Ep. 563: What Would Tyler Jordan Do?

challenging deer hunting scenarios in the white tail woods. All right, welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by First Light, and today we are in week three of our what would You Do series, in which we are tossing some of the best hunters in the world a series of difficult hunting scenarios, all sorts of different stuff. Some of these are the same questions I asked the guys over and over again. Sometimes there are questions more

ciffic to their unique experiences. But the main thing we're getting at here is trying to get into the minds of these deer hunters to figure out how they tackle, how they deal with tough hunting situations, how they make their decisions, how they deal with adversity. That's the kind of stuff I want to know, leading into my next hunting season. How can I get better at those things? And today Tyler Jordan's gonna help us do that. I

think you probably know what Tyler Jordan is. He's the son of Bill Jordan, the founder of Real Tree, the host of a whole bunch of hunting shows and films and videos over the years, and Tyler has taken the reins on Real Tree road trips, doing a great job, great hunter, lots of experience, and I think one of the interesting things that Tyler brings to the table is that he hunts a whole bunch of different places across

the country every year. So he's seen deer acting a certain way in the Southeast, and he's seed and deer act a certain way in the Midwest, and he's seen it in the West, and he's seen it in the South, and he's been on kind of all points in between. There's not a whole lot of people who probably have been to as many different locations as Tyler has. And

he's been with very very good hunters too. He's been in hunting camps with some incredibly experienced and successful folks, so he's gotten to learn from the best of the best. And what I really like about Tyler is that he's willing to just give it to you straight. What he has experienced, what he knows, what he doesn't know. He's he's a human being just like the rest of us, and he's made mistakes, He's learned from him and he's gotten better. I think there's some cool things we can

learn from him here too. So today I'm putting him through the what would you do? Gauntlet, going to get some interesting perspective on things from the Southeast, Gonna learn a little bit more about how he tackles these short traveling hunts. You're going to try to pick a few things from him. From someone who gets a chance to take his shots at lots of deer every single year, you know, what can you learn from somebody like that when it comes to improving your shot sequence and dealing

with buck fever all that kind stuff. This is a good one. It was a fun one. I appreciate Tyler jourding this and uh I think you guys will enjoy it too. Now, real quick, before we get to the main show, I want to give you a couple of quick plugs. If you are not already, highly recommend you sign up for the Wired to Hunt weekly newsletter. You can do that by going over to the meat eater

dot com sign up on the newsletter there. That's where you'll get my every Monday note in which I kind of update you on what's new in my world or what's new with wired to Hunt, things like that, maybe a quick tip for the week. Uh, And then as well well that we also then share with you the latest content from meat Eater and Wired Hunt's whitetail world. So we've got all of our podcasts on there are YouTube videos or articles. That's where you can stay up

to date on all of those things. Now, a couple of the things in our world this past week, our pals over at First Let have launched a couple of new exciting things. Number one, the Sanctuary and Solitude systems, our main outer ware systems are now fully windproof. It's something that folks have been asking for for a long time, myself included, and now we're able to do it and keep these things quiet. There's a new built in integrated windproof memory that makes these suckers just hum I mean,

perfect windproof, no noise, just what you want. So that's exciting. And then number two, a new piece a totally new jacket just launched as well, called the Source Jacket. It's an idea I've had for years. I've really hoped and dreamed we would do it. I talked to the first Light designers about this almost five years ago when I first came on to Mediator and said, I really want a super lightweight, ultra packable, silent puffy for white tail hunting. I wanted that little tiny puff. I used to have

this nano puff made by Patagonia that I loved. It was so tiny you could stuff in a water bottle and take it with you if you want it and pull it on when you need that luxtra warmth. Well, First Letters gone and created that kind of thing that I've always hoped for. It's called the Source jack get. It's very quiet, it's packable, it's lightweight, and it gives you that extra boost of instulation. If you want to throw it on as an outer layer, you can. It's

dw are treated got a tough outer fabric. You can handle briers and bark and stuff like that. Or it works really well as an inside layer to kind of boost anything else you're wearing, so you can put underneath your solitude system, and it's basically now the equivalent of something like the sanctuary or put it on underneath your sanctuary and you're basically wearing a sleeping bag that's gonna keep you warm no matter what. So highly recommend checking

out the source. It was one of my favorite new pieces last year when I got to use the proto and uh, I think you guys will really dig it to So all that stuff you can find if you go to my gear recommendations on the first Light site. That's store dot the meat eater dot com slash mark, So just go to the Mediator store slash mark and you'll find those things listed there as well as a few of the other items that I highly recommend from first Light too. So that is it. That's my plug.

Appreciate you joining me. I hope you've been enjoying this series. We've been kind of trying to get a really diverse mix of folks. We've had like Land Manager with Grant Woods. We had like the public land d i y do with Eddie Claypool. Now I've got Tyler who's done some more private lands and lease some outfitted stuff. I've been all over the country and had those unique experiences. And then next week we've got another door pounder, d I O Y Hunter, who I think you guys would really

get a kick out of as well. So I'm hoping we're all going to learn something from these very different deer hunters that are all successful in their own ways. I dig it, that's the way I like to learn. I hope you do too. Let's get to the show all right here with me now on the podcast, we've got Tyler Jordan's Tyler, thank you so much for making time to do this, Mark, thanks for having me on Dear.

Season's fast approaching, and I know, like everybody probably listening right now, I'm starting to get the edge a little bit. Yeah I am. I am right there of you, And so I think you know, like I was telling me a second ago, this format of episode we're gonna do is one of the best ways I know to scratch that edge leading in this season, because we're gonna kind of spitball on a whole bunch of scenarios that we might find ourselves in here in a in a matter

of weeks. So I think it should be fun. Sounds good. So, Tyler, I've got what I call the what would you do gauntlet plan for it Today, basically, what that means, I'm going to present you with a bunch of hypothetical hunting scenarios. Some of them are kind of fun to imagine, some of them are real doozies to imagine. It's going to take you to a dark place and you're not gonna

like me anymore. But but I think, you know, I think by walking through these and kind of thinking through like how you'd approach it, I think we'll get to learn and get an interesting look into kind of how you approach deer hunting. And what I love about what I've been doing with this podcast over the years. I guess I'm sure you've seen the same thing is that there are just a million different ways to skin a cat when it comes to deer hunting, right, I mean,

I'm sure you've seen. They'll be like one guy who is a great deer hunter who will say, well, you gotta do it this way in November and you've got us at this place in this place, and then in December you have to do this, And then you'll meet some other person who's really really good too, and they might tell you the exact opposite thing, right, I mean it's that's right. Have you seen what I've seen as far as just this crazy array of different approaches to

this deer hunting. Yes, And I think there's you know, there's not just a simple blanket answer for everything. And I think you know, you probably agree a lot of that has to do just based off your location of where you're hunting. You know, how I approach deer hunting and Georgia versus how I might approach a late season deer hunting Nebraska, Montana, Kansas is going to be a whole lot different. Um. So it's just not as simple

as saying, here's what everybody should do this time of year. Uh, you know your food sources and uh, you know what stage of the rut you know certain states maybe in I mean that's going to determine a lot of your approach um and how you attack uh, every situation. So you know, you're hosting realtory road trips and I think

you probably could speak to this better than anyone. But I've always kind of said that if you want to up your deer hunting game, the simplest, fastest way you could do it is to start traveling to deer hunt and hunt new places because it just forces you to relearn so many things to to do what you just said, which has learned all these different regional things. It just takes you out your comfort zone. Would you agree with that? I mean, has that been the case for you traveling

going on all these road trips all over the country. Yes, yes, it definitely has. You know, how I deer hunt here the start of the season is completely different than how I hunt in Nebraska, which is where I've been for the last three or four years hunting um and so learning you know, different deers habits. Uh, you know in the Midwest versus a Southeast. Um. You know, it's it's a completely different style and a totally different approach. You know,

how you scout is completely different. You know, we're in Georgia. We rely a lot on trail cameras. Uh, you know, food plots, you know that we've planted versus when I you know, start up in Nebraska early season. You know, we're doing a lot of glassing. That's how we find a majority of our deer um and then we kind of make a game plan and go from there with hanging stands and um, you know, getting ready for the season.

So you know, definitely if you really want to increase your knowledge and you know, or even find out how much of a douney you might be too. You know, is going to some of these places. You know, you think you know a lot about your deer, uh you know, but you really get tested when you go and try other places. But to me, it's just it's fun. Um, That's that to me is what is most fun about hunting is every season visiting these different states, you learn

a little bit of something different that you didn't know before. So, uh, you know, that's that's really the joy that I get in doing this every year. Yeah, I'm right there with you. So you mentioned how you know, you approach thems differently down in Georgia, and that kind of ties in perfectly the first scenario I wanted to run by us. So

let's just jump right into this. And I think this is something that this scenario I'm gonna paint for you is something that you basically lived, I think last year to a degree. So you probably have some firsthand experience to share here. But but here's the situation. Let's say it's late July and a world class buck shows on trail camera on your home farm, and it's it's a

situation that's like there's no other buck you want. He's the one, He's the only one, and it's it's a maybe a once in a at a decade opportunity, or maybe more. You know, what would you do just in the month of August. Let's say all you have is the weekends in August to get some work done, to get whatever final preparations you need to get done, whether that be habitat work or stand prep or scouting or

any thing. What are the most important things you could do during those three or four weekends in August leading into this season trying to kill that one special buck. What would you do in that situation? Well, well, Mark, I feel like I don't know, you know, for for people to have seen it. The biggest deer I took was actually last year, and it was actually the exact same scenario that you just laid out. I shot my biggest, my biggest deer with a bow, the biggest deer that

we've taken in Georgia, gross nine. And when we started getting those pictures, pictures late in July and August um, it was all of you know, how do we not mess this up. So um, you know, he was on camera very consistently. Um, you know, in in in Georgia, just like other places too. I mean you don't know how long they're going to stay on that pattern. So you know that really those first few days of the season are gonna be very very crucial, um, you know,

to really make sure everything is done right. And so you know, we had two cameras out, multiple stands put out as well for different winds situations. Um. You know, in those weekends in August, we did a lot of you know prep and just you know, trimming limbs with those stands. We have two ladder stands up. The first first the first couple sits were you know not successful.

We we blew some deer out of there. But um, you know that that and that's a problem to here is that you have a lot of light and variable winds early season, um you know here in Georgia, so you know, just trying to to play that wind um and and having stand you know, stand locations already done before the season gets here. You know that that to

me is the most crucial. And just making sure you have shooting lanes as well, just that that extra trimming that you can do during the summer makes all the difference. And you know, for us, we film a lot of our hunts too, so making sure that the the other guy in the tree, um, you know, has has lanes to see through, UM is very crucial. Yeah, how did you drill down to you know, exactly where you thought you were gonna kill this buck? Was it just like you?

He showed up on one of your cameras and he kept showing there and so you just knew, well, this is the spot or did you have to you know, cast a wider net with cameras to kind of figure out where he was the most? Like how did you zero in? Yes? So he was he was first coming uh to this to this field we had planted in clover and chickery. That was where we first got the

first couple of weeks of pictures of him. Um. And then you know, as it started getting closer to the season, the deer was getting less and less frequent on this on this camera, and so you know, we we decided that that we're going to try a couple of different cameras and putting them out kind of where these where we assumed some of these deer were betting, and you know we're going up the hill near the betting location, uh, you know, but not getting too close, trying to still

keep some distance between you know, where the deer were bettered to where the cameras were. Uh and then you know, flow and behold. You know, he started getting on a very regular pattern and we didn't. And I think another key for that deer in particular was just not going in there too much, you know, you said, using the weekends, you know, we tried to make sure there was enough feed down because you can legally bait here in Georgia

from where the deer was being seen. Um, and you know, trying to make make it a minimum of every five or six days before we you know, made it another appearance um in the woods where this deer was was coming to. So um, not going in there too much, you know, finding getting somewhere a little bit off the beaten path, um, you know, was was critical and kind of determining. And you know, and a deer like this,

I mean it just kind of flipped the switch. Uh, you know, just moving up there and trying something different. He started getting on a pattern just regular every day, just felt very comfortable and I think that's just because the woods that time of year are so thick. He felt safe in there. Um. You know, for anybody that's seen the episode, you can tell you can't see really past forty or fifty yards, you know where my ladder stam was hung. So, um, you know, it just felt

like a really safe spot to him. Yeah. So here's another scenario that I think it ties very closely to what actually happened with that dear. But it's also a thing like I've encountered a number of times over the years, and I always debate it. So the situation is this, You're getting daylight trail camera's cherio camp pictures of the buck you're after, just like you were in those days

leading up to the opener. The problem is opening day is now, you know, let's say it's tomorrow in the forecast, and you can see what opening day looks like, and you can see what the next one to three days after that looks like, and you've got horrible conditions. It's hot, maybe the winds kind of subpar, and you're sitting here thinking.

At least you know, for me in Michigan, when I'm haunting looking at opening Day, I know that first day is such a great opportunity because they have haven't been hunted, and the next day might be pretty good. But those first two days, so many of the people in the area start hunting to that Usually my daylight activity peters out pretty quick, so I know those first few days

are usually a great, great chance. So the question is this, do you hunt opening day regardless of the bad conditions because it's it's still opening day and it's still like a great opportunity. Or do you stay out because you don't want to mess things up on those poor conditions and just hope that they'll stick around and stay daylight despite the possibility of neighboring pressure. What would you do in that situation? So I'll answer this, but I didn't

end up taking my own advice. So on this dear, it was exactly that scenario. Um, you know, we we did, you know, have some neighbors. I'm sure they were getting pictures of this dear. Uh. You know, I even had somebody late season the year before have pictures of this buck, so I knew he was a roamer. Um, you know,

but that opening day, the wind was not good. You know, we have a lot of predominant east wind here early season in Georgia, which is honestly for any of our stands, and you know, the way our land kind of lays out, it's it's not a good win to go and sit.

But I ended up, you know, going to try it because the deer was just that regular, and I was so worried that once he got off that summer pattern, uh, that maybe we never see him again, because the year before, the last picture we had of this year was September twenty nine, and then we never saw him for the rest of the season our property. Um, so I was a little concerned that, you know, our our time was kind of it was very critical, you know, in order to order to get it done. Uh, you know, we

needed we needed it needed to happen pretty quick. So I went in there that first afternoon. Um, you know, we had some dear blow and and get out of there, and so I said, look, I'm not going back in there until the conditions are just right. I think that the opener last year was on September twelve, and I waited another i think eleven days until I got back in there when we had a we finally got a north wind and the deer. I think it took the deer. You know, when we had some of those deer blow

in there. It took some of those deer another four or five days just to get regular and comfortable again. UM. Kind of going back to that same strategy that we had in August of you know, not going in there but every you know, five or six days and and just trying to leave it alone. UM. You know. So I had to wait another eleven days, which was really painful. But I think after seeing that happen on opening day, even though like you said, it is you know, the

best chance to to possibly get it done. And you just see that deer coming in you know, morning and in the evening. Um, in the daylight, it's tough to it's tough to resist. UM. But I cannot. But I can honestly say I wish and I think, you know, but some of the wind here it can be so it doesn't blow just hard one direction. So I was like, man, you know, no matter what, you know, am I going to get a strong enough win, um for it to

even really matter an a way. But UM, and that in that situation, if I had just waited until the time and it was just right, maybe it could have played out even better. Um. So you know, it's really tough to say. I mean, i'd like to think I wouldn't do it again, but you just never know, like if it if it wasn't just the right situation there on September, um, I'm not sure if I would have

had that opportunity um at that day or so. But I think, you know, going forward, I'd like to maybe leave it, leave it alone as much as possible until it's just right. It seems like that's that's usually the safer Betton and I always have been the same camp as you, where I've always said that, like in my head, I always think, oh, yeah, you should, you should wait it out, you should be careful. But every time Opening Night comes through, somehow I'm I convinced myself, I you

still got to be out there? Is that for one time? So one time, Tyler, I convinced myself that, no, you're not gonna hunt Opening Night. It's too warm. It's just great. And tomorrow, the second day of this season, a cold front hit. So I was like, all right, I'm gonna be strong, I'm gonna stick to my guns. I'm gonna do the smart thing, I won't hunt the first night because tomorrow will be so good. But what I did is I sat on a hill like three yards away

and was gonna glass the area. I thought I'd do a little extra scouting, and of course I saw my target buck walk twenty yards away from the tree stand. I would have hunted on opening night. So the one the one time I did the thing you're supposed to do, it didn't work out. But and that's just the thing. It's just it's just so tough. I mean, you know, you know, you just never know. And like I was doing the same thing, you know, the night before the season,

I was like, what do I do? And then I looked at the forecast for the next ten days and we had predominantly east wind the whole time, east southeast, which is the worst win you could have. So I said, you know, if if I'm gonna try it, maybe go ahead and try it early and then hopefully I can you know, recover if if things don't go according to plan, you know, maybe I can give it some time and in that area, will you know, the uh, just not put any pressure in there for a while until things

are just right. And so you know, Luckily it worked out in that deer. Um. I think it took us four days to have that deer showback up on camera, you know, and he that's a deer that was regular every single day from the end of July until the start of the season. So Um, luckily that he felt comfortable enough to come back. But you know, sometimes they don't. And that's just the risk you take. Yeah, keeps us coming back again, right, keeps us coming back. You know,

it's not always easy too. That's just that's part of the game you play. Yeah, all right, here's another one. Let's let's imagine that unfortunately for you, you lose access to this Nebraska spot you've been hunting recently, but you

still want to go out to that region. Let's say you know, it could be Nebraska or one of these you know, western Great Plain states or Midwest you know, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, something like that, and you decide that since you don't have your old spot, you're gonna take up A buddy who had a long time ago said hey, you can come hunt my family property anytime. So you said, okay, I'm gonna pinch, I'm gonna go hunt my friends property.

You've never been there before, though, so you're gonna show up day one. It's you know, the season is open, it's mid September, let's say, and you're showing up to see this place for the very first time. You you weren't able to get there in the summer to scout or anything, so you you have no knowledge. All you know is that your buddy has said, Hey, this is these are the property lines. You've got free rain, there's deer here. What would you do on day one of

this hunt? Would you start hunting right away? Would you scout? Would you hang cameras? What does that first day look like on this brand new place? Yeah? I think the first day I'm gonna ask is where's the food? Um? You know that's kind of when whenever I hunt out in that part of the country, is you know, where's

the food at? Another thing I might do, and this is proven to be successful for us out there in that part of the country, but is to find, you know, whatever trees that are available on some of these uh maybe deer trails and just seeing you know, some of the some of the routesies deer taken you know to and from. Uh you know if it's alfalfa that time of year, I know that's you know, really popular for us in our region of Nebraska in Montana. UM. But you know those would be my my number, that would

be my one and two things. As where as the food um, and where can I get a trail camera at? It may not tell you the full picture? And then uh, you know, especially in Montana, and is the exact same way as is there anywhere I can get advantage point where I can get go glass from you know, glassing a lot of these places in Nebraska and in the Milk River where I have a lot of I've spent a lot of time over the years, can really tell

you a lot more so than even a trail camera can. UM. So if there's anywhere that I can get and sit far enough off that where I don't disturb anything or mess it up, um you know, and then maybe after a day or two of doing that, then maybe you start you know, game planning um or maybe some word to hang a stand and um, you know that could be another option too, is you know sometimes um, you know, when I first started hunting this this region of Nebraska,

was getting in a tree stand where you're close, but you're not close enough to where you're gonna go in there maybe mess it up. I didn't really expect to go in there and be successful, but it did tell me a lot about the deer's habits. Um, you know, maybe what trails and routes they were taking to the alf alfa in the evening so, um, you know that time of year, it's it's really tough to hunt in the mornings at least where I'm at um, So I would definitely you know, stay off that and and hunt

primarily in the evenings. Um, just a little bit of a safer bed if you're gonna be there for a while. Yeah. So so glassing, you know that first morning sounds like that you mentioned wanting to you know, find those trails and the trees that they're passing through, possibly putting those cameras up. Is that something you'd be you know, cruising around midday that first day doing that? And would you

be on foot to scout? Would you drive in a truck, would you take a bike or four wheel or something like? How would you what would be this the way you'd want to do that kind of preliminary day one scouting? How would you do that usually. Yeah. So I know what I've done in the in the past is we have these these bikes that we take just an electric bike and um, I have a little car that I can you know, put my cameras on and and uh, you know, not try to ride anything that's gonna be

too loud. And you know those bikes are pretty stealthy. Um. So you know, using that to to try and go and find as many places or if you find a water hole or um, you know, different different trails. Um. You know. The only problem is it's like there's just sometimes not a ton of trees, like you know, sometimes you gotta get a little creative and maybe maybe even find like a a stick or you know, something you can stick on the ground and tie camera on too, u you know, to see you know where some of

these deer maybe coming. I've had to do that many times. Um. Um. So you know that that first day is is uh that I'd be doing a lot of that, just trying to get around there as quietly as possible, and you know, um doing that mostly you know, during the middle of the day, you know, not the first thing in the morning. I'd say, you know, early season, anywhere between you know, ten and maybe one or two o'clock. Uh, you know that'd be the time to go scouting glass. What what's

the bike you're using these days? I'm actually finally I finally decided I need to get me one of these. So I'm trying to get some intel from folks to see what they like the most. What's uh, what's your take on that? So we're actually sponsored by back Who Bikes and so back Who. I mean they they've been

great too, and um, you know even for the Georgia dear. Um, you know, I don't like riding anything just too loud and it it's it's crazy that you know you're able to cover as much ground and you know, I mean we and even turkey hunting to we run those things all day long. Um. You know, I have the mule Elite Electric Byte from Backou and Um, you're able to cover a lot of ground in those and you know you really feel like you're it's probably the safest way

to go undetected. Um, at least for me, I've I've found a I found that better than you know, leaving my scent, you know, by walking and doing it that way. I just I feel like you know, the safer you can be the better. Yeah, they just seem to be so much more forgiving of wheeled access to Yes, yeah, it's it's been nice to have. My next question is this same scenario, same exact scenario, same exact question, except let's chee is the date from mid September to now November?

Would would your day one be different now that you're showing up brand new on this place in November? Anything different? Yeah? I would say, you know, probably probably something different. Um, definitely bring a grunt call and rattling horns. Um, you know, and maybe some of those places that you did have a tree stand hung if you were just trying to

go get inventory. Um and we're talking about bow hunting right, yes, yeah, you know, I would say, you know, definitely definitely get somewhere where you can get maybe even a little bit closer to the action. Um, you know, just in case, and you know, a grunt call that timing year has been proven deadly. Um. You know, so rattling horns. We rattled up so many deer um even that first second week in November. Um, it can it can just be

starting to get really good. And you know another thing we've been and two and is uh those Dave Smith decoys, they've been they've been great to have. I'm not afraid, you know, maybe in Georgia, I wouldn't be wouldn't be uh maybe willing to do that or as lucky, um, you know, but I've I've had several successful hunts and you know, different people we've bought out there over the years. Um, you know, that's that's been a good strategy as well. I mean there's if there's a dominant buck in in

the alfalfa field or if he can see it. You know, I've had some of them see that decoy and come in from two hundred plush yards, um, just to come not that thing over. That's so awesome to see. Oh yeah, it's fun. It really is fun. You know. We don't we don't get a whole lot of that, you know, down here. I don't. I don't really know what it is. But the bucks, at least on our property here in Georgia are just not quite as aggressive maybe toward a decoy.

There may be a little bit more weary, um, you know, of just succumbing to that. So but it's something when you get up there and it works, it's pretty fun side, even even if you haven't, you know, work on deer that are not quote unquote shooters. Um, you know, it's it's been proven to be a successful tactic entertaining. If nothing else that is that makes for good video. Yeah, I bet so. Here here's a very different scenario to consider. Let's say you have a shared property with a group

of hunting buddies. I don't know if it's maybe well, let's just say it's like you all share it. So maybe it's the least or it's a place you all got permission together, or it's a friends you've all pitched in throughout the year, you know, to do some prep on the farm, and maybe you guys did a little bit of habit at work. You all met up and put up cameras in the summer, hung trail, tree stands, whatever.

Now it's the night before your hunt begins, and you're sitting in the kitchen and you're having that last beer or the night or something like that, and one guy says, all right, well where are we gonna sit? So my question for you, tyler, is how do you recommend when hunting with a group of friends? How do you recommend fairly determining how stand sides are picked, like who gets to pick where they want, how they you know, how

do you divvy that up? That just seems like one of those things that can be a challenge sometimes because maybe everybody wants to hunt the one really great funnel. How do you do that in a fair equitable way and share a place? Dane, That's a good that's a really good question. Um, I don't know, you know, I'm I've always been Uh, this is not really gonna answer your question, but you know, and and yes, I've I've been fortunate, you know to go and and and do

a lot of really cool hunts and different experiences. But um, you know what what we try to what I try to do is just maybe pick a name out of a hat or something. I mean, as as silly as that may sound, you know, especially between you know, the different people that hunt on the farm. Uh, you know a lot of people want to go to one place and there's really just no fair way to do it. You know. You may have that buddy though that's maybe put in more works up more work than the others.

And we've definitely had have had that too. Um, you know, I'd say they get the first right of refusal on maybe some of that. But um, you know, there's there's a there's not a whole lot of ways to to

fairly do that without maybe getting somebody upset. But I'd say for the people that are that are there that have some sweat equity um into some of the prep work that goes on, I would I say should receive received first right because you know, as far as like a hunt club or if you have a piece of land you're hunting with your buddies, there's always going to be those people that may be put in a little bit more work than the others. Um So that that that would that would be maybe my best guests on

what to do. And then you know you may have different um sections of the hunt club that it's you know section offer each individual. You know, maybe you have pieces of that property where you know that that's that's

the airs. Yeah, well do that. No, there's not um what are some I mean is that is like the random name picking out a hat what you've seen on a live of your hunts, Because I feel like you've been on so many hunts of the years where there's like there's always a big crew there's a crew of you guys all out there hunting this farm or this place, and you're all hunting different areas. I always wonder, like,

how do they settle on who's gonna hunt where? Um, is it something like that you guys usually do, or is it sometimes like widel is just gonna call it and you guys just live with it, know how to go, you know. I mean, you know, I know I keep mentioning Nebraska, but that's somewhere where we've had big camps and the Milk River has kind of be in the same way. You know, if if some anywhere to say, you know, get maybe eyes on a deer and say, man,

I really like that deer. So I mean you want to go hunt that deer, we'll I mean we'll feel free, you know, we'll try to go help you hang to stand or um, you know, help you get something set up, and um, you know that. I guess if that person wants to call Dibbs, that's that's completely fine. You know. I don't get too territorial on any of these deer. And I think a lot of people in our group are the same way. Um, you know, I just want everybody to have a good time. Um. So that's that's

something that I've I've kind of preached. It is just you know, if if somebody has a particular area or if they went in glass to spot that they really like and they called DIBs on it first and by all means go for it. Um. So that's kind of how we go about it. You know, we don't really

designate somebody just to one particular spot. We kind of you know, like the good thing about Nebraska where we go, we're gonna have three or four days, got there and glass and scout and hang stands before and um, you know, if there's somebody that says, man, I of this particular area and that's yours. If you want it, that's yours. So um, that's kind of how we go about doing it out there. Yeah. Well, it's it's good to This comes back to a decision prior to the hunt itself,

which is when choosing who you're hunting. Buddies are and I think it's important to choose the right group and be you know, have the right relationships so that you're in a situation where that kind of thing works and you guys are rooting for each other and it's not, you know, and it's not controversial or combative and people are pissed at each other for taking this spot or that spot. I mean that that's a recipe for disaster. Yeah. We all pull for each other, you know, we all

we all pull for each other. Man. It's it's uh, you know, a big deer for whatever reason. And you know, I feel like I have a pretty good perspective on it. It can ruin a relationship, it can ruin a friendship. But you know that's just not how our group roles. Um. You know, the people we have in camp, you know, we're there for the experience, the hunt. Um. You know, trying to get close to these white tails a challenge enough in itself, um, you know, so you know we don't.

We try not to let gred you know, play a factor in it. Um, and just you know, do it for the do it for the right reasons. But you know for that that isn't that does play out in some cases that we've been lucky for the most part. That's good. All right. Here's another one for Tyler. You are sitting in the tree and you get into the last hour of daylight of an evening hunt. You hear

the crunch, crunch, crunch. You look off in the distance and you see uh picket fence come in your way, and you very quickly realize that this is a buck that will make your Georgia buck look like a chump. You realize this is the biggest buck you will probably ever see in your life. He's well over two inches, he's got I don't know, double draft times. I mean, he's a dream, dear, and he's headed your way, and you're realizing, oh, why I'm going to get a shot

at this buck? What do you do in the following seconds or minutes to collect yourself, calm yourself mentally, prepare yourself to get this shot? What you know? What's what's inside in between your ears? Tyler? Because I think one thing, that one thing that stands out about you compared to a whole lot of folks, I think is that you have You're in a position every year to see a whole lot of big deer and to shoot a lot of deer every year. So you you've you've gone through

this way more times than I have. I'm sure what is your secret sauce to being able to execute in that moment? That's a great question. Um. You know what what I've tried to do is that once I get eyes on a deer like that, maybe a deer that I don't don't don't know, um, even if it's a deer I do know, I just try to go to another place. This is gonna sound silly to some people, but I found that the best way to calm myself down is to not really look at that deer again,

not look at his rack again. Um. You know, obviously you know, prep for the shot, um, and hopefully I've done some of that work, you know, before the deer is coming in there of knowing you know, where I'd like to shoot this deer. I have all my spots

ranged in advance. But I try to just not think about anything that's going on in the moment um, you know, trying to just get my mind as far away from that as possible, because I think if I think where people can mess up, as you know, if that starts going through my mind, like, man, this could be the biggest deer in my life. You know, I don't want to best this moment up. Um. You know. Maybe it's like a baseball player, you know, going to the plate.

You know, you you you go up there and just execute um and just you know, thinking about as little as possible. Um. You know you don't want that added pressure of trying to execute that shot. Um. You know you've practiced, you know, you've you've you're ready to this moment. So UM, you know. I try to I try to let my mind go elsewhere. You know where elsewhere is? I don't know. It can it can range from a

lot of different things. You know, work, I have to do it in the house, or uh, you know, thinking about an email I need to respond to or something. I mean, just trying to do is as much as I can not to let the moment get the better of me. I like that. Now what about you know, is there any like your shot prices itself and now that bucks getting into range? I'm curious what does your

Do you have a a mantra? Do you have anything you say in your head as you're drawing back or as you aim, or anything to try to stay in that to stay in that moment or do you prefer to stay out of the moment completely and kind of be an autopilot? Yeah? I think what I think what I try to do there, and it is to be really confident, not overconfident, but I kind of tell like something I always tell myself is, man, you're gonna smoke

this dear, like you're going you're gonna make a great shot. Uh. You know, when when you draw back and you know you're on a deer of any size or caliber, you know, you can get shaky, a little nervous. But I try to, let you know, tell myself over and over like, man, you're gonna put it behind his shoulder and drill this deer, um,

you know, just make it, make a great shot. And I found that when I go in there with that mentality instead of being nervous or you know, just want to keep the buck fever as far away as possible and keeping that that kind of don't give a crap attitude of you know, letting, you know, letting the moment overtake me. Um, and just you know, going in there

kind of with a force. Is is kind of why I found to work for me at least and then and then let the butt fever creep in after the shot is executed, hopefully, Yeah, that's the right time to feel it. Yeah. Now, now here's here's the doozy. Let's let's imagine the situation happens. It's November, We'll say, but you miss him? Yeah? What do you do after a

miss on a November hunt like that? Are you? Are you the type who can just stick it out and stay out there and just like the best way to get this off your back is to shoot another one today or do you you know, pull out, go back to camp, shoot your bowl, build your confidence back up again. Um, what are you physically doing and then what are you mentally doing to to get your head read again after

something like that? Yeah, Um, that's a great question. Um. You know, I think after a miss, you know, going back and and figuring out what exactly happened. Um, But what I like to do is is to go back to camp, you know, and I'm I'm fine sending it out you know for the rest of the hunt and not letting that get me down too much because mr

has just happened. Bow Hunting is really hard, uh, you know, so going back and trying to get you know, ten to fifteen shots, making sure my equipments on um, and just getting my confidence back that way, ums, is probably the best thing you know for me to do. Um. You know, you can't be repetition. Um. You know it's like you know, falling off a bite, getting back on. Um. You just gotta get back out there and do it. You know, everybody, you know, baseball player, you strike out,

but you're next to back. You know, you've got to go out there and make it count again. UM. So I try not to let it get get me down too much. I think when I was younger, I did a little bit. Um. You know, it doesn't feel good to have a swing and a miss. But you know, if you do this thing long enough, reality is it just happens. You just gotta keep keep positive and keep moving on. We've all been there too many times. Yeah, all right, So let's let's step back from the shooting

and get back to another hunt thing. And let's say this is like a like a late October hunt, and you're back in the southeast. Maybe this is a home farm Georgia hunt. Maybe this is somewhere else you guys are poking around down there in the southeast. But let's call this kind of a mixed timber and egg kind of diverse habitat. And a small cold front pushes through

the day before. So let's say I don't know Let's say it's cold front coming through on October and you're thinking about hunting the next day, and that coal front pushes through and you get your first daylight trail camera picture of a mature buck in this area. It's about twenty minutes before dark on like a small food source, like a little hidy hole food plotter, corner of a field, something like that. Okay, because the first time he's been

daylight this season. Now, in most situations, at least for myself, I'd be very excited about that, and I'd be thinking about getting right back into that next night. But here's the thing. The wind is going to shift degree is the next day. Let's say it was a west wind when that cold front hit, and he showed up tomorrow, everything's the same, but the wind is a complete shift and now it's an east wind. Do you hunt that spot the next evening, giving that he was daylight or

does that shift in wind direction? Were you enough to to not do that and instead of do something different? Yeah, if if the wind was bad, I'd likely go in there and do something different, especially if you know where he was on trail camera is going to be, you know, dead down wind. Then you know, I'd like to try and do something else I think, Um, I still wouldn't

be afraid to go in there. Hopefully I have another stand uh set up, and if I don't, you know, wouldn't be afraid to go in there sometime, um, you know, maybe during the middle of the day and get up another another stand. Um. You know. For for me, anywhere between that October till about November six or seven, I'm trying to be in a tree as much as possible, and like you said, he's daylight for the first time.

Um so, and also not afraid to go in there and do a hanging hunt you know for the right wind. Um that's on that's that's uh, that's close to that dear. Um. You know this this, if there's a this probably wouldn't work for that scenario. But if you know, if you had a a ground blind where you could go in there and uh you know enclose your sin in for bo r gun Uh you know something that's hard show. Um. You know we use that a lot here, um, just because you know, the wind can be screwy a lot.

So you know, if there is a situation like that where I can use a ground blind, UM to my advantage. I'll do that as well. Okay, So that brings to mind another scenario that I was going to run by you, and it's something I've encountered. Uh specifically, there's one spot that really kills me that's like this, and I've seen similar in other places in the Midwest. Um, it's a little bit similar to what we just discussed. But here's

here's a situation. We're in November. Now, you're somewhere in the Middle West, and you discover just an absolute sweet spot. It's deep in the cover, but you can tell like this is the spot. Within the spot. Within the spot, there's a little creek crossing with bedding all around, and from afar you have seen numerous shoar bucks all cross right here. They all come through this bedding area, they all cross right here. It's it's the spot. The problem is that it's a very high deer density area and

there's just deer all around it. And as you sit there on the outside looking in, you're thinking, man, how could I ever hunt right inside there where all these deer crossed by, without these forty doughs that are always coming in and out of here, winding me and blowing the whole thing. What do you do in that situation? Do you hunt down right in that spot, knowing there's the risk and just hoping that you can pull it off.

I've heard you say spray and pray in the past, So would you spray and pray in a situation like that or would you say it's just too risky and you gotta hunt off of that somewhere else? No? I would, I would, You know, I do spray and pray some, but you know, if if the density is that high, you know, with deer in a particular area, I don't know, if there's you know, the amount of the amount of scent covering the world, um, that could cover up your

scent good enough. So you know, no, I would. I would try to hunt off of there a little bit, um, you know, if they are going to a spot in the field where I can get a stand, uh hung close to that area and just give myself a little bit of breathing room, especially to start off, you know, not saying I wouldn't go in there and try that situation maybe later on or um, if I didn't have a whole lot of time in the hunt, But I would say, right off the bat to get right on

top of them and wrist blowing the whole thing would probably play it safe, go back to the play and safe mentality that I should have listened to a year ago. So that's that's probably where what I do in that situation was to start off. Yeah, So in my example where I had something like this, I had I had an area like this I knew about. I finally had access that I could hunt deep in there finally, and and I kind of had the same thought you did.

I was I was worried to go in there too soon, So I kept trying to play the edges and I hope I can make it happen, and and finally got got towards the end of the time I had left, and I finally thought, man, I just had to throw caution to the wind. I'm gonna get one chance. I'm just gonna try it. I'm gonna swing for the fences. And so I snuck in here. I walked the creek all the way into this bedding are deep in there, well before daylight. It was like November five or six

or something like that. And I hang a new set in this tree right in the edge of the creek and I picked a day where the wind actually blew down along with the creek, so I thought that was my best chance if there was anything that might let me get away with something to be if my wind was in the water, and I took my shot right and sure enough my shooter buck up been after comes through. But he comes through like ten minutes before daylight, and I have to watch him go past me in the dark.

But I can see him and then go down windo me and win me and spook out of that. So I could have shot him if it was like fifteen minutes later. He did exactly what I needed to, but he just came too early. So yeah, yeah, that unfortunately can happen. I think what I found, and then you know, in the Midwest we use a lot of that style

of home is. You know, playing it saved the first few days, you can learn a lot those first couple of sets, those first two or three cents and a stand, and you know, you think you know where the deer funneling out of a lot, but then you know, if you were to get down somewhere and get a little bit further off that crossing where those deer coming to, you know, you get away better lay of the land and go, oh, I may go try to that tree tomorrow or go, you know, maybe try that set up,

you know, mid day and go have a stand hung there for when the wind switches back. Right. Um, So you know that it can it can teach you a lot playing it safe. But you know, there does come a point where it's like you're getting a little bit late. You've been there for five or six days. It's like how long can you continue to do this? Um, and you've got to push in a little bit. But um, you know I would probably you know, like I said, play it's safe to start off with, and then you know,

gradually creep in if you can't. Yeah, high risk, high reward. That's right, here's kind of a natural next step scenario. Then if we if we say, we're kind of kind of play it a little bit safe in the beginning, right, So let's imagine it's it's that hunt and we're a little bit off of the best stuff. We're still in some pretty good areas though, and you see a shooter buck cruising about a hundred yards out, and like I said, it's like early ish November give or take somewhere in

that window. He's a hundred yards away, but if he continues on his current path about another hundred yards, he will eventually hit your win. So my question is to you, would you aggressively call to him to try to get him to come your way? Would you be worried that he's kind of heading into your general wind direction? Does any of that pass through your mind? You not call at all? What's your what's your move in that situation? Mm? Hmm, trying to think think through this. Um, that's a tough call,

you know. If if you I may try to rattle and grund a little bit, you know, just to see if that doesn't switch him, you know, trying to just to turn his direction. Um. That that probably would be what I would likely to do is to call, maybe not call it too aggressively, or might try to snort weise um, to see if that doesn't turn his head. Um. But that's that's tough. I don't know, I mean, I

would I would do. I would do at least the minimum of what I could control to try to stop him and just see if that doesn't doesn't change his direction at all, so he doesn't hit my wind. I would try that. I don't know if I would call to aggressively just because I don't want him to be spooked from that on top of the wind um, you know, thinking it's you know pressure. UM, So I would try the minimum of at least trying to lightly call. Yeah.

So when I was like sixteen seventeen years old, and if I saw a buck out of range, I would you know, throw a grunt at him, and then he'd stopped and then to keep walking. Then I grunt twice at him. He'd stopped and looking then to keep walking, and then I'd like grunt louder at him, and then he keep walking and then I'd like snort wheez at him and then he'd run away. Right, all right, That's what I'm worried about too. You know, that time of year can be, like you said, high risk, high reward.

But you know, I just trying not to educate him any more than what I have to. UM. So I'd like to think I wouldn't be overly aggressive with that, um because there's there's always tomorrow. Yeah, So what's your I guess what I'm wondering is what's the like, what's the cut off mark? Like when do you say all right, he's just not into it, Like, will you try a couple of grunts or a couple of things, and then if he still ignores that, then you say, all right,

well it's just not happening. Or how do you know when enough is enough? Yeah, I think just reading the deer's body language, you know, as best I can. Um, you know, if he maybe stops, you know, to a couple of grunts, may try to you know, lightly rattle mike snort, wee's one time. Um. And if you know, if the deer doesn't doesn't react, or you know, maybe stops just for a brief second, keeps on going, then you know, I'll call it off. I won't try to get any louder, won't continue to do it. And if

he hits my win, he hits my win. You know, that's that's just that's uh, that's part of it. But I definitely don't want to try to spoke him anymore than what I have to in hopes of, you know, trying to maybe close him out later in the season or the next day or if I half a few days. Um, you know, our hope that maybe he well somehow not hit my wind is as bad as I think you will you know, maybe he's got his back to me where he uh where he maybe want is not paying attention.

So here's another kind of spotting a buck off in the distance situation. Let's say the same kind of deal you spotted shoot her buck, but instead of him cruising, let's say he's locked on a doll and it's the afternoon, and you can see that this dough is very slowly kind of heading off in the direction of a food source. They're in the betting area still, but she's kind of doing that thing where she moves off five ten yards.

He's standing behind her, then he walks up, stands right next to her, and then she moves off and they they're just slowly doing this. You're sitting, you know, a hundred yards a hundred fifty yards away, kind of back behind him, watching them slowly get further and further away from you. But they're moving slow. So in that situation, would you would you ever try to call that buck

and try to get him over to you. Would you slip out of your stand and try to move and like get ahead of them or anything, or would you just say I'm just gonna stick it out where I am and and hope that something crazy happens and they swing by, or a different buck comes through or something else. I might try to throw in a couple of like grunts. I might even try to snort ways, um, especially if it's here on our place in Georgia, But that would

probably be the bare minimum. Um you know, I would try to just anticipate maybe for that next day or next few days. I wouldn't try to get down and and try to get ahead of them. Um. You know, I may try to do that, may be somewhere else, but um you know, maybe like in Montana or Nebraska. You know, you may try to do that, but I'd still try to play it as safe as I could, because I think you know where I've I've messed up before in Montana is getting down out of the tree

to try to get closer. I've ended up really you know, blowing some fields out and it and it really cost to me. And it may take these deer sometimes a week or two to really move back in and get comfortable again. Um So I've I've learned that the hard way, you know, in some of these places. Um So, I'd say, you know, at least the first time, like if it doesn't work, maybe after a couple of days and you can't get any closer than maybe you do try the ground approach. But um, i'd say to start off with

you know, better safe. Yeah, what was your You mentioned that, you know, waiting till the next day and then adjusting. What would your adjustment be for that next day? Would you just try to move in right to where you saw them again and hope they come back or what it's your plan? Yeah? I think you know, maybe try and maybe hoping that that dough may take him, um,

you know, maybe closer to us that next day. Um. You know, like that that time of year, a lot of these deer get out there in that alf alfa and you're very limited on what you can do as far as the movement of where you can you know,

move some of these tree stands. You know, you may be able to move sometimes a ground blind closer to where these deer you know where maybe the day before um, and that may be able to help you a little bit for for cent and trying to keep that keep that keep that you know, sent away from those deer as much as possible. So um, you know, so that that would be what I would probably try to do is uh, you know, just just try to wait it out and hopefully he ends up making a mistake a

day or two later. Now would this? Uh? I want to see if if your answer would change it off? We were to shift a couple of things. Let's let's change that sitting from an afternoon sighting to instead being a morning sighting. And now you see the buck locked on a dough. But now they're bedded down, they're betted together. It's the morning. They're in a grassy, grassy, brushy kind of thicket. What what are you doing that scenario? Does that? Would that change your mind in any kind of way?

Are you still approaching the same way? Um? So that that he's betted down with the dough, he's locked down with the doughs. What you're saying? Yep, it's the morning. They're betted down. It's like ten am. They're betted down together. They're a hundred yards away from you. You see them, They're not going anywhere. What do you do? Man? I just I don't think if they're bedded down and I'm in a tree, you know, I don't think there's anything

I could do even to to call to him. Um, I think I'd be very limited on what I could do in that scenario. I think you still, you know, you'd have to sit it out and wait, I just find it at least in my experience. You know, you and others may be different. But you know, getting down on a deer like that, you know, if a white tail does stand up, they're not going to give you a whole lot of time to react, you know, get your bow drawn. Um, and then I'm just worried about

messing it up for the remainder of the hunt. Yeah, and because you know, in my situation, you've got a camera guy with you most of the time too. Um. You know, when you have two people trying to stalk and get closer, it it's even that much more difficult. So, um, you know, there there may be some some situation where you can try and close the distance and maybe try to get in another tree. But um, yeah, that's that's tough. Yeah, it's a it's a doozy, that's for sure. Let's let's

pivot to a slightly different situation here. Now, Let's let's again say that you're Sharon Hunt and camp with some friends. It's the rut you're somewhere in the Midwest, you know, I don't know, We'll say maybe it's Illinois or Indiana, something like that. And you're all out there for a week together and you just cannot buy a shooter buck sighting like you're hunting great looking stuff, but nothing is

panning out for you. But one of your buddies has kind of had a little zone that he's been focusing on, and it's been crazy over there. He's he's been in big deer every single day, different bucks coming through. And on day five of your seven day hunt, he kills one, he tags out, he's out of there. You've got one

or two days left. Would you consider going into his spot that was on fire, but where he also just killed a deer and tracted deer and did all that stuff, or would you stick to your own plan and zone you've been focusing on up to this point. Mm hmm. That's a good question. Um, you know, this may not be the right answer, maybe there is no right answer.

But I've always been the kind of guy. If I have time, you know, invested into a certain spot, you know, maybe you know, won't be as willingness to pick up and move. You know, I get so familiar and comfortable with my surroundings, even if you know, maybe a buck hasn't shown up, you know, quite yet. I always will sit it out until the very very you know, last minute, you know, even if we're unsuccessful. Um, you know, I like, you know, just going in somewhere where I'm I'm more familiar, uh,

you know than picking up and move into a different location. Uh. You know, but sometimes you have to and and and you know, in that scenario, you know, maybe I might try to move in there, um and and you know, try my luck somewhere else. But I've always found it for me, I just I try to really stick it out with the game plan that I've set out for myself. Um and maybe that and it doesn't always work out, you know, that's just part of the unfortunately part of

the risk you take is you may be unsuccessful. But I've always found that maybe the you know, the longer I stick it out and try to exploit all options on the current location I'm in, it usually ends up paying off. Yeah. I addle with this every year during the rut. Like just last year was perfect example of this. I was I found just a dynamite rut spot. It was it was like everything all stacked up. It was

downwind of a great dough betting area. It was like a hub of two different pinch points that came together, and there was a pond there, and I had food up on the rises above me. It was just it just screamed amazing. And and then it just wasn't. There was younger bucks and deer's kind of deer slowly rolling through here and there, but it was not what I was thinking it would be. The big ones never showed up,

and I kept battling. I'd sit there like midday on these all day sits and say, okay, you you could trust the place and just believe that eventually the good one has to come through because it's such a good spot. Or you could go chase, you know, you could go try to find where the hot action is right now. And and I went back and forth a thousand times, and I I must have lost three or four years off my long term life expectancy because how much I

stressed about it. And I never figured it out. I kind of did a little did a little bit of both, and it never worked. It's a it's a tough one, yeah it is, you know. And and and and and like, I'm sure there are situations where maybe the hunting is really not as good for me, and like I'd want to go up there and try something different, you know, where my buddy was just successful, maybe tagged on on a really nice deer. I just I don't really know why. It's just you know, you have to kind of go

in somewhere and learn that that place all over again. Um. And if I feel like there are some deer in the area where I'm currently at, you know, I like kind of sticking it out and seeing it through the end. Um. You know, but it doesn't always pay off. You know, there are many times, probably more often than it doesn't. So uh, it just you know, how stubborn can you be? Yeah? Does does that? Does that? I'm trying to say here, does that ever change in any way on the very

last day of a hunt? Like do you do you have a situation or are there examples were in the past you've you've ran a game, playing all the way to the end and then you get to that last day and you get a wild hair or you say, you know what, I just gotta try something new, or I just gotta do the crazy thing, or I just gotta try X. Do you ever have that happen? Yeah,

I mean I've I've had that happen. And I've had it and and and just to be honest, I've had it not work out more so than you know, maybe I have had it work but you know, but that's I think that's to be expected. Um. You know, in in Nebraska in particular, I remember a hunt two years ago. We were there for thirteen days, um and very limited trees,

very limited place you could put ladder stands or hanged on. UM. So I was I was kind of having to move my redneck bline you know, up and like just around, you know, different points of the field where these deer were coming. Well, I was trying not to get too close to where there were two or three tree else. Um that this he was a drop time eight pointer and you know where this deer was going. It was

it was a really pretty deer, maybe a hundred fifty deer. UM. Never had killed a deer with the drop times of thought, Man, this would be really cool. But you know, I said, man, we're on day thirteen, like we gotta we gotta kind of go all in and get close to this spot. But I knew, you know, we're gonna have a good chance to go back maybe the middle of October. So if you're gonna try something like this now, maybe maybe

now is the time to do it. Um. So, you know, we we have that mobile Redneck, put it on a trailer and I got within maybe fifty sixty yards of of where these deer were going, and there were a lot of deer coming down these two or three trails and actually saw him coming. It was not him that

actually got spooked. It was really the deer that were in front of him, just kind of not liking the blind And even though you do have an enclosed Redneck, you know you still have sent you know, when you have to open up that front window, there's still some that can that can leak out and they're seeing you for the first time. You know, you've played it safe this long, but you know this this is uh, this is new for them. So you know, there were some deer that got the better of us on that one,

and um it didn't work. Um, So that's but that's just kind of like I said, you know, part of it. And you know, I've maybe had one instance in Montana where we kind of went all out. There's a group of trees in the middle of alfalfa, and all all week long we were we were not not going in there because deer were on either side of this alfalfa, and we knew if we went in there and got in that got in that single row of trees, we were going to blow some deer. There were no if

and butts about it. But it was next to last day of the hunt. Decided to go in there and hang a ladder mid morning. And another problem with that was deer were bedded out there in that alfalfa two and that was really the main problem why we didn't put a put a tree stand anything in there. But we went in there at ten o'clock, put up a

ladder stand loose some deer out of there. It actually ended up paying off, you know, the deer actually when the wind started to die down late in the evening, um you know, he uh, the wind really wasn't blowing hard one direction, So it ended up working out. But you couldn't have guessed that beforehand. It was kind of just something that that just happened, you know. And I think a lot of deer hunting to requires a ton

of luck. That has to go your way, man. So true, you just gotta do enough things right enough for the time to finally catch that lucky break to coincide with it. All right, yeah yeah, and you can overthink it. I mean, that's kind of what we were doing all week. I was like, man, I wish we had tried that earlier

in the week. But you know, when you look at it from up top and you see, you know, twenty head of deer betted, I'm like, man, what can you really go in there and do without blowing everything out? And we did. I'd probably say, you know, that field, we we blew out. Um. But you know when we hun that stand up at ten o'clock, we sit in there all day and shot that dear maybe with ten minutes left to go um of daylight. Uh, you know for for camera. So um, that's it ended up working out,

But not all the time. It does. Sometimes you gotta give a shot. Yeah. All right. Here's one last kind of tough rut scenario that kind of rears his ugly head every few years and we all bemoan it. But let's say it's like the second week in November and you're on your rut trip to whoever it is this this year on that date, will say probably Kansas, Iowa, somewhere in the Midwest. Again, beautiful time of year, right, should be, should be top notch, But your weather conditions

for that week are hot. It's like seventies and lousy and you're miserable out there. How does your hunting strategy change at all for that time of year or does it change at all given the warm weather or do you stick to your usual rut kind of tactics? Mm hmm, Man, I actually, I mean I feel like I experienced a lot out there in Kansas, and I try to usually hunt that last week in October first week in November in Kansas every year. Um, if you know, if we're

not somewhere else. But man, I've seen it happened out there as well. I mean you can. I still wouldn't be opposed to sitting all day, even in really hot conditions. You just kind of never know. That can be a magical time really, no matter what the weather. Um you know the moon as well. So UM, you know, I try not to let it change my strategy up too much because you know, I've heard plenty of stories from

people that hunt around that around that area. Um. You know, don't let the weather dictate too much that time of year. It's it's not it's not what it was two or three weeks prior. Um. And you want to be in a tree as much as possible. You know, there's like there's a window usually anywhere from that first week of really that last week of October Halloween, those first couple

of weeks in November. I throw every other strategy I've had up until then, from September and October kind of out the window, um, because you know, yeah, you expect the unexpected that time. UM. And that goes with any weather condition. You know, there have been so many deer that don't show up on my camera. Uh, you know when I'm out there in a tree, even when it's hot cold, um, that I wouldn't have seen if I wasn't out there. And then you kind of adjust in

your your strategy from there. So I would say, I would say, I try to stick it out. You know, the ruts just one of those times a year you can't I can't think about it too much. You just got to be out there. Yeah, and what about like what's your favorite if you had to kind of describe your favorite rut type of setups. I mean, is it is it the typical stuff that we all hunt, or do you have something a little off the beaten path that you tend to like to do during that time

of year. Paint me a picture of what a what a rut hunt set might look like for you. Um, you know, I feel like it's pretty you know, I am trying to. I am usually in Kansas, you know, mostly that time of year, but anything where I can see, you know, whether it be you know, standing beans, you

know that time of year in Kansas. Um, you know, seeing deer out there, uh, you know during the rut and then also being able to see um, you know, different trails and stuff too, or if I get eyes on a deer, you know, I can maybe try to turn it with a grunt or a rattle, um, you know, but having as much having as much of a visual uh that time of year for and it cover as much ground, I feel like it's really critical. Um. I like to I like to be able to see and

you know, just for for deer out there. I mean I had plenty of times. You know, it does not always a monster, but you you get a glimpse of deer. That's four five hundred yards out there. You start rattling that deer, a deer will turn and come. Um. So I'll like being able to see as much much as possible and and to maybe stay on a heavy trail. What's your what's your rattling your typical rattling sequence look like during the rut? I'm just kind of curious, like

how long? How you know, is it is just one NonStop thing? Is it? Stop? Start? Stop? Start with? What's that look like? Yeah? So I try to do it, you know, maybe every thirty to forty five minutes, And so a rattling sequence may go for I don't know, maybe maybe sometimes even forty five seconds to a minute. Um, and and and then I'll try to lay off, you know, for like I said, thirty five minutes unless I you know, have a visual of a deer that you know, I'm

interested in trying to get turned around to come our way. UM, try not to overdo it. I don't know if you if you can't overdo it that time of year, but um, I try to give it as that's kind of my gap time in between rattling. All right, man, you have made it through the main section of the gauntlet. But we've got this last set of rapid fire questions. So

I've got five six questions here. I'm gonna ask you real quick, one after the other, and I'm just looking for like a one word answer or as quick of an answer as you can give me on these, and we'll just rattle through real fast. Okay, okay, sounds good. All right. These are a little controversial, tyler, So you might get some haters coming off of these, to be ready, plenty of those anyway. Yeah, you and me and both buddy, So here here we go. Does the moon matter to

dear movement? Yes? Or no? Yes? Would you take a fifty yards shot at a white tail with your bow? Yes? If you could only have one of these tools for the rest of your hunts for the rest of your life, would you choose rattling antlers or or a grunt tube, grant expandable or fixed blade broadheads? There you go? Yeah, there's the haters. Um. Should you stop a walking buck with some kind of sound before shooting with your bow? Yes? Or no? Oh? Shoot? Um? Yes? Which state has better

deer hunters? Georgia or Mississippi? Both? Yeah? Safe? Safe answer. All right, So here's the last one. This one is not quite as rapid fire. But let's imagine that I rule the world. I have control over all hunting scenarios, situations, license allocation, YadA, YadA, YadA. And here's the deal. I am going to take away your right to hunt for the next twenty years. You can't hunt ever again for twenty years, Tyler, unless unless you kill a mature buck in one day this season. I'm gonna let you pick

the date. So pick the date on the calendar you want for this one hunt. And then you have to pick the one specific location. So tell me what state, tell me what the situation is, what you're set up is. Paint me the picture of what day and what you're set up is to kill this one mature buck you need to kill to save the next twenty years a hunting. Wow. That's that's tough. So save twenty years of hunting. Pick

one spot. Um, I would say, you know, probably home, just because I'm so familiar with this place and have kind of grown up on it. Um. I really feel like even though that you know, the people would argue that maybe other places would be easier. I feel like

I could have a good chance at a mature deer here. Um. You know, I'm just so familiar with this property, so I would say that, you know, maybe early sea season, um, you know, finding a spot like in the woods, kind of like what I had last year with with my dear hunting somewhere near Oaks pin Oaks, Water Oaks Salt too. Um, you know, so that would be that would probably be

my deal. Setup is somewhere early season September. Um, let's just say for you know, we we've been we've been fortunate here to have a lot of mature deer still on a pattern early season, so I would say early season is really my favorite time. So let's just say September T I'll play the odds and and hopefully hopefully be able to get a mature buck down. But early season, early season in Georgia, probably hunt in the woods. I like it. You've bucked the usual trend most people pick

like the first week in November in the Midwest. So I like that. You uh, you're willing to risk it in Georgia early season. That takes some going nuts. I like it. I think I think the reason why it is just you know, other places while it can be really good. It could be really unpredictable. Yeah, um, you know, and it may not pay off for me. But you know, I've always found I like early season more than I do maybe the end of October one November, while it can be fun um, you know, dear, a little bit

more patterntable for us, that early part. Yeah, I really love that early season to something something pretty special about that that bed feed pattern. They can still be on and they can still be visible and you can figure them out and it's fun. It's a really good time. It is and we're getting close to it too. Exciting stuff, sure is. And uh, you made it through. You've completed the gauntlets, so h thanks thanks for for bearing with me on this and and taking a trip down a

few of these wild storylines. No, it was fun, Mark, It's been been a pleasure. I really appreciate you having me on. Oh yeah, man, right back at you. I appreciate you taking the time. And and before you go, can you just feel folcus in on you know where they can catch the latest with the new season of of Road Trips and anything else you guys have got coming out that people should be keeping tabs on. How

can they follow you throughout the year all that stuff. Yeah, So I have my own Instagram, Facebook, Tyler Jordan pretty easy to find. Realtory Road Trips UM is the digital show that we're hosting myself, Brian Brown, who's a producer. He'll be hunting on camera, and then we have a new addition, Michael Pitts will also be joining us. He'll be out there in Nebraska for that first week of most season. Chipper Jones will be out there with us. Um, we're gonna do some semi live hunts from out there.

So excited to kind of going to go the Bill Winky model, and uh, you know, when we have hunts, we're gonna try to get them uploaded that night, maybe late in the night, but we're gonna have guys working hard trying to get that stuff edited and content out there. So um excited, can't wait to get the season going. And then after Nebraska, we're gonna be in Georgia. I got a couple of nice ones here. Maybe not quite as big as last year, but it's a nice dear nonetheless,

and uh, looking forward to hunting with the family. So ready to kick off the twenty two season. Can't wait, awesome. Well, I'm looking forward to filling long Tyler, and keep up the great work and uh good luck this year. Awesome Martin, You two all right and that's a rap. Thank you for joining me, appreciate you. Make sure you're following along with Wired Hunt on Instagram, maybe on TikTok. Now I don't like TikTok, not a fan, but uh I'm there.

That's another story though, So follow me on TikTok, follow me on a Wired to Hunt's Instagram account, Facebook, the Wired Hunt Weekly newsletter. Check it all out, Have a great day, Good luck with your summer scouting or your early season hunts. Whatever you're up to right now, get after it, have fun, and stay wired to Hunt.