N.F.C. - Next Level Bowhunting Strategy

0:00This episode of the sportsman's empire is brought to you by Interstate Batteries. Since 1952 Interstate Batteries has been evoking compassion and a trustworthy spirit into the surrounding communities. Interstate Batteries is a mission driven company fueled by purpose and guided by their values. If you need help locating a specific battery, stop into your local Interstate Batteries retail store and speak with a battery specialist. They even offer cell phone repairs. Interstate Batteries outrageously dependable. All right, 54321. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the 9 finger chronicles podcast. I'm your host Dan Johnson. I've been doing this for like 12 years now. So if this is your first episode, welcome. It's a it's a weird podcast. That's all I'm going to say. I do talk deer hunting. I talk a little bit of life. I talk nonsense. I have weird questions mentally, probably on fit to raise kids, but I have three kids.

1:04So a little bit about myself. I'm sitting on the couch last night with my youngest son. He's got a September birthday. And in a couple of weeks is his birthday. And I'm like, hey buddy, what do you want what do you want to do for for your birthday? He's like, I want to go to the trampoline park. I'm like, okay, trampoline park. I wrote I made a mental note tramp trampoline park. What do you want for your birthday, buddy? I want the Avengers Tower Lego set. The Avengers, I want you to say it out loud. The Avengers Tower Lego set. Okay. Anything else you want? I want to e-bike. Nope. Buddy, you're not getting an e-bike. There's too much money. I just straight up told him that. And so, you know, we start me and the wife. We're starting to plan and we're like, okay, how much does it cost to have a birthday party at the trampoline park? $350 fucking dollars, dude. What?

2:05I'm like, no, like, that wasn't what it was like, you know, like five, six years ago, when we did it with our other kid, nope, $350, get you a cup, like get you like two pizzas, get you some pictures of pop in a room. I'm like, e 350, come on now. I don't like that idea. $350. I'm going to write it down, 350. Just to have, this is no joke. Let's see, one, two, six kids. He wants to invite six kids to his birthday party and then for a sleepover. Okay. I'm okay with the sleepover. That's all I used to do for birthday parties. As a matter of fact, birthday parties when I was a kid was always a sleepover, come to the house, eat pizza, play some video games, and drink pop. There was always a kid who got too sick and would maybe throw up and then you know, got to have this tummy, you know, here, sip on some seven up,

3:08make your tummy feel better. Then there was always a kid who, you know, missed mommy. When I was young, I can remember back in like the first and second grade days of my first sleepovers. I'm like, I'm homesick. I want to go home, call the mom at like 10 30 at night. Maybe she'd come and get me. Maybe she'd talk me off the ledge. That was an 80s birthday party. And I just kind of wish it was still like that instead of having to go somewhere and do these big extravagant events anyway. $350 for a trampoline park. So I look up this Avengers tower Lego set that he wants. Dude, I did not know until I started doing deep dives on like specific Lego sets. I'm just like here. Here's a tub of Legos. Use your imagination and build some cool shit with it. My son has gotten to the next level of Legos. And by the way, there is a next level. There's also an adult level of Legos. And what I mean by that is like 7,000 pieces, the Star Wars Death Star,

4:16things like that. So how much is the Avengers tower Lego set cost? $650. $650. I'm going to write that down. Okay. And then I just stopped adding at that point. You're telling me I'm supposed to spend $1,000 on a nine year old's birthday party, a nine year birthday party for a nine year old. What the fuck? Like what? Dude, everything is so expensive these days. I got to spend $650 for my boys baseball team. I have car insurance, do I have all this shit? And I'm getting old, right? It's crazy how much I start to bitch about money. And I'm sure my wife who doesn't, you know, she thinks about money, but not like I think about money. I'm sure she is like, oh, guy, what a huge turn off when

5:18all you do is bitch about money probably, probably. It's like, she's gas. It takes me $100 to fill up my truck. Okay. And I'm driving a shit 50, 50 to 60 miles a day in my truck a day just to get back and forth to all these activities, especially if I take my daughter to wrestling. That's Northe here, probably 25 miles. So crazy, right? And all that shit adds up and I'm turning into an old asshole. And yeah, so $1,000 birthday parties, by the way, I'm not spending just so all you guys know, I am not spending $650 on an Avengers Lego set that will that will take. Here's what $650 will buy me. Of course, it will buy me the Lego set. Then it will buy me a lot of anxiety. And

6:22here's why because my son will want to build it on the kitchen table. And a $650 Lego set does not take one day to put together. It probably takes a week, if not more, right? Where you can dedicate a little like an hour here and hour there, putting it together. With that said, my, my wife will her anxiety will kick in when she sees the Legos all over the kitchen table because at that point, our kitchen will no longer look like a magazine cover. It will look like someone actually lives in the house. And the Legos will be there for multiple days. Well, when are we going to get these Legos off? When are we going to? Then that's what that buys me. Okay. Then other kids will try to put some pieces together on it because it's in a public space, right? It's in the family space. And then they'll start fighting. So $650 is going to get me a lot if I decide, but I'm not buying it. I'm not going to spend $650 on Legos. I got to, I got to try to start a go fund me account.

7:28For the Avengers Lego tower set, everybody that I know needs to chip in like two bucks to, to that, I don't, I don't even know if I know 300 people. I don't even know if I had no 300 people who would actually like me enough to give me $200 or $2. So I got to find a way. Maybe I need to start selling plasma or giving blood or donating semen. I don't know. I'll do whatever it takes. I'll do whatever it takes to make my kids happy. Okay. And this is where it gets weird because I always go say something weird like that. And then I have to transition into saying thank you to the partners of the Nine Figure Chronicles podcast. So I'm going to say thank you very much to Ozonex, Wasp, Reveal Trail cameras, Vapor Trail archery, Wasp broadheads, and there's one more. I'm always forgetting code blue scents. So code blue code blue scents and see code blue scents and

8:36wasp have a discount code both for 20% off. And the discount code is NFC20 for 20% off. I think as I mentioned for text, please do me a favor. Go out and support the brands that support this podcast. And the reason I say that is because I use all these brands. They're all awesome products. I beat the shit out of them. They work. The the the Ropadoot Mox grape kit is a huge like strategy piece for me every year. The trail cameras from Reveal this all that stuff. So go check out go to their websites. Take a look. See if there's a product that fits your budget and go buy it dude. You won't regret it. You won't regret it. There's not one product in that lineup that I feel like you would regret. Again, appreciate it. Sipa coffee. I'm I'm at max caffeine level by the way. Every day every day I'm hitting max caffeine level. And that means like I'm not shaking

9:44my heart. I'm not having heart palpitations, but I found the cat I found my threshold like I can I know that if I have more than this. And then I'll get tired in the afternoon and then I'll start throwing in the caffeine pouches like when I go lift or when I go to take my kids to their afternoon activities. Here's the crazy shit. Tonight it's it's Wednesday Wednesday night. Back in the day nobody had activities on Wednesday night. You would have your after school practices and then Wednesday nights were church nights. They never had they never had any activities on Wednesday nights because of church activities. I mean, at least where I lived. And then now Wednesdays and even Sunday mornings. There's kids activities dude. What the hell's going on with that? I don't know. I feel like I feel like the parents are getting pushed to their limits to try to keep up with whatever

10:45they're trying to keep up with. The kids are getting pushed to their limits with schedules. And they don't really even have time to be a kid anymore. And so that's why like for me when my boy said, hey, I don't want to do football. I was a huge fan. I was completely okay with that. And I'm really looking forward to in two weeks when we're sitting in some fence row with a 350 legend that he's pretty good at shooting waiting for something to step out. So looking forward to that. Okay, here's the deal. Where do I want to start? I have two topics I want to talk about today. Trigger control and micro pockets and betting edges. Okay, this all makes sense here in a second. So I don't know how long this podcast, two bullet points is really all I want to talk about today. But these are two things that popped into my mind that I really want to talk about. And so you got to you got a group of people like I'm

11:52in a weird spot. I'm in a weird spot where you know, I've passed a lot of deer in my life to try to get the big ones, the bigger ones. Sometimes that works. Sometimes it doesn't. Okay, I've had some years where I've passed a lot of deer to try to kill the biggest deer on the farm. And I did not kill the biggest deer on the farm. I've had other years where I've passed those deer and I got the biggest deer on the farm. And that's good thing, right? I mean, that was the goal I had at the time and that's what I wanted to accomplish. So there's these stair steps that we all go through as hunters. And sometimes it doesn't matter what state you live in, whether the big buck in your area is 120 inches or if the big buck in your area is 170, something has to happen for you to jump to that next level and start targeting a smaller group of deer. The bigger the antlers, the smaller

12:57the group of deer. So maybe there's only 220 inches on your farm and you got to figure out a way to sort that out amongst all of the 100 inches or the eight pointers that you've already shot. For me, again, blessed to have been born and live in Iowa and hunt in Iowa and have land to hunt in Iowa where all that stuff, you know, like it all is, it's all working out for me, right? I have the opportunity to chase bigger than average deer and I love that, right? I'm blessed for it. My kids are happy going to be happy when that time comes for them as well. Okay. So whether you're going from 100 inches to 120 year if you're going from 140 to 170 or stair stepping up whatever happens, you got to learn how to not shoot deer. Okay. And so over the course of the last couple years, I have my trigger control has gotten weaker. I want it, for me, I'm wanting to shoot deer. I want

14:03to shoot more deer. I want to go out and have as much fun as possible, as much tag as as possible. And the reason I feel confident talking about this because I was passing stupid deer early on in my bow hunting career in order to chase one, two, three deer, three given deer throughout an entire season. And I was making decisions based off of one, two, three deer. The wind wasn't right. I'd find a new access route if all that stuff. So what does trigger control mean? To me, trigger control means a couple things. Let's talk about low deer numbers, right? If you live in a state that has or an area of a state that has low deer numbers and you are notorious for killing deer every year, but you want to see bigger numbers, maybe you shoot one less deer that year. Maybe you shoot one less doe that year. And that kind of trigger control because I'm going to shoot one less doe. Hopefully,

15:05she has twins or she reproduces. Now there's another deer on the landscape and you're trying to get a higher deer quality. But to me, trigger control is for, is for bucks. I want to shoot a bigger buck. And it was, for some reason, when I was younger, it was easier because I was more egotistical. I felt like it was more of a challenge. I was really challenged. My strategy was challenged based. I love that chess match. I still love the chess match, but I got a little older things, things have changed a little bit. And so I am in the process of trying to figure out my own, what my own trigger control means. So here's what I would, here's what I would recommend. And everybody's uses trail cameras these days, right? Everybody has the ability to document, has a piece of paper and a pencil. Maybe you have a little folder on your phone or on your computer.

16:10And there's two deer on your farm that show up or on your farm consistently throughout the summer. Or they show up, you know, here now that the September shift, we're in the process of this September shift right now. And we are, we're trying to figure it all out. Oh, I know that buck. I don't know that buck. This buck is a home body. He's on my hit list and you start putting this hit list together. Maybe you write it down on a piece of paper. Maybe you keep it somewhere where you can see it every day, like up on the dash of your truck or a little post it note on your laptop or in your lunch bucket, whatever that we're wherever, right? And maybe you give them a name and say, I'm going after splits this year or I'm going after David Kuresh or whatever you decide to name. No idea why I said that. Whatever you decide to dave your deer and you stick, you got to stick to it,

17:13right? You're never going to shoot a big buck or find that buck if you shoot the first deer that walks underneath your stand. So we've got to have trigger control if that is in fact your goal. Now if you're a brown, it's down guy, dude, let him rip. Go do it. But if you want to shoot a big buck, there's sacrifices that have to be made at every level of this. And the harder you make the challenge and you get it to one deer, well, if you're going to one deer and I hunted one deer for like three or four years in a row, it was ridiculous, right? And I had to learn to do things like if I'm, if I'm only hunting one deer, I have to hunt where that deer lives. I have to know the access routes to get into where this deer's core area is, right? If the winds are wrong, I got to, I got to say I can't get in there. Today's an off day. I'm not going in. I got a um, find patterns of him. I got to use trail cameras the right way, put them in an area where that's going to capture him. I got to make sure my access routes are on fire. I got to make sure,

18:16or lock tight, I got to make sure my stands are in the right position. I got to make sure all of these things add up to hunt one deer. And then if I'm after a 170 and that 150 incher walks by and you're going, oh my God, I want to shoot him. Well, I shot a 150 incher last year or same thing, different numbers, right? I'm really wanting to shoot that 120, that 150 showed up, dude. Passing, making that first pass is the hardest thing you'll do that, that particular season. The first 100 incher that walks up or that first 140 that walks up and you have let's say five or six of them on your wall or in your garage or you've already done that. That's the hardest deer to pass you'll ever pass. Because what that does is it's like it pops your cherry, right? It means you've done something that you've, it's actually part of your plan. It's in your goal. And once you

19:19pass that deer and he's at 20 yards broadside and then you, you set your bow down or you don't even pick your bow up and you just watch him. You observe the deer behavior. Watching deer, you know, you're not going to shoot is a pretty cool thing, especially a four year old. Like I've passed, I've passed some good four year olds, 150 inch four year olds, mature animals to get to that next level of basically, bigger inches, older age class, you know, all that stuff. And that, that one buck will be the hardest one because now you've done it. Once you've passed that first buck, now you've done it. And now you can say, okay, the next hardest buck you'll pass will be that same buck, but a month later into the season where you haven't filled your tag yet. And you're like, oh my God, that buck looks so good right now. Like I want to, I want to shoot him late season. I want to

20:24shoot him. The second you pull that trigger, now your goal did not get accomplished, right? When you're going for that older age class buck, that only have to have, you have to have that discipline. And you have to sacrifice filling a tag. You want to go fill a tag, go shoot a doe, right? Or maybe that, uh, maybe that big buck disappears. Maybe that big buck disappears. And he doesn't show back up. You don't know where he goes. Or you know he disappears late season. He doesn't come back to the springtime, things like that. You have to be willing to eat tag soup, to not punch your buck tags, to pass deer. And this is uncomfortable. But without being put into an uncomfortable, uncomfortable position, you never grow, right? You never accomplish your goals. You could do the same thing every single year. And if that makes you happy, that's okay. I did not want to do that. I wanted to chase bigger bucks. I wanted to chase specific deer. And so if you have

21:28a list and that list doesn't walk and buy you on the trail, you're never going to accomplish that goal. If you do that. Now one of the most satisfying moments that a bow hunter who has the same kind of inches and age class goal is passing those deer. You've committed. You're strong, right? You don't even pick the bow up when that, you know, 140 inch or walks by anymore. And you're like, oh, buddy, here he comes. And you just watch him. You watch how he acts. You watch his behavior. And then he's gone, right? He walks by, chases a doe out whatever he's doing. This episode of the sportsman's empire is brought to you by Nathan and sons, makers of underbrush remineralizing gum. I started keeping a pack at my desk for after lunch. And honestly, the chew is so satisfying. Most natural gums turned a mush, but underbrush has this incredible texture and natural saps that hold up. My favorite is the spearman. It leaves my mouth feeling

22:32insanely clean without that artificial fake sugar taste. Plus, Nathan and sons makes it from scratch in Northern California using the same mineral that your toothy name is made from. It's such a great habit to get into because it supports remineralization and freshens your breath all at the same time. If you want a simple daily upgrade for your teeth, head over to NathanandSons.com and check out why underbrush remineralizing gum is right for you. Right now, you can get 30% off your first order when you subscribe. Visit NathanandSons.com today. Then you're kind of you're in your tree stand and you're blind and you're just sitting there going, dude, I should have shot that deer. I should have shot that deer. I should have shot that deer. And then crunch crunch. Uh oh. Here he comes. The guy that you've been waiting for. Okay. Maybe you get a little bit of buck fever

23:34and you're just like, okay, here it is. The moment you drill them, you smoke them, you watch them tip over, mission accomplished. That's a very, very, very satisfying moment for any bow hunter who is looking to put bone on the wall or to maybe check one of those more um egotistical boxes, right, chasing the big buck. But that's it's hard to do. So you gotta be willing to you gotta be willing to eat tag soup. Even if that matured buck is bouncing back and forth on the neighbor's farm and then also maybe the neighbor sends you a picture and a little, hey, look at this buck I shot and now you don't have any other big bucks on your farm. Now what? I'm gonna go shoot a hundred inch here again. Okay. Well, then that means that next year you won't have that he won't turn into a 120 or that 140 isn't gonna turn into a 150. Those things have to be

24:41thought about if your goal is to do that, right? And that's hard to do. And that's all I'm saying is that it takes a ton of discipline to get to that next stage in the bow hunting career if that is in fact your goal. The fun thing about and what made me always jealous of guys like my stepdad um made me jealous of some other guys that I know who just go out and hunt is they seemed to have more of the type one fun where they were like, oh yeah, shot this forecourt and let's go. Oh, stack two dose tonight. Love it. Have a blast. You know, like they're they're that type one fun. They're having a blast. They're dragging deer out of the uh out of the timber almost every weekend. Meanwhile, I'm sitting there grumpy like, oh god, I just passed another deer. I wish I would have shot, right? And so that was an older version of me. I still go through the cycle that cycle

25:41um now where I'm still documenting big deer movement. Actually right now trail cameras are showing my farm is dead. Like I have some cameras and some pinch points right now that just are not they're not producing pictures like I thought they were. And so I'm in the process of I might have had down to that farm and double check these trail cameras. My reveal app is showing that they're all set up and working function like functionally working. It's just that um I'm not getting pictures dude. And so I'm trying to figure out what I need to do in order to to where where these deer were at in July, September shift, you know, I'm used to this. I shouldn't be this worried up worried about it. I just hope it wasn't EHD. I know there's rumbling those rumblings of EHD in the area. Um anyway trigger control. Think about that if you are and the amount of discipline it takes to pass that first deer that is at or just slightly above what you

26:46you're used to shooting when a big deer comes comes by. Okay. Another ship of coffee. Okay. Um so we talked a little bit about about trigger control. All right. Shoot small deer. You won't have that next level next year. Okay. So a long time ago what man I can remember I'm trying to think of the seat what year it was. I'm going to say into the 2010s early 2010s late 2000s. Um I went through a period of time where I was getting into the timber. I was reading sign. I was being mobile. I was really figuring it all out. And I started seeing deer. Right. And this time frame was also the time frame where I wanted to shoot what I just talked about the bigger most the giant older age class bucks.

27:50Okay. That's what I wanted. And so now we have these micro pockets. Um this this bullet point is called micro pockets and bedding edges. And so I was being mobile. I was getting in there. I was getting into the good sign. I was getting into the area where these deer wanted to be. I was I was learning how to hunt doe groups. I was hunting a lot of staging areas. A lot of bedding leading to staging areas. I was focusing real heavy on two on mornings and afternoon hunts trying to get close to bedding where these doves were living. And then bucks for the most part were very close to that area, especially during the pre-ret time frame. And so I'm also I was also I was getting close but not close enough. And so I'd find the spot. And you guys have heard this

28:52term a thousand times the spot within the spot. Right. There's usually a trail or a corner or a micro pocket of of even as small as a down tree. Let's say it was a they came in and logged it. And they left the tree tops in there. And then the grass grew up all around it. It's real thick and nasty in there. And or it's in a river bottom in a willow patch in a in some cat tails. Whatever the case is there's always this one little area. My my best example of this is we have a one of the properties that I hunt has a creek that runs north south. Then it hooks let's see it hooks to the west real sharp almost goes back south again. Right. And then hooks again and comes north. So it creates this s in the in the river bottom there. And the sun is shining down this creek and it hits

29:57that south facing that south facing sun or that's it's a south facing slope. And all of that is just gnarly in there. That sun hits that. There's some mature trees so the canopy used to be wide open. Now all that's grown up. It floods every year and then it goes back down in the summertime and then the the do's in the box just pile in this it's like a giant peninsula down there. Just absolutely they love it down there. And I can I have this really good access route in a ditch. I can get in. I can I have to hop up just for a little bit. And then I come back down. And uh and then I I have to go up and then I come back down and then I get to my tree stand and I'm looking right down the creek. The I like to hunt out on a south wind. My wind blows up and over in an afternoon hunt or a west wind that blows it kind of into the staging area a little bit. But by the time anything gets

31:01by me they're close. It's real tight in there. Um and there's the grass right at the edge of this creek and then a two down trees that have been there for like 10 years they've fallen over. And it's just a giant log with all these tree tops that are just it's a tangled mess in there. But that's where the buck that's where the buck loves to bed. And there is a um there's two spots in there where I I could probably go there now and there's probably a buck bedded in one of these beds. It's it's one of those spots. And now I'm not the guy who goes and tries to hunt specific specific beds. I'm not a bed hunter right. I'm I'm a I'm a staging area guy. I like to find doe groups. I like to find where the doves come out and usually what happens with when the doves come out the bucks will follow. And that's the kind of guy. Excuse me. That's the kind of guy I am

32:06quick coffee break here. And so in this giant bedding area and all of this it's I've bounced around so many times in there where I have found the spot within the spot. And what does the spot within the spot looks like? You take a thick nasty area. Okay. Um and there's going to be gaps in these areas where you'll find the down tree with the grass growing up or the thorn bushes and it's tangled. And what I have what I have witnessed over the years now this isn't for everybody. The deer still want to be able to use their eyes so they will back up into it where the the wind is coming through the thickest nastiest part of that. And they're bedded just on the outside of that still in thickness but are able to look at the destination food source

33:08or they're elevated and they can see down into you. So anything that comes behind them is obviously a scent is catching their scent. Anything that's coming out um anything that's coming out uh let's see anything coming right towards them they're going to be able to see. And sometimes these spots are hard to hunt especially if you're trying to get close to that that would be a morning opportunity uh afternoon hunts on a bedded buck unless you know exactly where they're at and like I mean I've been in the years 50 yards 70 yards set up a tree stand as quiet as possible usually on a windier day. If it's dead in there I'm not going to try to push it I'll I'll back off and hunt it at 100 yards 100 uh hunted at uh you know 200 yards something like that to try to maintain some distance so I don't spook them but they're they're in that thick little pocket and their eyes sometimes it's elevated sometimes it's not river bottoms it's probably not elevated

34:11big timber it would be uh it would be elevated so they can see lower elevation uh wind obviously plays a huge role in where they bed but if they are bedded in uh for example this example or the example that I'm talking about right now there's uh there's a north wind and then there's a west wind stand and I don't know about east wind where he beds I'm sure he's still in there I haven't found that area yet he's probably on the opposite side of the peninsula uh you know facing that kind of facing that but outside of that um he's backed up into it where his eyes can see and his eyes are usually looking for danger which is usually a real good access or out so for me in order to get in there I have to find a way to where I'm assuming he's going to see me so I got to find a way maybe it's walking dude I learned this playing video games believe it or not right you don't walk

35:18right into your opponent if he doesn't know you're there you get behind a tree and you close the distance like when you're turkey hunting right and there's uh maybe there's a strutter out in a field and you're trying to get close close to the field edge you walk behind a tree then you pick out another tree and maybe you wait till they're strutting or they're looking away and then you get behind another tree and you close the distance even more so they can't see you dude I do that a ton it during my access routes for especially for afternoon hunts and so these these little pockets within the pocket uh within the spot have to be found this becomes increasingly difficult the smaller uh the property is you have to hunt because your access routes are your access routes right like me on a couple properties that I I have access to oh what wrong wind I still want to get into a spot I'm just going to park in a different spot of the farm I'm going to take a different access route in that's it dude that's it simple

36:22and and so that would be a pocket that would be a bedding edges the other the other thing that I want to be especially early season where you know it's September here um if crops aren't out those were the timber meets the ag field there's probably some grass dude right now the deer are they love bedding right up against the destination food source they love bedding up into the finger the point of the fingers right they love bedding in any type of what I would call soft transition you hear habitat guys talk about that a lot soft transition is where there's the timber line and maybe there's a tree that's fallen down and the grass has grown up so the deer just aren't immediately exposed when they step out of the timber into the to the the ag field right that's why when when a lot of a lot of habitat guys will plant a strip of grass in between the food source

37:28and the timber okay that's a soft transition the deer feel comfortable coming out into that and then getting into the food source a lot of farmers though don't have that they they farm right up to the field edge maybe there's a small buffer buffer drip buffer strip to fight erosion but if it's flat or it's high then no they're not going to do that and so um access routes are very important especially especially early season now what I've noticed is that as the crops come out they the bedding areas are more of a hot commodity for the deer and they will become more attractive and more deer will will move into a bedding area but not all deer you still have some bucks that are going to be really picky and the older age class bucks here's what I've learned a big buck won't necessarily go after the thickest nastiest areas they like it

38:40but if there's a ton of other deer in there already they might avoid it because then there's it's a distraction to them almost so what I've kind of figured out especially when I'm trying to hunt doe groups in the staging areas I'm not going into the bedding areas to mess all that up because usually I feel like sometimes those bucks are bedded in between the bedding area and the the staging area in some kind of transition in in an area where you might not see want to see a deer but they where you think a deer is going to bed but they have the wind they have the thermals maybe it's in the timber and it's kind of maybe like a wide open I've seen this a couple of times where I'm like why are you there and then I had to slow down and I said okay the winds coming over top of over top of them right they're hidden by the terrain it seems open in there but they're hidden by the terrain and then so by the and then the thermal in the afternoon is kind of

39:44pushing up you'll see this a lot in mule deer country where they will be they'll be walking a thermal line at certain points of the day where the thermals are coming up and the the the up thermals and the down thermals are meeting or predominant wind direction is coming over and morning thermals are still coming up you'll see that or afternoon thermals are coming up they find those spots and white tails do the same exact thing just in on the east side of the country rather doing the exact same thing they're finding that military crest where the thermals are meeting the predominant wind direction so they have a scent full of everything it seems like sometimes and and that's where they they're it's just it you look at it goes they're in the wide open well it's still a good spot for them because they can smell and see everything right and then they know here comes I just watched the red truck pull up top oh I saw them get out

40:47of his truck saw him walk down this two track he's still 300 yards away stand up walk away and that guy's looking at his feet trying not to trip going to his tree stand has no clue he just bumped out deer right and that's happened to me I feel like a thousand times a thousand times so be aware of that access routes as you know are are very important when we're trying to locate deer or if we found a deer we found where we assume he's betting and where we assume he's going and we're going to try to put this strategy together with wind and thermals and you know trying to go from low to high on your access route if you can even do that use a water way whatever the case is we're trying to put together the best strategy for that deer and I know what I'm about to say is a no-brainer right this is a no-brainer

41:48but I had to learn this so I'm going to say it anyway mornings versus evenings if you're hunting in the morning I am assuming that the deer are on their feet maybe they're back to where they're going maybe they're not but I'm going to use this example we have a betting area we have a transition line that runs to a staging area and we have a destination food source different times a year that can mean different things the transition line can be real small the betting can be really close to the staging can be really close to the food or maybe there's no staging area at all whatever I'm using this example in the mornings I know that the the deer are more than likely in the staging area or in the destination food source or let's just say

42:56for all intensive purposes halfway in that transition area back to betting so number one from a time frame I want to be able to get in there I want to be able to get into my tree stand with a enough time to where I feel comfortable those deer moving back through this area the next thing that I want to do is I want to be able to I got to have an access route that is not going through the destination food source that is not go it's it can't be a it can't be a straight line right it's not gonna disrupt the the destination food source it's not gonna disrupt I don't want to I don't want my presence to push deer into the betting area or push them past the betting area or just or bump them and they're gone right oh where all the deer go all my access route sucks so I would rather walk through the betting area if possible to get to a stand location

44:02because there's no deer in the betting areas in the morning hunts now the earlier you are in the season the more likely there are deer already back in the betting areas but once we get to you know deer on their feet more later into the breeding season the likely I would rather walk through a betting area to get to a tree stand then walk through a destination food source for a staging area or a transition to get into that also this is also a no brainer if you don't if you have the opportunity to not walk through any of that and you can approach it like a tea the letter a capital T where the top is the line and you can walk perpendicular up into that line at somewhere and and then you're not disturbing it and you have the wind in your face that's also a really really good access route into that into that line now we all know that the there's no such thing as straight lines with deer right they're going to take the path of the least resistance when

45:04they're going someplace I say that with an asterisk but for the most part you know it's it's going to be it's going to be I would rather okay one second I got to rethink I would rather walk through the betting area on a morning hunt if I don't if I had to then we'll then walk through the destination food okay all right so I got that covered next on the list is evening hunts right and it's the opposite right I don't want to walk through a betting area to get to my afternoon stand I want to be able to walk through the destination food source find the staging area or somehow J hook or or I called it the 90 degree rule you guys have heard me say that before I try to get as low as possible and then I as hard as I possibly can 90 degree for me and it's then it's usually uphill

46:05so it's 90 degrees straight uphill in order to get to my tree stand location that's that's not always going to happen but it's it's usually that's how it is so and then I'm not hunting a betting area unless I could get in there like the previous in the creek system that I hunt that's an afternoon or a morning spot because I can get into it really really easily and the deer usually aren't on their feet when I get there so I can I I've found a way to get in there very easily I found a way to get in there very easily and and get to that stand location without bumping deer so next on the list on that afternoon hunt I'm usually hunting that transition between betting to staging area or I'm hunting in the staging area and for those of you who are new most of you guys know this already but

47:08what indicates a staging area to me is edge usually it's where open timber meets a field edge and then it gets thick and in there you start to over time I have learned that that's where the scrapes are that's where the rub lines are there's still some scrapes and rubs on the field edge but when you see them in the timber that's a good indicator that that's a staging area they're there sometimes if there's a a food source in there like maybe an oak tree that's dropping that's even better yet so it's a place for them to stop munch on some things it's thicker the sun has the sun comes through the fence row and lights it up it's thicker in there and they they slow down maybe they groom themselves maybe they lay some sign maybe they're munch them they're eating their appetizer before they go out to the field for the main course or that whatever the destination food source is destination food source can also be a big giant oak tree that's dropped a ton of acorns so know that as well okay so just something to think about there today these are the two things that I

48:17wanted to talk about and I know it's a shorter episode but I felt like these were things that I every single year I need to have these conversations with myself dude do you want to shoot a big buck do you want to put all the time and energy that goes in you know I got a week to hunt I got two weeks to hunt whatever the whatever the case may be are you able to you know what do you want to do do you want to pass a couple deer and maybe you're the guy who's like I'll tell you what I have 10 days that of vacation days that I can use this year the first five I'm going after the big dog and then if he doesn't show up or I'm having trouble getting him on in the dirt I'm going to go and have some fun and I'm gonna start I'm gonna shoot whatever I whatever I need to so a lot of things to take into consideration right there other than that um find find the spot within the spot

49:18and I'm telling you right now I used to be like god if I tear down right now and I'm gonna I move over the that 20 yards to get into a better tree stand location I'm gonna mess everything up no you won't dude you have to do it you have to moot you have to do it because you're gonna feel better about yourself do it go into an afternoon hunt get up in that tree stand and put it maybe you got a set set that move that tree stand in the dark uh get it set up so that that next morning why not give it a shot what do you have to lose you're not gonna bump deer that's already on their feet that's already passed you right if anything they're just gonna be like what's going on in the woods then you take the correct access route out of there you don't bump them and then they're going to come back in that betting area the next morning if that's in fact will they want to be and the wind is in their favor and all that stuff so if you ever have a question of whether or not you should move a tree stand to get to a better location uh it's a no brainer do it all right enough talking today

50:25guys I really appreciate you taking time out of your day to listen to me as always I'm a nut job for this stuff so I really appreciate you guys let me vent at on some of these things don't buy your kids $650 Lego sets I guess unless you can afford it I I can't afford it and I don't want to I think that's ridiculous trigger control micro pockets and betting edges think about this stuff as as we start to get into the archery openers here a lot of guys have already got out into the woods I'm seeing a lot of mule deer and elk get killed already so it's white tail season for me coming up in 20 22 days holy shit 22 days I need to go shoot my bow go shoot your bow where your safety harness be safe um good vibes go to Spotify leave me a five star review and we'll talk to you next time