Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 263: Reviewing Trends from the 2018 Whitetail Season

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Ep. 263: Reviewing Trends from the 2018 Whitetail Season · 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 in this episode number two sixty three,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: and today's the final part of our two part two
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: thousand eighteen review, And today that means Spencer and I
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: are reviewing trends and observations about the two thousand eighteen
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: deer hunting season from across the country. All right, welcome
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: to another episode of the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: to you by Onyx, and today we are kinda relatedly um,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: but but better late than never. We're kind of wrapping
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: up our radio mini series that we had going throughout
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: the two thousand eighteen hunting season up until mid December.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Every week, as you probably remember, we chatted with hunters
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: across the country to find out what was happening out
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: in the woods. Howward, you're reacting to hunting pressure, to
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: different weather conditions, to changing food sources, to all sorts
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: of things like that, and then you know, discussing different
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: ways to take advantage of that. So Spencer is with
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: me and the two of us are kind of thought
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: for today's episode was to kind of look back at
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: the year from a radio perspective and look at this
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: kind of like thirty thousand foot overview of what were
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: some of the trends that we saw Spencer from all
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: the people that he talked to, what were some of
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: the things that that he heard consistently at different times
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: of year, and and are there anything we can learn
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: from that when we try to look back on like
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: the big patterns of two thousand and eighteen that maybe
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: we could apply to future years. Um. So, so that
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: that's kind of the game plan, Spencer. I know that
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: we've done this in the past. Do you do you
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: feel good about that game plan for today? Is there
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: anything you want to do differently or do you just
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: want to hop right into what you thought were some
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: of the major trends this here? Yes, So let's give
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: a little bit more context. This is the third season
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Now Road Radio, with about a dozen episodes this year,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: spanning from September to December UM. Last year, we did
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: a recap in January as well, and do you remember
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: what were a few of the main things that we
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: hit on that we thought were kind of the themes
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: for the seen Row. Do you recall what we talked
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: about Denmark? Okay, I feel like I'm back in high
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: school and I'm being quiz and I didn't do my homework.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: I should have prepared for this. But if I can,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: if I can go off of the top of my head,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: I think the things that I remember standing out from
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: two thousand seventeen, Um, I remember we had some really
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: well timed cold friends, right, Yeah, that was the big
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: one for you know. I think we talked about how
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: if you pulled out a calendar at the beginning of
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: fall and you circled the dates that you wanted cold fronts,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: that's what we got last year. You know. They were
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: hitting on like Fridays and Saturdays when guys were off
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: work and going to be in the woods. They were
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: coming at the end of October to the beginning of November.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: They were just like the perfectly time cold fronts if
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: you like hunting cold fronts. Seventeen was the year. So
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: that was like the one big takeaway I think from
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: that year. Um, there were a few other things that
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: we touched on, and the other one that I think
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: was important was everybody we talked to, whether it was
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: like Arkansas Illinois, Kentucky, Uh, you know New York. Everyone
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: was talking about the massive acorn crop. Now that's something
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: that can be like super localized. Maybe not always a
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: national theme such as weather patterns can be, but I
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: think in overall, uh, everybody was talking about how the
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: acorns were affecting to your movement. Yeah. Now I wanna
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: I wanna continue establishing context here and and think back
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: a little bit on a prediction that you correct me
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: if I'm wrong, But didn't you make a prediction last
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: year that we're in for like an especially good year
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: as far as big healthy deer? Was that last year
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: that you thought that was gonna be the case based
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: off of kind of coming out of e h D
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: four years prior and a bunch of things like that.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: So I think I wrote that piece for Wired to
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Hunt back in like um, if I remember correctly, I
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: titled like We're in the glory days of white tail hunting,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: and I was talking um kind of specifically about like
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: my part of the country in South Dakota, because we
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: just got hammered with the h D, Like there were
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: some counties that had estimates as high as loss um
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: And so coming out of that, I talked about how
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: then in like four years removed from that that UM
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: in the next few years, I was thinking would be
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: really good for hunters and deer because agencies were getting
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: out ahead of it, so they were cutting back on
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: tag numbers, populations were rebounding pretty quickly in most areas. UM,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: we were getting like mature bucks that had not experienced
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: very much pressure. And so I thought all of those
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: things were kind of brewing for like some good years
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: to come, you know, with the timing of E H.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: D hitting. Yeah, And I was thinking the same thing too,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: because what you what you had in these areas, and
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: it wasn't just in South Dakota, I mean it was
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: it was pretty widespread across a lot of the Midwest
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: back in two thousand twelve and two thousand thirteen. So
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: in a bunch of localized areas you had deer populations,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: you know, pretty dramatically in some spots being reduced. And
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: and I thought the same thing. I thought, Okay, any
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: deer that survived or the deer that were born that
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: following year, they're all of a sudden entering a world
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: where competition for resources is much less than it used
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: to be. So there's the same level of nutrition, but
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: much lower social stress, much less competition for food, much
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: less competition for the best betting. All these things lead
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: to those bucks that were starting their lives around that
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: time period. All of a sudden, we're like, I don't know,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: if you and me like got dropped off at like
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: windsor Palace with all the food and resources and servants
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: we could possibly want, Like, we become really fat and
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: happy over the next four years. And so if you
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: took you know that let's say the two thousand thirteen
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: h D was the last really bad one across a
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: lot of the country. So if there was a deer
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: that was born that next year or even that spring,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: right go four or five years out, now we're to
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: this year. Um So my question then being have you
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: seen her? Do you think? Now? I know this is
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: this is not quantitative in any way at all. This
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: is simply just based off you know, stories, we hear, pictures,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: we see trying to look trying to guess on a trend,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: just based off the vibe we're picking up. But you
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: and me we see and talk to a lot of
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: people in the hunting world. UM, I kind of feel
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: like that prediction kind of proved true over the last
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: couple of years. Um, there's been I wish I could
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: have quantified this. I wish we looked into it. UM,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: But there have been a number of particularly large deer killed.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: There's been a number of people, if we're just looking
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: at like very visible folks so quote unquote famous deer hunters,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: and a lot of these people who consistently killed big
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: mature bucks, but the last year or two they're killing
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: their various biggest deer ever. Take for example, Mark Jury
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: last year in the year before it killed his first
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: plus deer this year and I started last year, Lelikowski
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: killed his first tower and then this year killed his
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: largest typical buck ever. Now again, you know, I'm not
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: trying to say this is what it's all about and
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: that's what matters. It's just kind of an interesting thing
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: to see. And I'm just curious if if the e
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: h D rebound had anything to do with some of
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: these deer reaching a genetic potential that maybe in past
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: years they wouldn't. UM, I don't know. Does any of
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: that ring true to you, Spencer? Yeah, I think so.
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  Speaker 1: And I think maybe like one of the biggest things
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: that people thinking about the health of herds. UM when
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: that hit in two thousand twelve, I would have been
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: like nineteen years old or something. I feel like I
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  Speaker 1: hadn't even heard of e h D up until that point,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, it was something that
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: everybody was aware of. Um, you know that it was
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: even coming up in some of my like college biology
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  Speaker 1: classes that I don't think those professors had either ever
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: talked about it prior to that either. So even if
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: it um you know, physically did not make a difference
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: in two thousand twelve going forward, which I would say
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: that you and I agree it did, at least they
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: got people thinking about these things, maybe inspired somebody to
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: join q d m A, or inspired somebody to uh,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: you know, go to college to be a wildlife biologists,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: or put a put an extra watering hole in on
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: their property something like that. So, you know, two thousand
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  Speaker 1: twelve was devastating, but there was a lot of silver
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: linings that came out of that. And uh, as we
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: were just talking about this, I pulled up that article
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  Speaker 1: that I wrote that was on June two sixteen, and
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: some of the things I talked about were like, um,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: you know, agencies took notice of deer herds being eliminated
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: and and you know, deer numbers being short. In Nebraska,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: UH took away eighty seven thousand tags, Missouri cut back
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: and unlimited dough tags. Iowa eliminated forty one permits, South
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  Speaker 1: Dakota removed forty percent of its rifle tags. Ohio reduced
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: analyst tags and forty four different counties. UM. So that
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: was one of the big things that uh, you know,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: I think we get less pressure in the woods and
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: then yeah, like you talked about less competition for resources. Yeah,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: and and to your point, it definitely did spark some
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: kind of attention within the deer hunting community because for
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: a long time, right, deer populations seem to be super healthy,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: no big issues. Everyone was going along hunky dory, and
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: then there was this kind of sort of hard reset.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: It was a combination of things. I mean, there's the
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: big h G that hit um over those couple of years.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: There were also a lot of changes in habitat. I
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: remember coming out of that that time period talking with
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Kip Adams from the Quality Deer Management Association. I can't
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: remember the numbers, but he spoke to the fact that
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: over that several year time period, the amount of land
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: that had formerly been in CRP or some kind of
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: cover that had been now changed into full blown just
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: agricultural cop crops. Um was there was a dramatic reduction
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: in c RP acreage, if I remember right. So a
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: bunch of different things were changing, resulting in kind of
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: tougher time for some of these populations. So, yeah, a
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: lot of populations dropped. I remember seeing you know, we
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: were talking about harvest numbers going down for a lot
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: of states. It was just a whole lot of attention
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: during those couple of years. Two thousand fourteen fifteen, I
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: think that was around that time period, and that's when
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: stuff like the National Deer Alliance started, um, the q
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: dum A started, i think readjusting some of their goals.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: So it's an interesting point you made that um that
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: at the time there was a lot of worry about oh,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: is this like the beginning of a sharp negative trend
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: within the deer hunting world. And I think we can
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: look at things now in two thousand and eighteen and say, hey,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: like there was a hiccup there, but it seems like
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: either the hunting population or the management agencies are all
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: of us together kind of course corrected appropriately because at
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: least anecdotally, things sound like things sound that most things
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: are positive outside of you know, some disease issues like
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: c w D concerns and stuff like that. So I
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: don't know, man, this is a we're going really high
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: level now talking about several year trends, UM. But it
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: is interesting to to kind of look at that and
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: then zoom into this past year. So if that's the
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: larger trend over the last couple of years, UM, I
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: would say that I feel like two thousand eighteen continued
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: that trend, like I think over all, UM, would you
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: agree that most people looked at two thousand and eighteen positively.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: It wasn't like a few years back where people like, oh,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: this is one of the worst years we've had in
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: a long time, blah blah blah. No, I feel like
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: most folks said, hey, this felt like a good year. Um.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: There was you know, good decent conditions. I mean, I
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: felt like there was a lot of success being had
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: across the country, right, I mean, super high level. Would
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: you agree with that too, Yeah, So let's get started
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: discussing some of that stuff. And I have you know,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: like six points from eighteen then I think were the
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: themes of this last fall the first one of those
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: because that can I put a pause on you? Yes, sorry, Spencer. UM,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: I am curious so well, I'm I'm looking at these
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: these things, and we've talked about these a little bit. Um,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: I'm curious what like, if we were to put these
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: in order, are you going to one through these in
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: the order of significance you think, or are you gonna
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: go through these as far as um maybe the timelogically chronologically? Okay,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: So then um, as we go along, I'm curious to
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: see if you and me. The point I'm getting too
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: is I'm curious if you and me feel the same
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: about the significance of some of these. So, um, as
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: we go along, I'll figure out some way to do that. Okay,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: maybe I'll like crow like a bird over here or
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: something when I get to my number one, you know,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: and you'll know that's my my top joy. Let's start
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: off your chronologically. And I think one of the biggest
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: factors uh that from from the rut and uh you know,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: chronologically was that early October cold front that we had. Um,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: it was something that we talked about on radio. I
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: think all four colors we had that week touched on it,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: like you gotta get in the woods. We were coming
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: out of a long stretch I think of like some
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: stagnant whether maybe even above average temperatures, and then it
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: was around like October. Do you remember the specific date
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: tomorrow what happened? I know, I think it was it
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: was like the eleventh, third, I feel like the twelve,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: at least here in Michigan. On the twelfth, we are
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: getting the rain from that front. And then it continued
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: like I think eleventh, even of the eleventh through like
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: the fifteen seemed to be that sweet spot for me
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: here in southern Michigan, so somewhere on that give or
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: take based on where you're in the country, right, And
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: it seemed like the entire country felt it too, like
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: from North Dakota, you know, over to the Caroline As
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: everyone got a bit of that cold front that came
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: through in early October. And we talked to him on
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: the podcast that yeah, you know, get in the woods, Bucks,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: we're gonna be moving or whatever. And then after that
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: cold front passed, it seemed like social media lit up
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: with Big Bucks hitting the ground. Yeah, I d percent agree.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: That was definitely something that stood out. Um. And and
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: in retrospect, like that was happening, people were talking about it,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: everyone was excited. And I remember going out for for
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: one hunt myself, maybe two, Um, but I didn't hit
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: it super hard. And then I went out and checked
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: cameras on the eight or nineteenth or something on one
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: of the properties I guess that I hunt, and I
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: was kicking myself because I checked these cameras and it
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: was like full blown rut type of pictures. I mean,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: every buck that I knew of in the area in daylight,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: day after day, like all over the place. It was.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: It was shocking how impactful that coal front was during
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: that time period, and it was for me. It was
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: one of those things where I didn't practice what I
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: preached a little bit where I was like maybe a
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: little bit too conservative. Like I knew the coal Front
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: was gonna be happening. I knew it was gonna be good,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: but I didn't take advantage of it, probably as much
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: as I should have. I should have hit it really hard,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: um in retrospect, because like you said, there were bucks
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: hitting the ground all over the place. Um, didn't. Wasn't
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: it during that time period that you saw Lieutenant Dan once?
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Wasn't mid October? Writer on there? Yeah, it was right
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: around that call. I think was towards the end of
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: that cold front. Um. That was one of the few
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: sightings that I had of him, uh in the fall.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: And so that, along with some other good deer movement
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: that I saw plus good trail, came intel from that
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: cold front. Uh. And then our callers who you know,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: talked about, Hey, it's gonna be great deer movement, and
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: then a lot of them capitalized on it. I don't
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: remember who was on that episode specifically, but I think
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: like two or three out of the four people we
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: talked to went out and killed big Bucks. And then,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: like I said, just the rest of you know, social
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: media echoing that and and seeing a lot of big
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: Bucks hitting the ground. And for me personally, this kind
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: of gave credence to like hunting around cold fronts. I've
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: always considered myself kind of like a cold front ruther
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: or uh someone Yeah yeah, And so like I liked to,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: I remind myself and remind other people that, um, you know,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: there have not been any studies that show a correlation
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: between like cold fronts and buck movement, and there's been
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: a lot of them done, and uh, you know a
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: number of biologists have had tried tracking this, but nobody
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: is seeing like positive influence on deer movement when we
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: experience a cold front. Now that goes against like almost
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: all calming hunting knowledge. And you know what you'll hear
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: like big buck experts talk about. And so I've always
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: leaned more towards the science. But man, seeing that happened, Uh,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: that was kind of vindicating for those guys who say
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: cold fronts help you kill deer. Now in the same like,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: if we're going to bring that up, we also need
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: to acknowledge that when those cold fronts come through, Uh,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: a lot of people are sitting in their better stands,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Like they're hunting an area they normally wouldn't be. They're
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: hunting an area that they had maybe been holding off
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: for until we got a good cold front. They're more focused,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: like they are doing more to control their scent. You know,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: if if you're if you're more serious about it, you
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: think there's gonna be a deer walking by, You're more
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: folks into your entrance and exit. So I think just
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: in general, there's something to cold fronts making people a
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: better hunter because they're more confident and maybe they're hunting
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: areas that they've been you know, saving for that specific day.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: So I think there's also still a lot of that
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: involved that hunter sees a cold frontcoming and uh, they're
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: hunting style changes. Yeah. I get your I get it,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: I get your theory. This it's like a self fulfilling prophecy.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: If you have that belief in the cold front, if
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: you have that confidence in it, you do things differently.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: And there's probably some truth to that, um But I
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: just I just don't think you can deny the what
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: we just see year after year after year. And I
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: will say even Matt ross In in Lindsay Thomas Jr.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Both from the Quality Deer Management Association, both guys commonly
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: cite those studies that you reference there, even though they
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: are very familiar with studies. They both on this podcast
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: have said, but we know that dear move more than
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: in cold cold friends, that we've all seen it. Um.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: So it just makes me always wonder, like how I
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: always and I've said so many times, I've never figured
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: out the right way to articulate it. But the how
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: researchers are measuring this delta in deer movement based off
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: cold fronts or or whether or something like that, I
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: feel like what they're measuring as statistically significant or not,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: it's got to be different than what we as hunters do.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: So maybe there's there's less than three percent increase in
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: total deer movement throughout the day. This is hypothetical numbers,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: but maybe the researchers saw there's less than three percent
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: increase or decrease in deer movement based off whether so
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: it's not statistically significant, meaning whether it doesn't impact deer movement.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: But if that three percent bump in dear movement is
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: actually six percent increase during daylight hours, and if that
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: six percent increase happens to typically be within the last
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: half hour of daylight and during that time period, it's
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: actually a increase a movement Because you're looking at this narrative,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: like I feel like these different things. When you narrow
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: the scope of what you're specifically looking for, all of
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: a sudden, it might actually lead to something different. So
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: I wish and maybe maybe this has been done. I
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: can't remember every single study, but it would be really
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: interesting to see if if folks could measure this from
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: like a hunter's perspective, like what really matters, Like what's
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: the total distance moved from a betting location to a
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: food location? Does that increase um a few days after
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: a weather system or does the amount of time on
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: foot change the two or three days after a cold front?
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Like those kinds of things would be very hunter centric
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: and focus. Um, that would be really interesting to me. Um.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: I don't know if that's done or not. And I'm
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: I'm admittedly a hypocrite on this, Like if I see
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: a cold front coming up, I get excited about it.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: I'm doing the same thing as everyone else. I'm hunting
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: a better stand. Uh. You know, I am changing my
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: hunting habits. Uh like everyone else does. Who gets excited
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: about a cold front? So I say all that, and
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: I cite the science, but I still feel the same
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: way that there is likely uh you know, better buck
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: movement and your odds are better of killing a mature
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: animal when we get those cold fronts. And you know,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: what are your thoughts on this? Mark that maybe like
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: the early October cold front like around that tenth, eleventh, twelve, thirteen, fourteenth,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: whatever it was, that that like makes a bigger difference
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: for buck movement than if we got it at the
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: end of October. After seeing what happened here in do
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: you think that those cold fronts are like better or
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: more preferred than maybe if you go on any other
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: time in the year, Like, how would you now bank
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: the significance of the cold front in early October versus
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: other times of year. Yeah, so I think that your
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: increased value is higher when you get a cold front
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: that's you know, in early to mid part of October
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: or late in the season versus closer to the rut.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Because closer to the rut, you're already going to get
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: that increase in dear activity because of rising hormones, stops
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: from love, everything around the rut ramping up as you
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: get into late October into November. That stuff is happening
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: regardless of weather. Whether definitely can accentuate it, they can
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: definitely amplify it, or it can dampen it. But you know,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: it's not quite as make or break while if you
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: get this kind of coal front on October eleventh, when
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: typically a lot of things are causing deer movement to
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: maybe not be quite as visible because of hunting pressure
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: because of you know, changing food, so all the all
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: the things that people, um kind of see as an
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: October level. Um, when you have this mega cold front
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: hit right at that time, we saw, all of a sudden,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: what would typically be a slower time of year for
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: most people, or maybe even the slowest time of year
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: for a lot of people, all of a sudden became
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: like one of the top couple day periods of the
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: entire season. I think if we were to if we
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: were to rank by a couple of day periods throughout
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: the year, that's got to be one of the best
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: chunks of time this entire season. Um. So yeah, I
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: think you had a really high impact. And for me,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: just like you said, this is another great reminder that
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: when you have those fronts hitting, and the big thing
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: for me was that they might be so important when
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: they hit at times like this, that you change your
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: strategy completely um at times. So for me, like I
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: would I uber conservative in the middle of October usually, um,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: that probably would have been a time to strike. And
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: a friend like like my buddy Andy Andy May had
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: this kind of thing October twelve called front hit it's raining.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: He struck, He went into one of his best properties
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: and killed an awesome mature buck. Um, I didn't do
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: that and I didn't kill him mature buck. So that
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: was another AHA moment for me. I think is a
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: good reminder that, um, those are days that you know
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: it's worth taking a swing at. And I think, uh,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: like talking about the October law transitions nicely into our
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: next subject, which is the acorn crop of eighteen. Now,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: this is maybe more of a theme in because of
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: what it was in seventeen. Like I said before, I
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: think that was like one of the biggest factors of
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: the seventeen rut. Uh And one of the things that
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: came up all the time on Route radio was the
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: massive acorn crop. Nowen it seemed like from people we
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: talked to that it was like an average to below
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: average acorn crop, and so maybe not like super significant
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: when it came to deer movement. But if you were
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: somebody who came out of the fall of Seen and
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: had these ideas about how bucks were moving in mid
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: October and what you know, your property sets up like
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: for mid October, and we're basing that off of like
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: a massive, massive acorn crop, then maybe eighteen was very
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: different for you, and uh, you know, created a bigger
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: learning curve because that huge acorn cropples in there and
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: it seemed like it was an average year for acorns
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: in much of the country. Yeah, I felt I felt
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: similarly both, you know, for my own personal experiences and
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: here mother folks that this year now it's it can
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: be pretty localized. Like there's some people who talk to like, oh, man, acorns,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: that's where it's at, because there's gonna be some of
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: those little spots where there's mega crops. I actually, um
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: on one of the properties I hunt did have a
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: ton of acorns this year, um, and that maybe could
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: have been part of the reason why I didn't see
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: as much activity on some of the usual food sources.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: So I think that I think maybe my takeaway from
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: that this year is just a reminder to me and
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: all of us of how important that crop is, whether
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: it's there or not. And what I probably need to
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: do a better job of each year is trying to
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: figure that out. You know, do your do your late
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: summer scouting um of food sources and really figure out, Okay,
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: what is the mass crop like this year, and how
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: does that change things? Uh, it's easy. I'm guilty of
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: lots of times just focusing on the egg and thinking, Okay,
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: I got corn in this field, I've got beans in
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: this one, uh lfalfa and this one, and and think
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: about too much how that impacts the deer and to
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: the exclusion of of hard masks and and and even
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: soft mass. Now, soft masses is obviously something that's usually
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: not as widespread but locally on certain properties apple trees
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: or simmons or whatever. Um, those things could all really
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: change dear behavior. So I think it's probably just another
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: reminder that that's something you don't want to overlook. Um,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: you probably don't have a ton of mass in South Dakota,
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: by you do not very much. Like I've said before, Um,
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: South Dakota ranks like third in terms of least amount
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: of trees per square miles. So uh, we just don't
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: have a lot of hardwoods the way it is, and
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: specifically where I hunt, there are like where I hunt,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: there's probably not an acorn for five miles. So it's
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: nothing that has ever been on my radar much. But
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: when it comes to rot radio, that is often like
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: something on imprompted that comes up and is a number
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: one factor for guys like in mid October. Yeah, Now,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: did you have any um, any trends that you kinda
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: you had your finger on the pulse a little bit
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: more than me. But as far as egg crops um,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: either of that being the quality of food available this
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: year or the timing of when things came out this year,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: was there anything like that that you think impact of
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: the deer season. I've got a few things that maybe did,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: but I'm curious from your perspective, was there any other big,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: far reaching food related trends outside of the acorn crop
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: if you want to talk about like big egg, then
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: that would go to our next point as far as
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: how I feel that affected things? Was the really that
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: fall that we had um for some areas like September
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: and October were record breaking months for the amount of
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: precipitation that in certain states or certain counties got UM.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: And that was another thing that came up on tons
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: of episodes of radio was how rain was affecting deer movement,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: affecting deer patterns, things like that, and then the long
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: term effective that one of those things was creating a
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: late harvest. Because when you constantly have brain um, you know,
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: throughout mid October that was keeping the fields really wet
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: and keep from other fields. And so maybe compared to
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: the last few years, this year was a really late
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: harvest um for for most areas, I think, And so
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: that is something that would affect dear movement when it
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: comes to food sources. And I think the primary factor
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: for that was the amount of rain that we had. Yeah,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: definitely definitely felt that, heard that saw that. I know
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: there are a lot of people around me here and
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: in Michigan that we're actually still taking out corn here
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: in December, so that that's pretty indicative of that that
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: wet fall theory. And uh, again, I think most people
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: are aware of this, but for new hunters especially, it's
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: something to think about when you have a lot of
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: egg around where you hunt, keeping in mind when those
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: crops are coming out and thinking about how that's going
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: to impact dear not just when the crops are coming out,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: but also when the crops mature and change, right, being
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: aware of how deer feeding habits change as crops change
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: at a super high level. You know, where I hunt
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: most of the time, it's it's beans and corn most
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: of the area, So you're seeing you know, dear really
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: being in the soybeans in the summer when they're green,
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: and then as those soybeans start to yellow. Now, I know, Spencer,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: you did a little looking into this and maybe you
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: can offer different thoughts, but usually the attractiveness of those
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: yellowing and drying soybean leaves that goes down and then
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: you see green um summer corn not being all that attractive.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: But as that dries into the fall, then deer start
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: craving the carbohydrates that corn has and as it gets
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: cold or they start getting pulled to those grains more
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: and more and more. So once you get to that
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: cold weather time period, then all of a sudden, corn
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: and the actual beans from soybeans become very attractive. So
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: that's another one of those things that just to keep
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: in mind as a as a new hunter, you want
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: to understand how deer are transitioning from food source to
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: food source as the year progresses, because that can really
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: change where you want to hunt. Um, I'm sure you
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: you've seen all those same things, right, Yeah. And I
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: looked back to the episode that we had in August
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: when it was me you further and Dan Uh and
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: Dan and I had talked about how like he onto
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: Iwah hunted in South Dakota, that the deck gets reshoffled
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: when harvest happens. Um, just because like you'll have bucks
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: that are literally betting in those fields. If they find
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: a low spot in a you know, a corn field,
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: they'll bed there or you know that kind of thing.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: So we can change like where they're betting, and it
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: will change where they're feeding. And so that is always, uh,
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: you know, a big change for archery hunters when that
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: harvest happens. And this year, with how wet things were,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: you probably felt that reshuffling of the deck a little
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: bit later than normal. Yeah. And the one possible benefit
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: of it, I've always thought, I've always been kind of
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: a fan of years when the corn stays in the
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: extra long and that this is selfish, um, But when
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: the corn stays in at least around where I hunt
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: here in Michigan, that becomes a sanctuary for deer. And
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: if the corn is standing after or on November fift
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: on opening day of gunn season, I believe there's a
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: dramatically lower number of young bucks getting killed because a
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: lot of these bucks in general probably um, they know
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: to stay in there, to stay safe. They're not they're
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: not being seen by hunters. So there's a lot of
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: deer that probably would have made it through those first
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: couple of days. Um, that do when you've got standing
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: corn the air, So I'm not staying would be a
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: good thing all the time, because of course, you know,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: these deer populations have to be haunted and taken, but
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: selfishly in a small term or small time kind of deal.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: I kind of like it when there's a standing cornfield
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: if I'm hoping that a buck or two might make
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: it through. Um. But of course, then if you're actually
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: trying to kill that deer, you can make it tough
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: for you to So something to think about. Well, let's
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: pause now for a quick second to think. Our partners
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: at white Tail Properties and Spencer will take it from
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: here with a quick chat with a white Tail Properties
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: land specialist. This week with white Tail Properties, we are
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: joined by Tom James, a land specialist out of Central Indiana,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: and Tom is going to be telling us about what
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: the very first habitat improvements should be for a land manager.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: Good question. Um. Some of the first key things, the
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: fundamentals if you want to think about, is when you
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: think in terms of what a deer requires, the food, security, covering, water,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: and the qd m A has a great analogy of
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: the thinking about the lowest hole on the bucket that
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: you need to plug out to keep the water from
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: leaking out. So what could be missing on your property
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: that the surrounding land they have, and so you want
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: to do a quick assessment. Maybe it's food, Maybe it's water,
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: maybe if you can, maybe it's cover. If you can
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: look through your woods and see two dred yards, then
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: you've got an issue with with too much shade, not
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: enough sunlight creating new potential brows and cover for your deer.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: So maybe it's a timber a timber either stand improvement
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: or a harvest or a combination of two that's gonna
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: allow some more new growth to come in and picking
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: up your property. Maybe it's as simple as you're not
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: leaving an area alone as a sanctuary. If you're trapesing
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: all over forty acres and pushing deer off every time
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: you go, then that's that's obviously an issue. So maybe
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: it's just an adjustment in the way that you move
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: around and hunt the property and approach things. Uh, if
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: food is your lacking ingredient or your lowest hole in
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: the bucket. Then even in timber it takes some work,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: but you can certainly clear out some openings and plant food.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: Um and I would suggest considering both perennial food and
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: annual food stuff that you can leave in like clover
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: and chicory as a perennial coming back every year and
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: do some fall planted cereal grains and brassicas for the
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: fall time. So you've got a year round program going on.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: And typically it's not an issue in the Midwest. But
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: if if water is a lacking ingredient, then maybe you
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: can create a water hole or even some of the
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: new systems like the banks water watering tanks that you
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: can set up that are mobile and fill up and
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: provide water sources for your deer so that they don't
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: have to leave the property to water. Again, that's fairly rare,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: but that could be a consideration. If you'd like to
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: learn more and to see the properties that Tom currently
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: has listed for sale, visit whitetail properties dot com. Backslash
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: James that's j. A. M. E. S. So let's touch
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: more on like the amount of precipitation that we had
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: in October and September. Um, this question I think you
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: get all the time, mark is how does rain affect
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: dear movement? And what I mean by that is like instantaneously,
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: say you go out for an evening sit and it
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: is pouring rain or sprinkling or whatever. Um, how does
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: that affect a bucks movement? Because that's something that people
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: will probably experiencing and wondering a lot in Yeah, good question, um,
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: And I do get this question a ton. Every time
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: it gets to be October and November and you've got
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: a big rainstorm moving across the country, you'll start to
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: see these tweets show up or Facebook messages. So it
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: is something to address. And my perspective might be a
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: little bit different than some folks, UM. I know, like
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: talking to Dan and other folks in Iowa and some
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: of these other states have a little bit lower hunting pressure. Um,
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: they've kind of pointed to these real rainy, dreary days
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: and say, mah, not that good. Um. I have seen
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: in Michigan that when you've got a rainy day, it
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: is one of the very best days of the season.
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: So I try to prioritize rainy, nasty days just like
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: a cold front hitting them and oftentimes they come together. Right,
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: you got a cold front pushing through and the rain
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: comes through. Um So that might be just the fact
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: that it's it's coinciding with other factors that increased deer movement.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: But whatever it is, UM, I have found rainy days
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: to be great days to see that mature buck that
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: usually doesn't move in daylight, that rainy, dreary, cooler day
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: might be the one day he does it. I've seen
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: it time and time again with a lot of the
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: bucks I've hunted over the last six to ten years.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: Probably I can point to numerous examples, especially in Michigan
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: and um And I brought this up in the past,
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: and I don't know if there's any credence to this
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: at all. This is purely um purely spitball in here.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: But John Eberhart had always talked about the fact that
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: he thought that it might be hunting pressure related and
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: that these mature bucks felt safer on those rainy, crappy
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: days because typically humans aren't encountered on those days. Humans
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: just don't go out in the woods is often in
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: those days, whether it be hunters or anyone. Um So
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: his theory as I remember was that that might be
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: part of the reason why these deer feel more comfortable. Um.
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: I don't know if there's anything to it, but it's
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: certainly seemed to be the case for me. Um. So
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: that said, I do think that drizzly days, steady rain days, um,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna be out in the tree stand if I
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: can be. If it's absolutely torrential downpour like monsoon, then yeah,
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: I'm seeing those deer hunker down bed and not moving.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: But oftentimes I will still go out and hunt because
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: if there's a break in that weather, or if there's
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: like an expected break an hour before daylight, hour before
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: dark or something like that, just after the monsoon passes,
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: or whenever that little break in the weather happens, that
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: can be huge trigger and you get a bunch of
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: deer moving then right afterwards. And if you are you know,
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: if you took the whole day off, the whole evening
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: hunt off because it was gonna rain most of the day,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: you missed out on that twenty minute window that all
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, there's these deer moving all over the place.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: So I like try to take advantage of as much
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: as possible, even though it's not always fun. If you're
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: getting rained on the whole set um, it's usually worth while.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: I would just caution. My one thing with rainy day
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: sits is that you do have to think about the
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: implications on tracking. Right, if you shoot a deer, you
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: possibly could lose blood on a rainy day, So I
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: significantly reduced my range. You know, on a rainy day,
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't shoot anything like outside twenty yards, like it
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: has to be like a guaranteed pinwheel, perfect double long shop.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: And then you know, if that deer runs off and
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: you don't feel confident with where you last saw him, Um,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: that's the kind of situation where if it's legal in
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: your state, you know, plan on knowing where a tracking
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: dog is someone that has a tracking dog, because tracking
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: dogs can still easily track in rain, so you can
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: find these dear Obviously that's a must. You have to
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: recover that deer. If you don't think you recover that deer,
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: then then you shouldn't be hunting out there. But tracking
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: dogs can can definitely help you do that. And in
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: the case again referencing Andy, um killed that nice buck
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: October twelve, started raining just as like I can't started
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: rain just before you shot the deer just afterwards, um,
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: but he was worried about losing the blood trail. We
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: got another friend out there with a dog and walked
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: right to the buck. Um. So so those are my
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: long and rambling thoughts on rainy day deer. Do you
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: disagree or agree with any of that, Spencer, I, I
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: really don't have strong feelings one way or the other
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: when it comes to rain affecting deer movement. And I
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: think that's probably the case for a lot of guys,
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: you know, whereas you talk about like cold fronts that
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: can inspire some really heated debate. So you talk about acorns,
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: people are really passionate about how that can change to
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: your movement. But I would say for most hunters, uh
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: that there's probably just not enough evidence of our affected
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: some of their hunts. And so I don't put too
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: much stock and way or the other into if rain
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: is going to positively negatively affect dear movement. I'm it's
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: probably not going to a change like what my strategy
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: is for specific cont what stand I'm going to sit
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: in here, anything like that. So let's talk about something
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: else that does cause debate within the hunting community about
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: whether or not it impacts deer movement, and that is
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: the moon and um, this year, I feel like there
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: was a lot of talk around moon moon phase, moon times,
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: red moon, blue moon, green moon, um, running moon. We
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: both noticed this this year, right, there's there's some interesting
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: things around that this year. Uh. Yeah, I think that
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: what you're going to bring up here is probably your
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: number or one factor for the ut But carry on,
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah I didn't. I didn't crow like a bird, but yes,
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: this was probably this is probably the number one factor
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: as far as a standout time period during the year,
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: something that seemed to have a disproportionate impact on results. Um.
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: And it's a little bit surprising to me because I
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: have always looked at moon related things similarly to you, Spencer,
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: and that the science, the studies have always shown there's
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: not an impact on dear moment. Based off all these
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: different studies I've looked into, at least nothing substantial. I
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: have seen a handful that maybe say, okay, there's a
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: little bit of this, a little bit of that, but
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: nothing um that really would be worth hunters keying in on.
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: But you get all these hunters that claim that it
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: does make it make a difference. So you've got the
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: theories around the moon and the rut. Some people believe
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: that this rutting moon that happens it's the oh gosh,
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: she's it's the first full moon after the automacinox. Is
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: that right? Or the second full moon after automacinox. I'm
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: sounds right. I'm blanking on the on the first or
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: second forgive me for that um. But usually this moon
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: falls somewhere between late October and late November, and the
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: theory is that based on when that moon hits, it
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: will influence the kind of kickoff point of the rut,
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: and studies show that's just simply not true, at least
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: as far as the timing of actual breeding. Study after
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: study after study. When you look and see you measure fetuses,
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: you can back date when these deer were bred. You
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: can see it's every year. It's a pretty darn consistent
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: peak of breeding across most of the country and most
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: places across the country, Somewhere in mid November is your
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: peak breeding date meeting or excuse me, meaning that across
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: most of the country, the couple of weeks leading up
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: to that will be when you see a lot of
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: the chasing, the seeking, the daylight activity that we want
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: to see his deer hunters. So that's always made me think, well,
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to care about when the running moon
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: is too much um or another one. You hear folks
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: like Adam Hayes, even even Dan in fault Erdquisto. Different
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: folks talk about this red moon, which is when the
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: moon is directly overhead or directly under foot. Um. Those
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: happened a few times a year we get these red
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: moon dates. I have a couple of buddies who are
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: really big on the red moon. UM. And again I
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: kind of I've always been intrigued. I watch it, I
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: kind of pay attention to it, but I've never really,
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: you know, been too focused on kiing and on it.
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: Another moon related theory, UM is if the moon is
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: rising or setting during the last part of the day
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: or the beginning of the day. So all these different
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: moon theories out there, the one that's relevant to what
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: we're talking about here, and I probably should just focused
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: on that was the running moon one that I mentioned there.
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: And this this running moon this year was an early one.
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: It occurred October twenty fourth, or fifth, or six or seventh,
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: somewhere around there was when the running moon hit. So
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: the theory being, if the theory held true, Um, supposedly
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: you're supposed to see a pick up in running activity
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: much earlier this year. So supposedly late October, we're gonna
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: see this big burst of daylight activity from bucks starting
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: to get after doughs. There're gonna be some does coming
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: into EST's usually earlier than usual, and it was gonna
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: lead to this this earlier than usual run. I didn't
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: really give him much credit leading to the season. And
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: then I head out to Nebraska on October and I'm
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: hunting on the twenty and I see a big mature
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: buck cruising during daylight at three in the afternoon. And
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: then I see another big mature buck cruising at four
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: thirty or five in the afternoon. This is like three
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: or four hours before dark. Um. And then I get
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: home that night after shooting that buck, not home. I
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: get back to the tent that night and I pull
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: up my phone and I see that this guy killed
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: the big mature buck. And this guy killed the big
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: mature buck. And then the next day the same thing.
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: And over the next three to four days, three to
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: five days, maybe somewhere between that, maybe October to somewhere
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: in that ballpark. It was like it was it was
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: as if we were watching your Instagram feed in November eight.
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: You know, it's just like guy and girl and guy
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: and girl ganger. Everyone was just killing deer and and
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: big mature deer during that time period, way way earlier
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: than you usually see that kind of quantity. Um. That
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: was like the vibe I was picking up and and
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: you kind of saw the same thing too, right, Yeah,
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: I had probably like my best string of sits this
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: year was from I think like November, excuse me, October, Um,
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: I had like I think I had an encounter on
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: every single hunt with a mature buck. Um my trail
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: cameras like a few weeks later when I was able
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: to gather some of that data, that was like a
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: super hot time for them as far as mature bucks
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: being on their feet in daylight. That was even like
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: one of the few times I had Dan on camera
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: was October, I believe, um, like one of a few
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: times I had him on daylight on camera like throughout
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: the fall, even during the rut, and so just from
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: my personal encounters and my trail cameras and talking about
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: a few specific deer and then like you said, the
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: like social media big bucks that you saw hitting the ground. Uh,
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: it seemed like that gave him credence to the early
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: running moon. So now here's the question everything we're picking
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: up on again where we haven't don't quantify this in anyway.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: I wish there was some way that you could. We
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: need to build an app, or we need to build
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: an algorithm that can measure dear related hashtags something like that,
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: like like b b D or something like that, and
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: measure the quantity of b b D hashtags on Instagram
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: and Facebook and then map that out over the course
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: of the season so you can see how that hashtag rises.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: I bet you that actually would core relate to harvest.
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: You know, I think that'd be a really interesting thing.
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: If there's anyone out there who knows how to do that,
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: do it and send it to me, because I'm really
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: interested to see what that might look like. And then
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: compare that to several years and look and see like
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: how deer related hashtags like whatever, these whatever hashtags do
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: you think get applied to a a picture of a
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: of a dead deer like your your picture, How that
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: trends throughout the year. I gotta believe it would correlate
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: to something like this, or at least I'm curious to
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: see what it would And uh, I don't know. It
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: just it felt that way at least that this year
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: there was that that earlier than usual upticking. And so
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: so then when when I'm trying to get out of
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: here is does that change your view at all on
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: the impact of the moon on I'm not well, does it?
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: Does it change your view at all? Spencer, I'll give
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: you my thoughts in a second, but does it intrigue
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: you or change your thoughts anyway? So my thoughts before
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: this season have always been that I look at like
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: moon theories like i'd look at sasquatch or aliens like
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: I don't believe. So I don't believe in it, but
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: I am intrigued as hell when it comes to those things,
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: like if you have an alien story that you saw
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: an UFO, I gotta hear about it. Or if I'm
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: flipping through the channels and I come across a Bigfoot documentary,
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: I'm glued to the TV. So like, I love hearing
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: about it and I'm super interested in the subject. But
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: what it boils down to, is I still don't believe
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: in it now after this year, my thoughts on it
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: largely remain the same. Uh. I think that there maybe
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: was an uptick in deer killed, but I guess some
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: of the things we're maybe not considering are a whole
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: bunch of other factors like brahmic pressure and if there
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: was any some something certain with the weather or crop status.
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: Um so, I yes. Another part of it, too, is
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: why I think that's like I'm not so much buying
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: into the rutting moon as I am that early October
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: cold front, is because there are supposed to be a
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: lot of big deer killed at the end of October.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: We would have seen that either way had that rutting
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: moon not been there. That's the time of year when
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: a lot of guys are killing target bucks because they're
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: making those more reckless walkabouts, but they're still patternable. So
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: that's the time of year we're supposed to see big
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: deer being killed. Whereas you know, in regards to that
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: early October cold front, we're not supposed to see giants
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: that are hitting the ground on like October you know,
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: twelve or thirteenth or whatever. That's the October law. And
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: now I'm not saying like that's that's always the case
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: and uh like that's that that's how the house has
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: to be. But that's why, like I think the cold
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: front was more important this year because that maybe inspired
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: people to kill more big de year than the rutting
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: mood would during a time of year when big dealer
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: would be killed. Anyway. Yeah, it was like the volume
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: on October ten is usually like a one, and this
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: year with that coal front, it got bumped up to
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: like a six or seven or something like that. So
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: that was pretty substantial difference. Now in late October with
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: this cold or not the coal front, but with this
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: moon thing, we're usually gonna have a rating of a
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: seven maybe anyways every year somewhere around that, but all
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, now it was like at ten. So
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: it was it was higher in this late October time period,
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: but it was only a difference from the usual of
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: maybe three. While maybe the volume was a little bit
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: lower early October, but the difference from the usual is
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: more substantial. I think is is kind of what you're saying,
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: and it's kind of what I felt too, Ueah, but
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: it's uh I don't know. It was. It was interesting,
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: and I would say that my thoughts on the moon
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: are largely similar to yours and that I don't put
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: too much into it. Um, I'm still hunt. It really
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: doesn't impact how I hunt. Um, I'm not. I'm not
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: really like choosing to go into a great spot or
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: not because of the moon being one way or another.
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: But it is something that I kind of just watch
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: and I'm intrigued with it. And if I happened, like
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: if I'm going into hunt a good spot because of
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: a weather related thing, cold fronts definitely do impact my hunting.
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: So let's say I'm heading in because of that, and
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: then I see that the bare metric pressure is high,
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: and then I also see that the moon is right
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: for one of these theories. It does give me maybe
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: a tiny bit more hope. Um, I'm like, Hey, this
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: thing's lined up, and this thing's lined up, and this
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: thing's lined up. That should be good. Hopefully it's gonna
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: be good. So so it might be one of those
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: self fulfilling prophecy things to where it just kind of
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: gives you a little bit more excitement and energy and
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: focus because of it. Um. But it was really interesting
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: to see this year, just how dramatic of of a
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: bump it seemed to or something whatever it was, something
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: caused a bump that was a little bit bigger than usual,
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: and it was it was intriguing, I guess is the
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: moral of the story for me, so big kind of
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: eye opener for me at the end of October. That
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: was interesting and I'm definitely gonna keep watching it. I've
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: been watching it for something like ten years now. I
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: still haven't, you know, been um convinced that that it's
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: something kind of some kind of game changer, but it's
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: it's interesting. I guess as someone who's interested in a
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: lot of things with dear, this is definitely one of
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: those interesting moments and uh an example that can continue
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: to keep as curious moving forward, I suppose, and that yes,
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: these two things we just talked about, that early October
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: cold front and the late October possible moon effect were
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: definitely my two biggest um eye openers, I suppose, like
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: very interesting. Um. The rest of the year, things kind
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: of trended normal as far as I'm concerned, but I
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: know there's a couple other things that were maybe worth
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: mentioning as far as trends or patterns, um that you
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: want to touch on. Yeah, so I think the next
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: one would be was the stagnant rutting weather that we
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: had once we got into November. Um, it seemed like
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: much of the country just had stagnant weather and we
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: never got those warm fronts or those cold fronts. So
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: if you were someone, for example, that loves hunting cold
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: fronts and you were looking to burn some vacation days
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: then and you know you were waiting on that cold
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: front and it never came, well, that probably changed how
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: you were hunting because that didn't factor into your decisions. UM.
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: And same thing if you were someone who had the
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: time to hunt, but I was picking and choosing what
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: stands you were hunting. And if you were again like
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: waiting for the cold front to come in for you
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: to get in that betting area stand and stay all day, Uh,
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: that never really came. So then you were more than
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: likely just hunting basing that off of historical data that like, yeah,
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: the best rutting is between November ninth and eleventh, because
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: a bunch of the doughs get bred between life twelfth
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: and fift or whatever that might be. UM, I guess
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: what I'm getting at is that when we got to
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: the best buck movement of the year, that trumped everything.
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: And it's normal because there wasn't much of a weather factor. Yeah, yeah,
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: I agree, and I think it was just a great
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: reminder that when the rut is hitting, you just gotta
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: be out there, regardless of weather. Um. I know I
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: talked at some point this year. I told you the
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: story of that one year we got these warm fronts
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: during early November and it kept me out of the
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: woods for a couple of days, and I had learned
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: that that was a big mistake because like three of
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: my friends all killed mature bucks three days in a row. Um. So,
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: this was a year where was kind of the opposite
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: and that we we just kind of had normal, steady
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: weather in November and nothing really changed. But that didn't
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: mean there wasn't still great hunting. Um So, I think
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: to your point, it would have been a mistake if
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: you were hold nowt for a coal frond. You kind
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: of just gotta say, Okay, I'm going to be out
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: there this chunk of time during November or where whatever
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: I'm a period it is for you in your area,
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: and if we get a great front or something like
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: that passing through. Awesome, that's the day I maybe if
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: I see it coming up on the forecast, that might
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: be the day I hit the very very very best
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: spot or whatever. But know that anything can happen during
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: those couple of weeks of peak running type activity, and uh,
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: you know you're not gonna able to take advantage unless
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: you're out there, regardless of if it's sixty or twenty
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: and with that stagment whether uh like this is something
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: that can be very localized, but I'm sure much of
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: the country felt it was that once we got into
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: early November, because there were like no fronts moving through
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: or any kind of weather patterns, we had some really
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: steady wind directions, and so I had some stands like
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: I was looking to haunt Lieutenant Dan where it only
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: worked to haunt him on a south wind. But I
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: remember looking at the forecast one day, and this is
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: something we talked about on radio, and it had looked
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: like there was like eight of ten days coming up
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: in early November where it was just north winds. There
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: were no south winds. I think two out of the
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: ten days had south wind and so that was something
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: that definitely changed. Uh, you know my rut hunting in November,
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: And it's probably something that other people felt as well,
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: that you really had to like look at that extended
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: forecast and maybe like take out a piece of paper
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: and write down, Okay, we have this win direction, this
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: win direction, this win direction. Because there are like really
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: really limited south winds. I gotta be aggressive and get
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: in there and hunt that south windstand once I get it,
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: because I might not have another chance. Yeah, that's a
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: that's a huge, huge point. I think it's a really
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: good thing to mention, and the fact that you know,
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: in the postseason, think about that ahead of time and
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: make sure that you know if you if you have
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: lots of times, what I do is I'm planning on
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: setting stands in certain regions based off the predominant winds. Somethinging. Okay, well,
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: most of the time here in October or November, we're
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: gonna have like a westerly wind or north west wind. Um,
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: so lots of times I'll just end up setting a
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: bunch of stands for that wind direction. But then what
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: happens if your big rut vacation comes up and you've
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: got seven straight days to hunt, and God forbid. All
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, you have nothing but southeast winds, but
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: all your stands are set up for northwest or west. Um,
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: that's a situation you don't want to be in. So
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: I would say the lesson learned for me. I had
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: a yearly this last year where we had a bunch
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: of southeast and easterly winds when everything else was set
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: up for west, and I found myself in a pinch.
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: What I would say is to try to make sure
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: you account for that and have winds set up or sorry,
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: have some stands. If you're in a situation where you
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: can have stands hung and prepped, make sure you do
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: have some prep work done for those funky winds that
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: you're not really expecting, but you want to make sure
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: you're not hung out to dry if it does show up.
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: Or make sure that you are comfortable enough with a
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: mobile set up, a running guns set up so that
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: it doesn't matter that you don't have stands prepped. You're
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: just gonna go and hang it that day, or just
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: set up in the I add all that day. UM.
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: I think one of those two things needs to be
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: within your little toolkit to make sure that if you're
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: in a snare like that, you're not stuck hunting the
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: one spot over and over or you're stuck only having
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: one stand for this wind. Um, you just got to
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: make sure that you can be able to strike no
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: matter what the conditions you need to have. You need
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: to be ready for whatever variables come your way each season. Um,
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: I think is what I'm trying to say. Yeah, and
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: let's fast forward now from the rut to late season
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: and last year I think we had like the tail
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: of two late seasons. Something we talked about how there
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: was like a stretch of really warm days and then
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: there was a stretch of like really nasty, uh cold days.
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: Now that's not something I think we necessarily had in
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: like this December from much of the country, but there
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: was still something really noticeable for and that was that
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: there were a lot of bucks that have been shedding early,
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: uh where you were seeing like it more of not
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: an individual basis for bucks shedding early, but like a
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: heard by her basis where you were seeing a lot
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: of bucks that were dropping antlers sooner than they normally would.
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: So most of the time bucks are going to be
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: shedding like between January and March, but this year, um
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: something that had shown up in some red fresh reports
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: and then and something that had you know, people have
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: reached out to me after I shot Dan. He she
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: had an antler was that a lot more people were
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: seeing bucks shed early this season. And so I was
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: wondering if that was like a product of social media,
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: just that we're more connected and it, you know, we're
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: more aware when people are finding sheds earlier than normal,
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: or if this was actually a trend. So I put
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: out a call to people on Instagram and said, hey,
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: if this is something you've seen this year where bucks
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: have been shedding early side of my d M s,
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: and a whole bunch of people did um where this
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: seemed like a pattern that you know, people were telling
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: me we've been seeing a lot of buck a lot
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: of bucks shed earlier than normal. So I reached out
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: to Kip Adams from q d M A. So, going
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: into that conversation with Kip um a lot of the
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: reports that I had received were out of like Ohio
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: and New York, Illinois, Arkansas, the Dakotas, but like ground
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: zero for this seemed to be Pennsylvania getting loads of
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: reports of guys like shooting a dough that end up
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: being a buck, or other people having experiences like I
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: did where they shot a buck and he shed one
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: or both antlers when they got him. Um, there were
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: people like Martinic, who we've had on the podcast before
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: to talk about deer movement in Pennsylvania. Um, him and
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: his dad found ten sheds in December. WHOA, which is yeah,
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: that's like unheard of. And so I reached out to
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: Kip Adams to talk to him about this and see
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: if this is, you know, really a thing that you
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: can see like herds that shed rather than just you know,
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: individual bucks shedding. And he said, yeah, that's a thing.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: And he's also based out of Pennsylvania, and this is
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: something he's been hearing a bunch of in eighteen as well.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: And so the cause for this can go all the
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: way back to the summer. And largely what you're seeing
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: when you're seeing bucks shed early is that they are
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: stressed or having like a nutritional deficit, and so they
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: didn't get to put on like the fat reserves that
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: they normally would. Him. This is these are from the
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: words of kid when I talked to him a few
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: days ago. UM. And so going into the fall, there's
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: been metabolic studies that show that like adult deer can
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: get half of their nutrition from stored fat, and so
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: going all the way back to like July and August,
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: if those deer didn't have a great food source, and
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: then you know, all the way into October, right before
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: the rut, same thing. If they didn't have great food
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: source for a number of different reasons, that would bring
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: them into the rotten into late season with less fat
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: than normal, which would cause them to shed, you know,
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: sooner than expected. And so keep it pointing to how
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: like deer densities are also higher in the country than
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: they have been in a while. In Pennsylvania, for example,
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: is had like really high deer densities lately because they
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: cut back on some annerless hunts. And so if this
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: is something that you're seeing in your area heard shedding early,
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: it's probably because there were, uh, you know, there was
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: a nutrition to deficit from the summer and fall that
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: is now led into them dropping their actors sooner. And
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: it can also be because deer densities are higher than
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: they've been in a while. Interesting, and that might even
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: tie back to the whole E H D effect that
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: we talked about. So two thirteen you had this significant
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: reduction in dear population in some areas, and then you
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: had all these deer now even more productive in the
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: subsequent years because of that reduced competition. And now three
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: or four or five years later, now you have maybe
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: a higher deer density because you had this huge UM
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: deficit that now flooded back in like the vacuum, all
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: of a sudden flooded back in with um. You know,
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: all these healthy deer that all of a sudden. Now
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: maybe we're seeing the ramifications of that. Now we're getting
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: over over dense, too much, too many deer, too few resources, um,
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: nutritional deficit for bucks shedding early. And you know, like
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: I told you, either last week or the week before,
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: we I found I had a neighbor find a shed
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: and give that to me over here on one of
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: the properties I hunt. Um. I know another friend of ours,
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: Ben Harshein, just saw his number one buck he was
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: after a few days ago had shed. Um. Yeah, I
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: mean it's all over. I saw someone Illinois shot about
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: had the antlers fall off. So to your point, it
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: is interestingly widespread this year. UM. And that's really interesting.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: Theories that Kip shared. So I asked, Kip, I asked
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: him if this is like, if you can recall another
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: year that he has seen this before, gotten these kinds
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: of reports like he has in ten He said, the
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: last time and it probably wasn't as extreme as this,
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: he said, it was two thousand and twelve. UM two
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: twelve was a drought year. That was when uh, you know,
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: there was absolutely it was pretty obvious why there was
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: anwntritional deficit because there was a poorer quality and crops
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: uh and you know, less natural browns because there was
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: hardly any rain, and so that led to deal with
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: less back going into um going into the ruts. And
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: then he also talked about how bucks shedding earlier that year,
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: uh could have been e h D survivors And he said,
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: in some parts of Pennsylvania had some cases of e
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: h D this year, and those bucks could have been
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: you know, e h D survivors as well as a
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: combination of just not being very healthy to begin with.
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: Very very interesting stuff with the with the early sheds. UM.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: I'm curious to hear now if more people hear the
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: now that we're talking about it, if some more reports
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: come in, I'd be. I'd be really interested to hear
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: if this is more widespread even that we're than we're
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: seeing right now. Um, you know, pivoting a little bit.
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: The only other thing when it comes to late season
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: I'd mentioned is that it has been, at least around
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: me and in the Upper Midwest where I'm kind of
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: tapped in the most, it has been a pretty mild
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: late season, and I think because of that, late seasons
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: success rates seem to be a little bit lower than usual.
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: Maybe have you felt that to Spencer that we haven't
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: had that big snowstorm cold front yet that we usually
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: get in December that puts a bunch of big deer down. Yeah.
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: I I did a lot more hunting November than I
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: normally would have, and that was something I noticed as well,
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: that we got a pretty good stretch of mild weather
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: where it didn't force those deer to congregate in the
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: obvious places like you know, a cut cornfield or a
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: food plot. It makes sense a lot tougher this time
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: of year. I mean, they're just they're already toun it
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: for months on end. The pressure has been high on them.
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: They're slowing down when you don't get that big coal
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: front of the snowstorm in December January to to get
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: him out there in front of you. This time, you
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: can be pretty tough. So for late season, I think
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: it has been a little bit more challenging for people.
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: So and your So, your most important factor of the route,
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: you would say was the early running moon. Correct, Well,
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: I would say it's tied between that in that early
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: coal front as far as like interesting things that popped
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: for me this year. Those two, I don't know which one,
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: but those are my top two. So I would say
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: that it was the wet fall that we had. Um,
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: I think that just like made such a big difference
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: in short term and long term. Like short term as
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: it can affect buck movement, uh, like you know, all
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, there's a creek that flooded that's now
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: impassable and you can't get to it, or maybe you're
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: someone who haunts like minimal maintenance roads and you can't
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: get too an area. You know, a lot of rain
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: can also affect signmaking. This is something we've talked about
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: before how a lot of people theorize that as you
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: get like more rain, it forces those bucks to go
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: check scrapes more often and then long term effects that
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: it had. UM we like how it all food sources
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: that kept crops in more UM. Something that I've've read
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: about but again and I don't have a ton of
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: experience with acorns, is how like a lot of precipitation
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: can sour acorns. And so this is something I looked into,
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: but I couldn't find any hard data on you know
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: what's true and what's false here. But there's some different
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: theories around that, like if you get a bunch of rain, um,
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: and if there's acorns on the ground that they can
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: make them like essentially go sour and deer are no
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: longer interested in them. So if you were somebody in
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: mid oct October who was focused on acorns and we've
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: got all this rain and these acorns are now sitting
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: in water, they're now sour and it forces those bucks
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: to a different foods or some other theories around like
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: rain and acorns, was that uh rain during that time
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: of year, and like heep is more friendly to insects,
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: I guess, and so you get some of those weevils
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: that burrow into those acorns and that makes them rot out. Again,
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: these aren't things that I know where could find add
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: on just like theories that I found on the subject um.
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: And then I recall an episode back in October when
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: we were talking to Tyler Jones in Texas from the
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: Element podcast where he had said, with all these rainstorms,
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: we had a lot of times with that came wind,
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: and that wind was knocking a lot of these acorns
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: off the tree, uh like sooner, and it was bringing
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: them a bit bault whoop rather than you know, some
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: acorns coming down at certain times and them coming down
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: other times. Um. So, anyway, the precipitation the acorns, I
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: think was was a big thing. And then another long
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: term factor that can be and this is gonna scare people,
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: but uh be e h D. So most think of
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: e h D. They think of a drought year that
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: will kill a bunch of bucks. But what's more important,
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: and this can happen on like super wet years as well.
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: So you get these like isolated water holes and these
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: long mudlines from when you have like a you know,
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: a late wet season, which would be in we had
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: this really wet fall and maybe all that water didn't disappear,
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: and so we go into and uh say, we get
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: some drought conditions, and maybe we don't even need a
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: drought UM, and all of a sudden that creates a
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: bunch of standing water holes that is perfect for those midges, uh,
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: you know, to really thrive. And we could have another
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: e h D breakout in just by looking at the
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: really wet fall that we had in even if we
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: don't necessarily have the drought h that perfect storm is
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: kind of uh you know, that should be on everyone's
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: mind as we go into the summer. What a wonderful
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: way to end this episode. Thanks, thanks for the silver
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: lining for us to all think about here heading into
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: the new year. UM. That is interesting though, and and
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: you're right that is those those muddy banks really do
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: seem to to lead to issues of the midges and
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: and typically it's around droughts. But it's an interesting point
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: you're bringing up here as far as how the year
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: before sometimes might impact things too. So something to keep
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: an eye on UM for next year, no doubt about that.
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: And if you think back to UM for a lot
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: of areas, twenty eleven was a super wet year and
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: so like I think about a lot of my properties,
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: that there are some areas that sometimes have water sometimes
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: don't um eleven areas flooded and then it left all
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: these local spots with standing water or maybe you had
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: a stock damn uh that came way out of its
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: banks and then you go into and that water starts
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: to receive because it was so hot and you had
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: these drought conditions that it leaves these long stretches of
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: of muddy areas and shallow water. And that was you know,
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: created the perfect storm for much of the country to
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: get d h D. And that's something that we could
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: see again in now. Shifting away from e h D,
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: but staying on this exercise that you just share with us,
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: this idea of of looking at past years and using
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: that to help predict the future. What you just did
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: there that I think is my big takeaway from RUT
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: radio this year as far as how RUT radio can
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: be used as a tool, it's it's always it's it's
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: helpful in the short term and that you know, we
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: get to hear people that were out hunting a few
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: days ago and hear what they're seeing and hear what
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: they're thinking, and then use that for our future hunts
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: in the next couple of days. Like that's how a
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: lot of people are using these episodes of the podcast
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: throughout the year. But I think maybe the secret sauce
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: and I want to do this next year. Really do
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: this next year is go back and listen to past
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: years and look at what was predicted by these folks.
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: What do they what was coming to them. So let's
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: let's hypothetically say next year it's October one, I would
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: recommend going back and listening to RUT Radio episodes from
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: last year and the year before. Maybe that we're from
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: the week before October one. So listen to people talking
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: about what's coming for October one. So Joe blow Hunter says, well,
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: this front is happening, or this weather condition is present,
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: or this is how the acorn crops this year or whatever.
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: Hear about what happened that year, and then listen to
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: the following episode to find out what the impact was.
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: So you heard that the acorn crops were pretty rough,
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: maybe leading into October one of two thousand and sixteen,
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: let's say, and Joe blow Hunter thought that was going
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: to influence his hunting and this way, so he was
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: gonna go and hunt in that way. Listen to the
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: next week and you get to hear how people were
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: hunting and what kind of success they ended up having
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: on October one or October two based on those conditions.
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: I think that's a really interesting way you can test
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: theories and see how it ended up going. Um, if
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: you went back and did that each year, So October one,
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: go back and listen to the sixteen episode, go back
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: and listen to the seventeen episode. That can then inform
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: you for your two thou nineteen hunt. You can say, Okay, well,
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: this is what was going on in sixteen, this is
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: what was happening in seventeen, and this is how it
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: all turned out. So what does that mean for me
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: this year? Because now I have these conditions that were
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: just like seventeen. So maybe I should try doing what
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: Joe did in seventeen that worked for him. I think
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: that is like the really unexpected way that RUT radio
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: can help folks that when we started doing the Spencer,
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: I never thought that was gonna be I never thought
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: there was gonna be a long term value to it. Um.
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: I thought it was gonna be just valuable this week.
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: But now I'm starting to real lies like this is
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: this is like the best kept hunting journal in the
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: world now because we can go back and and and
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: look at journal entries from three or four years now
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: from hunters all across the country and and then use
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: that to to to predict things in the future. I
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: think that's that's like really cool. When I start to
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: think about that, I don't know, have you thought about
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: that at all? Uh, not too much. I guess a
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: little more, not that we have the three seasons worth
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: of data, But that's a good point. If you see
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: like a cold front coming in early October next year,
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: go back and listen to those episodes that we had
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: in eighteen, or if you notice it's gonna be a
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: massive acorn crap, go back and listen to some of
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: those episodes from seventeen, because those same things are are
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: definitely good going to apply to what you're going to
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: see that fall. Yeah, we talk a lot about increasingly
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: more of the last couple of years. I've been talking
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: about it because I've been hearing from other guys that
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: are doing this, the idea of like annual trends with
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: buck behavior. You know, so buck a did this in
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: two thousands sixteen, and he did it again in two
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: thousands seventeen. He might do it again to in the
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: eighteen Well, I think the same thing goes for not
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: just buck behavior trends, but also how dear react to
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: different circumstances. So how things go with a great acorn crop,
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: how things going to cold front hits on October twelve,
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: how things go when you have a certain moon and
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: laid October, How things go when you get really warm
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: days November four through seven, um, And now we have
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: this data set we can look back on as a reference.
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: So so I guess I bring all that up to say,
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: this is a great year of Runt Radio Spencer. It
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: was awesome. I've found it really interesting. I appreciate you
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: taking the time to to reach out to folks and
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: collect all of their their inputs and and join me
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: every week to talk about them. It's been fun, it's
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: been interesting, and uh I think now that we've finished
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: three years of it, I'm just more excited than ever
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: for next year because I think we have this, this
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: really cool hunting journal to look back on each year,
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: And uh, I think what I want to do in
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: two as nineteen is start at ofly referencing things and
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: then looking back. So next year on October one, I'm
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: gonna be telling you, well, hey, Spencer, I listened to
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: the two thousand fifteen one and the two thousand seventeen one.
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: There wasn't fifteen, but you know what I mean, um,
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: and see how that might help us in the future.
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: So thank you, Spencer. This is cool, this is fun,
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: and uh, I think and I hope and I'm pretty
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: damn sure that we're helping people with this and that's
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: that's exciting good. I I enjoy it. I legitimately look
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: forward to talking to these people each week because I'm
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: into this stuff, just like I hope the listeners are,
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: so uh, you know, I'm investing in the podcast and
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: I hope it's helping people. Yeah, So with that, I
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: think we sure up this one. So thank you for listening.
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: If you're still hunting, good luck. If you're done hunting,
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: hopefully found this helpful as you look to review the
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: past season and start your preparation for two thousand nineteen.
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: And with that said, until next time, stay wired. T
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: h M.