Ep. 60: Kansas Archery Whitetails with Dirk and Jason
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They've got ranches, forests, mountains, streams, you name it. Search by acreage. You can search by location. You can search by the kind of hunting and fishing you're dreaming of. Land.com. It is where the adventure begins. Welcome back to another episode of Cutting the Distance Podcast. I'm Dirk Durham and my co-host, Jason Phelps. Hey, thanks for having me again. This is a common, I'm a common guest for you. Yeah, uncommonly common.

I think it's the low-hanging fruit. You're not digging deep for experts on the subject matter. We just happened to be hunting together the last couple weeks, and you're like, hey, I'll get Phelps on there. It'll be easy. But I definitely do not claim to be an expert on the subject today. I don't know. You've kind of been saying all week about what a whitetail expert you were. You might have been a little bit braggadocious about it, but anyway. Anyway.

We're in Kansas whitetail hunting. It's we got here November 14th and tomorrow's the 22nd and we're wrapping things up heading home. It's been a crazy week and we last year we were here about a week earlier and I feel like we've seen different activity every day as far as deer movement. So

One of the biggest factors that's different this year, though, besides the time, is also the weather we're having. It's been hot. Like when we first got here, I think we had three days that the highs were in the 70s. And in the mornings, it was probably in the 40s. So you had to dress kind of warm for the mornings. But then by the time you were getting ready to get out of the stand to go to lunch, you're probably trying to shed some layers. Yeah.

Yeah, it was, it was unseasonably hot. We came from last year, teens, the low twenties, you know, high pressure all the time, North winds, which they claim around here, you know, for the same temperature, you ain't got some moisture in them tend to be cooler coming to this year.

I want to hunt in shorts and a t-shirt. I don't want to be out. It is hot in the middle of the day, but then you had to start off with those 40 degree days. So very contrasting weather. We show up very hot to start the hunt. And we'll get into it a little bit more about how you couple that weather with our...

timing with the rut you know last year we were here 10 days earlier this year we're here 10 days later kind of seemed to hit that peak rut lockdown phase and all of that added together with some of the other issues you know drought and ehd we're going to talk about a little bit at the end of this it rolled up to see less deer moving less deer in general um

perceived less deer, you know, all of those things, which made for longer days in the stand a little bit more of a, I don't want to say frustrating hunt. It's still hunting. I have a, I have a blast just watching the woods wake up and squirrels doing their, you know, whatever it is. But in the end, you really want to see, you know, deer and hopefully get a chance at big deer chase and be completely different weather when we showed up here. Yeah. And in fact, like the first evening, Dusty and I sat in the stand, then I had these big heavy fleece coveralls, uh,

bibs and a jacket. And man, I took the jacket off. I unzipped the, unzipped the, the bibs clear to my ankles. And Dusty's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's way too much skin for, for this close of contact in a blind. But it was that hot, man. I was going to die if I didn't. Contrast to the year before, but,

we couldn't hardly put off, put on enough clothes. Um, I had some new bibs that didn't get shipped to my house in time. I had my, I had to have my wife send them here about the day we were heading back. They got here about the same day we were heading back. So I was kind of cold in the blind last year. So, yeah. Yeah. It seemed like moon phase two didn't really seem to come into play at all. It was kind of a darker moon all week. You get kind of a little sliver, you know, a lot of people hinge everything they do on a moon phase, but,

Um, I feel like that's a pretty good moon phase for deer movement. Uh, they weren't up all night, you know, partying. No, no, it seemed to, we didn't really notice that. Um, you know, the other thing moon phase is we drive around, go to dinner, you know, you can, if it was affecting it, you'd see more deer in the fields. It just seemed to kind of be a real consistent number. So I wouldn't, um, from what we've seen versus trail cameras that we're able to check, like all that added up to the moon phase really didn't, you know, drastically impact the hunt, I would say for sure. Yeah.

In our stands, they were more set up for like the feeding pattern, you know, for maybe pre-rut or post-rut, but not like that peak rut time. And the reason is we have a shooter and a cameraman, so you have to have two people. And it's kind of limited. It's kind of hard to, we're not on a guided hunt or anything. We're just hunting at a friend's house and he had some stands he hadn't hung before. But it'd be a lot of work and hard to get additional stands set up

Um, and some of those travel corridors and places like that where we might've seen a little more deer movement. Um, but we didn't, we weren't really set up for, for a two guy setup. So, um, next year or next time, I don't know if we'll draw the tag again, but next time we're definitely going to, um, come prepared with maybe some tree saddles for the camera guys. And then they can just pitch up a, up a tree wherever. And, um, and.

and be more mobile that way. I'm stoked. We, Randy seemed to be real excited on, uh, you know, next spring, if we can draw a turkey tag, it sounds like we're gonna have to draw a ding turkey tag now in Kansas where we used to just be able to buy one. So that's a little wrench, but Randy seemed really excited to, uh,

um, work when we're here next spring on the turkey hunt, if we can draw it to like go, he wants to kind of almost like a re-inventory of stands, pull down stands that he doesn't hunt anymore, figure out what he's got, and then really look at some, some rut stand placement, you know, really come down to the pitch points. Now that he's owned the properties for more than 20 years, he's really got it dialed in compared to some of his old stands that he doesn't hunt. And so it'll be exciting to be a part of that where I feel like

Right now, we show up and just hunt what he already has put together, where if we can be somewhat a part of that or help him make decisions. You know, he's even been asking us, now don't get me wrong, Randy knows his deer better than anybody does, but for us to get to sit in stands for days at a time and say, you know, hey, I think these deer want to come down this ridge. They're traveling over there. They're hanging out there. I think if we set a stand there, we could get shots there.

at some of these more mature bucks, like to have a little bit of input on some stand placement will be way more rewarding to come back and hunt those. And, you know, like you said, next time, whether it is next year, um, or the following year, um, I think that'll be like a cool aspect right now. We're just, uh,

We just show up and hunt the stands that Randy already has placed versus to have a little input will be a blast. And I think it'll just be exciting, especially if we do end up coming back in the rut to be able to, like we needed to be tighter to bedding. We needed to be down in those pinch points, travel corridors, where a lot of these stands were set up

Randy says it all the time. He asks him, he's like, I kill my deer earlier, I kill my deer late. I don't typically play that peak rut because things are so unpredictable. But I don't know. I think if we do show up, it'd be fun to have a chance to just, you know,

witness that or be in an area to take advantage of that that crazy time no absolutely that's and that's half the fun or a lot of the fun is just is doing the off-season work you know I have so much fun you know for doing that with elk trying to figure them out in the summertime you know putting cameras out and doing all the all the work I think you know

identifying those places here, coming back in the springtime, putting up stands, clearing out some shooting lanes, doing all those things, and then coming back and getting to hunt those stands. I mean, that'd be so rewarding, so much fun. And it's just like, you know, then you feel like you got more skin in the game too. And then you feel like, you know, it's like, man, Randy, yeah,

he's got to do all this work by himself. And I kind of feel like a jerk showing up here, you know, just reaping the fruits of his labor. Right. So, um, I think it'd be awesome if we could come out and, and help do some of those things. And just, just to help him clean. I,

I don't want to say clean up, but he's got ladder stands kind of scattered all over and this lock on here. And just to help, it's a lot of work to get some of these stands into some of these areas. Just to put in some sweat equity of like, hey, Randy, we'll go in and grab that stand or we'll take this stand down. Just to help and then have a little bit of input, I think it's part of that.

that, um, you know, pre-work that, that goes into, to making the hunt so much fun and enjoyable and being in the right spot or on the X. Yeah. Yeah. And if you got three or four guys doing the work, um,

It's way easier than just one or two. I mean, that's, that's a lot of work. Yeah. I mean, you, I don't know. I don't know if Randy, like the amount of property he has and how many stands, like it's, it's a lot of work to manage the property that Randy has. And so I'd love to be able to give back a little bit and help him if we can. Yeah, absolutely. Just to kind of like talk a little bit more about the kind of deer there is here, you know,

Randy manages property for mature bucks, right? So he doesn't say, all right, guys, you can only shoot 170 inch buck. He doesn't talk about that. He's like, I just want you guys to shoot mature bucks. So we don't want to shoot like three and a half year old deer.

Um, he's like, I really love you guys to shoot like a five and a half year old deer. So we're, which kind of creates a little, it makes it a little bit tougher when, when deer come into the stand. Cause immediately, you know, you're assessing, you know, a four and a half year old deer can have a pretty nice rack. And a lot of times they could be on that borderline of like in a year or two, that's going to be a giant. So, um,

He just really wants us to kind of look, you know, assess the body. You know, does it have a barrel chest? Does it have a saggy belly? Does it have a sway back? Does it have a big beefy head? Looks like a moo cow. You know, all these little things to identify to make sure it's a mature deer before you squeeze the trigger. So that creates...

A little bit of an issue because a lot of times these bucks, you know, they're coming in and they're looking for does. And a lot of these stands, you know, they're set up in a food plot or there's maybe some corn or something there set out to draw does in. So the bucks come in, look for does. They're not going to come over and eat any corn, but they're just mostly keying in for does. So they'll come in and here's my experience. They'll come in.

And they won't expose themselves 100%, so you don't have a shot when they come in and pause, and they'll kind of look, and they'll look for dough. And then they scan the area real quick.

And then the first couple of times this happened to me, I'd be like, all right, okay, check out his body. Look at this. Look at that. Should I shoot him? Should I not shoot him? And by the time I've decided I was going to shoot him, he's already moved out. He's gone. The opportunity, if there would have been one, is gone. So what I had to end up start doing is like, as soon as I would see one, I would draw my bow back. And then I would start really start picking him apart, looking at him and trying to make that decision whether or not,

I would want to shoot him. And then sometimes even then you, it was, it was tough. So it's, it was kind of, you know, these fleeting opportunities. You have to be quick on the draw and you have to, you know, he has to walk in the right spot for you to shoot one out of a, out of a blind or even a tree. Yep. Yeah. We, the same thing, um,

One thing I've realized is ranging on flat ground, if you are in a food plot, most of them are flat. You might think that deer is two steps behind, but he's eight yards off. It messed with my mind. I hated everything about that because you've got 50 landmarks out there. This tuft of grass is 38 and this low spot is 50. But you would think that something that was two feet behind it is only...

It's not. And so I had a heck of a time trying to judge those. Shooting out of a tree stand for me seems to be a lot easier. I've got freedom of movement. They don't seem to be looking at me up there as much. I can get away with more. These ground blinds, I swear...

Now these redneck type blinds or these elevated ground blinds that we've got spread out. We're not in them all the time, but they're spread out throughout the property. I swear they know you're in there. The second they are in like visible range, those dang deer know that something's in there. They know the windows open something like they're just not right.

um, you know, from the time that they walk out. But, um, so you add that with the ability of your, you know, these chairs, they, no matter how quiet you try to get them, they squeak. Um, they do. So it's like everything I'm, I'm a nervous wreck in there. Like, I don't know if I could move. I don't know if I can blink. I don't know if I can grab my binoculars. You add all that into like what Dirk just said, these bucks aren't,

Now, there may be feed at some of these locations. They don't care about that. The only reason they're there, because the feed brings in some does at times, and so they're scent checking. But those deer are scent checking. If they don't smell anything within three or four seconds, five, ten seconds, they're out, and you don't ever have a possibility. And so you couple all this with, can I move? Can I range this thing fast enough? Can I get my bow drawn? Shooting out of a blind is...

Doesn't seem to be the easiest thing to do. One thing I kind of watched those bucks do this week is they'd come by the, let's say there's a corn pile there. They come by there. They're looking for does. They don't even walk up to the corn pile. They bypass it. So they're not even getting caught on camera, on the trail camera. And then I watched them like kind of pause out there and then they'd scoop up a few little acorns and

And eat those and munch on those, like on the way. It's almost like they just kind of snack along as they go. Yeah. Instead of like going to the corn pile. I don't know if they just don't like it. Or if it's just, it's too much of a hindrance. They just don't want to slow down and eat. But I did have some little bucks come in and eat corn.

So you just, you never know, I guess. Yeah. Those big bucks, just the, a lot of times what we see them do is they will cruise the entire timber patch on the downwind side of where that corn may be. You know, they're going to run that entire length or stretch or however they can wind check that the fastest and most efficient. And then they're, they're not stopping to eat corn. Right. They may go check on it visually. Like you said, just check on it. Are there does there, if not, if they can't wind check it, then they're out. Right.

And that wind, the wind is a huge thing. So us Western hunters, we have our thermals that we hunt off of. But back here in the Midwest, it's so flat, you know, if you have an Eastern wind, pretty flat.

you can almost pretty much guarantee that everywhere on your property, you're going to have an Eastern wind, right? Yeah. Unless you get down over into some little, little coolies and creeks and some bluffs and it may make things kind of swirl a little bit. But, um, so that, that's another level of like, okay, you have to consider where you're going to, which stand you're going to sit in. Maybe you've got some really big bucks on this stand that you've been seeing on trail camera, uh,

But the wind's wrong and you can't hunt it. Yep. And so rather than blow, go in there and hunt it and blow them out of there, then you're looking at other stands that maybe not be quite as ideal, but still do have deer on them. But, um,

let's face it, you're not going to just sit back at camp, sit on the couch and watch TV all day because you don't have a perfect wind. You'll just go hunt the stands that you can have a perfect wind for that particular stand. Yeah. We come out here, limited days, you've got seven days to hunt. You're going to be in a stand every day, every morning, every night, if not a full day sit. And so you've got to be out there. And one thing that was different than last year, the majority of the winds we got were north, which is a preferred wind here.

Um, this year, I think, I don't know, we got what every day besides the last day and a half. And maybe we had one day, like the third day, right? We had a North wind. Everything else has been out of the South, which not that Randy doesn't have great South stands, but I would say the majority of his stands are set up for a North wind. And we just, so it required us to hunt some, some stands that maybe, um,

um they're still good but they're not as good as some of his north stands that he'd prefer to have us in while we're here right i think that's just kind of how the the woods kind of lay out and deer movement lays out too to where they're going to move under their preferred areas and that north wind is going to be to our benefit and if it ain't that north wind then then it's going to be the deer's benefit um like for instance this morning

Um, was it definitely a different morning than yesterday? Yesterday we had more of an East wind. This morning was a North, North, Northwest wind. And the deer were definitely moving different in that little block of woods. Um, they were skirting along that, that South end of the woods, um, kind of like in a fringe area. You, you kind of transition from a, um, from a hardwood stand into like kind of some scrubby pasture land. Um, so they were walking right down along that edge, um,

Uh, and they can sent check that whole stand of woods just by walking that line. Um, yesterday they couldn't have done that. They'd had, they'd had to move differently. And you can tell just by today where they came in, how they, how they moved through there. Then that north wind, it was just money. Yep.

yeah high pressure north wind we seemed to get everything we needed tonight and the deer deer moved right um they were more comfortable moving in that um coming off of that low pressure in that little storm system definitely what i seen as well on where i was at yeah

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So this morning was pretty overcast, cold, pretty windy. And then the winds picked up even more this afternoon and then it turned off.

bright skies cleared off, cleared off real nice. Still a little bit of wind, but these deer here in Kansas kind of like a little bit of wind, 10 to 15 mile an hour winds. They seem to be comfortable with it. Yeah. And, you know, we hunted here last year, Chris Parrish, Randy, like them Kansas deer, they love their wind. Um, you know, they don't want to hunt on a five mile an hour wind day. They want to hunt on a 10 to 15 and the deer here, they're used to the wind. They're comfortable with it. Um, coming out of the North team seems to be,

you know, just what you need as a hunter covers up some more of your sound, um, makes you a little more comfortable. So it's like the perfect, perfect wind. It seems like here. Yeah. So once things cleared off this afternoon, we got in our stands. What happened in your stand? Um,

So we get there about one last night of the hunt. You look at your watch, you're like, all right, I've got four hours and 15 minutes to sit here. Like last hurrah. Get started pretty slow. We're greeted to start with by a group of about 10 turkeys from our left. Ended up having about 30 turkeys coming from behind us to our right.

If that wasn't enough, then the group of 10 longbeards all showed up. So we ended up with about 50 or 60 turkeys in our food plot right off the bat. It sounds like that scene off Anchorman when Ron Burgundy gets jumped by the night news team and then pretty soon the public broadcasting news team and then the Hispanic...

broadcasting news team and they all had their big gang fight. Seems like that's kind of like what was going on with the turkeys. Yeah, so the one group of hands, so

We don't want the hens out there when the deer come in a lot of times. We've just found out sometimes. I don't know why. The deer don't want to put up with the turkeys out there. The turkeys are kind of a little bossy around the field, flap their wings at them, get close, kind of run them off. So we kind of stick our face out the blinds and wave our hats and make some weird noises, and we got all of them out of the field. So we're ready to deer hunt now. Heck with these turkeys. We'll hunt them in April.

We have a little doe come in, same trail we walked on. She gets behind her stand. For some reason, she doesn't cut out into the... We're sitting on a freshly planted food plot. I think it's got oats out there. So real low, just sitting on a food plot. Comes behind us, wins us. I'm like, wow, that wasn't ideal. She's supposed to come out in front of us. We have great wind for this food plot. Then we're greeted by one of the bucks we knew was in the area. He comes out at about 70 to 80 yards per...

out to my left and doesn't he's chasing he's just running these ridges he has no intention of slowing up he's gone he leaves the field at about 100 yards and sit there for another 20 minutes you're like come on like

shadows are hitting the field, like deer should be moving now. We got a little micro eight-point show up. So for anybody back west, and it depends on where you're at out west, where I'm from, I would call it a three-point with eye guards. Dirk would count the eye guards and call it a four-point.

And I will call it Eastern count a micro eight point. So very small, like 12 inch year and a half old deer, maybe good genetics. But he walks out a little more nervously, kind of gets down to where that buck crossed and he follows him. So maybe a hot doe went through there earlier, maybe just their travel route out. So we're sitting there waiting and Dave kind of jokingly says, next year comes out, it'll be the shooter. I'm like, yeah, right. No.

What are the chances of that? Just, you know, there'll be a doe and then maybe he'll come out later. So we're sitting there, um, maybe 20 minutes goes by. It's about four 30. I'm sitting in the blind. And if you haven't set these redneck blinds before you've got a archery window kind of in the corner and archery window in the corner, and then you've got what I would consider like a gun window in the middle. Um,

So I sit in the left side of the blind because as a right-handed shooter, I can shoot out the right window. I can shoot out the front. And then if I needed to, I can kind of lean forward and shoot out the window to my left. But as I'm sitting in my chair, I don't have much visibility out of this archery window to my left. That's kind of Dave's window. But I can hear something coming at about 430 to my left. I'm close to it. I'm like, Dave, something's out my window. We're kind of sitting there looking. All of a sudden, the doe kind of squirts out. So we both see her at the same time. Oh, there's a doe.

not thinking there's a buck like she just ran out the field she's ready to eat and be excited to be there and then dave i don't remember exactly what he says but he does not um he doesn't convince me that it's a shooter buck he makes something he's like he's right there or something to that effect like there's a buck obviously but i don't know what it is um

And then in all my genius, getting the blind set up, I've knocked my arrow and set it down on the gun holder that takes up the majority, or it's sitting right next to that front left window where I need to go grab my bow. So I'm in a position where I've just got to let this thing walk out.

I can't reach for my bow. I'm going to scare it before we get started. As soon as he flashes through that window, though, I'm like, oh, it's a shooter. It's a good nine, you know, mature buck. Easily identify him four and a half plus, maybe older, but I'm going to guess four and a half, five and a half max. But a good nine point buck. I want to shoot it. Randy would be happy for me to shoot this buck.

That doe that squirted out to our left, we've got a little island of brush out in front of us. So you've got like a clear lane down your left, a clear lane out to your right, and then you've got this, Randy had left a pile of brush in the middle of his food plot. The doe kind of zigzags her way through that and pops out on the other side while the buck kind of slowly picks up, follows her. Well, she doesn't like him following her, so she comes back through the brush to where she just came.

that should put him at about 15 yards well she comes at me and then winds right in front of the she comes kind of a diagonal towards me to my left she gets there and then winds out well he's grunting the whole way coming right back following her so while he's in this brush pile it's a perfect time for me to draw silently i'm drawn looking out my left window and uh that buck comes around the corner like 15 but he's moving too fast you know there's there's no i don't want to shoot a frontal um

He's going to fall to dough in front of our blind and he gets to, he's at like 12 yards right now. Right. And these blinds, I think the one I'm in is maybe a 10 or 12 foot elevated platform. Not real tall. Some of them are 15. Some of them even go up to 20, but I'm just in a 10 or 12, which is actually helps in this situation where I've got to try to shoot down at this deer. So I'm already at full draw. I put my, my pin at 20.

right where I want to hit. And I'm just kind of getting ready to, to, is he's broadside right in front of the blind. And I just happened to glance down at my arrow and I'm like, Oh boy, my arrow was just going to blow out the side of Randy's fiberglass blind. Right? Like the arrow is not going to make it through where my pin says it's going to hit. Right. So I, I don't panic, but I quickly need to like stand up or sit up as tall as you can in your seat. I need to get that extra two or three inches out of my torso. You know, I go to lift my bow up.

Not to add to the situation, I bumped my stabilizer on the little gun shelf that sticks out about two inches from the window. A pro tip, maybe if you're a Western hunter and you think these long 10-inch stabilizers are great, maybe in a...

a white tail blind, you switch to a four inch stabilizer. I don't know. I'm thinking our 34 inch bows could be a little shorter. Yeah. I mean, it's just everything. My, my 32 inch arrow is a pain in the butt until you get your bow drawn. Like everything is tight, but I drill the, the, the platform that's in front of this window, the little shelf.

I don't know why the buck didn't care, but I drill it, and he doesn't even pick his head up, skip a beat, nothing. He was in love. So me quickly now panicking worse because the buck is continually getting more quartered away, right, as he goes from my left to my right. I pull my bow back at full draw, lift up an extra inch, and then come back forward. As I get my bow forward, he's still at a shootable range.

he's slowly walking um i settled my 20 in and hit him um quartered away pretty good but but had perfect chance of hitting both lungs and hit the arrow right where i needed to um fortunately watched him um trot across the field i could see where my exit was perfect in the pocket my entry had foam coming out of it um we were able to watch a buck within a minute go over and bed down and expire so uh

Last minute of the last night. It's so cliche to say, but it's like it's just time in the saddle. It just goes to show that

white tone and i don't claim to be an expert you hear a lot of the pros talk about it it's just timing the saddle either that and picking your weather and being at the right place at the right time so i'm super super lucky and uh that was right i was texting you guys i had shot one right before your night was just getting going and i felt it was a little bit late but your night was just kind of getting started yeah we hadn't really seen a lot um up into that point but uh

we had this buck that we spotted working a scrape along the edge of the field and, um, along the fence row there. And he had a pretty bad limp, you know, he, he was a mature buck. His rack wasn't real big, but, um,

um, we'd seen him before and Randy's like, yeah, Hey, if you get a chance to shoot that thing, you should take him out because with him limping and stuff like that, he may not make the winner. So, um, we do that buck a favor. So that, that buck actually comes in and there's a feeder there. Um, and there's a little, a little button buck feed eating corn out of this feeder. And, um,

this, this bigger buck, he starts coming in. And then the last minute before, you know, he's about 50 yards out from the feeder. Then he makes this wide berth and he gets out in the standing corn. And then he comes in at a straight angle to this feeder and he gets pretty close. And all of a sudden he gets jumpy and spooky. Well, at that very moment, I was putting tension on my string, getting ready to draw. Cause he needed to take like two more steps and I was going to have a shot.

Well, I don't know why he spooked. Cause he spooked. He was like looking towards that other little deer or that direction, which was away from us. He almost had his nose in the air. Like he was smelling something. I don't know if he smelled like he thought that little buck was a doe and that, that kind of freaked him out. Or maybe there was a coyote in the, you know, over in the, in the corn somewhere that we couldn't see, but he, he kind of freaked out and he took off and we're down to the wire there, you know, where the last 30 minutes of light is.

And I was just like, oh, no. And I was super deflated, like, man, I don't know if I'm going to get a buck. We only have 30 minutes left. Now the odds are really stacked against us. So we watched him kind of walk off. And about that time, the phone started buzzing.

Well, during that whole episode, the phone was buzzing. The first message I look at, it's a message from Randy, and he's got a trail cam picture, and he says, man, I feel bad. I bet Dierks would be sad. I feel bad for him. And where Dusty and I have been sitting for a day and a half on this other blind, then there's this big old eight-point buck that we'd been kind of seeing off and on all week.

And we were just hoping, you know, to get a crack at him. And as soon as we moved from that blind, that buck shows up, uh, would have been a perfect 20 yard shot. We did, we did, we did nailed him. Um, so then that was like insult to injury. I was like, oh man, I'm like, you know, what's the chances, you know, that if it's going to happen to anybody, it'll be me. Right.

So then I'm looking at my other message and I'm like, oh, oh, great. Jason shot an elk. Oh, good for him. A buck. Or no, did I say elk? Yeah. Sorry. Yeah, good. He shot a buck. Good for him. But I was actually pretty pumped for him. I was like, that's good. So one of us needed to draw some blood. It's been, you know, kind of a tough hunt, not to complain, but it's been a tough hunt. Yeah. And so I was just kind of sitting there licking my wounds a little bit thinking, well, this is how the

you know the the the hunt ends you know watching the pretty sunset fade away and the gray light was getting pretty long and and i sketched this the shape of a deer up at the end of this field i pull out my binoculars i'm like holy cow dusty i said there's a giant buck walking across he's walking along this fence row about i don't know almost almost 200 yards away he's kind of walking along real slow and i'm just like oh

I have to do something to get this buck to come our way. Cause he's not coming our direction whatsoever. There's nothing that's going to lead him here. So I pick up my grunt call and I start blasting on that grunt call. We're just, and I, I think I blast him like four or five big, long aggressive grunts and he stops and looks at us. And then he just starts walking again on the same path. He was walking. I was like, Oh man, that didn't work.

So I have a doe bleat as well. So I start hammering on that thing. And I don't know if I'm doing it right. I don't know if I'm doing it wrong at this point. It's just an act of desperation. So I was blown on that thing really loud. Cause he's a couple, a couple hundred yards away. So I start blowing on in. It's like, and it was almost like, like a, a doe in distress that's been injured or something, you know, making that God awful noise they make. And, and,

He didn't even look our way. I'm like, man, that didn't work either. And then all of a sudden, it's like when somebody starts steering a boat, he just gradually starts turning our direction, and he turns, turns, turns. Now he's walking right towards us. I'm like, holy cow, here he comes, Dusty. Here he comes. I got to get ready. And this thing's coming through this cornfield.

And it's kind of, you know, it's not like the corn you picture, you see that, that really like really tall stalks are, you know, 10 feet tall and, and bright green. This is, you know, a little more of a scabby patch of corn. You know, you can see through it in a lot of it. So we can watch him come most of the way. And he comes and there's a, there's a swath cut through that corn. And he walks into that swath and he's about 50 yards. And right then I could have

I could have stopped him, but I thought, well, he may take the same path as that other buck. He may smell that buck's tracks and maybe come over towards us. So I don't want to shoot. I don't want to stop in there. He's 50 yards. I'd rather have a closer shot. So I don't stop him. He crosses through that swath and gets back in the corn again. And then I can tell by his route, he's not going to come our direction. So at that point, I draw my bow and I stop him. You know,

Give him a few of those and he stops and I shoot and I see my lighted knock fly. I'm like, it's, oh, it's in there. It's in there. And then I'm like, I don't think it's in there. He kind of runs off.

and kind of trotted off, didn't act like he was hit. And he kind of walks over the edge of the field, stops, looks at us. I'm like, shoot, I don't think he's hit. So I check him with binoculars. I don't see no, no blood or, you know, holes in him. So I start, I start grunting again and he just kind of walks a little ways and then starts, he stops and starts licking a branch. Like there's a scrape there. I'm like,

Yeah, he's definitely not hurting. He's just starting to make a scrape here. And he messed around there for a minute and then just kind of slowly walked off into the sunset. And he's a beautiful eight point, like a monster, like would have been my biggest whitetail by far. Yeah, it kind of hurt a little bit. I mean, my heart's broken and I don't know if I'm going to ever recuperate from it. Yeah, that sucks. But I will say, both those deer tonight,

Both of them, even the first one, I thought my heart was going to leap out of my chest. It was pounding so hard. I think it was way more of an adrenaline rush or way more exciting than when I have a bull elk come in. I guess I'm kind of used to, you know, calling an elk for so many years and these white tails with a bow is so new to me. I was definitely, I really had to like...

try to control myself because I was kind of freaking out a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My buck drew first blood on me. I got so excited that as I went to full dry, I ended up with the bloody nose just dripping down my face as I was trying to hold all that mess together. And yeah, I don't keep my, I don't keep myself together very well. I don't know if it's because the element of surprise or, you know, you're working an elk. So you're like in constant communication. And so it's like a slow buildup or a slower buildup versus like,

you went from seeing nothing to all of a sudden the shooter buck and you got to try to figure it out. Um, yeah, it's, it's a different, it's tough. Yeah. It's like a, almost a different anticipation for me. It's just like, I don't know. I've kind of like it, I have to struggle really hard to like make sure I keep my crap together. But sure. Remind yourself to breathe. Yeah. Well, after this hunt, um, what do you, what do you think? What's, what's, what's your takeaways? Um,

and uh you know last year i think we maybe had it too good i was like oh this stuff pretty exciting like you don't have to there's no mental game to this he is jumping a tree and watch deer all day and you'll shoot the one that you eventually want to you know but this year was a different tale um a lot of hours go by without seeing a deer having much action um so yeah it's definitely a mental game um

Trying to keep your head in the game, even though weather wasn't helping us out, movement wasn't right. The bucks were in the middle of lockdown. They've had multiple years of drought, so their numbers are down a little bit, EHD. All of this kind of playing in. Don't get me wrong, they still have great deer numbers and great deer on Randy's property. He did a great job, but it's tough. It takes a lot of...

lot of commitment and perseverance to just sit in that tree all day stay alert you know you know because a lot of times as we mentioned you might only see those deer a few times and you need to react pretty quick so no it's tough it's tough on a different level versus you know hiking all day you know in the western country trying to you know hunt deer elk versus you know white tail you got to have the the mental to sit and one thing I'm excited to get to do next year is a

A lot of what we get to reap the rewards of is Randy's work in the offseason or him and his buddies' work setting these stands. We're going to hopefully get to set some of these stands and make some decisions with them next year on...

you know, where we seen the deer move, where we think the deer are going to be and focus on these pitch points and kind of help him get some stands reorganized. So I'll be, I'm excited to be a part of that because right now I just get to take advantage of where Randy's did all the research and set the stands and put all the work in where I'd love to put a little bit of sweat equity in. But yeah, my takeaway is it's, it's, it's not physical by any means, but it's definitely like a mental stress that you're under all day, just trying to get through the day and stay alert and,

and hunt hard. Um, and by hunting hard, I don't mean hiking Hills and sweating. I mean like staying awake, staying alert and being ready when the time comes. Why did you like look at me funny when you said stay awake? Um, we were, I was trying to take the over under at times. Um,

dust to your cameraman um he was giving me the odds he was the odds maker you say he was vegas in this um he said he was gonna set the the betting line at 40 60 so that means that's real close to where you were at sleep wise you were asleep 40 of the time and awake maybe 60 of the time wow wow i thought it was him that was sleeping all that that amount of time i was gonna i was gonna throw him under the bus for sleeping but no i actually yeah i have a hard time man if i if i sit very long

I, man, I dozed off, but it was good to have him there. Cause if I dozed off, he was just like, he was a deer spotter. He was, he's like, Hey, there's comes a deer. And then I wake up, like, I didn't know who my name is. I'm like, I'm looking around, like trying to get my eyes to focus. Like, where am I? But, uh, no, it's nice to have him there. Um, yeah, but I agree. I, it's a, it's a, it's a definitely a mental game. You have to have, uh, the discipline to, to stay alert. Um,

you know, move slowly. Just 'cause you're in a blind doesn't mean deer can't see you. They can still see you. And you just have to make slow movements, deliberate movements, glass, check every little spot over and over and over again. And that's kind of the hard part. Like Western Hiking, we get to see new views and vistas throughout the day as we hike. But here it's just like the same old spots

and you get a little bit of wind and you get a little bit of, uh, leaves and stuff falling from the trees. And, and pretty soon you're like, Oh man, I saw a tail flicker. And yeah, it was just a leaf. And you do that all day and it, it's, it, it can wear on you. I know the other night, was that last night where we were sitting here and was like, man, I'm exhausted. It was, it's exhausting sometimes to do that, I guess, if you're not used to it. But, um,

Yeah, it was, it was fun. And I can't wait till, till we get to come back and help Randy, you know, rework a lot of his stands. He's got a lot of stands. He's like, you know, I'd like to just dig them out and replace them and, or not replace them, but reset them, relocate them, you know, maybe, you know, fine tune them a little bit. They're in a good spot, but maybe by moving them a hundred yards, now you're really in the spot where the deer are going to come by, which we've kind of seen some of those places too, but.

But that, like you say, it gives you some skin in the game and, and now we feel better about coming out and, you know, accepting his hospitality. And I mean, we can't thank, if Randy listens to this, we can't thank him enough. I don't know what we ever did to deserve an invitation to come out here. We've been out here hunting, turkey hunting three times and deer hunting twice. And it's, yeah, it's,

I'm just thankful. Yeah. Yeah. Such a generous guy. Just salt of the earth. One of the best guys, you know, you can be around fun to be around, you know, knows a lot about hunting, knows a lot about his property, you know, managing the property, um,

hard worker, you know, just one of those guys who like to be around. And, um, yeah, I don't know, like, you know, to, to echo your sentiment, like, I don't know what tech we did deserve to be here, but, um, yeah, hopefully he keeps inviting us back and we can, I don't know how we're going to repay him, but, uh, maybe we'll move some stands and, uh, just, uh,

I don't know. Like I said, I don't know what we did, but it's a pleasure to get to come out to Kansas. I look forward to this trip every year. It's awesome. The place is managed to a T, and it's a lot of fun. Yeah, and just in the area. I'd never spent really any time in Kansas before, and I love it out here. It's like you're taking a step back in time, you know. This small-town America, and the people here are super nice, and it's just...

Man. Yeah. I wish more places could be like this. Yep. Good people. Everybody's your friend. Yeah. You go to the gas station, like everybody's asking how you're doing. It's just, yeah. I wish a lot more places were like this. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Yep. Well, I want to thank everybody for listening today. If you guys have any questions that you want Phelps to answer or me to answer, just email us at ctd.com.

at philipsgamecalls.com and we will do our best to read your question on the air and answer it with whether it's Jason, myself, or maybe one of the guests sometime. And if you know the super secret phone number, I should have looked it up so I could say it right now, but if you've heard some of the other...

where I give out that number. Call in with your question. You can leave a detailed message that's three minutes or less so the machine don't cut you off. And we'll play your message on the line or on the air here and then answer it to the best of our abilities. So anyway, thanks again for listening.

coming on the show, Jason. Yeah, thanks for having me. It's hard to get you on here. And thanks everybody for listening. We'll catch you on the next show.

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