Episode #9 - Terry shoots his second buck of the year and Don scouts for 2020 Season

Published: 2019-12-01
Episode page
Duration: 63 min

In this episode

bow-harvest

• Patrick Simpson shot Curley, a real nontypical buck, on November 1 with a bow. 6:44
• Terry shot a buck on the downwind edge of a bedding area, the smallest of three shooter bucks, with six-inch bases. 7:37

buck-behavior

• Terry asks Don whether the buck he got video footage of was heading to food or bedding. 9:04

buck-harvest

• Don shot his second buck and filled his last Illinois buck tag on November 4. 4:54

buying-vs-leasing

• Don argues purchasing a property is a wiser use of money than leasing, since payments build equity instead of just buying temporary access. 51:01

deer-aging

• Terry sent his buck’s front teeth to DeerAge.com for expedited aging and expects results the following week. 8:17

faith

• Terry closes the show thanking God for faithfulness through their lives and naming the gift of salvation through Jesus as most thankful for. 62:42

family

• Terry says having all three kids back in the same house for Thanksgiving was really nice and something he thoroughly enjoyed. 60:52
• Don’s youngest daughter moved to the East Coast to work at Yale University Medical Center and flew home the day before Thanksgiving. 61:04

grunt-call

• Terry recalls blowing a grunt call at a buck on Don’s property that turned from the creek and came in for an eight-yard shot. 43:59

gun-season

• Don notes Illinois’s second and final gun season runs Thursday through Sunday the following weekend, except for a later muzzleloader season. 5:06

kentucky

• Terry shot T3, one of two named ten-pointers, on his Kentucky farm’s soybean-plot ridge this season. 30:12
• Terry confirms T2, the ten-pointer he wanted his son to shoot, survived gun season on his Kentucky farm. 30:59

late-muzzleloader

• Terry plans to hunt his standing Real World Wildlife Products soybean plot with son Jonathan during late muzzleloader season for a shot at the buck. 34:25

late-season-scouting

• Jay Coach asks what sign to look for on a new late-season property and how to tell if deer use it in daylight or darkness. 54:48

leasing-land

• Don admits he leases several small properties and, this year, had properties he paid to lease but never actually hunted. 53:46
• Seth Miller asks what advice Don has for hunting a leased West Central Illinois property he has limited knowledge of. 47:03

michigan

• Don argues quality deer management in Michigan is largely a joke because responsible hunters are outnumbered ten to one by those who shoot everything. 20:01

optics

• Terry advises buying the best optics you can afford within your budget, since with optics you generally get what you pay for. 37:37

pike-county

• Don calls Pike County the most overrated place on earth for whitetails, saying it has been hunted to death. 48:41

podcast-growth

• Terry reports that episode eight got the most downloads of any episode released so far within its first 24 hours. 2:22

podcast-support

• Terry advises listeners that leaving a review or comment after subscribing helps other people searching the topic find the podcast faster. 2:59

post-thanksgiving-scouting

• Terry asks Don what he has been up to outside of Thanksgiving, teasing they’ll get to the buck he shot. 3:20

property-purchase

• Don bought an Ohio property last summer with a business partner and within 48 hours had heavy equipment install a 10-acre food plot. 16:20

rattling

• Brian asks Don’s opinion on rattling, calling, and decoys for mature bucks and whether they help or hurt more. 40:47

rut-stands

• Don says his rut stands typically have very little sign around them, unlike common advice to hunt rub lines or scrapes. 11:05

shotgun-hunting

• Terry describes a shotgun buck absorbing three slugs over roughly 65-70 yards before finally going down. 13:04

team-radical

• Kyle of Team Radical posted a video of his harvest of Uno, a buck he had documented for years. 13:37

tracking-dog

• After a good hit, Kyle got a second arrow into the buck, then called hunting partner Ron and tracking dog Dio as an insurance policy. 13:50

trail-camera

• Don got a trail-camera picture of a promising young buck right before daylight and has high hopes for him if he survives. 3:47
• Don tracked a buck named Trump by charting every trail-camera picture’s date, location, and direction to piece together his movement pattern. 32:20

vortex

• Terry notes that all Vortex products, at every price tier, are backed by the same warranty. 38:04

wind-direction

• Terry asks Don if there’s a way to look up wind direction for the date stamps on his trail camera photos. 31:51

Deer activity

• unnamed buck (trail-camera) 3:47
• Curley (harvest) 6:44
• unnamed buck (harvest) 7:37
• unnamed buck (harvest) 13:04
• Uno (harvest) 13:37
• t three (harvest) 30:12
• t two (management) 30:59
• Trump (trail-camera) 32:20
• unnamed buck (management) 33:02
• unnamed buck (harvest) 43:59

Listener questions

Question: Terry asks Don what he has been up to outside of Thanksgiving, teasing they’ll get to the buck he shot. 3:20

• Answer: Don says the day after Thanksgiving he checked trail cameras on five different properties. 3:33

Question: Terry asks Don whether the buck he got video footage of was heading to food or bedding. 9:04

• Answer: Don says the buck was cruising for does along the downwind edge of the doe bedding area. 9:11

Question: Brian asks Don’s opinion on rattling, calling, and decoys for mature bucks and whether they help or hurt more. 40:47 — asked by Brian

• Answer: Don believes for every mature buck lured by decoy, rattle, or call, at least 20 others get spooked or educated. 41:24
• Answer: Terry agrees he is completely against blind calling or rattling without seeing the deer’s reaction. 43:08

Question: Seth Miller asks what advice Don has for hunting a leased West Central Illinois property he has limited knowledge of. 47:03 — asked by Seth Miller

• Answer: Don’s first advice is to never lease a property without seeing it first. 47:27
• Answer: Terry adds you should scout for food, cover, access, and also research adjoining properties before committing. 49:09

Question: Jay Coach asks what sign to look for on a new late-season property and how to tell if deer use it in daylight or darkness. 54:48 — asked by Jay Coach

• Answer: Don says obviously look for fresh tracks showing deer are currently using the property. 55:36
• Answer: Don guesses most deer are bedding in the adjoining state ground and feeding in the crop fields. 56:49
• Answer: Terry suggests finding out who farms the ground and what their harvest and tillage plans are. 57:17

Question: Terry asks Don if there’s a way to look up wind direction for the date stamps on his trail camera photos. 31:51

• Answer: Don says to use Weather Underground, which has historical weather data by date and location. 32:06
• Answer: Don explains he built a spreadsheet logging every camera picture’s date, location, and direction to pattern a buck. 32:29

The hosts recapped their Thanksgiving buck harvests. Don filled his last Illinois buck tag on his second buck on November 4, having patterned a mature buck by charting trail-camera dates, locations, and directions. Terry shot a buck on the downwind edge of a bedding area, the smallest of three shooters, with six-inch bases, and sent its teeth to DeerAge.com for aging. They discussed Patrick Simpson’s bow kill of a nontypical buck and Kyle of Team Radical’s video of a long-documented buck’s harvest. Listener questions covered rattling and decoys, which Don felt spook or educate more mature bucks than they lure; scouting an unfamiliar leased Illinois property before committing; reading sign on new late-season ground; and using Weather Underground to check historical wind data against trail-camera timestamps. Don also argued Michigan’s quality deer management is undermined by irresponsible hunters, and that buying land builds equity better than leasing. Terry closed thanking God for salvation through Jesus.

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