Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 460: Rut Fresh Radio 9/29/2021 - Opening Day Mentality

Transcript

Ep. 460: Rut Fresh Radio 9/29/2021 - Opening Day Mentality · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to Wire 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 Hunts
0:14
Speaker 1: rout Fresh Radio powered by First Light. I am your host,
0:17
Speaker 1: Spencer new Hearth, and this week we're talking about hunting
0:20
Speaker 1: with an opening day mentality. Welcome to Wired to Hunts
0:38
Speaker 1: what Fresh Radio. I'm your host, Spencer new Hearth and
0:41
Speaker 1: this is episode four dred and sixty and joining me
0:45
Speaker 1: is Mark Kenyon, who has an approaching opening day coming
0:49
Speaker 1: up in Michigan. And by this weekend, for most of
0:53
Speaker 1: the White Tails range, Mark, people are going to be
0:57
Speaker 1: able to hunt. Maybe some states in the South have
0:59
Speaker 1: a little bit later opening, but for of folks listening
1:03
Speaker 1: to this, you probably can be in the woods at
1:05
Speaker 1: this point, which is super exciting. Um. And for you, Mark,
1:08
Speaker 1: what is your mindset like going into opening day on
1:13
Speaker 1: October one in a state that doesn't open until October
1:17
Speaker 1: and you have to watch everyone else having fun in September? Yeah? Man,
1:21
Speaker 1: it's just, uh, it's been a long time coming, and
1:23
Speaker 1: I'm very very excited. I like you said, I feel like,
1:28
Speaker 1: you know, once October hits like it's hunting season. I mean,
1:30
Speaker 1: it's hunting season everywhere, so I know everyone's been chomping
1:33
Speaker 1: at the bit if they haven't been going yet. And uh,
1:36
Speaker 1: it's just it's just a great time of year. So
1:38
Speaker 1: let's just pause for a moment to be really freaking
1:41
Speaker 1: excited about that. And um and yeah, I mean I'm
1:45
Speaker 1: feeling great. You know, October one is uh, it's it's
1:49
Speaker 1: a holiday of sorts here in Michigan, so there's gonna
1:51
Speaker 1: be a lot of people hitting the woods. And and
1:53
Speaker 1: I always look at it as one of those very
1:55
Speaker 1: best chances of my entire season regard lists of intel,
2:00
Speaker 1: regardless of weather. I always look at those first couple
2:04
Speaker 1: of days as a really good chance. And it's actually
2:07
Speaker 1: something that maybe it is worth discussing a little bit,
2:09
Speaker 1: because you know, if you were to look at the
2:12
Speaker 1: weather forecast for a lot of parts of the country
2:14
Speaker 1: right now, it's kind of stagnant. There's not a lot
2:17
Speaker 1: of change, there's nothing really exciting. There's not that big
2:20
Speaker 1: sexy cold front. Uh, nothing like that, at least from
2:23
Speaker 1: the places I've seen, and definitely not here in Michigan. Um.
2:26
Speaker 1: So I know some people that might see that and
2:28
Speaker 1: be bummed and be like it's not gonna be that great.
2:31
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm not gonna go out, or maybe I will
2:34
Speaker 1: just try shoot a doe or whatever it might be.
2:36
Speaker 1: But you gotta remember, at least if you hunt in
2:39
Speaker 1: one of these places that's opening right now, this is
2:43
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's different than what someone's experiencing in
2:46
Speaker 1: North Dakota where their season has been going a month.
2:48
Speaker 1: And if my season has been going a month and
2:50
Speaker 1: October first rolls around and there's no great front, there's
2:53
Speaker 1: nothing that's really going to change dear movement, then yeah,
2:56
Speaker 1: I'm not too excited about it. But if nobody has
2:58
Speaker 1: been hunting in your area for eight nine months and
3:02
Speaker 1: these deer are still doing their thing relatively unbothered, you've
3:07
Speaker 1: got this short window to catch him off guard. And
3:11
Speaker 1: I can tell you even here in Michigan, where there's
3:13
Speaker 1: lots of hunters out there, where there's an antler list
3:16
Speaker 1: season that came in two weekends ago for a little bit,
3:19
Speaker 1: and there was a youth season that came in three
3:22
Speaker 1: and a half weekends ago before that, so there's been
3:23
Speaker 1: a little bit of pressure already. Even with that, I
3:26
Speaker 1: still almost every year catch a good buck on his
3:30
Speaker 1: feet in daylight or close to it, or have some
3:33
Speaker 1: kind of close encounter, some kind of excitement on one
3:35
Speaker 1: of those first couple of days of hunting. So um.
3:39
Speaker 1: So that's all to say that, you know, get out there,
3:42
Speaker 1: give it a good shot or two. Even even if
3:45
Speaker 1: you're I don't know, on a small property and you've
3:48
Speaker 1: got to be really careful about hunting pressure. I still
3:50
Speaker 1: think it's worth a good stab or two in the
3:52
Speaker 1: beginning because worst case scenario, you don't kill a buck
3:56
Speaker 1: and things don't go as planned and some does blow
3:58
Speaker 1: out or something. But you've got plenty of time until
4:02
Speaker 1: we get into late October or November, when when most
4:05
Speaker 1: people feel like is their their best chance. Right Um,
4:09
Speaker 1: there's plenty of time to recover from any mistake right now.
4:12
Speaker 1: So I say swing for it because I think they're
4:15
Speaker 1: out there, and uh, that's that's at least the way
4:17
Speaker 1: I'm looking at it, and I'm feeling I'm feeling good weather.
4:20
Speaker 1: It's not great, but it's not horrible. It's kind of average.
4:23
Speaker 1: Here in Michigan high bear metric pressure, which you know
4:27
Speaker 1: a lot of people say is a good thing. I'll
4:29
Speaker 1: say that I'll hope it helps things out a little bit.
4:32
Speaker 1: And uh, and I've got some intel on a on
4:34
Speaker 1: a buck, so I think, uh, you know, you never know,
4:37
Speaker 1: it's probably not gonna go the way you wanted to,
4:39
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna say I'm going to head into the
4:41
Speaker 1: field on the evening October one feeling cautiously optimistic. So
4:47
Speaker 1: if if you are hunting in a state like Pennsylvania
4:50
Speaker 1: or Illinois or Michigan that has one of these early
4:53
Speaker 1: October openers, what is like your ideal textbook set up
4:58
Speaker 1: look like for that being weekend hunt? You know, I
5:02
Speaker 1: think it's it's pretty standard. It's it's similar to a
5:06
Speaker 1: lot of people when they're opening their season on September
5:09
Speaker 1: September one, in that it's food related. It's just different
5:14
Speaker 1: because the food source is probably different, right, So like
5:17
Speaker 1: North Dakota, their food source they might be focusing on
5:20
Speaker 1: September one might be green soybeans, or maybe it's an
5:23
Speaker 1: alfalfa field. Uh. Here in Michigan on October one, those
5:27
Speaker 1: things aren't quite as attractive. So I'm thinking corn, right,
5:33
Speaker 1: corns dried down and becoming very attractive. Right now, I've
5:35
Speaker 1: been seeing a lot of deer feeding on the edge
5:37
Speaker 1: of the corn fields right now. Another thing that I
5:40
Speaker 1: know is happening here for sure and across a number
5:42
Speaker 1: of other states, are that acorns are hitting the ground.
5:45
Speaker 1: So I've got a lot of buddies who have been
5:47
Speaker 1: telling me that their trail cameras have been drying up.
5:49
Speaker 1: They're not getting a lot of trail camera pictures. And
5:51
Speaker 1: the assumption is that that's because the acorns are hitten.
5:54
Speaker 1: And so now these deer have moved off of food plots,
5:57
Speaker 1: or they've moved off of whatever you know spot. These
6:00
Speaker 1: people have their cameras and they're now back in the
6:02
Speaker 1: timber eating uh, eating that gold delicious Uh, not gold,
6:06
Speaker 1: but eating that delicious white oak. So I think that
6:10
Speaker 1: for me, I'm set up somewhere either transitioning from bed
6:13
Speaker 1: to food or very close to on top of that
6:16
Speaker 1: food source that's most attractive in my area. Um, so
6:19
Speaker 1: I've got a spot where I can plant some food plots,
6:21
Speaker 1: where I've got some grain food right now that's next
6:24
Speaker 1: to a standing corn field. That's gonna be something that
6:26
Speaker 1: I'm gonna like a lot very close to good bedding,
6:29
Speaker 1: very close to good food, and safely in between the two.
6:32
Speaker 1: That's that's like your textbook, simple early season opportunity if
6:37
Speaker 1: you're hunting public land or something where you don't have
6:39
Speaker 1: that kind of obvious food source that's not getting pounded. Now,
6:42
Speaker 1: I'm thinking an oak flat or an island, or like
6:45
Speaker 1: a finger with some oaks on it that extends out
6:48
Speaker 1: into a swamp a mile back on public land, or
6:51
Speaker 1: an island of high ground with a couple oaks on
6:53
Speaker 1: it that are dropping acorns back in the thick, wet,
6:56
Speaker 1: boggy stuff, or maybe some some oak ridges way back
7:00
Speaker 1: in the timber, whatever it might be, or maybe there's
7:03
Speaker 1: an isolated apple tree. If you can find that dynamite
7:06
Speaker 1: food source that's isolated and far away from other people
7:09
Speaker 1: and in the cover, that's what I'd be thinking about
7:12
Speaker 1: on heavily pressured land right now. And some of the
7:16
Speaker 1: stuff that you talked about their mark is actually part
7:18
Speaker 1: of like our reading material for this week, which you
7:21
Speaker 1: can find in the description of the podcast episode. There
7:23
Speaker 1: are four articles that I would recommend for white tail
7:26
Speaker 1: hunters to read this time of year. The first one
7:29
Speaker 1: is how to Deer Hunt Standing Corn by John Eberhart.
7:33
Speaker 1: He breaks down three tactics he can use to find
7:35
Speaker 1: and kill white tails around corn fields before they're harvested.
7:40
Speaker 1: And then the next is everything I use on d
7:42
Speaker 1: I Y Out of State Deer Haunts by you Mark,
7:44
Speaker 1: where Mark lays out his entire gear list from his
7:47
Speaker 1: sleeping bag to his truck top or do was camp
7:49
Speaker 1: stove and he was climbing sticks to his optics, quite
7:52
Speaker 1: literally everything that he travels with on d I Y
7:55
Speaker 1: White Tail Adventures. And then an article by Tony Peterson
7:59
Speaker 1: A Guaranteed Way to Ruin any Deer hunt. He talks
8:01
Speaker 1: about how certain distractions can make you have less faun
8:04
Speaker 1: and less success. And then finally the Truth about Frontal
8:07
Speaker 1: Shots on Deer by Dylan Tramp. He breaks down all
8:10
Speaker 1: the considerations from a deer's anatomy to its behavior to
8:14
Speaker 1: your gear setup for taking a frontal shot on a
8:17
Speaker 1: white tail with our tree equipment. I like it. I
8:20
Speaker 1: feel like this part. I just wish that we had
8:22
Speaker 1: a visual because when you give us the homework assignment,
8:25
Speaker 1: I just imagine you in your glasses with what are
8:27
Speaker 1: your sweater vests on? You know, or like a what
8:30
Speaker 1: is it not a sweater vest? It's uh car card again? Yes,
8:34
Speaker 1: you're in your card again? When you give us these
8:36
Speaker 1: homework assignments and you're standing at the front of the
8:38
Speaker 1: classroom and you're writing these down on the white board.
8:40
Speaker 1: That's that's what I envisioned at this part. So someone's
8:43
Speaker 1: gotta like photoshop that together for man, and we can
8:45
Speaker 1: post that I feel seen. That's that is what I'm doing.
8:48
Speaker 1: That's that's exactly what. And then the folks that you're
8:52
Speaker 1: gonna hear from this week, we have Lindsay Thomas Jr.
8:54
Speaker 1: In Georgia from the National Deer Association, Caitlin Moss in
8:57
Speaker 1: Missouri from Caitlin Moss Outdoors, and then a new hand
9:00
Speaker 1: I'm sure from the Just Hunt Club is Brett Joy,
9:02
Speaker 1: and then we end with Byron Horton from Ohio from
9:04
Speaker 1: the White Tail Experience. I like it well, uh Man,
9:09
Speaker 1: There's been a whole a lot of these opening days
9:11
Speaker 1: in Michigan where I've talked to you beforehand and then
9:14
Speaker 1: we decided we'd come back in the next week, and
9:16
Speaker 1: I would always say, I hopefully canna have a good
9:18
Speaker 1: story for you. And you know, there hasn't been a
9:20
Speaker 1: whole lot of them where I've got the good story,
9:22
Speaker 1: but there's been a few, and uh, I'm just gonna
9:24
Speaker 1: cross all my fingers and toes and say it one
9:26
Speaker 1: more time and tell you that Spencer, hopefully next week
9:29
Speaker 1: I've got a good story for you. I like it,
9:31
Speaker 1: all right. Good luck, Mark, and the next time I
9:33
Speaker 1: talked to you, it will be October. Hallelujah, all right.
9:39
Speaker 1: And joining us on the line first is Lindsay Thomas Jr.
9:42
Speaker 1: In Georgia from the National Deer Association. Now, Lindsay in Georgia,
9:45
Speaker 1: what would you say the buck activity has been lately
9:48
Speaker 1: on a scale of one to ten uh Spencer Almill
9:50
Speaker 1: split that up a little bit because I hunt my
9:53
Speaker 1: family's land in coastal Georgia, where we have a little
9:56
Speaker 1: bit of an earlier rutt our rut peak is usually
9:59
Speaker 1: the last two weeks of October. Uh Down, I'm gonna say,
10:03
Speaker 1: based on um scouting that out a little bit in
10:06
Speaker 1: the last couple of days and and watching my cameras
10:08
Speaker 1: that we're at about a four to five on buck
10:11
Speaker 1: movement in coastal Georgia right now. Um. But I also
10:14
Speaker 1: hunted this weekend another property about an hour north of
10:17
Speaker 1: there that's more up in the central Georgia UH section.
10:21
Speaker 1: That is is more of a you know, middle November
10:24
Speaker 1: rut like the rest of the state. UM, and I'd
10:27
Speaker 1: say it's more of a three there right now in
10:30
Speaker 1: the majority of central and central Georgia. UM. But I'd
10:34
Speaker 1: like to say Coastal it's picking up a little faster
10:37
Speaker 1: because our rud is earlier. Lindsay, you are an expert
10:39
Speaker 1: when it comes to what white tails want to eat,
10:42
Speaker 1: So let's start with man made food sources. What are
10:45
Speaker 1: some man made food sources that are relevant in October
10:48
Speaker 1: for white tail hunters in that part of the country.
10:51
Speaker 1: Gonna be you know, an if you got in a
10:53
Speaker 1: fall all food plot. Uh, some with some fast germinating
10:57
Speaker 1: annuals like cereal grains, brass because I'm cereal grains being oats,
11:02
Speaker 1: sweet rye if those were if you got those planets
11:04
Speaker 1: and they're coming up in time for October, those will
11:06
Speaker 1: be drawing already. It's been a little too wet honestly
11:10
Speaker 1: in the southeast lately. We just got some food plus
11:13
Speaker 1: planted this past weekend at my family's land in Coastal Georgia.
11:17
Speaker 1: But but normally September and early October is when most
11:19
Speaker 1: people who are planning their falls food plot that you
11:22
Speaker 1: know could be a factory in October um and if
11:26
Speaker 1: you have a leftover, say warm season plot of some
11:29
Speaker 1: beans or colthies, or a soybean field that hadn't been
11:32
Speaker 1: harvested yet, that may still come into play as far
11:35
Speaker 1: as man made. How about natural food sources in the South,
11:38
Speaker 1: What are some food sources that are relevant for October
11:41
Speaker 1: in that part of the country. Gonna be acorns, the
11:45
Speaker 1: white oaks should start falling. I was out this weekend hunting.
11:49
Speaker 1: The water oaks were starting early, and there was a
11:52
Speaker 1: very abundant water oak acorn crop out there right now,
11:55
Speaker 1: but to the point that it was too too much,
11:58
Speaker 1: you know, I really couldn't get any type of deer
12:01
Speaker 1: concentration around the water oak tree because there were lots
12:04
Speaker 1: of them. The white oaks were not falling yet. And
12:06
Speaker 1: we've also got a pretty good crop of swamp chestnut oaks,
12:09
Speaker 1: which are also in the white oak family, so they're
12:11
Speaker 1: pretty desirable acorns. I'm seeing good crops of those, but
12:15
Speaker 1: they're not falling yet. The white oaks really won't start
12:18
Speaker 1: kicking in until October, and the swamp chestnut oats a
12:21
Speaker 1: little bit later. We've got a good crop of crab
12:23
Speaker 1: apples out there right now. That's what I was actually
12:26
Speaker 1: hunting over this past weekend, was uh, some patterns around
12:29
Speaker 1: crab apple trees. Um, and it looks like a good
12:32
Speaker 1: per simmon crop too. But those per simmons will probably
12:36
Speaker 1: be strong in October. Crab apples will pretty much be gone,
12:39
Speaker 1: so we'll be talking about um acorns and the white
12:42
Speaker 1: oak families starting to fall in October and for simmons
12:44
Speaker 1: should be pretty good. Are you seeing any signmaking in
12:47
Speaker 1: the woods yet in Coastal Georgia? Yes, Um, I got
12:51
Speaker 1: my first picture of a younger buck going with a
12:54
Speaker 1: full great sequence on September eleven. Uh, it got an
13:00
Speaker 1: other sequence. Um, they three a little bit over bug.
13:04
Speaker 1: So they're starting scrapes in Coastal Georgia. When I was
13:07
Speaker 1: down there, besides the ones my cameras are on, I
13:10
Speaker 1: was seeing you know, the first uh, scrapes under leaking
13:14
Speaker 1: limbs all around in the traditional locations. Now up in
13:18
Speaker 1: the property I hunted up in Central Georgia, closer to
13:21
Speaker 1: Central Georgia, I was not seeing that. I'm not seeing
13:24
Speaker 1: scrapes start up yet, and that makes sense. We're normally
13:26
Speaker 1: in Central Georgia about two weeks behind the rut timing
13:29
Speaker 1: of coastal Georgia. So yeah, things are starting to cook
13:32
Speaker 1: in coastal Georgia, and you know the next four weeks
13:35
Speaker 1: are gonna be really strong for a bud movement, but
13:38
Speaker 1: again not quite there in central Georgia. Now every year,
13:41
Speaker 1: and I talked to you, Lindsay, I ask you to
13:43
Speaker 1: speak on behalf of white tail studies and science about
13:48
Speaker 1: what it says when it comes to cold fronts. And
13:50
Speaker 1: it's a little bit unfair of me, but you do
13:52
Speaker 1: such a good job of articulating it that I'm gonna
13:55
Speaker 1: ask you again. So when we inevitably get that October
13:58
Speaker 1: cold front for most of country, which I don't see
14:01
Speaker 1: in the forecast yet, but it's it's certainly gonna happen,
14:03
Speaker 1: what do studies and scientists say about white tail movement
14:07
Speaker 1: when it comes to cold weather or warm weather? The
14:11
Speaker 1: data does not show a connection. It just done. Lots
14:14
Speaker 1: of studies have been done on this. You can talk
14:16
Speaker 1: to the experts. They've stock stared at the data until
14:19
Speaker 1: their cross side and you just can't see a correlation
14:23
Speaker 1: between buck movement or deer movement and air temperature. Uh
14:27
Speaker 1: So it's the rut. That's really what it is. Cold
14:30
Speaker 1: fronts get hunters on their feet, not so much the deer. Um.
14:34
Speaker 1: I love to hunt cold front as much as anybody else,
14:37
Speaker 1: but this science shows. I mean, look at what's going
14:39
Speaker 1: on in coast of Georgia right now. The buck movement
14:42
Speaker 1: is picking up as it should right now given the
14:45
Speaker 1: typical timing of breeding. The peak for us is going
14:48
Speaker 1: to be around the scene late October every year. Wherever
14:51
Speaker 1: you hunt, you know that that peak of breeding is
14:53
Speaker 1: going to happen roughly around the same time every year,
14:55
Speaker 1: and the buck movement is going to increase as the
14:58
Speaker 1: weeks approach that date, no matter what the weather is doing.
15:01
Speaker 1: So uh, you know, when a dove comes into Estus,
15:04
Speaker 1: a cold front is not gonna stop that. She's not
15:06
Speaker 1: gonna go out of Estras because it's warm. Um. So
15:09
Speaker 1: when a doze in Estus, bucks are going to be
15:12
Speaker 1: pursuing that. You know they're going to be active. So
15:14
Speaker 1: you know, as I always say, look if it's around
15:17
Speaker 1: the time of the peak of the rud or getting
15:20
Speaker 1: close and buck movements picking up and should be where
15:23
Speaker 1: you hunt. If it's warm, you still should go hunting,
15:25
Speaker 1: don't stay home. Just because it's warm, because the bucks
15:28
Speaker 1: are still moving. That is what the data in in
15:30
Speaker 1: numerous studies using GPS collared bucks shows. Going forward. Then
15:35
Speaker 1: in the six week or so, what do you think
15:37
Speaker 1: that buck activity is going to be on a scale
15:39
Speaker 1: of one to ten in Georgia. I'm gonna say next
15:42
Speaker 1: week in coastal Georgia, we're gonna be around of five
15:45
Speaker 1: to six. Um. Opening day gun season for US is
15:48
Speaker 1: October six, should be things should be really good around
15:51
Speaker 1: then on bug movement, So five to six next week
15:54
Speaker 1: as we get into early October, and then you know,
15:56
Speaker 1: moving on up again. The last two weeks of October
15:58
Speaker 1: are going to be strong for US. Middle Georgia, most
16:02
Speaker 1: of the state i'd say is more around a four.
16:04
Speaker 1: Maybe UH should be up to around the four next week,
16:07
Speaker 1: is what I'm thinking, because again they'll they'll begin to
16:10
Speaker 1: sort of following along picking up with those first tenantive
16:14
Speaker 1: scrapes uh starting next week. All right, lindsay, great, Intil,
16:17
Speaker 1: thanks for joining me in. Good luck with the rest
16:19
Speaker 1: of your season. You're too, Spencer, thanks so much, all right,
16:22
Speaker 1: and joining us on the line next is Caitlin Moss
16:25
Speaker 1: from Missouri. From Caitlin Moss Outdoors now Caitlin and Missouri.
16:28
Speaker 1: What would you say the buck activity is bad lately?
16:30
Speaker 1: On a scale of one to ten, honestly, I would
16:33
Speaker 1: say it's about a five. I would say less. But
16:37
Speaker 1: this past week we got a cold front and I
16:39
Speaker 1: think a few people were able to capitalize on that.
16:42
Speaker 1: Um But just from my personal experience this past week,
16:46
Speaker 1: it's been pretty slow, and I think the biggest reason
16:49
Speaker 1: is because it's just so hot. We're getting tempts and
16:52
Speaker 1: like the mid eighties, so I think they're just not
16:55
Speaker 1: really moving much in daylight. And I've seen a few bucks,
16:58
Speaker 1: but not not as not as much activity as I
17:02
Speaker 1: have seen in past years. What are you seeing for
17:04
Speaker 1: signmaking right now? Not much. I kind of did it
17:09
Speaker 1: a little bit scouting preseason, and typically you know this
17:14
Speaker 1: time of year, I'm seeing rubs and scrapes everywhere. But
17:17
Speaker 1: I've seen one rub in about a two mile radius
17:20
Speaker 1: and two scrapes, So nothing. Nothing to um crazy right now.
17:26
Speaker 1: And um, this is a piece that I have hunted
17:29
Speaker 1: in the past, and by now typically there's a lot
17:31
Speaker 1: more signs, So pretty slow now. I know that you
17:35
Speaker 1: hunt a lot of public land and you often are
17:37
Speaker 1: scouting as you go, what are some things that you're
17:39
Speaker 1: looking for in late September early October when you're scouting
17:43
Speaker 1: in season, well late September, it's kind of a weird.
17:48
Speaker 1: It really just depends on I would say, whether I
17:51
Speaker 1: really like to look for bagg fields if I can
17:55
Speaker 1: some public doesn't have that. Last year it was a
17:57
Speaker 1: crp um feel, and so this year it's beens. So
18:01
Speaker 1: I've kind of been focusing on that um and just
18:04
Speaker 1: kind of getting a general idea of where they're moving
18:06
Speaker 1: and maybe where they're coming from. And then as I,
18:09
Speaker 1: you know, kind of get a pattern on them, I
18:11
Speaker 1: like to move in into the timber a little more
18:13
Speaker 1: and try to get a little bit closer to the
18:15
Speaker 1: bedding UM. So that's kind of been my focus currently.
18:19
Speaker 1: What are other relevant food sources on public land in
18:22
Speaker 1: that part of the country Right now, the acorn crop
18:25
Speaker 1: is pretty good. UM, I'm seeing a ton of those,
18:28
Speaker 1: But where I'm at, it's there's just so much food
18:32
Speaker 1: that it can be really hard to pinpoint. There's just
18:35
Speaker 1: a lot of brows, there's a lot of bag fields,
18:37
Speaker 1: there's a lot of acorns, so it really is difficult
18:40
Speaker 1: to kind of figure out where they're at because there's
18:41
Speaker 1: no like one direct food source. So yeah, and are
18:46
Speaker 1: you having more success finding buck move in the mornings
18:49
Speaker 1: or the evenings right now? Well, I only hunted one
18:52
Speaker 1: morning so far, and it was honestly really good, but um,
18:57
Speaker 1: it was cold. It dropped down into like the fifth East. Um,
19:01
Speaker 1: so I thought I might as well try it out
19:03
Speaker 1: and see and I did see a buck, But um,
19:06
Speaker 1: so far, I've pretty much just been focusing on evenings
19:09
Speaker 1: just because it's really hot, and um, they just have
19:12
Speaker 1: been hitting the bean field at night. So that's my
19:15
Speaker 1: current situation. Walk is through what your ideal public land
19:20
Speaker 1: set up looks like in Missouri in early October, whether
19:24
Speaker 1: that's a morning hunter and evening haunted, and what you're
19:27
Speaker 1: hunting over in the timber? Is it a field edge? Oh?
19:31
Speaker 1: I like to be in the timber, um kind of.
19:34
Speaker 1: I would say halfway between betting and food if I can,
19:37
Speaker 1: because by then I typically figure out at least a
19:40
Speaker 1: general area of where they're hanging out, So I would
19:43
Speaker 1: say timber next to some kind of oaks three or
19:47
Speaker 1: something that could potentially draw them in. I really am
19:51
Speaker 1: just kind of a hanging hunt scout. As I go person,
19:53
Speaker 1: So it really just depends what kind of activity I'm seeing,
19:56
Speaker 1: but that's typically what I go for. Go forward. Then,
20:00
Speaker 1: in the next week or so, what do you think
20:02
Speaker 1: that bucket activity is going to be on a scale
20:04
Speaker 1: of one to ten in Missouri? I say it's gonna
20:07
Speaker 1: be about a four or five still, just because it's
20:10
Speaker 1: gonna be so hot. Um. I think once attempts start dropping,
20:14
Speaker 1: you know, maybe early October, then I think things will
20:16
Speaker 1: start picking up. All right, Kitlin, thanks for the information,
20:19
Speaker 1: good luck with the rest of your season, and thanks
20:21
Speaker 1: for joining me. Thank you all right and joining us
20:23
Speaker 1: on the line. Next is Brett Joy in New Hampshire
20:26
Speaker 1: from Just Hunt Club. Now Brett in New Hampshire. What
20:29
Speaker 1: would you say the bucket activity has been lately? On
20:31
Speaker 1: a scale one to ten, I would say it's done
20:33
Speaker 1: pretty low. Um the last week or so, I'd say
20:36
Speaker 1: it's probably been something like a free Um. We're here
20:41
Speaker 1: in our second week of the season. I guess, yeah,
20:45
Speaker 1: well almost in our second week of the season. The
20:47
Speaker 1: end of the second week, UM, temperatures have been slightly
20:50
Speaker 1: above average and that's gonna suppress movement early season for sure. UM.
20:55
Speaker 1: The other thing is we have seen um kind of
20:58
Speaker 1: just a shift in dear activity this past week. I
21:00
Speaker 1: would say, from more of a summers feeding pattern to
21:02
Speaker 1: a fall feeding pattern. So I would say overall activity
21:05
Speaker 1: has been pretty low. When you're hunting the big woods
21:08
Speaker 1: of the Northeast, what are some food sources that you
21:11
Speaker 1: find to be most relevant in October? UM? So for
21:16
Speaker 1: most of the Northeast. UM. In the big woods, mass
21:20
Speaker 1: crop is the name of the game. Whether it's harder
21:22
Speaker 1: south soft mass UM. For us, it's it's acorns, particularly
21:27
Speaker 1: red oaks. UM. They're the mass crop that's most prevalent
21:30
Speaker 1: in our area. UM. You may have some white oaks
21:33
Speaker 1: as well. UM, beech nuts as you go further north,
21:36
Speaker 1: and the oaks are is prevalent UM. And then across
21:38
Speaker 1: the Northeast for soft mass mass it's gonna be apples.
21:41
Speaker 1: So I think those are probably the three food sources
21:45
Speaker 1: to be focused on right now. So oaks, beech nuts,
21:49
Speaker 1: and apples, And it seems like there's a pretty good
21:51
Speaker 1: mass crop for all three this fall. Are you seeing
21:55
Speaker 1: any signmaking in the woods yet? Yep. UM, we kind
21:58
Speaker 1: of got off the deer activity little bit this after
22:01
Speaker 1: the first week of the season. So I did do
22:03
Speaker 1: a little scouting yesterday. UM, gotten to an area mountainside
22:07
Speaker 1: that's full of red oaks. Found a bunch of acorns
22:09
Speaker 1: on the ground, so I knew those trees are producing,
22:11
Speaker 1: and immediately h started to find some bucks signs. So
22:14
Speaker 1: I found a bunch of scrapes, kind of a new
22:17
Speaker 1: scrape line. UM. I haven't really seen much of that
22:21
Speaker 1: until I guess this past week. I've I've seen some
22:24
Speaker 1: bucks hitting licking branches. Well, that kind of continues year around,
22:28
Speaker 1: but I have seen it pretty good in the month
22:30
Speaker 1: I guess August September, UM, but I haven't really seen
22:33
Speaker 1: any fresh scrapes where the grounds bought up, and so
22:36
Speaker 1: I just started to see that. So that's a good sign,
22:39
Speaker 1: and I think probably most of that's going to be
22:41
Speaker 1: tight to betting and then obviously around food sources. What
22:45
Speaker 1: sort of differences do you notice around signmaking when it
22:48
Speaker 1: comes to bucks in the Northeast versus bucks in the
22:52
Speaker 1: Midwest when you're hunting around more traditional agriculture. So I
22:56
Speaker 1: think there's not a ton of difference. And like the
22:59
Speaker 1: nature of the sign I guess it's you know, rubs
23:01
Speaker 1: and scrapes and stuff like that, there's there's not much difference.
23:04
Speaker 1: I think that the difference is the variability in the
23:07
Speaker 1: volume of sign um. Because we have such low deer densities,
23:12
Speaker 1: you're gonna see sign in a particular area more dependent
23:15
Speaker 1: on a buck's personality. In the Midwestern maybe time fifteen
23:18
Speaker 1: bucks using a particular area. Pretty good chance one or
23:21
Speaker 1: two or five or even ten of those bucks you're
23:23
Speaker 1: gonna have a fairly aggressive personality. Um. You know one
23:27
Speaker 1: that inclines in the lead leaving a bunch of sign
23:29
Speaker 1: down up here in the big woods are deer density solo.
23:32
Speaker 1: There may be like three or four bucks in the
23:34
Speaker 1: area period, and maybe only one or none of those
23:37
Speaker 1: bucks have the personalitationality to leave a bunch of signs.
23:40
Speaker 1: So you may see at just a little sign, but
23:42
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that you're off the X or it's
23:45
Speaker 1: not there that you should spend time on and trying
23:47
Speaker 1: to gauge that. You know, the volume of sign and
23:51
Speaker 1: how you interpret it is important. So they may find
23:54
Speaker 1: just maybe one or two scrapes and a couple of
23:56
Speaker 1: smaller rubs um, and that may be enough for me
23:59
Speaker 1: to investigate more or hunt that area, because there may
24:01
Speaker 1: be a great, big you know, old mature buck. That's
24:03
Speaker 1: it just doesn't have a personality to the caraffe entire woods.
24:07
Speaker 1: If you find an area where the entire woods store up,
24:10
Speaker 1: well that's really good too. But I wouldn't be discourage
24:13
Speaker 1: when you find you a lower volume of sign um.
24:16
Speaker 1: It's it's being able to gauge that and realize that, hey,
24:20
Speaker 1: there aren't twenty bucks in here, so I can't. I
24:22
Speaker 1: don't won't expect to see as much sign as I would.
24:24
Speaker 1: You know, on the back edge of a bean field
24:26
Speaker 1: in September and you know, Indiana or something like that.
24:30
Speaker 1: If you want to focus on buck bedding in October,
24:33
Speaker 1: how do you identify and find buck beds in the
24:36
Speaker 1: big woods? That's the challenge. I think it's mostly topography
24:41
Speaker 1: driven in the mountains. Um as you get into some
24:44
Speaker 1: lower land stuff, it's going to be dictated by you know,
24:47
Speaker 1: fit cover or swampy areas. They're a great bet um.
24:51
Speaker 1: I don't spend a ton of time worrying too much
24:54
Speaker 1: about specific beds. I'll know that, hey they're going to
24:57
Speaker 1: bet on the point of this mountain like they always do,
24:59
Speaker 1: or on this bench on mountain. I'm more worried about
25:02
Speaker 1: the best food source and then kind of what bets
25:05
Speaker 1: beds relate to that food source, rather than trying to
25:07
Speaker 1: find the beds and then find the food. So um
25:11
Speaker 1: our bucks are I don't want to say they're nomadic
25:14
Speaker 1: because they definitely have like home ranges, but they move
25:17
Speaker 1: a lot within that home range, and their home ranges
25:19
Speaker 1: could be huge, so I'm not so focused on this bed.
25:22
Speaker 1: They may have twenty different you know, areas that they
25:26
Speaker 1: bed to the course of a year. So just trying
25:27
Speaker 1: to find the hot food sources probably a better idea.
25:30
Speaker 1: And then you know the topography that lends itself to betting,
25:34
Speaker 1: uh directly, I guess related to that food source is
25:39
Speaker 1: going to be your way to find you know, where
25:41
Speaker 1: they're betting going forward. Then in this next week or so,
25:44
Speaker 1: what do you think that buckettv is going to be
25:46
Speaker 1: on a scale of one to ten in New Hampshire.
25:49
Speaker 1: So I'm kind of looking at the forecast here and
25:52
Speaker 1: it looks like we're going to have a cold from
25:55
Speaker 1: that's gonna come in in the next couple of days.
25:58
Speaker 1: I'm not sure it's that when this is gonna come out,
25:59
Speaker 1: but I've seen pretty quickly so towards you know, the
26:02
Speaker 1: first of October, last few days here in September, we're
26:06
Speaker 1: gonna get some below average weather, uh temperature wise, so
26:11
Speaker 1: I think that will give up pick the buck activity.
26:15
Speaker 1: If you have found that food source, that mass crop
26:17
Speaker 1: food source that they're on, I think you could have
26:20
Speaker 1: some excellent movement maybe you know, seven, eight, nine, even
26:24
Speaker 1: ten um. If you're off the accident on that food source,
26:27
Speaker 1: you're probably gonna have more of the same. So find
26:29
Speaker 1: that food source and where those deer moving to stop
26:31
Speaker 1: here because they're not moving that far is critical. If
26:33
Speaker 1: you find that, I think you're gonna have some really
26:35
Speaker 1: good activity um in the next week. Now, earlier this month,
26:40
Speaker 1: breat you killed one of the widest bucks that I've
26:43
Speaker 1: ever seen a picture of. I think you said he
26:46
Speaker 1: was twenty seven inches wide. If you want to see
26:48
Speaker 1: the video of that hunt, you can go to YouTube
26:50
Speaker 1: and check out just Hunt Clubs channel and you'll find
26:53
Speaker 1: that haunt there. Uh crazy deer, crazy hunt. Thank you
26:57
Speaker 1: for joining me, Brett, and good luck with the rest
26:58
Speaker 1: of your season. Thanks Spenser, appreciate it YouTube all right
27:02
Speaker 1: and joining us on the line. Last is Byron Horton
27:04
Speaker 1: in Ohio from the White Tail Experience now Byron in Ohio.
27:08
Speaker 1: What would you say the buck activities bent lately on
27:10
Speaker 1: a scale of one to ten. Yeah, based on some
27:13
Speaker 1: trail camp dads and visual sightings, I'd say a solid
27:16
Speaker 1: six out of ten. We had some favorable conditions for
27:19
Speaker 1: our opener as far as uh below normal tents, and
27:25
Speaker 1: we visually saw a couple of bucks on their feet,
27:27
Speaker 1: including some some mid morning action which was kind of crazy.
27:30
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna go ahead and go six out of ten,
27:32
Speaker 1: which seems higher right now? Where are you running a
27:35
Speaker 1: lot of your trail cameras right now? Right now, I'd
27:37
Speaker 1: say a majority of my trail cams are on scrapes,
27:42
Speaker 1: and personally I'm attacking a little more big woods pieces,
27:46
Speaker 1: so um, I have shifted to maybe some bigger trails
27:49
Speaker 1: going in and out of oak flats, um in and
27:52
Speaker 1: around clear cuts as well, but dominant us on on
27:56
Speaker 1: the scrapes right now. You said that you've been seeing
28:00
Speaker 1: better movement in the mornings. What does a morning set
28:03
Speaker 1: up look like for you in early October? Yeah, I think,
28:07
Speaker 1: based on some of the trail cam data and obviously
28:10
Speaker 1: general hunts morning, I like an early access. UM, getting
28:15
Speaker 1: in there well before daylight, being at the base of
28:18
Speaker 1: your tree a solid hour two hour and thirty before daylight.
28:21
Speaker 1: It's definitely key. And then obviously UM kind of playing
28:26
Speaker 1: the game of avoiding where these deer transitioning to UM.
28:30
Speaker 1: Other than that, it's it's it's nothing crazy UM as
28:34
Speaker 1: far as the morning hunt goes. But the trail camp
28:37
Speaker 1: data does seem to show those cooler mornings and the
28:40
Speaker 1: deer movement. As of some of the scouting I got
28:43
Speaker 1: done right before season. I had more bucks in daylight
28:46
Speaker 1: in the morning halfs than then, say, the evening, So
28:49
Speaker 1: I would not hesitate if you had the information to
28:52
Speaker 1: go after it. In Midwestern states like Ohio. What are
28:56
Speaker 1: some relevant food sources that you're focused on on public land? Yeah,
29:00
Speaker 1: oh so the key UM And something I've kind of
29:04
Speaker 1: been been trying to figure out better in the last
29:07
Speaker 1: couple of years is scouting the oaks that are actually
29:09
Speaker 1: producing every year or every other and really poking around
29:13
Speaker 1: a good amount of the week or so before season. UM.
29:17
Speaker 1: It seems like chestnut oaks, which is kind of a
29:20
Speaker 1: belief part of the white oak family, UM, are are
29:23
Speaker 1: hot this year. And yeah, that's what I've I've bumped
29:27
Speaker 1: some deer off of even mid day. Uh, it seems
29:29
Speaker 1: like early October. Sometimes I catched these deer midday on
29:33
Speaker 1: these oak flats if I if I had time to
29:35
Speaker 1: scout um. Other than that, the other thing I kind
29:38
Speaker 1: of look forward with oaks related to it is windy days.
29:42
Speaker 1: If you have, how at least here in Ohio, something
29:46
Speaker 1: above fifteen miles an hour, or gusty or a front
29:50
Speaker 1: or some sort of storm, it puts a lot of
29:52
Speaker 1: oaks on the ground quickly and there's dear no about it.
29:55
Speaker 1: So that's some of some of some tactics that I
29:56
Speaker 1: kind of have used or in fine tuning in the
29:59
Speaker 1: last couple of years. Is those windy days. Uh, Dumping
30:01
Speaker 1: oak um kind of creates a nice effect on those
30:05
Speaker 1: oak class We're coming off of a recent full moon.
30:09
Speaker 1: Is that something that you notice had an effect on
30:11
Speaker 1: deer movement for Ohio as open or is it anything
30:13
Speaker 1: that you pay attention to in hunting public land? You know,
30:16
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't really look at the moon as anything.
30:21
Speaker 1: I may look back at the overhead and under foot
30:23
Speaker 1: times if if I see obscure movement, but it's not
30:26
Speaker 1: something I base anything around. I'm much bigger on hunting
30:28
Speaker 1: pressure and weather and what are you seeing for signmaking
30:31
Speaker 1: right now? It's limited. Um, Actually, that's something I'll bounce
30:36
Speaker 1: around the week before the opener, only found one rub,
30:40
Speaker 1: and then I'll go in in on my evening hunt
30:42
Speaker 1: on the open or Saturday evening. I found a small
30:45
Speaker 1: cluster of rubs, but you know, I walked a mile
30:48
Speaker 1: to get in there and didn't see any So it's
30:51
Speaker 1: it's something that right now if you find it, especially
30:54
Speaker 1: maybe in lower dear number population areas, I think it's
30:57
Speaker 1: something really key in on because you can judge how
31:00
Speaker 1: fresh the rubs are with the shavings, but also if
31:02
Speaker 1: that tree is kind of bleeding or you know, it's
31:05
Speaker 1: got some moisture to that rub, it's it's definitely a
31:09
Speaker 1: telltale sign right now. You mentioned that part of your
31:12
Speaker 1: game plan is trying to avoid hunting pressure. Is there
31:15
Speaker 1: any part of like the month of October that you
31:18
Speaker 1: see less hunting pressure than the less of this than
31:21
Speaker 1: the rest of the season in Ohio? Yeah, I do
31:24
Speaker 1: think it does relate to the Buckeye games, uh a
31:28
Speaker 1: little bit as far as football fans, But you know,
31:31
Speaker 1: you've really got the public land, not to yourself, but
31:35
Speaker 1: there's a there's definitely a low and hunting pressure from
31:38
Speaker 1: the second week of season two really right around the
31:41
Speaker 1: twentie UM, I want to say so especially weekday hunts
31:46
Speaker 1: and even weekends. There's there's less pressure now for the
31:49
Speaker 1: next stile, let's call it twenty days before it really
31:52
Speaker 1: ramps up. If you're doing some in season scouting in
31:55
Speaker 1: early October, what are some things that you're looking for. Yeah,
31:58
Speaker 1: I would say finding trail, like we talked about with
32:00
Speaker 1: the rub lines, because those are limited right now. Those
32:03
Speaker 1: are key droppings under certain oaks, are on oak flats.
32:07
Speaker 1: Bumping deer in general is always a good thing. UM.
32:11
Speaker 1: Potentially you know, to get some visual sightings. UM. I
32:15
Speaker 1: do look for a little bit of brows if there's
32:17
Speaker 1: greenbrier in an area. UM. And then obviously scrapes because
32:22
Speaker 1: there's not a time that are opened up, so it
32:25
Speaker 1: was getting on those and then deploying cameras that can
32:28
Speaker 1: can let you know what's going on. UM. But I
32:31
Speaker 1: do think you know, in season scouting right now is
32:34
Speaker 1: huge because I'm looking ahead wanting to know when that
32:37
Speaker 1: that early to mid October cold friends coming and that's
32:40
Speaker 1: when I want to be in position going forward. Then
32:43
Speaker 1: in the sex week or so, what do you think
32:45
Speaker 1: that buck activity is going to be on a scale
32:47
Speaker 1: of one to ten in Ohio? Yeah, I'm gonna go
32:50
Speaker 1: three point five. I just don't think it's it's super high.
32:53
Speaker 1: We kind of just have some stagnant to average weather.
32:56
Speaker 1: There's a few maybe small rainfronts in the fork US,
33:00
Speaker 1: but no dramatic drops, no home run get everybody excited
33:04
Speaker 1: on Facebook type cold fronts that I can see at
33:06
Speaker 1: this point. So I don't think chances are going to
33:10
Speaker 1: be as high as they work for our open All right, Byron,
33:13
Speaker 1: good luck with the rest of your season, and thanks
33:14
Speaker 1: for joining me. Thanks Spencer, And that concludes this week's
33:18
Speaker 1: episode of rout Fresh Radio. Thanks to Lindsay, Caitlin Brett,
33:22
Speaker 1: and Byron for joining me, and thank you guys for listening.
33:24
Speaker 1: As a reminder, you can find this week's reading materials
33:27
Speaker 1: in the description of the podcast, like how to deer Hunt,
33:30
Speaker 1: standing Corn, everything I use on d I y out
33:33
Speaker 1: of State deer hunts, A guaranteed way to ruin any
33:36
Speaker 1: deer hunt, and the truth about frontal shots on deer.
33:39
Speaker 1: The next time I talked to you. It will be October,
33:42
Speaker 1: which I'm sure you're is excited about as me. Until then,
33:45
Speaker 1: stay wired to Hunt.