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

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