EPISODE #107 - Don Knows How To Fire Up Southern Folks!

Published: 2022-03-07
Episode page
Duration: 62 min

In this episode

asio-camo

• Don says he was really impressed by the zippers, sleeves, and overall build quality of the ASIO garments he wore this past season. 11:06

covid

• Brandon jokingly asks if there’s a mineral to control COVID in the deer herd and whether the hosts recommend him the vaccine. 35:23

deer-minerals

• Don recommends thinking of mineral supplementation as a minimum five-year project, with real antler-growth differences only becoming noticeable years after starting. 19:12
• An audience member asks Don and Joe whether long-term use of deer minerals actually helps antler growth and is worth the cost. 13:42

deer-vision

• Joe Miles claims squirrels and whitetail deer share dichromatic eyesight, seeing the world completely differently than humans do, which shaped ASIO’s camo design. 9:16

doe-buck-ratio

• A newer land manager in the Carolinas asks the panel to explain doe-to-buck ratio for beginners and when he should be killing more does. 46:57

doe-management

• Terry notes that deeper doe-management science, like which does to shoot based on maternal aggression and buck fawns, is covered in other Chasing Giants content. 48:37
• An audience member asks whether a herd’s protective lead doe that alerts other deer becomes a liability or remains an asset to hunters targeting larger bucks. 49:41

fetal-programming

• Don says fetal programming starts with does, and getting does on a good nutrition program before they are bred is key to antler expression in their fawns. 15:33

humor

• Terry jokes about a business idea for edible jerky-style products that let hunters grunt-call on demand from a treestand without needing a separate call. 57:24 (light moment)

hunting-discipline

• Sean from Maryland asks how the hosts balance eagerly wanting to hunt against holding off when the wind or conditions aren’t right for a target buck. 28:58

hunting-ethics

• Terry says if a deer is worth ruining a friendship or your relationship with God over, you’ve lost focus on what matters as an outdoorsman. 28:44
• An audience member finds a trail-camera buck far bigger than usual on a friend’s land and asks Don whether to pursue permission to hunt it. 24:46
• An audience member with only rifle access to a target buck’s bedding area asks the panel whether he should take up rifle hunting for that deer. 37:22

lesters-feet

• Terry explains that Lester’s Feet runs a yearly raffle that generates most of the money the foundation raises throughout the year. 3:59
• Terry says their foundation specializes in identifying families with sick children who need financial help while providing care. 3:17
• Terry announces that Lester’s Feet raffle tickets are available at the booth, with 100% of proceeds going to families with sick kids. 61:56

mature-bucks

• Terry says once he started targeting only mature bucks, he got 13 mounts in his basement that were all five-and-a-half years or older, faster than his earlier immature deer. 33:22

midwest-vs-southeast

• An audience member asks Joe whether Midwest or Southeast deer are harder to hunt. 52:30

mineral-formulation

• Don says a key mineral formulation detail is that calcium and phosphorus should be in roughly a two-to-one ratio, twice as much calcium as phosphorus. 18:22

nocturnal-bucks

• Don states he doesn’t believe any buck is nocturnal three hundred sixty-five days a year, even his most nocturnal buck, Trump. 42:51
• David Adams asks how to hunt a buck he’s watched on camera for three years, active around 5 AM and likely bedding in an unhunted 80-acre cutover. 40:49

pine-woods

• Joe Miles recommends hunters in sparse big-pine woods look for edges and topography changes like cutovers, briars, cane thickets, and creek crossings for stand placement. 34:18

podcast-philosophy

• Don states that he and Terry set out to be different from other hunting podcasts, with a motto of looking out for the hunting community rather than the hunting industry. 1:33

raffle

• Terry announces the raffle’s grand prize is a 2022 Silverado Trail Boss donated by Victory Chevrolet and Midwest Land Group. 4:38

rattling

• Joe Miles says he isn’t a big rattling-horns guy but has grunted bucks in and snort-wheezed some large bucks in Illinois. 55:34
• Don warns that rattling antlers near a mature buck can tip him off like blowing a trumpet, since older bucks recognize the sound and grow warier. 56:06

trophy-buck

• Don relays that his business partner Wes Delks, unable to hunt a giant Indiana buck he’d tracked for two years, gave Don all his intel and asked him to hunt and kill it. 26:01

veteran-tribute

• Don relays that a friend told him the door attendant, an army ranger known as Sergeant/Ranger Shepherd, lost two brothers in Vietnam and was moved to join the military. 60:50

Deer activity

• unnamed buck (trail-camera) 23:33
• unnamed buck (trail-camera) 24:31
• unnamed buck (trail-camera) 25:31
• unnamed buck (trail-camera) 41:03
• unnamed buck (harvest) 42:25
• Smokey (harvest) 44:17
• Trump (harvest) 44:30

Listener questions

Question: An audience member asks Don and Joe whether long-term use of deer minerals actually helps antler growth and is worth the cost. 13:42

• Answer: Don recounts a captive-herd twin-buck study, later corroborated with Dr. Bronson Strickland, finding a good mineral program can add about 15% to a mature buck’s gross antler score. 15:25
• Answer: Joe says on one farm run with mineral for five to seven years, their top-end buck grew from about 120 inches to the upper 130s and low 140s. 21:12

Question: An audience member finds a trail-camera buck far bigger than usual on a friend’s land and asks Don whether to pursue permission to hunt it. 24:46

• Answer: Don recounts a similar situation with a friend’s trophy buck; he called the friend first to avoid harming the friendship, backed off, and urges treating others as you’d want to be treated rather than letting a deer compromise relationships. 26:48

Question: Sean from Maryland asks how the hosts balance eagerly wanting to hunt against holding off when the wind or conditions aren’t right for a target buck. 28:58 — asked by Sean

• Answer: Joe says the discipline is to stay out of a mature buck’s one killable spot when the wind is wrong for days in a row, even during peak November. 31:28
• Answer: Don notes that in his 45th deer season he now hunts less but prepares more, and four of his top five bucks were killed in just the last four seasons. 32:30

Question: Brandon jokingly asks if there’s a mineral to control COVID in the deer herd and whether the hosts recommend him the vaccine. 35:23 — asked by Brandon

• Answer: Don jokes that the solution to COVID is to quit voting Democrat. 35:49
• Answer: Don jokes that the Maximizer mineral already has something for COVID, so buying it will keep you safe. 36:29

Question: David Adams asks how to hunt a buck he’s watched on camera for three years, active around 5 AM and likely bedding in an unhunted 80-acre cutover. 40:49 — asked by David Adams

• Answer: Don says he doesn’t believe any buck is nocturnal 365 days a year, and consistently killing big deer requires getting them bedding on your own property. 43:18
• Answer: Joe agrees bedding access is critical — if the hunter’s cutover sanctuary is on his own property, he can still kill the buck despite nocturnal pressure elsewhere. 45:38

Question: An audience member with only rifle access to a target buck’s bedding area asks the panel whether he should take up rifle hunting for that deer. 37:22

• Answer: Terry tells the questioner not to let others dictate his hunting method — hunters’ standards evolve over time, from rifle at distance to bow at close range, and that’s a personal journey. 38:03
• Answer: Don agrees it’s a personal, legal choice and says he doesn’t look down on hunters who choose differently, even though he personally only bowhunts. 38:26
• Answer: Joe says hunting shouldn’t be about competition between hunters using different methods — the real competition is with the animal itself. 39:58

Question: A newer land manager in the Carolinas asks the panel to explain doe-to-buck ratio for beginners and when he should be killing more does. 46:57

• Answer: Don says rather than a 1:1 or 2:1 buck-to-doe ratio, he prefers around five or six does per buck so resident bucks don’t roam to neighboring properties. 47:49

Question: An audience member asks whether a herd’s protective lead doe that alerts other deer becomes a liability or remains an asset to hunters targeting larger bucks. 49:41

• Answer: Don says such a protective lead doe more often hurts his chances of killing a buck than she helps, so he would try to remove her from the herd. 50:08
• Answer: Terry adds that shooting the lead doe in the exact spot meant for a mature buck can flood the sanctuary with pressure, causing more harm than good. 52:05

Question: An audience member asks Joe whether Midwest or Southeast deer are harder to hunt. 52:30

• Answer: Joe says that from his personal experience, heavy hunting pressure makes Southeastern deer very hard to hunt, tougher than what he’s seen in the Midwest. 54:12
• Answer: Don says that in his opinion, Midwest farm-country deer are the easiest to hunt due to terrain and cover layout, not necessarily the deer’s behavior. 54:30

Sponsors this episode

• QuietKat

The episode opened with Don describing the podcast’s mission of prioritizing the hunting community over industry interests, followed by Terry explaining Lester’s Feet, a foundation helping families with sick children through its yearly raffle, this year offering a Silverado Trail Boss as grand prize from two sponsors. Joe Miles discussed deer and squirrel vision and stand placement in sparse pine woods. Don covered mineral supplementation, including a roughly two-to-one calcium-to-phosphorus ratio and treating mineral programs as a multi-year commitment, citing a captive-herd study suggesting about a 15% gross score increase, while Joe described a farm where a buck grew from around 120 inches into the upper 130s over five to seven years. Listener questions covered pursuing permission to hunt a friend’s trophy buck, balancing eagerness against poor wind conditions, choosing rifle versus bow, doe-to-buck ratios, removing a protective lead doe, and whether Midwest or Southeast deer are tougher to hunt. Don and Terry also shared harvest stories involving bucks named Trump and Smokey.

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