00:00:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your guide to the white tail Woods, presented by first Light, creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First Light Go farther, stay Longer, and now your host, Mark Kenyon.
00:00:19
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. This week of the show, I’m joined by Troy Pottinger and I’m running him through are what would You Do gauntlet, giving us insight into exactly how we’d handle some of the most challenging hunting scenarios I could throw at him. Absolutely all right, Welcome back to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by First Light and their cameo for Conservation. It is their season opener sale this week. By the way, if you’re listening to this right when it launches, which would be to Thursday, August twenty first, twenty twenty five. If you have to be listening to it that week, season on, check it on out over at first light dot com. There’s some good deals going on. But in more relevant news today, we are continuing are What Would You Do? Series. The gist of this series is that I talked to different expert whitetail hunters and give them very specific hypothetical deer hunting scenarios or challenges or circumstances and ask them to detail for us how they would handle them, how they would think through this challenge, how would they act on this challenge, What would be their strategy, their thought process, why would they do these different things? All of that we’ve had it so far. We’ve done one of these with Ted Zanyerlei, we’ve done one with Terry Drury earlier this month, and today we have Troy Pottinger. And last week with Terry that was a little bit more of a private land focused conversation. Today we’re back to more of a public land focused conversation because Troy specializes in hunting big country, big timber, big hills or mountains, and finding really big bucks in these pretty darn tough circumstances. So it’s going to be a very interesting one. Troy comes to us from the White Tail Addictions Crew. He is a proven DIY deer hunter who has gotten it done, not just in his home state of Idaho and the surrounding area of Canada, Montana, Washington, but also he’s headed east. He’s done it in Ohio, He’s done it I think in Iowa or Illinois, some of these other states in the Midwest. So his tactics will work for you whether you’re on the West coast or the east. The terrain that he’s specialized in, these big hills, rolling topography, mountains, it’s stuff that I know that people in southern Ohio or Virginia, or Pennsylvania, or New York, or the Appalachians down Tennessee, Georgia, whatever. This is something that can apply to many of you. And I think there’s some other ideas that Troy shares with us about using scrapes that can be applicable even in flatter country, whether you’re in Michigan or Mississippi or somewhere in between. So he’s a great hunter, a great storyteller, and communicator around how he develops his plans and his processes. There’s a lot we can learn from Troy today. So I don’t want to beat around the bush too much on this one. I mentioned already that our first Light season opener sale is going on right now. If you are listening on the twenty first or twenty second of September, or sorry it’s August, I guess now twenty twenty five. Also, the Wired Ton hats’ve been telling you about. Those are still in stock, but we have these brand new T shirts. If you are watching, you can see the brand new Wired Hunt T shirt just dropped this week as well. You can find all of that over at the Mediator’s store. I hope you guys, alikam, I appreciate you showing your support for this podcast and what we’re trying to do over here. So thanks in advance for that and thanks for tuning in. I hope you’re gonna enjoy this one. I know you’re gonna enjoy this one. Troy’s a great guest, He’s got a lot to share. So why don’t we just get to my chat with me Pottinger. Here we go, all right, joining me once again. The show is mister Troy Pottinger. Welcome to show.
00:04:14
Speaker 3: Troy, Hey, Mark, thanks for having me. It’s great too, great to get a circle back and talk to you again.
00:04:20
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, absolutely. I always enjoy our chats. We’ve had some good ones over the years, and excited for today though because it’s a little bit different than usual, as you know, and we’re just you know, jumping right in no formalities here today. We’re just gonna we’re gonna get right into the fun stuff. The format for today’s show is this what would you do gauntlet, in which I’m gonna throw you into the throw to the Wolves. With all these different hypothetical situations, some might be like fun to consider, some might be stressful to consider. I think plenty of them. You’ve probably experienced yourself, and I’ve ran a number of the white tail addictions through this one. I know we’ve done Andre, we’ve done justin maybe Heath, I can’t remember. But you’re in good company and I think it’s gonna be it’s gonna be interesting, So I just want to jump into it so we maximize our time here. Imagine this one. Imagine that the season is coming soon. It’s August. I know, opening day of archery for you in Idaho is August thirtieth. So you’re excited, you’re amped up, everything’s prepared. But a week before opening day, I pick you up and I say, hey, Troy can’t hunt Idaho. I’m flying you to New York State and you’ve got to hunt the adirndecks of New York this year. But you’ve got one weekend here in August to prepare for your hunt coming up. Later that year. Okay, so you got Saturday and Sunday in the Adirundecks of New York. What would you do in that two day window to prepare yourself for your week long return trip Let’s say in November out in the mountains of the ad Airundecks. Walk me through thought process and plan for maximizing two days in this brand new mountain area.
00:06:13
Speaker 3: Okay, so I’ve got two days to get out there do my due diligence of scouting to prepare for a November hunt. What what time in November?
00:06:24
Speaker 2: I’m going to say, you were going to be there from November first to the seventh for your return trip, And and you can, you can. You can do anything digitally beyond the two days, but you only have two days on the ground to do your work.
00:06:40
Speaker 3: Right, So obviously, the the easy thing that I know I’m gonna be able to do is do a massive amount of East scouting outside of those two days.
00:06:52
Speaker 2: Yep.
00:06:53
Speaker 3: But those two days are crucial. And this kind of plays into my hand because thirty three years as a teacher, I have had to teach, force, train, whatever word you want to say, myself to figure out deer in the summer when I have free time to be able to kill them in October November. And there’s a lot of people out there that don’t like to scout hard heart in the summer, but that’s been my life. My whole life has been can I scout effectively in the summer and translate that to late October November type hunts? And I do that, but it takes a lot of effort and paying attention to details that are hard to see. So let’s say the e scouting side of it. I’m a big Google Earth, Google Earth. I love Google Earth because I can really look at the right now habitat and conditions of what’s going on out there, and then I like to overlap it with you know, whatever your favorite hunt app is. So I would do a ton of that as much as I could before that two day trip out to get my boots on the ground, and I would do a ton of that after I got to put boots on the ground on those two days to try to make sure it all made sense in the big picture of that early November hunt. So that’s just a given that’s going to happen because I have ample amount of time to scout this before and after. But to me, the crucial part would be I would if I had two days, I would use every ounce of daylight till dark to cover ground. And I do that all the time out here right now in the summers in August on Bucks. But out here right now I’m trying to get within one hundred yards of a bucks betting zone to killing August thirtieth. That wouldn’t be my focus as much in the Adirondacks in August, because I’d be hunt in November. I would scout the living daylights out of the wind, how it worked in the Adirondacks, how it positioned deer. I would do a ton of research behind the scenes of my free time on the favorable food sources. I would get on the ground out there every second of daylight I have, and I would just cover a ton of ground based on my eat scouting prior to get in there. And then I would break down first how the wind is working in those mountains and how the thermal is working, because that will always position whitetail deer for safety in mountain country no matter where you’re at, really anywhere, they will always live their life around wind the thermals. And then of course the obvious, the water, the feed, and everything that’s going to be available to them. November window I get a hunt, so I would hit the ground running and I would cover as much ground as I could, and I would look for historical, traditional, long standing evidence sign of community running areas. All the sign’s gonna have to be there from the year before. I need to. I need to find the licking branches that most guys will walk by because the leaves have the ground covered up. I need to find the old scrapes, all the traditional rubs that have been pounded over the years. I need to walk with the wind and the thermals, so let it walk me into those areas that give a give deer herds safety, solace, food, water, security, cover, habitat all of it for November. And I can’t and I wouldn’t focus on Like if I bunked a buck out of his bed while doing it, no bother at all, wouldn’t bother me a bit? I would ask myself, you know, where would this deer be based on the dough family groups that I’m finding evidence of and the community type hubs that I’m finding evidence of, where would this deer probably stage based on the topography the Terraine to cover how the wind works in there to service these doughs. So I would really focus on the dough family groups evidence from the previous running time of the year to circle back and hunt them in that first that first week in November, because I’m gonna hunt. I’m gonna be hunting for one week, hardcore on where I believe a big buck would feel safe servicing dose in the daylight that time of year, checking scrapes, and really doing his work that time of year.
00:11:59
Speaker 2: So I know you put a huge priority on those community scraping areas, but as you as you mentioned in the summer, it’s a lot harder to see them. You might be able to see the liaking branches if you’re really paying attention, but it’s probably not gonna pop like they normally would. What what would that I know, I personally know what that looks like when I’m out there in October or November. But if I’m out there for listeners out there in August, what would a community scrape area look like, a primary scraping area, whatever you want to call it, What would that look like in August? How do I know, like, oh, yes, this is actually a really good one, even though it’s really overgrown and it doesn’t jump off the map like they normally would, right you know.
00:12:39
Speaker 3: The uh the number one thing I see when I like teach my boot camps out here in Idaho and when I’m working with guys when I walk them through the woods this time of year, because I do the boot camps in June and July, they walk right by laking branches all the time. They don’t even they don’t understand what they need to be looking for. So I teach them so that that whole strap science, that hub science of deer and how deer use that like you and I do on social media to communicate, to know each other, to you know, send messages. It’s all about those licking branches. So I would be looking for and not trying purposely making sure I don’t walk by those discrete, hard to see in the summer, weathered well used decades of you signed on specific liking branches. Now, I’ll do my due diligence before I get out there too, on species of favorable licking branches and the Adirondacks. And I’d talk to some guys that I know hunt the Adirondacks that know there’s that would really know their stuff, and they’d give me some species to look for. I would do all that ahead of time, so then I would really know what to key in on on those licking branches. And that’s the key in the summer, all the scrapes that I run year round, all of the scrapes that I find in my scouting, I do a ton of prospecting to stay ahead of the curve out here. Year after year after year, I stay way ahead of the curve. I’m always keying in at eye level. And it’s nice because liking branches are usually at eye level. I’m five to ten, they’re right there, so I’m not gonna miss them. And it’s only because I’ve trained my brain to really focus on those because it’s been so successful. So I would focus in on the torn, tattered, beat up, even if it’s got leaves growing back on it. Let’s say it’s some type of a brush or whatever they love to use, or it’s a specific tree that is deciduous and grows leaves drops, And I’m still looking for those tips, those little ends of the licking branch that have been beat to heck and a lot of times deep best community hub type scrapes that deer use decade after decade, are positioned such to where the wind the thermost, the feed, the security cover, everything plays into the deer’s favor. The deer favor that time of the year, and I’m looking for those places where I would fill that lower light, heavier canopy, little darker timber. Potentially I see that a lot out west, at those corridors where it’s not so wide open that deer are a little spooky about using it in the daylight. I would really key in on those types of licking branch scrape hubs, if you will, But I’m breaking down those details on those actual branches.
00:15:39
Speaker 2: Okay, Now you mentioned covering a lot of ground over those two days. Would you devote anytime to taking things the next step, which would be either deploying cameras on those scrapes or in other areas and or picking trees, prepping trees, anything like that.
00:15:59
Speaker 3: Yes, And to be fair mark in this question, I’m not dealing with any agriculture, am I at all?
00:16:05
Speaker 2: Correct?
00:16:05
Speaker 3: This would be just big woods, big woods, no destination food sources. Yes, I would obviously obviously if there’s oaks out there. I’m looking big time for community scrapes around isolated white oak type pockets things like that. Yes, I don’t go into the woods, and I can say this from my heart. I don’t go into the woods ever without intent, specific purpose. Always. I never go into the woods anymore just to dick around. Excuse my language. I don’t do it. I don’t have time for it, and I care too much about being proficient with my time that I have because my family, my kids, everything comes first before that. So I would be My pack always weighs about twenty to thirty pounds when I go into the woods. Why I go in heavy, I come out light. I’m probably past. I can at least four or five cameras. I’m packing my scrape synthetics. I don’t go anywhere ever without that stuff, because it is so easy in the world of scrape science to jump in the game with the deer when you find a spot that screams you need to hunt here in November. So yes, I would deploy when I come across something that gives me all of the like not just instinctual but proven past checks all the boxes for me that this could be a spot that I want to come back to. I would set it up over market. I would open up their scrape in august on them because it’s getting close to hardhorn. I would open stuff up everywhere, and one thing I didn’t touch on. When I find those linking branches, I immediately inspect the ground below it, even if I got to move all the needles and debris or leaves to see if they’re there’s a big scrape there. And usually you can see through that stuff and identify it without moving moving it. But sometimes the groundcover is crazy. But I would want to see that dirt from the past. That identity of that scrape being there too on the ground is what I’m getting at. So yes, I would deploy. I would open up over mark and even build some mocks in the right terrain type funnels that you know. I haven’t even said the world were trails yet. Trails are huge to me. When I walk through the woods, I map out all the trails. I map out all the lateral trails on mountains. I map out all the vertical decent trails on mountains because during the rut, the white tails run the lateral trails to cover the most ground to pick up scent on the mountains, on the terrain, if that makes sense. So I would be mapping out all of those lateral trails for November, even more so of in the vertical ascent and decent trails that you would hunt August September. And then it all just comes into a big picture scenario to where I’m prepared and in ten minutes i can build over Mark Fresh and do all my work, hang a camera and I’m going to the next one. And I would do that from daylight til dark each day, and of course i’d be running either an off grid saved offline map, and i’d be running all of that in my hand nowadays, which I’m kind of happy that I grew up in an era before all of this because I actually don’t have to use those, but they’re extra confirmation for me now of seeing the big picture on my map. But I used to do all of this one hundred percent without any type of electronic device, and I just store it all right here in my brain or in my head too, and I just memorize it. So that’s just a great addition for me. So that’s what I’m taking into the Woodsmark. That’s what I’m deploying. I’m definitely gonna leave cameras, and I’ll be honest, if sell service is out there anywhere, and if sell is legal, I’m not going to sell camera with me to just in case, absolutely, especially being a two thousand miles away in Idoh.
00:20:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, let’s take let’s take this like one step further. You described a number of different things you would do. I want to give you a little bit more of a set of specifics and then have you kind of break it down a little bit more so. So imagine this this area that you went and checked out. Let’s imagine that there is a main ridge running north south and then it’s got two finger ridges coming off to the east. So it’s kind of like the letter C. All right, if you were like a like a flat sea.
00:20:51
Speaker 3: Almost got a big basin.
00:20:54
Speaker 2: Big basin exactly, That’s what I’m trying to paint here, big basin here, and you’ve got you’ve got a short window of this day of your two days. Let’s let’s say you dedicated a quarter of your day excuse me, a quarter of your weekend was to this basin. I’m curious how you would break down that basin specifically, So how you would do what you described doing, but now put it in this picture for me. And then also, how would you prep and pick the one best stand location in that one basin. So so again looking to take what you described kind of high level and apply it to this specific north south running basin picking the best spot and how you would prep that best spot in this short window of time. Does that make sense?
00:21:42
Speaker 3: Yeah? So if it’s a quarter of the day and in the summer, you get about fifteen hours at daylight in August. Correct, I’m pretty close there.
00:21:52
Speaker 2: This sounds about right, Yeah, pretty close.
00:21:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, so a quarter of it is quite a few hours that’d ads that I could use in there. I would not on that boots on the ground day those seven hours, let’s just say seven and seven a half hours, I would not be as concerned so much as to how I entered east west north south. I would want to cover it. And I’m I’m of the mind of find find the pocket, find the honey hole, find that safe security spot that those deer will breed and chase in the daylight November based on the Dough family groups, and I’m gonna look for all their sign their tracks, their trails, even in the grass. Even in the tall stuff, you can see I can see a buck walk through tall grass or a dough. You just got to look at the grass and you’ll see where they’re working through it. So I’m not sure what the Adirondacks look like on the ground in August, but out here there’s a lot of vegetation. So I would get in there, mark that drik in that basin and those ridges, and knowing me logically, I would go high right out of the gate so I could work my way downhill all day, so.
00:23:12
Speaker 2: Back on top of the walk, on top of the ridges.
00:23:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would go high. Early in the morning, I would uh, I would analyze the thermals. I might hike in and I would get up high. Then I would run those you know, It’s kind of like when I el kind. I like to get on big ridges and stay high above the animals and work at them right across the tops. So in that scenario, I would be deciphering the thermals and I would keep closed track to when I fill them switch and I would get up high. And because if you work high early, your energy that you have to work you get up. You get up there early, and then you have all that energy that next five six hours out of the seven hours whatever it takes to get up high to break that entire basin down working downhill, and I would probably do great big ce type not exactly a grid, but kind of, and I’d work that whole basin and I’d want to come out at the bottom where I entered in the evening at freaking dark. I plan on walking out with my head light on, my headlamp on, because then I would so let’s say I did from two o’clock till nine o’clock at night when it got dark, you know, one of those half days in there. To me, that makes sense to get high, work my way down, have the whole day to work downhill, and then I would be packing everything I need on my back. I probably have my spy high stick as a walking stick, so I could put a camera up high if I need to it’s public. I would just literally lay that sucker out, and I believe in seven hours, let’s say six seven hours of actual really working that basin over, I would know how the prevailing winds work, for the most part, how the thermals and when they switch. I would study the slope that I’m on the north south east west slopes, because that dictates wind and cooling of the thermals and heating of the thermals differently at different times. I would read all of the trails, the lateral trails, the vertical trails to sign. Obviously, I’m looking for those hubscrapes, those licking branches, and I would be blowing those up, setting cameras and trapping. I’m literally a whitetail trapper. I would be. I would be setting a trap line in that basin and then let all of that foot you know, boots on the ground, strategic movement through that basin, laying out of the cameras, refreshing, opening up, creating a mock scrape if I think it has to be there, based on what I find with trails and how the timber and the ridges funnel everything, how the wind makes it, you know, will always position deer in their betting zones, always wayndon thermals does. So I would That’s all rolling through my mind as I break it down. And when I come across the sign and it’s from November from October, when the sign is there and I can see that old sign, I’m keying in on it, because that’s when I’m hunting this November.
00:26:33
Speaker 2: If I were to, if you and I were looking at the topographic map of this basin together and I said, pick the four best looking places on this topographic map right now, put a pin on it or circle it on the map, and then you went back there and actually scouted on the ground as you described. And now you went and you checked all the spots and you found the single best place. Do you think that in your map pre work, do you think that you could have picked the best spot? Would the best spot in real life actually have been one of the four places you picked ahead of time?
00:27:08
Speaker 3: I believe I can, yes, And I do it a lot. Do I always hit it perfect? Note, but I really focus in on wind and thermals where it positions dare for betting, and how you know how mature bucks really like to have the high ground and the wind and thermals on doe betting, dough family groups and dough betting. So they like to they like to be able. It’s simple common sense. A thermal blows up hill during the day way more hours than downhill, So if you want to kill stuff in the daylight in mountain country, big bucks use those uphill thermals to travel and sent check before they drop, before they bail off. They run those high lines, those lateral lines like crazy in the mountains, and I see it in Ohio on a two hundred foot elevation gain on Ohio, I see the same thing. I see the exact same thing, just a smaller version of it. So do I believe I could nail a really productive spot with the maps one hundred percent? But what might What I think I really need more than anything is finding those white oaks or whatever type of food source is the best for November for those dough family groups. And then if those correspond with the terrain features and the prevailing and thermal winds that I think would really make a buck want to be there with those Dough family groups close, then it’s going to be money. But where I think I might run into trouble with a map only quest is I got to go find where the best feed is going to be in November two And it’s I’m assuming correct me if I’m wrong. I don’t hunt a lot of oaks, but I’m assuming. You know, so, how long do those oaks drop in that kind of country? You know, how long is that food stores there, So I would have to do all that research too, Mark yep.
00:29:10
Speaker 2: So so where I’m getting where I’m going with that is this last file, which would be could you just paint a picture for me of what that place that would jump off the map would look like from the map perspective, because because I feel like I’ve got a good understanding now of what you’re looking for on the ground. But what I do want to make sure folks understand is what are the key things on the top on map or even the you know, aerial top all hybrid that you would say, oh, yes, this is the spot I need to go ground truth. Can you paint that picture for me real quick and then.
00:29:38
Speaker 3: We’ll move on to it. Yeah, I think I could paint one that would probably work. I would on a map, I would be looking for off that big ridge system within that basin, I would be looking for finger ridges and benches that come down off of it yep. And I would be mapping out in my mind based on those terrain features where the best security cover and happy place for doze are where a buck could position himself to monitor them without having to be right in the middle of him every day. And then I would probably hit first that halfway two thirds of the way up in those mountains, on those ridges where I believe i’d be pretty close to where Bucks felt very good about betting hanging out even you know, checking on those I would probably not be in the very bottom unless I thought that I could get a wind to work down there. I would most likely be looking at saddles within saddles, finger ridges that have nice benches, things that are terrain no things is the wrong word, terrain features that really aid in the movement and monitoring of right tail Bucks overdose and that dose are close proximity to them. Then you got to look at the habitat. You have to get on that, Like I say, get on Google Earth and look at the actual habitat. Try to find pictures from November of what that habitat looks like. It might be wide open with no leads, what kind of brushes in there? So there’s a lot this is, you know, these questions are there’s a lot loaded into them in my mind of the stuff I would have to break down. But I guarantee I would be on terrain features that are conducive for Bucks, Comfortable daylight type observing dose, monitoring dose, and even chasing a breeding dose. I would want to be right in the middle of that to start, because I want to find daylight movement, and I want wind that I can hunt. I want wind in thermals that I can enter and exit and be able to hunt it without just wasting my time at a spot. I have to be able to hunt in my mind on a map. I have to be able to get to that location, exit ander it, even on a map before I ever walk there. I have to be able to look at it and go, yeah, I could get there and get out of there, hunt off to the edge of those prevailings and thermals and kill something. And I would also look for terrain barriers that would protect me from deer wanting to walk and directly downwind to meet. Might be an opening, might be a you know, a bunch of blowdown timber. Might be a bluff, might be a deep ravine with a creak in it that really steers deer around it because it’s so steep and they’d rather travel a trail just above it. I would look for all of that.
00:32:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, let’s let’s let’s pivot something a little bit different.
00:32:40
Speaker 3: Here.
00:32:40
Speaker 2: Let’s put you back home. You’re an Idaho or one of your you know, other areas you hunt there, Montana, Washington. You’ve done your work, you’ve prepped, you’ve got your cameras that you’ve got your trap line set. You’re good to go. Season opens. You start heading out to whatever your best spot is that you thought for that part of the season would be, and you start driving by a number of different trailheads that you’ve historically used. Maybe you’re not going to be there today, but you drive by one, there’s two trucks there, kind of surprising. You keep going your heading towards your best spot for that particular day. You drive by another basin, two trucks there. You get to your spot that you’re gonna hunt and there’s two or three trucks there too. Yep, a bunch of hunting pressure in your zone now. And I don’t know what it’s usually like there, but let’s say there’s more than you would expect. Right, Let’s say it’s the COVID year again. Whenever one came out of the woodwork and started hunting again, right, what would that do to your plan for that day or the next couple of days. There at the beginning of the year, when you’re flooded with an unexpected amount of hunting pressure, does that change your plan at all? Or do you still stick to the program, do what you’re gonna do.
00:33:49
Speaker 3: That’s a good question because I’m not so big a country, and if it’s opening day that’s August thirtieth, I have till December twenty fourth to kill the back Cup. After eight I usually have a group of bucks that are on my list that I want to hunt, So that kind of answers your question right there. If I saw that type of scenario in the vast public that I hunt, that guys literally park right where I want to park. First thing is is, in my case, just for my past of being successful with mountain white tails, I don’t want to park by those guys and leave my identity with them. What if they hunt half a day and walk out, Oh there’s Pottinger’s pickup, they take your you know, So first of all, I’m not leaving my identity there, and I’m just going to plan B. It’s I’ve done this for years. I always have a Plan B, C, D, and sometimes E. And because I hunt such vast country, it’s pretty hard for me based on all of the homework I do on these white tails and effort I put into finding them early them year after year, I usually can go to Plant B or C mark and go find a quiet place be only because of that work that I put in to have that going. Yeah, it would never be that way if I didn’t put all that year around working to have that stuff established and working for me. So I would go to Plan B, and if Plan B wasn’t good, I’d go to C. But I’m not going to give away in my case where I’m at, I’m just not going to do it. I don’t need to because I have four months to hunt a deer that that I may be targeting. I would have now if it was at the end of the season and I had three days left. That’s a little different question.
00:35:43
Speaker 2: Oh now, what about this. Let’s let’s say it’s similar but slightly different. Let’s say you go to your best spot and maybe this is let’s sweeten the deal a little bit. It’s opening day and a cold front happened hit on August thirtieth, So when from maybe eighty degrees to high fifties and you just know it’s gonna be good and you get to the trailhead and there’s no cars. Looks good going to plane A. You hike up to your spot and you get to I’m just gonna make an assumption here, kritma if I’m wrong, but let’s assume it’s gonna be some kind of you know, community scrape area near some buck betting, and you had a camera set up and you see, we’ll say, what could be one of two things. Either a someone set up a camera right on your setup, near your camera, and or someone set up a tree stand in that same zone. So there’s a camera or tree stand right in your zone. Now, there’s not anyone there right now, but you see that someone has found your zone and set up on it. It’s the afternoon of opening day and you’ve hiked all the way in and it’s a banging cold front.
00:36:50
Speaker 3: What do you do now, Well, I’m gonna hunt it, and I’m gonna obviously wonder how the heck somebody’s found me there and why they would want to set up near me. And I’ve had that happen And I came in on one of my incredible I came in on a just an incredible spot I had set up one time to get my tree and hunt this deer. And and to be fair to your listeners, I never go to spots. I go to the deer I’m after, So I don’t really have a honey hole. I hunt specific deer, so my spots. The nice thing about that is mark some of my spots get moved year to year, even on a specific deer, even if it’s one hundred yards two hundred yards quarter mile, because I’m working on him with his changes with his as he gets older, he changes, he mixes it up based on pressure. But back to answer the exact question, and I’ve had this happen, had it happen. I’ve had it happen where I’ve walked in. And this is a shout out to most of us Western guys, which I really like, because guys are we have so much ground out here that nobody needs to set right unless they’re just being an ass. I mean, seriously, they don’t need to. But anyway, I’ve walked in on a guy before in my spot, or let’s say it was a camera on my spot, I would hunt it. And if I walk in on somebody sitting right next to me, I just talked to him and say, hey, I you know, been running this for a long time. I’m like, I’ve hunted here forever. Did you notice it? I would just ask if they noticed my setup, and I don’t care really what they say to me. I could tell by the way they act if they’re being honest or not, and then i’d have to play it from there. Obviously, I don’t want to sit right next to somebody, but let’s say I do talk to him. And this has happened to me before. I literally had a guy say I am so sorry. He was in a climber, he goes. I literally thought I’d just set up on the greatest scraping spot in the world. He goes, I’ve never seen sign like this, and it’s because he found one of my spots that I’d had been working deer for years. And he was again back to this Western culture out here. I was like, man, I’m sorry, he goes, I’m gonna get down and I’m out of here. I’ll go hunt somewhere else because I can see that you will put so much work into this. And I pointed out my cameras, I pointed out my tree stand. I had all the stuff hidden so well he couldn’t see it. So I have ran into that a little bit. But let’s say it’s just a camera on my spot and it’s that day and I see a camera right on me or close to me, I’m gonna hunt it. I’m gonna hunt it, and I’m gonna probably assume that they probably didn’t even see my cameras are stand because I do on purpose so stuff doesn’t get stolen. I mean, I try to really keep my stuff hidden, and I sit in trees or I have great back cover, and you know, I never leave sticks on a tree, or you know, I climb a tree and hang that day and hunt and leave or whatever. So I would hunt it. I would hunt it, especially with that cold front that opening day. Bucks are gonna move. Nobody’s there, he has, somebody has a camera, say off to my side of me out, I’m gonna hunt it, and I’m gonna make sure they see me on their camera. I’m gonna make I’m gonna make sure when they check that camera they’re like, oh, somebody’s here. And again I’ll go back to mindset culture. Us Western guys, we don’t want to hunt their people. We don’t want to be next to other people. We’ve grown up. We grew. That’s how that’s how we do things out here. For for the most part. I mean, I have been hunting this country for forty some years, Mark, I’ve never had a guy be an asshole about wanting to set right next to me. Ever. Now have I had guys follow where I’m at and hunt within a quarter mile of me, hundred percent. But I’ve never had anybody want to be right next to me like usually guys in this country will leave you a note or read or reach out to you if they think, oh, that’s that’s a Lone Wolf custom gear camera, and I know, Troy, I’ll just reach out to me. I’ve had I’ve had multiple good people reach out to me and say, true, I think I found one of your setups. It was awesome. I’ll stay, you know, and they literally they say, yeah, I’m not gonna hunt on top of you. It was awesome. I think guys come to my boot camp that have found my stuff before and said it all made sense once I found it while you were there. So Mark, So Mark, I’ve been fortunate. I would hunt that spot if it was a camera, if there was somebody there already sitting there. I talked to him and just be a good human about it, Like, why not just be a good And if they were, you know, if they wanted to get all I would call it immaturely defensive or act ignorant. I just I got lots of options. Yeah, and I would move and I would move on that same deer and just get away from that person. If they were going to continue to hunt there, I would just move on him and hunting, you know, maybe a quarter mile away somewhere else, because there’s always room to move on on deer in the big woods. Always, there’s always room to move on.
00:41:58
Speaker 2: Them, all right, So speaking of movin, I’ve got one here that that I feel like I know exactly what a Justin Hollinsworth would do, or I know what a Andre Dequista would do. I’m not one hundred percent sure I know what you would do with this one. Imagine you have one of these very well put together sites that you’ve described several times. You’ve got the community scrape area dialed. You’ve been working this maybe for years or at least months leading up to this hunt. Right, we’re to say, yeah, at least months, and we’re gonna say, we’re gonna say this is a November situation here okay, and your camera has been there, your scrapes have been there, your stand is prepped, it’s perfectly hidden. You’ve obviously dotted your eyes and crossed your t’s. You show up to hunt in November and you see three different bucks this morning. One of them is a shooter, to others like pretty nice. All of them are forty to fifty yards out of range for some reason. Everything is just outside of where you would typically want it to be, and they’re not coming into your spot. Would you, I guess I won’t to even give you options. What would you do in this scenario where in the same morning you see three different bucks do the same thing, all out of range.
00:43:19
Speaker 3: Right right, and now you’re you’re also adding in that I try to call them to me and it still didn’t work.
00:43:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, because I’m imagining like an Andre or a Justin, they might right away tear down their set and go move to where they’re seeing this moving. But with you having invested so much time into picking these spots and making them so good right where you want them to be, I’m curious if you trust your spot more than you trust the eyes, or or what your process would be.
00:43:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, I really trust my preparation. My preparation has always paid off. I’m extremely patient and as long and that you know, if you’re gonna move on him, even if it’s one hundred yards fifty yards, that move has to work with the win, the entrance and the exit just that far away, Like you got to map that out in your head to even consider moving on them. Two fold answer here, I have moved on dear big time in November because they moved on me. Fifty yards is a different scenario than a quarter mile. Fifty yards fifty yards. He’s right there in my wheelhouse, and based on the intel that I have on that shooter deer I’m after, I’m just I’m going to play the odds. If nobody’s around, nope, I’m going to look at their demeanor. I’m going to look at their body language and if they’re just doing what white tails should be doing in November, and they’re just outside of where I want to shoot them, or I didn’t have a shooting lane at fifty yards fifty some of poke, in my opinion for white tails out of a tree stand, A lot of guys do it. I usually kill everything at under twenty that’s because my setups are set up for that. I would play much more of the patient game on that deer because I’m right with him and in the mountains, in the vast country. Fifty yards is nothing like. That’s like a yeah, he’s basically dead if he doesn’t know I’m there, if he’s been frequenting there, If he just happened to get lucky that day and get a trail just out of where I wanted to shoot him, I would. I would believe wholeheartedly if he showed no behavior whatsoever of being nervous in there. When I’m in there, I would actually be like, yeah, he’s in trouble, because I’ll kill him tomorrow or two days from now or three days from now, based on everything he shows me. Yeah, I probably wouldn’t just tear down and move over for any reason at a fifty yard range. Now, let’s say I’m in Ohio and I have limited space, and I need to be thirty yards over to kill this deer, and I’m on a short one week window to kill a specific deer, I’m tearing down and moving just like Andre and Justin. Because you hunt the situation, you don’t hunt blanket statements you hunt the situation, so if I’m limited on space, I need to get over there. That’s the trail. They like, I’m moving on them right away. Yes, is that fair?
00:46:23
Speaker 2: Yeah? Oh yeah, I’m gonna throw one more kind of wrench into it for you. And let’s imagine, And I’m curious. I liked how you broke that down on what you would do at home where you have this you know, long window and a lot of prep versus like a shorter hunt in a new place. Imagine this slight tweak on that scenario. Let’s imagine you only have one buck you’re after. It’s one really special buck you’re after, as you often are, and it’s again this November time frame. It’s evening, you’ve been sitting. It’s an evening hunt. The last couple hours of daylight are just ahead of you, and you see the one buck you’re after, but instead of just passing by out of range, he’s actually with a dough. He’s locked on a dough and they were kind of walking slowly straight away from you. Two hours of daylight. What are you do in that scenario? He’s right there, but he’s locked on a dough, walks away from you. Slowly. They’re just doing their thing. What are you doing?
00:47:21
Speaker 3: All right? I’m smiling because I don’t know if you can see this buck back here now you can’t.
00:47:26
Speaker 2: I can’t.
00:47:29
Speaker 3: Back there in the corner.
00:47:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, yeah, so three years.
00:47:32
Speaker 3: Ago that happened. Okay, that’s a buck I call half rock. He’s hidden up and down in a corner. You can’t see him. But he was just to give your listeners and he grows to hirred and seventy two inches. Jeez, mountain buck, just to I mean, you’re talking. And I shared that with you, not to be cool. I shared that because it’s a buck I wanted to kill. I wasn’t going to shoot any other deal. He did it to me, came across above me, was with a dough and I really study a white tail’s wants and needs based on his body language and behavior. And I knew what he was wanting. I knew what he was doing, and it was I posted a picture of this after I killed him two days later, three days later. It’s a short window behind that I killed him, might have been four or five days at the most, just there with me here, I posted. I took a picture of him because I looked at him, and that’s who I wanted to kill. And he was with that dough and I had about two hours left in the daylight. He was beautiful out afternoon, snow on the ground, looking up a steep mountain face. They came across the lateral trail above me that drops down to my community scraps just off to the northeast of me, probably twenty yards away, and I thought, I ain’t saying a word. I’m not making a noise either that doe is going to come down through here and I’m gonna kill this buck or I’m gonna wait, I’m not gonna blow him out of here. I got him. He’s in here, comfortable with two hours of daylight left, and all of that process through my mind based on his body language. So I took my camera and took a picture of it, and I videoed, and they walked across the lateral trail above me, and I think I posted this at fifty three yards and I thought about, you know, I could he came across the glade and mark. You know, Idaho it has open glades in some spot, So there’s this little tiny glade that’s about thirty yards wide, there’s just no trees above me. And I used that opening because most of time then bucks will skirt it and come right down to me instead of walking across it. But we all know why he walked right across it. He had his nose with a dough. So I played the odds. I said, I’m just very patient, and I never or I don’t anymore at all. I’d never let like, I really try not to make foolish mistakes when I’m after a buck of a lifetime, you know, for most for anybody, even me. You know, anytime I get into that quality of buck, it’s like this is again a buck of a lifetime out here. So let him go. He went, the dough went into the timber above me to the right. They went to the north of me, and he followed her. I took that video. I think I took a video of him, and it did a steal off the videos. What I did, I did it real careful, real careful, because I want to get some I want to get some be roll of him, you know, I wanted some be roll. Yeah, well I did that and they never came back. I sat there till dark. I listened to them, and you know, this is something to share who You really learn a lot about dere when you’re patient and you don’t allow that adrenaline to take over and try something that’s iffy. I really hate. I really hate wounding deer like I like to slam dunk kill him close. So it paid off. I can’t remember the exact days, but within one week I killed that gear right there, and instead of him coming across the lateral trail with that dough, he had serviced her, taken care of her as soon as he left her alone, and he was done with her. It probably was five or six days later, because that I think that’s how it played out. He was already checking on my other does in the family group and hitting the scrape again. So I capitalized, in my opinion on leaving him be not messing it up, knowing I was in his wheelhouse, knowing that he had more does to service there, and I killed him within a week. To be fair to listeners, within a week, I killed him. He was at fifty three when he hit that lateral trail. I killed him at thirty three to thirty five. Coming down off that lateral trail a week later, down to hit the scrapes on his way down at thirty three to thirty five. And you know, to me, I made the right play on an old mountain buck that everybody was trying to kill in that area. I know multiple hunters that were trying to kill him. I was in his pocket of comfort. Reverting back to the Adirondacks, Yeah, I would look for those places that I just sense and feel hard to get to really good cover habitat thermals wind breeding areas in early November, those pockets of comfort where those deer just feel safe. I was in the right pocket to kill that deer when I killed them. And I had multiple doze on the community scrape on the laking branches year around there. And he knows it. He grew up on me. I knew that deer from when he was younger. But anyway, I hope that answers it. That’s my play. I didn’t move my stand because my stand is just bulletproof there for almost every wind situation because of some terrain features and barriers, I just stayed. I stayed put at that tree where I was hunting and killed them a week later. Yeah.
00:53:14
Speaker 2: That and also I think another important thing is that you didn’t in that moment when he was walking away with that dell. You weren’t sending out hail mary grunts or rattling or making any racket trying to make it happen right then, either, which I was a lot of people do.
00:53:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was quiet. I was quiet, Mark, I was quiet. And if there’s anything I’ve learned to kill these old, real savvy, mature mountain bucks out here, I only talk to them when I think the time is right, and I usually only soft social dough grunt if they’re by themselves, because that never threatens them. Or if there’s multiple deer around, in a younger buck around in this scenario, I will snort weason and they’ll use it. Come right in. If you have other deer, like stay down at your scrape or in the in the invisibility in the area, have that deer scent right there in November, I will snort weeze at a big mountain buck with the right scenario. Two to me, he was so enthralled with her, he was willing to walk across that open glade two hours in the daylight. And that immediately told me this guy’s in love. So I just left him be, and I was hoping that dough would pull him to me without me saying a word. I didn’t want to figger it. I didn’t touch the grap too. I just let him do their thing.
00:54:42
Speaker 2: What did you do that next day? Did you go right back in that same spot?
00:54:47
Speaker 3: Well, because of my work schedule, and this is three years ago, so I’m going to try to get this as accurate as I can. So if somebody goes back and listens to another podcast, don’t bust my ass on it. But it’s I. I looked at my I remember, I was like, yes, and I’ve never text and tie and Jess, that probably gonna kill him. He’s in trouble because he’s he loves it in here and he’s got he’s on this dough. I okay, I believe I went back and tried to hunt him on that dough after work for a two hour window. I believe one time, because that’s all I had with work schedule. But then I was freed up being teaching only four days a week. We’re on a four day work week out here. I was freed up to hunt him for three days on a weekend, if you will. I killed him on the first day I had off that. That’s great. So I think I killed him Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I think I killed him the first day of the three. I had to hunt him, so almost almost a week later. Yep, interesting, I remember, right, and he uh, he was in there on the camera too, Mark. I got to watch the intel I had. I had three cameras in there, and I got to watch him service that dough for a couple more days, you know, after I looked at all the intail. This is after the fact, after I kill him and actually pulled cards. Yeah, and then I got to see how it all played out. He was in there the whole time, even at least at night when daylight. He daylighted a couple of times, not on the little two hour window I had to hunt him. I didn’t see him that day, but I didn’t lose any hope. I know it was just a matter of time with with this area, and because I had those other doughs, he was that I got to look at after the fact. He was a hearty snooping for those other doughs. Within three or four days after I saw him with the dough once he serviced her. Yep, that’s why he came back to those scrapes.
00:56:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, so this is this is another scenario. Then I’m gonna take a little bit of something you inspired me to think about, which is a scenario that I’ve experienced and I frequently debated how I would approach this differently based on the deer density of the area I’m in, and I have some assumptions about the deer density in a big woods place. I know, northern Idaho is a little bit unique when it comes to I think it’s a little bit unique compared to other big woods place they’ve hunted. But ah, I guess rather than me giving this whole preamble patist, she just ask the question. The question is this. Imagine Imagine you’re hunting. You’re hunting one of these great spots that you’ve prepped. All Right, You’ve just said you have a lot of patience and you have a lot of confidence in your spots. Let’s say you have a spot where there was some cell service, so you have a cell camera in there, and you have confirmation not only that this is a great spot because you prepped it well and you picked it well, but also you have pictures of the buck you’re after several times in the last week in this spot it’s November. You go there to sit, and you sit three full days and you don’t see hide or hair, not just of him, but nothing else. You set three full days during the rut and see nothing? Yeap, do you what do you do? What do you do in that scenario?
00:58:02
Speaker 3: Well, the first thing is if you go three full days and see nothing, it’s your problem. You’re screwing it up. It’s me. It’s my entrance, my exit where I’m parking. Something from where I park to get there, to get in the tree is burgery, ruining everything. There’s something in my game plan that’s wrong. If you don’t see anything for three full days after consistency. Now, if it was one day mark, that could be And I do need to add this in unless a pack of wolves or a mountain lion comes in. So I do have to add that in. And sometimes that happens to me because I don’t always get the predators on camera. My location just goes dead. But when I have snow almost always marked that time of year, all I have to do is go in there and like everything’s dead, nothing is right, the tracks aren’t there in the snow. I’ll go for a little walk. If it isn’t right, I’ll get out of that stand or get out of that tree or wherever I hunt. You know, sometimes I’m going in hanging to set and this just isn’t right. I don’t see the sign. Let’s say it was a cell camera and it turned off, or excuse me, the sign and the turned off. I got to go find if a predator’s been there, and usually that’s the case for me. Usually usually it’s wolves or lions that run all my stuff away for up to a week or two. But back to the original question, it’s my issue. I am doing something wrong. If I go sit three days on a freaking cell camera that’s been proving to me all the deer want to be there until I get there, that’s on me. So then I got to break down, what are you doing wrong? How are these deer identifying that they don’t want to be here when you’re here. Usually it’s going to be wind, it could be sighted, it could be both, it could be sound, it could be all three. So I just play off of their senses and ask myself where am I making mistakes? To circle back to that deer we just talked about that I killed two weeks prior to me killing him, he tracked me in the snow down to my pickup. One of the first days I hunted ed. He tracked me all the way down to my pickup at night. After I hunted him really early in November, and because I came back to hunt him and saw his tracks all the way down to my truck in my tracks, and then he walked down the ridge further, I started packing or parking an extra half a mile back instantly because I knew he I knew that he bird dogged me. He picked up my scent, my ground scent, tracked me. That was the first time I hunted that deer. I just talked about that I killed. Then I parked way back, walked in a little bit of a different route, and then I had him, you know, with the doe that one day, and then killed him a week later because I made a change instantly because of his tracks in my tracks, in my foot tracks.
01:01:06
Speaker 2: Fascinating the things that they do. They are survival machines.
01:01:10
Speaker 3: He literally walked down my entrance trail in the snow to where my truck was parked and literally walked in my pickup tracks in the snow, then veered off and went down a ridge off the road. Yep.
01:01:22
Speaker 2: Wow, here’s one that I hate to throw out at you because it’s something we never want to have to consider. But I’m curious just how you handle these moments. I’m assuming maybe you’ve been in this at least once most of us have. You’re hunting one of these spots, your big old target buck comes in just like you wrote it up on the script, gives you that beautiful twenty yard shot that you want, and God forbids, something goes wrong and you clean miss that deer. Yep, it’s nine am. It’s November first, nine am. Clean miss. He runs off, He’s out of there. You’re sick in there at nine ten? And what’s going through your head? What do you do next? What is your what is your process post miss for the rest of the day, for the next couple of days, for how you deal with.
01:02:15
Speaker 3: That that happened to me four years ago? I had not I had not missed a white tail buck in a couple of decades. Yeah, because three years ago I killed the one we just talked about. The year before that, I was hunting a tremendous dare that a buddy of mine ended up killing, so I got to you know, I know what the deer, I me. He and I both knew the deer, and we always were very respectful each other and where we were hunting, so we never bothered. We never messed each other up, and I was glad he killed it. But anyway, long story short, I did shoot right over that buck, and it did happen to me, and I ended up killing another great buck there. And this was what I’m getting at. If I shoot right over a buck, clean miss, that is not disturbing the woods very much. If I have another potential shooter in the area, or if it’s rut and I just think a big trespasser could show up, clean Miss, I’m not getting down and tracking a shitty shot. I’m not disturbing anything. The only two entities in those mountains that heard me miss him or he and I. He might even come back later if he doesn’t know what it was and doesn’t smell me. If he doesn’t smell me, see me, or know quite what that bow was going off and just get spooked. What time of the day did you say it was? When I’m sitting all day, I am leaving, especially if I’m in a great you’re talking ruddy time right, November time. I am not leaving, especially if I feel super confident about the the bucks that are in the area, even if it’s not him. So I’m not leaving. I’m just getting quiet again, probably laughing at myself and texting my son and I just effing missed freaking one of the biggest deer in my life, which I did, and I’m I’m one hundred percent eating humble pie, and I’m probably talking to God a little bit about all right, what do I need to clean up in my life because that you’re telling me some Yeah, you know, I’m probably I’m probably going through the whole scenario of laughing at myself in my mind, but staying, staying in the game, knowing that it is good to be humbled, and it actually is. And then I’m also evaluating me in my mind, like what did you do wrong? Why did you miss? Have you even shot your bow the last couple of days because you’re hiking up through this brush? See all that went through my mind when I missed that big deer four years ago. Sure enough, Mark, I went home, shot my bowl in the dark at my else that night, and I was eight inches high.
01:05:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had.
01:05:05
Speaker 3: I had had one of my microadjusts on my site completely come loose. That’s on me. That’s on me, that’s you know. And I did talk about it in some podcasts. But no, I’m not leaving Mark. I stayed where I’ll stay right in there. I actually went back to kill that deer and had what I thought was a trespasser that I later realized I did have him on camera a tiny bit, but not enough to say I had him. I ended up killing a different buck on that spot that same year.
01:05:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, not not a situation you ever want to find yourself in. But usually what matters the most is what you do in the coming hours and days when you have to make or break. What are you gonna do next?
01:05:50
Speaker 3: I will say this, since that miss, the last three big boys I’ve killed back last three years since him, have been very well hit, very well hit. Like get my shit wired tight wired to hunt, you gotta have your fit wired tight, especially especially when we’re you know, you start hunting August, You’re going so hard. It is so easy to not go shoot that bowl. When you’re wore out, you’re tired, you’re getting home after dark. You’d leave them before daylight. Shoot it under your street light if you have to at twenty yards to make sure it’s on. That’s all I would have had to do. I had no idea. I literally, I was literally was eight inches high. It was stupid. My whole sight was just crazy off. And yeah, and it’s it’s my I mean, I’m sure I busted at loose walking through the brush to get up in there, because I had to. You know, there’s spots in there where i’d get to I’d hold my bow above my head to get through the brush, and I’m sure I snagged it, busted it loose and didn’t realize it.
01:06:54
Speaker 2: Okay, this is the last this is the last phase of the gauntlet. We’re just going to do a quick set of rapid fire questions. It’s four or five questions here, one word answer. I’m going to tell you like this or this, and you’ve got to pick. We’ll go through that very quickly, and I’ve got one last funky question for you to really expand on, and we’ll let you get off to the rest of your day. Right, one word, right, one word for this first set of questions here, Okay, okay, does the moon matter to deer movement? Yes or no?
01:07:24
Speaker 3: Yes?
01:07:25
Speaker 2: Would you take a fifty yard shot at a white tail with your bow? Yes or no?
01:07:30
Speaker 3: Don’t need too No.
01:07:32
Speaker 2: If you had to pick one of these two and it would be the only tool you get to use for the rest of your hunting days, would you choose the rattling antlers or the grunt tube grunt expandable or fixed blade broad heads fixed? Should you stop a buck that’s walking with some kind of sound before shooting with your bow? Yes?
01:07:53
Speaker 3: Or no? Situational?
01:07:59
Speaker 2: Fair enough? All right, and this one you can expand on. You can paint as big of a picture as you want. Here. Imagine that I am in control of your hunting privileges and I’m gonna take away your hunting license for the rest of your life unless you can kill a five year old buck this year. Gotta kill a five year old buck. Okay, you have to do it in one day from one location. So you get to pick the date and you get to pick the location where you are gonna kill this very high stakes five year old or older buck. Tell me what date you’re gonna pick, and then paint for me. Is as detailed of a picture as you can of that best possible stand site on that best possible day.
01:08:50
Speaker 3: For that scenario, only that it costs me my life to hunting opening day Mountain butted up against alfalfa up in the timber, a little closer to his betting, I’ll kill him coming to the alfalfa had a scrape opening day August thirtieth, if I have to do it, but I have to have a destination food source like alfalfa for it for me to pick that. If not, if not, mark it’s community scrape middle of November. Any day in one of my community scrapes that are really hard to get to that I get daylight every day of old bucks, and I would make sure because you didn’t say one buck he just has to be five years old, Yep, I would hunt. I would hunt my roster that had the most five year old bucks at that best community scrape in mid November.
01:09:50
Speaker 2: Yep. Makes sense. A quick file up on that early season hunt though a scrape back off of the alfalfa. If you had to pick the usual distance, how far back off that field would you want to be? Ideally, give me a window there are we talking one hundred yards, five hundred yards fifty?
01:10:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, out here in these mountains. Of course, it’d be the laking branch that I would have, that unbelievable destination food source that he is so drawn to. And there’s the biggest white tail I’ve ever killed my life. That’s how I killed him September first. But I killed him on top of the mountain that led down his main trail to the alfalfa in the bottom. So I was four hundred yards from the alfalfa because that’s where I got him daylighting on a liking branch in a saddle. That’s why I brought that up. And he was to this day mark and I still see it to this day when I have alfalfa in the basins of mountains, and I do have some places I hunt like that where I’m on a mountain but great feet below, and alfalfa is such a great draw as the Canadians, you get them those old bucks, especially when they like this buck was eight years old. That was his life and that was his happiness was getting eat that alfalfa when he was older and he had no idea somebody was going to hunt him. August thirtieth. I killed him September first because I had the right wind. But My point is the dude was doing it every day, and I watched him do it in the glass from the middle of July on literally almost almost every day that I scouted him from a long ways away with the binoculars. It was his routine. So his routine was just phenomenal for a mountain white tail, and it was because there was destination incredible food below, That’s why. But I had to hunt him way high. I had to get up where he was. He would never get to the alfalfa in the daylight, not even close. So I did a hunting probably four hundred yards up on the mountain in a saddle. But I could glass, So I had glass. I had glass evidence I’ll mean before trail cameras.
01:12:10
Speaker 2: Yeah. Interesting this, Uh, this is exactly what I was hoping to be Troy. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this chat. I love the thought process you put into the stuff, how you think through it, and I communicate very very helpful, Troy, So thank you for that. If folks want to see some of your past hunts or see some future stuff, you know, where can people do this? What should they keep an eye for moving forward?
01:12:36
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, Mark, I want to thank you for giving me the privilege to be on your show. You do an amazing job. Thankyle to like it. I also like that we have a little bit of Idaho in common with each other.
01:12:48
Speaker 2: Yes for cool anyway state.
01:12:50
Speaker 3: People can find me the easiest for anything Hunt related. Just on my Instagram MTN Underscore Man, Mountain Man thirty three. I try to answer anybody that asked me a question. Always, try to give back always. And then I worked for the Quisto family, Long Wolf, Lone Wolf Custom Gear, a team leader on the addictions show, and then you know, work with sponsorships and things like that for addictions. So we have our white Tail Addiction show on YouTube. Our first episode just aired this week with Andre, so please people go out and watch that episode. It just came out. Andre’s just been an amazing guy to my family and to me over the years. Yeah. So just the Addictions, Lone Wolf Custom Gear, White Tail Addictions, and then my Instagram and I try to keep it real simple and in those in those lanes of where people can find me and talk to me. And I got an episode coming out this year. I don’t know when my episode will roll out, but it’ll be on that big Mountain Buck I killed last year at almost five thousand feet elevation up in the high mountains. Awesome.
01:13:59
Speaker 2: I’m looking forward to that one, Troy, and looking forward to following how this season goes for you. I’m sure you’ve got sure you’ve got a good one or two that’s in big trouble this year. So best of luck and thank you again.
01:14:10
Speaker 3: Thanks Mark. I’ve been working hard at it, and this year is the first year in either fifteen or sixteen years, I do not have a son having a football season. My son, Tyson, has graduated from Montana State, and we are going to really have some time on our side this year, and I get a hunt with Tie again, so it’s going to be a blast.
01:14:31
Speaker 2: That’s so cool. Good for you guys. Well, have a lot of fun with your boys. That’s the most important, the best thing of all.
01:14:37
Speaker 3: Right there, hey man, Thanks Mark.
01:14:42
Speaker 2: All Right, that’s a wrap. Thank you for joining me, Thanks for tuning in. Hopefully you learned a lot from this one, and stay tuned. We’ve got another great episode, a conclusion to our what would You Do? Series coming next week, so stay tuned until then, stay wired to Hunt
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