Episode #91 - Is Don like CNN News?

Published: 2021-11-15
Episode page
Duration: 68 min

In this episode

bow-raffle

Don announces he donated a new Mathews bow to his church, Solid Rock Chapel, to be raffled off for a ministry they run. 23:25
Don announces this will probably be the last hunt ever raffled on his farm, due to legal reasons. 23:36
Don announces bow raffle tickets are $20 each or six for $100. 23:58

covid-19

Todd from Badger, Minnesota asked whether a reported drop in human testosterone from COVID could similarly be affecting the whitetail rut. 52:14

deer-aging

Terry recommends sending harvested deer teeth to deerage.com to learn as much about a taken deer’s history as about deer still being tracked, aiding property management decisions. 5:30
Don states that a buck being aged inaccurately by tooth wear is further proof you cannot reliably age a deer from a photograph. 6:04

doe-behavior

Terry describes seeing an unusually high number of does with fawns over the past week still behaving completely normally, as if nothing was happening. 11:23

doe-estrus

Eric Perry from Longbottom, Ohio asked what caused the lack of daytime rut movement this year, and whether fawns that enter heat late in January stay late every year. 57:45
Terry asked whether the biggest bucks already bred the first hot does and are now fighting other bucks while searching for the next does coming into heat. 9:29

donations

Terry credits Brian Kraft of Midwest Land Group with donating roughly $40,000 to Lester’s Feet on top of raffle proceeds. 32:05

fawns

Terry asked whether seeing fawns alone in a field accurately indicates their mother doe is currently locked down breeding with a mature buck. 10:59

hunting-experience

Don notes that in 45 years of whitetail hunting he has never had a hot doe lead a buck past him that he was then able to kill. 20:06

hunting-strategy

Don explains his ‘element of surprise’ tactic: leaving a stand or property unhunted so when a shooter buck appears he can suddenly show up on it. 13:15

hunting-tactics

Don advises hunting downwind bedding-cover edges in the mornings this week to catch mature bucks cruising for the next hot does. 19:50
Don recommends hunting food sources in the evenings during late rut since does show up there and bucks will follow them. 21:02

iowa

Don plans to head back to Iowa at some point to try to lay eyes on a promising buck he’s been getting trail camera photos of. 22:10

kevin-yoder-fund

Don announces donation funds from the live event’s meal will go to the Kevin Yoder Fund, for a child born with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia. 27:21

lesters-feet

Terry announces Lester’s Feet has distributed or earmarked about $73,094.01 to families since around July, based on new accountability reporting. 30:18

live-event

Don announces they will record a live Chasing Giants podcast on Friday evening, December 10th at 6:30. 25:52
Don announces the live event will be held in Guthrie, Kentucky at Bluegrass Feed and Seed. 25:37

lockdown-phase

Don says this year has been different because he has yet to see even one example of the typical lockdown-phase sighting of a buck paired with a doe in an open field. 65:32

mature-does

Michael Johnson from Bechtlesville, PA asked whether mature does are also a different animal like mature bucks, and whether they’re more attractive to mature bucks during the rut. 45:27

podcast-growth

Terry recommends listeners leave a review on whatever platform they watch the podcast on as the best way to support the show. 65:57

property-search

Don plans to shop for a new hunting property once his house is finished, prioritizing isolation and avoiding neighbors who could hunt his fence line. 17:18

property-selection

Don says most deer hunters can recognize good deer cover but fail to recognize what makes the overall layout of a property good for growing big deer. 19:03

raffle-liability

Terry explains their attorneys advised them to stop donating raffle hunts because it exposes both the hosting family and the recipient organization to liability. 25:11

rut-activity

Terry relays that Duane Hopkins also observed does with fawns behaving normally with no rutting activity, matching Terry’s own odd observations. 11:33

rut-behavior

Don says he hasn’t seen new, unfamiliar bucks show up during this year’s rut—every buck he encounters is one he already has on trail camera. 63:48

rut-timing

Clint from Jonesboro, Arkansas asked whether claiming the rut happens the same time every year is like how CNN cherry-picks data to fit a narrative. 36:40

schedule

Terry announces next week’s podcast might not air until Monday night since he’ll be hunting shotgun season in Illinois and Don will be in Iowa. 67:32

stand-strategy

Don credits his hunting success to having stands scattered everywhere and waiting for the right time to jump into an unpressured one to shoot a buck. 12:57

t-shirts

Terry announces ongoing supply chain problems are still keeping some sizes of the podcast’s T-shirts out of stock. 35:16
Terry says next year they’ll release a new shirt available only to listeners whose questions get used on the show. 35:59

target-buck

Don announces his Illinois target buck returned with a broken main beam, so he won’t shoot or even hunt him this year, saving him for next season. 12:38

trail-camera

Terry says his trail cameras showed a night-and-day difference: daytime sits showed no rut activity, but cards revealed bucks chasing and bumping does all night. 61:25

whitetail-master-classes

Don announces the Whitetail Master Classes with Bronson Strickland are already full, and the other classes are filling up quickly too. 22:46

Deer activity

unnamed buck (harvest) 2:40
unnamed buck (history) 4:27
unnamed buck (trail-camera) 12:34
unnamed buck (harvest) 14:30
unnamed buck (trail-camera) 21:56
Mel (trail-camera) 50:41

Listener questions

Question: Clint from Jonesboro, Arkansas asked whether claiming the rut happens the same time every year is like how CNN cherry-picks data to fit a narrative. 36:40

Answer: Don explains it’s the pineal gland in the deer’s eye, driven by daylight length, that triggers the rut, not other year-to-year environmental factors. 40:05
Answer: Don adds that in 25 years with captive deer, fawns were born at the same time every year, supporting the consistent-timing claim. 41:00

Question: Michael Johnson from Bechtlesville, PA asked whether mature does are also a different animal like mature bucks, and whether they’re more attractive to mature bucks during the rut. 45:27

Answer: Don answers mature does are no more attractive to a mature buck than an immature doe—bucks just want any doe attracted to them. 46:04
Answer: Don concludes mature bucks must be hunted as a totally different animal than other deer, with nothing really similar between bucks and does. 48:06

Question: Todd from Badger, Minnesota asked whether a reported drop in human testosterone from COVID could similarly be affecting the whitetail rut. 52:14

Answer: Don questions who could have actually tested enough deer to claim forty percent have had COVID, dismissing the statistic as unfounded. 53:20
Answer: Don calls COVID a political disease, says no one really knows how many deer have had it, and doubts it affects buck libido or the rut. 54:27

Question: Eric Perry from Longbottom, Ohio asked what caused the lack of daytime rut movement this year, and whether fawns that enter heat late in January stay late every year. 57:45

Answer: Don answers that not every doe comes into heat on exactly the same calendar day each year, though timing patterns exist. 58:58
Answer: Don adds that doe fawns won’t always come into heat in January—it’s random, since daylight-driven regulation ultimately governs timing. 60:07

Question: Terry asked whether seeing fawns alone in a field accurately indicates their mother doe is currently locked down breeding with a mature buck. 10:59

Answer: Don confirms it’s a fairly good indicator, aside from cases where the doe was hit by a car or shot, that she’s off breeding with a mature buck. 11:15

Question: Terry asked whether the biggest bucks already bred the first hot does and are now fighting other bucks while searching for the next does coming into heat. 9:29

Answer: Don says does don’t come into heat in predictable waves—there are does in heat throughout all of November—so bucks keep searching. 10:01

Don and Terry noted an unusually quiet rut this year, with no new bucks showing up on camera, no lockdown-phase pairs seen in open fields, and does with fawns behaving normally—though night cameras still caught bucks chasing does after dark. Don explained rut timing is driven by daylight length via the pineal gland, not yearly conditions, dismissing listener theories tying it to COVID or news-style data manipulation. He said mature does aren’t more attractive to bucks than immature ones, and that bucks searching for the next hot does stay active since does come into heat throughout November rather than in waves. Don recommended hunting bedding-cover edges downwind in mornings and food sources in evenings during late rut. He also reported his target Illinois buck returned with a broken main beam and would be spared this season, and shared plans to donate a bow to his church’s raffle, with proceeds from an upcoming live show benefiting the Kevin Yoder Fund.

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