Muzzleloader: Kansas Buck Down (Episode 306 Transcript)
This is the video transcript. To watch the video for this episode click here.
ADAM: This week we’re headed to Kansas for the opening weekend of muzzleloader season with Pro Staffers Jerry Boden and Aaron Morgan.
ADAM: Last year Aaron took his buck on the last evening of the Kansas rifle season.
AARON: I came out here. I was kind of down, to be honest. I was trying to encourage myself a little bit, but I was down. And, uh, really didn’t believe this was gonna happen. I’m, I’m thankful it did.
ADAM: Fast forward to this week. It’s the opening weekend of muzzleloader season and Aaron’s running the camera for his partner, Jerry Boden.
ADAM: We’re curious to see if late season air will bring any success to Jerry on his opening day.
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JERRY: (Whispering) It’s September 19th. Muzzleloader season in Kansas. It’s my first day hunting. We got in a little bit late, but this cool front is moving everything perfectly. Right now, we’ve got three younger bucks out on the field. Uh, looks like two of ‘em are probably three. One of ‘em is pretty tempting, but he’s just, he’s too young. But, we’ve got a couple hours before dark and this should be a really good hunt. Wish us luck.
ADAM: Now, some hunts have all sorts of footage of a big buck coming in, but you know what? That just doesn’t always happen and on this hunt, it happens fast – just like you’re getting ready to see. Suddenly, something spooks the deer on the far side of the field and all heck breaks loose.
JERRY: (Whispering) You on him?
JERRY: (Quietly) Oh, man. All of a sudden this guy comes out and he’s definitely a big, mature bodied deer. I’m pumped. First day out. Oh, buddy, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
JERRY: Holy cow. Look at the size of this body, dude. Oh. What do you think, bud? How about that? Come look at the size of this deer. (Inaudible) Got some cool character. That’s awesome, bud.
ADAM: That’s how it happens sometimes. Jerry had to make a quick call to harvest this buck and it was probably the right decision.
ADAM: Looking at the most recent trail camera images of this buck, he’s got those short looking legs, big, thick brisket and overall, a huge body. These are all great indicators of a mature buck.
ADAM: Overall, it looks like Jerry made a great call and we’re happy for his success. As every successful hunter knows, the work doesn’t stop here. So, it’s time for Aaron and Jerry to get to work with the Outdoor Edge knives.
ADAM: Congratulations you guys on a great start to the season.
ADAM: One thing we’re doing at the end of September is switching our Reconyx cameras from monitoring fields to watching scrapes. You can get some really cool pictures and videos when you monitor scrapes throughout the fall and it’s also a great place to identify what bucks are in the area.
ADAM: Instead of going out this time of year and looking for the perfect scrape tree that’s already been worked, we’re gonna try and bring the ideal tree, put it in the spot of our choice.
ADAM: Mock scrapes are very easy to build. Today we’re gonna build one right here. We’ve got our Summits right behind us. It should be a great place to put our Reconyx camera and, hopefully, we’ll have some success out of that Summit stand soon.
ADAM: The first step – of course – we have a t-post and we’re gonna drive it in the ground; it’s gonna serve as the anchor to the mock scrape.
ADAM: When selecting our tree, we generally use oak trees just ‘cause they’re a lot more hearty than a lot of your soft woods, so they’re gonna hold their leaves a lot longer throughout the fall.
ADAM: When we’re attaching a tree to the post, we always want to locate the limbs where we think they’re gonna scrape under and set those up to where they’re perpendicular with our setup. We’ve got our stand back behind us, scrape limb here, scrape limb here. When a buck comes in, he’s probably gonna be broadside.
ADAM: Now that the tree is in place, we’re gonna attach it with just some simple wire. We’re gonna use a saw and remove any of the lower limbs that may interfere with the buck’s scraping.
ADAM: Now, that all the lower limbs are removed, we’re gonna go ahead and remove all the debris from underneath ‘em; go ahead and clear it out to bare dirt and start the scraping activity.
ADAM: Just set up our Reconyx camera on the big tree back behind us. It’s overlooking the scrape and the field. We’ve got acorns falling. This ought to be a great place to monitor the scrape activity for the next couple of weeks.
ADAM: We monitored our mock scrape last fall and we had some great videos.
ADAM: Stay tuned into our social media pages throughout the fall. We’ll be sharing a lot of cool pictures and videos of our encounters at our mock scrapes.
ADAM: (Whispering) Well, that was cool. That was one of the bucks we’re after. Just a big, tall eight-pointer. There’s an even bigger one in here that we’d really like to see that’s a great big ten-pointer. They’ve been running together a lot this summer. The last pictures I had, they’d split up but they were only a few hours apart, so hopefully, that means that other big ten-pointer in the area and hopefully, he’ll come by tonight.
ADAM: Opening week of archery season started off great for the GrowingDeer Team. We saw a lot of deer and we had some great encounters.
GRANT: (Whispering) Ooo. That’s a nice view.
ADAM: After that week the conditions have turned unfavorable for deer hunting, so we’ve had to step away to avoid spooking or alerting any deer.
ADAM: Back here at 50 yards, obviously, I’m probably not gonna take a shot at a deer at 50 yards. But I do like to shoot there when I’m practicing. Really have to focus on form and the target at this range. That way, when I move in closer, it makes me a better shot.
ADAM: Knowing when to stay at home is often the difference between a successful hunting season and a season ending in tag soup. Bad hunting conditions need to be understood so we know when to hunt and when to stay at home and prepare for when the hunting conditions are more favorable.
ADAM: There’s several things that lead to bad hunting conditions. Some of ‘em we really key on is high temperatures, high humidity and low wind speeds.
ADAM: By this time of year a lot of deer have their winter coats on, so high temperatures mean they’re not gonna move during the heat of the day, so they’re probably gonna move at night. One of my least favorite hunting conditions is low wind speeds. This means there’s no wind; thermals are probably gonna take over at some point during the hunt and that mean swirly winds.
ADAM: High humidity means you’re gonna sweat more; scent’s gonna carry more. Deer have a better chance of smelling you – therefore we want to stay away from the days when the humidity is high.
ADAM: Remember to always check the weather conditions before you head out, because it could be the difference between success and tag soup.
ADAM: October is a beautiful time of year. I hope you get a chance to head out this week and enjoy it. Maybe even put up a mock scrape. Whatever you’re doing, remember to do it all for the glory of God. Thanks for watching GrowingDeer.tv.
ADAM: Does this look all right? One hand in the pocket? Or this? This? Or just hang here.
UNKNOWN: (Inaudible)
ADAM: Okay. Here we go.
ADAM: Big, thick body and great big bis – biscuit. He’s got a big ole biscuit in his hand.