Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 457: Rut Fresh Radio 9/22/2021 - Buck Movement in Rain

Transcript

Ep. 457: Rut Fresh Radio 9/22/2021 - Buck Movement in Rain · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to Wired to Hunts rut Fresh Radio bringing you
0:05
Speaker 1: the latest reports from the white tailed woods and now
0:08
Speaker 1: your host Spencer new Hearth. This is Wired to Haunts
0:15
Speaker 1: the rout Fresh Radio and I'm your host Spencer new Hearth.
0:18
Speaker 1: This week we're talking about precipitation and white tales. Welcome
0:36
Speaker 1: to Wired to Hunt's rout Fresh Radio. I'm your host,
0:39
Speaker 1: Spencer new Hearth and joined by Mark Kenyon again this week.
0:42
Speaker 1: And Mark, I know you were a mentor this last
0:45
Speaker 1: weekend on the Back forties field, the four hunt that
0:49
Speaker 1: is done by n d A. Mark. Tell us about
0:51
Speaker 1: that haunt. Did you have any deer on the ground
0:53
Speaker 1: and what was the movement like? Yeah, it was, it
0:56
Speaker 1: was a heck of a good time. This as a
0:59
Speaker 1: slight remember we after the whole Back forty show and
1:02
Speaker 1: that whole project, we donated the farm to the National
1:05
Speaker 1: Deer Association so that they could host new hunter events
1:10
Speaker 1: like this, so they could bring folks out in the
1:11
Speaker 1: summer and teach them about dear behavior and wildlife habitat
1:14
Speaker 1: and all that kind of stuff. And then during hunting
1:16
Speaker 1: season have a place where these people can go out
1:19
Speaker 1: there and see deer and have the opportunity to get
1:22
Speaker 1: shot opportunities and learn how to gut a deer and
1:24
Speaker 1: track a deer and all that kind of stuff. So
1:26
Speaker 1: this is the first hunt that we've got to host
1:28
Speaker 1: on the farm as a part of that program. And
1:31
Speaker 1: like you said, I got to mentor and it was
1:33
Speaker 1: it was really really cool. We had ten new hunters
1:38
Speaker 1: and those hunters were each paired with the mentor, and
1:41
Speaker 1: then we split them up over a couple of different properties.
1:44
Speaker 1: So some of the hunters were in the back forty,
1:46
Speaker 1: some of the hunters were on some other private properties
1:49
Speaker 1: that we had access to um from different volunteers and
1:52
Speaker 1: stuff like that. So we had three hunters, uh this
1:57
Speaker 1: weekend on the back for itself. I was with one
1:59
Speaker 1: of them, and we had a lot of great action.
2:03
Speaker 1: Um let me see here three deer. We got shots
2:08
Speaker 1: at three deer and one of those was a miss.
2:11
Speaker 1: But one of the hunter, of the hunter I was mentoring,
2:13
Speaker 1: actually killed two killed one the first night and killed
2:16
Speaker 1: one the second morning. So he got his first and
2:18
Speaker 1: second deer in the same weekend. Uh, and he was
2:23
Speaker 1: just absolutely ecstatic. We had a really awesome opportunity and
2:26
Speaker 1: got to you know, teach him how to gut a deer,
2:29
Speaker 1: how to track a deer, and then the second deer
2:31
Speaker 1: he got the next morning, we brought back and had
2:33
Speaker 1: the other two hunters that were out there, um, showed
2:36
Speaker 1: them how to gut it and let them actually you know,
2:39
Speaker 1: try it themselves too. So on the back forty we
2:41
Speaker 1: had a couple of different gutting demonstrations and a lot
2:44
Speaker 1: of great just back and forth teaching moments and across
2:48
Speaker 1: all the other farms. So I can't remember how many
2:50
Speaker 1: other properties, two or three other properties, there was a
2:53
Speaker 1: total of eight deer killed. So so seven new hunters
2:57
Speaker 1: killed their first deer and one of those hunters kill too.
3:00
Speaker 1: So um, it was awesome event and just a really
3:04
Speaker 1: cool opportunity to see that whole back forty project come
3:08
Speaker 1: full circle. So I was. I was a very happy
3:12
Speaker 1: mentor this past weekend getting to see see such a
3:15
Speaker 1: cool thing happening. So that's the high level story. We're
3:18
Speaker 1: gonna eventually gonna do a full podcast about it with
3:21
Speaker 1: with a couple of those new hunters and we'll share
3:24
Speaker 1: all the nitty gritty details, but at a high level,
3:27
Speaker 1: it was great. The dude that went back to back kills,
3:30
Speaker 1: he's gonna be a mentor. Before long, he's gonna take
3:32
Speaker 1: your job there. I know, we were actually joking with
3:35
Speaker 1: him that after he after he had so so much
3:37
Speaker 1: success this time around next year, he's gonna pay it forward.
3:40
Speaker 1: So we're gonna we're gonna rope him into it someday.
3:43
Speaker 1: So what about for the buck movement though that you saw?
3:46
Speaker 1: Was there anything of note that happened during those hunts? Yeah,
3:50
Speaker 1: you know a lot of hunters saw bucks, and that
3:54
Speaker 1: was not a good thing in this case because this
3:56
Speaker 1: was actually an early antlerless only season, so we were
3:59
Speaker 1: all out or you could only shoot does um so on.
4:04
Speaker 1: On the back forty there were a couple hunts where
4:07
Speaker 1: there were bucks in range that you couldn't shoot, including
4:10
Speaker 1: a nice one like a really good buck came out
4:12
Speaker 1: for one of the new hunters out of the honey
4:14
Speaker 1: Hoole or heading into the honey Hoole. I think it was.
4:15
Speaker 1: I wasn't sitting there at that one, and uh, they
4:18
Speaker 1: couldn't take them. So there was some deer movement. It
4:21
Speaker 1: was late. A lot of the deer movement was you know,
4:23
Speaker 1: last hour daylight because it's been pretty warm here in Michigan.
4:27
Speaker 1: Um but you know I would call you know, I
4:30
Speaker 1: know you didn't ask me yet, but if I had
4:31
Speaker 1: to write deer activity on a scale one to ten,
4:34
Speaker 1: recently here in Michigan, it's been like a you know,
4:37
Speaker 1: like a four and a half to five. There's that
4:40
Speaker 1: good evening movement and a good little bit of movement
4:43
Speaker 1: there first thing in the morning, but pretty warm temperature
4:46
Speaker 1: is nothing out of the ordinary. UM. I did see
4:49
Speaker 1: one mature buck out scouting last week. I don't know,
4:53
Speaker 1: I would have been Thursday or Friday night. I saw
4:55
Speaker 1: a good buck, actually, one of the bucks I'm after
4:58
Speaker 1: outfeeding in a food plot just probably the last twenty
5:01
Speaker 1: minutes of daily so they're they're around Now's something that
5:07
Speaker 1: wouldn't have been a factor during your haunts there on
5:09
Speaker 1: the back forty this last weekend, but will be a
5:12
Speaker 1: factor for basically the white tails entire range for probably
5:16
Speaker 1: like these next five days. Is that a lot of
5:18
Speaker 1: the country is going to be getting rain at some
5:21
Speaker 1: point between like now, UM and the next time we
5:24
Speaker 1: record an episode of Rod Fresh Radio. In the past, Mark,
5:28
Speaker 1: I think in nineteen you wrote an article for the
5:31
Speaker 1: website about should you deer hunt in the rain? UM?
5:35
Speaker 1: And you talked about all the considerations that go into
5:38
Speaker 1: one of those haunts. Go over that with us right
5:40
Speaker 1: now about what hunters should be thinking about when it's
5:43
Speaker 1: raining and they want to get in the woods. Um,
5:46
Speaker 1: based on deer movement and then other considerations. Yeah, So
5:50
Speaker 1: I was just looking at our forecast in Michigan and
5:53
Speaker 1: in our season is not open right now since that
5:55
Speaker 1: at this one's done, but we've got rain in the
5:57
Speaker 1: forecast for the next five days straight. So I'm sure
5:59
Speaker 1: some of those others dates around me that are open,
6:01
Speaker 1: I're going to see some of that. And I tend
6:03
Speaker 1: to look at rain is generally a good thing for
6:07
Speaker 1: deer movement. Lots of times changes in precipitation also lead
6:12
Speaker 1: to changes in temperature, lead to changes in barre, metric pressure,
6:15
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff, and in general it seems
6:18
Speaker 1: like those changes just give you a little boost in
6:20
Speaker 1: movement one way or another. Um. So, yeah, when it
6:23
Speaker 1: comes to rain, I'm not anti rain. I'm not bummed
6:26
Speaker 1: out when I see rain the forecast, UM. But I
6:29
Speaker 1: am thinking about a couple of things differently. One thing
6:33
Speaker 1: is that if you have like a light drizzle or
6:37
Speaker 1: intermittent rain where it comes down hard for a while,
6:39
Speaker 1: but then opens up and clears up for an hour
6:41
Speaker 1: or two. Those are situations I really like. I've seen
6:44
Speaker 1: a lot of good movement during those types of periods. UM.
6:47
Speaker 1: I know. John Eberhardt is a guy that is writing
6:51
Speaker 1: some stuff for us for Wired Hunting Now, and he's
6:53
Speaker 1: someone who has preached the importance of hunting during the
6:57
Speaker 1: rain because there's those time periods like I just discussed
6:59
Speaker 1: where they can really get on their feet and move
7:01
Speaker 1: a lot and a lot of hunters we'll just avoid
7:04
Speaker 1: the rain entirely and not be out there for those moments,
7:06
Speaker 1: those breaks or those slow drizzly periods when you know
7:09
Speaker 1: deer want to stretch the legs, get up and start
7:11
Speaker 1: feeding again, especially if it's been a longer rain event,
7:14
Speaker 1: like if it's been a a thunderstorm downpour like crazy
7:18
Speaker 1: for hours and hours and hours on end, or like
7:20
Speaker 1: all night or whatever, it might be as soon as
7:22
Speaker 1: that slows down or stops and they get that first break, man,
7:26
Speaker 1: those deer really gonna get after it. So I like that. UM.
7:30
Speaker 1: On the flip side, as I just alluded to, when
7:32
Speaker 1: you have like a storm storm that will usually put
7:36
Speaker 1: most deer down. UM, so you know, I'm gonna try
7:39
Speaker 1: to be out there hunting in most rainy situations, either
7:43
Speaker 1: because it's slow enough that they could be moving right now,
7:46
Speaker 1: or because I want to make sure I don't miss,
7:48
Speaker 1: you know, that moment when it does stop and all
7:50
Speaker 1: the deer start moving. I don't want to be walking
7:51
Speaker 1: out right when it stops and spook those deer. I'd
7:54
Speaker 1: rather be sitting and ready. Um. The one other thing though,
7:58
Speaker 1: that you need to think about is how rain can impact,
8:02
Speaker 1: you know, recovering a deer. If you shoot a deer
8:04
Speaker 1: during the rain, can you blood trailer? Can you recover
8:07
Speaker 1: that deer? And that's you know, that's a real consideration. Um.
8:12
Speaker 1: Blood trails can get washed away with rain, and you
8:15
Speaker 1: need to be really really sure that you're gonna be
8:19
Speaker 1: in a situation where that doesn't happen you and you
8:21
Speaker 1: can't recover a deer. So so my take on that
8:23
Speaker 1: is twofold number one. If I'm hunting in a situation
8:28
Speaker 1: where there's some light rain, um, you know, but I
8:32
Speaker 1: think I'll still be able to keep on a blood trail.
8:34
Speaker 1: My big thing is really really limiting my shots. So
8:38
Speaker 1: I'm I don't know, I shoot I would shoot out
8:41
Speaker 1: to four yards for a white tail. That's myself, my
8:44
Speaker 1: lion in the sand. That's my max range that I'm
8:46
Speaker 1: gonna shoot a deer at on a good day. If
8:49
Speaker 1: it's a rainy day like your light, drizzly day, and
8:51
Speaker 1: them out there and I know there's this possibility that
8:53
Speaker 1: there's gonna be some rain coming in, I'll shrink that
8:55
Speaker 1: range dramatically. So I might shrink that range down to
8:58
Speaker 1: twenty yards. So I'm only going to take that shot, um,
9:01
Speaker 1: if it's the easiest of easy shots, because I don't
9:03
Speaker 1: want to have even the slightest chance of a long,
9:07
Speaker 1: tough blood trail. So I'm only gonna take those absolute
9:10
Speaker 1: gimmes on a rainy day so that I don't risk
9:13
Speaker 1: shooting a deer that I can't track. I want a
9:15
Speaker 1: deer that I know I'm gonna double long, no questions asked,
9:18
Speaker 1: and that deer is gonna be dead in fifty yards
9:20
Speaker 1: or eight yards or something, and hopefully I'll see see
9:23
Speaker 1: him keel over something. Um. The second thing, though, is
9:26
Speaker 1: that even if you think that's the case, occasionally do
9:29
Speaker 1: you go further than you expect? Um, things don't go
9:32
Speaker 1: quite as planned. So what I have made sure to
9:35
Speaker 1: do is if tracking dogs are legal in your state,
9:40
Speaker 1: just make sure you know someone or know how to
9:42
Speaker 1: find the phone number for someone, or have that in
9:45
Speaker 1: your back pocket so that worst case scenario, god forbid,
9:49
Speaker 1: the shot doesn't go you want to and and then
9:51
Speaker 1: again somehow you can't track it with the blood, you've
9:54
Speaker 1: got a dog who can help you out. And those
9:56
Speaker 1: dogs can track really well in those rain situations. They
9:59
Speaker 1: can dell smell just fine, even if the blood trail
10:02
Speaker 1: is washed away. You know, from what I understand, these
10:04
Speaker 1: dogs are really tracking the smell of a of a
10:07
Speaker 1: specific footprint. Um So in many cases, the rain the
10:11
Speaker 1: moisture actually helps their noses. So that's not possible in
10:15
Speaker 1: all states, but where it is, it's a huge tool.
10:17
Speaker 1: Um If that's not legal in your state and it's
10:21
Speaker 1: an absolute downpour and you're worried about you know, you
10:24
Speaker 1: won't be able to see blood and you don't have
10:26
Speaker 1: that backup plan, then those cases, you know, probably don't hunt,
10:30
Speaker 1: because if you can't recover the deer, you shouldn't be
10:32
Speaker 1: out there shooting at them. Um So you've got to
10:35
Speaker 1: consider a bunch of those different circumstances. I've in most
10:38
Speaker 1: cases been able to make sure that I feel comfortable
10:40
Speaker 1: being out there and have backups and plans to make
10:42
Speaker 1: sure that doesn't happen, and it hasn't been a problem yet.
10:45
Speaker 1: But um, it's a very long winded way of saying, yes,
10:48
Speaker 1: you should probably hunt, but be careful. It's right And
10:52
Speaker 1: as as you were talking about, I was checking forecast
10:54
Speaker 1: for around the country and that is going to be
10:56
Speaker 1: something relevant for basically any white tailor. Um, like you said,
11:01
Speaker 1: in these next five days, it's not just Michigan. Much
11:03
Speaker 1: of the white tails range is going to have some
11:05
Speaker 1: storms coming up here. The other hunters that we hear
11:08
Speaker 1: from this week are Alex Comstock in Minnesota, Great Drummond
11:12
Speaker 1: in Florida, Keith Thompson in Montana, and then Tony Peterson
11:15
Speaker 1: in Wisconsin. And then, as we have been doing mark
11:18
Speaker 1: with our other intros, we're gonna close it out with
11:21
Speaker 1: some reading materials if you want even more about white
11:24
Speaker 1: tail movement. Right now at the end of September, we
11:27
Speaker 1: have four articles that suggests you check out. One of
11:30
Speaker 1: them is from Beau Martonic. It is the best food
11:32
Speaker 1: Sources for Big Woods white tails. Basically bow breaks down
11:36
Speaker 1: three food items that can be found uh anywhere in
11:39
Speaker 1: the country where they are white tails living in timber.
11:41
Speaker 1: And then how to Kill a Buck in High Wind
11:43
Speaker 1: by Tony Peterson. Tony talks about what GPS college studies
11:47
Speaker 1: tell us about buck movement high wind and where specifically
11:50
Speaker 1: that movement is taking place. And then why September is
11:53
Speaker 1: the best month to hunt scrapes from Tony Hansen. Most
11:56
Speaker 1: hunters don't turn their attention to scrapes until October, but
11:59
Speaker 1: Tony talks about why he thinks these next couple of
12:01
Speaker 1: weeks could be the best time to haunt them. And
12:03
Speaker 1: then finally, should you deer haunt in Rain the article
12:06
Speaker 1: that you wrote in which goes into greater detail about
12:10
Speaker 1: all of those talking points that you just had. Yeah,
12:13
Speaker 1: I really like that September scrape one by Tony Hansen.
12:17
Speaker 1: I thought that was He's got a really interesting angle
12:19
Speaker 1: there that I don't know if I ever really thought about.
12:22
Speaker 1: That's I think everyone should go read that one. If
12:24
Speaker 1: you've got some September haunts coming up, I think you
12:27
Speaker 1: should think about Tony's idea there, So check that one
12:29
Speaker 1: out for sure. Yeah, And when I got done, I
12:32
Speaker 1: was like, you know, what he is right. Um, Like,
12:34
Speaker 1: I don't know that September is the best month, but
12:37
Speaker 1: it does make a lot of sense to focus on
12:39
Speaker 1: scrapes right now. Or if if you're just putting a
12:42
Speaker 1: setup up to haunt this weekend, like throw down a
12:45
Speaker 1: mock scrape and then monitor that mock scrape for the
12:47
Speaker 1: next couple of weeks, and it might even like be
12:50
Speaker 1: something that is a difference maker in in one of
12:52
Speaker 1: those haunts or the haunt from that night. Um, scrapes
12:55
Speaker 1: are are a great thing to focus on right now. Yeah,
12:57
Speaker 1: it was unique perspective and interesting for sure. Alright, Mark,
13:02
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk to you next week. Let's get
13:04
Speaker 1: to these interviews. Sounds good, alright, And joining us on
13:09
Speaker 1: the line first is Alex Comstock from Whitetail DNA in Minnesota. Now,
13:14
Speaker 1: Alex in Minnesota, what would you say the Buck activity
13:16
Speaker 1: has been lately on a scale of one to ten, Yeah,
13:20
Speaker 1: I'd say it's probably been about a seven. Um only
13:23
Speaker 1: hunted really opening day here, But me and my buddy
13:27
Speaker 1: were sitting together and we're able to put down our
13:29
Speaker 1: top target Bucks opening night. So it's just based off that.
13:31
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go ahead and give it a seven. Tell
13:34
Speaker 1: me about that hunt, why you guys were in that
13:35
Speaker 1: area and why that buck was in that area. Yeah,
13:38
Speaker 1: it's a it's a really good funneling spot with you know,
13:41
Speaker 1: there's some apple trees around and whatnot that are you
13:45
Speaker 1: know pretty much where he gets to at night. And
13:47
Speaker 1: we pretty much knew where he was betted at least
13:49
Speaker 1: had a good hunch based on a lot of traill
13:52
Speaker 1: camera intel from last fall on this summer, and uh,
13:55
Speaker 1: he had been semi regular, had been daylight on cell
13:58
Speaker 1: camp multiple time this past week, and uh, we thought
14:02
Speaker 1: we had a really good chance to hunt them openy
14:05
Speaker 1: night and actually hadn't even hungerstand yet. So we went
14:07
Speaker 1: in hunger stand and about two hours later he walked
14:10
Speaker 1: by at fifteen yards and we're able to kill them.
14:13
Speaker 1: Where are you running a lot of your trail cameras
14:15
Speaker 1: this time of year. I've got either my cameras in
14:18
Speaker 1: Minnesota just on either mock scrapes, you know, intersection new trails,
14:22
Speaker 1: or you know, I'm trying to focus on food sources
14:25
Speaker 1: like you know, oaks and make corns are starting to drop,
14:27
Speaker 1: apple trees if I've got on stuff like that, And
14:30
Speaker 1: have you seen a lot of bucks hitting your mock
14:32
Speaker 1: scrape or real scrapes that you find in the woods.
14:34
Speaker 1: Right now there, it seems like they're starting to a
14:37
Speaker 1: little more at least, you know, not necessarily scrape in
14:39
Speaker 1: the ground much. But the nice thing is for me,
14:42
Speaker 1: a lot of the areas that I hunt, I've hunted,
14:44
Speaker 1: you know, year after year, and I kind of know
14:46
Speaker 1: these established areas, so I can I know where the
14:49
Speaker 1: licking branches are, and you know they're they're definitely hitting
14:52
Speaker 1: licking branches. And I've got you know, this buck in
14:54
Speaker 1: particular that we were able to put down is has
14:56
Speaker 1: hit this scrape, you know, just with the licking branches,
14:59
Speaker 1: you know, multiple time times even since August. So and
15:02
Speaker 1: you said that you found this bucks bed. Tell me
15:04
Speaker 1: about when you found that bucks bed and how you
15:06
Speaker 1: knew that he was using it. So we we've pretty
15:09
Speaker 1: much had his bedding area pinned down for last ball.
15:12
Speaker 1: We had ran ran a couple of cameras in the area,
15:15
Speaker 1: um but it was one of those deals where we
15:17
Speaker 1: weren't didn't have cell cams in the area last year,
15:19
Speaker 1: and so we checked them late in October and he
15:22
Speaker 1: had been all over it in daylight in September October.
15:26
Speaker 1: I mean all times of the day and that time
15:28
Speaker 1: of year. If I'm getting a buck, you know, in
15:31
Speaker 1: daylight that much during the during the day, I know
15:33
Speaker 1: he's bed and very close. And so that kind of
15:36
Speaker 1: led us to hunt where we did this year and
15:38
Speaker 1: how deep in the timber were you for this setup?
15:41
Speaker 1: We were not very far off. I mean we're pretty
15:43
Speaker 1: much in town and so we were I don't know,
15:47
Speaker 1: i'd say hundred yards off the road? Was this book
15:51
Speaker 1: or other bucks he've been seeing still hanging out in
15:53
Speaker 1: bachelor groups served they've broken up at this point, he
15:56
Speaker 1: you know, we I've got quite a few bachelor groups
15:58
Speaker 1: still hanging out together at he signed camera. Um. But
16:01
Speaker 1: this buck had been solo, and it's funny because he
16:04
Speaker 1: had been solo all summer, so he was all by himself.
16:07
Speaker 1: And when we kind of caught a glimpse of the
16:09
Speaker 1: Nileys coming to the woods, you know, he had pretty
16:11
Speaker 1: distinct rack and a flyer point coming off the sheet two.
16:14
Speaker 1: So we knew right away it was him, and he
16:16
Speaker 1: was the only year we actually saw. But we Garrett,
16:19
Speaker 1: my buddy Garret, who actually want to shot him, put
16:21
Speaker 1: an arrow, throw them you know, was still about over
16:23
Speaker 1: an hour left of daylight, So who knows what would
16:25
Speaker 1: have you know, moved through had we sat there till
16:29
Speaker 1: dark If it didn't work out for you on the
16:31
Speaker 1: opening haunt, did you have some morning hunts planned to
16:34
Speaker 1: get this buck? And what do those look like in
16:35
Speaker 1: mid September for you in Minnesota? You know, not for
16:38
Speaker 1: this buck, hunting in the morning wasn't really going to
16:40
Speaker 1: be in the car just based on the way he
16:43
Speaker 1: was his travel patterns. But we've got a couple other
16:46
Speaker 1: bucks that we're gonna be hard after and actually our
16:48
Speaker 1: top target buck. Um, I think my best chance is
16:51
Speaker 1: going to be in the morning because the week coming
16:54
Speaker 1: up here. Um, I've got a really good idea on
16:57
Speaker 1: where he beds, but his pattern isn't very consistent on
17:01
Speaker 1: how he comes back to it. But I kind of
17:03
Speaker 1: have an idea of where his endpoint is, which is
17:05
Speaker 1: where his bettering areas. So I'm going to jump in. Um. Actually,
17:09
Speaker 1: you know what, I don't know this goes live but
17:10
Speaker 1: tomorrow morning and uh go in after him and get
17:13
Speaker 1: trying to be set up very close to his bettering area,
17:16
Speaker 1: you know, at least an hour before for shooting light
17:20
Speaker 1: what food sources are relevant right now for white tailors
17:23
Speaker 1: in that part of the country. The biggest things I'm
17:25
Speaker 1: focusing on is acorns and apple trees if I've got them, um,
17:30
Speaker 1: But there's so much natural brows out there as well
17:33
Speaker 1: that it can be kind of hard to pin down
17:36
Speaker 1: exactly where they're feeding right now. If you don't have
17:38
Speaker 1: you know, any type of agg or food or food
17:40
Speaker 1: plots or anything like that going forward. Then in the
17:43
Speaker 1: next week or so, what do you think that Bucket
17:44
Speaker 1: TV is going to be on a scale of one
17:46
Speaker 1: to ten in Minnesota? I think where I'm up here
17:50
Speaker 1: in the northern part of the state, it's gonna gonna
17:52
Speaker 1: be around at six or seven at least. I hope
17:54
Speaker 1: we've got um opening day was great, and then the
17:58
Speaker 1: second day of season that Sunday and Monday, it's been
18:02
Speaker 1: real hot rain thunderstorms, and then uh, it's supposed to
18:05
Speaker 1: cool off over twenty degrees starting the rest of the
18:08
Speaker 1: week here, and so I've got really high hopes of
18:11
Speaker 1: of UH having some good buck activity this week. All right, Alex, Well,
18:15
Speaker 1: this episode is going to be coming out after your
18:17
Speaker 1: haunt for that target buck you were talking about, UM,
18:20
Speaker 1: so I hope it works out for you, and he
18:22
Speaker 1: called your shot. Good luck at the rest of your season. Alex,
18:24
Speaker 1: thanks for joining me all right, appreciate it. Thanks Spencer
18:26
Speaker 1: all right and joining us on the line. Next is
18:28
Speaker 1: Gray Drummond from Florida Outdoor Experience in Florida. Now, Gray
18:32
Speaker 1: in Florida, what would you say the buck activity has
18:34
Speaker 1: been lately on a scale of one to ten in
18:37
Speaker 1: our region? I would say it's been about a five
18:39
Speaker 1: right now. Um we are and um, we haven't even
18:43
Speaker 1: started our pre rut. Um we're still we're dealing with
18:46
Speaker 1: up for eighties ninety degree weather. Um. So, yeah, it's
18:50
Speaker 1: been tough. Funny now, Florida has a unique white tail herd.
18:55
Speaker 1: And then you have different phases that rout happening all over.
18:57
Speaker 1: Tell us about what those are right now in different
18:59
Speaker 1: parts of this date. Yeah, Florida is to my knowledge
19:03
Speaker 1: the only state that you can actually um find a
19:07
Speaker 1: rut going on between many starting in July, which is
19:10
Speaker 1: South Florida, all the way into February, which would be
19:13
Speaker 1: up in the Panhandle. Um my zone, I'm in Zone See,
19:16
Speaker 1: which is north central Florida on the west coast. Um
19:21
Speaker 1: generally our rut kicks in first part of October, give
19:24
Speaker 1: or take a week. Um it in our boath season
19:28
Speaker 1: in my particular zone just opened up this past Saturday,
19:32
Speaker 1: so we we just got in the woods. We're not
19:34
Speaker 1: seeing a lot of sign yet, but I've got a
19:36
Speaker 1: feeling that it will turn on. I happened to get
19:40
Speaker 1: lucky enough and um took a nice nine point Saturday
19:44
Speaker 1: morning and this tarsel glands were pretty well pretty much
19:47
Speaker 1: still blonde. To be honest with you, how do your
19:50
Speaker 1: setups right now in that area look different in the
19:52
Speaker 1: morning versus the evening for hunts, Boy, I tell you,
19:55
Speaker 1: in Florida, there's just right now, with the humidity and whatnot,
19:58
Speaker 1: there's no concealing your scent. Um, So we're just playing
20:01
Speaker 1: the win looking game. Trails. We've had a record amounts
20:05
Speaker 1: of rain this year. A majority of the woods in
20:07
Speaker 1: our area flooded out. I actually had to take a
20:10
Speaker 1: duck boat to get to my standum, which creates uh.
20:14
Speaker 1: With the flooding, it creates little oak islands, high grounds,
20:17
Speaker 1: and we're concentrating on some of these higher grounds right now. Um.
20:21
Speaker 1: A few acres are starting to drop, but again there's
20:23
Speaker 1: still about a month away from that really being a
20:26
Speaker 1: good food source. We just had so much brows right now. Um,
20:29
Speaker 1: your your best luck is to find some game trails
20:31
Speaker 1: and target those. You mentioned that it's been in the
20:34
Speaker 1: eighties and nineties and very muggy lately. What does the
20:37
Speaker 1: cold front look like for you? What is a temp
20:39
Speaker 1: drop that gets you excited for dear movement in Florida? Um? Well,
20:45
Speaker 1: in both season, if we are lucky enough to get
20:47
Speaker 1: anywhere down in the low sixties, I'm I'm very excited. Um.
20:53
Speaker 1: We where I'm at, we do. This will make some
20:57
Speaker 1: of my northern friends laugh, but we we do have
21:01
Speaker 1: somewhat of a winter. Um. It's not uncommon in December
21:05
Speaker 1: January for temperatures to dip down into the lower thirties,
21:09
Speaker 1: upper twenties. However, it doesn't stay down there that long.
21:12
Speaker 1: So you know that that gets me excited. But this
21:14
Speaker 1: time of year, anything in the sixties, UM, really gets
21:17
Speaker 1: me excited. It turns me on. I'm like, I'll be
21:19
Speaker 1: in the woods. I'll drop whatever I'm doing and get
21:21
Speaker 1: out there. What are some food sources that are relevant
21:24
Speaker 1: for deer movement right now in Florida? Um, Florida has
21:29
Speaker 1: because of our moderate temperatures um all over uh, you
21:35
Speaker 1: know with it allows for a lot of um farming
21:40
Speaker 1: to take place. We have a large crow year, so
21:43
Speaker 1: there's a lot of agriculture that's around. Um, a lot
21:47
Speaker 1: of our native brows were just focusing on. It's really
21:50
Speaker 1: unless you're gonna put corn out right now, which is
21:53
Speaker 1: which is legal in Florida. Corn feeders. Um, you know
21:56
Speaker 1: you're really going to just uh have to focus on
21:59
Speaker 1: these food for these um deer trails, and uh, there's
22:03
Speaker 1: just so much brows. It's hard to target a food
22:06
Speaker 1: source unless you have something planted or or or using corn.
22:09
Speaker 1: You said that you think pre rug could kick off
22:11
Speaker 1: any minute. Now, does that mean that you're starting to
22:13
Speaker 1: see some signmaking? Yeah, I just started this last week,
22:20
Speaker 1: starting to see a couple of scrapes. But no, nothing
22:23
Speaker 1: like it will be next month. Um, you know it.
22:27
Speaker 1: It generally seems to take place within the first part
22:31
Speaker 1: of October, middle of October, like I said, give or
22:33
Speaker 1: take a week. Um, the deer that I took Saturday
22:37
Speaker 1: just laid back, UM, not ruddy at all. Just happened
22:41
Speaker 1: to be, you know, at the wrong place at the
22:45
Speaker 1: right time for me. Where are you running your trail
22:48
Speaker 1: cameras right now, Right now, I'm running them on trails
22:53
Speaker 1: I can find on high ground. Um, we are, like
22:55
Speaker 1: I said, we've had records amount record amount of rain
22:59
Speaker 1: here and is being um so close to the coast,
23:03
Speaker 1: um water table being so high right now. But we're
23:07
Speaker 1: woods are pretty much sweated out. So any place you
23:10
Speaker 1: can find some high ground, you're going to, You're gonna
23:13
Speaker 1: have some activity going forward. Then, in this next week
23:16
Speaker 1: or so, what do you think that Buck ACTV is
23:18
Speaker 1: going to be on a scale of one to ten
23:19
Speaker 1: in Florida once our rutt kicks in, and this particularly
23:24
Speaker 1: again I'm not I can't speak for all of Florida,
23:26
Speaker 1: but in our particular part of Florida, once I rud Kickson,
23:29
Speaker 1: I will say it's um eight to nine. You know,
23:33
Speaker 1: it'll it'll, it'll just turn on like a light. My great.
23:37
Speaker 1: Congrats on that great buck that you killed. Good luck
23:39
Speaker 1: with the rest of your season, and thanks for joining me.
23:41
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Have a good rest of your
23:42
Speaker 1: season too, good luck joining us on the line. Next
23:45
Speaker 1: is Keith Thompson from Montana. White Tails in Montana. Now,
23:49
Speaker 1: Keith in Montana, what would you say the buck activity
23:51
Speaker 1: has been lately on the scale of one to ten. Honest, five, Um,
23:56
Speaker 1: it's been the first two weeks this he's have been
23:58
Speaker 1: pretty rough for us here. Uh, major temperature swings. It
24:03
Speaker 1: was pretty darn hot here, so I wouldn't have to
24:07
Speaker 1: say that was probably the reason. Um, this week it's
24:09
Speaker 1: cooled down and there's definitely been a lot more activity.
24:12
Speaker 1: We killed a really good buck this morning, so it's
24:15
Speaker 1: things are looking at people are seeing a lot more
24:16
Speaker 1: to here. So it's i'd say, you know, like I said,
24:20
Speaker 1: a modest five with that hunter that you guided this
24:24
Speaker 1: morning to that successful hunt, what did that set up
24:26
Speaker 1: look like? We tucked them in pretty early into a
24:30
Speaker 1: into a betting area, kind of targeting those deer coming
24:34
Speaker 1: out of the alfalfa fields in the morning, trying to
24:37
Speaker 1: catch them slipping back into their beds. Now. Your region
24:40
Speaker 1: in Montana and most of the state has been in
24:42
Speaker 1: a drought this summer and early fall, so as water
24:45
Speaker 1: factored into any of your haunts so far, we've we've
24:48
Speaker 1: been setting up on water for certain instances, especially the
24:51
Speaker 1: last two weeks with it being so warm. Um, it
24:54
Speaker 1: still hasn't been all that productive. I mean, we're we
24:59
Speaker 1: had some hunter that we're seeing those and young bucks,
25:01
Speaker 1: but it just seemed like those bigger books were not
25:04
Speaker 1: moving very well until night cover. Anyways, what food sources
25:08
Speaker 1: are relevant for you right now? We're hunting mainly alfalfa
25:12
Speaker 1: field we're to and from, I mean coming from in
25:16
Speaker 1: the morning and going to in the evening is our
25:19
Speaker 1: main food source. The brows has been dead since it's
25:24
Speaker 1: been so dry, so that's kind of helpless for the evening.
25:27
Speaker 1: The temperatures have been rough, but this week has been
25:30
Speaker 1: a drastic change. I said, we have people seeing twice
25:33
Speaker 1: as many deers this week as they have the first
25:35
Speaker 1: two weeks, so it's looking up. And our bucks still
25:38
Speaker 1: traveling in bachelor groups or have they all broken out
25:40
Speaker 1: by this point? Um seeing all bachelor groups, I actually like,
25:45
Speaker 1: I said, I have a guy in a hay buill
25:47
Speaker 1: blind right now. Last night I watched that field and
25:49
Speaker 1: six bucks came out together right at you know, seven fifteen,
25:53
Speaker 1: seven thirties, so I'd definitely say they're still bachelord up,
25:57
Speaker 1: and they are three of the six. We're pretty dark
26:00
Speaker 1: and good books, so that was good to see. You
26:02
Speaker 1: mentioned that your hunter this morning was hunting close to
26:05
Speaker 1: a betting area. So how deep in the timber is
26:07
Speaker 1: that off of those field edges to find those betting
26:10
Speaker 1: areas right now? For us being in the river bottom,
26:13
Speaker 1: it's kind of you know, it could be a continuous
26:16
Speaker 1: stretch of five to six hundred yards where he was.
26:19
Speaker 1: I had him probably a hundred and fifty to two
26:22
Speaker 1: hundred yards off of the alfalfa field that we had
26:24
Speaker 1: seen the buck in before, so roughly a hundred yards
26:28
Speaker 1: back in. And are you seeing any signmaking in those areas? Ah, yeah,
26:32
Speaker 1: there's We started seeing a few rubs. I don't know
26:35
Speaker 1: if they were just you know, velvet rubs or anything
26:38
Speaker 1: like that, but we we started to see a little
26:41
Speaker 1: bit more sign popping up. Anyways, where are you guys
26:44
Speaker 1: running your trail cameras this time of year? Uh, to
26:47
Speaker 1: be honest with you, we don't. We don't run that
26:49
Speaker 1: many simply a fact that I can do a lot
26:51
Speaker 1: of scouting from the vehicle. Um, we're kind of fortunate
26:55
Speaker 1: with that. We can kind of park up high and
26:58
Speaker 1: we can watch two or three of our off alfa
27:00
Speaker 1: field to kind of give us an idea what's coming
27:02
Speaker 1: out where, and we would kind of base it off
27:05
Speaker 1: of that to be honest, and how does that mobile
27:08
Speaker 1: scouting change for you in October and November versus September.
27:13
Speaker 1: It will definitely change, Like you said, the bucks will
27:15
Speaker 1: start to separate. And it's you know, bucks that we
27:20
Speaker 1: were frequenting in one alfalfa field. If that field drives
27:23
Speaker 1: up or they eat it out by October, so we
27:26
Speaker 1: hit another alf alfa field. So it's it's kind of nice,
27:29
Speaker 1: like you said, to keep bouncing around to be able
27:32
Speaker 1: to visually see the deer to make our move as
27:35
Speaker 1: far as what we're doing and how we're doing it,
27:37
Speaker 1: like today and another guide here, we went and set
27:40
Speaker 1: up a ground blind, the hay bail blind, and I
27:42
Speaker 1: have the hunter and right now that you know, we
27:44
Speaker 1: hadn't hunted at all yet this year, and we took
27:47
Speaker 1: notice the last two nights we had you know, six
27:50
Speaker 1: bucks coming out together. And it's one of those deals
27:52
Speaker 1: where that most recent information being able to visually see
27:55
Speaker 1: those deer really helps a lot to be able to
27:57
Speaker 1: stay mobile and move to where the deer are going forward. Then,
28:00
Speaker 1: in this next week or so, what do you think
28:02
Speaker 1: that Buck ACTV is going to be on a scale
28:04
Speaker 1: of one to ten in Montana. I hope it increases.
28:08
Speaker 1: I mean the temperatures are, you know, hopefully they'll start
28:12
Speaker 1: dropping and staying lower. I know that the highs is
28:15
Speaker 1: what kills us. I mean, it's been cool in the morning,
28:17
Speaker 1: and it's it's been cooling down at night. But it's
28:20
Speaker 1: if we get these days where it reaches eighty degrees,
28:22
Speaker 1: it just doesn't drop enough for the evening hunt. But
28:25
Speaker 1: I'd give it a hopefully a six. Maybe we'll we'll
28:29
Speaker 1: hopefully go from there. All right, Keith, good luck to
28:31
Speaker 1: you and your clients in camp. Thanks for joining me,
28:34
Speaker 1: Thank you all right and joining us on the line.
28:36
Speaker 1: Last is Tony Peterson, whose content you can find all
28:38
Speaker 1: over Wired Hunt. Who's hunting in Wisconsin. Now, Tony in Wisconsin,
28:42
Speaker 1: what would you say the buck activity has been lately?
28:44
Speaker 1: On a scale of one to ten, the buck activity,
28:48
Speaker 1: I would say, if I'm being totally honest, was a
28:51
Speaker 1: zero for us. But I don't I think that was situational.
28:54
Speaker 1: I don't think it was quite that bad. Now. When
28:57
Speaker 1: I talked to you last week, Tony, you talked about
28:59
Speaker 1: how ground blinds were gonna be a big part of
29:02
Speaker 1: your weekend and you'd be hunting staging areas and field
29:04
Speaker 1: edges and water wouldn't be a focus. How much of
29:07
Speaker 1: that came true once he had boots on the ground
29:09
Speaker 1: in Wisconsin over the weekend, Man, I would say all
29:14
Speaker 1: of it. We we didn't you know, water really wasn't
29:16
Speaker 1: a factor. We uh we kind of you know, paint
29:21
Speaker 1: our hopes on staging areas, catching deer, coming back, coming
29:25
Speaker 1: back in the mornings from food sources, and heading out
29:27
Speaker 1: in the evenings. And it Saturday was a real bus
29:30
Speaker 1: for us. But Sunday worked out and it actually played
29:32
Speaker 1: out the way we thought it might. And your nine
29:35
Speaker 1: year old twin daughter killed a doe. Tell us about
29:38
Speaker 1: that set up, Why you guys were in that spot
29:39
Speaker 1: and why that doll was in that spot? Yeah, she did.
29:42
Speaker 1: It was the first year. It was really really cool
29:45
Speaker 1: we we were there. I was panicked a little bit
29:47
Speaker 1: the week before the season opened because I didn't think
29:49
Speaker 1: we had a good morning set up, And so I
29:52
Speaker 1: went over there to Wisconsin and this spot, it's a
29:56
Speaker 1: it's a private place, but there's just sort of an
29:58
Speaker 1: area they filtered through coming back from the neighbor's bean field.
30:02
Speaker 1: There's some tree rows there and there's a swamp on
30:05
Speaker 1: one side that kind of kind of keeps them in line,
30:09
Speaker 1: and so I put a ground line in that that
30:12
Speaker 1: tree roll, thinking we might catch them coming back in
30:14
Speaker 1: the morning from that destination food source. And that's exactly
30:18
Speaker 1: how it played out. We had one dough come in,
30:21
Speaker 1: you know, it's dead come and she got a little
30:22
Speaker 1: bit wiggy. She she gave my daughter, I don't know,
30:25
Speaker 1: like shot, and it just worked out and it was
30:28
Speaker 1: really cool. Man. Both times I've talked to you, Tony,
30:31
Speaker 1: you've you've touched on how much water the state has
30:34
Speaker 1: this year. Is there enough water to be dictating dear
30:37
Speaker 1: movement and is it forcing them out of certain areas
30:40
Speaker 1: or to take different paths or has that not been
30:43
Speaker 1: that much of an issue for patterns at least? Um,
30:46
Speaker 1: you know, I wouldn't say there's enough water over there
30:48
Speaker 1: to really force them anywhere too. You know that they
30:52
Speaker 1: they want to stay dry, so they'll circle around it.
30:55
Speaker 1: But it's you know, it's just a difference between diving
30:58
Speaker 1: through a really nasty swamp stick and full of alders
31:01
Speaker 1: and everything, or staying out in the open. And so
31:04
Speaker 1: that's more of you know, when you're in a really
31:06
Speaker 1: predator dense place like we were. They seem to in
31:09
Speaker 1: those low light situations kind of find these places where
31:12
Speaker 1: they can travel somewhat in the open but still have
31:14
Speaker 1: some cover to protect them, if that makes any sense.
31:17
Speaker 1: And so that's that's what I'm kind of talking about
31:18
Speaker 1: with the swamp situation there. What food sources relevant right now?
31:22
Speaker 1: In Wisconsin? Man, you know, our deer were they were
31:27
Speaker 1: mostly coming off of beans, but I think some of
31:29
Speaker 1: them were key in on a just an lfal ful
31:32
Speaker 1: field as well, but that had been just very recently cut,
31:36
Speaker 1: and so I think, you know, you really can't go
31:39
Speaker 1: wrong with september and soybeans. Where are you running a
31:42
Speaker 1: lot of your trail cameras right now, man, I'm running
31:47
Speaker 1: them in anything I think that's going to be a
31:50
Speaker 1: staging area as the deer traveled to and from bedding
31:54
Speaker 1: and food and food in bed Are you seeing any
31:57
Speaker 1: signmaking right now in those stage again or use or
31:59
Speaker 1: another part to the woods? I am. I found some
32:04
Speaker 1: some of the first rubs of the season this year.
32:06
Speaker 1: We actually found a monster rub. We we spent a
32:08
Speaker 1: little time brook trout fishing over there and found a
32:11
Speaker 1: crossing that was just rubbed up and it was pretty cool.
32:16
Speaker 1: So I've started to see a little bit of buck
32:18
Speaker 1: time now. Hunting with your daughter, the goal was a
32:21
Speaker 1: little bit different and that you were just trying to
32:23
Speaker 1: get any legal do you're on the ground from a
32:25
Speaker 1: ground line. But if you were hunting for yourself, Tony,
32:27
Speaker 1: if you were trying to kill a buck in the
32:28
Speaker 1: morning in mid September to late September, what would that
32:32
Speaker 1: set up look like in a state like Wisconsin, getting
32:37
Speaker 1: back in the cover off of the food and just
32:40
Speaker 1: playing that real, real early movement. You know, maybe a
32:44
Speaker 1: couple d yards off of the destination food sources, as
32:47
Speaker 1: long as you can sneak in and that, you know,
32:49
Speaker 1: that's the key to everything is if you have the
32:50
Speaker 1: access to these spots, you can absolutely make a staging
32:55
Speaker 1: area type of hunt. Happened in the morning in September,
32:57
Speaker 1: but you really got to be able to sneak in
32:59
Speaker 1: and that would that was absolutely the secret. So how
33:02
Speaker 1: my daughter kills her dear? Going forward? Then, in this
33:05
Speaker 1: next week or so, what do you think that buck
33:06
Speaker 1: ACTV is going to be on a scale of one
33:08
Speaker 1: to ten in Wisconsin. I'm gonna I'm gonna bump her
33:12
Speaker 1: up to a five. I think it's gonna get better there, Spence. Alright, Tony,
33:16
Speaker 1: I like your optimism, um, but that's not a whole
33:18
Speaker 1: lot more optimistic. I hope you're wrong and it's it's
33:20
Speaker 1: even better than five. Good luck with the rest of
33:22
Speaker 1: your haunts. And thanks for joining me. Awesome, Thanks buddy,
33:27
Speaker 1: And that concludes episode four hundred and fifty seven of
33:30
Speaker 1: rut Fresh Radio. Next to Alex Gray, Keith and Tony
33:34
Speaker 1: for joining me, and thank you guys for listening. As
33:37
Speaker 1: a reminder, our reading materials for this week can be
33:39
Speaker 1: found in the description where you have things like best
33:42
Speaker 1: food sources for big woods white tails, how to kill
33:44
Speaker 1: a buck in high wind. By September is the best
33:47
Speaker 1: month to haunt scrapes and should you deer hunt in
33:49
Speaker 1: the raid, I will talk to you next week and
33:52
Speaker 1: until then stay wired to hunt.