Episode #100 - Chasing Giants Episode 100 - Predator Control, Doe Factory, Moving Scrapes

Published: 2022-01-17
Episode page
Duration: 81 min

In this episode

advice

• Don relayed Nathan Blosser’s advice to judge anyone giving land or hunting advice by their track record and accomplishments before listening. 17:55

antler-drop

• Are early-dropping antlers just another myth like an early rut, or does whitetail antler drop naturally vary from season to season? 55:43

buck-behavior

• Why do mature bucks summer elsewhere and only show up on a property after the fall shift, and what differs between good summer and fall properties? 48:56

buy-farm-segment

• Terry and Don released the Buy Farm segment this week despite being sick because it ties to an online auction happening that week. 2:32

captive-deer-breeding

• Don described Nate Blosser as a captive deer breeder who has produced some very large bucks. 10:42

coyote

• Don noticed the deer on his property are unusually skittish this year, more than he’s ever seen. 5:42
• Sean Cogdell, the hunter drawn for Don’s church benefit hunt, shot a coyote with his bow on the first evening’s sit. 5:57
• Terry said he shot two coyotes this year and saw a coyote almost every sit while noticing the deer were skittish. 7:35
• Don observed his property’s coyote litters appear about twice as numerous this year compared to normal. 8:12
• Don said studies show coyote litter sizes increase when the population is down and shrink when the population is higher. 9:17

coyote-control

• Don joked he doesn’t care how people kill coyotes, even with helicopters and atom bombs, as long as they stay out of his deer woods. 7:01 (light moment)

creationism

• Don said the great flood and Noah’s Ark are the undeniable explanation for how fossils end up on high points. 11:21

crp

• Don learned that all of Southern Missouri is enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program. 13:56
• Locals told Don that Southern Missouri land unsuited for crops is either cedars, rocks, or persimmons, hence its CRP enrollment. 14:19

faith

• Don said that for a Christian, believing is seeing rather than the reverse. 12:24
• Don said he believes everyone will eventually believe in Jesus, though smart people do it before they die. 12:53

family

• Don shared that his grandson has a non-life-threatening health issue he expects will resolve okay. 34:14

farm-size

• Don estimated his 120-acre farm has only about 80 usable acres once house, pasture and ag fields are excluded. 65:35

fossils

• Nate Blosser told Don that a massive fossil-covered rock on his Missouri property sat at the highest point for about five counties around. 11:02
• Don noted similar fossil finds have turned up in other high places around the world, including the Himalayas, far above sea level. 11:30

gimmicks

• Terry ran a social media poll asking listeners about the biggest hunting gimmick products they’d ever seen. 75:32

habitat-management

• Terry recommended matching habitat advice to a landowner’s specific goals, since managing for whitetail differs from managing for species like quail. 17:01
• Is there a point where extensive micro-habitat projects on a small property become too much, or can experimenting continue indefinitely with minimal pressure? 60:35

hunting-experience

• Terry said he’s only ever hunted one property over 150 acres, a 600-plus-acre Indiana lease, where he tagged out in under two hours. 65:07

illness

• Don said he’d been sicker than in about five years after returning from a Missouri consulting trip. 2:01

lesters-feet

• Anne Razor reported that John passed away this past October. 31:17
• Terry credited friends Chris Yates and Bryhn Craft of Midwest Land Group as major supporters who helped get Lester’s Feet off the ground. 40:24
• Terry recounted that misdialing a car dealership’s service line while arranging vehicle repairs for a Lester’s Feet family led him to a stressed service manager whose own son had been badly injured. 38:56
• Terry learned the service manager’s son needed brain injury treatment not approved by the FDA, which insurance wouldn’t cover. 39:20
• Terry committed Lester’s Feet to cover therapy and lodging costs to get the injured young man’s treatment underway. 39:47

listener-gift

• Listener Todd Covey from Kentucky sent Terry and Don a gift congratulating them on their 100th episode. 3:03

merchandise

• Terry announced the 2022 Big Buck Factory t-shirt is available for presale at higginsoutdoors.com. 3:40
• Don said a different, updated t-shirt with new sponsor logos will be released soon for listeners who submit questions. 4:20

mindset

• Don said anybody can replicate what he and Terry do because the hunting industry has made deer management seem harder than it really is. 77:07

outdoor-writing

• Don said he became an outdoor writer after realizing most hunting magazine advice he tried in his twenties turned out to be worthless. 69:46

predator-control

• Terry recommended predator control as one of the most important habitat tasks to prioritize once deer season winds down. 8:56

prescribed-burn

• Don observed that an unburned side of a Missouri logging road held far better deer cover than the side burned annually for turkey habitat. 15:51
• Don said he has never burned his own property and, after seeing the Missouri comparison, never will. 16:36

real-world-products

• Terry recommended Southeast listeners contact dealer Jimmy Hooks ahead of time to pick up Real World product locally and save on shipping. 27:06

rope-scrapes

• Don recommended hanging rope scrapes now so they have months to weather before next season instead of waiting until closer to fall. 20:01
• Terry said the common mistake hunters make with rope scrapes is putting them out too late, in August or September. 20:52
• Don said he’s tried both grapevines and ropes and has had much better luck with rope scrapes. 21:58
• Terry recommended hunters get off the couch and spend a half hour cutting rope now instead of waiting. 23:14

scrapes

• Don joked that the scrape-relocation tactic described in a listener’s question reeks of the mythical ‘King Buck.’ 72:37 (light moment)
• Don argued bucks don’t track their scrapes the way people track a relocated fast-food restaurant, so moving a scrape won’t make a buck hunt it down. 75:05
• Is it legitimate to dig up a scrape’s dirt and licking branch and relocate it to a better stand spot, expecting the buck to find and keep using it? 68:18

speaking-engagement

• Terry announced he’ll speak at a Whitetail scoring party in Huntington, West Virginia on January 29. 23:50
• Don announced an Extreme Custom Food Plots event on Saturday, February 5, requiring paid tickets. 24:19
• Terry announced the Shipshewana Show runs the 17th through 19th in Northern Indiana. 24:58
• Don announced Friday night at Shipshewana will feature a debate between himself and Tony LaPratt. 26:01
• Terry announced Don will be at the Dixie Deer Classic in Raleigh, North Carolina, March 4-6. 26:25

trail-camera

• Don recalled taking a memorable trail camera photo of a coyote a couple years ago on another farm he hunts, and shared it multiple times. 4:50

travel-plan

• Don planned a local consulting visit followed by a bigger trip east to Ohio or west to Kansas and Missouri. 78:34

wind

• Don’s one rule for friends hunting his permission properties is to always play the wind. 67:25

Deer activity

• unnamed buck (sighting) 6:11
• Smokey (history) 51:54
• two sixteen (history) 58:38
• unnamed buck (hunt) 79:51

Listener questions

Question: Why do mature bucks summer elsewhere and only show up on a property after the fall shift, and what differs between good summer and fall properties? 48:56 — asked by Eric Sackett

• Answer: Don explained does claim the best habitat to raise fawns in summer, pushing bucks out to areas like large agricultural fields. 50:15
• Answer: Don called the ‘dough factory’ theory nonsense, made up to sell videos, since good summer food doesn’t mean bucks won’t show up in fall. 52:39
• Answer: Terry added that big ag properties differ from big timber, so hunters must identify their property’s specific weakest link. 53:15

Question: Are early-dropping antlers just another myth like an early rut, or does whitetail antler drop naturally vary from season to season? 55:43 — asked by Jeff Paltay

• Answer: Don said antler drop timing does shift year to year based on how much stress the deer herd experiences. 56:14
• Answer: Don recalled a bad ice storm about ten years ago that stressed deer so severely he later found matched shed pairs together in the bedding cover. 56:53

Question: Is there a point where extensive micro-habitat projects on a small property become too much, or can experimenting continue indefinitely with minimal pressure? 60:35 — asked by Jacob Straubel

• Answer: Don confirmed yes, a property can be over-habitated, especially a small one where human intrusion does disproportionate damage. 62:14
• Answer: Don said cutting out human intrusion is the single most beneficial thing a landowner can do, and it costs nothing. 63:40

Question: Is it legitimate to dig up a scrape’s dirt and licking branch and relocate it to a better stand spot, expecting the buck to find and keep using it? 68:18 — asked by Jake Paris

• Answer: Don doubted a mature buck would abandon caution and march into a moved scrape just because someone relocated the dirt and branch. 71:50

Terry and Don recorded while both recovering from illness, releasing the episode to coincide with an online auction week. Don recounted a Missouri consulting trip where he noticed deer unusually skittish, coyote litters roughly twice as numerous as normal, and a benefit-hunt archer, Sean Cogdell, killing a coyote his first evening out. Terry said he’d shot two coyotes and seen one nearly every sit, and both recommended predator control as a top post-season habitat priority. Don described a fossil-covered rock on breeder Nate Blosser’s land, tying it to the flood account, and unburned logging-road cover that convinced him never to burn his own property. They urged hanging rope scrapes now rather than in late summer. Terry told how a misdialed phone call led Lester’s Feet to fund treatment for a service manager’s injured son. Listener questions covered bucks shifting off summer range, antler-drop timing tied to herd stress, over-habitating small properties, and relocating scrapes.

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