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Wired To Hunt Podcast #172: Rut Radio 10/4/17 · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for
0:06
Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
0:11
Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm
0:16
Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan. This is episode number one seventy two,
0:19
Speaker 1: and today we're back with another RUT Radio report in
0:22
Speaker 1: which we're sharing updates on current deer activity and behavior
0:25
Speaker 1: across the country this week, and we've got a very
0:28
Speaker 1: exciting story from one of our very own Wired to
0:31
Speaker 1: Hunt team members. All right, welcome to the Wired to
0:48
Speaker 1: Hunt podcast, brought to you by sit Gear, and we're
0:52
Speaker 1: back today with a new episode of our RUT Radio series.
0:55
Speaker 1: It's early October, and as we do on each week's
0:59
Speaker 1: RUT Radio episod, so we're gonna be checking in with
1:01
Speaker 1: a handful of deer hunters from all across the country
1:04
Speaker 1: to hear about deer activity, dear behavior, the conditions that
1:08
Speaker 1: are present right now, tactics that are working right now,
1:12
Speaker 1: and and even thoughts on what we can expect in
1:14
Speaker 1: the coming days. So that's what we're gonna be talking
1:16
Speaker 1: about here over the next half hour or so. And
1:19
Speaker 1: with me, as he is on each episode of RUT Radio,
1:24
Speaker 1: is a guy that I used to like a lot
1:27
Speaker 1: a guy that maybe maybe he's making me very jealous though.
1:31
Speaker 1: Now this man is named Spencer new Hearth, and he
1:35
Speaker 1: is the man of the hour of the week. He
1:38
Speaker 1: is he is now reaching legendary status in my mind. Spencer,
1:44
Speaker 1: you pulled off a hunt of a lifetime, didn't you. Yes.
1:48
Speaker 1: I am in a good mood today, and I know
1:53
Speaker 1: we've got a bunch of guests that you have lined
1:55
Speaker 1: up that are going to talk about stuff all over
1:56
Speaker 1: the country, and I'm sure they're gonna be great. But
1:59
Speaker 1: I don't give a damn right now. I just want
2:01
Speaker 1: to talk to you. I want you to tell us
2:04
Speaker 1: what happened to you the other day? Um, what is
2:07
Speaker 1: your rut or what is your rut? Radio report for
2:10
Speaker 1: us today? Uh? Well, Mark, I shot a big book.
2:15
Speaker 1: Come on, that's like a that's like an under that's
2:17
Speaker 1: an understatement. If I ever heard you killed a you
2:20
Speaker 1: killed a buck of just unbelievable proportions, you killed a giant,
2:28
Speaker 1: you killed you killed the kind of buck that like
2:30
Speaker 1: makes me cry just a little bit. It's crazy. Even
2:34
Speaker 1: when you were the killer, you cry a little bit. Yeah, yeah,
2:38
Speaker 1: tell me everything. Tell me how how did this hunt,
2:40
Speaker 1: because when we talked last time, you had been talking
2:44
Speaker 1: about this public land western South Dakota hunt you were
2:47
Speaker 1: going on, and we had, you know, ambitions to share
2:50
Speaker 1: that in on Instagram and all sorts of stuff. So
2:52
Speaker 1: so maybe start there. Tell us what happened there, how
2:55
Speaker 1: your plans changed, and now how you ended up killing
2:58
Speaker 1: this buck in a totally different part the state. All right, Well,
3:01
Speaker 1: we talked about it a little bit last time. I
3:03
Speaker 1: was going to go west. My idea there was to
3:06
Speaker 1: pick out some public ground that would be overlooked, and
3:09
Speaker 1: I was in the heart of mule deer country, but
3:11
Speaker 1: I was gonna try to find some white tails. So
3:14
Speaker 1: I focused on some ground that just looked like textbook
3:17
Speaker 1: white tail habitat with river bottoms, um and hardwoods. Got
3:23
Speaker 1: there heading never seen in person, and was immediately pretty
3:28
Speaker 1: turned off because there was a lot of cattle on it,
3:30
Speaker 1: and I knew that was a possibility. Um, but until
3:34
Speaker 1: you see it, and uh, you scout a couple of
3:37
Speaker 1: times and hunted, it wasn't until then that I really
3:40
Speaker 1: lost confidence. Mm hmm. Man's exactly what happened to me
3:44
Speaker 1: in Montana. Yeah, Um, the area wasn't absent of deer. Um.
3:49
Speaker 1: That wasn't the problem. The problem was that they were
3:50
Speaker 1: all on private ground. Um, the public I just couldn't
3:54
Speaker 1: compete with the lush um grass and brush that was
3:58
Speaker 1: just on the other side of the fence. So they
4:01
Speaker 1: were dear there. And I suspect there will be in
4:03
Speaker 1: like three weeks when the cattle are out on the
4:05
Speaker 1: public um, but for now it just would not be
4:07
Speaker 1: a productive place to hunt. And so after like three
4:10
Speaker 1: days there, I cut the trip short and headed back
4:14
Speaker 1: east to where I'm from. And any time in the fall,
4:17
Speaker 1: you have three days. Uh, those three days are just
4:20
Speaker 1: too valuable to spend doing something that you don't have
4:22
Speaker 1: any confidence, And so that was why I decided to
4:25
Speaker 1: come back home. Makes sense. So what happened then, Well,
4:30
Speaker 1: you ended up in the tree again, right, yes? Um,
4:33
Speaker 1: So the stuff that I've been hunting for the last um,
4:36
Speaker 1: you know, five or six years since I've gotten really
4:38
Speaker 1: into archery hunting. Um, I decided I was gonna finish
4:42
Speaker 1: out my weekend haunting that stuff. Instead, we had um
4:48
Speaker 1: hard south wind for two straight nights, and so the
4:51
Speaker 1: first night was Friday night. UM got on the stand.
4:54
Speaker 1: I'm hunting, Um, I'm hunting a cornfield, and they was
5:00
Speaker 1: a lot of movement, and there was a lot of
5:01
Speaker 1: movement early. Um, enough that made me want to come
5:04
Speaker 1: back the next night. And I can do that in
5:06
Speaker 1: this area because with that corn I'm easy, d I'm
5:09
Speaker 1: able to get in and out very easy. And so
5:13
Speaker 1: the following night I came back and it was a
5:15
Speaker 1: lot less action this time. But can I can I interrupt?
5:19
Speaker 1: Can you tell me? Tell me about this specific setup.
5:22
Speaker 1: So you're on the edge of a corn field. But
5:24
Speaker 1: but why why do you think it would be a
5:26
Speaker 1: good spot early season? UM, give me a few more details.
5:30
Speaker 1: I want to paint this picture in my mind. Well,
5:32
Speaker 1: I like the idea of low risk CONTs right now. UM,
5:35
Speaker 1: I want to be out in the woods, but I
5:36
Speaker 1: don't want to mess anything up um for the end
5:39
Speaker 1: of October and the beginning of November. And so this
5:42
Speaker 1: is a place, like I said, I'm confident I can
5:44
Speaker 1: get in and out of easily. UM, I'm probably gonna
5:47
Speaker 1: see dear, I'm not gonna feel, like you know, on
5:50
Speaker 1: board out of my mind. And it's just a low
5:53
Speaker 1: risk area that I can hunt in an early season.
5:56
Speaker 1: It makes sense because there is a lot of corn there,
5:58
Speaker 1: and I have a low of hate relationship with corn
6:01
Speaker 1: um standing corn. That is. The pros of it is
6:04
Speaker 1: that it's a great insulator for the deer. Um. You know,
6:08
Speaker 1: there's roads around and and homes and they can be
6:11
Speaker 1: in that corner. I have no idea any of that
6:13
Speaker 1: stuff is going on. Like I said, I can't get
6:16
Speaker 1: in and out very easy with that standing corn. And
6:19
Speaker 1: the cons of it, though, are that um it's too
6:22
Speaker 1: good of an insulator. Sometimes the deer can find a
6:25
Speaker 1: low spot in there and they can bet in a
6:26
Speaker 1: slough and you know, they can eat the corn. You'll
6:28
Speaker 1: never see him until come harvest. The other problem is
6:32
Speaker 1: getting a shot in those situations. If that deer is
6:34
Speaker 1: even in the first drow of corn, he could be
6:37
Speaker 1: ten yards away, But I'm not gonna have a shot.
6:39
Speaker 1: It's just really hard to get an arrow in there.
6:41
Speaker 1: And so I picked the corn with not a lot
6:45
Speaker 1: of confidence, but I thought I would still see deer
6:47
Speaker 1: and that would be a nice change of pace from
6:49
Speaker 1: what I was just doing out west. Yeah, and did
6:52
Speaker 1: you know did you know that there was were there
6:55
Speaker 1: mature bucks in the area to your knowledge, did you
6:57
Speaker 1: have some deer on camera or that you'd scouted, that
6:59
Speaker 1: you new about or anything like that. So this was
7:02
Speaker 1: my year of minimalist scouting. I just got married in June,
7:06
Speaker 1: I moved into a new house in August, and so
7:09
Speaker 1: my scouting kind of by choice, and because I had
7:12
Speaker 1: no choice. UM was almost nothing in this area in particular.
7:15
Speaker 1: I didn't even have a camera up yet this year,
7:17
Speaker 1: and I was planning on hanging one this weekend. UM
7:22
Speaker 1: never got around to it, obviously, So I was just
7:25
Speaker 1: hunting this based off historical states. I knew there would
7:29
Speaker 1: be deer around, but no, to answer your question, I
7:31
Speaker 1: did not know there was a deer of this caliber there.
7:34
Speaker 1: So you're going it's a low impact hunt. It's a
7:39
Speaker 1: good general area for earlier season movement, but you weren't
7:41
Speaker 1: gonna mess better things up, you know, too early, and
7:45
Speaker 1: you're you're hanging in hunting based on historical data. And
7:49
Speaker 1: now it's day number two. Yes, and uh I did
7:52
Speaker 1: not have the same action that I had the night before.
7:55
Speaker 1: But it was seven twenty pm. Sunset was at seven,
8:00
Speaker 1: and uh so we were in that last you know,
8:03
Speaker 1: half hour of daylight and it was the golden hour
8:06
Speaker 1: and here comes this big buck up the ridge um
8:10
Speaker 1: far down the cornfield. When I first saw him, it
8:13
Speaker 1: was two yards. So I get my bionos on him
8:17
Speaker 1: and immediately I know this is a shooter. The problem
8:21
Speaker 1: is he's coming straight at me, um walking. Can you
8:26
Speaker 1: can you just you pull you pull your bionos up.
8:29
Speaker 1: You see this as a shooter. What else can you
8:31
Speaker 1: tell me about what this deer looks like? Can you
8:33
Speaker 1: describe this buck? Because he's he's he's worth describing. Um. So,
8:41
Speaker 1: although like I said, I didn't know that he was
8:43
Speaker 1: around this year, UM, I knew this buck from and
8:47
Speaker 1: when I pulled up the bionos, I knew who he was.
8:49
Speaker 1: And he has a very distinguished um kicker on his
8:53
Speaker 1: right G two and then he has these big bladed
8:57
Speaker 1: brown Italians and so I knew who he was right away.
8:59
Speaker 1: And and he just has um a really heavy and
9:02
Speaker 1: wide main frame four by four. So I knew this buck.
9:06
Speaker 1: And I didn't spend much time looking through the binoculars
9:10
Speaker 1: at him because he was walking right at me and
9:12
Speaker 1: I didn't want to make any extra movements. So I
9:14
Speaker 1: glassed him for a couple of seconds, but the banno
9:17
Speaker 1: was away and got ready, and I was just tore
9:21
Speaker 1: up watching him come in, because I mean, I like
9:24
Speaker 1: to think that buck fever doesn't get me, but he does.
9:28
Speaker 1: And yeah, I had to watch him for probably five
9:32
Speaker 1: or six minutes make his way towards me, and at
9:34
Speaker 1: any point he could have hit a trail and went
9:37
Speaker 1: into the corner and gone, And I thought he was
9:39
Speaker 1: going to do that the entire time, but he kept coming.
9:42
Speaker 1: He was at one fifty and then a hundred, and
9:44
Speaker 1: I thought, man, this might happen. And he keeps coming,
9:49
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden he's at twenty five yards.
9:51
Speaker 1: Same thing that he's coming right at me. So I
9:54
Speaker 1: don't have a shot, and he pauses and messes around,
9:57
Speaker 1: and then he's at twenty Still don't have a shot. Yes,
10:02
Speaker 1: so I'm just at this point, I'm gonna let him
10:04
Speaker 1: walk by me and see if I can get a
10:06
Speaker 1: shot after he's beyond me. I did not set this
10:09
Speaker 1: stand up with the intention of smoking a deer at
10:12
Speaker 1: eight yards, but that was what ended up happening. At
10:16
Speaker 1: eight yards, he finally turned. Uh. He gave me a
10:19
Speaker 1: quartering two shots, and I was able to sneak an
10:22
Speaker 1: arrow right behind his shoulder. But I knew it was
10:24
Speaker 1: a good hit. Um. I saw the arrow have a
10:28
Speaker 1: clean pass through, and and he turned and ran. The
10:31
Speaker 1: problem with the deer being at eight yards when you
10:34
Speaker 1: draw back, it's all body in your line of vision,
10:37
Speaker 1: and so uh, it can be hard to distinguish what
10:41
Speaker 1: was a good shot because the time between you releasing
10:45
Speaker 1: the arrow and pulling your head back to see where
10:47
Speaker 1: the arrow hits it's nothing. I felt confident though I
10:52
Speaker 1: saw the arrow go through, he takes off, he does
10:54
Speaker 1: a U turn and runs back about fifty yards. Uh.
10:56
Speaker 1: And I didn't see him come from beyond this tree,
10:59
Speaker 1: and so I I knew he at least bedded down there,
11:02
Speaker 1: or was maybe down altogether. I waited about fifteen minutes
11:06
Speaker 1: and grabbed my arrow because it was so windy, was
11:08
Speaker 1: like winds that night. Anyway, I could slip out of
11:11
Speaker 1: my stand, check the arrow and see what was going on. Well.
11:15
Speaker 1: I had dark blood, um that I thought it was
11:18
Speaker 1: a hard shot because I knew I hit him low,
11:22
Speaker 1: and so I gave him a little bit more time,
11:24
Speaker 1: and I snuck up to where I saw him going,
11:26
Speaker 1: and sure enough he was laying there. The problem was
11:29
Speaker 1: he picks up his head that I thought was I
11:32
Speaker 1: thought his head laying down was him dead? It was not.
11:35
Speaker 1: Picks up his head, looks at me, jumps out of
11:37
Speaker 1: his bed and runs over the ridge. Um, So then
11:40
Speaker 1: I was even more tore up. I knew, I knew
11:43
Speaker 1: I messed up. It was a very amateur thing to do,
11:47
Speaker 1: but I just had to deal with it. So I
11:50
Speaker 1: backed out, called a couple of buddies, gave him two hours,
11:55
Speaker 1: We came back, picked up blood, and found him within
11:57
Speaker 1: thirty minutes. He only went a couple of hundred yards
11:59
Speaker 1: and he is down, and he had been down for
12:01
Speaker 1: a while. I just should not have got him out
12:04
Speaker 1: of that first bed, but I was extremely relieved. So
12:09
Speaker 1: what end did the shot end up being where he
12:11
Speaker 1: thought it was and he just survived longer than you
12:14
Speaker 1: would have expected? Or were you a little farther back?
12:16
Speaker 1: Or what do you think it was low? Like I
12:19
Speaker 1: thought the problem with was quartering two shots? Um like
12:22
Speaker 1: this was I missed his heart by half an inch,
12:26
Speaker 1: but I caught so much of the rest of his body.
12:29
Speaker 1: I got lung, liver, and then on the exit it
12:33
Speaker 1: took some guts with it too. And so just missing
12:37
Speaker 1: the heart a little bit on a quartering two shot
12:40
Speaker 1: can result in you catching everything else so and probably
12:45
Speaker 1: probably just the one lung too, right, and those deer
12:47
Speaker 1: notoriously can can last longer than you would think it does. Yeah, luckily, Uh,
12:54
Speaker 1: everything inside of him was soup and it had pulled up,
12:58
Speaker 1: and he left me a pretty good train ill um,
13:01
Speaker 1: so I was able to pick up the trail and
13:03
Speaker 1: find him. I had to be more aggressive than I
13:05
Speaker 1: wanted to, though, knowing that after I jumped out of
13:08
Speaker 1: his bed it was a liver hit. You'd like to
13:11
Speaker 1: give those year ideally, you know, three or four or
13:13
Speaker 1: five hours. But we had rain coming at one am.
13:16
Speaker 1: So if I was going to find him based off blood, um,
13:19
Speaker 1: I was going to have to go in sooner than
13:21
Speaker 1: I wanted. But it worked out, thankfully. Yeah, he sure did.
13:26
Speaker 1: What was that moment like when you did walk up
13:28
Speaker 1: on him? Man, it was a happy moment. In the
13:30
Speaker 1: last year I've gotten married, I moved into a new house.
13:33
Speaker 1: I saw my favorite team, the Vikings play, I saw
13:36
Speaker 1: my favorite country artist, Garth Brooks playing, and just nothing
13:40
Speaker 1: can replicate this like that. There's just no other thing
13:44
Speaker 1: in the world that can give you this kind of feeling, like,
13:47
Speaker 1: don't let your wife hear that. Oh man, that is
13:51
Speaker 1: I'm so happy for you. Man. When you sent me
13:53
Speaker 1: that picture, I just freaked that he is. Uh. If
13:58
Speaker 1: if anyone listening right now hasn't seen this deer, he
14:02
Speaker 1: got a head over to either Spencer social media or
14:04
Speaker 1: the Wired Hunt Facebook page and check out this buck. Um.
14:09
Speaker 1: Just a beautiful, beautiful deer. I mean, and and just
14:14
Speaker 1: I mean, like you said, he's a he's an eight
14:16
Speaker 1: pointer basically with junk um. Just a monstrous, massive eight
14:21
Speaker 1: point with flyers off his twos and these crazy huge
14:24
Speaker 1: brave tins. And and not to mention maybe as impressive,
14:28
Speaker 1: I'm not more impressive is he he is so mature.
14:32
Speaker 1: I mean that one picture where you've got him pointed
14:34
Speaker 1: towards the camera, his his face just kind of smushes
14:36
Speaker 1: into his huge neck and chest. I mean, just a
14:39
Speaker 1: brahma bowl of a deer as far as I'm concerned. Yeah,
14:42
Speaker 1: and and so like I said, I knew this dear
14:45
Speaker 1: from h and at that time, I thought he was
14:48
Speaker 1: probably three and a half or four and a half,
14:50
Speaker 1: making him six and a half or seven and a half. Now, um,
14:53
Speaker 1: he scored one sixty six and two eighths and that
14:58
Speaker 1: was bigger than I thought when I when I locked
15:01
Speaker 1: up him, and I was thinking one fifties because he
15:03
Speaker 1: is an eight point where it's hard to you know,
15:05
Speaker 1: reach any higher than that. Um, but his width and
15:09
Speaker 1: in the extra stuff he had going on pushing to
15:12
Speaker 1: that point? Was that net or gross? That was his
15:15
Speaker 1: girls score? Was the one six to eight? Yeah, I
15:18
Speaker 1: was gonna say, shoot, I mean from looking at these pictures,
15:21
Speaker 1: I would have guessed bigger than that, Like when you
15:23
Speaker 1: you sent me an original estimation that was higher than that,
15:27
Speaker 1: and I believe you. I was like, holy smokes, this
15:28
Speaker 1: he had no doubt. This thing looks looks like a
15:32
Speaker 1: Booner plus some. But so I was surprised to hear
15:35
Speaker 1: when that when the final came in at one sixties.
15:37
Speaker 1: Either I mean that's gosh, just a giant deer sixty
15:41
Speaker 1: six in main frame eight point or you get kidding me?
15:44
Speaker 1: Um man, I'm just uh, I'm very happy for you, dude. Awesome,
15:48
Speaker 1: awesome hunt. Way to get it done. Um Now, this
15:52
Speaker 1: is RUT Radio and we are trying to figure out,
15:55
Speaker 1: you know, what's happening right now? Why are things happening
15:59
Speaker 1: right now? So? Can you do you have any like
16:02
Speaker 1: have you had time to analyze the situation at all?
16:05
Speaker 1: Why do you think movement was the way it was
16:07
Speaker 1: those two days you were hunting? That was pretty good?
16:09
Speaker 1: Why do you think you killed him? Was there any
16:11
Speaker 1: you know, outside condition or any other factor you can
16:14
Speaker 1: point to. I think it's a combination with a couple
16:16
Speaker 1: of things. UM. One of the big ones being is
16:19
Speaker 1: just the low, low pressure. UM. Typically i'd be in
16:22
Speaker 1: there in June hanging a camera or hanging you know,
16:25
Speaker 1: three or four cameras. Uh, I'd be in there in
16:28
Speaker 1: July hanging stands. I'd be in there in August checking cameras.
16:32
Speaker 1: And I didn't do any of that. I mean when
16:33
Speaker 1: I killed him, that was literally literally my second time
16:36
Speaker 1: on the property this year. UM. As far as why
16:41
Speaker 1: they were moving so well, other reasons. One, I think
16:44
Speaker 1: it's just been the stability and the mild conditions. UM.
16:48
Speaker 1: We have been in this long stretch now of like
16:50
Speaker 1: mid sixties for high and um like high forties for
16:54
Speaker 1: a low and and I think that just kept him
16:58
Speaker 1: on you know, any kind of pattern. It didn't mess
17:00
Speaker 1: with at all. We didn't have like any crazy rain
17:02
Speaker 1: storms or you know, a hundred degree days and stuff.
17:05
Speaker 1: Like that. And then the stability part, as you said, Um,
17:08
Speaker 1: all the crops in that area you have have kind
17:10
Speaker 1: of stayed how they are. We haven't had anybody cutting
17:12
Speaker 1: silage yet or taking it beans and taking out beans
17:15
Speaker 1: at this point. Um, so I think those tears just
17:18
Speaker 1: felt really comfortable moving around. Yeah. So, uh so, Spencer,
17:23
Speaker 1: on a scale of one to ten, how would you
17:25
Speaker 1: rate the deer activity that night, one sixty two days. Yeah,
17:29
Speaker 1: I think that's spot on. Well, uh, awesome, awesome stuff, dude.
17:35
Speaker 1: So I want to say two things here. Number One,
17:40
Speaker 1: I'm proud to say that I am forcing you into
17:43
Speaker 1: having a longer rut radio episode than you typically like
17:46
Speaker 1: you are now approaching. By the time this is all
17:48
Speaker 1: said and done, because I know how long the usual
17:50
Speaker 1: things go, you're gonna be approaching regular Wired to Hunt
17:53
Speaker 1: episode length, which I know you'd like to rag on
17:56
Speaker 1: us about. So I got you, I got you there,
17:59
Speaker 1: And second, would that be in the case, I guess
18:01
Speaker 1: we should probably move on to our our regularly scheduled programming. So,
18:06
Speaker 1: so what do we have in store? What we started
18:08
Speaker 1: in New York with David Grizzle from Tagg and Break,
18:11
Speaker 1: and then we go to northern Minnesota to talk to
18:14
Speaker 1: Mike Fitzgerald from Bow Hunter Die. Then we talked to
18:17
Speaker 1: Lindsay Thomas Jr. Of q d M A and Georgia,
18:19
Speaker 1: and then we go to Oklahoma to talk to Clay
18:21
Speaker 1: Forest of Stewart Ranch Outfitters. Awesome, Well, I'm excited to
18:27
Speaker 1: hear these. I I will give you a ten to
18:30
Speaker 1: fifteen second Michigan RUT Radio update. I guess since I'm here. Um,
18:36
Speaker 1: this past weekend was Opening weekend in Michigan. We had
18:39
Speaker 1: these decently cooler temperatures that we were, you know, seeing
18:41
Speaker 1: in the forecast is cold front finally draft from like
18:43
Speaker 1: the eighties into the mid sixties. It resulted in pretty
18:46
Speaker 1: good movement. Um. I've heard from a number of people
18:49
Speaker 1: across the state that movement was pretty decent, maybe not excellent,
18:53
Speaker 1: but pretty good. Um. I saw a lot of doze
18:55
Speaker 1: nobucks on Opening night, and UM, that's kind of what's
19:00
Speaker 1: looking like the rest of the week. It's kind of
19:01
Speaker 1: middling temperatures, mid sixties, some bumping up in the seventies.
19:05
Speaker 1: So I'm not expecting terrific hunting conditions, but I'm anxiously
19:10
Speaker 1: awaiting the next cold front. So so that's all I got. Sponsor. Well, uh,
19:15
Speaker 1: I will leave it with this. In on our intro,
19:17
Speaker 1: I had a friend of my dad tell me. He said, man,
19:19
Speaker 1: you shot a huge turkey this here, and shot a
19:21
Speaker 1: big buck and you got married. It's all downhill from here. Yeah,
19:26
Speaker 1: going to be a long fall. Now. I think you
19:29
Speaker 1: are absolutely right. So you don't even need to bother
19:32
Speaker 1: hunting anymore. You can just you can just record podcast
19:34
Speaker 1: episodes from here on Outkay alright, buddy, doculator doc you
19:38
Speaker 1: next week mark. Before we get to our first update, though,
19:41
Speaker 1: let's pause for a word from our sponsors at sitkot
19:44
Speaker 1: here and joining us this week is sick ambassador Alex Templeton,
19:48
Speaker 1: who tells us about some much needed tree stand therapy
19:51
Speaker 1: after a long week of elk hunting. So I was
19:53
Speaker 1: invited on a trip with one of my good friends
19:56
Speaker 1: out to Colorado for the month of September in two
19:59
Speaker 1: thousand and fourt teen, and our plan was to spend
20:02
Speaker 1: almost a whole month out there bow hunting elk. And
20:05
Speaker 1: this was my first experienced elk hunteam and um. After
20:09
Speaker 1: hiking many many miles up and down the mountains of Colorado,
20:13
Speaker 1: battling hot weather, cold weather, no bugles, and a bunch
20:17
Speaker 1: of other factors. Um, I never ended up killing an elk,
20:20
Speaker 1: and I was super disappointed in myself. Obviously, I wanted
20:24
Speaker 1: to go out there and get it done, and I
20:26
Speaker 1: couldn't do it, and came back home to Missouri, and
20:30
Speaker 1: on my very first sit back at home in a
20:32
Speaker 1: tree stand, I ended up killing the biggest year I
20:35
Speaker 1: had ever killed with my bow. Um it was a
20:38
Speaker 1: buck that I had been watching all summer named Brows,
20:40
Speaker 1: and he had nine and a half inch brow times
20:43
Speaker 1: on both sides. And you know it was I went
20:47
Speaker 1: from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs
20:49
Speaker 1: and a matter of one sit back in my stand.
20:51
Speaker 1: So it was great. On Alex's hunt, she was wearing
20:55
Speaker 1: sick As equinox pants and Celsie's jacket. If you'd like
20:58
Speaker 1: to create a sick of story over your one, or
21:00
Speaker 1: to learn more about sit because technical hunting apparel, visit
21:03
Speaker 1: sitka gear dot com. And joining us on the line
21:06
Speaker 1: first is David g Rizzo, the co founder of Tagg
21:09
Speaker 1: and Bragg, now David in New York. What would you
21:12
Speaker 1: say the deer activity has been on a scale of
21:14
Speaker 1: one to ten lately. Honestly, in the past week, I
21:18
Speaker 1: think it's gonna be like an eight or and eight
21:20
Speaker 1: and a half. And the only reason I don't push
21:22
Speaker 1: it a little higher than that is because we didn't
21:24
Speaker 1: see a ton of mature buck activity. But the deer
21:28
Speaker 1: were out all over the place the past couple of
21:30
Speaker 1: days for us UM, we had some great activity. The
21:33
Speaker 1: food plots were heating up UM and we saw some
21:36
Speaker 1: scrape activity, and we were seeing fourteen eighteen deer a night,
21:40
Speaker 1: and where we're typically seeing you know, five to six
21:43
Speaker 1: is gonna be a good night up there for the
21:46
Speaker 1: most part in New York. So UM this weekend, I mean,
21:49
Speaker 1: the deer activity was was extremely high with those sounding
21:53
Speaker 1: like some really productive sits. But is that what you
21:55
Speaker 1: would expect for early October? Is this? You've been an
21:58
Speaker 1: outlier for you guys, you know what, I think it's
22:01
Speaker 1: been a little bit of an outlier. Honestly, we don't
22:04
Speaker 1: typically see the movement pick up on our property up
22:07
Speaker 1: there in New York until probably mid the late October
22:10
Speaker 1: because it's a lot of thick cover, UM, so we
22:13
Speaker 1: kind of think of it as the breeding grounds. Once
22:15
Speaker 1: those bucks start cruising and start expanding their home ranges.
22:19
Speaker 1: We see a lot more deer activity in there. But
22:22
Speaker 1: it was really intriguing to see this much activity, you know,
22:26
Speaker 1: this early in the year. I think a lot of
22:28
Speaker 1: it had to do with the food plots that we've
22:30
Speaker 1: planted and really down on the those in UM. Given
22:33
Speaker 1: them cover for the food plots so they're not pressured
22:36
Speaker 1: from the road has definitely helped. But the weather conditions
22:39
Speaker 1: this week and absolutely perfectly with the cold drug that
22:42
Speaker 1: we saw having come through the Midwest and then hit
22:45
Speaker 1: us up in New York. You mentioned the food plots
22:48
Speaker 1: a couple of times. Now, what do you have growing
22:49
Speaker 1: there that you think that you've you know, been so
22:52
Speaker 1: attracted too. So we have we have a combination of
22:58
Speaker 1: a drasticist plan, a lot of turn ups um and
23:00
Speaker 1: then clover and we found that the deer were the
23:04
Speaker 1: turn ups, but ultimately they'd feed through the turn ups
23:06
Speaker 1: and spend a majority of their time in the clover um,
23:10
Speaker 1: which was you know, it's it's cool to see that
23:12
Speaker 1: because we were up on a redneck line just kind
23:14
Speaker 1: of observing a lot this weekend. We didn't really you know,
23:17
Speaker 1: get too aggressive. We just wanted to see what the
23:19
Speaker 1: deer movement was was about and where the deer were
23:22
Speaker 1: coming out and what they were feeding on. And it
23:24
Speaker 1: was pretty intriguing to see that they were they were
23:26
Speaker 1: pretty sanctioned on the clover once they kind of established
23:29
Speaker 1: themselves in the food clots. Is this a new pattern
23:32
Speaker 1: for them hitting the food plots so hard or is
23:35
Speaker 1: this something you've been seeing for the last month. It's uh,
23:39
Speaker 1: the last month. They're hitting the food plots pretty hard.
23:41
Speaker 1: I would say that the um daylight activity has really
23:45
Speaker 1: ramped up in the last week or so. And you know,
23:47
Speaker 1: once again, I think a lot of that is because
23:49
Speaker 1: of how much how colber uh it got over the
23:52
Speaker 1: last week. We we had two or three days in
23:55
Speaker 1: a row of a frost in the morning up in
23:57
Speaker 1: New York. So the deer the morning activity was extremely high,
24:02
Speaker 1: which which I was pretty surprised about. Actually, I mean,
24:05
Speaker 1: we were seeing a lot of beer between like seven
24:08
Speaker 1: thirty in the morning and and nine thirty. Seven thirty
24:11
Speaker 1: and nine thirty in the morning, we were seeing probably
24:13
Speaker 1: a peak a bulk of the activity for the day,
24:17
Speaker 1: and that you know, in that period of time, and
24:19
Speaker 1: then as it warmed up over the last couple of days,
24:22
Speaker 1: you know, the movement in the afternoon. You seemed to
24:24
Speaker 1: get closer and closer to dark um where you know,
24:27
Speaker 1: we we sat on Saturday just to fit, but it
24:30
Speaker 1: was it wasn't even the season yet. We we just
24:32
Speaker 1: jumped up, jumped up in the red muck um to
24:35
Speaker 1: to kind of, uh, just look over the food plots
24:37
Speaker 1: and see where the deer are moving for opening day
24:39
Speaker 1: on Sunday and um, we saw a kind of deer
24:43
Speaker 1: starting at like five thirty six o'clock in the afternoon,
24:45
Speaker 1: so they're on their feet pretty early. When it was
24:47
Speaker 1: pulled out, you mentioned that the deer activity has been great,
24:51
Speaker 1: but not so much for buck activity. What do you
24:53
Speaker 1: think those mature bucks are doing right now if you're
24:56
Speaker 1: not seeing them in daylight? You know, I think there's
24:59
Speaker 1: still than tight um. I think they're just that we're
25:02
Speaker 1: starting to see they're kind of just breaking off of
25:05
Speaker 1: the younger bachelor groups that they were they were um
25:09
Speaker 1: with throughout the summertime. So a lot of the mature
25:12
Speaker 1: bucks that we're seeing on timer now are by themselves,
25:15
Speaker 1: and a lot of the younger box are still together
25:18
Speaker 1: that we're seeing. You know that we've kind of observed
25:19
Speaker 1: over the weekend. So I think they're just kind of
25:22
Speaker 1: coming into their own. They're really starting to feel, you know,
25:24
Speaker 1: feel their hard horns. They're starting to feel their hormones
25:26
Speaker 1: and stuff. Um, and they're kind of mentioning themselves because
25:31
Speaker 1: you know, they know that they can feel with the
25:33
Speaker 1: next couple of weeks is gonna bring well going forward?
25:36
Speaker 1: David in New York, what do you expect the buck
25:38
Speaker 1: activity to be on the scale of one to ten
25:40
Speaker 1: in this coming week? Honestly, this week, um, I think
25:45
Speaker 1: it's the buck activity is going to go down to
25:47
Speaker 1: like a five or six. Especially with the warmer temperatures,
25:51
Speaker 1: I think you're going to start to see a lot
25:52
Speaker 1: more um night activity. You know, the box, especially the
25:57
Speaker 1: mature ones are gonna start and continue to be more nocturnal. Um.
26:02
Speaker 1: And you know, we're we're at this point we're going
26:04
Speaker 1: to kind of sit back and wait for that next
26:06
Speaker 1: little cold spell to come in or rain front or
26:09
Speaker 1: something just just to kind of change up the weather
26:11
Speaker 1: patterns a little bit, so hopefully starts something and get
26:14
Speaker 1: these ducks moving a little bit more well. I will
26:17
Speaker 1: be watching for some Tagg and Bragg videos and look
26:19
Speaker 1: forward the rest of you guys this season. Thanks for
26:21
Speaker 1: joining me, David awesome Sconcer. I appreciate you having a
26:24
Speaker 1: fun okay and joining us on the line. Next is
26:27
Speaker 1: bow Hunter Died team member Mike Fitzgerald. Now, Mike in Minnesota.
26:32
Speaker 1: What would you say that dear, activity has been on
26:34
Speaker 1: the scale of one to ten lately, I would say
26:38
Speaker 1: is this last week here, I would put it probably
26:40
Speaker 1: at a seven. Um. You know, we're kind of early
26:43
Speaker 1: October here approaching the quote unquote lull um. But I've
26:48
Speaker 1: been seeing some pretty good activity on my cameras and
26:51
Speaker 1: and talking with people around the state through our forums.
26:55
Speaker 1: It seems like guys are seeing some buck activity more
26:58
Speaker 1: so than than previous years. Well, Mike, I know you
27:01
Speaker 1: hunt in northern Minnesota. Just for reference to our listeners,
27:05
Speaker 1: will you explain the kind of um setups that you
27:07
Speaker 1: have there and what the properties look like that you
27:10
Speaker 1: hunt on. Yeah. Yeah, So I'm up here. I'm about
27:14
Speaker 1: fourteen miles from the Canadian border near eating Minnesota, UM,
27:18
Speaker 1: and we're the you know, definition of big woods wilderness hunting.
27:22
Speaker 1: Our densities aren't aren't that great compared to other areas
27:26
Speaker 1: of the state, but it's just a byproduct of the
27:29
Speaker 1: of the environment that we're in. Um. The closest thing
27:33
Speaker 1: that I have to concentrated food source up here would
27:36
Speaker 1: be a clear cut um that the forest service or
27:39
Speaker 1: private properties have done. Um. The deer survive entirely on
27:44
Speaker 1: natural prowls that are hardly even food plots around here.
27:47
Speaker 1: But if you take a drone shot or a satellite
27:51
Speaker 1: image of our area, it's, uh, it's all trees. It's
27:55
Speaker 1: mostly pine, but we have some aspen and berg in there,
27:58
Speaker 1: very very few um oaks. There's a couple of scrub
28:03
Speaker 1: oaks on the property that the our resort sits on here. Um.
28:10
Speaker 1: And when I say very few, I mean there's like
28:12
Speaker 1: four trees that I think I've ever found in that years.
28:16
Speaker 1: So they're uh, they have a lot of natural brows
28:19
Speaker 1: they like to feed on, you know, hazel nut. Hazel
28:24
Speaker 1: nut bushes is uh one of their favorite things this
28:28
Speaker 1: time of year, now that their leaves are dry dropping. Um.
28:32
Speaker 1: You know, those young aspen trees get hammered pretty hard
28:35
Speaker 1: from how through through the winter, really, so that's where
28:38
Speaker 1: those clear cuts come in handy a lot. Well, are
28:42
Speaker 1: you seeing any October sign yet? As far as scrapes
28:46
Speaker 1: and rubs. I'm finding a few of them. Um. No,
28:52
Speaker 1: no big concentrations UM in my area. And again with
28:57
Speaker 1: the dear density that I have a lot of the
28:59
Speaker 1: sign I see those scrapes and rubs have more to
29:02
Speaker 1: do with the bucks particular personality. I've had a buck
29:06
Speaker 1: in this area a few years back that was just
29:09
Speaker 1: a scrape making machine and come like the second week
29:13
Speaker 1: of October, through the ruts, you couldn't walk fifty yards
29:17
Speaker 1: in any direction without running into one of his scrapes.
29:19
Speaker 1: And ever since uh I shot him. He uh there,
29:24
Speaker 1: I haven't found nearly the concentration of scrapes that that
29:28
Speaker 1: I did when he was around. Um, but they're they're
29:31
Speaker 1: starting to show up. I'm seeing a little bit of activities.
29:34
Speaker 1: I'm actually seeing a lot more daytime UM buck activity
29:38
Speaker 1: this year than previous years, and so that that makes
29:41
Speaker 1: hopeful And that's probably why I said this timing a
29:46
Speaker 1: seven out of ten is uh, we're just not used
29:50
Speaker 1: to seeing mature bucks during daylight, So it's promising. Well,
29:55
Speaker 1: you talked about the randomness of food sources. UM, does
29:58
Speaker 1: that equate to a randomness in bed into or is
30:01
Speaker 1: that usually the same? Yeah? There for most of the season,
30:07
Speaker 1: they can essentially they can feed anywhere, they can bed
30:10
Speaker 1: anywhere they have you know, like whitetails, anywhere they like
30:13
Speaker 1: to have comfort of thick cover. But you can find
30:17
Speaker 1: that within a hundred yards circumference of just about anywhere
30:20
Speaker 1: that you're standing. Um, as the temperatures drop, you can
30:24
Speaker 1: find them bedding on self facing slopes a little bit more.
30:28
Speaker 1: Um if we have a hot um early fall week. UM.
30:32
Speaker 1: The opposite of that, you get them on those ridges
30:35
Speaker 1: facing north where they get a little bit more shade
30:38
Speaker 1: throughout the day. Um. But outside of that, it's it's hard.
30:42
Speaker 1: If you're gonna put some miles on to get back
30:43
Speaker 1: into the woods, you're gonna bump deer. There's just no
30:46
Speaker 1: way around it. How about going forward, what do you
30:49
Speaker 1: think that dear activity is going to be in a
30:51
Speaker 1: scale of one to ten in this coming week or so? UM,
30:55
Speaker 1: I would probably maybe drop it two of five or six. Um.
31:00
Speaker 1: We're kind of hitting that, you know, whether you buy
31:05
Speaker 1: into the Cobra lowell or not, we're hitting that time
31:07
Speaker 1: where they're really starting to adjust. Bucks are gonna start
31:11
Speaker 1: doing a lot of different travelings. So this is uh,
31:14
Speaker 1: you know, over the next week or two, you might
31:16
Speaker 1: start seeing some of these bucks that you haven't seen,
31:19
Speaker 1: you haven't been on your cameras, some new bucks, and
31:21
Speaker 1: the ones that have been there, Uh, they might be
31:23
Speaker 1: disappearing for a week or so. It seems as we
31:27
Speaker 1: started approaching towards that end of October, they get a
31:29
Speaker 1: little bit of anxiousness and then they'll they'll go for
31:33
Speaker 1: a few days and they'll take a big loop somewhere
31:36
Speaker 1: into a new area just to they're they're starting to
31:38
Speaker 1: get jones and for that first dough to come in,
31:40
Speaker 1: and no, they'll go anywhere where they think they might
31:43
Speaker 1: find that dough. All right, Well, thanks for joining me, Mike,
31:46
Speaker 1: and good luck in the big woods this fall. Hey,
31:49
Speaker 1: thanks that they appreciated. Before we get to our next color,
31:52
Speaker 1: they'll let's pause to thank our sponsors at White Tail Properties.
31:56
Speaker 1: And this week with white Tail Properties, we are joined
31:59
Speaker 1: by andrews Old, who's going to be telling us about
32:01
Speaker 1: what advice he has for buyers we're looking at land
32:04
Speaker 1: in a competitive market like Illinois. Yeah, there's all kinds
32:08
Speaker 1: of things to consider when buying a piece of property,
32:11
Speaker 1: but a few of the main things that I would
32:13
Speaker 1: definitely be thinking about our number one, have your finance
32:17
Speaker 1: and in order by doing that, your positions well to
32:21
Speaker 1: present offers to the seller and it proves that you're
32:23
Speaker 1: serious and ready to go. So that helps a lot. Um,
32:28
Speaker 1: you know what you're looking for in the property. Uh,
32:30
Speaker 1: there's lots of properties out there, but it's gonna help
32:33
Speaker 1: if you know specifics of exactly what you're looking for,
32:36
Speaker 1: what's attractive to you and what's unattractive. When you're buying
32:40
Speaker 1: a farm, remember first and foremost that it's an investment.
32:43
Speaker 1: It's easy to fall in love with the property, especially
32:46
Speaker 1: one that you seem to like. Um, but look for
32:49
Speaker 1: a return on that property. Look for the ability to
32:52
Speaker 1: reach sell it in the future if you need to.
32:54
Speaker 1: And uh that's going to be important as well when
32:56
Speaker 1: buying a farmer. If you'd like to learn more and
32:59
Speaker 1: to see the property that Andrew currently has listed for sale,
33:02
Speaker 1: visit white tail properties dot com backslash Schultz that's s
33:07
Speaker 1: h U l t z okay and joining us on
33:11
Speaker 1: the line. Next is Lindsay Thomas Jr. The director of
33:14
Speaker 1: Communications for q d M A. Now Lindsay and Georgia,
33:17
Speaker 1: what would you say that dear activity has been lately?
33:19
Speaker 1: On a scale of one to ten, Spencer, I'd say
33:24
Speaker 1: on a on a one of ten scale, We've got
33:25
Speaker 1: a couple of different things going on right now. I'd
33:27
Speaker 1: say the activity has been higher, more of a four
33:32
Speaker 1: to five in coastal Georgia where the rut is going
33:35
Speaker 1: to be happening sooner. We have a mid October to
33:39
Speaker 1: late October rut in our coastal counties, so things are
33:42
Speaker 1: already picking up there. Uh. In the rest of the state,
33:45
Speaker 1: I'm a little uh less optimistic in terms of activity,
33:50
Speaker 1: more of a two to three. Um, it's still fairly dry.
33:54
Speaker 1: We are still a few weeks off from the rut
33:58
Speaker 1: in most of Georgia, which is going to be in
33:59
Speaker 1: early to mid November, and some areas of the state,
34:02
Speaker 1: like Southwest Georgia, where it's even later into December. So
34:05
Speaker 1: right now in terms of rud activity, what that's on
34:08
Speaker 1: the coast where they're you know, approaching so soon. Um,
34:12
Speaker 1: But most of the rest of the state is still waiting.
34:15
Speaker 1: All right. Well, you talked about it being dry right now,
34:17
Speaker 1: is the whole state feeling that effect? Even where those
34:19
Speaker 1: deer running in Yes, Um, you know, the Hurricane Irmura
34:24
Speaker 1: passed through on September eleven, UH did a lot of damage,
34:28
Speaker 1: of course, and dumped a ton of rain. But that's
34:30
Speaker 1: the last rain we've had uh in Georgia, and there's
34:34
Speaker 1: not any in the forecast for the next several days,
34:37
Speaker 1: so things are starting to get dry again quickly. Uh.
34:40
Speaker 1: Folks who had already planted food plots, those food plots
34:43
Speaker 1: are going to be struggling here soon. And then I
34:45
Speaker 1: know a lot of people too that were waiting to
34:47
Speaker 1: plant until there was some more moisture on the horizon,
34:50
Speaker 1: and they're still waiting. Um, We've got a bumper acorn crop,
34:54
Speaker 1: so you know, there's plenty of food out there. It's
34:57
Speaker 1: not a critical situation. We're not back in serious drought condition,
35:00
Speaker 1: but it's definitely dry, and of course walking in the woods,
35:04
Speaker 1: you know, hunters know it's it's sounds like you're walking
35:06
Speaker 1: on potato chips getting into your tree stand But uh,
35:10
Speaker 1: not critical from a drought standpoint yet, but definitely getting
35:12
Speaker 1: dry well water hunters seeing in the area for your
35:16
Speaker 1: typical running sign as far as scrapes and robs again,
35:20
Speaker 1: seeing more of that right now. I was down at
35:23
Speaker 1: my family's land in southeast Georgia on September uh, and
35:27
Speaker 1: did some bow hunting. It was still very hot and
35:28
Speaker 1: in a lot of water still around from the hurricane.
35:32
Speaker 1: But there were um scrapes evident again like doubt. Like
35:36
Speaker 1: I said, down there in coastal Georgia, we have a
35:39
Speaker 1: mid October rut peak to to mid to late October,
35:43
Speaker 1: so the rubs and scrapes were already happening. Um. And
35:47
Speaker 1: you know a lot of scrapes that I saw had
35:48
Speaker 1: water standing in them, uh and did not appear to
35:51
Speaker 1: have been worked since Irma passed through on September eleven.
35:54
Speaker 1: I've talked to some other friends who have got lots
35:55
Speaker 1: of trail camera pictures of bucks working scrapes in coastal
35:58
Speaker 1: Georgia over the last week or two. Uh, even some
36:01
Speaker 1: folks who believed they saw bucks tending some doves already
36:04
Speaker 1: in coastal Georgia. Uh. So you know, we're approaching the
36:08
Speaker 1: peak on that in that area of the state. Um.
36:10
Speaker 1: Elsewhere I'm in't you know, where I live is in
36:13
Speaker 1: mid to North Georgia, and most hunters I've talked to
36:16
Speaker 1: in those areas are seeing what I'm seeing here, which
36:18
Speaker 1: is some very tentative early uh scrape activity just a few,
36:22
Speaker 1: you know, uh, a few scrapes here and they're being
36:25
Speaker 1: worked and only lightly uh in a few rubs out there. UM.
36:29
Speaker 1: Hank Forrester, who's our hunting heritage programs manager, was hunting
36:34
Speaker 1: this weekend with a person he was guiding who's a
36:37
Speaker 1: new hunter, and that was part of our field of
36:39
Speaker 1: fork program and they killed. Uh. Evan who was the hunter,
36:43
Speaker 1: killed his first dear. It was a nice two and
36:44
Speaker 1: a half year old buck here in North Georgia, and
36:48
Speaker 1: Hank said the buck was just sort of meandering around,
36:50
Speaker 1: feeding on acorns and no tarsal stainding whatsoever. Uh. Myself
36:56
Speaker 1: hunting this weekend, did not see any bucks, but didn't
36:58
Speaker 1: get a field that really much rud activities to speak of.
37:02
Speaker 1: Brian Grossman, who works with me, was hunting a public
37:04
Speaker 1: land hunt with his daughter this weekend in West Georgia.
37:07
Speaker 1: Same thing, very sparse, uh, scrape and rub activity right now.
37:11
Speaker 1: So again, we're looking at a early to mid November
37:14
Speaker 1: rut peaks, so we're several weeks out from really getting
37:18
Speaker 1: hot and heavy, but it is beginning to pick up. Lynda,
37:21
Speaker 1: Let's see what hypothetical. Let's see that, UM, the state
37:23
Speaker 1: gets an inch of rain here this next week. How
37:25
Speaker 1: does that change thing for hunters and change things for deer?
37:30
Speaker 1: For hunters, a lot of hunters a gonna be happy.
37:32
Speaker 1: They're either gonna be planning food plots that they were
37:33
Speaker 1: waiting to plant, or food plots that were in the
37:36
Speaker 1: ground are going to green up. Um. So that will
37:39
Speaker 1: certainly change the game in terms of hunting strategy around
37:42
Speaker 1: food food plots, particularly as we go into the approach
37:45
Speaker 1: of our opening of gun season around October one. Um.
37:50
Speaker 1: But we've got a bump for acorn crop, particularly white oaks,
37:53
Speaker 1: and generally, what I found is if you've got those
37:56
Speaker 1: in the woods and they're falling, deer are generally going
37:58
Speaker 1: to choose those before they're gonna shoose food plots. So
38:01
Speaker 1: I think from a strategy standpoint, you need to pay
38:03
Speaker 1: attention to that. Uh, if you've got white oaks in
38:06
Speaker 1: your area, and I think this would go for most
38:09
Speaker 1: of the southeast here, UM, don't continue to expect your
38:13
Speaker 1: food plot to be an attraction. Watch the brows pressure
38:16
Speaker 1: on the food plot. And if you're not seeing the
38:19
Speaker 1: brows pressure, I wouldn't be hunting there or hunting patterns
38:22
Speaker 1: around those plots until you begin to see pressure build there. Uh,
38:26
Speaker 1: the deer is gonna be where the acorns are falling. Well,
38:29
Speaker 1: we just talked a little bit about what the deer
38:31
Speaker 1: activity might turn into. But what do you think on
38:33
Speaker 1: a scale of one to ten that deer activity is
38:35
Speaker 1: going to be in the sex week or so. We've
38:38
Speaker 1: got some cool temperatures now where we did not have
38:40
Speaker 1: those before. Um, and I think, um, it's gonna be
38:44
Speaker 1: nicer to be in the woods, but it's gonna be
38:46
Speaker 1: We're gonna be seeing more rud activity coming on in
38:48
Speaker 1: the next week or two. I'm hoping you know, by
38:50
Speaker 1: next week we're gonna be looking at a uh five
38:53
Speaker 1: to six on deer activity, and in most of the
38:55
Speaker 1: Middle and North Georgia and coastal Georgia should be seeing
38:59
Speaker 1: uh up in in the sevens. I would guess, um
39:03
Speaker 1: by next week and then by the approach of opening
39:06
Speaker 1: day have gun season on the twenty one, should be
39:09
Speaker 1: you know eight or nine. That's gonna be right in
39:12
Speaker 1: the peak of of breeding for most of coastal Georgia. Well, Nzi,
39:16
Speaker 1: you're clearly is plugged in as anybody there, so thank
39:19
Speaker 1: you for joining me this week. And I hope you
39:20
Speaker 1: guys get that rain. Thanks a lot, Spencer, good luck
39:24
Speaker 1: to you too, and joining us on the line. Last
39:27
Speaker 1: is Clay Forest, the manager of Stuart Ranch Outfitters in Oklahoma. Now, Clay,
39:32
Speaker 1: what would you say the dear activity has been on
39:33
Speaker 1: a skille of one to ten lately. Uh, in the
39:37
Speaker 1: last week or ten days, Uh, it's picked up. I
39:40
Speaker 1: call it probably um, probably about four, maybe as five
39:45
Speaker 1: right now. Um. I'm in the southwest part of the state.
39:48
Speaker 1: And uh we uh, we had a really good summer
39:51
Speaker 1: as far as rainfall, and we weren't seeing a lot
39:53
Speaker 1: of deer movement coming to protein or or corn feeders
39:56
Speaker 1: all summer ubbily, just because of the natural vegetation out there.
39:59
Speaker 1: So um, in about the last week, we've had a
40:02
Speaker 1: week coming up. Uh, and that's really increased our hard
40:06
Speaker 1: gear movement in the last couple week or ten days
40:09
Speaker 1: previous to that weak coming up, what were the deer
40:11
Speaker 1: hitting for food sources? Uh? Just natural vegetation. Like I said,
40:16
Speaker 1: we uh we were. We have a lot of green
40:19
Speaker 1: barers pretty popular around here. Uh. We've got just a
40:22
Speaker 1: lot of just native grasses for lack of a better words,
40:28
Speaker 1: we don't have much of a mass drop here. So
40:30
Speaker 1: do you really stay in the CRP or big big
40:32
Speaker 1: native glass fields and that's kind of where the bed
40:34
Speaker 1: and live pretty much all summer long. Well, are those
40:37
Speaker 1: wheat fields what you will be queuing in on basically
40:40
Speaker 1: throughout the season or does that change? Uh? No, that's
40:44
Speaker 1: that's that's our main point of interest. Travel corridors coming
40:47
Speaker 1: in and out of wheat fields do a lot of glassing,
40:51
Speaker 1: you know, getting up on big big high points and
40:53
Speaker 1: glass and on wheat field. So that's that's definitely our
40:55
Speaker 1: our main focus. As far as trying to get big
40:57
Speaker 1: deer killed throughout the season. Are you see and he
41:00
Speaker 1: signed making papro right now. As far as rubs and scrapes, Uh,
41:05
Speaker 1: not really. Um it's kind of like I said in
41:07
Speaker 1: the beginning, Um he we really kind of struggled just
41:11
Speaker 1: to see deer in general. Uh this summer. So we
41:14
Speaker 1: had close to nine somewhere between nine and twelve inches
41:17
Speaker 1: rain from about May fifteen to basically last week. And uh,
41:22
Speaker 1: some of the grass out here is over our head,
41:25
Speaker 1: so really seeing a lot of sign Uh. It has
41:29
Speaker 1: been kind of detrimental as far as that, just because
41:32
Speaker 1: of what my mother nature did this summer. UM, so
41:36
Speaker 1: not really you know in a long rambling answer, Well,
41:40
Speaker 1: Clay at Stewart Ranch Outfitters there, I know you guys
41:43
Speaker 1: run a lot of cattle. How does that affect the
41:45
Speaker 1: deer movement? When you guys start moving those cattle around?
41:47
Speaker 1: Do you see the deer move into where those cattle
41:50
Speaker 1: just came off of? Uh? We do, you know? And
41:54
Speaker 1: and it's a really cohesive unit for us. UM as
41:57
Speaker 1: far as the cattle in the deer. I mean there
41:59
Speaker 1: are times where UM, cattle might kind of deter some
42:02
Speaker 1: deer hunting, but that's very very small percentage. So UM
42:07
Speaker 1: to your point, cattle coming off some a pasture where
42:10
Speaker 1: it's been graced down, we'll definitely see more dear sign
42:12
Speaker 1: uh in that pastures because it's been been graced off
42:16
Speaker 1: previous previous two. So UM, we really do try to
42:20
Speaker 1: do a good job as far as manage and where
42:22
Speaker 1: cattle are going to be UM in relat relation to
42:26
Speaker 1: UH where our deer hunting areas are, our primary deer
42:29
Speaker 1: hunting areas are at. So we try to run our
42:31
Speaker 1: cattle there in the summertime and to get them off
42:33
Speaker 1: for the fall of the winter. So we can hunt
42:36
Speaker 1: and not have any worries about a cow coming underneath
42:38
Speaker 1: the stand or something like that. But it really works
42:40
Speaker 1: well for us. We do try to do a good
42:42
Speaker 1: job of that. Now, going forward to the sext week
42:45
Speaker 1: or so, what do you think that dear activity is
42:46
Speaker 1: going to be in Oklahoma? On the skill of one
42:49
Speaker 1: to ten UM, I'm gonna probably put it down a four,
42:52
Speaker 1: maybe a five. Um. We're expect a little bit more
42:56
Speaker 1: rain this week like that week passers up. It's greened
42:59
Speaker 1: up pretty well. UM in the last like I said,
43:01
Speaker 1: about ten days, so I would expect to a lot
43:04
Speaker 1: of deer in those green fields. UM. Movement pretty decent.
43:09
Speaker 1: So I would probably put it about a four to five. Luckily,
43:12
Speaker 1: I look forward to seeing the pictures from Stewart Ranch
43:14
Speaker 1: and good luck this fall. Thanks Spencer, appreciate it. And
43:18
Speaker 1: that concludes this week's episode of Wire to Hunt's Brought Radio.
43:23
Speaker 1: We'd like to thank our sponsors at Sitka white Tail Properties,
43:26
Speaker 1: Matthews Yeti, Ontara, White Tail Institute, Maven and Trophy Ridge.
43:31
Speaker 1: And if you'd like to see that buckeend just harvested,
43:33
Speaker 1: check out my instagram at Spencer New Heart. We thank
43:37
Speaker 1: you all for listening, and as always, stay weird to hunt.