Episode #8 - A passion for Whitetails with Luke Muldoon

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Re: Episode #8 - A passion for Whitetails with Luke Muldoon

Unread postby DaHunter » Wed Mar 09, 2016 7:25 am

One thing from the podcast - Luke said that when bedded, Deer like to look to where they'll be that night. To me, that indicates that the deer will exit and travel with wind to back. Or possibly a crosswind and then wind to back after turning. Or I suppose he may not bed with wind to back?

Have you guys had similar experiences? Would play right into hunting downwind of the bed, but maybe the buck is not going past his line of sight in daylight?

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Re: Episode #8 - A passion for Whitetails with Luke Muldoon

Unread postby UPbowhunter » Wed Mar 09, 2016 7:40 am

My favorite, because of the passion, and stories told. Awesome podcast.

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Re: Episode #8 - A passion for Whitetails with Luke Muldoon

Unread postby moondoondude » Wed Mar 09, 2016 10:26 am

Thanks for the kind words guys. The podcast was a lot of fun.

Dahunter- I can elaborate on that when I am on my CPU tomorrow. Listening back on it, I told myself I should have said this or that and I made a lot of observations with not enough back-up - tough to just mention so many things without being able to dive into them in detail due to the time crunch and outline of the podcast. I feel like I missed out on so many insights on all of the topics but in general, we covered a lot of information and I got some of my views across. I remember hanging up thinking I should have given so much more detail and evidence but there is only so much time to do a call. Any one of those 30 topics covered could easily be a 2 hour call!

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Re: Episode #8 - A passion for Whitetails with Luke Muldoon

Unread postby Mibowfreak » Wed Mar 09, 2016 12:28 pm

Listened to the podcast today.

Absolutely great guys. Loved the stories and the knowledge in it.
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Re: Episode #8 - A passion for Whitetails with Luke Muldoon

Unread postby Mibowfreak » Wed Mar 09, 2016 12:31 pm

Moon, how many times have you been on a great buck and had the developer tell you that the hunting has to stop? Due to construction or what not starting.

I could see that being a real bummer.
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Re: Episode #8 - A passion for Whitetails with Luke Muldoon

Unread postby Edcyclopedia » Wed Mar 09, 2016 12:42 pm

Good stuff!

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Re: Episode #8 - A passion for Whitetails with Luke Muldoon

Unread postby Kokes » Wed Mar 09, 2016 2:00 pm

Awesome podcast sounds like you grew up in a pretty awesome spot. Lots of great info shared thanks Luke. Also hats off to Mario for two things - keeping the podcasts topics and questions so interesting and also for the amount of podcasts he's been doing as of late. Nice work Mario!

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Re: Episode #8 - A passion for Whitetails with Luke Muldoon

Unread postby purebowhunting » Wed Mar 09, 2016 2:27 pm

:clap: Great podcast Moon, really enjoyed it.

Question that I have is traditional buck sign, rubs scrapes etc. Do you see less sign put down by older age class bucks? Do you see more traditional buck sign in the higher density areas you chose not to hunt or the lower density areas that tend to hold the mature bucks the size you're after? Wondering how deer density affects sign.

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Re: Episode #8 - A passion for Whitetails with Luke Muldoon

Unread postby Wlog » Wed Mar 09, 2016 3:08 pm

I only got to listen to about 2/3 of it today but I thought it was awesome. Also I was astounded that we live in the same state but our deer situation is drastically different. In my part of the state a lot of the farms are in farm preservation and it would take an act of God for there to be a new sub division or strip mall outside of town limits. So whats happened is pretty much every farm is huge hunt clubs and 10-20 thousand dollar leases, most of which have been hunted by the same people for decades. Knocking on a door won't get you any results.

Your passion for deer is awesome Moon! Also being able to keep in touch with biologist in your area is a tremendous asset. I'm curious how you made those connections, did you just reach out to those guys or meet by chance? The first time I read anything from you was in the MBS magazine and I think it's cool that you're kind of representing MD well on the Beast.

Great job Moon and Mario, the podcasts are one of my favorite parts of the site. Keep up the good work!

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Re: Episode #8 - A passion for Whitetails with Luke Muldoon

Unread postby mainebowhunter » Wed Mar 09, 2016 3:54 pm

Very interesting. Its crazy...part way through this. Its a totally different perspective. Deer hunting densities that are too high. Urban sprawl. Losing hunting ground to developments. And in the good times, watching mature deer right out your back door and killing one when you were a teen. Killing a great buck, as you mentioned, kind of not really knowing what you know now.

First time I have ever heard ANYONE looking for lower deer densities. Food sources being diminished by too many deer.

Its why its so great to listen to guys who hunt totally different type areas.
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Re: Episode #8 - A passion for Whitetails with Luke Muldoon

Unread postby hunter_mike » Wed Mar 09, 2016 3:58 pm

Only got to listen to the first 45 minutes or so but i can tell i will be listening multiple times. I love how lukes intensity comes through when he is talking hunting. Pure awesome.

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Re: Episode #8 - A passion for Whitetails with Luke Muldoon

Unread postby kurt » Wed Mar 09, 2016 5:08 pm

Wow it was really good. I had to listen to it through awesome.

I was wondering if you could elaborate on some of the trail cam placement/strategies. And it sounds like you check them pretty often given the chance does that effect were you put them? Anything else trail cam pertaining worth mentioning? It's a useful tool for my more limited time with the family and hearing ideas/processes on it to improve use of them.

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Re: Episode #8 - A passion for Whitetails with Luke Muldoon

Unread postby moondoondude » Wed Mar 09, 2016 11:40 pm

DaHunter wrote:One thing from the podcast - Luke said that when bedded, Deer like to look to where they'll be that night. To me, that indicates that the deer will exit and travel with wind to back. Or possibly a crosswind and then wind to back after turning. Or I suppose he may not bed with wind to back?

Have you guys had similar experiences? Would play right into hunting downwind of the bed, but maybe the buck is not going past his line of sight in daylight?

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I have found that not always to be the case. A lot of times, deer will utilize high points as bedding for security - which could be based more on visual senses than olfactory senses. They prefer to travel with wind to back but they don't always - you could maybe argue that more pressured deer will travel with wind to back more often than less pressured deer. However, that being said, I find that deer choose primary bedding areas based on prevalent winds (here it is a west wind). I believe the location of the primary bedding on any given property can be coincidental to an extent if the most secure and best bedding area is located to the west of a primary food source or a common destination for deer.

I have found many, many times that a buck doesn't go past his line of sight in daylight. Again, I think a lot of that has to do with a deer's sense of security, the cover he beds in, the availability/proximity to a food source, perceived pressure, wind direction, and a million other variables. I mentioned in the podcast what I have experienced in large oak flats on years with a good acorn crop - deer spending days in the same spot. The presence of hollies within big oak flats makes this even more common and more difficult visually (for both humans and deer).

What I was alluding to in that piece was shed hunting. I can't tell you how many times I have been walking a field or field edge, picked up an antler - got a quick visual of where I was and my surroundings - gave a quick thought as to why that deer was there - and then went and found the match. If/when terrain features and security are present which permit deer to put eyes on their food source from their beds, in my experiences - they utilize it. Even more so, are the times when I find a small bench or good bedding area overlooking a food source. If I find an antler there with a food source in sight, I'm jumping right down into that food source to pick up his other side.
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Re: Episode #8 - A passion for Whitetails with Luke Muldoon

Unread postby moondoondude » Thu Mar 10, 2016 12:10 am

Mibowfreak wrote:Moon, how many times have you been on a great buck and had the developer tell you that the hunting has to stop? Due to construction or what not starting.

I could see that being a real bummer.


Actually, this hasn't happened on a [glow=red]great[/glow] buck. This year, I had about half of a property cleared down to dirt in September that was probably my best spot for the past 3 years or so. That was tough. It displaced some deer and I really had to change up my game. The area they cleared was nothing but small ravines, hills, and tangled webs of thickets and pines - awesome bedding cover that consistently held deer. Deer, and mature bucks in particular, really moved into this area around October and hung around into around January in years past. It displaced some of the area's best bucks and disrupted their behaviors to the point that in my opinion, it was the causal factor in getting 3 of the best 4 bucks killed on the lease on the backside of the property. They were all 130+ inch bucks that got shot. Things like this happen all the time - but as I said in the podcast - my hunting situation is by design and definition it's own worst enemy. It's just a matter of time before all the properties I have through this developer are either sold or gone.

I don't want to jinx it, but things are moving pretty quickly on the property I shot my big one at this past hunting season. There are one or two there I would really like to see next year, and coincidentally, one is a [glow=red]great[/glow] buck.

I started hunting a large general area pretty hard probably 8-10 years ago now (I killed my two biggest bucks there in 2010 and 2012). I had access at several locations within this said area and the deer herd was utilizing this said area as a whole. There were a few other properties owned by others throughout this said area where I couldn't hunt - but I ended up identifying 2 of those areas that seemed to be critical holding areas of mature bucks. I identified one of those areas pretty much by a process of elimination - I knew if the deer weren't on my properties, then they had to be there. I ended up getting hunting permission at both of those locations. They really ramped up development in these areas in 2013 and over the last 3 years, the quality of bucks has almost completely fell off. It is staggering to see 120 inch 2 year olds turn into 125 inch 5 year olds. That changing environment and the destruction of core and home ranges put an unbelievable amount of stress on these deer and their growth, and both their body mass and antler saw huge negative impacts. So, although I have yet to be on a great buck and had the place tore down/had been directed a cease of hunting, I have had several areas that I hunt negatively impacted to the extent that potentially great bucks turn into average or less than average bucks because of the negative impacts and stress induced by fragmentation and development - more times than I can count.

As long as the developer still owns the ground, I can hunt it - even if it's just dirt with a couple small fingers of trees. He doesn't know at what point hunting is no good anymore - he just sees $$$.
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Re: Episode #8 - A passion for Whitetails with Luke Muldoon

Unread postby mainebowhunter » Thu Mar 10, 2016 6:03 am

When you check cams...do you really only check them in the rain? Or do you check them when you feel you need to know whats on them? Was kind wondering if thats where you were going with that on the podcast. Heck, if you have a bunch of cams, its tough to ONLY check them in with inclement weather. Curious....


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