The Blacktail Coach Podcast
We're here to share tips, strategies, and stories of hunting the Pacific Northwest.
Whether you're a seasoned hunter or just getting started, we'll help you turn preparation into achievement and passion into results.
So gear up and get ready, because SUCCESS IS NO ACCIDENT!
The Blacktail Coach Podcast
Season Prep Countdown
The difference between consistently successful hunters and those who struggle isn't luck – it's preparation. In this detailed conversation, we break down our proven pre-season routine that consistently puts us in position for trophy blacktails.
The journey begins with strategic planning. We discuss the critical importance of understanding "Red Moon" phases – periods when the moon's magnetic pull is strongest, triggering increased deer movement. This astronomical phenomenon, favored by hunters who consistently take 200-inch whitetails, has accounted for nearly 90% of our trophy buck harvests. Best of all, you can plan for these phases months in advance, scheduling your premium hunting days when bucks are most likely to be on their feet during daylight.
We also dispel common misconceptions about the rut. While many believe cold fronts trigger rutting activity, science tells us it's actually the changing daylight hours that stimulate the hormonal response in deer. The dates remain consistent year after year – what changes is whether you'll see that activity during legal hunting hours or if it's happening under the cover of darkness.
For those seeking practical advice, our trail-cutting strategy protects your hunting locations while ensuring silent entry and exit. We explain proper stand placement timing (2-4 weeks before season), how to implement effective scent strategies, and systems for organizing gear to prevent those dreaded "forgot my bow" moments that happen to even the most experienced hunters.
Whether you're a veteran hunter fine-tuning your approach or a newcomer establishing effective systems, this episode provides the blueprint for stacking every possible advantage in your favor. Remember our mantra: "Success is no accident." The time you invest now will pay dividends when that target buck steps into range.
Welcome back to the Blacktail Coach Podcast. I'm Aaron and I'm Dave. So this week we're getting close, we're talking about prepping for season and this is about the time we start prepping things. So we're going to start off and kind of work our way as we get closer to season as to what we're doing or what Dave's doing, because Dave has the backstory and I just do what he tells me to do every year.
Speaker 2:Dave's dreaming of big bucks and bulls every night.
Speaker 1:And potential bears.
Speaker 1:And bears, yep, and everything else, yep. So one of the things we do with our guys who go through coaching is we have them do a hunt planner and they actually start that now, but it's putting down on to a calendar when they're going to be doing certain things. The season gets closer, but one of the things thinking about and this is something that you could, you could almost do as soon as the regs come out is start planning on, like when season is, and then looking at one of the things talking about red moon, uh-huh. And so first, why don't you actually tell us why we're looking at red moons and what does that mean? As far as and I know we've talked about it in the five facts, right, but when you're planning for your season, why is that for you, like?
Speaker 2:looking ahead Right, how does that factor in yeah? And especially when you're looking ahead Like looking ahead, how does that factor in yeah, and especially when you're looking ahead like well in ahead.
Speaker 2:Right, right. So before I do that, I just want to say, as far as the hunt planner is concerned, at the very least the hunt planner helps if you're married. It helps your spouse realize, okay, he's going to be gone or she's going to be gone at this time, whether it's a weekend, you know, every Friday, every other Friday or whatnot. That way they can look ahead and say, okay, he's already planned this. So it frees it up. At the very least. That's what it does. Yeah, but what it? Our ultimate goal with that hunt planner is to have guys begin to, like you said, with the red moon, that moon phase and a rut phase and all that, start planning ahead at what is your most optimum time of seeing your target buck and putting it on a calendar and looking at the moon phases and looking at the rut phases and all of that, cold fronts and that kind of stuff. You really can plan out your season and say, okay, this is the time that I think he's going to daylight and I'm going to get my opportunity. So you just start planning that. It gives you a goal and a purpose and you're not wasting any time, because when it's on paper, when it's in front of you. You're like, okay, I've really got to start getting this stuff done because I really expect him.
Speaker 2:Whether it's shooting, whether it's cutting trails in or whatever, it's a great tool to motivate and so that's a lot of what we do. But as far as the red moon goes, so Adam Hayes has a show 200. And Adam Hayes, for those that don't know, his show 200, or maybe it's Team 200 or something like that, but anyway, he shoots. He's killed a lot of 200 inch whitetail and he attributes a lot of it like 95% of it to the fact that he hunts what he calls a red moon. And if you don't have the app on your phone it's Deer Hunter's Moon Guide you can go online and look at the website and order the physical dial calendar that he produces. It's like $17 or something like that.
Speaker 1:You know it varies. Eventually it ends up being like $10 or $15 on sale. Okay, varies eventually it ends up being like 10 or 15 bucks on sale, okay, but I think originally it starts at 30 and then. But it's always on sale for down to like 15 to 20 bucks right on and so anyway.
Speaker 2:so he offers you know, like I said, the, the app for your phone or the physical calendar dial, and basically what he's done is he's done all the work for you. As far as the red moons or the moon phases and the red moon is significant because that's what he labels as a red moon week or a red moon day, a red moon afternoon, what it is it's when the moon cycles two times a day close to the earth and its magnetic pull is strongest at those two times of the day. Well, there are times when that moon is closer to the earth than other, and essentially what Adam Hayes is saying is that at those particular times during a month there'll be two weeks out of a month, generally speaking that the moon phase will come so close to the earth that that magnetic pull is actually at its strongest. And they say that it gets big bucks or deer up out of their beds, when they would normally get up anyway, but this is just an extra influence to get them up.
Speaker 2:Now, for those of you who watch, like Lee and Tiffany the Crush I know they use it and they are religious about it I know that I'd say probably 85 to 90% of my bucks. My big bucks have been killed on a red moon. Okay.
Speaker 2:And so I absolutely believe in it. You know, and some guys don't, and that's fine. You know it's all about confidence and whatnot, but with our system we take in and we're trying to stack the odds in your favor. So this is just one more card in a deck that you're trying to swing the odds swing, you know, all the momentum so that you have an opportunity at killing a big buck. I know I speak for my wife, my kids they've all killed on red moons. It's not saying that you can't kill on a day that isn't a red moon, but what we are saying is that the chances or the probability of you seeing that target buck go up a lot.
Speaker 1:You know it's interesting. So while you were talking I actually pulled it up and I scrolled back, because I have the app on my phone. I scrolled back To the day you shot your buck, to the day I shot my buck. So two days before shooting my buck I had a two by three come in and I missed him. And then two days later I went in, which was Saturday extended buck, extended deer and I shot that spike. So the next day, sunday, which was the last day of season, was the first day of the red moon, and at one o'clock in the afternoon I had the biggest buck all season come in on my set.
Speaker 2:At one o'clock in the afternoon and, looking at this just out of curiosity, 1.54 PM, transition zone field edge and I was in a transition zone and it was about between 1 and 130 and he hung out for about 15 minutes so yeah and I didn't even think about looking at that until you just started talking right, right and see a lot of guys would say, well, you know, it's extended buck, of course you're going to see a big buck out walking around that time. You know, chris killed bambino, number three, all-time non-typical for archery, colombian black tail on a red moon. I would have killed if they hadn't shut everybody out at that gate. I would have killed Hightower that night. He came in two hours before dark. Yeah.
Speaker 2:That was a red moon evening, and that was in September.
Speaker 2:You know, but ultimately, if you listen to the five factors, what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to stack as many factors in my favor that just take my odds of seeing that red buck or that target buck and multiply them tremendously, so like rut phase, if you're thinking, okay, I want to take time off. You know I've only got a week, or maybe I get two weeks or whatever. When do I really want to focus on my deer hunt? When do I think is the best time?
Speaker 2:Yeah whatever, when do I really want to focus on my deer hunt? When do I think is the best time?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, you can pull up that red moon calendar in January and start planning for October, november or December whatever weapon you're using for that vacation time, and then you can sit there and say, okay, so the rut happened, the heart of the rut happened. I feel like this week last year. Guys, it's going to be the same week the next year Because, well, it's all depending on the cold weather. That's not what triggers the rut for deer or elk, it's the amount of sunlight that hits the retina.
Speaker 2:So as the days get shorter, there's a hormonal release and the deer go into rut. The deer go, or the animals go into rut. Elk go into rut. In September they have an earlier rut and as the days get shorter in through October it happens again with the deer. And you know it's nice when we have cold weather because it seems like we see more deer activity, but the the rut is still happening that same week.
Speaker 1:Now because I've wondered about that, because I thought in the past that you had mentioned that the cold weather can trigger the rut. Can that trigger intensity of the rut?
Speaker 2:Yes, because.
Speaker 1:Or influence not necessarily trigger, but does it influence the intensity of the rut?
Speaker 2:Yes, that's exactly right. Okay so if you're not seeing it in the daytime because it's warm, they're just rutting hard at night. Okay so if?
Speaker 2:you're not seeing it in the daytime because it's warm. They're just rutting hard at night. Okay, you know. But if the heart of the rut was, say, wednesday of October such and such, or November 5th or whatever, it's going to be the same next year because you're not in control of daylight hours or how many minutes are in the day. You know, that's just a natural thing. That goes on is you know, every day there's 24 hours.
Speaker 2:That doesn't change, yeah, and so it just every year. When it gets to a certain amount of daylight, it triggers the rut phases, and then the intensity of the rut can I don't even know if I want to say intensity the appearance of the rut can be, can give this impression that it's a harder rut or a softer rut, because it's, you know, you know, hot, warm or cold, whatever.
Speaker 1:And the reality is is if they're not rutting in the daytime because it's hot, they're gonna run at night okay and then eventually they're gonna do it both day and night, okay so, and you know, for these, for hunt planner, this is stuff you can be thinking about like in january, like phase of the rut, red moon and actually. So, like I mentioned last week, that we're going to replay the four episodes that we think are most pertinent to your season so you don't have to go back and look for them, and then that gives us kind of a little break from recording and then we'll come back with some new episodes. But next week we'll be re-releasing the five factors so that everybody that's all fresh in everybody's mind right before season. But yeah, phase of the rut and red moon are two of the five factors that you can see ahead of time and a lot of them are weather-based. We have barometric pressure.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Cold fronts, cold fronts, yep, yep, things like that, but it was interesting, things like that, but it was interesting. And this just kind of hit me as I'm watching my YouTube videos and I have the algorithm that sends me videos just according to what I end up watching and stuff.
Speaker 1:But I watch weather-related videos and they are predicting like last year. So two years ago we had a very strong El Nino year, which means in the Pacific Northwest it means different things in different parts of the country, but Pacific Northwest we had a very strong El Nino year, which means in the Pacific Northwest it means different things in different parts of the country, but Pacific Northwest it's a warm, dry winter. Last year we had a La Nina, which is cool and wet, not cold but cool and wet, and I just saw this the other day that they were thinking it was going to be a normal winter this year and everything's kind of shifted. Now they're predicting another week, like last year, la Nina, and so I'm guessing you know big picture weather. So that's one of the things that gives you kind of an idea of big picture weather, that you'll be seeing some of the same things that we saw last year. So maybe the ways that we were hunting last year we can duplicate those, whereas La Nina or El Nino we might be maybe shifting some of our methods.
Speaker 2:Yeah, El Nino is definitely more difficult because it is warmer and a lot of the activity happens at night. La Nina, because it's cooler, we see a lot of day activity and whatnot. But the colder weather we get is typically a year when we don't have an El Nino or a La Nina. Those will be the years that we get more snow. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And much colder temperatures, which a lot of guys like, and it's great for hunting, you know, it just happens to coincide with a good rut, because they can move around in the daylight. Yeah. It's not that the rut isn't happening again during an El Nino year. It's just transpiring more at night because of the cooler temps.
Speaker 1:So we're kind of getting off topic, but this is kind of interesting. If it is colder, so cooler and wetter. If it's warmer, it would seem like during the rut, that, or at any time the does, they would be more likely bedded down.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because they can stay warm, just bedded down Now if it's colder. They want to be up moving just to keep warm. Potentially, maybe yes and no, Okay.
Speaker 2:So the thing is is that what makes an El Nino year difficult is because by the end of September they've pretty much shed that summer coat and they've got that winter coat coming in. As soon as they start getting those chillier mornings they start growing their winter coat. Now that winter coat is super thick, so they're really hot In an El Nino. They're really hot in the daytime because it's, I mean, typically our El Nino is going to range anywhere from 60 to 75 degrees, which, if you have a winter coat on, that's really warm.
Speaker 1:But what I'm thinking about is, say it's cold out, they've got their winter coat. That if the does like, if you're cold and that's how we get cold, because we're just sitting there Sitting still. Yeah, yeah, you want to get up and move, but we want to get up and move because we warm up. So if the does and I'm just kind of spitballing- if they're getting up and moving more.
Speaker 2:That's why we might see more during cold weather, because the bucks are trying to lock them down.
Speaker 1:So we have a pro staffer named Jimmy and Jimmy is a licensed veterinarian, but he works for the state. Usda.
Speaker 2:USDA, I'm sorry. And he goes around to for lack of a better term slaughterhouses or whatnot and he's always checking that everything is up to par as far as cleanliness and hygiene and all that stuff. But Jimmy, he and I sat down one time and he made this point. He says you know, dave? He says they don't need to get up and move around because of the way their digestive system is. They regurgitate food that they've already chewed up and swallowed. They regurgitate that and start chewing on it again and then it goes to a different part of the stomach and that part of the stomach, he says, is like a little furnace inside of them.
Speaker 2:And so, yeah, he says they don't even need to get up, they're just this little furnace that sits there and stuff, and I used to think that that was the case, though that they're probably up and moving to maintain calories because it is colder. I've actually said that at seminars and that was my belief for a long time, and he corrected me on it and thank you, jimmy, I appreciate it, which is also how you found out that they could eat corn.
Speaker 2:Correct. Yeah, we kind of had the corn debate so I wasn't entirely wrong what I was telling guys, because I have read several things I've heard. Boy was it? You know I want to say it was Dr Deer, but I'm not going to lay that at anybody's feet. You know I said it that it is correct If they did. If they do eat too much corn, they will develop, it can cause a bacteria and it makes the deer sick. Okay, but according to Jimmy it's like a large amount of corn. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:Okay. So that's kind of the hunt planner aspect of it. Now that we're getting into late summer we kind of go into, I would say, summer prepping phase. So we're doing our last minute, scouting if we need to, before other people are getting out in the woods, because bear here starts on Saturday. Yep, actually, when this comes out, bear has already started two days ago. People who are getting out in the woods because bear here starts on saturday.
Speaker 1:Yep, actually, when this comes out, bear has already started two days ago. But we're doing different things with, with our summer prepping, cutting in trails if we need them, and why don't you give a brief rundown of, like, how you cut in trails, what you're?
Speaker 2:so cutting in trails sounds really easy, but there's, and it's not hard. There's just some basic things that you want to remember. So we, we, we only we hunt public lands. We got no private property. We're on the same lands that everybody else is the timberlands, the state land, national forest. That's where we hunt and where we go. We're generally not going that far past any gates, you know we're relatively pretty close to them.
Speaker 2:And so what I like to do because I can hear people walking by all the time you know they're walking by the habitat that I'm sitting next, you know that I'm sitting in they're walking right by that habitat and I can hear them walking and talking and whatnot, you know, and the animals have learned to deal with that. But I don't want anyone coming in on my set simply for the reason that I don't want any more scent laid down or, you know, spoiling a hunt. So what I like to do is I like to take the first 30 yards or so and leave it as natural as possible. I don't like cutting anything down. Then, once I get out of sight of whatever it is a skidder road, a main line, a road period once I get out of where I feel like nobody can see. If I start opening a trail, then I start opening it up. Now I'll open that trail up to not necessarily my set. I'll open that trail up to either the ground blind or the tree stand, the tree that I'm sitting in. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then after that I become just this staunch minimalist. I don't really want to take any cover out. You know, I want that buck to feel like that claustrophobic feeling so that he feels safe. I need him to daylight, I need him to stage there before he heads out in the open. So I want him there, you know, two, three hours before dark. And so, yeah, the way I view it is is the more limbs that you cut down, the more trees that you hinge cut and all that stuff, what you're doing is is you're eliminating cover and letting in light, and brightness is really not. Big bucks want to hang where it's nice and thick and dark, and you know that's where they want to stay.
Speaker 1:And they daylight in that all the time yeah, we're just cutting in trails, mostly so that we can get in there, get in and out quietly.
Speaker 2:Yes, get in and out quietly.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, for that last, depending on how far like mine might be 40 yards, I think, the last 40 yards of the trail to get into my set so that I can do that quietly, right, and I'm not brushing up against things so spreading my scent, but even like there's some that they're going to tolerate some noise, I just it's kind of unnatural noise is what you want to. So there's a lot of and I believe Heather mentioned a lot of this where she wraps a lot of her plastic type things, whether it's cauls or whatnot, in felt.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to muffle the noise, yeah so it doesn't sound like an unnatural noise, because if it sounds like a natural, like just another animal coming in, we'll bump deer off of our set, but they'll just casually walk off and then they'll come right back in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all the time that happens all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we see that a lot on our cameras where, oh, right before I came in, five minutes before I came in, there was a deer on the set hanging out. So we're also now looking at ordering things that we need Hopefully we've got, and I was talking to Asha about this and she said, boy, if you don't have your gear yet, yeah, they're starting to run out of some serious hunting gear.
Speaker 2:She's kind of an extremist though at times, but you know, but no, she makes a good point. You don't want to risk. Yeah, by the time you get to August, I mean it may be okay, they've already sold out in July you may have to wait another three, four weeks before you get that, you know. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's like well, I don't have three or four weeks you know, I'm hunting next weekend or two weeks from now or whatever, or you know, you just want to have an opportunity or time to like, if it's arrows, you want to get some shots downfield, and you know, get used to that and see how they fly.
Speaker 1:Or if you need your arrows, put together. Archery shops are real busy right now yeah. Yeah, things like that. One of the things I don't think actually we mentioned this I think I'm meant to mention this as we were talking about gear last week camofirecom and they also have an app. It's one of those sites that they get discontinued items or bulk leftovers and they discount hunting gear and camping gear like drastically.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I've ordered a lot of stuff off there.
Speaker 2:And it's some good gear. I mean Sitka's on there all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they just had their sleeping bag.
Speaker 2:You have have the arctic oh, you're talking heater body suits. Yeah, heater body suits.
Speaker 1:They just had their version of the heater body suit on theirs. But yeah, if you're looking for gear, that's a really good site and they're usually pretty quick to get it out to you and if they put it, they change their products every day. So if you see it today, order it today but you'll have it within like a week.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:They're really quick about shipping stuff. But we're also looking at scents. If we need any type of bait or anything for those guys who are in Oregon who can bait, they might be looking to start sourcing that now, but with our scents, because now we have to look at synthetic and they might not be carried locally.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you'll probably end up ordering it and whatnot, and typically you want to start scents. Okay, guys, let me just— and that's right before season We'll talk about that.
Speaker 1:But again, it's one of those, one of the advantages of synthetic is it supposedly lasts longer year, year over year. So if you order some of it this year, you can save it till next year and it's still going to be good. Yeah, whereas synthetic stuff you didn't want to order it too early or the real stuff you didn't want to order it too early, and then you just threw it all away.
Speaker 1:If you had, any yeah but yeah, that's something that we would be if especially if you're going to do well you wouldn't be using some of them.
Speaker 2:You might do a bedding pheromone for early season, but it's different skills yeah, but you know, as far as for archery, yeah, yeah, when we get into october you guys can start slowly putting a little bit of doing estrus and that kind of stuff out.
Speaker 1:And then you know, of course, it's practicing with your weapon, busting out the bow. You do yours year round, I do, I do.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I mean, there's, you know, and it don't matter if it's rifle, muzzleloader, archery there's always those guys that a week before season, two or three days before season, I'll go and sight it in or shoot you know, get my bow sighted in, my gun sighted in, and it's like, and I just try and discourage that because you may only get one opportunity at that target but, you want to make it count, you want to know that, you know that, you know that muscle memory is going to take over and you're gonna close the deal when the the pressure's on you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:So that's my thing. I feel like you owe it to that animal because you're asking that animal to give his life up for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So another thing is with now that bear season started, it's organizing your gear. So at the end of season, hopefully we've looked over all the gear to make sure that there's no damage to it, but it goes into totes and then into the hunting shed and we got a whole mess of totes.
Speaker 1:So now though, it's breaking that stuff out and I know this was more Asha doing this, but as far as like, give them your system of, because you have a whole system down with prepping the garage with all your hunting gear and like that whole organization. So we have a two-car garage that has never had a car parked in it at all.
Speaker 2:Just because we have so much hunting gear and whatnot. And so when season comes, we wheel out this rack that has hangers on it. We put all the camo on there. After it's been washed and dried, it goes on the rack, and so this rack. We're about to two racks now, but we have this rack that's just crammed full of all these camos. First it's early season and then as we get deeper into the year it'll be late season and they all hang there. So you know exactly where they're at when you need them Now.
Speaker 2:And that's kept in the garage. It's kept away from anything exhaust fumes, kitchen smells, dog smells, any of that stuff. It's just hanging out there and it gear as far as clothing that I'm going to wear, from long johns to socks, to gaiters, to early season extra shirts, hats, everything, extra pants, yep Stocking hats All that stuff goes in there that I'm going to use on that hunt the next day. And then that goes into my truck and I don't change into that stuff until I get out to the gate, just before I walk in. I'll change out there and then when I get done with that hunt if it didn't rain I will get out of that I will change back into my regular clothes out there, put my camos back into the scent-free bag and they stay in there. Yeah.
Speaker 1:But if it's wet, then it has to be, depending on whether you wash it or dry it and using the dead downwind Right, but you also. It's not just the clothing.
Speaker 2:No, it's tubs of gear.
Speaker 1:You have like an area where your bows and the arrows are. There's an area where you well.
Speaker 2:All the dead downwind products are An area where we have all of our scents.
Speaker 1:There's a wall that looks like it's straight out of Bob's or a sporting goods store with all the same type of yeah Like the hooks, the pegboard, the pegboard with the hooks and all the products hanging on there so that it's just easy to grab Bow hangers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, backpack hangers, dri hangers, drippers, drags, broadheads yeah, it's quite a bit of stuff. So I I think I have myself like three tubs of just equipment, and then my son he's, I think he's got two now, and then I have another three tubs of camos and then I have a tub for packs and then I have two tubs I got a tub for trail cameras, yeah, I mean, you know, and of course this is just stuff that that's accumulated over the years and stuff and and I've got a clothes tub and an everything else yeah so.
Speaker 2:But I mean I got an aero bin, an arrow bin out in the shop. That's probably got. Oh my goodness, it's easily got over 100 arrows in it. Yeah. I share that with my wife and kids, but it's loaded with arrows.
Speaker 1:But it's prepped so that you can easily see what you need. Right, you can easily see what you're going to grab, and it takes a lot of the thinking about everything, like the morning of.
Speaker 2:Right, and the searching for it. Well, I thought I put it here. I thought, oh, dang it, I got an elk tub, I got a deer tub, because if you get up at 4 am or 3 am, you don't want to fudge with stuff.
Speaker 1:You just want to grab it and be able to go. So now, right before season, so this is two weeks up until the day of. So a couple weeks before is when, by then, we're putting out blinds and hanging stands and basically getting the set ready two weeks before.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, at least two weeks, sometimes as much as four weeks. Yeah. And it just I mean, it's a lot of work, it's fun work, I enjoy it and everything. But back when it was just me, it was so much easier yeah.
Speaker 1:Because you have your set.
Speaker 2:We got nine tree stands, we got three ground blinds and they all get used, you know. Yeah. And then we got you know tree saddles and whatnot, and I mean we got sets set up. By the time season gets here, I think eight to nine tree stands will be out and they will be hanging in a tree somewhere locked to it, and then the ground blinds. We usually have at least two of the three blinds out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I always borrow one because I've given up on my. The ladder stand is just, it's good. It's comfortable and everything but it is a lot of work. It's a lot of work.
Speaker 2:You need at least three guys to go put that up.
Speaker 1:Any lesson, that would just be.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'd be a nightmare. Nope, I'm done, I'm out.
Speaker 1:So right before season it's that last, like getting the stands up and then getting making sure kind of everything's ready to go Right.
Speaker 2:And the thing is, is we don't just put the stand up? I mean, the day we put the stand up, that's when we start our scents. Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's when we do our scent drags. That's when we set our drippers. That's when we do our scent drags. That's when we set our drippers. That's when you know the trail cameras are already in place and ready to go. I mean the whole set is done. We've established a kill spot, you know. We've done our drags, not going into the bedroom but just right on the edge of it and bringing it back to our kill spot. So there's I mean it's a lot of work, it's a lot of fun work. So there's a. I mean it's a lot of work, it's a lot of fun work. We have a great time doing it. But I'm not going to lie to somebody and say, well, you know, you can just wing it, or, or, you know, coast on by and it'll happen. Success is no. Accident is exactly what we mean. You have to work for it and the reward is when your hands are on your trophy buck or your bull or your bear, you know.
Speaker 1:And there is, I mean, even if and we were talking about this earlier off air for guys who are new to hunting, who might not like what do I do? I just all I know is I want to go hunting, but I don't really know what to do. They might be starting out like glassing clear cuts Uh-huh, but it's still. There's still prep work. This still applies.
Speaker 3:You just might not be cutting in sets yet, or cutting in trails and doing sets.
Speaker 1:But you want to set up where you know, as we've talked about, you might be wanting to look for edges. So it might be practicing going out and glassing clear cuts and doing that type of thing and you know you're making sure you've got those binoculars. But there's some practice that even guys who do that should be doing ahead of time, so they're not even just winging it right, right.
Speaker 1:You know how do you how do you pick up an animal that maybe he's a couple yards or you know, two, three yards off the clear cut, but you're able to pick up and and I say this because you're very good at like, oh there's, there's a deer and everybody, where Nobody can see it, but oh, it's right there, oh, okay.
Speaker 2:And I remember it's imaginary yeah.
Speaker 1:You say well, I'm not looking for color, I'm looking for shape. And as soon as you told me that. Then I started seeing deer like tucked away in the woods and whatnot Right right like tucked away in the, in the woods and whatnot right.
Speaker 2:But there's some still, some things to kind of do ahead of time. Oh, absolutely, you know, if you're going elk hunting in september, so you're doing archery or you're going to call for somebody, you know you want to pick that read up and start blowing on that read for probably I'd say at least two months in advance. You know, guys say and I tell guys this all the time well, I don't, don't know how to use REIT, I don't know how to call you know what. It takes 10 minutes a day for two months and you will be better than 80% of the guys out there calling yeah.
Speaker 2:Then it boils down to knowing what call to make and when. You know that part you can learn by trial and error, but there's so many videos out there. Oh yeah. There's so many you know you go on YouTube. There's so many helps on YouTube and whatnot and so many guys that are willing to teach that that are successful hunters that it's really not that difficult. If you spent 10 minutes a day for two months, you would be good enough to call in an elk.
Speaker 1:You know something I just popped into my head about cutting in trails is good to wait until summer, I would say until July or August, because everything's done growing. Because you wouldn't want to go in there in April. Cut in a trail because in a month, it ain't going to be there.
Speaker 1:It's's not gonna be there yeah and it was interesting this year because I I really needed to cut in a trail to my halfway set just because it's so thick getting in there. But I went back out this year and even before everything started growing but just the rain, and it was like all the foliage shifted and it kind of where I I needed to go in and cut in the trail a little or at least clean it up a little bit. From last year the trail you can still tell where it was, but it was plants could start falling in and filling out the filling up the space. It was just kind of an interesting where I wouldn't have thought about that, where oh, I've.
Speaker 3:It's kind of maintenance for the set, if you're going to keep using it year after year.
Speaker 1:So how are you making sure and we'll end on this part how are you making sure you're not forgetting stuff the day of?
Speaker 2:Boy, I'm probably not the person to ask that I'm terrible about it. Inevitably, no matter how much I plan, I always forget one or two things. Oh, I forgot my wind check, or dang it. You know I was gonna bring this. You know whether it's a marking tape or well, my goodness, I've gone out one time and forgot my bow. And here at the house I got everything else, got out there, got changed and everything and realized here it is four in the morning. I left my bow at the house, you know so, overthinking about what I needed and everything, I just I left my bow at the house, you know so, overthinking about what I needed and everything, I just I blanked the most important thing, you know and thanks be to my wife, she's the world's best she was gracious enough to get up and run it out to me.
Speaker 2:But you know, I always forget, and this is probably why I try and prep at least the day before, if not two or three days, so that it doesn't happen over and over again. But I'll forget something small, you know, inevitably.
Speaker 1:but I remember the big stuff, yeah, except for the bow except, but this year you won't forget your wind checks, because I've given you some of Nilche's wind checks, because they can attach to something. Don't use the one that attaches to your bow, because then you might forget.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't. I forgot my bow and the wind check.
Speaker 1:Use the one that sticks to your backpack or your. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So Smokey Cruz, one of the guys that has taught me, probably the guy that's taught me the most about hunting in general he was gracious enough to take me deer hunting with him when I was younger, and everything, and I was just enamored with Smoke. You know, I love him to death and he's still easily one of my hunting heroes, you know. But I was like telling my wife, I was telling Asha I says, hey, I get to go hunting with Smoke tomorrow. I was just jacked, I was so excited and everything. And I got everything packed and everything.
Speaker 2:And the day before, boy, I was at his house nice and early, just like he wanted, didn't you know? It's like, okay, I'm here, I'm here. So I hopped into his rig and we drove up to a spot that he was going to show me. I got all the way up there and it says you do this, this and this, and then I'm going to sit over here and do this, this and this and if it hasn't happened by such and such a time, we're going to meet back here. I says, okay, so I go do my thing and he does his, and we come back and everything, and I walk up. He's back at the truck before I was and I walk up and everything. He says well, how'd you do I as well?
Speaker 1:he says I didn't see anything either, but it wouldn't have mattered he's, I left my quiver at the house so it happens, even to the best, to the best of us.
Speaker 1:It happens, you know but okay, well, like I said, next week you will be replaying a lot of our best of the to help get you prepped for season. If you have any questions in the meantime, feel free to send those in. If we have a lot of questions, come in, we'll pop on and we'll throw out some bonus episodes of the Q&A and we'll do that. But five factors the nose knows and I'm not sure what the other two will be. But anyway, that's what's coming and we will talk to you again in about a month.
