Ep. 515: Why the Best Funnels for Mature Bucks Have No Sign w/ Jeremy Ballantine
East Meets West HuntShow Notes
Beau Martonik sits down with Jeremy Ballantine at Huntstock. Jeremy grew up in southern Vermont tracking big bucks on snow, has guided moose hunters for over 25 years, and hunts Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.
Years of following mature bucks through the mountains showed him they don’t use the country the way other deer do. They parallel the trails, cut through saddles on one contour, and scoot through the funnels without leaving much sign. That’s where he kills them now. This one is tactic heavy, from rattling in crunchy leaves to sitting one spot for a week.
In this episode:
Hunting Vermont, and why tracking and stand hunting feed each other
Why bucks love to bed above their own backtrack
Using rattling antlers to get a buck’s attention when he can’t hear a grunt
Two bucks he wouldn’t have killed without antlers in the tree
Why the brawlers die young and the true giants are mellow
Wide Clyde: a three year chase, a hot doe, and eight seconds on snow
Frustration rubs, and why not every rub means something
Doe groups, trail camera history, and four day rut windows on some mountains
Bucks that winter 15 to 18 miles from where they rut
Why you have to treat mature bucks like a different species
Why the best funnels have the least sign
Sitting one funnel five or six days dark to dark
Why he shuts his cell cams off during the rut
Swirling wind in a funnel, and his favorite rut dates
https://act.wilderness.org/a/26bcpledge-eastwest-1
Jeremy's YT - https://www.youtube.com/@InPursuit365
Jeremy's IG - https://www.instagram.com/inpursuit_365/
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
More from East Meets West Hunt
Bonus episode. Beau Martonik sits down with Todd Bumgardner of Packmule Training Co., a performance coach who’s trained NFL linebackers, special operators, and a lot of hunters. Todd wrote an article for the East Meets West journal last October on managing your body and mindset through the whitetail rut, and this is the conversation behind it.
Beau Martonik sits down with Dan Infalt of The Hunting Beast at Huntstock, with Johnny Stewart as co-host. Dan has been asked about bedding areas on every podcast there is, so this one skips the tactics and goes after the story behind them.
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.
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.
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.