Episode #45 - Lessons Learned from Captive Research Deer

Published: 2021-01-04
Episode page
Duration: 62 min

In this episode

arrow-selection

• Thomas asks for guidance on arrow selection, fletching, and weight for best penetration and more ethical kills. 44:17

bedding-behavior

• Terry observed his two bottle-fed doe fawns, Abby and Annie, always bedded in their own specific corner of the stall and never switched. 14:31

buck-bedding

• Terry believes individual bucks, under certain conditions, prefer a very specific bedding spot within a larger bedding area. 15:37
• Terry warns that a small amount of human intrusion into a suspected buck bed can cause the buck to stop using it entirely. 18:24
• Terry recommends observing a suspected buck bed from about 100 yards with binoculars rather than approaching directly, to confirm which buck uses it. 19:03

buyafarm-property

• Don describes the featured property as a 77.5-acre online auction located in Marion County, Illinois, on an easy-to-navigate website. 27:59

captive-research-herd

• Terry kept a captive herd of researched whitetail deer for about twenty-five years. 2:45

consulting-schedule

• Terry mentions he needs to get to bed early because he has a consulting job in Southern Illinois the next day. 61:29

episode-timeline

• Don says the three special episodes will be completed in January and early February so listeners can act on their farms that month. 4:47

faith

• Don says they get more comments thanking them for openly discussing their faith than almost anything else on the podcast. 59:34

fetal-programming

• Terry explains that adequate quality food for pregnant does sets unborn fawns up for success later in life. 9:17

film-school

• Terry announces openings remain for two film schools, one in May and one in August. 11:53

food-plots

• Don announces upcoming special episodes dedicated to spring food plots and to tree planting. 4:11

hunting-skill

• Terry argues many bowhunters try to use gear to make up for lack of hunting skill, when they should instead sharpen their skill. 51:38

listener-questions

• Terry explains they are saving some submitted listener questions to answer within upcoming themed episodes that match their topics. 5:05

master-classes

• Terry reports all his master classes for the year are now full. 11:39

mineral-rights

• Don advises land buyers to be cautious about mineral rights, since whoever holds them can enter the property, even a hunting sanctuary, at will. 26:48
• A listener asks what it means for a BuyAFarm listing to include mineral rights. 25:10

myths-debunked

• Terry says some claims in hunting magazines and social media about whitetails, including one about bucks losing weight, are untrue based on his 25 years with captive research whitetails. 11:01

new-series

• Don announces the podcast will start a new series that night on lessons learned from research herds, running through January and into February. 2:31

ohio

• Don notes Ohio’s one-buck limit makes it cheap and easy for nonresidents to hunt with over-the-counter tags and no lottery, unlike Iowa. 39:18

podcast-motto

• Terry states their motto is being for the hunting community, not the hunting industry. 6:31

podcast-schedule

• Terry says listeners asked them to keep doing weekly episodes, so they plan to continue weekly but may shorten runtime closer to an hour. 2:01

public-land-hunting

• Don asks how the bedding-area philosophy should change the mindset of listeners who mainly hunt public land, given they can’t control other hunters. 19:43
• Johnny Flynn asks whether Don’s sanctuary approach still applies when hunting public land, where hunters can’t control other people. 32:49

real-world-wildlife-products

• Don teases that without an ATA Show this year, he and Terry will break big news about new Real World Wildlife Products products for 2021. 3:24

rut

• Terry says he’s heard varying figures but believes bucks lose about 20% of their body weight during the rut. 10:11

rut-recovery

• Don announces next week’s episode will cover bucks recovering from the rut as part of the captive research herd lessons series. 22:37

shipping-delays

• Heather told Don that a top challenge this year has been the volume of customer questions about delayed shipment update requests. 29:42

spypoint

• Thomas jokes in a postscript that his SpyPoint cameras are still working, referencing Don’s camera troubles. 52:08 (light moment)

trail-camera-testing

• Don plans to pull all the trail cameras he’s been testing and bring them home around the middle to beginning of February. 54:02

tsi

• Don announces a third special episode covering the terms and practice of TSI, hinge cutting, and select cutting. 4:35

whitetail-management

• Johnny Flynn asks which single state, ignoring family considerations, would be best to live in for hunting mature whitetail bucks. 33:19

wind-direction

• Shane Moore asks what tools or apps are relied on for tracking daily and hourly wind direction, since hunting apps sometimes predict wrong. 55:28

wind-notes

• The speaker advises keeping notes on how wind behaves differently at each stand location since it can bounce off terrain and shift. 58:09

winter-nutrition

• Terry advises serious land managers should get their deer herd through winter in the best shape possible with quality food. 8:16

winter-weather

• Terry describes driving through whiteout blizzard conditions near Des Moines, Iowa, with visibility of only about 100 feet. 7:01

youtube-strategy

• Don explains labeling episodes by specific topic helps YouTube viewers searching for particular answers find relevant past episodes more easily. 5:54

Deer activity

• Abby (history) 12:52
• Annie (history) 12:52
• unnamed buck (trail-camera) 16:03
• Smokey (history) 17:34
• unnamed buck (harvest) 61:07

Listener questions

Question: Don asks how the bedding-area philosophy should change the mindset of listeners who mainly hunt public land, given they can’t control other hunters. 19:43

• Answer: Terry explains bucks on heavily pressured public land become far more cautious about bedding, food, and daylight movement, favoring sites with visibility and multiple escape routes. 20:08

Question: Johnny Flynn asks whether Don’s sanctuary approach still applies when hunting public land, where hunters can’t control other people. 32:49 — asked by Johnny Flynn

• Answer: Don advises hunting either very close to roads and parking areas or in the hardest-to-access spots, since those are the places most public-land hunters overlook. 34:51

Question: Johnny Flynn asks which single state, ignoring family considerations, would be best to live in for hunting mature whitetail bucks. 33:19 — asked by Johnny Flynn

• Answer: Terry says Iowa is hands down the best state right now because of how it manages its deer herd and age structure. 37:17

Question: Thomas asks for guidance on arrow selection, fletching, and weight for best penetration and more ethical kills. 44:17 — asked by Thomas

• Answer: Don says he strongly prefers heavier arrows with cut-on-contact fixed blade broadheads. 44:47
• Answer: Don emphasizes that making clean, ethical shots on every animal matters more than chasing speed or arrow specs. 45:37
• Answer: Don adds his own max range is 30 yards, though almost every deer he shoots is 20 yards or closer. 45:59

Question: Shane Moore asks what tools or apps are relied on for tracking daily and hourly wind direction, since hunting apps sometimes predict wrong. 55:28 — asked by Shane Moore

• Answer: The speaker says he does not rely on hunting-specific wind apps. 55:54
• Answer: He uses general weather apps like Weather Underground and AccuWeather instead of hunting-specific ones. 56:09
• Answer: He says he trusts a wind sock at his house over any app or weatherman, using it as the reference point for choosing which stand to hunt. 56:35

Question: A listener asks what it means for a BuyAFarm listing to include mineral rights. 25:10

• Answer: Terry explains mineral rights cover resources like coal and oil below the surface, which sellers sometimes retain or have already sold separately. 25:22
• Answer: Terry adds that if mineral rights transfer to the new owner, they would receive income from any oil, gas, or coal extraction. 26:13

Sponsors this episode

• BuyAFarm.com
• 360 Hunting Blinds
• QuietKat
• Real World Wildlife Products
• Vortex Optics
• Mathews Archery
• Lone Wolf Treestands

The episode opened a new series on lessons from Terry’s roughly twenty-five years running a captive research whitetail herd, continuing through January and February, with upcoming special episodes on food plots, tree planting, and a third on land management practices. Terry advised getting deer herds through winter with quality food, noting adequate nutrition for pregnant does helps unborn fawns, and said he’d heard varying figures but believed bucks lose about 20% of body weight during the rut, while disputing other widely circulated claims from his herd experience. He described bottle-raised does Abby and Annie always bedding in the same stall corner, and argued individual bucks favor specific bedding spots, cautioning that minor human intrusion can push a buck off a bed and recommending observation from about 100 yards. Listener questions covered public-land bedding strategy, best states for mature bucks, arrow selection, wind-tracking tools, and mineral rights on a featured 77.5-acre Illinois property.

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