Rut Madness: Southern Update with Carolina Reaper

Mike Nyitray : 0:26

W elcome back the the garden state outdoorsmen podcast presented Boondocks Hunting I'm your host mike nyitray

Peyton : 0:27

I'm Peyton Smith.

Mike Nyitray : 0:30

Welcome back everyone. It's been two weeks. We didn't record. Last week. Things just got a little busy, hectic for us. Peyton had his cough and everything like that, so we took the week off. A little bit of ketchup on. Peyton went down Maryland the last time we spoke, for Thanksgiving and he was there roughly for what?

Peyton : 0:51

About a week, I would say After two, probably like 10 days down there, from Tuesday to the next Sunday, so good bit of time down there.

Mike Nyitray : 1:04

Now, last week we were talking about hunting pressure deer Now you're able to correct me if I'm wrong get on a piece that wasn't pressured really at all, but you didn't get the action that I guess you were probably looking for.

Peyton : 1:20

Yeah, I was kind of surprised. So I went and hunted this piece in Maryland. In Maryland it's pretty limited publicly and so they especially in Central Maryland. So there's a lot of places where the access is kind of limited. You have to get a special permit. There's like locked gates where you have to get the gate code and check in, I guess, to try to kind of lower the pressure all around.

Peyton : 1:50

So I got into this piece that didn't seem like it was hunted super hard. I guess there were people walking dogs down and through there. But like we talked before, when you have high deer density, like in New Jersey and Maryland, I just don't see it as much of a factor. I grew up seeing deer in backyards with people's dog everywhere, just in neighborhoods and stuff backing up to parkland and stuff. Maybe it is a different animal. When you talk about places where you can hunt those deer also it definitely adds a wrinkle. But like traffic in a state with high population density everywhere you see on the Northeast, I don't think. I think they could probably tell the difference. That's what I'm getting at.

Peyton : 2:42

Anyway, I got in, hunted that place all day Wednesday, sat from sunrise sunset, moved spots around lunch and my buddy met me there in the evening and ended up sitting about where I sat in the morning. He saw a couple of deer, had one respond little buck respond to a grunt call that he lost sight of. It's like chest high grass everywhere and real thick, awesome doe and doze. But where I was sitting I thought I could see a long way and I just didn't see a deer all day, which is pretty surprising. I had hunted Maryland. I think it was the week Saturday before that. Friday before that I hunted all day on a piece of private that I grew up hunting with my dad and sat all day. It was hot. Didn't see a deer there then either. Finally hunted.

Peyton : 3:45

I guess the opening day gun season was that Saturday after Thanksgiving. Hunted the evening and got a long sit in then too and shot an antlerless deer. I guess it's considered antlerless. It's under the broken off and small meat buck. At last light with the slug gun we might. We're just talking. It's like if you do enough sitting as much as we have, I think we're both close to hunt 40. It's like yes, I've had a great season, I've been very lucky, I've got a great buck, a great bear. There's also 20 other sits since then, where it's like you're sitting all day, you're getting up early, where it's like you know what I just got to. I got to get that confidence check. I haven't shot a deer with a slug gun I think since six years or so. I don't think a deer has ever been shot with this gun.

Peyton : 4:42

I was excited. It's like what we said quick gets your heart pumping. This little buck that I had after not seeing a deer and God knows how many hunts over two states, and it got my heart pumping. So a good shot on it. Surprising thing is, you know, even with a gun you often think it's like, oh, that'll drop in the tracks. But this year ran further than the bear and the buck I shot this year combined with my bow. They ran close to 150 yards and it was a perfect shot.

Peyton : 5:15

You know field dress kind of do like the knee crops to your. You know whatever it's called I think ranch ferry, that's what ranch ferry calls it and shredded, just absolutely shredded. You know good blood. But it just caught and got the wind at his back or something and he took off. Couldn't believe it, but was a was a great hunt. You know it's good to get more meat in the freezer. I think I find myself only eating wild game meat for the foreseeable future, which is nice. It's got a goal in mind, so it's been nice to actually get to achieve that sooner and rather later.

Mike Nyitray : 5:54

Yeah, no, definitely, definitely. You know and it's exactly what you said whatever gets the heart pumping and you went down there and you had a goal in mind to really you said it you're going to kill anything Like. It doesn't matter whatever walks by, you're sending it and it's just like you said. I just completed today hunt number 43, 43 hunts sent one arrow so far this season. But more of you know just a lot of patience, and you know this goes back to what I.

Mike Nyitray : 6:34

What I tell people, especially when I try to teach new hunters, is I I'm never the biggest person for having the most successful season in the world as your first hunting. When you're getting, especially the older, you are Right. If you're as a kid, you know what that's, whatever Right. But especially if you're jumping in at like 18, 19, 20, 25, 30, even, you know I really tell people you need to learn how to struggle, you need to be able to go sit, not see anything and everything like that. Because when you do start having success and you start killing deer and everything like that, I think you start to take it a little bit for granted and then you get a little maybe complacent or whatever. But when you do have that season where you're either struggling or you're targeting specific deer or specific buck or age class, when you sit 40 something times and you know you and this buck are just on two different pages or whatever. The case is like you're not just going to quit, you're like all right, you know, this is fun right here and that's what I'm doing. I'm having fun right now, as much as it's the pain in the butt and it does get frustrating Like last year is just it went. I could not have asked for a season to go better last year, kind of what Peyton's having this year, you know. But you know I was telling Bianca and I was like, damn, I think I'm at 40 something. I don't even think I got to 40 hunts last year. I think I maybe just got to 30 hunts and that was with including waterfowl hunts as well. So with the deer hunting, like I was on hunt nine and I was already tagged out I think last year, if I remember correctly, you know, killed a bear, killed a bunch of ducks. You know I had a very successful year and this year I've had a pretty successful year. Like I did what I said I wanted to do. Now I just need to close the last chapter, like I am 98% there, me and this bucket's all if he's still alive. We are just on different patterns. I've done everything right.

Mike Nyitray : 8:39

I found where, basically where he is, besides being able to go on to the private proper. I'm pretty sure he's betting and I he's consistent. I found his rub, you know. I got three or four cameras on him. It's just, you know, the days I decide to go to work he decides to daylight, you know. So it's just one of those things.

Mike Nyitray : 8:59

So like, not much has gone for me in the last two weeks, you know, but chasing this one deer, but I'm having a hell of a time. I passed up a nice buck, potential buck, that I am telling you, if he survives, he's going to be the number one and number two hit list buck for me next year, without a doubt. And this is in the same exact area. I just love the way his antlers are adjusted. It's a nice and in tight to nice and narrow, they're kind of honestly look kind of like if you get, when he gets bigger, they might start touching, you know, and just body wise, he just wasn't there yet. He's a really good buck. I just I could tell he needed like another year to mature and but he that my heart was, the heart rate got up there a little bit like it did and it was. It was a tough year to kind of pass and God he didn't give me any shooting opportunity because he was kind of on me, because I soft bumped him walking in and then also when I was in the saddle he saw me and then 15 minutes later he came back and you know soft bumping, especially when you're hunting beds.

Mike Nyitray : 10:12

Do not think you're hunt over. Do not think you're hunt over. But you know we got someone special, brandon. Welcome to the show. Everyone knows him as Carolina Reaper on Instagram. Honestly, this it's funny how I don't even know how this all started. I'm pretty sure it was. It was Dave's live or something like that. It is something. But you are one of the funniest guys that have yet to even meet in person. Just keeping the chat, always going, always live. But not only that Pey and I were talking before a lot of knowledge coming out of your page as well and a really unique way that you hunt and you scout and everything that you do.

Mike Nyitray : 11:00

So you know we're really excited to get you on and you know everyone out there we are going to be keeping this one short, but he will be coming on again for a more detailed episode later in the off season. But, brandon, welcome to the show.

Brandon : 11:16

Thanks, mike. It's good to see you, Peyton Nice to see everybody. Thanks for having me on and squeezing me in. Yeah, it's always great to see you guys and I've been following your page, mike, and I was literally just looking at that buck that has like the kind of comes out like a blade on the one side. You know I'm talking.

Brandon : 11:36

Moose, yeah, yeah yeah, Moose, yeah, yeah, I love the look of that buck. I was. I was taking a hard look at him, but yeah, yeah, everything's good here. Man, I appreciate it and thanks for the kind words, and likewise, I learned from everybody's channel, so I'm glad we're all connected and and this Instagram thing has been fun for me. You know, I wasn't on the internet too too much, and now it's it's been fun.

Peyton : 12:02

It's been a great year yeah.

Brandon : 12:05

I just use it like a journal every day, like I'm going out to run cameras, or like the good, the bad, the ugly, like I posted a video of skinning my knee once, like it is just. It's just the daily log, you know, like sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad.

Mike Nyitray : 12:20

And I think that's what gravitates people to a lot of our pages. It's like I'm not a big person, like, yeah, I do follow some big accounts, but like I really I like the, the small pages. I like the, the unknown hunters. I like the person that has 50 followers but has been hunting for 50 years and you know, can tell you, you know, every trick and nanny that he's learned through the years and, like you said, you're these pages.

Mike Nyitray : 12:51

You learn so much from everyone and everyone has a different, unique style of hunting and has gone through something different or the same thing as you and you're able to bounce stuff off of people that without social media, you know, we would never be able to bounce these things off of each other. I would never have met Peyton, you know, never would have. You know, we wouldn't be talking right now if it wasn't for social media and things like that. So, like, there is a lot to to be thankful for with that, but it is a it's fun and it's it's definitely a cool journey. So, you know, tell us where you're from, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Brandon : 13:32

Yeah, yeah, it's definitely been a really great journey. And one thing just to kind of piggyback on that real quick is one thing I've noticed is everybody does have a different style and before I really started listening to podcasts last year and kind of doing my own thing, I guess I just kind of assumed everybody did the same thing, sort of. You know, I knew I had, like my dad, who always did his ladder stands and you know I had a family relative who everybody else would get mad at him because he'd walk around through the bedding areas and try to do like his version of tracking and he would just spook everything and the old timers called that sanctuary and the young timers just wanted to bust deer and shoot shit. So it was like you know, like, so I grew up kind of that way and they had a Rondacks where it was like the young guys versus the old guys. But moving down here to the South, I just kind of assumed everybody kind of had the same, the same technique, which was ladder stands, plods, hunting power lines, old railroad beds you know things like that big, you know funnels between two bluffs, the type of hunting we did in the mountains. Then I came to the South and it was just a completely different game. And I live in North Carolina now near Raleigh, and even though I don't hunt in my immediate vicinity, all of my hunting places are pretty much within a two hour radius but I can get to three states Like my state. I can get to Virginia in 45 minutes. I can get South Carolina in an hour and a half. So I have a lot of tags open to me.

Brandon : 15:06

As you've seen, probably this year I've been, I've been putting the hurting on some does and some some other deer, but that's pretty typical man. There's so many deer down here in the South we don't have really any age structure. So you know I see a lot of you guys letting bucks go that just have me. You know I'd probably have two pounds on my trigger but you guys are like I'll pass him. He's just 140 inch, three year old, you know, and I'm like man.

Brandon : 15:33

I kill a lot of good bucks but I don't kill. You know you'll never see me talking about chasing 200s or anything like that. I mean here in the South we don't have the age structure. So I try to just get on some good bucks and I try to get on a lot of them. That's my thing is kind of like growing up in school I was always like either average or probably a little slower than everybody. So for me I have to find a lot of bucks to make sure I can kill a few. So that's how you've seen me, probably chronicled my year. But I think at one point I had like 15 or 18 shooters and what if I killed two and I got maybe two more? I'm I'm hunting down, but you know, when 18 bucks equals three or four, that's not very, very good. But that's how I have to do it. I just have to have a lot of options.

Peyton : 16:22

Now.

Brandon : 16:22

I love it. Yeah, I like that a lot. Cause I'm going to fail a lot. I just go find a ton of bucks and just I fail and fail and fail and I stick one, fail and fail and I stick one you know it's just fun. To the next one man, that'd be my biggest tip to everybody Don't get hung up on a box, just go to the next one, cause once they know they're being hunted, they're impossible to kill. Yeah, that's a different one yeah.

Mike Nyitray : 16:46

I agree with you on that, and usually this is the first year I've chased one specific buck. I don't know what it is and you know Peyton and I we've gone back and forth of we don't know if it's just the buck. Numbers are down, just you know. Whatever the case is, you know we've talked to a lot of people and you know things just have not compared to the years in the past, like it just seems like our numbers just aren't there for whatever reason. Could be HD, could be predators, could be so many different things and I usually like to chase a bunch of different deer and moose. You know, talking about moose, he was the third or fourth deer I was after. He wasn't even the top one or two, but he was the he's just killable.

Mike Nyitray : 17:29

And you know he had the best pattern. That's what I mean.

Brandon : 17:34

I almost never killed my biggest buck. I'll kill the second, third biggest one, maybe like fifth biggest one, and I'll have to be a three deer year. There's, the three deer I kill aren't even in the top five. It's just, you know, when it's November 18th, you don't turn your nose up out of four year old. You just just now. We have five, four or five tags. Absolutely, definitely, definitely not.

Mike Nyitray : 17:56

No, not a 40. No I live.

Mike Nyitray : 17:58

It's not a four year old here and you know, don't we do chase and especially, like you know, if you look at Andrew's page and everything like that, andrew's, you know we're chasing some, some giants down there and everything like that. But you know, a four year old deer, I really don't, I really wouldn't care. You know, there's some four year olds that are probably smaller antler, wise, and some of the two and a half three year olds that we have here. But I would much rather, I think, shoot that four year old than I would that that two and a half year old. And you know that that body of the area.

Brandon : 18:31

Yeah, that's what these bucks are. I mean, I got friends that shoot huge bucks that tell me like those are all booners that I kill early. But that where I live, yeah, you know, I, I like to think I know how to run cameras, like for the most part, like not to sound that way, but I've ran a lot of cameras for a long time. So you know I've been hunting for 30 years. So generally I can. If there's a mature buck on a property I can usually get him daylighting with just a handful of cameras and up to a handful of weeks. Sometimes like they're tough critters, but I can usually get them. I almost get them always on camera. I'll figure them out. Maybe they're passing through rarely, maybe they're living there, whatever it is. But with that being said, generally speaking I have to run here in the Carolinas I have to run sometimes 15 cameras to find a four year old, five year old. So it's just so you have to cast such a big net to cat to find I say cat, I'm a fisherman but to find a mature buck, a four year old here. That that's why in the last few years I've pretty much just like been growing my own on mock scrapes. Which kind of it was an accidental thing where I would try to run a lot of cameras at canvas large areas and find bucks.

Brandon : 19:55

But in the meantime my other scraped cameras. You know like I'm running 41 mock scrapes this year and my other scraped cameras they'll just last year's two year olds, a three year old, and then all of a sudden now all damn, you know dear, we call Bruce Wayne. Now all of a sudden he's four. He literally was just a spy corn. So like that happens too, where your local spy corn population grows up on you and then all of a sudden you have a shooter nearby. So we've, you know I grow them by accident. That happens, but of course on public land, here with everybody getting five tags, or in North Carolina two weeks South Carolina where I hunt private or read five tags and rifle comes in in August. So it's really hard to just find old bucks. But I run a lot of cameras for that reason and I think guys that run two or three cameras and they can kill a good buck, you're a way better hunter than me. I'll go ahead and pay that because I can't do it.

Mike Nyitray : 21:00

You know it's pretty unique and I'm kind of in the same boat where I'm running a lot of cameras versus Peyton and this is why I love, you know, having you know Peyton on especially for this. Like Peyton, you're running what? Two trail cameras and no cell cameras and this is the first year that you're really running cameras and you killed a really really nice buck last year and it's just moving and grooving and stuff like that this year. So, like you know it's, you get two sides of it and I think trail cameras it's just another like tool to the arsenal. And I love trail cameras, like I just love them, I love using them. You're kind of engaged all throughout the throughout the season, because that's kind of what we're using them all throughout the season, you know. But when you are saying you know you're going to a new piece or you know and you're putting cameras down or whatever, what are you really looking for and how long are you running a camera in a spot before you change, or something like that.

Brandon : 22:07

That's a good question. So it just depends on the. It depends on what the objective of the camera is. So I have a really unique approach to following whitetails and I have studied deer for a long time, unofficially. I'm no biologist or anything like that. I just want to throw it out there. But I guess to answer that I'll digress to the camera thing.

Brandon : 22:30

So most of the spots that I kill bucks don't have trail cameras, kind of like my 10 point this year, this buck here on my tripod. I killed him in September 25th and there's no cameras on that island at all. But I don't tell like I don't, I wouldn't. I wouldn't have that historical data if I didn't run taskos on that island for like four years. So when people say like, like for, so for me I guess disclosure. I have killed out of all of the bucks I've killed, I've killed a percentage of them by just walking in the woods and hunting hot sign and maybe a funnel up north and things like that. But for the most part I make strategic sits and I do that off historical breeding activity sign. So when I was on that island I was there for a reason. I don't need to run taskos on that island anymore. I know when it's hot, when you need to be there, like right now in November, everything's lost its leaves out there and you can see straight through the island it's. It would be pointless to hunt there now, but there's a sweet spot and so, knowing that, for whatever piece you're hunting, or the piece within a piece, you know if it's large public, the certain tickets are going to be hot at certain times and things like that, and that's how the bucks kind of move around.

Brandon : 23:48

So, with that being said, depends on what my camera is trying to accomplish. If it's a scraped camera, it's going to be a camera that stays indefinitely, so it's a cell camera generally if it's within two hours of my house and if it's not within two hours of my house, it's just going to be a tasko and it's just going to be for historical data. So, like I'm going to have years of knowing when that scrape provides those mature buck pictures and it's always when you do that for several years in a row, you'll see a trend. Like you know when to hunt this scrape, halloween weekend. Like you, just your ass is there because you have three years where the pictures of holy shit, that buck came through on Halloween or the day after. So I have that and that's kind of how I set my early season hunts up, like the 10 point on the island.

Brandon : 24:42

So a scrape camera, let's assume it's within two hours and it's going to be a cell camera and it's going to be year round. I have some solar panels and some 25 foot whips. I try to get my solar panel to the above the canopy and I try not to service them because they're my scrape cameras, are only betting scrape cameras, so going in there is very invasive. I know you've seen me with my rain videos. A trillion zillion people are probably sick of me talking about taking advantage of the rain, but you know I don't go in there unless it's pouring and I try not to touch anything while I'm in there, though I'll take full advantage. I'll carry a weed whack or whatever I need to do. All right, my leaf blower. But if I need to go in during the season I want to be able to get in quiet, like this year I leaf bloated my trail after all the oak leaves fell and now I can sneak in and sneak out pretty quietly. So I try to do that stuff very scheduled, because that camera is going to stay there indefinitely.

Brandon : 25:44

Now, if it's a fawning camera, I might move that camera 10 times in a month because I can't find the little, like the little, where she's going to drop the font.

Brandon : 25:54

There's some tells that dough dough will give you.

Brandon : 25:58

They mark their areas where they're going to do their finding and they do some certain body language, and so one thing that I really struggle with is around.

Brandon : 26:07

When we come back I'll go into more depth about it, but I, because it'll be that time, I'll be moving my cameras from breeding sign to potential fawning, so I'll be looking for those areas and that could be tough, trying to find a dough that's really sought this one location out where you think she's going to drop her font.

Brandon : 26:25

But there's some things you can do to kind of sweeten those spots, like hinge cuts and some other things that guys have been doing for a long time. You can create that kind of protection area for those fonts and you can run, like I have one where I fell six or seven trees into each other. It's like a star and I have five cameras around it and like two does always drop their funds in there, and so I do run finding cameras. So to answer your question in that regard. Versus one end of the stick, where my scraped cameras are long-term permanent, I don't do anything other than clean, birch it off the solar panel and spray it with chrysophanum, whereas, like my fawning cameras, for Christ's sake, I could move those like three times in a week and still not find a font, like they're very mysterious little critters but and they don't move when they're first dropped, they hide.

Peyton : 27:21

And so it's like I'll see the dough and she's pregnant.

Brandon : 27:24

Yeah, and she'll come by a day later and she's not pregnant anymore. Yeah.

Peyton : 27:28

I haven't heard a lot of people running specifically fawning cameras. Like what do you think? Like what do you personally, what information do you gather from that that, like it, sets apart?

Brandon : 27:40

So for me I gather it's all part of a data collection effort to identify estrus timing. So fondrop dates can get you a ballpark area of when your dough was hot. So when you start to overlay information, like, for example, back to the scrape, like okay, scrape behind my house, always between October 20th and 11.5. I get all my big buck pitchers. Well then you're like, okay, so that's a Halloween scrape, that's when you hunt it. That's just you don't hunt it any other time. Screw that scrape, you hunt it that week. It's because that's when you get your book pitchers right. So you three, four years of that, let's say. Well, to further drill in, you can start to look at, try to find where that dough is finding and see exactly when she's dropping her fonts. That's not exact science. There's other things you can. You need to do from there. But if you know, for example, this year I posted an April 16th font that there was half hanging out of the dough, like she was literally walked past my camera and like in distress trying to get birth to this thing, and so it was like April 16th, and so if you can find some information like that, then you know for a fact, like you can do the math and even though from there, that just that basic, that one piece of information isn't exact science, you can get a ballpark couple of hundred days to two, 15. Okay, well, now I know she's in October 15th Astris, or an 11 one Astris. And so, because I guess the one piece of information that listeners should know is I'm in the Carolina, so if you're listening this and you're in Wisconsin, you're probably thinking we'll all deer come hot at the same time. And it's November, and that's that's true, where you have a winter, but we don't have a winter. So we start having those get hot in late August, early September, and you'll actually see those fawns drop in April, like I was saying. And then our main primary rut is just starting now in December. So most of those funds will drop June 15th to July 15th and or even a little bit later. And then January we have a late, a later rut that takes place because it's a trickle right here, because it just keeps happening and happening. We have high deer numbers and they can't all be bred, low buck numbers, and we have early dropped fawns that when they reach a certain maturity they come hot too, and so the rut just goes on and goes on, and goes on and goes on into January and so you can identify the fawns that are going to become hot late season. So you're saying, like, what's the funding camera for?

Brandon : 30:37

It's two things, two major tactics that I do for hunting right now, because December is my rut and I'm just getting ready to hunt the rut, and so I'm about to hunt two areas that I know have fawns that are about to be hot. And one way I know one spot was that fawn that was half hanging out of the doe. I know to hunt there because that fawns like 80 pounds and she's been hitting the. She's walked through the mock scrape a couple of days in a row and she's like rub urinated but didn't, and like she's confused and she's been hitting the vine out of nowhere and I think she's things are happening inside her. You know she's a big ass fawn and so I'm about to hunt that scrape next week. That's the same scrape where the wide and the tall eight I posted a post. There's like two different eight pointers that are hitting the same scrape. That's that scrape. So I'm hoping that I have that date nailed down for that area ballpark.

Brandon : 31:39

And then the other one is a mock scrape I built because this summer I was out glassing for fawns and I was I probably glassed like 50 fawns in the same day and they were all like 50 pounds and spotted.

Brandon : 31:54

And the last place I checked, a glass and a doe had two fawns and they were huge and they only had like a couple spots on them and all the other fawns in the field were just spotted. But I said holy shit, those fawns are like wicked old. They were twice the size of the other fawns. So I built a mock scrape there and just lately I've been having both of those doe fawns have been hitting that mock scrape just just this week. So I'm hoping that means those doe fawns are going to be kind of fired up and because they're fawns they're probably going to need to be chased and I'm just hoping that the woods are awake and there's just deer to see. I got venison so I'm just hoping for deer to see. Man, nothing. I shoot one. I'll probably carry the rifle now and just be done with it.

Brandon : 32:45

But yeah yeah, try to try to kill a big one. I don't get a chance too often.

Mike Nyitray : 32:50

I just, I just want to say I'm so excited for when we actually, when we record again and go into the details because like my the brains, like the wheels just spinning right now and like I really like and I saw it when I saw Peyton's face kind of light up.

Peyton : 33:07

Definitely did click, like I was, so that makes so much sense now that you mentioned that. It's like almost like, yeah, you figure out when they're born and then you know exactly when they're going to come in. And I feel like you talked about the trick or rot and I could be wrong, but I really feel like that's kind of what we saw up here in New Jersey, and probably because the weather was so inconsistent, I mean, it's more mild.

Brandon : 33:31

Yeah, it's New Jersey is not Burlington, vermont, you know yeah exactly it was like one day would be like 28.

Peyton : 33:39

And then the next day I'm pouring sweat, walking to the stand and just a base layer.

Brandon : 33:45

You know it's yeah, yeah, I think a lot of it has to do with fond survival and it's like evolution If the fons are dropped a little too early and there's no grass to hide in, or if it's too cold and they freeze, then they evolve to drop them a little later. But one phenomenon I read about was like this urban thing that's happening where, like these, those are getting in these urban areas and they're able to drop their funds, like in grandma's roses, like in early season and in areas like Long Island, new Jersey, delaware. I've heard like a shift that's taking place based on, like, urban deer. I don't know if there's any truth to it, it could be just folklore, like I'm not a biologist but it seems like if they're able to find and the funds are able to be safe, they could evolve in the other direction. It makes sense to me.

Mike Nyitray : 34:35

You know, I 100% agree and I, you know, just looking at, I mean, people are always like, well, you know, don't deer number down, deer number down in New Jersey? Yes, they've definitely dropped. But look at how many deer on private, look at how many does, and I just spot that I'm hunting right now for this buck, the does, and there's about six or seven of them. They, yes, they bed where I'm at, but they're usually always coming from across the road, which private property, and a Peyton actually, when we're looking at the map the first time I found the spot, he said this buck could easily be across the street.

Mike Nyitray : 35:21

Down there's a whole wood lot and it's actually a, you know, you got houses literally surrounding it and it just drops right into a nice bottom and I drove all the way down there. It's a dead end and you know, and I literally looking this whole entire way and it's just like literally just a bottom, you know, and it just funnels right up, they come right across the street and they go right down to public. They make a right and then they go back onto another private. So they're going from private to public, to private safety food source where I am on the public and bedding private, which is more bedding, you know. So it's. It completely makes sense why, if they can birth on private and stuff like that, they pick up on these things.

Brandon : 36:16

They really do Like deer they're pretty, you know if it's not terribly cold like Washington DC, like sure it gets down to five, 10 degrees, but around that time where they're trying to drop an early fall in April, may, it's really pretty mild. And if they can get, like in some a honeysuckle, traffic median or something where that puppy is safe, like they'll yeah, dude, they'll drop, and then I think that can start, because here in the South our rod is a wide rod. So it was completely changing my entire game. But and there's there's some, been some like a lot of failures that led to a few wins when it came to find it. We'll dig into it, I guess at a later date.

Brandon : 36:54

But like finding where, like super high stem count, like grass meets broadleaf. So if you can find like where grass or cat tails meet, like green briar or soybeans or super like trillion per acre stem count meets broadleaf, and then I'll do like some hinge cuts and stump sprouts right in that area and usually I can get those to drop their fawns there. But that's one thing I probably struggle with the most. Cause those are, you know, I think to some extent like humans, like can't always choose when you give birth, why I don't know if you guys have kids. Like I know my wife didn't get to choose, so you might say like, oh, I'm going to have this, this fawn, over there. And then you're like oh, I guess I'm having to hear you know, like I don't know how it happens. Yeah, I know.

Brandon : 37:43

To some extent they don't just flip a switch and have a fawn. You know, I'm sure, yeah, yeah definitely I. I yeah, I'm just probably not there.

Mike Nyitray : 37:51

Yeah, definitely, definitely great.

Brandon : 37:53

So I think about all that. You know, when I'm pondering those things.

Mike Nyitray : 37:57

Like you know, I'm like I'm not going to be able to get to choose, so unique.

Peyton : 38:02

That is sort of like. It's like that is a good point. It's like you have to think about, like all deer behavior, not just like the mature buck behavior, because it all does relate to one another and that's something I feel as though I've definitely learned, not as much to this extent you know where I'm actually, you know looking where the fawns have dropped, but I guess to a much lesser extent this season, something I've started to pay attention to. You know, it's like really thinking about, like where I was seeing a lot more of those does in the early season. Some of my other scouting is like paying more attention to that. It's like, okay, well, let me spend a little bit more time in there in November. You know, when those bucks, you know as their behavior starts to change and they start to kind of you know conversion in the similar areas.

Brandon : 38:45

So paying attention to document and document and those time frames when that happens, because for me I don't a lot of little little spots. That's what I always tell people. Even when I hunt, like the 900 or 1200 acre public piece, I mean we can, we can talk about like post season scouting when the time comes, but I mean I'll go to the 1200 acre piece and cross out 900 acres of it because it's stuff I'm not going to hunt and I'm only focusing on like super thick bedding areas and bedding scrapes for those daytime scraped pictures. So you know, so for me I'm hunting a lot of little spots. It's the spot within a spot, it's the bedding area within an area. So 1200 acres probably has three spots. I'm calling spots. You know 10 to 40 acre spots that are just jungle. The rest of it's open pine, standing, hardwood, stuff that I'm just drawn an extra like ignoring. And so what I do then is those little spots within the spots. It doesn't matter if it's a 20 acre spot inside of a giant public piece or if it's a 20 acre spot you got door knocking, it's still a 20 acre spot you're hunting. So that spot's timing is everything, and so that's what my.

Brandon : 40:03

I've had to do that out of survival, because it's just like I'm hunting either small door knock pieces or I'm in public where it's like pine trees here in the Carolina is a lot of pine tree plantations where you can get down on one knee and shoot two miles with a rifle and so, like the deer, don't like that stuff. And so I'll find the spot, the thick spot within those spots, and then I'll leave, like some SD, cheap SD cameras and and what you'll find when you do that a couple of years in a row. Even like me, I went to public school and I still found that you'll just see trends like oh, it's always the first week in November, like that's when they're here, and it might not be big bucks, it might just be the first week in November you're seeing dinks, but it'll be year over year, it's always the same time. So you just need to know when to hunt those little spots within the spots, because if you don't know when to hunt them, you're going to throw 30, 40 sits at it and it's like and then you're guessing, you know, and that's a mental thing. It's like man, did I miss it? Are my does pregnant? Cause if my does are pregnant, I'm wasting my time Like are they already pregnant? And it's like you started thinking like that, you know, and that's that's a tough game.

Brandon : 41:12

You know, when you think you're hunting pregnant does you're like damn, maybe I missed it. So I try to get that data ahead of time. So I know, like this is the fricking thing that you need to be in this week and try to it's still all approximate, you know, but I tried to not, you know, try to not hunt because small parcels especially. Try not to try to not hunt them when they're dead, because, like behind my house right now, the ghost town, the leaves all fell off. I could see, I could shine a flashlight a mile through there, like there are no deer in there. I mean those, maybe a couple, but you know, if you're hunting back there you'd be a hurting, hurting camper.

Mike Nyitray : 41:54

Yeah, you know Makes sense. That makes you know that all makes a lot of sense right now.

Brandon : 42:00

There's a time to hunt a certain place, yeah no-transcript.

Mike Nyitray : 42:05

I mean, man, it's going to be a fun off season Because now you say it right, it's like a lot of things are just clicking, because Payton and I talk there's spots that have just been dead, just dead.

Brandon : 42:23

They're dead because they're pregnant, or the food's gone and they've moved. Yeah, those two things happen Either your dough's are knocked up or the food's gone. Yeah, and I, you know, I last Like box are not coming to pregnant dough, so it's over.

Mike Nyitray : 42:36

No, no, no. And you know one thing I noticed on the hunt that I had the other day and Fred talked about this before I had some chasing late and it was by a spike with. You're talking about the yearlings that are probably just starting to come into the heat and just don't know what to do with themselves, and you know this spike was just chasing the. You know this is a few few yearlings, just like all over the place, and they're making such a a racket. I'm like, oh, like I want to come in. They didn't come up by me but like man, he was on it like nose down, just persistent, just just running all over the place.

Brandon : 43:18

They do a loop of death. Yeah, they do a loop of death. I don't know if you guys have ever seen it Like if you hunted any urban stuff, but I have one urban spot that I hunt. That's 40 acres and it's got a river on two sides, the river bend, it's like an oxbow on two sides and then it has a highway on two sides and so it's like 46 acres of landlocked and no mature bucks live on that piece. It's purely like there's only two weeks, like two weeks, a year, to really hunt it. It's early in October, which I couldn't hunt this October. We didn't really get into that, but I didn't hunt all October because a lot of business stuff that was happening and family. But I missed a week to hunt there in October and then there's a week coming up in December to hunt there. It's pretty good. So, but so, and so I know, based on his past years data, when to hunt there. I guess I lost the point I was trying to make with that. But the but for me SD cameras, sd cameras In those locations. So I guess we can.

Brandon : 44:30

You asked me about postseason scouting earlier, but for me running a lot of SD cameras that I don't plan on ever really checking until next year is huge. And since I lost the point I was trying to make, I guess I'll say this. But I feel like I've said I'm segueing away from cell cameras because I feel like when I'm hunting with cell camera data, I'm always hunting a day behind. I don't know if you guys have ever felt that way, but I'm always the day behind. I feel like Buck was there yesterday. I come and hunt it, he's gone and and that started getting old. So that's why when I started falling back and being like man, I'm just going to hunt this other spot that I had this last year's picture, I'd kill one, I'd stick one and I was like, well, shit. So I started to gravitate more that way, and so what I realized?

Brandon : 45:22

is like I think cell cameras have me chasing my tail a lot. So because those times where I tell you I keep the cell phone on, those scrapes close to the house, slob shows up, I'm like, holy shit, send a picture to my boy. I run out there, no buck. That's the story of a cell camera.

Mike Nyitray : 45:42

Yeah, yeah, no, that's pretty true. You should have had a task go there.

Brandon : 45:45

You should have known when he was coming and you should have been there for three days camping out, you know, but so I could preach it and then I fall victim to it myself because it's hunting, you know. But yeah, yeah.

Mike Nyitray : 45:57

No, it's, listen, it's. It's so hard, like I love cell cameras, but you're right, you feel like you are a step possibly behind and that's kind of what I'm dealing with right now. You know, but it's, it's also. You, look at the knowledge and data that you can collect just by listening. My phone's been going off for the past, like you know, 30 minutes, and you know, I know that, okay, there's a dose there, there's a buck there, oh shit, it's just a raccoon, whatever. If I'm going for bear or whatever whatever you're specifically going for, like you can, you can collect this information. Now, how the cells cams have it. You, you get the print, you can put in your, you know the, you know the location, and now you have the wind, you have the temperature, you have the pressure, the moon phase. So it collects all this data and you know you, what I do is I write all my stuff down. If a buck shows up on a, on my camera in a specific spot, everything's written down. Yeah, okay, he showed up at this time Exactly.

Peyton : 46:59

This was the wind. This is yeah, yeah.

Mike Nyitray : 47:01

This was the daylighted this thing.

Brandon : 47:03

Let me tell you what, my friend, that's a slippery slope to be on, because because what's going to happen is you're going to realize, okay, I did this with three bucks and I had an encounter. And then the next year you're going to do this and you're going to get a few more cameras, sd cameras. You're going to be screwed us out Cameras. You get a few more SD cameras. You're going to do it with nine, nine bucks and then you're going to kill one and then you're damn. That's what started with me. And so now I run like a hundred SD cameras because I get these tasks go five packs for a hundred bucks and I just, yeah, I get a.

Brandon : 47:36

I try to build my summer up, for I like each season I'm letting a bunch. Like this year I think I've let 21 bucks walk and 11 of them were three years old. I did shoot one three year old with my pistol, a little eight point, but that was my first pistol buck. So I decided anything with a forked antler was getting smacked. That's pretty cool, yeah. But I've let in a whole bunch of the threes go and I have those dates and they were actually hitting those. A lot of them were hitting those same scrapes when they were two on the same timeframe.

Brandon : 48:13

So that's what I do, man I just try to build, build up those, because what I have found is when you start to run a lot of cameras on a lot of small pieces, you'll just start to see like little pieces are hot at certain times and the rut people. I think think the rut is like this red, like title wave that comes through and I don't think it's like that. I think, if you look at like individual, like porch lights turning on, like ding ding, ding, ding ding, that's kind of like the rut and it's like bing over here, bing over there, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. I think there's a time where it's like it's crazy. You know, maybe November, but I think if you slowed that down, you would just see where it's like these little thickets, like this thickets hot, this thickets hot, this thickets hot, this thickets hot, and it's just. And when you run enough cameras in those little thickets, you'll start to see like, oh, this is an October thicket, yeah, pointing out in December.

Mike Nyitray : 49:15

No, that makes a lot of sense, a lot of sense and you know we've talked about it a lot. You know, payton and I, and you know the guys, like I don't think it's like you said. It's not just one thing. We're all of a sudden boom. You know these animals, they're not all synced and you know, just like we see, we see the bucks start chasing well before usually the does are even anywhere close to ready. You know, and I actually for the go ahead, yeah.

Brandon : 49:46

No go, no please.

Mike Nyitray : 49:48

Oh, my point earlier. You know, there was a couple of weeks ago, Payton. There was this time where I was having these two big does coming in and I'm like there's no bucks out there, no bucks after them, Like they weren't ready, they weren't even in the heat yet.

Brandon : 50:08

You know, they and everyone's like oh, the rut's here, the rut's here, the yearlings that are in that area, yeah, but the yearlings in that area, no, and the yearling bucks in that area are fired up and the yearling and that I guess. And so you just reminded me what my earlier point that I lost was something in my closet fell and I lost my point. It was the loop of death. I was asking you guys, you know, yes, yes, yeah, devin, heard of the loop of death and so a good example, now that I've identified it, I see it everywhere, like everywhere I look, I see it. And this one property that was landlocked I was saying what I find there when, like the one in the two year olds, like you're saying, this time of year, like October, when they start to get fired up, they'll just do a loop. I call it it's like a zombie loop, Like they just there's, like this 146 acre spot, I have a mock scrape on all four corners of the property because all four corners of the properties have a potential access point where a buck could cross a highway or swim a river.

Brandon : 51:09

So I have a mock scrape at those four corners because my history, just to quickly digress my historical data on when those bucks show up to that tiny parcel. I want to know the first day they show up. It doesn't do me any good if I find out on the fifth day they're there. So I put my scrap strategic to make sure the buck hits it like hour one, day one, so that I can count that as real historical data. If he hits it on the third day, I mean it's not really a very good historical data. So anyway. But so what I'll find is the yearlings in the one year olds will just do a loop from scrape to scrape to scrape around the whole property. It's like a zombie loop and I think that's what your little buck probably was doing. Like I'll see him, I'll see a spike horn go by. A little while later he'll come from the other way. He's coming back.

Brandon : 51:57

Yeah, yeah this big loop around the whole property.

Brandon : 52:00

You're right they won't swim the river and they won't cross the highway and there's no mature bucks that live on that property at all because the numbers are so high. So it's purely a two week a year hunt where mature bucks either cross the highway or they swim across the river. But they come in. I get them on camera like hammer bucks. They come in and they're there for like a week and then leave. They don't live there, you know. It's like they're in and out and so it's funny because I'll see, you're saying is, I'll see those little yearlings, those two year olds, on the loop of death. I'll see him eight in the morning. So 9, 15, 11, 30, one away, 250. I'm like, dude, calm down, like the same spike horn, yeah yeah, coming by.

Brandon : 52:47

Yeah, yeah, but but that historical data for the most part I'll ignore until there are three. It's only when they, like, start swimming that river and they start, you know, real bucks start showing up and then I'll start paying attention. You know, because you have to. Yeah, Understanding like that, that yearling loop of death doesn't mean anything. Yeah. He's a zombie on hoots, you know yeah.

Mike Nyitray : 53:09

Yeah, yeah.

Brandon : 53:12

You start trying to historically date that you're just wasting your time. You know 100%, yeah.

Mike Nyitray : 53:18

No, definitely.

Brandon : 53:18

Great.

Mike Nyitray : 53:18

The little things like that make a difference you know, for sure you know, and it's it's.

Mike Nyitray : 53:22

So, you know, unique, uh, hearing all this like it's, uh, definitely, like I said it, just he gets the wheels turning and, you know, it just opens up a whole bunch of doors that, um, I imagine our, our followers and everything like that, and even your followers, and, you know, everyone will be excited to to hear more about once we dive, you know, really into next time. Um, you know one one you know. You know. You know, you know you know one one more thing before you know we let you go, Um, what is, what do you think is the most important thing when you're, when you're coming to you know you're you're saying your ruts about to start, you know, obviously, you got scrapes, you got dough bedding, everything like that. What is the one thing that you're you're you're trying to key on it at this point? Like I know you said, you know each Fonds, what Fonds?

Brandon : 54:10

Two scrapes, specifically one scrape that had the fawn half hanging out of her mother on April and April that scrape I'm absolutely going to be super glued to that one fawn because I know she's about to become hot. She's like 80, 85 pounds. She's huge. And then the other funds.

Brandon : 54:28

There's a pair of dough funds that I'm planning on hunting it's going to be probably the other 50% of my time and I glass them up. I was glassing all summer Everybody's probably glassing bucks. I was glassing fawns. I know that's a weird thing to say, but I glassed up probably 500 fawns to find this pair and I found them and they were very early fawns Cause then, like I said, it was around August 1st, they were only had spots on their ass end and everybody else had spots everywhere. So that's my whole jam. If I'm going to hunt this time I'm going to be on some, on some young doughs that I know are about to be hot because it's tough to hunt. The older dough is not known if they're already pregnant or if the really old doughs tend to just go to the and they don't really need to be chased Cause they've done it so many times.

Brandon : 55:16

So you know, I've seen that where an old dough just kind of takes her fonts to the food plot and then she leaves and goes to the buck, and so I like the young doughs. So that's what I'm going to be on, dude. I'm going to be on some dough funds the next two weeks. That's my jam.

Mike Nyitray : 55:31

And with you know, with that that's, that's kind of more of a south thing. You know, um, you know, just cause, like you said, in the colder weather, you know it's definitely it's a lot more difficult to to I guess you know monitor and also to to really you know those, those probably doughs, probably they're born, probably I don't even know later. It's so hard because the south is so much different than you know up north or Midwest and California.

Brandon : 56:06

Yeah, you really need that finding Intel. That's why, like when we meet again, I'll be just moving cameras I'll be going to get they'll be dead by then. I'll be pulling those cards, getting those breeding date, those breeding activity dates that I'm missing right now. Everything that's happened this year chasing and you know, tail cupping and rub, urinating, and those those hits hit rubs too. I got a couple of of of uh, of rubs where I've showed some pictures where the doze will hit them too. They'll rub their heads on them. So I'll go retrieve those cards and move those cameras. It'll be January and February, so at that time it's going to be really easy to find where those doze are going to be trying to drop fawns. I mean, the woods are bare, especially up north where you guys live, like there can't be that many tickets where no no, we have a pimp, or you could throw a pumpkin and lose the pumpkin.

Brandon : 57:04

I mean, that's what you're looking for. And we're going to throw a pumpkin and then have to search to find the pumpkin. That's good pawning area. Oh no, I think we could. I think we could.

Mike Nyitray : 57:17

I think we could find where I can't.

Peyton : 57:20

Definitely the last. It's definitely less for Rad and Mike. I texted you this the other day. I wanted to pull cards on Friday and I just knew I hadn't been in the woods in Jersey in a while and I noticed it's like all those rest of those leaves are gone. And when you start to say, like place you've shined a flashlight and go a mile, thinking like yeah, that is true. And as you're talking, the wheels are turning in my head, I'm thinking like I might actually, in a crazy sort of way, get a little bit easier, because they're going to have to be more concentrated if they are living on the public, exactly Like those cat tails you know places, those green briars, those places where they don't.

Peyton : 58:01

You know, no matter the time of year, they're still still thick.

Brandon : 58:05

Yeah, yeah and both places that I'm going to hunt those does are thick, real thick.

Mike Nyitray : 58:10

Yeah, andrew's favorite time to hunt is really now is winter he's. You know he loves this time of year because you know where we are. You know, like Payton said, like it's just so different, man, during the season. We're in those swamps and those thickets like we can't see anything. I mean, how many times you know I would be texting Payton like I'm pretty sure I heard a deer right, but I did like I can't see anything, like I legit like they could sneak past you and they can be at 15 yards away from you and you would never even know because of how thick. And now, at this point, boom, you don't have that. The cover is gone. Yeah.

Brandon : 58:53

And then foliage, yeah, and then full, and then full of foliage. By the time you get out there in January yeah, by the time you get out there in January and February, exactly when you can find those areas where the rut sign happened. Generally it's in the same. It's going to be like a grassy, cat-tail-y, high stem county kind of briary area, you know, like usually the kind of place you could like kick a soccer ball and then not find it.

Mike Nyitray : 59:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Last one, and then you know we'll let you go and we'll get a more detailed one. This is the one that we always ask everyone for their first time on what is your dream hunt. If it could be anywhere in the world, it'd be like a two week hunt. Money is not an option, doesn't matter how much it costs. Where would it be and what's your dream animal?

Brandon : 59:47

Yeah, so I have two. Actually, my main one is going to be a mountain lion, but I'm kind of nothing to take away from the guys that do it, because I think it's awesome and I watch these videos on YouTube all night long. But I don't want to shoot one out of a tree, I want to shoot one on the ground. Fair chase with my recurve, and I know that's a tall order, because just getting close to a lion on the ground is, you know, no joke, you almost have to be in some kind of funnel where one's coming by.

Brandon : 1:00:19

you or I wouldn't be opposed to doing like a predator call, you know, like a game pro or like we do with the kind of in the boxes. So if you could get a cougar to come into something like that, that'd be pretty dope. So I would love to kill a cougar on the ground with my bow on a way to mono, not out of a tree, and I would also like to go to Maryland and hunt some sea codere.

Peyton : 1:00:44

Oh, that's a good one.

Brandon : 1:00:45

I'm just going to try to do that so one I'm going to try to do in the next couple of years and see if you're thinking I'm going to try to make happen. You know I'm 46. The cougar thing probably sailed, but we'll see. You never know. Ted Nugent's out there doing it. He's seven. Yeah, right, right, there's a lot of guys out there.

Mike Nyitray : 1:01:02

There's a guy that we get on Lusk Archie outdoors he does all the broadhead testing. I mean this man, he's always outland, he is just an Alaska and all these places and everything like that Like it's. It's just, it is a tough you guys have a big advantage.

Brandon : 1:01:22

Yeah, you guys that I've made friends with on Instagram have a big advantage, because a lot of you guys are in really good shape and I see a lot of Jim posts and hiking a lot and shooting all the time. I'm just saying like for me, dude, like you know, I graduated high school in the mid 90s. We didn't really hear about health and fitness until the last 10 years, so you know, we treated our bodies pretty terrible.

Brandon : 1:01:48

So some of these types of hunts like high altitude elk and stuff just seem out of reach for guys like me. But the guy like you're talking about people who've been just health monsters their whole life. Yeah, I don't know. And then, of course, you get your freaks in nature like Ted Nugent, who's just like drank whiskey and smoked his whole life and he still does.

Mike Nyitray : 1:02:08

Which is pretty remarkable, he's still going yeah.

Brandon : 1:02:13

But I'll let you know. I'll let you know how I make out. I'm going to be on these does this week and if you guys can find some live bait to hunt over this late season, I love it. I like it better than late season food because everything here in the Carolinas is still green and herbaceous. So you know you can't really plan a late season food plot here. It doesn't do any good.

Mike Nyitray : 1:02:34

And another difference from you know all our stuff is starting to. It's mostly dead at this point, you know, so it gets even more crucial. But it's also easier for us and you know if you're out in the Midwest and stuff like that to pinpoint where the deer are going to be, because you know you need to go to that food. You can bring them to you, yeah, and you can, yeah.

Brandon : 1:02:54

You're a man who owns a man or woman who owns a thousand acres and money's no object and you can just grow soybeans and corn and brassicas and all those other stuff. You just suck deer, you vacuum them from all around. You just go into a low income area where there's no farming and you make the only food plots for miles. I mean, that's like you know vintage Higgins right there, like technically not the name drop people. But you could go into these low income areas and you buy a thousand acres and you just grow food plots and you vacuum deer for 10 miles and you kill booners.

Brandon : 1:03:25

But like, if you don't have the means to do that then, or if you live in an area where those laces and food plots don't help you, because it's the Carolinas and everything's still green here, I still have persimmons falling in my yard, like so you know food plots, I could do any good if persimmons are dropping still. So you have to find something else to hunt. And that's where the dose came from. I'm like, well, I'll take it to them. You know that can't bring them to me.

Mike Nyitray : 1:03:53

Definitely, definitely think that's going to change some people's like. There's a bunch of people I think when they listen to us, they're going to be especially if you're in the South and you're listening to this like new, new new technique and run some SD cams and figure out when they're hot.

Brandon : 1:04:09

Man, Don't waste your time when they're not hot, yeah no, definitely.

Mike Nyitray : 1:04:13

Well, Brandon, we want to thank you for coming on. You know it was a absolute pleasure. We are. I can't wait to get back on so we could really dive deep into. I know Peyton's going to have a whole bunch of questions coming up when next time we're gone, I'm going to have a whole bunch of questions. You know we're really excited for that.

Brandon : 1:04:36

We want to. I'm trying to do a scouting session so I'll let you guys know what state are you both in Jersey and yeah, we're both Jersey and sometimes Maryland.

Peyton : 1:04:45

Yeah, yeah.

Brandon : 1:04:46

Because Dave, Dave and Chris, they're in the Long Island area.

Mike Nyitray : 1:04:49

Yeah, yeah, they're together.

Brandon : 1:04:52

Dave actually has a PC, wants to scow a swamp, so I don't know, I think maybe we could try to get like 10 or 15 guys and like do some postseason scouting and help Dave. You know, make him buy everybody lunch or something for helping them, I'm always in.

Mike Nyitray : 1:05:07

I am always in.

Brandon : 1:05:11

I told him I'd volunteer my gas and it's only seven or eight hours. I got hotel points and stuff. So, we could do something. Postseason dude, you know.

Mike Nyitray : 1:05:22

We are. So where I'm trying to, we did an event last year. We're probably going to be doing multiple again this year. We're probably going to be doing the meat and the, the archery shoot, but I am think it should be done. We're just trying to close the place on a game dinner type of like a event where we would be all at a place and everything like that. It kind of like a you know speakers and everything like that and just, you know, have fun and meet. A lot of the people that we've had on that. We haven't been able to meet in person and stuff like that. So that is going to be one of the options. Yeah, the people who are out of state, you guys are probably going to be the first ones to hear about this, just because you know you guys are the ones that are going to have to book, if you guys can come.

Mike Nyitray : 1:06:05

The Jersey people, you'll, you'll be after that, but yeah, definitely you guys ever been down at the Dixie Deer Classic before. No, it is something that I want to go through. Yeah, it's in.

Brandon : 1:06:17

Raleigh. If you guys decide to ever come down, let me know. Man, I'd love to listen. I've had North Carolina in the book.

Mike Nyitray : 1:06:25

It was great.

Brandon : 1:06:26

last year we had a million point three people come through in three days and I got to chum it up with Hickok 45. I don't know if you're oh yeah. I helped them pick out a machete and, like you don't know who you're going to run into there, like every other year classic you're just shopping calls and you look up and you're next to a celebrity. You know it's, but yeah, yeah.

Mike Nyitray : 1:06:51

No, yeah, that's, that's absolutely incredible. Um, you know, but thank you yet again. Uh, peyton, we're going to see you and I will. We'll wrap up and you know we'll. We'll talk to you guys later, rebert Yep, thank you.

Brandon : 1:07:06

Yep Appreciate you.

Mike Nyitray : 1:07:09

Thank you, man. What a that was really cool, Really really cool.

Peyton : 1:07:24

I think it's it's it's been. It's been a long season, you know, maybe and I know I've definitely been sitting the wrong spots, um, over the course of the year, but it is trial and error, um, and you look like he said it's like it's taken him years to get to that kind of knowledge base that you know that he's at. So you know it does get me fired up to get back out there. You know I've had a little bit of downtime where I haven't had as much time lately to get it out in the woods, you know, for various reasons. So it does get me pumped up to get back out there. You know hearing that stuff and put some new ideas in my head, you know, on how to get it done on public land.

Mike Nyitray : 1:08:02

I think, whatever we, we do, however we finish this year, whatever you decide to do with, you know you're where you're living or whatever I think this off season for us is going to be really key, where it's going to open up whatever, um, you know, and we have so much time to think and plan, but, like, the wheel is just like, but just the finishing up, winner bow because you know we saw winner bow and then to get into the off season season.

Mike Nyitray : 1:08:31

And yeah, but which we don't hunt, which I don't hunt gun any, you know. I know you did this once, but like you're not a big gun hunter, so I think I'll crack it out for Saturday. You think?

Peyton : 1:08:42

so I think so yeah.

Mike Nyitray : 1:08:44

You brought it home.

Peyton : 1:08:46

I did. I brought it with me, um, and I think I'm going to bust it out, um, on Saturday and I'm wearing it anyway, wearing the orange anyway, and I don't have any. I did plenty of bow hunt this year. I don't have any any qualms with with gun hunting. I don't think there's. I'm not a bow only hunter. Um, I'd say most deer are actually probably the only thing I do, hunt with a bow. So actually for me it would be abnormal to hunt with a bow. You know, I'd hunt water foul with a gun, squirrels with a gun, turkeys with a gun.

Mike Nyitray : 1:09:19

So you never.

Peyton : 1:09:20

Well, we'll talk about oh, you just had a bear with a bow, so yeah, you, yeah, what I forgot about that.

Mike Nyitray : 1:09:24

Yeah, I consider you a bow hunter, but, um, all right, before we wrap up, one thing I'm going to do is I'm going to every episode. Episode is I'm going to eat something new. So I got all this wild game right. So I have like kangaroo and like all these different ones, and this is the one that I'm really excited to try about. Try it because I love fishing for them and hunting for them in the summer, and we'll be back at hunting them with with a American mic this year, but I'm going to try snapping turtle jerky for the first time. I'm really excited we're going to be doing this from now on. Oh man.

Peyton : 1:10:02

I don't know, I don't know. I was actually talking to my roommates about this the other day. It was like things that we like couldn't get behind eating, and I think turtle might be something that I struggle with.

Mike Nyitray : 1:10:12

So it smells good. I've heard it's amazing Like I've you know. All right, so let's try.

Peyton : 1:10:20

Is it red? Yeah, what color is it? Regular jerky? Not what I thought it would look like. I thought it would be more like a chicken or Macarole what? Flavor, is it it?

Mike Nyitray : 1:10:38

just says it's a didn't give me a flavor, but says heat to sweet five, so it's more of a sweet. Definitely a sweet. It was not bad.

Peyton : 1:10:52

Where do you find snapping turtle jerky Amazon?

Mike Nyitray : 1:10:58

American. Mike's girlfriend went down to North Carolina or something like that, or Florida or whatever, and she picked this up for me. I saw her. Some honey, but now for turtles, good.

Peyton : 1:11:12

All right. I'll take your work for it For now. I think I have to be real hungry to get a craving for snapping turtle.

Mike Nyitray : 1:11:22

I've seen them be clean. Pretty good meat, they're very clean. Yeah, you just have to. You know what? What Mike does? They filter out. So actually put it on ice for a couple of days and it filters out everything and eventually the water will just be all that filter water will just be clear and then they cut into it. But all right, guys, we've let this episode go long enough. I gotta edit it now. Thank you guys so much. We'll, you know we'll. We'll see you guys next week and I hope you guys enjoyed this episode.