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 two hundred and thirty one, and today in the show, myself, Spencer and Further are recapping our early September hunts and I am excited to be able to share with you the story of the successful conclusion to my Montana public land hunt. All right, before we get to all that, though, big things to our partners at Lacrosse Boots for their support of this podcast episode. And I actually have a great Lacrosse Boots story to share with you from this Montana hunt. I've been on about my regular knee high rubber boots for the hunt. Um, but I knew I was going to be crossing a river a handful of times, quite a few times, actually, so I made the mistake of being a cheapskate and buying some fifteen dollar packable waiters from Amazon. These things were trash and the first time using them, they ripped, so I had to go. I to drive over an hour to the nearest city where I could get some better kind of waiters or boots, and they're at the local kind of farm supply store. I was able to get some across hip boots. These things were exactly what I needed. I brought them back to the property I was hunting, and they were able to get me across the river, down the river, through the river many many times of the course of the four days I was hunting there. So I should have just gotten something high quality that in the first place. But none of this is say my across boosts. Both the rubber boots and the hip boots worked great for this hunt. And uh now I'm glad I've got a great pair for these to do some creek crossings and traversing in miss Chegain as well in other places. So if you're interested in learning more about the cross boots for yourself, you can visit Lacrosse Footwear dot com. All right, welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by Onyx and today we're coming to you live from Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. It's me further and Spencer and I thought the plan for today could be for us just to recap how our first week of hunts have gone, because all three of us have been hunting out in these different states. Um, early September hunts. Dan couldn't be with us because he's still in the mountains chasing elk, but I've heard they've been having some close calls. I'm sure next week we'll have some interesting updates from him. But really quick, let's do a quick roll call. Um, I want to hear who has filled their tag so far off the three of us. Uh, Spencer, if you've killed the bucks, say I nay? Okay further now, this seems like the shame most plug here for you. Man, I don't have a tag till yet. Okay, I'll say mark yea buck tag filled? Um. Do you guys wanna hear about my story first? Or you want to tell me your stories? I think Josh and I have pretty short updates, so maybe we should get hours out of the way. All right, Well, Spencer, what's the story on Lieutenant Dan. Uh? The story is he's still out there and he is safe. Um. I got to haunt the first and the third. I had the winds that I wanted to get a chance at him. Um, I was there, but he was not, So I don't know at this point I think he has kind of changed his pattern, and where I have an opportunity to hunt him at is now like a secondary pattern. I guess I am just trying to catch him deviating from what he normally does. And when he shows up in this property that I can haunt like once every five days or whatever it is. And so my hope has been that if I'm there, like nine out of the first ten days or something, I'm going to get a chance at him. So I was there on the first and the third, he did not show up. Um on the fourth, we got about a half inch of rain that day, and uh, the property that it haunted at the end of like three miles of dirt road, minimal maintenance, and so I literally couldn't even get back there. And so the fourth and the fifth I had to haunt, like my plan C setups um, you know, miles away from where Lieutenant Dan is and I did not have any very good action then. And so as at this point, my season has been very very slow. Deer movement for me has been like a three out of ten if we go by the radio standards. Now, I don't think that's indicative of what's actually going on. The weather. It's been uh, pretty solid if if you wanted to kill a mature buck right now. The mosquitoes, though, those have been a ten out of ten. They they have showed up to every hunt for me, So it has been slow so far. I don't think the velvet buck thing is going to happen, but this has all been gravy for me getting to hunt in early September. Um, you know, I didn't I think that was gonna get to happen this year. So even though it didn't work out, this is not like a finality ending for me. Um. I'll get to keep hunting with this tag. Um you know it's it's from my home county, so I'll be out there a lot. And like if my season was a round of golf, I haven't even got the whole one yet. I'm just at the driving range, so there's a lot to go and I'm still feeling pretty positive. Um well, as further knows, I'm very good at golf. So UM, I love these analogies, and that was like, thank you, thank you. I always like to I like to imagine Steve Ornella is listening and make a bunch of sport ball references. Is that he is not going to get sport ball and you're right he would. They would all go right over his head, Um Spencer. I was what I was curious about, was, um, this setup where you were hoping to get a shot at at your buck there? What was that like? Can you describe what that setup was and why you thought you would have a chance at him there? So it's a large property, um, like hundreds of acres, but about we're probably it is beans and there's just a small amount of timber. Um. So there's a very fine line between me being aggressive and me being passive when it comes to hunting this buck, because um, there's a lack of betting that I have access to, and that betting isn't too far off of this field edge. So I have just been playing it safe for now and I have been hunting um the edge of a bean field hoping to catch him out, hoping to catch him coming out beating at night. And so you haven't seen him obviously, like you said, Now, you did tell me off the air a couple of days ago that you were trying to figure him out a little more and you had something happened. Is that something you can explain? What happened. How you thought, maybe that hazard has an impacted things. Yes, So that was back on August twenty three. I believe it was. UM. I had checked the trail camera that he had been kind of a regular on, and all of a sudden, UM, he was showing up less and less, and so I was losing confidence about where this deer was betting. I kind of had in my mind, um once I started keeping tabs at him back in June. Um. Yeah, it was pretty confident where he was at in June, July, early August. And we get to the end of August, UM, and he was showing up less. So I thought maybe I wasn't accurate with where he was betting at. UM. So I tried to get in a little bit deeper into the property. Uh. Like I said, this was August, to get a camera up there with hopes um of me maybe catching him uh earlier, well, me catching him between the bean field and where I thought he was betting. The problem was, I got the camera up, turned around to leave, and I busted him out of some plump thickets and he was bedded in the general area that I thought, but closer to the field edge than I was expecting when he busted though, Uh, he he ran out of the plump thickets and got into a thick part of the creek bottom and never turned around the whole time. Um. He was in a thick area where he would not have been able to see me. He just heard me up there. The wind was also in my face, strong wind like twenty um. So he was just busting based off of my sound. And so it was a bad deal. You never want to bust a deer um, you know, especially that close to the season, one that was open and get a chance in. But everything was positive about it, I guess as positive as it could be. Um. He didn't smell me, he didn't see me, um, and so I felt okay about it. That area has a lot of coyotes. Um. You know, he could have thought it was a coyote or or anything else. Um. So when I got back up to the field edge, hoping uh that I could maybe confuse him, I lit the area up with mock scrapes uh and and put fresh year and and all of them, thinking that maybe if he were to come back to that field edge and he would uh find it a coincidence that while there's all these mock scrapes here and I just got busted by something that was hanging out near the plump thicket where I bed. Maybe there's another mature buck around here, just hoping to to confuse him, maybe pique his interest to to show up there a little bit more often. Um. And it was only like three days later, August twenty six, I believe, and he was on camera again, right around shooting light. So although I busted him, um, I don't think it was the end of the world. And I don't think that's affected any of my hunts quite yet. It's an interesting idea you had there about your little mock scrape surprise for him. Um. Just just ye, just how I busted him. You know, he didn't lay eyes on me, and I'm sure he didn't smell me. I never got down wind of him, and the wind was so strong it never swirled and gave him an advantage. Um. So I just thought it wasn't gonna hurt anything, certainly, and I just hope that, you know, maybe that would pique his interest and get him showing up to that being field again. Okay, So that didn't work out, though, at least as far as getting you out there getting a shot out there. Now you're out of it because of the muddy road. What's your game plan for the next couple of weeks? Now, the next couple of weeks, I'll be hunting, um, like my sea property and my d property, um, which don't set up well for early season. Now if this were in November, Like my c property is actually my A property and it's kind of confusing, um. But I'll give it a few more days here, hoping that I can catch a random velvet buck that I didn't know existed on one of these other um pieces of ground, that I can haunt it. And I'll do some public land setups as well, um, just just to keep me out there and with hopes that I can find a summer pattern book. But I don't think it's going to happen um at this point, bumber. Well, like you said, though, there's still lots of golf that we played, and if there's a Tiger Woods in the hunting world, they gotta believe it's U Spencer. Um. We just we won't tell your wife about the infidelity part. But otherwise, UM, see, I got I got sport ball jokes too, like that. That's right, that one wasn't as good though, Yeah, probably not. But what can you do? Um? Further, are you curious about anything with Spencer or do you just want to dive right into your story? What? Yes? Not to what like? Um like time of movement? Like when have you kind of started seeing some deer moving? Like I know you said that moving was like three out of ten, but hasn't been late like real late or what have you been sitting there? So my hunts have been so poor. I have not even spotted a buck to this point. Everything I've seen have been dough was. I think on each hunt I've seen um, three to four doughs with their fonds, and much of that movement has been early, like, um, I would say one hour to ninety minutes prior to the sun going down. What kind of time frame have you seen? Further? Mine's all been like real late, Um, you know, like half hour before dark. Um. I did see some a few doughs kind of filtering through, um like five o'clock ish, but then it just kind of shuts down until at last little last little bit of light. But yeah, everything's been been pretty late. So so let's back up. Though, I guess you're you're out in North Dakota. You're at this spot that we did some scouting this spring at Um, how did you I know, like last time you're on the podcast, you talked a little bit about how you've been looking at some maps to figure out kind of what your game plan was going to be. But how did you actually execute on that? Because what you're in day three now? So how what have you done so far? Yeah, so I'll give a sport ball uh analogy here real quick. So I'm I'm maybe like I'm maybe like a beer or two into my like golf round, and that's really when I get going, like get a little bit of swing. Loop gone. You're not much swing and uh hopefully hopefully I'm making the turn here after nine holes and I'm coming in the home stretch strong. Let's be honest, though, you're way past two beers after nine holes. Job, I don't know, because I get to that point where just feeling good enough where I just walk up to the ball and hit it. I don't think about it too much. Um. But yeah, so I kind of had picked out a couple of spots that I wanted to try to to sit the first couple of nights and more or less just observation stands, um, but also putting myself in this situation where it could be a a good spot. Um, you know if if something did come come through, and um, the first night was better than the second night. And uh, basically I picked some spots on this on this in this river bottom um where there are some heavy, heavy trail crossings across the river and I was able to access them via the river pretty easily. Um, other than the fact that they've been really long hikes to get in there. Um. But I was I stayed away from the cover um where I think they're all betted up, and then I was trying to get in between where I think they're going to be headed out at night to to to to feed. UM. I think what I figured out is I need to get in closer to them. UM. I think I've just too far away from I think that's part of the reason I'm seeing the late movement is that I just need to bust in on him a little bit more. What what then is going to be the plane tonight? What are what's the setup? And look like I'm so tonight the spot I'm I'm looking at, I gotta double check the wind and everything here, um before I head back out, and don't have any service that I'm gonna go across the river from where I was at the first night. Um, I did see one decent buck, just got a quick glimpse of them before I lost him and all the all the brush, and he was kind of working around that the point of this this river bend, and uh, there's a couple of spots over there that can kicking that. I think I can get set up um and hopefully then see back into some of that thicker cover, um better than what I could the first night. So I'm gonna cross the river. I'm not going to be more than a hundred hundred and fifty yards where I was from the first night, but it seems to be that's where more the action was was taking place that night. And the tree I've got picked out, I could see from my other stand, I would have he would have been a chip shot. Um. If it was like I said, it was a decent buck. I don't know. I don't know exactly what he was. He was hard horned already, UM, but it looked like he did have some potential. So that's kind of the plan for a night, going to make a move across the river kind of where all the actions happened in the first night. Can you get across the river by waiting it or do you have to drive to the other side. Uh, it's super low right now, so I think I'll be able to I got some hip waiters that I brought with me that are like packable. Hopefully they don't rip on me like they did for you. Um. Because I've been so I should be able to get across it pretty easily. I think. Okay, cool, that's all good for me to know. Uh, if I'm going to be meeting you out there to night. So UM, you had said in the past that you were holding out for a three and a half year old buck um and basically to the last day, Like, even if a two and a half year old comes by in the last day, you're not going to shoot him. Um. Here's something I didn't know prior to just talking to you right before we hopped on air, was that there's a chance for a mule deer there as well. Would you drop your standards, um for a mule deer to walk by? Um as a you know, a michigander you probably don't have many opportunities that a mule deer. So would you shoot like a spike buck if if one wandered in archery range? Uh? No, because my tag is for white tail only. Oh yeah, I don't don't do that then, yeah, non residents is a white tail only. So unfortunately, no, I will not be doing that. Regardless of what I would like to do. That's uh, I wouldn't be able to. So white tails are bust for me. And yeah, I mean like the goals for and a half year old. Um, we'll see, we'll see how I'm feeling on like Saturday evening and there's a nice two and a half old standing in front of me. That'd be hard not to pull the trigger on that, I think, but we'll see. Well, it's tough, man, It's it's it's hard word getting around down there. There's there's a lot of ground to cover on foot and with the true standing on your back, and she's last last night I went like a mile and a half and and it was like straight down a cliff. I had to like switch back down a cliff down to this river bottom and it was a brutal hike in and out. Yeah, imagine I have to take a deer out of there. Yeah, I know, I know. That's That's what I'm starting to think about more and more. I've got my little buck burrito to mark, but I might end up quartering one out. I don't know. I'll tell you what after after my adventures yesterday, I'm done with the buck barrito. I'm gonna start quartering these suckers off. Josh, I'm I'm all for you shooting a two and a half year old like on that last day. I hate when somebody says, like, don't shoot something on the last day. You wouldn't shoot on the first. But like those people have not been in real world hunting situations, like they can go pound rocks if they think that you're not allowed to like change your standards or change your goals when you're on like a public land hunt twenty hours from home or whatever it is. I know, the more I've been thinking about it, like if there's anything that would make me happy, I'm just gonna do it. And like like you said, I'm like twenty hours from home, you know, busting my tail out here basically you know, on my own and uh man, it would be it would be awesome to to fill that tag. You do whatever makes you happy, Josh, Yep, and that's what I'm planting on. Well, I hope it happens tonight. I'll be I'll be there, I'll be ready to help you. And I guess the reason why I'm going to be there and ready to help you is because, like I said, I finally filled my tag. So, um, do you guys want to hear the story of my hunt? It's been quite the four or five days out there. Yeah, walk us through all five days, like from day one up until when you took the shot. Before we get to my story, though, let's take a quick break to think. Our partners at Onyx and Onyx are the makers of the Onyx Hunt app, which is a mobile mapping application which has just been a tremendous tool for me over the past week here in Montana. This mapping app allows me to see aerial views and topographic views, shows me all the public land parcels and borders, shows me who the private property landowners are next door. I've used it almost I have used every day actually mapping out how I'm gonna get to my stand locations. Uh, thinking through where deer might be bet at, etcetera, etcetera, mapping out how long of a walk I had um And also, in particular, you're gonna hear in the podcast in a second about how I did get a shot at this buck and when trying to recover him, it took a lot of tracking to find him. And there's a tool within the Onyx Hunt app called the tracker feature, which central to drops a line everywhere you've walked. And so what I did is they had that track return around while I was tracking my deer, and then I could look at the map afterwards and see what ground had covered and what ground I haven't covered yet. And that little feature ended up helping me find my dear. So the Hunt app has been very helpful. If you would like to try it out for yourself, you can visit onyx maps dot com or search for Onyx Hunt on your mobile app store of choice. And if you want off your order, you can use the promo code wired. That's w I R E D. I believe you need to access that from the desktop version, is what I've heard. So promo code is wired w I R E D. All right, so I will give you the spiel and you guys just jump in and stop me whenever you've got questions or when I'm getting really boring or something like that. Um. So basically got out there off Saturday afternoon, early afternoon. This is the same spot where me and Josh had scouted and shed hunted earlier this year, so I knew it, I had walked, I knew kind of where I wanted to go. And the big hang up though for me was that, Um, to get to this piece of public land, you have to Um, it's land locked, so you haven't either need to pass through private land. Well, basically, anyway you go about it, you have to pass through private land. Um I have been hearing. Well, basically there's a river you can take to get in there. The right way to do it technically is to get permission by the private landowner who owns the land around that river. So I had gotten that permission earlier this year, and I just kind of just assumed that I still had that permission coming in a hunting season. UM. But I decided to give that guy a call the week before my hunt just to double check, And after having that phone call, found out that he kind of rescinded that permission. Now he thought he's gonna have a family that was gonna be hunting, he'd rather not go back there. So I was all kind of in a panic then, because I had all these spots picked out, I thought we're gonna be great. But now if I couldn't go down that river, I couldn't get to him. Well that's said he did mention, well, stopping when you get here, we'll chat and we'll see. So I get there on Saturday, I stopping and chat. After like two hours hanging out there chip chatting with him, him, his wife, really really nice people, great people. UM. And the the end result was that they decided that it would be okay for me to go back there now. So that was great. It was a huge relief, UM, and I all of a sudden had this all this new confidence back again. So that first day I packed up my gear and hiked in and kind of like what Josh mentioned with those long walks, it's about a mile, just under a mile and a half hiked to get in there, Um, across all this public land and then down all on this river and then back into this public land. So it's a long time getting in there. But um, I gotta tell you about my new mobile setup. UM. I switched to the tree saddle. I think a lot of people have heard about that. So it's the first time using the tree saddle, and I loved it, like, I really really liked it. Um. One of the nicest things being the fact that I didn't have to carry in a tree stand, so I had thirteen pounds less on my back, which is really nice. And I also took in my like elk hunting backpack for this trip too. I just started thinking, you know what, I'm not gonna carry these heavy loads with a smaller backpack and be uncomfortable. I'd rather have the big backpack, so I had a bigger backpack. Plus I didn't take a tree stand. Now, I I brought climbing sticks, and I was wearing my saddle, and then I've got you know, camera gear, and I was on AX and I'll switch other crap. Um. But I was able to get in there and get set up. This is one of the well, this was the first hunt ever in the saddle, so it took me a little while to get up in the tree and get comfortable and settled. And actually, while I was up there fiddling in my saddle trying to get situated. I had two bucks come walking right by twenty five yards to young bucks at like four forty five in the afternoon, so that seemed to be a good sign um. But over the course of the night, I saw a bunch of deer, had at least two different mature bucks that I saw, but both of them were on different sides of me, about ninety yards away, out of the side of range obviously, So that night was great, had some good encounters, but I knew I needed to make a move the next day. The issue was that the next day I had a totally different wind direction that just seemed I think, it's just the risk of blowing this area up with that wind was too high. So I knew of one other piece of public that I could access that I thought would be pretty good that would work for that wind. I just had never been down in there before. And the issue with this one was kind of like Josh, your situation. To get down to the river bottom ground, you had to come up off these really high bluffs and then basically go canyoneering down into this thick coollye um to get down at the bottom some pretty steep stuff um. And that was a mile and a half hike to get to that spot, so I was able to get down there, though I I went into like a pre hike. I hugged it without my gear to see if I could even get in there. I could. Then I had to hug all the way back, get all my gear, then hike all the way back down and then get to a tree get set up. Um my set up with the saddle, and day two is easier. So I was getting more comf for a ball, and I did see a good number of deer too. Um. It was a little later movement that first night. I was seeing those bucks at like six six fifteen and didn't get dark till eight or eight oh five or something like that. Um. Night number two, I was closer out towards the food, so that movement was a little later. I did see two mature bucks. One was on the private land. One was on the public land, but he was out of my range and the opposite side of this piece, so it wasn't in the game, wasn't in the wasn't in the chips on that one. But that was still encouraging. I found it two nights in a row. I've seen mature bucks two nights in a row. I've got two different good options now. Um, So I was excited about that market. Where you're at in this river bottom like river bottom that I'm familiar with is typically nasty, like overgrown Vietnam jungle looking stuff. But like from the pictures I've seen, the grass looks like it's very thin and like ankle high. Were their cattle on this ground that you were hunting? So on the first place that I hunted Day one property, they have sheep in there sometimes, um, and cattle sometimes too. I think they aren't there right now, but there were sheep there right now. Um. On the day to property, I'm not sure I didn't see any stock out there, but um, possible. But the terrain itself, it's kind of there's three different habitat types or three different types of stuff that I'm seeing on this property. There's there's like the really thick like Russian olives, so just you know, really thick, bushy stuff that's like great betting cover, and then it usually transitions into like a grassy slash cottonwood savannah type terrain and then eventually hits to crop fields on the private land. So both of these public places. It was that kind of deal. There was the Russian olive betting, there was the kind of transition cottonwood groves, and then there's the crop fields in the private So I was positioning myself kind of in between that bedding and the food. A night number one I was, well, I guess both nights I was kind of in that cotton woody um transition area. But on night number one it was much tighter to the bedding, like there was there was the russianale of betting within fifty yards of me, thirty yards and on one side um. On night number two, I was farther away from it, but because of the wind direction I had, I had to had to move far in one direction so my wind would skirt the edge of that bedding and not cut right into it. Um. So that's kind of the the situation. And I think why both of these spots was you know, so great as far as deer sightings and seeing mature boxes. That both of them required, like I said, about a mile and a half hike. One of them. You had to take a river in which a lot of people won't do. So I had to, you know, I had to first, I had these disposable these like fifteen dollar packable waiters that are trash um, and I ripped them within the first wade. The first time across the river, I got caught on a piece of wood and ripped him. So was junk and there. So I tried to use the rest of the night kept filling up. I got muddled. I mean, it was just a nightmare that first day. So the next day I went and drove to a city where I could buy real hip boots hit waiters, and those work much better. Um, But I digress. The first thing that that property head going for it was the river, and the distance made it hard to get into it. And the second day property I had the distance and then this cliff and this canyon, so you had to really work to get down in there. So I just don't think many people are willing to do that, And especially where I'm at, there's not a whole ton of white tail hunters. Most guys right now are focused on mule deer and elk um. So the few guys maybe that are chasing white tails are are looking for the easy, low hanging fruit. These were definitely not low hanging fruit spots um, And how how long did it take you to get from like when you get out of your pickup two when you get to the tree when you were going to set up. Yeah, I think it's about an hour, give or take. I think it was yeah, if I'm remembering right, give or take that hour mark um. And then the other thing that both of these things had going for them was that the public land was this cover betting and transition, but both of them were next to private land the head crop fields on them. So I specifically picked these places because it looked like there was neighboring fields that would hopefully have food in them, and I confirmed they both had alfalfa growing on the private property, So that really holds a deer in this area. So if there's good green alfalfa and there's covering nearby, you're almost guaranteed there's gonna be deer um. And so that's what I looked for. It looked for the food. I looked for hard to get to public that was adjacent to it, and I found these two spots. I had that and both of them ended up being producers. So day number three rolls around now and I have a good wind direction to go back into the night number one spot. So I go in there, but this time I'm going to move my stand to take into account what I saw on the first night. So I'd seen seven bucks come by along the north side of this little opening I was in this little transition area. One of them was a definitely mature buck. One of them was a maybe. So I thought based off that if i'd move my stand to be just down wind of that edge, I could catch him moving again. And you know, I got in there and got settled, and right away, like within I don't know, twenty minutes of being in there, here comes like a two or three year old buck and a younger like a year and a half old buck, and a bunch of doughs coming right at me. I was like, oh man, this is great. I'm in the right spot. But then at about fifty yards fifty sixty yards, they cut into the Russian olive thicket before they got to me, and then they could see them traveling inside the brush past me, and I wouldn't be able to get a shot at them. And I'm thinking, oh my gosh, did I somehow like misremember the spot? Am I? Like? Thirty forty yards too far over? And now every deer that's gonna come by is gonna cut into the thicket before they get to me. Um. So I was sitting there for five minutes like kicking myself, like you are an idiot, you screwed up. You're gonna have to make move your stand again tomorrow. Um. And I couldn't get down a move because there was more deer coming through, like the deer parade had begun. Um. Fortunately a couple of doughs did come by within range, and I gave me a little bit of hope, and I was saying, Okay, maybe some of these deer cut in, some of these dear don't. And I still was holding true to my memory that told me these bucks came by there. So I'm sitting there watching lots of different doughs coming through, and now there's deer behind me too. So every once in a while, I'm looking behind me, and this situation, I'm looking to the left behind me, and I turned my right to look back in front, right on that edge, and there's a great big bucket fifteen yards right in front of me, right in my shooting lane, walking right at me. So I'm like, holy crap, Like instantly knew that's a big mature buck. And what time was this, man, I think this was like six thirty or sixty five or something that so at least an hour and fifteen minutes before dark. Um, he's right there. And what I did is I thought I would have time to grab my camera, spin the camera around, spin me around, because again I'm I'm in the saddle. And the way I was set up in this tree is it had had a bunch of branches on the back side of it, and I set up my saddle kind of right next to these branches so that when I leaned straight back, I was essentially tucked into the branches and you couldn't see me at all. Nothing saw me. Not a single deer looked up there and saw me in the tree. But what I could do, because I'm in the saddle, you can maneuver very easily, so I could be tucked into the branches when their deer coming by that I didn't want to see me. But if I needed to get into shop position, I could just slowly kind of swing to my left and be able to get a great shop. And so that's what I did here. I I was swinging into position while moving my camera all the while this bucks in my in my shooting lane and walking through it. And what in a happening is that by the time I got drawn back on him, he had got behind a couple of branches I couldn't shoot through, and then had turned. Um, I think he turned directly towards me, if I remember right. And there were two other bucks with him. I never even really looked at them too much because I was so focused on him. I remember seeing them and being like, oh, that looks like a couple of younger bucks, and then focused on the first one. So he goes almost directly beneath me. The other two are directly beneath me. I'm drawn back on this buck, hoping he's gonna turn. If he turns and gets into one of these gaps in the branches, I could get a shot at him. Drawn back, waiting, waiting, he turned, starts walking directly away from me now and now I'm thinking, okay, just give me a little bit of an angle on a quarter way shot. And that doesn't happen. Then he stops, and then there's this buck underneath me. I think the youngest buck was like right underneath me, smelling around where my tree steps had been or where my backpack had been laid, and I spread a bunch of nose jammer down there when I got done. But after I don't know seconds anything like that. Eventually he was like I don't like this, and that buck bolted. And when that buck bolted, didn't snort, didn't like freak out completely, just was like, you know, if you ever see that where a buck like just gets a little surprised and like, I don't like this, and they run off like ten fifteen yards, That's what he did. He ran off ten fifteen yards, and then the other two bucks then followed him because he kind of freaked out. So now the big bucks out of range, they're all out of range. They stopped, there's kind of looking around and there's no way I can get a shot, and then they slowly walk away. Um, so I was just pretty piste off of myself. I had this great big I mean I don't know I have, and the invelvet they always look a lot bigger than maybe they are. But I was thinking probably one forties, definitely a four year old still in velvet. Um really nice buck had him right there, I mean literally that spot where he was was what I set the saddle up for. Like I was, Okay, I want these deter come right through here. If he's there, off this perfect beautiful broadsaide shot. This is where think they're gonna be. And he did it exactly. I just wasn't ready in time. I just he surprised me. He was right in it before I noticed him. And and I think in retrospect, if I hadn't messed with the camera, I probably could have just grabbed the bone, got drawn and got a shot. Um. But that's what I did. I tried to get on camera. So has has that cost you before? Trying to get the cameras set up while self filming and miss an opportunity. And the only other time that this happened, um, And it was. It was a situation where I told myself I wouldn't do it again, and now I just did it again. But it was back in two thousand fourteen on I was hunting this buck I called Jawbreaker in Ohio, and it was it was very very similar situation. It was almost the exact same scenario where I was looking in one direction, I turned around all of a sudden the buck I'm after was right in my shooting lane at like twenty yards and same deal. I rushed to try to get the camera turned on him and and grabbed the bone and get drawn all the same time. And because of that, he used just about outside of my shooting lane by the time I stopped him and got a shot. And I think because of that, it just forced me to rush and I got a bad shot on him, and UM hit back and didn't end up recovering until the next spring. So ever after that, you know, that really frazzled me. And I don't at least for the next few years after that, I've been telling myself, I'm not gonna let the camera interfere with a shot like that. UM. But apparently I did again because I still try to get on a camera this time, and it cost me. At least this time. I didn't rush the shot. I just didn't take the shot. So I'm glad about that. And there was there was a time, there was a second there I was like I could probably I could force it, and I stopped myself, so I guess I did. There was some personal growth there. I didn't force the shot, so I'm glad I didn't do that. UM. But That's always been my biggest fear, Like if I were to ever start filming that it could cost me a deer or it cost me an opportunity, and like I feel like that could take the fun out of it real quick. And like there there's just so many little things that have to go right for you to kill a white tail with a bow. Um that it just adds an extra element to those people who can sell film um and consistently kill big deer, like so much respect for him because that it's hard to do. Yeah, I know, it definitely is. It definitely is a whole another layer of challenge. But and after that job breaker incident, I did consider like do I want to stop filming? Um, But what it came back down to me is as long as you're not going to force a shot down, as long as you don't make the mistake I made that first time, which is forced a rush shot because of it, um, it adds so much fun to the hunt because you can go back and look at that video. Like I just love getting video of deer I see. I love being able to look back at them. I love being able to share the pictures or videos of other people. UM. Like that's become almost just as much of the hunt with me now as like I'm hunting with a camera in a lot of cases. So just seeing a good buckwheat in the distance is still awesome because I can capture video of him and I can relive that. UM. So, even if I wasn't going to be like posting my videos on YouTube or sharing them with you know, for wired hunt, I think I would still video just because I love that aspect um. But it does, it does make things tougher. So I was pretty frustrated. Before we move on from this, how has it been How has it been filming from the saddle as opposed to a tree stand. Any differences or anything like that you've noticed. Yeah, good question, because that was really one of the biggest things that kept me from trying to saddle in past years. It is because I was worried about that. Um So I was worried still now that I have a saddle, But it ended up being fine, you know, end up not being an issue at all. I think, I just you know, positioning, it is a little bit different, um but it's not bad, just because with the saddle you can move around in the tree so much. Um. You can maneuver and position yourself for different shots. You can maneuver around the camera almost easier than you can with a tree stand, because you know, in the tree stand you're standing straight up tight to the tree. In this you can be leaning out, you can be sitting down, you can be just you can There's a lot of flexibility with it. Um So filming was fine, It was really easy. I think the biggest difference was that, at least for me, when I get into a tree stand, first thing it was getting the tree stand. I clip in, um, you know, off a lifeline or whatever onto your safety harness tree strap, and then I get my backpack, set my backpack on the seat, and I start unpacking and I start setting up my camera gear and all that kind of stuff. You don't have a seat now when you're in saddle. So what I just end up doing was the first thing I would do when I got into the tree is that I would, um, you know, figure out where I'm gonna hang my stuff, and like on my camera arm. There's a little hanger on my on my strap on camera arm, so you can use that to hang a backpack on. So I just essentially had a place to hang my backpack in easy reachable distance so that while I'm in the saddle, I can still reach my backpack with all my camera gear and everything. And it kind of like it's sitting on a seat, um, but still accessible, so I can take care of things one at a time, um, in that kind of fashion. So that worked out really well. Um. Yeah, So I got all settled in there, and and that the whole situation happened. I was bumming about that buck had another group of four bucks come walking in right underneath me, passed on a on a pretty nice looking three year old. Um. And then the salt in the wound that night? Was that the original mature buck that I saw from night number one that I moved to this tree for this big wide a pointer. He goes walking right by the tree I hunted on night number one. UM, so you know, I mean, that's like the age old question I always like have is like when do you move? Do you move after seeing one siding or do you stick it out in case they change what they do? And in this case, he went by where I was the day before. And you know, it is what it is. But now you you hunted four evenings, correct, correct, And how many of those haunts did you see the same deer that you had seen in the past? Um? On night number one and nine number three, I saw that wide a pointer. That was the only buck that I could set tell you for sure was the same deer from past nights because night number two was a different location and night number four was just a quick hunt. I only saw one deer at night number four, But I won't spoil that quite yet. Um, but I'm sure that you've seen. Were there any bucks that you thought we might have pulled sheds from? You know? I did wonder about that, and there were none that like stood out to me as obvious, like, oh yeah, that's this buck. I'm gonna go back and look at some of our sheds and like try to think through that and try to picture the bucks I saw and the sheds we have. But nothing that stands out to me as like a no brainer. This is half, you know, Like we didn't find the triple brown time buck. I didn't see him, um, but I was hoping we might. I might see one of those deer, but I can't say for sure that I did. Well, let me know when you're gonna do that and I'll bring all my sheds over and we can. That'd be fun to look through footage and play with our sheds. Um So, yeah, I think our wives with having even more questions about us. Yeah, they would. Um So, night number three ended basically was seeing that wide one but at my first stand location. Um snuck out of there. And then day four I decided I'm going to go back to the same stand because you know, the wide eight could just as likely come back past me, not like he did a number one. And I also had that group of three batcheler bucks come through, including the one I tried to get a shot at and couldn't. And I didn't think they spooked so bad that they wouldn't come by again. Possibly, Um, if that had happened in Michigan, I don't think I would have hund in the same stand because these Michigan deer are just they don't give you second chances. But I have noticed in spots like this where there's just not as much pressure, these deer they just behave differently. Um, you can get away with a lot more, you know, Like I said, not a single there, not one. The entire time I've been out here has looked up into the tree. I can't tell you how many times in Michigan, even hunting trees for the first time, deer just looking up lots of times, lots of times they won't they'll see something and they're like when they keep going, but I mean nothing looked up at all, It's amazing. And so I'm sitting there. I'm so used to like being frozen, assuming that deer're going to look up at me and look at me for a second and then keep going and look at me and they keep going. Never had to deal with that, So it is. You know, I'm not ever going to try to equate public land hunting, you know, like a western state to public land hunting back in Michigan, or even private land back in Michigan. Um, it's just a different it's a different animal. Um. So that's what I thought, you know, I could probably get away with another hunt there. Um. But we had this cold front hit. You know that you talked a little bit, well, I guess we talked about that on rut ray Deo uh Spencer, how this cold front came through the country and it was like ninety something degrees on Monday and on Tuesday, Um, it was twenty degrees cooler, So now the highers are gonna be in like the sixties. I've already been seeing early deer movement, so I'm thinking about to myself, all right, I've been seeing mature bucks moving at six. I've been seeing deer moving by like five thirty five thirty. Um, I'm gonna have to get in there really early, just in case these deers start doing something crazy. So I got all settled and snuck in there to be in the tree stand. I was shooting to be in the tree stand by about three thirty, and I got there about three thirty. I was up in the tree and settled by about three thirty five, and I'm in that same stand. I was happy with how I got in there, nice and quiet. Um, it's nice and cool and comfortable. Three thirty five, I'm all set. I'd got in my camera gear set up, everything was settled. At three thirty five, I grabbed a bottle of water out of my backpack and I lost my plastic water all summer. So I had like one of those great, big, huge YETI tumblers, like the big heavy silver ones. But it's the only bottle I had. Um, So I've got this huge silver thing in the tree with me. I'm taking a swig of that. As I'm taking a swig of this water, I see moving on the left corm. I turned my head and I just see this big framed buck. And the first thing in my head is it's that buck from last night, but he's shed velvet. But the frame looked just like this deer from the night before, kind of curling in big brow times. So, my holy crap, this deer's right here. He's coming in. He's like at sixty yards. And the first thing I thought in my head is, do not miss this opportunity now because you're drinking out of water bottle. So I quickly try to tighten the top on my water bottle, get that in my backpack, grab my bow, start to spin, and I grabbed the camera again. I guess I figured in my in my mind subconsciously, I thought I had time, and I did have time this time. Um got the camera turn just kind of spun on the general dur action, hit play or hit record, got the ball ready, he went behind some branches, And now I'm saying, okay, he's it's not even like he's gonna angle out of range. Like so many times, you know, something like this happens. A good deer comes in, but he just angles just out of range or something. It's just he followed the script perfect. He walks right into like fifteen yards and he's walking through a wide open spot. I give him a little maratte. He stopped, pulled through, released good shot. Double lung. Look, it looked like a double lung, maybe a little bit back um in my mind's eye, I saw it, you know, perfect up and down and maybe just like a few inches farther back from where I wanted to be, But I assumed back of lungs um. He mule kicks and just takes off like crazy, just runs like a madman. And I've seen him kind of do a wide arching loop out through the cotton woods and through a little opening and then into those Russian olive thicket stuff. And that was at three thirty seven, So I've been in the tree settled for two minutes and I had already shot a deer. Ah um. And And what was what was the temperature that day? Like when you were hunting? You know, I was like high sixties probably, I think until had had it been like low eighties would have you been there four and a half hours before dark, I would not have been there so early. No, Um, the nights before I had been getting to the tree at like I would be. I've been wishing I was there even earlier. But the first two or three nights, I remember getting there around like four thirty or five. Um. Like I remember looking at my watch when I had those two bucks walking by me on the first night, and it was like five o three or something. Um. So yeah, so I was in there much earlier than I had been the previous nights, specifically because of that cold front. So the cold front like got you to kill the deer, whether or not it actually changed that deer's pattern or that deer's movement, like it got you there earlier and gave you the chance to to kill that buck. Yeah for sure. And if if that, if I hadn't in that temperature drop coming in, I would have not been there at three thirty five. And do you remember, uh what I had brought up on an episode of radio last year how like, Uh, I'm not convinced that cold fronts actually increased dear movement, but it helps with hunter's confidence, Like it gets you there you're more focused, you're probably not messing around with your phone, You're hunting a better stand than you normally would. Uh, and you're you're like in the zone and you are more confident or more ready that a dear is going to come by. Um, and this is like another good indication. Now you could also point at like, yeah, that the cold front got that deer moving four hours sooner. But um, you know, regardless, that cold front got you there sooner and got you to kill that buck. Yeah, I think you're I think your theory holds water. I think that's true. I think it definitely does get you out there in your better spots, more confident, more ready. I'll argue though, that the cold fronts do actually impact dear movements still too um. But either way, yeah, it worked. Um, I got that buck, got a shot, and I was really excited. Um. I assumed that he would be toppled over right inside that thicket. I just as he wasn't running away. I was just waiting for him to go toppling over. But he didn't, So I waited, you know, I don't know, I think forty five minutes. I was thinking, I'll wait like forty five minutes to an hour because I thought was a double long shot and I'll go get him. But by the time five minutes so passed, then I started thinking, you know, this is gonna be a nightmare getting out of here with him. Plus I want to get my other camera press, I want to drop off all this other gear. Um. Plus it wouldn't be bad to give more time. So I decided to pack up everything, take down my saddle and my steps and everything, and go back to camp, drop everything off, get some food and some water, and then come back. So I end up doing that, so that didn't lead me to I didn't get back to start tracking until six o'clock then, so he'd had about two and a half hours now, uh um. And so I went to the site where the arrow was found. The arrow arrowhead, great red blood all over. It looks good, um, But just a little splash of blood right by where the arrow was and then nothing. So I walked around and walked around and walked around. Couldn't find any blood. Now I have to preface this, and I think I've mentioned this on the podcast before, so people probably know this. Um. But I've got some red green color blindness. So I see red and green just fine. But in a situation like that where you've got little flecks of blood against like a brown dirt and dust and all that kind of stuff, it doesn't pop out to me as well. So when I'm standing up, like I'll be walking with Josh and he'll be like blood blood, blood, blood, and I have to get down, hunched over and focus in them, like, oh yeah, there it is. There it is. So this kind of situation just it's harder for me. So I'm not finding blood around the kill site other than right at the shot, but after that, I couldn't find it. So I'm thinking myself, well, I saw right where he ran in. I'll just go and try and pick up blood there. So I do that. I try to skip to the finish line, got over excited and went up there, started walking around nothing, nothing, nothing, long story short, couldn't find any blood anywhere. Now it's a half hour hour before dark and I'm thinking, okay, I'm not gonna be able to see any blood. It's already starting to get darker. He's got to be just in here somewhere. I know it was a good shot. I know he's down. So I just started body searching, just grid searching the edge and walking and walking and basically without saying the same thing over again. I walked all night till it was dark and I couldn't see anymore, hadn't found him. Decided to go back to camp come back out the next morning. That night, looked at footage again. I could see that the shot, you know, was basically what I thought a touch back, but still that should be a dead deer um. So I went back in the next morning and went back to the last place I saw him running, looked for blood again, was able to find blood. This time. I followed a blood trail for maybe eight yards to hundred yards, and that gave me like a line of travel, so I knew, Okay, now I know where how he was heading in here for sure, better than just what I thought I remembered, but then again lost it. So then I just started gritting again, and I gotta give um a big plug to a tool. I was using the Onyx Hunt app, and I was using the track feature, so it tracks your everywhere you walked, and so I used that to identify, you know, to keep track of everything I had grid searched already. So I was basically just walking back and forth, back and forth, and then looking at the map to see what I hadn't covered yet. And so I started walking I don't know, six thirty or seven or something like that in the morning. Uh, I guess this is Wednesday morning. And by eleven o'clock I still hadn't found him. I maybe it was like ten th fact something like that. I remember texting you, Josh, telling you that I hadn't I lost blood. It was grid searching again, and I was I was pretty down by then because I had walked this whole area that I thought he should have been in. Um, I couldn't find him. And it's just the these rush and I'll think it's it's just so thick. I was most of the time on my hands and knees, crawling around in all fours um, and I just thought to myself, it's it's like a needle in a haystack, like if you find him or actually trip over him, because it's so thick and a lot of this stuff. But I figured, well, I've got, you know, four days out here until I have to fly home, so I might as well just keep on walking until I find him. Because I really did believe he was somewhere. So I remember looking at the map and seeing that there was this gap that I hadn't hit yet that was close to the edge of the river, and so I started walking that line, and I just remember being in my head just having the thought like I'm never gonna find him. I'm never gonna find this deer. And I was so upset with myself. And right as I'm having that thought, I spotted like an orange color and I kind of put my head around the corner and this like tall grass and there's the body of a deer. And I'm like, no way, and that there's gotta be some other dead deer. And I keep Then I come around the corner, I'm seeing more. I'm seeing more, and then I see antlers and like no where, no where, and I keep gonna get up to him, like, oh my god. I flipped out. I couldn't believe it. There he was. Um. I recovered, you know, after I don't know, maybe six hours of walking around or something like that. I guess if you take the night before and then that morning, Um, but there he was. I mapped the distance from the shot. I mapped kind of the whole arc of where he ran to where I saw blood, and then from the last blood to where I found him. And it was about three yards that he covered. Um, so he put some some ground underneath his put some ground in the boots there. But so what what would you contribute the lack of blood to you? I think it was more of a liver hit than it was a lung hit. I think it was back of lungs and liver and on the exit wound. Actually it blew out um a bunch of tissue and tested not in test out. I should have looked more at it. I was just such a rush yesterday morning when I was recovering because I was worried about the meat because it was getting warm and he'd been out there since the day before. So I didn't do a really good autopsy. I just rushed to get it done. Um. But he had a bunch of stuff coming out the exit wound that I think plugged it all up. Like it was a bunch of I don't know, like a like a handful of junk coming out just starting to come out that I that I'm guessing plugged up that exit wound. Um. The entry wound was a great big gaping hole, but that was higher, and then the X wound was lower, um, and that was plugged. So I think between that and the fact that it was maybe more liver um, and then the fact that you know, I can't see stuff quite as well, I think those are the things that led to the blood trail being difficult, and then that led to the blood trail drying up. Um. But yeah, he was a really nice leven pointer. Actually that's what we call it in Michigan as an eleven point or spencer, you know that as a five by six I think. But um, but really really nice public land buck. I was really excited about it. I'm sure now it's not the same buck from the night before. Um. This buck is definitely younger than that deer was. Um, I didn't you know. I think I saw that frame of his antlers. I was like, oh, it's that buck, and I never really gave him a second glance after that. I just was making it happen. Um. But I don't care about that. I'm just super excited about this deer. And it was such a cool hunt. Um. There's a lot of fun, there's a lot of work. It was the most probably most physically demanding white tail hunt I've ever been on, just so much hiking and climbing, and then getting that deer out of there was a whole chore. Um, it's a long process to get him back out. Um. So I definitely worked for this one. So it it was a sweet, sweet feeling of satisfaction when it was all sudden down. Well, I was stoked for you. I was super happy when you said you shot him. And I thought initially that you were messing with me because it was four hours before dark, Like why how would you be killing a deer four hours before dark on September fourth or whatever? But uh, kudos to you. And if we go by like, uh, we'll talk about Rinella again. His purity score. I think he calls it, you know, like a public land with your bow in a state that you don't live, um walking in a mile and a half early September like this, like that is as high as it gets. Uh, you're in that deal. So congrats, thank you, and uh and you have now earned your place on this podcast. In the future, you keep buttering me up like that and you'll you'll keep getting some play on the podcast. So thanks though, man, I appreciate it was it was cool. I'm I'm a happy hunter and and thankful that I was able to find him. It's so funny though, you know, everything went the same. But if I hadn't stumbled on him and found him, I will be feeling the lowest of lows right now. You know, I'd still be out there walking probably right now, miserable. And I was thinking in my head, if I can't find this buck, I'm definitely not hunting anymore, and I'm definitely not gonna go North Dakota anymore. Um. I was gonna just punch my Montana tag and say, all right, that's it, and then probably wouldn't deer hunt again intil October and just would have been so bummed. Um. And then just by you know, chance of fate, um and putting in the time, was able to find him. And now it's, you know, completely opposite. I'm on cloud nine. Um. So it's funny how that all kind of works out. And I guess it. I guess you just gotta keep hope, right, I mean, I was in the down the dumps right then, but I just was gonna keep on going. And you know, good thing I didn't give up. I think, you know, I think there's some people that probably would have pulled the plug after a few hours of not being able to find blood and be able to find him and to say, oh, he's he's probably fine. Um, but I'm glad I didn't do that because he was there, and um, I was able to wrap my tag around a great public lamb buck. So so is that meat still good you think or is that something that you'll donate to Josh? No, the meat actually still good. Yeah, it was didn't smell bad at all. And because of the travel, because I was trying to head right to North Dakota and because of the heat, I decided to drop it off at a meat processor there in town. And um, so I dropped it off with the cooler and they said, yeah, it all looks good too. So I'm sure there will be a little bit you know around um that, like the wound and things like that. But um, but yeah, I feel really good about recovering the meat and the animal. And I will say this, this is just another great reminder we talked about all time, but this was in public land. This was available to anyone, like anyone could go out and have this hunting trip that I just did. That was just as much fun and you know you quantitatively successful. I got a great buck um, just as much as you see, you know, someone having an outfitted hunting aiola or something. UM. And I was able to do it essentially for free, nothing but my taxpayer dollars I've been paying over the course of my lifetime. Um because this is this is open to us. So just another little reminder for me to be so appreciative about public land. And uh, it's just more motivation for why I want to keep on making sure we have these places and keep on standing up for him. So that was good stuff. All right. We need to pause for our last break of the day to thank our partners at White Tail Properties, and today I just want to give a quick plug for another one of their YouTube videos. This one's a little bit different. We've been talking in the past about their land beat series, which is talking through a lot of different habitat advice and tips and suggestions. They've actually also just started posting some of their hunts on their YouTube channel two. One of those is with a guy who has been on the podcast before, Gabe A. Dare And last year, if you listen to our podcast episode, we did with him. We talked about this buck he was hunting called the Hammer, and that buck is now up on YouTube. It's a two hundred and twenty six inch deer that he was able to harvest. Amazing buck. Just a really unique, cool deer to take a look at in an awesome hunt too. So you can check that out on YouTube. You can just go to the YouTube channel. You'll see it there very quickly. It's the two giant boat kill, I think is what they call it. And if you'd just like to learn more about white Tail Properties in general or see some of the properties there for sale, you can visit white Tail properties dot com. And I gotta, I gotta echo what Spencer said because I want to be around on the podcast a little bit more too. But I'm just proud of you in all the work that you put in, and you know, I don't think there's anyone out there that you know puts in the time and the energy that you do and and being able to share that with everybody. Man, it's awesome and I'm happy for you. Um, I gotta I want to ask a couple of follow up questions, if if I can just go back a little bit, Yeah, do you do you think he had been dead for a while. Do you think it was um, you know, if you're talking liver hit, you know, he could have been hanging on for a little bit. What were your thoughts on that? You know, I don't know. I wondered the same thing. Um, he wasn't super stiff when I recovered him. So lots of times when a deer has been dead a long time, you know, they kind of stiffen up. But I wondered if maybe that wouldn't be the case though in a situation like this where so warm. Um, I don't know, I'm not sure. But did it did it look like an area where he would bed down, say he was you know, really hurting, or did it look like he died like while running? It could have been a bedded in location. It was way out at the end of this point. Um, it wasn't in the main bedding. It was like the the outside of the bedding. Um. I just don't know. I couldn't tell. If I if I had to guess though, if if you were gonna force me to say what I guessed, I bet you that deer ran out there and did bed down, and maybe it was a little bit of time, UM, if I had, if I had to put money on it. But I walked by not too far from that the night before, UM, and didn't bump him unless he'd bedded down sooner than I bumped him, and then that was his like outside location. Um. But if he was still alive when I was out there two hours later, UM, he didn't move if that's the case. So so I'm not sure. But the shot, again, it was that deer definitely couldn't have lived too long, that's for sure. Yeah, it looked like a great shot. I mean from the videos and stuff you said, I can't believe that, you know, just so tough man. Oh, it's crazy, And I think you know, I think the angle of the shot it was a little more quartering to me, I guess, and I realized not hard at all. I wasn't in danger of getting the shoulder. But the entry wound was I believe. I think it took back of the right well back of the front lung liver and then the exit hit the tip front tip of the stomach. Um is the angle that the arrows hook. I believe because it looked like there was a little bit of junk when I opened them up in there, so so that you know those one long hit bucks plus liver, I mean that that's usually dead deer. But I mean people have always heard about the infamous one long hit deer can just go away further than you'd ever imagine. Um. So I'm guessing it was some combination of all that. When when you were searching for like that six hours, were you kicking a bunch of deer up? Not really? Um, I think if I remember right the night that that night I shot him, I I spooked a few deer when I walked in, but then once I got in there, I think I must have just buggered it up enough that they just had already bailed out of there, so I didn't spook up anything. And then yesterday morning, when I back went back in, when I walked by kind of where my tree stand was, I actually spooked a few doughs and another nice buck. Um I forgot, I forgot all about that till just now. But yeah, another nice buck hardhorn buck went running off. And then when I got into that bedding, I did bump a few deer out of their beds. I couldn't really see what they were. Um. But but you could definitely see a few deer running. So I think I've just been around there so much that night before and then that next day that pretty much everything scooted out for you give any other fellow ups, No, I don't think so, man. I think I'm good at my ends. All right, Well, I appreciate, uh, I appreciate the kind words, gentlemen. It was a fun hunt. And um, I gotta give a plug here. If you are a podcast listener but you are not a YouTube video watcher yet, you gotta check out, um the videos I've been putting out from this hunt. I put it out a video from every day of the hunt, So if you go over to the wire Hunt YouTube channel, you can see everything we've talked about Day one, Day two, Day three. I don't have the Day four and five video yet, but I'm gonna try to get that out as app Um, I'm I thought that was turned out pretty cool, So check that out, subscribe to the YouTube channel. I'm gonna try to be doing at all throughout the season as often as I can, as close to daily real time. I'll be trying to do that. So yeah, man, that's my story. I'm on my way to North Dakota. Now, as soon as I get done here, I'll finish the drive out and I should be out there to meet up with you further and hopefully one of us can fill another tag. Tell us what's next if you have an elk hunt and then you'll be in Michigan. Are you hunting Ohio all this year or not? Yeah? So I come home for a week and then back out for an elk hunt and then home and then just focus in Michigan. I don't think I'm in hunt in Ohio now. Um, you know, we lost our spot, so I don't have anything else planned for Ohio, so mostly just Michigan stuff until the Minnesota trip and then maybe. You know, I've been talking about doing this Nebraska hunt in the end of October. I think that's still on. But yeah, I'm kind of tired though. Between you know, it was gone for a big chunk of time the summer, and then took another week long trip out west, then came home for two weeks. Now I've been out for this one, so I'm kind of just ready to be home for a little bit and hang out with my son. Um. But but yeah, I can't complain the al kind I'm sure it will be fun once I get out there and get going. Um but I am looking forward to just sitting on the couch for a day or two too. That's that's the cool thing about hunting like early September. Like this, I can burn myself out like two or three times before November even gets here now because I can go through these Whereas before, like hunting beginning of October, there'd be problems where I would burn myself out, like right when he was getting really good. So I'm I'm excited for the early September stuff here. Yeah, you kind of go on waves, right, you go, you hunt real hard, and then you're kind of whooped and you needed a little break and then you can get re energized and go after it again. So yeah, I definitely ebbs and flows like that as well. Um but I guess we are lucky that we get to hunt enough that we can that we can get burnt out, you know, So I guess we should be we should be thankful for that. Um. All right, Well, further, any last words before we let you go. I know that you were already complaining before we started recording about how we're holding you up. From hunting, so they all, right, Okay, I gotta I gotta get you guys to take on this. So so where I'm hunting, where I'm camping, I don't have any service. So I'm looking. I've got the weather pulled up here as as we're talking, and I've got an interesting scenario for tonight that has changed since the last time, um that I looked, and the plan that I talked about earlier I think is going to get uh messed up here. So I've got an interesting scenario. I've got all four wind directions between three pm and seven pm tonight, starting out starting out with the south southwest to a southwest, to a west to a north to a north northeast. So I don't know what I'm gonna do now, I'm what what what would you guys? That scenario? It's changing on the hour, so like every hour is different. So it's assuming it's like a light, very light and variable wind then like two miles an hour or something, uh no, like nine miles an hour, eight mile and then five four and six so not super heavy, but um like enough for its it would impact what I'm trying to do. A wow, Yeah, that's a tough scenario. I mean, and this is one of those scenarios. I thought it was at home, I wouldn't go out, But that's not a yeah, yeah, I was just gonna say, I feel like this is gonna be the scenarios I wouldn't go diving into like a great spot or anything because of that. But you don't have much time, UM, So do you think that have you noticed any kind of like thermal effect where you're at, so like by the time when it starts cooling off, have you noticed that wind dropping down off the bluffs and sinking down into the river bottom? You know, I haven't, um, because I've been where I've been at, I haven't been too close to the cliffs. Um. It certainly could be happening closer and by the thicker cover UM that I've kind of stayed away from. But it has been super like gusty winds here the last couple of days, like like up in the twenty mile range. UM. So maybe I'm just not noticing it because the winds have been so strong. UM. But I'm almost wondering if I You know, I was listening to your podcast that he did with with Mark Drew the other day and he talked about when you don't have those ideal wind conditions is get on the ground. And I'm wondering if that's something where I maybe try that tonight and just kind of move around as the um as the wind changes. M it's interesting idea. I mean it can't hurt. I mean you're running gun. I mean might Heck, it might actually be a cool way to be able to see a little bit more, maneuver a little a couple of different Yeah, and you're not worried about Booker and stuff up because you're just there for a few days, right. I don't know, Spencer, w you think interesting scenarrator? Uh, I would if you think you've been seeing a lot of the movement that last half hour or daylight whatever it looks like the wind is going to be doing, then like you if you said it to the northwest wind at that point, I would try to set up for a hunt like that. Um. But you know, you can be as aggressive as you want with only a few days left and then hunt. So if you go on the ground, I think that's a good option too. Yeah. These last the last kind of two or three hours. They've got a west and north and the north northeast. Um, it's almost like if you maybe maybe what you do is, if you're gonna hunt in the ground, maybe you stalk your way in towards so you start your day wherever you've got that safe winds, so you're not at least you're not blown out the bedding early, but by the time you slowly work your way up to whatever you think your prim area is, then hopefully you're there by the time the wind shifts to that northwest whatever. Yep, yeah, I'll do something and I gotta look at some stuff I'm not I guess I'm not as a in a rush now to get back. Yeah. So interesting. Well, hopefully let's not do that. Um, but hopefully we'll have an update from you guys here soon. Um. I think that's gonna do it for us today. So good luck hunting to night further and Spencer, are you hunting tonight? I'm gonna be hunting. Yes, all right, Well, good luck to you too. And I think that's a wrap. So that's it. I will just echo what I usually do here at the end of the podcast and give you a quick reminder to leave a rating or review on iTunes to subscribe to the podcast, to subscribe to the wire Done YouTube channel, and to follow along with my hunts over on Instagram and Facebook. And that will be that. And I guess the only thing I need to say after that is thank you, Thanks for your time, thanks for following along. Hope you enjoyed these stories. I can't wait to share the rest of the hunting season with you. I've got high hopes for a lot more exciting adventures like this, and I'm hoping for the same things for you. I hope that what you've been learning here on the podcast this year and over the previous years, I'm hoping that that can all help you this season. Hope it pays off. And um, whether it be with meeting the freezer antlers on the wall or just some really great memories, it's all good. So until next time, thank you, and stay Wired to Hunt.

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