Show Notes
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/
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@beau.martonik
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More from East Meets West Hunt
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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.
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.
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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.