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. This episode number one, and today on the show, Dan and I are doing a deep dive into our own two thousand seventeen deer hunting seasons to discuss the mistakes we made, the lessons we learned, and the areas were hoping to improve on in two thousand eighteen. Hey, guys, before we get into the episode, I want to point out two quick things. First, for some reason, my microphone on this recording was acting up and it resulted in lower quality audio on my end, So apologies for that in advance. And secondly, I just want to mention here in this intro, as you just heard, we're going to be discussing me in Dance two thousand seventeen seasons and reviewing what we did right and what we did wrong. So you might be asking yourself, though, how is this, How is this valuable to me the listener? Well, I think at the surface level you can learn something here from the specific examples we bring up, such as the unique hunting decisions or situations or challenges that we encountered throughout the season that we're talk about here over the next hour or so. So you can learn something from those actual hunting elements, but just as important, I think you can learn something about the process we went through here, the actual act of reflecting on the past hunting season. Our goals are expectations, are steps towards those goals, are failings towards those goals. And I think and I hope that by listening to us discuss these things and then thinking about how you could try this yourself, you can actually learn a little bit about how to better review your own season. And maybe you'll pick up some good ideas, maybe you'll know some things that you don't want to do. Um Either way, i'd encourage you to listen to this conversation through that lens of your own season, and then try doing some reflection like this on your own in the coming days. I hope that you're gonna find that to be a valuable exercise. And so with all that said, enough of me. Let's get right into it, all right, folks. Welcome back to another episode of the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by sick gear and today it is just myself and Mr Dan Johnson there over in Iowa. And today what I wanted us to do, Dan, if you're up for this, is I want to look back at two thousand seventeen. You know, we are now in the first week or two of January two eighteen, and the hunting season is behind us. So I want to take a look at all the mistake because we made. I want to take a look at all the things that maybe we did well, um, the lessons we learned. UM. I don't know if you do this like I do, But as I get towards the end of the season, I spent a lot of time looking back and thinking through and kind of reflecting on you know, were there any themes that that I kind of noticed from the season. Was there any big things that should have done differently? Or Um? I don't know. I just spent a lot of time thinking back on those things. So I kind of want to do that on air, I suppose, because especially for me this year, I felt like this was just anyway. I mean, I've said it before, but this was a very challenging season. This was a frustrating season. Um, So I want to make sure that I'm learning from this. Um. You know, there's I think in any time you fail or come up against something tough, there's an opportunity to grow from that. So I should, as how better grow from this season because I didn't get anything else from it. So that's that's what I want to try to do today, is it's kind of verbalize some of that and talk through some of those things that that we learned, um, and and hopefully that then provides, you know, like an illustration for everyone listening, UM. So then maybe they can learn from some of the good things we did some of the bad things we did, um, and apply that to their own, you know, future seasons and all that. So, but I guess before we get into the meat of it, do you ever anything new on the leather side of things? Do you have any Dad's stories. I gotta tell you better take advantage of these now, Dan, because in a few weeks you will not be the only one that can tell dad stories. Dude. I'm actually looking forward to your dad's stories just like just to compare how your dad stories and my dad stories are. Because I will tell you this, I will tell you this, and I always you know, I I joke and a bit about my kids quite a bit. But I want to tell you this is gonna be a little sentimental. And I don't I don't want to change the tone of the website, but you know I'm gonna I'm going to anyway. But you have you have these you have these blinders on almost when you know, like how important what what is important in life? Before a kid is born? Right, And I've always thought of what this other deer hunter told me. He's a hardcore deer hunter, and he told he told me this, and it was when I was when my wife was pregnant with my daughter, my my firstborn, so at that time I didn't have any kids. And he says to me, two things are gonna happen, Like you're gonna perspective in life is going to change, like what what's important is going to change. And you will not realize how much your parents loved you until the day that you have your kid. And the day that my daughter was born, and it happened really fast. They pulled her out of my wife. They set her on my wife's chest and she looked at me with these wide open eyes and she smiled. I swear to guy. She smiled and you know, babies can't smile at that. That's what it looked like, right, And I had this overwhelming feeling come over me that at that moment in my life, all of my priorities changed, all of you know, like what I thought was important in life changed, who how much I thought people loved me and how much I love people changed, And it just was like this, this this tectonic shift in life. And uh, you know, as much as I like today, my kid, my son is in the other room, which mac mac he got he got kicked on some ladies and gentlemen. Yep, he got kicked out of daycare today for hitting and pushing. So I had I had to leave work and that's why we're recording this podcast now with him in the other room. Hopefully he doesn't interrupt. But you know, like as much as as much as I talked ship all my kids, I love them to death and it's it's just hashtag dead life. Man. You you mentioned that moment when your daughter arrived in the world, and how like that was a beautiful moment from you. Um, I just had my quote unquote diaper party kind of deal this past weekend so you know, a bunch of your buddies get together and you do something, and then they bring a bunch of diapers. Um, kind of get just set up a little bit. So we spent the day ice fishing and rabbit hunting and shooting longbows and guns and stuff like that. Um. We spent the whole day doing that. And then in the evenings, the wives met up with us at one of my buddies houses and we all, you know, we all got together. So that was a good time, really good time. Um. But that night, you know, I was with all these couples and they all had kids except for me. Um In Further Further was there and he doesn't have any kids yet. Um. But all they basically did was tell like horror story is about babies. And one of the things I kept saying is that when it comes out right away, they were saying, it is not the most beautiful thing. They're saying, it's pretty disgusting. It doesn't look like the cute little gerber baby you're seeing commercials, and that it's covered in like white stuff and cone headed. And I mean, I don't know if my little dude is going to be smiling at me. I got a feeling he's gonna come out looking like I don't know, something alien. Yeah, I can't go. My daughter she came out, and you know, I'm I'm that I was that dad who I got. You know, my wife had one leg on my arm and you know I was leaning an into her when she started pushing. My daughter was born. It was a very beautiful thing. You know, without going into too much detail, right, we all know where babies come from, but you know it was beautiful, Like I washed it and I was just like, oh my god, it's a birth. Now. I was in the same exact position when my nine percentile head measurement son came out, and that was a completely different experience where I don't know if you've ever seen the movie Um where where Jim Carey is inside of a rhinoceros and the fan breaks and he has to come out the back end of this fake rhinoceros is what it was. I mean, it was like just like the predator met like, oh, just like something coming out of the ground. Like I was like, it was gross, but that's life, right, It's not all beautiful. My wife is convinced that I'm going to pass out during that portion of the event. If I see that your adrenaline is pumping, Oh man, I think I want to stay top side. I think that's if you can. If you can gut a deer without passing out, then you can witness a birth. Al Right, well I can do that. I can't believe I just compared the two things. But don't you hear that she doesn't listen to this podcast anyway? No, definitely, Yeah, man, it's coming up just a few more weeks, more weeks, and that's happening. And that's It's kind of an interesting lens that I've been looking through this whole review of the past year through because I'm looking back at this and this is my last year and my last hunting season to my last adventure season pre baby. Um, so I'm kind of looking at everything within this weird place, like I know things are going to change. I don't know exactly how they're going to change. I know there's gonna be all these crazy things happening. I don't really know how handle those or how they're going to impact all the other things I've got going on in my life. I don't I know they're going to change how much I care about those other things, but I don't know what that actually looks like and it feels like in real life. So I'm in this weird in between point right now that I'm just like, I just I'm just ready. I guess I'm just ready to get going with this because the in between stage, the unknown is killing me and I'm just ready to to dive in and figure things out and start moving forward um on on a whole lot of things. But baby baby is definitely a big part of that. So man, it's gonna be an interesting year. That's that is for certain. It's gonna be very different year, so absolutely, man, and it's gonna be It might be interesting for people to have kids, but we're gonna lose Like the other forty percent of our audience that doesn't have kids would be so sick of us talking about babies. Dude. It's just that's part of life, right, I mean, don't get me wrong. I mean, this can this this podcast has a great ton of a great amount of really really good content. And if you know you think that we talk about our kids too much, just wait till Mark has his kid. Man, We're gonna talk about him a whole lot more. And as and as I start to get my kids deeper involved into hunting, you know, taking them out and actually getting them to experience because my daughter is going to be that age this upcoming season, you know, we're gonna be talking about kids more. I can't talk about what I don't know, you know, I talk I know my family, and that's that's when I talk about Yeah, man, And I think, you know, I think people hopefully, um, that will be something that people can foul along with. And I think everyone will be going through different stages that Like everyone, we all go through different phases in our lives, right And there are listeners probably that are ahead of us, and their listeners that are behind us. And there are listeners that are maybe right on the same part of the timeline as we are, that can kind of follow along from their own perspective. Um. And so either you'll get to learn something about what to expect, you'll be able to relate to someone who's dealing something but that you're dealing with right now, or maybe you can look back on something you used to have to deal with and either laugh at us or or enjoy it. Um. I don't know what, but man, it'll be interesting. So baby, baby, just countdown. We'll be starting here very soon. It could be anytime now really, um, but probably you know, two or three more weeks. But she thirty seven weeks six okay, Um, but she just seems like, I don't know. We we just have this idea and I think I've said this before. We just had this feeling that it's going to come early. Um. And she is just big and uncomfortable and just ready to be done with it. So has she has? She said, look at you with all sorts of seriousness, looked at you straight in the eyes, and told you to go f yourself. Yet in so many words, yeah, she like, you did this to me right right? Well, when let me know, when she looks you dead in the eyes and she uses those exact words, then you know she's had enough. Now what's happening? Yeah? Yeah, so hashtag dead life? Right? Um? Anything else interesting in your world? Otherwise? Outside of that, dude, I want to talk about dear. Before we do that, the let's take a quick second to hear our sick story of the day. For this week's Sitka story, we're joined by Don v Dash, who tells us about an eye opening encounter he had in southeastern Kansas. Well Spencer, It's an interesting UH. The sickest stories have been intriguing to me. I have a follower podcast and and I've had a couple UH defining moments in UH in my own career, and one really was an eye opener for me. I'm back in two thousand and fifteen. I had a particularly large book that I was after in Kansas, probably the biggest one I had ever chased, and had a lot of camera pictures of him, and UH, I was really waiting him out and got down to Kansas, just done a great cold front in November and got into where I thought he would be and share enough, around thirty am, he comes walking in UH into the field I was. I was sitting in with a few dos and UH, I snort wheezed at him, just trying to get aggressive, and he took one look over at me and just came charging in like a ball. UH stopped staring at me head on at ten yards eyeball to eyeballs. Is one of those moments where you know your camouflage really gets tested. And and right about then he looked away and took one step and and that that was one of his last and for me, that was really one of those moments where you wonder, you know, how things are working, and and I had the wind in my face and I just knew at that time that, um, the camouflage was working for me. Uh. You know, as hunters, I think we always have questions, you know, is my whin good? Is is my is my setup good? Is is my equipment solid? And in that moment, I knew that all that was clicking on Dawn's hunt, which was a bitterly cold sit He was wearing Sitka's phonetic system. If you'd like to create a Sitka story of your own, or to learn more about Sitka's technical hunting apparel, visit sitka gear dot com. Dude, I want to talk about Dear and talk about all right game. I think I think there's a lot to talk about because we've kind of throughout the year, we've kind of talked about things as they have been happening, but we never have done a real serious kind of analysis of the whole thing. So I think there's a lot to talk about here. Um, And I don't really know what the right way to go about it is. I mean, we could go through we go through and talk through our seasons individually from beginning to end in a couple of high level things, or we could talk through and kind of break them down by portion. Um. I don't know. I mean, how much how much do you have? Dan? Is there a lot that you came out of this season having learned or having felt good about or having wanted to change or do you feel like this is one of those years that kind of flew by and you don't know what she took from it yet? I mean, where are you from. I think that you're missing something if you can't take away some things that you would do differently on a hunting season, right. I mean, that's the way I look at it. There's always something that I feel I could do different, um, in order to uh, you know, have a different outcome. You know, I don't want to change the outcome, but next year, I don't want the same outcome, you know what I mean. So there's always there's always some kind of change that you can make to have that quote unquote perfect season that doesn't exist, if that makes sense. Okay, So before the season, if we were talking in September on a scale of one to ten and being the best. How would you rate your expectations for the season coming into it? Well, based off trail cameras and information. Man, I'll tell you what the farm, Like I said, the farm that I do most of my hunting on was absolutely loaded, and I was just I was very happy with the amount of mature deer that were on the property. So I had really good expectations going into into that season. This up this season, so one through ten. I'm gonna say eight to nine to be honest with you. And then now the season is pretty much done. How would you look back at the season and say this season went as far as meeting those expectations or goals you had. Well, I tell you what, um, I walked away from and we've talked about this before. We I walked away from this season with h harvest. And you know, just to recap that, you know how that hunt played out where that harvest, you know, it was really thick, it was really nasty. Um. I I thought the buck that was coming through was mature. I had a very short window to harvest him. I shot him. And then as I got down and walked up to this buck, it wasn't the buck that I thought he was when I you know, when I was in the tree, and you know, I'm not disappointed in it, and I think it would be unfair to the animal if I said, oh, man, I wish I never would have shot that buck, because you know, if I could do it over again, yeah, I probably would have passed him. But I you don't have Sometimes you don't have the opportunity to do those things. So I did what I thought was right at the time, and I was very happy with the end result. I mean, it was a it's a great buck. It was immature. It was not mature. Uh, And that's something that I need to do a better job at this upcoming year. That's one of the takeaways is to make sure I identify some characteristics of these dear differently. And I think I got into this little moment there where I was like blackout kill mode instead of saying, mmm, I'm okay with eating my tag, you know, like, because there's that there's that there's that fine line, right, So do you think it was And it sounds like I think that's what you just said, But are you saying that you think you need to get better at learning to identify the characteristics of a mature, dear, so you are more accurate in your aging or is it more so getting your head right in the moment so you actually pay attention to the things you know versus blackout kill mode. I think it was it's this the ladder of the two UM, because although I say I had a very short period of time, you know what what keeps you or what makes you better, is to be able to make those decisions in shorter time periods. And I, instead of taking that extra half second two seconds two observe, I went into that kill mode. Right. So I think that next year, if the same type of scenario UM presents itself, I instead of you know, turning that that switch on saying kill not kill, I will probably leave it at not kill as opposed to kill and and you know, unless it's overwhelming, you know what I mean. Yeah, I got a friend UM who has dealt with a challenge similar to that, but he has the opposite side where he goes into it. He's become so picky and so like UM focused on that. Well, I don't know if it's he. He has the same issue where he will him and Hall and him and haunt and him and Hall over a buck for such a long period of time that then he doesn't get himself in the right mind mindset to make a good kill. So he's had a couple of examples where he's been hemming and haun and thinking and going back and forth on a buck too many times, and then you know, ends up not getting a great shot or rushing the shot, or something along along those lines. So his one of the more recent things I remember him saying to me about this was that kind of like you just said, he now believes that either it's an instant yes, or it's If it's not an instant yes, then it's a no. I'm not going to shoot something that I don't instantly know. Obviously, this is a mature buck I want to shoot if it's one of those, and maybe's I shouldn't even sit in him and haunt about it. Just it's a no then, right right. And I'll tell you what I think. And and this is going to tie into I think your season and putting all your eggs in one basket for a particular buck. I did that for several years, chasing one particular or buck, and I ate my tag several years um out of the last ten you know, going for a one particular buck and to a higher age class, a very high standard age class. And I think that has faded away over the last let me, let me just say, uh, five years maybe and maybe five or six years, and I think I'm kind of going back to that get into a kill mode instead of identifying maturity and shooting mature you know, like a mature animal in those going back to that that light switch moment kill pass, you know what I mean. So I need to do a better job of identifying that. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely one of those things that's easier said than done. I mean, it's very easy to say from the computer desk here or sitting there in the off season talking with your buddies, Oh yeah, I know what a mature buck looks like. I can make that decision easily in the woods. But when something like this shows up out of nowhere, and you've got a few seconds to make a decision, and you've been sitting in that tree for ten straight hours, for day after day after day, or whatever it might be, and you're cold and you're tired, and you've been just dying to see a good mature buck, and all of a sudden something comes through that gets your heart pumping. I mean, it is very understandable that you might get a little fired up and and get sugar happy and and and I don't know, is there is there something wrong with that? If you got excited in a moment um by that deer you saw and you were thrilled by that opportunity and you took that shot, was that necessarily the worst in the world. I don't know. I understand. I mean, I understand what you're saying. And it didn't it wasn't your goal, and that's something you want to get better at. But I don't know if it's um that goes back to the whole deeper slew of questions than I guess about about our roles and stuff going in the season. But yeah, I mean, you know, some people say, some people say, you know, they say, one second mark in the chair. No, you gotta go in the living room, Bubba, You're gonna be quiet. So I'm sorry. Hashtag dad life right, So um, you know, some people say, you know, don't don't shoot a buck. You know, don't pass a buck that you would shoot on the last day of the season. I don't know if I like that idea. You know, if I have the time, I think my standards do change as a season progresses. So if I was to say, you know, you know, a certain caliber of deer comes through the timber and I pass it, but later on that that caliber of deer becomes acceptable later on in the season, you know what, I think, I'm okay with that. Yeah, I kind of tend to agree. For me too, I've had that same thing happened myself. I don't stay what people are saying. But at the same time, um that I don't know your desire, My desires or hopes out of a season do changes the year goes by, and what would make me happiness season sometimes changes too. You know, at the beginning of the season, I go into a year, I'm like, oh, I'm gonna hold out for a really really old buck or one buck or a giant buck or whatever it might be, because you know, you're naive and optimistic at that point and everything seems possible. Um. But then as you get to three months into it, then just the idea of you know, having some kind of success or just putting me in the freezer, or just killing a decent buck that might make you really happy, and what's wrong with that? You know? Right? Right? So now I kind of want to ask that same question to you because your your white Tail season got interesting when holy Field showed up on camera again and remind us all what that date was, so he would back up on camera mid September two, so before the season started. Now, when you got that picture, how long did it take for you to say it's holy Field or bust? That night? Basically when I decided that it was holy Field for sure. Um, you know, I started comparing pictures and as we talked all year, and we talked to all of last year, right, holy Field was this deer that I've been trying to kill for now to two and a half years or whatever it was. And yeah, if he if he made it back, he was gonna be the one and he was going to be what my whole season would revolve around. And I went into the season, you know, knowing that and being okay with that. Um, but maybe naively I thought it was gonna happen. I was there. I was too confident that if he was there, I was going to kill um. Despite challenges I've had doing that in the past, to a degree, Um. So I'll tell you, man, I kind of agree with you there though. I mean, if you if you look at annual patterns. I had a I had a really good conversation with a guy yesterday actually about annual patterns. And if you were making your decision based off of annual patterns, I would have went into the season gunning for holy Field with a very high level of certainty, you know what I mean? Yeah, And I mean as as much as you can be confident in killing the mature buck in Michigan on essentially forty acres of huntable ground. I mean, I had about as good as circumstances coming to the seasons as you could ask for, given the experiences I had seen the stare in the past. And um, in a lot of ways, it went about as good as I could ask for. I mean, it didn't go as as good as I could have asked for because I didn't kill him. Um, but a lot of things did go pretty darn close to going well. Um, and you just don't. I've talked to a lot of buddies, and here in Michigan, a lot of the guys hunting in situations similar to this, and my situation with holy Field is just really unique to this area. You just don't get many bucks that make it to this age, and you don't get bucks you get to see as often as I got to see this here and have as many encounters and chances at him. Um, there just aren't many mature bucks to go around, especially not on a small property like this with you know, just limited cover, etcetera, etcetera. So so I think, to one one way looking at things, I should look at this season as I was really darn lucky that I made a decision last winter, last late season. I said, you know what, I could kill him in muzzletter season, but I think he can make it. If I don't kill him, it would be really awesome to hunt him next year. That was the decision I made in two thousand sixteen, and I knew that there was a really good chance he might not make it till then. He could die over the course of the winter or get hit by a car or something. But I got really lucky and fortunate and he didn't. He made it to the hunting season, and so I got what I wanted, right, I got a chance to hunt him again. I got the chance for that excitement again. Um, the thrill of chasing this deer. Um, I got that. So that is a win, I suppose. I mean that's a really that was a positive thing to take from this season that I made a decision to pass a deer because it wasn't about just putting antlers on the wall. It was about extending this experience and having this experience in the way I wanted to have it, um, And I was able to achieve that for the most part. So that was pretty cool. Um. So I'm gonna just jump right into it because I want to know. But from a strategy standpoint, this season, I mean, this deer was all over the place. He made himself visible to you in this this um certain amount of acreage that you have access to. You know, you played cat and mouse with him the entire season. You had uh several encounters with him. You had one mishap type of an encounter. With all that aside, do you think that you did everything you possibly could have done to put yourself into the best possible position to to I guess, harvest this animal. No, Um, I think I did a lot of things right. I did. I almost did enough to kill him. Um. But there were certainly still mistakes. So I've gone through and thought through, like all the different little things that maybe I've done wrong, um little mistakes. I've made things that could have done differently. So there definitely are things I picked out. I wish I had done this differently. I wish I'd done that differently. First and foremost, the very most obvious, and you can look at this as a good thing. You can look at this is a bad thing. On the good side, I for the first time, um, for the first time since two thousand fifteen, I was able to be in shooting range, clear, easy, peasy shot at holy Field with a bow on November seven. I had him at yards and the wide open. I could have killed holy Field. So I put myself in the right place at the right time without getting winded. I got in there the right access, I picked the right place to be. So those things were all good things that I can look at and say, hey, that was good. Essentially did what I needed to do to kill that buck, except for the final most important thing, which was to be looking up and see him come in and not be looking at your cell phone. So that was a big, of course, the most obvious, glaring mistake of my entire season. Was I blew my opportunity at achieving my number one goal because I was looking at my phone as he walked in. I didn't know he was there, and he saw me when I did turn around to see him. So that was the big one. Um. So let's let's expand that a little bit. Did that affect you so much that it's going to change your behavior in the tree stand moving forward a little bit? Yes, yes it did. But I'm not gonna I'm I'm not gonna lie to you and say I'm never gonna look at my phone again. Um, that's just impossible, probably at least for me personally, I don't have that kind of focus. But I've definitely since then, I've gotten better at it. I've spent much less time on the phone, and when I do look at the phone, I'm much more paranoid now, so I look at the phone for like two seconds, look up, two seconds, look up. Um. So I've definitely gotten better and more aware of that. Um. And definitely I think if this will be a great kind of learning moment for me for the future when it comes to all day sits um. Because one of the good things I did this year is I hunted a lot of all day sits. I think I put in like fourteen or fifteen days where I hunted the entire day. Um, And I'm proud of myself for that. I was happy, Like that was the thing I can look back in the season say, hey, you did a good job on that market. That was something you said you would do, and you stuck with it and you toughed it out, even though a lot of those days were miserable, long didn't see anything, etcetera, etcetera. But this was one of the situations where you know, it almost paid off. I was there at eleven o'clock in the afternoon and so was he. Um. So I just need to now get better at staying focused during that time period. Um. It's really easy to not think you need to be focused because of the time you're not seeing anything. But I did see a lot of midday activity this year, so more so than any other year probably. I was just reminded of the fact that this isn't just something that they tell you in the magazines or that Mark preaches on the podcast all the time. They're actually some truth to it. Um. So this is another good reminder of me for me. Of that, I on the flip side, Um, I think that there were a handful of other small things. Well, let's take a step back here, Dan, because I am looking at this through a lens um that that you are not looking through it yet, and that the listeners aren't looking through it yet, And that is this thing. I believe that holy Field is dead. You believe that holy Field is dead. I think the hunt for holy Field is done. Okay, Wait a second, Yeah, we haven't. I've not. I've not said this publicly yet, but I think it's done. Okay. So the last time I thought I talked with you is that the gun season was over and you had trail camera pictures of him. It wasn't a trail Cara picture of him. It was a sight a sighting my wife. My wife had seen him in a field from the road. She does a wonderful job of being an extra set of scouting eyes for me in the evenings when I'm not around, She'll she'll check this area out every once in a while because it's close to home. And um, she told me she saw him the evening of December one. I was in Ohio that night, Okay, And that was the day after gun season. So at that point I was really excited he made it through guns season. I thought that there were very good chances then that the worst of the um, the worst of the threats to him being killed by someone else were done. Um. So when I got back from Ohio, I waited a couple of days for this cold front I was supposed to hit, and once that cold front hit, I started hunting. Um. But from that point on I did not get another sighting of him. I did not get a trail camera picture of him. Um. I think I mentioned this in a past episode, but I didn't get a trailer I've not had a picture of him since October. So even though even though I was seeing him November, the last time I personally saw him was November. And then, you know, like I said, no pictures all through that time period. Then my wife got a sighting of him on December one, and I believe he made it through the gun season, but again no pictures. Um. No sightings or pictures through December, and then around Christmas give or take. Sometime around that, I don't remember exactly what it was uh. Um, I heard a rumor of a neighbor having killed a big buck. And so I've been trying to confirm this. I've been texting some other people in the area. UM, and this guy. UM. Basically the from a friend of a friend said that a neighbor, a guy from a neighboring property, killed a big buck over here. UM. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know anything more. Really, I don't know where this was. I don't know what this person would off would call a big buck. UM, but it would kind of make sense that this guy killed him with a muzzleloader if we saw him December one, and let me take a step back, UM, my wife also heard a really loud muzzleloader shot on December two, UM, the day after she saw this buck. After she saw holy Field out in the wide open field. The next day, she she heard a really loud gun shot. UM. And that that doesn't happen that often. So it was somewhere nearby, um, right after she had seen holy Field moving in daylight. So between those two things and then finding out that the neighbor supposed to kill a big buck and this neighbor hunts a property, the interesting thing about this situation, if anyone was gonna kill holy Field I would not have thought it would have been this gentleman. Um, because this guy just owns field edge. Um, he owns no cover. He just has a big field. I don't even know if any of the trees are on his property at all. So and he I've only ever seen this guy go out hunt like two or three times in the last like six or seven years. I've been hunting this property, Like he's never out there. I don't think he's a very serious hunt at all. Um, I don't I don't know him personally, I don't know the details. So this is just assumptions I'm making, but based on observation from a distance. And you know, when I've been out there a couple of times, have seen this person or someone out there. Um, this was not where I thought holy Field's threat was, especially since this year. Although then, like back in the back of the property, holy Field was not moving out in the open fields too much, especially out by the roads. But long story short, this person supposed we killed a big deer that coincided closely with when we stopped getting sightings of him and when a gunshot was heard in the area. Um, and I don't know, I have no pictures of him, no sightings of him, and just like that gut feeling that tells me he's probably gone. Now I could be completely wrong, because like I said, I mean I saw him a bunch in November, but didn't get a single trailcra picture of him despite that, So he certainly has the ability to avoid my cameras. And on the other hand, in October I didn't see him at all, but I did get trailcare pictures of him. He definitely changed his behavior a lot this season. Um. In the past two years, he was much more visible, he was much more on camera, he was much more active. This year, he he became like old Bucks do, and he became much more of a hermit. He didn't move at all, except for at least I didn't see him moving during daylight at all, except for a fourteen went day window from Halloween to November. That was the only daylight setting as I got. I think I had ten settings or eleven settings or something like that in that window, and that was it the whole season. I didn't see him way off from the distance like I've seen him in the past. Um, So he could be alive and he could be hold up in some little cranny or some swamp or somewhere else where, you know, he can just get get by and not have any pressure from humans. And this neighbor maybe just shot some other buck that I didn't know about. But just the fact that I had only seen holy Field, Holy Feel was the only big buck I was getting on trail camera. He was the only big buck I was seeing. Um. I mean, there was no other buck that I would qualify as big that I even got pictures of the whole season. So I just I'm thinking, you know, if this guy is saying to kill a big buck, I don't know what other big bucket could be because there haven't been any others. But at the same time, to you know, ten days ago or whatever, I saw a random giant on this property that I've never seen before, and he just showed up. So it's not to say that there couldn't be some random other deer in the area that just never came out of the property. I can hunt. But this guy, this guy killed. Um. I talked to another neighbor today about this very issue, you know, talking about what I think maybe what happened, and this guy said that he saw like three or four different pretty respectable big Bucks over on his side, UM, that I never saw at all. And um, and that's not that far away. So so I'm making assumptions. I'm maybe I'm being too negative on this. I have not gotten confirmation. I've stopped by this person's house, UM, trying to trying to ask him if you know, he'll share me a picture, you know, chatting with me about what happened, just because I'm curious to get confirmation on this, and he hasn't been home, so I'm hoping to get some kind of confirmation soon. Just hasn't happened yet. Um. But so I'm looking through all of these things related to holy Field and the decisions I made, the good things and the bad things. I'm looking at them through the lens of it being done right, um, which which I thought was worth pointing out. So I I'm going to reflect back on the buck I was chasing shipwreck, right, you know that story. But at the end of every season, I would make the assumption that I was never going to see him again until I got confirmation that he didn't you know, he didn't show up on trail cameras or I didn't see him from the tree stand I mean, but I didn't allow that buck necessarily to dictate what I was going to do if I, you know, if I didn't have conversations confirmation that he was alive or not. So you don't know the You don't know whether or not he's dead. You have a gut fee thinking he's dead. How are you going to approach this upcoming season? Are you assuming? Are I mean, I guess are you? I know you're assuming he's dead? But are you going to let it dictate what you're doing from here on out for say, maybe upcoming season with no verification? So so, first and foremost, I am going to try to get confirmation at least from this guy to try to figure out what buck he did shoot, so at least I can have that question answer. I'm going to try to talk to this person figure that out at least um. But otherwise I think that, yes, I'm gonna go into the season assuming he's dead unless I see him or get a picture of him. Even if this guy says, oh, no, I didn't shoot a big buck, or here's the picture and it's some other deer. Um. Even if that's the case, I'm still going to go into the season assuming he's dead, hoping for the best, but assuming he's probably gone. Um but I will be taking the things I learned from this past season applying them to next year. And um you know, still going to be using that all that the things that picked up from holy Field to to the next year, to the next opportunity. UM. So there's no shorge of things. I definitely learned a lot from this deer, this deer and this hunt over the past two even three years if you count the first year when I was passing him, um man, a wealth of information. It pushed me to try to understand things to a level of detail that I never had before. Um. And I can look at so many little things that I did this year, both good and bad, that I think just just thinking through these things is making me a better hunter. So so let me let me tell, let me do this. I went through and try to look at all the hunts that I made throughout the season on this property, and I'm able to pick out all these little, tiny things now that I think I could have done better than in the past. There would have been like dozens of things I did wrong, probably, but every year I've been taking a little bit paying a little more attention to detail, fixing up, you know, two of four issues this year, and then one more out of the four issues the next year. And now I'm getting to the point where now it's these little things. Um. But I can look back and say, well, I sure, I'm glad that that thing I learned last year, I did act on it, and man, look at the result. I almost killed holy Field in that spot because I thought, from what I saw last year, I should have a stand here or different things on those lines. Um. So one thing that I learned from last year that one of the big things that last year I said, or even this, you know this past spring and winter when we were talking about one are the things that I'm going to do differently in two thousand and seventeen. One of the big mistakes I thought I made in two thousand sixteen was that I got the confirmation of holy Field was alive in two thousand and sixteen, and I was gonna wait to try to hunt him sparingly in October except for cold fronts um, because I thought I had a good set set up. But then I hunted that first day and then I was like the next day looked pretty since so I hunt it again, and then like six days later we had another coal front coming. I was like, well, I'm gonna hunt this cold front now and I take advantage. So I hunted that day and the next day I didn't see him, and I was like, I'm gonna stay out. And then seven days later we had another little front come through and I got a picture of him on the other side of the propertis that, well, maybe I need to hunt now. So I tried. So I kept him, having all these little reasons that maybe now is the time of strike. Now was the time of strike. Now was the time of strike. And it resulted me over hunting a portion of this property. Um a lot. I hunted a bunch more than I thought I should have, probably, and maybe that impacted my ability to kill him. In two thousand and sixteen, before gun season, um I did see him a bunch, but it couldn't get him within range except for one night I had him at forty yards, but it was a little too dark. You guys know that story. Um. So in two thousand seventeen, my plan was to hunt the first night and then unless there's just some very very very obvious, glaring need to get in there and hunt him like I saw him in daylight at this spot. I'm not going to go in there at all until the annual pattern I identified dictates that he should start moving daylight again. So, just to recap very briefly, in two thousand fifteen, the first daylight setting ahead of him was on October. In two thousands sixteen, the first daylight setting ahead of him was October. Both of those were from the same stand in the same food plot, and I had a shot opportunity to him on both of those occasions. So my thought process was in two seventeen, I'm not gonna hunt him until October, assuming conditions are right. UM. And that's what I did. So I'm proud of myself and the fact that I stayed out and maintained patients. I didn't go into this proper at all except for the opening night for three weeks UM. So I think that was probably a good thing because he wasn't moving daylight. I wasn't getting daylight trial camera pictures of him anywhere, UM, no long distance scouting observations. So I stayed out. I was good. Now here's a mistake I made. October comes along. This is the pre pre prescribed date when I'm supposed to start hunting him. I've been looking forward to this day all season. I was like, all right, this is when you should start moving. I gotta get out there. I was so excited for the for weeks I was looking forward to this, saying, all right, that's the day. That's the day, that's the day. And then I saw this cold front coming up that was going to coincide with that. I thought, all right, this is gonna be it. I'm gonna kill him. October shows up. The cold front was hitting, but not what I wanted. The wind was way higher than I thought it was going to be. It looked like it was gonna be you know, mile on our winds um higher than you're typically gonna see a lot of deer activity in this area with those kinds of conditions. But I was so kind of set in my mind that I gotta be hunting in this day, like I've been just dying to get out and hunt. I wanted to do it so badly that I convinced myself. I kept looking at the weather. Looking at the weather, I'm like, well, maybe it's gonna die down below twenty and if it's in like the teens, it'll be okay. So I decided to go for it because I thought the wind was going to die down. I didn't think it'd be quite so bad the cold temperatures. I convinced myself of this basically just because like in my gut, I just wanted to go. I was just so excited to go. Convinced myself to go out there. I got into my tree and it was way worse than even the forecast was was calling for. It was like thirty winds and then the winds were swirling and it was just insane. And instantly got into the tree and I'm like, this is a disaster. I should have never come out here. So that was a mistake I made because I was just over anxious. I was so set in my plan that I had made. Um I've been patient for so long. But then because I had put this date on the calendar, I wasn't able to look at it through clear eyes and say, no, it's not worth pushing it. What's what's waiting one more day? You can wait one more day. But I didn't. I went in there, and who knows, maybe he was in that area where the wind was swirling he winded me. And the first time I went in in three and a half weeks, and that screwed up the next seven to ten days. I don't know, but that's possible. So there's a there's a mistake I made. Now on the bright side, something I did right was that I got in that tree. I realized this is a disaster. This is even worse than I thought I was gonna be, and I made the tough decision to pull the plug. So immediately, within like five minutes, I tore everything down and snuck right back out. Um So I didn't make the problem worse. Um So there was a mistake there, But then there was a tiny positive decision to nor The next day, similar kind of scenario pops up. Now it's October. The year before, I had a shot at Holy Field at forty yards. I didn't take it. Um. Then, now this cold front has hit, the wind speeds have died down. This is gonna be the night. This is gonna be a great night. Um Now I'm finally gonna get that chance at him. But with the wind direction we had, it was a little bit. It was it was straight west, if I remember right, And to hunt the spot where I had gotten these shots at Holy Field the past. I really want a northwest to know a wind. Um, So I've got This is a food little food plot system We've talked about a lot in the past. There's a box blind on the south side of it, and then there's a tree stand kind of in the middle of the food plot complex. I thought, okay, even though to do west wind, I can hunt the box blind with that, do west wind and be okay. So I go and hunt the box blind. And as I told the story earlier this year, I got into the blind, opened the door and it was loaded with bees, and so I got sworn by bees and I ran down out of the blind, and I realized, well, what the heck am I going to do? I can't hunt the box blind now. UM. So what I ended up doing. I was so convinced that I had to be hunting, and I was so excited to finally be hunting that I made another potential mistake. I went and I said, well, I gotta hunt this food plot complex because this is the spot to be UM. So I hunted that tree stand that was in the middle of the of the system there, and even though I had to do west wind, which cuts into a portion of the cover, and I said, screw it. I gotta swing for the fences. I've been waiting three and a half weeks. All the other conditions are right, this is the right place, this is the right time, based on annual patterns of the right conditions. Um, sometimes you gotta take a risk. So I went in there and hunted it because my first option in the blind didn't work. And I sat in there with my wind blowing into a substantial section of cover that holy Field might have been coming from. It wasn't It wasn't the worst. Like if you imagine a hundred and eighty degrees, Like if you're looking at a pie and you put a line going from twelve to six right down the middle of that pie. On the left side of the pie is the food plot system and cover in a little finger of timber. On the right side of the pie is this big stretch of cover where holy Field, I assumed where he was betting. Most of the time. I was blowing my wind into about a third of it. So a third of that pine now was screwed. Um, So I was just hoping, well, hopefully it wasn't. In the bottom third hopefully he's in the top two thirds. Um. Usually I'd like to try to not blow into that at all, or just blow into the bottom eighth of it. This time I didn't. And maybe that was a mistake. Maybe he was in there and he winded me. And again, maybe that was the time I screwed things up. Um. I don't know. Uh, that was a that was a bad decision. Possibly. On the other hand, if he came from the northwest section there and I was sitting there and I swung for the fences, it might have worked out. But you just never know. I mean you can. I could do this all day, right, I could second guess all my decisions, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I don't know how much is too much. I don't know how much is healthy. Um. But that was another example of like a small thing I observed that maybe I screwed up. Um. Do you think you over analyze? Oh my god, check yeah. But I mean listen to me. I've just gone through this and I'm picking apart every little thing. I think that there's I think who knows, right, this is me saying this, and I could be completely nuts. I think there's value in the process. So I think there's value in analyzing these things afterwards to at least think about them, to like, look at, Okay, why did I make this decision? What were the things that you know we're influencing making me making that decision, um, And then just like reflecting on that, and I think that will help me make better decisions in the future. I do think there's value there, um. But at the same time, I do know that during the season I over analyzed some things to a point where, um, there can be paralysis by analysis or I'll get overwhelmed by trying to make the right decisions. I put a lot of pressure on myself to make the right decisions. UM. So that's been a big takeaway from me out of the two thousand seventeen season is again just to like the pressure I put on myself and the stress that I let myself get from some of these things because I'm so um, I am. I am obsessive, Like I am admittedly obsessive when it comes to goals and achievements and tasks, Like I can get really really serious about things, um. And that can be a good thing to a degree because it has allowed me to achieve my goals in many cases and allows me to do things that I have wanted to do, but sometimes it definitely leads to um, it leads to challenges to right well, I think now we'll make for a good time to take a quick break. Here for word from our partners at White Tailed Properties. This week with white Tail Properties, we are joined by Tony Hansen, a land specialist out of Michigan, and Tony is gonna be telling us about how hunting strategy changes in pressured states like Michigan. I'd say the biggest difference is that just the availability the number of older deer is much much lower, so you don't have, you know, a bunch of them to pick from, So you've got to be pretty cure that you do have to hunt. And you know, for me, it's it's all about trying to manage the girl that I've got so that I do have that age structure because it's it's probably not going to be there on the neighbors. If you'd like to learn more and to see the properties that Tony currently has listed for sale, visit Whitetail properties dot com. Backslash Hanson that's H A N S E N. You know along that same kind of thought process. This year, I did something a little bit different. And yeah, I looked at maps at when I was at home or you know, before the hunt, but I didn't make a decision on what stand I was going to hunt until I pulled onto the farm because I felt like I was doing the same thing that you were, and that was over analyzing and having some kind of you're wasting time at that point, You're you're not functioning at your most efficient. And I think that what that time constraint does is now you're on the farm and it's time to make a decision or you're gonna get to your stand late. So I think that helped me choose the right stands, you know, and and put myself into a position where I know this stands good. I know this area is good because the wind direction, the terrain, all that stuff. I have either pictures or they're signed there. I just need to go do it. Yeah, I think that there's something to that. Um. I don't know if you have this struggle at all, But for me, one thing I've noticed that I do this kind of applies to life in general too. But when I make a decision, so in this case, like choosing a stand site. So I'll be looking at the weather, you know, all the all. Let's say I'm trying to choose where I want to hunt the next morning. We'll say, um, the night before, I'm looking at the weather over and over again, checking that, thinking through what I want to do, and I try to make a decision usually the night before, so based on the weather, based on the wind direction, all the things I know, or I think I know. I said, Okay, I think tomorrow and hunt this stand the next day. I have a really hard time taking in any new information to change that decision. So if I arrive at the property and then all of a sudden, I'm walking out to the property and all of a sudden the wind isn't exactly what the forecast said it was, but my mind was already made up on I'm going to stand X, I have a really hard time not wanting to stick to that decision. Like if if I've decided to hunt stand X, it's hard for me to adjust at the last minute and switch it up, Like I'm already so convinced of that that I'm like, uh, I gotta stick with that. And sometimes maybe that's a mistake. Too. So there's something to be said about waiting to make some of those decisions until you have the very most recent information, and then you kind of allow your gut to make the decision a little bit more to UM versus getting so UM wound up in the details of all the other factors. UM. That's something that I don't know if that's an issue I've had in the past. I think I've done a pretty good job over the years of getting better and better at choosing the right places to be UM. And I think for the most case, UM, I've seen the results of that. But I definitely have a tendency to second guest myself. There's no doubt about that too. I did a lot less of that. I think that's one maybe maybe that could even be a takeaway from this season is I did a lot less second guessing myself. You know, if I if I felt an area was maybe burn getting burnt out. UM, that's actually what led me to go into this new piece of property and on night one and harvest the buck that I harvested this year. Because everything that I wanted to you know that I said this is good location to be, it wasn't there at that particular time. So I decided to go to a completely different area and that worked. So I feel that maybe as a positive for me, I did a lot less second guessing myself this year. That's a I think it's a good sign, right, That's a sign of confidence, if nothing else. And I man, confidence I think is so important, um, when it comes to just your mindset out there in the woods. If you have confidence in something, I think you're just in a better position as far as being there mentally. And if you're not there mentally, you make mistakes like missing a deer walking by you twenty yards. Um, So that's I think that's clutch. I think that's huge. So speaking of your shift to a new property, that is one of the things that I am happy that I did. Um, not switching to a new property, but I think I did a better job this year of switching things up finally, like I did switch things up off my original game plan, um mid run. So I came into you know, as we talked earlier that oct October two, I thought I was going to kill him between and the thirty one, I thought that last week in October was when I was going to happen. And I had this whole game plan like these properties food. They're sort of the stands I had up by these food sources that I thought I could kill him on. And that just didn't happen. I wasn't seeing him anywhere. It wasn't getting daily pictures of him anywhere. Um. But I in the past years, I had always thought I had to hunt near the front of this property because this betting area where I had always seen him in the past was up there. Well, when things weren't going right, I decided to switch things up and try a different part of the property that I in the past never hunted for him because I never got pictures of him down there. I never saw him it all down there. Um But I switched it up, and I said, all right, I'm just gonna start doing crazy things I've never done before because what I have been trying isn't working. And when I started doing those different things, then I started seeing him. I started I started doing a bunch of different running gun sets. I hunted a new stand almost every day, so I wasn't hunting the same stands over and over. I was bouncing from place to place to place. Um And that at least gave me, got me to the wheelhouse with him. I did see him. I had the shot opportunity of one day. The next day, you know, three or four days later, I had him within range, but there was covering the way. Um So that was a positive that I was proud of myself for doing, which was something you know, it's always tough to do when you have a bunch of pre hung sets. It's really easy to want to just hunt hunt those pre hung sets. Um But I told myself that, no, you're not going to make excuses. You're not gonna take the easy way. So I was getting up way away before daylight, HI, getting these places and hanging and stand in the dark, like three thirty or four in the morning, so I could be hunting a new set in a new spot. And that was a pain in the butt and didn't end up. I didn't end up killing him with that, But I do think that was a good thing. I think being willing to switch. And then we talked about that a lot in the past. Um So that was a positive. I want to elaborate on that a second. I had this thought go through my brain. Oh man, probably the like the first two days, I I decided to hunt. You know, I started hunting this year, and that was do I do I get a benefit from hanging my stands so early and not doing running guns on these farms. I think there's a small benefit, but I almost I had this thought where where I said, you know, is are these pre hung stands similar to what you said subconsciously influencing me that I need to be in one of those and not making a macro adjustment at the moment that I need to be making a decision right because the wind could you know, the weather chain says north wind, but you get into your spot and it could be north northeast or north northwest and it's just a little bit different and that may influence you to set up on you know, five yards different tier, five yards difference there, and cause you're you know, you're sent downstream to do something completely completely different. So I was thinking to myself, Man, should I should I be prepping like and hanging some of these early season stands that kind of I don't I don't know what what how how to say it, but I think it's somehow influencing me to be satisfied with less than perfect stand location. Yeah, they're kind of a crutch. Like you said, if if you know you want to be in a certain area and you already have a stand there, you're gonna nine times that tend you're gonna hunt that stand because you already have it there, even if, like you said, really it might be better to be ten yards further over. If you had to hang a news stand, you put it in the perfect place. But since there's already one there might as well just sitting that one. Now, agree that you're saying. On the flip side, though, which which one of these things is more important? Is what you just said more important? Being in the right spot, the exact right spot? Is that most important? Or is it more important to be able to sneak into a spot and very quietly go right up in the tree without making an impact and be hunting right away versus the potential of cutting down limbs or banging your tree stand against metal step or something like that. So like the chance of spooking deer while setting up that tree stand, So which is which is more beneficial? I don't know, that's a tough question, man. Yeah, you know how many times have you had a deer five yards out of range that you wanted to shoot, you know what I mean, Just like it plays, it can. It's one of those things where it can it can really screw up your thought process if you make a decision and that decision is wrong, as opposed to making a decision in that and then that decision is right. You know. Yeah. I think I think we've mentioned like this that fooled by randomness concept where something happens once and then you take that to be like an indicator of a rule sort of. So if this one thing happened this one time, you think, Okay, that's the way things are. But it could have just been a random thing to happen. And that's that's, you know, a risk of what we're doing right here really to to a degree, especially what I do when I hyper analyze things. Um, sometimes ship just happens. Yeah, Sometimes there's things that are just out of your control, or bad luck happens or um, things don't go your way and you can't control. We can't control a whole heck of a lot when it comes to deer hunting. Um. So I think one of the big lessons I can take from that this year is to give myself for that, like to be okay with that to know that there's a lot of stuff I can't control. Mistakes are going to happen. You're not gonna get it all right, and that's okay. Like I'm really hard on myself, um, like I would, I really like as I think maybe if you listen to me as I'm talking through all this, I can be really nitpicky about this thing or that thing, and I do that to myself in my head like all day, um when I'm thinking about you know, the hunting season really anything but um, but I think this season helped me. Or I'm trying to look at this season and use it as a lesson to say, you know what, there's only so much you can do. It's good to pay attention to the details. It's good to try to keep improving. Um. I'm gonna keep on trying to do that. But sometimes you also need to understand that you can't control at all and you need to learn to um, accept that, embrace it, um and and not beat yourself up too much as well. Oh man, I wish I could agree with you there. I think I think I think you can control a majority of it if you learn from your mistakes. Right now, the rut brings a whole different kind of randomness to that. But I feel that you can do a if given multiple opportunities, you can control a scenario so well that you that you can win, like your your percentage of winning goes up, I mean, on a on a completely different scale than what we're used to. Take a look at the druries right in the Lakaskis. They set up their farms to put themselves in a in a scenario where they have the highest percentage of winning, right, And I think that if given certain circumstances, you can control that way more than what you think. I think it's it's a relative thing, right, So I'm not arguing that you can't control more. You can always control more. And I mean that's a huge portion of like my whole mindset when it comes to deer hunting is controlling as many different little tiny variables as you possibly can agree with that, And so yeah, the juries, the Lakowsky's, they to a tremendous degree control a ton of variables and that's a huge part of what does make them successful. I agree. Um, I'm just saying you can't control everything. And Mark Jury still has things happen that he doesn't want to have happened. Yes, he kills lots of big deer, but there are still mistakes that get made, or there are still things that happen that piss him off and the hunt gets screwed up a deer does the wrong thing, or coyote runs in, or his blind falls over, or a step falls out of the tree. Like things happen. Um. So I'm simply saying, do as much as you possibly can, push yourself more and more every single year, to learn more, to improve more, to pay attention to the details. But when something does go wrong, and this is maybe this is just for me, because this is something I just have I struggle with. I'm just saying, when something goes wrong, identify it, learned from it. But then don't beat yourself up, Like, don't hate yourself because that thing went wrong for me, I need to be able to identify it, learn from it, and be okay moving forward from that, and not identify it, learn from it and then be pissed at yourself because this thing went wrong and you're such a shitty deer hunter because of it, Mark, and your season got ruined because of this Mark, and you're never gonna kill holy Field blah blah bla blah blah blah blah. Yes, So so this has been my Um, this has been me just having to work on that that portion of it. Yeah, um, because and we talked about this a lot too. But as much as killing a deer is what we strive to do and we have our goals, and I think it's great to have goals, and it's great to work towards difficult things. And that's a big part of why I love deer hunting and hunting mature bucks. But you're all, we're also doing this because it's fun, right, We're trying to have a good time. We're we're trying to do all those things and if if and then every single year I say the same thing. So if you've been following the word Time podcast, you realize that I'm maybe not doing a good job of learning this because every year I have the same UM challenge is that I need to continue to get better at like being happy in the moment and like not overstressing about these things. Um. And so that's something that I think I'll probably just continue to be working on my whole life, because like, maybe maybe a good thing about me is that I take things really seriously and I work really really hard and I want to achieve big things, um, but sometimes that can be a detriment to UM. So that's that's a constant balancing act that I'm trying to get better at every year, right. And it just sucks because guys like me and you are in a position of trying to explain things right to people the listener, right when there are certain things that you just can't explain, Like I don't know. I wish I could sit here and tell you that, you know, I have these certain goals and I have you know that all these listeners, you know, the listeners out there need to do this and need to do that. But at the end of the day, I think the most important thing is to just do you do what you want to do and and not worry about what others are thinking. Not worry about you know, I don't know, I have this, I have this thing that kind of pisces me off about people who and I'm I'm I'm a hypocrite at this point too, because I provide content suggestions and strategy advice, you know, but everybody has a different scenario, right, and every like so I take that much advice from a guy who hunts large pieces of highly managed property, you know, or food plot advice, because it's just not relatable to me. And I think a lot of people try to put themselves into a scenario where they're chasing seven year old you know, Boot and Crockett deer when they're hunting public land in Michigan. You know what I mean? Yeah, oh yeah. You gotta be able to look at your reality and separate that from what else you're seeing there from other people. For sure, it's easy to fall into that trap though, you know, I mean even and to your point, I preach it all the time. I preached this, I mean, we do. We talked about this in the podcast all the time about how you need to look at your own stuff of circumstances base your own goals and tactics based on those unique situations and circumstances. But I still find myself looking at people in other circumstances and being like, how come I can't do that? Like, in moments and moments of weakness, I find myself like piste off or jealous when I see someone else having some great success to something, I'm like, gosh, dang, it like I wish it was that, Like for me, how can I and you can't do that. You can't, you can't let that happen. But it is human nature. Um, it's definitely human nature. But I don't know so much of I feel like so much of what we Maybe this is one of the reasons why deer hunting at the to the degree that we take it seriously, UM, why it's so compelling is that it's if you think about the things we're thinking about, it's an interesting reflection of a lot of just basic life challenges in that I think we're talking about some things here, like setting expectations, dealing with adversity, paying attention to other people, comparing yourself to other people, learning from mistakes, um, getting back up off the ground when bad things happen. Um. These are all these things that we are talking about in the context of deer hunting, but they're actually just bigger life lessons that could apply to everything from your job, to school to relationships. Um. And maybe this is like a way that idiots like you and me can learn stuff about life because of our obsession with deer hunting. UM. And maybe that's part of why we love this thing and taking it as seriously as we do because it's, uh, there's other things going on here than just trying to fill the freezer. Of course, that's that's the core of what we're trying to do, but there's there's bigger picture of things to learn from these experiences too, right, absolutely, man, absolutely? Can I can I tell you about another huge area of disappointment has been for me this year. Please don't say co host. Please don't say co host. Please don't say co host. No. Um. And this is another thing that we talked about a lot, but I think I've I've I've not done a good enough job with it, and that is with having different places to go. So a big mistake for me this year, and this kind of revolves all around what we were talking about earlier, is that I put all my eggs in the basket of holy Field. So I was so focused on that that I didn't take advantage of the other places I had to hunt. But then I also didn't have as many other good places to hunt as I should have too. So for example, from October one through October, I didn't want to hunt my best spot where holy Field was because of the things we talked about already. But I also didn't want to leave the area because I wanted to be close enough that if I did get a daylight picture of holy Field or something like that, I wanted to still be a hunt him. So I didn't go to North Dakota like I was gonna do. I didn't go to Ohio at all like I could have done. And because I didn't do a good job this year on trying to find new spots in the general area, I didn't have any other high quality local spots to hunt, so I I kind of wasted three weeks in my hunting season. Um. I went and I spent three or four days up North Um, which is fun, but it really wasn't, you know, going to pan out as far as killing the sure buck. I had done some scouting in public land this summer, so I thought I'm gonna hunt a bunch public lands during that time period. But I didn't do a good enough job scouting that public I should have scouted more. I should have found more spots on the public um because I hunted three times in public but that didn't pan out at all. I didn't spend so either either. I should have scouted more or should have spent more time trying to hunt it during that three week period to be able to just and make something happen. But I didn't do that. Um I got permission on a spot this summer, and then I got lazy and busy and I never followed up with him again because he wanted me to come back and talk to him about details and some other stuff, and just because of how busy things were, and I thought I'll just focus on these other things, I never went and tried to take advantage of that. That was another mistake. Um There's another piece of property I have locally that I had permission on in past years, but I fell out of touch with him, and because I fell out of touch with them, I felt bad about trying to call him up and say, oh hey, I just want to hunt your property again, so that I never followed up in the end this year. UM I should have been dealing with this over the past couple of years, and instead now I don't have permission on this place anymore. Um So. And and then again, on top of all those things, I should have been knocking on more doors this year locally to try to get more quality places. The point of all that being is that I put too much into this one property. I let other opportunities slip by. I didn't work hard enough to find more places locally, So I've either lost out in places or I didn't have other options when I should have been taking advantage of that time period. Through time period, I could have been doing a bunch more hunting, but I didn't. I hunted some subpar places just to kind of pass the time until what I thought would be prime time. Um, that was probably a mistake. I'm missed out on some opportunities. So I think coming to this next year, especially now that I'm gonna be putting more time into Michigan, probably in the past because I have this whole family thing going on that's going to maybe change my travel schedule a little bit. Um, I really need to find a bunch of good spots. I can't just I can't just have a little, one little good property in Michigan. Like the best deer hunters I know that kill mature bucks consistently in Michigan have a bunch of good places. I have a couple of decent I've got one good spot and then a handful of decent or Okay, spots. Um, and I've every year I'm like, oh, well that's okay. I need a bunch of good spots if I want to consistently kill mature bucks and not just get lucky every couple of years. Um. If I want to be one of those people, it's going to be doing that every year. I think I need to have a lot more places. Because if you don't own a couple, if you don't own a big place that you can control, if you're in a situation like I am, where I'm hunting twenty maker little pieces and little pieces and the nine piece and there's people everywhere, it's really hard to get it done year in and year out, counting on one little spot to produce over and over. Um. So this year, hopefully I can practice what I preach better than I have and do an even better job this year finding us some new places. UM. And that applies in Ohio too. I think my Ohio spots fizzling out. Um this year, I gotta find some new stuff there. Um. I need I need to rethink a lot of these different things. I think I got a little comfortable. Over the past maybe five years, things have been going well. I've killed a couple of bucks every year. The last like five years or so, I was getting comfortable with that um, and I maybe maybe let things slip. I didn't push things as far as maybe I should have as far as finding new areas, keeping other options open um, and I think that maybe bit me in the butt a little bit this year. So that's that's another opportunity area I think I've I've identified for all. Right, But now we're gonna take our final break of the day to thank our partners at Matthew's Archery. And as we've been discussing over the past few weeks, Matthews has launched their new boat for two thousand eighteen, the Matthews Try Acts, And today we've got Lelakowski of The Crush TV to talk about the difference he's seen with the Try Acts and how it stands out above other boats he's used. And it really it really hit home. You a lot of times you need to pick up a bow for the first time and you shoot it, it's like, yeah, it feels good, it feels quiet, and you know, vibration free and everything, and it's but it's really kind of hard to tell because you don't compare it to other ones. But when I got the try Acts, it was you know, in the summer, and it didn't even have a name for it yet. It didn't have any limbo graphics or anything. It was just a boat. So I shot it, you know, a bunch of summer, just getting used to it. And so right before we were going out to out West to start our hunts, I said, well, I better grab you know, my my hand on thirty two for my backup boat, and I just said one shot with it. And I just was like, oh my gosh, what a difference. I mean, just like the vibration in your hand and stuff. And I was like, for how smooth and quiet that Haleen thirty two was, you know for me over the years, and I mean it was the I think last year and all the comparison tests and everything, it was the quietest and most libration for you have of any bow on the market. I just couldn't believe how much different the tracks was, even to the Halons. I was like, man, that's really where I saw the difference. And so I've just been super impressed with it. If you would like to learn more about the Matthews tracks, you can visit Matthews Inc. Dot Com. Yeah, man, it's always always like I'm always looking for new properties and that's just I guess that's just a part of me. That number one. I like doing it, um And you know, I get told no a lot, but I get told no a lot outside of funding too, so UM, I'm used to it. But always looking for good ground is you know, it's just I mean, I don't know, I just like to hunt different places to um. Another thing that I want to do kind of in regards to hunting new locations, and that is and I don't necessarily have a lot to say on it right now, but the first thing is I want to learn about crops and how they're influencing the deer movement before the crops come out, because I have a couple I had a couple of trail cameras um on some crop field field edges this year that showed a lot of promise. And I gotta learn how to hunt those areas and when to hunt them and just just put a little bit more focus on them on the early season because some of I think I maybe you know, that makes me hop into some of my rut locations too early. If that makes sense, um, So before the crops come out, I really want to take a look at some of those areas. You know, some of these places that once the crops come out, they go into the timber, but while the crops are in, they're living in buffer strips. They're living in these fields or these very small, thin little sections of timber that border or split up some of these big crop fields. And then I also want to learn what the deer are doing that third week of November, maybe leading up to maybe not even uh maybe not even this November, but that first week of December where the the rut is in a kind of a trickling off mode, but the big bucks are still on their feet. I want to learn what the deer are doing and how to hunt during that because I think I'm missing out on some of my farms when it comes to like mature buck movement on those two those two periods of time. So I agree with you a d. When it comes to that, like that third week in November, that kind of time period, I feel like I have done the same thing. Um. That's It's it's tough in Michigan because our gun season opens and that whole third and fourth week and I've ever kind of gets blown out by gun season, but I've always felt like I'm missing out on that opportunity in states like Iowa, Ohio where they don't have that gun season. UM. My challenge has always been that that time period I think can definitely be good, but it's also like I've been hunting for three weeks straight and my wife's about to kill me at that point, so I feel like I need to be taking some time away to spend out family, and then you got Thanksgiving. UM, And I always feel like I just have a hard time finding time to hunt at that point because of that. UM. But man if if I can figure out how to better balance that and still get some hunting opportunity in some of these places, I hud agree with you on figuring that time for about two but we need to wrap things up. I know you've got to get out of here. Dan, We've kind of rambled all over the place. I feel like we've been like going on this thing that thing all over the place. UM. Maybe the moral of the story is that you and I both had a lot of things go well. We also learned a lot from our mistakes. UM, and I gotta believe everyone else out there has had similar situations, whether you killed a bunch of deer and achieved your goals or you didn't. Um, there's there's always something to learn from it. So well, if you had to wrap it up, Dan, for you like your big your top couple of things that we've talked about here. Otherwise, if you're a big couple takeaways from this season, what were those most important things, um, that stand out above everything else? I guess number one would be continue to be fluid, to continue to let the the oh man, the situation like the like the weather or the wind direction or the temperature, or the knowledge you have of off trail cameras, let that dictate your I guess where your stand location is going to be, but then also use your gut to finalize that decision, if that makes sense. And then, um, the other the other thing would be, I don't know, man, just to continue to be observant and keep your eyes open and and if if there is failure, to embrace it, because you don't get better, if you're perfect all the time. That's the truth right there. I agree with that for sure, UM, and I think that that Perris and well to then my big takeaways. Biggest takeaway from me has been not to get blinded by obsession, so so obsessed with killing holy Field this year, I think while that was it was a great goal and it was a fun goal to go after, I think it also caused me to again to overstressed, to overthink, to to miss out on other enjoyable parts of the hunting season. Um, and then also kept me from doing other things that maybe would have resulted in a better opportunities to Like I canceled a great trip to North Dakota, I didn't hunt the Ohio Rout almost at all. UM. So I missed out a lot of things because I was so so so focused on this one thing, which maybe that's a good thing, maybe it's not. UM. And then I think we talked about this a lot, but just UM learning to learn from mistakes but not beat yourself up or overstressed about them. That's a big one. And then the final piece I think for me this year was the issue I just talked about a couple minutes ago, which was location. Like every year too, I'm constantly thinking about trying to find new places. I just need to do an even better job, like I need to just find more opportunities, because there's nothing more important, I think, when it comes right down to it, more important than location. You can't kill mature big bucks if you don't have anywhere to hunt that has them. And uh, that's especially true in a place like Michigan, where they're not everywhere by any means. So I'm gonna be knocking allowed doors or saving up pennies to try to buy up property someday or Lisa property somewhere or something, because you gotta get spots to hunt. So I hear we've been hearing a little person in the background, Dan, do you want to make your son famous? Hey, hey, Mac, can you say talk writing here and say stay wired to hunt? Yeah? That's awesome man. Alright, well, I think that's a perfect way to write it up. Now say say Sai, say the October lull is a myth? Not are we go now a we start talking dirty? All right, we're gone, We're gone, and that we'll do it for us. So big thank you to our partners who make this possible. Big thanks to Sit to Gear, YETI Cooler's Matthews Archery, Maven Optics, the White Tail Institute of North America, Trophy Ridge and hunt Terra maps. And finally, thank you for listening, thanks for being with us. I hope that you had an amazing two thousand seventeen season and hopefully one that you've been able to learn from and that you can take those lessons forward into the next one. So until next time, thanks again, and stay wired to Hunt.