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 in this episode number two hundred and fifty five, and today on the show, we're joined by Alex Gilstrom and Cody Butler of dream Chaser's TV to talk late season hunting strategies, advice for hunting a single deer, and mobile hunting tactics. All right, welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by Onyx, and today we're gonna be joined here shortly by my buddy Alex Gilstrom and Cody Butler from dream Chaser's TV, and were gonna be chatting with these guys about late season tactics, and we're talking about some public land hunting ideas, some running gun techniques, and a whole bunch of things in regards to hunting strategies. We're also gonna be diving into a few stories of some of Alex and Cody's recent successes, including something you might have seen the most recent issue or maybe it's two issues ago of North American Whitetail. Cody kill and absolutely stunning white Tail last year, and that story was featured in the magazine, which is pretty cool, and it was written by Alex so double cool there. So that's a story I definitely want to dive into. It's a buck they call longhorn. Um. But before all of that, we do have my nine finger buddy Dan Johnson with us for our pregame show, and I'm hoping the two of us can catch up a little bit. We haven't chatted and I think two weeks Dan, um, So do you do you have good news to share them? I'm assuming I'm hoping. I've been wishing and dreaming that one of these days in your next to me and say, hey, Mark, I finally did it. I bought a non resident Michigan hunting license. I'll be there next weekend. Tell me that's what's happening. No, that didn't happen. I think are I think what was our original bed? If I can ever quit my job and make the Sportsman's Nation like my full time job, then then the promise, the pinky swear, is that I will come up and I will buy a Michigan tag and I'll hunt with you. That's that is the long term plan. I'm trying to make it happen right now. Right Yeah, that's uh, that ain't gonna happen. Uh, but but I tell you, Um, I saw a Facebook I posted a picture of my my son today Mac on Facebook, and you responded with a a post of your own about how your son cried all night and uh, he didn't sleep unless he was in bed with you and your wife. And and that makes me happy because oh yeah, and when when you told me a while back, oh yeah, he has no problem sleeping through the night. There's a little part of me that, like, I don't know, whenever someone I hear another parents say that, I want to punch him because it's not how stuff goes down in my house. So I'm relieved to find out that your kid is ruining your life too. Yeah, he's he's coming, He's what do they say, Gosh, Um, I'm gonna blank on this. It's something down to the mean, like resorting, resorting back to the mean or something like that. I'm blanking on the right word. But yes, he's gone back to what normal babies do, which is cry a lot, wake up in the middle of the night. Um. I don't know if it's related to teething. He's he's had two teeth pop out all the way, he's got a third this kind of halfway, and I feel like there might be another one about to about to cut because he's just got a general perturbed nature all the time. And then he's like going down and sleeping for five minutes and then all of a sudden waking up, scream bloody murder. And he did that from like seven third you last night all the way to midnight. I mean it was horrible. Um. So that's kind of our recent fun with with him. I tell you what man I was. You know, on on Facebook, you flip through the feed and then you have a memory that pops up, and there was a memory of like, I don't know, five or six years it would it would have been six or seven years ago of me and my wife. I think it was like before we were married. We were all we were. We just looked so happy and well rested and youthful. And then fast forward to like a most recent picture, we look like weathered and beaten down and emotionally drained. We're aging fast. Absolutely absolutely, Uh. I guess that's it's better than alternative though. I suppose, Um, you know, it is funny though, I'm I was up at our deer camp last weekend and or last week, and I talked about this on the on the episode we did last week. But being in a place like that, it does us like really now, every day I see my son, I get reinvigorated and excited. So I'm not saying that's not the case. But when you go up there and you see the pictures of like me when I was a little dude, and hear my dad tell the stories about what when I was a little guy and going up there to camp and hunting and everything, Like, every time I think about that with Everett, it just gets me, I don't know, just on a whole another level of excitement. I'm I feel like we're getting really close to the point where he's, um, you know, once he can walk, then I feel like that opens up a whole new set of experiences that we can share. Um that I'm just I'm just super excited about. So absolutely, that's good stuff. It's funny speaking to kids, though, I think you and we both need to train our kids a little bit better because one of our buddies has got us topped right now, um, you know Ross Ross Hass. He sent us a text me and some of my friends earlier today and he quoted his wife asking his son a question. His wife's name is Kendall's son's times West. So Kendall said, quote, Hey, West, should we go get a Christmas tree and throw it in the back of the truck? End quote? And their son, who's like two, he responds, no, we throw deers back in there and even for dinner. How good is that? Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. Like that's the perfect response. Uh, here's what my quote would be, Hey Mac, did you flush? Mac would say no, and that's it. Did you wash your hands? Buddy? No? Straight to the point. Absolutely. Oh gosh. So check this out. While back, my wife says to me, I wanna go deer hunting, And I laughed because I thought she was joking. And so last year, or it was after last season was over, she's like, I wanted to go hunting. You didn't take me why. I'm just like, are you were you serious? She's like, yeah, I'm serious. I want to go shoot a deer so we can put meat in the freezer. That subtle, underhanded jab at you or something I don't I don't know, I don't know, right. So at the beginning of this season, she's like, Hey, are you gonna take me shotgun hunting? And I said, are you serious? She says yes. I say, then yes, I definitely will take you season shotgun hunting. And that's this upcoming season, so or this upcoming weekend. So we are. We got I got a gun lined up, I got ammunition, I got the property. And the only thing that has to happen is that the weather has to cooperate because it's might be raining a little bit on Saturday, but Saturday and Sunday I have dedicated to taking her out to try to kill a deer. Now here's her stipulations. Yeah, this is about right. She only wants to shoot a big buck. What's up with her things? He wants met in the freezer? Then well, I mean, obviously, you know Mark can kill bucks, and you know we can take the meat off of them. You know, this year for me to work out. But um so I try to explain to her. Listen, sweetie, you know how long it took. You know, I may have walked in for like two or three days into my rut, vacation set up and you know, hunted this deer. However, it took months of planning in preparation to find out where the deer were moving, you know, trail camera pictures, you know, going back to the farm, blah blah blah seeing if this, you know, if deer, if there were even any quote unquote big bucks on the farm. And uh so She's like, yeah, I just want one like what you hanging like maybe what you have hanging on the wall. I'm just like, sweetie, you need to lower your expectations like you did with me. Because yes, so we know she can do it. You said him a gun. So yeah, so yeah, So I think I got her to lower expectations a little bit. Maybe Saturday we'll we'll try for a buck. And you know, I'm thinking something along the lines of, you know, just really anything. I'm gonna try to talk her into shooting the first year that walks by her. Um that may or may not happen. But then she said, if I don't shoot a buck on Saturday, then I'll shoot a dough on Sunday. And I said, sweetie, you know there's a chance that if you pass a deer on Saturday, that you may not get a second chance at this she's and then she's she starts pulling this whole, this whole type of ship that I would say, right like, you know, it's not all about to kill. I just want to go out and enjoy the experience, you know. I just like, what is going on? Because my mind is exploding at this point, and you're gonna be sitting out there in the blind or the three or whatever you guys are hunting from, and she's is gonna be telling you. Now you know, on the Wire Time podcast, I heard that we need to be careful about our exit route out of here tonight. Uh, do you have that planned out right? Dan? Or she starts correcting me when we step into the timber. She's like, Hey, your sense going the wrong way, buddy. Yeah. What if she's just like a deer hunting ninja and you get out there and she's like telling you all the things to do and then you shoot a booner the first night she's out there? Right that? I don't know, Like I feel like if one of let's say Gnarlie Charlie shows up, just hypothetically, I can myself going, Sarah, look, you probably just couldn't handle that hit right absolutely, you know. Just imagine a wall full of deer and the biggest buck on the wall because I would have to get it mounted, right, the biggest buck on the wall? Oh man, where'd you shoot that one? Well? I didn't shoot that when my wife did. Man, I love you, Dan, but I'm hoping so badly that she does that. Oh man, that's funny. Would be awesome them. So not too far from where we're gonna be hunting right probably, I'm gonna guess three hundred four hundred yards. I got a trail camera picture of a buck that it was high in the air. I mean it was like it was far away, but it looked I mean, it was a big buck for sure, but it looked like it could potentially be gnarly Charlie. But it was from two weeks ago, so it could it may, you know. But the good news is is that recently in that part of the state there has been eleven or higher inches of snow. Eleven or more inches of snow. There's a standing cornfield that is still in place. So you know, before the season even starts, we all we want is hey, man, we gotta get this the corn out. We gotta get this corn out. Let's get the crops out. So they head back into the timber so you know, you know, it concentrates them a little bit more. And now this time of year, we're going, God, I hope that we can find some standing corners, some standing crops or whatever. So the last time I checked, there was still some corn standing in this field, and I don't think it dried out enough for them to combine it before the big snow hit. So, um, I'm taking Friday off work. I'm gonna head down there. I'm gonna scout out a couple of areas before the season opens on Saturday. And uh, if that standing corns there, we have a really good shot of at least, you know, at least a dough finding, finding a trail that the doughs are working on. But even even something better like a buck. Yeah, man, that kind of scenario with all that snow and standing food. I mean, she could shoot a nice buck in that kind of situation. That's that's exciting, absolutely man, Absolutely yeah, I'm I'm excited just to go out and see how she reacts. Now, the other thing is she's used to Turkey season right where on a bad day in April, the high temperature is gonna be like mid mid fifties. You know, maybe maybe it's gonna be you know, mid to low thirties in April, but you know there's a chance in the mornings when we go out that it's gonna be below freezing or all day. I looked at the weather and it's not supposed to be too terribly cold. But I'm to a point, you know where this isn't turkey hunting. So we'll see how tough she gets and uh how serious she is about it, and uh play it, play it by ear Man. Well, I'm very interested to hear how this goes. So definitely, well, definitely check back in next week or next time. We can get back here and do this. Um, this is gonna be a good story. So have you have you then fast forwarded to late season or you out till late season or what's your deal? So since we last chatted two weeks ago, I hunted some more in Michigan on those main spots. Uh no, Luck, I was hoping that Frank was going to be back, um, because I think last time we talked about Frank, I told you about the hold back and forth, back and forth with him. I talked about the poop blind, I talked about the close calls, and then I went to that the meat eater hunt. Right. Um. When I got back from that, it checked trail cameras and I got a picture of Frank on the property I can hunt the morning that I got there, but the morning I got back, he was there half hour before dayly, So I was really excited thinking that there's still a chance. Um. But I know pictures of him from like the sixth of November until I got back the thirteen, So like that whole time I was gone, zero pictures and then the day got back, here he is. So I'm thinking, oh, man, like this is meant to be. This is perfect. He's back maybe on a dough in the area. Um. But the basically just what happened over the next five days that I hunted and didn't see him. I didn't I haven't checked carrel cameras since then, but I didn't see him anywhere. Did not see much UM as far as semi mature mature bucks. UM, I had one encounter with Tran, which is a three year old that I that I'm not gonna hunt, but i'd like to see um. So I saw him crap ton of doze um second day of guns season because I hunted a few days and guns season. Second day of guns season, I got out to my standard, there was a bunch of trespasser boot tracks all over the proud day. Um. So that was really upsetting in the moment um that was down here. And then it went up to our Northern Michigan deer camp for a few days. Had a good time up there, but no luck. Um. And then I kind of pulled the plug on hunting for a bit. And that was about a week ago. So I've been out not hunting it all for the last week. Um. And that was that was necessary. Um. You know two weeks ago when we last chatted, you asked me if the brownie points had ran dry yet, and I was like, oh, oh no, man, the brownie points still good, and things like hey, okay, you really really jinxed me on that. So so we had our kind of annual reset. It always seems like right about this time of year, it's like right as gun season it's there's it's always kind of like a tipping point. Um. So that happened and taking some time out of the tree. And that's that's been a good thing all across the board. I just needed it personally, probably to UM. I definitely had worn down over that month. So yeah, I took a little time off, got caught up on some work, and now I am going to be getting back out there, maybe a hunt this weekend, and then next week going back up north for a couple of days, and then after that we'll be focusing, you know, in the southern Michigan properties. UM, I just don't know if if Frank doesn't show back up, and I don't think it's it's unlikely he will, at least not consistently. Right, he has never lived on the property hunt. He's just like showed up for a day a year here and there, and then this year a little bit more. Um, if he's not around, there's no buck on the property that I've gotten pictures ever seen yet all year that I would shoot. So it's basically probably I'm just gonna shift a doughe patrol and just start kind of aggressively targeting doughs because this is a property that there's too many doughs every year. I say, I'm gonna take a bunch of off, um, and I get try to get some friends out to take some off and I always get some um usually between two and four a year, um, but but really probably could use more than that. So this year maybe finally is the year I can really do a better job managing. So that's the next couple of weeks probably hold for me on that standpoint and um, and then maybe get to that West Michigan property another time or two. There are bucks to hunt there. Um, just gonna be kind of scheduling thing. Got some funky travel coming up. So you got good uh late season food sources? Yeah, yeah, I do on on both those spots, the main property hunt the down south property. You know, I plant some food plots which are good um, and really they're mostly focused for a late season. It's always been great for late season. But the only the downside this year to that is that usually I've got the best late season food source in the area because I've got a couple of acres of brassicas and stuff really good late season food. Well, this year, a farmer kind of nearby planted a cover crop on his place that is all like turnips and brassicas and stuff like that radishes, um, and the deer piling into that. So I'm kind of second fiddle. I'm like the little appetizer that's like dinner. Um. So I don't know how that's going to impact things. I think deer will still kit my plots. Um, It's just not gonna be like in past years, I don't think. So we'll see how that impacts things. And that's kind of That's kind of what the rest of the season looks like for me. I don't have super high hopes from a buck standpoint, but definitely would love to shoot some more doughs and fill the freezer and um, and that'll be That'll be a fun way in the season. So that's at least as of right now, what it looks like. Cool man, that's awesome. Anything else on your front um? The only thing that I can think of is, you know, we are recording this on a on a Tuesday, which is Giving Tuesday, Yes, Giving Tuesday, and I just want to you know, really push people. You know, we all say we have busy lives, right, and we don't have a lot of time to dedicate to, uh, you know, something that's outside of our family and work, like a conservation organization. But one thing that's very easy to do. And if you have money that you can spare and part with, uh, money works too, right, So don't be afraid to donate some money to UM an organization like I think today on Instagram you mentioned q d m A or Backcountry Hunters and Anglers or the two that pop out. You know, something that you're passionate about. It doesn't have to be that. I mean Ducks Unlimited or white Tails Unlimited, or you know anything that's you know, maybe a state a local state park that you enjoy hiking on. You know, something like that. Uh, every penny in dollar helps, so if you can do it. Yeah, man, that was exactly what I wanted to close with. So thank you for for mentioning that. And uh and yeah, there's a lot of organizations out there doing good work that need help. They need time, and they need resources, they need funding, and so is a great day to do it. UM. My wife and I kind of did a little brainstorm this morning and nominated we each kind of nominated a couple of different organizations that we want to donate to UM and did that and it's kind of a cool way to UM, you know, to just give back and of course you can do that anytime of year, but it's nice to get a reminder like we have today. Um and gosh, I mean, we're we're spending a bunch of money in Christmas gifts and things like that, but I don't think you can spend any better money then money that goes back to fish and wildlife and wild places. So and we take away from that resource throughout the season, you know, whether it's uh, you know, an animal or a fish or whatever. We take from that resource and very rarely do we ever give back outside of license and tags. So it's just a great It's something extra that we can all do. And you know, it does a lot. And if we we kind of read the word and we all we all do a little, it becomes something big. Yeah, so let's let's do something right here. UM. I'm gonna do a little calculation here, and I'm going to ask every single person listening. Now, I know not everyone's gonna do it, but I'm gonna be optimistic and say that everyone's going to do it. If we take oh maybe what the last podcast um downloads head and let's say everybody donates ten dollars of I can get every one of you guys to donate ten dollars today, just ten bucks. The people that just download the podcast last week, we would be pushing up towards half a million dollars to conservation. So we can raise a lot of money, like we can all each one of us doing a tiny little thing can make a big difference if we all collectively do it together. So I mean, that's a cool opportunity. Dan, you did an awesome thing this last week where you just said hey, I got a goal of raise or something like that for q d m A, and just through Instagram like telling people, hey, just don't it to this thing. Um, you know, just like that, you were able to raise over two thousand dollars for the Quality Deer Management Association. So I think, um, you and I are fortunate we have We've been given the privilege of having a platform where we can talk to people and a lot of people listen. Um. And I think, um, I think it's cool to see someone like you using that platform for something good. And I hope maybe today we can use this to just you know, give a few people a reminder to give back to like you and you and I are trying to do and I know a lot of other people are trying to do and it could make it can make a substantial difference if we do that. So I'm rambling now well, and I just want to say, I want to end with this because yes, we're talking to you know, a lot of average joes out there. But if there's any buddy in the industry, whether you own a hunting company or you work for a hunting company, or you are another let's say, like influencer or quote unquote celebrity, and you're not currently helping promote conservation, you need to be. That's it. There, you go, straight from the mouth of Dan nine Finger Johnson. So with that, we will take a break to thank our partners, and then we will get Alex and Cody on the line to talk White Tails, to talk late Season, to talk public land Um, and man, if the stars aligned, maybe one of them will have a story of a very very recent kill. I'm hoping. I'm hoping that will be the case. Dan. Before we get to those stories, they want to take a quick second to thank our friends at White Tailed Properties, and I wanted to mention a recent video of their's over on the White Tailed Properties YouTube channel. This one is of particular importance to me this time of year because December typically for me, as I was talking about with Dan just a second ago, that's when I usually like to start trying to put some dose in the freezer. And what I'm doing that is usually time here when I've got time to go ahead and butcher my own deer. Sometimes I'm out there hunting in October or November and I'm traveling all over the place, have a hard time having the the extra availability as far as time to get that process myself. But December, I like to do it and enjoy the whole process. I would like to do that even more so. This video that White Tail Property just put out is all about this deal processing your own animals, in particular, talking about how to break down a deer's hind quarter. Dr Craig Harper is actually the one in this video. If you know who I'm talking about, you know he's just a great guy to listen to, and he actually shows how to process a deer's hind quarter while that deer is still hanging up. So I typically quarter my dear outbreak him down, and then you know the processes on the table. He talks their way to do that while they're actually still hanging, which is a pretty interesting way to do it. So heading over to the way Tail Properties YouTube channel, check out this video. It's titled how to process a Deer's hind quarters And if you want to learn more about the other things they have going on, visit white tail properties dot com. All right here with me on the line, I got rid of Dan and I pulled into way more interesting people. I've got Cody Butler and Alex Gilstrom. Welcome to the show, guys. Yeah, Alex, I We've had a lot of good times over the years at different conventions and things along those lines. So I've known for a while now that I wanted to pull you in here to the podcast um to chat. So so I'm glad this is finally happening, and I'm glad that you brought your buddy Cody along because the two of you, it seems like, have been have been having a good season, a good couple of seasons, and I was hoping we could um dive into all of that. But I suppose before of that, Alex, would you be willing to give us a real quick intro to to who you are, what you do in the hunting world. Um, because I know that you and Cody do some things together, and then of course you're doing some other interesting things with our wonderful partners at White Tailed Properties. You bet. Yeah, it's uh, it has been. You know, we joked about it for for a number of years now, how we've talked and collaborated just kind of brainstor where a few different things. And just um obviously very very passionate and obsessed white tail hunters and as we all tend to be in this in this circle. But it was finally fun to get and connect. But um, before we get to to involved the two diving here, I do have to take a quick sidebar with you. So uh a bunch of yourself. Yeah, it's just it's interesting, so as much as of yourself. Um, it's connect. The q d M a huge supporter of that. We are as well at white Tail. We've had a very very long stand relationship here at White Tail Properties and myself personally has just been really involved with it and in supporting it. And I get this news letter I think it was the day before yesterday or so, and I was and I was sitting there re something I know where you're going, and I would scroll it down. When did Further become a model? Oh? Man, tell you what, Further is blowing up? He is absolutely blowing up. I mean it's it's a little bit embarrassing because I kind of introduced him to the hunting world. I feel like, and now he's outshining me by far. And it's like he's standing. Yeah, he's standing on your shoulders to just go above and beyond. It's been a knock to my pride, but I'm glad for it. Yeah. Man, he's he's the great big q dum model now on the newsletter and on Instagram. Um. And you see how he rocked the face paint too, Like he really goes pretty hardcore with it. Oh. It was the authenticity and the intensity was off the chart. I mean he was he was on another level. Yeah, Man, Further he's the legend. Alright, Well I digress. Yeah, I had. I had to give Further a little jab there's I know, he's obvious. So he's been a long time great friend of yours and he's become a good friend of mine. And it's just it's just I couldn't believe it. I had, I had to jab him a little bit when I saw that. Oh yeah, there's no better way to start the podcast. So so tell us a little about you there. Yeah, back to your original question. Um, yeah, I got my start Erry just kind of worked my way up and had no real connection to the outdoor industry or anything like that, and basically just through persistence and and basically pestering, called as many companies as I could for as long as I could until someone finally gave me the time of day and uh and let me let me kind of hear my spiel and where my passion was and what I wanted to do and um and it actually, uh, it all started with a phone call back when I was you know, kind of in high school and finally got connected with the company and kind of asked what, you know, what things that they look for in professionals and the outdoor industry and how to get in and all this and that, and basically, long story short, the two big resounding um answers I got was, you know, a good business acumen, good business skills as well as writing skills. So that's what I honed in on. Um. I've always kind of had like a I guess and in an eighth or or natural attraction to writing and just I guess storytelling. So that kind of was a natural evolution for me. And then um obviously picked up a little bit of photography videography along the way too, but uh, those are the things that I concentrated on. Uh. It kind of led me to a career at Setlock for a number of years, six years, and then um, throughout those years kind of continue to develop writing and and exploring storytelling in different ways on different platforms, whether it be social media or magazines or articles or whatever. Um, and that's can continue to kind of evolve and uh and kind of grow is that's kind of come on. And then three years ago now White Till Properties approached me with an opportunity and it was kind of a way for me us like yourself, Mark born and raised in Southwest Michigan, absolutely love my roots there, my entire families there, and and our outdoor heritage. You know, it's something you've talked about all the podcasts a lot, and it's and it's couldn't be more true, just the the richness in the in how deep our outdoor heritage and passions for for uh, the wildlife and the outdoors go there, and it's just kind of something that everybody does and that's what makes it so special. Um it can also make it very frustrating, especially yeah, especially during the deer season. Um So, anyway, that when White Properties kind of approached me and started doing my you know, my list of pros and cons and where things were and where I wanted my career to go kind of evolving, Uh, they asked me to come take over all creative as far as the video department and our marketing department here and uh there was a chance to relocate to Pike County, Illinois, so that wasn't a bad thing. So over the over the course of the last you know showt or eight years, that's kind of kind the quick story of of how I how I got here, and really kind of it's been it's been nice to to kind of relocate and recenter and and then as you kind of mentioned, uh earlier, we're going to talk about with some some writing. It's it's been cool to kind of see that evolved and and grow and something I've really kind of got a passion for. I mean, you want to call it a you know, side hustle or side gig or whatever you want to call it. It's it's been something that's really kind of grown and evolved over the last few years. And I've been doing a lot more projects, uh digitally and and and with with print magazines and other things like that. It's been it's been just a lot of fun to kind of talk about how, you know, I do things and how I make it work out there and and kind of just go from there. Yeah, And speaking of your writing, it was a piece of your writing that I was reading, I don't know, a few weeks ago that just reminded me that I needed to get you on the podcast, and that I had to get Cody on the podcast because that was an article you wrote about a hunt that Cody was on and you actually got to be a part of it, filming him. Um, and then you told the whole story there in North American White Tail Magazine. So Cody, then, UM, can you give us a quick intro to yourself and then also maybe how you and alex Um start working together with treen Chasers and everything. Yeah, definitely. Um. So born and raised out here in Nebraska, right on the Kansas Nebraska border. So I kind of joke around tell people like, it's almost like living in Iowa because I can kill a deer in Kansas and then too in Nebraska, so I can get three every year. UM, so it's kind of a fuel deal out here. But no, you know, I grew up in a hunting family. UM just always had a huge passion for it. If you would have told me, you know, when I was younger, that I would get into video and photography, I would have told you you were crazy. UM. Just didn't have a passion for it when I was younger until a guy moved to town here that was actually filming for the Archer's Choice UM with Ralph and Vicky, and he asked me to become a part of their team and started filming and just fell in love with it. Realized I had an eye for video and photography and and it kind of took off. Started my own business, and you know now we're we're doing Dream Chasers UM as a digital show on Carbon TV and YouTube. UM. I also have a company that does video photography work for hunting companies. UM. That's kind of how Alex and I actually got started. UM. We got hired by a guy to do a pilot for a show Um, gosh, Alex, how long has it been now? The story is crazy enough as it is. I'll let you go, but it's that I'll let you keep telling, but it's done. Like I think that was. I was trying to think about this the other day, and I think what I was actually it was actually when I was driving back from Camas we're hunt together, but I think it was. I think it was like nine years ago, and that's what I was thinking too. Is it getting close to ten years now? We both got hired, we knew knew each other through social media and stuff, a little bit um back and forth. Um, a friend of our has kind of introduced us through social media. I think we had talked on the phone one time, and then all of a sudden, we both get hired to go do this pilot down in Kansas, pretty and we had no idea we had gotten hired at the same time. And Foxy got there before me, and I walked in the door and I see him. I'm like, what the heck are you doing here? Man? So then we just we sat down, we did the pilot, we filmed it for this guy and put it all together and and the rest is history. I mean, we've we became great friends. I invited him to come out here in turkey hunt that next spring and he's been coming out here turkey hunting and deer hunting every year since and it's just been quite a roller coaster ride. Yeah, that's awesome, And you guys are doing a good job. I've been on the watch some of your video episodes over the years, and uh, you're putting out a great product and obviously living there in in pseudo Iowa, Kansas Nebraska border, that's a pretty good spot to be. You guys. Guys are putting them down. Um. So on that note, then I have to ask because the other thing, they're two things that that made me think of you guys to get on the podcast. One was that article I mentioned, and number two, it was something you posted on Instagram. I think, Cody, that just got like the drama sensors in my body going on overload. You said that there had been this great, big, giant buck that you've been keeping tabs on all year and you thought that with this late season cold weather and snow, that you finally might have an opportunity for him. I think you said that you got pictures of him like five days in a row on this little camera in this section, and and last night, So the night before we recorded this was the night you thought you were going to kill him. So I was sitting here in my in my office looking at that crossing all my fingers and toes and just saying, oh, please Cody kill that buck so we can hear that story today. On the me too, I was. I was doing the same thing, so so please tell me. Did you kill that buck? Um? No, we did not, but I did pass like a hundred and fifty seven pointer last night in order to that year. I'm kind of kicking myself a little bit now. Uh No, we call that, dear epic um kind of a crazy story. So spring of two thousand sixteen, I found a shed on that farm, actually his left side. That's the only history I had with that dear. Ever, I've never had a picture of him nothing. I just found this big six by side on that property during the sixteen shed season, and I had never got a picture of him until this year he finally showed back up. So I'm guessing off of his shed. I really have no history, but shed was already pretty big, so I'm guessing he was probably a four year old. Then probably he's either six or seven this year, is what I'm guessing. In Matt he shows up this summer and instantly I'm like, Okay, that's the deer I'm hunting in Kansas this year. I've got several other really good deer, but I just kind of fell in love with him. As soon as he shed his velvet, he just disappeared. Um, I didn't it hardly. I think the last picture I got of him was October the fifth or something like that, and then he just recently showed up again about six days ago. And he's been on that trail camera on that food plot almost every day, I think five out of the last six days. And of course last night I have to have a perfect win. I have to have a south or southeast wind to hunt that. And of course last night was the only night he doesn't show up in daylight. I get home. That's a cell cam. It's a spartan cell camera. There. I get home, my phone goes to Dink and he was there. So the drama continues with the deer we call epic. You know, I haven't hunted him hardly all year, just because he hasn't been around, he's kind of waiting, not really hunting any other deer. Finally get a chance to hunt him, and the one night that I hunt him, he doesn't show up, So he's kinda he's kind of pushing my boot that a little bit. Yes, And I passed the big seven And Alex actually had an encounter with that deer when he was out here. Uh so he knows how big that deer is and he's I texted him last night and he was like, oh oh boy, um, yeah, it was tough, but definitely my eyes definitely on epic and and hopefully we can get him killed here by the end of the year. But we'll see the market a couple of Michigan boys for Michigan. Don't you know he starts to talk about passing a hundred fifty inchineer, especially on her fifty and seven point. We can't relate to that. Oh no, It makes my makes my mind like slowly explode or melt or something. When I hear that. I know I gotta give him at all serious. I gotta give him credit though he's been he's been incredibly patient and man, when he gets his mind set on one deer as what was we'll talk about it's you can't you can't change it. Yeah, he no, it's it's a problem. I have an issue. So so this dear epic? Can you can you describe this dear for us? What? What's he? What's he looked like? What makes him so epic? Um? He's just actually kind of crazy. Way how he got his name epic is I had the owner of Big and J long Range Attracting has come down and hunt with me this year, Jeremy Atkins, and I sent him a trail camera picture that dear this summer and he texted me back and goes, Man, that deer is so epic, And I was like, Bam, there you go. There's his name. But so we just kind of started calling him epic after that. He's kind of he's actually a main frame six by six um, really tall and narrow. His right side is kind of goofy. He's got a big split brow on that side, and his G two on that side it's only like I don't know, maybe three inches long, four inches long, kind of curls back and then the rest of his times are real big on that side. And then his left side is just a real big six point side. I mean he's got or six points on that side. He's got big two, big three, big four. I mean he's just he's got everything good role want and he's heavy mass. Um, I've actually got his shed. I'm just looking at his shed right here in the in the house. And I mean clear back in sixteen when we found on that side. I mean it's I think I scored it it like seventy seventy seven or sees back then. So he's he's special. His beams curl up what really way high in the front. He's just just a really cool deer. He's an epic deer. So wow, So this spot where he's been coming in these last five six days, what you know, why do you think that's happening? Can you describe that area and then how you had set up on it? Yeah, you know. Um, I actually tried something different there this year. I've had a food plot there for a few years, but it's kind of an early season spot because this farm is really good early season. Uh, this year I decided to try to put a late season plot in there, um, because I wasn't gonna hunt the early season quite as much, and it just seems to be working really really well. I think it's only a half acre food plot, and it's a mix I did. I believe it's critically black oats and uh went to rye a mix that I put in there, and on a half acre. Last night we had thirty two deer on a half acre food plot. Um, it's just been a magnet right there. All the neighboring farms were soybeans this year and those crops are obviously out, and my property there was corn. So I've got this little half acre rye field and then I've got the corn field, so I basically got all the winter you know, the good winter food sources on my place, and the ruts really starting to wind down here, and I think those deer has just found it, and it's just it's become a magnet right there. It's really been blowing my mind how many deer are hitting that small little area and consistently. I mean there was I think I think we had eight different bucks in front of us last night at one point in time, um, two of which were mature deyear, including that seven pointer. And then, like I said, epic shows up right after dark when right when I get home. So he was there hopefully, hopefully maybe we can get after him again tonight, if not tomorrow. So, you know, so often in the late season you find it just becomes more and more difficult to get in and hunt these spots sometimes because Does many times they're bedding closer to the food source, and if you're trying to hunt the food source, it just seems so easy. If you spook one dough that might be betted close. If she runs back, they might send everything cascading back and shut down the whole night. Um, how do you have this set up on this little food plat so you can hunt it that, To be honest with you, that's almost exactly what happened to us last night. We had a bunch of Does. There's a big seedar thicket real close. I'm talking twenty yards off of that, and there will be deer betting in there sometimes. And as we pulled up on the property last night, my phone was going off and there was already Does in the food plot, so I could see him while we were in the truck. Um, So we actually sat in the truck and waited for them to go off the camera and then we snuck in, and we actually snuck in. I've got a redneck blind sitting around the edge of the food plot and it's pretty easy access to get in and as long as you have the perfect wind, you can. Actually there's a lot of tall CRP there, and you can actually sneak into the back door of this blind really easy with dear bedded close. We actually got up in the blind and I started scanning and we had I think seven does bedded within eighty yards of us and got in clean. So it's just the deal where you gotta go in really early, just gotta take your time. Like I said, there's really tall CRP there and you can kind of come right in the back door of that blind, super easy to walk in. It's just it's just one of those spots that's just money for getting in and out. Wow. So then what's the game plan moving forward? Then he shut up after dark last night? Um, what do you? What do you do now? Well, to be honest with you, rifle season opened up today in Kansas, and I really want to kill him with a bow. As much as I want to kill him with a bow, I'm not gonna pass up an opportunity to put a deer like this on the ground. Um, I'm not sure if I'm gonna be able to hunting the night. We've got a west wind tonight, which is not very good at all. Um for that spot. We gotta actually a northeast wind tomorrow, which I can get away with with a bow or a gun. I've got a blind um sitting off that food pot about a hundred yards as well. So whether we go hop in a tree stand on the other side of that food pot tomorrow with a bow or break out the old gun, I'm not sure what I'm gonna do yet. But uh, we're just gonna keep watching that spart in camera and kind of let him tell tell me what he's doing. I really thought last night was gonna be a night because it was about a high at twenty six degrees yesterday, real cold. We got highs in the forties now, So I thought last night was gonna be the night. But um, you know he's been showing up. He showed up the other day at four or fifty in the afternoon it was fifty degrees out. So he's really got no right the reason to what he's doing. Um, I think the biggest thing is just being persistent with him being smart only going in there on the perfect days, the perfect winds and uh not boogering him up and and eventually I think if I'm just persistent and patient, we'll be able to put him on the ground. Yeah, Is that is that kind of the name of the game for you? When it comes to you know, we're we're I feel like we're really close to being able to say that we're transitioning to the late season. I mean, we're we're still in November as of right this moment, but I think that most people are kind of transitioning their mindset to the late season kind of hunt. Um. So, so what you just described there is that what you're typically doing this time of year, whether it's a specific buck here after or just waiting for any immature buck or or if not, what else would you add as far as your general late season tactics. Honestly, I mean, I think that's a great late season tactic. Um, you know, just being patient. But in all honesty, as far as you know, like we talked about earlier, I get pretty obsessed with a certain deer every year. You know, after we killed the deer that we were going to talk about later that was in the article last year. You know, I told myself, you know, this year, I'm just gonna go out and I'm gonna shoot, you know, a good mature buck. I'm not gonna be picky. Well I actually told my mom that. She looked at me and laughed and said, yeah, all right, you're gonna get a picture of a deer. You know, that get you get you going. And that's the deer. But and like I said, I kind of have a called them when it comes to that. Um. I think, honestly, when you get fixed on a certain deer, patients is the biggest thing you can possibly do. I mean it took me, you know. I followed the deer that we're gonna talk about later for four years and hunted him for two years. Um And I only hunted that deer maybe a handful of times in two years on the perfect conditions. And we saw that dear almost every single time we hunted. So I think being patient being persistent Now obviously, you know, if you're hunting, you know, a small track of land or public land or something like that, a lot of times you can't be as patient because somebody else might be in there hunting. You know. Luckily, I've got some pretty good neighbors in the area. The property to the east to me there where Epic is living, nobody can hunt. Um, so it's pretty there's not a lot of pressure there, I guess in the day, so I can be patient. But you know, if you're hunting private ground, you know you've got good neighbors stuff like that. I think patience is the biggest thing you can do. You know, hunt really smart. I think Alex can kind of say the same thing. Um where he comes out here, you know he doesn't. He stays very persistent, and I think, like I said, just patience, I think is the biggest thing you can do when you're hunting a single deer, and just I mean, when you're hunting these five six seven year old deer, do you booger him one time? You might not ever see him begin So I definitely think that's that's what you gotta do, is be patient. Yeah, yeah, I've certainly seen the same thing. Um, what about you mentioned the fact that you've got this right old Ryan black oats and Tragic cant or whatever that's called. What as far as like food sources, right, so much of our late season plan is around those food sources. Where you're in Kansas. What what's the kind of progression of attraction as far as as far as what dear king in on this time of year for you guys out there, is it? Is it usually the corn like you mentioned, um or what are the different things that you're focusing on hill late season? Like now, if you're doing food plots, um, you know, grains are are are great right now? UM, A lot of times we'll leave standing beans. You know, late season staying beans are great. They're high protein, high energy. UM. Corn is definitely probably the winner around here as far as late season, just because it's a high energy food source for them. Um. They don't hit like cut bean fields real great late near UM they'll hut you know, standing beans a lot better. I will say one thing that is huge out here in Kansas is Milo. If you have standing Milo somewhere, Uh, it will bring dear from miles. I don't know what it is about it, but Milo is just insane, crazy late season attracted out here. If it's standing. Um, you know, if it's harvested, they'll still hit it. Uh. As far as harvested core or harvested fields though, corns definitely number one. UM. As far as just you know, your regular agg fields. If you go into you know, food plots and stuff like that, you know Braska plots. I've had really good luck with those. Um. But it seems that you know, the wheats, um, the black oats, the rise, those cereal grains, uh, seem to be just a really good magnet and a really good food source out here for the late season. And they're also fairly decent throughout the whole hunting season. Um. That's what's kind of nice about them. I went, I kind of go in, no tell them in around the first part of September, and they'll start coming up good for me, and it's just a good, lost green food source through the entire hunting season and you know, clear into January and February. M Yeah, I've always been surprised, you know, up here in Michigan. I've always worried that those grains, cereal grains like like oats, would lose attraction once you've got into the really cold weather. Um. But the oat I plant. I plant kind of a similar combination to what you're alluding there too. I usually plant oats in brassicas, and I'm always surprised every year in December. These deer are still now. Of course they prefer the Brascas, they spend most of their time in the Braskas, but they're still hitting those oats. Um. It always kind of eye opening to me that there's there's still value, you know, clear into clear almost at the end of the year. So UM, it's interesting that you're seeing the same thing Um, definitely, And there's different variety of oats as well, like the black oats that I um put into this mix in particular, or they stay greener longer as far as when the temperature gets down. And the reason why I picked the triticale um, triticale some people called triticale, some people call it trit to klee Um. The reason I picked those three is your rye is gonna stay green the longest, but your triticale is gonna be more palatable earlier in the year, and then your um oats are gonna be kind of it kind of goes from triticale to the oats, um to the rye. So you've got kind of three different varieties. Each one stays green, you know, a little bit longer. So you know, we noticed last night when we were sitting there that some of the some of the oats were starting to get a little bit yellow, but yet your eyes are still green. So you know, if you can play a good mix like that with you put in Nebraska, then you know they're great really late into the season, I mean clear in the January maybe, um, if you've got a mix that's got a little bit of everything to get them through the entire season, I definitely think that's a great way to go. Yeah, I've always liked to do that, and it also you know by having a mix or you know what I've done is I do strips, So in the same plot, I've got oats and then a strip of bras because and the strip of oats. Either way, I feel like by having an all season attraction in a plot, it helps you develop an all season long or all year long in some cases, depending what you're planning in all season long pattern um that you can then identify and hunt off of versus. You know, if you have one plot of clover over here and then four hundred yards away, then you've got a plot with your Brassica's and then all of a sudden you've got deer that are doing one thing in September and then they're completely doing something different in December and completely doing something different maybe in November, and then that can you know, then you're bouncing around a whole lot more and it becomes harder to figure out a specific deer in some cases, um, especially where they're in bed and things like that. Um. So it's an interesting point, Uh, Alex, would you add anything more as far as late season tactics, I don't know, you know, outside of just hunting food, is there anything else we keep in mind, you know as we head into December. Well, and Cody, I mean he hit it ready pretty much right on. He's got He's got this this thing down to a science. The deer don't always cooperate necessarily, but um, I mean the guy has been the guys have been passionately in you know, consistently doing it, doing it right for years to come. So he's I agree with everything he said, especially with the milo. That's been an interesting thing because we don't really have it, you know, in Michigan, we don't a lot of people don't really grow at this, you know, sore gum or milo, and it's not a common crop there more for sand, you know, sandy or loami, or more loamy soils out there and um, but it's been that's been an eye opener for me is just you know, we Cody and I get together quite a bit throughout the here and stuff. So I'm out there kind of not just in the spring of the fall necessarily, but throughout the summer. I can see the growing seasons and the progressions and things like that, and it's, uh, it's amazing. And one of the cool things about it, I mean is, like Cody said, one of the standing crop like that, it's nice, but I'm like corn, when it's standing, you can still kill him in it. So that's that's well. I always say its detractive, is corn, but when they stand up, you can still shoot them. That's right, that's awesome. So actually, I've actually got a farm this year that does have a little patch of or not a little, a decent patch of milo planted in it. Um, So I'm going to try to take advantage of this this December, right, I would definitely keep an eye on. I'd say it's definitely food. You know, food is food is king like Mark Durry always says, their slaves to their stomachs and um. But for me, it's a little bit different. Uh. I just don't have property here, especially in western Illinois, where I can you know, plant food plots or anything like that. So I'm upon a lot of public ground and uh, it gets a little tougher as it gets later, mainly because they just they bed so much closer to food depending on the pressure. It's it's actually kind of weird. I actually prefer I almost prefer more areas in the late later in the season than unpressured areas because it's still forces them to bed a little bit farther away from the food sources, so you have more opportunities to get tighter to that bedding or tighter to that security cover and have less of a chance of of bumping on when it When they're on unpressured property, especially when it's late and they've got plenty of food around, Um, they can, I mean they can bed right off the food source and it's almost impossible to get in there a thought without screwing it up. So that's kind of my is just trying to get between the bed and food a little bit, uh and still hug closer to that that betting side of things. That's that's kind of my It's the kind of the crux for the main I guess center point of my strategies anyway is just is just really understand how and where and when they're betting and then try to adapt and get as close to that as I can. Yeah, and I feel like both of you guys mentioned this and it's it's worth I think noting again so much of this late season time period. Of course, food is king, like you said, ex slaves of their stomach. But then because of the pressure aspect, I feel like, even more so than any time of the year, picking your days is more important than ever as far as making sure that the times that you do strike really have to be well timed, because I just don't think you can get away with any more mistakes at this point. Once you get to December. These deer have been hunted for several months. Probably they've dealt with a lot of humans. Probably they're very pressure, they're very on edge. Especially mature Buck. You know, he he just is not going to tolerate things. Maybe he tolerate a little bit in November, um, but once December rolls around, all he wants to do is refill his stomach, get you know, fattened up. For the winner and you know, just avoid anything that's gonna bug him. And so I just think being careful about just like you're doing Cody, you know, not going in there if things are not just right, like waiting for just that right situation to get in there after him. Um whether that when yeah, I mean I was getting pictures of him for five days in a row and daylight. I mean, so if you think it was you know, if it was very difficult not to go in there and try to hunt him. But at the same time, you know, I know that if I go in there when it's not perfect conditions, it's not a perfect wind, and he smells me one time, or you know he watches does smell me and and blow and take you know something like that. I mean, one little slip up and he might go, you know, not show up at all, or go nocturnal on me. And I it's it's just not worth it, just from experience in the past, you know, Like we were talking about the deer we'll talk about here later, Like I hunted him five times that whole entire year, and we saw him every single time and finally kill him on the fifth time. So patients and Waiting for those perfect moments is definitely key. Yeah, so let's talk about let's talk about this book. This is a buck you call Longhorn, and um, I want you to tell us the store from the very beginning. And then Alex, you in the background, listen to him and whenever he whenever he gets something wrong or whenever he's not quite coloring things as much as you know, you know, being a friend in the background, feel free to jump in and be like, no, you weren't that calm, you were you were a mess or whatever it is. Well, and that's the thing, like I will say, it's it's so funny because m it's like we're it's what's funny, we're joke like we I mean, it's we're so close, and like even what's so cool about our friendship and just the way we get to hunt together and do dream chasers and things like that, Like our families have like become like our mom's talk all the time, and our friends like my dad, like we come out in our dad's hunt. We like it's like it's become like this big family thing. So I know him super well and and he just it's so funny to watch to watch how like he ties himself up and not almost with anxiety just because he's like, oh, well, this one's wrong here, but I gotta go hunt him here. But I know we showed up here, and it's just like this back and forth like like we all do at different times. But the one thing I do have to tip my hat to himployer though, is what we talked about patients and and that's kind of what he's gonna get into. But it's he is a much more patient hunter than I am. I I probably take risks a little bit more or get a little bit more aggressive on certain times and certain things, and it's probably it's probably cost me then, So I've I've learned definitely some patients is key. But I'll definitely make sure that he's uh, I'll make sure he's staying on point, all right. So with that, with that, cod take it away, all right. So, uh, the story of Longhorn, you know, he kind of starts, uh, gosh, I kill you when he's five years old. So we first started seeing when he was a two year old. My wife and I were actually just around the corner from my house watching a big bean field on a place that we lease that is right next to our home farm. And we're actually watching a different dear, a real big tin pointer out there, and this two and a half year buck comes out and he's already a six by six and he just he stood out from the crowd like big time. Um, he was wide already, just had this really great looking frame. And I remember looking at my wife and saying, like, man, that deer right there is gonna be special. Like he's just got unreal genetics. Um, to be a two and a half year old deer and be a six by six already is ridiculous. And I say six by six, I'm talking a perfect main frame six by six, typical, just beautiful, what you dream of. And he had this, you know, real wide frame, and I remember thinking to myself, like, you know, you grow up watching TV and stuff like that, you know, hunting shows, and you see these big wide frame bucks in South Texas, and I, uh, he just instantly kind of looked like a Texas dear to me. Um, So we called him longhorn. And uh, you know, not only that he looked kind of like a Texas longhorn because he was so wide with this little two and a half year old body. Um. So anyway, I kind of knew at that point, like, hey, I need to really keep tabs on this deer. Try to keep him on you know, our home farm and our lease right next door to our home farm, and hold him there because when he gets to be you know, four or five six years old, he's going to be a giant. So that year, I can't remember even what deer I ended up killing that year, but we watched him. We saw him several times. I had him Josh less than twenty yards, I don't know how many times that year, and every time I saw him, I was just mesmerized at how awesome he was. So then the next year he explodes as a three and a half year old. He was like one low one sixties already as a three year old. And I remember another friend of ours, Cody Jarrett Uh comes out here and he's filming all. I'm filming him one morning and Longhorn come down the river with a dough and he was snort weas and another bucks and just being crazy. It ends up bedding down twenty yards right behind us, and he's, you know, hud in sixtienth three year old. And I remember Jared turns around and looks at me. He's like, man, all I gotta do is tell me he's four. All you gotta do is tell me he's four. Will kill him right now. I'm like, no, Like, we gotta wait, you know, we gotta wait. So we saw him several times that year. Um, we actually did find his two year old sheds and its three year old sheds. So moving on, um to now he's four years old. UM, most of the time up here, my home farm is kind of unique. It's part Nebraska park Kansas. It's right on the line, UM, so I can actually hunt him. I was hunting that deer in both states. So it just depends on where the block of Tember that he was in. He could be in either state. Uh. Just so basically just depending on winds, depending on you know, how the situation was. We might be hunting him in Nebraska all night, we might be hunding him in Kansas the next it was. It's just kind of a cool, cool situation right there. So we decided, because I do have a decent amount of pressure up here, um around my home farm, that as a four year old, we were going to start hunting him. Um. He was in the upper seventies, I got both of the sheds guessing spread. He was around one seventy seven UM as a four year old, and we decided we're gonna start hunting him. And the crazy thing is I did not buy a regular Kansas tag that year. I bought a land on her tag, and part of the property in Kansas that he was living on mostly is actually what we lease next to our home farm. So through a lot of the year when he was a four year old, I couldn't legally hunt him where he was staying most of the time because I had a land on our tag exactly. Yeah, because I don't know, I don't know why I did that. Honestly, it was kind of a stupid, stupid decision on my part um but a good buddy I didn't want. They were hunt him in Nebraska and that's where I was getting most of his summer pictures. Is probably why I did it, because I was thinking, so like, I'm like, Okay, well he's gonna stay more on the Nebraska side this year, so I'll get a Nebraska tag and hunting with that um and get a landed at tag just because the fact it's cheaper for me but it was a dumb decision. Directly, if I remember correctly, I think you had a project or you were doing something and got we got busy doing something or whatever, and I think you forgot to apply or like you had missed. Honestly, that is exactly what happened. That is what happened. Yes, I missed the deadline. I was gone. I was actually out of town filming something with Big and J is actually exactly what it was. And I remember I missed the deadline. UM to put in, that's what it was. That's exactly what it was. UM. But anyway, one of my real good friends here UM in town that actually goes in on that lease with for me next door or a home farm. Um, he did have a regular tax, so he actually got to hunt him more than I did. UM. And there's a field right next to the block of timber that that deer was living, and he lived and basically a forty acre block of timber his whole life is was his home range. I mean he would he would go other places, obviously, but that forty acre block of timber is where he spent nine time. And it's a perfect square. It's it's difficult to hunt because he can literally if you get you can't really get too close to him in there, because they can see you coming from quite a distance. And he can literally get up and say, Okay, I'm gonna cross the river and go to knap Off the field, or I'm gonna go to this cornfield, or I'm gonna go to this cornfield, or I'm gonna go to this mile of field. Like there's really no rhyme reason. There's so many agg fields right around that little block of timber that he would just go to whichever one he felt, And that's what make made him so hard to pattern, so hard to hunt. Um. But one of the fields is our neighbor's field that we don't have permission to hunt. And we were literally ten yards inside the timber one night, facing you know, facing the timber, and he comes out probably seventy or eighty yards around, and this is when he was still four and a half year old, seventy eight yards around us and ends upcoming and stands thirty five yards broadside, dead to rights, right behind us, but in our neighbor's field, so we couldn't shoot him. And we've got footage of all that, and we ended up watching him for over an hour that night chasing does We actually had like a oh mid one forties tin pointer that come out clearly on the other side of the field and sidestepped with his head sideways going to him like he's gonna fight him, and long Horn just stands there, never moves, just stares at him until he gets about thirty yards from him, and he just lets out the nastiest nortwes you've ever heard, and that tin pointer tuxis tail, and ran for like three nerd yards across the field and went in November. That's all it took. It was the craziest, craziest night. But um. And then we had another encounter that year where we had a dough lead name right to us and he actually kind of bull rushed the dough when he got to about fifty yards and she turns for her left and ended up going around like We ended up having six encounters with him inside sixty yards when he was a four and a half year old and just couldn't couldn't getting killed. It was miserable to watch him. Um. So then we ended up finding both of his sheds that year. Um. He lived good. Uh, he did have a limp though at the end of that year, and I was a little bit nervous he had an injury, either from fighting or just run himself down. And he we hardly had any summer pictures of him next year, and I was scared to death that something had happened to him. He got infection, um, he had moved. I didn't know what in the world was going on. And finally he started showing up. I can't it was end of I want to say, at the end of August. I think he showed up last week in August something like that. And then he was pretty consistent for a while, and he was right back in that um patch of timber. And of course this year, I that year I did get the right tag so I could on him, remember to put in, definitely remember to put in because he was he was in the mid one eighties now, Uh so I wasn't gonna screw that up. But anyway, he he he did grow some, but he did not blow up near what I thought he was gonna blow up to um, but still just an unbelievable deer. And uh it was it was time. I was gonna put all my eggs in one basket. Basically and just hunt that deer. And that's what we did. And I hunted him, like I said, about five times. I think the first time I went in to hunt him was the twenty sixth of October. I got a picture of him working a scrape line that I had found just across the river from his main cop area, and we went in and hung a set. My wife and I went and hung a set and hunted it that night, and we saw him boom right away. I kind of had a guest to where he was betting, and he was one of the first bucks we saw. And I actually drew on him that night. Um and right as I draw, he lunged after a dough and went through my shooting lane and then he stood at like forty one yard's kind of behind some stuff, worked some scrapes. I granted at him a few times, and he just he was with that dough, didn't want anything to do with me, and so he moved on. I waited till hall ween night, moved to a little bit different location. I actually rattled him in on Halloween night. He came into about fifty five yards in Noeptember, just kind of stood, didn't see if I I didn't see a deer, you know, just a smart five and a half year old deer. He just slowly turned around and went back into timber. Um. At this point, Alex is starting to get out year and Alex being a good guy that he is, uh, he says, he's like, man, he's like all film you. You know, anytime you need to be filmed, we'll get it done. We need to get this deer killed. You know, I know how much he means to you. You know when I say this dear means something to me, like you know, watching him as a two year old, three year old, four year old, you know, basically raising this deer like pets almost. I mean he felt like he was my dog, you know, or something like that. All the pictures you got of him, Um, everybody knew what he meant to me. And for Alex, you know, to sacrifice some of his hunting time to go film me, you know, it was awesome. Um. You know he enjoyed it too. So I think Alex helped me out here a little bit. Wasn't like the third of November, when when did you and I see him the first time? It was like the Yeah, it was it was it was later than that. It was it was later than that. I think I've seen him any more time. The first week in November with another friend, another buddy of mine that was stewing me. And then when Alex got here, we saw him I think what four days before I killed him. Yeah, it was, it was. It was like it was like the tenth It was like the tenth or eleventh or something like that. Yeah, So we went in on the tenth or eleventh and had a perfect condition. I saw him again and I couldn't get on him. He was actually out kind of with a dough again, got a bunch of good footage of him, and I remember saying that night, like, you know, you think I'd get tired of hunting this year and seeing him, you know, every time that we've seen but every time I see him, you know, it just gave me that much more motivation, you know, to get after him and getting killed and back to the patient's thing. After we saw him there, the winds kind of got goofy, it got warm, conditions just weren't perfect, like we were talking about, Um, I needed a north wind, a perfect north wind and a cold morning, and I had a feeling I had hung a set earlier in the year, clear back in the summer, real close to the edge of his betting that I knew I could probably kill him in the morning, but I had to have the absolute perfect conditions. And we finally got that on the fifteen in November, and I got permission from the neighbor to go in and cross the river and come right in the back door to this place. And Alex and I have a deal. So every time something goes wrong, like we forget stuff or something just silly happens, we end up killing a deer, Like it's it's science that that happens every single time. So we pull into the neighbors and we hear this weird noise, but we pull into the field and we hear this weird nors like what in the world was that? And we get out, Well, the guy had just strong and electric fence in this corn field to put his cows in there, and we hit the fence and with the truck and it just explodes like forty yards in both directions bit posts and we're like, oh my gosh, saw him calling the neighbor at five o'clock in the morning, like, dude, hit your fence or their cows in here, and he luckily was like, no, there's no cows in there right now. He's like I'm putting them in there like tomorrow or something like that. Um, don't worry about it. We'll fix it, you know later when you get done hunting. And I'm like, oh my gosh, thank gosh, because we're thinking, like man, we're not gonna be able to hunt. We're gonna have to fix this fence. It was, you know, a crazy deal. So we kind of gathered ourselves, got our clothes on and started walking in. We get to the stand and our camera arm, so we're using a fourth thereo camera arm, and we have there. They got this little cam lock on the bottom of them. Well I wasn't paying attention and that thing wasn't twisted on. They're very good. So when I go to lock it down, it unfreads and the screw and that camlock fall to the ground, and like like hey, tiny, the tiniest little things you can think. I look at Alice, I'm like I should have just stayed in bed this morning, Like this is ridiculous, And he starts laughing. He's like, no day, He's like all the steps, going all we're gonna kill him this morning. I'm like, we're kind of laughing. At that point, I climb all the way down, miraculously find these little pieces and leaves that are a foot deep, and climb back up. We get that situated. Then I go to pull my bow up, and my bow is literally caught on the bottom step of like the limb is caught underneath the bottom rail of the steps going up the tree. And I cannot get okay, not get it on attack. I cannot get it off no matter what to do. So at this point, I'm like, we're almost hysterically laughing in the stand like that. It's starting starting to get light, like we're like this unbelievable, Like this is ridiculous. So I climbed down again, unhooked my bow, climb back up, pulled up, knocking arrow. We didn't even do an interview, I don't think. And it's I mean, it's still fairly dark, and I hear something walking and I looked down and the second biggest deer in that timber, which I ended up killing later with a muzzleowner a hundred and fifty six in ten um. Is it six yards right below and We have no idea where he came from, no idea how he got there. But we've got this. But at this other deer at at six steps right below us, it's not camera light yet. Um, he's the only other deer. I'm willing to put a Kansas tag on in that area. Uh. Anyway, he he, he didn't spook, he didn't know we were there. Uh, he goes off. But we kind of thought he almost acted like he had just got his butt kicked, like he was leaving an area, like he was like getting out of there, and so we thought that was kind of weird. So we let the sun come up, and I, at this point, getting mid November, I'm like, you know, I would kill, probably kill that deer and you know, try to hunt longhorn on the Nebraska side of things or whatever later in the year. Uh. So I hit the horns together actually to try to rattle that deer that we had just seen back in and I'm hitting the horns together, I hang them up, and Alex goes, hey, there's a buck in the field. And I turned around and no more than get my binoculars on him for two seconds and realized it was long horn and he's loping across the field right to us, and I'm like, oh my gosh, it's him, you know whatever, grab my bow. He comes right to the edge of the field right and he's just looking in the timber. Again, smart five and a half year old deer doesn't see a fight, and I'm like, he's gonna walk out of my life again, you know, I'm I'm getting a little nervous. He finally starts to come into the timber and he stops about fifty yards away, and he's just looking and looking, and he's got basically two options. If he goes to our right, he's gonna go around us and possibly get down wind, or he's gonna come right underneath the stay. And if he goes on this trail that goes straight and goes to our left, he's gonna walk by first at twenty five yards and then even closer when he comes around the front of the stand. He stands there for what seems like an eternity and finally flix his tail and we knew he was come. And he goes left and I'm like, I remember, I was the calmest I think I've ever been. And I remember I told Alex I'm like, Okay, here he comes. He's gonna come right here, and he's gonna be perfect. And so I wasn't you out we can going? Yeah, I was like insane calm, probably just because I've seen him so many times, you know, I've been dreaming to that moment and had my game face on. I guess, and he's coming. I remember Um saying out you know you're on him right there. I remember drawing while he goes behind a tree, remember Alex say, And you can hear him in the footage. He goes, I'm not a hone him. I'm not, you know, because he I think he thought I was gonna shoot him right there, and I'm like, no, no, no, Like when he comes right out right here, I'm a shooting right in this opening. And he finally comes out there into that opening, and I, you know, gave me a little bit and he stops and kind of looks towards us, and I let her fly and it just hit him perfect. The whole story came down to a twenty five yard shot, as Alex said in the article, and he kind of wheels runs out into the field, kind of stood there for just a second, got one little last burst of adrenaline, Uh, disappeared kind of on the edge of the field there, and we knew, I mean, at that point, I knew he was down. I knew he was he was dead. It was just a matter of finding him. We called my dad, called my wife. Unfortunately, my wife who had filmed me most of the time hunting him and had been you know, the biggest part of it, she was doing a continuing ed for her job, so she wasn't even in town. I couldn't get ahold of her. But we got everybody together, Hak, my buddy Ryan, Alex's dad, my dad, Um, another buddy of my Nathan Will. We all came down there, gave him probably an hour. We just walked out into the field to the spot, uh where we last saw him. And as we're walking to that spot, we actually saw him laying just right on the edge of the field and he literally died right underneath the tree stand that Alex and I had hunted just like three or four days prior. Um and saw him out of that stand and he was literally dead ten yards right underneath of it. It was just just all meant to be. It was pretty pretty crazy deal. Definitely a story I'll be hard pressed to ever top Wow. So Alex, you were you were pretty shook up in the moment trying to film him. How was Cody after the shot? Oh? It was yeah, I mean it was just it was so crazy. I mean, like the hard part was this this block of timber around the edges. In the inside the timber, there's some blow down and stuff like that, but it's not like it's crazy be thick. There's little pockets, but all around the edges it's pretty dang thick. So, um, I was having trouble. I was a little bit higher than Cody. Obviously when you're setting a stand up the film, you're a little bit above him. I couldn't and I couldn't see. I didn't have the line of sight that Cody did, so Cody could kind of steem really well, and I was like, dude, we're not going to get this on toll because I can't freaking fine the deer. So like I'm like, just I'm kind of getting more more front literally around the tree. I mean, he had the whole tree in the way. He did a great job. So finally when I finally picked the deer up and then go and then that's actually when I got on the deer and I I was there, all right, we good, We're good. I started calm down, and then we were and then we were in when it was go time. But yeah, I mean once after the arrow hit him, I mean we both knew instantly that he was smoked. And it was just a crazy celebration. I mean we were just we're laughing, high five and crying, hugging. I mean, it was. It was. There's definitely a few. Yeah, it was just one of those just crazy it was. And like not to get like super philosophical or anything, but it was like, at least with me, like there's always times like in the woods and life whatever where it's like, man, I wish I would have savored the moment more to like have more of a memory, like I like looking back at things, but like that, like in that at that time, in that moment when it all kind of came to a point and it happened like it was, I remember actually having like thought about it, like I knew we would remember it for like it would be a memory that we have forever, Like it was something like I experienced it like this was because this is a big, big thing that we'll never forget and um, and it just meant a lot to to everybody, you know, all of our group of friends and and Cody, and it was just it was pretty pretty unreal. Yeah, I little thing that I remember the most. It's almost iconic to me now, and so many people have you know, commented on is you know, we realized we hit him, We realized we made a great shot, we realized, you know, he was gonna be dead. And then you know, I kind of lost my mind, got pretty emotional, and you know I remember turned around putting my head on the tree and you know, thanking God that this would you know, finally happened, that we put the story together, and I remember Alex crabbing me and doing you did it, man, you finally did it. You know, it just it was just just a really cool moment between friends. Wow. Yeah, I can't imagine that is that's pretty special. I I can relate to you, you know, as far as having those long multiple years of chasing one single deer and uh man, it doesn't come together all that often when it finally does. I know, that's a pretty special thing. So I enjoyed. I enjoyed that story. Although it's a little bitter sweet because I'm thinking of a Buckeye hunter for four years that I won't get that anything for um. But have we have we changed his name now to just like he who must not be named? Yeah, it's exactly. He's the Baltimore of the hunting world now that buck. So moving on personally and in this podcast, Um, that you mentioned earlier when we were talking about epic, you know how so much of hunting one single deer for you it's just about being patient? Um hm, is there anything else you would add? Any other lessons you learned from hunting longhorn as far as targeting and getting that one deer other than just being patient and careful about hunting him? Was it? Were there any other things as far as like learning the deer, patterning the deer um, anything else you would add? Yeah? I think, Um. I think just just educating yourself on every deer is different. UM. I've noticed if you really pay attention to to certain bucks mannerisms. UM. You know, I have hunted deer, they are extremely aggressive. Longhorn, for instance, was probably the most the single most aggressive white tail I've ever seen. Um. I think almost every time we saw that deer. Literally, I bet of the times that we saw that deer, we watched him either run another buck off or snort reason buck off. Um. He was constantly aggressive towards other bucks, but he also knew he was the king in the woods there, um, So you know for him, you know, I think noticing deer's mannerisms and stuff like that as far as being able to kill. You know, at the end of the day, a rattling sequence is what killed that deer. You know, he probably had just got done running the buck off that came right underneath of us, and he probably assumed that that buck had went back inteptember and was fighting another deer in his territory, you know, real close to his bedroom, and he wasn't gonna have it. You know, he was coming in to kick somebody's butt and say, hey, get out of my area. Other bucks I've hunted. I mean, for example, that same year, I was hunting a seven pointer on the Nebraska's out of our ground. He was extremely non aggressive. I actually grunted at that deer a couple of different times and had him run off like leaves. He didn't want anything to do with any other bucks. He was always by himself. So I think kind of educating yourself a little bit, really trying to pay attention to the attitude of that certain deer can help you kill him, you know. I mean, like that seven pointer. Basically I just had to hunt him in his core area to and from food. I hunted those around in his area, and we ended up killing him. I think I killed him on like the third of November last year, and he was literally just cruising. Um. I don't think I could have ever ratted or called that deer into me unless he just made he was in that right mood. Whereas Longhorn, I mean, if you saw him, I don't know how many different times in the two years we hunted him that you would grunt at him back in the timber to try to get him come in, and he would just stop and start ripping trees and grunt at yet or snort, we's at yet. But he wouldn't necessarily every time come in because he knew he was the king of the woods. He knew he didn't have to. But three different times the year that I hunted him and killed him seventeen, three different times I rattled him into fifty yards or less and just couldn't getting killed until the last time. So I guess you know another great you know good thing. If you're targeting one single deer, just really pay attention to that dear's attitude. Um. You know, if he's really aggressive, you might be able to call him in. If he's not aggressive, you might not be able to call him in. You might be doing more harm than good. So that's a that's a good tip, I guess um as well as far as being patient, Yeah, that's a great point. These these deers really do have unique personalities. The more I the more I see it, it's it's just so true. Um. Well, one thing that I've noticed with Epic here recently on the cameras, when he comes in, he's usually not around a whole lot of other gear. And I almost wonder if that's why we didn't see him last night, because there was so many deer in such a small concentrated area. You know, he might just kind of be a loner. And I've definitely seen that maturity here where you know, they basically during the rut, they have their certain does, but they don't like to be around a ton of deer, you know, And when he come in after dark, he was all by himself, didn't have a single other deer with him. When he comes into that camera, he's usually kind of off by himself and some of the other deer, you know, it might be farther out in the food plot, so maybe you know, I don't have a ton of history with him, for the fact that I only have one shed and pictures just this year, but just going off trail camera intel, when I see him, he seems to be alone most of the time with a single dough so you know, he might be one that's not very aggressive and doesn't like to be around deer. So that's another reason why I've been really patient and not being really aggressive at trying to hunt him. M Yeah, that's that's a very interesting observation, um. And it's funny how you can know if you're if if you're open to paying attention to those kinds of things within trail cameras and you're not just looking, oh, there's a big buck, but if you're actually looking at what's going on around it, you can learn so much more of those pictures. I think that can help you understand a buck's personality maybe or some of its tendencies. Before moving on to our next topic, though, I want to take a quick second to think our partners at Onyx and Onyx is the producer of the on X Hunt app. This is a mobile application that I have been using all season long and have been using it for a number of years now. If you're not familiar, you probably haven't been listening to this podcast because I talked about a lot. But just in case you are new, this app will show you aerial views of your hunting area. It will show you topo graphic views. It overlays with the borders of private property and public property. It'll tell you who owns those places. It'll tell you what kind of public property you've got. It'll allow you to save way points, measure distances, measure areas. You can even take away point and just tech sit to a friend. So when my buddy further is lost in the woods and he can't find his way of the tree stand, he texts me or calls me. He's all stressed out, he's sweating. Maybe he's got to go to the bathroom and he needn't bring a toilet paper. This kind of scenario happens all the time. And when that happens, now I don't need to try to explain things to him. I don't need to say turn right at the big oak, turn left of the creek bed. No, I can just text him away point, send him right to the tree stand, and not need to worry about all that drama. So i'd recommend you check this one out. If you haven't yet, you can learn more by searching for on X on your favorite mobile app store, or you can visit onyx maps dot com. Um. Speaking speaking of loaners, UM, I gotta I gotta shift gears here a little bit before we run out of time, because Alex, you're kind of one of those loaners who's always floating around the woods with a stand on your back, hopping into new trees every single time. And I want to make sure I want to make sure we hear a little bit about what you're doing. UM. In particular, you've told me a lot in the past how you're really mobile, right, You're you're running gunning a lot, and I love that I've been doing it more and more myself. UM. Can you talk a little bit about your season. You've had a great season, um, and maybe you know kind of mold a little bit of your tactics into how you pulled off this these couple of hunts. Well, it's it's it's all pretty much like look and then the rest of it just kind of happens. So there's not really much strategy involved. But no, it's and and honestly it's it's just more because I have to be um, you know, with public ground and and I I do go to every extent to follow the letter of the law. And and you know a lot of our regulations here. You know, you can't leave stands, you know, fixed stands in place, and and you know from day to day in the tree and you can't. You gotta take your stuff in and out with you. And and that's just kind of how I just you know, that's abiding by the law. And not only but it's just I found it's the most it's the best way to continue to find the deer with me. It's pretty much everything center is kind of around location. So um and and that's on you know, public ground or private ground or whatever. And uh, you know a name that gets thrown around a lot, it's been getting thrown around a lot just because of his success. And and it's you know, all all rightful hole, rightful praise for sure as his dan infall. You know, I learned a lot from him growing up in southwest Michigan. Uh. The really the property that we had that I had permission to hunt, that was behind my neighbors. My neighbors had, sorry, my grandparents had, uh just you know, a few acres and then behind that was a big farm with a huge, huge marsh and a huge swamp. So I remember I was at the Landing Deer in Turkey Expo when I was like fifteen or sixteen and walked by a booth and I mean I was a sponge. I still am, like I grab every you know, try to grab every one, especially when I was at that age, grab every article, every DVD, every video I can, just because I love watching I love watching hunting, I love I just try to learn as much as I could. And I walked by this table and there was a DVD sitting there called Marsh Bedding, and I was like, wait a second, Like I hunt around marshes, I probably should know something about this. So like I grabbed it, and sure enough it was like an infults first ever video that he produced, like with like the Blood Brothers or whatever it was called with UM the other other Michigan come with Michigan and Wisconsin guys and UM, and it just like everything he said was just like wow, like I was just this is like this is makes so much sense for I was seeing. And I think a lot of it comes from I've always just asked the question why, Like I want to know why a deer is over here. I want to know why sign is here. I want to know why, you know, deer moving over here and not over here. And so I'll just try to figure out answer those questions those wise all the time, and and a lot of it just boils down the location for me and and how habitat and terrain funnel dictate, uh, manipulate um or I should say, just um kind of make deer move and live where they where they do so and for me, just like you know, like we can all relate to and pressured areas, especially like like something like public ground. You know, deer going to spend especially mature books like we're targeting, are spending majority of their time and daylight and their betting, so figuring out ways to maneuver around that you get in it and stay around the outside of it being travel corridors close to it. That's really where my thought processes start out from there, how terrain and habitat dictate that and how I can how I can manipulate and move around some of that too, And and the biggest thing is is like and again it's nothing nothing new really, but just like we talked about all the time, when you think about your times of success, um, you know, majority of the time, your best chance to kill that deer, especially the maturity ar is your first time. And so having fresh sits and maneuver around and be able to be able to move around and I and essentially have a sit every time based on Now. Granted, I mean I might hunt, and especially especially especially here in public some of the public ground right hunt in Illinois. You know, I've stayed relatively and kind of one section or quadrant, and we can kind of get into that a little bit too, kind of how I personally break down like public hunting areas or just break down larger areas in general in my mind. But I've hung around this one area because it just is I'm magnet for big deer because of a thick cover that just it can hold them. They can feel safe. So it's like I'm not saying, like, you know, I hunt here once and then move, you know, a quarter mile over here and hunt. I mean it might be a hundred yards, it might be a couple hundred yards, just setting up for a different wind or a different situation or a different trail or travel corridor or wherever, and um. But I think staying mobile like that it keeps you in the game. It keeps you sharp. You don't get complacent, you don't get um, you're just you're you're staying mentally focused more often more of the time, as well as the deer don't pattern you as much. I mean, that's been in credible, especially watching it on this particular property here in Illinois, which it's really hilly. There's a lot of high kind of high bluffs and ridges and low bottoms and stuff, and you can actually watch deer kind of crevent the hunting pressure, hunting traffic based on like entry parking areas and how they access and how hunters leaving, like where they typically set up, you know, not that far from hunting areas and these certain ridges and stuff, and to watch the deer just pattern hunters as hunters are trying to pattern the deers has been incredible, um, you know, over the last five or you know, six seven years of really hunting aggressively kind of in the style, it's really been awesome to learn and see how they can, how they can kind of do the same thing to us as we're trying to do to them. And I think avoiding that. One way to avoid that, or one way to stay ahead of that is just by kind of moving and and understanding trying to and obviously it's a it's a cat and mouse game you're trying to get You're trying to predict where they're going to be, when they're going to be there, and how to set up accordingly based on the conditions. So it's, uh, it's definitely my preferred method and one that I've had pretty decent success, especially in the last few years doing that. Yeah. So was that the case with either of your kills this year, the Kansas or South Dakota where those first sits? Um my, yes, actual, well kind of my my South Dakota one. Absolutely, that was that was one. Um uh, it's it was pretty uh, pretty straightforward. I mean I found this place on the map I had not counted I hunted the same general area in past years, but I've not been to this like this specific kind of area, and I had to stand on my back first night. I was kind of more of an observation set than anything. I just want to like see what's happening in this area and look at the map. So it was like this kind of brushy crp. It looked like a big CRP field, uh, next to this creek that had this finger timber that kind of wrapped around it. And I was like, it's got some great transition areas, some transition lines. I said, well, this this just the natural shade of vegetation habitat will funnel deer movement. So kind of dropped down in winning early just kind of wanted to scout and look my way um and kind of scout my way along and just kept seeing better and better sign and I was like, all right, this is this is really good. So I kind of found this area that I could I could get up in this tree and it was like literally one of the only trees I could get in, and it was kind of low in that sense where it's either like you have monster cottonwood trees, are these like scrub oak trees that are like a ninety degree angle, so it's at a nightmare. But um, I found this little tree. I got eight feet off the ground, uh, and I got set up. And another big thing that that has really helped me that I've I've kind of written a lot about or try to try to maybe right about this success that I've seen from it is is that hundred yard mark where it's like you're a hundred yards from where you want to be, or you're even within the hundred yards of where you think deer betted. And a certain it was the case based on the habitat that I was seeing and how how this the spot set up. But it's just slowing everything way down and taking your time and like and and and approaching a location as if like you knew there was a buck within a hundred yards. I mean just three step, just super slow. You're hanging you're you know, putting the climbing sticks up incredibly slow. You're hanging your stand quietly, no tanks, no, you know, And I do a lot with my gear to make sure that it's not making any noise and anything like that. So it was a perfect transition and habitat and that's something that Dan you know, in Fault, talks about a lot about the transition lines, and that is like one of the major takeaways in my opinion as far as thick security cover. Where one type of cover meets another type of cover, that's where you're gonna find a sign. That's where they travel, that's where they stage a lot um And I have seen that time and time again. This case was no different. So approach to say, it was right on the edge of the thick brushy CRP and is even thicker than I thought it was by looking at the map. So I was happy. It was kind of a happy surprise when I saw like, all right, this is awesome. And then the thick brushy creek creek bottom, and so I get set up on in this tree and just kind of sitting there and it was kind of slowing. I could see a bunch and I was like, it was kind of an observation point. So I was happy because I could see over the top of the CRP across the whole field, and I was just trying to get get an indication of where dear movement might be happening in adjustment for the next day. And I was sitting there. About an hour before dark, I saw a doll working towards me that right down the transition line between the c RP and the and the creek bottom, and she just kept coming, kept coming. She got about forty yards away and and made a hard made a hard turn into the timber, and I thought she was gonna come around behind me, uh and next to the creek and get down wind. I was like, oh, this is gonna be great. The only deer I've seen so far, she's gonna get right behind me. But anyway, she comes in and it's here kind of walking in the in the timber, and I can't see her. And finally I can get to where I can just see the bottom of her legs, and she stops and she just stands there, probably a minute to stand in there. And all of a sudden, I'm just sitting there and I out of nowhere. There's no other step, there's no other you know, no noise, and I just hear this and this buck, this buck story that I'm sitting there. The only thing I remember thinking, I said, well, that wasn't the dope. The only thing I could think is is doing that is I actually got into the tree and got into this location, and he was betted. He was betted right there. And then eventually and I'll get to it a little bit here, but I know for a fact he's better because I actually found his bed. Um. But um. Anyway, he goes, you know, snort weez is and she she, she kind of takes off, kind of running a little bit, does this little semi circles half moon shape. It comes right between me and the creek and she comes by me like like okay, and I'm sure it's enough, you know that that head down and kind of that that fast stop where they just his nose to the ground and I could just see I'm like looking and looking and looking and looking. I can't see anything. I'm like, what where is he? And then finally he comes underneath this low branch and I finally seen him. And literally the first time I laid eyes on him, he's yards right underneath the tree. So it's so funny. I can't I can't make it up. So like I saw a mass with and and times I couldn't tell like how tall it was or anything like that, but I was like I didn't then just big barrel chest and I could again he was so close. I was actually I saw the top of his back and his wide shoulders and thick forehead, and I was like, he's a mature I was like, he's mature shooter. Like this is what I came for. I got, you know, a week, five days to get this done out here and do it yourself out in South Dakota. I was like, I'm not being picky. So um. Anyway, he comes down at the tree because I was so low as only I used three lone wild sticks. I had four with me, but I just leaned, so I just leaned the fourth stick up against the tree. He actually knocks the stick off of the tree as he's coming by. So I mean he literally brushed the tree that I was in, and at this time I swap it was in. It was unreal. So at this time I swung around. Come to full draw or Matt like that stop Matt a little bit louder. He hits twenty yards, Matt, you know, tried to stop him. Get gets that out five or thirty Matt a little louder makes a turn. So now he's finally he's finally like perfectly broadside and he's that like I ranged the edge of this this kind of this thick brush stuff right in the edge of this carp He's run, he's just passed it. I ranged the edge of that at thirty yards and he was just passed that. So I figured he's about thirty five. And then finally when he made that turn and he stopped. I finally I literally yelled hey like that, and he just stopped and kind of like he literally yelled at him. It was pretty awesome. He literally he literally snapped his head or anything. He just he was so her that he kind of just like just kind of nonstantly turned his head back to me, and I just I just I settled in on him for thirty five yards and smoked him. He went, he went, uh. They ran off and then went back in this back into the draw for about two seconds and pop back out and she kept running and he tipped over. So it was it was it was pretty awesome. And it's it's like Cody and I have this running joke because we you know, I hunt by myself so much and and don't don't have a camera guy with me very much that we sell film a lot. And I've had just a bear of a time the last like two years of getting killed actually on film, and this was no, this was no different. The tree was all, you know, uneven, so the arm wouldn't stay level and a kind of drifted out of ange. But you can hear the audio. And then finally got the go pro a lot and I actually got him tipping over but didn't get the shot. But anyway, it was it was kind of it was just a crazy It was a crazy deal. It was. It was a textbook, you know, the way that you you kind of plan or the way that you want things to kind of carry out. It actually did it to a t, you know. It was snuck in perfectly found a place on a map, went to it. Uh it looked like a good you know, a place where they would stage up or where a buck with bed before moving off, and and perfect transition cover and good security cover both in the crpry um and it there was one betted. I mean he was he was betted. He had to have been betted with yards and as soon as that doe came in it was enough to get him up and he was all all about it then. So yeah, it was just uh, it was finally uh, it was it's always nice. You know, we all know his Passinger Hunters stuff. Enough stuff goes wrong in the wood, it's nice. One want to finally goes according to plan man that the truth or what something? Yeah, that's that's a great feeling when it does come together. Um Man. So we have an issue, which is that there's about twenty seven other things I want to ask you as about. But I am coming up on a hard stuff because of a meeting, which is stupid, but I guess I guess to make sure that, um, that we get this last important thing in here. I'm gonna say we're not to put time out on the questions I have for Alex. I don't have to pull you in here another time soon so we can hear about your Kansas hunt. Um. I just want to make sure to give you guys an opportunity to to tell folks though about where they can get more from you guys. So we have to we have to close this one out. But if people want to see your videos, if people want to follow you on social media anything like that, UM, what either want? Do you want to jump in here and just tell folks where they can find that stuff? Do you want me to do? What do you do with Alex. Go ahead, go ahead, you're all right, scientists behind it something like that. No, um so, Uh, Dream Chaser's Hunt is what. You can look us up on Facebook their Instagram as well. UM. I think our YouTube channel is also called dream Chaser's Hunt. UM, so you can look us up there. We also have a channel on Carbon TV. Uh, we're a little bit behind. So we do weekly episodes on the YouTube channel. UM, and then through the summer, we actually did a new series this year called Whitetail Weekly or every single week we just did tech tips or product reviews, UM, trail cameras, what deer we were going after, stuff like that. We did a whole bunch of those. Um. Right now we're doing the weekly weekly episodes through the season on our YouTube channel. UM. I think we're maybe two or three weeks behind. On Carbon TV. It just takes in a little longer. UM. It's hard for them to do this semi live things, so it takes them a little longer than them uploaded. UM. But either or Carbon TV or YouTube look us up Dream Chaser's Hunt and you can check out the Longhorn Hunt, Alex's Kansas Hunts on there. We haven't got a South Dakota one together yet, but if you want to check them out, go for it. Awesome. Well, I definitely recommend folks do that, and Cody and Alex I appreciate you as taking the time to share your stories and some of your thoughts on how you how you kill these mature deer. And Cody please just do me a favor and kill epics soon and we'll have both of you guys back. I'll let you know as soon as we do play. There's a picture going up soon on him. Awesome. Well, good luck and thanks again, guys. Well, that will do it for this week's podcast. I hope you guys enjoyed that one. Um I gotta kick out of their stories had some great tips to share as well. And uh, I need to get out of here though, because I've got to hit the woods. I got a trail camera picture just last night of the buck I'm after in Michigan. It's very exciting news. This is hot off the press. I just just check that camera a couple of hours ago, so exciting stuff there. I'm gonna see if we can get one more great late season story for you. But um, I will leave you with two quick plugs. Number one. As I've been telling you guys about the last couple of weeks while you're to hunt, merchandise is back and available, and it's over on the meat eater dot com. That's where all my new content is. That is where our gear is now being sold. If you're going over to the meat eater dot com go to the shop, you're gonna see all the white you're done gear, their shirts, hats, even details, good stuff, So check that out. Speaking of the media here, gotta recommend Steve's new Meat Eater cookbook. It is full of great wild game and fish recipes. Tried a couple of different ones out for venison. They've been really good, So check that out over an Amazon or Barnes, Noble or wherever it is that you buy your books, and with that will shut it down. Thank you so much for your support, Thank you for listening. Man. I know we're pushing in December here, but there's still a lot of hunting out there to be had. Good things can happen, so so stay positive, stay up in the true you're in the ground blind, and until next time, stay wired to hunt.