Ep. 25: The Whitetail Rut and Calling Strategies with Chris Parish
56:54 Share

Need parts fast? O'Reilly Auto Parts has fast. Need them now? We've got now. No matter what you need, we have thousands of professional parts people doing their part to make sure you have it. We're O'Reilly Fast. Just one part that makes O'Reilly stand apart. The professional parts people. O, O, O, O'Reilly Auto Parts.

You ever get that feeling, the walls closing in, the concrete jungle suffocating you? You crave some wide open spaces, the chance to connect with nature, maybe in a spot all your own. Well, head over to land.com. 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.

Market House has the cleanest, leanest, juiciest meat and seafood shipped to your home overnight. Expect the service of a local butcher and the convenience of a large supplier. Unlike many online butchers, you can grab just one meal's worth or lock in for a subscription box. Choose from grass-fed and grass-finished beef, American Wagyu, free-range poultry, grass-fed lamb, wild-caught king crab, seafood, and more.

Welcome back to Cutting the Distance. Today we have Chris Parrish back on the show. He may be best known for his ability to call turkeys, but has killed some great Midwest whitetails on both public and private land, and I want to pick his brain a little bit.

We are actually here today in Kansas at Whitetail Camp. Thanks for joining me, Chris. Yes, sir. Glad to be here. Glad to be at camp with you finally. Yeah, yeah. It's fun. It's fun.

This is my first ever whitetail hunt. So, uh, we, we got to do our first set this morning. So I'm a bonafide expert at these whitetails already, but, um, no, no, we want to cold here in Kansas. Uh, I don't think you can get much better conditions. It's been warm leading up to this. We're on the tail end of a full moon. Um, it cold snap moved in. It was what? 15 degrees this morning. So I think, yeah, wind chill was, uh, between 10 and 13, depending on where you were. Uh,

and the wind's always going to blow in Kansas. That's one thing guys have to remember here. It's always going to blow. So no matter what, you're going to deal with a 10 to 12 mile an hour wind all the time. So you need to bring clothes that accommodate that. Even if it's hot, the wind blows and you still get cool when the sun goes down. Yeah, true. It was a good first morning. Things are starting to get...

heating up here um you know as far as the rut so excited but we're going to start this off like the rest of the podcast we're going to we're going to i'm going to send you some questions here that the users kind of send us okay um and if you have questions of your own please email us at ctd at phelpsgamecalls.com and we'll make sure to include your questions um for either myself or our experts so the first question we have for you today chris is

Where do you determine where to set your stands? What information goes into that? And then, you know, I think the easy ones always wind or have multiple stands. But what else are you looking for as far as terrain, vegetation, feed, secondary feed, you know, all those things that and kind of how do you put your plan together? And then this is where a stand needs to go on the X. Right. So, you know, that that's kind of a loaded question, too, because it all depends on the timing of the year. So I'll kind of stick to what we're looking at right now. You know, a doe is always.

the target when it comes to the rut because that's what he's looking for. And she's always going to be in and around food. Now, when she comes into estrus, a lot of that goes out the wayside.

He's going to push her off somewhere and they're going to spend 24 to 36 hours. And it's usually going to be in and away from any other deer. They, they, neither one of them want to have other deer around them because he's trying to run other bucks off and she doesn't want to be around other does and other deer. It's just, you know, kind of the little thing. So, but I'm always looking for those transition areas that are leading from bedding to feeding and

and that give me the best opportunity to pinch those deer down and get them inside a bow range. Now, if I'm gun hunting, I'll open that up a little bit. Obviously, I'd still like to be in the woods at that point, but I'll open it up where I can shoot a little longer and have a little more sight to see. But when I'm bow hunting, I want to try to... And you can't always...

pinch it down, but you can always pick the best inside corner or an hourglass type shape or a shelf off of a ridge or a little area where they're going to cross this ditch line. And that's just real common crossing. It's easy. You know, deer are lazy like people. They're going to take the least the path of least resistance. So I'm looking for all those little things to connect the dots with and hang my stand. And I try to hang multiple stands, to be honest with you, if I can for wind conditions. And

And sometimes they may be a quarter of a mile apart only because that quarter of a mile, those are the two best travel areas. But I can go in and hunt one from, say, if I got a south wind, I can hunt the south side. And I try to set it where I can hunt either southwest or southeast. I can take advantage of all southerly winds. Same with a north wind. I want to be able to take advantage of all northerly winds. Those are magic. You don't always find that, but that's the kind of thing that I look for. And then

The other big key is just pick out your entrance and exits to those stands and be very cognizant that you can get in there and out of there as quickly

Easy as possible without spooking deer. It's almost impossible when you're in the Midwest because deer are everywhere. We have a great population, whether it be Kansas, Missouri, all over the Midwest, you know, Iowa, Illinois. It's hard to get in and out of those places without bumping a few deer, but try to be cognizant of it, especially if.

walking in fields of a morning that we're going to be feeding. You're probably going to bust one. It's just going to happen, but try to avoid it as much as possible. And then getting out of there and not going through your food plots at night. You know, if you can exit, stay in the woods, make a loop around. If it takes you an extra half mile to get in and out, it takes you an extra half mile to get in and out, but you'll, you will benefit from it. If you will use those tactics.

Gotcha. Perfect. Perfect answer on that one. The second question, what's your preferred weather to hunt in? We may be in it. I know we've been texting back and forth a little bit because you've been bouncing back and forth hunting maybe the weekends, long weekends. And you were getting excited because we're getting some rain last week and then getting some wind and then we're getting a cold streak. So if you had to pick kind of your weather or kind of give us a rundown on what we can expect, what are we going to expect when it's warmer than average and no real weather weather?

and then kind of let us know what your favorite weather is to hunt. Okay, well, you know, when it's warm out and you're speaking of the rut, and let's just say you have temperatures that are above 50, let's say 60 or better, it doesn't slow the rut down. People always think, oh, man, the deer are just not going to move. You know, they're not rutting because it's too hot. No, no, no. The rut comes around one time a year. Does are going to come into estrus and they're going to get bred.

And your fawns come almost consistently around the same time every year. That means 90% of your does are bred around the same time. It doesn't mean that there's not late does. It doesn't mean there's not early does. There are, but there's a consistent pattern there. So they're going to breed. Warm weather subdues the daylight pattern.

movement because a lot of it gets done at night that you know are really early in the morning real late in the evening and they run all night long because let's just face it you wouldn't want to go sit in a blind or on a tree stand with your winter coat on when it was 70 degrees and they're doing the same thing but you know on the other hand it's the rut

You can't kill one if you're sitting at the house. So you need to be out there because I've, I've literally, uh, I've actually filmed a friend of mine shoot one, one morning it was 73 degrees and it got up to 85 and that buck came into a snort wheeze and was on fire, ready to go. So you, and it was really early in the morning, but you got to be there. So I always hunt regardless of the weather because you have to be there.

My preference is temperatures in the 30s of a morning and warming up to about the mid to upper 40s to maybe 50 degrees in the daytime. Two reasons why. One, it's pretty comfortable to set all day. I love to set all day this time of year because you could just as easily shoot one at 1 o'clock in the afternoon as you could at daylight or dark.

and they're going to move all the time. And they're going to move all the time in that weather, all day long. You're going to see some movement, especially if you're in those little hidey holes and those little sanctuary areas where the bucks are pushing those does back in for breeding purposes. And they're comfortable in there. Yeah, exactly. And there's always, you know, if you've got a good acorn crop, you're always going to have some food in around there. And to a buck, food's not so important that time of year. It's the breeding.

But if there's food around along with security cover, those does are going to be comfortable in there too. So that's my preferred weather. As far as wind conditions go, you know, one thing that...

You know, when I was telling you guys early on, the wind's going to blow in Kansas. It doesn't matter. It's going to blow every day. And you want it to blow a little bit. When you hunt Kansas and the wind is dead calm, you're likely not going to see much go on. Those deer need to have a little bit of wind. They're used to it. They're used to 15, 20 mile an hour winds. They will move in it all day long.

provides them a little security as they move throughout the day. Right, exactly. And they're used to it. You know, they deal with it every day of their life here. You get to Missouri and you get a 20 mile an hour wind, it subdues some movement a little bit and you don't see it. You don't see the deer out traveling long distances like you would normally. It's just, it's all about what they are used to in their environment. So you're going to deal with wind here in Kansas and you want to, you know, I like it. I like personally a seven to 10 mile an hour wind that's steady. Yeah.

because at least you know exactly what direction it's coming out of. You know where it's going. You know that one spot that you're giving away. That's my giveaway spot. Something gets down there, no matter what I've done to be scent free, I'm probably going to get, there's a good chance unless I got high skies and high pressure and the thermals are rising, I'm going to wind up getting busted. So, you know, that's what I like. 20 mile an hour winds,

When you get gusty winds, it can be a problem no matter what because you'll hear it lay. It'll lay and it won't hardly be any wind. And all of a sudden, there'll be a big gust of wind. Well, that blows that scent in every direction. Blows it down, blows it up, blows it everywhere.

and you wind up getting busted a lot more in those heavy winds. But you've got to hunt. You've got to be there. So don't let anything ever keep you out of the woods this time of year. Yeah, and you hinted towards a little bit pressures. As me and Randy were walking to our stand this morning, he had mentioned, oh, we've got high pressure, clear skies, and then we saw clouds start rolling in, 9, 930, low pressure. Do you have a preference? It sounds like because of

sand and wind, you'd prefer a high pressure system. Cold and high pressure? I would rather have high pressure anyway. You get a pressure that is 30.15, 30.2 and above and you just wind up seeing more deer on their feet moving. It's just something about that high pressure that they move on really good. Deer and turkey both

are a lot like bass. You know, if you're a fisherman, fish key in off of weather fronts, whether it be a cold front coming in, they may feed up heavy just prior to it, and then they go kind of dormant. Or if a warm front's coming in, you know, they change with the pressure. And deer do the same thing. Say, for example...

you have a rain front coming in. Looks like maybe Thursday we got a very small chance for rain. You get that rain front coming in, you can guarantee 24 hours ahead of that rain front, you're going to get deer on their feet. They're going to be moving really heavy then and feeding up. It's just something that they do. And the same thing with this high pressure system. Yesterday it was coming in.

And yesterday evening I got here before you guys did and I hunted and the deer were on their feet moving at two o'clock in the afternoon. And that just goes to show as that pressure's changing, those deer are doing their thing. And so, you know, guys that only get to hunt and we're fortunate, we're blessed. We get to hunt a lot more than most people do. Guys that only get to hunt, let's say two or three weekends, you know, and you can pick your weekends or you can pick your vacation.

you know, try to look at that future forecast and figure it out and key in on those key times. I love three days before full moon and three days or five days after a full moon where we're, you know, three to five days after full moon now. So we're, we're in great shape. And the reason why is it just seems like you get that peak activity that got peak roundness of how those deer are moving. And with that full moon coming in November, like it came in the eighth, you

you can always count on any time around that fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth, you're going to start to kick off of estrous cycle. Those does are going to start kicking off estrous cycle. So now, you know, you've got some does coming in. You got one coming in here, one coming in there. And a lot of times you'll get that one hot doe in your area. And all of a sudden that first estrous cycle and you'll be five bucks on her and you get an opportunity at sometimes deer you don't even know exist.

Yeah. Shown up out of the woodworks. Exactly. Never on camera before. So yeah. And just touch on it. This is my own question. I'm assuming similar to elk, those more mature does come in first and then it kind of is that, you know, oldest to youngest. And then, you know, some of those, you know, young does won't come in until late November, middle of December, you know. Yeah. I've seen in January, I've literally seen when we, we used to have a doe season in January years ago in Missouri. And I have seen some of the

biggest deer I've ever seen on their feet then because they're still looking for that last remaining doe and that's one thing a lot of guys don't quite understand they think the rifle season gets over with

and everything's done. When in reality, if you've got a good food source, that late December hunting can be awesome because those big deer are still looking for some does coming in, and they're keying in on food too. So they're keying in on food and does, and now you've got the best combinations. Kind of like early season where they're keying in on food, and it's bed to feed, bed to feed, and they're real predictable. They get much more predictable after the rut. The rut's phenomenal.

But in reality, it's the toughest hunting there is because...

they, they can be anywhere at any time and come from anywhere at any time. And you don't, they don't even know what they're doing, you know, but it's also the time that you go, Oh Lord, where'd that deer come from? You know, and you see that 200 incher and you're like, I didn't even know that deer existed. Well, he didn't, he was two miles away yesterday and he followed this doe and he ran her. Yeah. And we, we talked about that a little bit this morning, um, you know, hunting during the rut, like you can have trail cams and pictures and bucks that show up routinely day after day. And, and,

A big buck was killed in camp this morning and there's always this question like, he's gone, he's gone, 'cause it's a rut. But the same thing, you could have a picture of a buck that was at a spot yesterday and he could be two miles away and you don't know. That's that gamble. You're just hoping that your best information is leading you to the best spot, but you don't know if that deer's now ran three miles off chasing a doe somewhere.

Exactly. And that's the hard part of the rut, but it's also the magical time because it exposes more deer more frequently. And I think that's the part that I enjoy. I love to hear them grunt, love to hear them, watch them chase, love to watch them do their thing. It's, excuse me, it's kind of like a goblin Turkey, you know? I mean, if he gobbled and spit and drum, uh,

I don't really have to shoot him. I just want to watch him. Yeah, you got the experience. Just the opposite with deer. I want to shoot the deer. Yeah, I think that's what drives us to, you know, the same thing, the same reason I love elk hunting, you know, with the bow. You get to call those things and interact. You know, the same reason we love turkey hunting in the spring. The same reason, you know, today I've got to sit half of a day out of a nine-day hunt and already like, you know, watching them respond to deer calls. Like that's the magical, the cool part, you know, hearing them make the sounds, us making the sounds, you know.

shoot, we rattled and just had a deer, you know, come running straight into the ground. It's just that, being able to interact versus like, you know, rifle seasons and some stuff where you're just, you know, you're kind of just, you're on the sidelines, you know, hoping stuff walks into you. Right. A lot of times you're hunting escape routes when you're rifle hunting. You're hunting like, okay, Joe Blow's hunting over there and Jimmy Bob's hunting over there and I'm going to be right here because everything they screw up is going to come

my way yeah it's a different chess match smarter not harder yeah yeah once again if you have your own questions for us here at cutting the distance please email us or send us a message social media whatever um get them over to us at ctd at phelpsgamecalls.com now we're going to jump in uh to my discussion with you chris and and uh

I can remember the first time we came out to Kansas. I think you swung by, picked me and Dirk up from the airport. We're going to go turkey hunting. As we were driving to our place here in Kansas, you started to tell us a story of the Giant 8. I got to spend some time with you probably...

what five six years ago now I flew out to your house kill that deer in 2013 or 2014 so yeah it was probably 2016 2017. I came out to Chris's place here in Missouri and uh got to got to stay downstairs in your basement and I got to walk by that deer every day and it was this just giant mainframe eight with a few little extras and you have a 200 inch deer 200 plus sitting there next to it and I'm like

this is where numbers don't make sense like not talking down on your 200 inch buck but i get it but you set this giant eight next to this 200 inch deer and i'm like that deer's bigger frame bigger you know more massive everything um so i'm gonna let you go ahead and kind of retell that kansas eight and the thing that i like about this is it is a public land kansas buck with lots of people around and the way you like give us some of the insight

I know you had, I want you to really touch on like your entrance to the stand. So, once again, you're not trying to scent the area up, getting away from everybody, it was a lot longer trek. Go ahead and kind of give us the quick and dirty version of that Kansas buck and some of the things that you did that differentiated what you were doing on that piece of public land to be able to kill a buck like that and everyone else.

Well, you know, it all started the year before that when I was hunting. Actually, I was hunting Missouri, rifle hunting Missouri. I had permission to hunt some places up here. Then we're pretty close to Missouri border. If you go right over here, you're near Nevada, Missouri and some other places. And so I have Butler, Missouri, and I had permission to hunt a couple of places there. So I'd come up and I was staying with a guy over near the Lacing area. And I...

driving back and forth, I kept seeing these, some big deer across the road out of this look like sanctuary area. I couldn't know what it was. I'm not familiar with the area. So when I got back to camp on like the third day and I was not seeing anything I wanted to shoot, I was seeing some decent deer, but they were locked down pretty tight. And I just was not being patient like I should be. And I had a cameraman that was not,

You know how it can be. Anyway, I went and I asked a friend of mine, Mike Osborne. I'm like, Mike, I said, what is this place over here? I said, I keep seeing some good deer come across that road. And I said, it looks big, but it looks like it's a sanctuary or a waterfowl refuge. He goes, it is a waterfowl refuge. And I'm like, well, can you hunt it? And he goes, yeah. He goes, there's about 7,700 acres of lays in there you can hunt. He goes, it attaches to another 4,000 that you can draw into and

which would make 11,000. And he said, then when you get across the river, he goes, there's 4,400 acres over there that cannot and has not ever been hunted. And I'm like, Hmm. So I guess the people assume those deer never crossed the river, you know? And I'm like, that would be an easy assumption, but the wrong assumption, you know? So, uh,

I started looking at maps, started studying maps and was pretty intrigued by the place. And I thought, you know, if I, if I draw a tag in Kansas next year, I'm going to just devote my time and hunt that. So I did draw a tag, uh, planned out a couple of places to look and a couple of friends of mine and I just, we all drew and we're all going to hunt together, but we're all going to hunt different areas. Obviously it's big.

well i had my little spot picked out that i really wanted to hunt but i wanted to work my way into it i want to figure out kind of what was going on didn't realize as thick and heavy and nasty and gnarly as it was and and and you could get really deep into it you know and didn't realize how much distance there really was

So I came in October, October the 18th. I really believe I saw this deer about a half a mile from where I wound up killing him at. It was dark. Couldn't really tell. Big frame, giant frame deer. You don't see a lot of giant frame deer. Kind of thought he was a boon and croc of deer, but wasn't sure. And put it in the back of my mind. I came back on November the 8th, got here on November the 8th at 11 o'clock. By one o'clock, I had went back in there and had hung a set

where two rivers and an oxbow lake came together and made a big pinch point. And long story short, I ran into a fella on my way out that was pretty close to the edge, and he kind of stopped me, and he's like, hey, bud, he goes, I want to let you know, you go back in there, you're getting close to their bedding area, you're going to push deer out. Well, I didn't want to tell him that. I want to be close to the bedding area. I want to be in it if I can, especially in the morning. I don't want the deer to come filtering back in.

He said, I appreciate it if you wouldn't come through here the next morning. Well, he wasn't there because I went through there at about three o'clock in the morning. He probably had got out of bed yet. And I slipped in there and got in that stand and how I would enter and exit it. You could walk along the river.

And you can walk right down the edge of the river and chances of you bumping a deer or leaving any scent that is going to be a problem, ground scent, especially if you're going to hunt multiple days, was very minimal. And then, and I had the GPS my way in there because I would have never found the stand without a GPS. It'd be too difficult, you know.

So I was 1.8 miles in from where I parked the truck and I would track in and I would just walk a straight line from when I got dead even from my GPS to the stand. I walked a straight line right straight to the stand and get in it. I got in it that morning.

Long story short, I forgot my range finder, forgot my binoculars. I forgot my, uh, safety rope and safety vest. So, but I, I said that safety rope, I had two safety ropes. I just didn't bring my safety vest. So I took one safety rope and put around my waist and one safety rope and put around the tree and tied it to the tree. I thought, well, if I fall, I'm only going to fall like a foot. I'll be okay. I can just climb back on the stand and be okay. I get in the stand and

and wasn't seeing much of anything to be honest with you. I saw a doe and a button buck and all of a sudden the button buck was bedded down and the doe was gone, nowhere to be found. And I thought, well, she's coming in, she's left him and who knows what's going to happen. And about 10.30, I was getting a little bit antsy and I had a very hard upper respiratory cold and I thought, man, I need to get somewhere and get some medicine and get this thing knocked out of me.

And I'm thinking I'm going to get down at 11 o'clock. I'm going to go to town and I'm going to go by somewhere and I'm going to get me some medicine and I'm going to take a bunch of that medicine and I'll come back in and climb in a stand. Well, about 1030, I was looking and all of a sudden I saw this formation of a big giant body deer in front of me about 70 yards.

and I had a tree in my way. So I moved my head to left the tree and sure enough, it was this deer. And when I first looked at him, I just, in my mind went 160 inch eight pointer and I quit looking, got up in my stand. He comes in, he gets to 22 yards. I hit a little bit of a limb. I, uh, liver shot him straight through the liver, went completely through the liver all the way, cut it basically in half, if you will. And, uh,

The deer hind leg kicked, made a loop and then ran out about 60 yards and stopped and then took off. And I thought, well, that's his death run. And I wasn't quite sure he was liver shot, but I was pretty sure he's probably liver shot because I saw the arrow, especially the exit of the arrow. And

I text a buddy of mine and he had just text me and I wish I still, I wish I'd have saved that text because his text was, are you seeing anything? And I said, yeah, 333 million blackbirds because the blackbirds were, were migrating and it was just noisy and,

and uh he goes i've got bucks running everywhere chasing does and everything and i'm and he's probably a half a mile three quarters of a mile from me and i'm like you know it's funny how you can be just a little ways apart off the action and all the actions over there because there's one hot doe and this deer came in uh the morning of november the 9th by himself he was he was looking yeah you know he was cruising he was cruising and uh

At any rate, long story short, we went back in that evening to try to find him and took blood for about 200 yards. And it was getting dark. And I said, let's back out. I'm going to come in tomorrow. I came in the next day, came in from the creek side and walked up the creek all the way.

I knew he was going to go to water. That's typical of a liver shot deer. He's going to go to water. He gets a fever. He's not going to go far if you don't push him. We probably weren't 100 yards from that deer when I found him. Honestly,

You don't have this happen very often to you, but when I walked up to the deer, he grew immensely from... And I thought after thinking about it, he was maybe a Boone and Crockett type eight pointer. I had no idea it was 189 inch deer. He just grew, you know, he's got 42 inches of mass. He's just a giant...

really absolutely a once in a lifetime mainframe eight pointer. You just, a guy will go the rest of his life and never see an eight pointer of that caliber. Just, you know, let alone kill it. I was so blessed and so fortunate. And then, you know,

My upper respiratory condition went completely away until I got home. I got really sick. I got a fever that night after I got home. And I'm like, well, now I'm really sick. Evidently, big bucks were the medicine you needed. Yeah, exactly. That's a great story. And to ask an additional question, so

Public ground, maybe you're getting a little more aggressive than you would, let's say, if it's private. You're getting tight to that bedding. Or would you get that tight to bedding even on private? Yeah, I do. I like to be in that sanctuary of where those deer are moving comfortably around.

and they don't have to go far. A lot of times, you know, a deer will bed down and if he pushes a doe back in there, they'll bed down. And I've literally watched deer bed with a doe for six straight hours and never stand up. And if you're not in that wheelhouse when they do get up and they do move, sometimes they don't make it 100 yards. You're not going to be in that zone you need to be in to get that deer killed. However,

You got to know that you can't hunt those places day in and day out. They've got to be key times of the year and key conditions, the right wind, and you go in and you hunt. And you go in and you hunt with the plan of being there all day long because if you're not...

you could miss out on that five minutes that everything happens you know yeah and and that's like a little bit today uh me and randy elected to hunt more of the dark timber and we knew you know randy randy was telling me he said we probably won't see as many deer as chris and dirt you know but it was a gamble we're trying to hope that we're catching a big buck that's you know peeling off or and he said this his idea was we probably won't see a lot of deer until 9 to 11 because those

those bucks are going to be out in the feed with the does, you know, checking on them and then they're going to break off or bring a doe back in here where he's like, Dirk and, you know, Chris are going to see probably more deer because they're out on the food to start with. But then after nine, 10 o'clock, they probably won't see as many. And so I was just kind of curious how much pressure, you know, I guess with the right wind, it doesn't really matter how much pressure you put on that bedding area as long as they're not winding you and, you know, making them. Right.

As long as you can get in and out of there without leaving a lot of ground scent. You don't know what goes on at night when you're not there. And the more ground scent you leave, you get two or three days going in there and leaving some kind of ground scent. They're going to pick up on it. But it doesn't mean that those deer are frequenting it. It's the rut. They're in there today. They're over here tomorrow. They're back in there today. So I think the one thing that the biggest takeaway that I have from it

And I know that there's some science behind all of it. I get that. But in my 42 years and the good fortune that I've had, the way the good Lord's taken care of me on deer, I think sometimes we get too worried about spooking, bumping, thinking we're going to run that deer completely out of the country. Those deer live there.

Yeah, you might alter their route a little bit. You might screw things up a little bit. And all of a sudden, they will disappear. They'll be gone. Well, like, for example, today, Brian shoots a pushing 190 deer today. That deer has not, they have not gotten that deer on camera.

in two straight weeks and they were getting him daily. Yep. For two straight weeks, they hadn't got him on camera. That deer didn't leave the country. He's just off doing something, probably getting, you know, there's a little bit of a lull period prior to them really starting to travel hard and look for does and try to find those first estrous does. And when that happens, you know,

you know, sometimes those deer are going to disappear. They're right there. They're not gone. They're just not moving constantly in that same area. It's not my story to tell. So hopefully, uh, Brian and Randy don't get too, too upset with me, but I kind of got to hear, you know, after Brian texted Randy killed the buck and we were kind of going back and forth and Brian was hesitant to come up this week because his, his camera wasn't, you know, producing any pictures. Um, and, and Randy's like, man, I think he's in there. He just

And come to find out, we got to hear the story from Brian this morning. That deer just wasn't, he was no longer interested in walking in front of that camera. He was skirting, you know, where, where the does were, you know, the licks and whatnot. He was skirting that area. He was 40 yards off and, and.

And now it raises the question, has he been there for the last two weeks? He just got to the point where he was just going to wind check areas and he wasn't going to go in front of that camera anymore. So has he been there the entire time? And then it leads on to the question, like how much you trust your cameras at some point, like, you know, that deer's in there, you just keep going back. And sometimes I don't care if it's a silent camera. I don't care what it is. You know, you're in there, even if it's a cell camera.

you've left some kind of scent in the area. And the more you do that, the more they will avoid. I mean, they're not going to avoid the area completely. They'll just avoid that particular little spot. And many times, like I was telling you guys, maybe I was just telling Dirk actually today, and I drove him by where I was hunting last night, and I'm just off of the wheel spot.

uh i looked at it and i don't know why i didn't recognize it when i first hung the set and the reason why is i hung it a little early there was a bunch of scrapes in there on the edge and i wanted to be able to shoot to the edge in case something came in there and check a scrape well you can pretty much wipe the scrapes out now they're not worried about that at all they're good they're checking those they're not we're not worried about leaving sign and so yesterday when i was in there and i've watched several bucks walk this fringe

And I looked and I'm like, there's the tree right there. Literally, if I would have been in that tree, every deer walked within 10 yards of that tree. You know, on the perfect wind side of it, I just didn't recognize that's where I needed to be at the time. And now if I go back in there and I tweak that, I'll promise you every deer traveling through there, what he's doing is he is scent checking that open pasture and CRP

and using the wood line as his travel corridor. And he's scent checking that. And that's why they're traveling. And people don't think about that. You know, okay. Yeah. He's left scrapes out here and, and does frequent these areas. Um,

But he doesn't have to walk out there and take a physical look. He can walk by that. He catches a little bit of the right odor in the wind, and then he's going to go out there and check it. We've seen the exact same thing this morning. You know, you talked earlier about ease of entrance and exit to your area. So the spot me and Randy hunted, real easy to get into, right? You come from an open field. You're not really, you know...

You're not intruding a whole lot into their area. But we had multiple bucks cruise the fence line that we have to walk over because with the north wind that we had today, he's able to check that entire timber patch without ever going through it. He just walks that fence line strong north wind that entire, you know, whatever it is, 200 acres of timber in there. He can check that whole thing in one run and he's off, you know, checking for other does. And so we got the same thing, you know, there they've got that line. And like Randy says, like, shoot, we should.

turn 180 and shoot out the back of the blind the way it's running right now. But we did have a couple of good ones come in. But yeah, it was kind of, you know, light bulb went off, like how a buck is being very efficient, you know, trying to find a doe in because he's like, you know, similar to your situation, run a line, check a big area at once and then keep moving. Right. He can cover more ground. And that just goes to show you too,

that guys their nose is what they live by and and a fool one's nose is is like fooling Penn and Teller I mean it just doesn't happen very often I mean they just don't miss much you know and you know you got to

you gotta you gotta take all that into account yep um so my next set of questions for you is what can you get away with you know i'm an archery elk hunter i always joke my dad told me i was built for archery elk hunting because you're allowed to make noise you're allowed to be clumsy you're allowed to break sticks you know i come from a family that rifle elk hunters where they hunt in their white new balances so they can feel every stick under their foot you know these guys are woodsmen you know they they're silent in the woods where it's i was a little more clumsy so

I always wonder like what I can get away with. I've been able to hunt mule deer out of a ground blind before. I've hunted mule deer and elk on the feet with rifles and you start to learn like what you can get away with, what they're going to pick off, when they can see you. It's just kind of as a new whitetail hunter, I just kind of had some of these own questions like what can you get away with as far as noise, what you think like scent matters, movement, and then kind of walking the trails into an area because

A little bit different hunting than I'm used to. You're going to go sit in one location. You're going to use that wind. So in your opinion, what can you get away with on noise, scent, movement, and your entrance and exit to an area? Like what will they allow? What will they put up with? And then what can you get away with, I guess, on all those fronts? And I know it's always going to be different, right? But give me kind of some generalities on that. Every area has its, you know, and the thing is, is like when you're hunting public land,

Sometimes you really don't know exactly how the deer use the area. You kind of can look at the old sign and some of the fresh sign and go, well, I think they're using it like this. This is logical, common sense, if you will. But that doesn't mean, you know, this time of year you can, you mean one could jump the fence right here by the house and walk right by us. In fact, I've pulled in the driveway and had 150 inch deer chasing doe in the side yard out here, you know, I mean, they'll do whatever they're going to do, but in general scent,

Particularly out of your stand, when a deer gets downwind of you, you can almost bet you're going to get busted unless you have high pressure and it's midday or up in the morning when the sun's up. A lot of times, if he's close enough, it'll go over the top of their head. Other than that, those thermals start dropping in the evening, you're going to get busted. I mean, if you don't,

you're just the good lord's just telling you it's you're having a really good day because it's just hard to do and one thing like me and dirk you know not knowing how you guys do it out here in the midwest where you know we're like do we guys bring brothels like do how are we gonna you know go to the bathroom in the stand and then like one thing kind of amazed me and kind of opens my eyes it's like you guys oh we all just pee out of our stand

Yeah. You know, it's like stuff like that where it doesn't necessarily matter. Guys that'll that'll that'll look at that and be like, Oh, you're absolutely stupid. You're crazy. Well, you know what? Coyotes are meteors, right?

And coyotes pee in the woods all the time. And if it really bothered the deer that bad, well, all of them would be in town. I mean, it's not. Now, obviously, you eat asparagus, things don't smell right. If you're on medication, things don't smell right. It doesn't necessarily mean it smells like a human. Urine is urine, but it smells different.

you know, it's your human odor and most of your human odor honestly comes out the top of your head and your mouth, your mouth. And, and you know, that's the thing that really gives it away. And then, um,

You know, ground scent is another thing. You know, you can wear rubber boots and I was a coon hunter for years. A buddy and I, we used to coon hunt all the way through high school. And, you know, a dog's got, I don't know how many olfactories and a deer has quite a bit more than that. And you could drop out, you know, you could get a brand new pair of rubber boots, wash them down and make sure they were as clean. The rubber smell was gone and you could drop your dog out and go make a loop.

and never have to call for your dog and pretty soon your dog will be walking your foot tracks back to you smelling you. And if a dog can do that, a deer can do that real easy. Now,

I spray my boots down. I keep my hunting boots clean. I don't worry about whether they're rubber. I don't worry about whether they're leather. I worry about keeping them clean and keeping them as scent free as I can possibly keep them, but you're not going to eliminate it. That's why entry and exit is really critical. Trying to keep your ground scent away from where most of the deer travel is. Your example, walking trails.

I try not to walk a trail, especially a trail that's getting in and close and might be getting used close to where my hunting area is. Now, if I'm 500 yards off, I may walk it for a little ways and then veer off of it. But I try not to get somewhere where a lot of deer are going to. Now, you get in and around your stand, deer are going to frequent it. You're going to leave ground scent. It's just hard to get by without it. If it's moist out.

more deer are going to smell. If it's really dry, like it was a couple weeks ago, you watch those deer, they'd be feeding on the acorns you just walk through and they can't smell anything because it's dry. A dog doesn't smell good when it's dry. That's a good quail hunter. He don't want dry conditions. He wants moist conditions so his dog can smell those birds. Or you want the absolute best cat dogs. You go down to the dry land, those dogs that can track dry, those are the best noses. Exactly. Exactly.

O'Reilly auto parts are in the business of keeping your car on the road. I love O'Reilly. In fact, the other day, I'm not kidding you. The other day I went into an O'Reilly auto parts looking for a part. I needed a different thing that wasn't really in there. You know, only like tangentially related to what they carry.

They did not have it, and the dude told me specifically where I would go down the road to find it is how nice they are. They offer friendly, helpful service and the parts knowledge you need for all your maintenance and repairs. Thousands of parts and accessories in stock, in-store, or online, so you never have to worry if you're in a jam.

They'll test your battery for free. If you need your windshield wipers replaced, a brake light fixed, or quick service, they'll help you find the right part or point you to a local repair shop for help. Whether you're a car aficionado or an auto novice, you'll find the employees at O'Reilly Auto Parts are knowledgeable, helpful, best of all, friendly. These guys are your one-stop shop for all things auto, do-it-yourself,

You can find what you need in store or online. Stop by O'Reilly Auto Parts today or visit them at OReillyAuto.com slash MeatEater. That's OReillyAuto.com slash MeatEater. We've all seen plenty of gadgets and fads come and go, but here's one product that stood the test of time. Seafoam motor treatment. Lots of hunters and anglers know that seafoam helps engines run better and last longer.

It's really simple. When you pour it in your gas tank, sea foam cleans harmful fuel deposits that cause engine problems. I'm talking common stuff like hard starts, rough engine performance, or lost fuel economy. Sea foam is an easy way to prevent or overcome these problems. Just pour a can in your gas tank and let it clean your fuel system. You probably know someone who has used a can of sea foam to get their truck or boat going again. People everywhere rely on sea foam to keep their trucks, boats, and small engines running the way that they should the entire season.

Help your engine run better and last longer. Pick up a can of Seafoam today at your local auto parts store or visit seafoamworks.com to learn more. This is Brent Reeves from This Country Life. What makes South Dakota the greatest for pheasant hunting? With over 1.2 million pheasants harvested last year, South Dakota boasts the highest population of pheasants in the nation. In fact, you'd have to add up the total harvest from neighboring states just to get that many birds.

There's also millions of wide open acres chock full of different landscapes, meaning the hunt in one county is often completely different from just a few counties over. But what really makes South Dakota the greatest goes way beyond just hunting a colorful bird. It's the pursuit of something more like the camaraderie that awaits all kinds of hunters from all walks of life and partaking in South Dakota tradition over 100 years in the making.

It's about taking the greatest shots and watching your dog work the greatest fields in the greatest lands, carrying on the greatest heritage and making the greatest memories. So what are you waiting for? From the rush of the flush to the stories at the end of the day, experience a thrill like no other. Learn how at HuntTheGreatest.com.

So the ideal situation would be to approach not on a trail and then downwind of your stand location for the wind that day. So let's say we have a north wind. Your trail should go directly from the south into your stand, and then that's like your best approach, and then ideally not be on a trail. But there are situations where you're just going to... Or crosswind. Yeah, or you're just... Or crosswind. You know...

I mean, there are situations where maybe you don't have access to the property any other way for your stand location. You just kind of do the best you can, get in there as scent free. There's a lot of stands that I have that you can't access from the downwind side. And one of them is particularly behind my house. It is a 100% south wind type hunting area. I do have north wind sets hung. So what I do, excuse me, is I walk straight in

the least amount of traveled spot. I don't have very many acres there, but it's the least amount of traveled spot. And I walk straight in and get into the tree on a north wind with a wind blowing at my back. And I have ultimately my very best hunts on a northerly wind in that place behind my house that I ever have with a south wind. And I think it's because those deer can scent check when they come through there

everything that is coming from the crop fields. And it's easy for them to do that. I have way more travel on a north wind than I do a south wind. And no matter what the conditions are, no matter whether it's a rut, no matter whether it's early season, it doesn't matter. I always have. So I risk it. And I think that there's certain times that you need to risk it. If you know a deer is there and you know there's a chance, a very minor, even if it's a minor chance that you can get by with it and get in there and possibly get a shot at that deer,

Take that chance and go to it. It's worth not being in there at all. Exactly. You know, you use an elk hunter and I'm, I'm a peon elk hunter compared to you and Dirk. I mean, I've killed some bulls and they've all been on public land, but you know, I didn't understand how to, I was always standoffish. Didn't want to get aggressive. Didn't want to get aggressive. Didn't want to get aggressive. And then when I started getting aggressive, I started killing elk and I started killing decent bulls. And that's when I realized that, you know what?

I'm going to apply the same tactics to elk that I do to Turkey and that I do to deer and Dallas Miller, a good friend of mine who is, he is, if people knew him and knew of him, he has killed some, a lot of big deer in his life. I mean, astronomical amount of big deer within his life with bow and gun. But, uh,

He told me one time, he goes, the reason why you're killing so many upper end deer, you know, Boone and Crockett type deer, he goes, because you're not scared to spook them. Yep. And I'm not because I only get so many days a year to hunt. And when you only have so many days a year to hunt, you need to hunt. And I'm not going to do stupid stuff.

But I will take that chance just to see if I can get by with it. And so many times it's worked out. And so, you know, again, don't be ignorant about it, but, but take that chance because, you know, sometimes taking that one chance, you get a,

170 inch deer on the ground or 150 inch deer or the biggest deer you've ever shot in your life it was worth every bit yeah and i i'm a firm believer like there are times where the the right decision is to be a little more conservative and play it safe but um you know as cliche as it sounds it's like that high risk high reward um you know if you don't take a little bit of risk and gamble a little bit and if you always play it safe then you're never going to kill anything versus like

Yeah, it might not always pencil out, but there's a good likelihood it will until you take that risk with a little bit, you know, and a lot of times it does pencil out, but then there are some times you're also accepting the fact that it might not pencil out, you know, a few times. Well, and you have to know that in your mind. It's kind of like investing money, right? You know, or it's kind of like starting a business. It's like, well, you know, I can do this. I might not win, but you know,

I might win too. Yeah. So, or I won't have any regrets. Like the other thing is like the guy that doesn't ever do anything and doesn't kill anything like, man, should I have went in there and tried it? Well, at least the way we hunt, you're probably not going to say yes because you're going to. And I explained that the other night when Randy said, no, we're going to hunt, we're going to hunt, we're going to be hunting on stands. You know, when, when he was talking, you were talking about if I see one, can I spot and stalk it? Yeah. You know, I have, I have made the mistake of,

by not taking the chance with a giant bedded with a doe and getting down and slipping in, knowing, knowing full and well I could get by with it and never get busted and could have killed big deer that way, but talked myself out of it. And I should have taken the risk because at least I would have known. Now I go, I think I could have, you know, I think I could have. Well, I don't know that, but I should have taken the chance. Yeah. Yeah.

All good points there. Now that we're in the middle of the rut or the rut starting, I wouldn't say middle. We're kind of getting into the beginning stages of the beginning of the peak. Yeah. What's your focus right now as far as food? Are you looking if there's food plots in the area, are you looking at that secondary food kind of how are you going to use that food to your advantage? Because obviously we've mentioned we've established like bucks have one thing on their mind right now. They're real dumb and they're just looking for does they're trying to breed as many does as possible.

With that in mind, how are you focusing on food? Are you sitting on primary food sources, secondary food sources, and how do you use those to your advantage? You know, a big deer will follow a doe down I-70, and you'll see a lot of them dead on it now if you drive down through there, but...

I don't particularly during the rut like to be right on the food source. I like to be just off the food source. Now, if you have a lot of acorns, you're going to be in the middle of the food source, so to speak, all the time. And they can get up and walk five feet and feed.

But let's say there's a primary food source, say there's a 10 acre food plot or a cut bean field, a cut corn field, whatever. That's what I would consider primary food source. That's where most of the deer are going to go feed at some point in time, whether they're there early in the morning or they're there in the evening or they slip out in the middle of the day and they go back, whatever. I like to be in that transition and those funnels or those pinch points leading from the core bedding

cover and let's say bedding, meaning I don't know if that buck is really bedding in there or he's got a doe pushed in there or what, but it is a bedding area leading to that maybe 50, 7,500 yards off of the main food. I just like that because I catch more movement and I feel like, again, I can catch those deer transitioning and scent checking and

and probably have a better chance of getting him killed than waiting for him to make a mistake and follow a doe out into that food source. So I would rather be there than I would be right on the food. Now some people don't like to, they like to be on the food because they like to see more and they like to see a lot more deer. But I'm hunting for one or two or three particular type of deer or maybe I am hunting for one particular deer that I know exists.

And I know he's in the area and I know I've got a better chance of getting him killed there than I do on the edge. Yeah. And a pinch point where he's got an entire 20 acres of ag to deal with. You're like, all right, he's got a, he's got a specific path. He's going to come. So you can narrow that down. Especially with a bow. I mean, you know, with a bow, you're talking a short range, a short range weapon, you know, honestly,

30 yards is really probably your key. 30 yards and in is your key. And at that point, you've got to get a deer in a position where you can get that kind of a shot. You get on the edge of a field, a lot of times, he comes out, misses you 70 yards, starts running a doe around, but you just got to hope and pray that that doe decides she's going to run right by you. And sometimes it works. Now,

If I'm sitting there with a rifle, not a problem. He could come out 300 yards away and we're probably going to have a little tap dance going on. But, you know, with a bow, I try to narrow it down and give myself the best opportunity to get that up close and personal shot. And, you know, I was thinking the other day, out of all the deer that I've harvested over the years,

Probably on a buck, the longest shot that I've ever made is 34 yards, and 90% of them are killed anywhere from 7 steps to 18 steps. That's what you're looking at, and you're not shooting those. Most of those shots aren't being taken in an open field situation. They've been taken in the woods where he's got to walk by you or in that transition area to get there, and that's what I like. I like that up close and personal action. I like to see his eyelashes.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense versus being out in that open ag versus, like I say, really trying to pinch them down and get tight on them. So...

Right on the front end of the peak of the rut. Let's talk calling white tail deer strategy. You know, we've got our brand new line of calls out. You know, it seems like all the research I've did all the you know, I've talked to you. I talked to Randy. I've talked to hundreds of callers like what do you guys prefer? What sounds you know, it sounds like the majority of you guys use grunts, but kind of walk through

you know, how you rattle, when you grunt, when not to grunt, you know, when not to make calls and kind of just your approach to, to interacting with these deer, you know, during the rut. Yeah. Well, you know, I'm always going to have a grunt call. And as you stated, you guys came out with your, your line of deer calls and I think it absolutely knocked it out of the park. I mean, I've, I've been using deer calls for the last,

40 some years of my deer hunting and, and, uh, I've called in a lot of deer over the years and it is, it is key to know when to call, when not to call. I'm not much of a blind caller. Um, especially in situations where deer can get downwind of you pretty easy. Cause a lot of times you'll, you'll grunt and you'll, you'll put a scenario together. Let's say you grunt a little bit, you snort wheeze, like two deer came together. You rattle a deer 200 yards down the hollow hears you.

He decides he's going to come, but he's going to make a big loop and come in and get behind you. He wants to scent check what he can't see.

Well, at that point, unless all the stars line up, you're going to get busted. Yep. Right? So I don't like to blind call a lot unless I'm in a position where it's almost impossible for a deer to get downwind. You know, or he's going to, if he gets downwind, he's had to walk by me to get there. You know, so only in those situations will I do that. Now, if you're in a blind situation where you've got everything closed up,

And even if the wind is wrong and you do circle downwind, a lot of times you're not going to smell you through that blind. So you can kind of get by with it. I also like to encompass that with a deer decoy a lot of times because in an open area, you know, like I've got a place just off of a power line. Well, they can come out on that power line 200 yards away. And even if they wanted to circle downwind, they get a look at that decoy. Okay, that changes everything, right? That whole perspective now,

They've got a visual of what they thought they just heard, just like a turkey looking at a decoy in a field. Then they come up there and they head on it, you know, and it makes it a little bit easier. But a deer that you're, say you've got a deer that's missing you, that comes out and they're going to miss you by 70 yards. That's where that deer call will absolutely pay dividends a lot of times. If he's by himself and he's looking and he comes out,

and you get a visual on him and they're going to miss you and they're in a position where they have to almost cut the corner and walk down dead by you to get downwind of you, I'm going to grunt at him. But a lot of times I'll wait too and let them get in position. So let's say you've got a north-south wind like today and the wind's coming straight out of the north and you've got a deer that's basically...

crosswind of you so he's straight east of you. Walking to the west. If I think he's going to obviously get to me, I'm not going to do anything. But let's say he starts veering south, I'm not going to grunt to him. Because if he starts veering south and I grunt to him, I'm just going to entice him getting behind me and getting downwind of me. But if he starts veering north, I'm going to let him get out north just far enough

that when he does want to come and circle downwind he's got to cut that corner if you will as a figure of speech and he's going to get too close before he gets downwind i'm going to get a shot or waiting long enough like if he stays on his perfectly east to west line you wouldn't want to call too early because that now gives him the enough time to get behind you versus if you wait and let him you know maybe let's say 50 yards is the right number he's now out in front of you far enough at least now if you blow a call he's gonna the angle he's gonna take he'd have to walk back

you know, backtrack to get back behind you or downwind. So you just wait until the right time, not necessarily blow the call early. Timing things are critical like that, you know, and I'll give you a little example. I shot an eight and a half year old six pointer. It was actually a little bump of a seventh point that made him legal. But I killed this deer yesterday.

I don't know, four or five years ago. And I'd hunted him for a long time. And I shot him on October 22nd on kind of a drizzly day, 50 degrees. And that goes to show you 50 degrees with a northeast wind at about 15 mile an hour will freeze you to death. I didn't wear enough clothes that day, kind of like you guys did this morning. We didn't wear enough today. So this deer came out, he chased a doe, and then the doe left him, which is pretty common October 22nd. He came out and started making a scrape.

Well, I let him get pretty into that scrape. Now he's nowhere near being able to get downwind because the wind's coming this way, coming out of the northeast, and he is north and a little bit west of me.

Not far west, but definitely straight north of me, about 120 yards. And he's making this scrape, throwing dirt everywhere. Well, I let him get in the middle of making that scrape, and I just one loud just, I grunted hard at him. And he wheeled around and looked and then turned around and just started ripping that scrape apart. And I'm like, okay, he's aggravated.

So I run it again and he just started balling up and stiff legged and starts walking and starts walking like he's going to walk this half circle. And I'm like, he's going to have to get all the way over there. So at that point, instead of waiting, uh,

I didn't elect a grunt again. I snort wheezed at him to get a little more aggressive. Now we're in CRP. I'm up in a tree so I can see in the CRP. Good. You get on the ground. You can't see what's snort wheezing at him. Yeah. So I snort wheeze at him and he pins his ear back and just come straight at me. And I shot him at 12 yards, you know, but that was perfect timing of the calling knowing I can't let him get any further now. Cause if I do,

It's just going to entice. He's going to get downwind of me, but if I do it now and he does react, then that's, he's going to cut that corner and I'm going to get him shot before he gets to a point where he, and he, he literally, he read the script. Now that's an eight and a half year old deer that nothing in the woods is

in North America is any smarter. He has seen it all, done it all, been there and avoided getting shot for eight years of his life. That is saying something, you know, with especially thinking about the eight seasons of gun season he went through in Missouri where you had the Orange Army. You know, that to me, although that deer wasn't no big high scoring deer,

He was old. He was a beautiful deer. He's a great deer for a six pointer, but, and a big body deer, but to beat a deer on his own terms like that, to me is just that, that's what, that's what hunting deer is all about. You know, it's not always about the size of the deer. Yeah. It's cool to kill those 170, 180 inch deer. They're awesome. You know, it's great. We all want to do it every year.

But realistically, only a small percentage of those deer ever live long enough or have the genetics to get to that caliber. You know, you got 300 deer on your property and one ever makes it there. Well, that kind of gives you an idea of how many actually get there.

Yeah. And then you're, uh, we talked about a little bit and we've even kind of alluded to it this time is that the times we won't call the times we won't hit that grunt or snort wheezes when that buck is locked down on a hot dough. You're not, he's already got what he wants. He's visually got, he's not going to leave her to come find some buck that's 80, a hundred, 150 yards off of her. Um, so that's kind of, is that, or if the woods are just, if the actions there already, you'll just kind of stay quiet. But if you, yeah, I mean, it's like Turkey hunting, you know, if, if you don't have to call,

There's no reason to call, you know, and there's a good time to do it and not a good time to do it. And there's also, I mean, same with elk, same with turkey. There's times where you don't want the critters to know your location. You don't want them to look your way and draw any more attention. So when we seen that this morning, you know, there was, there were times to call and then when, you know, stuff was moving, we knew we didn't want to draw any more attention or, you know, screw up the wind. So that's, that's a good point on, on, you know, I, I, this morning I grunted at that deer that was following that doe and,

And he was a shooter buck if he would not been broke up. He was definitely a big, mature five and a half year old deer. I mean, biggest body deers I've probably ever laid eyes on. He was a giant of a deer and a deer that needed to be taken as big mainframe eight pointer that broke up. But the cool thing was he was following that doe and I knew what kind of reaction I was going to get. But he was 100 yards, 120 yards away. And I had deer in front of me.

But I had everything closed up except for one window because I was sitting in that redneck of Randy's, you know. And I'm not good about setting in blinds simply because I can't see or hear like I want to, you know. But I caught this deer and I thought, well, I'm going to grunt and see what his reaction is. Just as I thought, because I wasn't going to hurt anything.

And he was following that doe and he was about 30 yards behind her and I grunted and he wheeled around and looked and he turned and started following her again. And when I grunted at him the second time, he never even checked up. He just kept walking. I'm like, that is 99.9% of the time what's going to happen when you have a buck with a doe. Yeah.

His interest level is on what's in front of him. Obviously, she was getting close and he wasn't going to let her get far enough away that he couldn't check up on her. He was in 99% lockdown mode. Exactly. There's nothing besides a bigger buck that's going to take him. And I'd probably walk by him walking out. I mean, honestly, he could have been bedded down in some of that thick stuff and they'll let you walk right by him. As long as she doesn't get up, he's not getting up. Yeah.

Well, no, I'm super excited. Like I say, I've never claimed to be a whitetail, but I think I'm going to like this. It's off to a good start already. So we're here in Kansas. We will definitely give you guys an update on the next episode. But I can't thank you enough, Chris, for jumping on here, kind of sharing what you know about white. A very, very small sliver, what we had to, we only had an hour to cover, but give us a little insight into your whitetail knowledge. And I'm excited to spend the next week here and

in Kansas with things just heating up. So thanks for coming on the show and, uh, good luck on the, on this hunt. Uh, I think we're going to end up with some decent bucks here in camp. I do too. All right. Thanks, Chris. You betcha. Thank you.

Hey, we're going to take a little break here and talk about interstate batteries. Now, if you're like me, enjoying the great outdoors, you need gear that is as reliable as it gets. That's why I power my adventures with interstate batteries. I use interstate batteries in my boats. I use interstate batteries in my camper. Great for your truck, too. From Alaska to Montana, they're outrageously dependable.

Battery is essential. With over 150,000 dealer locations, finding one is easy. For all your vehicles, land or sea, choose Interstate. Head to InterstateBatteries.com and find your power today. You ever get that feeling, the walls closing in, the concrete jungle suffocating you? You crave some wide open spaces, the chance to connect with nature, maybe in a spot all your own. Well, head over to Land.com.

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.