Think Outside the Box – Chase Bowman 2017

It is important to sometimes think out-of-the-box when it comes to devising hunting strategies and habits. In this episode, host Bruce Hutcheon interviews Bound for Blood TV co-owner Chase Bowman, about his hunting tips and techniques that has made him into the hunter that he is today. Listen to this podcast episode as Bruce and Chase discuss Chase’s TV show, reading sign and terrain, Chase’s hunting setup, and so much more.

—

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE:

Think Outside the Box – Chase Bowman 2017 – Bound for Blood

We’re heading out to Virginia and we’re going to connect with Chase Bowman. He has a TV company called Bound for Blood that he and his brother started out in a number of years ago. They got away from it for a while and now they’re bringing it back big time. One thing about Chase that I love is that he talks about the parts of hunting that some people gloss over like reading signs and terrain. The biggest thing that Chase does and anybody else that I’ve had on the show is, he talks about hunting outside the box. Sit back, relax and read about Chase Bowman on thinking outside the box.

—

I’m excited to have Chase Bowman on the show. He was involved in starting Bound for Blood TV in 2015. You can find them on social media and he’ll tell you how to get ahold of him. Chase came back to show. He was here early on in the first 100 guests I’ve had. Chase, welcome to the show. I’m glad to have you back.

Thanks. I’m glad to be back. I enjoy it.

Let’s catch everybody up with what has happened with Bound for Blood and what the future holds that which you can share about. Let’s talk about your TV program and where you want to take that in the years ahead.

I took a break. I told you last time I was on, it fell into the norm of everything and I didn’t like it. I decided to sit back and try and breathe some new life into the show. I’m going to be coming back but most likely in spring 2018. Probably we’ll go back with the Hunt Channel because I like those guys. I’m not going to tell a whole lot about the way I’m going to come back with it. The show is going to be a little bit different than anything anybody else’s doing. I’m trying not to let the cat out of the bag. It’s going to be exciting and different. It’s going to be one me and one guy from Pennsylvania. We’re going to be doing it together. It’s going to be interesting and it’ll be something a lot of people would like the watch. I will be hunting the South and he’ll be hunting the North. I travel west a whole lot and he travels sometimes too. There are a lot of different kinds of animals killed and different terrains that people will get to see. As for the format, I’m not talking about that whole lot. I want to keep it a secret.

That’s a good catch up on that. What are the three things that you want to make sure that we can get out of this? Can you share whitetail hunting tips with our readers?

The biggest tip would be thinking outside of the box, pushing the envelope to do things that a lot of people wouldn’t dare do and reading signs and terrain. A lot of people don’t have any interpretation or misinterpret a lot of that. It’s a big key that a lot of people miss.

Let’s start right off with reading signs and terrain. We’re going to go through and talk about all those areas and share some stories along the way.

The best way to find where a deer's bedding will be is to go in on January or February. Share on X

We’ll start off with the easiest on the font and that would be buck rubs, in my opinion. Do you agree with that, Bruce?

They stand out because you can look down and all of a sudden, they see the fresh rub and it’s shiny. It’s a marker.

I’m speaking more about East Coast hunting. I want to clear that up, first of all. It may not make sense for a lot of the guys hunting the West. On the East Coast, you have higher pressure deer. There’s a tremendous amount of pressure. If you go back and look at Pope & Young entries and Boone & Crockett entries in the last years compared to the license sold in the East, you’ll see that we don’t kill the amount of big deer. I know there are lots of kills that aren’t put in but it’s the only indicator that you’ve got to go by.

Out in the West like in Kansas and places like that, your chance of killing a Pope & Young by license sales is 1 in 200. I’m talking more of the pressure deer back East. People will walk into a block of woods and they’ll see it a big rub line, the shiniest it can be and that’s where they want to set up their hunt. The thing is, those big rubs will get your blood pumping but in my opinion, that is not where you’re going to kill a big deer because 90% of those as a lot of people know, are made at night. You hardly ever go out hunting at night and in walks this buck and you start trashing. It’s very seldom.

That’s one big sign feature in my opinion, because they see that and it sticks out like a sore thumb. You gravitate to that and it’s hard to walk away from a big rub line. As for me, I’ve done it for years but I see a big rub line and there’s still part of me that wants to hunt that. On the rub lines, my advice is that deer are coming from somewhere to make that rub line. Instead of trying to hunt the rub line, you need to hunt where he’s entering and coming out of that bedding area and going through that rub line rather than setting blindly on that rub line. It’s not something he’s going to hit during daytime hours, nine times out of ten.

Scrapes are the same way to me. You don’t see big deers coming in for scrapes at daylight. It’s not something that they do much here in the East with high-pressure deer. You can use those two things to put you on a big deer during daylight hours, but you’re going to have to do your homework and figure out where he’s bedding. The best way to find out where he’s budding will be to go in on January or February after the seasons out. You’re not worried about busting those deer by being in there for a couple of days looking around and find its shed. Usually, if you can find a big deer shed, that’s where he beds. Most of the time, you get in a thick area and you’re finding a shed that’s because the deer are spending a whole lot of time in there.

When you think about rub lines, it’s either they’re coming from someplace or going to someplace. One thing that I’ve found is read the rub line and they’ll tell you whether they’re coming from East to West or North to South. Many people look at the rub line and they don’t read it. We’re talking about reading signs. When you read it, you can tell, “He’s coming up because he’s scraping on the Southside of that tree or the East, West or North.” You can get so much information about that deer and its habits. I like what you said. Figure out where he’s going to, feeding area, water, his day bed or he’s coming out of his core area and he’s heading someplace. They’re moving someplace. That’s the thing that people don’t think about. Those bucks are going specifically to someplace and you have to interpret the sign and set up your stand, ground blind or whatever and intercept him along that route. What are your thoughts on this?

I agree 100%. That’s exactly what I’m getting at. I hunted a whole lot than the younger hunters because they haven’t been hunting that long. It’s like walking out Christmas morning and you see all those presents under the tree and that’s right where you want it to go. You may walk by a pile of presents right in the corner because your head is the ones that are under that big flashy tree and maybe they’re not the best present. There’s always a bigger piece of that puzzle. Rubs and scrapes are a very small piece. Scrapes and rubs are useless. If you’re hunting them, you’re hunting a deer that’s not going to show to you in daylight, except for the rut when all bets are off during the rut. Overall, the rut’s only 1 or 2 weeks as a whole season, so there’s a whole lot to learn there.

What about community scrapes where trails are intersecting? I’ve seen some huge community scrapes. What are your thoughts on hunting on them?

My thoughts are the same as those. Even more, I will shy away from the community scrape quicker than anything. I don’t want to hunt an area where there’s a lot of deer. I want to hunt the area where there’s one big deer. I want to hunt on a stand where I may set up for three days and not see anything but one deer and that’s the big deer out hunting. If you’re hunting an area with a lot of deer, you’re way more apt to get busted. If you’re hunting community scrapes and every day a little buck is coming through there, it’s hard to stay hidden all the time. With the community scrapes, you will see some daylight activity because the young bucks are on their feet during the day, more so than the older bucks. To kill a mature old deer, there’s no scrape that will work that way. I’m not going to say that there are no big bucks that have been killed off the scrapes because clearly, they have. You have a better chance of following it back and hunting them where they bed if you can get in there quiet and often and pay attention to what you’re doing.

A lot of people write and chit chat about bedding areas. You don’t want to bust them out of there and not setting up your stand more than 100 yards of the bedding area and so forth. What are your thoughts on that? Let’s talk about that a little bit.

My thoughts on that are they’re really taboo. It’s what a lot of people say and a lot of that comes from, “I don’t have the time that the average guy has to hunt.” You’re way obsessed with deer hunting but work takes me out of town four days a week so I get the hunt at max three days a week. I’m not going to sit back on a deer and worry about pushing him out. I don’t have time to do that, so I’ll go in and usually by maps or knowledge of the terrain. Usually, I’ve been in there my whole life in almost the places I hunt. I know how to get in and you’ve got to get in early. You can’t go in there 30 minutes before daylight and set up in a bedding area.

You’re going to have to be up in the tree at least an hour before daylight. It’s a yes and no on that one. If I couldn’t make it in there before daylight, no, I won’t be close. I always dedicate myself to it to get into those places. I wouldn’t hunt on a bedding area during the evening because you’re not going to get in there. He’s already going to be bedded. It’s a fine line. I would hunt to where the wind is going to carry to that bedding area. In the evening, I would snug up as close as I could. The ideal place would be on a saddle where you can get your wind to carry down. When he’ll come out and he’ll try that wind to go over that saddle. You’ve got that one little saving grace there when he breaks his wind direction to go over that saddle. If you’re set up on that saddle, a lot of times he will smell you and you can kill it. Nothing’s 100% but that’s the way that I do it.

Do you use hang-ons or ground blinds? What type of set up do you have?

I’m 100% hang-on. I carry them in normally in the morning and I’ll set them up in the dark. I use a dull red light. I use the foam stuff that you put on the bottom of the dresser drawers. I’ll use that to wrap all my gear in it, so nothing rattles, my stands and sticks. I’ll get there in the morning. I found that I can get a hang on in the tree now as quick and quieter than I can with a climbing stand. That comes from a lot of times with practicing and doing it. I’m not a big fan of the climbing stand. To me, they’re noisy and you got to find the perfect tree and it’s hard to do that in the dark.

That’s for sure. I don’t hunt with hang on anymore. I hunt from stands that I’ve set up. Having said that, there’s a lot of stuff happening even with climbing sticks. You get one up there, sitting and hiding it in, you get yourself up there and strapped in and get your bow up. There’s a lot of stuff going on. How long does that take you? Is that a 15 or 20-minute job?

If you're hunting an area with a lot of deer, you're way more apt to get busted. Share on X

Once I reached the tree, I can have a stand up and secured in that tree, probably within twenty minutes on most days. If I get that stand up and everything goes smoothly in less than twenty minutes, I’ll have it up. One thing that I do, even if it’s blistering cold that morning, I don’t wear anything but a t-shirt or a thin long sleeve shirt. If it’s too cold I wear my thermals and I put my overalls and my coat in my backpack so I’ve got nothing hindering me, hanging off and making me sweat so I can work pretty well.

That’s interesting. I think of some of the cold mornings and the places I’ve hunted whitetails in and I’m going, “I don’t know if I could do that.” Do you wear gloves?

I wear thin gloves. You’re talking about East, Bruce. It’s not like the cold in Wisconsin here. To us, cold morning in November is still above zero. You’re talking 20 to 30 degrees is cold here. It’s not like in Wisconsin and Colorado cold. We don’t get into the negatives.

That’s for sure. Let’s talk about thinking outside the box. We’ve already shared a couple of things about hunting near the bedding area and going in an hour before, dark 30, red light, red headlamp and setting up in your stand. What you’re doing is, you’re waiting for that buck to come into the bedding area. Is that correct?

Yes, I’m trying to have him come in and not leaving. You’re exactly right on that.

What are some of the other thinking outside of the box because we all have habits? Some are good habits because that stand produced. If you do the same thing and you’re going to shoot a buck. I’m not talking about mature bucks because they’re a whole different ball game. Let’s talk about thinking outside the box and get yourself set up so you can take a nice a mature deer, a 2.5 or 3.5-year-old deer, not Mr. Wonderful but a good representative trophy. Maybe a 125 or better Pope & Young.

A whole lot of what I told you is out of the box. I don’t know many people that hunt that way. Another thing that I have done in the past is, if I couldn’t locate exactly where a buck was bedding but I had a good idea, or I couldn’t find the right place to set up. I’m talking like large tracks that are cut over and you’re trying to get in range of that deer and figure out what he’s doing. I have one in late in the evening an hour before dark or getting close to dark. I went through that bedding area and got the deer to jump. When you do that, try and see where he got up and which way he goes.

If you do it late in the evening, that deer will normally go on about his normal feeding route. You set up on and you get in there early that morning when he comes back in there to bed, you’ve got him. I’ve had that work. The first time I ever heard of it was from the inventor of the Lone Wolf treestand and that’s how he hunted a lot of his deers and I started trying it. People at first told me, “You’re crazy. You’re going blow that deer out,” but you’re not. To him, that worked because he got out without getting killed, so he’s going to return there.

I’ve had that work numerous times. It’s one of my favorite ways to hunt a big deer. Another thing, I shared with you last time, I was hunting a big eight-pointer. He was 160 maybe 178 and that’s unreal for where we live. They started getting trail camera pictures of him in certain places. He’d be on one farm for one month and he’d move. I figured out what he was doing and he was moving around the river. I had a good idea of where he was going to be when it comes time to rut and where most of does would be. I hung a stand 60 yards from that deer. Whenever I hear that deer and his does wake up that morning and they were 60 yards from me, I carried that stand in that morning and hung it. That’s out of the box. I used to bow hunt off the ground a whole lot. Now I use a crossbow because of my eyesight. That’ll get you in some places that normally you couldn’t see.

You do it in a little canopy or something. You can’t see it from the tree stand. There are a lot of different things like that but it would take me forever to dig down into it. Most people are too scared. They think they’re going to bump a deer completely out of where he is and they tend to back off a whole lot. If I know where a deer is that I’m going to go in for him because he may not be there tomorrow whether I push him or not. All he’s got to do is take a doe and you don’t hurt him. Somebody may kill him or he might go to a completely different area searching for does if you don’t have a whole lot or does. If you know where he’s at, you’ve got to go in and kill him. A lot of people like to hunt them from a distance and I’m not like that. I like to get in there and get rough with them.

Up close and personal, that’s a good way to say your technique. Pay attention to details. You said you hunt with a crossbow now. How is that different than compound pluses and minuses? Let’s talk about hunting with a crossbow.

Naturally, the plus of the crossbow is the sheer accuracy of it. My crossbow is a Scorpyd Ventilator Extreme. At 100 yards, you’re shooting a baseball-sized group. You also have scope and crosshairs, which we all know the big disadvantages they have. They’re heavy to carry, they’re very awkward and the hardest shoot out of the tree. I’m not a fan of a crossbow but I do hunt with one because when it gets close to dark, I cannot see through my peep. If I’m shooting a bow, I cannot see through that peep and we’re talking the last hour of dark. It’s like the dark that’s due to an accident I had at work several years ago. It’s got worse and worse over the year.

To the guys that kill big bucks with bows, in my opinion and I’m not knocking anybody. I think they’re each of their own. Those guys that are killing massive deer with bows, those are your true good hunters. As we both know, it’s hard to get that big buck in bow range. It’s not as hard to get him in 100 yards with a crossbow. I’ve not shot 100 yards. We did take one at 87 yards with ease. I’m a bow hunter at heart and I bought the brand Halon 32 and love shooting it but when I need to be able to see it, I can’t see. The scope gathers a lot of light.

What type of broadheads do you use?

I use a little bit of everything. I used some expandables. I use Rages, Montec, Dirtnap or whatever I’ve got lying around is what’s going on. I found that most of the broadheads shoot about the same. There’s not a whole lot of difference. I’ve had them all work and I’ve had them all fail. Usually, it’s not the broadhead. It’s the shooter. A lot of times, people shoot high on a deer and say that the broadhead didn’t open. Generally, it’s the shot not the broadheads. A well-placed tilt point would kill any deer that ever moved. I use anything. I’m more favored to the cut on contact broadhead because I shoot a lot of hogs and stuff. I did have an expandable broadhead break off on a hog’s skull one time. The broadhead wasn’t quite tough enough to get to the rest of the way through. I had to track a faint blood trail.

I use a G5 Montec. That’s what I’ve used for years and they work. When something works, I stick with it. There are hundreds of great broadheads out there. Each is of its own sake. Chase, if somebody wants to get ahold of you on social media, what’s the best way to do that?

The biggest hunting tip for anybody is to make sure that they always enjoy it. Share on X

You can go to my personal Facebook page, which is Chase Bowman or you could go to the Bound for Blood Page. It’s still up and going. We haven’t taken any of that down. The only thing we took a break from was the TV part of things.

Where do you think the whole TV thing’s going? There are so many people that are on YouTube, Vimeo and you’ve got Instagram that you can put up videos on. Where’s the whole thing going in your estimation?

The TV will always be around as far as the regular televised stuff. It does seem to me that the industry is going towards the internet with YouTube and things like that. Years ago, you and I wouldn’t be sitting here doing a podcast. It’s leaning towards more of that digital area with YouTube and it’s so much easier to do and it’s free to do. A guy can put things on YouTube without even having sponsorship because he doesn’t have to pay anything.

That’s the thing and the camera gear is unbelievable. I’ve talked to a number of people that have been in the video part of it for a long time. You and I could go out and we could have some studio ready film with cheaper and less expensive gear than it was in the past.

You’ve got handheld cameras. You can go to Walmart and get a $300 camera that has video quality that is better than the studio cameras of yesteryear. It’s getting to where anybody can do it and there is a lot of people doing it. Overall, a lot of hunters talk about Facebook and things like that and how it’s hurting the industry in all because it’s hard to get sponsorships. I’ve been guilty of the same thing when you’re trying to get sponsors and you can’t because all these other guys doing it. In my opinion, social media has helped the deer quality overall because you got guys now that they’re holding out for big deer. Let’s be honest they want a picture on their cell phone and on Facebook of them holding a big deer. As far as deer age quality, it’s actually been a big help for that, in my opinion.

That’s an interesting thought. It’s the testosterone drive, call it what you want. To me, I’ve always gone along with what Brenda Valentine told me a long time ago, “It’s your hunt, it’s your deer. It doesn’t matter what you take. You’ve paid the money and spent the time so enjoy your trophy.” Many times, a guy will put up a simple spike buck or forky and I’m not talking about youth. I’m talking about a hunter saying, “Look at my deer.” He’s happier and it’s his first archery kill. Some people will go, “Why’d you kill that small deer?” You know the drill. What do you think about all that?

It was uncalled for. I’ve videoed myself shooting spike first because that was the deer that I was happy with. As long as I’m happy with it, it sounds good. At this point in my life, normally it takes a bigger deer but if I see a smaller deer, I’m not going to shoot him because that animal doesn’t excite me. There’s no part of me that says, “Take that animal’s life,” so I’m not going to. If somebody harvests an animal and they’re happy with it, it’s no one else’s right to throw down on it. I video myself shooting a spike just because I was tickled to death with that deer. It was the first time I’d ever been in this place.

My brother was filming and we were hunting this big nasty thicket. We carried our tree stands in and we have one day on it. I was bow hunting and I was happy that I was able to get in that area and take a deer. There are two sides to every coin. A lot of people are holding off on deer, but you’ve got people who are dogging other people. A whole lot of times, it’s jealousy. Maybe that guy hadn’t gotten a deer all year so he’s going to throw off on this guy to make himself feel better. You’re going to have that either way. It’s uncalled for, in my opinion. I know you feel the same way as well.

What’re your three best tips you could give to any bowhunter? Somebody comes up and asks you, “Chase, what about X, Y and Z?” What are the three things that you’d want to tell somebody that comes up and asks you a couple of questions about whitetail hunting?

If somebody came and asked me that, the first tip I can give anybody is to make sure that you always enjoy it. If you don’t enjoy it anymore and you’re doing it only to do it, you need to get out or change something. If you’re only hunting big deer and that got old blend, you need to get back to where you’re having fun with it. The second tip that I can give anyone would be to introduce someone else to it. That goes right back to having fun because if you’re hung with a group, a lot of times you have more fun. My third thing would be, always do your thing. Don’t do something just because everybody else is doing it.

If you feel that a small deer makes you happy, that’s fine. Kill all the small deer you want. If big deer makes you happy, do that. That would be my tips rather than saying, “This is how you hunt deer because my way is a whole lot different than anybody else would be. The main tip would be to make sure that you’re always having fun with it and those big bucks will come because you’ll keep doing it. The longer you hunt you might not ever kill one but one time because of luck because it takes a whole lot of luck. That would be my one tip to keep it fun.

We’re at the time of the show that you can give some shout outs to family, friends, sponsors, whoever you want and we’re going to wrap the show.

I’d like to give me a shout out to you, Bruce. I appreciate you for having me on again. I always enjoy coming along here and talking to you. I’d like to give a big shout out to Treezyn. I always liked those guys over there. I see they’ve got a new pattern out and that’s pretty cool. I can’t wait to see and use it. I’d like to give a shout out to my brother. He taught me everything I ever knew about hunting big deer and he’s always been there to help me out.

Thanks, Chase Bowman. I wish you fame and fortune, as they say with Bound for Blood. I can’t wait to have you down the road. We’ll get you back on the show and we’ll talk about what you’re doing and how you’re changing it up. It’s like you said, it’s thinking outside the box. Thank you so much for being a guest on the show.

Thank you, Bruce. I appreciate it.

On our next show, we’re heading out to Dakota and I’m going to connect with Nick and Kelsey Deutz. They’re from the Fargo area, and they hunt about 100 miles northwest of their home. They’re in Fargo where they both work. The thing that makes them unique is, Kelsey’s dad is still farming the same farm they’ve been on for a long and that’s, that’s where the whitetail hunt. Having said that, they talk about how hard it is to hunt the rolling Hills of Dakota There are not a lot of cuts and windbreaks. There are not a lot of anything where they’re from. If they want to put up trail cameras, they put in a fence post. Yes. That’s how they do it and they strap up a camera to it. It’s going to be an interesting show. You’re going to hear a lot about a hunting duo, Nick and Kelsey Deutz.

Thanks for reading. Before we go, can I take a moment and say thank you? When we started the Whitetail Rendezvous podcast journey, we had no idea what to expect. A quick shout out to all those who have left an iTunes review and your feedback. I get those and appreciate it and it’s awesome to see what you have to say. We do read every single one of them. I want you to know that I am incredibly grateful for your kind words regarding the show. All the ratings and reviews help us attract more listeners. If you’re one of those new listeners, welcome, great to have you.

If you haven’t taken the time to rate and review our show and like the Hunting on Private Land Strategy on how to get permission to hunt private property go to WhitetailRendezvous.com as a special gift for rating and reviewing our show. When you get there, look for the start button to get the details. I’ll share with you the top techniques from some of the top hunters in the country on how they get permission to hunt on private land. I’ll share with you the exact techniques they use to get permission as my way of saying thanks for rating and reviewing this show on iTunes. Join us next time. Remember, we’re all on this journey together, learning, sharing and becoming 365 hunters.

Posts

Think Outside the Box – Chase Bowman 2017 – Bound for Blood

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE:

Think Outside the Box – Chase Bowman 2017 – Bound for Blood

important links: