Five Factors For A Successful Hunt

Deer don’t move at random, even when it feels that way from the stand. We’re Aaron and Dave, and we lay out the five factors we watch for when we’re trying to predict blacktail deer movement and pick the highest-odds days to hunt. Each factor can help on its own, but when they stack together, the difference is real: more daylight activity, better timing, and fewer wasted sits when you’re short on time. 

We start with barometric pressure and the threshold Dave keeps coming back to: around 30.2 and rising. Then we get practical about how to check pressure trends days in advance using the weather app on your phone or common hunting tools. From there, we dig into moon phase and why Adam Hayes’ Deer Hunter’s Moon Guide makes it simple to spot red moon week and the strongest daily pull windows, including how that can steer you toward a morning hunt or an afternoon hunt without overthinking the science. 

We also cover a temperature drop of about 20 degrees between daily highs, how weather fronts can trigger feeding before a storm and right after it, and how deer often move in those short breaks between showers. Finally, we talk rut phases, why “the rut” isn’t one long blur, and how tactics like rattling change depending on whether bucks are seeking, locked down, or sliding into post-rut patterns. 

To tie it all together, we share the story of our pro staffer Chris and a monster blacktail he calls Bambino. The conditions lined up, the plan held, and the buck showed up close before dark. If you want more consistent success in blacktail deer hunting, subscribe, share this with a hunting buddy, and leave us a review where you listen.

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Transcript

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The Five Factor Framework

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Hello, and welcome back to Blacktail Coach Podcast. I'm Aaron. And I'm Dave. So today we want to talk about the five factors leading to a successful hunt as part of our program. And these are different individual items that in and of themselves help increase deer activity. But when you start adding, it's kind of compounded. When you add another one of these factors in, it means you're more likely to hit a level of success. We're going to cover these and share with you a couple of stories of how these have really piled up and brought some big bucks in.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

Yep. I get a lot of guys asking me, well, what do you look for? What are the days that you feel like you have to be out there? And these are the five things that I look for. And if I have two of them, I feel like, well, you know, it could happen that day, it may not. And and and not and this is not a guarantee by any stretch of the word, but it's like you said, it it does increase deer activity. And then if I have three out of the five, well, I feel like I gotta be in stand that day because there's a good chance I'm gonna see my target buck. If I have four out of five, I'm probably gonna quit my job so that I can be in stand that day. That's how it doesn't happen that often. And when it does, it's like, no, today's the day I'm it's like a 90% chance I'm going to see my target buck. If I've got five out of five, the first thing I do is go down and buy a lottery ticket, and then I go into stand.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Yeah. Okay.

Barometric Pressure That Sparks Movement

SPEAKER_00 1:33

So the first one is the barometric pressure. And so we're looking for barometric pressure, and it depends on so there are different sources that say different uh level, but you say 30.2. So why does the barometric pressure cause them to move? What's what's the science I would say behind that?

SPEAKER_02 2:03

So barometric pressure tells them, you know, if there's a high pressure or a low pressure, it it usually signifies some kind of weather change. You know, but their deer, they're they're that inner ear on deer is really sensitive to barometric pressure. And when it gets to 30.2, some guys will say 29. I like 30.2. I tend to see a lot more deer movement at 30.2 and rising. Now, that's not to say that if it was at 29.9 and holding, that's still not a bad barometric pressure. I don't think barometric pressure is bad until we get down to 28. And then the deer movement seems to nearly drop off completely. But that barometric pressure at 30.2 and rising, yeah, I I always see, always see a lot of deer movement when I have that.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

So I had with so this was during actually Washington's extended buck last year for modern. We had every single day, and and maybe you want to think about if you're a modern rifle hunter, think about if you did that extended season, were you seeing more activity during the extended buck? Right. Because we did have we had 30.2 to 30. like four five all four or five of the five of those days during that last year. So and there were a couple other factors that we'll get into, but right, right.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

And most hunters don't even s stop to think about barometric pressure, you know, but it's something that you can look up days in advance and recognize, oh, look at there, you know, it's it's 30.1 and rising, 30.21 and rising, 30.3, you know, it just anytime it gets above 30.2, I just feel like there's a good chance that I'm gonna see a lot of deer activity, a lot of deer movement, and a good opportunity for me to see my, you know, my target buck. And so a lot of guys, like I said, don't pay attention to it because they don't necessarily understand it. And I think we make things more difficult than they need to be. I mean, essentially all we need to know is that at a certain mark at barometric pressure, you're going to see more deer activity.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

You just okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

Don't you don't even need to know the science behind it. You don't need to know, you know, the history of it. Just know that that start checking your own experience. When you see a lot of deer, check what the barometric pressure was that day. And you'll and you'll start correlating a a certain point, and it's usually about 30 that that guys will start seeing a large increase in deer activity.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Okay. And so if you're wondering, how can I check that going out, checking out a few days? I know with my on the weather app that's on my iPhone, I pull it out, I look at because it gives you the weather in your area, and if you scroll down that page, it'll show you what the barometric pressure is for that particular time. But if you click on it, that barometric pressure for right now, it'll pull up uh a different screen and it'll let you see out for like a week of where the barometric pressure is going.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

And I think a lot of the the apps that that like Hunt Stand or Onyx, uh I think a lot of those apps have barometric pressure on them as well.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 5:19

And and I know that the Mike Hayes, or no, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

Adam Hayes.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

Adam Hayes, I got it. Moonfaze. A friend of mine's Mike Hayes. Adam Hayes, the the Moon Phase guy, I know on his app, every day it gives you the barometric pressure. Yeah. And and it's and you you talk to a lot of guys that that are serious trophy hunters, and they'll they'll verify that they pay attention to that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

You know, and there's no like I said, it doesn't have to be any kind of witchcraft or you know, deep scientific explanation. All you need to know is that at a certain point you're going to see more deer activity. There's going to be more deer movement because the barometric pressure is up.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

Yeah. That's telling something to their instincts to get up and move.

SPEAKER_02 6:02

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Yeah. Start feeding.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

Feed up while you can.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Okay. I brought up where you can find it because we have a lot of guys who have well, how am I supposed to know what the barometer pressure is? So that's how you find it. Right.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

And like I said, they've never paid attention to it before, so they have no idea.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

And honestly, before last year, I did neither. Yeah. So

Red Moon Weeks Made Simple

SPEAKER_00 6:21

now you mentioned Adam Hayes, so that's actually the next thing is what he created, the moon guide, but it talks about the moon phase. So tell us about that.

SPEAKER_02 6:30

So Adam Hayes has the Deer Hunter's Moon Guide. You can get the app for your phone, or you can, you know, get online and order the sundial that he puts out every year. I think it's like 15, 20 bucks or something like that. And basically, to explain it in a way that that's going to make it easy for everybody is to simply say that he has already done all the work for you as far as the moon phase. And he tells you at what point is the best two times or the strongest gravitational pull of the moon twice a day when that happens. And there are certain times when those strong gravitational poles of the moon are during hunting hours. And he tells you where it would be. And then he has these suggestions on there hunting near field edges, hunting near bedding areas, hunting in transition zones and whatnot. Now, I I don't go that in depth in it, and and and I don't claim to be an expert as far as to explain the scientific side of it, other than when those phases come during daylight hours, those deer, it's just another something to get them up out of their bed to feed, to feed earlier, to feed longer, to you know, come out in the open a little bit earlier or whatnot to get them to daylight. And it's simply the gravitational pull of the moon again on that deer whose inner ear is sensitive to these things. So, you know, you start combining some of these things, and all of a sudden you realize there's a good chance that deer is gonna get up and feed when I need him to.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

Yeah. So it was similar to growing up on the Puget Sound, we had the Tide Books that we would go, and it was a little cost us like a buck, and it would have and we just called them big dot days. Right. Because it gave you a a dot next to the date of when it would be a good day fishing.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

Yeah. And Adam Hayes uses the red moon. Yeah. So uh there is a a week, I want to say it's every three to four weeks, there is a week that is a red moon week, and during that week is when the gravitational pull of the moon, because of the phase that it's in, is the strongest. Yeah. And you want to hunt those days. And that's not to say that you can't kill a big buck on any other day of the month. You can. You absolutely can, and it happens all the time. What we're talking about is putting more odds in your favor. There's a high probability that you're going to see your target buck during this week if you can hunt during that red moon week.

SPEAKER_00 9:05

Well, it was the same thing with those tide books. So if it was a small dot day, even if it was great weather and you know there was going to be no wind out on the water, and we could it was going to be super calm and it just looked like a great day of fishing. If it was a small dot day, we probably wouldn't have gone out because it those were so accurate.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

And if it was all based, that's all based on moon.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

On the moon phase.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

And it would just, it ebbed, ebbed and flowed like every couple of weeks. Right. Followed the moon cycle. And there were certain times where, yeah, yeah, it would be the big dot days. And we didn't know how to explain it, but those were the days you'd be shut out in the city.

SPEAKER_02 9:43

Like I said, with with barometric pressure and the moon phase, guys, you don't need to know the science behind it other than just to make it easy on yourself. Somebody's done the work for you. It does correlate with deer activity. You know, during that red moon week, we're not saying that you can't kill a big buck any other time of the month, but what we are saying is that during the times when that deer would normally get up and feed, there is an extra pull, an extra pull on that deer to get out of his bed and feed earlier or during daylight hours. The same with the barometric pressure. It's exactly the same. It's just an extra pull, something else that's going to motivate him to get up and feed and come out to where you want him to.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Yeah. And one of the other things with the moon guide is he'll also tell you whether it's better for a morning hunt or an afternoon hunt. And it was funny, so last year I went out, and the particular spot I was hunting, a couple of guys were doing a morning hunt, and I was doing an afternoon hunt. They were leaving as I was coming in and I'm getting all my gear on while I'm standing there. And oh, you're doing an afternoon hunt. Because I think a lot of it with go hunt the clear cuts, it's that same idea of you just get up at 3 a.m. and go out hunting. Yeah. And it's that it's you always go early in the morning to go hunting. And so they said, Oh, you're doing an afternoon hunt. I was like, Yeah, the the moon guide and you know the moon phase and everything else was pointing at come out this afternoon. And they looked at me like, huh? What are you what are you even talking about?

SPEAKER_02 11:21

And and it it it's really a resource that that a lot of hunters, I'd say 95% of hunters really don't know about. Yeah. And and they're intimidated by it because they feel like, for lack of a better term, they feel like it's above their their thinking. Yeah, I guess. And and you know, I I I'm no genius by any stretch of the word, so it's just a matter of it doesn't have to be hard. Make it as easy as possible. I don't need to understand it other than just the basics. If you can put it to me in a third grade level, okay. But if I see that it works, I'm satisfied with the third grade level so long as I can read that thing and tell when I need to be out there.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

And Adam Hayes has made it really easy. I mean, it's super easy. A kindergartner really could do it.

SPEAKER_00 12:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

Because that's simple.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

The app is even easier than the dial.

SPEAKER_02 12:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

And even that I could figure it out. And I had no basis, no context to really understand what I was looking at, and I could still figure it out. Right. Last year being my first year. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:16

And you I mean, in all honesty, you don't need to know anything about the moon face because Adam's done the work for it.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:21

Just okay, I need to be out there at 245.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

It's like, which where's the red part of this calendar? Okay, that's when I need to go hunting.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

That's it.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

And that's literally all I looked at. Morning or afternoon. All right, there we go.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

And again, it's not to say that you can't kill a buck any other time, but it's just saying that the probability of you seeing them are much higher during those times.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

We we could catch fish on a on a small dot day, but we weren't gonna catch as many. You know, they weren't they just weren't as active.

Big Temperature Swings And Feeding

SPEAKER_00 12:46

Next thing we wanted to get into temperature drops or t changes in temperature.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

Now, is it just drops or whenever it goes from from warm to cold?

SPEAKER_00 12:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:57

Yes. And I like a 20-degree temperature swing. So if it was 70 degrees for the high one day and the next day the high is gonna be 48 or 50, yeah, yeah, you need to be out there because that's the day that those deer are gonna get up and move early, just because of that swing in temperature. You know, if it's 10 degrees, you might see a little bit more activity, but not much. It's that 20 degree mark seems to be the difference between seeing one or two deer and seeing, you know, I've had as many as seven come in on a set and be there almost at the same time, just because we've had a temperature swing of 20 degrees or more.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Yeah. And that doesn't happen a lot. 20 degrees day over day.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

Not a lot, yep.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

And it's and it wouldn't be necessarily the high of one day versus so today, let's say today got up to 75, but tomorrow morning it's gonna be 40, 48 degrees. It it would be so the high temperature is gonna be degrees, not uh 20 degrees between high and low between the two degrees.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

Correct, correct. 20 degrees between the highs.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

Is is typically what I like to see and going from warmer to colder.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Okay. That actually probably ties in with the next one quite a bit, is if you're seeing those temperature drops, it probably has something to do with weather fronts coming in.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. There's times where we have high pressure and it's just cold out, you know. It's in the teens or the twenties, but it's sunny.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

And so and it's barometric pressure is 30.27. And, you know, it's holding or it's rising to 30.29. And yeah, that's that's gonna be a great day to see a lot of deer movement. Now, you know that doesn't mean you're gonna see deer movement in the after, you know, in the middle of the day in the afternoon. You know, I I'm always checking on that red moon and seeing what time. But I mean, you know me, you've known me for years now. I typically hunt the evenings.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

And and I'll let the moon phase dictate that a little bit in the sense that if it's if it's not a red moon week, I'm gonna stick to my evening hunts. Just because I don't like going in in the dark into my set, because I don't know what I'm bumping.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:11

And I just, you know, I'm I'm after a mature buck, I don't, you know, you're not gonna get many opportunities. You know, and I mean, you've heard me say it a hundred times, the easiest buck to kill is the one that doesn't realize he's being hunted. And so I don't want to go in the dark, take a chance of bumping him. I always like to go in about one o'clock, sometimes eleven, depending on on the moon phase, if it's a red moon, if it's no red moon week, whatever, and then the barometric pressure. And so that will dictate, you know, a lot of what I and we'll get into that more, but it dictates a lot of what I do and how I approach my my hunting throughout the season.

Timing Weather Fronts With Radar

SPEAKER_00 15:48

But as far as weather fronts, now is that because a strong high pressure system where it could be sunny, if that's pushing out a rain system or or cool weather, that's a weather front. Is there a particular type of weather front we're looking for?

SPEAKER_02 16:05

Or it it so it with weather fronts, if it's a storm, they'll they tend to feed up before the storm and after the storm.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

Okay. If it's just showers, say we got a day of where it's just showers on and off, they're gonna feed between the showers. So between those those little weather fronts that are coming through, the micro weather, you know, bands and whatnot, and and but like on a big storm, they're gonna feed in front of and behind. They're gonna bed down during it, and yeah, they're just gonna hunker down and then they're gonna feed up before the storm comes and after the storm comes. Now, if it's like I the description that I told you where we got a sunny day, but it's super cold and whatnot, that is a change in weather. So that is kind of a weather front, and they'll feed up before that, and depending on how cold it gets, will determine how much feeding they will continue to do because in the winter time, you know, they burn calories just trying to stay warm. So they have to feed about every two hours.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:06

But they can hold up for a four-hour stint, you know, whatever, if if it's you know, rain showers or whatnot for four hours, but they have to stay warm and and it's a matter of survival. So they're gonna get up about every two hours. Now that doesn't mean they're gonna get up and walk a hundred yards, they may get up and go five feet, move over and bed right back down and start eating the stuff that's on the ground around them.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

Yeah, they're gonna be there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

So it they're gonna feed, but it doesn't mean they're gonna get up and move, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

Yeah. So especially if they bedded down, yeah, in a in a place where there's plenty of food around them.

SPEAKER_02 17:38

Yeah, they don't have to.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

Which, you know, they very well could. But yeah, if it's cold, just that movement, yep, it's going to cause them to get up and move around just to probably warm up versus the rain, they're just trying to stay out of the rain.

SPEAKER_02 17:55

Right, right. So But I mean, we've had cold snaps here where it's down in the twenties and the teens and whatnot, and it it takes deer from you know, showing up on my set, say in first light or last light to showing up every two, three hours, you know, passing through and stuff because they're going from, you know, feeding area to feeding area.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Yeah. And we talked about this on the last episode. You had mentioned where Asha, you waited and there was a little uh 15-minute window where it stopped raining.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

Right. And you waited and as soon as it stood in. Yeah, as soon as it stopped raining. And I told her, I says, when it's we got this window coming up, and as soon as it stops raining, I says, You need to be ready. And it stopped raining. You know, we're looking on the radar. We're about five minutes out. Well, five minutes went by and it stopped raining, and not three, four minutes later, that deer showed up on the set and she shot it.

unknown 18:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:51

You know, so it was experience or whatnot. It you know, it it's not a skill set to read a radar. You can see the front, you know, you can see the storm line. You just have to know what to do.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:03

You know, do I need to be out there during the rain? Probably not, unless I'm trying to be there as soon as it stops raining. Well, then when am I I guess what I'm saying is when are the key times that I need to pay attention, you know, at my set?

SPEAKER_00 19:15

It's easy to read the weather report. Right. So to have an idea to game plan, unrelated, but yet related somehow. So I was just in Disney World and they have those afternoon monsoons every day. We would watch the weather report. Okay, when are those coming in? Because we would have to plan around those particular times of what we were doing.

SPEAKER_02 19:37

And that's exactly, you know, again, going back to the inner ear of deer and how sensitive it is. Yeah, they're tuned into that weather. So they know when it's coming and when it's leaving. And that's all it is. You know, every phone has got a radar app.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:53

Everybody can pull that up and you can watch that storm come in off the coast.

SPEAKER_00 19:58

As long as you're in an area with the city.

SPEAKER_02 19:59

Where you got cell coverage, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

Which I kind of was, but then I kind of wasn't. If I were up in the up in my stand 20 feet off the ground, I had cell coverage. Down on the ground, I I would have the occasional ping, but but nothing. But that did have the weather, and as you say, as those fronts come through, when it stopped raining, it was raining lightly. The three storms kind of blew through there. Uh-huh. But as it rained, when it came to a stop for 15, 20, 30 minutes, I would hear that all the deer get up and start moving around because I had my g game ears on. Then it'd get quiet again and it'd start raining. And by the third time, I was like, okay, they're not moving anymore, so it must be about to start raining. You could predict that by just listening in the movie.

SPEAKER_02 20:47

And that's just it. You're you're just reading deer behavior. That's all you're doing, you know. And and when you start putting it down like this, you start there are seasons, I I guess I can relate it to, there are seasons where you feel like you're on this bike and you're pedaling as hard as you can, and you look down and the chain's off. You know, and you're just you're just discouraged because you've put in all this effort and time and money and all these things that we do to create an opportunity. And when you can sit there and and put these factors into play, you can realize, okay, uh, maybe this morning is not the best time for me to go hunt. Maybe, you know, because I'm looking at it later on in the day, it seems to be a higher probability. And, you know, I can I can use my time more wisely or effectively, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. And so you're not out there on days where you know you're not going to see much. But I again, that's just that's not saying you can't be out there and that you can't kill a big buck on those days. You can. But if you're playing the odds, yeah, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 21:50

It lets you know kind of what the house is holding. There you go. But if you're the type who I'm going to take some time off to go hunting, if you're factoring in all of these, well, first thing you're gonna do is look w when's the red moon. Yeah. Okay. Go to the deer hunting. I'm going to prioritize those days to potentially take time off work. Or looking towards when is it most likely that I'm going to see weather coming through. Uh-huh. So we know I know a lot of guys hit early archery this year or do that every year. Well, there's not as much as a change in a typical year. There was this year, not as much of a change in weather. You know, it's going to be 80 degrees every day. So that might not factor into it, but it can help you plan ahead.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

Uh-huh. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

And with a plan, you're the odds on being more successful with a plan are just there.

SPEAKER_02 22:42

Yep. Success is no accident.

SPEAKER_00 22:43

Yep. So the last thing is phase of the rut. So how

Rut Phases And When To Rattle

SPEAKER_00 22:47

is that one of the factors leading to a successful hunt?

SPEAKER_02 22:50

Well, so phase of the rut is something that that I don't think guys pay too much attention to. I think they view the rut as just one big giant, I for lack of a better term, rut fest.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

Where, you know, these deer are going around the whole time and it just breeding nonstop. And the reality is, is there are phases to the rut. You've got the seeking phase, you've got the lockdown phase, you've got, you know, the the heart of the rut, you've got the post-rut, you've got the pre-rut. All of these phases will dictate certain deer activity that that is unique to that phase. The best time to rattle, I feel, is during the seeking phase of the rut. You know, that pre-rut. During that pre-rut, when there's fewer dough in standing estrus, those bucks are really susceptible because they know there are few does. And when they hear two bucks fighting, they assume that, okay, there's a dough that is in standing estrus over there. And so they they come running in on that. And then I feel like also post-rut can be effective as well. But I just once I get out of that pre-rut, out of that seeking phase, I don't like to rattle much anymore simply because those does get tired of being chased and they start hiding from the box. So if I start rattling, I'm just blind rattling, blind calling, then if I do that and she's tired of being chased, she's gonna turn and go away from that rattling.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:20

And if my target buck is tailing her, he's just gonna turn and go with her.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

Yeah, she's gonna take her scent with her.

SPEAKER_02 24:26

Right. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

Even if he's not with her, if she's moving off quarter mile to the left. Yeah. He he might be.

SPEAKER_02 24:37

When I get to the post rut, I I like to see the buck before I start rattling. But that's just me. There are guys out there, I said this in a previous episode, yeah, that that rattle in 30 bucks a season, you know. Hey, they're good at it.

SPEAKER_00 24:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:50

You know, I I'm not I'm not the guy that's good at it. So that's just that's my opinion, and and that's how I kind of approach it. But you know, that's it's just not my thing.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

Okay. Five factors. I'm gonna go over them again real quick. Barometric pressure, 30.2 and rising, the moon phase, you're looking for red moons, temperature drops of 20 degrees, and weather fronts in between the storms, and knowing what phase you are in the rut.

Bambino Buck And Proof Of Planning

SPEAKER_00 25:19

So recently we had one of our pro staff, Chris, got a monster buck. He got a giant, and he had a lot of these factor in to his success. Right. That he because he was paying attention to these. Now, it was the rut wasn't much of a factor right now, but why don't you tell us about what he had going for him?

SPEAKER_02 25:40

So so Chris was uh chasing this buck he called Bambino, and it is a what is that seven by eight?

SPEAKER_00 25:48

Six six by six with eye guards, six by six with eye guards, not counting the eye guards.

SPEAKER_02 25:53

Oh, six by six, not counting the eye guards, yeah. And but just an absolute giant of a black tail, bigger than anything I've killed. And so he came on pro staff here last year. So this is his second season with us, and third season using the system. Third, yeah, I'm I'm sorry, third year using the system, second season being a pro staff, and and and Chris just a great guy, just an you know, I I I call him a good kid. He's I'm 55, he's he's easily 30s, 40s. Well, he was in your youth group with it. Yeah, in temperature, so it had been high 80s, low 90s for three, four, five days straight. Yeah, and then it dropped down to sixty, I want to say. So there's the 20 degree swing right there. Yeah, and that was the high for the day. And then the moon phase, it was during a red moon week. Yeah, and uh, I don't know that he realized that, but it was during a red moon week. And I think he did.

SPEAKER_00 26:50

Maybe he didn't. I don't think we'll find out.

SPEAKER_02 26:52

Yeah, we're gonna bring him on and have him tell his story, but and then the barometric pressure, it was at twenty-nine point nine nine and holding. Okay, and so yeah, I mean, he had three out of the five, and I always tell guys, like I said at the beginning, if I have three out of the five, I I feel like I've gotta be in stand. Now, I I typically like 30.2 on the barometric pressure and rising, but like I said, 29 until you get down to 28. 29.99, yeah, it's really close to 30.2. Yeah, so when you get down to 28, that's when it becomes a real negative, you know. Yeah. But uh it at 29.99, that's still really good. And and he went out there, and 20 minutes before dark, he came in. Bambino came in and he shot him at what, six yards, something like that.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

Nine yards, something.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

Yeah, it was ridiculously close. Super close.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

Yeah. Well, he said it was six yards from the base of the tree, but because he was up in stand, that added another three yards because he was shooting down at the angle.

SPEAKER_02 27:53

But you know, and and I mean, just guys.

SPEAKER_00 27:56

I believe pictures are up on Facebook.

SPEAKER_02 27:57

They are on Facebook. If you haven't checked it out, do it. You're gonna uh what a spectacular buck.

SPEAKER_00 28:03

Yeah, black tail coach on Facebook, and uh, it was the envy of us all.

SPEAKER_01 28:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

So part of what we are going to do that we want to do with the Blacktail Coach podcast is we we're going to actually bring on and we're gonna call it our success stories. So guys who've used our system or or who have been successful during the season, we want to talk to them mostly to find out about their history of hunting. Like you said, three years. Last year he got bit by the bad weather bug and didn't wasn't able to get a shot on one.

SPEAKER_02 28:36

Yep. The year before he got a nice in his area, though, too.

SPEAKER_00 28:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:40

So he ended up killing that cat, but it had managed to chase all the deer out of the area.

SPEAKER_00 28:46

But we're gonna do some podcasts, success stories, and hopefully you can pick up some some of the things that they've done, and or just the encouragement of knowing that guys who've just gotten started hunting, he's been hunting for a long time, but yeah, yeah, but has really gotten back into blacktail hunting since he moved back to the area.

SPEAKER_02 29:04

Yeah. He he was a whitetail hunter for a long, long time simply because he was disappointed and and frustrated with with black tail hunting, not seeing any of them and and always hearing about big ones, but never seeing them. And so this is his first year harvesting using the system, but he has been on the cusp all three years because he's had pictures of big dominant bucks coming through his set. He just hasn't been in set, whether it be a ground blind or a tree stand, when they've come in.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

When they've come in.

SPEAKER_02 29:35

And so this one here, he's finally putting it together as far as the five factors, and he he held to them religiously. I mean, he was checking them every day, he was checking weeks in advance, and and realized, you know, I mean, he was telling me four days before he shot Bambino, he was like, I need to be out there on that day. That's the day he's gonna come in. Yeah, and you know, some people say, Well, it might be just luck. No, it's not luck, it's not coincidence. He put all the factors there, and it's like, no, there was a reason why that buck moved that early.

SPEAKER_00 30:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:03

You know, so it's like he knew he was gonna see him that night, and he did.

SPEAKER_00 30:07

And he did.

SPEAKER_02 30:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:08

Yeah. All part of the system to to have a successful hunt and making

Quick Recap And Closing Ask

SPEAKER_00 30:12

that plan. So anyway, thanks for joining us. Have a bit of a quicker episode today, but hope you got a lot out of this one. If you can, go on to where you get your podcast and leave us a review. We'd really appreciate that. And we will see you next week. See you later.