Ep. 606: Real-World Late Season Tactics with Brennen Nading and Michael Mancl

are officially, unfortunately out of the month of November. Cue the sad boo hoo sounds or some kind of appropriate sound effect. Uh. Podcast editor Hayden, I'm no God, no God, please, no, no, no, no sweet novembers behind us. I hope, I hope it was sweet for you. I had one of those hit or miss kind of novembers. It started out amazing with a kill on November one, and then I had a big lull. Unfortunately for the rest of that next seven

to ten days. I saw some kind of younger age class bucks there in mid November, and then late November, I've actually gotten back into some action. UM have been having some very close calls with a buck I'm after. Now that's uh. A pretty cool story. I'm actually trying to get this buck killed with my son, which is wild.

It's kind of a unique situation where I thought I could get the job done from a blind so I brought my four year old son out with and uh, we've been trying to kill a mature buck and we actually have come very close. Um. I'll share that full story another time. Hopefully we'll get him killed here soon and we'll have a happy ending. But if not, it's it kind of has gone back to what I talked about all year, which is that I just want to have fun this year. And I realized that I I already

killed a nice buck in Michigan. I don't need to kill another one. Um, and this dear is one that he's super nice. Could he used another year? It would be cool to see him another year. But at the same time, he's mature and he's a great buck to kill here, and I could kill him with my son with me. It would be amazing and so and so I've leaned into that because that would be fun. And it's been fun doing it. I mean, it's been trying taking a four year old out trying to kill a

big deer. UM. I each time we've gone out, I thought, there's no way this is gonna work. There's no I'm gonna do this again. Ever, and then I go out and try it again. UM, so we'll see. That's That's kind of been my late November story. But I bring all that up to say that the season is still going, and I hope that you're feeling the way I'm feeling right now, which is as energized and excited as I've been heading into a December as as I have been in a number of years. Um. I'm not exactly sure

what to attribute that too. It has been a little bit less travel than past years, but I think it maybe is going back to that mindset shift that I've talked about in some of my previous episodes about goals. We've talked about it, you know when I killed my buck in Michigan, we talked about it. You know when

I killed my buck in Nebraska. Um, I'm trying to relieve some of the pressure of what I'm supposed to be doing and what other folks say we should be doing or killing or whatever, and just going back to hunting our own hunt, hunt my own hunt, do the things that make hunting fun again. And if you do that it actually believe it or not, keeps it fun and you want to keep doing more of it. And and that's been my takeaway this year so far, and I'm just wanting to push that, you know, right on

through the rest of the season. So I've got some Ohio hunting I'm gonna take off and do it. I've got some more stuff in Michigan, gonna be going to Texas here later in the month, and uh, I'm pumped for it. So all that's to say, UM, we've got some tips here today to help you make that kind of thing work out for yourself. We're talking to Michael Mansell and Brennan Nating. These guys are co hosts. They're

part of the team over on the Breaking Point TV. UM. This is a great series I followed over on YouTube. You can watch it and where I have different places, but their YouTube channels where I would be going to interact with their stuff. They've i think been doing this for ten seasons now and they put out some of the best videos out there, and they're doing a very very good job of getting deer on the ground. I mean, this year, I can't even tell you how many bucks,

their group is killed. Brennan and Mike have been doing this consistently, uh successfully, at a clip that you don't see from many people that aren't the big name owned, big land kind of guys. I think that's an important point with this conversation we have here today that separates I think, what they're doing from from a lot of folks. You know, UM, nothing against the TV guys who have the two thousand acre farms and fifty acre standing bean fields.

Like when they talk about how to kill there during the late season, it's it works, it's fun. I like watching it, and if I had that, I would be doing it. But then what about the rest of us who don't have that farm, who are hunting a forty acre piece or a seventy acre piece, who don't have hundreds of acres of sanctuary and standing corn or whatever it is. Um, how are you supposed to have late season success in that situation? Um? That's what we talked

about today with Mike and Brennan. Because they're young guys, you know, I think they're younger than me. Um, they don't own a whole bunch of lane end. I think they've had some little leases. I think they've had some permission. I think they've done public land, they've kind of done all that kind of piece it together, normal real world

stuff that most of us are doing. And they're still killing a lot of great deer, and they're still doing it during the late season, which is notoriously a tough time to get it done in those types of situations. So that's our episode today, talking to Mike talking to Brennan about real world tactics for hunting late season deer. We cover, you know, everything from how to relocate deer during the late season after they've been pushed all over the place. We talk about, you know, different exit and

access strategies. We talk about perfect setups of the late season. We talked about why they prefer ground blinds during the late season, talk about, uh, you talk about baiting and feed if that's legal in your area, that might be something that could help you. Um And I'm I'm personally, you know, looking at that kind of thing now in certain situations to try to figure out if that's something that might be help me in some weird situations in the late season. So we kind of cover it all.

It's an interesting one and these guys really do back up what they're saying with the results. If you're heading over to the YouTube, to their Instagram, to their Facebook, you're gonna see that these guys know how to get it done and they're worth listening to, so tune in. Michael and Brennan have a lot to share today. I hope you learned some stuff from them. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your hunting season because we've got a lot more of it.

Let's go have some fun and here we go with my chat with Michael and Brennan from the Breaking Point TV. Al Right, here we are. We've got Brennan Nating and Michael Mansell on the line. Gentlemen, thank you for making time to do this here during what's still a busy, busy season for you guys. Thank you, no problem. You glad to be on. I'm I'm glad we're doing this.

I've I've you know, been watching you guys build this thing for years and years and we've had you, you know, hopping on to ret Fresh Radio and different things over the years. But I've been wanting a big deep dive like this with the two of you, so I'm glad that we can do it, and uh, I want to do it now because the late season and you guys, you're filling tags all year round, but it seems like every year you've got good stuff happening in the late season,

and not everybody does that. There's a lot of folks who have like big fancy farms and they own thousands of acres with thousands of acres of food plots or whatever, and they kill lots of late season bucks, but you don't see like the the usual young guy d I Y kind of doing it the hard with those folks seem to have a harder time pulling off in the late season. But you guys, um, you guys are the exception to the rule. So first off, kudos to UH

to you guys for doing that. And secondly, congratulations also need to go to you Brennan, because you just killed a buck last night, right Kansas? Is that right? Yeah? Correct, I was fortunate enough to wrapped my tag on a good Kansas buck last night on the public plans. So as we speak at the very end of November, So would you say that you killed that buck on a like a late rut kind of pattern or was this like a late season movement thing already? What what would

you categorize that as? Uh, definitely late rut We were down there hunting for the past seven days and we were we were hunting down there pretty much like we would hunt the rut um you know, first second week in November in uh, Iowa or Illinois or Wisconsin. Um. I've always had my best luck down there. I see the most rutting action actually, like between the fifteenth and the thirtieth of November in Kansas. So we went down there like full blown rut mentality, took the decoy into

every spot, banging on the antlers and uh. And that's how we ended up killing that buck last night. Really he came into the radley yep, yep. He come out on a food source and uh, he was set checking does. And we had several deer come out on the food source. And there was a handful of bucks. Um actually three pretty nice ones, and they were they were more or less checking does and running around checking each other, walking each other off. And UM, I ended up rattling actually

a few different times. There was so much going on on the field that it was actually the third time I rattled at him, and he finally curiosity got the best of them, and he game a couple of hundred yards across the field and walked past that fifteen. Wow, that's awesome. So when when do you feel, Brennan, that it switches, typically for you, at least in your mind, from that late rut kind of hunt to a late

season hunt. Is there like a calendar date or are you kind of doing it based on which kind of state you're in, or when does that flip switched from you know, late rut to all right, this is late season officially? When's that happened for you? I would stay probably around the stem or fifth to the tent is when I kind of shift focus, like, uh in Iowa here next week. I I really see a lot of activity on my cameras and from hunting in the past.

Um usually somewhere around December one to the tent, there's a there's a second wave of that route, it seems like, and my cameras just they blow up for a few days and then once that's done, That's when I would say the kind of shift gears to late season. Yeah, what about you, Mike? I would agree with that. I would say, Um, you know, definitely in states like Iowa and Kansas, UM, states that I would say you don't

necessarily see as much hunting pressure. UM. That rut kind of lasts through the majority of November into the early part of December. UM. You know, back in the home state of Wisconsin, UH, where we're punting, pressure is quite a bit higher. I'm sure you notice that. Even in Michigan to Mark UM, it seems like the second gun season hits, you're runt, you're running activity significantly decreases, UM and it just seems to kind of fizzle out as

a as a gun season progresses. You do get a little bit of a second rout actually coming into early December, but it seems to peter out a lot more as to where, like you know, some of the other states, like like I said, Iowa and Kansas, you don't where you don't see as much, you know, hunting pressure. It seems like, just you know, from previous sits and and and on the cameras, those bigger boxs are moving throughout the entire month into early December. Yeah. Now, I heard

you say somewhere, Mike. I can't remember where it was, but I remember you saying that and maybe you were just saying this because it was in an episode, but I think it was one of your video episodes about late season. You said that it's late seasons your favorite time of year. I think you were talking specifically about going up to your camp up in North Dakota, UM

And I'm curious, is that is that true? Is the late season your favorite or is it just like you like going up to the North Dakota camp or what's your take on that. I would say, yeah, it's it's definitely. I mean, there's still nothing that beats the rut, but it's late season is one of my favorite times of the year just because kind of that time of the year where a lot of people pack it in. They think, you know, once November is over, the season is over, and they a lot of guys just don't want to

stick it out through the cold, cold weather. And and to be honest, I mean, if you have you know, the right spot with with food and cover, it can be the best time of the year to be hunting. Um And And I would just say another reason to just like with our cabin being in North Dakota and the success we've had in late season, and and we we have a pretty good sized group that goes out there that time of year. Um, it's a pretty good

camp camaraderie. So that's that's one of the reason it's too I look forward to it, um a lot of times every year. You know, it's not not just from the hunting aspect of it, but um, it's a lot a lot of that deer camp feel that you don't really see as much nowadays. I would say, yeah, yeah, I can definitely relate to that. Brennan, what's your take on the late season? Do you love it, hate it?

Somewhere between? I absolutely love the late season I consider most like Mike said, a lot of people, you know, if they don't get their deer filler tag in November, they kind of like, oh ship, better luck next year.

And and I look at over the years, I've definitely killed the majority of the deer I've shot have been in the late season and then but I feel like if you kind of put yourself in the position early on in the year, whether it's food plots, are just planning and all that that can go into it, Like I feel like late season is by far, you know, the best opportunity to kill a good buck just because yeah, you can killing in during the rut, but I feel

like there's a lot of luck involved. Um, you still put yourself in the right position, but you're at the mercy of the ruck. I mean deer can they can you know, travel so far and and cover so much drowned Like It's just I feel like there's a lot more strategy that goes into late season much like early season on. Yeah, just to add on to that too, I would say, just in the last ten years of doing the show, Yeah, I would bet I would venture to say, of the deer that we kill on video

are from not like now until the middle of January. Well, so, so you kind of you both gave me a little bit of like why, Like you told me why you like it. But if we had to say, like, what are the top two reasons that the late season is so good? I mean, is it is it just because of the predictability, do you guys think or is it the food thing? I mean, Mike, why would you why would you say you guys have so much success at this time of year. I think I would say a

combination of the predictability and the food. I mean, if you have if you have the food source in the cold weather like this time of the year. The deer are just slaves to their stomach I mean they're trying to replenish a lot of that the reserves that they lost, you know, during during the rut um, and they're just more susceptible to slip up, especially your mature dear. Um. I would say even more now than than in the November months. If you if you can have the right setups. Yeah, um,

would you add anything to that? Brinan no I I he really literally stole the words out of my mouth. Dere Or Stummach year Mark Jury talked about it all the time, and it's just there's you know, after they come out of the rut, I feel like you can get cold weather and you have a food star. There's no better or time for a mature deer to slip up and make a mistake. Yeah. Now, okay, so they're predictable,

their slaves to their stomachs. Uh, they gotta you know, they can be concentrated in certain places, right because where you find that security cover and that food, like they're all going to get there. You know, early season there might be deer everywhere. Late season, they're more concentrated in

certain places, So all those things are good. On the flip side, you know, I guess I'll throw a couple possible downsides, and you guys could either agree with me or disagree with me on this, But I would say, you know, the late season, these deer have been pressured to tons, so they might be super spooky. Uh, We've got fewer deer because a bunch of deer have been killed in the early season and during the rut um.

And then if you don't have that unpressured pocket or that amazing food, you might be completely out of the game. And am I right on those things or am I overblowing those possible down I think you're spot on on all of that. I mean, it's when we do our late season hunting, we're we're pretty much targeting states that don't see that pressure that makes it difficult. Um, you know I'm not I'm not hunting in Wisconsin late season, for example. UM, I'm going to a state that's you know,

it doesn't see near the deer hunting pressure. Um, I'm going to areas where I know that deer aren't you know, still scared from the gun season. So I think that's got a big part of it. Not to say that you can't successfully go to Wisconsin or Michigan and have a late season a good late season hunt, but we kind of try to stack our odds and go to states where we know the hunting pressure hasn't had that kind of toll on the deer. Yeah, what do they mean? Yeah?

One thing I would say to Mark though, is you do you mentioned that? Um, you know a lot of your a lot of your deer you know, may already been harvested. Um, you know prior to prior to that time, the eight season months. Um. You know. It's one thing that we've noticed though with late season, given the right you know, location, food, source cover, because you can draw a deer from that you've never even seen on cameras before. Um.

We see it all the time in North Dakota. I've seen it last year on my lease in Iowa, where I would go all year with without certain bucks on camera, and then all of a sudden end in December, random buck shows up out of nowhere that I've never even seen on camera or I had encounters with before. And it's just that drawing power of you know, the limited pressure and the food on top of it, that can get really those deer moving from miles away onto the

properties you haunted if you haven't set up right. So I feel like there's like two two general camps that folks might fall into when it comes to this time of year. There's there's folks that have some control over the habitat maybe who can like set up a place or prepare a place to be great for the late season.

And then there's folks who don't have that ability and they're just hunting whatever permission ground they have or whatever public land they have access to or something like that, so they have to try to find that or just hope there to have that. UM. I'm kind of curious about your take on both of those, But let's start first with like the prep because it sounds like maybe you guys have been able to do some of that kind of stuff, whether it be on the lease, um

or otherwise. So what have you found in a place that you do have some kind of preseason influence on the property. What have you found has been the most important to set you up for late season success? Um? And maybe we can even talk about what we've done in North Dakota with with you know, putting food out and stuff like that. I mean across the board in a place where you have influence, where you can control stuff.

Let's start there. What kind of things can you do to set yourself up for late season when it arrives brendan Um, I mean if you've got control over the property um, which I personally do not on a lot of the stuff I hunt um in Hiaway hunt permissioned pieces and uh, I don't have the ability to plant food. If I could, I would, and I would plan a

lot of it. But like Iowa this year, I'm gonna I'm gonna actually hunt the first shotgun season just because I'm hoping to get lucky during that second wave of the rut. But if I had access to plant food, I would definitely be planting corn, soy beans, any kind of cereal grain um to to pretty much just for the late season. I would even I wouldn't even necessarily care about it during October November even think about hunting it.

I would just stay out of those areas and let the deer get comfortable, because I know when the weather hits, you know, in late December early January. All takes is one cold front and as old storm and you're probably gonna get the biggest deer on the farm and step out in the daylight. Um. You got other states like uh, you know, we hunt in North Dakota and uh, I'll actually be going down with erin to Oklahoma. He's got a body down in Oklahoma that he hunts with. And uh.

In states where it's legal to feed, by all means we're feeding. And uh, I feel like the most important part of that is getting feet on the ground before the bad weather moves in because in those areas, dear do yard up into large groups and it's important that you get food on the ground so they can locate it before the snow gets deep and the weather gets nasty, because otherwise you might not have any chance to draw on them. Mhm. Interesting. I've got a lot more questions

about that. But first, uh, Mike, anything you would add on non kind of baiting prep that you might do, or you know, plantings that you've ever tried in the pass um Well, I mean really it's a lot of what Brennan said, Um with last year at a last

and Iowa. So I was able to actually pay a local farmer um to leave some of the corn, which allowed me to once they harvested the corn, to put in a tower stand kind of overlooking that and and one of the things I did then is actually run down a lot of it so I was able to shoot with the muzzleloader. Things like that. UM, I would say, just nonfood related and Brennan kind of hit on it

a little bit in that conversation there. But UM, really following the weather, UM, late season, I think it's more crucial to be honest than any other time of the year. You gotta really the deer don't tolerate much late seasons. You've got to be selective on when you make your move. Um, you can kill the biggest buck on the farm first, second sit if if you make the move when you

need to. I think a lot of people the great reason they don't want to have success in the late season months as they get impatient and they want to go all in the first sit. UM. But if you can, if you can see a cold front ten to fourteen days out where there's even greater temperature drop, UM, it can greatly stack the odds in your favor. So I think I think one one tip you know to not related to the food side. But it's just just to just really be patient for when the weather is when

you need it. Yeah, don't burn the spot out before

before the late season ends. And I think that kind of brings to mind another thing you can do if you and this is something I kind of do in some of my spots where I know that, um, there's tons of hunting pressure during guns season, and I know that that pressure does subside though, usually in the late season, so I kind of try to leave some of these spots alone during that mid season, you know, mid the late November, and I let that be sort of sanctuary

because I know I'll come back in the late season. And even though I can't control when the corn gets cut, when the beans get cut, I can't control the food. And that kind of way, I can control when it's

a safe sanctuary. And if you can provide that safe sanctuary for a while leading into the late season and then keep it a sanctuary in the late season and then just make those couple well timed hunts, you might not be able to have twenty acres of food out there, but you can be that one place that hasn't been you know, hunted to death, and that can push in deer. Um. So that is one thing you can do when you

don't have tons of control. It's just your like you said, your pressure, be careful and sometimes stack, let a property stack up and then hunt it after you stacked a full of deer, you know what I mean? Yeah? Yeah, And I would just to add, just to add on that, I would say, you know, if if you have limited control, um is is limiting um that pressure on your exit

entrance and exit route as well. Um. Because one of the biggest problems when you get a lot of deer in the mix is being able to get out at night without blowing the whole field up. On a food source, um, you can really ruin a spot very fast. So if you can set up your blind in a in a situation where you have some sort of rise or some sort of food source blocking like like on my on my least last year, I I kind of set it

up where the corn. I used a little bit of the corn as a screening UM, so I could get in and out of the spot without blowing the whole field up. Um. If you can make your late season spot, the hunt quality lasts a lot longer. Also, Yeah, yeah, for sure, UM, I want to go back to something

Brannan brought up. You mentioned, uh, the corn thing, and you said that one thing that's important is to is to start putting out feed, you know, before the late season really gets late, um, when they really needed because you got to find it. Um. I have never used feed corn really much at all. UM. Ste of way way back when I was like a kid, my family

put it out. Um. But I found myself recently in situation in Ohio where like there's just no deer around and it seems like everybody else is putting out bait and I can't get anything on cameras in my places, and nothing seems to be hitting the harvested crop fields on these properties have access to. It's just a ghost town. And I'm wondering, like, man, there's two months of the season left and I've got no food that these deer

interested in. Um. Maybe I could change my fate if I did start putting something out and try that for once and see if maybe that could give me a chance at something here in the late season. Um, but

I don't know what I'm doing. UM. What would you say, Brennan for like a strategic use of corn or feared or whatever it is, if it's legal in your state, Like, what's the smart way to do something like that, to kill a deer in the late season, Because the temptation, like what we did when I was a little kid, is I take a five yell and bug with apples and corn and we walk it out, we dump it in a pile, and I'd sit thirty yards away from it.

I'm assuming that's not what you'd recommend I do. Um, if I'm trying to if I'm trying to get bucks to be in my area to get him intour of them again maybe in the late season, and to actually have a chance of killing something at this time of year when I don't have a great food source, naturally, walk me through like a strategic way to do something

like that. I mean, the best advice I could give is, uh, you want to get the food close enough to their bedroom that they are comfortable getting out of bed and coming to hit it before dark. But you also want to put it in the place you know where you can. You want to essentially put the deer where you want

the deer. So do you want to make sure you can hunt it on a couple of different wind options and and Mike, Like Mike mentioned, entrance to negative is everything because if you if you're hunting over a corn pile or standing beam field or any kind of food source, I mean, you're at the liberty of potentially having twenty plus deer in front of you at dark. And if your target buck don't happen to be one of those

twenty deer, he's not too far away. More than likely when you blow that field up at dark or blow that you know that bait up at dark. So I guess the the thing I would recommend is putting it close enough to the food source that he's comfortable coming out and hitting it before dark, but also putting it in an area where you can still get it in out of there clean. And uh, I would. I would rely heavily on trail camera as far as telling you

when to go. You know, if that buck is coming in hour or two hours after dark, I wouldn't necessarily say, well, I'm just gonna go in there and hope he comes in there. I'm gonna wait for that deer to daylight, and I'm gonna be there the next night. Now, are you typically hunting like within shooting range of that bait or do you trust set up the spout where they're gonna treit? You are, okay? Yeah, no, if we're if we're bow hunting um near bait, we're within twenty to

thirty yards of it for sure. Okay, Um, is there any I mean anything as far as like how they usually approach a feed like that? Do they ever circle down wind to come into it like they might with a scrape or something, or that's heading straight to the easiest path, just like they're coming to a fee or a field or something. It kind of depends. Like North Dakota, if the snow gets deep, they're gonna stick to their main travel like their trails. They're gonna have set trails

if the snow is real deep. But a lot of times those mature bucks are still gonna circle down wind of it. So we try to set them up in a way where they can still circle down wind of it, and we're cheating the wind just enough that we can get away with it. Yeah. Yeah, just so they think they have it in their favor. We've almost got the blind set up parallel to if they do circle, they think they still have the wind in their favor. But

we're just outside of that cone. Okay, One thing we will do to uh, like well, for North Dakota for example. I'm sure you've noticed, Mark, we're just watching some of our stuff, is we only hunt on the ground late season. Um. And that that primarily is just because of the conditions out there, just too miserable to be in a in a tree stand that time of year. Um. You know, when you're in a blind, you can be ten to fifteen degrees warmer. It makes it a little bit more

enjoyable of a sit. You could have a heater if it gets really cold. Um. But a lot of times, you know, because you could when it's when it's cold, it seems like your your sound is always amplified. Um. We'll place those baits out, you know, even a touch further than we normally would like to yards um in that range. Um, just because when you get like that, many deer in a in a nearby area and they're circling and there's just a lot of stuff going on. I mean, it only takes one to ruin the party.

So sometimes bumping it out a little bit, um, I mean it can help you play your wind a little bit better too. Um. But but also um, just so you don't alert as many deer. Yeah, Now what about actually putting the feed out? Um? Are you how frequently do you do that? Are you worried about spooking deer when you do that? Do you have a certain time that you're you know, a certain amount of time between refills? Um?

Is it better just dump stuff on the ground versus used like a feeder that will kind of slow deploy stuff. What about that? It kind of depends on where you're at, Like North Dakota, we feed all on the ground. Um, where Aaron hunts in Oklahama, but we're that guy's running time feeders, So it's a it's a little bit different depending on where you're at. Um. We try not to

go into spots outside of mid day. Um. We don't want to bump deer, you know, going in there in the morning to feed them, and we don't want to bump them in the afternoon. We kind of want them to know that, you know, we come in there during the middle of the day, we're putting new feet on the ground for him and kind of let them feel safe during those morning hours and evening hours or potentially

going to be hunting them. Okay, and what uh what kind of uh you know, frequency do you feel like you typically need to reapply to to keep that pattern going. Is it like a once a week thing or what? UM I would say to kind of depends on the stage. Sorry, go ahead, brand, Yeah, I mean are when the baits

are running dry is when we feed them. So, I mean it used to be before cell cameras we just go you know, every week or every two weeks, but now we just keep an eye on the cell cameras and if if the food's gone, we go in there and feed them. Yeah, Mike, I would agree percent with that.

But also, you know, it depends on the state you're hunting to, uh and the regular as they have for you know, the quantity you can have about UM, I would say a lot of the states we hunt right now, there's really not an you know, set regulation on how much food you can put out, but um, some states there is you know, certain limits as far as how much you can put on the ground at one time. Yeah. Yeah, definitely gonna be checking those before do anything there. UM. Okay,

that's helpful. What about um? You know, kind of along these lines, when I'm thinking about putting up bait or something like that, and you mentioned it Brandon with cell cameras and stuff. I'm thinking for a lot of folks, the late season is kind of like a reset period and for some people you kind of need to relocate deer. Uh, because a lot of deer go and do funky things

in November. I've certainly have had a lot of years where my target bucks disappear for large parts of November and then like December three, December nine, somewhere in that ballpark, Bam, here here they are, They're back. Or I found myself another year is where I don't have a good one and I'm like, Okay, I gotta figure something out here for the late season, and I'm like searching on other properties again and hoping to find something, shifting things around,

moving cameras around, different stuff like that. Um, Mike, what do you do or what are the the ideas you've used in the past when you're just trying to find late season deer and and trying to figure out like where are they? Where's my opportunity? Um? What's that like locating and scouting look like once you get into December or January? For you? UM, I would say, I mean we kind of already hit home on it a little bit, but you know, trying to find the thickest cover possible

and anything that has a you know, nearby food source. Um. You know. The one reason I think late season, you know, is at the time here that we get excited about you know, so much. Like you said, it's kind of a reset. Um, we all will get dear, you know, that will show up that we had pictures of early season in velvet and they might have disappeared for four months and shifted off somewhere, and then all of a

sudden they just show right back up. So that that's one another reason too why I think we enjoy hunting it so much is because you you just don't know, um what you're gonna be getting yourself into. It's it's like a whole new time of the year for hunting. Really, Um, I would say, as far as you know, trying to locate, um, trying to locate dear this time of year, I mean, the biggest thing is the biggest thing for us too,

is just trying to see where they're yarding. Um, if snow is on the ground, Uh, you can kind of hopefully, you know, it helps you a little bit with with pinpointing where deer are UM. I don't know, Brendan, you've got anything else to add to that. I feel like I'm missing something. North Dakota for example, which I know we keep talking about North Dakota, but that's one of our favorite UM places hunt, especially during the late season.

Is I mean, we drive miles and miles and miles around in them and just trying to find deer, and if if there's snow on the ground, it definitely helps to locate them because you can see the sign and see trails, especially if you're driving around on a sunny day. Everything's kind of magnified when you're driving around, those trails just shine. But really it's it's locating where the hurds are at because in late season, especially where the weather

gets really nasty, they yard up. And if you're you know, trying to hunt an area where there's no I mean, there's there's certain spots up there that might hold two deer one winter, and if the food source switches there might there might not be a single deer within three miles of it the following winter. So it kind of

changes every year with crop rotation and everything else. So the thing that we're looking for is just trying to find those pock It's a deer might not necessarily be a herd of two hundred, but if you find you know, ten, fifteen, twenty deer that are living in this block, you know there's a pretty decent chance that there's you know, at least one solid buck in the group. So we try to find those groups and we try to put our

foods are you know, right on top of them? And you're saying that you're putting in some random spot and hope you get lucky. Yeah, So you're finding them though by just driving around and glass and fields? Is that what you're doing? Driving around? Especially in North Dakota where it's such wide open country. Yet we're we're putting a lot of miles on the vehicle for sure. Now, what about late season trail camera use? Um? Is it a

dent putting on those bait piles or uh? Do you have any other kind of locations that work well for putting cameras out and finding these deer? I guess also for states that don't allow baiting, what do you do in that kind of situation? Brennan Um, I'm pretty much if it's a bait legal state, we're putting cameras right on the food. If it's you know, where you can't put feed down. I'm moving all my cameras to uh, you know, to an eggs field and pretty much fence

crossing heading, you know, heading towards a food source. UM. And I just I'll take twenty cameras and pull them off scrapes and I'll this litter them around the outside edge of the field, just so I have a good

idea what's coming to it. Uh, Mike, anything different, I would agree with all that, you know, I just like Brennan kind of said on in states where you can't bait, I would pull a lot of my interior cameras out to the exterior of the property any any sort of transition to a food source, I would have just about every trail covered going out to any sort of major egg field, UM, to just kind of get that inventory as far as you know what they're utilizing in and

where they're accessing it. Yeah, all right, So we're lasting fields, were checking snow for tracks and trails. We're running cameras on the best food source, whether that's placed there by you or if it's you know, whatever's are there naturally with agg um, that's gonna help you fair out where this deer are. Now, I guess I want to dive

into how you actually are setting up on him. So we've we've talked a little bit about this, and Mike you mentioned that you're almost always doing ground blinds, at least in those North Dakota setups. Um, but walk me through. Um, you know, Brendan, maybe start me out here. Can you walk me through your ideal set up for a late season hunt if you're if you can kind of lay

out from me. Okay, we've got like this kind of food source, and then how that might relate to a betting area, and then how you position yourself in there. Are you do you always like to be right on the food? Do you sometimes prefer to be off it? Uh? Give me some details and like, paint me this picture of the perfect late season set up, how you would set it all up. So I guess the perfect eight

seasons set up for me would be. You know, if I'm bow hunting, it would probably be set up for a northwest wind, because when you get those major cold fronts, that's generally what what wind you're getting is the north northwest. So I would you know, if I had to set up one late season spot, I would set it up for a north northwest wind. Um. But that being said, we try to set up spots for literally every wind direction.

That way, you know, if you get a week of south winds, you're not You're not screwed and sitting there scratching your head saying, ship, we can't hunt any of these spots. So we try to set up, you know, try to evenly spread everything out. Have you know, multiple north wind spots, south wind spots, west wind east and uh. But if I had to set up one spot for late season, I would have my blind or stand or whatever I'm hunting out of I would have it set

up for a northwest wind. And I mean accesses is everything. Being able to get in and out of there without spooky deer you know, is number one. But I would set up for a northwest wind. Okay, so northwest wind in this spot where you can get off that food source. Um. Yeah, Can I give me a little more detail there as far as like how you might position yourself one thing, like when you're hunting food sources, A lot of questions, you know, folks have is like how you're setting up

with the wind direction? So do you want the wind, you know, going parallel to the edge of that field? Do you want or the or the bait pile or whatever it is. Do you want the wind going straight from the bedding out into the field and you're trying to kill him before they get down? When do you in the field cutting the corner with the wind? Like? What about that kind of stuff? I pretty much want the wind in my face from the time I leave

my vehicle or wherever I'm coming from. I pretty much want the wind in my face from the time I leave the vehicle until the time I'm leaving. Um. I don't want my wind ever to flow into any sort of cover where deer could potentially be betting. I think a lot of people kind of throw that out the window. They think about what the wind is once they're in their stand or in their blind, but they don't necessarily pay attention to where their wind is blowing when they're accessing.

And I think that's what a lot where a lot of people make mistakes. You can do a lot of damage walking across the property to get to a stand if you're winds blowing in to cover the whole way to get there. UM. So I I try to set my spots up and like I got a cage blind in Iowa, which is kind of a perfect example. I have the landowner actually is gracious enough to stack round bales around the base of the tower that way deer can't see me climb in and out of the tower.

And just small little attention to details like that of getting in and out, Like if I didn't have those bails covering me. Uh, there's a very good chance every time I climb out of that tower, dark fear are gonna bust me. And you know, every time the deer bust you, you're less likely to get a mature gear

step out in that area during daylight. What about you, Mike, I would say, Um, also just using train features, UM, if you have you know, if you're hunting an area that on a food source that has some sort of rise to it, or terrorists, things like that. UM, using using that in your favor to have as a you know, an exit strategy can be huge. UM. Brennan hit it on the nail, right on the head when he was talking about you know, entering and always having that wind

in your face. I mean that rule would apply, you know, not just to late season, but any sort of time of the year. Um. I mean, if you can ideally access your property with with the wind never blowing to the sides of you or in front of you at any time, you're gonna you're gonna maximize the amount of amount of cover that that you're indirection hasn't blown into, and you're not alarming you know, should not. You shouldn't alarm you know, any deer at that point, then, um,

can you can you paint me a picture? Can you tell me about what you're like? Perfect late seasons set up would be as far as like, all right, this is where the food source would be, this is how I placed my blind This is how far away it would be from X thing. Um, what would that look like for you if if you could just sit down and blueprint out exactly what you wanted for this kind of time of year. Mm hmmm. I would say it's

very very similar to how how Brennan had his set up. Um, I I really like my my Lisa had last year and Iowa I would say it was one of the more perfect setups I had for for late season. Um. Ever, um, just to kind of like paint a picture for you that the deer we're primarily betting to the west northwest of where I was located on the food source um, and they had to come across the CRP field to get to the food source. And and I had my stand positioned on be on the south side of the

corn um. And I actually left probably sixteen rows of standing corn in between me and the deer. This was for for muzzloaders set up, not for archery. Um. And then there's fingers that ran through through the draws. North would be north and then and one to the northeast from my stand, and I was able to knock down

corn in the center of them. So it allowed me to basically get in and out of the stand uh without the deer even really seeing my presence um when they would get into the corn and they'd be feeding inside the corn um. So generally, generally speaking, if everything worked out right, I could get in and out with deer in the field. So what ended up happening there, um I shot uh buck the second night of the of my sit. Didn't take too long at all, did

they did? They follow the script just like you thought they would. Yeah, they did exactly exactly what I thought they would. I actually ran um where they come out of the trust to the CRP grass. They had to jump a fence, and where they were jumping the fence is where I actually ran the corn down into the cornfield. So all the dear pretty much single file, came right through that gap. Um. Yeah, it worked out absolutely perfect. Had the ideal you know, northwest wind that night it

was you know, ten to fifteen blow zero. I mean, you couldn't have asked for better conditions for for late muzzloter hunting in Iowa. Yeah. That was that a tree stand or blind. I was on out of cage blind. Um so an elevated ground blind. Um. Let's talk a little bit about ground blinds. And you mentioned that you use that a lot in North Dakota. I know a lot of folks use these during the late season. UM. Now, I know your example right, there was an elevator one.

But when you're on the ground, there definitely are some things that are different as far as what you can get away with and what you can't, especially in the late season. I feel like in the late season the deer are on edge even more than usual. It seems like sound carries even further in the late season. Um, it just seems like there's so much that can go wrong and then like just getting drawn back. Everything's creaking

and popping and just all these different things. Is there anything you've learned over the years, Mike, as far as little tricks for making you know things work better in a ground blind or or anything you've learned over the years to help make sure that you know you're more effective in those situations and don't get busted during the late season. Yeah, I would say just starting from the setup.

The first thing that we do when we go into a ground blind set up for late season, and we will remove any sort of debris that's in that area where gonna be putting the blind, so there's no typically there's no grass, no leaves, anything like that. Once you pop pop the blind up and get it situated. UM. Just another little trick we do when we're set up in the blind is we'll actually bring like either a mat or something like a like a thermi seed, um, and instead of putting it on your on your butt,

put it right on the floor. Um. It can service two purposes that can minimize your noise when you're shifting your feet around, but also just having that little bit of insulation will make a huge difference when it's really cold with keeping your feet warmer. UM. Another thing that we'll do in the ground blind is pretty much from the waist up, I'll we're all black, um, just to try and keep everything dark in the blind as possible,

as much as possible, UM, And I try. I prefer to wear like uh footed sweatshirt, like try and layer under beneath that. UM. Just from what we've noticed in the past, you know, any sort of put in material is a lot quieter compared to trying to wear like a you know, a big bulky winter jacket. UM. So when it comes time to drawing and that you're making

the least amount of no as possible. UM. Another thing to add on to that, I would say is we try to always bring in like a ground blind bow holder, whether it's one that you can put in the top hub of the blind or on the ground, because when it gets to be ten in some cases north to North Dakota, you know ten, blow it up to fifty below. It's you can't hang onto a bowl that long. Your hands will freeze right off. UM. So, but you gotta be ready because it because it can literally happen when

you're on the ground any second. So just having where it's just um right, you know, right next to you in your hand, where something happens, you can make that quick move and make a shot. UM. Just being able to always be ready is key when it gets cold, it's a great it's a great point. Now, with these ground blinds that you're sending up for those Dakota hunts, how far ahead of time do you feel like you need to get a blind set up in a place

so that it's not spooking deer? Like are you are you putting these blinds out way early in the season they stay out all year, or do you find yourself like scouting late season, locating the deer and then putting the blinds right and then and there. I would say that when we we don't really leave blinds out at all North Dakota year round. We and we go to set of stuff late season, we pop them up and out there. It seems like the deer it doesn't take

that long for them to get used to them. Um. I would I would say most actually, a lot of the states that we hunt, UM, that are you know, lower pressure states. I feel like you could pop a blind up and within you know, a few days, you could get away with hunting out of it um. But some of your higher pressure states, I would definitely be popping on blind up, you know, a few weeks before I would even be considering, you know, hopping in into

hunt it um. It just seems it's you know, some of those higher pressure states, it takes a lot longer for those deer to really get accustomed to it um and and it seems like if you can brush it into that can kind of help them as well, get a little bit more so they're not as skittish to it. Uh. Brennan, What's what about your take on both ground blinds set up and then also a little tips or any little tricks you found over the years to be more effective

when you're actually in their hunting. From anything that you'd add what Mike brought up on those two points, I think a spot on you know, as far as uh location. You know, in in some states it takes deer maybe a day or two to get used to a ground blind and you know, be comfortable moving in front of them, and other states that could take through three weeks for a deer to get comfortable to you know, feed in

front of them. But one of the things that I kind of key in on hunting out of ground blinds is keeping as much as many of the windows closed as possible. I feel like a lot of people set up ground blinds and they feel like they need to see all the way around them, so they got windows

open on every side. I will literally have my window open where I send a shoot and everything else will be pitch black, like I if it if it wasn't for filming, I would probably have about a six by six inch window that would I would leave open on a blind just to shoot out of. But with us filming, we leave a little bit more open. But I think the key is to keep as much closed as possible. Um. I think it helps a little bit with scent does definitely doesn't you know, take care of your sending like

a redneck would. But I feel like keeping as much of it closed as possible definitely helps. And uh, you know, obviously the more you have closed up, the less likely are you to get picked off by dear Yeah, one little we've done over the uh, go ahead, Mike, I don't say one little thing that we've done over there is we're big believers in using those jammer. Um is when we would put blinds, if we'd actually spray it, spray the blinds with those jammer because that's what we're

using when we're hunting. I'm just getting them dear accustomed to that smell. Um. I feel like it gives us a little bit more of an advantage. Yeah, yeah, I found that helps too. Sure what were you saying before that, Brian, Um, it's just uh kind of going back to what Mike said about cleaning out the the floor of the blind,

like when we sat the blind. Um, Well, you know, if it's in a grassy are are, let's say there's already snow on the ground when we set up blind up, We'll go through there and kick that ground completely clean

all the way down to the dirt. That way, you're not making any any kind of noise when you're shuffling your feet around or moving around in there, because once the ground freezes, if you have leaves or grass or anything in there, or even snow that would freeze, I mean, that's extremely noisy to unless you have like a dirt floor in the blind that you can you can save yourself a lot of noise? Do you guys ever use ozonics?

Machines used to UM until nose jammer came out, and we have no we have no affiliation with nose jammer, but we we use it like it's going out of style. So so you feel like that negates the need for something ozonics because because especially with ground blinds, UM, I'm always you know, trying to figure out the right way to use something like that and those kinds of setups. UM, it seems like you guys get away when those jammer and that's about all you need. I mean, I've got

a lot of faith to know the jammer. Not to say we don't get busted by deer, because we still do, but I feel like we've got away with a lot of stuff that we want to without nose jammer, if that makes any sense. But we we've had very good luck too with those onics. Yeah, Wisconsin, with the nosonics, I feel like it played a huge part. Yeah, And I would say though you know, it was one of the reasons that I feel like we kind of quit using.

It wasn't necessarily like we weren't believers in the product. It was just when we're hunting and filming, you're carrying so much stuff already to begin with. It's just another thing, Carrie. Yeah, yeah, and when you can, when when we can just have a little spray, bottle of nose jammer or something that's a little more compact. Um. I don't know. So it's just one less item that you gotta have on your pack. Yeah. You know one thing I found myself doing this year too.

I used both. I use nose jam r and ozonics most hunts, um. But for whatever reason, I just have gotten sick of the sound of the ozonics. Like the fan up above you, and I just I turned off a few times and I'd be like, oh my gosh, I can hear so much more, Like I would have no idea there's a dearly fifty yards away. I couldn't hear it at all. And I turned that dang thing off and like bam, oh yeah there's a deer. Um. You forget what that would sound like without that fan

whirring over top of your head. Sometimes. Yeah, yeah, that smell, that ozone smell kind of makes me nauseous to it if I've got it running for too long. I that's something about that smell kind of bothers me after a while too. It's definitely um for me. It's become like an association with huntings, like if I smell a whiff of ozone like in its place outside of like a hunting context of like oh, hunting season, but it does have a noticeable of roma to it. Um. But but

back to like stuff during the hunt, um. I mean, we were just talking about some of your send control practices during the hunt, talked about some of the things you're setting up within your ground blines for these hunts, um. And that brings us back to I think like one of the overarching themes of late season, which is deer or really spooky. So they're gonna be easier to spook with your wind, They're gonna be easier to spook with

a sound or movement in the tree or in the blind. Um. You just have to really be on your A game. I feel like during the late season there's there's almost zero room for error. It's kind of the exact opposite of the rut. If if the rut gives you the most opportunity to get away with a few mistakes here

and there, the late season is is the exact opposite. Um. So this brings to mind another question to have, which is another one of these kind of aggressive place that you might use a little bit during the early season. You know, use probably a lot in some places during the rut, But what about during the late season. The question is calling? Will you ever use any kind of calling techniques once we get into this late season, you

gotta buck this just out of range. Doesn't look like he's gonna come into the food, but he's kind of in your zone. Do you ever bust out the grunt tube or or something else, Brennan at this time of year, I personally don't. I mean, I shouldn't say that we rattled one in last night, but I I said, I don't consider it late season yet where we were hunting,

and like next week in uh or this weekend in Iowa. UM, I mean, I'm I'm still treating it like the rut, so I'll probably do some calling, but like once I'm kind of shifted to late season on over a foot stores, I personally don't even take the calls with me anymore. And why is that? Um? Because i feel like I'm hunting an area where I feel like if these deer are unpressured, and they don't know that I'm hunting them. They're gonna to come in there the next night too.

So if they come in one night and they skirt me out of range, I don't want to throw anything at them trying to get them in range. I'm just gonna hunt it on the next good weather day and hope for different results, versus taking the risk of you know, throwing a call at him and them, you know, spooky. Yeah, yeah, I follow you there, Mike, what about you? I would agree with that too. I've never really considered even using

calls late season. Um. One of the biggest reasons why though, is just because typically when you're when you're hunting some of these um lads and food sources, you're dealing with

a lot more eyes, a lot more noses. Um, there's this a lot less you can get away with, like you said, so bringing calls to their attention a lot of times, when you have that many deer nearby, you can actually alert them and and make them a little more skittish than actually draw me in um myself personally, just even during during hunting the rut um, using calls and rattling just seems to be only effective to me when you're dealing with one specific deer or a couple

of deer um at a given time. You know, once you get multiple deer out in the field. UM. I tried it a couple of years ago in Iowa. Had tried hitting the horns when there's like ten fifteen gear out in the field and that the whole field apart. So after that, I pretty much gave up on calling and rattling on deer when there's multiple deer um. I feel like it's just timing specific and usually a late season.

It's just it's not the right time to do it when you're dealing with that many eyes and eyes and ears and noses out in the field at wants. Yeah, I felt the same way. It just seems like higher excuse me, higher risk and lower reward at that time of year. So let's say this. Let's say you you had this perfect, picture perfect setup, you went in there, you hunted it. Uh, you you had everything you thought lined up just perfect, and the big buck doesn't show.

You go back in the next day, maybe still good conditions, he still doesn't show. What do you do when it comes to the issue of you know, hunting the same spot over and over again, like volume hunting a spot versus like bouncing around and looking for new spots or

fresh activity. Um, when it comes to the late season, are you more apt to just like stick it out on that very best place and give it time or do you like to bounce and bounce and bounce and you know, get a bunch of quote unquote first sits um until you figure something out. Brennan, What's what's your approach there? I guess it depended like if if you're targeting a specific buck or if you're just targeting, you know,

a respectable buck. If I'm targeting a specific buck, I'm probably not gonna hunt anywhere else just because I'm set on a certain deer. Um. So I'm gonna hunt him

on when the conditions are right. If I hunt in a couple of days in a row and he doesn't show, but he had been daylight active leading up to that, um, And as long as my entrance and the exit is clean and I'm not busting deer every time I'm going in there, I'll keep hunting them if the winds right, um, Because I feel like We've got a couple of spots like that, in North Dakota, where you know we'll get a deer that will come in there broad daylight, two

or three days out of the week. No really consistent reason why he's coming in when he's coming in. But if you go on at two nights in a row and then you're like, oh, I'm gonna give it a break a night, I guarantee he's coming in the next night. The old A lot of times, if we're getting in and out of the spots clean and not blowing deer, you know, well, well on them three or four nights in a row, as long as we're getting in and out of there without busted deer. Yeah, my last book,

I shot North Dakota eight season. That's actually what how I killed it is. Remember we had a couple of the guys haunted a spot I think three nights in a row and they didn't see a single deer and they didn't want to sit it. So I said, if they're not sitting and I'm gonna sit it, and I shot shot one of the boss Because of how the just because of how their patterns were and how our entrance and exit was set up, I felt like you

could have got away with hunting it multiple times. I mean a lot of times that's not the case though I'm myself personally, I would say, if i'm, if I'm sitting a spot and kind of the scenario you laid out and I sat it a couple of nights and you didn't come in. Um, if it, if I feel that there's even a chance that I'm alerting any sort of deer, I might take a night off. Or if I see another cold front coming, you know, a few days down the road, I might not even hunt it

for a few days. Um. If I'm if I'm and just go on a different spot or not hunt at all, you know. Um, I would say that more for myself more than not. That's what I would do. But it but it really can depend on you know, we keep going back to it, but your your entrance and exit, um, how it sets up for you. If if you feel like you can get in and out multiple times without alerting deer, I feel like you can definitely get away

with with sitting in multiple days in a row. Yeah, you brought up like checking the forecast and seeing if there's maybe another cold front coming or something like that, and how that might impact your decision. Making, which which brings up the fact that we haven't really dove deep into these conditions you're waiting for. We we've just kind of alluded to like cold weather. Um, but is is there anything specifically that you're looking for from the weather

forecast that tells you it's go time? I mean, does it have to be like any kind of cold from or are you waiting for like the mega cold from the thirty degree drop or the sub zero temperatures in snow, Like what what's the specific thing you're looking for to tell you it's it's time to go? Mike, I would say it doesn't necessarily need to be the megaculds round. Just a significant enough temperature drop to where it's gonna get deer up on their feet and wanting to hit

you know, a grain food source. Um. You know, and it can just some of the little factors that can come into play, you know, even just a uh a minute cold front change or a temperature change with a wind ruction switch, or if it's going from cast the clear skies, like those little bit those little factors can get those maturity up on their feet. Um. But I mean the first thing I'd always go go to for the rule of thumb would be that you know, initial

temperature drop. Like that's what we're at least what I'm you know, setting my my sights on when I'm looking at the forecast in the future is if there's a you know, ten degree change or more in uh in temperature from one day to another. Um. I mean some of the other factors that I hit on, they just kind of add to the I think increasing your odds. Yeah, Brennan, Um, kind of on the weather stuff. Um, almost complete opposite though.

We've noticed, you know, if you've got a week straight of five to ten below and you all of a sudden you get a a day where it's ten above, and like, Sonny, it's almost like those dear for it as like how we would treat, you know, the fourth of July, like it's nice out, let's let's move and get up and walk around, so like not to stay like that is just cold fronts that are effective. It's

like any like change in the weather. So if you've got you know, a week straight of just nasty cold weather, yeah you might have some good hunting, but there's a pretty good chance when that weather changes and it warms up and it's nice that first day that day could be just as effective as the cold trunk. Yeh yeah.

And and and to add on to that, you know, usually when when you have them extreme cold trunks like that that you know, span multiple days, those first couple of days might just be dynamite, but as it kind of legs on, those deer will kind of just eventually get subdued and kind of lay up and they're waiting for that that warm up, like Brennan said, to get up and you know and feed. Um. We'll see the North Dakota a lot of times to lay excusion where

the deer don't move it all through the night. But then once it warms up you know, ten fifteen degrees during the middle of day, if we're driving around or you know, checking spots things like that, you see deer out all over it. If it's a clear, sunny day. You know, I I don't blame them, you know, I'd rather go out and feed when it's twenty degrees out then you know, last light when it's five below zero.

So they definitely take advantage of those times of the day when when there is those warm ups to get out and kind of sun and stretch your legs and

get some food. Um, you know, and if you get if you get a warm enough spell, like if you just to kind of throw an example out, if you're if you have a long stretch of cold leather with with some snow on the ground and their hammering, uh you know there your corn or beans, things like that, if you get a severe warm up where it it'll you know, melt some of that snow and open up some some green areas. Sometimes going back to that green

can be huge. Um. You know, we've killed a handful of box late season, you know, doing stuff like that where when the snow melts off, that's that's usually the They definitely try to take advantage of, um, the limited resource at that time. And when you get a warm up and and green pops up, um, they're gonna try and eat it up as as much as they can until you know that next snowfall comes and and they have to go back to you know, feeding on green. Yeah,

that's a good point. Speaking of those warmups, what about the situation where you're just stuck with the warm you never get the big cold front that comes through, and you're late season is winding down and you keep on looking the weather and you're like, man, it's warm, it's warm. It's warm. Now we're down to the last ten days. Now we're down the last seven days. Time's taken away.

It looks like you're never going to get that cold front. Um, what do you do in that case, Mike, when you're just stuck with mild or average temperatures you never get the cold one. Um, do you just not hunt or do you you take a stab? Or is there a totally different approach you have for late season warm or mild weather temperature hunts? Uh? I mean, when you're running out of time, you wanted to try and still take stabs.

But um, I would say, if you're looking at the forecast and and all it is is warm from you know now until the end of the season, you gotta do something. And I mean if if if I was in that situation, I would probably consider maybe hunting off the food a little bit closer to the bedding um and trying to catch some deer maybe when they're getting up out of their bed um, you know, right at last light, since they're since they're not going to be getting up you know a a little bit sooner with this

with those like those when those cold sunds come through. Um, I mean typically most your deer probably not going to be getting out of bed, so the last ten fifteen minutes of shooting light. So I would say if if it was it was me, you know, trying to press in a little bit more, hunt off the food would be one thing that you could do. Um Or, like I said, you know earlier, going going back to a

green food source might be something we're considering. What about you, Brian, warm weather, If time's sticking and like there's literally no cold weather until the end of season, I would I would say, yeah, get aggressive and and press them closer to bedding, trying to get them, you know, right when they're standing up out of their bed um. But if it's warm and there's any chance of a cold front, I will I will sit out for a week just to hunt one day, even if it's the last day

of the season. I'd sit out the entire week to hunt one cold front versus trying to add you know, trying to get in tight and educating the deer and then all of a sudden the cold front comes and you already blew it. So if there's no chance of a cold front, for the rest of the season. Yeah, I would get aggressive. But if there's any chance of a cold front happening, even if it's the last day of the season, I'm waiting for it. Yeah, I would

agree with that. To this. Perfect example for that is last year here in Iowa, I sat out the first ten days I think it was the muzzleloader season, just because the weather. The temperatures were in the highs, in the forties, and you know, you could see in the extended forecast, you know, right around New Year's we were supposed to get a temp drop below zero. So I mean, I knew, you know, if I just was patient that it was you know, it was being patient was going

to reward UM in the long run. So sometimes sitting out is not, you know, not a bad thing. Always easier sudden and done sometimes for those that of us that are eager to get out and hunt. But like you said, you usually pays off UM, or at least we'll pay off ever once in a while enough to make it worth being patient. UM. Alright, guys, I got two quick last questions before sending you on your way

to your next hunting destination. UM. Late season tricks for staying warm Mike, you already mentioned the hot pad thing underneath your feet. Is there any other things you do to handle those super cold late season days, whether it's with your clothing or any other gear things you take with you, or anything else to just weather those coldest days. I'll let you start, Mike. UM. I'm a huge fan of he did um heated socks. I I have in my first lighting off, I always have a one of

those battery powdered powered hand warmers. UM. I pretty much switched completely off of using any sort of UM handwarmers UM, like your your grabbers or or hot hands. The last couple years, I went, you know, straight to using any any sort of battery powered stuff. UM. It just seems to last longer, UM and in the long run, it's

a little bit more cost effective. UM. One of the things that I started using a lot this year too, UM was we started working in the company called hyper Heat, and they make a heated seat UM that you can put on your tree stand or on you know seat the ground blind UM. We used. I used it in that sit uh, in that situation, but also when it got really cold here during the rut. It comes with a strap that can actually latch onto your latch onto your stand, but it will also vote on your waist.

So I actually, when it got really cold, clipped it on um and put the heated side on the back side where my kidneys were, And I actually was heating my back with that um through some of these colder sits during the rout I plan on doing that as well during the late season months. Um. From a gear gear side of things, I always wear a neck get um pretty much from mid November to to the end of season. Uh. It can really save on wind burn on your face and uh and just from your lips

and everything else chapping up. Ah. I would say that that's one of my one of my favorite pieces to use in the late season months. M Yeah, what about you brandan I am opposite of Mike. I buy stock in Hot Hands for late Jesus, I get all the adhesive like I'll buy the full the full feet ones, and I'll wear up, you know, a normal pair of socks. Then I'll put the hot hand foot warmers you know, in between that and a pair of wool socks. I'll put Hot Hands on my pretty much on my thighs,

on my kid knees, on my shoulder blades. I've always I like four to six of them stuffed in my hand muff um we Like Mike said, I think a neck gator is invaluable in the late season because keeps a lot of cold air going in and out of your your top um. And one other thing is I will always carry my heavy bass layers to the blind and then put it on, versus trying to waddle in there like Ralphie from the Christmas Story and getting all sweated up, and because once you get sweaty, you're screwed.

So I feel like, you know, carrying in your top layers is key. You know, go in there. You might be a little cold on the walk in, but it's better than getting sweaty and then freezing once you sit down. Yep, I have to agree with that. I've been there and always better to go that route. Uh well, guys, I do feel um, I do feel maybe a little bit more excited about the upcoming weeks, like I felt relatively confident coming into my late season. I feel like I got a couple more hot tips now to take into

the woods. So thank you for that. Uh, coul, What do you give me a grundown or give us a rundown of where we can see everything you've got going on, where we can follow along with how your hunts are going now, where we can see your you know, past hunts and videos of all that kind of stuff. Brennan, can you can you maybe walk us through some of that. Yeah, So we are in the middle of producing our tenth season of The Breaking Point. I'm gonna say the best

place to find us right now is on YouTube. UM. The main show comes out every year. We usually start dropping new episodes in uh late summer, typically in August, and UM this year Mike and specially put together fourteen new episodes there, and then we have a semi live see reas which Aaron does all the editing for those come out every Sunday all year long and new to

the channel. This year, we were doing what we call RUT Live and that was just uh, it was a six week program, um Mike's it was kind of Mike's baby, but we had two in studio hosts and then we were running three to four live units every Saturday and we would have live hunting broadcasting right to our YouTube channel. So that was kind of cool. Um, that's something we're definitely going to continue to do in the future and

something that we're really excited about. But yeah, this check us out on YouTube is probably the best way to find us. To search the Breaking Point TV and you can find every video that we have ever put out. Man, I love it's good stuff. I've been watching it. I I got a kick out of seeing my buddy further join you guys last year for that hunt. That seemed like it was a really good time. I'm glad he

got redemption there in the late season two. Um, so thanks for taking good care of him putting them on the bucks. And yeah, I guys, keep up the good work. Mike, Is there anything else you will want to add before I let you guys hit the rope? No, I think I think we touched it all. Awesome, well, Brennan Michael, appreciate time go kill some late season bucks now, all right, appreciate all right, that's a rap. Appreciate you listening, Thank you for tuning in, Thanks for being a part of

this Wired Dhunt community. It's been a fun season, guys. I've I've loved sharing ever madeute of it with you. I've really really appreciate the notes the Instagram messages, the emails um telling me about how the podcast has helped or how the Wire Dunk website or YouTube videos, um, how all the different projects we're doing are either keeping the entertained or sharing you know, some kind of lesson with you that's helped you kill a deer have a

better hunting season. Means the world to know that you know this is helping you out. So appreciate you'all. I hope you're in a fun season. Keep getting after it. There's still time. Don't throw in the towel yet. Don't give up yet. You can still get it done. Enjoy this hunting season while we still got it, because I guarantee you in a couple of months when season's closed, we're all gonna be wondering and waiting and hoping for

that opening day again soon too. So enjoy and until next time, stay Wired to Hunt.