Episode #126 - Should we have deer hunting competitions?

Published: 2022-07-17
Episode page
Duration: 59 min

In this episode

360-blinds

• Don toured the new 360 Blinds manufacturing facility and met owner Mark Fisher during a break between seminars. 8:58
• Don first met Mark Fisher and saw the 360 Blinds prototype years ago at the Northeast Ohio Sportsman Show. 9:37
• Don praises the blind’s window system, saying it feels like sitting in a tree stand where hunters just turn their head instead of twisting to see different windows. 9:45
• Terry adds that the blind’s windows open and close very quietly, calling it the best window system out there. 10:00
• Mark Fisher and 360 Blinds have been big supporters of Don Higgins, the podcast, and Lester’s Feet, donating a raffle blind both years. 10:09
• The new 360 Blinds facility was built to increase production capacity and get more blinds shipped out the door amid booming sales. 10:46
• Don reports Mark Fisher believes he can significantly increase 360 Blinds production and may need to expand the facility again given sales growth. 11:29

antler-identification

• Don explains that a buck’s main beam shape, narrow or wide, stays consistent from year to year, making it a reliable trait for identifying the same buck. 46:09
• Ron Eddinger asks whether a buck with split brow tines on one side last year could be the same buck now showing split brow tines on the opposite side. 44:01

charity-event

• Don hosted a fish fry fundraiser the night before, where organizers reported serving over a thousand meals. 7:14

consultant-criticism

• Paul asks whether it’s true that a rival consultant said Don and Tony LaPratt only care about selling products and would kill any 200-inch buck on shared land. 28:12

crossbows

• Jason Clark asks whether legalized crossbows, given their power and range, might be negatively affecting the number of mature bucks by making archery season easier. 48:01

extreme-blower

• Don learned the woman who fixed his laptop, Jessica Whitetail, and her husband own the Extreme Blower seed-blowing product. 2:27
• Don recommends the Extreme Blower for planting fall food plots, saying anyone who hasn’t used one should look into it. 3:10
• Jessica told her husband to tell the guys from Chasing Giants to quit talking about the product because she’d fallen so far behind on shipments. 3:58
• Terry shares a tip that he runs his Extreme Blower attachment on a Milwaukee M18 battery-powered leaf blower. 4:06
• Terry explains that wrapping foam tape (like bed-cover foam) around a mismatched adapter tube forms a gasket that works great with the Extreme Blower. 4:36
• Don notes the blower-style products can be used to spread more than seed, including fertilizer. 5:20
• Don adds that people also use the blower attachment to spread driveway salt, calling it an inexpensive, reasonably priced tool. 5:30

faith

• Don relays that a friend told him every step up in success invites the devil’s attacks against people doing good things. 36:01

food-plots

• Terry recounts riding in his side-by-side while a friend drove through standing corn, blowing cereal grains in as a cover crop, which worked well. 5:55

genetics

• Terry compares rare world-class bucks to rare genetic outliers among people, like Shaquille O’Neal, arguing such extremes are uncommon in both. 26:47

goal-setting

• Don vows to kill a giant buck this season and plans to name it after the online critic who attacked him, using the hate as motivation. 57:18

hunting-culture

• Adam Pauls asks whether Don has considered what whitetail hunting would look like if the podcast’s audience grew large enough that most hunters changed their ways. 38:47

hunting-philosophy

• Terry argues deer hunting should never be treated as a competition, since unlike golf, no two hunting situations or opportunities are ever identical. 30:51
• Terry says the true challenge of deer hunting, for him, is creating and manipulating habitat to attract, grow, and hold bucks to maturity, with actual hunting being the smallest part. 31:30
• Terry believes there will never be enough hunters sharing the same management goals, since everyone hunts for a different reason. 42:34

lesters-feet

• Terry says their team purchased Extreme Blower units and the company donated units for the Lester’s Feet raffle, despite not being a paid sponsor. 2:39
• The winner of the Chevrolet truck donated by Victory Chevrolet and Midwest Land Group for the Lester’s Feet raffle picked up his truck. 33:01
• The truck-raffle winner flew to Kansas City, where Chris Yates’ team picked him up and took him to the dealership. 33:18
• Terry explains that because his wallet was stolen, he can’t access the Lester’s Feet debit card, delaying mailing of raffle prizes until a replacement arrives. 34:56

mock-scrapes

• Jason Clark asks about advice claiming July is a great time to start mock scrapes that will keep mature deer returning throughout the season. 48:30

seminar-tour

• Don’s laptop and PowerPoint failed at his first seminar stop of the tour, threatening to derail his presentation for a mostly Amish crowd. 2:05

trail-cameras

• Don has roughly 30 to 40 trail cameras deployed this summer, including six cellular cameras set up right before leaving on tour. 13:45

world-class-bucks

• Ethan Jansen asks whether truly world-class bucks are ultra rare, or if similarly sized bucks are common but usually killed before reaching their full potential. 24:40

Deer activity

• unnamed buck (trail-camera) 14:18
• unnamed buck (sighting) 14:45
• unnamed buck (management) 15:00
• Smokey (history) 45:04
• Smokey (management) 45:24
• Smokey (history) 47:24

Listener questions

Question: Ethan Jansen asks whether truly world-class bucks are ultra rare, or if similarly sized bucks are common but usually killed before reaching their full potential. 24:40 — asked by Ethan Jansen

• Answer: Don says less than 1%, maybe one in a thousand bucks, have the genetic potential to reach 200 inches, and most of those don’t survive long enough to show it. 25:55

Question: Paul asks whether it’s true that a rival consultant said Don and Tony LaPratt only care about selling products and would kill any 200-inch buck on shared land. 28:12 — asked by Paul

• Answer: Don says no one is bound to hunt one property forever; skilled hunters can travel to where bigger deer live and prove their claims by actually killing them instead of just talking. 29:54

Question: Ron Eddinger asks whether a buck with split brow tines on one side last year could be the same buck now showing split brow tines on the opposite side. 44:01 — asked by Ron Eddinger

• Answer: Don says it’s fairly common for an antler trait to appear on one side one year and switch to the opposite side the next, so it could well be the same buck. 44:34

Question: Jason Clark asks whether legalized crossbows, given their power and range, might be negatively affecting the number of mature bucks by making archery season easier. 48:01 — asked by Jason Clark

• Answer: Don says crossbows are impacting harvest numbers mainly because they draw far more hunters, especially gun hunters, into archery season, not because of any extra shooting distance. 49:04

Question: Jason Clark asks about advice claiming July is a great time to start mock scrapes that will keep mature deer returning throughout the season. 48:30 — asked by Jason Clark

• Answer: Don confirms bucks will hit mock scrapes in July, but cautions those bucks are still in summer bachelor groups and often won’t be around once fall hunting season arrives. 51:13

Question: Adam Pauls asks whether Don has considered what whitetail hunting would look like if the podcast’s audience grew large enough that most hunters changed their ways. 38:47 — asked by Adam Pauls

• Answer: Don says Adam’s question got him thinking, but he honestly doesn’t see that day ever coming because far more hunters are reached by misinformation than by his podcast. 40:13

Don recounted a tour stop where his laptop and PowerPoint failed before a mostly Amish crowd, fixed by Jessica Whitetail, whose husband’s Extreme Blower seed-blowing product Don and Terry both endorsed, sharing tips like running it on a Milwaukee M18 blower and using foam tape as a gasket. Don also described touring the new 360 Blinds facility, meeting owner Mark Fisher, and praising the blinds’ quiet, tree-stand-like window system. Terry argued hunting shouldn’t be treated as competition, since habitat work matters more to him than the hunt itself, while Don discussed his roughly 30-40 trail cameras. Listener questions covered whether world-class bucks are truly rare (Don said maybe one in a thousand reach 200 inches), antler-trait consistency between years, crossbows’ effect on harvest via more hunters, and July mock scrapes. The episode closed with deer talk, including Smokey’s antler history and late growth spurt at six years old.

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