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Speaker 1: I'm Tyler and I'm Michael, and you're listening to the Element podcast. What's going on all my woods people? This is the Element Podcast, brought to you by it first year. I am sitting here in a camel chair, And as you might have heard by now, it would seem that case Smith is not on this podcast. And if you thought that when you heard Michael say his name, then you were correct. And I definitely should have done Casey's voice right there. How would it go, I'm Smith something like that, you know, something like that. Gosh, dude, it sounds just like Butch, just like Butch.
00:00:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe I got Butcher died more in Casey.
00:00:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think you do. So Michael and I have the privilege of running this show today. That's it, and we got this is This is a special thing. I mean, this is you guys.
00:01:12
Speaker 2: Don't know if I've ever done just a podcast with just you.
00:01:15
Speaker 1: You don't want with case just with Kse for like the main show.
00:01:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, grilled me on being a gen z er all of our pants.
00:01:25
Speaker 1: It will probably be much easier this time around. Yeah, probably so probably. So this is this is a treat for you as listeners. Just know this is something that doesn't happen often. Michael gets a chance to step up. Yep, Michael has he heils from the state of Ohio, said Oklahoma. I keep wanting to say Oklahoma. Yeah, you've done that a couple of times. Is Uh, there's a reason people have a slang term that's Ohio.
00:01:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, deer hunters created it because we're trying to push everybody away. You know, it's lame. It's lame up there. It ain't cool.
00:02:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's more like the people from there.
00:02:06
Speaker 2: No, that isn't it.
00:02:08
Speaker 1: J'all's purple state up there. That is true. It is what is do you know the stat on presidential races in Ohio and how that goes? What do you mean like it doesn't. Isn't there a bunch of presidential races that have gone the same way that Ohio has gone.
00:02:26
Speaker 2: I think it was like five or six in a row until the last one.
00:02:31
Speaker 1: The last one wasn't that way. The last one it switched. They're in that that was when Biden got in office.
00:02:36
Speaker 2: Okay, which yeah, we don't need we don't have to get in we don't need to be a podcast political podcast.
00:02:45
Speaker 1: I would say that if that's the case, then it would almost seem until maybe the last election, that the powers that be live in Ohio.
00:02:57
Speaker 2: Yeah. I've been trying to tell everybody that's why is the center of the world. I don't care about the time zones or any of that. It's Ohio.
00:03:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I don't know about all that. Do you like Lebron James? Yeah he's all right, yeah, all right? As a basketball player, is he? Yeah, it's pretty good as a basketball player. I said, that's a basketball player. No, yeah, LJ man, he's the king right. Well, you know who's your favorite football team?
00:03:25
Speaker 2: Cincinnati Bengals.
00:03:26
Speaker 1: Okay, what about college Ohio State football player? Uh?
00:03:31
Speaker 2: Whoever's playing quarterback for the Ohio State buck Eyes. So Will Howard this year?
00:03:35
Speaker 1: So not Joe Burrow.
00:03:36
Speaker 2: No, okay, Joe Burrow left us, So you know he's got to take a back seat.
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Speaker 1: Don't act like you don't love him.
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Speaker 2: No, I do love I do love.
00:03:45
Speaker 1: So much.
00:03:46
Speaker 2: Right it out with the buck Eyes. Come on now, not the Bengals. Not the Bengals. Yeah, I hear you on that.
00:03:53
Speaker 1: Michael being from Ohio does hail from a state that is one of the best Big Buck states in the world.
00:04:03
Speaker 2: I needed to hear.
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Speaker 1: That is the world record from Ohio, that non typical was called. I'm looking it up. But the there was a non typical, it was like a three thirty.
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Speaker 2: Right, I don't I remember the buck last year that everybody was saying was gonna push for a world record that came from Ohio. But I don't know, but it did score, I don't remember. I remember meat Eater actually posting an article about that, huh. Or Mark Kenyon, one.
00:04:32
Speaker 1: Of them, Mike Betty holds the high record for non typical antlers at three hundred and four and six eighths. I don't know if that's the world record or not. But no, well, I don't know. Anyway, there was a buck killed in Illinois a few years back, right, that had like that major left side or whatever. Yeah, But anyway, Ohio is a is a big buck state. They're massive, massive. It come from there all the time. It's also a densely populated state human wise, right, Yeah, how how is there? How do these deer, these big bucks and these people co exist?
00:05:13
Speaker 2: Well, I can tell you right now, whatever is going on in the urban parts, it's like this. A lot of places but in Ohio especially, like the deer in the urban areas are so much more densely populated than anywhere else in the state. I don't know if it's just because there's so much food or no pressure, like or nothing really there to kill them. Like it's just an easy kind of life, you know, it's mode yards and everything else. But they are it's like a problem. They're everywhere, and especially during the rut, like there are just deer run like crazy in those places.
00:05:49
Speaker 1: So they don't do they not? Let Like you're talking about urban areas that are not cannot be hunted legally.
00:05:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, like city in cities, gotcha, But I also do know my stepbrother actually we hunted like right outside the city limits.
00:06:06
Speaker 1: And that's a good way to kill a deer right there. Yeah, I bet that's pretty good.
00:06:09
Speaker 2: You just got to be careful with your shots and make sure that you know expire quickly.
00:06:13
Speaker 1: But when did y'all do that?
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00:06:14
Speaker 2: That was twenty twenty, Okay.
00:06:17
Speaker 1: Did y'all do that? Because of the sequin voice.
00:06:21
Speaker 2: They might have helped push us that way, but there was just a buck on trail cam influencers. There's I don't know how influenced, So we were okay, but but there was just a buck on trail cam and we got he had like this, They built like the most extravagant treehouse you could ever think of, electricity, like all this stuff, and we just shot him right out of the treehouse on a corn pile. Really, yeah, it's kind of cool. It was about video that shot.
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Speaker 1: If you videoed that, you probably have a nice video, Like there'd be a lot of that over the shoulder.
00:06:52
Speaker 2: Filming in a backyard out of.
00:06:54
Speaker 1: A treehouse with electricity sounds like Michael Wadel hunting on Jimmy John's property.
00:07:00
Speaker 2: Actually set a buddy heater up in there.
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Speaker 1: Fine, yeah, it sounds cool man. Uh so did you how did you get permission on that property?
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Speaker 2: Uh So it was next door to his mom's house. So we just went over there and knocked on the door and the guy was like, yeah, we got a tree stand set up back there. You're like, well, the treehouse is like on the border of the two houses. So we just put a corn pile on his side, and there was just like a it's like a probably like a six foot fence that runs right there, and we just shot right over.
00:07:31
Speaker 1: It and smoked him, so you shot it in the other yard. In the other yard.
00:07:35
Speaker 2: That's why we had to ask permission, because we you know, it was so it was such a close quarters thing that was gonna happen. It was like, it's either you gonna come down this trail or come down this trail, and if he's on the opposite side and we can't shoot him, it's gonna be a cry fast.
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Speaker 1: Did you have to dome him?
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Speaker 2: M h shot him right through the shoulder.
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Speaker 1: Did you ever debate doming him?
00:07:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, I definitely talked about it. I wasn't the shooter on this. I was just, you know, kind of behind the sans moving the pieces.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, you're like a cameraman without a camera.
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Speaker 2: It's exactly right. Yeah, I was more like a guy.
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Speaker 1: Yeah really, so for you didn't mess the hunt up.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly right. I wasn't trying to do a last minute exposure justice Yeah. Yeah, shake the whole tree.
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Speaker 1: Yeah that's cool man. That's uh. I think that stuff is pretty cool. Like there's a lot of people that hate on it, but I like all types of deer hunting. I don't. I like it when it's super remote, nothing around and I like it when it's tactical and close quarters, urban environment and urban deer hunting. Right, that's it, man, close quarters close quarters because there's a lot of things that go into that, you know, and different variables, and I
like just different things and challenge and different challenges and that kind of thing. So now you uh you had Let's see you have shot a few deer up there in Ohio. How many of you shot with bows?
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Speaker 2: I've now if you're talking about a calm pound bow. So I grew up, like when I was really young, we don't have a rifle season in Ohio. So I grew up crossbow hunting, like from seven to probably twelve or thirteen, just crossbow hunted and shot probably like a dough every year those couple of years, and then compound bow I don't know, close to ten probably with those including four bucks.
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Speaker 1: So are you including the buck from last year?
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Speaker 2: M No, I'm not really not. I'm not including I completely forgot about that one at this book. Yeah that antly this book. Uh that's cool. What have you ever shot one of the straight wall? Uh? Uh never. I've only seen one deer shot with a straight wall and it was pretty effective. But they say it kind of peters out like it with the three fifty legend, they say about two hundreds your max who knows so tested it?
00:09:49
Speaker 1: I asked, that is because, uh you it's legal to use straight wall cartridges. Yeah, Ohio, that's been like the last ten years that that's been a thing. Yeah, probably right, at like ten years. But no other than that, No rifles, right, No rifles, shotguns, shotguns, lugs like I used to when I grew up.
00:10:10
Speaker 2: I never was the shooter and shotgun season because it's only a week long. So the young kids would be the you know, the walkers for the deer drives, and then all the the old heads would get to clean up.
00:10:23
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, that sounds fun. Yeah. So now you're now you're compound guy, and uh, through and through and you're headed up that way pretty soon. Oh yeah, but you can't hunt yet. Can't hunt yet. So I got to go up there for a wedding. So I figured while I'm there, I might as well, you know, go check the private out. We got go check some public and just try to find a trying to find a big one somewhere. What are you gonna? What is what is trying to find a big one in tail Uh.
00:10:53
Speaker 2: It depends. There's a couple of ways I could look at it, and I think I'm gonna do a little more public land scout than I usually would do, just because of some my tactics have changed a little bit where I'd look for deer and where I used to just kind of write off. Like there's a lot of places in Ohio either reclaim coleland or just like normal WMA's that are just bird habitat pretty much bird hunting habitat is what everybody would look at it and think. But bird hunting doesn't start for another, you know, month or two in Ohio unless you're I think dove's probably open, but I've never seen a dove hunter in there. And there's dove hunting zones all over the place, and just until the pheasants get released out there, nobody's really bird hunting too much.
00:11:38
Speaker 1: It's weird that they release pheasants.
They make properties so that it would be habitat for pheasants that they release.
00:11:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, because you're just trying to build it back.
00:11:49
Speaker 1: Y'a don't have wild pheasants.
00:11:50
Speaker 2: We probably do have wild pheasants, but it's not enough to support how many hunters are. It's like, yeah, it's the weirdest.
00:11:58
Speaker 1: Thing up there. I don't get it too much, but yeah, with different culture. So but there, you think that deer will use open terrain even in the summertime.
00:12:13
Speaker 2: I think so. But the place we were talking about a place earlier off air, and the reason I think that place is a lot there's gonna be a lot of deer in there is because there's like just like I want to call them saplings, but just like small growth trees that are popping up in the field. So I feel like there's just there's so much habitat out in the middle that you really can't get a tree in any of it. But you know they're out there to go find a way to go kill them. Yeah, get in a tree somewhere.
00:12:43
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. What about acorns? Is that something that concerns you.
00:12:49
Speaker 2: I've only really had any success, and I mean any success hunting acorns when it's like a really bad year and it's just like there's only a couple of trees dropping like mass amounts. That's the only time I've really ever keyed in on acorns.
00:13:06
Speaker 1: But what about so what what what food source or deer going to be using right now, I'm gonna be checking a bunch of soy bean up there. No, that's a.
00:13:20
Speaker 2: No, it is not. It's just like mile per hour. It might be it might be bluring the dictionary. That's not how you say.
00:13:27
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know about all that, man. So do you have you ever noticed? This is something that's always perplexed me as a guy who doesn't come from bean country, bean or corn country or the When the beans turn yellow, did the deer go away?
00:13:46
Speaker 2: That's what all the old timers say I've seen. I feel I haven't really paid attention too much to it, and I'm going to this year. It's like something I'm actively thinking about. But everybody says when they turn yell, they're not in there. But I just I refuse to believe it. I refuse to believe it.
00:14:03
Speaker 1: It's weird to me that they'll eat them brown and they'll eat them green, but they won't eat them yellow. If that's the truth, Yeah, weird, that's just I kind of like I wonder to me, I don't know, but I wonder if there's like something in testosterone raising about the time that those beans are turning yellow. That changes where the deer core area is maybe, and then that's why it seems like deer just go away from the field.
00:14:28
Speaker 2: Think whatever. That's a lot of it.
00:14:30
Speaker 1: But I don't know. I don't, like I said, I'm not from that country. I don't know. I haven't been able to just observe it because I'm not spending much time in the late mid to late September hunting, which I think is when a lot of those beans will start turning up north and even on into later October. I haven't really spent a ton of time in the Midwest, So it's something that I would like to hear people's two cents on for sure, But I think there is a lot of unknowns about it. It just seems like if they're gonna eat a dead bean and a live bean, why wouldn't they eat one that's dying.
00:15:04
Speaker 2: It almost has to be like a If it is the case, it's got to be like a tannin or something that they just.
00:15:09
Speaker 1: Are like, right something. It's just kind of gross.
00:15:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I'm interested to see because Ohio, my dad's been texting me over and over again, sending me map after map that it's Ohio is going through like the worst recorded drought in.
00:15:22
Speaker 1: History.
00:15:23
Speaker 2: I guess since like eighteen something fifty two or something. It's not the right year, guys, Okay, I'm sorry, but something like that. And I'm interested to see because my dad said they're pulling corn already, which it's not. Get like, they're not pulling corn usually on our private until first week in November.
00:15:43
Speaker 1: So that should help you, Yeah, to help you. So I'm on this trip to scout r.
00:15:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm interested to see, first off, just how much corn is actually off like across the state because it could be the southeastern part of Ohio is getting hammered by a drought and the rest of it's not interested to see if the corn is off, if they're in the beans more. If the beans are off, I don't know what's good. It might be the wild West up there.
00:16:08
Speaker 1: That sounds fun. So what if you when you say find a buck, though, are you trying to? Are you trying to look at fields and find a buck? Are you trying to find a big scrape that's been opened up? Are you trying to find a big buck bed? Are you trying to find a trail that's heavily used and has big tracks in it? Are you trying to see this buck in the woods?
00:16:30
Speaker 2: What I'm trying trail camera right now, I'm and especially with like just not having a lot of time and not being able to really have a bow, I'm trying to just get to where I can see the most country that I think would hold a buck, and then just watch a buck do a thing, because there's a good chance, if at least right now, if you see a buck do something, you know you can take advantage of that. In some it might not be the same area, but if you see a buck doing something here, you can take that over here where it's a similar habitat and hopefully you know there's one doing the same thing. Just give you an idea of something going on. And then if I see a buck that I think I can kill, it's like, okay, we need to shift around some dates here for some other stuff and go try to kill the buck.
00:17:15
Speaker 1: So so what's what are the tempts like right now there? Do you know?
00:17:19
Speaker 2: I think it's like mid eighties as
highs and then low sixties, so.
00:17:24
Speaker 1: You think deer would be visible. So maybe in open air with it being.
00:17:31
Speaker 2: It's going to have to be last thirty minutes in first thirty minutes.
00:17:35
Speaker 1: So they're not going to be embedded with a canopy of some sort.
00:17:39
Speaker 2: I think so. But who I mean, I don't know how tall all that CRP type stuff is this year. It could be like real short because it's so dry, and it might just be that might just be nothing land pretty much.
00:17:55
Speaker 1: So yeah, well that could potentially help you. It could, I mean, corns out and the CRP is short, they might just be in the woods, just in the you know what I mean. So then from there, what are your plans after that? After the wedding it's hall but back to Texas and pick up cuppy because we are going to be we haven't really announced cuppy. So can you clarify who there?
00:18:25
Speaker 2: Cuppy is our twenty year old intern. I guess is what he is.
00:18:30
Speaker 1: He's just a pup.
00:18:31
Speaker 2: He's a pup dude. He's just a guy who wants to help out.
00:18:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, just a young man who's helping us out.
00:18:38
Speaker 2: He's hunting right now, so he yeah, you never know, he might have.
00:18:42
Speaker 1: One Kentucky cuppy, No man, Kentucky CuPy of Entucky CuPy. He's hunting out in Kentucky. Uh, he decided to borrow some of our camera equipment so that he could just waste his time. Dan, dude, I hope he kills Come on, Coupy, he'll get to prey and stuff. It'll be worth well. But I was taking on the hunting sense, you know.
00:19:04
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:19:04
Speaker 1: Uh, so you're gonna pick him up and then you're head and wear. We're headed maybe generally we're headed to the state of Missouri. Yeah, yeah, and you're gonna hunt deer.
00:19:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, get after him.
00:19:18
Speaker 1: Are you worried about ticks?
00:19:19
Speaker 2: I'm worried about ticks and mosquitos. We're gonna spray everything down.
00:19:24
Speaker 1: We know the forecast to see what that weather is going to be like in the next very week briefly, but it's just gonna be low eighties, I believe. Yeah, it's it's supposed to warm up here towards the end of this week here in Texas. I think it's supposed to be like upper nineties. And I don't know for sure if that's a warming trend that's just here in the South, or if that's gonna be something that kind of pushes across across a big portion of actually US. You're seeing a cold front. I'm seeing a cold front. That's good. I was wondering if spooky towards the end of the weekend there would be something coming in.
00:20:00
Speaker 2: Saturday low or high of eighty two, Monday low or high seventy.
00:20:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, nice little twelve degree drop. Their be brisk in the mornings. I'm sure ye. That could be good. Man, that could be really good. Give them a little different wind direction and something to move around and start with. But and then from Missouri, what you're playing South Dakota, South Dakota.
00:20:25
Speaker 2: The old element annual trip to South Dakota.
00:20:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you have a tag? I got a tag, and you're gonna kill something? I think, So what's your how are you gonna what's the pattern you're gonna kill one on in South Dakota. Don't be giving.
00:20:42
Speaker 2: I think the safe thing for me to say is bed to food.
00:20:45
Speaker 1: Okay, doing the old thing.
00:20:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you know, there's always the chance in South Dakota, just like I was just talking about, see you one do a thing and just go set up in his path.
00:20:58
Speaker 1: That's kind of like how Eric almost killed in South Dakota last year. I believe if I'm I don't know exactly for sure, but I think I know where he was at, and I think I think it was a pin that I'd send him based off of deer i'd seen do a thing. And then he went in there you know, quick scout as he walked in and hang and had a bucket twenty yards. Yeah, he passed d That's just what casey was a pass No, uh, he was. Yeah, he was forced to pass that deer. He was trying to get really good footage of it, which is something we try to do. And you can get mad about us mess with the camera and tell us to stop all you want, but if you're watching the video that we have to have a camera and get video things.
00:21:40
Speaker 2: Yep.
00:21:41
Speaker 1: So I would say he may could have been a little bit quicker, but anyway, he was not able to get it done and was but it was on the spot, right, he did everything, you know, So he did a good job there. So that's kind of what the next few weeks look like. Get what hey, what kind of archery set up you got right now? What's your what's your arrowweight? Looking like my arraweight?
00:22:06
Speaker 2: I believe it's about five thirty I believe, and it's a little heavier than i'd like. At the moment, I wanted to back it off a little bit, but you know what, sometimes you just got to shoot what you got kind of broadhead, uh, the biggest mechanical I can you have. And and then I also will have some fixed blades in my quiver.
00:22:27
Speaker 1: What kind Oh man, what are those things.
00:22:31
Speaker 2: Called slick tricks? Oh yeah, I got some slick tricks. And I also have I think they're called a VPS, but I don't know the company.
00:22:41
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, VBSVBS. Yah. Yeah, that's pretty cool. If you hit a deer with five thirty when with a VBS, you might not know he's hit.
00:22:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the idea, dude, I want to just have him bound off and just lay over.
00:22:57
Speaker 1: It's a thing. It's a thing, for sure. That's something I've been thinking about lately that when I shot those heavier arrows, like I think I was probably in the five fifty range with a two blade broadhead, I was. I shot a bunch of deer that those two years, like seventy or something. Those two years shot five in one year, and all of them died pretty quickly
really, But they kind of had that thing going on where they almost like didn't for some of them didn't know like they were hit or whatever, and they'd kind of walk off.
00:23:30
Speaker 2: You know, the public land buck I shot in twenty one is that's exactly what happened. Shot him with an iron wheel, single bevel, like six hundred grain arrow and it just he it went through him and he just hopped over. And it was like twenty five seconds. He was just staring at me and I was trying to get another arrow, like shaking out out of my mind because it's November sixteenth. Just shot the buck that I've been hunting and he just fell over and I jumped out of the tree pretty much.
00:23:57
Speaker 1: It's it's kind of weird when they do that. It's it's handy because they don't go far usually if you hit them good, right, but uh, they don't bleed well. So if you don't hit them great and you hit them okay, you might not find that dear. I mean, it's weird, h if you that kind of broadhead, I feel like. So it's it's kind of give and take a little bit, right, Like they're gonna scream out if you shoot them with the big mechanical. A lot of times they're not gonna They're not gonna stop very quickly and look around. They're gonna run until they can't run anymore pretty much, which is usually pretty quick too if you hit them with the big broadhead. So cool man. Well, I'm excited about the next few weeks. We do have several questions to that are part of the Q and A that we did last week that we didn't get to, uh, and a few a few new ones as well, and I wanted to make sure and answer those as we go through here. So we're gonna we're gonna start. I'm gonna ask you some questions. You can ask me some questions, uh and well here, yeah, we need to put them up so we can see them. Are you going up here?
00:25:04
Speaker 2: Me?
00:25:05
Speaker 1: You? All right?
00:25:06
Speaker 2: I got the I got some new ones.
00:25:07
Speaker 1: Okay, Okay, So I'm gonna ask you this question. Okay, since you've been saddle hunting or hunting with Casey and I for the last couple of years, and there's a lot of people in one tree and things, are you worried about how big a backpack looks on the tree? Would the deer see it?
00:25:32
Speaker 2: I think obviously it's situational and if you're in a bunch of vegetation. I think you can get away with a lot more. But yes, in general, I am worried about which I have to carry the biggest backpack you could ever imagine into the woods because we just got camera arms and all types of stuff. But we're always, you know, trying to hide it behind a tree. We're not leaving it dangling off the opposite side so a deer can look up and see it, and really just trying to hide it from wherever.
00:26:05
Speaker 1: You think the deer is going to come in. So I agree, I think that the profile is main is the main problem. It's not necessarily that it sees a backpack, but more that this tree all of a suddenly becomes extremely bulbous at one point. And uh, I
think that again, like you see, the straps is a thing I've been thinking about the last couple of years a lot, because we have straps hanging off of everything up there, including the backpacks, and when the wind blows, they kind of flicker and it causes a movement that I think catches deer's eye, and movement is the main thing. So we try to we try to hide, We try to tuck straps as much as possible, you know, clip the backpack straps, like the belt straps together if that's a thing or whatever, and make sure nothing's just free floating around below you like your saddle platform strap and that kind of thing too, like trying to make sure. I've been a lot more cognizant of that stuff lately. I think, you know, overall, if you can hide that backpack, you know, besides you as much as possible behind the tree and you're sticking out to the side with a saddle or whatever, that's probably a pretty pretty good way to go about things. And just main thing is movement more than anything. If they look up there and you don't move and your backpack doesn't move, then a lot of times you can get away with it.
00:27:22
Speaker 2: You're really just trying to not just give the deer as little opportunity to just stop in a weird place and look at you as possible. Yep, you're a boat guy, so I guess I'll ask you this one bash tracker style or john boat with a tiller, which do you prefer for hunting?
00:27:57
Speaker 1: I don't really like the tiller. I know there's people that are gonna hate me for saying this, and there's dudes that are just tailor to the core, like my wife's uncle. I mean, he has an awesome, like all welded boat, you know, custom boat, and he got a tiller motor for it. You know, he just it's just what he wanted. And I just don't I just don't love it. I don't like the idea of For one, I don't like the idea of freezing my hand off. Yeah, another thing. I mean, I don't know. I just I like the the steering wheel and the console and that kind of thing for wind protection and everything else. It's just kind of my favorite way of thinking about it.
00:28:37
Speaker 2: Do you have any advice on someone hunting in the northeastern part of Kansas?
00:28:44
Speaker 1: I do, I do you. I would say that I'd hunt the rut, yeah, and I would sit in a funnel or pinch between two blocks of timber that neck next down and the timber is really the end strip or there's a creek system right there it or whatever that connects them, and sit there for four days and shoot the buck that makes you really excited when he comes through. And that's I mean, that's what I would do. Honestly, everybody, honestly hunting Kansas early, Like everybody kind of has questions about that a lot of times, and I just don't like it. I don't. I think it could be one of the hardest places to hunt early if unless you have corn on the ground and a deer consistently coming in. So in other words, you have to be in that like not necessarily summer range, but like right after velvet sheds, there's a
dispersion, and it's usually I think it's pretty I don't think it's I think it's like tangent to theirs summer range a lot of times, like even the summer range, some of the bucks will still stay probably the more dominant buck will still say summer range a lot of times, and then sometimes some of those subordinate bucks. This is how I feel about it. I'm not saying there's scients to back this up or whatever, but some of these subordinates will move four hundred and six hundred yards whatever quarter mile right and that's where they'll kind of core out of until the rut and then things kind of get hay wire and they really start to branch out and that kind of thing. So it can be super hard unless you have some like tangent to core range habitat in a buck that's gonna be there eating corn early season in Kansas.
00:30:31
Speaker 2: All right, first year on a deerly So I was thinking about planning a small food plot. But we have cows on the property. How do you keep them out of your spot? Is there something cows won't eat?
00:30:41
Speaker 1: You might know something about this, but I would assume just about anything a deer well eat a calie. One thing that they don't eat well is corn that's spread thin. Their mouth their like lips and mouth are too big to really eat that stuff farewell. So if you spread corn pretty thin, you know, that's a good way to do things. That's not a food plot, obviously, it's pretty intensive. Once the deer eat it in five days, you got to go back and put it back out, right. But if you plant something and there's cows around, they're going to try to get in. The best way to keep them out is probably electric fence. It's probably the cheapest and most effective option. But you'd have to have landoder permission, right, so you have to ask them about that, say, and I think a lot of people are pretty used to that. It's kind of a common practice. Is food plotting on properties that have cows. So you got anything that.
00:31:36
Speaker 2: We built, We built one, or you guys did. I wasn't there, but you guys built one in Kansas last year. Just a little pin for the cornpile to be in and it worked for most of the year. I mean by the end of the year they figured a way in.
00:31:51
Speaker 1: Well, there's like one cow that would get in there.
00:31:53
Speaker 2: One calf I think got in and it just ripped the panel up. It worked pretty good. Yeah, just that was real simple, just like two strands of barbarire. Yeah.
00:32:02
Speaker 1: I mean, if you really want to get after it and drive a bunch of fence posts for a food plot, you can barbed wire it out. You know. If the land owners go with that, it just is gonna take some more work.
00:32:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, takes some time.
00:32:12
Speaker 1: We were beat after putting that together, for sure. Michael. What are what Midwest states have the best public land hunting opportunities for OU to state hunters?
00:32:23
Speaker 2: This is a loaded question right here. The best opportunity any OTC Midwestern state? Really that's the best opportunity. Now, I'm not saying it's the best opportunity to shoot a giant buck, but if you're just going there to shoot a buck that makes you excited when he's coming in. I feel like if you look at any of those OTC states and you hunt, it's not gonna be the most fun hunt, but you can find your not during the rut, that's when you're gonna have the most opportunity. I guess you could say it's not probably what I would spend my most all the time on if I only had two weeks.
00:33:01
Speaker 1: But I'll say this, I think there's a couple that don't I don't love for public, and I'll say those instead, and the rest of them are pretty good. I think we might agree on one of them. Indiana.
00:33:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Yeah, that's the one I would say stay away from.
00:33:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would stay away from that, and I'd probably stay away from Minnesota. I would probably stay away from Michigan too. But we did go to a map Scout challenge up there in like three days. We had a really nice but like poping young type of deer on camera, right, I mean not in a I mean literally one hundred yards off the road. So interesting. Yeah, I mean I think maybe early season Michigan might be okay, But I think once the once people get to deer hunting. I think it's pretty pressured.
00:33:52
Speaker 2: From what I understand that first cold front, it sounds like the woods are just full of.
00:33:57
Speaker 1: People in Michigan. I mean, that's what sounds like. But then again, some people who live there and hunt there want to make it sound worse than it is. They're experts. But I'm kidding kind of.
00:34:09
Speaker 2: It's okay.
00:34:10
Speaker 1: You don't have to like Michigan. I don't. I mean, who does you know? What I mean? No, I'm gonna think about this. I think that's gonna be like, that's probably gonna be the three that I would mention as being tough. Tough. Obviously, Iowa is not really an opportunity state because it's not OTC. It's draw But once you get it, you've got quite a bit of public land in certain parts of the state, and you don't need much there because it's just so incredible, right And don't put in for it because it'll take you, you know, over By the time you start putting in for it right now, it's gonna be a decade before you can draw some of them.
00:34:49
Speaker 2: It's probably don't even try to y'all. So for I type to half a question here, it's all right, I got one for you. How do you pinpoint predominantly use buck beds in late September and early October.
00:35:08
Speaker 1: I try to answer every question. Yeah, and I try to get my best answer to every question, because I know there's intentions and things that are hopefully people are hoping to get things out of these This is a tough question, and I'll start with this. If you listen to podcast much, you probably understand that we don't really we probably don't hardly ever think about buck betting. I don't think
it's sort of a myth in my mind outside of a few places that are particular in the US that a buck would use a bed over and over and over again every day. But there's buck betting areas, and so that's what I tend to focus on. The way to pinpoint those buck betting areas, in my experience, would be to find thick habitat like high stem count dogwood, thickets, willows, sum mac, whatever it might be, chicken, salt plum, you know, thickets or whatever that is. Depending on the time of year. Anywhere from a half mile to a mile from a food source that's tent tends to be a little bit more where the bucks might hang out. Sometimes it can be closer, and then the doors will be a little bit closer than a half mile a lot of times. So that's my best best thoughts. I mean, if we're talking about September and early October, you know, it's still kind of warm, they might not travel a mile. They don't need to because they haven't been pressured as much too, So you know, half mile is probably good place to start. I would think that's in that food source. You know, most of the time I'm thinking about commercial agg not necessarily like a wide oak tree or whatever. You know. So any o, the thoughts about that.
00:36:58
Speaker 2: If I had an answer to that question, dude, i'd have a wall like yours.
00:37:03
Speaker 1: That's all I got to say about that. Yeah, it's a tough one man, all right.
00:37:08
Speaker 2: Do you have any tips to get in the tree fast with a saddle set up?
00:37:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, rubber wire on your saddle and putting some sticks on there and stuff.
00:37:19
Speaker 2: Rubber wire has saved me in the tree a bunch because I often forget things and it's like, if I have my rubber wire, we'll be okay. Figure it out. Figure out how to hang the bag.
00:37:30
Speaker 1: Hang stuff on your rubber wire and go up with sticks and everything else. I usually hang two sticks before I really start to take my stuff off the ground, so I'll hang to get up there, and I've got everything off the ground and I can. I mean, we don't have to with a cameraman. You don't have to do it like we used to have.
00:37:46
Speaker 2: To do it as much recommendation for a deer cleaning video. Hoping to get to clean for the first time.
00:37:54
Speaker 1: I just did a quick search on this. Deer meat for dinner has like a three minute videos probably worth watching. The Bearded Butchers. I don't think they have like a gut video, but like they have a lot of stuff on you know, how to break down the meat that's really pretty handy. I wonder if oh Jesse Griffis says anything out there. I don't know that stuff is hard to put on the internet and not get just.
00:38:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was about to say we should we should help him with that, but all right, one more question. I believe, what do you look for in addition to shooting lanes and trails when picking the right tree? This is a is a great question to be asked to you. Yeah, because I am oftentimes watching you make decisions picking trees, just like what's going.
00:38:40
Speaker 1: On that guy right now? I wish I I wish I could focus on that and still explain to you what I'm thinking. Sometimes I just cannot do it at all. But so a couple of things that There's always different things I'm considering. But one thing I'm considering is what is the buck going to be doing if he comes past this location? Why would he come past this location? Well because he's heading to a food source, or well because he's he's scent checking this thicket in front of me. That does tend to frequent. So depending on what he's doing, I know how he might use the wind or what his concern with the wind would be. So in fact, in the rut versus like early season, a deer is gonna be way more cognizant of what the wind is doing than he would during early season. In early season, they'll go if they haven't been pressured, they'll go with the wind at their back. You know, if they got their their pattern and they've been going to this food source and nothing's bothering them all summer, then they're gonna do that until something bothers them or until the testosterone reaches rut levels. So I'm thinking about, like what is the wind doing? So this is how you pick which trail that deer is gonna come by on a lot of times? Is he gonna? Is he gonna smell those dough beds from here? Is he gonna?
00:39:59
Speaker 2: You know?
00:40:00
Speaker 1: Also a big part of it is how can I get shots to all the trails? Because if there's two or three trails, I want to try to be able to shoot them all because there's also just not a guarantee that a deer is gonna always do something. So if I can get shots to all the deer then or all the trails at some point before my wind hits them, right, there may be one downwind of me, I'm gonna I'm gonna that's the tree I'm gonna sit in. And if I get one come down that trail down wind of me, I just got to shoot him for he gets to my wind. So I do that a lot. Actually I shoot I don't shoot deer before you get to my tree or my wind. But I plan to have that option as a plan or as like a backup plan, you know, for things that are not perfectly you know, not going perfect your way. I would say another thing I'm thinking about, you know, is there a scrape nearby and can I shoot to that? Are doe is gonna be coming by first, which a lot of times they are in any season in the rut, they're gonna be chased or kind of driven by, and you can get away with a dough going through your wind. Sometimes if she's getting chased, especially like if she's in a hurry. If she's not in a hurry, then that's that's trouble. So like early season, it's really hard to just let your wind blow out a trail instead of you know, backing up into a tree that has all three of them on the up wind side, all three trails on the up one side, and shooting at it. So I'm trying to think what else I'm also thinking about where to put the cameraman. Yeah, a lot of times.
00:41:39
Speaker 2: I think One that I didn't
really think about too much, maybe a little bit before I joined the element was what angle the like, what angle shot the deer is gonna give you? So is it gonna be a quarter two shot? Probably shouldn't get in that tree because it's gonna be a tough shot. Where his shoulder's gonna be closed off or is it gonna be a quarter away, which is money just what everybody wants.
00:42:01
Speaker 1: So yeah, ideally you can make that slightly quartered away shot happen.
00:42:06
Speaker 2: Which sometimes you can't. You know, sometimes you just gotta do a.
00:42:11
Speaker 1: Live Yeah, just be like, I'm gonna shoot a frontel instead of a quarter two, you know, at fourteen yards or whatever. So uh yeah, just the best the best tree, the tree that the deer is within bow range of when you can you're able to get a shot for you get your in is the one that you want to be in. So don't go and sit in a tree just because it looks like a good stand tree. You go sit in a tree that's on the X as they say, yep, that's that's the key. Yep. Let me just let me just check real quick. I want to make sure. There's a question should you revive a mock scrape. Let's see a week or so old, uh oh, and mock up a scrape, So revive a scrape. I'm game for that for sure. I think it's hard to tell how old that stuff is sometimes, and I like, I will definitely revive a scrape if I feel like I can shoot to it and that it's a good spot.
00:43:01
Speaker 2: We do that in on Texas Public every year. Yeah, we'll go out there and check cam.
00:43:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, we started a mock scrape years ago and then we go out there and revive that scrape. We've revived it every year, and it's we've seen great stuff happen on that that camera. Let's see. Uh, people are wanting to know about the some some first slide, but I don't know what they're talking about exactly there. Uh, people want to know this guy. I wants to know good Bino's for a combo of deer and el counning, not breaking the bank, been really digging the sig. So our stabilized binoculars lately, I have a set of eights. I wish I had some twelves. Uh, but the eights are with the stabilization. Man, it's it's game changer for like scanning. So I really like those. It's gonna be hard to go back from those two regular so that's probably gonna be Let's see this guy says thoughts on the wind being harder when hunting from the ground and how to mitigate the risk. Mm hmm. I'd say that the wind isn't necessarily harder when hunting from the ground. It's more I mean, people like to think of their wind blowing over deer, I think, but I think that would be the only thing that's really harder. So the thing is on the ground, you can you can navigate around at a deer in particular to get the wind where you need it to blow instead of blowing over the top of them. With a tree, you just kind of have to hope if they come by you. Right, So, best bow and complete rig for under one thousand dollars, man, that's I think any bow you can find used that's fully decked out for under a thousand, if it's one of the main you know, flagship seven or eight. There's like the three year old flagship bows are not that. I mean, it's difficult to find a place like on the internet to bribe. That's because it's just hard to make it. Everybody takes them down. But like the three year old flagship bows are still shooters at this point. Like rotexts, the SR three fifty that you guys shot a million deer with is three years old, and yeah one of those is, oh yeah, for sure, I shot a. I shot a ten year old bow for a while. You can watch me shoot deer with it on the element and it worked just fine. You know. It's nice to have a little extra speed, a little smoother everything, and this and that. But at the end of the day, those bows are built to last for a while and shoot well. And that way that company has a good reputation. Right, Get your new string and it'll be a shooter. Yep. Michael. As you travel, I wish you safe travels, and I hope you do find that one sixty five for me, you know, Ohio, going to I'm gonna find three of them, one for you, one for me, one for Casey. Don't find one for Casey. He's out there just having babies.
00:46:06
Speaker 2: You'll find it for the new baby.
00:46:07
Speaker 1: That's okay, perfect, Yeah, it'll be It'll be the twelve years old whenever he starts hunting. Yeah. Oh man. Well, I appreciate y'all listening. Hope you got some answers to your questions. And if you need any answers to your questions anything that we didn't answer, feel free to shoot us at DM Guys. Subscribe if you like the podcast, we appreciate it. If you're a new listener, don't forget. We're on retfresh Over. I wired to hunt every week, giving a report from across the US for anything and anybody who's interested. Anyway, guys, I appreciate the listen. Remember this is your element, baby,