a planet. And how you were able to adapt and and adjust all that's pretty interesting. What what do you think about that? Damn? My I love how there's that's that's being aggressive and I love it because that's the way I hunt as well. In two thousand and twelve, the buck that I shot, I think within maybe a forty or twenty or forty or thirty kind of square uh area, a thirty or forty acre area. I probably changed tree stands, maybe shoot maybe ten times in that small amount and maybe you know, like maybe even a seven day period, and uh, I finally got the buck. But what people don't realize is you gotta make the move. If you want to kill a deer, you sit in the st tree stand for seven days in a row, and you keep watching deer go and go and go. Buy you in a different area if you're not moving at your own fault, Yes, exactly right. Well, I think god, that's how we all grew up. I mean, I remember me. I grew up in my candy and they always said, man, just put your time and just stay there. And they didn't play the wind back then. They just went to this tree. And and really everyone I grew up around, that's the way they did. They all had their tree or their spot and that's where they camped out, and and it was just if you put your time in, they felt like they were gonna kill a deer. Well, to me, hunting isn't evolved, Especially if you're going after a mature buck or you're you know, you're wanting to kill a bigger deer. You have to adjust and and and just like you said, Dan, you have to make it happen. I mean we call it going in to kill. I mean a lot of times Chipper and Duffle asked me, I'll say, listen, you know you're gonna kill him Night. I wudn't know I'm going in And that's that's our lingo and camp is you know, Chip will say, no, we're not gonna kill Night, but we're gonna learn something, and we you know, we we could be another step closer tomorrow. And a lot of times that that has to do with the early season, but it also has a lot to do with uh, you know rud as well. I mean, you see a big buck that is locked down with the dough or chasing, uh, you know, you can't you can't afford to wait. You got to go. You got to go in for the kiel. Now, it doesn't always happen, and you might have to reevaluate the situation do something different, but more times than not, you have to to take those steps. Right now, I got a question that kind of evolves from this, and every hunter at some point fails, you know, they they make a mistake and the deer wins that battle. So how you know you guys are all about never ending learning or you're always learning? How can you How would you talk to a fellow hunter who has failed several times and need some kind of advice on on how to learn? Man, that's a tough one. It's um. I think it's a mindset. I think it's um. You know, I remember when I first started all this, I mean, the whole world's watching, so it puts so much pressure on me that it become not fun and I had to learn listen, it's not about the kill. It's about the journey doing it. And and I think all of us as hunters, we got to realize that. I mean, first and foremost, I'm out there with God's great outdoors. I'm I'm seeing this sunrise and this sunset, and the the kill is the bonus. And you know I say all that in one deal. But I'm I can be the biggest whiner that you purpose shared camp with. I mean, trust me, because I mean I'm serious business. I'm I'm wanting to win this battle. But I truly do know now when I set my goals that I've talked about earlier in the show, is uh, if I'm setting my goal in Oklahoma, I'm sitting in out Burder, Nebraska or wherever it is. I have to prepare myself that I could lose. And and so it's just like everyone watches television and they read these magazines, and you can learned so much by that. But every step you take in the woods, every true stand you hang, every encounter you have or don't have, there's always something to learn. And we really take that to heart these days. I mean, every time I get to watch a deer or a big buck or a doe, I'm on. I'm trying to learn something and and being able to. I mean, if people just look at it to write their own articles, you know, we're we're all learning by articles. We're all learned by television. We're learning by talking to each other and learning from others mistakes or successes. But the yeah, you guys know, I mean the best way to learn is from your own experiences. So I just think that's the way people of mindset could get and it will make you better every time you go. You should take something out of it. And you know the other thing I'll say this is a positive attitude kills big bucks. You know it truly does. If a guy, I can stay positive and learning in that way, you're going to have better results. Yeah, that's such a huge deal to that. It's hard to quantify and it's hard to you can't always wrap your head around it or explain to someone how to do it. But I think it changes everything about how you're hunting. Even you know, you might be in the same tree stand but if if one day you're totally down the dumps, maybe you're not paying attention as much, maybe you're not as focused. You know, that can that can end up, you know, causing you to miss that opportunity, which if you have the right attitude and you are prepared for success, you can capitalize on them. So well, I mean, it don't matter who you are. If you're Bill Jordan or you're just starting out hunting, you you can still learn a lot. It don't matter who you are. There's a lot to learn. And and to me, man, I tell you, those those kills and everything, they're rewarding. But the game with the the best animal in the world to hunt is it's it's what it is. You're playing a game. Enjoy it, you know, go head to head with him, you're gonna lose a lot of times. But that is what is so exciting about it is these these are the smartest animals that walk the earth in my opinion. I mean as far as trying to go kill them consistently, and especially when you start talking about big white tails doing on a consistent basis, it ain't easy. You're gonna lose. You got to be prepared, and I'm gonna lose several times this year. I mean, you know what you guys know, I mean, I any TV guy or anybody that's that's getting viewed from the public is is yeah, you're seeing its successes, and we ain't got time to show you all the times and bad things happen, right, There's always a lot more that goes on. That's that's on the editing table right right exactly, So you said something that likes you said, there's there's always a lesson to be learned from each hunt. And so from that from that one hunt, the example you give us a few minutes ago, you know what do you think was the main lesson that you learned from that successful hunt? And then you know what do you think would be the greatest thing that our listeners could take from that one example? As well, well, to me on that, what I learned from that is is it kind of goes on what we was just talking about. When when my farm, you know, I traveled two thousand miles or whatever it is to get to where we were at. And when my farm that was so good the year before, the day dreams went out the window because there was not a mature buck in that area coming to these fields. And and so I'd spent three days there and my my, I got damned. I got to wine, and I got to you know, like AILI and and uh so so, but but I rebounded and I said, Okay, we're gonna put together a plan. And and my my lesson here to myself was, Dude, it never happens the way you daydreamed. You've got to adjust. So we did. We got to pick up and we drove around and then from there is um, I think when I when I look at that situation, if I just take a regular guy, and when I say that, say one of my buddies that just hunts every down and he loves to hunt, but just goes and hunts, he would have dove into this farm and he would have spooked these deer before he even had a chance to hunt them. And and so again I chose to tiptoe in it, hunt from the outside in. And that was what allowed me to see these deer. And they had no idea I was hunting them. And to me, that is the key is kill a deer without him knowing your you've ever been there, And that's what we did. And and so those two lessons to me, you know, it may be as old as as whatever, but those are just the carefulness of what it takes to shoot these big bucks. And and you know, the thing about it is I learned every year. But then we go through an offseason, we go through what everybody else does, back to life and and doing our thing. So when you first start hunting again, that's probably when I make my biggest mistakes of the year, because I'm not polished, i ain't got you know, I might not have everything in my bag that I needed or or whatever it might be. And that's when I can make those mistakes. And and last year we were we were patient enough but aggressive enough at the same time, and they got a hundred six or five inches year on the ground. That is that's awesome. A lot of words of wisdom there. This is great. I think though that we are coming up on time here. Um. So that said, Dan, is there anything else you would like to add before we closens up? No, just as far as you know, I watch I never used to watch any hunting shows or anything like that. And what I really like about these guys and what they're doing with Major League bow Hunter is it is you know, yeah, they gotta pay their bills, they got to do their commercials and whatnot, but they also are trying to educate other hunters on how to be successful when a lot of their TV shows don't do that. And that's that's one big thing that I like. Well, I really appreciate you guys saying that. I appreciate the time that you'll have given me. You know, it's a I look at this and what I get to do as a privilege and a platform that God has given me. Uh. You know, I look back on when Major League bo Hunter started, and something a lot of people may not know and probably I don't even know, is when we came out with the name Major League bow Hunter. You can look back on the forums and we got hammered. We got hammered by people saying oh, it's just a bunch of rich baseball players fixed and start another show. And and you know, we couldn't really scream and tell them that's not what it was. But our goal was to be able not to say we're major League bowners because we're still we're not that. We're trying to become that. And we wanted to share every experience. And not only that, before Major League bow Hunner, you you very seldom saw people looking people and I and so that's the other big thing we did this. So you know what, we ain't gonna set our interview chair. We're not looking at the camera. We're going to look these people and no eye and we're not gonna have cute cards. We're gonna look at and speak from our hearts. And um, I think that is the connection that we've had because we're all hunters, were all in this together, and uh, we're gonna stay humble and and we're gonna do what we love. Now, we're not gonna apologize for having good ground or our working or tails m and off to have good ground. But uh, what I said, I just I think that was a big difference for us. I think it's paid off to its Uh, really, you guys have one of the best shows out there. I've really enjoyed it and you know, learned a lot from what you guys do. And like I mentioned earlier and Dan did too, it's it's refreshing to see the focus on the educational aspect. I think you guys do a better job than probably anyone of diagramming it out and really making it visual people to wrap their heads around. So I love it, and you know that means a lot come from you guys. I appreciate your show, and uh, hopefully go have me back on sometime. We'd love to. And if our listeners want to learn more about Major League bow Hunter, you know, where should they go? Maybe online? And then when can they catch it on TV? Well, it's obviously we would love for you to be Everybody follow us on Facebook. Our website is got some cool stuff on there, obviously, that's where you can buy a lot of the peril. And then our big air time is every Tuesday night. I think we're seven thirty Eastern and nine thirty eastern we have that's the Real Tree Hunting Block and Hunting Camp Block. So that's our two big air times. We are tonight so which I don't know exactly when this airs, but and then I just I take the time to to thank all of our fans and to thank anyone that listen today, and and just remember the model never stop learning. It's awesome. Jeff. Well, we will include links and all the information he just talks about there so that people can check it out. Be sure to catch the show. And that's on the Sportsman channel. Correct, Yes, that's on the Sportsman channel. Excellent. Well, thank you so much, chef. This is This has really been interesting. It's been a great conversation. Thank you, guys. I have a great day. Appreciate it. Well. I thought that was pretty great and hope you did too. And that will wrap things up for us here today on the Weird Hunt podcast. So thank you so much for joining us. As always, if you enjoyed the show today, we would really appreciate it if you could leave a rating or review on iTunes, and even if you didn't enjoy it, we'd still love to hear your feedback. Thank you in advance for taking the time to do that. Speaking of thanks, we'd also like to thank our excellent partners who help ba the show possible. So big thanks. Too sick of gear, Bushtional Optics, Trophy Ridge Bear Archery, Redneck Blinds, Carbon Express Arrows, Lacrosse Boots, Big and J long range attractives in the white Tail Institute of North America. That said, be sure to visit weird hunt dot com slash episode fifteen to view the show notes from today's episode. And that's what will include all the links that we mentioned today. And if you're new, definitely head over to weird hunt dot com to sign up for our white Tail Fixed news letter. That's where you're gonna get all different updates on what's doing interesting on the blog. So that all out of the way. Thanks again weird dot Nation. Until next time, have an awesome week, keep on living the dream chasing those white tails, and as always, stay weired Hunt h

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