Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your guide to the white tail Woods, presented by First Light, creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First Light Go farther, stay Longer, and now your host, Mark Kenyon.
Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm your guest host, Tony Peterson, and today I'm speaking to Adam Moore about scouting down South. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, which is brought to you by First Light. You probably know why.
I know.
Oh, this is not the mustachioed madman Mark Kenyon. He's actually off with our good friend Spencer making a kung fu movie. That's honestly all the details I have on this situation, but I'm sure he'll be a blockbuster, and not just those two weirdos fake punching and kicking each other in their pajamas while yelling hyah to one another. Anyway, I have a special treat for all you whitetail hunters who say akorn Clay Newcombe style versus acorn, which is
the proper pronunciation. Today I'm speaking with Adam Moore, who lives way down in the bottom of the country in Mississippi. Adam is an accomplished outdoor writer who spends a lot of time both bow and rifle hunting the swamp dwelling whitetails the South. I had a blast talking with him and hearing about his scouting strategies and how he deals with the challenges of being a Southern whitetail hunter, and I think you're gonna love listening to his vice. Adam, How you doing, Buddy.
Good, Great to be here, Tony. Thanks.
Are you? Are you still a little sad that old Cormack McCarthy finally finally bit the dust on us after eighty nine years and his crazy journey as a writer.
Yeah, I actually wasn't sure like how to feel about it at the time when I heard. I mean, obviously it was like a blow, but like I don't know him personally, But at the same time, like this is also the guy who, like, it's probably the reason I ended up, you know, studying English in college and even had an interest interest in reading it.
All is your favorite author?
Yeah?
Yeah, me too. Y.
I just finished his The Passenger actually a couple of weeks ago, and was just thinking about that and then another book i'd read of his suchery that I read this summer too, and yeah, it was pretty cool because you know he's writing about places that that are like an hour away from me here in Mississippi. Uh. He actually mentions Hatty's break in the book, and I was like, you know what, that's pretty cool. Yeah.
He uh, he can really dial in a location, man. I mean that guy. And if anybody anybody listened to this, who's like, who the hell are you guys talking talking about? This is this is the author of No Country for Old Men. This is the author of the Road. You know, those are the most famous works, probably because they're just
known as the you know, they turned into movies. But he has written some amazing, amazing books in kind of unlikely locations, a lot of American Southwest and like Adam just said, some of the some of the Southern places, you know, the latest latest one down in New Orleans. Just such a such a badass writer. And what I didn't realize about it. You know, when I found out that he passed away, a bunch of people texted me, and you know, I started started looking around. He didn't
so he was eighty nine when he passed away. He didn't even really start getting any recognition as a writer till he was in his sixties.
Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty wild. I mean, and I think, you know, Blood Meridians is the one really that put him on the map. But you know a lot of his early works that don't get mentioned, a lot a lot of those Appalachian books. Man, they're just as like messed up, so brutal, brutal, but also early true to I guess humanity or whatever.
Yeah, he he has a gift or had a gift, man, And it's I uh, I think it's I think it's crazy to see somebody who's who has kind of ascended to that level, right, I mean there's like, you know, I mean, his name is in the same sentence as Faulkner and some of these dudes who changed the entire course of you know, like the literary course basically. But he didn't even he was three quarters of the way through his life or two thirds of the way through
his life before he even got any recognition. I'm like, man, there's still hope. There's still hope for all of us.
I have like thirty years sound good?
Yeah, do you do you think I know we're going to get to scouting here in a second. Do you think Blood Meridians ever going to actually get made into a movie? Because there's there you know, he was working on the screenplay when he when he passed away, and I just I think about that book and the care and I'm like, man, that's a heavy lift to turn that into a movie.
Yeah. Well, I think just the fact that he was having to work on this a screenplay that hasn't been done effectively by numerous people, or it hasn't even been approached by numerous people. It's like pretty telling. I think that is it's gonna I'm not optimistic about it if it makes a stream. There's a lot of what makes that book so good or it drives it is stuff that's not going to make it good in the box office.
Yeah, I think that's I kind of want to see it make it. I don't know why, but I I feel like I'm just going to be disappointed, and I feel like I'm gonna be one of those pricks who's like the book was better, you know, of course.
Yeah, I mean, you know, I think No Country was like spot On. I mean, not not entirely, but like as far as a movie, like I think the Coen Brothers just did I don't think they could have done any better.
Yeah, it was pretty tight. They did a good job with that one. And what's crazy. So if you're listening to this and you've never read his books, the crazy thing about his books, not only his vocabulary was bananas. I mean, you'd sit there and I'm looking up words all day long, like I've never heard this word that word. The imagery so badass. Some of that stuff in Blood Meridian is just it's done so well and it's so brutal.
But the thing that you hear people complain about or they don't understand about him is, you know, he's like no punctuation. He doesn't write like a writer does, Like he didn't really fit the mold. And he was always kind of like, I don't care. I'm just doing what I do and you're not losing anything in his process. The way he does it, he's so good you still
get everything out of it. And I always think about that in everything, and you look at hunting, and you know, I just spent a lot of time with Andy May, and Andie May has such a process. He's he's such a student of the game and his process is quite a bit different than mine, and quite a bit different than a lot of different people, and you go, it doesn't really matter, man, Like his results are this, they're
so good that it doesn't matter. And I look at this and I go, this is why it's so important to expose yourself to so many different voices. And you know, maybe you want to be a bed hunting expert like some of the guys out there, or maybe you want to just fly through every hunting area like somebody else or whatever. And that's one of the reasons I wanted to get you on here, because one of the holes in my game that you Southern fellas point out to me a lot is we don't talk to Southern deer
hunters enough. And I fully like, you're right, I hear you. It happens where you kind of see the white tail world through your own eyes and your own experience, and it's kind of hard to step outside the box. But I know when you do, you learn stuff. And that's why I'm so excited to have you on because anybody who's listening to you talk can tell you don't speak like I do. And there's a reason for that, right, That's right, Yeah, where where where are you living at?
So I live in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. So if anybody's familiar with that, it's brett far of country, so about an hour from the coast. They call it the hub city because you know, just about in any direction there's kind of a different city. So we've got New Orleans, which is southwest of here, obviously got the Gulf Coast, and then you know Mobile, Alabama, Birmingham, Jackson, so's they call Haddersburg the hub city. So it's really almost a tropical
light climate. Rains here almost every day. You can bet during the summer like it's going to rain here. Yeah, it doesn't. As far as cold tempts go, it's gonna be you know, a shocker for you know, all you Midwest guys or people who are you know living Minnesota whatever are Yeah, our cold days are probably like you know, walk walk in the parks for you all.
So, well, what what is a cold day for you guys?
So, I mean, so an average cold day, you know, highs in the upper forties, you know, not even maybe a freezing at night. You know, there are the occasional days we'll get, you know, a few year where we might get a day or two in the single digits. But it's not only common to be wearing shorts and flip flops on Christmas Day either, And.
So during your during just like an average let's just say an average bull hunt for you, what what are you expecting for tempts for.
That eighties the month of October? If we get an early cool snap, you know, highs in the lower seventies and then maybe the upper fifties, you know for for lows, I think those are those are pretty normal. Obviously last year everyone was experiencing that kind of heat wave, that draft that we had, and we had some some days that were in the lower nineties that that first month.
Do you guys get any mosquitos down there?
Oh my god? It's uh yeah, it's stay control when it when it comes to the early season, it's like, yeah, you want to play your win right, but as far as like you know, after that, you just need to like spray your off or keep your tormoseel on you and and hopefully the best.
Yeah, there's there's only so much you can do in that department. What what does it mean for you? Well, I know what I was going to ask you before we get into it. What what's the hunt hunting culture? Like I've hunted with a few dudes from Mississippi. They were all pretty damn good, and it it feels I don't,
I don't know how to describe it. Where I live, there is a tradition of you know, go to the the deer camp in northern Minnesota, you know, hunt with your uncles and your you know, your cousins and who have And that's kind of like the traditional deer hunt here. It's a short window, but it feels like there's a different way of life in a lot of places down south where it's like just more embedded in the culture.
Yeah, and there's you know, multiple facets of that too, like you know, we call them usually hunting clubs or some some people call them deer camps too, but there's a lot of yeah, you know lease Land, you know, dog hunting is a big thing here. Really, it's pretty unique to the South. I think maybe as far north as it goes. It's like Virginia.
Have you ever done it? Oh?
Yeah, I mean I grew up my grandfather and my dad. That's how they started deer hunting was actually with dogs. And so actually when this past year, I was doing the story on deer dog hunting, and so that's a big, often divisive tradition of hunting down here. Now, I would say the other it's probably it's really focused on private land or hunting a lease, you know, going to the
hunting club or or wherever. And then yeah, as far as like anything else, the stereotype surrounding Southern hunters, they're yeah, they're they're painful, but a lot of those are true as well.
Well, we got a feel ourselves the hound hunting thing for a deer down there. Is that primarily like a big hunting club thing or is that a lot of public land? Where where is that happening?
Yeah? So both so a lot of our a lot of the national forests.
Uh.
And then the you know w n A is around here. They have specific dates and zones where you're allowed to do it. So and there there's certain windows. So there's like really I think about two weeks or two to four weeks where that's when the dog hunting is really
going on. And you know when that is, so you know, for for people who are you know, on the fence or kind of against dog hunting, like it's not going to take you by surprise, and you know where you know, if you if you pull up somewhere like there's a ton of trucks in orange vest like out on the side of you know, the National Forest Roads and stuff like, you know what's going on.
Yeah, so you can you can plan around it pretty well. I mean, it's not going to like disrupt your whole season.
No, no, I mean, and it really part of that story I did was actually talking about how how to find success and even if you're hunting private or public, plan that gets hammered pretty hard or by dog hunters. But I'd say for the majority of it, it's happening on on lease land.
Sure was it was that. Uh did you do that for outdoor life? Yeah, oh you did. Yeah, I've I've never I've never been around that for you know, I'm a big dog guy, and it's always it's always weird to me because I have My experience with hounds is either you know, I grew up with some people who raccoon haunted a lot, and I did that a little
bit with them, never really was my thing. And then where I hunted Wisconsin, they can run bears with hounds over there, and it kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth as a private landowner with who likes white tails over there, because there's a lot of going across fence lines and things like that with running the bears, And so I actually interviewed a woman who does it one time, and I kind of realize how much of a hypocrite I am, because it's like, I look at
that's like a world is just not that familiar to me. It doesn't really interest me that much, and so I look at it kind of negatively, like running bears with dogs kind of sucks, and yet one of my favorite things in the world to do is run pheasants with my dogs, you know what I mean. So you're like, and I think of the deer thing, like the running deer with dogs is like such an alien thing to me.
I don't really even understand it. So my my kind of gut reaction is to be like, I don't I don't really like it, even though I don't know anything about it and I've never done it, and so I'm trying to not be such a prick that way. But it's like it's just it's just what you're exposed to, you.
Know, right, Yeah, I know, and it's yeah, it's definitely not for everybody. I think the you grow up in it or you're you know, part of the club that like does it. You know, it's kind of like a you know, one of those cool aspects about hunting, right, everyone's kind of coming together. It really is like this team effort. Obviously there are ways to do it right.
There are ways to do it wrong, for sure. Fortunately, the ones I've been on, you know, with like such precision, you know, everyone uses like GPS callers and they're really familiar with like where they're running at. They've been doing it for years, so they know basically what the deer are going to do when they turn these these dogs out.
And like I was tagging along with a guy and he's like, Okay, we're gonna talk turn the dogs out here, we jump a deer, then they're gonna run it this way, and if they break off here, then we're gonna have to pick up the dogs. And like sure enough, it was like unfolded just how he said, and like we were there scoop the dogs off before they got in the road. Yeah, it's just it's kind of impressive to watch, even as I did a you know a few times, my grandfather, my dad, But just watching it from that
perspective was like, man, this is really cool. This is almost as methodical as like someone who's like planning to pattern this buck, or they've got a buck that they've patterned. Now they're going to go in and make a move.
I could see it. I could see it getting it its hooks. India that way, what kind of weapon we were talking about here, because I Mike, probably like three quarters of my knowledge of running deer with dogs came from the old man and the boy Ruark's you know, remember that section on running and they're sitting there with buckshot, Like what how does it work for you guys?
Yeah, So obviously everyone's you know, spaced out in a way that's you know, is safe, and everyone's like directed, which is so thick down here. Like even if you're to shoot, chances are you're shooting to a giant pine thicket. And most of the time people are spread out to where you're not even in like shouting distance. So that's why,
you know, the CB radios are a big thing. A lot of you see the the antennas, you know, if you're ride around down here, that's because you're not in earshot of anyone, so you've got to you know, call them up on the CB. And then as far as weapons, we've seen everything from like you know, your dad's thirty thirty to shotgun, a buck shot. Some people use scope rifles. They're not really effective, especially if you're kind of in tight quarters or you're you're expecting to hear to come
through in tight quarters. But yeah, so think of those old you know, Woods guns, big Woods gun. It's like the your lever actions, you're you're Savage ninety ninees, maybe you're Rimington's seven forties, the auto loaders and stuff, pump actions like.
A little model ninety four to thirty thirty, open sites type of deal, close quarters forty fifty yards and under kind of running shot type of thing.
Right running or and most people think like running like fool speed is actually a trot. So you now sometimes that you know, if they jump them right in front of you, they're deer, you can see them jump up, then yeah, they're probably getting out of there pretty quick. Most of the time it's a trot. Sometimes the deer are actually walking through because they're so far ahead of the dogs.
Yeah, yeah, I've heard that that they don't. You know, in your head, you conjure this kind of chaotic image of deer running everywhere. But they're the deer are pretty wise to that game of getting chased by canines too, and they're not they're not generally going to put themselves in a position where they got to go, you know, antelope to get out of there. Like they're they're ahead of the game.
Yeah. Yeah, And a lot of times you have I mean, you have enough time to make a decision like, oh this is an a legal buck, Oh this is a buttonhead, Oh this is a dough. I'm probably gonna let this one pass.
Yeah, that's it's it's actually pretty cool. I'll like kind of reluctantly admit.
Man, it's yeah, it's a blast. And when when someone gets gets one, it's it's awesome. And then the recovery rate is even if someone you know, unfortunately makes a bad shot, like you know, by the time the dogs, you know, get it, you know, the deers slow down. You know, you're you're in a position where much like bear hunting, right when they've got a bear surround it, it's very similar. And so recovery rates is pretty exceptional too.
Well, that's interesting. I suppose you know, we should probably talk about uh some scouting here because I'm interested because I was thinking how miserable a lot of my scouting trips are in the summer, and then I'm like, I'll bet you I should probably shut my mouth because I'll bet you if you had a scout deer down where you live, it's a hell of a lot worse. But you actually do a lot of your scouting like January February time frame.
Huh, yeah, that's really the best time to get intel for the obviously for the next year, but you can also you know, because we don't really get snow down here. It's not we might get a flurry every now and then, but like, yeah, you can basically as soon as the season ends, you can do your winter scouting. And it's great because you know for that time of year. If you're scouting for you know, December January, those deer are
going to be on that same pattern. You could bet the next time based on like the food sources that are available at time. But yeah, I like to do you know, at the end of January, so February we also have that's when our another. Squirrel season is in rabbit so it runs the end of the month, so that's a good time. We kind of walk the woods with a shotgun, and when I've done that in the past, I'm typically I'm on a scouting mission, but if I
see a rabbit or squirrel, it's a bonus. Yeah. You know, the woods are laid there, you can see you know, tracks, you can see the paths, like, yeah, it's just kind of wide open, and I really try to focus on especially if I know if I've seen deer in one location and I'm that's where I'm spending my time scouting.
Because you're primarily hunting public land, right, Yeah, Yeah.
I have. My dad owns about one hundred and forty acres, but it's it's about a two hour drive for me, and so I had to pass up a lot of land to get there, a lot of public land, so it just makes sense. But I do hunt plenty of private as well.
Do you do you find because I was wondering about this. You know, when we when we winter scout up here, our goal is you're kind of looking for rut signs. So if I get out in February, I do the
same thing as you do. I go score hunting, rabbit hunting a lot, and you know it's it's basically a glorified scouting mission where I might choot a rabbit or squirrel, you know, but the conditions Like if I if I go out in February here and I find deer beds, it doesn't mean that much to me, you know, because because the conditions have changed so much from when I'll be hunting them in November October versus then you know, they might have moved a long ways. They're they're thinking
about geothermal cover, they're they're in survival mode. And it's so some sign that we focus on, you know, like the rubs and scrapes, you know, those are those are valuable because you know when they were made. But if you look at like a fresh trail here in February, it doesn't doesn't translate well to next bo season, you know. But I wonder about you, like in your situation and down south, in a lot of places, you don't have a big seasonal seasonal shift quite like we do. Like
they're not worried about freezing to death in Mississippi. So do you see like a tighter correspondence to that spring scouting, like every sign, every trail track you find, like, is it pretty tight to what you'd find in the season or there's still some pretty big differences.
Yeah, I say there's some still some pretty big differences because and again, you know, everything is relative. So when it I told us some moth, you know, it's January, and so what the deer, what that looks like basically is the deer shifting cover and they're also shifting you know, food patterns. So uh, and I've noticed, you know, this
changes even for dough like dough bedding areas. You know, whatever that was in October probably isn't going to be at least some you know, if you're hunting primarily like public land and you're you're hunting hard and soft mass and brows, national browse, like that's going to change, and that's probably gonna change their betting area from October, uh
to the end of the season. You know. And at the end of January this past year, I was sort of focused on a dough group that was pointing the key in on the rut because I knew there was a buck in the area. And so in October, you know, these dough group, this dough group was better in one area because they were their betting area was right next to any of white oaks wheny of red oaks bat some of that hard mass that they're hitting as soon
as they're dropping in October and then throughout November. But then the same dough group eventually, you know, so the end of December, end of January ended up and I saw them consistently, you know, coming out, I know, four or five nights from another betting area, and it was eight hundred yards away from that, and that was because
they shifted the betting area. They shifted to at this really soft edge along it was the cutover with pines that are probably twelve fifteen feet tall, and then there was a ton of brows, ton of like green brier that they've been munching on. And then there were also a lot of water oaks, which are kind of like the least desirable out of the you know, the white
white oaks and red oaks. I found that water oaks are really kind of the last ones that they're going to eat as the season progresses, and so yeah, it was just cool to see like how that shifted based on what their food source was at that time of year and what food was available to.
Those water oaks. Is is that a tannin thing as well? Like the difference between the white and the reds. Yeah, yeah, so you actually have three options to play there, you know, the whites first, then the reds, and then the water oaks.
Yeah. And we also have a swamp chestnut oak, which is those are awesome too. If you found one of those that those can be really hot. Yeah, food autumn for them too. There's a giant acren just like a wide oak.
Clay would be so proud of you for saying that acren. So are you primarily I'm not getting a big destination food source viab out of you, So you're you're primarily scouting hard mass, soft mass and browse to keion and then narrow it maybe down to dough group betting based around food sources and then play the buck game around that.
Yeah, and I mean for the bug betting too. So the thing about the South, like our growing season is exponentially longer than the rest of the country, and so that so there's a ton of betting area, Like you know, that's one thing you talk about. You know, Southern hunting doesn't get deer hunting doesn't get a ton of coverage. And that's one thing you know, I've noticed throughout the years, like with the betting that you know, a lot of Midwestern guys key in on or it just really wasn't
applicable to the South because there's so much betting. Just because it's so thick and everything's so green for so long, deer can bed and feed in the same place and really not have to move that far all day.
Do you find because of that that there there's just looser patterns too.
Yeah, well, it seems like they're looser patterns. I think it's just that when there's ample amount of coverage and big bucks don't have to leave cover or they don't have to travel far to find the food, it's it seems like the deer aren't moving. But you know, we know, like you know MSU deer lab right up the road is down studies where it's like, no, these these bucks
are moving, just like they move in the Midwest. It's like they move in the Northeast like they're just in cover or you're just not in the right place.
Isn't it amazing how just just levels of visibility, color our entire experience around that, right, Like, and it was bad when we didn't have trail cameras and you had to actually lay eyes on them somehow, and now with trail cameras it's gotten like exponentially worse, where it's like we just draw these conclusions based off these tiny, little anecdotal pieces of evidence, like well they're all nocturnal or
they don't move through here. And then you know, when you keep talking about this, all I keep thinking in my head is Big Woods hunting, Like it just it reminds me of that where it's like you're not going to pinpoint like a specific you know, bench on a on a bluff side and be like he's gonna bed there.
There's a billion places for it. And then if there isn't that dreamy cornfield or soybean field, then you're like, now the pattern doesn't seem A to B because I can't watch it and there's not the consistency to it. So it's a totally different game than a lot of way tail hunting.
Yeah, no, it's it's very much like the Big Woods because we have so many betting areas, you know, and a lot of a lot of mistakes. I see guys making is like they do. They get a nice buck on camera and they're like, oh, well he's betting here. I know he's betting here because I have them on camera and all I need to do is like play the wind and set up here. The reality is like, okay,
he was better there that day. But there's also great betting four hundred yards away over here, or there's you know to the south, there's like two hundred yards away, there's even more betting, and it's like all that buck has to do is like travel through that and browse through that and or being one different location than when you expect them to be here, and it's like, oh,
well somebody killed him. He's gone nocturnal. So yeah, it is a lot like Big Wood's hunting without, but on a much smaller scale.
Well, and it's pretty flat too, right, Yeah.
That's another thing that can be frustrating. Right, it's really flat in a lot of places. So you know, looking for those you know, awesome topographical features like oh, like here's a saddle, I know it's gonna be here, or here's a ridge system. Not to say we don't have those, we definitely have those. The way deer traveling or utilizing those can be a lot different because of the betting.
It's like they're not going to bet on the end of a bald ridge when you know there's a pine thicket three hundred yards away from that and they can get to the food source and still have the wind at their back and feel comfortable with it.
Yeah, I think, And just as just generally speaking, the thicker it gets, the ladder it gets, the harder it gets. Like you talk about play and win and patterning deer. I mean I I never really realized this until I started hunting a lot of big wood stuff because I grew up hunting bluff country, you know, like, and I didn't I didn't understand the advantage you have in figuring out deer movement when there's a lot of turn like up and down terrain, and then when it starts to
get flatter. It's like a whole not even just like betting, not just travel like that. There's a whole different ballgame you have to play where they don't have to go through here from point A to B, and they can easily get down wind to you, and if they figure out that you might be there, they will get down wind to you, and it's it changes the entire game by a lot.
Yeah, it does. And I think that's what makes you know, a lot of the you know, a lot of advice you hear from the industry. You know, it's almost like this blanket statement for deer hunting, like, oh, just find the the funnel. And it's like, okay, well what if your funnel is like this wide. Yeah, and obviously, and that's the that's the key though, like you can still
find those places. It's just king in on sign. It is king in on you know, if there is slight topographical features that might not you know, pop up on on X or something like. It's it's getting in there, getting boots on the ground and finding, you know, those things that aren't going to show up on the map. Like this past year, I was kind of just speed scouting a place in the middle of the season. I
was still hunting. The wind was was kind of squirrely this day, so I was like, well, I'm gonna kind of play a conservative, just use this as a scouting day. There's an area that I'd been wanting to check out. It's kind of downwind of some bedding between and there's a there's a little strip of timber between it and the creek, and so I just want to get in
there and check it out. So I was still hunting through there during gun season and didn't show up on the map at all, but there was just this I'm I don't even know what you would call it. It was like maybe four feet tall. It was like a mini ridge just jutting out from this cutover. And I was like, I'm gonna go check that out. I bet there's a scrape on it. And I went and checked it out,
and there's just this massive community scrape on it. And this was, you know, during our rut this so this was in near the end of December, fresh Fresh scrape community scrape. But buck had worked it that morning. The branch was broken, there was dirt in the leaves. I was like, okay, this is hot sign. I'm just gonna kind of set up down wind of this and see
what happens. And sure enough, like a buck who we so we have antler restriction here, And I couldn't tell if this buck was you know, he was a borderline, but sure enough he came down winded that and I just kind of watched him check out that scrape and then move on.
Yeah, is it isn't it wild? How even? I mean, the rules do apply, it's just not it's just different. You know when you when you talk about like a four foot rise, there's so many places where that wouldn't even like, it wouldn't even register. And then when once you get into flat country, it's a whole different thing,
and they're still using terrain features that way. I wanted to ask you so while you're while you're out there scouting, because I've found that too, where the traditional advice on like get that get on that terrain trap, that that pinch point, that funnel, whatever. When it the flatter it gets, the harder it is to find. Usually that corresponds with a lot of swamps and a lot of water, and
you're talking about getting rain every day. And the one thing that I started to find when I started hunting more that was, yeah, I don't have like just this badass like saddle that's got you know, like you know, a bluff side saddle or something that's going to force movement.
But I started to find a little higher ground going between swamp to swamp or you know, you know, hardwood to hardwood, something like something just to work with, and it was usually tied to a water feature, like they're going to go through here because it's easier than swimming or going through the mud straight across. Do you do you find that? Yeah?
Absolutely so in relation of water. So I was hunting this one area last year, new area, and basically it is where the creek was making a almost a complete u and so a lot of those places right the creek when it does get high, it's kind of washing out those sides or exposing some of it and just kind of forms a natural creek crossing. So I will look for those and then really a lot of it. A lot of success I've had has been like just getting boots on the ground because a lot of those
things don't show up. And one in particular I found last year and it didn't even show up, Like was this steep embankment. So we're where the creek hauld basically wash this bank out and it was probably a twenty foot drop there, but there's creek crossing at the base of it. There was two really nice rubs, rubs that I was excited about on both sides of that creek crossing.
And then there was also one on top of that little little bluff, so it kind of made this sea shape down around the creek down to that crossing, if this is making sense, and you could almost see like you can almost see all the rubs leading around from that from the top of that embankment down to where that creek crossing was at, and of course there was you know, tons of tracks you're signed them just traveling
through there. So finding those little little places where you know, maybe the creek isn't as deep, yeah, I think those are key to when when you're dealing with such a wide, flat area, like looking for those those crossings that are really easy for them to get through so they don't have to wait or they don't have to make a huge job of a bank.
Do you find when you're doing that, you know, let's say you're out there in February March and you're looking around for something like that. Do you find a lot of consistent spots or do you find something where you're like, man, the signs here from you know, this past season they just wrapped up. I'm gonna give it a shot. But you because what I'm going with this is like when I hunt public land a lot and I scouted a lot.
I feel like sometimes I stumble onto something that's really good, like that a spot, But a lot of times I feel like I'm just getting clued into a pattern, you know, kind of like when you're a bass mentioned where you're like, oh, they're just doing this, Like I just need to do this now because I know, you know, people might come in, they might run their dogs through there, like things are
gonna change there. But the more you expose yourself to, you know, looking at this type of spot in person, you go, Okay, they use this here, even though this isn't gonna maybe last for years and years because things are going to change. It's I'm better off knowing it because I can see this again and again in different spots.
Yeah. So one thing, edges I think are a big thing that people overlook, even in the South, like so hard or soft edges, especially those soft edges that are
really subtle. So last year I was hunting this buck and I was basically I'd found his rubs and I was pretty sure I knew where they were leading to this general betting area, and I was trying to narrow down exactly where how he was accessing it or kind of where he was betting at because it's oh, I don't know, like five hundred acres of a bit of potential betting and he's probably not betting out in the
middle of it, like it's just too thick. That also just doesn't really give him a super advantage as far as like if he needs to get out of.
There, Yeah, he doesn't need to put in that work when you can get the advantage closer to the edge, right right.
And I think that's another thing too that people would just assume, like, oh, there's a giant block of you know, young pines like that deer, there's gonna there's gotta be a massive buck in there, and that's just you know, unfortunately not the case. He's not diving off in the middle of there. But so anyway, I was hunting this area I found as rubs. I was trying to you know, backtrack it back to the bedding. What I found was a lot of these rubs were in this bedding area too.
Went up slightly, so I wouldn't even call it a hill. Really, it might have went up ten twenty feet, not a significant change. But what I did notice is that his rubs were long. This transition right, which is was pretty
you know universal. You know, you find that buck travel route, you find that sign along these transitions, and eventually I ended up seeing this buck during the rut the same area, and the doe that by this point it kind of shifted to this area as well, just because the natural brows, so they had shipped closer to where the buck was betting. But but but I have found that like those soft edges, even though they get overlooked, there's bucks on there and
if they're leading, you know, that's leading to bedding. There's a lot of good natural brows there. Like there's a lot of greenbrier that have been nipped off, so there's food there. You know, when he's staging before he's going out into the the woods, you know, the big open woods, he's not he's not going to be there in shooting light. But that browse area, Yeah, that's that's kind of where I saw him at.
Well, let's let's talk about that a little bit. Because the soft edges don't get a lot of love, and like you just you kind of just laid out there is a you know, they connect something to sell thing typically, so there's they're kind of a natural travel route with some cover keep you hidden. They almost always offer some kind of brows that you might not find in that nice big open woods or that woods you'd want a turkey hunt through or whatever. And it's not so thick
that it kind of sucks to be there. So it has all these different advantages and they're just not something that a lot of people are going to focus on. So, so give me an example when you're down there, whether you're winter scouting or you're sneaking through you know, bow hunting, rifle hunting, whatever, what Like, what's a scenario where you'd find a soft edge? Like what creates it for you down there?
Yeah? So usually when so we have a lot of pine and hardwood bigs and a lot of these places, especially if you're hunting National forest or you know WMAs, then those are like they're not logging those, especially if they're you know, mature woods like so where those come together typically even if they're you know, older pines. A lot of the way the WMA is managed is sort of dictated by pine growth as well, because right they can regenerate, they provide a lot of bedding cover for deer.
So anywhere that's been logged, right, so you think about logging cuts, you know, which is obviously applicable to the big woods if you're thinking about the northeast or even
big woods anywhere else. So where there's been disturbance there, whether it's been five to ten years, a lot of those transitions from from there to big open hardwoods, right because the deer are going to want to be there in the early season, and there's still going to be plenty of brows in those transitions later on in the season as well.
Yeah, and that's you know, you kind of mentioned earlier that a lot of the traditional white tail advice doesn't really apply to you and or you know, to southern
hunting in general. And I think it's important to know because you would think, like it's really easy for me to write an article about the scouting and how to find a soft edge in my world, right, like you could you can see it depending if you know what to look for, you can find those and the timber production like you're talking about is the easiest way to
find it. But there's you know, there's old homesteads in the woods, there's old fence lines, there's old meta like there's stuff that you can find and you'd think, okay, well I get into the big woods down south, and you know, maybe on X or something isn't quite as valuable. But you just have to learn how to read it differently.
And and I would say probably have to get your ass in there and walk around a little bit more to actually see how it goes versus just calling your shots from staring at your phone screen.
Oh that's been yeah, that that's probably been the biggest help. It's just like obviously, like you know, narrowing down a place is super helpful and be like, okay, I can tell obviously here's a here's some potential bedding, right, this has been cut in the last whatever five years. I know this is gonna be some. This is gonna be great betting. Now need to get in there and see, like, okay,
well what's going to keep them around there? What? Because we have a lot of sweet gums too, And now I've known, you know a lot of guys look at a map or and think like, oh this is this should be great, and it's like, no, it looks like a bunch of great hardwoods, but that's the whole block of sweet gums. And they don't have any reason to be to be in there trying to know where we're going with.
Well, just just talking about the difference in kind of learning what to read on on X and stuff and just you know, like again kind of the same rules kind of, but it's a different playing field.
Yeah, for sure, and especially long you know, if you're hunting along creek or river systems, that's another thing, like there's probably gonna be some cane breaks around there where deer can bed, and they're probably not gonna bet in those super consistently, depending on the size of these cane breaks, but a lot of times, especially you know, if a place, depending on how wet it stays and how deep the water is, deer will bed and super thick stuff like
that on the edge of cane breaks. Actually jumped up a buck last year in a cane break that might have been ten feet by ten feet. It was in
the middle of big woods, but it was closer. It was one of those subtle soft edges, right, So there was a couple patches of cane that he was kind of the one that he was in, and then it steadily got thicker and thicker into what you know, he probably would assume was betting, but he was just betting in you know, this patch of cane, and you know that doesn't really look like a soft edge, but it is. And it was just really subtle, and you're not going to know that until you bump a deer out of it.
I think I think under standing edge habitat as a as an outdoorsman in general is like way important. I mean, we this is gonna sound way off topic, but I'll bring it home. Like we pheasant hunt a lot up here, and we hunt a lot of cattail sleughs. And you stand and look into a cattail slough that's a couple of hundred acres, and it looks like mono habitat, like you know, it looks like a cornfield right like you're like, it looks all the same. You might see a little
patch of willows or something out there. You might see some like differentiation somewhere, But once you get into there, you start jumping roosters where there's an edge of some sort, like it's where those cattails meet some other kind of brush or a little higher ground, or you know, a little waterway through there or something, and those are also
the same place as you jump deer. And then when you start doing what you're talking about, and you get into the woods and you scout a lot and pay attention, you realize there are concentrations of deer around these things that you just wouldn't know until you were there.
Yeah, and you you know, it's easy when you're looking at an app right, it looks like everything is nice and divided, right, and everything looks like a hard edge. Or even even the way we think about, you know, deer movement or deer bedding is like, oh, the deer bed here, I hunt here, and it's gonna happen here.
And that's hardly the case, right, yep. They just don't move from We like to think of the deer movement as being linear, but and it may seem like that, but I think that's far from far from the case.
It's even in places where it should be, at least in my experience. You know, when I've hunted out west and I'm hunting like a river bottom where I can see them, you know what I mean, I see them moving early and there they should be going from this patch of cover to that field. You wash how they do it, and so often it is not that linear. Movement. You will see that right at last slight and right at first light sometimes where it's like they just put
their nose down and they go. But most of the time where they're killable isn't where they're they're taking that road. That's a that's a during dark type of thing a lot of times.
Yeah, And like you know, I'll hunt my dad. My dad and I we plant food pots at his place, and you know, will hunt those. And but when all you see is deer coming into the food pot, you think, oh, well, deer just came from bedding here, And it's like, yeah, you didn't see that deer across the you know, come up to the creek feat along the edge of it, you know, clip some of this green brier, and then dip down. Maybe maybe they like made a movement back up this way to get the wind where they came
out at the food pot. You don't see that.
No, because you're not You're just literally not witnessing it. So I want to I want to switch gears a second here. Uh do you do any i'mer scouting down there?
Yeah, I'll do not a ton. I do a couple, especially if I want to check out new places. Just to kind of get boots on the ground and see see what's there. Because if it looks like you know, if it's got one bedding, it's got good access. I can get in there and I know there's you know,
I can see a ton of white oaks around. If I can see that there's good brows, then you know, I kind of make a note, whether mentally or in on on X and uh, you know, make that, just make that note, you know, like hey, I should come back here and check this out, or am I getting there? Like last year I went, I wanted to check this place out because access to it was very limited as far as like other hunters would go or what they
would be willing to do. And I was like, oh, this should be a great place, you know, and got in there and it just wasn't the case. So so I'll use for summer scouting. That's kind of my approach to it. It's like, hey, is this going to be a good option that I need to check out again? So it's not really an in depth and it's also just so thick. We have a ton of snakes down here and it's just you know, screaming hot, So it's not it's cool, but it gets the old point too.
So you kind of use your January February time window to scout places that you're like, I hunt here, like this is one of my go to properties. And then in the summer you're looking at on X or whatever and you're like, hey, I you know, I don't really know that WMA or that part of the national forest. So then you'll go in and kind of turn and burn and just see if it's worth some more of your time. Right do you do you run trail cameras down there at all?
Now I'm a public land. Will we do some my dad's place that we hunt? It just doesn't really. I found that the hot sign is just way more useful than trying to fumble with cameras.
Because you feel like you're sort of working on old information all the time.
That and I do a lot of still hunting anyway, so I'm you know, I'm trying to I'm on the move, and especially when the rut kicks in, like I feel like that is where a lot of people get, you know, fall into a trap. It's like, oh, here's my this is the dad I've got from the camera. Well that's cool. If you saw this buck here two days ago, but he might not be here. He could be fire for me yards away. You know, he could be half a
mile away. And I've just found that, you know, if you're hunting public land, it's just a lot easier if you do the work yourself.
Yeah, I don't. I love trail cameras on private land. I don't use them on public like almost never, because I just feel like it's it's not the right tool for the job for what I'm doing. Anyway, what's the gun season down there? Because I know in a lot of places, you know, we talk about gun season up here, it might be a couple of weeks or a month,
depending on where you live. But I know in a lot of Southern states there's like a pretty prolonged, you know, rifle season in a lot of places that you know, overlaps with the BOST season. What are you dealing with down there?
So our gun season thing kicks off? It's like November eighteen?
When does your BOST season start?
October? First?
We did.
We did get a three day velvet season last year in starts in September. I think it's like maybe the second or third week of September, but it's three days.
So then your traditional bost season opens October one, and then your your gun season opens in like third week of November something like that.
Okay, then, so depending on where your hunting gap, whether it's National forest or wm A. You know, there are primitive weapons seasons in there as well. But if you're hunting private land at least here in Mississippi, uh, you can use weapon of choice once gun season opens, So yeah, you can use whatever rifle you want. Basically from that third weekend November to the end of end of January.
Are there any Is there any people out there still bowl hunting by like the end of December.
Honestly, there's not a ton of people. Uh, not a ton of people bow hunting in October? Like can like bow hunting, I feel like isn't as big in Southern culture as it is in the Midwest, right because there's a lot of states you can't You're limited to straight wall cartridges or shotguns. You know, I grew up, I didn't. I didn't start bow hunt until I was in college because nobody in my in my family bow hunted. It was like, why why are you gonna hunt? Not October,
it's hot, there's a ton of mosquitoes. Hunting is not going to get good until that first we get gun season anyway, And so they're like, I'm telling you, the amount of boat owners I ran into hunting public land is right now, it is very little, huh.
And I mean that's largely well, it's a function of the conditions, but it's also a function of having just a long available gun season.
Yeah, I mean, and that's the idea. Like a lot of people are like, well, why would I, you know, miss a chance at shooting a bug if I can take my rifle, which, you know, if that's what you want to do, that's fine. But yeah, we and because you know, I know a lot of a lot of Midwesterners talk about the the October loll right, which is is or isn't this thing?
That's Kenyon's bullshit. That's not.
Well, you know, in the South, we have the October November role, so we open at the same time. It's just the no, the deer's still moving, got to find.
But how does that affect your scouting? Knowing knowing there's going to be you know, four months of pressure on those year and two and a half months or whatever that is is going to be rifle hunters, and probably a lot of them kind of doing what you're doing, where they're still hunting because of the terrain and maybe not not setting up and waiting on them as much as they would in other places. Does it affect your
scouting at all? I mean, is that why you're so tuned into like the mass thing because you can follow it by you know, timeframe of the season.
Yeah, so it does a little bit. I mean mainly with that effects is the places I'm going to spend time, so you know, if it's depending on depending on where it's at and so so part of that scouting too is I'm looking for hunter activity as well, Like is there been a lot of hunters here? Do I see
a lot of trucks parked there as well? And in the past, I've had the privilege of like to be able to hunt during a week a lot, which I've had a great, great success with, Like as far as running into other hunters just for whatever reasons, you know, on Saturdays, it's a different story. But during the week, so that's one thing I try to shoot for. But as far as like places I'm gonna to target to hunt. You know, I'm thinking, all right, my access, how far
away is it from the nearest parking lot? Is this a heavily pressure wm A. If it's not, then I'm pretty I can just about bed. I'm not going to run into anybody. It's kind of crazy, like like I think that especially. I just think the South is like overlooked. I don't know why. I mean, we like Mississippi, like
this state produces good bucks. Like you know, on public land and private you can shoot a Like I'm not gonna say you should hold out for a one hundred and fifty class year on public land, but the reality of you, you know, getting a shot at a nice book is I mean, it's reality. There's just not a lot of pressure that I've found.
Now.
There are places right like I'd like the Delta, which is, you know, known for producing big bucks in the state, it gets pressured a lot. But also the public land you're dealing with out there is more. It's a lot smaller, it's a lot more concentrated. Your access to places are also a lot easier, whereas you're if you're dealing with you know, a lot of national forest here in like the central or even the northern and southern parts of
the state. Like you know, you might walk, you know, a mile or even half a mile and not even not worry about seeing a hunter. It's it's cool and pretty wild to think about.
At the same time, what I'm getting from you are a couple things that are like, there are lessons that everybody who's listening to this should pay attention to. You kind of alluded to this earlier and I want to touch on it, and I kind of forgot, but when you mentioned there's betting everywhere, Like that lesson is look at where you hunt. What does the land have everywhere
for the deer, because that's not that important. So if you're just as an example, like if you if you went and hunted someplace in Iowa, food would be everywhere, you know, And I'm not saying don't focus on food. I'm just saying the betting would be more important there.
Now you talk about hunting down there, and it's like, man, we've got betting everywhere, So you better brush up on browse, you better brush up on these little subtle elevation changes where they might throw that community scrape because it's it's there's an advantageous position there, something like what isn't like
overly common there? You've got water everywhere down there, You're not going to play that pattern, right like if you're you know, if you're in South Dakota in some places, that might be a huge deal because there could be limited water, like think about that. And then the other thing is we tend to focus so much on all the disadvantages we have. So you mentioned a couple things about how thick it is, you know, how snakes, the mosquitos,
the general weather. But also even though you have this super long gun season that keeps a bunch of bow hunters out, so you have an advantage there is a bow hunter in a major way. And this is this goes for anyone wherever you're living. There's bad parts about where you hunt, but you probably have some advantages that maybe you're not giving full credit to that could work, like you could work them. And I love hearing that. And it's not to say that any of that's easy.
It's not like it's going to you know, I know, Adam's sitting here telling you just come down there and shoot a couple one thirties and you'll be good. It's not so simple. But you do have advantages, and I think that's so cool about wherever you hunt.
Yeah. Absolutely, And I think one thing too, you know, me and a buddy, we're joking this past year, you know, just all the people we were listening to or talking on social media. You know, it's like, you know, mid December and it's like, well, deer season's over. That's it for this year. I guess we're gonna start time flies or whatever now, and it's like like, man, we haven't even hit the rut yet, Like like we have a month and a half of good, great deer hunting that's
about to hit. And it really is. It's cool, like we don't have to deal with snow. You know, I don't have to tie flies to pass the time. You know, when winter gets here, it's like, no, this is like a great time to be in the woods, our rut. Depending on where you're at in the state, you know, it could be the first week of December, it could
be the first week of January, which is great. Like I think that's why I set out to do English, or or I was thinking I was gonna do education because a freshman year of college, I had this month off and I had pre rut, the rut, the post rut to hunt, and I was like, man, this is great. I'm gonna go into education and teach college so I can just like hunt and this is gonna be great.
Dur in the South, I mean, I think my freshman year of college, so we have like a pretty liberal bag limit here, so you know, you can take three bucks and you can take I think it's four dos. I think it was five. But my freshman year at college, I filled three bug tags and a dough and was like, man, this is this is awesome, you know, and I think that is drastically different from obviously from you know, typical you know hunting industry.
So well for sure. I mean, one of my biggest complaints about living in Minnesota is it's a one buck state. Generally we have some CWD stuff where you can shoot more now, but it's like, man, if you go out and you kill one on opening day, you're like, well, like, I'm going to be that trout dork that you talk about. It's tie and flies, like all those all those guys we work with out in Bozeman who are going to be mad at you for saying that they're not gonna
let you in their drift boats. Uh, you mentioned everybody wants to hear this. I don't really care about snakes. They don't bother me very much. I've been around them a lot, and I don't have that like gene deep fear of them, But a lot of people do, and they always want to hear about it. What are you watching out for snake wise? Down there?
So we got a lot of cotton mouths, and then you know down especially down south here around this National Fourth, we've got a lot of timber rattlers, copper heads two. But I found that cotton mouths really the biggest thing, especially you know it's wet if you're hunting a creek system or river bottom of cotton mouths now. And I've seen I have seen them out all year. I've seen snakes, you know, in February. But as far as like when
I'm when I'm deer hunting, like, I'm not worried about them. Yeah, you know, if it's the if it's the early early both season, yeah, Turkey season. Yeah. But as far as far as the middle of der season, have.
You ever been struck?
No? I came close last year. I was summer scouting and I was just gonna drop jump across this little little creek, and I guess I just forgot to look this time and jumped across. And as soon as I jumped and I landed, I looked, and then I just saw this white mouth open and then one one leave. I just went right back across, and I was like, Nope, it's not that important. I can check it out later.
Are cotton it's pretty aggressive?
No, I mean no, unless you're trying to mess with them, you'll walk right by.
It's just a matter of contact of running into them in the places you're scouting deer a lot of times.
Yeah, unless you even even if you step on them that they're they're really not that aggressive.
What's your spider situation like, because that's what I do not like.
Yeah, so I would rather have snakes than spiders. H Man post season, especially in their early early part, it's full of them. It's part of it.
Like what what what kind?
Oh? I mean they're all harmless. They're like, uh, I don't know what you would call a lot. We used to call banana spiders. They're kind of black and yellow and they make these they can they can get really big, but they're you know, they're not boisonous, and it's just kind of aicky thing.
Yeah, they're disgusting.
Yeah, I just don't want tom crawling. I would literally I would rather have a snake than a spider any day.
Me too. I I hunted the first time I hunted down in Oklahoma. I uh, I don't set up a spot whatever. Went to go back in there the next morning. And this was this was on October one. They're opener down there that I think it still is, but that's
what it was at that time. And I had my head lamp on and I just remember like walking along and there were spiders hanging like it was like they were almost out in the open air because their webs were so big and they were so big, and I just like, you know, you'd look up the trail and they're all the way up there, and you're like, I have to go up there, and I'm like, I think, I just want to go back and get my truck
and go home. And I should have on that trip, because that was the one where I almost lost my nuts on a fence post. But I just do not like spiders so here in that because you almost had me talked into making that trip down there at some point and then you start talking about this, I'm like, man, I don't know. I don't mind having these winners where all of our spiders are these little loser, tiny spiders that we don't have to worry about.
Oh they're not now once you get past the first first part of the season, they're not issue at all.
What do you worry about down there that could actually besides the snakes, that could actually mess you up a little bit.
Other hunters?
Yeah, no, there's really we have coyoties, but you know, I mean, but like what could bite you? Like you got any scorpions or fire ants or any of that stuff.
No, I know Alabama has some scorpions, yeah, fire ants, but I'm not you know, unless you're hunting a field edge or something, you know, or you walk through one or you're standing in want. No, not really nothing really else to be worried about. Well, we have sorry, we have black bears, but they're really uncommon to see.
You can't hunt them, can you?
No? No?
And you so you said that, you know you you like to still hunt down there. You got a lot of land to roam, and you're kind of hunting cover that's somewhat conducive to that to moving around and find a fresh sign and slowing down. Do you do any I mean, are you setting any stands? Are you doing any saddle hunting any of that stuff?
No, Yeah, I've got saddle and so I mean I do I think equally amount of both. It just depends on the day. Like, man, if we get a rain that passes through that morning, like I'd rather be moving rather be still hunting, especially if I'm on a you know, if I'm going to check out somewhere that's new, you know, it doesn't really behoove me to just go pick a spot and sit. So I love still hunting for that reason,
but I'd say i'd split the time. It just depends on on the on the weather, on the conditions and stuff like that.
Do you find that that's you know, still hunting, A you're actively hunting, but B you're also actively scouting while you're actively hunting, and so does your season kind of break down to you know, if you find that you know, just banging you know, white acorn drop or something like that, and you're like, I have to be here now and post up for a while, and that situation dies or you blow it out and you're like, all right, it's time to go back to still hunt and just figure
out where they are. Is that kind of how you operate?
Yeah, I think one. I think it just like helps you from getting burned out. You know, early season, when deer pretty much on a especially October or November, you know, you know they're hitting those white oaks. They're pretty patternable at that stage. I really love to do a lot of still hunting during the rut. Like I know, a lot of people will say, Okay, you just need to
sit over this funnel. Eventually it's gonna happen. It's like, okay, well, if you have limited time, you know, and you're sitting in this point, you're pushing on your chips in on one or two places, It's like, okay, well what if the action's not there? You know. And I think a lot of people, you know, especially here right when you're trying, you're thinking about a lot of bedding cover, but also a lot of you know, food too as far as
like you know, white oaks go whatever. You know, a lot of people are like, okay, well I got a trail pick here, or I'm just gonna set up here. This looks like a place where you know a buck would travel through. Well, I don't know, I just don't want to. I feel more productive if i'm I'm going where where the action is, you know. And so if you can still hunt your way through you know one of those edges, you know where you know deer moving through.
I did that last year. I was still hunting and didn't get a shot, but I heard something and I looked and there these doughs running towards me. And this was like one of the days I wanted to be in the woods for the rut, so I posted up and I could see antlers run it through the woods, and anyway, he ended up pushing those doughs literally like ten yards. They busted me. He didn't really know what
was going on and and ran off. But it's like, but I wouldn't have known at that point, like, oh, this is where the action is ended up, you know, seeing a lot of action. Uh there a couple of days later, but I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't been still hunting.
Yeah, I mean, it's this is so cliched, but it is a lost art, you know. I mean, when when I was growing up and I first started deer hunting, I still hunted a lot. I mean, it was just it was more fun to me than sitting in a tree stand. And it's you know, part of it. If you don't have the land to room, it doesn't do any good, you know. So if you're if you're hunting thirty acres, like you're gonna post up like you just are. But if you have the land of room, man, you
get an educator. I mean, not only is it just fun, because it's just not it's just not sitting and waiting, you know, but you also get an education on how to read terrain and like where to stop and when to move and man, your spidy senses get real sharp when you do that, like you start to figure out like and I think you kind of plug into a rhythm and nature that you're It's not so passive as just like you know, when's out of the west, I sit in this tree, like you're out there and now
you gotta gotta peek down into this thing and like, oh, there's a bunch of sun blazing through here, so I'm gonna work around it. And it's it's a kind of an immersive different experience and it can be so much fun.
Yeah, it is, and I mean, I mean I think that, like I said, it it stops you from getting burned out. You actually see where the hot sign is, You see what where the movement is, where it's going on. It also just spells all those myths, like you know, if you go somewhere and sit you don't see deer where, well, it's like, oh, well that's not happening. Maybe it's not
going on right now. Maybe the deer aren't here. It's like, well, if you'd been still hunting, you know, and you would walk, you know, three hundred more yards, it's like, oh, there's where the action's happening. So, you know, I think a lot of times too, you know, people will say, oh, they're locked down right now, like I promise there's some deer moving somewhere, but they got to move.
Yeah. Those those blanket statements drive me crazy too, like the lull or the lockdown, or like oh they're all nocturnal, like all of them are.
Yeah, I mean a lot. That's why a lot of people you know I talk to who live here, their whole lives probably only how to maybe they've hunted. Public plan maybe they haven't, but it always gets trash. I'm like, we can trash it if you want. But I see plenty of deer moving, plenty of daylight on public land and they're there.
Yep. What are the antler board restrictions? What's the restriction down there?
So? I think it's four on one side with in some places it's a ten inch inside spread, some places it's fifteen.
Just depends where you're at.
Yeah, So I think the delta, obviously they have a little bit. I think it as of a I can't remember the main inch main beam mean, but yeah, so I mean kind of Mississippi. You can you know you're gonna get a shot if you're gonna shoot a buck like it's going to be, you know, a decent book.
I'm just trying to figure out what the smallest deer I could shoot if I came down there would be. Yeah, uh, I can handle that.
Yeah. Maybe maybe maybe it's twelve inch main beam, ten inch inside spread.
Yeah, something like that. Adam, we're out of time, man, you're out there writing for a bunch of places. You're gonna have some stuff coming up here for Meat Eater and outdoor Life and who else.
Do you some Brian M Gear Junkie, I've got a piece come out Game and Fish mag think later this fall.
It's awesome, awesome, I appreciate it, buddy. This has been a lot of fun.
Man hey YouTube, Thanks Tony.
That's it for this week, folks, be sure to tune in next week for more whitetail goodness. This has been the Wire to Hunt podcast and I'm your guest host, Tony Peterson. As always, thank you so much for listening. And if you're looking for some more white tail content, you can head over to the meat Eater dot com and you'll see episodes of the buck Truck that those
boys from the Element put together. You can read articles by myself and Mark and Alex Gilstrom and Bomartonic and a whole bunch of white tail addicts all kinds of good information there, So head on over there if you want more whitetail content.