Episode #247 - Lockdown, Drone’s, and Deer Pimps

Published: 2024-11-10
Episode page
Duration: 82 min

In this episode

antler-score

• Don says he’d rather shoot a five-year-old buck with giant antlers than a ten-year-old with average antlers. 27:14

bully-bucks

• Tony Lambrecht from Jordan, Minnesota asks Don’s current thoughts on bully bucks and whether they push mature bucks off a property. 59:28

charity

• Don reports the charity Lester’s Feet donated about $25,000 to the Mountain City Church of Christ in East Tennessee after historic flooding. 79:13

deer-aging

• Don doesn’t believe hunters can accurately tell a wild buck’s exact age just by looking at him. 27:30

doe-management

• Don avoids hunting does in his best stands to prevent disturbing the farm before gun season, hunting less productive spots instead. 18:50

election

• Terry calls Donald Trump’s reelection as president the biggest win of the week. 8:25
• Don cites a video estimating that 200,000 Amish people voted for the first time in Pennsylvania this election. 44:57
• Matt from Weberville, Michigan asks what listeners can do to keep the momentum of faith and change going after the election. 37:59

event-announcement

• Don announces the Midwest Sportsman’s Classic dates as February 13th, 14th, and 15th. 36:30

giveaway

• Terry announces Travis Dykstra as the winner of an impromptu Chasing Giants TV social media giveaway. 70:49

goal-setting

• Don advises listeners to stick with their hunting goals regardless of how long it takes, since only impressing yourself matters. 31:35

gun-season

• Don notes Illinois gun season is later than normal this year, which he hopes means the rut will be mostly wound down by the time it starts. 67:30

harvest

• Don tagged his target giant buck this year on just the fourth hunt of the season, unusually early. 18:36

homecoming-buck

• Don’s homecoming buck theory article, likely published in North American Whitetail, became one of his best-known pieces and drew wide attention. 10:32
• Don defines a ‘homecoming buck’ as one with separate summer and fall ranges that returns to his summer range when he can’t find a hot doe in his fall range. 12:27
• Don says homecoming bucks reliably return to their summer range within 24 hours of November 7th, around November 6-8. 12:47

hunting-ethics

• Don criticizes hunters he calls ‘deer pimps’ who won’t do their own habitat and food-plot work but exploit others’ efforts to find big bucks. 57:53

lesters-feet

• Don recounts that Terry originally raised money for Lester’s Feet by routering small wood pieces into SD card holders to sell. 77:28

lockdown-phase

• Don says the lockdown phase they’re entering is the toughest part of the whole season, even though hunters will still see plenty of deer. 66:49

out-of-state-hunting

• Patrick Simpson hunted in Iowa this week, passed back through Illinois, and shot a buck. 7:33

personal-history

• Don says this is his 48th deer season and he has gone more seasons without tagging a buck than most listeners likely have, and he’s fine with that. 30:48

politics

• Don says he’d take a Trump election victory over a Boone and Crockett buck any time, because it matters more than trophy hunting. 8:51

product-launch

• Don announces that 360Blinds will unveil a brand new special product at their podcast during the Whitetail Legends Classic event. 37:00

rut

• Don says the middle two weeks of November are the toughest time to target and kill one specific mature buck. 3:37
• Don recommends hunting as many hours as possible during the rut, as long as you hunt smart. 6:11
• Don admits he has come to despise the rut because it makes patterning an individual mature buck extremely difficult. 6:47
• Don says more bucks are killed during the rut than any other time, but mostly by accident from time afield rather than deliberate targeting. 6:28
• Don says he hates the rut more each year because it prevents him from doing habitat work he’d rather be doing. 23:13

rut-timing

• Don warns hunters often wrongly declare the rut ‘on’ after seeing one buck chasing a doe, rather than basing conclusions on broad data. 5:26

standing-corn

• Zach from Oregon, Missouri asks whether leaving standing corn until bush-hogging after the ground freezes risks volunteer corn sprouting the next spring. 46:52

state-regulation

• Don predicts Ohio could become the top state for trophy buck production if it limits nonresident hunters and bans baiting during season. 54:42

target-buck

• Chris Yates and Patrick Simpson each had a target buck they hoped to hunt get shot by a neighbor before they got the chance. 24:29
• Don shot his first 200-inch buck exactly twenty years ago, the first individual buck he ever specifically targeted, and its mount is right there with them. 29:00

thanksgiving-hunting

• Don recommends hunting low-pressure properties over Thanksgiving weekend, calling it a potentially great window despite the later gun season overall. 68:03

thermal-drones

• Ray and Aiden Miller from Burton, Ohio say thermal drones are a huge threat to trophy hunting since groups can now locate every big buck. 50:42

trophy-hunting

• Don says his goal is to shoot giants rather than settle for any nice buck, even though plenty of huntable bucks are available to him. 18:19
• Don says he seeks the combination of age and antler score together, not just an old buck or just high score. 21:31
• Don says his hunting isn’t about how many bucks he hangs on the wall but about the challenge of matching wits with one special individual buck. 26:57
• Joe Chambers from Nebraska asks Don about the mental, emotional, and spiritual shift from targeting three-to-four-year-old bucks to only five-and-a-half-year-old and older bucks. 62:52

weather

• Don states that weather always trumps everything when predicting rut activity, calling this week a perfect example of that. 2:05

Deer activity

• unnamed buck (sighting) 14:12
• unnamed buck (sighting) 15:02
• Zacchaeus buck (harvest) 20:35
• unnamed buck (management) 20:46
• unnamed buck (history) 24:58
• unnamed buck (harvest) 29:00

Listener questions

Question: Matt from Weberville, Michigan asks what listeners can do to keep the momentum of faith and change going after the election. 37:59 — asked by Matt from Weberville, Michigan

• Answer: Don notes nearly 50% of America still voted the other way and says it’s time to heal the divide by extending a hand to persuadable Democrats rather than gloating. 38:43
• Answer: Terry says now is an even more important time to show Christian grace and humility, in victory as well as defeat. 43:39

Question: Zach from Oregon, Missouri asks whether leaving standing corn until bush-hogging after the ground freezes risks volunteer corn sprouting the next spring. 46:52 — asked by Zach from Oregon, Missouri

• Answer: Don explains he waits for frozen ground before bush-hogging so he doesn’t press corn ears into the mud, which limits volunteer sprouting. 47:30
• Answer: Terry says he had bad volunteer corn because he planted corn-on-corn; a beans-and-corn rotation avoids the issue. 48:37

Question: Ray and Aiden Miller from Burton, Ohio say thermal drones are a huge threat to trophy hunting since groups can now locate every big buck. 50:42 — asked by Ray and Aiden Miller from Burton, Ohio

• Answer: Don says a thermal drone is a poacher’s dream, expressing strong concern about drones in the wrong hands. 51:35
• Answer: Don says a thermal drone herd survey on his property found every single mature buck he already knew about. 52:00
• Answer: Terry says he personally considers it trespassing for anyone to fly a drone over his farm at any time. 55:54
• Answer: Don says if a drone flies over his property and he can get to his shotgun, he’ll shoot it out of the air. 56:55

Question: Tony Lambrecht from Jordan, Minnesota asks Don’s current thoughts on bully bucks and whether they push mature bucks off a property. 59:28 — asked by Tony Lambrecht from Jordan, Minnesota

• Answer: Don says his philosophy on bully bucks hasn’t changed — real bully bucks exist, but too many hunters mislabel ordinary bucks as bully bucks. 59:43
• Answer: Don says when two bucks meet and one postures — bristling, ears back, head cocked — that alone doesn’t make him a bully buck since all bucks do that. 61:31

Question: Joe Chambers from Nebraska asks Don about the mental, emotional, and spiritual shift from targeting three-to-four-year-old bucks to only five-and-a-half-year-old and older bucks. 62:52

• Answer: Don says the key difference is you must stop caring what others think, since targeting only mature bucks means having seasons where you tag nothing. 63:10
• Answer: Don says a big hurdle is that hunters have gotten very good at killing three- and four-year-olds, and that approach won’t work on older deer. 64:14

Sponsors this episode

• Midwest Land Group
• Farmstead Inn

Don discussed rut-phase strategy, stressing that weather overrides everything and that mid-November is the hardest stretch for targeting one mature buck, since a single chasing sighting doesn’t confirm broad rut activity. He said he’d rather hunt smart and often than not at all, though he admitted the rut increasingly frustrates him by disrupting habitat work and patterning. He explained his ‘homecoming buck’ concept, where a buck with separate summer and fall ranges returns to summer ground around November 6-8, an idea from an earlier article that gained wide notice. Don recounted tagging his own target giant on just his fourth hunt this season, and said he prioritizes a buck’s combined age and score rather than either alone, preferring a five-year-old giant over an average ten-year-old. He noted this is his 48th season and that he’s tagged nothing in more seasons than most listeners probably have. Listener questions covered thermal drones threatening trophy bucks and the shift from targeting younger bucks to only mature ones.

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