Episode #98 - Don’s Trophy Room, Stolen Gun, and New Title Sponsor

Published: 2022-01-02
Episode page
Duration: 79 min

In this episode

360-hunting-blinds

• Don said consulting clients and Master Class students get a discount on 360 Hunting Blinds purchased through Higgins Outdoors. 10:05

asio-gear

• Terry said he immediately fell in love with ASIO’s backpack and made a video about it. 3:53

bow-season

• Terry is hunting in Illinois this weekend trying to fill his bow tag as a cold front moves in. 1:44

buyafarm

• Terry said BuyAFarm remains a very important partner and is considered the podcast’s founding partner. 6:52
• Don announced BuyAFarm’s four owners—Wayne Keller, Don Bailey, Mark Kennedy, and Todd Hewing—will take turns featuring their own property listings on the podcast. 7:31
• Terry said BuyAFarm’s owners plan to offer broader property-buying tools and insights for listeners nationwide, including in Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Georgia. 39:06

chris-yates

• Terry said Chris Yates is one of the biggest supporters of the Lester’s Feet Foundation. 8:46

ehd-outbreak

• Terry said the 2012 EHD outbreak wiped out about 70% of the deer herd on the east side of Illinois, yet he could still buy two out-of-state tags the following year. 31:24

foid-card

• Don said the problem he ran into buying a gun at Shields was Illinois’s FOID card laws. 25:53
• Don said moving to a new address just 400 yards from his old house led him to mistakenly put the new address on his gun purchase paperwork. 26:36

gear-review

• Don said he’d had to send his Sitka bibs back for zipper repairs, and found ASIO’s zippers noticeably superior in quality. 4:56

gingerich-tree-farm

• Terry announced Gingerich Tree Farm as a new sponsor providing a vital tool for land management projects. 14:32
• Don said Jay and Loretta Gingerich’s tree farm grows shade, landscape, evergreen, and potted trees, and does CRP and conservation plantings with bare root seedlings. 14:56
• Don said he refers many of his consulting clients to Jay Gingerich because they don’t have time to do the tree planting work themselves. 15:24

illinois-bowhunter-society

• Don said he served as a director for the Illinois Bowhunter Society, giving up many Saturdays and making trips to Springfield to testify before the legislature. 62:15

illinois-whitetail-alliance

• Don said a handful of hunters, including himself, founded the Illinois Whitetail Alliance after the 2012 EHD outbreak. 62:50
• Don said joining the Illinois Whitetail Alliance was free, yet almost no one in the state signed up—maybe 100 people total. 62:55

iowa-hunting

• Don said the older he gets, the more he prefers sleeping in his own bed and hunting local bucks he can access anytime, rather than long-distance hunts. 21:37
• Don said he made at least 15 trips to Iowa between camera placement last summer and hunting this fall. 23:07

joe-miles

• Terry called Joe Miles an outstanding whitetail hunter who has killed big deer everywhere, and said Miles designed the camo because no one else was making gear specifically for tree stand hunters. 5:26

master-class

• Don rejected the accusation that his master class has turned hunting into a rich man’s sport, calling it inaccurate. 65:32
• Terry said their teaching goal is for hunters to set a goal, stick to it, and stop shooting every big three-year-old buck. 68:05
• Caleb Cook asked whether Don would put an experience limit on master class attendees, arguing it caters to inexperienced rich hunters. 61:03

mathews

• Terry said Matt McPherson, owner of Mathews, leads by example in using his company to do good in other places. 11:01

new-years-goals

• Terry said one of Don’s New Year’s goals is acquiring a local hunting property. 22:35

nocturnal-bucks

• Jason Hesselberg asked whether the ‘unkillable’ or nocturnal buck people talk about is real. 43:24

novix

• Terry announced that Novix is the rebranded original Lone Wolf Treestands company, which had to change its name amid a business situation. 11:35

pike-county

• Don said Pike County, Illinois is living on its past reputation, with the Illinois DNR’s mismanagement having destroyed the deer resource there. 31:02

quietkat

• Terry called the QuietKat one of the key tools for reducing human intrusion while hunting. 13:35

rain-gear

• Terry said they had to shop for replacement rain gear after Don’s was stolen in the truck break-in. 25:09

season-review

• Nathan Brown asked for a review of the hosts’ season, including what deer they passed, ages, scores, and lessons learned. 48:34

seminar

• Don announced a seminar Monday evening, January 10th, at Triple H Feeds in Miller, Missouri. 28:33
• Don said the seminar host will also serve a free chili supper. 29:01

social-media

• Don said he blocked one social media user this week who mocked him for having his truck broken into. 33:32

social-media-moderation

• Terry said he moderates several Facebook pages and immediately deletes comments the moment someone curses or swears. 33:04

sponsorship

• Terry announced ASIO Gear as the podcast’s new primary sponsor. 2:02
• Don explained that Joe Miles approached him over a year ago about sponsoring the podcast after Vengeance Camo declined to take their partnership to the next level. 2:18
• Terry said the podcast’s sponsor selections aren’t based on the highest bidder, and the only roster changes this year were adding ASIO and Gingerich Tree Farm. 15:57
• Don said sponsor decisions come down to loyalty, which matters enough to him that he’s willing to give up money for it. 16:33

stand-placement

• Jason Hesselberg asked whether Don sets up specific stand sites near water to use rising thermals. 43:55

todd-hewing

• Terry said he wants to go trapping with Todd Hewing. 39:43
• Don recounted a harrowing ride with Todd Hewing driving fast along a Wayne County drainage ditch with a 60-foot drop to the water. 40:23

trail-cameras

• Garrett asked how the hosts store and organize trail camera photos, what app they use, and how many photos to keep per deer. 55:57

tree-stand-strategy

• Don said it’s more important to have a few quality tree stands where you can kill the best buck than to have many stands. 74:19
• Don said the two keys to a good tree stand site are having good access and being able to hunt the correct wind. 74:41

trophy-room

• Don said his top five bucks average 205 inches, with four of them killed in the last five years. 78:09

truck-break-in

• Don’s truck was broken into in Florissant, Missouri, and the thief stole his gun, rain gear, and work clothes. 18:12
• Don joked that the silver lining of the break-in was that he ‘employed a Democrat’ by giving away his tools and gun. 18:27 (light moment)
• Don said the truck thief left a pair of Vortex binoculars in plain sight on the dash and only took the gun and his work clothes. 19:40

victory-chevrolet

• Terry recommended Chris Yates and Victory Chevrolet as offering the best deal on diesel trucks. 8:28

vortex

• Terry noted Vortex has sponsored the podcast since its early days as a small booth at the ATA Show, growing into one of the best-known optics brands. 14:12

wildlifefarming

• Terry said Wildlifefarming.com lets Don offer the Genesis drill to his consulting clients through Higgins Outdoors. 12:35

Deer activity

• unnamed buck (hunt) 20:57
• unnamed buck (harvest) 49:34
• unnamed buck (history) 77:17
• unnamed buck (history) 77:23
• Joey (history) 78:20
• Smokey (harvest) 78:32
• Mel (harvest) 78:47
• unnamed buck (harvest) 79:10
• Trump (harvest) 79:20

Listener questions

Question: Jason Hesselberg asked whether the ‘unkillable’ or nocturnal buck people talk about is real. 43:24 — asked by Jason Hesselberg

• Answer: Don said hunters assume a buck is nocturnal just because they only get night pictures, but the buck may simply be bedding on a neighboring property. 44:43
• Answer: Terry agreed the buck likely isn’t bedding on the hunter’s own property. 44:55
• Answer: Don said most bucks are unkillable on certain properties, but become killable if you can gain access to where the buck actually beds. 45:33

Question: Jason Hesselberg asked whether Don sets up specific stand sites near water to use rising thermals. 43:55 — asked by Jason Hesselberg

• Answer: Don said all his stand location decisions are based on wind direction first. 47:26
• Answer: Don said if you can push your scent out over a body of water, that’s an ideal setup. 47:38

Question: Nathan Brown asked for a review of the hosts’ season, including what deer they passed, ages, scores, and lessons learned. 48:34 — asked by Nathan Brown

• Answer: Terry said he killed a buck scoring in the high 150s/160s, a four-year-old he had a history with and had passed four times before. 49:34
• Answer: Don said he had no target buck but had several nice four-year-olds located, some near the 170-inch mark he passed. 50:03

Question: Garrett asked how the hosts store and organize trail camera photos, what app they use, and how many photos to keep per deer. 55:57 — asked by Garrett

• Answer: Don said he uses Reconyx’s free BuckView software and saves photos organized by camera location. 56:17
• Answer: Don said for a target buck, save at least one photo from every camera-trigger series. 56:37

Question: Caleb Cook asked whether Don would put an experience limit on master class attendees, arguing it caters to inexperienced rich hunters. 61:03

• Answer: Don rejected the premise, saying the accusation that he turned hunting into a rich man’s sport is completely inaccurate given his decades of unpaid advocacy work. 65:32
• Answer: Terry said the class exists to teach hunters to set goals and stop shooting every young buck, regardless of income. 68:05

The episode opened with a run of sponsor announcements, led by ASIO Gear joining as the podcast’s new primary sponsor after Vengeance Camo declined to deepen its partnership; Don noted Joe Miles had approached him over a year earlier, and both hosts praised ASIO’s build quality. Other sponsors covered included BuyAFarm, Victory Chevrolet, 360 Hunting Blinds, Novix, Wildlifefarming.com, QuietKat, Vortex, and new addition Gingerich Tree Farm, with Terry stressing sponsor choices are based on loyalty, not highest bid. Don recounted his truck being broken into in Florissant, Missouri, with his gun and work clothes stolen. He also discussed his history advocating for Illinois deer management and defended his master class against accusations it favors wealthy, inexperienced hunters. Listener questions from Jason Hesselberg, Nathan Brown, Garrett, and Caleb Cook addressed nocturnal buck myths, stand placement using wind and thermals, season recaps, and trail camera organization.

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