Episode #119 - Memorial Day Tribute and Aging Bucks on Trail Cam Pics

Published: 2022-05-29
Episode page
Duration: 97 min

In this episode

amish-community

• Terry recounts that his daughter, working at a Kentucky hospital, treated an Amish patient who recognized the name Don Higgins. 18:01

amish-outreach

• Don explains that Amish listeners without internet can mail questions to Real World Wildlife Products, PO Box 5555, Arthur, Illinois. 16:50
• Terry announces the show will pause new Amish-submitted questions for a couple weeks to catch up on the backlog from the first 120 episodes. 95:58

buck-aging

• Jesse Decker asks how to differentiate an abnormally large two-year-old buck from an average three-year-old, since body shape is hard to judge. 60:18

career

• Don says he spent decades in the deer woods before finally making good money, a path he wouldn’t recommend but that worked for him. 73:40

career-change

• Garrett Larson asks Don whether he started his tree nursery while still working at the factory, seeking career-change advice. 67:40

consulting

• A new Mississippi client wanted Don to design a fence along part of the property line to address past trespassing issues. 5:50

crossbow

• Randall Barr asks Don to clarify whether he’d let a grandson hunt with a crossbow if not yet strong enough to draw a compound bow. 76:51

deer-lab

• Don brought in Dr. Strickland of the Mississippi State University Deer Lab to help with unfamiliar Southern habitat management. 6:51

faith

• Don says he doesn’t hold much hope for the country’s political direction because he has read the Bible and knows how the story ends. 2:39

food-plot

• Don plans to test new corn varieties this year with Steve documenting the process on video. 19:00
• Terry plants four rows of corn directly into standing soybeans at an angle near his stand to create edge structure. 21:16

food-plots

• Tyler Walter asks Don and Terry’s opinions on no-till food plots, specifically broadcasting seed without a drill on sandy loam soil. 42:38

gmo

• Cody Walker asks whether GMOs, herbicides, and insecticides could cause deer mutations, sterility, abortion, or abnormal antler and body size. 29:32

gratitude

• Don states he was absolutely blessed by God to be born in the United States, and that its freedoms did not come free. 1:44

humor

• Terry jokingly says they should start calling Don Higgins “Maverick” since he could have made far more money but never sold out. 72:44 (light moment)

illness

• Don shares that Solid Rock Chapel’s pastor, Kenny Bontrager, was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor and had immediate surgery to remove it. 55:30
• Don shares that church secretary Sharon’s daughter, Rena, has been fighting cancer for some time. 56:14

kansas

• Don announces he and Dr. Strickland have agreed to appear at a Whitetail Land Management Summit event in Kansas next February. 12:55

kudzu

• Don notes that deer like to eat kudzu, which has fairly high crude protein content. 8:29

land-access

• Don states his top bucks come from five different properties across three counties, not just land he owns. 23:15

memorial-day

• Terry describes Memorial Day as honoring those who served the country and community, giving their life, time, or home, along with their families who sacrificed. 1:10

mississippi

• The landowner’s stated goal for the Mississippi property is to grow the Mississippi state record buck. 9:31
• Dr. Strickland’s master class presentation covers how Mississippi’s four distinct ecosystems within one state affect deer. 11:12

mississippi-property

• The new Mississippi property Don consulted on totals 1,600 acres, with about 400 acres of agricultural fields. 5:15

mississippi-trip

• Don recounts that the successful client flew him in a private jet to pick him up for the Mississippi consulting trip. 9:55

prayer-request

• Terry asks listeners to remember the staff of Solid Rock Chapel, Don’s home church, in their prayers after it was hit hard by illness. 54:05

scouting

• Don says he is relying entirely on trusted people’s reports of a giant buck on two new properties with no trail camera or shed evidence. 22:25
• Terry says that after personally seeing the buck, he would hunt that stand even without a trail camera or shed antler. 22:54

seminar-schedule

• Don announces the July 13 seminar originally set for Eaton, Ohio has been moved to Hamilton, Indiana. 14:16
• Don announces his Ulysses, Pennsylvania seminar was canceled after the local Amish community objected to a PowerPoint presentation. 15:00

trail-cameras

• Terry recommends listeners subscribe to the Exodus Trail Camera YouTube channel for its new educational trail camera video series. 27:51

trophy-buck-rarity

• Terry notes that truly giant bucks represent only about the top one percent of a deer herd. 25:55

trophy-room

• Terry announces that starting next week, the show will begin profiling one buck each week from Don’s trophy room. 4:22

trust

• Don says he only acts on secondhand giant-buck tips from about 5% of the people he trusts most. 25:18

vortex

• Terry announces next week’s episode will feature a short Vortex-sponsored segment explaining rangefinder price points. 95:12

Deer activity

• unnamed buck (sighting) 22:25
• unnamed buck (sighting) 22:54
• Mel (trail-camera) 61:04
• unnamed buck (harvest) 64:16

Listener questions

Question: Cody Walker asks whether GMOs, herbicides, and insecticides could cause deer mutations, sterility, abortion, or abnormal antler and body size. 29:32 — asked by Cody Walker

• Answer: Don says he has no doubt that deer can detect and distinguish genetically modified plants from non-GMO plants. 30:34
• Answer: Don adds he’s heard owls are likely the biggest predator of turkey poults, more so than coyotes. 33:55
• Answer: Terry agrees customer feedback shows a clear nutritional and palatability advantage of non-GMO crops for deer over GMO crops. 34:43

Question: Tyler Walter asks Don and Terry’s opinions on no-till food plots, specifically broadcasting seed without a drill on sandy loam soil. 42:38 — asked by Tyler Walter

• Answer: Don recommends checking whether local farmers use a given no-till method; if not, it’s probably not a good idea locally. 45:41
• Answer: Terry adds that some marketers exploit food plotters’ limited time and equipment by pushing low-success methods just to sell products. 47:12

Question: Jesse Decker asks how to differentiate an abnormally large two-year-old buck from an average three-year-old, since body shape is hard to judge. 60:18 — asked by Jesse Decker

• Answer: Don says reliably distinguishing a big two-year-old from an average three-year-old is impossible, citing skeptics who doubted his buck Mel’s age. 61:00
• Answer: Terry says the key is looking for commonalities across annual trail camera data over multiple years. 61:23
• Answer: Don explains that brow tine size and main beam shape rarely change year to year, making them reliable identifiers. 63:25
• Answer: Terry advises protecting young bucks with unusually wide frames regardless of age, since that frame has special potential. 65:20

Question: Garrett Larson asks Don whether he started his tree nursery while still working at the factory, seeking career-change advice. 67:40 — asked by Garrett Larson

• Answer: Don confirms he started the tree nursery while still working his factory job, always looking for a way out. 68:04
• Answer: Don adds the nursery’s fall digging season directly conflicts with deer hunting, making it a poor fit for hunters. 69:52
• Answer: Don says he’s glad a non-hunter bought the business, since a hunter-owner likely would have let it fall apart. 70:42

Question: Randall Barr asks Don to clarify whether he’d let a grandson hunt with a crossbow if not yet strong enough to draw a compound bow. 76:51 — asked by Randall Barr

• Answer: Don answers that while it’s the parents’ decision, he personally would not allow a child under his control to use a crossbow. 77:42
• Answer: Don argues easing entry requirements has raised killmongers rather than true outdoorsmen who understand real hunting. 77:59
• Answer: Terry pushes back that what someone wants from hunting depends on their own goals, not a fixed definition of success. 83:01
• Answer: Terry criticizes crossbow-on-tripod-with-iPhone-scope setups as training kids to play a video game rather than truly hunt. 83:35
• Answer: Don clarifies he isn’t against crossbows for handicapped hunters, only their use by able-bodied hunters during archery season. 89:01

The episode opened with Memorial Day reflections, Terry describing it as honoring those who served and sacrificed, and Don crediting the country’s freedoms to God’s blessing while doubting the political direction given his reading of the Bible. Don detailed a new 1,600-acre Mississippi consulting job, including 400 acres of ag fields, a client-requested boundary fence, and bringing in Dr. Strickland of the Mississippi State Deer Lab for unfamiliar Southern habitat. They announced upcoming appearances, a seminar moved from Eaton to Hamilton, and a canceled Pennsylvania seminar. Listener questions covered GMO effects on deer, no-till food plotting, distinguishing a big two-year-old buck from an average three-year-old, tree nursery career advice, and youth crossbow use, where Don and Terry offered differing views on entry-level hunting equipment. Prayers were requested for Solid Rock Chapel’s pastor, Kenny Bontrager, and staff member Sharon’s daughter Rena.

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