00:00:01 Speaker 1: All right, everyone, welcome back to Retfresh. This is this is the peak excitement for this whole entire season for Rough Fresh. In my opinion, this is the November fifth through November twelfth episode. This is the week when everyone schedules their vacation. This is when people are doing all days since this is when some potential chaos that can bounce in your favor or in the other direction. And so my challenge for you guys this week is to go back and reflect on last year and maybe you made a mistake, Maybe you didn't grind through this time period enough, maybe you gave up a little early, maybe you came up with the excuses, or maybe everything came back together perfectly and you didn't overthink it. And so I think this week the challenge is to realize the only thing you need to beat is yourself and your own thought process to have success this week. And that might be different for everyone. Maybe you're waiting on a specific deer to show up, or maybe you have some family or friends that are in from the area and you want to make sure you are a good host or a good friend or a good family member and encourage people and have a great time this is the week we've been waiting for all year. Once this week is gone, we're gonna be waiting for it next year. We're gonna be waiting for fifty one weeks later from today. So we have a lot of really great guests this week. We have Grant Watson, who shot a really big deer in Iowa. We have Chris West from Pennsylvania who's headed to Ohio who's been bounced around from both of those states. We have Jared Vanheast who tagged a Michigan buck. We have Tom Alexander all the way down from Texas. So that's what we have this week. As you know, Roughresh is brought to you by land dot com, the leading online real estate marketplace to find your perfect rule recreational, agricultural, or hunting properties here in the US. Let's kick things off with Grant Watson. Here we go. Good luck this week, have fun, and enjoy it. 00:01:48 Speaker 2: All right. 00:01:49 Speaker 1: First up on the line, we have Grant Watson. Man, you just killed hammer in Iowa. How does it feel? 00:01:55 Speaker 2: Yeah? 00:01:56 Speaker 3: Well, it's a town bittersweet because part of me is glad to be done and I don't have the anxiety of a tag in my pocket and watching everyone else shoot deer. But then the other part of me is like, well, I don't really want to be done yet. I do have a landowner's tag, but I don't have a deer that I would consider a trophy out there, just a couple of call bucks. So I'm kind of out of the game, but not totally. Well, it's pretty exciting. 00:02:17 Speaker 1: You're out of the game for good reason, because you just you just smoked in upper seventies and that's that is awesome. So I've been torturing all of our guests with a quick trivia question. So I've already had an Iowall guess previously, so your question might be a little bit harder, and I doubt anyone would get this right. But according to recent data, what is the population of deer white tailed deer in the state of Iowa? 00:02:41 Speaker 2: Really hard? Just take a guess? Do that? 00:02:44 Speaker 4: I don't know. 00:02:45 Speaker 3: I wouldn't even have a guess. You got a guess, like the entire state? How many deer here? Yeah, it's got to be over it's got to be over like a million, two hundred and ninety thousand. That was way off two and ninety thousand. While I figured there would be close to a million, but I don't know. Well that's not that that's less than I thought. 00:03:09 Speaker 1: That is that Well in the craziest thing is the highest gun harvest ever was two thousand and five with one hundred and seventy seven thousand. Oh so, like there's obviously some ebb and flow of deer population in the state of Iowa. But anyways, tell me about your setup on how you can when, when did you kill this deer and how did it come together? 00:03:27 Speaker 2: Mm hmm. 00:03:27 Speaker 3: So, uh went out been kind of hunting on the fringes of this area. It wasn't my main target. I have another deer there that I have, you know, four sheds too. He's a smaller deer, but the history is a big important to me. But there was this other deer that I call Spud. So there's Stickers, the one that was mainly after the Spud, and I knew that if Spud walked by, I was going to shoot him because just being in his power. There's two big shooter bucks. So last week stuff was kind of ramping up. I kind of started buck hunting around the twenty fifth. It seems like every year I always have like a giant on camera the twenty fifth through like the twenty ninth. It seems like every big deer I'm following, they'll be on their feet during that time period. So Monday I went out there. I hit a south wind and I don't have a stand set up for a south wind, so I actually sat on the ground and I had this deer going back to bed and so I was like, okay, I have a fifty to fifty shot of where I have to be. And I went to go slip up and I was gonna sit on a like a this farmer aisle, a row of dirt, and I was gonna sit on this dirt pile. Well, there was a dough font feeding in the stubble. So I just stayed back, and I stayed in the cedar tree. I just stood against a cedar tree and cut a little hole into it. And this year ended up standing up at one hundred yards away. And then he went straight into the bedding area where I have a stand in there. But I couldn't hunt that, and I was waiting for the right time to go in there. So I filmed him Monday night. Thursday night, I went out. I actually saw stickers or I went out Thursday morning, saw stickers would have shot him, but a dough was just barely on the edge of my wind, and my wind was cutting, you know, my thermals could have been sucking towards the river, and she was just right on that line. And if she wouldn't boogered me, I would have shot him. But it was fast forward. Saturday. I ended up going out Sat all day kind of was raining, but the sun was supposed to come out in the afternoon, and I figured once that happened, you know, my odds of seeing either one of those deer would go up. And at five point twenty I looked over and I passed a nice buck in the day earlier twice and I had a forecorn chasing this dough around, like well, she might be in like estrus. And so the bigger buck came around and I passed him. And then at five twenty I saw Spud and he was by this watering hole in the bedding area and he did a big old snort wheeze, And I'm just down wind this betting area on a tight pinch, so like less likely for stuff to get behind me. And he was at fifty yards and I was like, well, I'm not gonna I'm not a believer in shooting the deer of fifty yards because I get excited. So he snore, Whez ran this other buck off, and I said, it's meant to be. You know, he'll he'll hook back around. And I texted my dad. You know, my dad had a bad stroke last year, so that's really the the highlight of the whole thing is to have him in town. So he flew into town. So anyways, I text my dad said, man, I just saw Spud. You know, I think he's going to loop back around. And at six to twenty, here he comes. He looked back around and he took a sharp turn north and I was just about to hit him with my grunt tube and it was the extinguisher, but I did it. I had it to my mouth and I just wanted to. I wanted to see what he was going to do. Five more steps and he hooked back hard. He came and he worked a pinoak scrape right in front of my tree. And I'm standing and facing the tree. At this point, I said, Okay, if he goes right, he's den If he goes left, he's dead. And he comes in he hooks right around the tree. I drew back and stopped him at fifteen yards and I smoked him, and then from there, I you know, I hadn't tracked a deer with my dad since twenty sixteen. So I went and I left. I slipped back from my waiters and walked out through the river, so I had really good access and I waited for my dad to arrive and we were able to recover him. So it was my second best buck to date. My biggest buck is actually the second buck on the wall back there. He's one eighty two spud went. I taped him out one seventy seven and seven eight, So I was pretty excited. 00:07:33 Speaker 1: But yeah, dude, that that's amazing. I think there's a lot of key lessons in there. Patience is a really big one. Another one too, where it's like people, you know, their brain short circuits and they're like, oh, he's fifty yards is my only chance? 00:07:45 Speaker 2: Is my only chance? 00:07:46 Speaker 1: I just got to try to squeeze it through or try to make this long shot that I'm probably not fully capable of like most people, and your patient trusted the plan, and dude, that is that is awesome. Man, that's that's what we all dream about. That is awesome. 00:08:00 Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, I've hung the stands back in July, you know, specifically for stickers, but I didn't know that this year was going to blow up the way he did, and so I kind of played down the fringe. And yeah, I mean it's it was November first, Like, I don't need to be launching an arrow at a deer. And you know how it is, just as well as probably any other listener on this podcast. If you get a deer to you know, four or five six years old, and you shoot him, you make a marginal shot. You might not kill them initially, but then infection kills him. Well, it takes three four more years to get a deer like that to fill that shoes, especially the genetics you know, that is going to break that bit and Crockett score. 00:08:42 Speaker 1: So yeah, no, I think that's that's very timely, very timely advice for everyone to not force it. And a lot of times, you know this pretend you're watching a two year old or a three year old, and it's like a lot of times they come back, you know, an hour later, forty minutes later, they loop back around, and it's like, okay, well, I'm really glad I didn't take a really crappy because you know, you end up getting the opportunity. 00:09:02 Speaker 2: So I think that's very timely. 00:09:04 Speaker 1: Advice for everyone because we all want it to happen so bad, right, That's why we're that's why we're out there, That's why you set up in July. So now that is that is awesome and what an incredible experience. Now looking from the fifth of the twelfth, this is this is going to this is like big buck carnage. 00:09:19 Speaker 2: Man. 00:09:19 Speaker 1: The amount of big gear that hit the dirt during this week is in the Midwest and probably most of the country, Like, this is the week we all have been waiting for. What's what what is top of mind for you right now to like, for anyone listening that you know didn't kill one on November. First of what would you be focusing on? And what are you focusing on? Because you have Landlanders tag still. 00:09:41 Speaker 3: Yeah, so if I if I had my state wide tag in the pocket, I would still be kind of close to the betting areas are at pinch it seems like. And I'm not trying to be an expert because I'm I'm just learning, so sure, but like this a pointer behind me right here. I've shot him on November seven into twenty twenty one, and he was locked on a dough on November fourth, And right now I think my bigger deer locked on a dough because I haven't seen them, and typically it seems like they're moving on their feet a little bit more, but this year seems like maybe they found that first dough already. So right now i'd be kind of, you know, I wouldn't give up about your target deer, like it's probably not dead. I'd be in tight to the betting. I'd be willing to kind of risk the wind a little bit more. And all day sits. I mean, if you can get off work, and if you can't get off work, like just you got to get out there as soon as you can. It can still happen in last thirty minutes of daylight. But once he breaks from that dough, he's going to be on his feet looking for another one, and you should probably try to be there something. So I just kind of play that. I don't have a lot of luck past the eighth, like the eighth through the the eleventh, but come the eleventh through the eighteenth, I have way more luck because it seems like they're running a lot more. Yeah, I just kind of play down the down wind of dough betting or really big pinch points in the cover I hunt. I mean, I'm just hunting a pinch because the deer can kind of bed just about anywhere and end up. But I gotta try to be in that one spot and using historical data. The biggest thing I think where guys make mistakes is I have a deer over here that I would shoot, and I have a deer over here I would shoot. And you might want to shoot deer A more than B, but B might be daylighting and deer A might not be killable on the farm that you're hunting. So I used to catch myself and I still do bouncing back and forth between farms. Now is the time to just kind of pick one and go with it. But if you have a cell camera showing you, hey, this year is daylight right now, I would not be afraid to get out of my tree, go to that farm and get in that tree and just give it a shot. Yeah, because if there's a hot dough under your tree, you're probably gonna whack her in at night time. I mean, if you have rgular cameras, you can go check regular cameras, like the time sensitive information is right now. 00:12:07 Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I think it's easy to get scatter brain. It's it's uh. The only time I wish there was two of me is this week right now, where it's like, dude, I wish I could be in due spots at once. So that's really good advice. Now, all day sits they're a grind. Anyone that says they're not a grind is line. What advice do you have for someone that's like, Okay, I've heard this all day sits. Everyone says, you just got to be in a tree. I have work off. How do you how do you make the day go by without pitting your head against the tree? 00:12:37 Speaker 2: Go I'm bored? 00:12:39 Speaker 3: Yeah, well it's funny because Saturday was really boring. But I knew that I knew that I was so close to the betting area, like something because could happen, like you never know it could it could happen to get the moment you used to tell yourself that I always packed, you know, my lunch, and usually I like took a roll of Star Wars with me, like eat a Starbust or something I watch the like the White Tailed Cribs. 00:13:04 Speaker 5: I throw in my ear pods. 00:13:06 Speaker 3: If I'm like really bored. But you gotta stay alert because if a those come running by, yeah, well you better be ready and not messing around. But I don't know, I mean I think all day sits are grind for sure, but you got to kind of remove the pressures. Hey, there's no pressure to actually fill my tag like I mean, yeah, we all want to fill our tag, but really just being out there and enjoying nature. I mean, it's got to stay mentally tough through it. Don't get discouraged when other people are shooting deer or thinking, hey, the rut's not going on, because it could switch in a blink of eye and you just have to be there to capitalize on it. 00:13:45 Speaker 1: Yeah, you can go from having the worst season ever to the best season ever in a matter of ten seconds. I mean that's the magic of this time of year. 00:13:51 Speaker 2: Yeah awesome. 00:13:52 Speaker 1: Yeah, on a scale one to ten, ten being this might be the best week of the entire year, one being it's gonna be the worst. Where does this fall November fifth to the twelfth. 00:14:02 Speaker 3: I don't know. On my spots I hunt out West. I actually like about the the eleventh through the eighteenth, but I would say it's probably got to be as close to a nine. I mean, my cameras are rolling. It also helps this year I have a lot more shooter deer on trail camera. So yeah, I mean, if I if I had another state wide tag, I'd be locked into a tree all day right now, because I think it's gonna happen, especially about this weekend. I mean, we have cooler temperatures this year, at least in Iowa then years past where some years I've been hunting and it's like seventy degrees November fifth, and that sucks. So I think I think this is going to be a big week. A lot of big deer are going to hit the ground between now and Sunday, and then I think there will be another way of them. 00:14:52 Speaker 2: Love it, love it well. 00:14:53 Speaker 1: Congratulations once again, Grant, good luck the rest of the season. Really appreciate it. Awesome that your dad is able to be there with the recovery. I know that's really special for you and him and so Di congratulations once again. 00:15:05 Speaker 3: Awesome, Thank you, Jake. 00:15:06 Speaker 1: All Right, we have shared with the Habitat podcast who recently shot a Michigan buck. 00:15:12 Speaker 2: How's it feel, man, Oh. 00:15:14 Speaker 4: Buddy, it feels great. 00:15:15 Speaker 6: It feels great to have a tag notched and you know, shake the rust off if you will, So thank you. 00:15:20 Speaker 4: It's awesome. 00:15:22 Speaker 2: Yeah, man, No, that's super exciting. 00:15:23 Speaker 1: And so in Michigan, was this off of I know you hunt kind of the full spectrum of the state. Was this way up north or was this more further south? 00:15:33 Speaker 6: It's closer to home. Okay, Yeah, so southeast part of the state. 00:15:38 Speaker 1: Wonderful, wonderful. And so I know you were using a decoy. I've never been I've never been brave enough to use one. So go ahead and convince me and everyone else while we need to use a decoy, and how it worked. 00:15:49 Speaker 6: Well, I haven't been brave enough either until this time. I might have used one once in Iowa for the heck of it, six years ago. But I've been hunting this this farm, a really nice eight point out there, and Thursday Friday last week, I. 00:16:06 Speaker 4: Believe it was. I had him at. 00:16:09 Speaker 6: Forty fifty yards twice. Super aggressive deer, he's running off other deer. He's a man in the area. 00:16:16 Speaker 4: Put it that way. 00:16:17 Speaker 6: So knowing that I grun him in, he come in and he wouldn't see any deer. It's very mature timber. It's not my farm. If it was my farm, the timber it I'll be cut right. So it's very mature timber. And he can see so he's Caesar's no deer. And he does this to me twice. So then we had a Halloween camping weekend with the kids, and so I get back in there Sunday night and I was talking to my buddy and I'm like, God, I got. 00:16:43 Speaker 4: To think, I have to use a decoy. Can I borrow your decoy? 00:16:45 Speaker 6: Because if he if he if I grunt at him and he comes in and there's no deer there. He's he's wise to this. So I thought a decoy in the timber. That sounds insane, you know. And plus I have all my saddle gear on my back and picking a new tree and going in deeper than I was before, kind of trying to get just downwind of where he walks out of the swamp. I set up, I get up a tree and it's just quiet. There's no wind, it's a little warmer, nothing's going on, even the doors weren't moving very well, and so I tickle the horns a little bit again Michigan. I don't do this a lot, but this guy's aggressive and I've seen him be aggressive, so I'm going to be aggressive. 00:17:39 Speaker 4: And then I tickle the horns. 00:17:41 Speaker 6: About fifteen minutes later, I look off to my right, which is my weak side in the settle, right handed, and this buck steps out. They said, it's a nice nine point. He's coming kind of above me on this ridge and starting to get downwind. Well, I had the deco aut and find of me, like you're supposed to do apparently, and I have him circle down wind, which would be in front of me. He's going down win behind me too, so I had you know that the time is ticking. But what was so cool about it all he was doing. He's just locked on that decoy, I mean, stopped and stared for you know, probably five minutes. I'm getting twisted around in the saddle with my weak side, starting to choke myself on the on the. 00:18:25 Speaker 4: Teather, you know. 00:18:27 Speaker 6: And then he starts coming in down wind. But as he's doing that, he's coming closer and closer and closer to the decoy. 00:18:33 Speaker 4: He's pulling it to this decoy, and again. 00:18:36 Speaker 6: He just stop and stare, stop and stare. So every time he stop, I would turn a little more get ready, and I ended up being a point to where I couldn't turn anymore with my my teather, and he was at twenty one yards and I drew back right when he crossed behind this tree and again just staring at the decoy, and I'm like, oh my gosh, like I'm between him and my tree at this point so he can look up. And yeah, and he had no interest in what I was doing anything about it. Laser focus, laser focus, which is kind of the message I'm trying to get across here. And yeah, I ended up shooting him at twenty yards, I think because he was on alert for that decoy. He I know, he dropped yea, and my bow was fairly quiet, but he dropped me, and I hit him in the spine, put him down, threw another one in him, cut myself on the broad head, reloading blood all over the place. 00:19:28 Speaker 4: That was awesome, and he didn't go anywhere. 00:19:30 Speaker 6: But I just I couldn't believe hauling in that decoy like six hundred yards setting it up in the timber. It sucked this deer in for sure. When he first left the swamp, he was going off the property in a different direction. 00:19:46 Speaker 1: It's one of those deals where I like your neighbor. Let's say you guys had a shared lane, and they're like, what the heck is Jared doing. 00:19:52 Speaker 2: He's bringing a decoy in. 00:19:53 Speaker 1: He's out of his saddle and he's bringing that thing in the timber and it'll work for you. So I mean, that's that's the funny thing of it, really interesting. So I mean understanding you had multiple encounters to understand kind of like the behavior of that deer, and like, hey man, I think this is actually going to work. It wasn't necessarily like a blind shot in the dark, but dude, it worked. 00:20:11 Speaker 2: That's congratulations. 00:20:12 Speaker 4: That's a thank you, thank you. 00:20:14 Speaker 6: I ended up buying a decoy when I got home that night, and it's on my you know, it's in my truck ready for Iowa tomorrow. 00:20:20 Speaker 4: And I dropped my buddy's back off. 00:20:22 Speaker 6: But I guess, I mean, the open chimber in my brain is kind of like a field, right right, They can see forever, there's no cover. That's where you normally would use a decoy, at least what I've seen, so in my brain it made sense to try. Now, it's a long hike and you got to haul this thing all the way in on your back and everything else, but uh, it ended up working, man and one exactly. 00:20:46 Speaker 2: I love that man. 00:20:46 Speaker 1: Congratulations, So thank you. You know we talked here. You're you're packing your bags and going from Michigan Iowa. That's pretty darn awesome looking here in the future. And based off of the activity you've been seeing, what is top of mind? What is your strategy because obviously you're traveling there, so you have a limited time to hopefully connect with the buck. What is top of mind to make the most out of your trip to Iowa. And this could be relatable for anyone that's going from Pennsylvania to Ohio or Alabama to Illinois. 00:21:20 Speaker 6: Yeah, great, great question. I've been thinking about that quite a bit. You know, here in Michigan, things have been hit or miss over the last couple of days. Yesterday morning was great. Other than that, it's been a little bit hit or miss. I think I know some of the bucks are lockedown doors already. I've seen videos from my buddies in Iowa Andy's out there right now and he's not seeing a ton of movement. 00:21:44 Speaker 4: It's pretty slow. 00:21:45 Speaker 6: Our buddy Aaron's out there, so it's just about to kick off. 00:21:48 Speaker 4: I believe out. 00:21:49 Speaker 6: There, and I'm sure different farms are different stuff going on, right But my strategy is to get out there, cover a ton of ground day one, day two, and really find beat down scrapes, hot sign areas. I know this is all typical stuff, but when you have a lot of ground to cover and and there's no set stands, there's no you know, real food plot. 00:22:12 Speaker 4: So I'm gonna go there and I'm gonna burn rubber on the boots and the. 00:22:15 Speaker 6: Bike and get four or five spots set up, get some cameras out, and then the weather looks to be pretty good, so I'm gonna just can't see what happens. You'll probably hunt long into the afternoon, if not all day, and then obviously be out there for the eating. 00:22:32 Speaker 1: Okay, So when you're when you're burning burning boot leather here, are you going into thicker areas or is it more edge exterior type? And I'm just kind of picturing what the farm may look like in Iowa, but picturing there's probably some thick draws or some thicker parts of the timber. Are you going in there and looking around and poking around? Is that your plan? 00:22:53 Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm going full aggressive. 00:22:54 Speaker 6: Yeah, Okay, I think if it was Michigan, i'd hold back, but different pressure set up out there with a deer. I'm going till I bump deer, till I see what I want to see, and you know, hoping that the mindset of that buck this time of year, I'll be easily forgettable or at least partly forgettable for a little while, so I can get back in there once I see what I want to see. 00:23:16 Speaker 4: Yep. 00:23:16 Speaker 1: Yes, some of those bucks are starting to have that crazy look in their eye. I like, I've gotten some videos and I'm like, oh, that dude is he's feeling it. He's not as careful as maybe as what it would have been two weeks ago. And so I think that's a really great piece of advice for someone that doesn't have an inventory or intel and don't really know where to necessarily start, and you don't want to burn those days, these like most precious days of the entire season. If you're four hundred yards out of the game and you just never know what's going to happen. So as far as you know, looking for scrapes, looking for hot sign looking for rubs, what's going to get you most excited to be like, Okay, I have four sets on this huge farm. I'm going to hang us at here. What what's kind of your mental checklist? 00:23:58 Speaker 6: I think if I find a draw that is thick at the top of the draw, like real thick, and there's food maybe up top on a field, some crops or something like that, and then I'll have, you know, some scrapes around it or some real heavy trails I go into it or come out of it, that's gonna be what I'm looking for. 00:24:16 Speaker 4: That's gonna be excitement. 00:24:18 Speaker 6: I want to see dose and I want to see their betting area, and it has to be thick, you know. And I don't care where you are these these deer like thick cover in daylight. 00:24:27 Speaker 4: So that's that's what I'm looking for. 00:24:29 Speaker 2: I like it. 00:24:31 Speaker 1: So you're are you ringing rattling Antler's decoys and grunk call? Are you going the full trifecta hat trick bag of tricks? 00:24:39 Speaker 4: Yes, yes, sir, I'm begging the decoy. I'm a decoy guy. Now I'm gonna try it. 00:24:45 Speaker 6: I don't know if I'll try it like first night or anything, or don't know if i'll hunt first night, but I'm gonna definitely bring that the antlers, the grunt tube. 00:24:53 Speaker 4: I haven't had a lot of luck with a can call, but that's gonna be in. 00:24:55 Speaker 6: The pack, you know, and then obviously some snacks so I can hang out for a while. 00:25:00 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's I've been asking folks, because this is the time when people are logging me most hours in a tree stand. Do you have any tips of advice to say mentally sharp or to pass the time, because realistically, you got to be in the stand this time of year to have a chance. But people can start making excuses. I gotta get this done, and maybe you do or maybe you don't, or my win, my wins. This not quite right. I need to get down, and I think a lot of times it's just like I want to move because I'm bored and maybe I'm projecting here. 00:25:27 Speaker 6: No, I mean I love hearing this because I got to get this out of my brain right like you can't. You can't have that in your brain this time of year. I'm going to have a thermost of coffee. I always have a little thermost that I covered in you know, camo tape. 00:25:41 Speaker 4: I always have that. 00:25:43 Speaker 6: I'm gonna have some crustable sandwiches, that's kind of my goal, and some just simple stuff, right, and then yeah, that's that's really Yeah. 00:25:52 Speaker 4: I'm playing on. 00:25:53 Speaker 6: H sitting long and just knowing that it's hours of boredom interrupted by what thirty seconds, the whole reason you're there. So yeah, I don't care if it's if it's raining, I have a tree standing umbrella, you know whatever, and rain gear, whatever it takes. I'm going solo. So it's just me and the woods, and I'm gonna make it happen and give it my all. So you take six years to get this tag. Yeah, I sleep in, I'm gonna feel whenever I sleep in, I feel really guilty. So yeah, I'm not hopefully I won't do that. 00:26:24 Speaker 2: No, well, you're yeah. 00:26:26 Speaker 1: I think the weather as far as for this period of time, as of right now, the weather actually looks probably the best it's been in the last few years. Like we've had really hot spells or or mega wind like it actually looks maybe like it's this might be the best fifth through the twelfth we've had in probably three or four years, and maybe maybe longer than that. 00:26:45 Speaker 2: I don't know. 00:26:46 Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean I'm looking at you know, lows in the high thirties and forties in the morning, and then highs of you know, mid fifties. A couple of days it reaches like sixty one sixty two. I mean, I'm I can't ask for more than that. I'm not going to freeze and I'm not going to bake, so like that's perfect. 00:27:05 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:27:05 Speaker 1: I remember in twenty three when I shot my eyewa deer, it was like during this time period, it was like seventy eight degrees when I left my truck. And so for anyone that don't don't complain about the weather actually having really awesome weather. 00:27:17 Speaker 6: Like you said, if it was hot and windy or super rainy, I mean, that's the worst man, Like, it's it's I'm just hopefully that doesn't change and I'll be blessed if it stays how it is. 00:27:28 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:27:29 Speaker 1: Well, so I we're going to close this out with two different things here. First, one is a quick trivia question. I've been torturing most guests. My question for you is what year was there the most amount of deer shot in the state of Michigan, highest total number A hargust what year? 00:27:53 Speaker 6: I did not know the answer to that, but I'm going to go back to I'm gonna go back to like nineteen fifty. 00:28:02 Speaker 2: I got my little sheet. 00:28:03 Speaker 1: Actually it's not nineteen fifty, it's actually nineteen ninety nine. Oh wow, wow, it was five hundred and forty ninety five deer that were shot. And then the highest gun harvest was four hundred and twelve thousand, and the year two thousand and then ninety nine was actually the highest four archery. So little fun fact for everyone here. And then my last question, is this on a scale one to ten, ten being this is going to be the best entire week all of twenty twenty five twenty twenty six deer season is the ten one, It is the worst. Obviously, we are probably in the week where there will be the most amount of giant deer shot statistically. 00:28:42 Speaker 2: So where do you think this falls? 00:28:45 Speaker 6: After sting me on the last question, thanks for the layup, I'm going I think I think you if you're not this week, you have something that must be very important to be doing. So that's that's it's a great week. I mean the sixth, the seventh. Last time I was in Iowa. I think I shot my buck on the seventh, So yeah, I love it. Coming up, I know there's some good stuff and later November two, but I'm normally back in Michigan doing our traditional rifle camp thing with the other ten million people you just mentioned. 00:29:16 Speaker 4: So yeah, it should be should be a great week. 00:29:20 Speaker 1: Awesome, Jared, Well, congrat congratulations on your Michigan buck, and good luck in Iowa. You're gonna be where everyone wants. Everyone who's not in Iowa this week is going to wish they were where you're at. 00:29:30 Speaker 2: So enjoy it. I know you're gonna have fun and really appreciate it. 00:29:34 Speaker 6: Hey, I appreciate it, man. I'll take all the good luck I can get. Thank you, and good luck yourself. I know you're out there hitting at art, so put one down and send me a picture. 00:29:42 Speaker 2: You got it, Jared, We'll see you. 00:29:44 Speaker 4: Thanks Jack. 00:29:45 Speaker 1: All right, Next up on the line, we have Chris. How's it. How's it going right now? 00:29:49 Speaker 7: Feeling good man? Glad to be here, talk some white tails and get the same rolling. 00:29:55 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:29:56 Speaker 1: Absolutely, So what have you been seeing as far as activity. I know, you just got back from all Ohio. What was kind of the road activity here for the last week of October. 00:30:07 Speaker 7: In Pennsylvania, it's been fairly slow, just because I think of the a corn crop. 00:30:12 Speaker 8: There's a lot of food this year. 00:30:13 Speaker 7: So the late teens of October have been Uh, it was real slow just because there was so much food on the ground. Betting was sort of random, So movement was real sporadic. To Ohio. It was starting to pick up a little bit. I was seeing some bucks and bucks were really picking up on scrapes. That was around the twenty fifth. 00:30:37 Speaker 1: M And so you're back from Ohio. Are you primarily hunting Ohio for the next you know, November. 00:30:45 Speaker 2: Fifth through the twelfth. 00:30:46 Speaker 7: I actually for my next Ohio trip on the seventh. So yeah, so okay, seventh through the eleventh, I will be in Ohio. 00:30:56 Speaker 2: All right. 00:30:57 Speaker 1: So with with that in mind, you know, you have some intel from your most recent trip in Ohio. 00:31:02 Speaker 2: You're going out there on the seventh. 00:31:03 Speaker 1: I think that's probably relatable to a lot of people that are, you know, traveling for the next seven days to try to make a move somewhat rapidly. What is on your mental checklist when you get back to Ohio to hunt, you know, the seventh through the twelfth for example. 00:31:20 Speaker 7: A lot of it's going to do with historical information that I have and realizing that scrapes are starting. 00:31:26 Speaker 8: To lose their jujus. 00:31:28 Speaker 7: So we're going to be mainly focusing on dough groups and terrain features connecting dough betting areas that I have had success with in the past. So I mean those those and terrain features are going to be your best friend. I feel like in that section of the run. 00:31:46 Speaker 1: When you're going out there, I'm assuming it's big woods. I'm also guessing it's public. Are you sitting in one spot dark to dark? Are you, you know, having a morning set kind of up high on the hill and moving down lower in the evening or tbd? 00:32:01 Speaker 2: Or what? 00:32:01 Speaker 1: What advice do you have for someone that might be in a similar boat. 00:32:04 Speaker 7: So I don't know if I have a preference as far as elevation high or low. It's all a spot dependent for me and what maybe I know about that area. It's a lot of it's gonna be come back to some first that I'm park gonna start low because it's all going to revolve around days if I'm just being short with it, so I don't I don't care if the doors are betting higher, if the doors are betting low. I just need to be in correlation with where the doors are in that area. What was the second happier question? 00:32:35 Speaker 2: H and are you parking in one tree for the entire day or are you moving? You know, bait, are you. 00:32:40 Speaker 1: Moving kind of midday or moving around one o'clock to go get to more of an evening spot. And you know that's probably more prevalent in different parts of the country, But don't big woods. 00:32:49 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. 00:32:49 Speaker 7: Since I don't live there, I'm not as in the moment as I am at home. So when I get there, I'll have a game plan to start and then I'm gonna move as needed. If I'm seeing dose now, even if I haven't seen the buck yet and i'm seeing those for sit or two, I might hang out because I know the doors are there. There's always that chance. But if I'm not seeing what I want to see it, then I'm gonna keep moving. I'm going to try to put myself in the action. 00:33:14 Speaker 2: Mm hmm. 00:33:14 Speaker 1: And for someone you mentioned different train features, describe one that's coming to mind here for this next week that you're going to be hunting in Ohio. 00:33:24 Speaker 7: Secondary points, mom, ditches. I really like those. A lot of the stuff that I like to look for is like a low spots, secondary bridges and ditches that maybe dip into private or that has you know, part of that has ag maybe catch catching the dough groups coming up from the private that bet on these points and stuff, and then obviously the bucks are going to parallel those. 00:33:53 Speaker 2: M Yeah. Well, I mean you're right, listen. 00:33:55 Speaker 1: I think we could try to overcomplicate this time period, but in reality, man, you got to the dos in a tight pinch. It's kind of the magic sauce of this. Let me let me run this scenario by you. It's in the morning and you have a setup where you get winded by some doughs at like eight o'clock in the morning. 00:34:13 Speaker 2: What are you doing next? 00:34:15 Speaker 8: Oh, I don't care if they wouldn't be. 00:34:18 Speaker 2: Okay. 00:34:19 Speaker 7: Yeah, you're just confident that where I'm sitting at, like, even if my wind's bad, if I know I can kill that buck before he hits my wind, I'm good in my opinion. And a lot of times I've seen where if a dough blows, a buck will come running because that dough just to give up her position, because a lot of times these does are actually trying to hide from the bucks because they're getting pestered by you know, everything. 00:34:42 Speaker 8: So you can make you can make a wrong that's and have a buck run. 00:34:47 Speaker 7: And I've done that where right before daylight, I'm walking to the tree and I have a buck running at me because he heard me from the ridge over. 00:35:03 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's an exciting time of year. 00:35:05 Speaker 1: There was a one hundred earlier this week, and there was it was a dough that was not ready to be bred, and she was just running. She would run in a real big thicket and the bucks would get down whenever flush her back out, and then she would run over to another thicket. And for people that, I feel that you just got to be you got to be present to win this time of year. You got to find a good spot and ride it out. How do you how do you mentally under or I guess how do you mentally? Way you're in there, it's November eighth and you're not seeing much activity. 00:35:33 Speaker 2: How much time are you going to give that spot before you might move? 00:35:36 Speaker 1: Move? 00:35:36 Speaker 2: On to something else. 00:35:39 Speaker 7: Like I said, I think it's just going to depend on the spot and like what I know about it. 00:35:43 Speaker 8: If it was a brand new spot. 00:35:46 Speaker 7: I might be more ought to be like, Okay, I'm going to get down and at least look around. 00:35:51 Speaker 8: Maybe there's something. 00:35:52 Speaker 7: Here that I don't know that's here that I haven't seen yet, and it would make me more up to get back in the tree, you know, or just get down scout find a new spot. Now, if I'm in a spot where I'm like, yeah, I've had cameras here for a couple of years and I know like this is the pocket and I just need to be patient, then I'll stay in the churney. 00:36:10 Speaker 2: Mm hmm. And real quick. 00:36:12 Speaker 1: For people that want to know more about historical data, what exactly is that? Is that based off of specific deer? Is that based off of just general activity in that area throughout this time period? 00:36:22 Speaker 8: Both, yeah, a lot of it. I try to just pick apart just the daylight pictures of bucks. 00:36:29 Speaker 7: If I if I'm pulling cards and I got a spot where there's a lot of a lot of nighttime activity, that doesn't mean it's a bad spot, because eventually there's bucks will slip through there in the daylight. But if I find a spot where it's like, man, there was five bucks in here in two days in daylight, Like that's what I'm trying to find. 00:36:49 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, do you have cameras in your backpack on this trip where you're gonna go soak some more on the fly? 00:36:56 Speaker 8: I think it's reverse. 00:36:58 Speaker 7: I've had the cameras out since February soaking, so it's more like going there. 00:37:05 Speaker 8: If I can, you know. 00:37:06 Speaker 7: Past the camera before I get to my tree, I'll pull the card and give me out. 00:37:10 Speaker 8: Give me something. Look at why I'm in the tree too? In past time? 00:37:15 Speaker 2: Right? 00:37:16 Speaker 8: Uh? 00:37:16 Speaker 1: Do you have any tips for passing time in the tree sinking? Cause a lot of people are logging the most amount of hours in a tree for the next seven days, and anyone that says it doesn't get a little boring is lyne. 00:37:26 Speaker 2: So what what tips do you have to pass the time. 00:37:29 Speaker 1: While you're buying You're buying time for your buck to show up, and you're like, man, I'm getting a little bored. I'm getting a little sick of watching squirrels. 00:37:36 Speaker 7: I can't sit here and tell you I'm the most patient person in the World magazine. 00:37:39 Speaker 8: I'm opposite. I'm so impatient to even funny, but I haven't. 00:37:44 Speaker 7: I mean, having food helps, I've been I haven't done it yet, but I've been telling myself. I'm like, man, I need to bring a book or like a magazine or something for that like midday, cause it does get kind of like blinding to stay at your phone too long too and that drains your battery and then you're frustrated later in the day. And so I would say, just food, bring a book, you know, something like that. 00:38:07 Speaker 1: Yeah, No, I would be lying if I said I've never brought a book before for those like this time period where you can at least listen and hear and you know, maybe learn something too along the way, as far as you know, like I feel like everyone's trying to pull out the back of tricks right now. Are you gonna have your grund call right only antlers? 00:38:25 Speaker 2: Are you going to use them? Tbd? 00:38:27 Speaker 7: Once again, I don't carry horns very often, but I'll always have a ground call with me, and I try to use this sparingly and for really certain situations like if I'm in a dire you know, situation where a buck is acting like he would come into one, but he's getting away from me, then I'm probably gonna use it. But other than that, I pretty much try to just be a silent be a silent killer. 00:38:54 Speaker 2: I like it. 00:38:55 Speaker 1: I like it so looking here, you know, kind of guessing on the weather a little bit scale one to ten, ten being, this is going to be the best week of the entire year, one being is going to be the worst week of the year. Where do you put your prediction for big Buck activity from November fifth to November twelfth, the grand event. 00:39:12 Speaker 7: Here, I'll tell you what, man, I have had some of the best hits I've ever had on November ten And that's a year to year to hear, that's three years, three years back to back to back for me, I've had the best hits of the entire year on November. 00:39:27 Speaker 1: Tenth, real quick, and then we'll let you go. What did for last year? What was your setup for November tenth? Like just to describe if some people can envision and try to try to find something similar. 00:39:40 Speaker 7: I was the head of a ditch in between three different but dobetting areas. 00:39:45 Speaker 2: Yep, I love it. I love it. Well, Chris, good luck in Ohio. 00:39:49 Speaker 1: Good luck in Pennsylvania as well, and I really appreciate it hopping on here today. 00:39:53 Speaker 2: This is the week we've been waiting for. Good luck. 00:39:55 Speaker 8: Yep, appreciate it, man, all right. 00:39:57 Speaker 1: Next up on the line, we have Tom Alexander at Land Magazine with Land dot Com. 00:40:03 Speaker 2: Tom, how is it going down in Texas? 00:40:06 Speaker 5: Fantastic, especially in our area. So I'm really in southern Texas, I would say, kind of what we consider to be the Gulf Coast region. And oddly enough we hit our hard rut down here through October. So it's been great for the last four weeks. 00:40:21 Speaker 2: Wonderful. 00:40:22 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's one of those things. Texas is huge and people don't realize how big that state is. And you have a couple different hunting areas throughout the state of Texas, which I want to kind of get an. 00:40:31 Speaker 2: Update throughout the region. 00:40:32 Speaker 1: But as I mentioned to you here a little bit ago, I like torture the guests with a trivia question. And so Texas, Texas is not a state that I at least think of when it comes to the sheer amount of white tails being shot. So out of the last twenty five years for all time single season whitetail harvest out of the top twenty five. 00:40:51 Speaker 2: How many times has it been Texas, I'd say every time. 00:40:57 Speaker 1: You're really close, it's twenty three out of the twenty five. Wow, and two thousand. Wisconsin is ranked number thirteen, and then at twenty five Michigan is five hundred and forty four thousand. But the all time record in the entire country nine hundred and eighteen thousand deer harvested in the state of Texas in twenty seventeen. So there's a lot of hunters and a lot of deer down there. 00:41:21 Speaker 8: Yeah. 00:41:21 Speaker 5: I think we'll vary each year in between seven hundred and fifty and a million. 00:41:25 Speaker 2: It's crazy and mule deer. 00:41:28 Speaker 5: Twenty three, twenty four thousand. 00:41:30 Speaker 2: Wow yeah wow. 00:41:32 Speaker 1: So we set the stage here. There's a lot of deer that are gonna shot in the state of Texas this fall. The rut is moving right along here in the southern part of Texas. What's going on kind of the general neck of the woods and for Texas from the fifth to the twelfth, this is the time period where a lot of people in the Midwest are, you know, at peak excitement. 00:41:53 Speaker 2: What's your level of excitement here in Texas. 00:41:56 Speaker 5: It's always good because, like I said, we have so many different regions, and it's a kind of a staggered event. So you would say what I consider to be the Gulf Coast region, so Gulf of America from the shoreline, Galveston area, whatever, along that stretch of the coast inland, say ninety or one hundred miles, and then going from East Texas all the way down to South Texas, with the exception of the far southern tip. 00:42:22 Speaker 2: But that is all October. 00:42:24 Speaker 5: So you know, if you plant an outright, you can be during bow season. You can be in the rut right there through that area. It's kind of odd we actually manage to place south of Houston here in October. The rut was just as hard as it could go, and it's ninety five degrees outside, so we were out shooting colder. My son shot two bucks one evening and I remember field dressing them and it was ninety five degrees. So they're just kind of strange, and they're out the middle of the day hot as can be in their running dos. 00:42:55 Speaker 2: Wait a while. 00:42:56 Speaker 5: So that's October, and then when you go into November you start hitting what we consider to be far East Texas and central Texas. So in reality, if you drew a line, you know, halfway up the state of Texas from east to west right, so just right through the middle. Everything from that line north is November. And so if you're in the hill country, which is where a lot of people have recreational properties and they're hunting, it really kind of it ties in the peak of the rut, i'd say. 00:43:31 Speaker 2: Is right before Thanksgiving. 00:43:32 Speaker 5: So it's always a great time if you have property up there, you're enjoying it, you might be spending Thanksgiving, and it's a great time to hunt. And then we roll into what we consider to be South Texas, the brush country, and you know, that's just all I guess you'd say everything south of that line, with the exception of what's on the coast, and that's where the biggest deer in Texas are killed. That's the majority of the high fence places, and the peak of the rut there is seems to be always right around Christmas. So I know I have several friends that literally on Christmas Day, after they celebrate Christmas, they have Christmas dinner, right and as soon as that's over, everybody gets in the truck and goes down to the deer leaser to the ranch, and then they'll hunt through the end of January I'm sorry, through the holiday season January second or third man. 00:44:23 Speaker 1: That's a lot of that's a lot of opportunity to chase rinting bucks a huge, huge window. That's that's actually really incredible. I didn't realize. I didn't realize that that's really neat. 00:44:33 Speaker 5: Yeah, you time it right, you know, you can get the rut through each one of those through all three months. 00:44:38 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like following the waterfowl migration. Yeah, exactly. 00:44:43 Speaker 1: So for folks that are maybe in Texas or maybe Oklahoma, and I understand that's just a ginormous region what I just described. But for the next five days or next seven days, what are some things that you're personally keen in on if you're going to be out in the standar, out in the blind, chasing deer when the majority of large bucks are shot, you know, over the next seven days. 00:45:05 Speaker 5: You know, we're running cameras right now, and we do a lot of feeding, so we try to stay off for where we are down here, we try to stay off of hunting the actual feeders and we're running protein, so we'll corn the roads and just based and we have certain stands set up for wind, and we just corn the roads and if we can get some good deer coming in. You know, it seems like most of the big mature bucks there, you know, they've already kind of gone through their cycle. They've had their dose pinned down whatever it is, and done that first cycle. So now they're out cruising, so you'll catch them just kind of checking the wind and running up and down the roads and just looking there. They probably lost I don't know, fifteen percent of their body weight, so they've gone from these big, just lumbering, older bucks and now they're they're looking pretty fit, looking good, So kind of makes it difficult when you're trying to judge an age class. But now is the time to be killing what we consider the five and a half six and six and a half year old deer. 00:46:06 Speaker 2: Mm hmm. Yeah, that's that's super exciting. 00:46:08 Speaker 1: And it is crazy how how much the white tail buck changes, you know, from summer to the end of the rut. It actually is sometimes it can be unrecognizable by the end of the season. 00:46:19 Speaker 5: Yeah, Yeah, it's it's really neat to watch and when you see like you know, we're after certain management bucks and we might wait a little while for we're going to shoot them, but you see him at one minute or at the beginning of October, and like I said, they're twenty percent heavier, and they just look like these big lumbering almost like you know, a cow. They're just they're they're they're ready, you know. And then now they're just worn down and and very fit looking. 00:46:45 Speaker 2: So it's fun, good time. 00:46:47 Speaker 1: What is your your favorite part over the next seven days for this time of year. Is it the anticipation of anything that could happen? Is it bringing out the rat on alers and smashing them? I mean, what has you most excited over the next seven days. 00:47:02 Speaker 6: Yeah? 00:47:02 Speaker 5: Absolutely, you know, so get in an area where you know some good deer coming in, you know, hopefully a lot of dose. One of the problems we have here is with hogs, because there are thousands of pigs I think so far this year this year we probably killed two hundred in havn't even put a dent in them. So if you're corning a road, a lot of times you'll have the deer come out and they start getting nervous and then a pack of thirty hogs will come out, so you try to shoot those and get them spooked out of that area, and then the deer will start coming back in. But right now, yeah, it's you know, we've got an MLD permit, so we can shoot with the gun in October. But me and my buddy we both shoot traditional archery, so recurves long bows, and so a lot of our shots are ten or fifteen yards and that's the way we've got all of our stands set up right now, so we're after some target bucks. He was in a stand last night and actually tested me, texted me, I'm sitting here at my desk and I hear this, you know, crap, crap, crap. He had two dos that came in and the butt circle around down one of him, and it was a nice big six and a half year old eight point that he was after and bound it off. You know, but that would have been a good season kill for him. 00:48:14 Speaker 1: So you hunt with traditional archery equipment, which takes more preparation, more focus than any other form of archery hunting, and the moment of truth. A lot of people this week are going to be full draw on a deer they've been dreaming of for the last eleven and a half months and the moment of truth. What do people need to be thinking about? Is this deer's coming in to execute a great shot. And with traditional archery equipment, I think it's even more even more focus. 00:48:43 Speaker 2: Yeah, well do what I say. Not what I do. 00:48:46 Speaker 5: Is with traditional archery, you know, there's target paintings. So if you're watching that deer, naturally you're going to pull back, and it's something about a longbow or a recurve that you're holding that full tension, and everything in your brain just starts screaming at you. Let go, let go, because you're looking at that deer. And if you do aim, it's you know, if you're shooting at a three D target, you will naturally aim low and it's okay to put that tip down low below the arrow. But if that deer is there at ten yards and you've been practicing at twenty yards and holding just under the deer, it just seems like every time that deer walks out at ten yards and you put the tip of the arrow right on him and you shoot over him or he ducks, you know. So I think the most important thing is just wait for a minute. When that deer comes in. You always want to take that first best shot, but usually you're going to have time, especially if you've got corn out, So make sure you pick your spot, take your time, draw back anchor get completely ready, and then you know, like Joel Turner teaches, go through your process and make that decision once you're on and your aim make that decision of My next job is to release this exactly the way that I practice. So if you can go through that, then you're gonna do fine. I'm really good at doing that. On hogs, terrible on. 00:50:12 Speaker 2: Deer A half is the very best of us. That's what I break it up. That's what it's fun. 00:50:19 Speaker 8: Yeah. 00:50:20 Speaker 1: Absolutely, So you have to speak for the whole state of Texas, second largest land mass in the United States, over the next seven days on a scale one to ten, ten being this might be the best week of the year in the state of Texas for this season, and number one being this might be one of the worst weeks of the entire year. On a scale one to ten, Where do you put this upcoming seven days for the state of Texas for your report, I'd. 00:50:46 Speaker 5: Say really good, we've had a coal front come through, so it really makes a difference here. Last night, after going I went out, went to the gym, then went to the grocery store and it's sixty five degrees outside, and there's people walking around and down jackets and their nit caps on with a little ball on top. And that's normal at sixty five degrees here, So we just don't get that cold. So this front is blown through, it's been really pleasant outside. So right now in our area, it should be outstanding over the next week and then it's just going to roll as the weather goes and the moon face and all that, depending upon the area that you're in. But for here, right now, in our area hunting the rut, the tail end of the rut, this next week should be really good, wonderful. 00:51:30 Speaker 2: Well, Tom, good luck. I hope you have a great rest of your season. 00:51:33 Speaker 1: I appreciate you hopping on here and educating everyone about the state of Texas because there's a lot to learn here. 00:51:39 Speaker 2: Right all right, thanks Jake, All. 00:51:41 Speaker 1: Right, there, you guys have it. I hope you guys enjoy this week. This is the week we've been waiting for all year. It's the week we're gonna be waiting for fifty one weeks again, So get out there, enjoy it, Enjoy all the moments. Remind yourself of some of the advice here that the guests have provided, and get out there and enjoy it. 00:51:57 Speaker 2: That is it. We will see you next week on rough fresh good luck.