Why Mature Bucks Go Nocturnal | Chasing Giants Podcast 326

Published: 2026-05-24
Episode page
Duration: 68 min

In this episode

bear-hunting

• John Ritter shot a world-class black bear estimated at seven and a half feet tall and over four hundred pounds on the first night of the Manitoba hunt. 10:07
• High winds forced Terry to hunt with a gun instead of a bow on the final night, and he shot a good black bear. 11:42
• On a decades-old Saskatchewan bear hunt, Don had a giant black bear come in on the last evening of his trip. 13:00
• Don judges giant bears by how broad they are across the back when viewed from above, rather than by height or chest depth. 13:04

caregiving

• Don has taken on caregiving duties for Robin, including bathroom assistance, cooking, and laundry, since her surgery. 2:12

chemotherapy

• Robin faces six chemo treatments spaced three weeks apart, expected to take all summer into the fall. 3:08

doubting-thomas

• Scrape Magnet played a major role in Doubting Thomas’s history, with trail camera video showing the buck working ropes soaked in the product. 31:04
• The edited Doubting Thomas video for wider release should be ready within about thirty days, possibly around the Fourth of July. 31:26
• Al Foster made the same point in the Doubting Thomas video that Bryhn Craft made about letting big bucks walk. 57:11

family-health

• Robin’s surgery was expected to take three hours but ended up lasting six, and doctors found and removed several tumors. 1:19
• Robin fell while leaving the hospital after her surgery, which delayed her discharge until a doctor examined her. 2:03

fan-encounter

• Podcast fan Patrick Heinrichs recognized Terry at a Canadian gas station after spotting a Chasing Giants hat on the dashboard. 15:07
• A hospital worker at Mayo Clinic told Don he listened to the podcast and had been hoping to run into him while Robin was in surgery. 16:12

fawn-survival

• Brandon asked whether walking into and around sanctuary areas more often during fawning season could improve fawn survival by deterring predators like coyotes. 54:25

food-plots

• Don finished planting all of his food plots for the spring. 18:30
• Terry plans to prioritize his new Southern Illinois property next week, planting about five acres of beans with Austin once the rain breaks. 22:45
• Doug asked for Don’s opinion on fertilizing clover plots with granular versus foliar fertilizer, whether it’s worth doing, and how often to apply each. 46:13

indiana

• Don thinks Indiana should move its gun season out of November, arguing that change could let the state start producing far bigger bucks. 42:34

iowa

• Don thinks Iowa should eliminate its late muzzleloader season, arguing it kills many mature bucks that would otherwise survive to grow bigger. 52:38

michigan

• Terry noted Michigan’s new one-buck law coincided with legislation opening rifle season to any rifle instead of just straight-wall cartridges. 45:25
• Dylan asked how Michigan becoming a one-buck state in the Lower Peninsula would change deer hunting and whether it could become a top big-buck competitor. 43:13

nocturnal-bucks

• Matt asked why a mature buck would remain nocturnal in an area with good habitat and low hunting pressure despite little real danger. 49:53

podcast-content

• Chasing Giants has content recorded with WildlifeFarming.com, Hawke Optics, Mathews, and WiseEye, plus half of a Novix segment already filmed. 6:14

podcast-schedule

• Terry announced Don is expected back for the next several weeks with no more fill-in hosts needed, and more content is coming to Chasing Giants TV. 58:24

scent-products

• Don has used synthetic scents for over twenty years, dating back to being featured in another company’s brochure around 2002. 33:45

scrape-magnet

• Terry explained that synthetic scrape magnet scent is meant to be a stimulus that triggers a reaction, not an attempt to smell like an actual deer. 35:25

soybeans

• Duane Hopkins’ research indicates soybean fields yield about the same once plant populations reach roughly 80,000 or more per acre, regardless of higher counts. 27:35
• Duane Hopkins advised that if a soybean field still has 80,000 or more plants per acre after losses, replanting probably isn’t worth it. 28:26

supplemental-feeding

• Dalton asked whether Don would place a feeder in his food plot for supplemental feeding, and how he’d approach feeding deer if Illinois permitted it. 38:03

trail-camera

• Don observed on trail camera that a younger buck was already forking its G3 tines while an older buck with large bases had barely started brow tines. 21:26

trophy-bucks

• Bryhn Craft’s comment that every 200-inch buck was once a 180-inch buck stuck with Don as a reason not to shoot every mature 180-class deer. 56:57

Deer activity

• unnamed buck (trail-camera) 21:14
• doubting Thomas (trail-camera) 31:04

Listener questions

Question: Dalton asked whether Don would place a feeder in his food plot for supplemental feeding, and how he’d approach feeding deer if Illinois permitted it. 38:03 — asked by Dalton Amburn

• Answer: Don explained that baiting means feeding during hunting season specifically to draw deer to a pile for a shot. 39:17
• Answer: Don said he’d set up multiple feeding stations at his food plots to draw deer from bedding areas rather than feed them in the bedding cover itself. 39:52

Question: Dylan asked how Michigan becoming a one-buck state in the Lower Peninsula would change deer hunting and whether it could become a top big-buck competitor. 43:13 — asked by Dylan Wilson

• Answer: Don said Michigan’s roughly 600,000 hunters carry generations-old cultural habits, making a quick shift in hunting behavior unlikely despite the new law. 44:14

Question: Doug asked for Don’s opinion on fertilizing clover plots with granular versus foliar fertilizer, whether it’s worth doing, and how often to apply each. 46:13 — asked by Doug Brennan

• Answer: Don explained that foliar fertilizer gives a quick but short-lived boost, while granular fertilizer lasts longer. 46:33

Question: Matt asked why a mature buck would remain nocturnal in an area with good habitat and low hunting pressure despite little real danger. 49:53 — asked by Matt

• Answer: Don explained that bucks moving less in daylight survive longer and breed more, passing that cautious tendency on through natural selection. 50:37

Question: Brandon asked whether walking into and around sanctuary areas more often during fawning season could improve fawn survival by deterring predators like coyotes. 54:25 — asked by Brandon

• Answer: Don said sanctuaries are too important to disturb at any time of year, so he wouldn’t add human pressure there even to help fawns survive. 55:33

Terry opened with an update on Robin’s health: her surgery ran six hours instead of three, tumors were found and removed, she fell before discharge, and Don has since handled cooking, laundry, and other caregiving while she faces six chemo treatments through summer into fall. A Mayo Clinic worker and a fan named Patrick Heinrichs both recognized the show while traveling. Hunt recaps covered John Ritter’s world-class Manitoba black bear, Terry’s wind-forced gun harvest, and Don’s memory of a giant Saskatchewan bear years earlier. Doubting Thomas came up again, with Scrape Magnet’s role in his history and an edited video expected in about a month. Don argued Indiana’s gun season and Iowa’s late muzzleloader season hurt buck age structure, while Terry noted Michigan’s new one-buck rule paired with a rifle law change. Listener questions from Dalton, Dylan, Doug, Matt, and Brandon covered feeding, fertilizing clover, nocturnal bucks, and sanctuary pressure.

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