Episode #248 - Big Buck Down! Wes Delks Joins Us to Discuss UHAUL

Published: 2024-11-17 Episode page Duration: 58 min

In this episode

360-hunting-blinds

• Terry announces that 360 Hunting Blinds will unveil a new product exclusively at the Shipshewana Show instead of at Harrisburg. 53:05

antler-genetics

• Don states nutrition determines how close a buck gets to its genetic antler ceiling but can never push it past that ceiling. 38:06
• Kirsten Tepe from Oakland City, Indiana asks what breeders feed captive deer to reach over 1,000 inches of antler and whether Real World products could increase antler size. 34:53
• Terry asks whether nutrition merely helps a buck reach its genetic antler ceiling or actually raises that ceiling. 37:09

bedding-identification

• Brandon Carroll from Chestertown, Maryland asks how to distinguish doe bedding from buck bedding during postseason scouting. 43:52

consulting

• Don notes that for repeat consulting clients, the second property they buy is always way better than the first. 21:50

drone-ethics

• Don points out that landowners do not legally own the airspace above their property, making drone flights hard to restrict. 32:04
• Terry argues it should be considered trespassing, and is ethically and morally wrong, to fly a drone over someone else’s land to scout it. 32:53

drone-regulation

• Don hopes a state representative addresses the lack of legal limits on drone flights over private property. 32:28

farm-hunting

• Don explains that Wes Delks and Terry are both hunting on his farm for a few days to help with deer management, including shooting does and bucks. 0:46

farm-management

• Don recalls a late-season hunt where he saw 17 bucks in one sit, a turning point that got the wheels turning on his farm. 20:25

food-plots

• Terry describes planting Miscanthus strips inside CRP bedding to funnel deer movement when they exit toward food. 49:02
• Tim Brown from Carrollton, Illinois asks why deer prefer browsing in an open harvested ag bean field over his food plot planted with the same soybean variety. 46:40

gun-season

• Don plans to put as little pressure as possible on his property during gun season and let gun pressure push deer onto his land. 12:36
• Don predicts that gun season will bring rut activity to a screeching halt in Illinois this year. 13:17

hunting-discipline

• Wes describes hunting his target buck only twice in the first twenty days because he was struggling to get the wind he needed. 11:46

indiana-buck

• Terry plans that after the ASIO break, Wes will talk about closing the deal on his Indiana target buck. 2:46

iowa-deer-classic

• Don announces he will be presenting at the Iowa Deer Classic this winter. 38:55

kansas-whitetail-summit

• Don announces an event in Kansas called the Kansas Whitetail Summit, though he doesn’t recall the exact date. 39:02

land-management

• Wes tells consulting clients they must ask whether they can access cover from multiple directions when evaluating a farm’s potential. 17:00
• Wes describes balancing two properties of a farm he calls holdability and huntability when managing deer movement. 27:20
• Don believes less than 1% of deer hunters in North America would have given Wes’s original farm a second look. 20:56

lockdown

• Don states there is at least another week of lockdown remaining in the rut. 3:18
• Don explains that whenever a doe comes into heat, a mature buck—and often multiple bucks—will lock down with her. 5:28
• Don explains that bucks locked down with hot does in out-of-the-way places become very difficult to kill. 6:05
• Don clarifies that not every buck in the woods is locked down, even at the peak of lockdown. 6:35

mentorship

• Don says Wes, at 33, already knows more about setting up properties and killing big deer than Don did at 43. 22:43

podcast-banter

• Terry asks Wes what it’s like to hear the podcast tell embarrassing stories or poke fun at him when he isn’t there to defend himself. 1:23

property-purchase

• Terry notes that Wes and his wife bought a new property and put significant hard work into it. 2:54

rope-scrapes

• Zane Baldwin from Hastings, Nebraska asks why deer stopped hitting his rope scrape after chewing the end frayed, and how to fix it. 39:58

rut-behavior

• Don states that from his captive-deer experience, a buck can smell a hot doe from at least a mile away. 8:17

rut-observation

• Don says he has seen numerous hot does with bucks out in the middle of open fields during daylight this week. 5:40
• Don recounts that he and Al Foster saw bucks with hot does in wide open fields while driving to scout property this week. 5:59

shipshewana-show

• Terry announces the Shipshewana Show, the Midwest Sportsman’s Classic by FAE, as an event listeners heard about the previous week. 2:30

speaking-events

• Don announces he will be speaking at multiple events this winter with a brand-new presentation based on real-world farm experience. 38:40
• Don announces he will be speaking at Mount Hope, Ohio in January. 39:22

sunday-night-prayer-time

• Terry reminds listeners to stay through the closing credits because Wes Delks is hosting this week’s Sunday Night Prayer Time. 53:27

trail-camera-strategy

• Wes says that on his farm, missing a target buck’s trail-camera picture for three straight days means the buck isn’t there anymore. 28:19

weather-forecast

• Don forecasts that deer movement will become more favorable toward the end of next week as temperatures cool. 3:49

wes-delks-humor

• Terry jokes that instead of the usual toilet-paper prank, people should donate diapers to Wes Delks since he now has two young children. 2:07 (light moment)

wind-conditions

• Wes recalls an unprecedented ten-day stretch of easterly winds in late September in Indiana that disrupted his hunting plans. 11:20

wind-management

• John Simoneau from Clifton, Illinois asks how to hunt a buck that uses the same daylight trail regardless of wind direction in December and January. 49:43

Deer activity

• U Haul (harvest) 11:35
• U Haul (trail-camera) 17:33
• U Haul (management) 17:43
• U Haul (trail-camera) 18:10
• Brandon Epperson buck (history) 18:26

Listener questions

Question: Terry asks Wes what it’s like to hear the podcast tell embarrassing stories or poke fun at him when he isn’t there to defend himself. 1:23 — asked by Terry

• Answer: Wes says he doesn’t get to jab back on the podcast, but that’s part of having fun with good friends. 1:33

Question: Kirsten Tepe from Oakland City, Indiana asks what breeders feed captive deer to reach over 1,000 inches of antler and whether Real World products could increase antler size. 34:53 — asked by Kirsten Tepe

• Answer: Don says feeding a deer Real World products won’t make it bigger since antler size is determined entirely by genetics. 35:31
• Answer: Don adds that proper nutrition simply allows a deer to reach its full genetic antler potential, not exceed it. 36:07

Question: Terry asks whether nutrition merely helps a buck reach its genetic antler ceiling or actually raises that ceiling. 37:09 — asked by Terry

• Answer: Wes says achieving big antlers requires age, nutrition, and genetics together. 37:20
• Answer: Wes explains that in the captive deer world, genetics produce thousand-inch antlers, but deer still must be fed properly to reach that potential. 37:26

Question: Zane Baldwin from Hastings, Nebraska asks why deer stopped hitting his rope scrape after chewing the end frayed, and how to fix it. 39:58 — asked by Zane Baldwin

• Answer: Don suggests there are certain scents you can apply to a rope scrape that will make deer want to chew on it. 41:07
• Answer: Wes says the same thing happened on his farm, so he just hung a second rope next to the frayed one, calling the spot ‘double rope’. 41:48
• Answer: Wes recommends hanging a new rope right next to the old chewed one rather than replacing it. 42:03

Question: Brandon Carroll from Chestertown, Maryland asks how to distinguish doe bedding from buck bedding during postseason scouting. 43:52 — asked by Brandon Carroll

• Answer: Don says a bigger, longer bed found in the snow is likely a buck’s bed. 44:39
• Answer: Don says he pays zero attention to differentiating doe and buck beds when scouting a new property, calling that distinction overrated. 45:00
• Answer: Wes says he narrows a bedding buck down to a several-acre area rather than one exact spot. 46:25

Question: Tim Brown from Carrollton, Illinois asks why deer prefer browsing in an open harvested ag bean field over his food plot planted with the same soybean variety. 46:40 — asked by Tim Brown

• Answer: Don explains deer naturally prefer feeding in big open areas, especially at night. 47:33
• Answer: Don suggests switching the food plot to Real World soybeans to see a difference in deer preference. 48:03
• Answer: Don says he would not mow the surrounding CRP, but would instead change what’s planted in the food plot. 48:40

Question: John Simoneau from Clifton, Illinois asks how to hunt a buck that uses the same daylight trail regardless of wind direction in December and January. 49:43 — asked by John Simoneau

• Answer: Don says an unpressured buck will give up the wind more than a pressured one, which is likely why this buck ignores wind direction. 51:25
• Answer: Wes agrees there’s a direct correlation between hunting pressure and how much a buck respects the wind. 52:02
• Answer: Wes references an article by Al Foster about finding the ‘weak spot’ when hunting a high-pressure area. 52:16

Prayer Time

Scripture: James Theme: joy-in-trials Wes encourages listeners chasing a specific deer not to base their joy on circumstances, big bucks, or people, but on the Lord as the baseline of strength, citing James 1:2 on finding steadfastness through trials, then prays for unselfish generosity, safe travel mercies for traveling hunters, and gratitude that the whitetail brings people closer together. 55:27

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