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Wired To Hunt Podcast #195: Rut Radio 2017 Review · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for
0:06
Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
0:11
Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Podcast. I'm
0:16
Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan. This episode number one and today
0:20
Speaker 1: we're back for our final RUT Radio episode of the
0:24
Speaker 1: two thousand seventeen season, and we're recapping what types of
0:28
Speaker 1: things we learned, what were the themes and trends from
0:30
Speaker 1: the past season, and we check in with hunters from
0:32
Speaker 1: across the country to get their perspectives too. All right,
0:44
Speaker 1: welcome back, folks to another episode of the Wired to
0:47
Speaker 1: Hunt podcast, and we are here today with our final
0:53
Speaker 1: well you could say it's our first RUT radio episode
0:56
Speaker 1: of two thousand eighteen, but it's also our final RUT
0:59
Speaker 1: radio episode of the two thousand seventeen season. Um, it
1:04
Speaker 1: just so happens that's in the new year, and today
1:07
Speaker 1: you know what we're gonna do is we're going to
1:09
Speaker 1: kind of take a high level look back at the year,
1:12
Speaker 1: at the season, um, and at the different trends and um,
1:18
Speaker 1: oh geez, I don't know. We've we've each week over
1:21
Speaker 1: the last three or four months now, right, we've talked
1:24
Speaker 1: different hunters all across the country about what's happening in
1:27
Speaker 1: the White Tail was what kind of activity they've seen,
1:29
Speaker 1: how the conditions have been impacting dear behavior, what types
1:32
Speaker 1: of tactics have been working. And we've done that week
1:35
Speaker 1: by week by week by week, and that's been interesting
1:37
Speaker 1: to follow, you know, on a short term basis. But
1:40
Speaker 1: I think if you pull back and look at this
1:43
Speaker 1: from a from a thirty thousand foot overview, there's some
1:46
Speaker 1: interesting things we can learn from that as well, looking
1:49
Speaker 1: at the season and the kind of it's an entire
1:51
Speaker 1: um in its entirety, I guess, and that's something I
1:55
Speaker 1: think we can learn from and then apply to the
1:57
Speaker 1: next season in future years. So that's kind of what
1:59
Speaker 1: I was hope and we could do in today's episode.
2:01
Speaker 1: And of course, Um, Spencer new Heart of Courses with
2:05
Speaker 1: us and Spencer, you have been doing an awesome job
2:08
Speaker 1: all season putting these episodes together. So I just want
2:11
Speaker 1: to first off, thank you for taking the time to
2:14
Speaker 1: do this, for connecting with so many different people and
2:17
Speaker 1: getting their their reports and insights on what's happening. Um,
2:20
Speaker 1: I can say personally I've gotten a lot from this,
2:22
Speaker 1: and I know our listeners have to so so well done,
2:25
Speaker 1: my friend, thank you. I appreciate that. Mark and I
2:28
Speaker 1: enjoy making these and so I hope people enjoy listening
2:31
Speaker 1: them as much as I enjoy producing them. Yeah, So,
2:35
Speaker 1: so what are your thoughts on today's episode? What are
2:37
Speaker 1: you what are we gonna try to achieve here? Well,
2:40
Speaker 1: as you mentioned in the past, all of our reports
2:43
Speaker 1: that we received have been very immediate, looking at what's
2:46
Speaker 1: happened in the last seven days and looking at what's
2:48
Speaker 1: probably gonna be happy in the next seven days. So
2:52
Speaker 1: this episode is obviously very different. UM when we step
2:55
Speaker 1: back and look at the themes for the seventeen season
2:59
Speaker 1: and so there are five things in particular that I
3:02
Speaker 1: picked up on UM kind of ending the season this year,
3:07
Speaker 1: we we covered thirty three states for radio. I believe
3:10
Speaker 1: we had was about fifty seven total reports over fourteen episodes,
3:14
Speaker 1: and so I spin all that, Uh, there was about
3:18
Speaker 1: five things that stuck out to me, and those five
3:20
Speaker 1: things all happened to come up in today's episode when
3:23
Speaker 1: reflecting on the fall of Seen and so and actually
3:27
Speaker 1: spends it really quick before you jump on those UM,
3:31
Speaker 1: just so that our listeners know what's coming up to
3:34
Speaker 1: right it's not just you and me talking today about
3:36
Speaker 1: reflecting reflecting on the season, but we also have some
3:39
Speaker 1: of our guest reporters back to reflect on the entire
3:42
Speaker 1: season as well. Is that right? Yeah? And kind of
3:45
Speaker 1: the same idea we cover covering the white tail nation.
3:48
Speaker 1: And we started Nebraska and talked to Bryce Lamley from Sitka. Uh,
3:52
Speaker 1: then we go to Illinois, talked to Alex Gillstrom from
3:54
Speaker 1: white Tail Properties, and then in New York from q
3:57
Speaker 1: d M as Matt Ross, and then we talked to
3:59
Speaker 1: Tony Eaterson in Minnesota with bow Hunter Magazine. Uh. These
4:03
Speaker 1: guys have hunted all beyond the borders of their states
4:06
Speaker 1: as well, and so UM, bringing in these four kind
4:09
Speaker 1: of helped us get a wide view of the entire uh,
4:13
Speaker 1: you know, white tailed woods in the the US. And
4:16
Speaker 1: so those five themes that I had mentioned previously, one
4:20
Speaker 1: of them being, um the e h D recovery and
4:24
Speaker 1: a lot of the US was hit in two thousand
4:27
Speaker 1: twelve with e h D and kind of we're still feeling, uh,
4:32
Speaker 1: the aftershock of that, and and it varies in the Dakotas.
4:35
Speaker 1: I feel like our deer numbers are back. I wrote
4:37
Speaker 1: a blog post and wired to hunt. I think a
4:39
Speaker 1: year ago saying how this could be the glory days,
4:43
Speaker 1: you know that we always want to talk about and
4:45
Speaker 1: reflect on because right now the aide structure is starting
4:48
Speaker 1: to develop again. Uh, and we're seeing a lot of
4:50
Speaker 1: deer who had never been pressured before because with that
4:53
Speaker 1: e h D Uh, you get typically a big cutback
4:57
Speaker 1: in tag numbers. Um, there's hunters in the woods for
5:01
Speaker 1: the period of time after. And so what I've seen
5:04
Speaker 1: is that a lot of deer just haven't been educated
5:07
Speaker 1: yet in my area, uh, because there isn't a ton
5:10
Speaker 1: of hunters out there chasing a ton of deer. And
5:12
Speaker 1: so we'll talk about the e h D recovery today
5:15
Speaker 1: and both sides of the coin Nebraska Brice didn't feel
5:18
Speaker 1: like they're seeing as well. Where Tony who hunted the
5:20
Speaker 1: Dakotas Uh, it feels like those populations are really starting
5:23
Speaker 1: to come back. And then we moved into October. UH,
5:27
Speaker 1: and this year, I recalling the last couple weeks of
5:30
Speaker 1: October that there was a lot of optimistic reports and
5:34
Speaker 1: the number one thing to attribute that too were the
5:36
Speaker 1: cold fronts that seemed to hit all the right notes. Uh.
5:40
Speaker 1: And Alex had a quote something like this. He said
5:43
Speaker 1: something if you were to pick out a calendar and
5:45
Speaker 1: circle the dates that you wanted a cold front in seen,
5:48
Speaker 1: it felt like we got that this year, you know.
5:52
Speaker 1: On that note, if I can jump in, I kind
5:54
Speaker 1: of thought the same thing, like I thought, oh man,
5:57
Speaker 1: we just have been We're getting just the gift of
6:01
Speaker 1: all gifts as far as the right weather at the
6:03
Speaker 1: right time. Because I, at least here in Michigan and Ohio,
6:06
Speaker 1: we had this big colt from the hit like October
6:09
Speaker 1: twenty five where it dropped like twenty or thirty degrees
6:12
Speaker 1: or something. I just thought that was gonna blow the
6:14
Speaker 1: doors off of things. Um. And we did get that weather,
6:18
Speaker 1: which should have been great now for my own personal experiences,
6:22
Speaker 1: though I didn't see the increasing activity that I was expecting,
6:26
Speaker 1: um to to go along with that front. Now. Of course,
6:29
Speaker 1: you know, we can't make any big picture, um takeaways
6:33
Speaker 1: from just a single person situation from what I saw
6:36
Speaker 1: in Michigan and from Ohio trail cameras and stuff. UM,
6:40
Speaker 1: But that was one thing that I personally experienced, it
6:43
Speaker 1: was the great weather, and then I just didn't get
6:45
Speaker 1: the increased activity that I was hoping for, and that
6:47
Speaker 1: even continued into November a bit, because you know, as
6:50
Speaker 1: as we as I'm sure you're mentioning here, that that
6:53
Speaker 1: great October weather continued all the way through like early November.
6:58
Speaker 1: I can't remember a year that we've had better weather
7:02
Speaker 1: during the rut, at least in the places I was hunting.
7:04
Speaker 1: I feel like every year, um, at least for the
7:07
Speaker 1: last decade, when I've really been following this closely during
7:10
Speaker 1: the rut, you always end up. At least for me,
7:13
Speaker 1: it seems that there always seems to be like a
7:14
Speaker 1: day or two or three or four where you get
7:16
Speaker 1: these abnormally hot temperatures and everyone's bummed about a temperatures
7:21
Speaker 1: in early November screwing up the best weeks of the rut.
7:25
Speaker 1: This year, at least where I was at, we didn't
7:26
Speaker 1: get that. We just had perfect cold to cool weather
7:30
Speaker 1: from you know, like October twenty straight on through in November.
7:33
Speaker 1: I mean, you couldn't ask for anything more from that standpoint.
7:36
Speaker 1: But I also wondered, because of that, if we didn't
7:41
Speaker 1: have any huge drops, like relative drops like it dropped
7:44
Speaker 1: October sex somewhere around there into like the forties. And
7:49
Speaker 1: again this is where I was that, of course these
7:51
Speaker 1: temperatures might be different across the country, um, but if
7:53
Speaker 1: I remember right, temperatures just kind of stayed steadily cool
7:57
Speaker 1: for the next three weeks. That there wasn't any big
8:00
Speaker 1: ups and downs from that standpoint, and I wonder if
8:03
Speaker 1: that might maybe, well, I guess I'd rather have this
8:07
Speaker 1: than have a bunch of hot temps. It maybe we
8:09
Speaker 1: didn't have those a huge bursts of cold for an
8:12
Speaker 1: activity that sometimes you get when you get a twenty
8:14
Speaker 1: or thirty degree temperature drop, um, simply because it just
8:17
Speaker 1: kind of stayed steady at that point. And again, like
8:20
Speaker 1: I've said several times, and that was just what I experienced.
8:22
Speaker 1: I don't know if you heard anyone else bring up
8:24
Speaker 1: something along those those lines, but it was kind of
8:26
Speaker 1: an interesting weather you're during the rut better certainly way
8:29
Speaker 1: better than it could have been. But I wonder if
8:31
Speaker 1: maybe the lack of like big changes, um kind of
8:35
Speaker 1: led to a little bit of a stagnant flow to
8:38
Speaker 1: some of the running activity that we see. Does any
8:40
Speaker 1: of that ring ring a ring a bell with you
8:42
Speaker 1: at all? Well? I think bringing up that those those
8:46
Speaker 1: cold fronts seemed well timed. If at the very least,
8:50
Speaker 1: it gives hunters some confidence. It'll get guys in the
8:53
Speaker 1: tree stand if they feel like they need to wait
8:55
Speaker 1: for a cold front. Um, there was multiple, you know,
8:59
Speaker 1: small ones, as you meant, and that seemed to hit
9:00
Speaker 1: all the way from mid October all the way to
9:03
Speaker 1: the beginning of November. And so if you were waiting
9:05
Speaker 1: on a cold front, you likely got to haunt one
9:07
Speaker 1: at some point during what you considered some good rutting action.
9:11
Speaker 1: And I've always considered that a potential factor in the past.
9:14
Speaker 1: Why guys think that cold fronts uh are so great
9:18
Speaker 1: from hunting, just because maybe it gives them a little
9:21
Speaker 1: more confidence and it focuses you when you're in the
9:23
Speaker 1: tree stand, and maybe you pick one of your better
9:25
Speaker 1: tree stands on one of those cold front days. And uh,
9:28
Speaker 1: it's not always attributed to the deer movement was potentially better, Um,
9:32
Speaker 1: but you were just in a better spot and you
9:34
Speaker 1: were more focused. Hm. So you're Sam. So you're saying
9:38
Speaker 1: that maybe even if the cold fronts aren't impacting actual
9:42
Speaker 1: dear behavior, if if nothing else, just because so many
9:45
Speaker 1: people in the deer hunting media preach about cold friends,
9:47
Speaker 1: it just increases hunters confidence and leads to better hunts
9:51
Speaker 1: because of that. Yes, this is something I've been work
9:54
Speaker 1: shopping for a while. I guess us that if if
9:57
Speaker 1: you see a cold front coming, you're gonna be more
10:00
Speaker 1: confident that the deer movement is going to be there.
10:02
Speaker 1: And so, as you said, there's more guys in the woods,
10:05
Speaker 1: you're likely picking one of your better tree stands for
10:08
Speaker 1: that hunt. You're probably more focused because you're thinking, oh,
10:11
Speaker 1: you know, this could be it. And so I think
10:14
Speaker 1: we put a lot of stock into cold fronts and
10:17
Speaker 1: what they dear to do to dear movement. Um. And
10:20
Speaker 1: I think some of that is appropriate, But I think
10:22
Speaker 1: the other half of the coin is that, uh, guys
10:25
Speaker 1: just find themselves in better positions than they would be if, say,
10:28
Speaker 1: a cold front wasn't there, you probably wouldn't be in
10:31
Speaker 1: that stand because you wouldn't feel very good about the
10:35
Speaker 1: deer movement in that area. It's an interesting observation. I
10:38
Speaker 1: think there could be some truth to that. Um. I mean,
10:41
Speaker 1: I certainly love cold fronts. I think that there definitely
10:44
Speaker 1: is something to it. But you can't deny the fact
10:47
Speaker 1: that there is a ton of hype around them these
10:49
Speaker 1: days too. Like especially with social media and all the
10:53
Speaker 1: media just regular outdoor media now too. Like I remember
10:57
Speaker 1: that mid Act or that late October when that big
11:00
Speaker 1: front was coming through the country. If you look to
11:02
Speaker 1: Instagram or Facebook or anything, there were so many people
11:05
Speaker 1: posting memes about it or all sorts of articles talking
11:09
Speaker 1: about better be in the woods. Heck, I made a
11:11
Speaker 1: YouTube video about it. I mean, there's all sorts of
11:14
Speaker 1: people talking about the front. So just the level, the
11:17
Speaker 1: level of talk about these big things coming across the country,
11:22
Speaker 1: the impact deer hunting these days, Like, I think there's
11:23
Speaker 1: a level of buzz about things, collective understanding about things
11:30
Speaker 1: that there probably was not ten years ago. You know,
11:32
Speaker 1: ten years ago, nobody was talking about this stuff. You know,
11:36
Speaker 1: it's such a high degree where so many people are
11:39
Speaker 1: hearing about the same things. So it's it's an interesting idea,
11:43
Speaker 1: and I think it's something to think about. Um. But
11:46
Speaker 1: I do love those could friends, Yeah, I I love
11:49
Speaker 1: them as well. I'm always going to be a triet
11:51
Speaker 1: if I get a chance on the cold Front. But
11:52
Speaker 1: I think what we have is is potentially an echo
11:55
Speaker 1: chamber of everybody say the same thing. As you mentioned
11:58
Speaker 1: the media that you've got to be there in the
11:59
Speaker 1: cold front, and then uh, that just gets repeated and
12:02
Speaker 1: it becomes fact almost And then I know you've discussed
12:05
Speaker 1: with some biologists, uh, how whether fronts affect your movement.
12:10
Speaker 1: I believe Lindsay might have touched on this with you
12:12
Speaker 1: one time, that there's no science that shows that cold
12:14
Speaker 1: fronts affect dear movement. But I think he might have
12:18
Speaker 1: may have even admitted that that goes against some of
12:21
Speaker 1: his deer hunting um beliefs as well. And so, like
12:25
Speaker 1: I said, I think cold fronts appropriately get some hype,
12:28
Speaker 1: but it might be too much that there might be
12:30
Speaker 1: other factors involved there. Ye, speaking of hype um. You know,
12:35
Speaker 1: one of the things I noticed this here is I
12:36
Speaker 1: was following the moon and the different theories around the
12:40
Speaker 1: moon and seeing how that tracked with my own observations. Now, again,
12:45
Speaker 1: he can't make too many claims or you know, uh
12:49
Speaker 1: what am I trying to stay here? Out of one
12:52
Speaker 1: person's observations. You don't want to take too much out
12:54
Speaker 1: of that. So what I'm about to say here, don't
12:56
Speaker 1: take this as as fact across the board. This is
12:58
Speaker 1: just one person's officer rations, not even really data driven.
13:02
Speaker 1: This is simply anecdotal. But I did try to track
13:05
Speaker 1: the different moon theories, the red moon theories, you know,
13:07
Speaker 1: when the moon's overheaded, underfoot, or if the moon is
13:10
Speaker 1: rising or setting earlier late in the day, um, and
13:14
Speaker 1: seeing if that correlated with increased activities. So on the
13:17
Speaker 1: days and the moon was good, did I also see
13:19
Speaker 1: the activity bump that you're supposed to? And I can't
13:22
Speaker 1: say that I really saw anything noticeable. Um. I didn't
13:26
Speaker 1: you know, go into those days and and just get
13:28
Speaker 1: floored by oh my gosh, yeah, this is incredible, and
13:31
Speaker 1: it was on those right days. Um. But again I
13:35
Speaker 1: wasn't tracking it so closely that I could say that.
13:38
Speaker 1: You know, if I was really good about this, I
13:39
Speaker 1: would have tracked how many deer I saw per hour
13:42
Speaker 1: or something throughout the entire season, and then look at
13:45
Speaker 1: the days with the right moon conditions and I could
13:47
Speaker 1: tell you, oh, well, on those days there was actually
13:49
Speaker 1: a four percent increased you know, sight rating or something
13:52
Speaker 1: like that. If I had that kind of data, then
13:54
Speaker 1: maybe we could pull some conclusions. Um. I don't. But
13:57
Speaker 1: just from my general observation standpoint, it didn't feel like
14:01
Speaker 1: I saw anything different on those good moon days. Um,
14:04
Speaker 1: and I've been tracking it for a handful of days.
14:05
Speaker 1: I'm still up in the air on it. UM. Again
14:08
Speaker 1: to what you said, Spencer, the research and science out
14:11
Speaker 1: there doesn't point to any kind of correlation. They have
14:13
Speaker 1: not been able to find a correlation. Um. But there's
14:16
Speaker 1: a whole heck of a lot of good deer hunters
14:18
Speaker 1: that still believe it. So that's that's an interesting thing. UM.
14:22
Speaker 1: But I realized I'm pulling things off the rail here, Spencer.
14:24
Speaker 1: I've totally taken you off of your five trends, So
14:29
Speaker 1: maybe we want to get back onto your your track. Yeah,
14:32
Speaker 1: So back to the five trains. The first two that
14:33
Speaker 1: we just covered was the the e h D recovery
14:36
Speaker 1: and then the October cold front. Uh. The third one,
14:39
Speaker 1: keeping that October theme, was the huge acorn crop that
14:43
Speaker 1: it seemed like everybody was dealing with this year. And
14:46
Speaker 1: that was whether you're in Arkansas or Wisconsin, or Vermont
14:52
Speaker 1: or Nebraska, there was just everybody was talking about the acorns,
14:57
Speaker 1: and that could be good and bad some guys. Else
15:00
Speaker 1: it was suppressing the movement in October that you had to,
15:03
Speaker 1: you know, work harder to define the deer or others
15:07
Speaker 1: were excited about it a little bit later in the year. So,
15:10
Speaker 1: did you see a large acorn crop in in Michigan
15:13
Speaker 1: or a lot of your contexts you've talked to you
15:15
Speaker 1: uh hit on that hot topic this year. Yeah, I
15:18
Speaker 1: think that was something that I saw as well. And
15:20
Speaker 1: I think, UM to that point, if you were hunting
15:23
Speaker 1: in a situation where you were kind of hoping for
15:26
Speaker 1: or dependent on activities on egg related food sources or
15:30
Speaker 1: food plots, that's where the acorn crop maybe screwed things
15:34
Speaker 1: up for it. Because if you had like all of
15:36
Speaker 1: your early season or mid October setups, you know, over
15:39
Speaker 1: food like a grain, food source or food plot of
15:42
Speaker 1: some kind, Like I had a couple of setups like that, UM,
15:45
Speaker 1: I had very little activity on those spots in daylight, UM,
15:50
Speaker 1: especially mature bucks compared to past years. And I think
15:53
Speaker 1: a lot of that can be attributed to what you
15:55
Speaker 1: just said that a lot of these deer they didn't
15:57
Speaker 1: need to go onto the fields during daylight because they
15:59
Speaker 1: had food food in the timber right next to their bedding, UM,
16:03
Speaker 1: which you know, just makes it more difficult. You can't
16:06
Speaker 1: get in there. It's very tough to catch use deer
16:08
Speaker 1: in daylight. So so yeah, I heard a lot of
16:10
Speaker 1: people mentioned that same thing, and I saw something that
16:12
Speaker 1: as well. Yeah, I'd say the acorns uh in October
16:16
Speaker 1: played a big role on how a lot of archers,
16:19
Speaker 1: you know, whether they had success or not in seventeen.
16:22
Speaker 1: So the fourth themed that I noticed was the late harvest.
16:25
Speaker 1: As far as corn and soybeans. It seemed like we
16:29
Speaker 1: had a wet beginning of the year and then pretty
16:32
Speaker 1: mild temperatures that seem to keep farmers out of the fields,
16:36
Speaker 1: and maybe some timely rains that um kept farmers out
16:39
Speaker 1: of the fields as well, and that can change things
16:42
Speaker 1: on a whole number of different scales. UM. I guess
16:46
Speaker 1: you could see deer that consistently stay in fields that
16:50
Speaker 1: never come out, you know. I find deer in South
16:52
Speaker 1: Dakota that will bed and slows in the middle of
16:54
Speaker 1: a corn field and you won't see them until harvest.
16:57
Speaker 1: Or that could be good for you if you have
16:59
Speaker 1: some the only food around. UM. So, if you're dependent
17:04
Speaker 1: on corn or soybeans, you had likely had a late
17:07
Speaker 1: harvest seas here and that was something that you were
17:10
Speaker 1: always game planning around. Definitely, something impacts things here, specifically
17:16
Speaker 1: in southern Michigan, we actually had early harvest. Um, we
17:20
Speaker 1: had the crops coming out here earlier than I ever remember.
17:22
Speaker 1: But that that could have been unique to just write
17:24
Speaker 1: where I'm at, um, But I saw like the opposite
17:27
Speaker 1: of what you just said, and that with that early Um,
17:30
Speaker 1: with the early harvest of the corn fields and stuff,
17:33
Speaker 1: lots of times that standing corn would keep deer in
17:36
Speaker 1: some of these areas that maybe didn't have good cover otherwise.
17:39
Speaker 1: So when those came down so early in our case,
17:42
Speaker 1: it was like mid October that these corn fields were
17:45
Speaker 1: coming down. Um, that changed things up just a lot
17:47
Speaker 1: sooner than usual because more often than not, I'm seeing
17:50
Speaker 1: you know, standing corn fields coming down, you know in
17:53
Speaker 1: the first second week ago in November maybe around here.
17:56
Speaker 1: And it was almost a full month earlier for me here,
17:59
Speaker 1: So that that just changed things for me just in
18:01
Speaker 1: a different way. But yeah, the time of the harvest,
18:04
Speaker 1: that's a big one. Whether it's early or late. You
18:06
Speaker 1: just need to stay on top of that if you
18:08
Speaker 1: hunt in an area where where those things are happening, right,
18:11
Speaker 1: And like I said, some guys were fired up about
18:13
Speaker 1: another guys were down on If you were a gun
18:16
Speaker 1: hunter and you know, you primarily hunt a big, open
18:20
Speaker 1: cut cornfield, and that cornfield wasn't cut then obviously that
18:23
Speaker 1: made things difficult for you. But if you UH came
18:27
Speaker 1: upon you know, mid November and your corn hadn't been harvested,
18:31
Speaker 1: you're an archer and you had some of the only
18:32
Speaker 1: food around, uh than than that might have been great
18:36
Speaker 1: for your situation. So the late harvest UH just played
18:39
Speaker 1: a role for everybody. It seemed like weather good or bad.
18:42
Speaker 1: I always, selfishly, I have always liked it when we
18:46
Speaker 1: get a late harvest. I always root for standing corn
18:49
Speaker 1: fields to still be standing on November because that's our
18:53
Speaker 1: opening day gun season. And I always feel like if
18:56
Speaker 1: you've got standing cornfields when a gun season opens up,
18:59
Speaker 1: there's just to be more young bucks that make it
19:01
Speaker 1: through the next year. I've always I wish I could
19:03
Speaker 1: saw how track that UM to see if the rate
19:07
Speaker 1: of bucks that reached maturity the year after a late
19:10
Speaker 1: harvest year is higher, because I gotta believe that those
19:13
Speaker 1: those standing cornfields save a lot of young bucks if
19:16
Speaker 1: they're present. UM. That definitely didn't happen for us this year. Well.
19:21
Speaker 1: And then the fifth theme, UH, it's just the month
19:24
Speaker 1: of December and how the weather was in It seemed
19:27
Speaker 1: like the first fifteen days or the first half of
19:29
Speaker 1: December was fairly mild, and uh that was kind of
19:33
Speaker 1: frustrating and maddening for a lot of guys who rely
19:36
Speaker 1: on those good late season haunted. It didn't push the
19:39
Speaker 1: deer onto the food plots that it normally would. It
19:41
Speaker 1: didn't congregate them and didn't push him into the winter
19:45
Speaker 1: bedding areas where they'd maybe be seeking some better cover.
19:48
Speaker 1: And so it seemed like the first half of December
19:51
Speaker 1: was kind of frustrating with the mild weather that we
19:53
Speaker 1: had for for deer hunters at least, and then the
19:56
Speaker 1: second half of December brought some harsher conditions, some snow,
20:00
Speaker 1: wind and and some cold that uh did end up
20:03
Speaker 1: helping guys out. People were excited that their plots finally
20:07
Speaker 1: had some activity or that their late season food source
20:10
Speaker 1: felt like it was being treated like a late season
20:12
Speaker 1: food source as opposed to you know, just a couple
20:15
Speaker 1: of days prior in early December. M hmm. Yeah, we
20:19
Speaker 1: definitely definitely felt that. For sure, super warm early December,
20:22
Speaker 1: super cold now in late December, um, which which leads
20:26
Speaker 1: me to a question which is and I found myself
20:29
Speaker 1: in the situation in the past. Even this year, I
20:31
Speaker 1: was thinking about a little bit. Right it was early
20:33
Speaker 1: December and I wanted to wait for a good cold front. Um.
20:36
Speaker 1: But then I was thinking as December ticked along, and
20:39
Speaker 1: now it's the seventh, eighth, ninth, Now it's the eleventh, twelve,
20:43
Speaker 1: and you're waiting for this great weather. Well, what happens
20:45
Speaker 1: if it never comes? At what? At what point do
20:48
Speaker 1: you need to say, Well, I just gotta start hunting
20:51
Speaker 1: these late season, dear, because we're not going to get
20:54
Speaker 1: that megic cold front. So do you do you just
20:57
Speaker 1: start going because you can't wait because the season could
20:59
Speaker 1: just slip by, or or is the lesson learned from
21:02
Speaker 1: this year that no, you should have stayed patient, because
21:06
Speaker 1: if you waited until the twentie now you had this
21:08
Speaker 1: incredible weather that did get the big bucks all on
21:10
Speaker 1: the food sources in daylight um versus. You know, if
21:15
Speaker 1: you had been pounding it on the eighth, ninth, tenth
21:18
Speaker 1: when it was kind of mediocre temperatures, maybe you would
21:22
Speaker 1: have pressured those deer and now you don't get to
21:23
Speaker 1: see them when they're really cold. Temperatures hit Um, I
21:27
Speaker 1: don't know. I I found myself struggle this in the
21:30
Speaker 1: late season every year, like how long do I wait
21:33
Speaker 1: until I start hunting? Because you want that perfect weather,
21:35
Speaker 1: but you also you also need to take some take
21:38
Speaker 1: some opportunities to get out there in the woods. Um.
21:41
Speaker 1: But it's that balancing at because you don't want to
21:42
Speaker 1: pressure them too much of this time of year. Did
21:45
Speaker 1: you hear anything along those lines from any of the
21:47
Speaker 1: other guys or from your experience, Spencer, as far as
21:49
Speaker 1: you know, do you did you go for it anyways?
21:52
Speaker 1: Or do you to keep on being patient and wait
21:54
Speaker 1: and wait and wait until we do get that primo weather.
21:57
Speaker 1: Nothing like that came up specifically in this episode, but
22:00
Speaker 1: just reflecting on um, you know who we talked to
22:03
Speaker 1: in the month of December and it just seemed like
22:04
Speaker 1: a lot of selective pressure. And I remember talking to
22:07
Speaker 1: it might have been bred Joy in the Northeast here
22:10
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago, and uh, you know, their
22:12
Speaker 1: season was like three days away from closing, and I
22:15
Speaker 1: think I asked something about, you know, how aggressive are
22:17
Speaker 1: you right now? And he said, well, there's three days
22:19
Speaker 1: of the season left, so extremely aggressive. Um, So that
22:22
Speaker 1: seems kind of obvious there that once it gets down
22:25
Speaker 1: to the wire that you have to be more aggressive.
22:27
Speaker 1: But then I remember talking to some other guys who said, well,
22:30
Speaker 1: you know, we have until January fifteenth, and so if
22:33
Speaker 1: we bump a deer now, that might be the last
22:36
Speaker 1: time we see him this season. So just a selective pressure.
22:39
Speaker 1: And I guess I don't know what the great answer
22:42
Speaker 1: is unless you have a crystal ball to to see
22:44
Speaker 1: what the weather is coming. Uh, just gotta roll the
22:47
Speaker 1: dice with those haunts. It really is about being selective
22:50
Speaker 1: about picking the right time to go in there. And
22:54
Speaker 1: it's like you said, it's hard to make hard to
22:56
Speaker 1: know what's coming. But I guess that's why deer hunting
22:59
Speaker 1: is so much fun, because there's a lot of unknowns
23:02
Speaker 1: and you gotta make decisions, make some assumptions, work off
23:05
Speaker 1: of them, and hope for the best and sometimes works out,
23:08
Speaker 1: sometimes it doesn't. So those are the five things that
23:11
Speaker 1: that I felt like, um really were the theme of
23:14
Speaker 1: seventeen across you know, the White Tailed Nation With everybody
23:18
Speaker 1: this week, I asked him if there's something that they
23:20
Speaker 1: felt like they picked up from this last fall that
23:23
Speaker 1: they can use going forward, Maybe a lesson that they
23:26
Speaker 1: learned in twenty seventeen that they'll use inen and seasons
23:30
Speaker 1: after that. So is there something you mark that you
23:32
Speaker 1: feel like you learned in seventeen that was really eye
23:35
Speaker 1: opening for you? Man? Um, there's a lot, um. But
23:42
Speaker 1: if I had to pick one thing to mention now,
23:45
Speaker 1: I'll be expanding on these in our next Wird Hunt podcast.
23:48
Speaker 1: But if I were to offer one thing right now, um,
23:53
Speaker 1: it might Heck, where what do I want to say here?
23:58
Speaker 1: Don't look at your phone too much. I'll keep it simple. No,
24:04
Speaker 1: In all seriousness, I think, Um, I think it's just
24:09
Speaker 1: been a season where man s, Yeah, I still haven't
24:14
Speaker 1: collected all my own thoughts on things. It's still so
24:16
Speaker 1: fresh for me. A lot of a lot of my
24:19
Speaker 1: lessons learned this year were more related to my own
24:22
Speaker 1: personal situation, you know, with my hunt for holy Field,
24:25
Speaker 1: and that kind of consumed everything that I did this year.
24:29
Speaker 1: So I didn't necessarily get to have as many lessons
24:31
Speaker 1: learned um outside of that one experience, because so much
24:35
Speaker 1: of what I did was revolving around that deer. Um.
24:38
Speaker 1: So I do think that one big lesson learned I
24:41
Speaker 1: had this year was just about goal setting UM, and
24:45
Speaker 1: sometimes UM, putting all your eggs in one basket isn't
24:50
Speaker 1: always as good of an idea. And I think doing
24:52
Speaker 1: what I did kept me from doing a lot of
24:55
Speaker 1: the other things that I think I would have enjoyed
24:57
Speaker 1: and would have made for a great hunting season as well.
24:59
Speaker 1: But I was so obsessed with this one thing. Um.
25:02
Speaker 1: Now I realized this is not at all relevant to
25:05
Speaker 1: the rest of the audience, who might be looking for
25:07
Speaker 1: some kind of really high level deer hunting insight. So
25:11
Speaker 1: maybe I should just shut up and listen to what
25:14
Speaker 1: your observation or lesson learned is, because I'm sure it's
25:17
Speaker 1: more helpful than everything I've just been rambling about. Well,
25:20
Speaker 1: my lesson learned from seventeen was it goes back to
25:23
Speaker 1: me killing that buck on September, and I rarely have
25:27
Speaker 1: had much for early season success to excuse me to
25:31
Speaker 1: that point where I can kill a mature buck like that.
25:34
Speaker 1: I think one of the biggest things it was attributed
25:36
Speaker 1: to was just the complete lack of pressure that I
25:39
Speaker 1: had put on that property. UM. As I said earlier
25:43
Speaker 1: this year, I got married in June, and then I
25:44
Speaker 1: moved into a new house in August, and so that
25:47
Speaker 1: really took away a lot of my opportunities to be
25:50
Speaker 1: out scouting and hanging cameras and uh, doing things like that.
25:54
Speaker 1: And so I was just hunting some historical movement on
25:57
Speaker 1: that hunt, and that property hadn't had my boots on
26:01
Speaker 1: it since I don't know, six months prior probably, and
26:07
Speaker 1: so I think that just made a huge difference. Had
26:09
Speaker 1: I been there, you know, multiple times hanging cameras or
26:12
Speaker 1: you know, coming in and out on a four wheeler
26:14
Speaker 1: or anything like that, I can't imagine I would have
26:17
Speaker 1: had an opportunity at that booking. So it's just showed
26:20
Speaker 1: me that less is more, um for for that time
26:24
Speaker 1: of year. It's made me rethink potentially using some cell
26:27
Speaker 1: cameras or you know, dialing way back on cameras in general,
26:32
Speaker 1: so I'm not tempted to go check them you know,
26:35
Speaker 1: September and things like that. So it's showed me that
26:39
Speaker 1: you can have some success early season if you're just very,
26:43
Speaker 1: very careful about it. Yeah. Agree, I think that's a
26:47
Speaker 1: great point. Um So, Spencer, if you were to look
26:51
Speaker 1: back on the last four months of hunting, how would
26:56
Speaker 1: you rate the deer hunting on a scale of one
26:58
Speaker 1: to ten for you, uh, for me, I really couldn't
27:03
Speaker 1: have asked for a better season, So it was a
27:04
Speaker 1: ten for myself. Had the hundred sixty six in September,
27:09
Speaker 1: and then I killed the public Land mule hero was
27:13
Speaker 1: very happy with, and then a huck in in November.
27:17
Speaker 1: So I was very satisfied when I put together my season,
27:21
Speaker 1: you know, in in the spring in summer. That's the
27:24
Speaker 1: kind of Season nine vision happening. And so I couldn't
27:27
Speaker 1: have asked for a better year. Do we want to
27:29
Speaker 1: move on to the rest of the people. Yeah, we
27:31
Speaker 1: just rambled for thirty minutes, so we've doubled a normal
27:35
Speaker 1: radio episode, So I will talk to you in sounds
27:40
Speaker 1: good Spencer, thanks a lot for doing this, and thank
27:42
Speaker 1: you everyone for listening, and uh for those who participated
27:45
Speaker 1: to just for me personally, UM, I appreciate you guys
27:49
Speaker 1: working with Spencer. He can be a real bear to
27:51
Speaker 1: work with. Good stuff, All right, thanks part. Before we
27:56
Speaker 1: get to our first update, though, let's positive think our
27:58
Speaker 1: sponsors at sitki Gear. For this week's story, we're joined
28:02
Speaker 1: by sitcom Ambassador Alex Templeton, who tells us about some
28:06
Speaker 1: exciting whitetail action from early November. I had been hiding
28:10
Speaker 1: consistently all season long and Missouri with no luck, and
28:13
Speaker 1: at the end of September I had the opportunity to
28:17
Speaker 1: go to Illinois, which came at a good time because
28:20
Speaker 1: the weather at home was really warm and the deer
28:22
Speaker 1: weren't moving at all. So after hunting a week in Illinois,
28:26
Speaker 1: coming home and the handed, I was very determined to
28:28
Speaker 1: kill a deer with my bow before rifle season opened
28:32
Speaker 1: up in Missouri, which is on November fifteenth every year UM.
28:36
Speaker 1: At this point in the beginning of November UM and
28:39
Speaker 1: the weather can be hit or mid this time of
28:41
Speaker 1: the year as well, and this is when the rut
28:44
Speaker 1: is starting to kick off at the beginning of November,
28:47
Speaker 1: so I had pretty high hopes for good deer movement.
28:50
Speaker 1: And after a couple long days and nights sitting on
28:53
Speaker 1: an evening time on my favorite farm, I had a
28:56
Speaker 1: clean eight come by and we offered me a perfect
29:00
Speaker 1: side shot and I absolutely smoked him and I was
29:03
Speaker 1: sorry to go a damn about sixty away from my stand,
29:06
Speaker 1: and I was super excited and pretty proud of myself.
29:11
Speaker 1: On Alexis hunt, she was wearing sicks elevated to pattern
29:15
Speaker 1: in the women's line. If you'd like to create a
29:17
Speaker 1: sikest story of your own, or to learn more about
29:19
Speaker 1: Sitka's technical hunting apparel, visit Sitka gear dot com. Alright,
29:25
Speaker 1: and joining me on the line first is Bryce Lamley
29:28
Speaker 1: out of Nebraska with Sitka Gear. Now, Bryce in Nebraska,
29:32
Speaker 1: what kind of a season did you have this year? Well?
29:36
Speaker 1: Pretty good. I had to work really hard. I hunted
29:39
Speaker 1: seventy six times before our guns season and ended up
29:42
Speaker 1: killing about five by five remark scrape in October, and
29:48
Speaker 1: then two days before rifle season killed a one thirty
29:51
Speaker 1: six um inch buck um right in the evening, just
29:55
Speaker 1: like I said, right before rifle season. But I had
29:57
Speaker 1: to work really hard for him. And the one thirty
29:59
Speaker 1: six was the second big year I saw. Bryce. It
30:01
Speaker 1: sounds like a great year in UH this past year.
30:05
Speaker 1: What are some of the big themes that you noticed
30:07
Speaker 1: there in Nebraska as far as you know, weather, timing
30:11
Speaker 1: of their odd things like that. Well, one of the
30:14
Speaker 1: things is I don't think Nebraska, at least the eastern
30:17
Speaker 1: Nebraska has really recovered totally from the h D epidemic
30:20
Speaker 1: we had in two thousand twelve, and we've had a
30:22
Speaker 1: little bit of a touch of it the last year
30:24
Speaker 1: or two as well, But two thousand and twelve we've
30:26
Speaker 1: got hammered pretty hard and it really knocked our numbers back,
30:30
Speaker 1: and we're still not back to where they were before that,
30:33
Speaker 1: and I don't know if they ever will be back,
30:35
Speaker 1: because I think the Game and Parts Commission UM felt
30:37
Speaker 1: some heat from a lot of farmers about deer numbers
30:40
Speaker 1: at that time. But deer numbers are still rebounding, let's
30:43
Speaker 1: just put it that way. Weatherwise, UM, the we had
30:48
Speaker 1: extremely wet early season and then it's like somebody shut
30:52
Speaker 1: the water off about mid October, so and it's been
30:55
Speaker 1: dry ever since. And UM, I don't know if we've
30:58
Speaker 1: had an inchur brain since probably mid October, and it's
31:02
Speaker 1: still very dry right now. Well, bryce to the conditions
31:05
Speaker 1: from feel similar to anything else that you can recall
31:10
Speaker 1: in years past. Well, one of the um one of
31:14
Speaker 1: the interesting things is we didn't get any We had
31:16
Speaker 1: one snow I think in October in eastern Nebraska. It
31:19
Speaker 1: lasted twelve hours, and then we really didn't get any
31:22
Speaker 1: snow or cold weather until just right here at the
31:25
Speaker 1: end the lake I live on near uh In just
31:28
Speaker 1: that west of Omaha, Nebraska is Um, it didn't ice
31:32
Speaker 1: over until after Christmas. I mean there were guys in
31:34
Speaker 1: their kayaks on Christmas Day celebrating now, although the ice
31:37
Speaker 1: fishermen haven't been real happy about it, but it's it
31:40
Speaker 1: was really mild temperatures. And I just remember one year
31:43
Speaker 1: and I couldn't tell you what year it was, but
31:44
Speaker 1: we yet one year were the first mesa measurable snow
31:48
Speaker 1: was December thirty one and kind of a memorable hunt.
31:51
Speaker 1: I killed the dough that day, but it was, uh,
31:53
Speaker 1: it was just kind of like that. It was just
31:55
Speaker 1: an unusual year with without a lot of precipitation throughout
31:58
Speaker 1: what you would generally consider to be the best hunting
32:01
Speaker 1: days and weeks. Well, let's go back to talking about
32:05
Speaker 1: that moisture and how do you think, um, that amount
32:08
Speaker 1: of moisture that you guys received early season affected things.
32:11
Speaker 1: Then how do you think in effective things come the
32:13
Speaker 1: rout and then ultimately late season. Well, I think the
32:17
Speaker 1: amount of rain we had early on in some areas
32:21
Speaker 1: really helped define dear movement to some extent because it
32:24
Speaker 1: it made some areas, I mean, deer can get through it.
32:27
Speaker 1: But they're essentially lazy if they if they can be.
32:30
Speaker 1: And so it's actually in some in some my areas
32:33
Speaker 1: helped define the dear movement. But when it started turning dry,
32:37
Speaker 1: I think it really lead to less scraping activity, if
32:40
Speaker 1: that's possible, because I didn't pick up as many um
32:44
Speaker 1: or as much scraping activity um that you know, in
32:48
Speaker 1: in the in the prime time last half of October
32:50
Speaker 1: and so forth, and as I usually do in the
32:52
Speaker 1: ground is just um, you know, rock hard in many cases.
32:56
Speaker 1: And I've heard that from some of my buddies over
32:58
Speaker 1: in eastern Iowa. Two They just up staying, we need
33:00
Speaker 1: some water to get these dear to to be more
33:02
Speaker 1: active in the scrapes. And so I do think it
33:05
Speaker 1: had a little bit of an effect there, um with
33:07
Speaker 1: the with the rut just a little bit and our
33:10
Speaker 1: rut in eastern Nebraska. It depends on who you talk
33:12
Speaker 1: to you. But for me, I you know, I hinnd
33:14
Speaker 1: it really hard always through um about November twentieth and
33:17
Speaker 1: I was out of buck tags, and it was it
33:20
Speaker 1: was not a really there was never any really strong
33:25
Speaker 1: days when I was just like, wow, this is a circus.
33:27
Speaker 1: In most years, I'll get some of that. Um. Now,
33:30
Speaker 1: I have a brother out in southwest Nebraska and it's
33:32
Speaker 1: just as hard as I do. And he said it
33:34
Speaker 1: was crazy out there combination of white Town annual deer hunting.
33:38
Speaker 1: So I think it probably depends on where you were at,
33:40
Speaker 1: but I know in eastern Nebraska myself and several others
33:43
Speaker 1: were a little bit disappointed in that. Well, Bryce, you
33:46
Speaker 1: have a long resume of successful white heil hunting with
33:49
Speaker 1: a bow, But in ten do you feel like that
33:53
Speaker 1: you learned anything new, or that the weather, the ruts,
33:57
Speaker 1: anything changed for you that that really, uh, something you'll
34:01
Speaker 1: apply going forward. Well, yeah, one of the I think
34:05
Speaker 1: one of our goals should be to learn something every
34:07
Speaker 1: time we hunt. And this year I dealt with a
34:11
Speaker 1: property that had been basically bulldozed, and uh, it's just
34:16
Speaker 1: a passion. There's no cattle on it, and it grew
34:19
Speaker 1: up in a lot of weeds, and so I, you know,
34:23
Speaker 1: there's a learning experience for me basically hunting a weed field.
34:26
Speaker 1: But I did have a lot of activity and then
34:29
Speaker 1: once the corn came out, there was a lot of
34:30
Speaker 1: deer activity in the weeds and so forth, And so
34:33
Speaker 1: maybe I'm getting a little bit of a feel for
34:35
Speaker 1: for guys that hunt CRP quite a bit. Um, I'm
34:38
Speaker 1: starting to get a feel for that and maybe a
34:40
Speaker 1: newfound respect for that because I was really depressed about
34:43
Speaker 1: what was happening to this property, but now not so much.
34:45
Speaker 1: And even after I killed my buck, Um, I had
34:48
Speaker 1: a really close encounter with the biggest year. I saw
34:50
Speaker 1: a year one forty on that property and and I
34:53
Speaker 1: hope he made it. I think he did, and so
34:56
Speaker 1: it'll be interesting to match with with him again. Um.
34:58
Speaker 1: It's a little bit different type of hunting. They can
35:00
Speaker 1: see it coming a lot further away in many cases,
35:02
Speaker 1: but I I think that there are some things you
35:05
Speaker 1: can do with with a lot of grass and a
35:07
Speaker 1: lot of weeds. And um, I'm hopefully learning to adapt
35:12
Speaker 1: to the changes. I guess. All right, Bryce Fell, great intel,
35:15
Speaker 1: thanks for joining me, and good luck in the season.
35:19
Speaker 1: I appreciate. Thank you, Spencer alright and joining us on
35:23
Speaker 1: the line. Next is Elik Gilstrom out of Illinois with
35:26
Speaker 1: white tail properties now Alex in Illinois, what kind of
35:30
Speaker 1: season have you had thus far? It's been a it's
35:34
Speaker 1: been a blessed one, man, I gotta tell you. Um,
35:37
Speaker 1: really good, uh, really good hunting from really from the
35:41
Speaker 1: word go. We had really good, really good weather coming in,
35:45
Speaker 1: really good a cold front steer movement's been spot on. UM.
35:49
Speaker 1: We had an awesome uh, an awesome rut here in
35:52
Speaker 1: in early November. UM. I actually killed a buck on
35:55
Speaker 1: the tent and it was it was one of those
35:58
Speaker 1: mornings that we dream about, you know. I mean it was.
36:00
Speaker 1: I was tucked in close to some security cover. It
36:02
Speaker 1: was up against the Bedding Area transition line along c RP.
36:05
Speaker 1: It was it was perfect, just kind of wit kind
36:07
Speaker 1: of pinched down with this UM with the terrain as
36:10
Speaker 1: well as the cover, UM created a really just kind
36:13
Speaker 1: of good natural funnel and I shot the bucket in
36:16
Speaker 1: the morning. He was the eleventh buck that I saw
36:18
Speaker 1: that morning. Uh. It's kind of one of those, like
36:20
Speaker 1: I said, one of those ones you just dream about.
36:22
Speaker 1: So that was great. Well, let's talk about that weather
36:25
Speaker 1: a little more that it sounds like you think led
36:27
Speaker 1: to some of your successes this year, starting in October
36:31
Speaker 1: and then going in November December. How do you think
36:33
Speaker 1: the weather affected buck movement this season? I think it
36:39
Speaker 1: was really good in in in the area that I
36:41
Speaker 1: was hunting. Here in west central Illinois. Um, that's where
36:44
Speaker 1: I spent months, where I lived, where I spent most
36:46
Speaker 1: of my time. UM. And it really it was it
36:50
Speaker 1: was fairly mild, um, you know, kind of throughout. But
36:53
Speaker 1: we had we had just I mean, you couldn't you
36:56
Speaker 1: couldn't pull up a calendar and point to where you
36:59
Speaker 1: want cold front to fall any better than what they did.
37:01
Speaker 1: I mean it really was um awesome to see that.
37:05
Speaker 1: And and the tempts fell at the right time. Pressure
37:08
Speaker 1: was high at the right time, UM, and the dear
37:10
Speaker 1: movement reflected that. UM. So that was that was really great.
37:14
Speaker 1: And uh so overall that it wasn't like we had
37:18
Speaker 1: you know, unusually cold uh fall as far as general
37:21
Speaker 1: temperatures go. UM, I would say it was probably fairly
37:24
Speaker 1: average here to slightly a little bit above average as
37:26
Speaker 1: far as the standard temperature we went. But um, like
37:30
Speaker 1: I said, you know, we had those those anywhere from
37:33
Speaker 1: ten to twenty degree drops situated in the right times
37:36
Speaker 1: and by the right times. I'm talking you know, UM
37:40
Speaker 1: that the last ten days of October we had a
37:42
Speaker 1: good one, um. And then the first I'd say, you know,
37:46
Speaker 1: the first few days of November a little bit warm.
37:48
Speaker 1: Then it dipped off I think right around the fifth
37:51
Speaker 1: or the sixth, if I remembmembering correctly, we had another
37:55
Speaker 1: another good front move in and and made you know,
37:57
Speaker 1: the sixth to the twelve or thirteenth from really really strong.
38:01
Speaker 1: So it was it was awesome to see that. And
38:03
Speaker 1: like I said, it just kind of you couldn't you
38:05
Speaker 1: couldn't point time point on a calendar to have, you know,
38:07
Speaker 1: I want a cold front during this time frame when
38:09
Speaker 1: you know their daylight movements really picking up and they're
38:11
Speaker 1: getting really active. Um as far as the mature bucks go, Uh,
38:14
Speaker 1: you couldn't ask for any better. Really, well, from talking
38:17
Speaker 1: to hunters all across the nation, uh, this season, one
38:21
Speaker 1: common theme that I heard from everybody was acorns and
38:24
Speaker 1: how did acorns play role in Illinois and you're hunting
38:26
Speaker 1: and specifically yeah that Yeah, that doesn't surprise me that
38:31
Speaker 1: that was a hot topic this year, just because um
38:34
Speaker 1: it was they were, they were everywhere. I mean, it
38:37
Speaker 1: was it was nuts from I mean, it's it's always cool.
38:41
Speaker 1: You get excited. You never see the white oaks. I mean,
38:42
Speaker 1: that's that's a year at least, you know in the Midwest,
38:45
Speaker 1: especially in western Illinois here. If you have white oaks,
38:47
Speaker 1: the deer just love them. Um, they were loaded this year.
38:50
Speaker 1: It seemed like pin oaks and the red oaks were
38:52
Speaker 1: really good too. I mean, if you had if you
38:54
Speaker 1: had good oak trees and and they were definitely loaded
38:56
Speaker 1: up with acorns, there's no question. Um, and I kind
38:59
Speaker 1: of had. Uh. Again, it's kind of a bittersweet relationship
39:04
Speaker 1: with acorns this year at one of my farms that
39:07
Speaker 1: I'm I've got the privilege to hunt on and it's
39:09
Speaker 1: I don't, I don't have any leases or anything like that,
39:11
Speaker 1: so it's I've got permission on a couple of places
39:13
Speaker 1: and and actually hunts some uh hunts of public to
39:15
Speaker 1: quite a bit. So Um, you kind of gott to
39:19
Speaker 1: pick and choose your your battles as far as that goes.
39:21
Speaker 1: But um, it's uh one of them in particular, it
39:26
Speaker 1: was loaded with oaks. Um. Kind of these had these
39:28
Speaker 1: you know, two big ridges that run through the property
39:30
Speaker 1: and they were loaded with oaks. So it kind of
39:33
Speaker 1: dispersed the gear a little bit because there was so
39:35
Speaker 1: many oak trees. And then um, so that made it
39:37
Speaker 1: really it made it tough. I mean, it makes it
39:39
Speaker 1: tough when you have that too. It makes it tough
39:40
Speaker 1: for access because you know, the deer aren't quote unquote
39:43
Speaker 1: where they're supposed to be at the right times when
39:45
Speaker 1: you're trying to get in and out of the property,
39:47
Speaker 1: and um, you can always seems like you end up
39:49
Speaker 1: bumping more deer just because there's kind of scattered out
39:51
Speaker 1: more and it changes their patterns a little bit, especially
39:53
Speaker 1: when they're transitioning off of the early seasoned food sources. Um.
39:58
Speaker 1: But then you know, conversely, on the other side, do
40:00
Speaker 1: of a piece of property where um, it's got a
40:02
Speaker 1: bunch of ridges that kind of come together, and at
40:04
Speaker 1: the point of where they all come together, that's where
40:06
Speaker 1: there's kind of like a concentration of these um of
40:09
Speaker 1: these oaks are. And actually that's the farm where I
40:11
Speaker 1: ended up killing my Illinois deer. And I was actually
40:14
Speaker 1: on one of the ridges instead of on the concentration point.
40:17
Speaker 1: I had hunted that these amount of times and hadn't
40:19
Speaker 1: had any luck and moved off to a to a
40:21
Speaker 1: different ridge and um, and I'm I'm only kind of
40:25
Speaker 1: guessing that's where he was headed. Uh, just in terms
40:28
Speaker 1: of travel patterns and kind of figuring out what they
40:30
Speaker 1: were doing. On this particular farm. Uh, he was kind
40:33
Speaker 1: of headed to that back to you know, and then
40:35
Speaker 1: they bed off farther away from on beyond that that
40:39
Speaker 1: center point where the ridges kind of come together. But
40:41
Speaker 1: he was definitely headed in that direction. Um. And I
40:44
Speaker 1: attribute a lot of that too, you know, to those
40:46
Speaker 1: acorns because having that concentration of those oaks in that
40:49
Speaker 1: particular you know, um, and then you do you couple
40:52
Speaker 1: that with train features of the ridges coming together. Um,
40:56
Speaker 1: they made for an awesome combination. I mean you saw,
40:58
Speaker 1: like I said, the morning I killed my up, there
41:00
Speaker 1: was here in Illinois, there was a that was the
41:02
Speaker 1: eleventh buck I saw that morning. You not to mention,
41:04
Speaker 1: you know, a dozen dolls or so. Um. So it
41:07
Speaker 1: definitely was cool because it concentrated the deer in that
41:10
Speaker 1: area and then you know you talk to the pre
41:12
Speaker 1: route and or the road on top of that. It
41:14
Speaker 1: just made for made for really good. So I kind
41:15
Speaker 1: of stop both ends of that spectrum. But yeah, I mean,
41:18
Speaker 1: if if you had a lot of oaks or a
41:19
Speaker 1: lot of acorns and your hunting area have no, it
41:21
Speaker 1: does not surprise me one bit that there was there.
41:23
Speaker 1: You know, you kind of kind of gave you a
41:25
Speaker 1: headache this year. Well, Alex, what is one thing that
41:28
Speaker 1: you've taken away from this last ball the season that
41:32
Speaker 1: something you think you can apply going forward or something
41:35
Speaker 1: that's really gonna stick with you and in the years
41:37
Speaker 1: to come. Honestly, for me, I mean, I've always been
41:39
Speaker 1: a huge proponent of postseason scouting UM and I've done
41:43
Speaker 1: it for for quite a while and it's and it
41:45
Speaker 1: just continues to to add more confidence and more success
41:48
Speaker 1: to each year. And I'm just gonna do even more
41:50
Speaker 1: of that this year. I mean, when you can really
41:52
Speaker 1: go in in the early spring before green up and
41:54
Speaker 1: and shortly after snow melt, and you can kind of
41:56
Speaker 1: really start to put the pieces of the puzzle together
41:58
Speaker 1: on betting areas and feeding areas, travel routes, deer sign
42:01
Speaker 1: I mean something buck sign in general, of deer sign
42:03
Speaker 1: in general. Uh, it really can do wonders UM to
42:06
Speaker 1: to really get a good understanding of how the deer
42:08
Speaker 1: using its particular property property you're hunting UM. And I'd
42:12
Speaker 1: say that and coupled with one of the other really
42:14
Speaker 1: really cool things I got to do this year was
42:16
Speaker 1: UM and we're in western Illinois, you know, we're in
42:18
Speaker 1: We're in hill country here. There's a lot of ridges
42:20
Speaker 1: and and and you know, kind of rising terrain and
42:23
Speaker 1: a lot of differentiation between terrain and UM. I've hunted
42:26
Speaker 1: a let a little bit, just kind of you know,
42:28
Speaker 1: sporadically in the past, but you know, actually having a
42:30
Speaker 1: full you know season here since I moved here to
42:33
Speaker 1: really dedicate to to the to understanding hill country hunting
42:36
Speaker 1: in terrain has been a lot of fun. I've actually
42:38
Speaker 1: really enjoyed just kind of how the how the deer,
42:40
Speaker 1: especially the mature bucks kind of used the train to
42:42
Speaker 1: their advantage, everything from thermals in wind direction to just
42:45
Speaker 1: general travel patterns. Um, it's been really really cool from
42:48
Speaker 1: what I'm used to. I usually I grew up in
42:49
Speaker 1: southwest Michigan and there just isn't much terrain there, so uh,
42:53
Speaker 1: kind of throwing that throwing that curve ball into the
42:55
Speaker 1: mix has been a lot of fun to this year.
42:57
Speaker 1: As far as the h D goes, you know, it's
42:59
Speaker 1: always a hot topic, especially the last couple of years here,
43:01
Speaker 1: and I feel like you're in western Illinois, you know
43:03
Speaker 1: what we call its historically known as the Golden Triangle.
43:05
Speaker 1: We were definitely affected in the two thousand twelves you know,
43:08
Speaker 1: die off. UM, but now it's it's it's it's really
43:12
Speaker 1: exciting looking for you know, thank god we've had the
43:15
Speaker 1: relief the last couple of years. We haven't been affected
43:17
Speaker 1: by it. But to see the age structure, you know,
43:20
Speaker 1: I meantime h D, it's kind of hitting that reset button.
43:22
Speaker 1: It's almost like, but um, to see that age structure
43:25
Speaker 1: really come back. UM, I think the next year and
43:28
Speaker 1: especially two years from now, barring any h D disasters, UM,
43:32
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna see some of the best hunting
43:34
Speaker 1: that's ever been here, or at least similar to what
43:36
Speaker 1: it was in the late nineties, early two thousands, Like
43:38
Speaker 1: everybody talks about UM, age structures really come back and
43:41
Speaker 1: and it's and it's been an exciting time to see,
43:43
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of great, great three year olds.
43:46
Speaker 1: Awesome for you, I mean, and then you're really getting
43:48
Speaker 1: you know, the quantity of mature bucks has certainly coming
43:51
Speaker 1: back to so UM, I think we're in good shape.
43:54
Speaker 1: All right, alex Will, congrats on your seventeen successes in
43:57
Speaker 1: good luck. Thanks for joining me. Thanks, it's the same
44:00
Speaker 1: to you. Before we get to our next color, though,
44:03
Speaker 1: let's positive thing our sponsors at white Tail Properties this
44:07
Speaker 1: week with white Tail Properties, we are joined by Tom James,
44:11
Speaker 1: a land specialist out of Central Indiana, and Tom is
44:14
Speaker 1: going to be telling us about what the very first
44:16
Speaker 1: habitat improvements should be for a land manager. Good question, Um.
44:22
Speaker 1: Some of the first key things, the fundamentals that you
44:25
Speaker 1: want to think about is when you think in terms
44:27
Speaker 1: of what a deer requires, the food, security, covering, water
44:32
Speaker 1: and the q d m A has a great analogy
44:34
Speaker 1: of the thinking about the lowest hole on the bucket
44:37
Speaker 1: that you need to plug up to keep the water
44:39
Speaker 1: from leaking out. So what could be missing on your
44:43
Speaker 1: property that the surrounding land may have, and so you
44:47
Speaker 1: want to do a quick assessment. Maybe it's food, Maybe
44:49
Speaker 1: it's water. Maybe if you can maybe it's cover. If
44:52
Speaker 1: you can look through your woods and see two hundred yards,
44:54
Speaker 1: then you've got an issue with with too much shade,
44:57
Speaker 1: not enough sunlight creating new potential brows and cover for
45:02
Speaker 1: your deer. So maybe it's a timber, a timber either
45:05
Speaker 1: stand improvement or a harvest or a combination of two
45:08
Speaker 1: that's gonna allow some more new growth to come in
45:10
Speaker 1: and picking up your property. Maybe it's as simple as
45:13
Speaker 1: you're not leaving an area alone as a sanctuary. If
45:16
Speaker 1: you're trapesing all over forty acres and pushing deer off
45:19
Speaker 1: every time you go, then that's that's obviously an issue.
45:21
Speaker 1: So maybe just an adjustment in the way that you
45:24
Speaker 1: move around and hunt the property and approach things. Uh.
45:27
Speaker 1: If food is your lacking ingredient or your lowest hole
45:31
Speaker 1: in the bucket, then even in timber, it takes some work,
45:34
Speaker 1: but you can certainly clear out some openings and plant food.
45:38
Speaker 1: Um and I would suggest considering both perennial food and
45:43
Speaker 1: annual food stuff that you can leave in like clover
45:45
Speaker 1: and chicory as a perennial coming back every year and
45:48
Speaker 1: do some fall planted cereal grains and brass tickets for
45:50
Speaker 1: the fall time, so you've got a year round program
45:52
Speaker 1: going on. And typically it's not an issue in the Midwest.
45:56
Speaker 1: But if if water is a lacking ingredient, then maybe
45:59
Speaker 1: you can create water hole or even some of the
46:01
Speaker 1: new systems like the banks water watering tanks that you
46:05
Speaker 1: can set up that are mobile and fill up and
46:07
Speaker 1: provide water sources for your deer so that they don't
46:10
Speaker 1: have to leave the property to water. Again, that's fairly rare,
46:13
Speaker 1: but that could be a consideration. If you'd like to
46:17
Speaker 1: learn more and to see the properties that Tom currently
46:19
Speaker 1: has listed for sale, visit whitetail properties dot com. Backslash James,
46:25
Speaker 1: that's j A. M E. S alright and joining us
46:30
Speaker 1: on the line. Next out of New York is Matt
46:32
Speaker 1: Ross with q dm A. Now, Matt, how is your
46:36
Speaker 1: season gone thus far in New York? I had a
46:40
Speaker 1: great season. Our season typically opens uh as most do,
46:45
Speaker 1: in early October, and it closes about the third week
46:47
Speaker 1: in December. And I got out of fair amount this year,
46:51
Speaker 1: more so than in two thousand and sixteen, so I
46:53
Speaker 1: call it chalk that up as a success. Um. How
46:57
Speaker 1: does it deal with my bow? Pretty early on, I UM,
47:02
Speaker 1: I killed a couple of dolls during rightful season as well.
47:06
Speaker 1: UM pass on a lot of young bucks in New
47:08
Speaker 1: York States, UH, one of those states that is still
47:12
Speaker 1: has pretty high proportions of young bucks and the harvest
47:15
Speaker 1: and UM trying to be to do my part and
47:17
Speaker 1: pass up some of those young bucks and trying to
47:19
Speaker 1: student the older class age class year and ended up
47:22
Speaker 1: without a uh an empty buck tag. So I did
47:26
Speaker 1: not take a buck this year, but I still had
47:27
Speaker 1: a very good season regardless. Well, Matt, what are some
47:31
Speaker 1: of your big takeaways from as far as what are
47:35
Speaker 1: some of the big themes that you noticed, whether related
47:38
Speaker 1: or crops related, or food sources related or otherwise. I'll
47:44
Speaker 1: tell you, at least where I haunt in the eastern
47:46
Speaker 1: part of the state, prop related, there was there was
47:49
Speaker 1: a lot of corn standing late in the year this year.
47:53
Speaker 1: I think part of the the process with farming in
47:57
Speaker 1: this part of the country. There's a lot of dairy farms, um,
48:00
Speaker 1: and it really slowed things down going into the into
48:04
Speaker 1: the mid part of the season. Obviously, with all that
48:07
Speaker 1: standing corn, the deer still the visibility of them uh
48:11
Speaker 1: a little bit limited. Um. It certainly helped to a degree,
48:15
Speaker 1: but with some properties that that may have been set
48:18
Speaker 1: up that way. So crop wise, I saw corn standing
48:22
Speaker 1: a lot longer than it had in the past. Weather
48:24
Speaker 1: it was pretty standard as in other years. I mean,
48:27
Speaker 1: there was no major events that threw things off. I'll
48:31
Speaker 1: tell you. Rut wise, though, the thing that I did
48:33
Speaker 1: notice was we did have a pretty good rot during
48:38
Speaker 1: the archery season in the southern part of New York.
48:42
Speaker 1: UM there was a good activity, There was good chasing,
48:44
Speaker 1: a lot of daylight activity, and it seemed to trickle
48:48
Speaker 1: off and slow down right before our firearms season opened.
48:51
Speaker 1: So um, in terms of saving some of those young deer,
48:55
Speaker 1: it was a good thing. It probably changed the dynamic
48:59
Speaker 1: in terms of what it were shot. But um, overall
49:02
Speaker 1: it was a good season. Nothing really out of the
49:05
Speaker 1: norm though for what I have experienced in the past.
49:09
Speaker 1: You touched on some of the food sources in Western
49:11
Speaker 1: New York with the cornfields. How about some of those
49:14
Speaker 1: natural food sources, the acorns, the apples, just generally in
49:18
Speaker 1: the Northeast this season we are soft mass production. This
49:23
Speaker 1: year seemed like it was at a at a higher
49:25
Speaker 1: level from what I personally experienced and saw, especially apples, um,
49:30
Speaker 1: and from talking to other people, I think we had
49:32
Speaker 1: one of those years with the flowering and everything kind
49:36
Speaker 1: of working in favor and having a lot of apples
49:38
Speaker 1: on trees. Um. I think it was like three years ago. Um,
49:43
Speaker 1: we had a really crazy apple year. So in that sense,
49:47
Speaker 1: it seemed up acorns were spotty though in beach nuts
49:52
Speaker 1: hadn't heard any major regions, at least throughout the New England,
49:57
Speaker 1: New York area where there was just a lot of
49:59
Speaker 1: acre worms on the ground. Um. That certainly can throw
50:03
Speaker 1: a wrench in your plans when it does happen. Spotty
50:05
Speaker 1: can be good, especially first setting up strategy finding trees
50:09
Speaker 1: that are good producers and have a lot of acorns
50:12
Speaker 1: under them. And uh, I personally did not capitalize on that.
50:17
Speaker 1: But I have a friend that really did capitalize and
50:20
Speaker 1: shot a couple of good deer based on acorn production
50:23
Speaker 1: on some trees. So, um, it was spotty this year
50:26
Speaker 1: in the Northeast as far as I could see. Well,
50:29
Speaker 1: that is there any big takeaway that you had from seen,
50:32
Speaker 1: maybe a lesson that you've learned that you'd apply going
50:35
Speaker 1: forward into seasons Beyond that, I enjoyed my two thousand
50:41
Speaker 1: seventeen season, uh greatly. Actually, I tried to take a
50:45
Speaker 1: little bit different perspective this year, enjoyed my time outside
50:49
Speaker 1: and not get too serious about it. Um. I get
50:52
Speaker 1: I have found myself in the past, especially in the
50:54
Speaker 1: role I play with q m A, to get, you know,
50:57
Speaker 1: really intense about hunting. And I tried to enjoy my
51:01
Speaker 1: time of field this year in a little bit different
51:03
Speaker 1: mindset and going out there and just enjoying being in
51:06
Speaker 1: the tree, and that could also come with age, um
51:08
Speaker 1: as I get older. I kind of enjoyed that as well.
51:11
Speaker 1: One thing I did do this year was I have
51:14
Speaker 1: a close friend that's a forrester as well as myself,
51:18
Speaker 1: and he's been asking and enquiring about hunting for a
51:21
Speaker 1: couple of years and I really need time to take
51:24
Speaker 1: him out this year and getting his first year and
51:26
Speaker 1: that made my season. And I know it's cliche to
51:29
Speaker 1: say it, but for the listeners out there, if you've
51:32
Speaker 1: ever had a coworker or relative or um spouses relative,
51:38
Speaker 1: or somebody that is in your periphery that has shown interest,
51:43
Speaker 1: make sure you take some time out for them, because
51:45
Speaker 1: it really was an amazing experience getting my friend his
51:48
Speaker 1: first year, and I really look forward to next season
51:51
Speaker 1: doing the same thing. I'm going to try to make
51:53
Speaker 1: that a tradition for myself is to introduce somebody new
51:56
Speaker 1: every year. Yeah. I think that sounds like a great
51:58
Speaker 1: thing to work on, not to for for you, but
52:01
Speaker 1: for all hunters. So thanks for joining me, Matt, and
52:03
Speaker 1: good luck in Thanks Spencer, thanks for having me alright
52:09
Speaker 1: and joining us on the line. Next out of Minnesota
52:12
Speaker 1: is Tony Peterson with bow Hunter Magazine. Now, Tony, I
52:15
Speaker 1: know you've been all over the Midwest and the Great
52:17
Speaker 1: Plains this year, and how is your season gone thus far? Man,
52:21
Speaker 1: I had a good season. Um, pretty good. I should say.
52:25
Speaker 1: I killed four bucks in a couple of dos all
52:28
Speaker 1: bow hunting this year. UM, most of them were on
52:31
Speaker 1: public land. You know. My only hiccup this year was
52:33
Speaker 1: Wisconsin was just absolutely kicked my butt. But otherwise, UM,
52:37
Speaker 1: just had a really solid season. What Tony, did you
52:40
Speaker 1: notice anything on the public land this year that was
52:43
Speaker 1: different than maybe most years or something stuck out to
52:46
Speaker 1: you in UM? I would say what I noticed this
52:50
Speaker 1: year was a few more people. Um, I don't. I
52:53
Speaker 1: don't think our hunter numbers are going through the roof
52:55
Speaker 1: or anything like that, So I think it just must
52:57
Speaker 1: be more people either hunting public land or taking these trips,
53:00
Speaker 1: you know, similar kind of trips that I take. But
53:03
Speaker 1: I definitely had some company this year, and it felt
53:05
Speaker 1: like more company than usual. How about your rud hunting?
53:09
Speaker 1: Was anything unique there as far as the activity that
53:12
Speaker 1: you saw or the weather you experienced? Um, the weather
53:16
Speaker 1: that I experienced during the rut, I I spent about
53:19
Speaker 1: nine days hunting, Uh, northern Wisconsin, mostly on public land,
53:24
Speaker 1: and the weather was really cold, and the activity was
53:28
Speaker 1: guys on four wheelers going out to set their bait
53:30
Speaker 1: sites up from what I could tell, Um, so it
53:33
Speaker 1: was just difficult. Um, it was not. I did see
53:38
Speaker 1: some chasing, some activity. I saw a few really good
53:41
Speaker 1: box um, just randomly, but nothing that ever just felt
53:45
Speaker 1: like it was clicking, like it showed during the rut.
53:47
Speaker 1: How about the weather from the season, either early season
53:52
Speaker 1: or you know up until now late season. Um. You know,
53:56
Speaker 1: our late season here has been stupid cold that you know,
54:00
Speaker 1: almost painful to go outside. I've been out trying to
54:02
Speaker 1: shoot a dough here in Minnesota and um, it's really
54:05
Speaker 1: not that much fun. Um. You know, early season, you know,
54:09
Speaker 1: you get your weather swings. And the worst weather I
54:12
Speaker 1: probably had was in South Dakota and your home state
54:14
Speaker 1: when I camped in the downpour and hunted in the
54:17
Speaker 1: downpour for three or four days. Um, that was probably
54:21
Speaker 1: the worst weather I had. We you've covered some diverse
54:25
Speaker 1: areas this year, from Wisconsin to to South Dakota and stuff.
54:30
Speaker 1: What have you noticed with different food sources this fall? Um?
54:34
Speaker 1: You know, I felt like there was quite a bit
54:36
Speaker 1: of food out there here in Minnesota. And you know,
54:38
Speaker 1: I had a different a few different properties throughout the
54:41
Speaker 1: state and um, some places I hunted, especially southeastern Minnesota,
54:46
Speaker 1: I was around quite a few acorns, you know, the
54:48
Speaker 1: acorn crop. The hard mass seemed pretty solid. Up here
54:52
Speaker 1: where I lived just north of the Twin Cities, it
54:54
Speaker 1: wasn't nearly as good. Um. You know, we had a
54:56
Speaker 1: late corn harvest in a lot of places that that
54:58
Speaker 1: affected some things, for sure. I think it affected the
55:01
Speaker 1: gun hunters more than anything. But you know, it was
55:03
Speaker 1: definitely a factor. Um. But you know, it's the stuff
55:06
Speaker 1: that you deal with every year in one capacity or another. Well,
55:10
Speaker 1: spending a lot of time in the Dakotas, I know
55:12
Speaker 1: you were in some areas that were ravished by h
55:15
Speaker 1: D in the last five or six years. What have
55:17
Speaker 1: you seen for deer numbers this year as opposed to
55:20
Speaker 1: maybe twenty um, you know, South Dakota. I hunted South
55:26
Speaker 1: Dakota and North Dakota on public land in in spots
55:30
Speaker 1: that had been hit by h D, and I still
55:33
Speaker 1: thought the numbers were pretty solid. Um. I don't think
55:36
Speaker 1: there's as many deer where I hunt in South Dakota
55:39
Speaker 1: as there was maybe five or six years ago, but
55:42
Speaker 1: the population is still pretty good. And where I went
55:45
Speaker 1: North Dakota, they've been hit by h D randomly, you know,
55:49
Speaker 1: a few times over the last decade. And I saw
55:51
Speaker 1: an awful lot of white tails and quite a few
55:54
Speaker 1: meal deer, and um, you know, the river bottom where
55:57
Speaker 1: those white tails lived didn't seem to be affected too much.
56:00
Speaker 1: What Tony, You're one of the best white tail bowl
56:03
Speaker 1: hunters that I know, and I imagine having that kind
56:06
Speaker 1: of title that you're learning new things every year, is
56:09
Speaker 1: there's something in seen that you picked up that you
56:12
Speaker 1: think maybe you can apply to ten or other seasons
56:15
Speaker 1: going forward. Man, I don't know if that title applies
56:19
Speaker 1: or not. If you just saw me in Wisconsin, I'm
56:21
Speaker 1: not so sure. But one thing I will say about
56:24
Speaker 1: this year, and I've talked about this quite a bit, uh,
56:28
Speaker 1: is man, I'm I'm to the point now where I
56:31
Speaker 1: want to I want to scout fresh sign and hang
56:34
Speaker 1: a news stand every chance I can. And I'm just
56:37
Speaker 1: I'm just going that kind of old school route where
56:40
Speaker 1: you find a rub line hanging stand. If it doesn't
56:42
Speaker 1: shake out, you move it, and that that lesson is
56:46
Speaker 1: coming back to me hard over the last few years.
56:50
Speaker 1: Well it's Tony. Good luck in and congrats some o
56:53
Speaker 1: your successes in seventeen. Thanks for joining me often. Thanks man.
56:58
Speaker 1: And that concludes this week's episode and this season's final
57:02
Speaker 1: episode of Wired Haunt's Rut Radio. I want to thank
57:06
Speaker 1: our sponsors at SITKA, Matthews, Trophy Ridge, Yettie, Whitehail Institute,
57:11
Speaker 1: Whitehail Properties, unt Terra, and Maven, and we thank you
57:15
Speaker 1: guys for listening. I also want to thank everyone who
57:18
Speaker 1: contributed to this year's episodes, all fifty seven of you
57:23
Speaker 1: who provided reports from New Hampshire to Louisiana up to
57:28
Speaker 1: North Dakota. You guys have made this podcast possible, so
57:32
Speaker 1: good luck to everybody. Is we transition into shed hunting
57:35
Speaker 1: and turkey hunting and summer scouting and everything else until
57:38
Speaker 1: I talk to you guys again next September. Until then,
57:41
Speaker 1: if you want to follow along with some of my
57:42
Speaker 1: other work, you can check me out on Instagram at
57:46
Speaker 1: Spencer new Hearth, where you can see my website where
57:48
Speaker 1: most of my writing and photography lives roof Communications dot Com.
57:52
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you guys again in season three or
57:55
Speaker 1: rut radio, But until then stay wired to hunt, but
58:00
Speaker 1: to dot. Beca