Last Day Hunt: Clay Newcomb’s Gnarly Canadian Whitetail

On the sixth and final of his Canadian hunt, Clay Newcomb of Bear Hunting Magazine harvests a massive & gnarly old buck 14 minutes before the end of legal shooting light in Manitoba. It was a tough hunt, rut activity was slim to none by this time, but he finally caught up with a buck on a feeding pattern.

It got a little western when a coyote ran the buck out of a field at daylight while Clay was stalking into shooting range. He ended up building a brush blind and waiting for 9.5 hours for the buck to return. It worked! Clay and James Lawrence are in the truck headed back home and discuss the details of the exiting final hunt. Canada may seem out of reach for many, but it’s not nearly as hard as you might think.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(01:13):
My name is Clay Nukeleman. I'm the host of the
Bear Hunting Magazine podcast. I'll also be your host into
the world of hunting the icon of North American wilderness,
the bear. We'll talk about tactics, gear conservation that will
also bring you into some of the wildest country on
the Planet Chasing Bear. Welcome to the Bear Hunting Magazine podcast.

(01:38):
This is the fourth podcast in our series coming out
of Manitoba, Canada on this whitetail hunt that we've just
done with Tom Ainsworth, and we are we're on our home,
on our way home from Manitoba right now. We've actually
driven through the night and I've got James Lawrence here
in the driver's passenger seat. Driver's passenger seat. I've got

(02:02):
James Lawrence and the passenger seat in the front, and
I've got Steve Schultz in the back and we we've
left Canada. Last you heard was our podcast with Tom
and if you recall, it was the fifth day of
the of the six day hunt that we recorded that podcast,

(02:24):
and I talked about how I'd had a pretty tough
hunt for seeing mature white tails, and but I had
one day left. James had already killed a buck on
the second day and Steve on the first day. So
these guys were basically waiting around camp for me to
kill a deer, and James was going out and doing
a little bit of scouting for me. Uh, Steve was

(02:45):
filming with me a couple of times, and so they
were just kind of doing their thing, enjoying Canada and
so but we got a pretty had a pretty major
breakthrough on day six. And so this this hunt with
Tom is a is a six day hunt and just

(03:07):
for just for those of you that wouldn't know, any
nonresident hunting in Canada has to be guided. That's just
the law. So he can't an American or anyone any
nationality can't go to Canada and do it do it yourself.
Hunt of any kind always has to be guided. So
we were on a outfitted hunt by with Tom Ainsworth

(03:28):
of a Grand View outfitting. Tom is a longtime bear
hunting magazine advertiser. He used to have a bear hunting business.
He doesn't anymore. He sold it and now he just
has white tails. And Tom's got a couple of thousand
acres that he hunts there in the southern third of Manitoba,
on the western side, forty miles from Saskatchewan. This is

(03:50):
my second year to come up here. Last year Steve
and I came up here. On the second day. I
took a mature hundred and fifty two inch buck with
my bow. Steve misfired as muzzloader misfired on what we
believe was a hundred fifty inch deer. He had the
rest of the week, we never we never got a
shot at another matured deer. So that was the recap

(04:10):
from last year. So we had a tremendous hunt, I
mean opportunity at two d fifty inch deer. So this
year we really didn't know what to expect. I didn't
know if we had used up all our are are
good luck from last year. But we knew that we
were in a super area for big, heavy Canadian white tails,

(04:34):
just like what you're after. So, James, you went with
me on the sixth morning of my hunt, and you'd
been sitting scouting for me. Now you saw a couple
of a couple of nice deer while you were scouting
for me throughout the week, Is that right? Yeah? They

(04:57):
late afternoon, Um and early in the morning, late afternoon
was the first one to come out, come out, probably
two hundred and fifty yards come in closer, probably two
hundred exit the field, probably back to two d and
fifty yard went across the field. Um, it was an

(05:18):
if E shooter. It was a rack buck. He was
talking about judging them, Um and win in doubt. It's
probably not what you want is probably true, but it
was a bucks was hard to find. We knew that
there would find a small bucks, young bucks. Uh. I've
seen lots of deer, but the pattern and get where

(05:40):
you can get a shot at a good material buck
was really pretty tough, tougher. And I was expecting. I
mean I wasn't expecting to go out and set a
deer comes up. You know, we had to. We had
to find a deer and and set on them, wait
on them. Um. Yeah. The best hunting was early in
late right at right at day break, shooting light and

(06:01):
write it closing of the day us when we've seen
most of her good bucks. And then you saw maybe
the best shooter of the week beside the one you
took on day four. I think late in the afternoon.
I mean just right before Tom was gonna pick you up.

(06:21):
You'd already filled your tag. There's a deer on the
side of the road. Goode brope, but good one. Um
yeah it uh. I was just scouting. If if if
I'd had a tag, i had my rifle, I think
I would have been I was watching a code first,
watching the deer because there was no activity late in

(06:43):
the afternoon, I was waiting on the outfitter to pick
me up. Basically, I'd already packed my backpack, had my
bknockers range under um, gloves on and turned in the
way I come in. There was a really really nice
buck standing broadside, looking straight ahead and not looking at me. UM.

(07:04):
I had to get my gloves off, get my blocker
to get my range finder. UM. And he walked behind
a little island out in the field. And didn't see him,
but without a doubt he was a definite. So you
came back to camp and you said, hey, I saw
a shooter, but you didn't see any other deer. You
sat there for four hours and didn't see a single deer,

(07:24):
and then right at dark you saw that buck. So
it was hard to I sat there and watched the colde.
Early later there was a fox come out. I spent
my time glass in the field, but no dear activity
at all. Uh. And it was it was still shooting light,
but it was late. It was getting close and really

(07:44):
really nice mature buck standing near the gate. Did I
come in almost on a gravel road, as it had
to come through the gather, so that even though you
saw that deer, that wasn't a deer that we really
had a lot of confidence to go back in and high.
First of all, you're sitting over alfalfa, and the the
deer just weren't there, and that's that's what was different

(08:06):
than last year. Last year, those fields were full of deer,
full of doze. And then good bucks too were in there.
And so you came back and said, I didn't see
a single deer until right at dark, and it was
a big, big buck and so but that didn't I
wasn't too confident going back in there because I felt

(08:26):
like that buck probably went into that alfalfa, that block alfalfa,
didn't find many dose, didn't find what he was looking for.
So he probably wasn't gonna come back anytime soon. But
we what we what we did learn is that probably
if a guy had the patience to go in and
just sit in one spot for six days up there

(08:51):
in Manitoba, we were at you, you would have almost
been guaranteed an opportunity at a big mature Canadian white tail.
I feel sure six days, I believe uh, if a
person was set there daylight to dark like you did
the first or the last day, um, there was enough
activity is, but it's uh going in before daylight. I'm

(09:14):
raidy we may be running them out of the field
uh late in the afternoon. We're going in early, and
they were coming out right at dark, so they just
wouldn't know. And what we were doing is we were
moving around, which is that It's it's really easy to say, yeah,
you should just stay in one spot, but man, it's
tough because I would hunt a spot, James, I would

(09:35):
see maybe like when we were behind Tom's house, I
saw a bunch of deer but no bucks, and you
just envisioned, well, there's not a buck in this area.
But if a guy had sat there for six days,
probably a shooter buck came through that field sometime during
shooting light in the last six days and we just
weren't there, but we were moving around. And you know,

(09:57):
I probably do the same thing again if I had
it to do again. But at the same time, another
strategy would just be too just sit in one spot
and all the all these stand locations are over food
sources and over major travel corridors in this big open
country with block September, so the deer are quite patternable,

(10:20):
especially when they're on alfalfa or beans and there you know. So,
but but we were bouncing around a lot, and so
you know, I go ahead, Well, we hunted the first
afternoon when we got there, and Steve seen those bucks,
and then he took a buck the next day. Uh,

(10:43):
and then I took a buck the next day. But
if I had it to do over, I've just been
a couple of days doing just like I did. After
I got my buck, I was going to different to
pick out the best one, and then I what spend
the rest of my time on that one. So you
wouldn't have the sixth day pattern, but spend two days

(11:06):
finding your best spot and then sitting on right. And
so you're saying, bounce around a little bit, find the
deer you wanna want to take, find something that you
can stay with. Um, just like the bucks that when
I got that buck, that good buck was with him,
but it didn't offer me a shot. This one did,

(11:26):
and it I rushed it. I should have waited. And uh,
I mean, I'm I'm tickled to death of my dear.
Don't get me wrong. Um, but it was just the
first two or three days. I mean, it sounds like
really good, but it was tough. Hunting. Yeah, And you know,
I think that's pretty classic of Canada though, because Canada

(11:48):
is not known for tons of deer. Even though at
different times you were seeing as much as twenty five
or thirty deer in the field, Canada is not known
for lots of deer. Yeah, yeah, that Uh, of course
it makes an interesting day. You don't get bored when
you've got a bunch of deer in the field. But
that's not that's not helping the fact that you're hunting
big bucks, right. Uh, it was obvious the little doz,

(12:12):
I mean the dose and the little Bucks was active
and they were out sparring, and but you know, the
big Bucks wasn't showing up even though it was getting
an early rut. I think the ruts in another week
or ten days will be be good well. And I
think we've got to say it in case somebody hadn't
listened to the other podcasts, that the further north you go,

(12:34):
the more compressed the rut really gets it right now,
like November, I believe I killed that well the buck
yesterday on November the three man that would be primetime
and most of the white tails range, but up in Canada,
it wasn't. I mean, the bucks are running together there
on feeding pattern. They the further north you get, it

(12:54):
seems like that rut is just really intense and really short,
and these deer just focused on feeding, feeding, feeding, feeding, feeding,
and then it's almost like it just explodes. And Tom
says his favorite day of the year to hunt white
tails in Canada, and he's been doing it for forty
years on his farm and they've killed some tremendous deer,

(13:16):
deer over tuned inches, and he says, there's November of
the nineteen he said, that's that's when he if he
could pick a day the white tail hunting the way
they do, and basically Tom's hunting over food sources. So
he's hunting over He's not getting back in the woods
and the bush after these bucks. He's waiting for them
to come to those basically, and so he's hunting food sources.

(13:38):
That's probably the primary way to hunt up there. Yeah,
the bushes should thick and up. Yeah, you can't see.
You can't hunt a grape funtum. Yeah, but you know
you had that nice buck laying and what's sixty five
yards of you? Yeah, I got down, I got back
on the second day, I just looked at the block
Tember from an aerial photo and I just said I'd
like to get back in there, and Tom said, I

(14:00):
know where there's a couple of trails back in there.
We went in there, hung the stand. First day I sat,
I saw a really nice shooter buck, a seven by
five buck um had seven on the left side, five
on the right side. And I watched him. I watched
him walk in and bed down for an hour and
a half and I never could call him to me.

(14:22):
Didn't want anything to do with a grunt call. And
but that was back in the bush. But then I
set there another two days morning evening, morning, evening, and
and never saw that dear again, and only saw one
other dear, and that was back in kind of this
thick bush. So I mean Tom's philosophy, especially with firearms hunters,
is set out in the open country and wait for

(14:44):
the bucks to come out to the dos or on
feeding pattern. And so hey, that brings us to right
to where we can start talking about my hunt. You
went in on day number two and it was a
cut soybean field. We talked about this in the podcast
with James earlier. It was a cut soybean field that
had been They put an insurance claim on the field

(15:06):
because elk had destroyed it. So I think that threw
off their timing and harvesting these beans. They harvested the
beans and a lot of beings shattered from the pod,
and so they were beans all over the ground in
this field. Is probably Steve estimated it to be fifty acres.
I don't I don't know. I really don't have a
concept of how big it was other than that it

(15:28):
was six hundred yards across, probably in about four hundred
yards wide. Probably I don't know. I'd have to do
the math. But it was big, big field further than
you could really shoot. And James, you killed the buck
in there on the first day. You hunted in there
and you shot. You looked at this deer, you judge

(15:50):
it to be mature, which was very true. The deer
ended up way and tune and fifty pounds on the
on the dot, and it had a nice heavy eight
point rack, and there was a second mature deer with
it about fifty sixty yards further that you didn't you
didn't shoot and didn't really get a good look at.
So we were going back in there, knowing that there

(16:10):
was another mature deer in there. I sat in there
two days after you did and never saw that buck,
and only saw about seven deer on this huge bean
field that we felt like was really going to be
attracting a lot of deer. Steve and I sat in
there and I never saw a mature buck, and I

(16:32):
kind of we kind of lost interest in the spot.
I mean, you had actually sat in there one day
scouting for me and hadn't seen a shooter. And then
when the time and then I went in there and
hunted of an evening, didn't see a shooter. And on
the final day of the hunt, we get to Tom's
place in the morning and we're discussing where to go,

(16:56):
and he said, well, why don't you go back to
the bean field. And we hadn't been over there and
about three days, but we knew it was a great
food source, but still wasn't quite the activity we thought,
or we'd have been hunting it every day, but it
was it was, you know, we just said, yeah, let's
let's try it. Let's go to the bean field. James,

(17:20):
he had been scouting for me, so he'd been going
to different places and it was the last day of
the hunt, so it wasn't gonna do any good to
go scouting. No, no, And so I said, man, you
ought to just come sit with me James. And James
has been the lucky charm everyone, you know. He he
saw more mature bucks than me when he was scouting
for me. So Tom said he was a lucky charm.

(17:43):
And I just needed to go wherever James was gonna go. Uh.
So we It doesn't get shooting light until about eight
o'clock up there that far north, and Tom dropped us
off about probably a quarter mile from the blind we

(18:03):
were going to. We walked in the dark. We didn't
want to bust anything off the field, so we walked
in the dark pretty good way, and we walked the
quarter before we turned into the field, yeah, to get
to the stand, and then we went to the back.
I didn't think we busted anything off the field the
way we entered it. No coming in behind the trail. So,

(18:24):
and there'd been snows since we were there, elk tracks
all over the first field we walked beds um. I
knew they were there. I knew there was animals there. Yeah,
And he didn't he didn't just misspeak when he said
there was elk tracks in the field. And if you
listen to the the last couple of podcasts, you know that
Tom's place up here in Manitoba has he's got bull out. Well, yeah,

(18:49):
he's got bull out. He's got elk, wild elk herd
there in the area. He's got moose, he's got black bear,
and he's even got some mule deer. And so we're
walking through this field and seeing these tracks as big
as baseballs, you know, and we're looking down at it
trying to figure out what it was. I'm not sure
that it wasn't moose, James, after I looked back, That's

(19:10):
what I thought, But the man said it was out.
We walked in, Okay, I walked out, you know when
he come in, we walked out. Uh, I said, check
this out and he said yeah he So we never
saw what they were there. They were there that night,
coming in at night. So we slipped in there in

(19:32):
the dark getting the blind. We've got about thirty minutes
and man, it's the last day. And man, I'll be
honest with you, these guys have been sitting around camp
for five days. The hunting was tough. I mean kind
of the morale of the camp was down. We were
struggling to find a mature buck on his feet, and

(19:55):
you know, I even thought about saying, hey, guys, let's
just go home, let's just this, just cut it a
day early and just go home. I thought crossed my mind,
well a lot to get fired up about going out.
But then, you know, you set there hour after hour
after hour and no activity kind of left you down.
But you know, you get back and talk it all
over and we just it worked for us. But it

(20:17):
was tough. It was tougher, and I was expecting. Yeah,
I mean, I wouldn't expect me to walk up and shot.
I didn't want to walk up and sit down and choot.
But you know, it just, um it was a great hunt,
but there wasn't a piece of cake. It wasn't a
cake walk. It wasn't a cake Walkum. So this so
this is the final day and James and I are

(20:39):
sitting in this blind and I mean just at shooting light,
just at shooting light for the first time that I
was going to turn on the camera and kind of
pan around out in the field. I don't know if
you remember this change, but I pan the camera because
it was you could finally see the ground. And this

(21:00):
cut snow covered soybean filled for six hundred yards, which
is a long ways. And I'm panning the camera and
I see two deer at the very back of the field,
I mean six yards away, and I I say, hey,
there's a deer. It looked to me like a dough.
Looked to me like a year land though, that's what

(21:22):
it looked like. I zoomed in, we put up the binoculars,
and I saw what looked to me like a dough
and a yearland walking down this woodline. And then on
the smaller deer in the front, he was kind of
lighter colored. Did you think they were different colored, James?

(21:43):
As you notice that, Yeah, yeah, yeah they were one.
The one in the front was a little lighter colored
and the one in the back was dark. And I
think it's a done a Yearland to put up the glass.
The deer passes by real dark spruce tree, and I
can see horns on the little one. Decent horns, Yeah,

(22:08):
no doubt. And there's we've got a little bit of
a dispute here. James thinks that this was even maybe
a bigger buck I perceived it as a smaller buck,
but still a maybe even a shooter, just a racked,
good bucking from six hundred yards in Canada. When you
can see horns on a deer, you just it might
be a good one. Well, and then I say, oh,

(22:30):
there's two deer, and I look at the back, dear,
and all I saw was a real stocky body. I mean,
he just looked thick. He was dark. His horns were dark,
and that seems to be a characteristic of these older
bucks up here, darker horns. And I honestly could not see.
I couldn't have told you if it was an eight

(22:51):
point or a ten point or a six point. But
I could see James that his main beams went out
just about even with his nose. That's what I saw.
And I saw that he had good tall times, and
I said, that's a shooter buck. Yeah. I could tell

(23:13):
the difference. I mean, through the bloctors, I could tell
that it was massive times um, massive ratt beams um.
To see one that far, yeah, you know, I could
tell that it it was definitely a shooter. Well, I believe,
I really and truly believe both of them were shooter bucks. Yeah, Um,

(23:38):
so there's six hundred yards away walking parallel to us.
I mean, they're not coming any closer. And man, I
had set in that stand with Steve two two or
three days before, and Steve and I had seen deer
there too, and we and Stephen said, Hey, if there's
a deer there, I bet you could close the distance
because there's kind of a swell in this being field
and we were just a little bit low wor then

(24:00):
where these deer were, and you know, we kind of
got to talking about if we needed to get out
of the blind and close the distance. And I was
shooting Steve's muzzleloader, which is truly spectacular gun and it
it it's accurate out to three plus yards, really is.
And so I was using that gun, so I knew

(24:22):
I had basically a three hundred yard range. That's what
I felt like. And when I saw those deer. If
there's one thing I've learned hunting in Canada last year
with Steve is that just because you see a buck
do something once doesn't mean that you're gonna see him
do it twice. And I knew this last day, and
there was a shooter buck at the back of that field.

(24:43):
I knew they weren't gonna be there long. These deer.
Just of the few times we've been there, I never
saw a deer feed more than about ten minutes. And
and we think it was because these beans are so
it was a cut field, so they were it was
a clear area that the are just weren't comfortable to
being right out in the middle of for long period.
They didn't have to spend any time out there. They

(25:05):
could just come out, feed up the beans, go back in.
I mean they could get a belly full of beans
and about ten fifteen minute. That's what Tom was talking
about in high protein. They didn't need to stay out
there for three hours. On the afalfa, they're out there
for forever. They come out forever. Ye, So I knew

(25:25):
we didn't have much time. Yeah, And what do you
remember what I said? Or I want to tell off
on you for one thing, because as soon as you've
seen it's James, it's the buck. It's a shooter buck.
James at the buck, its shooter buck. Well, you grabbed
stuff and hit it up the blind and then you
come back in and was getting a camera equipment and

(25:46):
where's my gun? You left it outside? All right? Yeah,
I know, I know you were, but I don't know
how to run a camera, but I would give anything
to have a camera on you out there holding that
gun up and crawling through the snow with your backpack
and trying to get We gotta tell him what happened.

(26:07):
So so I I just started gathering stuff up and say, James,
I'm gonna I'm gonna close the distance on those deer.
And so I get the gun, the camera equipment, I
go out of the blind and I decided not to
do it because the deer actually walked off the field.
Remember the deer. The deer walked off the field. I

(26:28):
get outside of the blind and put the glass up.
The deer aren't there. James says, they're gone, and I go, well, shoot,
I guess I'll just get back in the blind. Get
back in the blind, I know more to sit down
and I that's when I left my gun outside. Yeah,
the gun was leaned up on Steve gun outside. Yeah,
and yeah, don't tell Steve that. Then the buck reappears

(26:57):
and he kind of made a loop and come back
into the same corner where we'd originally seen him. And
you know, probably ten minutes of time had elapsed, and
so I said, Okay, it's go time. So I grabbed
the gun, my backpack, all my gear, my camera, tripod
and whatnot, and basically I don't really have to belly crawl,

(27:18):
but I was basically walking on my knees. I mean,
I just got down on my knees and was walking
on my knees with one hand, kind of like a
three three legged eight crawl across this field. And you know,
you're just going off total adrenaline. At that point, I
had a game plan. I knew where I had to get.
I knew I had to stay low. I knew I

(27:39):
didn't have much time. I was carrying a nine pound
gun and a backpack that weighed about twenty pounds gear.
I mean, I was it was cold. It was twenties
seven degrees no, and I was twenty four degrees. It's
cold cold this morning to the hunt. Twenty four degrees.
So I bundled up. So I felt like the abominable

(28:00):
snow man, you know, bumbling across this being filled but
you know, and I didn't have any gloves on. So
I'm putting my hands down in bare snow, moving, moving, moving, moving, moving.
Finally I get to the first safety point where I
knew they couldn't see me behind a stack of logs,
and I put up my glass and there's no deer there,

(28:25):
but kyote comes out of the woods and so James
is in the blind watching all this, and basically kyote
started yipping and they didn't really run the deer off.
But as soon as this kyles started yepping, the deer
disappeared back in the timber. Is that what happened? And
then when I put up my glass, the clouds that

(28:47):
were yipping or one of them appears right where the
deer were. So I mean, basically a kyote ran the
deer off, and you know, I was like the opportune
time for that to happen. But man, that's far beyond
the control of what we control. So it was a benefit. Yes,

(29:07):
it got the deer out, went on, give you a
little break in time to get down to where you're going.
It really, I hate to say it, but it kind
of kind of worked. It worked, man. So now the
fear that the field is cleared, so I'm able just
to go straight to this point that we had picked
out that would put me within two fifty yards of

(29:30):
where the bucks exited the field in this corner, and
so I get there and we got a little bit
of a communication problem because James didn't have a cell
phone with him. So James is in the blind with
no communication, and I was anticipating just going over there
and shooting this buck and then coming out. Well, I

(29:51):
get to this point. It's the last day of my hunt.
I've just seen a shooter buck on the edge of
the soybean field, and I'm thinking immediately, i'd don't need
to go, I don't need to leave. I need to
stay here all day, That's what I But Tom is
coming to pick us up at ten thirty. James is

(30:11):
in the blind without communication, and so basically I texted
Tom and said, Tom, I'm on these bucks. I mean
a good spot. The wind is perfect. It's blown out
of the south and east, blowing my scent out into
this big field. I said, I'm just gonna stay here
all day. And I said, but you know, come pick

(30:32):
up James at the normal time, but park your truck.
I told him, slip in get James, and so that's
what he did. Any worked, Um, it was one of
those days I didn't pack really will and I was cold,
ready to go, and I I couldn't do anything where
I was at, but I knew, and I told them

(30:54):
all day long. He didn't know. No, he's not gonna
call you. He's gonna call you dark. He's gonna get it.
Just the last last step. And I was walking up
to the house waiting on the court. What I went
up for supper and then we're gonna pick you up
and come in and help supper. And I said, no, no, no,
we were sitting there in the phone ring, and I said,

(31:16):
that's it. Did you hear the phone ring? Yeah, I
sitting there when he caught I sat there for ten hours.
I got in there at about eight thirty. That's what
I figured, James is probably forty five. Truthfully, we be
I got shooting light at eight o'clock. I think we
saw the deer at shortly after that, and then I

(31:38):
moved in and I was probably set up on him
around nine o'clock. And and then basically I sat there
all day. I built the blind, I had some clip
my clippers with me, I had a I packed a
bologny sandwich. We eat in a whole loaf of bread.
But we left the two heels right. We just ate
the middle out of that loaf of bread. So on

(31:59):
the last day of the and I wake up and
we've got two heels and uh, two slabs of blown
he left, so I slapped him together put him in
the pack just in case something like this happened. So
I had a little bit of food. High temperature for
the day was like seven. That was cold, but I
was dressed right to stay warm. And basically I got
out on this little point, built a blind and just

(32:22):
stayed there all day. And I was thinking that maybe
those deer might come out back out mid day to
grab a few beans. That's what I was thinking. That's
why I wanted to stay as I just like it's
the last day, might as well, So I stayed out there.
Long story short, there was not much activity throughout the day.

(32:42):
I had two deer come out at one o'clock. So
I got set up at let's just say nine o'clock
in my spot, and at one o'clock I saw two deer.
A little bit before that, I had a coyote come
right through. I saw. That was it until like six o'clock,

(33:05):
which the end of legal shooting light was about seven
forty five. I believe I think sunset was six fourteen,
so thirty minutes past that would be sixty four So
at like six o'clock I saw a small eight point
buck come out on the back edge of a field,

(33:26):
not where the big buck had gone. I felt like it,
really there was no correlation between this buck and the
big buck. When I watched this younger buck for a
long time, and then at probably six twenty a year
land dough popped out behind me. I'm watching this year

(33:46):
land do to other does pop out. I'm kind of
watching them, thinking, well, is there gonna be a buck
with them? And I'm paying attention to them behind me,
and meanwhile in front of me, is really you where
I think the deer is gonna come from? And when
I turned back around, James, I mean it was It's

(34:09):
it was just one of those times in hunting when
it when it just worked. The wind had been perfect
all day long, and Tom says, it's pretty unusual to
get an east wind up there. The wind blew out
of the east for ten straight hours without variation, unbelievable,
and was blowing my scent right out into the center

(34:30):
of that being filled where there was no deer gonna
be and no dear gonna come from that way. And
all day. That's what I was shocked at, was how
stable the wind was and anyway I turned back around
at let's just say, probably six thirty two. I mean
it was getting dark. I mean that was my next question.

(34:50):
How much shooting light did you have when you pull
the trigger? You didn't have a whole lot. We were
we were, we were cheering for you back into the house,
and we were getting updates and you're probably looking out
the windows, going it's getting dark. I told him it's
gonna be. The last five minutes you were you were
about right on. I have to look back at the

(35:12):
actual footage to see it. Really, I really don't know what.
I very seldom, if ever had that feeling, but I
had no doubt. I knew you probably wouldn't miss, but
I didn't have a doubt that you wouldn't that Buck
wouldn't be back, not one day. You had confidence I would.
I'm not a betting person, but I hadn't bet anything.
I just felt it, you know, I just I don't

(35:33):
see anyway that this is not gonna work. And that's
hard to do with the white tail deer, you know,
and Steve was texting me all afternoon to He's saying
he's gonna come, He's gonna come, He's gonna come. Well
I felt, I felt, I really did well. See that's

(35:53):
the thing when it's when it's you in the battle,
when it's you in the hunt, it's so easy to
be pessimistic. And you know what, though, I was really
at peace with whatever was gonna happen though, because I,
I mean, I had taken a chance in going out
to that point, I've been pretty aggressive, and I just thought,

(36:14):
if I don't do this, I'll look back on this
hunt and wish that I had. And I felt good
about the decision. You've done good. I felt good about
the decision to be out there. And and I tell
you what, I learned something, James. The longer I hunt,
the more decisive I become. And I'm just learning that

(36:38):
you just gotta make a decision in hunting. And one
decision that you make one day maybe the wrong decision,
but you gotta keep making a decision based upon the
data that you have, the facts that you have, and
honestly that just the gut sensing that you have about stuff.
After you know, a lifetime interacting with white tails and

(37:01):
and and that's very true. If you if you make
a point what you're gonna do, just stay with it.
It'll work for you. Just stay with it. Stay with it,
it'll work for you. But I would have I would
have been disappointed if you give up and come in.
I would yeah, well he's not coming in and cold
time and we pick you up. You know, a little

(37:23):
bit of shooting light left and I know what happens.
I've done it to me before I know, I've left
and dear come in. Yeah, stayed to that last light.
It's so easy just to think it's not gonna happen.
And so I know that Steve is getting ready to go,
and we are leaving for Arkansas at dark. I mean
we're not We're not even gonna spend the night. It's
the last day of the hunt. I know this. We're

(37:44):
not even gonna stay. We're headed out and I'm I
mean it's six thirty and I'm thinking, well, I didn't
get a buck. It was a fun ride. I got
to hunt hard for six and a half days and
cold weather, and you saw some of may is in country.
You were telling yourself that heck, yeah, I mean, you
know what you just think. I mean, you just don't know.

(38:09):
I mean, I just I was just, I guess, trying
to get okay with that, and and I was. And man,
when I had seen those little does come out, I
turned back around and man, there was a dark blob
in an odd space. You know how, you know how
when you look at the spot for hours, you know
every tree, every bush, every shadow, everything that could be

(38:32):
a deer, every place you think there will be a deer.
And I looked back and there was something there and
it was big, and I was like, go time. I mean,
it was just like, bam, that's him. But if you remember,
there were two bucks, and I'm looking at one buck,

(38:54):
and I felt like that one of the bucks was
a lesser buck, and so I wanted to get some
glass on this deer so that I could make sure
I wasn't shooting a a smaller deer and then the
real shooters in the back, because I was gonna go
home with an empty tag rather than shoot him lesser
immature deer. I mean, I had the opportunity to shoot

(39:16):
that eight point earlier in the afternoon. I mean, I
wasn't just trying to fill a tag on the last
day at all, and so I really wanted to look
at this deer. And and when we end this, James,
I want to talk about judging deer because when I
first saw this deer I had no real comprehension of
his size other than that his body features indicate that

(39:37):
he was mature, and I could see horns on his head.
So I put up the it. I scrambled around with
the camera trying to get it all on film. Put
the gun up, got the scope on about six power
of the deers at two forty eight yards from me.
The deer's got his head down and he sideways to me,

(39:59):
you know his He's like broadside to me, and I
feel like I see a pretty damn good time coming
off like a G one. But the G the G
three looked kind of short. And anyway, I looked at
him and looked at him and looked at him, and
I just said, I need to I need to see

(40:19):
him look at me. And man, he lifted his head.
And when he lifted his head, it took me about
half a second ago judging. I was like that, yep,
that's him. He was out past his ears. He was tall.
I can see he had good brow times and I
could see he had tremendous mass, and I mean it

(40:40):
was like done, deal, this has got to happen quick,
and so I I mean it was after that, I mean,
the the show was over. I had him ranged. I
knew where he was. I knew that bullet dropped about
four inches at two fifty yards. He's two forty eight.
So the deer is quartering. To me, the deer is

(41:03):
a gigantic target just because such a big body. We're
shooting up. How many grains is that bullet? Steve, Steve's
got his headphones in back there. I think it's a
dang there three grain bullet. And I shoot for the
front shoulder of quarter and two, and man, bam, all

(41:27):
I see is white belly on the field. After that,
I lost him in the scope when I shot, and
just but I could see he just went down. And man,
I kind of came on glued. You'll have to You'll
you'll get to see the video at some point. Huh,
what due reason? Just imagine how many hours you set

(41:49):
for something happened in a matter of just a few minutes,
I mean five minutes maybe, Yeah. How many hours did
we sit over there. But when it happens, it happened,
you don't have and that it's kind of hard to explain.
It's much time and money you spend yea to hunt
and the hunt is just seconds some or minutes sometimes seconds. Um,

(42:12):
I didn't have it. I didn't have time to judge. Mind,
there was two bucks showed up running out of shooting light,
and when he raised his head, I fen, I just
you know, I can't judge one frontal. I need to broadside,
and I chose to take him and did. Um, but

(42:32):
I didn't have the chance to judge. Like you're talking
about where you can really you know, I mean you
can see the width of the ears, get your width. Yeah,
but get that beam lenked out here where it's out
where you know you've got some beam on it. And
the time time length. Um. But well so I then

(42:55):
pretty much immediately called Tom, and you and Steve are
in the living room with Tom. I was standing there
upside and when the phone ring and I said, that's him,
and he done big buck on the ground. Yeah, Tom's
all business man. The second time, that's the second time
I've called Tom about a deer and I say, I

(43:16):
got one. Tom and he goes, Okay, we'll be right there,
see you later. Just it was just all I wanted
to like tell him the story, you know. Man. He
came in and right it dark. He looks pretty big,
and I don't want the story. He wants to get
his hands on it. That's right. He didn't care. He's
just like talk about we'll be there. Oh man. Tom
gets excited, And you know, so much of the fun

(43:38):
of this hunt was having, you know, knowing you guys
were rooting for me, just like I was rooting for y'all. Okay,
now here's here's something this happened, and this is I
can't I don't really think this has ever happened to
me before, James, because most of the well all the
biggest here I've killed have been with a bow, so
you you get a close look at him, but because

(44:00):
there within bow range when you shoot him. This is
the only big deer that I've killed with a firearm.
And uh, I really had no idea like how big
this rack was. And as I'm walking up, I'm thinking,
and I didn't really care what the score was. I

(44:20):
honestly didn't. The buck was mature, he was heavy, that's
all I care. I mean he could have been a
six point if he'd have been that big, heavy Canadian
you know, horn mass, dark horn, gnarly. I mean, I
was gonna be happy. I didn't care, So it wasn't
like I was trying to scoring. But I said to
the camera, I said, I have no idea if that's

(44:41):
a buck or a hundred and sixty buck. I just
I don't know. So many times you have grounds, Frinkage,
but I don't think you had any grounds, Frinka, did
you know. I walk up to the deer and and
I can just see a lot of horns sticking up
off the ground and get to him, and I mean,

(45:02):
basically it's a main frame eight point with a kicker,
and he had super mass. We hadn't really put a
tape on him at all. He's about eighteen and a
half inches wide. You got probably ten and a half inch.
G two's big curled, and one of his G two's
James is bladed. It's probably an inch and a half
even inch and three quarters wide. Probably it's just like

(45:24):
this big bladed time um. And I mean the deer
was huge. Week later, would weigh the deer and it
weighed two hundred and forty eight pounds with with guts
in and so man, the hunt ended at the last
minute with a good deer. And I don't even want

(45:45):
to guess what his score was. It's not a hundred
and fifty inch deer. No, it just didn't you know,
it's just an eight point kind of had short threes,
but just super mass. I mean I would drive across
North America in a flash every year to kill it.
There like that. I like the mass um more than
I do tie length. The time length is. You know,

(46:09):
it's critical if you're looking at inches and stuff, But
I like that mass I don't care if it's a
six point eight point ten point with masks like that,
you don't care. You know, you've got a big, mature
massy buck. That was. I don't know what he scores either,
but you've got a prize. It's a dandy. Oh man,

(46:34):
I was. I'm just so impressed by the size of
those deers, those head and neck and body uh coming
from yeah. Oh, I don't know the part Arkansas that
we hunt that our dear that's probably I doubt that

(46:55):
our dear average O. We're aren't thirty. I mean, there's
bigger deer. Course, but our deer is about half that size. Yeah,
you know. And of course they don't have the masks.
I mean they do some, but they can as a
not common just h and it's we talked to hunters

(47:20):
and and I've done the same thing. I've over judged
the weight and stuff to put them put them on
the scales, and women and no, and then you take
one you put on the scales and it goes over
tuned in up to two fifty. I'm not used to that.
That's twice the size of the area Arkansas that I
hunt up. You know, if I pound deer, yeah, it

(47:42):
can be a good ten point yeah, eighteen twenty spread.
But they normally don't have the mask. Didn't have the mask.
And that's what Tom talked about. He told us all week.
And he says, guys, he says, I don't I don't
care if a deer, I don't care what it's score words.
He said, what I'm looking for his mass, And he

(48:02):
said that's what most guys want when they come to
Canada is just a deer with a lot of masks.
Picking up some of the shutters he's had there over
the years and stuff it just, um, you don't have
that feeling in Arkansas when you pick up a shutter. Yeah,
you know you got a handful, you gotta hand them. Yeah. Well,
we kind of had a classic Canadian hunt on the

(48:22):
steel and I want to close out this podcast by
talking about what we learned about judging deer, because I'll
tell you I went into this talking to these guys
saying that the deer that I killed last year was
bigger than he looked. So I was like, you know,

(48:44):
this deer, I thought he was a hundred thirty inch dear,
he ended up being a hundred fifty inch deer. Well,
that actually can hurt you because if you it's all
about scale, and you can think a deer is bigger
than he is and still he's a small deer. And
that's maybe my biggest takeaway from hunting Canada twice now
is that there are small deer here. Like you kind

(49:07):
of have in your mind that if you see a
racked buck, it's gonna be this big deer. Well, there's
all age class of deer here, all genetic class of
deer here. And so you know, Stephen, the last podcast
we talked about his buck. You know he he he
misjudged the deer on the first day at ten point

(49:30):
that had all the characteristics of a big buck, except
when we got to him, he was just about, you know,
two thirds the size of what we really wanted him
to be and what we really came up there to hunt.
And and so we talked about two things that could
have helped him is that the the younger deer, their

(49:50):
main beams don't come out to their end of their
nose and beyond their face. Because even Steve's deer, that
was a younger deer, and it's super nice, dear, but
a younger deer still weighed well over two undred pounds,
I mean, so it was a big bodied animal. So

(50:12):
but that dear, if you looked perpendicular to it, like his,
his main beams did not come out beyond his nose.
Almost any of these shooter deer here in Canada, their
main beams are for sure gonna come to their nose.
But the other thing you really got to look at
is is body size. Yesterday, James, last day of the hunt,
that eight point comes out from two hundred fifty yards away,

(50:33):
the one I didn't shoot, and I think a guy
could have easily talked himself into shooting that deer. That
deer weighed well over two hundred pounds. His horns came
out to his ears. I mean, if you had just
really been triggered happy, you could have shot that deer
thinking you were shooting a hundred and thirty in shape
point when really you were shooting a hundred and ten

(50:54):
inch ap point. Just the scale of that dear. And
so what you really need to look for is the
characteristics of a really mature buck up in Canada is
just gonna be thick, dark. We've noticed a lot of
these bigger deer just darker in color, I mean just
thick all the way through. Even a two pound two

(51:17):
and a half to three and a half year old
deer still doesn't have the body shape of a really
big mature buck. His his belly is flat, his back
is not arched, his neck is more defined as it
comes out of his front. He doesn't have a boxy,
real boxy look. His legs look a little bit longer.

(51:39):
Even though it's a two pound deer, it's still has
the characteristics of a two and a half or three
and a half year old white tail. Just like back
at home, does that make sense. Yeah, it really does,
and so scale will get you. And part of the
reason I knew that the second buck was a shooter
early early that morning was I was looking at a

(52:02):
buck that had a nice rack of horns, and the
deer that was following him, following him was just a
notch bigger. I mean, it was just forty pounds heavier,
it was taller, it was longer, and I was like,
that second one is a mature buck. Now, if you'd
have seen the first one by himself, you'd have had it.

(52:23):
You'd really had to have analyzed it. And I think
the main thing is is you've got to You just can't.
You just can't pull the trigger, especially in a situation
like this where you're hunting. You're hunting, uh, you're traveling
the hunt. I mean there's a lot invested in this hunt.
You know, if you're hunting your own property, I mean
you can do whatever you want. Uh, when you're when

(52:44):
it's on a hunt like this, you you kind of
have to go into it wanting to find multiple factors
that show you that this is the kind of deer
you want to have. Judging bears always tell people don't
rely on just one thing, relying multiple things, and so
up here in Canada, I was looking for a deers
horns went out past his nose. I was looking for

(53:05):
a deer that did not show the characteristics of a
young three year old body, two year old body, flat belly,
narrower neck, longer legs. Um I was looking for. I
was just looking for that kind of bull angus bull
and the pasture look and a big buck. And it's

(53:26):
just they're hard to find. What do you have anything
about judging deer that you learned up here? Well, actually
I didn't. I got I guess I got too excited.
I normally do. But we were in there, still shot.
You still shot a I mean, you shot him ature buck.

(53:46):
Though yeah, it's a mature buck. But I really you know,
you said the other day, if it's a question about it,
don't shoot. And I was running out a lot, uh,
and he are from a shot and he was faced on,
he had to wit and it looked to me like
the wreck that I he looked like a shooter, I mean,

(54:11):
and then when he gave me a broadside shot, I debated,
I remembered debating just to myself, don't don't, don't getting
getting late, and but see, how have you made the
right choice? Though, James, I would have shot that deer
because that dear way two or fifty pounds. He had
all the characteristics of a big deer. Now, he didn't

(54:32):
have the rack. I mean, I think we said, we
talked about it today. He probably had a hundred and
twenty in rack, so he just didn't. He didn't have
the massive rack. But still, I mean, it was a
mature animal and there was another one behind him, and
I couldn't focus on him. Um, right, this one offered
me a shot. Uh, probably pretty common mistake. I admit

(54:58):
I didn't judge the deer. I should I didn't have
time to judge the deer. He gave me give me
the wit judgment and the way he was holding and said,
I thought I had the height. Um, and I when
we walked up on him, I was impressed very much
with the size of the deer. But he didn't have

(55:19):
the rack I was expecting. Yeah, he really did. I mean,
I'm pickled to death of the deer. You know, right
when we were watching that deer, I was more excited
about it being a big shooter buck than judging it.
I'll be honest with you, I want to get in
a position closer because we couldn't do anything about it

(55:40):
where we were at. Yeah, I mean it really couldn't. Um.
And the fact that you got closer and you had
time time to judge him, thankful for that. Yeah, but
I think it was pretty obvious when he come out
he was a shooter though, Yeah, without judging him. Yeah,
I mean the judge and that dere was a no.
And especially being the last day, I just needed to

(56:02):
confirm that it was a mature animal. That's that's what
I wanted to do. The judging party is for you
to get to the bigger bucks, letting some of them walk.
It's hard to let a big old buck well that
when I went across the field other day might have

(56:23):
been the one that was with us one. Yeah, I
mean it was a it was a decent buck. Um.
I didn't have a I didn't have a tag, didn't
have a gun. I was just out there. But um,
I'm glad I didn't have that decision, you know, because
I might have made a mistake on it. But it
was a I mean, it was a good good body, dear.

(56:45):
I don't believe I believe it was a young deer,
was a smaller rack, but it it had the width.
I mean it was Oh yeah. And the dude that
was with the one that I did take on the Tuesday,
uh M, could have been the one. You could have
been the one that you got. Yeah, I don't know,

(57:06):
I just I just know they both had good racks,
and they both big deer, and I rushed. But you know,
the different bucks that I've seen later in the week, Um,
maybe if I had been carrying a firearm still out
a tag, been sitting out there. I was just more
or less scouting. I was just trying to see deer,

(57:29):
what kind of deer, if any bucks, any shooter bucks
come in. And that boat just busted me. I mean
I I was sitting there all day and he walked
up and when I turned and saying he'd walked in
the field, standing there but outside, um fifty yards each way.
He was out probably fifty yards in the gate fifty
yards of that island. And I would think that if

(57:54):
I was in there hunting with a with a rival,
that I would have checked that, right, you know, and
I did, You would have you would have. I was
waiting on the outfitter, uh time to come pick me up.
And when I I had my gloved, had backpack and
he's standing there a broadside, you know, and he didn't
have to have glasses for this one. He wasn't that far. Definitely,

(58:18):
what you're kind of describing is that if you had
passed that deer on the first on the second day
that you end up killing, and you had said you
probably you would have, you would have had opportunity of
that second deer. But who knows if that deer wasn't
smaller than the one you killed. Now he was, um,
he was. He was a good buck. He was a

(58:40):
big buck. Yeah, um, he's one that you just I
was just so wanting him to come out on the
other side of the island. But the dog come out
come on the side that I was onest. She stopped
three times, just walked like nervous, and I don't know
where that buck went, but he went out of sight.
I never said him again, But yeah, I was I

(59:03):
was sick, man. I just I fumbled, and you know,
I didn't have a gun. I was just I was
just just scouting scouting. Well, I think the I think
the main takeaway is that when you go to a
new area to hunt white tails, you need to be
really cautious with judging deer. You know, if if your

(59:25):
goal is to take a big one, and it's not
everybody's goal, and so that you know, to teach his own.
You're going to a new area. And I was trying
too hard. I was rushing stuff. I wouldn't. I wouldn't myself, right.
But a hunt like this turns you. It's hard because

(59:46):
you've got six days. We talked about it, James, how
if we were back home hunting like this man, we
would We'd had plenty of time. You wouldn't go hunt
when the conditions were bad. You'd just come back. If
that bucks weren't chasing those and bucks weren't moving much,
you just wait and come back the next week. But
then on a six day hunt, you just gotta go

(01:00:06):
hunt every day. So it does put this pressure on
you too. You know you're gonna get one opportunity. That's
pretty much what Tom says, as with most of his hunters,
if they throughout the week in a six day hunt,
they're gonna get one opportunity. I mean legitimate opportunity at
a big bugy doesn't mean it's gonna be the only
one you see. You may see several, but like shooting

(01:00:27):
opportunity and that that played true with with all of us,
it really didn't. Yeah, and some day it happens on
the last day for sure. Yeah. Well this this is
the final podcast in our Manitoba white Tail series. This

(01:00:48):
is a bear hunting magazine podcast. But the way I
look at it is that, man, anybody that's hunting bear
is gonna be a white tail hunter as well. And uh,
and this is up in some serious bear country where
a lot of our outfitters are that are in Bare
Hunting Magazine. I know we've got several good, really good
Manitoba outfitters um that I would recommend that I know

(01:01:09):
personally up in that area. And uh, anyway, I'm I'm
kind of following in love with Manitoba. This is the
second year James and of all the Big Rack Home
for Manage. Yeah. Man, it's just an awesome It's an
awesome place to be, It's an awesome place to hunt.
It's such a different place to hunt than then where

(01:01:31):
we're from. And that's probably what so much fun. And
it was a blast hunting with you and Steve really
was Steve's my father in law. And then for those
that hadn't heard the other podcast, me and James have
been friends for a long time and this this is
a dream of ours to be able to hunt white
tales together. And Steve and I came up here last
year and again it just had a fantastic time with

(01:01:53):
these guys as they waited around camp for me to
kill one on the last day. So thanks for hanging
in there for me, that was that was a pleasure.
I and George. I and George scouting, sitting out and
the silence of that place. You know, there's no planes,
trains or automobiles. One plane went over the rest of
it just peaceful and you're out there, uh steal out there.

(01:02:19):
There's something about the cold, cold, dry air like that
that that oh man, those afternoons would just be dead still. Yeah.
It just it pushes you for what's gonna come out
next and where it's coming out, I mean anticipation, um,
and they usually do. Something comes out. The first day

(01:02:42):
that bear come out by me and I was excited.
Beautiful beautiful bear. Um. I was just glad to see. Yeah,
whildlife in a place like that. Yeah, incredible. And then man,
for me, geez, the final day to kill a buck
like I did the last five minutes fuels the fire

(01:03:05):
even more to want to get back up here and
and to tell people that they how to come up here.
This hunts a lot more affordable than you think. I mean,
I think guys think of Canadian white tail hunt's gonna
cost five to seven thousand dollars, and this one doesn't.
I mean, I think Tom charges about three three grand
for a hunt, which is a lot of money for anybody.

(01:03:27):
It's a lot of money for me, um, But at
the same time, it's it's worth every penny of it. Yeah,
I mean, it's an experience that if you're a white
tail hunter, you need to come hunt to Far North.
I mean, this is like an iconic place for white tails,
and Tom's an iconic guy. Man. We even laughed and

(01:03:48):
laughed about Tom. What a what a guy, geez, He's
got a he's got a philosophy for everything. He is
like a machine. Tom Ain's Earth is like a well
oiled machine ten when it comes to hunting, When it
comes to everything, you can come in there with your
shin down where you messed up that day. Tom's there.

(01:04:09):
It don't matter. He says that all the time, don't matter.
He deals really well with He'll fire you up and
you're ready to forget it, do better the next time,
and and you do. You do. I sit and listened
to him all the time, whether you're talking to me
or somebody else, that it and look at you, look
you in the eyes, and he means it. It don't matter,

(01:04:31):
you know, and it don't do it again. It's always tomorrow.
He's always got a really positive outlook on everything. And
then that helps when you're when you're leader, has got
as much knowledge as he has an experience. Holy cow,
he's been putting this property for forty years. Just sitting
and listen to him all day long. Yeah, you know,

(01:04:55):
Tom has not been educated by the Tom has not
been at catered by the by the media knowledge of
whitetail deer. I mean Tom Tom. I could describe a
couple of different things that would show you that he
has been educated by hunting him for forty years, but

(01:05:16):
not just him, not just his experience, but guiding between
probably six and eighteen hunters every year, putting them out
in places, getting a report from them, seeing what they killed,
seeing what the deer do. He's a he's a master
on his own property of telling you what these de're
gonna do. So, I mean he's not he's not into

(01:05:37):
the fads of whitetail, honey. And I can tell you
one thing that Tom Ainsworth doesn't give a darn about
is win direction. What did he say? He said? He said,
he said, he said win direction. He said, well, you
got a seventy five chance, so it's gonna work. I'd
go into the spot and I'd be, man, how's the wind,
And he said, I don't care. You've got a seventy

(01:05:58):
chance and it's gonna work, and if it doesn't, we'll
go somewhere else tomorrow. I mean attitude that you can have.
H Yeah, he did it with the small stuff, and
you know, I think he I mean hunting these pressured
deer like we do in the South and in the Midwest.
I mean, you do need to watch your wind, and

(01:06:19):
we know that he knows that. But these deer up
here are different. They are not pressured. And man, you bump,
you bump some of these deer out of the field,
they'll probably be back in there, if not that evening
the next day. I mean, these deer are a little
bit different. So you know, his perspective there is coming
from his knowledge of his deer, and uh, he makes

(01:06:40):
for kind of a fun just a fun environment. And uh.
But at the same time, Tom is totally wanting to
partner with you. I mean I was asking him if
I could hang a stand here or there, and he
was like, yep, let's do it. I mean he every
morning he'd say where you want to go, Clay, And
I know the farm well now after two years of
hunting it, and I say I want to go here,

(01:07:01):
and he say, all right, let's do it. And a
lot of mornings I'd wake up and say Tom, where
do you think I should go? And man, you could
see his brain, you know, just working, and he'd be like, man,
you know, we we saw this buck here, and this
happened here, this, this, this, and we'd collaborate together and
come to a decision. And I give full credit to

(01:07:21):
Tom for sending me back to that soybean field. I
wasn't going to go there well, I mean it wasn't
even on the table. And Tom that morning said how
about I take you all to the to the bean field?
And when he said it, I liked it. Because I
hadn't even thought of it. In every rational decision that
we've made on this hunt for judging dear movement, it

(01:07:43):
was pretty much wrong. So I was looking for ways
to out, you know, skirt around my mind, you know,
because you gather all this knowledge of what the deer
doing and you're trying to rationalize where to go hunt.
And I was really looking for some outside influence of
to do. And Tom pretty much was just he would
have let me do whatever I wanted. And I was

(01:08:04):
glad of the decision. I was fired up on that spot.
I really was. Yeah, really I was when he said it.
When he said it, I was like, yeah, let's go
the bean field there. There's something about it just fit.
Besides the board soy being on the field, tons of it,
just the bush. It's woods in Arkansas, but it's bush

(01:08:24):
up there, the bush around it. They can get in
and out of that field and all the other places.
They had a at least a quarter of it that
wide opened into the nether field. This was closed in.
They could come from any direction, but the direction we
walked in was only opening. And the one that the
book went through the rest of it, they can come

(01:08:46):
in and out and they don't have to get out
in the field, you know, And that's what you think
about the big bucks. They skirt the area like yours dead. Yeah,
like they were doing when we've seen them. So when
I got that's what he was doing, right, don't just
edge of feeling not out in it. So you had
all that edge around and then you used to the
benefit of that little nook that come out that worked

(01:09:09):
absolutely perfect for you, where you made the blind where
you kill the deer, perfect perfect. Hey. Also, you know,
it's something to note to that in this big bean field,
these deer were popping out and all these seemingly random locations,
which we know they weren't random. That buck popped out
in the only corner that you could not see from

(01:09:31):
the main entrance to the field. Like if we'd have
been sitting in the blind, we would have never seen that.
But yeah, it's just a little just a little nook
that you don't even know. It's they don't know the
nooks thearty you're down there. Yeah, and then you realize
there's about a fifty square yard area of this bean
field that you cannot see that you'd have to get

(01:09:52):
And that's exactly where that deer was. That's why they
get that big. I guess he just knew he could
feed there can he could stepped ten feet out in
that field and get all the beans he wanted. Um.
And the fact you don't have to be there that long.
He can step out there, you know, like Tom was
talking about today, it's it's not like they fill their

(01:10:13):
belly up. They come out and have a snack basically. Yeah,
how many beans could they gather up in an hour?
And they're laying tons tons? Yeah. I was eating soybeans
while I was laying there. James I did too. They
were good. Yeah, Yeah, that was exciting. Well it was

(01:10:35):
for you, well, thank you, thank you. Thank I was
a betting man. I would have won on that one. Yeah,
if anybody would have bet with me, nobody would be Well.
I just knew that everything was just right that day.
It just it was just right. It was so right
that that's what made me think something might go wrong.

(01:10:56):
But it went right. It went just right. So we're
driving home from Manitoba and we got three racks on
the truck. I just posted on Instagram And we're coming
out of Manitoba, dirty riding dirty. We got three bucks.
We got meat in the O'Ryan cooler, and we're a
couple of hours from home. And hey, thanks for listening

(01:11:18):
to the Bear Hounty Magazine podcast. I don't know, we'll
see where the podcast goes from here. I'm still gonna
do some hunting in Arkansas. James and I are talking
about doing doing some hunting down on public land. Um
we're going to would we will? We have a supart
episodes that. Hey, check out Bar Honey Magazine, our print magazine.
We're the only print magazine bear hunting print magazine in

(01:11:40):
the world. Check out our YouTube channel. We've had about
seven point one million views on our YouTube channel in
the last year. We've got about twenty eight thousand subscribers.
We've got some awesome videos up white Tail Hunt. My
white Tail Hunt about from Tom Tom's Places. Last year's
up on YouTube. But took got a YouTube channel. Check

(01:12:01):
out our print magazine. And hey, keep the wild places
wild Beau. That's where the barrass grow and