Chasing Giants Podcast #145 - Bully Bucks and Big Rubs!

Published: 2022-11-27
Episode page
Duration: 85 min

In this episode

bow-hunting

• Corey, Don’s son-in-law, shot a four-year-old clean 10-point buck scoring around the mid-150s on Don’s farm, his biggest bow kill ever. 3:12

buck-harvest

• Aiden Miller shot the king buck near Middlefield, Ohio this week, an eight-point mainframe with exceptionally long stickers on both G2s. 25:42

bully-buck

• Terry asks Don what the term ‘bully buck’ really means and whether hunters misuse it to justify shooting deer outside their goals. 68:42

consulting

• Don plans to start his winter consulting visits Monday, then head to Mississippi the following week to do a couple more. 83:35
• Sean asks whether Don has ever consulted on a property and thought it would be an easy killing spot with minimal work. 57:01

culling

• Don’s culling decisions are based entirely on antler size, not on a buck’s personality or aggressiveness. 81:01

deer-behavior

• Don believes a mature buck’s home range is already established, so no matter how good a neighboring property becomes, it won’t pull a mature buck over unless it was already part of his range. 70:43
• Don believes only young, wandering yearling bucks searching for a home range can realistically be drawn onto a new property and mature there. 71:09
• Don recounts spotting the same identifiable buck three miles from home with a doe at midday, then watching it return alone that evening with both G2 tines broken from a fight. 78:28
• Don explains busted tines alone don’t prove dominance — a true dominant buck rarely needs to fight because other bucks already know he’s the top dog. 83:18

deer-management

• Don believes that if left to nature, culling removes the biggest-antlered but smaller-bodied deer, which is part of why he actively culls certain bucks himself. 5:16
• Don says he is in management mode for the rest of the season on his farm, working through a target list of bucks he wants removed. 6:46
• Don recalls that when he tried protecting every buck to maturity years ago, the best-antlered bucks disappeared while the worst ones survived in each age class. 10:42

deer-regulations

• Terry would like nonresident and resident tag numbers to fluctuate based on EHD outbreaks, though he admits it’s logistically difficult since tags are bought months in advance. 49:51
• Don criticizes that Illinois manages its deer herd strictly on gross numbers rather than breaking it down by age or sex class. 53:47
• An IDNR employee told Don directly that the agency simply targets bringing a gross deer count down to a set number, without regard to which deer or how they’re killed. 54:20
• If Don could lobby for one change to Illinois’s deer hunting regulations, what would it be? 43:49

hunting-ethics

• Don advises treating hunting neighbors as you’d want to be treated, but warns against letting people who contribute nothing to habitat use you as a doormat. 65:53
• A listener with a stand on a neighbor’s fence line asks what an ethical distance from a property line is. 61:42

hunting-knowledge

• Don argues many deer hunters today get their hunting experience and knowledge from the internet rather than from actual time in the woods. 72:48

hunting-pressure

• Don asserts that a mature buck is much rarer today than just five years ago due to added hunting pressure and seasons. 51:54

lesters-feet

• Terry announces the Lester’s Feet drive surpassed $10,000 in nine days to fund the Ward family’s wish wagon project. 41:57
• Terry announces every child admitted to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital or Louisville Children’s Hospital on Christmas Eve will wake up to a delivered gift, funded by listeners. 42:44
• Terry announces the Ward Warriors wish wagon fundraiser through Lester’s Feet is now complete and asks listeners to stop sending money. 84:43

podcast-logistics

• Don gives the mailing address for listener questions as Real World Wildlife Products, PO Box 55, Arthur, Illinois, ZIP 61911. 25:02

podcast-promo

• Terry announces listeners whose submitted questions are used on the podcast receive a free Chasing Giants T-shirt. 24:24

scent-control

• Don advises that even in a scent-controlled enclosed blind, hunters must still play the wind because deer behavior depends on it. 57:32

scouting

• Don has long believed that big rubs are made most of the time by bigger, mature bucks rather than small ones. 13:18
• How does Don find bucks on state land or spots hours from home — word of mouth, past hunting grounds, or scouting miles? 20:07

trail-cameras

• Don was killing big deer before trail cameras existed, and believes he’d still have some on the wall without them, though cameras were a game changer for everybody. 14:52
• Terry recalls early trail cameras only gave a timestamp, then technology advanced to 35mm film that had to be rushed to Walmart for one-hour photo processing. 15:32

tree-stands

• When is the best time of year to hang stands, and does Don take his hang-on stands down every year? 38:54

whitetail-academy

• Terry announces a discounted Thanksgiving/Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale for the Whitetail Master Academy. 27:28

whitetail-master-class

• Don says his upcoming property master classes are filling up fast, with some down to only two or three openings left. 26:57

Deer activity

• unnamed buck (harvest) 3:16
• unnamed buck (trail-camera) 17:25
• unnamed buck (history) 17:47
• unnamed buck (trail-camera) 19:14
• the king buck (harvest) 25:42
• unnamed buck (sighting) 78:07
• unnamed buck (hunt) 84:22

Listener questions

Question: How does Don find bucks on state land or spots hours from home — word of mouth, past hunting grounds, or scouting miles? 20:07 — asked by Nick Essenmacher

• Answer: Don says over 90% of tips he gets never pan out, so leads are rare even though he keeps his ears open. 20:47
• Answer: Don only chases tips from people he already knows and trusts well, refusing leads from strangers. 21:20

Question: When is the best time of year to hang stands, and does Don take his hang-on stands down every year? 38:54 — asked by Steve Denkelman

• Answer: Don hangs most stands in late winter/early spring after the season, before green-up, so the woods settle before fall. 39:21

Question: If Don could lobby for one change to Illinois’s deer hunting regulations, what would it be? 43:49 — asked by Jesse Fromm

• Answer: Don would require every hunter to choose either bow or gun for the season, not both. 45:14
• Answer: Don says this rule would effectively eliminate crossbows from archery season since crossbow users would just pick firearm season. 45:31

Question: Sean asks whether Don has ever consulted on a property and thought it would be an easy killing spot with minimal work. 57:01 — asked by Sean Redman

• Answer: Don says he has seen properties with huge untapped potential, and it frustrates him when owners don’t fully commit to the plan he lays out. 58:16
• Answer: Don notes clients who follow his plan often succeed dramatically, citing three 200-inch bucks and more in one recent season. 58:56

Question: A listener with a stand on a neighbor’s fence line asks what an ethical distance from a property line is. 61:42 — asked by Dale

• Answer: Don says ethics is personal with no universal right answer, unlike black-and-white game law. 62:10
• Answer: Don says setting up on a property line next to a neighbor who has invested heavily in habitat, while contributing nothing yourself, is unethical. 64:31

Question: Terry asks Don what the term ‘bully buck’ really means and whether hunters misuse it to justify shooting deer outside their goals. 68:42

• Answer: Don doesn’t think there are nearly as many true bully bucks as people believe. 69:27
• Answer: Don says the percentage of perceived bully bucks versus genuinely true bully bucks is very low. 73:11

Sponsors this episode

• BuyAFarm.com

Don discussed his management-mode approach for the rest of the season, working through a target list of bucks to remove, and explained his long-held belief that culling protects antler quality since unculled herds lose their best-antlered bucks while poorer ones survive. Corey, Don’s son-in-law, took a four-year-old clean 10-point scoring around the mid-150s, his biggest bow kill ever, and Aiden Miller shot an eight-point with long stickers near Middlefield, Ohio. Don criticized Illinois for managing deer strictly by gross count rather than age or sex class, citing an IDNR employee’s confirmation. Listener questions covered locating bucks on distant land, stand-hanging timing, ethical property-line distances, and what truly counts as a bully buck, which Don said is rarer than hunters assume. He also described watching a familiar buck return with broken G2 tines after a midday fight.

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