Ep. 582: Kenyon’s October Success and Lessons Learned

success in Michigan. I'm excited to talk about it. I'm excited to share the story and some so I think lessons learned and take away as it can help all of us throughout the rest of the season. But because this is such a great occasion, we had to bring in the o G. We had to bring in the man of all men, nine fingers Dan Johnson. We had to bring back the original dream team to have this podcast. So Dan's gonna help me tell this story. Dan, thank you for being here. Yeah. Absolutely, I love I'll tell

you what I love. I love this time of year for the bloody arrow pictures that get sad. Right, So all the all the buds, you know, all your buddies who are are also bow hunters. All of a sudden, you're like, I look at my wife ago, oh Mark, Mark arrowed something tonight and uh and then you're just like then it's just like all these questions and then it's like, hey, I want picks, and you know, and then the whole, the whole flood comes and uh, it's awesome to to see friends find success and I love

getting those notifications. Yeah. Man, it's a great time to the variously lived through all your buddies adventures and and uh, I wish we lived closer together so we could be getting together in person. But I had some people here locally who came and celebrated with me. What was it Saturday night? And uh, that's just the best, Like getting to be with your buddies and help them be either help them on a track job or them help you, or have a beer at the end of the night.

I mean that is Uh, that's what's all about that you that you cracked when you got back to the house. I had a beer. It's called Deer Camp. Yeah, it's a it's a beer from a brewery up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan Upper Hand Brewing. So yeah, I just bought the twelve pack earlier that day and uh, man, I had a very good reason to crack into it that night. So yeah, yeah, yeah, man. So there's a lot,

there's a lot to cover. Um, I'm gonna be putty in your hands, though, I will let you take their reins as host today, my friend, and uh And basically, all I want to achieve here, just so you know, is like I want to recap, you know, what happened the story of how I killed the mature buck on home putting night in Michigan, and then, um, you know what the big takeaways were that I had from the lessons I learned the things that I think, you know,

could help other people, uh with their their season this year. So that's what I want to achieve. How we do that, Dan is up to your crazy as mind. Yeah, and we're gonna we're gonna break it all down, right And this this is the this is the part that I love about podcasting is the the details, into the details, into the details that you know, the why behind the story, the data that goes into it, the decision making and breaking it all down. But I have to ask you

one question first. Okay, this has nothing to do really with this hunt. So what We're gonna lighten the mood a little bit. We're gonna get everybody. We're gonna get everybody a little you see, so that they flow into this episode and really absorb it. So I've been talking with I've been talking with Tony Peterson recently. Okay, you know you know Tony Um, he every once in a while will throw a jab your way about your mustache and it's like a low blow. And I I say this,

I go, hey, Mark's not here to defend himself. So I think it's only proper that you start off this podcast by low blowing Tony Peterson. Well, here's something that nobody knows about Tony is that Tony is a bigger nerd than I am. He tries to play off this whole like cool guy vibe when he does the podcast, and he likes to trash me and Spencer and our

CShell collecting hobbies or something like that. But every time I see the guy, all he wants to talk about is the latest Star Trek stuff, Like WHOA, what's going on in the Star Ours? What's going on with Elon? Musk. The guy makes you and me look like varsity athletes. Stand it really is amazing. The job he's done, Absolutely, the job he's done pulling the wool over everybody's eyes here on the podcast is is impressive. So so he's a nerd, is what you're getting at, big big card,

big time, Like we should give him Squirrel East type nerd. Like, yeah, that's definitely why he is the way he is now is because of all those that have gott in high school. I got you all right. Well, now we know a little bit more about Tony Peterson, the inside of what makes him work. He's just he's just a big nerd. If you ever run into him on the street, ask him for a space fact. Space he loves. He loves giving space facts so much so that his wife, who

has got to be like a sympathy marriage kind of thing. Uh, he is stuck to a quota. He's only allowed to share one space factor night to his wife because you can't handle any more than that. But he's so excited about space. This is no joke. This is literally real life, Dan, This is awesome. This is real life. So there's a little insight into Tony Peterson. Okay, perfect, there we go.

Now we're now we've just talked trash on someone. And I don't know about you, but every time I talk trash on someone, I feel just a little bit better about myself. So I feel good good, Okay, all right, it's it's no stranger. You've you've posted the pictures on on social everybody knows you you killed a deer. But there's a whole story behind it. It's not just hey, I showed up Opening Day and and put an arrow through this buck. It sounds to me like this is a multi year uh, a multi year type of a

trail to get to this point. Now, what I want to know is how far back does this this trail go to to lead up to this Opening day buck that you shot in Michigan. So it is it's to two year story, but it is lightly tied to a

three year story. Um and and kind of how my, how my goals and mindset and things have shifted, because I'll kind of jump a little bit of Hettie to Dan and you tell me if I'm going off base here, But the previous me, in many years, you know this, I would get stuck on one deer, right, do you remember the years of holy Field and six Shooter and all these bucks, and I chased him for a year after year, and it'd be like this buck or bust,

all right. And so there was a deer that could have been a this buck or bust for me this year, which was a deer I called Junior. He was a buck that you know as a three year old three years ago I passed him when I was chasing that buck tran Um, and this buck looked like a like a smaller version of trans So I called him like Junior tran junior Um. And so that was to two

or three years ago. I saw him a ton, passed him a bunch, and then the next year, which was last year, he was like the number one buck I was after. And I didn't get to hunt Michigan as much last year, but he was the one I wanted. So coming into this year, um, you know, he is a five and a half year old like stud this year,

and he was he was my number one. Um. But because of what happened last year and what you and I have talked about this year a couple of times, kind of just the the interesting challenges I had last year and the kind of mental stuff I went through, and you know, just coming into this year, one of the big things I wanted to get back to just having fun and not stressing over certain things and not you know, locking myself into crazy goals or crazy things.

And so coming into this year, you know, rather than doing what I've done the past, which is the it's this bucker boss to have to kill this one mega giant, I decided I wasn't gonna do that this year. I was gonna just have fun and take what kind of the hunt gave me. And so because of that, Uh, this bucket that I ended up shooting ended up being a deer that I set my sights on in addition to h JR. So that's a long winded way of saying why it's sort of tied to this three year story.

But as my mind shift, as my mindset shifted this year, um, this buck kind of entered the story because of that. So so he first showed up two years ago last year. Sorry, so last year, but it was kind of, uh, the mindset change, it sounds like, went from one deer to a specific caliber of deer that that you were trying to accomplish. What was that caliber? Yeah, so my thoughts out here on my local stuff in Michigan was a four year old, um, and this year is a particularly

good year. In this general area. UM, in this little neck of the woods that I've been focusing on, there are three bucks that I'm very confident are four year older, which is which is better than most years. UM when four year old in Michigan. Right, there's a lot of guys out there going dang for three four year olds in one general area. That sounds pretty good. Yeah, And

I mean I feel like it is pretty good. I'm pretty I'm pretty lucky to have, you know, a handful of properties in this kind of adjacent area that gives me access to a spot where there's three three bucks there are four. But to be clear, these aren't like big bucks in a lot of people's eyes. I mean

their bucks that I'm stoked about in Michigan. But you know, Junior is, like I said, I'm pretty confident he's a five and a half year old and he's an eight pointer and he's probably like a hundred and forty class eight pointer. UM. And then there was this other buck who this is the third year I've known about him, and he is now a ten pointer. I call him wide nine because he was a nine wide nine two years ago. Um, he's probably like one thirty something and

a four year old. And then there was another buck of nice nine pointer who is also four and a half and he's probably like a hundred and thirty class ish nine pointer. Um. And so I saw all of these three deer last year. Two of them were three year olds who as a four year old last year, and now this year they all showed back up on camera. Um.

And then that's what I'm talking about. So I've got a couple, you know, three bucks that are over one thirty basically, uh, two four year olds, one five year old, and you know, throughout the summer they um summer in September, they were kind of they showed up at different times and have showed up to differing degrees. Yeah, talk to us a little bit about what you feel makes this area, you know, like all the farms that this this general area where these deer are living so special that it

holds a higher age class. Yeah. So there's a couple of things going for this neck of the woods. Um. You know, there's there's the main property that I've been hunting for years now that I've been very careful with and so to recap on this farm, it's like a it's a little over six acres, about half of that is farm field, so there's about you know, forty ish acres of cover on it. Part of that is a swamp that I just never go into. I mean almost almost never go into it except for like a time

or two in the off season. Um. And then there's two neighboring properties that have good cover and that are lightly pressured. So there's one property that does have another couple of hunters, but they they're not in there very often. UM, so that you know, works as like a pseudo sanctuary a little bit. And then there's a second property that at least last I heard, nobody hunts it. It's eighty acres. Last I've I don't know these people well, but I've talked to him a handful of times and they have

not let people hunt there has storically. Um. Now there's other properties around that that get hunted a ton. So basically there's there's there's there's these pieces that I have access to the main place that I hunt, and then I've got a couple of neighboring hunt spots in this block that I also have access to that I lightly hunt, and then there's these two pieces that are lightly hunted, and then around it there's tons and tons of pressure.

So I kind of think what happens is that there's this little core that's lightly pressured and then everything else around it that's just is absolutely hammered. And because of that, you know, I think stuff gets pushed into the lightly hunted area that I focus on, and so it kind of becomes like a like a sanctuary of sorts because there's so much pressure all around it. That's kind of my theory about what happens and why. You know, over the years, I've been able to, you know, have you know,

mature box. Usually there's at least you know, one mature buck um and now we're getting to the point, you know, now that we're you know, I've I've been hunting this general area for eleven years, I think, you know, the very first year I hunted out there, there was one three year old all season that was the best that was around all season, and it's it's slowly gotten better

and better too. Now, you know, I feel most years there's there's a four year old or two you know, like of that kind of caliber rarely or they're like big big bucks, like Iowa big Bucks, right, but you know, every once in a while there's a really big one. But I'm usually you know, I'm super stoked with any kind of four year old buck in Michigan, and there seems to be one or two of those around here most years. But you know, I'm I'm I'm super picky.

I'm you know, in this case, if I shoot one buck on that in this area, I don't shoot any more bucks for the year. So it's it's a one and done kind of thing. And UM, I do a little bit of habitat work on one of these properties that I have permission to do so, so there's food plots, there's different stuff like that, and I think those things have slowly helped and improved. And uh, you know we are where we are now. Yeah, all right, So I

do have to ask you question. I don't know if you want me to ask, uh, if you want me to ask it or not. So maybe this is edited out, but um, the one of the last times that we talked in detail about this property that um that I'm assuming you shot this deer on was some of the

surrounding properties started getting some additional pressure. Do you feel that this additional pressure on some of the property and and strictly because they found out through maybe your social media or you where where this this these locations are at. And so another person that knew you moved in got access to a farm or maybe even purchased a farmer. I'm not sure what the scenario is there, but they started, uh putting a little pressure on a different farm that

you didn't have access to. Has that hurt or help in any way? You know, I don't know. I don't think it's hurt me yet, I guess, I guess I do know. I would say I don't think it's hurt um because since you know, since that, I have not seen any difference in the deer activity I historically I have seen. Um. You know, there have been a couple of the bucks that I've been keeping tabs over the years on that have disappeared, But I haven't heard, you know,

of these people killing them. So you know, every every year a couple of the good bucks them after disappear. Someone someone's getting them. I don't know where, um, But no, I haven't seen like a dramatic change in deer quality or like, you know, nothing has changed too much. It's basically been the same that it has been for the last five or six years. So as I mentioned, you know, I think that tons of hunting pressure around me that used to be like something in my mind is like, ah,

that sucks. There's all these hunters and you know, these

deer getting you know, chased all over the place. But I've kind of turned that into like a maybe a positive for me because if if even like in you know, forty forty acres of cover that I have solely to myself, Um, if I can at least make sure that's a safe place, that ends up being enough because everyone's you know, mobbing them so heavily everywhere else that these deer kind of know, like, there's a couple of little safe places and that ends up being the places that I have access to and

that I can be careful with and strike when the time's right. Um, And that that's been enough to at least, you know, have opportunities here and there. Right. Uh. So, I've been to your house and I've been able to see the landscape surrounding it. Do do you feel that on that particular property. Crop rotation plays any type of role on when the deer are visiting your property. You know,

I've wondered that. And you know, for folks that aren't familiar, this is like, you know, South Michigan, a lot of crops, a lot of egg land, and these these properties, this region that I'm hunting is a mixture of pretty flat um egg and mixed timber, you know, some little swamps and grassy areas, some big mature timber and fields. Basically

is what we're dealing with here. And I've I've wondered, I've tried to pair, I've tried to, like see if there's a correlation between corn years and being years and all that, and I can't. I can't find any kind of consistent change that happens with it. Honestly, there's there's deer here on bean years, there's deer here on corn years. Um. The only thing that really seems to suck is if the beans get taken out early and they disc everything under, so then there's like no food, and that happened a

couple of years ago. But as long as there's something, whether that be waste grain from beans or the corn on the ground, or something. As long as there's something, they'll always be bucks wronging through here. Um, how much they hang out or how late they hang out, can you know a little bit of that depends on just how much food is left after they harvest the beans are corn. But but no, basically they're gonna be around.

I see them every year no matter what. Um, you know, having those little tiny, you know, nice little hidy hole food plots, I think is a helpful thing because I've always looked at those as like an ice cream stand, and so regardless of what's going on in the main farm fields, there's always this little, sweet little ice cream truck that dear want to roll through and take a look at for ten minutes a night. And um, that's

the thing that has consistently helped. Um. I'm not saying it makes or breaks my season or hunts, but it's always been a helpful thing. And and this year it ended up being so too. Yeah. Alright, So I got I got a question about those food plots, not necessarily from the food side of it, but from the drawl you know, the the the food plots draw the does

the does draw the bucks? Uh come this, you know, come throughout the year, right, And so my question is are you able have you seen sign the the amount of sign and I'm talking rubs and scrapes increased throughout the years because of this food plot work that you're doing. You know, it's it's hard to say, like what can be directly attributed to these food plots, but but I think that it has become like these have been consistently present in these two locations now for about ten years.

So like the local deer population just knows like every year there's gonna be a half acre of something nice and green in this little heidy hole spot, and there's gonna be you know, just under an acre of something green and tasty up in this place. And every year that's the case now, and every year it's like a safe secluded spot these deer can swing through and and a eat, but be a do you think it has

become a concentration of deer activity? And so it's like the water cooler, right, it's a place that the bucks roll through and leave that some sign that hey, I was here, and the does are there and so and so yes, I think that probably you know, these are places that our hub of activity, year after year after year and so deer leaving their calling cards there. And there are always natural scrapes popping up along the edge

of these uh little food plots. And I also put a fake scrape tree out in each one of these food plots and a camera on those. And every single year, you know, every big buck I'm looking at and chasing in this general area always ends up cycling through those food plots and hitting those scrapes. You know, whether it's in daylight or after dark, they're they're coming through and

checking it. So so yes, I guess as as I say this, I do think, you know, sign probably has increased around here as these have become like known hubs of concentrated your activity. Like if a buck that lives in this you know, mild square block wants to know what's going on on this, you know part of it. This is one of the best places to get a quick sense of who's here, what's happening. Um, so so yes, I think as I as I think through this, I think that's probably true. And you know, I think there's

something we said there about the consistency maybe. Um you know, these aren't like huge food plots, but they're they're small they're secluded and there's always something green and tasty there. You know. Over the years, I've planted a lot of different things. This year it's a mixture of clover am brassicas in a little bit of oats, um And there's kind of a mix of oats and peas and some

different stuff that I planted in these two plots. Um. And so yeah, I think that while it's not the food that these deer depend on, it's that sweet little treat and uh, they like check it out. Yeah, for sure. We've already kind of discussed this mindset change that you've had over the past couple of years right where you were, Um, I mean you mentioned that you were you were trying to go do this this one buck thing, that change to a specific caliber of deer. You've described the caliber

of deer. But there was also it sounds like some some change like summer work, some things that you prepared for for specifically for this upcoming season. Talk to us about what those things were. Yeah, I mean there's two sets of change, I guess, like one, like you mentioned like coming into the season, Um, I wanted to just get back to having fun and you know, not be so stressed out by all these different kind of outside things, right, and you and I talked about this. I don't know

what it was. This sometime this August we did uh, we did a podcast talking through our goals and hopes and hit lists for the year. Um. So, coming into this year, you know, I really had only two main goals. There wasn't any specific buck goals. There wasn't you know, I want to shoot a bunch of mature bucks. It was I want to have a good shooting year, like I want to. I want to follow through my shop process and have good confidence shots. And I want to just have a fun year and get back to what

made me love hunting so much. And so part of that was having time to hunt and enjoy my local Michigan stuff again. Last year, I didn't get to do very much of that. Yeah, So coming to this year, you know, I knew I was going to spend more time locally in Michigan, and you know, was going to have loose fun expectations for it. Um but I still want to do some work. So there were some things I knew I needed to tweak and maintain to kind

of keep the Michigan local stuff looking good. So what that entailed this year was getting those two food plots uh planted and and kind of maintained properly, which is kind of a disaster in some ways. UM. There's one plot that was like uh perennial clovers, and I was able to kind of get that up and going again. But the front food plot UM got taken over by weeds while I was gone over the summer, and so I had to have some folks come in and help me.

And it was too wet, like two or three different times, UM to get equipment in there to get rid of these weeds. And that was the whole thing. But you know,

it got done. So those food plots are put in. UM. There are a handful of tree stands that I've set over the years that I've kept up year after year because they're kind of an old, faithful locations that are are tried and true at least for you know, they're gonna work for killing does every year, and you know, every once in a while that'll be the right spot

for a buck. So you know, this summer when I got home from Idaho, I went and just checked those tree stands, checked the straps, checked um, the ladders, going up to them, trimmed everything out, just made sure those are all good. So I think there's probably five locations like that that I just made sure we're good and cleaned up and all that kind of stuff. I installed two fakes grape trees and these plots, I mode trails, and otherwise it was going to be a saddle game.

So you know, earlier in this winter and spring, um, you know, I always go and do a good full run through of everything, walking through everything again and just trying to look at the properties um with a new set of eyes. Right, I've hunted this place for eleven years now, so I know this. I know this general region pretty well, but I try to go into it thinking, you know, what what am I missing? What have I overlooked?

Is there anything that's changing? So I did that kind of scouting and then just thought through, you know, is there anything? Are there any new spots I would want to hunt here in my saddle, And so I prepped a couple of places in the summer, uh, just going in and cutting out a path to these trees and clearing a tree and shooting lanes from that tree, so that if I want to go in there with my

sticks and saddle that tree is ready. So there's a couple of spots I did that in and that was um, you know, that was the extent of physical work on these properties. And this all happened in August because I was gone all summer, So in August I did all that stuff, um And then the only other thing from there was was scouting work. So I do two kinds of you know, preseason scouting in this area. I do

some glassing. So I get out there in the summer and in September, and there's a couple different places that I can get up on hills or get on them from a distance and glass and watch some of these open fields or these like brushy spots um. And as you know, over the years historically there are some places I've been able to see deer and get an idea of what they're doing from a distance and make a move.

And then cameras, So I glassed in the summer and all the way through September, as many different nights as I can get out and do some watching. And then I had five trail cameras up this year, no, six cameras up. Five of them are cell cams. One of them was a regular camera UM put into some some

kind of right now. They are set in that like kind of a spot where I thought, basically, I'm trying to get early October data, so September through early October kind of locations, which means they were on food sources and scrapes next to those food sources, UM or mock scrapes in the food plots. UM. That was the That was the work that I've done leading into the year out here. UM, that was the setup I had to

get some information leading into the season. So once we you know, got into September, as you know, UM, I like to get all of my preseason work done by September and then stay out until opening day. UM. I had to do a little bit of food plot stuff still in September because of those high water issues I was mentioning, but other than that, I was out of there and UM just was was glassing and letting the cameras silk so that I could get some good intel and then you know, in the days leading up to

the opener make a decision. Yeah, so what were those trail cameras telling you, uh, leading up to you know, throughout that September time frame, leading up to the opener. Yeah, so this is where kind of the the hunt was a big part of the hunt came together because of my glassing and cameras this year. Um. Historically, historically in early October, there's a lot of activity up on the

west side of this farm. There's like some really good betting up there, and almost always, like if there's a good buck or two in the region, they usually bed over on the west side and the thick, nasty brushy stuff and then they come out and feed in the crop fields to the far west or in one of these food plots I have. Um, you know, this is where holy Field was a lot. This is where that buck Frank that I ended up killing a few years

ago was hanging out. So I kind of no most years, like, that's usually where my first night or two or three of the season is spent is somewhere on that side. That's where I hunted opening night in the first couple of nights last year. Um, so that's usually where I count on it. And so this year I'm glassing up in that section, I'm watching and I'm just not seeing the good bucks up there. Um, nothing's showing. And Um, the opposite though it was true in the back of

the property. I had a couple of cameras in this back region. There's this narrow, tiny finger of beans, and there's the swamp back there, and then one of those food plots in this eastern section. And what was unique this year that I think maybe had a little bit to do with this is that it's a bean yere and it was a late planting of beans this year, so this is maybe a little bit. You know, you

mentioned did the crop rotation impact things at all? And most years it doesn't, but this year it kind of did because the beans were planning really late, and that led to me still having green, fully leafed out beans on this property all the way until October one. Most years they're all dried up, defoliated, and you know, they're not a major thing, and that's the case around me, like most the other farms around me, UM do have fully dried down beans. But this property in particular still

has a lot of green beans. And so because of that, all through September, these bucks were feeding out into these bean fields, but they weren't feeding on the west side. They were feeding in this little secluded east section um and so that's where like all my camera activity was, that's where the mature bucks were showing up most consistently. Had a camera on the food plot, and then I had a couple of cameras on these in this back corner of beans, and that's where I was getting pictures

of JR. That's where I was getting pictures of um this buck that I ended up calling just referred to as G this big nine pointer. And that's where the wide nine was showing up a handful of times. Now he he showed up some in the front west. Um in the west section a couple of times. But I knew as I got into late September, like, Okay, this is gonna be a different year than most. I'm not going to be focusing on the west. I'm gonna have to take a stab into the back of the property

because that's where that's where it's happening. Um. So, I you know, leading into the season, I started putting together um my crazy person files. So I sent some pictures to a couple of my buddies of what I was doing.

This like two nights before opening day, and I was sitting in my computer desk at like ten o'clock at night and I had a spreadsheet and I had a word doc open, and in the spreadsheet I had taken every daylight picture I had of Junior from the last two years and had listed out like the date, the wind, the temperature, all that kind of stuff, and every daylight photo in location of where he was. And then on

my word document I had the notes. I had a set of notes, and these notes documented, um, not just what Junior had been doing, but also what these other bucks the Wide nine had been doing, what h G had been doing, both two pictures that I had gotten so far in September, but then also what I had from last year. So I looked at one what happened in the days leading up to opening day. Um, I looked at what happened on opening day, and so I had like some some very interesting information that showed me

where these bucks were. And there were two locations that these bucks had showed up on last year on opening day.

And then there was also like the recent intelligence I had been getting from these cameras leading up in the two weeks leading up to opening day in two so all of that information, I'm looking at all these pictures, I'm looking at this historical data I'm looking at the observations that I have not been having in two and I'm looking at the observations I made from glassing last year, and I'm trying to look at, Okay, what's like my year over year pattern looked like, and what's like the

recent stuff that's happening right now telling me? And what it told me? Dan was one of two things. Basically my number one location seemed to be this little low spot in this bean field. Basically this bean field next down into a tiny, tiny little finger that's about seventy yards wide, and there's a low spot in it. And historically I've always ran a camera on a scrape right there in this low spot, and it's always a place that like deer always passed through. I always get good

bucks passing through there. It's very secluded, it's way in the back of this property. The problem has always been that I've never been able to figure out a good way to hunt it because there's it's just scraggly, nasty brush. There's no good trees, and so I can't get in a tree stand or saddle there, and so I've I've kind of like dabbled around it, but never hunted right there. So this year, I said, well, that's where these bucks are coming through the most often. It seems like the

second best location would be my back food plot. A couple of times over the last like ten twelve days leading into opening day, some of these bucks have been showing up there, passing through that plot and heading to the beans. So leading into opening day, I had looked at all these things and I said, Okay, my number one place that I really think I need to be is in that low spot in the pinch, and I'm

going to do something different this year. I came into the year saying, you know what, I've hunted that front food plot, of hunted that front western area a lot in the past, and you know, most seasons I don't kill one up there. Um. Early on, when I first started hunting this property back in like two thousand eleven two thousand twelve, I did hunt the back food plot quite a bit because I thought that would be deadly um, and never killed a buck there on opening night in

Rolla's first couple of days. So I said, you know what, this year, I'm gonna change it up. You know, if it hasn't worked in the past, why I keep doing the same thing over and over again. Let's do something different. Let's figure out some way to hunt that little low spot.

And that's gonna mean you're gonna hunt the ground. So I decided I was going to pull out a gilly suit and I was going to sneak in there, and I was going to carve out a little opening in this thick, brushy fence row, and I was gonna lay on the ground in my gilly suit and try to kill one of these bucks have been passing this low place from the ground. So that was my game plan going in the opening down. So there's was Was there a lack of tree options back there? Yeah, there's just

there's no trees you can get into it. It's just like it's like buckthorne and multi flora rose. It's like it's a brushy fence row, um, and there are a few, um, there are a few trees you could hunt, but they wouldn't put you in the right place. You'd have to be like fifty sixty yards down on either side. Right.

So I can I can remember when you were hunting for Frank right the op, like just his movement you had identified and then you thought too uh, you know, Hey, the best thing to do at this point is is getting a ground blind. Get the ground blind up, get it, you know, in this area, and sure enough you shot him out of you shot him out of the ground blind, right, Just to be clear, Frank, Yeah, out, Frank, I have

a Frank, I have a ground blend. A different different this he was that that was like the west side of the property. But yes, I'm just talking about the deer strategy portion of it, right, Like you've identified some the movement and you you adjusted based off of what this deer. You know, what these deer were doing, So no no tree options in this little low spot. Kind of taking a step back though, were you getting all of these what you would consider shooters on the same

trail camera in this low spot? So they were kind of shifted throughout the month of September. So I was getting pictures of my number one, actually several of the bucks, but definitely Junior a lot um in a in an area that was coming out to these beans, but in a basically from the south part of this property. There's a swamp and he kept popping out of this swamp and I would get these pictures and this this kind of southwestern corner, and so in like late August and

early September, he starts showing up here a lot. I'm thinking, man, I'm gonna have to go hunt that part of the spot. You're that part of this property. And then as the month progressed, I got less and less activity there and more and more activity farther to the north, but still in the back. So the most pictures that I was getting, we're in this low spot and on the back food plot, with a few other of these swamp pictures still popping

up here and there. But but my best camera Dada was telling me this low spot or the back food plot, which told me that these bucks were betting in one of three locations basically for for that to be where they're heading out into the evening, they're either betting sometimes

in the southern swamp. They could be betted in the far eastern backside of this property that kind of is like a high ridge along the back of the swamp, and then there's some grassy stuff on the neighbor's or these bucks could be betted in the northern location, where you know historically has been the best betting. And basically this low spot and the food plot are like the central food that those three betting areas surround, and you

know those are the options. And going into the hunt, I have to I have basically trying to make a best guess on where are these dear bedded tonight? In what direction they're gonna come to the food Like I felt very confident they were coming to these two food sources. You know, they would come to some part of that.

They're gonna either pop into the finger of beans from the south or and they're pop into the finger of the beans from the east, or they're gonna pop into the food plot from the north and transition into the beans. But based on you know, a month's worth of trial camera information, um, they were doing that on a fairly regular basis, and historically like last year, Um, they were

coming through the same area. I had the wide nine and I had Junior hit my northern food plot on October one and then transition into the corn in the low spot. So so I knew this was a thing like they've been doing year after year, they're doing it again this year or I just don't know what they're gonna do in this particular night. Yeah, So why so

why a guilly shoot and not a ground blind. Well, basically, I didn't want to pop up some big, new obtrusive thing that would make you know, that'd be noticed by dear. The biggest thing would be getting past the does, Like this is a high deer density area, and so the biggest challenge most of the time is just not getting does to booger out for one reason or another, whether that be seeing you in a blind or winding you. Um. So that was why the guilli suit seemed like the

way to do this kind of impromptu ground hunt. I could get in the grass and brush, I could get low, I could conceal myself as best as possible. And you know, last year I did a lot of ground hunting and all these different states on hunt, all these different places. So I have become become more confident in, you know, my ability to be able to pull off that kind

of hunt. So, and the reason I'm asking this line of questioning is because I wanted to kind of identify the time frame you got this data, You made this decision, and you instantly reacted to it. Right, It's not like you you had this idea in early September or this summer. What these deer were doing right, You set the trail

cameras up, then you got the data. Then you decided to make the move in there, and you felt it was too late to put a ground blind in there because they wouldn't they wouldn't uh get used to it in time. Exactly, okay, exactly, all right? Cool, cool, alright? So um, you know you have this, you have this idea in your head. What kind of conditions did you feel that you needed to get in there and make

this happen. So this is where things get a little bit interesting, dam because I I need a You know, I love good weather, like I would love a cold front, I would love cool temperatures. I love like all these different little things that line up to typically good activity. But I don't I don't um when it comes to the first couple of nights of this season in Michigan,

I don't care what the weather is. I'm gonna hunt and take a stab no matter what, because I just year in and year out, almost always have a good opportunity the first day or two of the year, regardless of weather, because these deer just there, it's just this little window before they really get hammered by everybody. Else that they're still being slightly dumb. They're still doing their daylight stuff just a little bit. So you know, regardless of weather, I'm going, I just need the right wind

to hunt the right spot. That was the big thing. So in this case, opening day weather looked pretty good. It was like right around average high temperatures a couple of degrees below average, no big cold front or anything, but solid weather, not crazy hot, and high pressure which high bear metric pressure, which some people I don't know if I believe it or not, but I don't mind how high barre metric pressure days. They seem to be

pretty good days usually. So like all those things lined up, Um, if you're a moon guy, which I'm not necessarily a moon guy either, but I you know, I kind of just keep tabs just because I'm curious. It was a red moon evening, so people that believe in the red moon would tell you that's a really good time to be hunting. Um, So those things all looked like, hey, this could be its certainly not bad weather. Um. The

trick would be the wind. Would I have a wind direction that would let me hunt the place that seemed to be the best place. And I felt pretty excited when I looked at the extended forecast leading into opening day because I was actually getting easterly winds. And easterly winds don't happen very often ever, but they are really good for this farm because most of the bedding is always happening to the east on this particular in this

particular region. Um, So whenever I get those east winds, I can be way more rest of than I usually am, actually because I can get to places I usually can't. So we're supposed to have predicted northeast wind for opening night, and I think, okay, this low spot for me to get to this place I want to hunt the ground. Northeast wind actually would work just about perfect because it

would be a just off wind. It would be blowing just down and across from where this swamp is that Junior has been coming out of a lot, and then it'd be blowing away from the northern bedding where g might be bedded or where the Wide nine might be betted.

So basically it's going to be in a position where if Junior is in that swamp like he had been quite a bit this summer in September, he's gonna have the wind kind of in his favor, right, it's gonna be the situation where he'll think he could come out into the beans and have a good sense of what's going on, but my wind is blowing just off and down the other way, just past the swamp. So that

was what things look like coming into opening morning. I wasn't going to hunt the morning because basically this is like open bean field kind of hunt situation. I don't have a way to get in there without blowing out deer in the morning. So this was an evening hunt plan. The morning comes along, I look at the wind direction prediction and it's changing dan and it's changing to north northeast. So now it's midday and I'm looking at north northeast.

I'm thinking, man, northeast would have been just off, but you get that like north northeast. In my head, I'm thinking, man, that's probably gonna end up being like you know, some gusts are straight north, some gusts are east, some gusts

are straight north. And if I get that straight north, that's gonna be blowing right across the bean field low spot where I think these deer might feed, and right into that swamp where I think Junior is likely bedded and maybe some of these other deers sometimes and in my head, I'm like, gosh, like I felt so confident in this location, like this is gonna be the hunt, this is gonna be the set up. But if that winds like that, like, I don't know how that could

possibly work? Did uh? Did the Mark Kenyan paralysis by analysis set in at any point? Can you you've ever seen um in the In the Hangover, there's that scene where Zach Galfanakis is like rain manning on the craft's table. Do you know that part where you're like seeing like all like the different figures and things going in his head. That was me during the day on October one, as I'm thinking through like oh god, what am I gonna be started yet? And you're just like racking your brain

to try to find the best the best spot. Yes, exactly like I had. I had felt so confident, like the night before, I had like made my decision like this is how I'm gonna do. What I'm gonna do the ground, It's gonna be a little risky, but I can pull it off. I'm gonna be in this place. And now the wind shift just a little bit, and now I'm having to reconsider, and so it's like two o'clock, it's three o'clock, and I'm like, all right, I gotta

make I gotta figure this thing out. And what I ended up deciding to do dan is I decided I was going to go to the low spot, and I was gonna bring everything I needed to hunt on the ground. I was gonna bring a little hand saw to cut out some stuff. I was gonna bring my gilly suit, and I was gonna bring a whole hell of a lot of milkweed, and I was gonna get to that location and I was gonna just start loft and milkweed and hang out there for a little bit and see

what the wind was actually doing in this spot. See how I was looking, There's this low spot, like a mentioned and then there's a hill that comes up to the side of me, like not a big hill, but a hill in the in the field. And I thought, if I get just enough to easterly push on this north or east excuse me, north northeast, my wind might hit that hill and funnel along the side of it instead of going into the swamp. So I thought maybe I could get away with this, but I gotta see

in person. So I brought my stuff to hunt on the ground, but I also brought my climbing sticks and my saddle and platform, so that if I couldn't make the low spot work, I could pivot and pick a new location to hunt from a tree that the wind would work. So I brought in two full sets of gear for two different kinds of hunts, and I was going to make an infield decision based on what the

wind was doing in that exact location. So I sneak out there, I get to the low spot, I start throwing milkweed, and it's just it just was not looking good. And I wanted it to work so bad, and I was so confident in this plan, and I would stop and I throw milkweed, and I sit and watched, and

I think, and I racked my brain. And then I walked twenty yards and I check again, and I throw it and think, and I waked another ten yards, and I sat and thought and that and thought, and I ended up just trying to envision, like, Okay, what scenario would this work in? Okay, so what if the wind is pushing like this? So I just the way the wind was pushing the southerly portion of this swamp and

stuff like. It just seems like I'm gonna be blowing right to where these deer are probably popping out where they historically have popped out. I don't think I could pull that off. Okay, well, what if they come from the east. What if the bucks are actually bettered to the east. What if they come that way, Well, gosh, by the time they get into a spot you could actually shoot there, basically going to be downwind of you now too. And then I thought, okay, well what if

they come from the north. Well, if they come from the north, if I'm hunting this place, I won't be able to see them at all until they're downwinded me again too. So I just couldn't envision a scenario where

the thing I really wanted to do would work. So at like three thirty four o'clock, I decided, you know what, I'm just I'm gonna have to hunt my Plan B location, and I'm gonna have to sacrifice something because if I were to move further back, the next best option I had is that I had to hope for bucks to be bettered to the north, and that maybe these deer that had been coming out and transitioning through the food plot to the beans. They that would be perfect for

this win direction. I thought, I could kill one of those deer. And if I want to kill one of those deer, though, I have to get down there by that back food plot where they transition through. That's gonna mean sacrifice in the swamp though. Yeah. And so I sat there and I thought to myself, Okay, I've got two options. I can pull out of here completely and just go back to the front of the farm where I've been glassing a lot, and I've not seen any

of the shooter bucks up there. But I could go up there and just sit and maybe get lucky, like maybe something will come through for the very first time, or you know, maybe I'll be all observed something um And that'd be the safest thing. I wouldn't blow anything up, would be perfectly safe when to be easy, peasy, nothing wrong. I've done that many other years in the past. That

was one option. Or the other options be aggressive, get to the back of this back food plot section where they were sometimes transitioning through, hope that these bucks are better than the north and sacrifice the swamp, which is

where Junior had been the most. And that is a tough call, Like I really was unsure, like basically, my number one buck, I am gonna be blowing my wind right into a place where my number one buck has been bettered a lot, and basically saying, well, I'm just I'm not gonna get a crack at this deer tonight probably if he if he is better there, like it

seems like he beds a lot. But I thought, in the end, I'm thinking through what usually happens in this area, and what usually happens is you get a night or two where there's this early first sit magic, and if you don't take advantage of that first day or two, they're gone for weeks like they're around, but they're nocturnal, and then it might not be untill laid October until you have another chance. And so my mindset, basically, you know, I decided I'd be happy shooting any one of these

three deer. I think there's still an opportunity for that first sit magic, but it's not happening from the south. There's no way I can pull off a hunt for a deer come of from the south. But I can. There's no way to get behind him, right. There's there's just there's there's no there's no way to get to where these deer are gonna be coming out to feed and get in between them there without this wind completely blowing it out. But I could get a crack at

these deer if there's deer to the north. So that'st the decision I made. I decided to sacrifice the south, sacrifice the swamp in order to have a really good chance still for dear to the north, because I believe that there could be this buck g there could be this buck the y nine that could be up there, and this is set up very well for that. So that's what I did. I moved this is like, you know, I don't know, eighty ninety yards down to this back section. I had a tree prepped on the edge of this

food plot that I had planted there. So I've got the beanfield finger to the south of me. I've got this little food plot to the north of me, and very good bedding to the north, the swamps to the south of me. I'm blowing right to the swamp, so like a little part of my soul is dying because I'm blowing my wind into the swamp, and I just know a bunch of deer are smelling me, and I'm I'm willing to make that sacrifice and that risk because I know, like I've got a chance for kill tonight

from somewhere else. And I also knew that I could pull out and return in three weeks, and I still felt confident I could be back in the game in three weeks. But I'm I'm making a ruckus right now. And I get up in the stream the edge of the food plot, and um, you know, going back and forth in my mind like this is a stupid did you just blow up your whole place for the first

night and you're not gonna see anything? And then some doughs start coming out into those beans and they come out from the side that should be safe, and they booger, and I'm like, oh, what's weird? Is my wind swirling or something like that? Should not be happening. And then like a half hour later, another dough and two fonts comes out in the beans to the southeast of me.

Again should be very safe, and they bogger out of there, and the night's progressing, and like, good Lord, like I took this risk, your um milk weed isn't like going back and getting sucked back in by I don't know.

Sometimes sometimes I've noticed that if if I'm if I'm sitting in the sun, then and I'm maybe in a not necessarily the highest spot, but not necessarily the lowest spot the and you know, as the evening starts to get cooler, the predominant wind will blow in one direction, but the thermals will suck down into a low spot and then potentially, you know, get sucked back into the terrain and go back into the timber or something. Did

you feel like any of that was going on? So there there had to be something funky like that going on, but I could never get it to show with the milk weed consistently. But I'm in like this thick fence row with a lot of big trees and a lot of leaves on, and so I think it was it was a strong wind night. So the best I could figure is that the wind was blowing through this fence row, through these trees, and it was kind of swirling when it hits this tree line. Maybe in some way something

was going on. I couldn't put my finger on exactly what. And it wasn't happening all the time, and I couldn't get the milk weed to show me consistently, but something was getting my wind to push not it was supposed to be going northeast, but it seemed to be pushing northwest occasionally too, because these doughs coming to that side

of me were blowing and busting out there. So we're down to the last hour and a half a daylight, and I've had this happen a couple of times at the doughs, and in my head, I'm just thinking, jeez, you really, you really did a great job here tonight. You blew out the whole swamp and now the other

deer are winding you. Um, this is uh just a classic Mark Kenyan f up and seasons often classic and uh, And I just kept thinking, man, you just you gotta believe that these bucks are to the north, like you know, they've done it in the past. You know, you've had some pictures of them coming from the north. It's possible. And that's rock solid from the wind. So just as long as a dough doesn't blow right as these bucks pop out, if they do, you know you still have

a chance. You still have a chance, and um. You know, most years you make it, You make these series of decisions, you take a risk like this, and nine point nine times that a tenant does not pan out right most of the time, it doesn't most of the time. You know, you take the risk, you screw some stuff up, and you live to hunt another day, and you learn something from it, and you keep trying. Um. Last year, I did a lot of these kinds of things and they

didn't pan out. And I just kept saying to myself, man, you keep doing these things. You keep doing most of the stuff right. You know. Ever, once in a while the cars will fall in your favor. Ever, once in a while that risk you take will pan out. You just gotta let fate get give enough time and then fate will fall right way and um and so. On this particular night, a lot of stuff had gone wrong, a lot of things have changed, but I made a

few decisions. I took a couple of risks, and tonight it was lucky enough that it did pan out in my favor, because with an hour before dark, I see a buck pop out from the north, steps out in this food lot, walks right to my little fake scrape tree, and I right away, see like nice time length and pulled the buyos and I look at him like, oh man, he's a nice three year old. It's a nice buck. Um. He starts working that scrape and doing his thing, and

I filmed in with my phone. I'm watching him. I'm thinking, man, well there's one. There's usually more at this time of the year, there's these bucks are usually still hanging out in groups for a little bit longer here. And as I'm filming that buck, I see another dear step out behind him and come walking towards and throwout the buyos. Look at him, and right away you can just see this is like a different kind of animal, like double the body size, you know, antlers just like clubs compared

to the spinley three year old. And just knew right away, well, that's that's the nine. That's that's this buck. I was calling g this eight pointer that I'd seen a bunch last year, had been passing him last year. At the end of the year last year, I was like, gosh, she's you know, after I had a tough season last year. I almost I was on the fence, but maybe trying to take a crack at him. At the end of last year, um, because he was the only other good

buck that was still showing with Junior last year. But now he's back this year and he's a big, big bodied, solid nine point buck. And he was one of those three deer that I said, if I saw him, I'm taking a crack. So he pops out, he walks to the mox grape, but he's behind branches and stuff. I can't get a shot at him. But I'm like, holy crap, this is actually happening. I'm actually seeing one of these

shooter bucks. Came out to the food plot and very happy and excited at the moment, and then the little buck, the three year old, turns and starts walking right to me. And this is not what these deer usually do. Usually they transition either, you know, working about yeah, basically they usually work away either side of me. And you know, all the doughs that night that had popped out on the food plot had worked through about thirty yards and crossed the fence row and went into the bean field

to the south. Sometimes they do this to the other side of me. But this buck instead comes on a trail, not trailing a b line, right to me and walking through cover like I've got like a bunch of basically had two shooting lanes to this food plot, and he chose to come walking through the thick cover right in between the two shooting lanes and is walking right at me. And I'm thinking, my gosh, this buck is gonna come

right to the base of my tree. He's gonna smell something, he's gonna wig out and spook out, and I'm never gonna get a shot. The big one behind him, and sure enough, I'm holding my belt and watching this happen and thinking to myself, there's just nothing I can do right now. This buck walks right to the bottom of my tree, and something's not quite right, and he he doesn't blow, but he bounces back to the plot. He takes like two big leaps back to the edge of

the plot and stops. Meanwhile, gee, the big one stops right in the edge of the plot and just starts looking around, like what's going on? What's going on? And fortunately they did they knew. The young one knew something was up, but didn't really know what it was because he went back to feeding. He starts feeding again, and the big one just stands there for like five minutes, doesn't move for five I'm standing there, hold in my bow.

He's staying there, just kind of looking around. But again, he's behind all this cover in between my two shooting lanes. I can see him and remember thinking like I'm sitting there and I'm watching him forever, and I'm thinking, oh my gosh, I've got the shooter within range. He's at twenty yards, but I can't shoot him. I remember thinking, is there any hole in this cover? Can I find a little openings or somewhere I could squeeze one in there? And then I just thought, dude, you do not You're

not gonna do this again. You're not going to force a shot like you did on Tran two years ago. You're not going to rush a shot like you did last year trying to get this other big eight point in Iowa that you really wanted. Like, you're not going to make all these mistakes. You're gonna wait until it's right. You're gonna slow, You're gonna follow your process, and if it works, you're gonna make it work right. If it's not,

you're just not gonna You're not gonna do it. You can't get an arrow back because I just kept on trying to tell myself to just just wait it out, do it right. Waited out, do it right. And finally he turns and starts slowly fee eating back towards the shooting lane. He gets right to the last set of branch that I need him to clear, and he's slowly taking a step, taking a step. I draw back because he's just about to step out from how the branches,

and then he stops again. I'm at full draw. And this is like exactly what happened to me last year on a dough. I got stuck at full draw for like two minutes and got all shaky and ended up hitting that dear a little low. So now I'm thinking about that again, like gosh that this can't happen again, Like should I draw down? Um? Can I stay a full draw? Unfortunately, as I'm thinking through like should I draw down or should I not, he takes one more step.

And this is where the next big thing happens, which is can I accomplish my goal of of good shooting, of like sticking to this new shooting process I have and doing it the right way? And and basically, um, I have this like set of like like um words, like phrases, that I say to myself every single time I shoot, to keep myself in control into like follow each step of the process to make sure I don't

rush and punch punch a trigar Russia shop. So as I draw the bow back, because I'm like mid draw, I say, no matter what, I'm gonna do this right, I get locked in. And then the next thing I say is I say, addressed the target. So when I say addressed the target, that means that pin goes right there behind the shoulder. And the next thing that happens I said, address the trigger, which means now I can put my finger on the trigger and lock in. And then I say, here we go. And then that's when

I can start pulling through. And I we'll give myself a b on how I did with this shop. Because I got through step one, I said, no matter what, I'm gonna do this right when I got drawn back, and I'm focusing on just staying in the moment, focus, take a slow. When he stepped out from behind the branches, I said to myself in my headset, addressed the target. I saw that pin go on there behind the shoulder. In the previous world of me, as soon as that

pin hits the deer, it's usually gone. The arrows on the way right then, but I was able to not do that. I got that pin behind the shoulder and I was able to then address the trigger. I got my finger on the trigger. But then before I said here we go, in my mind, I was pulling through. So I did the right process. I pulled through. I didn't use my finger at all. I pulled through. I went through the slow process all the way. But I did not say here we go. So in my you know,

I didn't do it perfectly. I'm a working progress still there. But I did pretty good with it. I made progress. It definitely forced me a slowdown more than I had done in the past, and all that led to the arrow getting right behind the shoulder. Double long shot. I watched that buck kick and run out of there like a bad out of hell, and I knew that was a dead buck. I knew I had just center punched a four and a half real Michigan deer after a really tough year last year. Um, and it felt absolutely

incredible and I was really, really really thrilled. That's awesome, man. Uh So that uh that shot process, right, you've been practicing and working on it. You called it a b but I I would look at it more binary than that. I mean, I think that's what you did is way more than what most people do, and way more I mean, for me, way more than what I do. You know, I still almost I don't want to say I live by it. I I slowed myself down a little bit, but it's better than grip it and rip it, you

know what I mean. So that that that's a win, dude, Yeah, definitely, I mean it was it was improvement. It was improvement, and so I'm glad for that. And it was a good, really good shot, and it was an improvement, and it was a thing that I had not done yet, right, I hadn't shot a deer before with that new process, and so it felt good too. I felt good to do it. And and now I'm I'm gonna go on dough patrol and just keep fine tuning and keep working until I get all the way through, you know, two

thousand percent in control. Um. But I've been working really hard. I mean I went and met with his coach in April, spent a day with him, and then since April, I've been doing this, you know, as close to every day as I possibly can. Um. I mean I've been shooting a ton just trying to make this like second nature. So um, to see that come together pretty darn close was was encouraging. Yeah, awesome, awesome, congratulations Mark, So thank you. The arrow goes through him. Did you know it was

a pass through right away? Yeah? I knew as it passed through. How far it was? The shot now yards yards? Okay, passed through. Did you see immediate blood? Uh? You know, I don't know if I saw immediate blood. I remember, I guess what I do. What I remember seeing is when he turned, when he spun to run back the way he came. I remember seeing something coming out the backside, and I remember wondering my head, was that the arrow still stuck in there? Or was that blood shooting out

the backside? Because I could have swore it was a pastor because it had to be a pass through where

it hit. But I remember like seeing something shooting out the backside, and it must have been blood because it was a pastor right where I hit him, So that must have been blood I was seeing coming out the back But um, you know, I waited like a half hour in the tree, made some phone calls, sent some texts, Uh, celebrate a little bit, and then got down checked the arrow saw that yes, it was a pass through right

where I thought looked the good blood. And then I backed out and went back to my house and was going to wait for some buddies to come out, but also my family, My boys wanted to come along for the track job, so I was gonna wait for them to come home from a Halloween camp out. And uh, and yeah, so do you want me to make a I can make the quick final final? Uh, here's what I here's what I. I have another question here? When

it so that all right? So when it so at this point you still I mean, you shot this buck. But in the back of your head, Michigan is a two buck state, right, so you have the possibility of I don't running into another one of these deer. Did I know your boys wanted to come out, you wanted to have the whole crew come out and and do the recovery. But did any part of you go, Hey, if I can get this deer out of here quietly and low like, as low pressure as possible, then I

might be able to get right back in here. And and hunt another one of these deer that's still on one of the on the same pattern. Good question. Um, but I have like a self impose one buck rule in this area, got you, So my thought is, you know, you get one, you leave the rest alone, so you've got something fun to hunt next year. So as soon as I shot that deer, the first thing I thought was man and juniors get a free pass. Um. So I'm not going to shoot one of those other deer

the rest of the year. I'm gonna hunt out here for dose and do that. Um. But the bucks will have a really nice little sanctuary. Um. And then next year, you know, hopefully we'll get to uh see these deer. Hopefully these deal will make it and we'll get to chase one of them then. But uh but no, I wasn't gonna I wasn't gonna worry about that. I wanted to fully celebrate and enjoy and just just have fun,

like I just leading into the season I had. Even though I even though I joked about, you know, going rain Man style and trying to figure out what to do and YadA, YadA, YadA, I had way lower levels of stress and worry and analysis by paralysis. This year than I've had in a long time, because I just I don't want to stay. I didn't care, but I wasn't I wasn't like living and dying and whether I was gonna kill Junior or one of these deers, Like, man, I'd love to get a crack of one this deer.

I really enjoy this fun like puzzle old chess game that you know starts now. And like my buddies were joking like, god, this looks miserable looking at my spreadsheets and my notes and you know, trying to think through these different patterns and stuff. But I was like, no, this is like the really fun part for me. I geek out about this. Um it's just like if I take it too serious and like get upset when things

don't work out, that I let it go bad. But this year I was like, you know what, who cares if I if it doesn't pan out. They just just get back to having fun with it, having a nice quiet night in the tree stand with like no other

you know. You know, I enjoy a lot of stuff with the filming and producing the shows and everything that there's it's a really cool thing and I'm glad I get to do that, but having nights like Saturday night where I've got no other people, no cameras, no talking points I need to cover, no story I need to like capture. I just get to hunt and enjoy what happens. Like that was really really nice and um so that was that was what was on my mind. I was

just enjoying it and like soaking it in. Yeah that's a And so talk to me a little bit of out the recovery, the recovery with the boys. What this year did after the shot that kind of stuff. Yeah, I mean the biggest thing that came out of it was there was a good blood trail, and you know, my family was close enough locally that um, you know, we could they could be a part of it. It wasn't so late. It wasn't you know, a situation where we had to travel really long ways. And the kids

were interested, like very excited. They both when they heard that shot a buck, they both really wanted to track. And my oldest Everett, he's like really really into it and so he's already helped me track three does we did two last year and one the year before, and like he's a pro, Like he can see blood blood better than I can. So he's actually an asset. So I knew, like if I shot a buck and it worked out with bedtimes and all, that would be awesome

if he could come. And then my youngest who's too for the first time, he was like he really wanted to come, so because of that that my wife had to come. So my wife, a two year old, and my four year old, we we all had it out there, and then my buddy Dustin showed up a little bit later to help, and uh, you know, the blood trail took us through some thick, nasty stuff, but maybe like

eighty ninety yards something like that. Uh you know, we found him piled up in the thick brush, and and Everett, my four year old, he was leading the way the whole time. There's blood, there's blood, there's blood. And so we spotted the buck up in the distance, you know, and let him discover it on his own, and uh, you know, just getting to see his excitement when we finally came up on it and trying to pick up

the antlers and like, oh man, this is heavy. Um, that whole thing was just just so so cool too to have everyone there and um, you know, just it was It was just great. It was everything I could have asked for. You know, I kind of had a hunch that this year, coming into the year focusing more and just getting back to basics and enjoying myself and enjoying the simple things and community and my local stuff

and all that. I kind of had a hunch, like, I bet you this is gonna be a good year when I'm just like less stress less, travel all all these things. And sure enough, you know, made a couple of good decisions, got a little lucky, and um you kind of need those two things to come together, and they usually come together a couple of times a year, and uh, if you're lucky, and this year it happened to be here at the beginning, and um man, it

was just great. It feels really really good to uh to get a bow a bow kill under my belt and um, you know, onward, onward, onward. So awesome. First off, congratulation. So I don't know what it's like to hunt like opener anymore. I I used to way back in the day, pre kids, but now with all the activities and things, I save all my you know, I put all my eggs in the basket for for the time with the uh you know, for the rut the late late October.

I am going to be going out this week though, but I'm a little jealous because I definitely wanna, uh someday get back into the opening day, even if it's just for the one evening. So kudos on that. Uh So you mentioned onward, What does onward look like? Now? Yeah, So, I mean a lot of my October schedule I had assumed was going to be hunting, you know, these deer here in southern Michigan. UM a lot of you know,

most of that's off the table. So there's a few other spots of Michigan that I can hunt that I will dabble with um throughout the coming weeks, but mostly I'm going to be shooting dos because this general, this pocket that I hunt has got a lot of doughs, and now that I've got a buck off of it, I can focus on just doing that, and I want

to keep working on that shop process. I think this is a great opportunity to just do some dough hunting, get more and more confident with this new shop process so that I'm you know, really really confident it with it. And then I got access to a property in Ohio just recently, and so I'm gonna start getting down there and I'm gonna I'm gonna save it because I'm going to try to uh, We're doing that one week in November show again this year, and so I want to

save that location for that show. Um. So I'm not gonna shoot anything down there in October, but I'm gonna go down for some scouting, Like We're gonna go down tomorrow and put some cameras up and just walk it for the first time, and then I'll probably show up again one time mid or laid October just for observation sits and more scouting and check cameras and stuff. Um. But I don't have a planned traveling hunt outside of just like some other Michigan stuff, going up to our

deer camp hopefully a couple of times. Um, nothing until Halloween, when I'm gonna drive to Nebraska and start filming that one week in November. And basically the idea is to hunt Nebraska until I kill something, hopefully, and then once I do, then drive back down to Ohio to finish things off, and then you know, the rest of the year. The only other travel I have is a Texas hunt. So much less travel this year, but still like some

fun stuff. Um and hopefully, you know, without as many of those traveling hunts, I'll just have more time to you know, take my son out or go hunt with my dad or um just do some of these local things or these family and friend things that I've I've not gotten to enjoy in a while. Um, but that are such an important part of like my hunting love. So that's, um, that's what I'm looking forward to. Um. Yeah, that's that's what's in store. Less less stress, more fun

this year. Less stress, more fun. And you know that's that's like one of the big takeaways for me, Like out of this opening day hunt and my season so far, there's a few things that I think I can learn

from this. But I just think that, you know, coming into the year with that attitude that like, that's not why I old this dear, right, but it's certainly I think set me up in a way that I was, um, you know, in the right headspace to allow this thing to happen, right, And so I came into the season more flexible with what I was willing to shoot, what I was interested in hunting. And so when I, you know, had my Plan A and Plan A. Didn't you know I wasn't gonna work out right. I wasn't dead set

on it. I wasn't stuck. I wasn't like, well, if this doesn't work, I'm screwed. So I'm done. No, I could fall back on a Plan B, and I had a Plan B in mind, and I had to Plan C in mind. And so I think my big lessons are takeaways from this stand or one, like it's so important to be flexible and like your decision making. And I think I think the key or something I'm trying to get better as to have like to have well

thought through decisions. So like when I'm deciding where I want to hunt or what i want to do, I want to have a really well thought through plan, but I want to be lightly held, So well thought through but lightly held. So I've got a great Plan A, and I really had a good thing going, I thought, But when the situation on the ground is different, or when something changes and it's not gonna work, you need to be willing to pivot fast. You need to be

flexible and adjust. And maybe an older version of me would have been like so dead set in the plan that I would have so well, I gotta try it anyways, But you know, being able to realize, okay, this this isn't gonna work, we need to adjust. That got me into position somewhere else where I could still have success.

That was one big thing Dan. A second big thing was just like this is just another good reminder for me, just like that first set magic, whether it be opening day or the first time into a new place, like I am, I am willing to I've been reminded this year after year, and this was a really good example, Like it's worth taking a swing when you have that first set opportunity, Like it's worth taking a risk, It's worth being aggressive when you have that fresh set, when

you have that unpressured, dear kind of thing, whether it's opening day or whether it's a place you haven't touched for three weeks, and you just know it's golden. Um. You know, I used to be a lot more conservative and I never would have done something like that. And with that brings me to my third thing, which is like, sometimes you have to sacrifice something to get something. When it comes to deer On, like you always have to make a choice. There's gonna be something you're gonna sacrifice.

Sometimes it's gonna be a small sacrifice, like okay, you know, Dear are gonna blow. If Dear come to the east of me, they're gonna win me. Or some days it's gonna be a big sacrifice, like I made a big sacrifice on Opening Night where I said, basically, I'm writing off the swamp, which is one of the big betting eras that I think my number one buck is likely using a lot, and like that was a that was

a huge risk. It was a big like sacrifice and I just knew, like all right, but because I was because I had a set of goals that allowed me to have some flexibility, I said, all right, I'm I know that the first set can be magic. I have to take a chance on this first set, first night opportunity. I have a chance to still get a nice buck that could be better to the north. So I'm gonna right off the south, take a big swing because I know there is this home run opportunity to the north.

And I think that six seven years ago I never would have touched that idea. But I you know, I've seen enough now to realize that you've got to give to get. So so those are my big takeaways I think from this hunt that I think could apply to the whole year, um in in different kind of ways. So, um, sometimes that aggressive and flexible approach is really the best way to go. Yeah, well, hey, your your season is

off to a good start. And uh that's uh, I don't know, man, that's uh, that's a good thing to have. I have yet to have a season where I just knocked one out of the you know, knocking off the list right away. I usually hit some kind of uh uh drought period where I'm just hunting and hunting and hunting and then and then it comes together. But uh, it sounds like you're on a roll already and hopefully the role continues through the to the season. Man. So

once again, congratulations, thanks man, I appreciate it. It's a it's a great feeling. I haven't last year I didn't shoot them mature buck, and then the year prior to that, I guess, I guess two years ago it was the last time I shot a decent buck on my boss. So it's been a little bit and uh it felt good to uh finally see it all come together. So thank you, my friend for coming on here to pick my brain on it and to celebrate with me a little bit. And um, I'm ready to have you on

here soon to tell your story. So get out there and let's let's have another one of these. And that is a rap. Thank you for listening, Thanks for going on this journey with me. Uh. As I've already said, it was a great kick off to the season, and I'm excited for how the rest of it goes. Now. I didn't get to do this at the beginning, so bear with me here. I gotta plug a few things. Number one, have you seen Dear Country yet? That's my new show. So we're on the Meat Eater YouTube channel

at this point five of the episodes. Five of the six episodes are out, so please head on over to the YouTube channel, check them out, subscribe to the channel. Like those videos, leave a comment and share some feedback. Would love to hear what you think. It was an interesting, challenging, uh growth inducing hunting season for me last year, but I'm really proud of the show we put together and the stories you told along the way made all those ups and downs worth it, I hope. So thank you,

thank you, thank you. Um Meatior season eleven. It's coming out October, and that season and the four seasons prior are being made available on the meat Eater website, so that's the meat eater dot com. And finally, next week is a great big white tail week for meat Eator. So I'm gonna leave it at that. But we've got some great deal, some good news, some new stuff all drop him next week. So stay une, check out this podcast, check out rough Fresh Radio, checkout Tony's Foundations episode. It

would be a new episode of Deer Country. There's gonna be all sorts of articles over on the Wired Hunt website. We are pumping out the Dear Ship for you. Excuse my French if you're underage your muffs. Otherwise we love to hear. It's dear season. It's the greatest time of year. I'm loving it. I hope you're loving it. And until next time, my friends, my family, stay Wired to Hunt.