Episode #10 - December Tips - Scouting for 2020 - Big Announcement from Real World

Published: 2019-12-13
Episode page
Duration: 72 min

In this episode

ata-show

• Terry asks listeners to send feedback via social media about what they’d like covered at the upcoming ATA Show, which he and Don will both attend. 5:02

buck-harvest

• Terry harvested his first buck in September, while a second target buck on his farm survived Kentucky’s gun season. 9:10

buck-survival

• Don reports that two specific bucks he hoped would survive Illinois’s firearm season are both still alive after gun season ended. 7:33

buyafarm-property-vetting

• Terry states the show is committed to only featuring buyafarm.com properties the hosts are personally familiar with and have factual research on, not filler content. 2:17
• Don personally visits every property before featuring it on the podcast, walking it himself to verify it firsthand. 4:02

consulting

• Don announces his farm-consulting season has begun, with roughly 25 properties lined up to evaluate before the end of the year. 8:17

farm-management

• Don states that his farm setup is now dialed in so that any buck he wants to kill that shows up, he can eventually kill within a season. 17:21
• Don states he genuinely believes his farm is the best place he has ever hunted whitetails in his life. 37:41
• Terry jokingly calls his farm his ‘Graceland,’ agreeing it’s the best place he’s ever hunted. 37:48 (light moment)

giveaway

• Terry announces that Lone Wolf’s social media is running a giveaway offering a prize package every day, contributed by people who work with Lone Wolf. 68:58
• Don adds that his team donated a bucket of Maximizer mineral for each day of Lone Wolf’s giveaway, while Lone Wolf itself is giving away a tree stand daily. 69:51

invasive-plants

• Curt Maching of Aviston, Illinois asks for the best tips on hunting a property overtaken by invasive bush honeysuckle. 54:58
• Terry asks whether deer like to bed in dense bush honeysuckle. 57:05

late-season-food

• Casey Kimrey of Warrington, Missouri asks how to hunt in December with no food plots, relying only on browse and cut ag fields. 59:20

listener-reward

• Don announces that Chasing Giants T-shirts will be sent to listener question-askers Dustin, Kurt, and Casey. 68:03

mature-buck

• Terry recounts killing a six-and-a-half-year-old buck he had watched for three years on a 33-acre property, showing mature bucks can be taken even on small acreage. 36:25

mature-buck-behavior

• Dustin Kiesler asks why three-and-a-half-year-old bucks he lets go on his Kentucky lease vanish rather than returning as mature four-and-a-half-year-olds. 47:44

miscanthus

• Don describes the Miscanthus variety Real World selected as a tall, sterile, noninvasive grass that spreads only a few inches per year. 18:18
• Don states that after weeks of negotiation with the patent holder, Real World secured exclusive rights to market this patented Miscanthus variety for screening. 21:59
• Don reports that by the third year his planted Miscanthus formed a full screening wall, which has persisted every year since without any additional maintenance. 22:30
• Don states he personally uses the Real World Giant Miscanthus on his own farm and considers it unmatched by any other plot screen product on the market. 29:38
• Don plans to roughly double his farm’s hunting quality within three years, crediting Miscanthus screening as a major part of that improvement. 37:52

personal-announcement

• Terry announces he’s taking a week-long trip out of the country with his wife for their twentieth wedding anniversary, despite it falling during deer season. 70:54

podcast-schedule

• Terry reports getting several social-media messages from listeners worried after a week and a half passed without a new episode. 1:19
• Don announces the show now airs about every other week rather than weekly, addressing listener Steven Polk directly. 1:50
• Terry plans for the next Chasing Giants episode to release right before Christmas. 71:07

product-launch

• Terry announces that a revolutionary new product from Real World is being released, to be discussed later in the episode. 4:39
• Terry announces that Real World’s new screening product is officially named the Real World Giant Miscanthus Plot Screen and released today. 26:17
• The new Miscanthus plot screen product will be available for sale on Real World’s website before Christmas. 26:26

product-quality

• Terry states that Real World’s internal consensus was that if this new screening product wouldn’t stand up, they wouldn’t sell it. 24:13

screening

• Terry describes how Don’s farm uses edges, screening cover, and bedding grasses aligned with food plots to create travel corridors and a feeling of security for deer. 16:11

trail-cameras

• Don explains he uses trail cameras purely as inventory to confirm which bucks are present, since he already knows where he’d hunt each one. 12:29
• Don sets trail cameras on the edges of suspected bedding sanctuaries rather than inside them, to avoid bumping mature bucks out of secure cover. 13:12
• Terry asks Don whether, while scouting other properties, he’s shifting trail cameras back to food sources or leaving them on scrapes. 10:27

Deer activity

• unnamed buck (trail-camera) 7:42
• unnamed buck (harvest) 8:45
• unnamed buck (harvest) 9:10
• unnamed buck (harvest) 36:25
• unnamed buck (harvest) 55:24
• unnamed buck (sighting) 56:03

Listener questions

Question: Terry asks Don whether, while scouting other properties, he’s shifting trail cameras back to food sources or leaving them on scrapes. 10:27

• Answer: Don explains he’s shifting his cameras from scrape locations to well-used trails leading to prime food sources. 10:37
• Answer: Don adds that his cameras are placed not on the food source itself but on major trails leading to it, since food is his focus. 11:03

Question: Dustin Kiesler asks why three-and-a-half-year-old bucks he lets go on his Kentucky lease vanish rather than returning as mature four-and-a-half-year-olds. 47:44

• Answer: Don advises that most of a hunting property should be an off-limits sanctuary area, since mature bucks above all want seclusion and freedom from human intrusion. 49:13
• Answer: Don adds that insufficient security on Dustin’s property is likely why the mature bucks aren’t sticking around. 49:21
• Answer: Terry says that once he committed to targeting mature bucks, he had to cut back on how much he entered the property. 50:28
• Answer: Terry recommends minimizing property pressure and only hunting in the right conditions and wind, meaning less time in the stand but greater success. 52:35

Question: Curt Maching of Aviston, Illinois asks for the best tips on hunting a property overtaken by invasive bush honeysuckle. 54:58 — asked by Curt Maching

• Answer: Don explains he cut a small trail through the bush honeysuckle to his stand in winter, then sprayed the stumps so the cut plants wouldn’t regrow. 55:46
• Answer: Don advises cutting a path through the honeysuckle in winter with a chainsaw or pruning saw wherever you want deer to travel, guaranteeing they’ll use it. 56:14

Question: Terry asks whether deer like to bed in dense bush honeysuckle. 57:05

• Answer: Don explains bush honeysuckle creates very thick cover but kills everything growing on the ground beneath it. 57:09

Question: Casey Kimrey of Warrington, Missouri asks how to hunt in December with no food plots, relying only on browse and cut ag fields. 59:20 — asked by Casey Kimrey

• Answer: Don says that after the rut, hunters must focus on food since that’s the deer’s priority. 59:51
• Answer: Don advises identifying deer’s preferred feeding field on the property and setting up between bedding and that food source. 60:13
• Answer: Terry says he tries to work with the landowner to understand the farmer’s plans for the field. 61:19
• Answer: Terry recommends broadcasting Real World’s winter forage oat blend. 62:09
• Answer: Terry explains broadcasting oats into standing corn or turning beans before harvest lets the combine drive over them, creating a green late-season food source if the farmer skips fall tillage. 62:18
• Answer: Don suggests broadcasting Real World Plot Topper into standing soybeans before harvest; once the farmer cuts the beans, the plot quickly grows in as a late-season food source. 64:27

Don and Terry addressed listener concern over the show shifting to a roughly biweekly schedule, then moved into hunting updates: Don’s two hoped-for bucks both survived Illinois gun season, while Terry killed his first buck in September and his second target buck survived Kentucky’s gun season. They discussed farm management philosophy, with Don explaining his trail cameras serve only as inventory since he already knows where he’d hunt each buck, and describing edge cover and bedding grasses designed to make deer feel secure. Much of the episode centered on Real World’s new Giant Miscanthus Plot Screen, a sterile, noninvasive screening grass Don uses on his own farm. Listener questions from Dustin, Curt, and Casey covered mature bucks disappearing after release, hunting bush honeysuckle-choked properties, and finding late-season food without plots, with Don and Terry recommending sanctuary space, cutting deliberate trails, and broadcasting oats or Plot Topper into standing crops.

Unofficial fan project. AI-synthesized from public episodes; may contain errors.