Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 493: Rut Fresh Radio 12/15/2021 - December Optimism

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Ep. 493: Rut Fresh Radio 12/15/2021 - December Optimism · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to Wired to hunts Rut Fresh Radio, bringing you
0:05
Speaker 1: the latest reports from the White Tailed Woods and now
0:08
Speaker 1: your host, Spencer new Hearth. This is Wired to hunts
0:16
Speaker 1: Rout Fresh Radio, powered by First Light, and this week
0:19
Speaker 1: we're talking about creating some December optimism. Welcome to Wired
0:38
Speaker 1: to Hunt's Rout Fresh Radio. This is episode four three,
0:42
Speaker 1: and this week back again with us is Mark Kenyon. Now, Mark,
0:47
Speaker 1: you've been giving us some deer reports from across the
0:51
Speaker 1: country so far this year, but I don't think we've
0:54
Speaker 1: gotten one from you this far south. So tell us
0:57
Speaker 1: where you were and what you were seeing in the field. Yeah, buddy,
1:01
Speaker 1: I was in the Great State of Alabama, which, yeah,
1:04
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that's the farthest south Man. That might
1:08
Speaker 1: be the farthest south I've ever hunted. Um, so it's
1:11
Speaker 1: pretty cool. Was an Alabama last week, got back over
1:14
Speaker 1: the weekend. Uh saw you know in that part of Alabama.
1:18
Speaker 1: Alabama and a lot of the South is kind of
1:20
Speaker 1: funky with a rut being different times in different places.
1:24
Speaker 1: But where I was at it was just about peak rut.
1:27
Speaker 1: I mean we were seeing. I was seeing bucks cruising
1:32
Speaker 1: is what I was seeing. I saw a good number
1:34
Speaker 1: of bucks cruising. Um. Definitely on the search there was
1:38
Speaker 1: a good amount of sign a lot of rubs and scrapes,
1:41
Speaker 1: so the kind of stuff that I would you know,
1:42
Speaker 1: be expecting to see in late October or early in November.
1:46
Speaker 1: But I was seeing, you know, the ninth, ninth, tenth
1:51
Speaker 1: of December, so that was cool. Um. I didn't see
1:53
Speaker 1: any chasing, but one of the other guys in camp
1:57
Speaker 1: he did see some chasing. So chasing, seeing cruising, all
2:00
Speaker 1: that kind of ruddy stuff is happening in Alabama right now,
2:03
Speaker 1: so that was cool. Um. And then I also hunted
2:06
Speaker 1: twice in Michigan when I got home from Alabama. So
2:09
Speaker 1: this is just a couple of days ago. And in Michigan,
2:11
Speaker 1: you know, it's definitely late season, so these deer are
2:14
Speaker 1: all on corn, hitting corn really heavy right now, you know,
2:18
Speaker 1: cut corn, waste grain on the ground. Um, have seen
2:21
Speaker 1: some bucks still sparking. I've got trail camera pictures of
2:24
Speaker 1: one of my target bucks, basically my only target buck
2:26
Speaker 1: this left in Michigan. Now he was fighting with another
2:29
Speaker 1: buck just tow three nights ago. Um, so there's still
2:32
Speaker 1: that kind of fun happening out there in the woods.
2:34
Speaker 1: But mostly here in Michigan, and I'm thinking most of
2:37
Speaker 1: the Midwest, it's back to a food situation. These deer
2:41
Speaker 1: trying to stay alive. They're better back in sanctuaries, away
2:44
Speaker 1: from people, and they're getting on the best high energy
2:47
Speaker 1: food source. So that's what I've seen. UM, A decent
2:50
Speaker 1: amount of deer movement in Michigan. I'd give it like
2:52
Speaker 1: a six and a half to six and a half probably, UM.
2:56
Speaker 1: While in Alabama, you know, the baselines different, but from
3:00
Speaker 1: what I was gathering from Parker, the guy I was
3:02
Speaker 1: down there with, you know, it was pretty good for Alabama.
3:04
Speaker 1: So maybe like a maybe like a seven or eight
3:07
Speaker 1: by Alabama standards. Yeah, it's funny you say that this
3:10
Speaker 1: was your most Southern report ever, um, and that you
3:13
Speaker 1: acknowledge that the South kind of has a funky rut.
3:18
Speaker 1: Even within the same state, you can have you know,
3:20
Speaker 1: three to four different rut phases happening in a state
3:23
Speaker 1: like Louisiana, Alabama, Texas. UM. But I just did my
3:27
Speaker 1: uh now I'm gonna give you my most Southern rut
3:30
Speaker 1: report ever as well. I was in Texas for the
3:33
Speaker 1: last week, UM hunting a property. I got permission on
3:36
Speaker 1: by writing some letters, and I killed a buck on
3:40
Speaker 1: the last day of the hunt. But everything up until
3:43
Speaker 1: that point, including that hunt, UM was very crepuscular. And
3:47
Speaker 1: that part of Texas they have a rut that is
3:50
Speaker 1: similar to what you'd experienced in the Midwest. So we
3:53
Speaker 1: were well beyond peak rut there. UM maybe saw a
3:57
Speaker 1: little bit of secondary rut action happened, but everything was
4:01
Speaker 1: pretty well bed to food, bed to food. And then
4:04
Speaker 1: because it was so hot when I was down there,
4:06
Speaker 1: And this is something that I think can even apply
4:08
Speaker 1: to hunters, like in the opposite part of the country,
4:12
Speaker 1: as far north as you can get in the United States, UM,
4:14
Speaker 1: where water became a factor. And it was a factor
4:17
Speaker 1: for me because it was like a d two degrees
4:20
Speaker 1: for a high down there. But I think it can
4:21
Speaker 1: be a factor in a place like northern Minnesota, UM,
4:25
Speaker 1: when you have ice developing on some of these like
4:27
Speaker 1: stagnant bodies of water. UM, then all of a sudden,
4:31
Speaker 1: like one of the things that a white tail absolutely
4:33
Speaker 1: needs is water, and it becomes a limiting factor. So
4:37
Speaker 1: I think water setups in mid December can be an
4:40
Speaker 1: underrated part of any white tail setup. So what was
4:43
Speaker 1: can you give me more detail on the south that
4:45
Speaker 1: ultimately led to that kill. Um Man, it was just
4:49
Speaker 1: bouncing around a lot. The deer was coming into a
4:52
Speaker 1: green food source. The property had some perennial food plots
4:58
Speaker 1: that were largely weeds at this point, and uh hadn't
5:01
Speaker 1: been manicured or or touched in years probably so they
5:05
Speaker 1: just kind of kept going on their own. But for
5:07
Speaker 1: the most part, where I was seeing the best movement
5:10
Speaker 1: and where I ended up killing this buck was just
5:12
Speaker 1: on a very green food source. Um which I think
5:16
Speaker 1: again can be relevant regardless of what part of the country.
5:19
Speaker 1: Yere and green food sources can really attract deer this
5:22
Speaker 1: time of year, especially in big numbers. Yeah, you know,
5:24
Speaker 1: one thing I've seen and this isn't a rule, this
5:27
Speaker 1: this is hit or miss, But if I had to
5:29
Speaker 1: point to some kind of tendency when it came to
5:31
Speaker 1: those food sources, at least in Michigan, and I think
5:34
Speaker 1: a lot of the upper grade lakes, when it's like
5:36
Speaker 1: gnarrowly cold, like very very very frigid cold and snowy,
5:40
Speaker 1: the deer tend to hit the you know, cut corn
5:43
Speaker 1: field cut bean fields are on those grains when it's
5:46
Speaker 1: a little bit warmer in December, when it gets into
5:48
Speaker 1: those slightly more mild days, they really seem to turn
5:51
Speaker 1: to the to the grain. So for me, like on
5:53
Speaker 1: one of these properties, I've got an old clover plot,
5:56
Speaker 1: I've got some some grains and clovers in another green plot,
5:59
Speaker 1: and they tend to it those a little bit more
6:00
Speaker 1: when you've got those unseasonably slightly warmer temperatures. So that's
6:05
Speaker 1: a little something that I'll key and I'm what I'm
6:06
Speaker 1: trying to choose where it hunt. If I don't have
6:08
Speaker 1: any other clue pointing in one direction or another, that
6:11
Speaker 1: temperature will kind of point me in where I want
6:14
Speaker 1: to focus where I think there might be just a
6:16
Speaker 1: little bit more activity, um on days like that. So
6:20
Speaker 1: I don't know, that's one thing I've seen. Yeah, no,
6:22
Speaker 1: no shockers that for a lot of the white tail
6:25
Speaker 1: range right now, they are thinking with their stomachs and
6:28
Speaker 1: so that's that's a theme that you hear in our
6:30
Speaker 1: conversations this week, um, whether it be some natural browns
6:34
Speaker 1: or it be a food plot in an area that
6:37
Speaker 1: otherwise is sort of a food desert. And here we
6:40
Speaker 1: talked to you is Garrett Hike is from Chasing the
6:42
Speaker 1: Dream TV in Nebraska, Josh Ganty from Cut four Outdoors
6:45
Speaker 1: in North Carolina, Luke Thorkelson in Texas from weatherb and
6:49
Speaker 1: Kevin Vistison from the Deer Hunter podcast in Michigan. I
6:53
Speaker 1: like it, so let me ask you one last thing
6:55
Speaker 1: before we wrap the subspenser in general, how do you
7:00
Speaker 1: our guests feel about this coming week? Because I bring
7:04
Speaker 1: that up. I asked that because there's a lot of
7:06
Speaker 1: people probably listening now that kind of feel like there's
7:09
Speaker 1: this ad it's done. You know, the best is behind me?
7:13
Speaker 1: Is that where everyone's at? Is that where you're at?
7:15
Speaker 1: Is that where the people we talked to are at?
7:16
Speaker 1: Or is there hope? Is there hope still? Is there
7:18
Speaker 1: reason to be excited to still get in the woods.
7:22
Speaker 1: When it comes to you UM running activity, you'll hear
7:27
Speaker 1: some pessimism, or maybe not pessimism, but what you would
7:30
Speaker 1: expect from mid December. You may catch some spikes from
7:34
Speaker 1: secondary running UM, but for the most part, evening haunts
7:38
Speaker 1: are superior and uh bucks have down moved their bedding
7:41
Speaker 1: to be closer to food sources. That kind of thing. UM.
7:45
Speaker 1: But where you do hear some optimism, what gets some
7:47
Speaker 1: of the people that we talked to this week excited
7:50
Speaker 1: is that it looks like for the Midwest and the
7:54
Speaker 1: east coast in the West, that there is some approaching
7:57
Speaker 1: cold weather and storms umming up that may take us,
8:01
Speaker 1: you know, all the way into Christmas. And so if
8:04
Speaker 1: if people um have very obvious food sources that they
8:07
Speaker 1: want to be hunting this time of year. I think
8:09
Speaker 1: for right now a lot of the white tail range,
8:11
Speaker 1: it's been very mild weather lately. So if we can
8:14
Speaker 1: get a few inches of snow or some days where
8:18
Speaker 1: you have consecutive highs that are on freezing, that's gonna
8:22
Speaker 1: get people excited. And you hear that from some of
8:24
Speaker 1: our guests this week. I'll tell you what I still
8:28
Speaker 1: I'm still feeling hopeful. There's there's time left. And I'll
8:31
Speaker 1: tell you one thing. You get that cold like you mentioned,
8:34
Speaker 1: and if you can find those sanctuaries, if you can
8:37
Speaker 1: find those little holes that bucks go into to get
8:39
Speaker 1: away from all the people, you know, that's that's the
8:41
Speaker 1: one particularly good thing about this time of year is
8:44
Speaker 1: that deer much more, much more concentrated. Right in September
8:48
Speaker 1: or October or November, deer can be all over the place.
8:51
Speaker 1: There's great food everywhere, there's cover everywhere. They haven't been bothered.
8:55
Speaker 1: Now you get to this time of year, food is rare,
8:57
Speaker 1: cover is rare, and people have been bugging the heck
8:59
Speaker 1: out of him. So there's only a couple of little
9:01
Speaker 1: spots in any general region that dear No, they can
9:04
Speaker 1: be safe. You can find those little safe spots. You're
9:07
Speaker 1: gonna find them all. You're gonna find a bunch of deer.
9:10
Speaker 1: So man, keep the faith because they're out there and
9:13
Speaker 1: you can get on them. And if you find one
9:14
Speaker 1: of those little hidie holes, you can have some really
9:17
Speaker 1: good hunting. I dig the optimism, Mark, I will talk
9:19
Speaker 1: to you next week. Sounds good, buddy, all right? And
9:24
Speaker 1: joining us on the line next is Garrett Hike is
9:26
Speaker 1: from Chasing the Dream TV in Nebraska. Garrett in Nebraska,
9:30
Speaker 1: what would you say the buck activity has been lately
9:32
Speaker 1: on a scale of one to ten. This past week
9:35
Speaker 1: or less less than a week, it's probably been about
9:37
Speaker 1: a four or five. It's been a little slower. The
9:40
Speaker 1: week before it was pretty hot with second run activities,
9:42
Speaker 1: So then I would have said seven or eight on
9:45
Speaker 1: a couple of the days I had. Now you just
9:48
Speaker 1: killed a giant buck in Nebraska. I think you said
9:50
Speaker 1: it's the biggest one you've ever killed on that property.
9:53
Speaker 1: Why did you want to be there and why did
9:54
Speaker 1: that buck want to be in that spot? UM, I
9:56
Speaker 1: think a lot of it was just betting and then
9:58
Speaker 1: dough travel. UM. I've been seeing a decent amount of
10:01
Speaker 1: second running activity that week. UM kind of hung as
10:04
Speaker 1: stand for that buck specifically. UM had a little bit
10:08
Speaker 1: of history with him, just one set of pictures last
10:10
Speaker 1: year in the beginning of December, and then this year, uh,
10:13
Speaker 1: end of October, I was just doing some scouting for
10:16
Speaker 1: a couple of my other bucks that were taking a
10:18
Speaker 1: different route to our plot, and I was doing an
10:20
Speaker 1: observation sit and saw a big buck with splits come
10:23
Speaker 1: up over the ridge too from the river bottom and
10:25
Speaker 1: figured out had to be the one from last year,
10:27
Speaker 1: So moved cameras around, got handful of pictures of him
10:30
Speaker 1: throughout the month, and then uh, the last last week
10:34
Speaker 1: of October or November and the first week of December,
10:36
Speaker 1: he started showing up more and I narrowed down his travel.
10:40
Speaker 1: UM kind of found where they were coming down into
10:43
Speaker 1: the bedding, and it's kind of just some big burn
10:45
Speaker 1: theater draws had a fire there like ten years ago,
10:48
Speaker 1: and they just spilt their way through that. But they
10:50
Speaker 1: hang around quite a bit in the morning and come
10:52
Speaker 1: up and feed for a couple of hours in the
10:54
Speaker 1: evening before they actually had up and out through the
10:57
Speaker 1: open to the plot. Um. So I was just kind
10:59
Speaker 1: of narrowing down on that and ended up bumping him
11:02
Speaker 1: out of the pocket that I killed him in not
11:04
Speaker 1: quite a week before. So hung a standing kind of
11:07
Speaker 1: did the bumping dump technique, and I think I killed
11:10
Speaker 1: him on the fourth sit, and I also had him
11:13
Speaker 1: there among the first sit, just didn't come into range.
11:18
Speaker 1: And what food sources are relevant right now in Nebraska,
11:21
Speaker 1: we just have an acre and a half a plot
11:23
Speaker 1: of Braska that they've been hitting really hard basically from
11:26
Speaker 1: the middle of October all the way until now. They're
11:28
Speaker 1: really hitting it since we've got this colder snap um.
11:31
Speaker 1: And then we've got alpha fields along our other area
11:35
Speaker 1: and then Nebraska plot there too, um. So we don't
11:38
Speaker 1: really have much corner beans or anything like that around.
11:41
Speaker 1: So I mean some of our properties, a lot of
11:43
Speaker 1: it really is just natural movement through natural brows. I
11:47
Speaker 1: mean our our plot near where I killed this book
11:50
Speaker 1: is the only food source besides the natural brows for
11:54
Speaker 1: I think two and a half to three miles probably.
11:57
Speaker 1: You mentioned that you've been moving some cameras around right
11:59
Speaker 1: now this time of year, you're putting all those cameras
12:02
Speaker 1: on your food sources. Um. I've got three spread out
12:05
Speaker 1: across our acre and a plot on the food source,
12:07
Speaker 1: but the rest of them are still kind of on
12:09
Speaker 1: that rut travel. Um. And then I got a couple
12:12
Speaker 1: of inbedding areas just on on licking branches, just to
12:14
Speaker 1: kind of monitor that, and they've actually been I've been
12:17
Speaker 1: getting quite a bit of action yet still. Um, but
12:20
Speaker 1: I'm definitely noticing the deer grouping up again and then
12:24
Speaker 1: just small flurries of second right activity. But what I
12:26
Speaker 1: have seen for that has been a lot stronger than
12:29
Speaker 1: we saw during the peacrow, which is kind of weird.
12:32
Speaker 1: What is a morning set up look like for you
12:34
Speaker 1: this time of year? Um, that's the spot that I
12:36
Speaker 1: was hunting him in was basically only a morning spot,
12:39
Speaker 1: so I was just kind of trying to get into
12:41
Speaker 1: the bedding area. UM. Like this spot, it's a it's
12:45
Speaker 1: a third acre chunk of theaters and a few hardwoods
12:49
Speaker 1: down at the bottom of a big burn valley of cedars,
12:52
Speaker 1: and they bed in there sometimes, but a lot of
12:54
Speaker 1: times they've been just moving through it. So I've been
12:57
Speaker 1: trying to get in there early, early, before a light,
13:00
Speaker 1: just in case anything comes back sooner, and just catching
13:03
Speaker 1: them cruising back through, either betting in that pocket or
13:06
Speaker 1: moving through it on their way to where they're going
13:08
Speaker 1: to bed for the rest of the day. Historically, do
13:11
Speaker 1: you notice any kind of a shift in bedding in
13:13
Speaker 1: Nebraska this time of year? Usually? Yeah, A lot of
13:17
Speaker 1: times our deer will just leave because we don't have
13:20
Speaker 1: food sources that close. So we'll notice a lot of
13:22
Speaker 1: big winter herds along the Nyabraa River and then up
13:25
Speaker 1: north towards the Missouri River on the actual agg fields,
13:28
Speaker 1: and the deer that do stick around us definitely go
13:31
Speaker 1: to thicker thermal cover like our our self facing slopes,
13:34
Speaker 1: and we've got some super thick areas of theaters. They
13:38
Speaker 1: really hungergating those areas. Have you been seeing any signmaking
13:42
Speaker 1: as of late, Um, Yeah, they d in the past
13:45
Speaker 1: week and a half or I guess last week and
13:48
Speaker 1: the week and a half of that. Um, quite a
13:50
Speaker 1: bit more rubbing activity this buck the first morning that
13:54
Speaker 1: I seen him, he was making a rub right west
13:57
Speaker 1: me at like seven yards and still pretty aggressive of um,
14:00
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of chasing I've seen in
14:02
Speaker 1: that pocket, and uh they hit the scrapes pretty decent
14:06
Speaker 1: that week week and a half of where I feel
14:08
Speaker 1: like the second running activity was hot and heavy, but
14:12
Speaker 1: between peak rutt and the second rut it was pretty
14:15
Speaker 1: slow and then it's kind of slowed down again going forward.
14:18
Speaker 1: Then in the sext week or so, what do you
14:20
Speaker 1: think that buck activity is going to be on a
14:22
Speaker 1: scale of one to ten in Nebraska? Oh, I'd say
14:26
Speaker 1: probably of four or five. We don't have the greatest
14:29
Speaker 1: weather rolling in and second running activity I think is
14:32
Speaker 1: winding down quite a bit, so I'll probably just be
14:34
Speaker 1: more bad to food activity. Are Garrett, congrats again on
14:38
Speaker 1: the great buck. Thanks for joining me. Thank you all
14:41
Speaker 1: right and joining us on the line. Next is Josh
14:43
Speaker 1: Genty from Cut four Outdoors in North Carolina. Josh and
14:47
Speaker 1: North Carolina. What would you say the buck activity has
14:49
Speaker 1: been lately on a scale of one to ten, It's
14:53
Speaker 1: definitely down the lower end. I'd probably say it three,
14:56
Speaker 1: maybe a four, just because leaving Dale with some weird weather. Mean,
15:00
Speaker 1: we've been having highs in the this seventies lately, and
15:03
Speaker 1: it's really been shutting the bucks down as far as movement,
15:05
Speaker 1: like they're moving really late. You know, it's it's really
15:08
Speaker 1: hard to catch them on their feet in daylight right
15:10
Speaker 1: now has been What would you identify this phase of
15:13
Speaker 1: the rod as in North Carolina? I would post if
15:20
Speaker 1: not already going into that winter, like that winter pattern
15:23
Speaker 1: that they have, um, Because like I got some books
15:26
Speaker 1: that you know, they disappeared once the runs started kicking him,
15:29
Speaker 1: but they're just now starting to show back up. I
15:31
Speaker 1: think that's just a sign to them like they're done
15:33
Speaker 1: chasing and they're just kind of settling in and kind
15:36
Speaker 1: of locking back down in their core area on that
15:39
Speaker 1: winter pattern, just trying to feed up for the winter.
15:41
Speaker 1: It's probably my guests historically, do you usually see any
15:45
Speaker 1: kind of secondary rutting action in North Carolina? Sometimes? Um, Usually,
15:51
Speaker 1: like if I'm sitting, especially at this time of year,
15:53
Speaker 1: if I see if I'm sitting on a food plot
15:56
Speaker 1: or something like that, and I only see one or
15:57
Speaker 1: two does like together, it's usually a good sign that
16:01
Speaker 1: you don't have whether it be a young buck or
16:03
Speaker 1: older bucks, there's gonna be something in tow for some reason,
16:06
Speaker 1: And I think it's just because it's a sign that
16:08
Speaker 1: usually the like that year wind or that younger dough
16:10
Speaker 1: is just now starting to go in to eat and
16:13
Speaker 1: further wait for that moment hoping it does. But this
16:17
Speaker 1: it's very rare around here. I think it's more dependent
16:19
Speaker 1: on your dough numbers. If you've got a lot of
16:20
Speaker 1: those more common. Some places that have less dough numbers
16:24
Speaker 1: is usually less common if you're doing some in seasoned
16:28
Speaker 1: scouting in that part of the country. What are some
16:30
Speaker 1: things you're looking for this time of year. I'm definitely
16:33
Speaker 1: looking for, well, you know, you can start with your
16:36
Speaker 1: fields and stuff like that, your food plots, but you're
16:38
Speaker 1: looking for brows at this time of year. Anything that's
16:41
Speaker 1: kind of greenish that the deer will brows on, whether
16:44
Speaker 1: it was friars, wheat fields, anything like that, that's their
16:48
Speaker 1: main source. Like for some reason, it just seems to
16:51
Speaker 1: be what the deer prefers this time of years that
16:53
Speaker 1: win or weak kind of deal, mainly because I don't
16:57
Speaker 1: The only thing I've noticed is namely the green like
17:00
Speaker 1: thing green colors has been like a game changer as
17:02
Speaker 1: far as like what I've seen just by you know,
17:05
Speaker 1: walking in and out of the woods, placing trail cameras
17:07
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. Where do you want to be
17:10
Speaker 1: running your trail cameras right now? Um, definitely anywhere where
17:15
Speaker 1: I think the deer might be staging. So, like I said,
17:18
Speaker 1: like you got some kind of stage in area, like
17:21
Speaker 1: like a small half acre winter wheat food plot or
17:25
Speaker 1: whether it be some um in North Carolina has been
17:28
Speaker 1: kind of a dry year, and I definitely wouldn't count
17:31
Speaker 1: a water oaks salad question either down there, like in
17:34
Speaker 1: creek bottoms of river bottles and stuff like that. I
17:37
Speaker 1: definitely wouldn't put that out of the question. But I'm
17:40
Speaker 1: definitely gonna hang them where there's where I think they
17:43
Speaker 1: might be staging that or possibly you know, I keep
17:46
Speaker 1: one or two on the big grain field that you
17:48
Speaker 1: have to you have access to one just that way
17:51
Speaker 1: you know what field they're trying to work towards, and
17:54
Speaker 1: then you can use that as like a starting spot
17:56
Speaker 1: and then work your way back to where you think
17:57
Speaker 1: they're staging, and then eventually even kind of pinpoint where
18:01
Speaker 1: their core area is, whether daily routine is gonna be
18:05
Speaker 1: during post ride. Do you normally witness any kind of
18:07
Speaker 1: a shift in the bedding a little bit. Um, it's
18:12
Speaker 1: kind of like, um, it's almost like early season bed
18:15
Speaker 1: and kind of so like your dose will be bed
18:18
Speaker 1: and more like you know, your cutovers and your thick stuff.
18:21
Speaker 1: But for some reason, I feel like the bucks been
18:23
Speaker 1: on the complete opposite side. I don't know why that is,
18:27
Speaker 1: but they're definitely further off where they're trying to feed at.
18:31
Speaker 1: They're obviously more weird you just from hunting pressure, but
18:34
Speaker 1: for some reason they're on the complete opposite side of
18:37
Speaker 1: where you think that those are. And I'm not sure
18:39
Speaker 1: why that is, but that's just one of those things
18:41
Speaker 1: that I've observed this past couple of weeks. What does
18:45
Speaker 1: the morning set up look like for you this time
18:47
Speaker 1: of year? Morning set up, I'm definitely gonna go towards
18:51
Speaker 1: m I'm actually gonna look for them staging areas to
18:53
Speaker 1: be honestly, because I've noticed what the weather we're having.
18:56
Speaker 1: We're getting set like mid seventies, low seventies and then
19:01
Speaker 1: at night just getting down in the thirties, and those
19:04
Speaker 1: deer lingering in the big open act fields longer, so
19:06
Speaker 1: they're actually taking their time coming back to bed. So
19:09
Speaker 1: I would definitely look for like cutovers or anything like that.
19:13
Speaker 1: We're dear it's gonna kind of feeds back through where
19:15
Speaker 1: they get some more sublite on their way back to bed.
19:18
Speaker 1: That would be my number one UM point of interest
19:23
Speaker 1: to say, Um, I know, I got a buddy that
19:25
Speaker 1: killed a big, a giant six corner last year about
19:29
Speaker 1: this time of year, doing the same thing. He had
19:31
Speaker 1: a big giant at field that was corn one year
19:34
Speaker 1: I think, and then he had access to hunt this
19:37
Speaker 1: big cut over right next to it. And he said
19:40
Speaker 1: that whenever he climbed up in the tree, saw the
19:43
Speaker 1: big six in the field and it was still either
19:44
Speaker 1: eating the word right through that cut over that morning
19:47
Speaker 1: ended up giving him a good shot. And let's just
19:50
Speaker 1: say he had a good morning that day. Going forward,
19:53
Speaker 1: then in the sext week or so, what do you
19:54
Speaker 1: think that buck activity is going to be on a
19:56
Speaker 1: scale of one to ten in North Carolina. I'm definitely
20:00
Speaker 1: gonna say, if you can hold off, it'll be all
20:03
Speaker 1: right right now. But I'm definitely I would make it
20:06
Speaker 1: a priority to be in the tree Sunday, Monday and
20:10
Speaker 1: Tuesday this upcoming week, because we're gonna get it. We're
20:13
Speaker 1: gonna stay in the seventies mid sixties this week, but
20:17
Speaker 1: just supposed to drop from we're gonna getting seventy five Saturday,
20:20
Speaker 1: it's gonna drop all the way down to fifty nine.
20:23
Speaker 1: And anytime you have a major temperature change like that,
20:26
Speaker 1: the bucks are always gonna get up earlier. It's just
20:28
Speaker 1: like a shock to the system that first day of
20:31
Speaker 1: a cold front. Whenever it's moving in, that's usually your
20:33
Speaker 1: best time in your best bet so that you're gonna
20:36
Speaker 1: see some buck all right, Josh, I'd like the optimism.
20:39
Speaker 1: Good luck to un the rest of the team, and
20:41
Speaker 1: thanks for joining me alright and joining us on the line.
20:45
Speaker 1: Next is Luke Thoroldsen from weather be in Texas. Now,
20:49
Speaker 1: Luke in Texas, what would you say the bucket activity
20:51
Speaker 1: has been lately on the scale of one to ten.
20:55
Speaker 1: I was down in Texas last week. I see it
20:57
Speaker 1: was probably a nine. Um. I watched multiple bucks fighting
21:04
Speaker 1: overdose right in front of me. It was pretty awesome
21:08
Speaker 1: to see. Um. Some of the other guys that are
21:10
Speaker 1: on the trip actually saw some bucks breed dose. Um.
21:13
Speaker 1: You know, in Texas you can feed, right, so people
21:16
Speaker 1: are hunting that feeders and it really helps watch them
21:20
Speaker 1: congregate and see what's going on. So I'd say the
21:22
Speaker 1: rut activity was pretty darn high. So in that part
21:25
Speaker 1: of Texas, do you think you were seeing some of
21:27
Speaker 1: the rutting action from the first rut or were you
21:29
Speaker 1: getting some secondary rut? That's a great question. Um, it's
21:34
Speaker 1: this likely secondary rut because it wasn't like full board.
21:38
Speaker 1: A lot of the little bucks were just kind of
21:39
Speaker 1: standing around, um feeding and it was just kind of
21:43
Speaker 1: the slightly bigger guys that were still cruising around, and
21:46
Speaker 1: not every dose seemed to be hot. So I think
21:49
Speaker 1: there was probably second or late ruts. I know, you
21:53
Speaker 1: said you and the other guys in camp and am
21:54
Speaker 1: going eight for eight on Bucks. Were you seeing better
21:57
Speaker 1: movement in the mornings or in the evenings. I personally
22:02
Speaker 1: was seeing better movement in the evenings. That said, I
22:06
Speaker 1: think more people killed out in the morning. Um. And
22:12
Speaker 1: you know, it's hard to say exactly why. Um. I
22:16
Speaker 1: had a great stand where I watched multiple Bucks fights.
22:19
Speaker 1: It was super awesome. Um. The downside of that was
22:22
Speaker 1: that like the bigger boys, they they seem to be
22:25
Speaker 1: more active in the afternoon. I never saw any of
22:28
Speaker 1: the big boys in the morning. What food sources were
22:32
Speaker 1: you hunting down there? Um, you know it's the drought,
22:37
Speaker 1: and you know this is kind of West Texas, right
22:39
Speaker 1: near near Abilene, and uh, there's pretty bad drought right now,
22:43
Speaker 1: so natural food, um, was hard to come by. So
22:47
Speaker 1: we're at feeders that are throwing corn. So um, they
22:51
Speaker 1: were quick to come to corn. A feeder would throw
22:54
Speaker 1: and you got you got those usually coming out first
22:56
Speaker 1: and then buck shortly after that. Um, but they were there. Definitely,
23:02
Speaker 1: it's ditching to get on the corn quick. It seems
23:05
Speaker 1: like with late season deer hunting, whether you're in the
23:07
Speaker 1: South or Midwest or the West, you tend to have
23:09
Speaker 1: shots that are closer than when you do in early
23:12
Speaker 1: season or the rut. So, Luke, do you have a
23:14
Speaker 1: favorite cartridge for when you're in a situation where you're
23:17
Speaker 1: probably gonna be taking a shot that's within like a
23:19
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty yards? I do. Yeah. You know, the
23:24
Speaker 1: name of Weatherby's game is speed right speed kills. So
23:28
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of the six five three hundred. Um,
23:31
Speaker 1: it's what I do different on the six D for
23:34
Speaker 1: hunting down to Texas is I would when I'm Western hunting,
23:38
Speaker 1: I'm going to run a three hundred yards zero, but
23:40
Speaker 1: down in Texas, I'm going to adjust the rifle down
23:43
Speaker 1: to a hundred yards zero. So, um, you know, most shots,
23:47
Speaker 1: like you said, are going to be a hundred two
23:48
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty yards. Um. I shot my buck right
23:52
Speaker 1: out a hundred yards. So the benefit to change in
23:56
Speaker 1: the zero to a hundred yards instead of three hundred
23:58
Speaker 1: is you don't have to guess where are where your
24:00
Speaker 1: blitz going to impact or or adjust your scope. If
24:03
Speaker 1: you have a zero stop you want to hold. You
24:06
Speaker 1: don't want to try to guess that three and a
24:07
Speaker 1: half inches high at a hundred well and mentally then
24:10
Speaker 1: you're like, well, what's that do at seventy? So it
24:13
Speaker 1: makes it a little bit simpler system for that hundred
24:16
Speaker 1: yards zero. But the six five hundred, I was using
24:19
Speaker 1: a hundred and thirty grains to rocco um and that's
24:21
Speaker 1: bad medicine for deer. And we shot eight deer and
24:25
Speaker 1: um mine actually went twenty five yards. I put it
24:28
Speaker 1: in the engine room, but I didn't hit the heart.
24:30
Speaker 1: But but mine was the only buck that took a step.
24:33
Speaker 1: Every other was a d r T and that a
24:36
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty grain bull. It is that where you're
24:38
Speaker 1: gonna be using from like September to December or is
24:40
Speaker 1: that different for you in late season? Yeah, it depends
24:45
Speaker 1: a little bit on where I'm going to hunt. I
24:46
Speaker 1: also like a hundred and fifty six grain um Elite Hunter,
24:49
Speaker 1: but that's better for your longer range shots. UM that
24:53
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty grain it's like I said, it's really
24:55
Speaker 1: bad medicine for deer. And also on hogs. We shot
24:58
Speaker 1: quite a few hogs while we were down there, so
25:01
Speaker 1: we had one punch through that thick shoulder plate that
25:03
Speaker 1: people get scared of. Most people avoided shooting there, but
25:07
Speaker 1: we have one that hit through there and it's uh yeah,
25:10
Speaker 1: that ONEAKA was a really really good uh bonded bullet.
25:15
Speaker 1: Maybe want to be best bonded bullets out there. And
25:18
Speaker 1: if you're in a game rich environment like Texas where
25:20
Speaker 1: you might encounter hogs or bobcats or nil guy or
25:22
Speaker 1: on Dad. When you're a place like that where you're
25:25
Speaker 1: targeting to hear, but you might encounter a wide range
25:27
Speaker 1: of game, do you have a favorite cartridge for that situation.
25:30
Speaker 1: Is it gonna be the same thing. Yeah. You know,
25:33
Speaker 1: if you shoot a bobcat or coyote or something with
25:36
Speaker 1: that set up and you want to you know, keep
25:38
Speaker 1: the hide, you're you're likely to have a fairly large
25:41
Speaker 1: exit hole. Um in that scenario, from our lineup, I'd
25:45
Speaker 1: be looking at like a two forty weather Be or
25:47
Speaker 1: a two seven weather Be, a much lighter grain bullet,
25:50
Speaker 1: still great for deer. Um. But we were on a
25:54
Speaker 1: meat hunt on this On this trip, it was like
25:56
Speaker 1: kind of a field of table events, so our goal
25:58
Speaker 1: was to make sure we got meat and everybody had
26:02
Speaker 1: meat down. Um, the slightly lighter bullets are going to
26:06
Speaker 1: definitely do the job, but it may not always drop
26:08
Speaker 1: them in their tracks. Which the Texas country with the
26:11
Speaker 1: mesquites and cactus and all that, it can be really
26:15
Speaker 1: tough to find blood in dirt or in you know,
26:18
Speaker 1: almost nothing at all. But then the deer runoff into
26:21
Speaker 1: the mesquites. They could be right in front of you,
26:23
Speaker 1: it's just hard to see them. So our object is
26:25
Speaker 1: to just drop them right there. Going forward, then is
26:28
Speaker 1: next week or so, what do you think that bucket
26:29
Speaker 1: TV is going to be On a scale of one
26:31
Speaker 1: to ten in Texas. I would say that it's going
26:35
Speaker 1: to be a little lower than what we saw because
26:37
Speaker 1: I think it was slowing down as the week went
26:40
Speaker 1: on for us, But we saw the most activity at
26:42
Speaker 1: the beginning of the week. So if we were in
26:44
Speaker 1: nine before, I'm going to stay that. Um next week,
26:46
Speaker 1: it's it's probably gonna be closer to a five or six.
26:49
Speaker 1: All right, Luke, congrats to you and the team from
26:51
Speaker 1: whether be in a successful trip. Thanks for joining me.
26:54
Speaker 1: Thanks Spencer, all right and joining us on the line.
26:56
Speaker 1: Last is Kevin Vistison from the Deer Hunter podcast in Michigan.
27:00
Speaker 1: Kevin in Michigan, what would you say the buck activity
27:03
Speaker 1: has been lately on a scale of one to ten. Yeah,
27:06
Speaker 1: I was thinking about that and I'm gonna go right
27:08
Speaker 1: down the middle of the pipe to say probably a five.
27:11
Speaker 1: And the reason that I'm saying that is because deer
27:16
Speaker 1: are pretty concentrated into a secure area at this point
27:21
Speaker 1: in the season, having been being chased around for better
27:24
Speaker 1: part of three months. And if they feel that they
27:28
Speaker 1: are in that secure area and no one has evaded
27:30
Speaker 1: it or invaded it, they will probably move in you know,
27:36
Speaker 1: the last daylight hour. Um, maybe throughout the morning and
27:41
Speaker 1: feed within that proximity. But it's a problematic to be
27:45
Speaker 1: able to get in and out of those areas and
27:47
Speaker 1: get into that comfort zone of theirs. I'm talking probably
27:51
Speaker 1: within a hundred yards of a better deer and with it.
27:55
Speaker 1: To think that it would move outside of that area
27:58
Speaker 1: in you know, in daylight hours is probably not realistic.
28:02
Speaker 1: And how do you go about locating one of those
28:04
Speaker 1: secure areas this time of year in the big woods
28:07
Speaker 1: of a stay like Michigan. So, yeah, I'm gonna obviously, yeah,
28:11
Speaker 1: I'm glad you specified. I'm gonna be specific about what
28:14
Speaker 1: I know and what I can do, And a lot
28:16
Speaker 1: of that revolves this time of year around snow. We
28:19
Speaker 1: get some snow. I take full advantage of that getting
28:22
Speaker 1: out and yeah, you know, tracking down dear finding tracks,
28:28
Speaker 1: finding where they're feeding, where they're betting it. It really
28:31
Speaker 1: really just gives them up. And so if he could
28:34
Speaker 1: take advantage of that, I've snuck out before work and uh,
28:38
Speaker 1: you know, rearranged some plans to get out right after
28:42
Speaker 1: a snow comes at night and be able to get
28:45
Speaker 1: a really good description of exactly what is going on
28:50
Speaker 1: without snow, it can be it can be pretty challenging
28:53
Speaker 1: what food sources are relevant right now? Brows most the
29:00
Speaker 1: areas that I hunt northern Michigan, that is the deer's
29:03
Speaker 1: food source all year. I know if you hear a
29:06
Speaker 1: lot about acorns and egg for the most part when
29:10
Speaker 1: people are asked this question. But for me, in the
29:14
Speaker 1: areas that I hunt, the deer are just eating natural brows.
29:17
Speaker 1: It's probably you know, and maybe ninety percent of their diet.
29:22
Speaker 1: So they're really forging on whatever they can get access
29:25
Speaker 1: to this time of year. Uh, cedar becomes prevalent the
29:29
Speaker 1: later we get in the season. But I'll also add,
29:31
Speaker 1: just because it's on my brain, this past weekend, I
29:34
Speaker 1: noticed that deer we're digging up winter green. And I've
29:38
Speaker 1: seen that in years past. I've never see them really
29:41
Speaker 1: eat that when there's not snow on the ground, and
29:43
Speaker 1: I wonder if that's a product of that it has
29:45
Speaker 1: an odor and they can smell it through the snow.
29:47
Speaker 1: But I noticed this just this past weekend that areas
29:51
Speaker 1: where there was winter green on the ground, the deer
29:53
Speaker 1: had pought up and uh, you know, it almost looked
29:56
Speaker 1: like they were in there just bulldoz and the stuff.
29:59
Speaker 1: Obviously morning set ups can be a bit more challenging
30:01
Speaker 1: this time of year. So what does a morning set
30:03
Speaker 1: up look like for you in mid December? Yeah, I
30:06
Speaker 1: like the late morning actually, it is probably my preferred time,
30:10
Speaker 1: the or maybe the eight thirty to ten thirty window.
30:14
Speaker 1: I feel like you're betting before daylight and they will
30:19
Speaker 1: often get up and feed and you know, shift their
30:22
Speaker 1: bed around there in the mid morning. So I like
30:25
Speaker 1: that eight thirty to ten thirty and then obviously the
30:28
Speaker 1: last hour of daylight is uh is probably your best
30:31
Speaker 1: bet this time of year. But for me, it just
30:33
Speaker 1: looks like getting into concentration of betting, being as quiet
30:38
Speaker 1: as possible, and then just being prepared to sit in
30:42
Speaker 1: there through the later part of the afternoon and hoping
30:45
Speaker 1: to be able to capitalize on that late morning feeding
30:48
Speaker 1: and when they you know, kind of shift their bed
30:50
Speaker 1: for the rest of the day. Historically, do you see
30:53
Speaker 1: much of a secondary rout in that part of the country,
30:56
Speaker 1: whether it's chasing or signmaking in December? Absolutely, we I do. Uh.
31:03
Speaker 1: We have a lot of deer here in Michigan. That's
31:05
Speaker 1: one thing that we are very fortunate to have is
31:08
Speaker 1: outstanding dear numbers, which usually means a lot of fawns
31:13
Speaker 1: that are fawns, you know, a half year old deer
31:16
Speaker 1: that are potentially coming into breeding for the first time,
31:20
Speaker 1: and they often will do that in the December window.
31:25
Speaker 1: So I have seen that before, where bucks are actively
31:29
Speaker 1: harassing and chasing does around it. I usually see that typically, uh,
31:35
Speaker 1: you know, about that four weeks after what I would
31:37
Speaker 1: consider the peak of the rut here would be November
31:40
Speaker 1: fifteenth here in Michigan, So around that December fifty window,
31:46
Speaker 1: I have seen a lot of that, and late morning
31:48
Speaker 1: as well. It seems like when the does are up
31:51
Speaker 1: and feeding around that, I've seen a lot of bucks
31:53
Speaker 1: up cruising and looking for them doing such. Does available
31:57
Speaker 1: water factory in your decision making and all this time
32:00
Speaker 1: or when things are starting to ice up, I can't
32:05
Speaker 1: say that it is. I don't I don't think uh.
32:08
Speaker 1: I think these deer can get a lot of hydration
32:11
Speaker 1: just through their natural prows is full of has a
32:15
Speaker 1: high percentage of water in it. So I don't think
32:19
Speaker 1: they actually, given that they're not exerting a ton of
32:21
Speaker 1: energy and that there is no heat factor for the
32:25
Speaker 1: most part, that they can get what water they basically
32:28
Speaker 1: need through their food going forward. Then in this next
32:31
Speaker 1: week or so, what do you think that buck activity
32:33
Speaker 1: is going to be on a scale of one to
32:34
Speaker 1: ten in Michigan. Well, for the areas that haven't been harassed,
32:39
Speaker 1: these deer out there, they're comfortable and they're going to
32:43
Speaker 1: continue to need to feed. And so if we get
32:45
Speaker 1: some colder temperatures, you will for sure see deer get
32:49
Speaker 1: up earlier and earlier. But it doesn't look like we're
32:53
Speaker 1: going to have that. It looks like we're going to
32:56
Speaker 1: have average to above average temperatures here in late December,
33:00
Speaker 1: So I would I would count I would count on
33:02
Speaker 1: it being as about as low as possible. I mean,
33:05
Speaker 1: one or two, anything can happen, But I just don't
33:08
Speaker 1: see a reason why most gear are going to be
33:11
Speaker 1: getting up and doing any kind of activity before before
33:16
Speaker 1: under the cover of darkness. All right, Kevin, good luck
33:18
Speaker 1: with the rest of your fall. Thanks for joining me. Thanks,
33:24
Speaker 1: and that concludes this week's episode of Wired to Haunts
33:27
Speaker 1: rot Fresh Radio. Thanks to Garrett, Josh Luke and Kevin
33:30
Speaker 1: for joining me, and thank you guys for listening. And
33:32
Speaker 1: as a reminder, our one week in November series keeps
33:35
Speaker 1: going over on meat Eater's YouTube channel. Episode five just
33:39
Speaker 1: came out yesterday, Episode six and seven will be out soon.
33:43
Speaker 1: These might be our most action packed episodes yet, so
33:46
Speaker 1: you're not going to want to miss them. I will
33:48
Speaker 1: talk to you guys next week, and until then, stay
33:51
Speaker 1: wired Haunt