Episode #81 - TIPS FOR TRACKING YOUR DEER

Published: 2021-09-06
Episode page
Duration: 74 min

In this episode

announcement

Don announces that the next podcast episode will feature an interview with Dr. Bronson Strickland, during which they plan to reveal big news. 71:11
Terry announces the Dr. Strickland interview will be recorded early or midweek instead of the usual Sunday, so listeners must submit questions before Friday. 73:58

back-surgery

Terry admits installing drains was the wrong project to take on while recovering from back surgery, since ditch work is physically demanding. 7:37

bronson-strickland

Terry commits to asking Dr. Strickland about whether insect-related stress like flies affects herd health or antler growth on the next episode. 71:42

charity

Terry recounts that Chris Yates immediately volunteered to help when asked to check on Lindsey’s car, saying he was on it. 47:58

consulting-business

Don says his consulting business led him to meet Austin and Anne, who later became Real World Wildlife Products dealers and got involved with Lester’s Feet. 8:23
Don says he also met Chris Yates of Victory Chevrolet through his consulting business. 8:43

deer-health

Dan Higgins asks whether flies stress deer enough to affect their health, and what landowners can do to reduce fly stress on the herd. 67:46

education

Terry says he’d fully support his kids pursuing a trade instead of college, despite having a master’s degree himself. 55:01

entrepreneurship

Don, at 58, says he’s never seen a better time in his life for someone to start their own business. 52:25
Don’s advice to his own daughters was that making good money in life requires working for yourself. 53:08
Don told his friends Austin and Anne that given their talents, they should end up retired millionaires by fifty. 54:20

family-business

Terry recalls his family were custom home builders and his grandfather ran a construction company, but it was liquidated since none of the grandkids carried it on. 56:20

food-plots

Terry and his friend Patrick Simpson planted two new prototype food-plot blend varieties developed by their friend Duane Hopkins, testing them on a couple acres. 6:18
Don replanted his food plots Friday evening right after his friend Austin helped him install gutter drains at his new house. 6:54

hunting-ethics

Don says it bothers him when hunters lower their standards and shoot a mediocre deer just to call it a good TV buck. 3:43

hunting-experience

Don recalls that some of his most educational hunting seasons were the ones where he didn’t tag a buck. 5:52

hunting-philosophy

Terry says someone told him that old keys don’t unlock new doors, which helped him decide against forcing a repeat of past hunting strategies. 5:21

hunting-plans

Don plans to hang tree stands in Iowa the next day with Wes Delks and his son-in-law Corey Hamilton. 73:36

iowa

Don teases an unfolding storyline in Iowa that he expects will get very interesting if it plays out as it’s currently looking. 73:14

labor-shortage

Terry says there’s currently a labor shortage no matter where you turn in the economy. 55:13
Terry jokes that people avoiding work after COVID are just sitting at home eating Cheetos on government checks. 55:33 (light moment)

lesters-feet

Terry plans to sit out opening weekend so his guest, the winner of a Lester’s Feet giveaway, gets the first opportunity at a mature buck without pressuring the farm. 3:09
Terry announces that Lester’s Feet paid off Lindsey’s car loan, calling it one of the most rewarding phone calls he’s made for the organization. 45:55

mature-bucks

Terry has two known mature bucks over five years old on his property but doesn’t think either will score above the low 150s, so he isn’t interested in shooting them this year. 2:15

politics

Don asserts that Planned Parenthood was founded by a white woman to control the black population and that more black babies are aborted than white babies. 50:47

practice-shooting

Neil Putnam asks how Don fits in practice shooting time, his regimen for staying in control on a shot at a trophy deer, and how many arrows he shoots. 61:49

property-management

Terry’s goal is to manage his property strategically and accept the outcome even if it means going without a Kentucky buck two years running. 5:49

scouting

Don argues that paying someone to mark aerial photos of a hunting property is a rip-off since aerials can’t reveal what boots-on-ground scouting can. 14:33
Don says that while riding the field edge on a new property with his side-by-side, he instantly identified the ideal stand location after hours of aerial study had failed to reveal it. 14:03
Terry plans to fill feeders and spend the day glassing to pattern a betting velvet buck on his property. 72:50

A Facebook friend of Don’s posted that white men oppose abortion because they want to keep women under their control. 50:19

tracking-dogs

Terry admires Ron Slifer’s tracking dog Dio, calling it an impressive animal to watch work. 43:18
Ron Slifer reportedly keeps a full-time job while tracking deer late into the night, sometimes working through the night and going to his job the next morning. 43:52
Don says many of Ron Slifer’s tracking jobs stretch for hours across miles of thick terrain, adding that Ron is as much an animal as his dog Dio. 44:16

trail-cameras

Don has a yearly tradition of moving trail cameras from summer feeding spots to fall rutting locations around Labor Day weekend, timed to when bachelor groups start breaking up. 9:35
Don recommends not deploying trail cameras before July 1, since an early camera might only catch one photo of a promising buck before he avoids it entirely. 11:01
Terry asks whether moving cameras from summer field edges and inside corners to rut season means placing them on scrapes or in funnels. 15:24

Deer activity

unnamed buck (trail-camera) 11:24
unnamed buck (trail-camera) 12:16
Trump (harvest) 17:34

Listener questions

Question: Terry asks whether moving cameras from summer field edges and inside corners to rut season means placing them on scrapes or in funnels. 15:24

Answer: Don clarifies he doesn’t move every camera; some stay in place year-round. 15:44
Answer: The cameras he does move go from field edges into funnel areas along confined travel corridors that bucks use once they start running during the rut. 16:22

Question: Neil Putnam asks how Don fits in practice shooting time, his regimen for staying in control on a shot at a trophy deer, and how many arrows he shoots. 61:49 — asked by Neil Putnam

Answer: Don says he doesn’t track arrow speed and instead focuses only on placing the broadhead exactly where he wants it at 20 yards. 63:51
Answer: Once he resumes practice, Don plans to shoot roughly 20 arrows every other day until the season opens. 62:48

Question: Dan Higgins asks whether flies stress deer enough to affect their health, and what landowners can do to reduce fly stress on the herd. 67:46 — asked by Dan Higgins

Answer: Don shares that using Maximizer deer mineral with Expect Healthy Deer technology on his cattle made flies on them virtually disappear. 68:32
Answer: Don doubts a cattle-style back-rub fly control system would work, predicting mature bucks especially would avoid it due to the smell. 70:03

Terry described two mature bucks on his property that likely wouldn’t score above the low 150s, so he planned to sit out opening weekend so his Lester’s Feet giveaway guest hunter got first opportunity. He and Don reflected on accepting a season without a Kentucky buck, with Don recalling that some of his most educational seasons were tagless ones. They covered food-plot trials with Patrick Simpson and Duane Hopkins’ blends, Don’s Labor Day camera-move ritual from field edges to funnels, and skepticism toward paid aerial scouting. They praised Ron Slifer and his dog Dio for tracking, and Terry shared that Lester’s Feet paid off Lindsey’s car loan, with Chris Yates volunteering to help. Business and labor-market opinions followed, plus a preview of an upcoming Dr. Bronson Strickland interview. Listener questions from Neil Putnam and Dan Higgins covered practice-shooting habits and fly stress on deer.

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