Episode #129 - Lessons Learned from a GIANT TYPICAL - Story you haven’t heard!

Published: 2022-08-08
Episode page
Duration: 89 min

In this episode

asio-gear

• ASIO Gear’s back-ordered camo that Terry had been waiting for finally arrived, in time for the coming season. 18:27

blood-trailing

• Ed Foley asks for advice on tracking and recovering a hit deer after the shot, especially when blood trails are sparse. 55:09

bow-hunting-ethics

• Don advises hunters to pursue improvable hunting skills rather than purchasable range-extending gadgets to close the distance on deer. 40:31

career

• Don spent twenty years working a job he hated while dreaming of turning whitetail hunting into his livelihood. 46:48
• Don only achieved 100% of his income from deer hunting within the last two or three years. 47:12

chasing

• Terry arranged with contractors met in Florida to fly in and repair Chasing’s family’s storm-damaged roof this week, funded through raffle support. 35:48

chris-yates

• Chris Yates announced a new GMC dealership for his truck business in the Kansas City area. 19:38

deer-density

• Don recalls one January evening when over 70 deer, including 17 antlered bucks, emerged from his wooded sanctuary onto a soybean food plot. 67:31

ehd

• Terry suggests a wet spring followed by a dry summer, without a severe drought, could be beneficial from an EHD perspective. 9:55

fall-food-plots

• Terry announces next week’s episode will give a trail camera update ahead of putting fall food plots in for Kentucky season. 88:31

flooding

• Terry reports Eastern Kentucky’s coal-mining mountains received multiple feet of rain, devastating homes at the base of the mountains. 8:58

food-plots

• Terry plans one final bush hog of overbrowsed food plot areas this week before putting in fall plots later in the month. 7:56

hunting-access

• Don’s generous Iowa landowner is holding off hunting pressure this year so Don can draw a tag on the farm next year. 7:24

joe-miles

• Don states that Joe Miles, though he uses expandable broadheads and a different approach, is a skilled and ethical whitetail hunter. 45:07

land-management-guide

• Don spent vacation time working on the next Real World land management guide instead of relaxing on the beach. 1:36

lighted-nocks

• Terry recommends lighted nocks since they help hunters see exactly where the arrow strikes on impact. 61:39

mature-bucks

• Don believes what holds most deer hunters back from consistently killing true giants is that they’re already too skilled at killing three and four year old deer. 83:14
• Don observes that even the most nocturnal mature buck will move during daylight when brutally cold temperatures set in during winter. 77:14

mentorship

• Don says the podcast lets him and Terry shorten the learning curve for listeners the way mentors like Al Foster, Gene Wensel, and Roger once did for him. 88:17

miscanthus

• Don planted Miscanthus where a natural snowbank once created a perfect bedding wall for a buck, giving deer a permanent year-round bedding structure without needing snow. 84:54

podcast-listeners

• Terry met a podcast listener from New Jersey who recognized his hat while vacationing in Florida. 10:23

prayer

• Before starting a track, Ron knelt down, unloaded his dog Dio, and said a prayer that they would find Don’s deer. 63:32

quietkat

• Terry recommends trail camera season as one of the best times of year to use a QuietKat. 50:07

rainfall

• Don reports areas near Effingham and Olney, Illinois got about 12 inches of rain in roughly 24 hours during a recent storm. 9:28

role-model

• Terry says the podcast has held him more accountable for his actions because so many more people are now watching. 49:28

shot-placement

• Ryan, a 15-year-old listener, asks about ethical shot placement given videos of risky quartering and facing shots. 37:23

social-media

• Terry explains that content creators flood social media with broadhead and arrow testing largely to provoke comments, since commenting triggers platform algorithms. 42:59
• A farming YouTuber friend told Terry that deliberately skipping the oil filter gasket in a maintenance photo baits hundreds of corrective comments to boost engagement. 86:26

soil-ph

• Don Padgett asks whether ag lime or pelletized lime lasts longer and which is the better choice for spreading on smaller plots. 29:41

switchgrass

• Terry states Real World would rather lose a sale than sell seed to someone planning to mix it into a switchgrass stand, since it’s bad practice. 54:41
• Ryan asks whether to drill or broadcast Plot Topper into a mowed switchgrass stand this fall or if that would set the switchgrass back. 51:30

tracking-dogs

• Don shares that Ron recently lost his legendary deer-tracking dog, Dio, who helped countless hunters recover deer they otherwise wouldn’t have found. 59:14

trail-camera-sharing

• John Lawton asks whether to share trail camera photos of good bucks with neighbors and how to get neighbors on board managing the deer herd. 22:44

trail-cameras

• Don recommends checking trail cameras about once a month in summer since weeds, branches, and bugs frequently block the lens. 5:09
• Terry notes cell cameras quickly reveal whether a camera was accidentally left turned off. 6:05
• Terry plans to fit his Kentucky trail cameras, especially cell cameras, with 12-volt external batteries bought at Menards so he won’t need return trips. 6:50

truck-program

• Terry explains that through the dealer program, buyers own their truck outright and trade it in each year for a five-dollar difference. 21:37

utilization-cages

• Don explains a utilization cage reveals actual browse pressure, since many blame seed quality when deer are actually eating plants as soon as they germinate. 13:09
• Terry notes trail cameras give no real sense of how long or how much deer browse a plot until a utilization cage is used to compare. 14:19
• Don says nutrient analysis is meaningless if deer won’t eat the plant, so utilization cages are critical in Real World’s product testing. 15:16
• Terry advises keeping a utilization cage small enough deer can’t jump in but wide enough they can’t reach through the fence to browse it. 16:34
• Don encourages using a utilization cage specifically in soybean plots since soybeans typically get browsed extremely hard. 17:01
• Terry found beans inside a utilization cage on a no-till Illinois plot grew to the top of the cage while beans outside were eaten much shorter. 17:27

video-camera

• Terry recommends carrying a video camera while hunting so footage can be reviewed afterward to verify what actually happened on the shot. 61:48

Deer activity

• unnamed buck (management) 7:31
• Mel (harvest) 41:04
• Joey (harvest) 41:04
• Trump (hunt) 62:27
• unnamed buck (harvest) 76:01
• Smokey (harvest) 81:47

Listener questions

Question: John Lawton asks whether to share trail camera photos of good bucks with neighbors and how to get neighbors on board managing the deer herd. 22:44 — asked by John Lawton

• Answer: Don says he’s never had a neighbor share a photo of a big buck he didn’t already know about, and believes sharing trail camera information with neighbors is usually counterproductive. 24:24
• Answer: Terry adds that big deer bring out the worst in people, so it’s often safer to keep good buck photos private rather than share them with neighbors. 26:54
• Answer: Don’s personal policy is to never post photos of a buck while it’s still alive; only after a neighbor legally kills it will he share pictures or shed antlers. 28:17

Question: Don Padgett asks whether ag lime or pelletized lime lasts longer and which is the better choice for spreading on smaller plots. 29:41 — asked by Don Padgett

• Answer: Don confirms ag lime is correct to last longer in soil since its larger granules take longer to break down compared to pelletized lime. 31:38

Question: Ryan, a 15-year-old listener, asks about ethical shot placement given videos of risky quartering and facing shots. 37:23 — asked by Ryan Hunsaker

• Answer: Don’s core shot-placement advice is to only take broadside or slightly quartering-away shots at deer. 41:49

Question: Ryan asks whether to drill or broadcast Plot Topper into a mowed switchgrass stand this fall or if that would set the switchgrass back. 51:30 — asked by Ryan

• Answer: Don warns switchgrass does not tolerate any competition, so no other seed should ever be mixed into a switchgrass planting. 52:18
• Answer: Don states switchgrass should never be planted in fall since it’s a terrible time for establishment and young plants won’t survive winter. 53:44

Question: Ed Foley asks for advice on tracking and recovering a hit deer after the shot, especially when blood trails are sparse. 55:09 — asked by Ed Foley

• Answer: Don advises always waiting at least an hour, or even several hours, before trailing a deer to avoid bumping it out of its first bed. 57:31
• Answer: Don calls Ron’s tracking dog Dio an absolute legend in the deer tracking business. 59:18

Don and Terry covered utilization cages as a testing tool, explaining that caging small plot sections reveals real browse pressure and shows whether deer actually eat a seed rather than relying on nutrient analysis alone; Terry described soybeans inside a Kentucky cage growing to the top while unprotected beans were eaten far shorter. They discussed camera maintenance, including checking cameras monthly for blockages and fitting Kentucky cell cameras with external batteries. Storm damage came up, with heavy rain devastating homes near Eastern Kentucky’s coal-mining mountains and roughly 12 inches falling near Effingham and Olney, Illinois. Don reflected on twenty years working a disliked job before eventually earning his full income from deer hunting. Listener questions addressed sharing buck photos with neighbors, ag versus pelletized lime, ethical shot angles, switchgrass planting timing, and waiting before trailing a hit deer. Don also remembered Ron’s tracking dog Dio, recently lost, calling him a legend in deer recovery.

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