Chasing Giants Episode #142 - Heat Wave Rut - What will Don do?

Published: 2022-11-06
Episode page
Duration: 71 min

In this episode

bedding-cover

• Bob Jones asks Don and Terry to weigh in on horizontal versus vertical bedding cover and how it relates to bedding grass. 44:13

buck-behavior

• Don observes individual mature bucks behave differently, with two bucks on the same property sometimes using entirely different trails between the same points. 59:06

conservation

• Don distinguishes ‘deer hunters,’ whom he considers conservationists giving back to the habitat, from ‘deer killers,’ who only care about buying a tag and killing a deer. 42:44

content-platform

• Terry suggests adding a ‘Woodsman’ category to the Whitetail Master Academy platform covering topics like tree identification for subscribers to share with young hunters. 69:38

crop-harvest

• Adam Robke asks whether standing crops in a field affect when bucks return to their fall home range. 54:55

deer-activity

• Don reports hunting his home farm two mornings straight without seeing any deer, the first time he recalls going totally deerless there back-to-back. 1:35

family

• Terry admits taking his oldest daughter hunting for her first deer, a high-150s nontypical, backfired, and she doesn’t hunt today because of it. 43:33

farm-buying

• Ethan Jansen asks whether existing bucks on a property should factor into a decision to buy a farm for mature buck hunting. 59:35

habitat-management

• Don says his farm looked completely different thirty years ago—when he started, you could see clear through the property to the back fence. 64:19
• Don says planting apple and pear trees decades ago now brings him as much joy watching deer feed under them—trees his grandkids will one day see—as shooting a deer. 40:46

hunting-motivation

• Billy Ayers asks whether Don and Terry have ever had to force themselves to go hunting, even loving scouting and trail cameras more. 30:09

hunting-plans

• Terry plans to meet Duane Hopkins for breakfast the next morning before deciding on his hunting plans. 15:01
• Terry plans to check trail cameras if rain isn’t too heavy, then make a game-time hunting decision with friend Patrick Simpson based on the weather. 15:08

hunting-strategy

• Don plans to hunt Monday and Tuesday all day in a stand, taking advantage of the favorable east wind on both days. 26:28

mentorship

• Terry recounts a mutual friend in Kansas who is teaching his young son to be a land manager and outdoorsman, starting him on squirrels and trapping before deer hunting. 43:17

perseverance

• Don shares that he started dirt poor, having had his electricity shut off at his house multiple times, yet built his legacy from that point. 66:06

podcast-schedule

• Terry explains they are recording on Friday night this week instead of the usual Sunday night because of the incoming weather. 1:50

rut

• Don notes November 7th and 8th are historically the best rut days to be in a stand, and this year they’ll have favorable east winds. 3:21

rutcation

• Terry recommends hunters capitalize on the first fall cold snap, since it may be their best or only chance for good movement given family and work constraints. 7:18
• Terry plans to return to work if deer activity is still poor by Monday and use his vacation the following week instead. 8:16

sponsorship-joke

• Don jokes that Little Debbie snacks should sponsor the podcast after the discussion of what Terry packs during his rut-cation stakeout. 70:14 (light moment)

trail-cameras

• Terry notes their trail cameras have been completely dead the last several days during the heat wave. 4:52
• Don recounts getting zero trail camera pictures across 12 cameras for nearly ten hours during midday throughout the heat wave. 6:16

weather

• Terry says he has never seen a heat wave like the one hitting the Midwest during the first week of November’s rut. 1:12
• Terry recalls their earlier advice that a cold snap during a warm rut can produce the season’s best deer movement, urging hunters to watch October weather closely. 4:33
• Don asserts that weather trumps every other factor in deer movement, overriding even the moon phase and the rut itself. 7:35
• Terry predicts deer movement will significantly increase once the wind shifts out of the east on Monday and Tuesday. 8:33

weather-forecast

• Terry forecasts wind gusts up to 35 mph with rain arriving that night and continuing into the next day. 2:22

woodsmanship

• Don explains a skilled woodsman can identify pockets of concentrated deer activity within a large wooded area rather than assuming deer are evenly distributed. 50:15
• Don cites Ben Rising, a logger, as an example of how loggers make fantastic whitetail hunters due to their woods knowledge. 51:07

Deer activity

• Mel (harvest) 5:32
• unnamed buck (sighting) 25:15
• unnamed buck (harvest) 30:35
• unnamed buck (management) 31:48
• unnamed buck (harvest) 43:36
• Trump (harvest) 55:35

Listener questions

Question: Billy Ayers asks whether Don and Terry have ever had to force themselves to go hunting, even loving scouting and trail cameras more. 30:09

• Answer: Don says he doesn’t have to force himself to hunt, but relates to how the chase can become more meaningful than the kill as he’s aged. 31:19
• Answer: Terry suggests Billy’s reluctance stems from losing access to a farm with deep family history, unlike Don who has many other properties to hunt. 37:09

Question: Bob Jones asks Don and Terry to weigh in on horizontal versus vertical bedding cover and how it relates to bedding grass. 44:13 — asked by Bob Jones

• Answer: Don confirms Bob’s observation about horizontal bedding cover is accurate, though he’s unsure how it directly compares to bedding grass. 44:47
• Answer: Don recommends leaving felled treetops after logging since they instantly create excellent deer bedding cover. 45:33

Question: Adam Robke asks whether standing crops in a field affect when bucks return to their fall home range. 54:55 — asked by Adam Robke

• Answer: Don confirms fall harvest timing can shift a buck’s range, citing how his buck Trump stayed in a standing cornfield until it was harvested each year. 55:27

Question: Ethan Jansen asks whether existing bucks on a property should factor into a decision to buy a farm for mature buck hunting. 59:35 — asked by Ethan Jansen

• Answer: Don says he ignores which bucks already live there, since how the farm is laid out matters far more for growing older-age-class bucks. 60:22

Recording early Friday night due to incoming weather, Terry and Don opened discussing an unprecedented Midwest heat wave hitting during rut week, which killed trail camera activity and daytime deer movement for both — Don got zero pictures across 12 cameras for nearly ten hours. Both agreed weather overrides moon phase or rut timing, and predicted movement would pick up once winds shifted east on Monday and Tuesday, with Don planning to hunt both days and Terry deciding day-by-day with Duane Hopkins and Patrick Simpson. They discussed woodsmanship, distinguishing dedicated ‘deer hunters’ from ‘deer killers,’ praised loggers like Ben Rising for their woods knowledge, and Terry proposed a Woodsman category for the Whitetail Master Academy. Don reflected on his farm’s transformation over thirty years and the joy of planted fruit trees. Listener questions covered forcing oneself to hunt, bedding cover types, standing crops affecting buck range (citing his buck Trump), and buying farms based on existing mature bucks.

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