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Published by Beau Martonik
The East Meets West Hunt Podcast is your resource for all things adventure hunting. This podcast is for the hunter that loves planning and preparing for the hunt, just as much as the hunt. Whether it's deer hunting for big woods mountain bucks, chasing elk in the Rocky Mountains, and anything in between, we will talk to successful hunters from all over to provide the EMW community with useful knowledge and motivation to continue to live their life through a series of adventures.
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Bonus episode from Wyoming elk camp. Beau Martonik sits down with his cousin Tyler Martonik and cameraman Derek Testerman at the end of a 10 day archery elk hunt on general tags. The plan for day one was to take it easy and acclimate. By 4:30 that afternoon, a cow walked to within five yards of Tyler, he looked over and said “bull, Beau, bull,” and Beau had a 6x6 coming around the knob. What followed was a five hour trip out in the dark through blowdowns and a thunderstorm, and another full day to get the rest of him out. From there it’s Tyler’s hunt. Learning one drainage over most of a week, waiting for thermals to settle before moving on bedded bulls, a wallow found on LiDAR, close calls at 80 yards, and wolves in camp at 3 AM. In this episode: Burning seven points on a Wyoming general tag Acclimating without sitting in camp: camp low, hunt high The cow at five yards and the bull behind her Butchering a bull on a slope he kept trying to roll off Five hours of rain, cliffs, and blowdowns on the first trip out Why bugles are closer than they sound in thick timber Waiting for thermals to settle before moving on bedded bulls A wallow that only showed up on LiDAR Elk staying low for water in a hot, dry year Wolves in camp at 3 AM The herd bull play where everything went right but the bull Gear that worked, what’s getting replaced, and boiling a skull for Wyoming’s CWD rules https://act.wilderness.org/a/26bcpledge-eastwest-1 Instagram: @eastmeetswesthunt @beau.martonik Facebook: East Meets West Outdoors Shop Hunting Gear and Apparel: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/ YouTube: Beau Martonik - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQJon93sYfu9HUMKpCMps3w Partner Discounts and Affiliate Links: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/partners Amazon Influencer Page https://www.amazon.com/shop/beau.martonik Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Beau Martonik sits down with Jim Gallagher at Huntstock. Jim is in his 50th year of hunting, has been bow-only for close to 40 years, and has killed 233 deer with a bow, almost all of them in the swamps and thickets of the Northeast. His system runs the opposite direction from most. Instead of trying to leave nothing on the walk-in, he wants deer to find his trail. Store scents and cover scents didn’t hold up, so for about 35 years his boots have gone in fresh rabbit droppings, later with tarsal gland hair on top, a buck tarsal hangs seven feet up over a mock scrape, and he walks past his tree and hooks back so a deer following him in gives him an angled-away shot. Then he calls, every sit, on a set schedule. He also gets into why he aims at the very bottom of the deer, going back to around 1986, when he and Gus Park tallied their misses at a picnic table in Pennsylvania, and 30 of 35 had gone over the deer’s back, and a long list of stories from 50 seasons of doing it his way. In this episode: Tracking deer in Maine snow and going bow only 39 foot stands and seven busts in 17 years The calling sequence: one nostril, fawn mew, grunt, rattle Why store scents failed and rabbit droppings didn’t Tarsal glands seven feet up over a mock scrape Shooting out the side of the peep in low light Why a deer blowing at you can be a good thing The night bucks fought under his stand in the dark Straight down shots and where he aims from 39 feet The J hook that turns a following deer into a quartering away shot His biggest buck, a 212 pounder that followed him for a week The Pennsylvania picnic table tally and the barn test on deer ducking the string Checking the swamps after the first October snow A broken arrow rest, two lost bucks, and why you shoot your bow after a bad hit https://act.wilderness.org/a/26bcpledge-eastwest-1 Jim's YT channel - https://www.youtube.com/@jimgallagher4939 Instagram: @eastmeetswesthunt @beau.martonik Facebook: East Meets West Outdoors Shop Hunting Gear and Apparel: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/ YouTube: Beau Martonik - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQJon93sYfu9HUMKpCMps3w Partner Discounts and Affiliate Links: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/partners Amazon Influencer Page https://www.amazon.com/shop/beau.martonik Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Beau Martonik sits down with Dr. Steve Ditchkoff at Auburn University, where he has run the deer lab for about 25 years and has been studying deer for roughly 35. He did not grow up hunting deer. His father quit about the time he was born, so he grew up fishing outside Detroit, found a fisheries and wildlife degree at Michigan State, studied wintering deer in Maine on snowshoes, and did his PhD in Oklahoma on mating strategy, which was a question deer biologists mostly weren’t asking then. That question is what this episode is built on. In 2007, he built a 430-acre facility at Auburn, fenced, with about 100 adult deer in it, because hunting shows had spent years telling people which bucks were breeder bucks and nobody had studied which individuals actually breed. His group tries to capture the whole population each year, pulls a tissue sample off every deer, and builds the family tree out of DNA. They can look at one buck and count what he sired at one, two, three and four years old, and see which does he bred with. The answer is that it isn’t random. It’s partially driven by similarity in body size and age. He also has data showing a doe increases her movement substantially right before she comes into heat. What he flags as belief rather than data, and he flags it himself, is his hunch that a dominant buck is targeting specific does rather than wandering. Then the hunting consequence: if you knew the exact peak of breeding, that’s the worst week to sit, because that’s when the most bucks are locked down. The other half is pressure. He doesn’t believe gunshots are what deer respond to. He believes they respond to the sign we leave walking in and walking out. Two of his studies sit under that, one in South Carolina where daylight use of a hunted spot dropped the day after a sit and took about a week to recover, and one in Alabama that found the best day of the week to hunt. In this episode: Why the Southeast ended up leading deer research Where AI helps wildlife science and where it goes wrong How he ended up handing his data to Bill Thompson What confidence actually does to a hunter in the stand We train deer to avoid us, and the sign we leave doing it The South Carolina study, and the week it takes a spot to recover The best day of the week to hunt, by the data 72 square miles of ammunition plant, and what those deer acted like Why bucks move more where the deer are thin Why the peak week is the worst week to sit The breeder buck question nobody had ever actually studied Inside the 430 acre facility and the family tree built out of DNA Whether a dominant buck is choosing which does he breeds The walkabout a doe goes on before she comes into heat Bucks that moved two and five miles and never came back Whether you need to know how many deer you have The three things 35 years changed about how he hunts https://act.wilderness.org/a/26bcpledge-eastwest-1 Instagram: @eastmeetswesthunt @beau.martonik Facebook: East Meets West Outdoors Shop Hunting Gear and Apparel: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/ YouTube: Beau Martonik - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQJon93sYfu9HUMKpCMps3w Partner Discounts and Affiliate Links: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/partners Amazon Influencer Page https://www.amazon.com/shop/beau.martonik Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Beau Martonik sits down with Lucas Benoit, a bear houndsman and guide out of central New Hampshire, with Johnny Stewart in the co-host chair. Recorded live at Huntstock. Lucas got into hounds around fourteen with two accident-litter beagles, bought his first two finished bear dogs off a guy who was quitting, treed about sixteen bears that first season, and has since had a year of just over a hundred. Ask him which he’d rather do and he says deer hunting, a hundred percent. He has killed mature bucks on September 21st in back to back years. Johnny spends most of the episode refusing to let him call it luck. The argument underneath it is worth the listen. The first week of the season is the best week of the year to kill a mature buck, because if you can find what they’re feeding on, they aren’t far from it. December gets almost that good, and he’ll tell you he still struggles then. The reason most people never cash that first week is that they go scout it the week before and blow the place out. Lucas does not pre-scout. He finds sign in real time and sets up on it the same day. Then it gets specific. Ten white oaks on a hilltop spine, three or four of them producing, one or two acorns under each, and bucks routing through to check every one. How to look up into an oak and read whether it has produced in the last couple years. The stand he hung over a pattern he called a slam dunk, then left and came back the wrong morning. Blowing a buck off a hill on opening day, staying out five or six days, then parking a mile away and climbing a steep hemlock face because it was the only way the wind worked. And a 170 inch buck that stood up at fifty yards, crossed a clear cut, looked at six dogs and three men for five minutes, and bedded back down. In this episode: Beagles to bear dogs, and why hounds are the honest way to manage a bear population Why running dogs is the best deer scouting he does all year The rub line he found on a bear chase, and the buck that walked it in daylight A 170 inch buck that bedded back down in front of six dogs Why the first week of season is his best week of the year Why he doesn’t scout the week before opening day The slam dunk stand he hung and then didn’t sit Same spot, same date, years apart Reading which oaks are producing before you ever look at the ground A September buck killed in the morning, on a spot he’d already blown out How long to stay out of a spot once you’ve bumped a buck Five bucks on the last day of the season, and whether that’s luck Lucas' IG: @nhbearguide https://act.wilderness.org/a/26bcpledge-eastwest-1Instagram: @eastmeetswesthunt @beau.martonik Facebook: East Meets West Outdoors Shop Hunting Gear and Apparel: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/ YouTube: Beau Martonik - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQJon93sYfu9HUMKpCMps3w Partner Discounts and Affiliate Links: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/partners Amazon Influencer Page https://www.amazon.com/shop/beau.martonik Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Beau Martonik sits back down with Lee Ellis of Seek One for the second half of their conversation, which is one long story. Lee saw a buck with heavy brow tines one time in the summer, across a rolling bean field, and then didn’t lay eyes on him again until the first week of November. He spent most of the season putting time into a different deer entirely. Then the season ended in a blizzard. Lee walks through almost hitting that buck with his truck five days before he killed him, watching him feed in a cut cornfield for an hour and a half in cold that left his fingertips sensitive for weeks afterward, and asking a neighbor for access permission rather than hunting permission so he could keep a tree line between himself and an island of timber full of eyes. He gets into the tree he wanted, the tree he settled for, and why the second one is the only reason the hunt happened. Also covered: the does blowing and then coming back, a lung liver hit that looked perfect on camera, backing out for a sleepless night, dragging the deer out a mile on a sled at negative 18 with a frozen beard, and the deer’s other close calls. Part one of this conversation is episode 505. The Wilderness Society - https://act.wilderness.org/a/26bcpledge-eastwest-1 Instagram: @eastmeetswesthunt @beau.martonik Facebook: East Meets West Outdoors Shop Hunting Gear and Apparel: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/ YouTube: Beau Martonik - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQJon93sYfu9HUMKpCMps3w Partner Discounts and Affiliate Links: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/partners Amazon Influencer Page https://www.amazon.com/shop/beau.martonik Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Beau Martonik sits down with Jameson Curtis and Kelly McGraw of Wild at Heart Outdoors, the two guys behind Pursuing the Allegheny. It’s their first time on the show in eight years. They walked away from making hunting films, and Jameson walked away from hunting almost entirely for a couple of years. He says getting off social media was the reset button, that seeing 15 guys out of thousands post big bucks had him convinced everybody was killing except him. Kelly puts it more simply: when you drop the ego, you think more freely. What came out the other side is two guys who hunt less and capitalize more. Kelly has been on four mule deer hunts without the big one he’s after, and instead of counting them as four failures he counts them as 28 total days of learning. Jameson laid in the weeds for six hours waiting on bedded bucks rather than push a stalk he knew wouldn’t work. They both stopped hunting individual buck beds off theory and moved to hunting whatever sign is hot that week. The tactical run in the middle is worth the listen on its own. The one hidden corner of a cut cornfield that the biggest bucks hit in daylight within a couple days of the combine leaving, every year, regardless of the calendar. Why bucks buffer off a field edge and sprint 60 yards before they feed, and the young oak Kelly had planted at 23 yards to fix it. What a 2 a.m. scrape picture usually means about the next afternoon. Why Kelly would rather bump a buck out of his bed than stay a step behind him. And the only weather trigger either of them will get out of bed for. In this episode: Why they stepped away from hunting, and what getting off social media did for it Pursuing the Allegheny, eleven years later What changed out West in twelve years, and the advice from Jared Lyle that stuck Kelly’s mule deer math: 28 days, not four failures The lunch break set that killed a buck that same evening What a 2 a.m. scrape picture usually means about tomorrow afternoon The corner of the cut corn the biggest bucks hit in daylight every year Target panic, and a raghorn at 20 yards in Wyoming Where buck bedding stopped working for them, and hunting hot sign instead Bumping deer out of bed and hunting them anyway The only weather trigger either of them will get out of bed for The transplanted scrape tree, and why bucks buffer off a field edge Managing a farm after years on public Hunting for yourself instead of for the internet The Wilderness Society - https://act.wilderness.org/a/26bcpledge-eastwest-1 Instagram: @eastmeetswesthunt @beau.martonik Facebook: East Meets West Outdoors Shop Hunting Gear and Apparel: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/ YouTube: Beau Martonik - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQJon93sYfu9HUMKpCMps3w Partner Discounts and Affiliate Links: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/partners Amazon Influencer Page https://www.amazon.com/shop/beau.martonik Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Beau Martonik sits back down with Dr. Karl Miller for the second half of their conversation, and this half is entirely about what a deer sees. Karl was part of the original work that got inside a whitetail’s eye to determine whether deer perceive color at all, and he later worked with Sitka on a camo pattern developed around deer vision rather than human vision. He starts with the hardware. A deer’s pupil opens about three times wider than ours, which alone is roughly nine times the light-gathering ability, and a reflective layer behind the retina called the tapetum bounces that light back across the rods and cones a second time to roughly double it again. The pupil is a horizontal slit rather than a circle, and it rotates to stay level even when the deer drops its head to feed, so a deer eating acorns is still watching the horizon. They see roughly 310 degrees, whereas we see 120. Then the tradeoff. Deer have no fovea centralis, they can’t accommodate for distance, and their visual acuity at a stationary object comes in somewhere around 20/40 to 20/60. Karl’s line is that they’d almost need corrective lenses to drive. What they do have is motion. Their eyes stay still and let the image travel across the retina engaging new cones, and they process that visual information roughly four to five times faster than a human does, which Karl suggests means your movement looks to them something like slow motion. That leads into a long back and forth on jumping the string, whether a deer is reacting to the sound at all, and whether it might be seeing the bow flex or even the arrow itself. Beau brings his axis deer footage from Hawaii into it, where the deer were on the ground before the arrow arrived at 25 yards. The back half is camo, and it’s the most useful stretch of either episode. Karl lays out the two jobs camo has to do, explains why pattern detail matters far less than most hunters think and why outline and spectral match matter far more, and gets into whiteners and brighteners in fabrics and detergents that take ultraviolet light and re-radiate it into exactly the part of the spectrum a deer sees 20 times better than we do. He explains why he stopped wearing blue jeans in the woods, why a whitetail’s tail is white in the first place, why old army camo is actually good camo, and why a shiny fabric can beat you even when the color is right. He also walks through how Sitka’s Cover pattern was developed and what it was actually designed to solve. He closes with what he calls the take home: hunt the deer’s brain first. There are only three questions in a deer’s head, and everything it does traces back to one of them. Part one of this conversation is episode 506. Topics: 00:00:00 — Part two intro 00:07:16 — A deer's eye is built for two jobs, and neither one is looking at you 00:11:32 — Pupil size, and nine times your light gathering ability 00:13:31 — Their eyes rotate to stay level when their head goes down 00:14:23 — The tapetum, and 18 times the light 00:21:21 — Blue cones across the whole retina, and 310 degrees of vision 00:24:49 — 20/40 to 20/60: they'd need corrective lenses to drive 00:27:39 — Flicker fusion, and why your movement looks like slow motion to them 00:28:40 — Jumping the string: the sound, the arrow, or the bow 00:34:29 — Drawing on a quartering deer, and why they don't look up 00:37:20 — What camo has to do, and what it doesn't 00:40:39 — Whiteners, brighteners, and camo that glows 00:42:53 — How Cover got built around deer eyes instead of ours 00:50:08 — Fabric shine, old army camo, and plastic blaze orange 00:54:03 — Hunt the deer's brain first Dr. Karl Miller’s published research: Google Scholar, search “Karl Miller deer UGA” Part one of this conversation is Ep. 506 The Wilderness Society - https://act.wilderness.org/a/26bcpledge-eastwest-1 Instagram: @eastmeetswesthunt @beau.martonik Facebook: East Meets West Outdoors Shop Hunting Gear and Apparel: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/ YouTube: Beau Martonik - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQJon93sYfu9HUMKpCMps3w Partner Discounts and Affiliate Links: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/partners Amazon Influencer Page https://www.amazon.com/shop/beau.martonik Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Beau Martonik sits down with Dr. Karl Miller of the University of Georgia, where he spent 40 years leading deer research and mentoring close to 100 graduate students. Karl grew up hunting the Pennsylvania big woods before he went south for his PhD, and much of what hunters take for granted about rubs and scrapes came out of his lab. The core of this conversation is signpost communication. Karl walks through why bucks make rubs in the first place, and what one of his students found when he ran a chemical analysis on forehead gland secretions: 67 different compounds, and not one of them in higher concentration in dominant bucks than in subordinate ones. No dominance signal at all. What varies is the mix, deer to deer, which means every buck is leaving something closer to a name than a rank. He also explains why the loser of a sparring match will walk up and lick the winner’s forehead. Then he gets into scrapes, and the finding he clearly loves most. Scraping activity peaks about two weeks before peak breeding in almost every study ever run on it. Karl’s hypothesis is that this isn’t coincidence or anticipation. It’s that buck urine deposited in scrapes may be acting as a priming hormone on the does, pulling their cycles into synchrony, and the two-week lag matches the length of a doe’s follicular wave. He and a graduate student demonstrated the same mechanism in Eld’s deer using a control group and a group exposed to male urine, and the treated group entered estrus together with enhanced hormone profiles. Then he flips it and explains flehmen, the vomeronasal organ, and how a buck taking doe urine into his mouth routes it past the smelling part of his brain entirely and straight to the part that runs his reproductive physiology. Both sides priming each other. Also covered: 3,600 rubs per square mile on an unhunted Georgia herd, roughly six per acre; the interdigital gland and the 11 compounds that actually do track with maturity; why a tarsal gland’s smell comes from bacteria and not from the gland; the staph and listeria living on it; the castrated buck that ran an entire rut in two weeks on a testosterone dose they overshot; young bucks making 15 percent as many scrapes as mature bucks; and a stretch where he and Beau land in different places on whether there’s any point in doctoring a scrape. This is part one of two. Part two is deer vision and camo, and it’s out Tuesday, September 1st. Topics: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:19:25 — What everybody had wrong about rubs in the seventies 00:25:04 — 67 compounds, and why a rub isn't a dominance display 00:26:09 — Why the loser of a sparring match licks the winner's forehead 00:38:32 — 3,600 rubs per square mile, and how many one buck makes in a year 00:49:08 — The three things a buck does at a scrape 00:52:56 — Why a tarsal gland actually stinks 01:01:45 — 39 bucks on one scrape, and 85 percent of visits after dark 01:04:30 — Scrapes peak two weeks before the rut 01:06:24 — Priming hormones, and synchronized estrus 01:10:09 — Flehmen, and the does priming the bucks right back 01:21:59 — Adding scent to a scrape, and whether it does anything 01:35:00 — What a broken age structure does to the rut you're hunting Dr. Karl Miller’s published research: Google Scholar, search “Karl Miller deer UGA” Instagram: @eastmeetswesthunt @beau.martonik Facebook: East Meets West Outdoors Shop Hunting Gear and Apparel: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/ YouTube: Beau Martonik - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQJon93sYfu9HUMKpCMps3w Partner Discounts and Affiliate Links: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/partners Amazon Influencer Page https://www.amazon.com/shop/beau.martonik Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Beau Martonik sits down with Lee Ellis of Seek One, who has been at this since 2015 and says roughly 90 percent of the deer on his wall are deer he had more than a year of history with before he killed them. Lee is upfront that it’s very rare for him to kill a deer he hasn’t been following, and this conversation is mostly about what that actually costs. They get into the buck he called Derp, four years of waking up every day thinking about that deer, and the night after he finally killed him when it hit him hard enough that he couldn’t sleep. Lee explains why he thinks a fresh camera picture of a buck working a scrape means you’re already behind him, and how finding one center point in a deer’s rut range beat chasing that deer across seven or eight camera locations. He also talks about a 188 inch public land buck he knew for about four hours and why he says a 140 would have gotten the exact same reaction out of him. Also covered: taking February through May completely off from deer hunting for the first time in years, patterning Pokémon card restocks with the same brain that patterns deer, what changes when your team grows and other families depend on the season going well, deer that show back up on almost the exact same date year after year, the summer reconnaissance lap he sees in the third week of August, twenty years of door knocking for 95 percent no’s, and why he doesn’t think you call a truly big deer in. This is part one of two. Part two is one long story, the buck Lee killed in a blizzard at the end of last season, and it lands September 15th, right after Seek One’s film on that deer. Topics: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:14:16 — The room, and what every mount in it represents 00:18:16 — Obsession, Pokémon, and stepping away from deer hunting 00:31:05 — Burnout, and what changes when people depend on your season 00:40:13 — Branching out, and why a 140 hits the same as a 188 00:48:36 — Derp: four years, and the night it finally hit him 00:57:08 — Why hunting one deer makes you better on every other deer 01:04:01 — Storytelling, the two and a half hour video, and putting the phone down 01:20:41 — Does Lee track any of this, or is it all in his head 01:26:45 — Deer that show up on the same date, and the third week of August lap 01:32:11 — Twenty years of door knocking for 95 percent no's 01:36:24 — Leaving a camera a full year, and the spot in the middle of a rut range 01:44:29 — Cell cameras made a lot of good hunters worse 01:47:56 — Deer personalities, communication, and why you don't call in a big one 01:55:16 — Part two is coming Lee's IG: https://www.instagram.com/the_roy/ Seek One IG: https://www.instagram.com/seek1productions/ Seek One YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SeekOneProductions Seek One Website: https://seek-one.com/ Instagram: @eastmeetswesthunt @beau.martonik Facebook: East Meets West Outdoors Shop Hunting Gear and Apparel: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/ YouTube: Beau Martonik - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQJon93sYfu9HUMKpCMps3w Partner Discounts and Affiliate Links: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/partners Amazon Influencer Page https://www.amazon.com/shop/beau.martonik Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Beau Martonik sits down with Adam Foss, the youngest bowhunter to complete the North American sheep slam and a photographer and filmmaker. Adam grew up west of Calgary in an archery only zone, killed his first ram at 18, and says his main focus right now is backpack hunting stone sheep with a bow in northern BC. Most of this conversation is about the mental side of hard hunts. Adam is upfront that he's never run the numbers on his own sheep success, but figures it might be under five percent, and he thinks the pressure to define a hunt by whether you killed something is something we build in our own heads. He walks through how he keeps himself in a trip on day eight when the pull to go home gets loud, the 20 steps and five breaths method he and his wife used packing a ram uphill through shale, and why he thinks any of this applies just as well to elk hunting, running a marathon, or being around more for your family. Also covered: the SITKA photo contest where he critiqued Beau's finalist photo back in 2017, a mountain goat he shot at 31 or 32 yards on Kodiak Island in a whiteout with his hood covering one eye, the whitetail does he ground out on pressured southern BC public land on the last day of the season two years running, and Migrate, the travel and bowhunting company he launched with his hunting partner Luke. Adam hid a code word in this one. First person to comment it wins an arrow case from Migrate. It's near the end, so listen for it. 00:00:00 — Intro 00:04:20 — The SITKA photo contest where Adam tore up Beau's photo 00:10:03 — Subalpine, Barklow, and the early SITKA years 00:12:38 — Youngest bowhunter to take the North American sheep slam 00:14:43 — Growing up in southern Alberta with a bow and a camera 00:27:08 — Frankie, the three hour flight, and the shoot he couldn't say no to 00:35:03 — The hardest anyone has ever worked for a whitetail doe 00:41:24 — Hunting low density sheep country on purpose 00:48:07 — Letters to outfitters and 30 day pack strings 00:50:28 — Jack O'Connor, and looking up from the book to see it 00:53:35 — 16mm sheep footage from the sixties 00:55:51 — What makes sheep hunters this obsessed 01:04:24 — Is grit something you're born with or something you build 01:05:45 — It doesn't have to be sheep hunting 01:07:32 — Beau's first elk hunt and getting humbled by the steepest deepest 01:09:30 — The float plane leaves and you make the next best decision 01:15:21 — Aging a ram, and what the horn rings tell you 01:16:36 — Nobody cares if you kill a ram 01:18:41 — You picked it because it was hard 01:19:17 — Beau's 14 days on an Alaska moose hunt 01:22:52 — Snack times, burpees, and 20 steps at a time 01:32:22 — The Kodiak goat stalk in a whiteout 01:44:01 — Migrate, and the problems nobody was solving 01:48:19 — The unforced error that costs people animals 02:00:11 — Why five arrows beats no arrows 02:03:41 — Where to find Adam and Migrate Adam's IG: https://www.instagram.com/fossman8/ Migrate IG: https://www.instagram.com/migrate_gear/ Shop Migrate in the EMW Gear Shop: eastmeetswesthunt.com Migrate Website: https://www.migrate-gear.com/ Instagram: @eastmeetswesthunt @beau.martonik Facebook: East Meets West Outdoors Shop Hunting Gear and Apparel: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/ YouTube: Beau Martonik - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQJon93sYfu9HUMKpCMps3w Partner Discounts and Affiliate Links: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/partners Amazon Influencer Page https://www.amazon.com/shop/beau.martonik Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Beau Martonik sits down with Joel Burham of Whitetail Fit, who moved to Iowa, got his residency, turned down an invite to a phenomenal private farm, and hunted public ground and only public ground for the whole season to see what it would teach him. They get into the full self-filming rig Joel runs out of a saddle, the buck he figured at 160 that he had broadside at 20 yards and lost to the camera, the two public land giants he found that will never show up in a video, and what happened when he came to full draw on a three-and-a-half-year-old and let down. Joel also lays out the only test he uses to decide whether a deer is worth his tag, which has nothing to do with a score. Also covered: starting from zero with no hunting family, three miles deep on Kansas public on the last day of a 10-day hunt, hiring his brother as a cameraman and then telling him he'd outgrown the job, and why time is the one thing in hunting you can't shortcut. 00:00:00 — Intro 00:07:09 — Starting with no hunting family 00:12:04 — First deer off a lawn chair 00:15:22 — Where "Whitetail Fit" came from 00:19:57 — Three miles deep on Kansas public 00:22:16 — How fitness changes your access 00:38:13 — What this job really looks like 00:47:49 — The 160 at 20 yards he passed 00:58:28 — Hiring his brother, then letting go 01:11:16 — Self-filming rig for a saddle 01:16:38 — Bodies, lenses, and low light 01:29:56 — Arm height, ISO, shutter speed 01:39:10 — Iowa public land only 01:46:57 — The bucks that never made the film 01:49:56 — Pressure and older deer 01:54:43 — The 190 and a wind switch 02:01:29 — Full draw, then let down 02:10:00 — What makes you grab your bow 02:19:34 — Where to find Whitetail Fit Joel's IG: https://www.instagram.com/whitetail_fit/ Whitetail Fit YT: https://www.youtube.com/@WhitetailFit Instagram: @eastmeetswesthunt @beau.martonik Facebook: East Meets West Outdoors Shop Hunting Gear and Apparel: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/ YouTube: Beau Martonik - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQJon93sYfu9HUMKpCMps3w Partner Discounts and Affiliate Links: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/partners Amazon Influencer Page https://www.amazon.com/shop/beau.martonik Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Every time a mature buck shows up on your trail camera, GPS collar research says he's probably been in that area six or seven times. That one stat changes how you think about cameras, bedding, and whether you're actually hunting the right spots. This is from the Mountain Bucks Scouting Camp where we break down big woods buck bedding from every angle — GPS home range data, how mature bucks choose beds, doe bedding patterns, morning hunting strategy, and why mid-October may be the most underrated window for killing a mature buck. Topics: 00:00 – Intro 00:51 – Buck bed characteristics — size, shape, rubs on entry and exit 03:06 – Why mature bucks have the best spots (and what happens when one dies) 04:10 – Hunting mornings aggressively over beds 06:28 – Finding scrapes on the fringes of bedding to hunt 07:04 – Camera placement near bedding 07:35 – GPS data: for every camera appearance, a buck's been there 6-7 times 08:44 – The egg-shaped home range — how wind orients a buck's entire world 09:50 – Buck excursions — why they disappear and where they go 14:09 – Buck bedding: smell, auditory, visual 17:37 – Doe bedding — why it's overlooked and how it changes your rut setup 20:01 – Mid-October: the most underrated window for killing a mature buck 24:32 – Second estrus cycle Enter the Deer Camp Giveway! - https://eastmeetswesthunt.com/pages/deer-camp-giveaway Instagram: @eastmeetswesthunt @beau.martonik Facebook: East Meets West Outdoors Shop Hunting Gear and Apparel: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/ YouTube: Beau Martonik - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQJon93sYfu9HUMKpCMps3w Partner Discounts and Affiliate Links: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/partners Amazon Influencer Page https://www.amazon.com/shop/beau.martonik Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Beau Martonik sits down with Gregg Farrell of Tactacam, who's spent almost 15 years in the outdoor industry, a decade of it at First Lite before landing at Tactacam. Gregg walks through why he treats trail camera data almost like a science experiment before he ever locks in on one specific buck, why a big buck photo doesn't always mean a huntable deer, and why a $59 wind sensor might be a smarter buy than another camera. They also cover cold fronts, moon phase, battery life, and what's new in the Reveal 4.0 camera launching next month. 00:00:00 — Intro 00:01:43 — Gregg's Wisconsin whitetail roots and a decade at First Lite 00:06:33 — Breaking into the outdoor industry as a generalist 00:12:37 — Chasing whitetail “Mecca” and going whitetail crazy out west 00:16:59 — Why a trail camera is a tool, not a replacement for woodsmanship 00:20:38 — Data as “365-day hunting” and time-blocking family vs. hunting 00:36:07 — Thinking like a scientist: broad trends before one specific buck 00:49:59 — Cold fronts, pre-rut timing, and late-season food strategy 00:55:01 — Reveal app analytics, moon phase, and the hit list 01:02:29 — Battery life: instant vs. hybrid settings, lithiums vs. packs 01:14:01 — What's new in Reveal 4.0 01:27:47 — The new wind sensor and wrap-up Enter the Deer Camp Giveway! - https://eastmeetswesthunt.com/pages/deer-camp-giveaway Gregg's IG - https://www.instagram.com/gregg_farrell/ Reveal's IG - https://www.instagram.com/revealcellcam/ Tactacam website - https://www.tactacam.com/ Instagram: @eastmeetswesthunt @beau.martonik Facebook: East Meets West Outdoors Shop Hunting Gear and Apparel: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/ YouTube: Beau Martonik - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQJon93sYfu9HUMKpCMps3w Partner Discounts and Affiliate Links: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/partners Poncho Outdoors - Poncho Outdoors makes tough, sharp-looking, no-BS apparel for hardworking outdoorsmen who put in the time year-round. Go to ponchooutdoors.com/EASTMEETSWEST to save $10 and free shipping Amazon Influencer Page https://www.amazon.com/shop/beau.martonik Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Beau Martonik sits down with his dad, Joe Martonik, for episode 500, a milestone, listener-requested conversation that’s been a long time coming. Joe’s been hunting Pennsylvania whitetails for almost 50 years, watched deer densities crash and slowly rebuild, and built a lifetime of lessons most hunters never get from a single season. They walk through three deer that define Joe’s 50 years: an 11-point he shot off the ground long before digital trail cameras, an eight-point that Beau and Joe hunted, but Joe ended up shooting a couple of miles away, and a buck named Stickers that took five years to close the deal on. Along the way: the giveaway announcement, a gift for Joe, and what almost 50 years in the woods actually teaches you about patience. 00:00:00 — Intro 00:08:00 — Joe’s Reaction to the Podcast and Why Passing Down Hunting Knowledge Matters 00:13:00 — The "Right to Hunt" Fight and How the Podcast Started 00:21:19 — Bringing Dad on for Episode 500, the Giveaway, and a Custom Case Knife 00:26:21 — Almost 50 Years of Hunting: Joe’s Start and Early Hunting Days 00:32:06 — PA Deer History: Clear-Cuts, Restocking, and Chasing a Bigger Rack 00:34:51 — Getting Back Into Bow Hunting and How Deer Patterns Changed 00:42:39 — The Homemade Trail Camera Era 00:45:10 — The 11-Point Buck and the One-Roll-of-Film Scrape 00:52:24 — Beau’s Early Deer and the Lowest Deer Density Years 01:00:28 — Learning to Trust Your Gut and Beau’s First Trail Cameras 01:04:19 — Handing Off a Buck: The 2010 Eight-Point 01:07:32 — GPS Nostalgia and Beau’s First Heartbreak Deer 01:11:20 — Beau’s First Archery Buck and the Shot That Hooked Him on Bowhunting 01:19:44 — "Stickers": The Five-Year Hunt and Strategy 01:28:16 — "It’s the Only Place You Haven’t Been" 01:35:45 — Recapping Joe’s 2025 Season 01:43:36 — Broadhead Talk and a Saddle Platform Scare 01:56:01 — Joe’s Biggest Lessons from 50 Years in the Woods Enter the Deer Camp Giveway! - https://eastmeetswesthunt.com/pages/deer-camp-giveaway Instagram: @eastmeetswesthunt @beau.martonik Facebook: East Meets West Outdoors Shop Hunting Gear and Apparel: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/ YouTube: Beau Martonik - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQJon93sYfu9HUMKpCMps3w Partner Discounts and Affiliate Links: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/partners Poncho Outdoors - Poncho Outdoors makes tough, sharp-looking, no-BS apparel for hardworking outdoorsmen who put in the time year-round. Go to ponchooutdoors.com/EASTMEETSWEST to save $10 and free shipping Amazon Influencer Page https://www.amazon.com/shop/beau.martonik Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Beau Martonik sits down with Collin Heaps of MTN OPS to recap a bowhunt for axis deer in Hawaii. Collin has hunted this ground before; Beau hadn't, and figured his whitetail and mule deer experience would carry over. It did, but mostly didn't. They cover what makes axis deer so much harder to approach than anything either of them hunts back home, a doe Beau recovered after e-scouting a saddle and getting busted the first try, a missed shot on a mature buck that looked different on the drone footage than it did in the moment, and Collin's own gut punch: a doe he was sure he'd killed that actually walked off, and the call he had to make to his three-year-old son to admit it. Also covers: camp life with no AC and a wild dog running through camp at night, gear that held up in red clay and thorn brush, and Collin's line that stuck with Beau the most: don't chase butterflies. Topics: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:23 — Collin's Background and How the Trip Came Together 00:06:22 — Camp Life in Hawaii 00:10:25 — What Makes Axis Deer So Hard to Hunt 00:23:36 — Stalking Axis vs. Mule Deer 00:30:41 — The East vs. West Competition 00:33:14 — Beau's Doe Stalk and Recovery 00:47:52 — The Buck Stalk and Missed Shot 00:53:25 — Collin's Humbling Loss 01:08:02 — Gear, Broadheads, and MTN OPS Picks 01:23:06 — Don't Chase Butterflies 01:28:39 — Closing and MTN OPS Discount Code - use code BEAU to save 20% Resources: Collin's IG: https://www.instagram.com/collinheaps/ MTN OPS Affiliate link - https://rstr.co/mtnops/10619 Instagram: @eastmeetswesthunt @beau.martonik Facebook: East Meets West Outdoors Shop Hunting Gear and Apparel: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/ YouTube: Beau Martonik - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQJon93sYfu9HUMKpCMps3w Partner Discounts and Affiliate Links: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/partners Poncho Outdoors - Poncho Outdoors makes tough, sharp-looking, no-BS apparel for hardworking outdoorsmen who put in the time year-round. Go to ponchooutdoors.com/EASTMEETSWEST to save $10 and free shipping Amazon Influencer Page https://www.amazon.com/shop/beau.martonik Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Beau Martonik breaks down a peer-reviewed study from the UGA Deer Lab published in December 2025 that found whitetail rubs and scrapes emit measurable UV photoluminescence that deer can detect and humans can't. Beau covers the core finding, what's causing the glow in rubs vs. scrapes (more specific than most coverage reported), a timing detail that most outlets got wrong, and what the study doesn't prove. He connects the science to six years of personal trail camera observations — including a 2020 signpost rub experiment where a buck would show up within 24 hours every time the rub was freshened — and lays out six practical takeaways for how this changes how he's thinking about hunting scrapes and rubs this fall. Topics include: why deer can see UV light and humans can't, why the downwind scrape-checking rule may be more complicated than conventional wisdom assumes, what doe scrape activity might tell us about two-way signpost communication, and why urine in the scrape is the signal — not the scrape itself. 00:00:00 — Intro 00:01:51 — The 2020 Signpost Rub Story 00:05:32 — What Hunters Have Always Assumed 00:07:27 — The UGA Study Breakdown 00:09:01 — Why Deer Can See UV Light and You Can't 00:11:17 — What's Causing the Glow 00:13:36 — The D'Angelo Quote 00:14:13 — The Timing Detail Most Coverage Got Wrong 00:17:52 — What the Study Does NOT Prove 00:19:14 — Bucks Approaching From All Directions 00:21:02 — Activity at Last Light 00:23:16 — Tree Species and the Licking Branch 00:25:29 — October vs. November Scrapes 00:27:25 — Does Working Scrapes 00:29:51 — Urine Placement and the 2020 Rub Revisited 00:34:02 — Six Practical Takeaways for This Fall 00:44:19 — Close Resources: Full study: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.72618 UGA press release: news.uga.edu/a-glow-up-in-deer-communication/ Enter the Deer Camp Giveway! - https://eastmeetswesthunt.com/pages/deer-camp-giveaway Instagram: @eastmeetswesthunt @beau.martonik Facebook: East Meets West Outdoors Shop Hunting Gear and Apparel: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/ YouTube: Beau Martonik - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQJon93sYfu9HUMKpCMps3w Partner Discounts and Affiliate Links: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/partners Poncho Outdoors - Poncho Outdoors makes tough, sharp-looking, no-BS apparel for hardworking outdoorsmen who put in the time year-round. Go to ponchooutdoors.com/EASTMEETSWEST to save $10 and free shipping Amazon Influencer Page https://www.amazon.com/shop/beau.martonik Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Beau Martonik sits down with Pat Burns, a big woods hunter from the Northeast who has been hunting mountain laurel thickets for years, killing giant bucks in cover most hunters won’t go near. Pat breaks down how he finds openings and funnels inside a sea of laurel using leaf-off maps, why he considers all those ladder stands on the edges to be the equivalent of hunting a field edge, how he creates access trails to get a quarter mile deep into the thick stuff without making a sound, and the story behind the giant buck he killed last fall. They also get into tracking an 11.5-year-old buck across a five-mile stretch of mountain over several seasons, why November 4th consistently produces for Pat, his approach to reactivating community scrapes with nothing but fresh dirt, camera strategy in remote terrain, and pushing the envelope once you’ve done enough homework to back it. Pat also works for Huntstock, an outdoor festival held in Massachusetts (August 7–9, 2026). Beau will be at the Massachusetts event recording live podcast interviews with Rick Labbe, Lanny Benoit, Jeff Doyle, Jim Massett, and others. 00:00:00 — Intro 00:01:07 — What Makes Huntstock Different From a Trade Show 00:04:20 — Podcast Row and Northeast Legends Beau Will Interview in Massachusetts 00:08:59 — Pat’s Background in Maine 00:11:23 — The Shed That Started a Years-Long Obsession 00:15:44 — Learning to Track Big Woods Bucks 00:20:42 — Five Miles of Sheds and Closing in on a Giant 00:25:58 — How Hunting Pressure Moves Big Woods Bucks 00:31:22 — The Shared Buck Discovery 00:39:06 — Why November 4th Is Pat’s Magic Date 00:45:53 — Reading Wind to Find Buck Beds in Thick Cover 00:49:43 — Finding Bucks in Miles of Mountain Laurel 00:57:13 — Creating Trails to Hunt Deep in Laurel 00:58:27 — Why Big Woods Bedding Isn’t a Science 01:01:37 — Why You Need Boots on the Ground, Not Just Maps 01:06:32 — How Pat Reactivates Community Scrapes 01:14:14 — Pushing the Envelope and Having a Backup Spot 01:25:24 — Camera Strategy in Big Woods 01:34:13 — Mindset and Staying in It Through Hard Seasons 01:41:25 — The Giant Laurel Buck Pat Killed Last Fall 01:48:14 — Bringing New Hunters Into This Style 01:58:37 — Huntstock Details and Beau’s August Appearance Resources: Pat's IG - https://www.instagram.com/thejohnnystewart/ Huntstock - use code EMW25 for a discount - https://huntstockevents.com/ Instagram: @eastmeetswesthunt @beau.martonik Facebook: East Meets West Outdoors Shop Hunting Gear and Apparel: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/ YouTube: Beau Martonik - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQJon93sYfu9HUMKpCMps3w Partner Discounts and Affiliate Links: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/partners Poncho Outdoors - Poncho Outdoors makes tough, sharp-looking, no-BS apparel for hardworking outdoorsmen who put in the time year-round. Go to ponchooutdoors.com/EASTMEETSWEST to save $10 and free shipping Amazon Influencer Page https://www.amazon.com/shop/beau.martonik Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Beau Martonik sits down with Johnny Stewart -- a PA-based DIY public land hunter with 30+ years of big woods experience across Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, West Virginia, Ohio, and North Dakota. This one is all about summer scouting. Johnny breaks down how he runs trail cameras from April through September purely for inventory (confirming a buck survived the winter), why he almost never moves cameras in summer even if they are not producing, and the pattern he and Beau figured out for why bucks vanish from cuts the moment archery season opens. Turns out it is not always pressure. Sometimes it comes down to food, and not the food sources you would expect. They also dig into the mature forest / mature buck correlation -- including a story about a late-season WV buck that left his bed specifically to eat shelf mushrooms off a downed cherry log -- glassing velvet bucks from road vantage points, and Johnny's philosophy on mid-October scouting and hunting where the deer isn't. Plus gear talk on the Timber Ninja Kunai and new Mini Kunai, the advantage of hunting with a cameraman, and a teaser on a University of Georgia study showing that fresh scrapes glow in UV light. Topics: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:13:38 — Self-filming and upcoming YouTube content 00:17:55 — Mountain hunting traditions and the NH drag-out story 00:21:22 — How each year compounds; building a 30-year catalog with Spartan Forge 00:27:13 — Summer vs. fall deer locations; camera placement; cuts vs. mature woods 00:42:42 — Why deer leave cuts on opener (wild cherries and mushrooms) 00:47:56 — Mushrooms and the mature forest / mature buck correlation 01:18:13 — Camera soaking strategy; velvet transition window; early October shift 01:29:42 — Trail cam tips; spring seeps; summer scrape activity; UV scrape study teaser 01:44:54 — Glassing cuts in late July/August; velvet growth timeline 01:55:02 — Timber Ninja gear talk: Kunai, Mini Kunai, C2 sticks 02:10:00 — Wrap-up Resources: Johnny's IG - https://www.instagram.com/thejohnnystewart/ Johnny's YT - https://www.youtube.com/@TheJohnnyStewart Johnny's website - https://johnnystewarthunt.com/ Instagram: @eastmeetswesthunt @beau.martonik Facebook: East Meets West Outdoors Shop Hunting Gear and Apparel: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/ YouTube: Beau Martonik - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQJon93sYfu9HUMKpCMps3w Partner Discounts and Affiliate Links: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/partners Poncho Outdoors - Poncho Outdoors makes tough, sharp-looking, no-BS apparel for hardworking outdoorsmen who put in the time year-round. Go to ponchooutdoors.com/EASTMEETSWEST to save $10 and free shipping Amazon Influencer Page https://www.amazon.com/shop/beau.martonik Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Beau Martonik sits down with Allie D'Andrea (Outdoors Allie) and Nick Berger for the first time in four years. A big chunk of this one is wild game cooking. Allie ran a head-to-head venison burger experiment comparing pure venison, pork shoulder, bacon, butter, mayo, and egg. Pork shoulder at 80/20 won. Mayo was last. She also covers how to handle bear meat, how to render bear fat, where to source fat at the grocery store, and what to do with the turkey that's been sitting in your freezer since last fall. Beyond the cooking, they get into bear hunting in Pennsylvania and the weight that comes with it, the honest math on guide hunts vs. DIY, why Florida outdoorsmen are underrated, deer camp culture, and fall plans including a Wyoming elk tag. Allie is the author of The Butcher's Table cookbook, available on Amazon. Topics: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:04:21 — Long-term content creation: staying in this space 00:16:38 — Guide hunts vs. DIY: the honest math 00:20:51 — Why Florida hunters are underrated 00:28:59 — Wildlife encounters and bear hunting in PA 00:52:46 — Deer camp culture 00:58:28 — Bear meat: how to grind, render, and cook it 01:06:04 — Venison burger fat experiment 01:14:57 — Freezer turkey and wild game cooking tips 01:35:24 — Hawaii axis deer, scalloping in Florida, and Wyoming elk Instagram: @eastmeetswesthunt @beau.martonik Facebook: East Meets West Outdoors Shop Hunting Gear and Apparel: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/ YouTube: Beau Martonik - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQJon93sYfu9HUMKpCMps3w Partner Discounts and Affiliate Links: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/partners Poncho Outdoors - Poncho Outdoors makes tough, sharp-looking, no-BS apparel for hardworking outdoorsmen who put in the time year-round. Go to ponchooutdoors.com/EASTMEETSWEST to save $10 and free shipping Amazon Influencer Page https://www.amazon.com/shop/beau.martonik Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Beau Martonik sits down with Ryan Leary, a PA hunter who has been grinding big woods public land for six years and put together back-to-back mature buck kills including a 7.5 year old eight point in 2025. Ryan breaks down both hunts — the 2025 buck he killed at 10 yards after trusting his gut on fresh sign mid-morning, and the 2024 deer he killed the same evening he bumped on foot while hunting with a broken shoulder he probably shouldn't have been in the woods on. They also get into how he reads finger ridges and micro terrain, why getting into the nasty stuff changed his success rate, how the gypsy moth acorn wipeout forced him to rethink his whole approach, and what he's learned about mature bucks in the Pennsylvania mountains. Topics: 00:00:00 – Intro 00:04:34 – Background and How Ryan Got Into Big Woods Hunting 00:14:29 – The 2025 Buck — Setup, Sign, and the Kill 00:23:41 – Breaking Down the Terrain and Why the Tree Made the Difference 00:29:48 – Trusting Your Gut in the Big Woods 00:39:13 – Reading Mature Buck Bodies vs. Antlers 00:49:52 – The 2024 Season — Broken Shoulder, Big Encounters, and the Kill 01:00:22 – How Late October 2024 Was Unlike Any Season Recently 01:02:33 – Time in the Woods — Why It Changes Everything 01:13:40 – Micro Points, Buck Beds, and Reading Terrain 01:23:54 – Advice for Guys Getting Into Big Woods Public Land Hunting 01:28:50 – Closing Instagram: @eastmeetswesthunt @beau.martonik Facebook: East Meets West Outdoors Shop Hunting Gear and Apparel: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/ YouTube: Beau Martonik - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQJon93sYfu9HUMKpCMps3w Partner Discounts and Affiliate Links: https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/partners Poncho Outdoors - Poncho Outdoors makes tough, sharp-looking, no-BS apparel for hardworking outdoorsmen who put in the time year-round. Go to ponchooutdoors.com/EASTMEETSWEST to save $10 and free shipping Amazon Influencer Page https://www.amazon.com/shop/beau.martonik Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ranking source
Apple Podcasts rankings via the Mato Topic Intelligence Platform.
Observed November 4, 2026.
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