Episode #6 - Don Kills 2 Booners on Back to Back Hunts

Published: 2019-11-10
Episode page
Duration: 54 min

In this episode

advertising

• Terry noted the fork tine buck was featured in a Real World Wildlife Products ad photo for Gen-two Soybeans. 7:42

aerial-maps

• Don and Terry found the best spot on a scouted property wasn’t one Don had pre-marked from aerial imagery. 46:14

antler-scoring

• Don had predicted the fork tine buck would score around 170 inches, but the six-year-old buck actually scored 167. 9:15

buck-harvest

• Don shot and tagged his first Illinois buck Sunday morning, then killed and tagged a second buck the very next afternoon. 1:45
• Don took pride in killing a five-year-old, nearly-170-inch buck off small, non-leased ground with no food plots. 17:32

chasing-giants-shirt

• Don announced a couple more listeners would get free Chasing Giants t-shirts that week because their submitted questions were selected. 39:57

family-hunting

• Terry got back in the woods for the first time that Saturday, rifle hunting in Kentucky with his son Jonathan. 21:33

food-plot

• Don’s team cleared and planted a 10-acre food plot on his new Ohio property with Real World Wildlife Products Deadly Dozen. 22:22

hunter-mindset

• Don said consistently successful big buck hunters stay confident, expecting to kill a big buck every year rather than merely hoping for one. 27:18

hunting-plan

• Don had been targeting seven bucks in the 170-inch range across five different Illinois properties, one of which produced the fork tine buck. 13:02

land-consulting

• Don recommends visitors check his website, higginsoutdoors.com, for what questions to ask before hiring a hunting-land consultant. 33:00
• Jesse Fromm asked whether Don would offer a discounted service reviewing satellite and topography maps to help build hunting plans for those who can’t afford full consulting. 40:06

mindset

• Don often tells Terry to stop doubting himself, reminding him he has good properties and bucks to target and just needs to follow through. 28:36

ohio-property

• Don cut his Ohio hunt short after two days because trail cameras there hadn’t captured a shooter buck since September. 23:24
• Don planned to return to his Ohio property around Thanksgiving week, toward the tail end of the rut. 24:23

public-land

• Don’s long-standing goal is to shoot a gross Boone and Crockett buck on public land, and he planned to scout for one. 25:11
• Don planned to check trail cameras and scout public land later in the week for an unpressured spot holding a good buck. 53:11

rut-activity

• Don counted seven or eight bucks moving that morning, with only one yearling and a couple two-year-olds among mostly mature three-year-old-plus bucks. 6:06

rut-lockdown

• Don predicted most big bucks in his area would be locked down with does within about two days of recording. 52:54

rut-strategy

• Don deliberately stays off a small doe-heavy property surrounded by pressured land until early rut, then moves in once bucks start searching. 20:22

rut-timing

• Don expected the slow October rut to turn around, predicting the coming week would be the best week of the whole rut to hunt. 1:21

stand-placement

• Justin Fallon asked how to know the right time to use a favorable wind, beyond the rut and dropping temperatures, on a stand near a funnel with food and water. 47:26

trail-camera

• Kyle Heuerman captured trail-camera-quality footage of the injured fork tine buck feeding in soybeans during the snow last winter. 7:23

Deer activity

• unnamed buck (harvest) 5:45
• fork tine buck (history) 6:58
• unnamed buck (trail-camera) 7:23
• unnamed buck (history) 10:20
• unnamed buck (harvest) 15:39
• unnamed buck (harvest) 18:08

Listener questions

Question: Jesse Fromm asked whether Don would offer a discounted service reviewing satellite and topography maps to help build hunting plans for those who can’t afford full consulting. 40:06 — asked by Jesse Fromm

• Answer: Don said he wouldn’t feel right charging for aerial-only map advice, since once he walks a property in person, 70-80% of his aerial-based plan usually gets thrown out. 42:37
• Answer: Don added he doesn’t believe anyone should pay for aerial-map marking at all, since advice from an aerial alone is too unreliable. 44:30

Question: Justin Fallon asked how to know the right time to use a favorable wind, beyond the rut and dropping temperatures, on a stand near a funnel with food and water. 47:26 — asked by Justin Fallon

• Answer: Don pointed out Justin only mentioned one stand on his 400-acre property, which limits him to hunting only when the wind happens to suit that single spot. 49:15
• Answer: Terry added that hunters need multiple stand setups for different wind directions and different times of year on one property. 51:00

Sponsors this episode

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

Don recapped a fast start to Illinois rut hunting, tagging his first buck Sunday morning and a second the next afternoon, after counting seven or eight bucks moving, mostly mature three-year-olds. He detailed killing a six-year-old fork tine buck he’d predicted around 170 that scored 167, noting it came off small, non-leased ground with no food plots and had appeared in a Real World Wildlife Products soybean ad photo. He cut a scouting trip to his new Ohio property short after two days when cameras showed no shooter activity since September, planning to return near Thanksgiving. Terry shared his first outing of the season, rifle hunting Kentucky with his son Jonathan. Listener questions addressed satellite-map consulting and multiple stand setups for shifting winds, with Don and Terry stressing that aerial scouting alone is unreliable and one stand limits wind options on larger ground.

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