Ep. 612: How I Killed my 2022 #1 Target Buck

deer during the late season on a small property. All right, welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by First Light, and today I'm here with my buddy and partner crime, Mr Tony Peterson for one of my favorite kind of podcast episodes. Uh, this is this is Tony, the kind of episode we call the show boat and gloat episode where I get to talk about every episode. No, man, have you ever listened to me to a podcast? My stories are I missed, I screwed it up, I did

this thing, I did that thing. So these are few and far between. I gotta milk them when I get it. Tony, Well, we're gonna make you look like a freaking hero, buddy. That's that's going forward today. We've got a good story, folks, we gotta we've got a success story. Um, I'm gonna tell you the story of how I killed my number one target buck, the three year story. Um, I haven't talked, you know, specifics about it as much over the last

couple of years, at least about the specific buck. I've kind of vaguely mentioned my number one target buck here and there, um, but I've been kind of saving the details until hopefully, you know, we have this kind of story where I could break it all down. So that's that's the plan. I want to walk you guys through

a year by year. Um. You know my encounters of this dear, how I tried to on him, how it all came together here recently, and and this is kind of not just a story podcast, but I'm hoping it can be kind of two things on top of that. It can be a how to deer hunt small properties podcast and it can be a how to kill a deer during the post rout or late season podcast, because there's some tactics on both sides there that I think

we can unpack and explore a little bit. Um. So, Tony, my hope for you, my friend, is to kind of, you know, guide me along or press me on certain questions or certain things so we can make this as valuable as possible to people, not just me like rambling,

but actually helps some folks. So, uh, that's that's your role, alright, buddy, let's go not So this is the buck I called Jr. And why I call this dear junior because three years ago I was hunting a different buck in this general area and I would this buck are called tram and every once in a while, I'd see a deer with really tall G two is in the tight tall rack moving through the woods, and they, oh, that's him, And then I pulled my binoes and all of a sudden,

its oh no, it's it's not it's a it's many me. It's this other buck that looks similar frame wise, you know, at first glance from a long ways away, and then you quickly realize, oh no, it's a younger buck. So I just started referring to this buck as junior because

it was kind of like trains junior um. And so that, you know, it's a practical thing for me when I hunt these different small properties here in Michigan, especially that I've hunted for years, I see many of the same bucks year after year, and it's just easier for me to throw a tag on him. So I when I say tag a man name so that I, you know, can talk about him to my friends, to you, to

folks and have it all makes sense. So this buck I started calling junior in twenty twenty, and I guessed him to be probably a three year old, you know, based on how I see these, dear girl year after year. He looked like that third class of deer. What do you think he scored? Then? Ah? Not much like one ten Maybe something like that. We should talk about for a second though, because that's a really common sort of antler class to be at three years old. Yeah, like

we we talked about this. You know, Midwestern bucks there one forties at three and a half, and there's more of them that are than one. Yeah, definitely, I've that's I would say, like seventy of the three year olds that I hunt in Michigan at least, so that I see in Michigan are in that ballpark like one ten, one one twenty, you know, like a one twenties usually a good three year old around here. Um, I've I've bumped into a handful of like genetic freaks like that.

I would say, Oh, like that's a three year old in Iowa kind of buck. But those have been very very rare. Um. So this is a deer that you know that year when I saw him, he was in that like you know, if you're looking at like the herr or like the pool of bucks in your area.

You know, on most of these different Michigan spots I hunt, you know, in a good year nowadays, they'll be like one buck that's four or five, um, and then they'll be like a couple of three year olds and then a bunch of year and a half and two and a half year olds, and so in he was like in that second ranked down there was like the one buck that was I think trand would have been five and a half that year, and then there was this

buck and one other three year old that year. So this was like in that kind of category of Okay, I'm gonna keep tab zoning. Now I've noticed you, I've see you around. You're recognizable. Now I'm gonna start paying attention a little bit, so you know, I've saved all the pictures I got him. Over the course of the season, saw m a lot had some cool like close encounters with him. Um that you are just fun when you know it's a deer that like Okay, this is a deer that next year, you know it was a four

year old, I'll probably be chasing him. So I really like to I really milk those encounters, Like I just get jacked when I see an up and comer buck that I'm hoping some they I'll be hunting. Um. So I had him a couple of times and then Range, you know, took note of where those spots were when he was doing it. Um all, you know, looking forward to the future. Um, hey, can we talk about that

for a second. So when you when you talk about that and say, you know, I see this book, and you're maybe in a little bit different position there than some of the people listening, because you you're thinking there's a good chance this dear could be here next year. So you're looking at this deer and what he's doing, and you're like, I'm paying attention to this because this if this dude doesn't get whacked, I'm gonna be hunting him next year. And what he tells me today I

can use next season. And I think people look at that and go, well, okay, if you have a spot where you're gonna be able to pass them up and they're gonna come back. But those sightings of dear that age class or two and a half year olds or even even you know scrappers and does when you when you get the chance to really observe them, especially individual deer doing things, it's like such a lesson on what

all dear might do. That's that's a really the key point, because even even if he got killed that next year, I still think I could learn things from what he was doing that could apply to the next three and a half or four and a half year old buck that shows up in that area. You know, um So I do. And this is something like we've talked about for years, but I'm always trying to ask why, Like if I see a nice buck doing something, I always been trying to think, Okay, why did he do that?

Why did he go from point A to point B?

Why did he follow this edge or this low spot or that divd um So, every one of those encounters or observations is going into the memory bank, and and I'm trying to use that to build up this you know, this this pool of information that someday I might pull from um and so that that year, you know, I was I was hunting this one buck but this deer and one other where two like I really paid close attention to, Like every time I saw him, I tried to get my cell phone out and film them just

so I could remember where they were and what they're doing. And I took pictures. I you know, started studying their camera pictures even at the end of that season, knowing like, all right, man, next year, I'm gonna be after Junior and Rook is what I was hoping for. And um, you know, I've got a few of these little Michigan spots that I think one thing to what you just brought up is this idea like, well, you know, you're the only way you can hunt the same Bucky year

after years, if you've got some huge MAGA property. Um, that's not the case. Like I've got several small properties that hunt here in Michigan that are small. I mean, we're I hunted this buck Jr. This was like thirty five to forty acres. This is not big. Like every single picture and encounter and observation to have with this

deer was within like about a thirty acre area. That's it. Um. And I think it's not always going to be like there's gonna be some thirty acre properties that can have a deer like this make it, and there's gonna be some thirty acre properties that can't um because you know, maybe there's more pressure or there's not a safe place. Like in this area, this buck found a whole. There's like two really good little sanctuary safe spots in this area that bucks can get to and survived. There's a

swamp that this guy lived in. There's another really cool, brushy, nasty kind of betting zone. It just seems to sucking bucks when the pressure hits up hard. And so I've learned over the years, like on this particular piece where this buck was, there's like a fifty chance, Like if I see a good three year old, or if there's a four year old, there's a good nice buck, there's like a fifty percent chance he might make it to the next year. If I don't shoot him, i'd say

give or take. That's about what I've found. Um. So so because of that, I've gotten to the point where now I'm I'm pretty comfortable passing you know, nice three and half year old bucks that you know, eight nine years ago, those are deer I would shoot um. But now I know there's a chance. There's zero percent chance if I shoot him. Um, if I don't shoot them, Uh, there's there's a chance. And and I really enjoy you know, I've I've done a whole lot of different kinds of

deer hunting. Done a lot of the public land, wild western adventure kind of stuff. I've I've hunted some big properties by permission. I've haunded a small opertis by permission. I've done leases. Uh. My family has a four d acre farm up in or property up in northern Michigan that's private that we own. I've hunted that, I've kind of got to dip my toes in the water, and

a bunch of things. Um, you know, last season with Deer Country, I hunted like wildly different things, Oliver, And I still think that my very favorite is just like hunting a spot where you get to see these dear year after year and just like studying them, learning them, Like you know me, I'm an analytical dude. I just love like studying these critters, like I think deer fascinating. I love studying them, thinking about what they might do, why they might do it, predicting Okay, well they did

this that year, they did this last week? What might they do next week or tomorrow? Um. I love just seeing them. I love observing deer. Like one of my favorite things about this area is just like getting out and glassing a glass a ton um because I just love watching deer and it's it's cool that there's spots I can glass and watch deer, but then also helped my future hunts. Um. So so you know, that's that's kind of the foundation of this this hunting story, I

guess is that kind of context. Well, And I think there's something worth touching on there because you know, I went from it kind of my deer hunting career I have. I started out with some big properties, like permission based properties, and you know, living in the suburbs here, my opportunities have just shrunk. Like you know, I went from maybe having permission on a farm that's you know, three acres

or five acres, to properties like you're talking about. And one of the things that I've learned is when I went into those small properties, I felt like it was just a roll of the dice, like maybe they'll come through, maybe they won't. But it never felt like you have, Like I never felt right away like I had dear to work. Like I was like, Okay, this is the

guy who lives here, that buck or whatever. And as I have hunted these more and more and and really run cameras on them and tried to be super careful, you realize that, like, yeah, you're at a disadvantage if you only have thirty acres and somebody else has a thousand. But you can make a lot happen out of just a thirty acre property if you figure it out there there's there's a lot going on there, even if that's

one of a deer's you know, overall home range. Like man, if you figure out what they like to do and when they like to do it, and you can be real kind of surgical about when you go in, you can make a lot happen out of not much acreage. Yeah, it really, It's so true, Like surgical is the right word.

You have to be surgical on the small pieces. And you also have to get lucky, like you said, I mean, sometimes you've got a thirty acre piece where they're at, and sometimes it's the third acre piece that there just

aren't at um. I mean, like my Ohio story is a perfect example, because I have a thirty acre piece in Ohio that, Um, you know, I had really high hopes for this year, and I've hunted it now like eight days, almost all day, eight days, and I've seen a spike in a doll over the course of that entire period, and um, you know, a few camera pictures of good bucks, but like very very very little activity

compared to what I expected there to be. And you're sitting out there hunting and you're like, well, I have no other options, Like I don't have I can't go check out this other draw, I can't go to that other point, I can't go explore some other bedding. Are Like I've got one corridor and one betting here and that's it. So you know, you can you win some,

you lose some on small properties. So in the best case scenario, have got a bunch of places like that, Um, if you can manage it or have some public that you can fill in your time with or whatever. Um. You know, I'm fortunate with with the particular place where this book is that it's you know, there's a small property, but it hunts kind of nicely because the way it lays out, I kind of have access to two different betting areas, and historically there's been a decent buck that

lives in each one of those kind of cores. Um And so at least that's that's kind of figured that out over the years. And um, as long as I'm like really careful about when iever go in there after a deer and the one of those two regions, they they feel safe there as long as I'm not messing it up, and um or I get unlucky and someone else shoots something and goes in there. Whatever. So that's that's why this spot has has been productive, and that's why this deer lived there. It's um you know, he

was a three year old here. He roamed a lot, a lot. I saw him quite a few times in daylight when I was hunting for the other buck. Um. Like I mentioned, he had some close calls with them. Kept tabs and I can't tell you that that year I noticed like a really big obvious pattern as far as what he did, other than the fact that he was a homebody, like he lived on this property or right next to it, and he was he was kind of everywhere. The next year, one last year, he and

one other deer that I called Rookie. That year where the bucks that I thought I was gonna be after I saw them when I went out doing some scouting I think in January, so I knew they both made it through the season. I was really excited about that, um, and you know, said high hopes to see what the might turn into. I got pictures of both of them. I did a lot of summer glass and I never saw either one of them when glassing, but I did

get pictures of both of them in late August. And to the kind of thing I mentioned earlier about like how maybe fifty and make it through fifty, don't um? You know, part with that season, Rookie disappeared. He was wiped off the face of the earth. He got killed by someone or something and he was out. So so Junior became the only deer I was after last year. Um. But he was tough to to figure out because Rookie was around all of October, and he was he was more visible. I saw him a couple of times. I

got pictures of them here and there. Um, Junior was kind of a ghost. I was. I was struggling to see him. He was not as movie. He was not as visible as he had been the year before. Which you know from three to four that's to be expected. Um, but he really took it to another level. I figured, Um, and I was kind of confused. I wasn't sure what

was going on. I was hunting near these betting areas that usually like as we moved into October, usually get to late October, and if there's bucks that are getting ready to check out those hot doors, they're gonna check a couple of these spots. Um. And it nothing wasn't getting, wasn't getting a whole lot until I started checking some cameras. I had some like standard cell not sell camera, standard trail cameras that had been back in the back of

the property that I hadn't gone to at all. Um, because I've been seeing getting some intel on rookie sort towards the front of this area like betting area A. So I've been hunting a couple of times up there in the early season, kind of mid to late October, if I'm remembering right. I had a gap between my travel so as you know, last year, I was traveling all over for deer country, so I had one window where I could hunt this Michigan stuff in late October

before more travel. So I remember going back like October twenty third, fourth, fifth, six, seventh something somewhere in that window, and for the first time I decided to slip into the back of this this farm and check some cameras there, and that kind of opened my eyes to what was going on. There was two different cameras back there, and Junior was on them a bunch, and I realized, like, okay, he has shifted his you know, behavior, from being like an all over this property to just betting are b

kind of deer. So it kind of seemed like Rookie had taken ownership as a four year old of this one betting area in the front core area and the stuff that's arounded that. And now it was seeming like Junior was taken up shop in the bottom spot around this big swamp, and you know, all of a sudden saying okay, well here he is. He was. He was here in daylight at the end of September, he was here in daylight the first week of October. Um, he was here in daylight two days ago October or something

like that. And now I think, okay, I'm in the game. This steer still around, he's huntable, and he's he's in this little corner. So I had like a five day window before I had to leave for one week in November and toss some hunts at it. And I want to kind of speak to the overall hunt strategy for this property, like generically before I really knew what Junior

was doing. Um, I do not hunt this area very often at all because of the whole small, small property thing, and there is a lot of hunting pressure in the area. But it's you know, I've I've got this little sanctuaries, two little betting areas that act as sanctuaries that I have access to. There's a neighboring property that's about eight acres that doesn't allow hunting at least I don't think they do. Um, And so like those things act as a small sanctuary surrounded by lots and lots of pressure

around me. But I've always thought, you know, I can very like that's a benefit for me, but I could very quickly erase that benefit if I'm not careful. So so surgical is the right way to describe what I try to do. I try to, you know, only hunt this spot or these spots when I've got you know, a good win when I've had a good access or

exit opportunity, I don't hunt more. And these are things I know that you will think you hate, But like, I don't hunt mornings in October out there because it's really hard to get into and out of because there's there's big open fields close to the road. I just can't get in without having to cross some kind of

open field. So I don't hunt those mornings. Well, let's talk about that for a second though, because you know, from my perspective, I'm what you're doing is the right move on a property like that, Like if you if you have the chance to save it, you know somebody else isn't going to go in there. You're not doing yourself any favors by being the one who puts stupid

pressure on them, you know. And and there's a difference, right because I I look at most of my stuff and I go, I just got to be the first one in there, Like if that's October tenth or whatever, and it's a morning, because that's fleeting because I don't know who's going to mess it up if you have a chance to save it, and pay real close attention to your access and like and and go in when the like all of the odds are in your favor as far as they can be, that's the move. Yeah,

you know, I mean it's just so situational. Yeah, that's that's the key is It's it's circumstanced specific and and so in this place, like I know, like it can hold deer, It can hold a good buck or two as long as you don't blow it. But like you can blow it very quickly. And you know, one thing I've learned over the years, something I've changed the last few years is I've I've taken that even further when

it comes to like my evening exits. So I won't even hunt this property now if the if the crops are cut, I won't hunt this property unless I have somebody who can drive out and clear the fields for me. So if if my wife's available or some other friend or family member I can call in a favor on um. If if no one is available to do that, and if the crops are down and deer feeding in it,

I just won't hunt. I just won't do those evening hunts in a spot that I'm going to have to blow out the field because I know it just won't work. I'd rather, I'd rather miss a good condition and day and not blow out the field and then hunt you know two days later when I do have that exit strategy, because like that exit strategy has been like the game

changer for this this little section here. If I can get someone to drive out on a you know, drive the truck out through the field or drive a side by side or an a TV or whatever is available, um, that gets me away with murder. As far as like being able to hunt in these places you know several times without deer catching on to my exit in the evenings. Um, So that that's been a that's been a big one for me. I've I've been able to get away a lot more because a lot of this property is is field. Like,

it's a lot of field edge. There's small small timber fingers, and there's one big chunk. There's the swamp, but that's like this betting mecha that I pretty much never go into. That that's like a sanctuary. So my huntable stuff is all edge and some finger and some grassy stuff. So it's it's it's tough from an access perspective if you don't have someone who can help you out in that

kind of way. This year, I did get an e bike, and I've used at a couple of times when I couldn't get a ride, and I think that still got me away with a little bit more. Um. But man, human being walking out across the cut field, or even walking down a two track that's back in the timber a little bit from the field, you know, walking around exiting in the evening is just gonna do quick damage

to a tiny place like this. And I I was burned by that a whole lot of years in the early years when I was hunting this area and around there. And I feel like, you know, being again more surgical and sacrificing some days. So I might not get as much quantity, but I'm getting more quality because of that, And um, you know what I think about that, Like I honestly think that, you know, I'll use an example here. Everybody likes to think everybody else is super greedy, you

know what I mean. It's like really easy to overlook your own greed and be like, oh, those billionaires, they should pay more taxes, they should donate more money. But we never think like, h are you like, are you paying extra taxes? Are you don't even a ton of money to chair, like it's really easy to sort of look past your own greed and you're like, we're real biased towards ourselves, right, And we talk constantly about hunting pressure, like I mean, it's it's to me, like that's the

number one enemy to your success always. I don't think we I don't think most hunters give their own hunting pressure enough credit for putting deer down. Like I think we know when we burn a spot, we know when we're kind of being lazy, But I don't think we understand, you know, because we're always like, well, it's the other people, to other hunters, and yeah, like that happens, you know

you're in public land or whatever. Sure, but the amount of pressure we put on them and how quickly, you know, if you're in a state with a lot of hunters,

how quickly those deer react to that is incredible. And I just I think, like it's so easy to not give your own presence enough credit for putting them down, But it's so important to pay attention to that, and and you know, be honest with yourself about it, like you willing to look in the mirror and confront the ugly thing in the face and be like, Okay, yeah, you know that was that's probably me. This is probably

something I caused. It's like you said, it's it's much easier to pass the blame off on the neighbor or bad luck or whatever. Um So, yeah, I was to blame for many years of disappearing bucks, probably in this area because I was wanting to hunt a lot, and I just learned, like, I can hunt a lot, but I can't hunt this place a lot. I've got to hunt other places. Um. I've got to keep this, you know, relatively careful, real light, um and so and so. Yeah, so I was kind of forced to hunt this property

late or light last year because of my travel. Um. So, I had like a few swings that took a few hunts in that early early October window. I think a hunt of the first three days and um you like I said, I saw that buck rookieos after um. And then I came back in late October and I think I had like four or five days or something, three

four days something like that. And that was gonna be like the extent of my rut hunting because I was gone for two weeks traveling November October one in November, so I knew, like, basically, this is my rut hunt is this last week of October. So I, you know, kind of went hard for that period because that was my window and I knew that, you know, Junior had been super active last year. Of course in late October, and when I checked those cameras, I realized, Okay, he's

in this back area by the swamp. He's like refocus his attention here, So I'm gonna I'm gonna hit it and see if I can't catch him slipping up a little bit. So it was standing corn at that point though, on the agg fields, so I could hunt kind of the edge of the standing corn and the swamp and then the edge of the standing corn and this like finger of timber that kind of extends out from that swamp and connects it to another block. And so I

did a couple of evening hunts like that. I think I did a couple of morning hunts on the edge of that betting area as well. But the more of that stories like never saw him, never, you know, saw a whisker of him, and uh, you know, he he was just still ghosting. Other than a few of those daylight pictures. Like I said, like October six, and then like the day or two before I showed up to hunt in late October, he was daylight and that was that was it. Um. Now I take off hunting across

the country, YadA, YadA, YadA. And I'm trying to remember when this happened. I think it happened after my rutcation. I think I got back from rutcation and like the corn was getting taken down like that day I got back and I had to leave again for another trip in like two days or something. Though, so I knew, like I don't have much of a window here to hunt,

but I can try to learn something. So I always like to take advantage of harvest to to kind of make moves if I need to, And in this case, with a corn coming down, I thought, man, I can go move some cameras around and get some cameras. Now it's kind of around this place that I think juniors live ing and kind of tightened that that throw the net around that more focused since he didn't seem to be showing up at all on the other piece of

this property. So as that combines working as the corn is coming down, I race out there and I got I got some new cell cameras that I hadn't head cells. I got some cell cameras and put three of them, I think, on the edge of this swamp, and with a swamp and corn came together three different spots that over the years I've seen bucks just always like to come in and out of these little like a little inside corner, like in the bend of the swamp as

one spot. And then there's a low spot across this little finger of field, and they always leave the swamp in this low spot and they kind of stay hidden down there. I think thermals drop into the low spot. They can smell anything, and so that's another place there's always a good scrape. So I put these cameras on those scrapes on the edge of the swamp, bailed out of there, let them finish combining, and I took off for my next trip. I then get nothing for a while.

I'm not getting any pictures of them. I remember at this point I checked another I've done another round of my trail camera checks of the regular cameras um and most of these other cameras are all kind of place in easy places that I can drive my a TV and check. I don't. I don't check any like interior trail cameras in this property in season, um unless like it's next to or on the way from, like a

hunting location. Otherwise, like the only time I'll check a camera on this property is if I can drive to it um or like I just described, the combines are going around. So I checked cameras and nothing in November at all. I think I had like a November one or two picture of him something, but but he kind of disappeared. Now I've got these cell cameras out there, nothing from him. Nothing from him through the rest of November.

I leave it alone all through gun season. Um. You know, I'm gone for a week of that and then I'm home for a week. But again I'm leaving it alone. UM. I don't like to put a lot of pressure on this property during that peak of guns season because there's a much pressure all around it. I'd rather the pressure be all around me and they kind of hang out in this little zone that I have soul access to as a sanctuary, and then I can come back in there in the later part of the season and hopefully

there's a buck or two still alive. And they're not as pressured in that specific spot. So that's what I was gonna do. But I had to go to Alabama for one of these hunts I was on last year. So the first week in December, I'm hunting in Alabama. I now have these cell cameras that are you know, sending me pictures, and I remember, you know, I get like I have him send like once a day, and so you know, whatever the designated time is that day, I was gonna get pictures. Remember, I pulled it up.

I'm like, all right, sweet, check the cameras for the day. And bam, there he is December three, in daylight, like three five in the afternoon, right in the edge of that swamp, hitting the scrape. Junior was back for the first time in a month. Um, right there and um so I was very exciting to see he was still alive, but also frustrating because I couldn't hunt him. Um. And this is like the beginning of the Alabama trip, I think. And then like two days later I get another picture

of him, same spot, daylight again. And then two days later he's about a hundred yards away at another spot, daylight again, and three days later another I think it's like a day later or something. He daylighted again. He daylight four times between December third and tent and and I'm not home for any of it. So you know that's cell cameras are great if you live far away

from your properties or whatever. But if you are far away from your property and you're getting this information and you're handcuffed and you have no way to get out and start hunting, it can be frustrating but exciting as well. Yeah, so I was just but even though even though you can't get on him at that moment because you've got other stuff going on, it's just such a valuable intel. Oh yeah, great, great intel. And um you know, there's

cell cameras are like a conversation. Like I'm constantly wrestling with cell cameras. I'm constantly thinking about like how much is too much? How much data? How much is too much technology? Like I have this internal debate with myself and you know, cell camera uses a touchy topic even like within my own mind, I'm trying to like figure out what's the way to use this tool in a way that helps me but isn't too much. Um, So you know, so one thing I do is I set

so they only get them, you know, on a significant delay. So, like I've always felt it could be really icky if I'm hunting or if I'm at the house or something and then I get a picture like right now that says, oh, that dear is an X spot and then I could use that real time. That feels like icky for me personally. So I have forced myself not to do that by putting this twelve or twenty four hour delay on the photos.

That makes me feel a little better about it. Um But even that, like I know, some folks view that is too much technology or too much help. Um So, so all that said, like as I'm as I put those cell cameras out and I'm using them, I'm getting these pictures while I'm in an Albama I mean even like wrestling with that, Like, man, this is pretty awesome. That can be you know, a thousand miles away and

get fresh intel and what's happening here. That especially in a small property like this, like every time you go in there to check a standard camera, you are hurting your chances of seeing that deer in the future, because like every step you know you place out there is making an impact um, which is why I like now, I, like I said, I do not walk out there check cameras. I only will drive out there. Um. I try to like stay on the A t V when I check my cameras or be in the truck and just take

a step or two out. Like maybe that's more than I need to be worried about. But it just seems like the room for error is really small when there's like, man, if he's in this betting era and if he's not in that betting aear, I have no way to hunt him. So I can't screw up, you know, the edge of that betting here. So that's that's the first week in December. I get back home and I remember thinking, all right, I gotta try and take a couple of stabs at him.

And we had a muzzle out our season open still for a few days. I can't remember how many more days I had after getting back from that trip, but I had time. I had some number of days, two, three, four days, something like that. Um. And so I remember like telling my wife, like, hey, you know that Buckham after was showing up, you know last week. If we got the right conditions, I gotta try to take a

stab or two at him with a gun. Um, I didn't think that there'd be a strong chance and Bill get another take at him with the bow at this point in the season. But with a gun, you know, maybe I can make it work. So I I waited for a wind that would cut across the top of the swamp, so I don't want to win that's gonna

blow obviously straight into that swamp. And I can only access the swamp from the north, so I need to make sure I've got like sutherly Ish wins, but ideally like easterly or westerly, because if I have a a wind that blows from the swamp straight to the north, it blows out a whole another bedding area region on the neighbors, and you know, there's always the chance that he might be over there. It's not that far away.

So there's basically a betting to the north and south, and I want my wind blowing east to west, right in between the two. So I've got that you know, relatively safe wind um where I can get close. So I had two hunts. There ended be in two days where I had a wind that would work, and you know, decent temperatures decent conditions. Um. You know, I noticed from those pictures of the days he daylighted, three of those days he daylighted were like cold, like dropping temperature, cold

front type days. Um. One of them was actually a warm up day. So I thought, well, if I can get like half decent tempts in the right wind, I gotta try. The first time I tried for him, didn't see him at all, didn't see like if I remember right, like very little activity. Um. And the was actually, this is actually a night where I had to break that rule I just told you for whatever reason, I can't remember why, um, but I had to slip out by foot.

And I guess I must have been so desperate for him that I you know, I didn't have an exit strategy or an exit helper, and I thought, there's a little two track where I can walk back through the edge of the timber and you know, maybe get away

with it from the location I hunted that night. So I had to be going out on foot, and I just remember getting very close to the front of the property, like I've I've walked a long ways from where I was hunting and from where I would have expected to see him, and I'm kind of in a low spot in this little finger of timber, and then there's like a rise then extends like there's a hill that goes up to the edge of the timber and then into

that cut corn field. And I can see a deer silhouetted on that hill in the cut corn maybe yards away, And so I just pulled up the binoes. It's it's after dark now, and I pulled the binocular zone in like the I guess there must have been some moonlight or just because of the silhouette, I could see like instantly it was him. He was standing there with a dough and uh, there he is, like yards away. And so now I feel like I'm stuck, like I don't want to go walk and continue walking in that direction

and bump him. I'm pissed at myself for going and hunting on this night when I didn't have a good way to get out. Um, So I ended up just sitting down in the dirt for I don't know, like half an hour and just kind of waiting around, twidling my thumbs, texting my wife said I was gonna be late that night, and just waited until they disappeared and I hope that they moved off far enough and um, then I circled out as far away as I could get.

This is kind of a funny story. As I'm walking out, I'm getting close to the road, Um, I see a deer flag off, like I see a white tail run off towards the road. And then there's a car coming towards this road. And then I hear and I'm like, oh no, oh no, no, no, no, no, did I just spook the buckum after to get hit by a truck?

I mean, I was like super concerned. So I raced up to the road and I went down to the car and I checked with a guy, like asked if he was okay and everything, and all the while I'm trying to look off to the side and trying to see the deer he hit, and like trying to suddenly like get get the information I'm trying to get. You're

like the biggest asshole, good Samaritan exactly. No. I made surely he was okay, the car wasn't too badly damaged and all was fine, And I'm like asking him like I was trying to talk to him and he was being actually weird with me. Um, like I didn't. I don't know. I was like, do you need help? Okay, he just kind of like was like shaking his head and then um, and then I saw the deer and it was a dope um off on the side of

the road, and he's like, I'm taking the deer. I'm like, okay, well you need you need help, And he's just shaking. She keeps shaking his head and it's like a very weird encounter. But maybe he was just shook up after the whole thing. Who you were, I don't think so Tony, definitely not um. But yeah, So that was like a scary moment because I thought, for sure I just bumped my buck into a truck, but but no. So UM.

That then led to a few days later, I had decent conditions, decent wind again, I slipped back to the edge of the swamp um and last light, he actually does pop out. But I must have been God. I wish I could I what I remember about this encounter. I wish I wrote wrote down. I'm doing a hunting journal this year where I'm actually writing down the specifics of every hunt. Um, not just like I'm writing down

the conditions. I'm writing down like where I went. I'm writing down what I see, but I'm also writing down like what I did and the decisions I made and stuff, just because like I wish I could remember exactly what happened in this night, because what I remember is seeing him pop out of the swamp, but he hadn't in the He headed in the direction away from me and I I can't remember if I had a gun or if it was now right other bow season, because I

was considering getting down and trying to stalk in like circle up ahead of him and see if I get ahead him and get a shot at him. Um. I think maybe it was with a bow. And back in the day I never would have considered doing that, but after last year, with all the crazy on the ground stuff, I must have been feeling kind of wildly because I remember thinking like, if he just slows down and starts feeding, I might be able to circle and and slip down

and just do something crazy. Like at this point, I've been having a really rough season. I was kind of willing to do something crazy to try to salvage some kind of success. Um, but he just never slowed down. He just like marched and uh and just marched straight down the edge of that swamp and away from me. And and that was it. And that was he walked out of my life. That was sometime mid you know, December,

and that was it. I didn't get any more pictures of him, didn't see him at all, um until the postseason, I think what. I was out there doing one of my drive bys. I glassed him up one night, I think, um, and that confirmed that he he at least made it through the year. So that's one and with with that season in the rear view mirror, I remember thinking, Okay, once I kind of you know, I was burned out

after last year. But once my mind kind of turned back to white Tails this summer, I got really excited about stuff. I started thinking about this Buck and you know, thinking he's probably the guy that's gonna show back up. And I think I've got like two windows. I think there's gonna be an October window based on what he did last year, and I think there's gonna be that

December window again. Um. You know, there's this this idea of like these annual patterns, right that, especially like older Bucks, they tend to do certain things at the same time of year, year after year. All all other things being equal, Um, you can start to see some of these kinds of tendencies that repeat year after year. Um. And so I was counting on two things. I was counting on his

core area continuing to stay tight to that swamp. And then I was hoping that hay i'l had that early October window, may maybe a moment there in late October and then like the first ten twelve days of December or whatever, like, maybe that'll be a good one. And um, so I do some prep work in the summer leading

up to the year. I trimmed out some new trees that I could hunt and did a little scouting the edge of that swamp to try to figure out some spots I could hunt around that if he was around again, Um, I put cameras along along that edge again. Historically, I hadn't actually ran as many cameras around that swamp edge as I started now that I knew that Junior was in there so much. So now I've got those gaps

covered well again, this time with cell cameras again. And m August he shows back up for the first time. I get sell pictures of him, and then throughout August and September. Um, he was daylighting, he was showing up, and you know I was I was excited about that. Um. But as I already talked about on a different podcast, you know, I wanted to target this buck on opening night, but the wind ended up messing me up and I had to pivot to a different location to hunt a

different deer. Um. I just I just couldn't see a way I could pull off the wind hunting that swamp edge without him winding me with this like northeast wind that would blow right into where where I thought he'd be. Like everything he was doing this year in twenty two was like straight out of the book from what he did. Once I like realized he was in that swamp, he was popping on the same places. Um, he was coming

back in the morning like he lived. This is like, at least as best as I could tell from like the intel, I was able to get into places I had access He was in there more than any other place I had access to at least. Um. So I couldn't hunt him early in October because that wind ended up killing a different buck in a different place. So now I kind of pull out and I take some time to just I took my son out hunting some different places, took out some hunters, did some mentored hunts

on the back forward. UM shot some shot a doh, tried to shoot multiple dos, I got one. UM did some of that kind of stuff until we get too late October. We get to late October, and now I'm thinking, all right, this is that window. I gotta I got a daylight picture or two of him last year round this window. UM, I have to leave again on October to go on one of these roccasions. I've got a

I've got a chance here. So those last like seven eight days of October, I hunted two or three times just inside that swamp, UM, hunting near those little low spot and inside corners that I mentioned to you already from UM, hoping that you know I could catch him coming out to feed and or check. Does um you know that last week of October? UM, So you know I picked those nights when I had the best weather conditions. So both of those times I can think of two

space even nights. I think I hunted two nights in the edge of the swamp, and then there was a third night that I couldn't hunt in the swamp. But I hunted a finger of timber just acrossed um, like eighty yards across from it in another spot because of the wind. UM. So again I'm hunting this when I've got that like a cross that corner cutting wind. And then I'm hunting when I had like a combination of

dropping temperatures and rising barre metric pressure. Um. That just seems to be like that's like a post front kind of thing. You get a front that comes through, it changes the weather up a little bit. And at least most of the time I've seen like that to be a pretty good trigger for like a little bit more you know, daylight movement or a little bit earlier movement from the deer coming out to feed in the evenings. UM. And so I did it first night. I remember I

got on this edge of the swamp. It looked like awesome and there was ripped up you know, you could tell he was in there, slipped in on a very It was a cool It was a great day to hunt this spot. The trick with hunting his little zone here in the swamp is that this is a high deer density area and does bed around the edge of the swamp in a couple of different places, and there's there's a couple of spots that are predictable, but then there's like some unpredictable random like a random dough be

here there for once in a while. So anytime I'm going to hunt the edge of it, it's it's risky. Um. So I decided I would slip in there. I did not have. I have one pre hung stand on the edge of that uh swamp, but I didn't have it wasn't like a spot I wanted to be based on what I was seeing. So I was going in there with my saddle and I was going to kind of see where the sign was telling me like, Okay, I know he historic this come in and out of this little corner, and I know the low spots of spot

where deer come through a lot. But I also want to go in there and just kind of read the terrain, read the sign and see if there's something that you know, is there a big fresh scrape somewhere? Is do what can I find like the rub line that he's using this year that pops out of the swamp that maybe his thirty yards down from where I would have sat. Um. So that was my game plan brought my sticks and saddle.

Very windy day, which is one of the reasons why I picked this day to hunt, because it was windy in the early afternoon and then for the last hour of daylight it was gonna tail off. Um, and I thought like that would be perfect. I'll have the cover to get in there and get set up. I can kind of poke around just a little bit, find the right tree, and then for the last hour of daylight, you know, it should be dyna way and um, you know, long story short on that. I felt great about it,

but didn't see him. It's a lot dear, I didn't see him. And then I think the following week was the next day had similar conditions corner cutting wind, enough wind for the setup that I could slip in and scout around with my saddle, get set up, and then um, you know, be ready for that last hour or two when it settled down a little bit. And um, another cold late October if you remember, like there were some really nice cold days there in late October here in

the upper Midwest. Um, so I think it was like forty or forty one or I don't know, something like that. And the time came in on the other edge of the swamp and slipped in there a little deeper than I usually do. I was kind of feeling like, you know, why not be a little more aggressive. I already killed one nice Michigan buck. I don't have to kill another one. Um. You know I've not. I couldn't figure them out last year.

Why not swing a little bit harder this year? And either it works or I failed spectacularly, but you know who cares? So I pushed in deeper into the swamp than I usually do, trying to just see, you know, see if maybe that would be the ticket to getting on him. And I had that wind to to get in there, um, and I just like, just you know, just I'm just learning, like patients and details and the

little things just matter a lot. And so it was like I did not take a step unless the wind gusted, and then it stands still for a minute, and then I got a big gust, and I take three steps and I stopped and just did that until I was able to work my way into the spot found the tree. Um, And that night I saw his running buddy. He had another nice three year old buck that he'd been you know every time I got pictures of him in September

and October. Um, he was with us three year old and I saw him that night, but did not see the big guy. And uh, you know, excited to see that other one, but the big guy didn't show. And now I've got to got to take off for our trip. Um. So that takes us to November, take off to Nebraska, head to Ohio. UM. I got a picture of Junior on November six and seven with a dough and then I don't get another picture of him for weeks. The rut continues on Um, I come back after the one week?

What do you hold on a second mark? What do you think he's doing when he's bailing like that? Do you know where you think he is? I don't know. And and he did it last year into it this year. And I can't put my finger on him because there's a lot of doughs in this area. Like he he doesn't need to go anywhere else to find does he can find? Does in that his main cores, at least the main core that I hunt. Um So, I don't

get it. I don't know. Um, I haven't had another buck that I've hunted this area before that, I you know, had had had watched over the years do the same thing. Um, So I I don't know, I've got no good answer. I just I asked that because I've I've started seeing that being able to hunt this place that I have in southwestern Wisconsin. Now, you know, last year we had this buck that was really cool and he was so consistent. He was the first year I saw in the place

like super consistent. And then he was gone all of the rut. He was there in October, and then last year in the run and so you're like, oh, he's he left to find some does even though there he definitely didn't have to. And then this year because the biggest deer in the place got killed. Last year, he became like the king right like he was living there and we didn't have a time. My buddy actually killed him right before Halloween. So we don't know for sure

if he would have left or not. But like on paper, you look at that and go, it doesn't make sense, like why would you make an exodus for two weeks or a month here when this property offers you everything that you should need. But there's something going on that they're finding somewhere else. And I was just wonder, like you know it would be so hard to figure out unless you had access to these other spots. But why

like what, why why would it do that? It's it's so so And I guess that's why this stuff just does it for me because like those questions. I love like wondering and trying to figure out those questions, like why does he do that? Why? Why is he? You know, why does he show up in early December like clockwork? Why does he? Why did he? He would have been the king of the entire roost, like all the stuff I have access to in this area. He would have

been the best oldest buck. But why is he not even trying to take over that other swamp or even spending time over there like I've had other years where like a big boy will be all over it. Um? Why does he want to be just in this little southern section? Um? I don't know, but um, but he definitely he had something going on elsewhere. Um. And he wasn't even I had a neighbor. There's a neighbor who has access to a decent sized chunk down in that area,

and he wasn't getting pictures of him either. He had disappeared for him as well. So he you know, he traveled somewhere significantly far away. Like it wasn't like he just bumped over next door or something. Um, he he moved elsewhere, and who knows what he was doing or you know, I I have a I have one part of an answer to the question. Maybe for this year, because as the story progresses, there was one new factor added to the story that UM maybe has some influence

this year. Maybe not UM, but I guess we should get to So November passes and UM, November passes, and you know, don't get any pictures of him, uh guns season. As I mentioned before, I leave this place alone. UM. So I go up to the Northern Michigan family dear camp, thing have a great time up there. UM come back in late November, and I'm thinking, all right, you know, I might, I might try to take a stab at him. I'm counting on him showing back up anytime now, late November,

early December. Like my plan all along was I gotta you know, I gotta hope for that annual pattern. UM. I actually almost deviated off the plan because, like a decent another nice buck started showing up in a totally different area, and I actually went after him a couple of times with my son. Um, I was telling you, I think on via text message. I took my four year old out a couple of times to try to kill another decent buck that was just in a place

that might have worked with a kiddo in a blind. Um. So we had fun, but that didn't work out. Um. So it's late November now, and I'm just like I told my wife, I said, all right, when like the first week of December hits like December two, three, whatever, that window ends up being, that's our muzzleloader season, and that's gonna be my last hurrah for buck in Michigan. So I said, like, any day the conditions are right,

I'm gonna be hunting this buck, Junior. You're sick of me talking about him, Um, this is my last chance. I'm gonna try to get him with the muzzleloader. And if I don't get him, then then I'll be done. I'll just focus on, you know, going on a few times for does and it'll be game over. But this is like he showed up here last year this time frame, I bet he'll do it again. So just just playing on. Let's be very flexible with our schedule. So she's like, okay,

she rolls her eyes at me, YadA YadA. Um. And then like November or something, Bam, I get a picture of him back for the first time in about a month. He shows back up, you know, right on schedule. It's a nighttime picture, but he's alive and he's back, so super confidence boost. Really, it was like one of those things. When I got that pictures, a big grin popped up on my face and it's like, all right, man, the

annual pattern he showed back up. Um, the hunts on. Basically, that's what I thought then, and uh, and then it was just a matter of figure out when's like the best opportunities to to take that strike because again, like as I mentioned, the same stuff that has been a challenge here in the past is now a challenge in December.

So he is in the swamp. It's very hard to hunt to the edge of the swamp because there's all these doughs, especially hard now in the late season because there's like no cover, so like slipping in to get to the edge of the swamp is very very risky. Um. I also know that there's this open cut bean field around the swamp this year and so the whole exit thing is a challenge. There's gonna be a lot of dear feeding out there. So every time I hunt, you know,

even with someone driving in to clear the field. Um, you know, that adds up if I do that three or four or five times. So I just I knew, like, all right, I've gotta I've got to pick my moments. I'm gonna have a handful of opportunities to do it, and I've got to pick the right ones. Um. And so I just planned on not even trying to hunt the swamp edge, but hunting this finger of timber that's just across from the swamp edge. It would be about seventy yards. There's like a finger of this field that

is in between the timber finger and the swamp. And I can hunt that timber edge, this little finger of timber safely. I can get into that, Like my access in there is bulletproof with like a kind of any of any of these winds that cuts the corner, like I was talking about, anything easterly or westerly that doesn't dump too far down to the south I can get away with and I can get there safely. And you know, if I have a firearm, I can reach out to him at seventy yards or eighty yards and you know,

still be in the game. So I went a few like a week ago, and I looked at all of my trail camera pictures again I had of him around the swamp, looked at all the daylight photos I you know, logged all you know, me, all my weird spreadsheet stuff. I like to put all my stuff in there, and I like to look out. Okay, what are the dates he day lighted, What were the wind directions on the

days he daylighted, what were the temperatures doing? Um, just trying to see, like is there any other thing I'm missing? Like I'm just trying to better pick. Like if I get three shots at him, I want to make sure I picked the best three days, um, because every one of those days is gonna hurt me a little bit. Um. So So that's what I was trying to do leading

into this window. I had been in Ohio. I did it like a three day hunt in Ohio, and I kept, you know, watching the forecast, watching the forecast, and I decided that the third December was like one of those highlight days within that December. You know, sometimes between the second and the eleventh was the window I was looking at, and as the weather was coming together, the third looked like one of those picture perfect things I was talking about.

It was big coal front. It was gonna drop more than twenty degrees in a twelve hour span, actually in the morning, so it's gonna be like fifty degrees in the morning, and by the time the afternoon arrived it was gonna be down to it was gonna be very windy overnight and all day, and the wind was gonna die down for the last hour and a half. Again, it was gonna go from like twenty winds to like twelve,

So that looks really good. There was gonna be this uh rise, big rise and barre metric pressure and a reduction in cloud cover kind of happening right at that primetime window too, which I don't know about cloud cover as much, but just seems like when you get those high bear metric like bluebird days that are cold, those are just like seem to be like dynamite days for dear to be on their feet. Um. So all those things lined up for December three, and December was the

day he showed back up in daylight. Last year. So that led me to the hunt. I drove home from Ohio, I told my wife, Um, you know, I got a hunt December three, and she tells me, well, that's the day that my friends from work are coming over for dinner. And I was like, uh, well, I gotta hunt. This is like the day, this is the day I think

it will lappen. Um. So we end up asking her friends to come late, to come after dark so that not only can I hunt in time, but I also was able to convince my wife to leave our house and be willing and able to drive out and clear the field on this property if I needed to before a company arrived, because I was like, I can't hunt unless it was like, unless you or somebody else can come out in clear this field, I can't hunt it because, like I know, if I try to walk out, it

will ruin any other hunts I have. I have to build hunt and I need somebody to be able to clear this place. And so she's a she's an angel. She agreed to both of those things. And Uh, anyway, so when you get divorced, hopefully hopefully it'll be at the time when like self driving cars are are like so advanced. You could just dial up your truck and have it drive out there on a little track on it. You're like, you'll be able to like show your pin on on X and your car is gonna start up

and drive out there and blow that field. Yeah, that's that's one piece of technology I would have to take advantage of because because I will when you get divorced, when she's finally like oh my god. Yeah, man, when I run out of favors, I can call on my local friends and the good will of my wife to do that for me, I will be in trouble, that's for sure. Um, because yeah, this this general area does not set up well for solo exits. So yeah, I got very lucky in this case, and that I got

the Yes, I got the green land and those two things. Um. So it was like one of those nights where they're my very favorite times to go hunting. It's like when you've got like the anxious, rumbling, stomach tightness in your chest as you're getting ready to hunt, because it just feels so right, do you know those days so so just just exciting when you when you have like when it's not just a hunt, but it's like a well planned like strike. I don't know, like when you go

in there with a lot of confidence. I love that feeling versus when you go out there like just when I sure hope something works out. Um. I really like going in like knowing like it should. You know, I've got a great chance because of A and B and C and D and you know, it's just like dialed. And I felt dialed that night. Um, So I slipped in. I slipped into that finger timber. It's like a low spot inside this little it's like, you know, only like

thirty yards forty yard wide finger of timber. I can get down this low spot kind of a ditch, and I can work that way all the way back to be parallel to that swamp. I had a tree stand historically been up there. I thought I'll hunt this tree stand on my first night because I had a west northwest wind which would blow you know, between those two betting areas cut the northern part of the swamp. But

I didn't think he was betting in that little corner. Um. I didn't mention this, but in you know, past springs, I have gone into the swamp in the winter and scouted and I found like big solo beds on some humps in that swamp. So I kind of knew the little corner there was, there was a portion within the swamp where if I had to put my money on where he was probably betted when he was in that swamp,

he was probably in that little corner. So you know, I had a general assumption of where it is probably safe for my wind to to cut across and where

it wouldn't be safer to cut across um. And so you know, with the west northwest wind, I thought, all right, I'll hunt this eastern edge, right, yeah, this eastern edge the first night, and if I don't kill him that first night, I'll come back in and the next day we've got um or like the next good weather day, it looked like it was actually gonna shift to like a northeast east northeast wind, and so I could then hunt further to the west that time and kind of

cut across the other side of the swamp um and you know, I'd be able to work different sections of that depending on which you know, which way the wind was blowing and which way he ended up moving, if if you know, he would do all these things, I was hoping he might do. Um. You know, I don't, by no means did I think like the annual pattern thing was guaranteed to repeat. But I definitely thought it was a feather in my cap for like possible confidence,

like it was it could happen again. And you know the fact that I had good conditions and last year he had a ten day window of like activity here, um, you know, gave me that hope that it was it was worth taking a few strikes in there. So with those great weather conditions, I figured deer would be on their feet pretty early. So I headed in there at

like two o'clock in the afternoon. UM. Slipped in there and got up in the tree, got situated, UM, and like I had just gotten all settled in, Like I just sat down and like had that first moment where it's all set. You take a deep breath. You can't take that first like slow gaze around you, you know.

And I gaze over to my right towards the swamp, and I see a flash of movement, and I pulled my binoculars and he's there, like within ten minutes of me getting situated the tree, he's standing there hundred and ten yards away, give or take inside that swamp and just standing there and I just like my jaw just dropped. It's the first time I've seen him this entire year, right, I've gotten pictures of them this year, but never once

encountered him at this year. I never saw him when glass in the summer, never observed him, you know, from Afar scouting, never saw any of the other hunts here he is too, I don't know to thirty something like that broad daylight standing in the middle of the swamp, edge of the swamp. Um. So just shock was the first thing I'm feeling. Um part starts beating real fast, pullt my buyos and I'm looking at him, and you know, now, the next thing I think it was, Okay, what's he doing?

Like is there anywhere I can get a shot here soon? Because he's he's already kind of arrange. Um, but it's like thick brushing. I'm looking like, is there a gap here as the whole there is there's somewhere I could actually reposition myself to get a shot. Um, And I just I didn't see it. I didn't see any way I could get a shot if you know, in the near future of where he was. But I thought, Man, if he's right here right now, I mean, what's he gonna do. Is he just gonna slowly work out here

like super early? I mean last year, that first daylight picture I had of him was three thirty in the afternoon, which is super early because it's getting dark at like five, I don't know, five thirty five or five forty or something like that. So he's out really early. Um, but he did that last year, So who knows, Like I can't explain that. Um, it's not something he ever does any other type of the year. But I don't know, big cold front. Uh, he's wore down from the rut.

Maybe he he knows this is his little sanctuary and I'm hardly out there at all in November. Um, maybe he's gonna pop out. So I kind of I grabbed my guns slowly off the side of the tree and kind of get myself positioned, and I'm kind of looking, all right, Well, I need him to maybe walk like fifty yards down until he'd finally be in like a spot I might bela um see him and get a shot. If he stays in the swamp, or maybe he'll pop out into this bean field, this little finger of like

seventy yards of beans. Um. But he doesn't do that. He just stands there for like ten minutes, fifteen minutes, twenty minutes. He's just standing there and he looks around and he puts his head down, like licks his back legs and they looks around. He kind of rubs up on trees, takes a nibble. I'm thinking, man, I guess this is what you know mature bucks do, Like they just stand and watch and don't move. Um. And then he takes a step, and then he takes another step,

and I'm like, he's kind of walking weird. And then he takes another step, and I realized, like he's limping badly, Like as he starts trying to move, like I'm saying that, he's like struggling to move. And now I'm realizable he's hurt. So he got shot or something. And so he maybe took like five steps, um, five ten steps something like that, and you could see like once he started going, he's got a real significant hitch in his steps. Something's wrong with his back left leg um, and he beds down,

so I see I can see him bedded there. He's like a hundred twenty yards something like that, and he's bedded facing directly at me. I can't see like his eyes, like there's like a five inch four inch like sapling right between his eyes, But I can tell like for those antlers popping on either side of this tree. As I'm like shifting around trying to get a better looking I can tell like he's basically facing right at me. Um, it's now sunny, and I'm thinking, all right, what do

I do in this scenario? The buck up? And after showed up? He's here, he's in sight, he's in range, but I can't shoot him because of brush in the way, both close to me and close to him, And now he's betted. So I'm thinking, all right, can I somehow get out of the tree and like stalking on him? Like I feel like I gotta take advantage of this opportunity now, especially with him being hurt. Who knows like how bad this injury is. Who knows if I'll ever see him again? Um, I don't know. There's like a

thousand questions racing through my head now. Um, so I'm bouncing back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Is there any way I can get out of this tree and stalking him, or is that too risky? Should I just stay here and wait and hope that he's eventually gonna get up and come my way. Uh, twenty minutes minutes passes, and I'm debating all this in my head. I decided, like, I just don't see any way I

can get out without him seeing me right now. The way he's betted and where my steps coming out of this tree are, I'd have to come down on his side of the tree, so i'd be in like perfect view. Like there's there's branches and stuff in the way, but you know, I can see him, he can see me if I'm moving down that tree. It would be like a very obvious thing. I just couldn't imagine any way that would work out. So I decide, all right, you're just gonna wait it out. You're gonna be patient, don't

like act impulsively. Let this play it a little bit longer. So twenty minutes passes. Something like that, he stands up again and takes a step in my direction, kind of angles like he might come out. I reposition, start thinking, Okay, maybe this is gonna happen, getting re excited, takes a step kind of nibbles licks his back leg kind of push his antlers up against the tree. I'm, you know,

heart shaken again. And uh then he beds again. So he maybe walked like five yards from where he was before, beds down again, same kind of situation, still thick stuff. I can see him, but you know, no shot. Ah. But now where he's better, he's not facing directly at me. He's now facing kind of like perpendicular to me. So you know by that, I mean like he's if if I'm facing due south, like let me describe, I am due north of him. Okay, so he's in the swamp

about twenty yards inside the edge of the swamp. I'm due north of him, like a twenty yards and he is facing due west. And you know, so one eyeball is facing my way. The other eyeball is not facing me. Um, but still like you know, visible um. And so now I'm back to that same debate, like do I do I stay or do I go? Do I stay or do I go? And it's now somewhere in the four o'clock it's like four o'clock ish somewhere in that ballpark, and I remember thinking, like you're you're running out of

time to make a move on him. If you want to make a move on him, the sooner you do it, the better, because every minute you let pass is another minute that more dear likely to come out. Right now, there's no other deer out. But I know like spe too, with the conditions, like there's gonna be a pile of deer out feeding here soon. Um. And if there's like fifteen deer out feeding there and you try to crawl this tree and sneak towards him, like you're gonna blow

it up and bust him out of here. So if you don't go soon, you might never have the chance to do it. So part of me was saying, like I had to get out of the tree and try to make something happen. Another part of me says, you could do that and totally blow it up. He'll see you. You'll screw it up somehow, and you maybe don't ever, maybe you didn't need to do that all. You could

just wait it out. In ten minutes from he's gonna stand up, walk out into the edge of the field and give you a clear shot and it'll be the best thing ever. Um. So that was that was my debate. And the one other thing I had going for me was it was windy still. I still had some like gusting winds. It wasn't died and down yet, but I knew it was going to die down, right because the forecast said, like that last hour it was gonna dip, you know, get down there to a relatively calm you know,

ten miles an hour or something like that. So that was another reason why, like, if I don't do it, it's gonna be much harder to do it later. So that's where I'm at. It's like four o'clock something like that. I've got a little over an hour of daylight left. He's better at twenty yards away, kind of quartering, looking, you know, perpendicular to me, and I'm in the tree trying to make a decision. Tony Peterson, what would you

do in that situation? Oh? Man, I recently, very very recently ran into this situation of watching two bucks dropped down into a low spot in a field while I was muzzle or hunting, and the clock was ticking, and I crawled out there and got busted by the bigger buck who had broken in a direction I didn't think of, and what so I blew it up and it was like a similar thing that you're talking about, where you're like, there's a chance if I just wait, they're gonna pop out,

but there's also, you know, a real chance that it won't. So I gotta make something happen. And I don't know about you, man, but every time I try to make something happen like you're talking about, I feel like I screw it up. I feel like my lane is just sit and wait for him to come to me. Well, even though I don't heed that advice, often is where I'm going. So I don't know. I know the smarter move would probably be to wait him out, but I'm

curious to hear where it went. Yeah, so I had all the same you know, those things racing through my mind. I'm thinking through like you said, many times, it's the safer bet to wait it out and let it come to you. But on the flip side, you know there are even like even the very best deer hunters in the very best places only get a handful of like close encounters with like a big mature tart a buck, Like there's only gonna be so many times where our cross,

our paths will actually cross. And I'm thinking like this might be the only time I see him all year, and like I can I can sit around and wait, or I can try to capitalize on this. And you know, when the first place he was betted, I thought through all these things, and I thought like, I just can't envision a scenario where I could safely get out of

here and and reposition and get a shot. But when he repositioned the second time, I reassessed it all I thought, I do see a possibility, Like I think maybe with where he's at, if I go really, really carefully, I might be able to get out of the tree without him seeing me. And if I can get out of the tree without him seeing me, I felt like there should be a decent chance that I could use that wind to to move and get to a spot I

can shoot him. So eventually I decided especially I think him being injured pushed me over the edge, Like I thought, like, I don't know what the injury is, I don't know what's going on, but um, it just felt like it felt like an hour never kind of thing. So I slung the gun over my shoulder and waited until a big gust of wind and I swung my leg around off the tree stamp put on that ladder, and then I hung there and I waited for the next big

gust of wind. I took a step down, and then I hung there for a minute, and then I waited for the next big gust to win. I took another step down, waited for twenty seconds, another big gust of wind, took a step. I waited until every time there was a big like tree limb shaking gust of wind, I'd

make a slow move and then I wait. And then I did that all the way down to the bottom of the tree, and I could confirm at least like the last time I could see him was when I was about a third of the way down the tree, and I could like just be like, okay, I'm pretty sure those are time Still, I don't think he's boldern So I got down to the bottom of the tree, and I felt confidently. I think I got down without him seeing me. Um. So now I'm you know, d and twenty yards due north of him, I'm in this

little thing, your timber. There's like a seventy yard wide field between me and him, and then he's like twenty thirty yards inside of the swamp. He's facing west wind is blowing from the west in his face. So I know that if I need if I'm going to be able get position to somewhere I could see him and get a shot, I need to circle behind him. So I've got to get down wind of him and behind

him visually. So I get on my belly well first, when I'm in this finger timber, I'm on my uh fours, So I crawl to the edge of the timber, and like, I crawl a few steps, get up on my knees, trying to glass see if I can see anything, can't see anything. Crawl a little bit more, get back on my knees, glass, can't see anything. Eventually work my way to the edge of the field and there's a very slight rise in the field. So like I'm just a little low and he's just a little low on his side.

So I think that kept you know, me from being able to see him and him being able to see me. So I eventually get to the edge. Keep thinking, like anytime, I basically wanted to just see the tips of his antlers and just be a confirmed like exactly where he was, and then I would like shimmy and continue shimmering and it's like just kept checking, kept checking, kept checking, could never spot him. So I get to the edge and now I'm, you know, more concerned about him seeing me.

So I belly cross and now I'm just on the belly. I just like put my gun out in front of me, pull myself forward. Put the gun out in front of me, pull myself forward, and I just do that and just like sliding along the edge of the leaves um and again waiting for wind gus too, because now I'm starting to worry, like I'm close enough to him, like if I if I'm not careful, he's gonna hear me too. So over the course of the next half hour, I think,

give or take, that's what I do. I'm just belly crawling my way around the edge of this timber and this finger of cut beans, trying to circle downwind of him and down view of him, and trying to circle around basically the way this um this is like a peninsula of a field, and it's gonna end about a hundred yards east of him. It ends, and then like the timber line curves back towards him into the swamp. So I belly curled all the way to the end of that peninsula of the field, staying on the edge

of it, I start curling back around. So now I was heading east. Now I'm heading back west. I'm on his side of the field now and every you know, five yards or something, I pop up on aneas and glass can never see him. At one point I saw at one point I heard like shuffling, and I'm thinking, oh,

he's up and moving. I can't see him. Maybe another couple of minutes later, I'm up glass and again I see like a flickering white tail in that same generally are And then like my heart drops, I'm like, oh he saw me, he heard me, or another dear spoot. Something happened like the jig's up, Like I just saw a white flickering tail, like not necessarily a running away tail, but like a flagging tail, like like a like a flicking um and it was like moving away. And so

now my confidence is dropping very quickly. So I heard this movement. Now I see this flickering tail, like what, you know, what what happened? I can't find him. I swear I should be able to see him by now, Like where I'm at, I thought for sure i'd be able to see his antlers or see something nothing. Um, so I almost gave up, like I almost like he's

not there. He he buggered, he's out of there. Um, I'm all the way now on his side, like I gotta be getting really close, like I'm within I don't know, fifty six seventy yards probably where he should be where at least where I left him. But you know, it's been a long time since I climbed out of that tree because I've been going so slow. So I mean it's been half hour, forty minutes, I don't know something like that since I made the decision to come out.

So who knows what could happen in that window? Right, And I knew that was on the risks of doing this, is that he might just take off some other direction. I never know it. And you gotta be bumping up on the end of shooting light fairly soon there too, huh. So I still so well, not quite not yet because when I because it's getting shooting light like five forty

something or something like that. And I got out of that tree like sometime after four if I remember, So, if if I remember, I think at this point it's like approaching five o'clock is what I think it is, So I've got sometime. But what I am worried about is other deer, Like there's gonna be other deer. And I actually do spot some other deer back in the swamp um and I glassed. I'm like, oh no, that's him, like way back in the swamp, walking away from me.

I'm like, god, jeez. But it ended up being some does. But I knew, like anytime now, other deer gotta you gotta believe there's gonna be some deer coming out here to feed, and they're gonna see me on the edge um and blow it out and blow the whole thing. So confidence is quickly waning. I'm worried about these different things. But I remember I kept telling myself, like, you gotta act like he's still there, Like the second you give up on it and stand up and defeat, he'll be

right there and run away like you do you. You gotta assume he's there all the way until like you're standing over top of where he thought he was. You gotta act like the game is still on. That's I mean, it's that lesson right there. How many meal deer has that saved? When people crawl into a spot when they're spotting stocking mule deer and they think they're gone and they stand up. Yeah, so I can't speak tommy, I

can't speak to it from mule deer. But like I've I've had this happened with turkeys, I've had it happen with white tails. Like I've been burned by making the wrong assumption too many times. So so this time I remember like actively, like drilling in my head like assume he's there, assumings that you gotta just keep operating, like stay stealthy, still, slow down, like just do the thing right, even though it felt like there's no way this is

gonna work now. Um So, just after I remember having that thought, I remember taking a couple more crawls forward, get up on the knees again. I'm like right there now, I'm there was there was this big down tree in the edge of the woods, and so that was like my landmark, Like all right, he's just off of that down tree where the root ball is back behind us somewhere. And now I'm like, withinn, I can toss a ball to that tree ball now the down tree root system.

So I get up on my knees again, pull my bion. I was glassing in there, like, why can't I see this buck? And then boom antlers right in my right in my glass like walks out right in front of me. He'd been further back behind those trees, steps out, walking like fast. Um, you know, I don't if he's limping consistently step step step, he's like on a mission. Now he walks right out. He's like forty five yards away, fifty yards away and back. But he's behind one layer

of trees. So I see him. I'm on my knees on the edge of the field, pull up my shooting stick and gun. I see one gap in the woods. He steps steps, enters the gap. I got map, Matt, Matt, he stops, pull the trigger. He drops in his tracks. I killed you. How fun was that? It was insane? Man, it was insane. It was so much fun. I couldn't believe it. Like, I mean, the emotional roller coaster from like two thirty to five o'clock was so insane, up and down and all around, and um, I mean it

was just a wild ride. Um really really nuts, really really nuts. And yeah, walked over there and and he he was dead. Instantly walked over there kind of in shock, and um, you know he was. He was just an awesome buck, a big, big, heavy eight pointer that I've been watching for three years and finally now he was. He was laying there on the ground, and you know it was was curious about the injury. And it was not a shot. It was something happened to his foot,

like to his hoof. His hoof was swollen up like a grapefruit, and there was like a wound on the front of the foot, like an open wound on the front of the foot, like almost like I don't even know what could do it. It almost looked like what the foot of an animal might look like they've been stuck in a trap or something. Um. But then also in between his toe pads was like an open wound

inside there, like pussing and open almost down to the bone. UM. So something really messed up his foot because he was like gimping along real bad with it. And interestingly, I went back and looked at the last pictures I had of him in November, so I got a picture of him November six, and that was the first picture I had of him with that wound. So I think I had pictures of him and like the first or something

or like late October, and his foot looked fine. And then the November six he had his foot wound and I never saw him again until the day I killed him, December three. So I don't know if him disappearing all of November was because of like the annual pattern thing that he did the year before, or if it was like maybe he just maybe he did that, but then

it was slowed down by this injury too. I don't know, um, but to the date daylight again December three, um, you know, and where I saw him was within a hundred yards of where I got a picture of him last year on December three, that first time. So I don't know, you know, it could be coincidence, but very very interesting, um,

you know that that injury. You know, we we always kind of think when we see a deer limp and it's like, oh, you know, either he got shot or another buck speared him in the ass or something when they were fighting. But you know, you think about the environment they live in, and you know, I run bird dogs out and that stuff all the time. Like there's all kinds of you know, like old Barbower, you know, like a roll old barbower on the ground, or a fence post or just a stick getting like jammed in

there wrong, like a lot of times. You know, it's kind of like when people think like, oh, you know you hunt, whether it's I don't sneak that's so dangerous. It's like not as dangerous as climbing in a tree. Like the less sexy stuff is a lot of times what gets you. And I always wonder about that with them, Like they live out there long enough, they're gonna get crazy injuries that aren't going to be like, you know, super cool that they got shot on the end of a drive or got into a fight with a way

bigger buck. Like sometimes it's probably just stupid stuff like when we stub our toe, you know, like on the end table in the dark when you're going to bed or something. Right, Yeah, and you know that that's an interesting point, like I don't know what this injury might have done, you know if it went the long haul. Um you know, uh, he was he was struggling like it was just his foot, but like it looked like he was really struggling to move um. And it was

like definitely badly infected, like pussing and stuff. So who knows, Like maybe that's maybe he would have been fine and would have been around next year, or maybe that infection would have spread or whatever and that might have taken him out. He was definitely wore down. I don't know if that just because of the rut or if that was because of this slowing him down, but he was definitely worn down body wise from what he looked like in pictures earlier in the year and stuff. Um, So

I don't know. I'm I'm glad that, you know, glad it all came together. You know it was. There was some there was some luck there, for sure. There were some decisions that worked out there. For sure, there was um something that all kind of brought these things together to make it work out. Um, but it was. It was pretty awesome. So so can I ask you now that you're just killing deer with a gun and are you going to be more like Expenser here? Am I gonna be the only real bow hunter left at Meat Eater?

Are we gonna are gonna get back to that? Hey? Then two for three boat, one of the gun I I got, my percentage is still in favor of the bow I would say that as I'm looking at a gun, I'm going to take the hunt deer in like an hour. So I'm just giving you, uh you know, I uh, I love of my bow hunting, but I it is nice to get out with a gun every once in a while, and uh, you know, it opens up possibilities

like this fun this. I like, I love bow hunting because of like the forced challenge and intimacy and everything like that, but there is something really cool about the new challenge and possibilities a gun hunt opens up, Like I like this kind of gun hunt. So it wasn't like I was shooting a deer like three yards. It was like I still had to like stalk in on this deer and I killed him like forty five. But I never probably would have even considered trying to pull

that out with a bow. Um, but I knew with like the gun and the conditions, like I might be able to sneak in and get there at sixty or seventy or something like that. And I mean it was just it was just fun. It was just really fun. And um, I have a whole Foundations episode coming up ah this week, I think on that very topic of like it's great to be a purist and just be like I'm I'm only hunt with a bow or I

only do this or that. But when you when you are probably merely a bow hunter or primarily whatever weapon choice you have, and you switch it up, hey, like you said, it's super fun, but be you learn because you hunt differently, Like you're not just gonna default to what you know you have to do because of a specific weapon. And I think it makes you better for sure.

I think there's a loud truth to that. And um yeah, I mean I uh, I will appreciate this buck no less than any other bucket kill with a bow, that's for sure. So um so so three big takeaways for me, Tonium. I don't know if there's anything that you heard here in the story, but for me, like if I'm trying to spell out what led to this success, I think the things we've already touched on, but I just want to kind of put a bow on him here. One was you know, being pretty darn tactical as far as

when I go in here and hunt, right. I took a strike in early October. Um, I took a couple of strikes and lay in October, and I left it alone pretty much entire ELI until December. Uh. The reason I did that with confidence is because I was leaning

on this like annual pattern. I was gonna, you know, take my trail camera data, take my observations in the past year, and pair that with this historical trend that I was hoping would happen again, and not you know, add any more pressure to this place than I had to, because I know, like handful of hunts in the wrong days and the wrong ways, and I might never see him. So I was you know, being careful and strategic with

the timing. I was watching the annual pattern. And then the third thing I did that I think one I think there's a downside to the increasing use of cell cameras now is that it can be really easy to become dependent on them because they are a great tool. They can give you, you you know, much faster intel out there than we used to have. UM, And so there is a tendency to wait for a picture before you go hunted deer. So there might be like, well, you

know he's not there. Um, I'm not gonna hunt unless I get like that daylight picture of him or whatever. And like maybe that that that can be a good way proudly to kill deer sometimes. But like camera, you can't depend on cameras. Like cameras only give you this tiny little window of what's going on out there. So even though cell cameras are a great tool, they only give you a glimpse at a very narrow sliver of

what's going on in the woods. I mean, if you look at that as gospel truth of what's happening in the woods where you hunt, you are missing out on You're missing the boat, like you're missing what's happening out there. Um, So yeah, they're great, but they're not only that, but you're missing some of the deer that are walking by it right exactly, like right by I mean it's not only is it just giving you a little tiny slice of what's going on out there, which can be super valuable.

But even in that slice, you know it's not yep, exactly. And so I remember, um in a conversation with Mark Jury this year, he said something that's stuck with me and that I was telling myself leading into this hunt. He said, Yeah, cell cameras are great, but sometimes you've got to be the camera. You gotta remember that you have to be the camera we can't just always depend on the cameras. You've got to be it. And so that's what I kept telling myself leading into this December window.

I remember thinking, like, all right, I believe he's gonna come back. Um, And I could either wait until he shows up in daylight and a camera and then use that as my trigger to go, or I can choose when I think those best days are and trying to predict when he'll first show up, and I decided, like, I gotta be the camera. I'm going to make my own decision based on the conditions and what I know from the past, and I'm gonna be there before he's there and kill him and not wait and wait and

wait for him to show up on camera. And maybe he's been all around it leading up to that. And I think that, you know, I had no daylight pictures of him for more than a month leading up to this, So if I had waited, I would have never known he was right there, never would have had a shot. So I think that was another thing that that helped this all come together. Um. And you know, the history I had watching this deer that year prior that all

helped me know the right place to be. That all helped me kind of narrow down this this little core area. I mean, like I said, less than thirty acres I was hunting here that he was in, and like the swamp is like less than ten acres or something that I'm hunting around the edge of. So it's, uh, it just kind of got tighter and tighter and tighter until I knew, like, Okay, this is the spot, and I can hunt other places out here, but I'm just not

probably not gonna see him there. If if if I'm really going for him, it's it's gotta be like here here here, um. And that slowly came together over the two years. So those those are the things that stand out to me as far as you know, what led to some success here. And I think that you know, a lot of that can be applied to any small property, Like the timing they're leaving it alone unless it's just right, you know, looking at annual patterns to help you be smart about

those hunts. Being the camera. That's another thing I think that also applies to the general late season, right. I waited till the late season because of that annual pattern, but also you know, I let it be a sanctuary during gun season. So I think that's a great thing if you have a small property with a lot of pressure around it, if you can kind of let your place be a sanctuary for a few weeks there when everybody else is out, you could have great late season

hunting because of that. UM, I was hunting the edge of the best betting next to the most attractive food that I had access to. That's a great late season tactic. UM. And I waited until the right conditions twenty degree cold, front, high beara metric pressure. All that kind of led to the night that you know deer would be on their feet a little bit earlier. So those are those are the things that I think I take away from this. UM, I don't know, is there anything else to you, Tony

or questions? Do you have anything? No. I think it's just a good lesson on, you know, playing the playing the long game on a small property in the right way. I mean, I think you did a good job. Man. I think it's cool to just kind of like really put the brakes on you have to, because I just don't. I think it's so easy to not do that, but it's so important when you're dealing with a small property.

And and when you're dealing with deer that are just generally in an area where they get hunted hard, where there's a lot of hunting pressure, like you just have to be so aware of what you're putting on them too. I think that's I think it's cool man. Yeah, And I think one thing that should just be mentioned. Um, and we we talked about this, We've we've had some conversation in the past. But you know, I've been pretty tactical and careful with how many times I hunt this piece.

But that doesn't mean I haven't been able to hunt a lot still, Right, I just go other places. So I've hunted public land in different places. I've got two other I was hunt a ton, hunt of a ton, just all sorts of different spots. Right. I want to hunt late November, so I went to Ohio. I wanted to hunt mid November during gun season, so I went to northern Michigan. I wanted to hunt the core of

the ruts, so I went to this place in that place. Um, you know, there's there's plenty of ways to still have a great fun hunting season full of hunts without messing up, you know, a little piece of private maybe that you do have access to that could you know, be a window of opportunity like this if you played it, you know, kind of short and sweet on what you do. So I don't want to make it sound like if you want to kill deer on small properties that you can

never hunt them, that you can never hunt. Um, you can hunt, but just got to be a strategic about when you make those strikes. If you're trying to kill like an old deer like that, and then just spread your hunt out over other places. Go have some fun public land, Go go do some crazy stuff in other places. Get new permission. Um, this certainly doesn't need to limit your experience. Options are your friend. That is the truth. That is the truth. So that's a story, man, it

was a fun one. I love it, buddy, well Tony. I appreciate you. Appreciate you coming on here to to hear me out and ask the good questions and help me talk through this one. What's uh? What's this muzzleload story with you? You gonna you're gonna get one down here soon. I don't know, maybe if I can get out there. I actually I'm kind of just doing the muzzleloader thing because I enjoy it, and I haven't picked up a gun in like eight years to hunt deer,

and so I'm just having fun with it. But I'm I'm kind of you know, you talk about a thirty acre property that might have some late season potential, uh, one of the properties I own over in Wisconsin. I'm I'm picking up some bucks, you know, in a little corner of that property that made it through the Wisconsin gun season. And there it's basically a pretty nice eight pointer. For there, he's probably like a hundred hundred and five inch deer and then there's a spike, but for there,

they're pretty good. And my daughter has a buck tag left. And so I'm kind of like, I'm gonna get through this muzzleloader season here, which by the time this drops will be over, and then I'm gonna go start working on those deer for her because I think the season's over.

There is open through part of January, so there's a chance to maybe try to get on these deer and uh, you know, do some kind of over Christmas break type of hunt and get her a chance at a buck when it should you know, theoretically, it'll be really tough, you know, you know, how it is after a gun season blows through there and it's late season and all that stuff. But still I'm I'm as excited for that as I kind of have been for anything this season. I think it's going to be at least really fun

to try nice. Well that's a man just having like that hope for something fun in the late scenes, Like basically all I ever asked for for the late seasons, Like just something to get me excited and still be out there. That's that's a pretty good thing to have. Oh dude, it's it's everything. And you know, I show because I have I have a cell camera over there, and I show my little girls those pictures, and of course you know she wants to shoot that that bigger box.

But like in my head, there's a spike that moved in there that he might score ten to twelve inches. I'm not sure, uh, but I'm like that deer has no idea he's he's going to be the one who's probably going to be in trouble because I think he just moved in there and he's living there, and you know, we don't have any standards. I mean, if it's a legal buck, she's gonna shoot it. So I'm like, I want to work on that bigger one, but I'm like that backup Buck is probably in real trouble. He's gonna

get it, I hope, I hope. So I would love to see either one of them come in and have her have a cool hunt in the snow. You know that would be so cool. Well, I'm gonna wish my wish you luck and cross my fingers and toes for yes. Awesome. Thanks Buddy, all right, Thanks Tony ye, all right, and that's gonna do it for us today. Thank you for listening. I appreciate you found along with this story. It was

a fun one to share. I certainly am thankfultle Ill came together like this, and uh, just looking forward to more fun hunts in the future. Getting to know these deer. I just absolutely love studying them, trying to figure out what they do, getting to know him, watching them grow over the years. Uh, it's it's super fun for a white tail and nerd like me, and hopefully for for those of you out there is as well. So with

all that said, let's wrap this up. Thank you, good luck out there if you're still hunting, and until next time, stay wired to h.