Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 393: Rut Fresh Radio 12/2/20

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Ep. 393: Rut Fresh Radio 12/2/20 · 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. Today in the show, we're here
0:19
Speaker 1: for Fresh Radio, in which we're getting updates from hunters
0:23
Speaker 1: all across the country on the latest deer activity, current conditions,
0:27
Speaker 1: and the tactics that can work for you Right now,
0:36
Speaker 1: all right, welcome to the Wire to Hunt podcast, brought
0:40
Speaker 1: to you by onyx Or. Here for what will be
0:45
Speaker 1: basically our first December edition of Fresh Radio, we're gonna
0:51
Speaker 1: hear from a group of deer hunters from across the
0:54
Speaker 1: country on what's happening right now, what they've been seeing
0:57
Speaker 1: in the woods, how dear behaving, how can conditions are
1:00
Speaker 1: impacting how they're hunting, and and what they and you
1:03
Speaker 1: can be doing over the coming days to fill that tag.
1:06
Speaker 1: I know there's still a lot of you out there
1:07
Speaker 1: grinding a way, still trying to get a buck, or
1:10
Speaker 1: still trying to fill a freezer, so we want to
1:12
Speaker 1: help you do that. Uh, there certainly are still opportunities
1:16
Speaker 1: to do that. So Spencer, Uh, what's what's the game
1:20
Speaker 1: plan for today. Where's your head at You've still got
1:23
Speaker 1: some kind of post rout hunts ahead of you, right, Yeah,
1:27
Speaker 1: I'm headed to Kansas after we finish recording this. I'm
1:30
Speaker 1: gonna be hunting with Tom and Nate Craig from Identical Draw. Uh.
1:34
Speaker 1: And I'm stoked because it's Kansas, it's landed giants, and
1:37
Speaker 1: I'll be carrying a rifle. So I'm really excited. Um,
1:40
Speaker 1: But typically this time of year, I'm not that excited.
1:43
Speaker 1: I'm not someone who has had a lot of success
1:47
Speaker 1: in December. Um, so December makes me sad. But you mark,
1:51
Speaker 1: you have had a lot of success in December. I
1:52
Speaker 1: think you've killed probably your biggest year ever in December.
1:55
Speaker 1: What was that two years ago? Yeah? Two years ago. Yeah.
1:59
Speaker 1: And and one of the fact actors that I think
2:02
Speaker 1: catches the interests of a lot of hunters, and it's
2:04
Speaker 1: it's maybe like a bigger topic than it is like
2:08
Speaker 1: a reality for most white tailors. But that's the secondary rot.
2:11
Speaker 1: Can you talk to us this week about like what
2:14
Speaker 1: is the secondary rot, what factors go into it, how
2:18
Speaker 1: you should hunt it? Um, what sort of determines if
2:21
Speaker 1: you see a strong secondary rot or no secondary rout?
2:24
Speaker 1: At all. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So the second rut,
2:29
Speaker 1: the secondary rut, whatever you wanna call it, is typically
2:33
Speaker 1: a product of dough fawns. So dear that are about
2:38
Speaker 1: six months old coming into estrus and and these deer
2:43
Speaker 1: are reaching sexual maturity about a month later than the
2:46
Speaker 1: rest of the adult those in the population. So if
2:49
Speaker 1: you have a healthy, balanced population that you know, has
2:53
Speaker 1: all the nutrition needs and everything, these dear need to
2:56
Speaker 1: to be healthy and to reach that maturity at this point.
2:59
Speaker 1: If you have that, you're gonna get these faunds coming
3:01
Speaker 1: into esther some a few. If you don't, if you've
3:04
Speaker 1: got a wildly out of balanced deer herd, if deer
3:08
Speaker 1: lacking nutrition, uh, if if things have been skewed in
3:11
Speaker 1: one way or another, you very well may not have
3:14
Speaker 1: any of these doughs coming into heat late. Um. But
3:17
Speaker 1: maybe where you're heading Spencer to Kansas, there's lots of
3:20
Speaker 1: great food, lots of good cover. You know, the cricks
3:22
Speaker 1: are managing their deer herd well, it's probably relatively balanced.
3:26
Speaker 1: I'm betting that there could be some young fawns that
3:28
Speaker 1: are just gonna be hitting it now. And this is
3:31
Speaker 1: one of those things that I don't go into the
3:33
Speaker 1: year planning on it. I don't go into December like,
3:36
Speaker 1: oh man, it's the second rout, I'm gonna be hunting
3:38
Speaker 1: all day. It's gonna be crazy. No, it's one of
3:41
Speaker 1: those things that I have a regular December late season
3:45
Speaker 1: plan in place, and then I'm gonna keep my eye
3:49
Speaker 1: out for one of these little flurries. If I'd happen
3:52
Speaker 1: to see this flurry of writting activity in the first
3:55
Speaker 1: or second week of December, I'll know in my head.
3:58
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, this might be one of these magical
4:01
Speaker 1: doe fons is coming into heat, and now i want
4:04
Speaker 1: to take advantage of it because I've got a day
4:05
Speaker 1: or two where things might be extra special. Um, but
4:08
Speaker 1: it's quick. These are little blips on the radar that
4:10
Speaker 1: you can take advantage of if you notice them. But
4:13
Speaker 1: I wouldn't plan my whole, you know, strategy around it.
4:17
Speaker 1: This is this is one of those bonus things that
4:20
Speaker 1: you may or may not see, but if you do,
4:22
Speaker 1: you gotta jump on it. And if you see it,
4:24
Speaker 1: if you see a little doephon running around with a
4:26
Speaker 1: bunch of bucks chasinger, now you have a twenty four
4:29
Speaker 1: or thirty six hour window where your things might be,
4:32
Speaker 1: like the rut was on November seven. So if I
4:36
Speaker 1: see a dough with a buck locked on her or
4:38
Speaker 1: a bunch of bucks chasing her, I'm gonna move right
4:40
Speaker 1: in on that, and I'm going to try to be
4:42
Speaker 1: in the middle of that running activity, or I'm going
4:44
Speaker 1: to try to reposition to be along the route that
4:48
Speaker 1: that dough took when she comes back to wherever she
4:51
Speaker 1: came from. Um, just like I might have done in
4:53
Speaker 1: November seven. Let's say there's a buck locked on a dough.
4:58
Speaker 1: If I saw that in November seven, and I wal
5:00
Speaker 1: that dough, you know, head out, or maybe maybe I
5:03
Speaker 1: watched her in the morning head into a bedding area,
5:06
Speaker 1: I would then think to myself, based off of wind,
5:09
Speaker 1: based off of you know, all the different things you
5:11
Speaker 1: think about when trying to plan an evening hunt after
5:13
Speaker 1: seeing something like that. My best guests lots of times
5:16
Speaker 1: if I see a buck locked down a doze that
5:17
Speaker 1: that dough doesn't want to travel a whole lot, she'll
5:20
Speaker 1: probably come back out in a somewhat similar way that
5:23
Speaker 1: evening to feed in that food source. If it's if
5:25
Speaker 1: there's a food source that she was coming off of,
5:27
Speaker 1: it you can hunt. This is exactly what happened. Like
5:29
Speaker 1: you mentioned a couple of years ago, I spotted this great,
5:32
Speaker 1: big ten pointer locked on a dough in the morning,
5:34
Speaker 1: I watched him go back to bed. So for the
5:36
Speaker 1: evening hunt, I slipped in there and and got pretty aggressive.
5:39
Speaker 1: It was a bad wind. I would never hunt this
5:41
Speaker 1: area with that wind, but I knew that they were
5:43
Speaker 1: in there. I knew they weren't moving far, and I
5:46
Speaker 1: knew that I had this little brief window where there
5:49
Speaker 1: was a buck that I wanted to kill locked on
5:51
Speaker 1: a dough. Is December, I don't know, eighth or ninth
5:53
Speaker 1: or something somewhere in that window, and I knew he
5:56
Speaker 1: was gonna be with her. So I found I figured
5:59
Speaker 1: out a way. I cut the wind just right to
6:01
Speaker 1: cut down this creek, and I thought I could probably
6:04
Speaker 1: get away with it. It was it was a swing
6:05
Speaker 1: for the fences kind of move. I normally wouldn't do
6:08
Speaker 1: that in late season December unless you have something like
6:12
Speaker 1: this where you know there's this disproportionately high chance of
6:16
Speaker 1: the buck you're after popping back out. And so that's
6:19
Speaker 1: what I did, and that's what he did. So my
6:22
Speaker 1: suggestion for people out there hunting right now is go
6:25
Speaker 1: into your December hunts with a typical late season plan.
6:29
Speaker 1: What that means for me is keying in on the
6:31
Speaker 1: very best food source. Late season is all about food.
6:34
Speaker 1: They are needing to put on the feedbag recuperating from
6:38
Speaker 1: the main rut, so they want to eat, and then
6:41
Speaker 1: they also typically want to avoid people. They want to
6:45
Speaker 1: avoid all the hunters that have been out there crazy
6:48
Speaker 1: chasing them for weeks and weeks and weeks. So if
6:51
Speaker 1: you can somehow find that magical combination of an unpressured
6:54
Speaker 1: area or some kind of sanctuary where these dear feels safe.
6:57
Speaker 1: I just wrote an article about this on the Mediator
6:59
Speaker 1: webs like, um, if you can some off find that sanctuary,
7:02
Speaker 1: whether that's literally a property where no hunting is allowed,
7:05
Speaker 1: or maybe it's a pocket of a swamp where nobody
7:07
Speaker 1: ever goes into, but but something that keeps these deers safe.
7:10
Speaker 1: If you can find that and find an attractive food
7:13
Speaker 1: source that's close to it, you've got the the ingredients
7:16
Speaker 1: for high quality hunts at this point. So focus on
7:19
Speaker 1: that kind of thing, but keep an eye out for
7:21
Speaker 1: the second rut. Keep an eye out for that doll
7:24
Speaker 1: that comes into heat and adjust based off of that.
7:27
Speaker 1: That's that's the kind of thing I'm thinking about this
7:28
Speaker 1: time of year. If I'm trying to fill a buck tag,
7:31
Speaker 1: um and I mean keeping out for that yourself, Spencer,
7:34
Speaker 1: I think you're gonna have the ingredients for a great hunt.
7:37
Speaker 1: Knowing what I know about this place you're gonna go to.
7:40
Speaker 1: There's good food, there's good cover, there's good deer. I
7:42
Speaker 1: know they're smart about how pressure has been applied. So who,
7:46
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what I Uh, I'd be pretty excited
7:49
Speaker 1: if how were you hopping in the truck here soon?
7:51
Speaker 1: Very excited? Um And I think it's important to stress
7:54
Speaker 1: when we talk about the secondary rut just how local
7:57
Speaker 1: of a thing this can be. Right. It can be
7:59
Speaker 1: happening literally on one property, but not the next property over.
8:02
Speaker 1: It can be happening, um, a couple of places in
8:05
Speaker 1: one county, but then have a wide swath of ground
8:08
Speaker 1: where there's not any secondary rut, and then there's you know,
8:10
Speaker 1: some secondary rout some other place. UM. So this is
8:13
Speaker 1: rarely like a regional or national event. With that said,
8:18
Speaker 1: last year, Mark, you and I hypothesized that there would
8:22
Speaker 1: be sort of a strong secondary rut for much of
8:25
Speaker 1: the Midwest because there was such a late crop harvest, um,
8:29
Speaker 1: and so what that created in early in mid November
8:33
Speaker 1: was a rut that was not very visible. And we
8:36
Speaker 1: figured that with that that meant that there was, um,
8:39
Speaker 1: you know, a better chance that some does went on
8:41
Speaker 1: bread and would cycle a secondary time. I say that
8:44
Speaker 1: because if last year this was something that you really
8:47
Speaker 1: witnessed and uh, you know you it's like, oh man,
8:51
Speaker 1: how have I missed this in the past, that all
8:54
Speaker 1: these bucks are chasing in mid December and there's this
8:56
Speaker 1: great rutting activity. Um, if you were an area that
9:00
Speaker 1: had standing corn that made it, you know, to Thanksgiving
9:03
Speaker 1: or whatever, you may not witness that again. In Yeah. Yeah,
9:08
Speaker 1: that's it's a really important point. This is something that
9:11
Speaker 1: is it's it's few and far between, so that that's
9:16
Speaker 1: that's like the more of this whole story is don't
9:19
Speaker 1: count on it, but keep an eye out for it,
9:21
Speaker 1: and if you see it, you gotta pounce. You've got
9:23
Speaker 1: this little window, jump on it, get aggressive, take advantage
9:27
Speaker 1: of it. But don't be disappointed if you never do
9:30
Speaker 1: see anything like it, because there will be plenty of
9:32
Speaker 1: you listening that will not see this at all, but
9:34
Speaker 1: there might be a couple that do. And I want
9:37
Speaker 1: to make sure the couple of you that do know
9:40
Speaker 1: how to handle it and jump in there and get
9:42
Speaker 1: a crack at the deer you're after. So that's what
9:45
Speaker 1: I'm counting on, and I'm hoping for all of you.
9:47
Speaker 1: I'm I'm tagged out here in Michigan as far as bucks,
9:50
Speaker 1: so I won't be taking advantage of that, but I
9:52
Speaker 1: do want to get out and try to kill some doughs. Uh.
9:55
Speaker 1: So I'm looking forward to finding some unpressured pockets near
9:59
Speaker 1: good food, but using this to uh fill an antler,
10:02
Speaker 1: this tiger too. It's great advice. Mark. Who we talked
10:05
Speaker 1: to you this week is Tyler Shepherd from Indiana White
10:08
Speaker 1: Tails in Indiana, Andrew Maxwell and Alabama from the Southern Outdoorsman,
10:12
Speaker 1: Dylan Tramp from the Outdoor Forum in South Dakota, and
10:15
Speaker 1: then in New York from Tagging Brigg is David g Rizzo. Excellent.
10:19
Speaker 1: All right, man, Well let's get to it and get
10:21
Speaker 1: you on the road so you can go fill that
10:23
Speaker 1: Kansas tag. I'm jealous. I wish I was heading to
10:26
Speaker 1: uh the Big Back, big Buck fantasy Land like that,
10:30
Speaker 1: but I'll be watching from afar and cross my fingers
10:32
Speaker 1: for you. I'm still thank you Mark, and I'll talk
10:34
Speaker 1: to you next week, see you alright and joining us online.
10:39
Speaker 1: First is Tyler Shepherd in Indiana from Indiana White Tails
10:43
Speaker 1: now Tyler in Indiana. What would you say the buck
10:45
Speaker 1: activity has man lately on a scale of one to ten,
10:49
Speaker 1: lately has been probably about a six. Um been seeing
10:53
Speaker 1: quite a few bucks on different property. It just depends
10:56
Speaker 1: on what property you're on, um and what kind of
10:58
Speaker 1: food you're haunting over the ruts really about about over um.
11:03
Speaker 1: But we we connected this weekend. All had to do
11:07
Speaker 1: with food. Yeah, not not bad, but upcoming the next
11:12
Speaker 1: few hunts here when you get on all food, it's
11:14
Speaker 1: gonna be real good. That was a great buck that
11:17
Speaker 1: you just killed in Indiana. Tell us about that set up.
11:21
Speaker 1: We were hunting in the redneck easy access, not going
11:24
Speaker 1: deep hunting the edges um with hunting over a clover
11:27
Speaker 1: and uh corn food plot and he, I mean we
11:32
Speaker 1: were pretty close to the bedding, but he was going
11:35
Speaker 1: going to the food real quick, checking for dose whatever
11:37
Speaker 1: is left and uh I took him out there probably
11:41
Speaker 1: the first half hour of Saturday morning. So came in
11:46
Speaker 1: looking for those and and never made it out of
11:48
Speaker 1: the field. What are the best food sources that hunters
11:52
Speaker 1: in that area should be focused on right now? I mean,
11:55
Speaker 1: if you got food plots like we do, um, go
12:00
Speaker 1: go hunt those. If you've got grains, they're not really
12:03
Speaker 1: hitting my turn ups or anything right now. Um. But
12:07
Speaker 1: but if you got cut corn, I'm I'm always a
12:09
Speaker 1: sucker for cut corn. If you can go on a
12:11
Speaker 1: cut cornfield, I've been seeing tons of deer in them.
12:15
Speaker 1: So if you got those, access to them. Whatever, hunt
12:19
Speaker 1: the edges and and get those cut corn fields. Have
12:22
Speaker 1: you been seeing any signmaking since Thanksgiving? Um? No, I
12:26
Speaker 1: have seen no signmaking, No new scrapes, rubs, nothing trull
12:31
Speaker 1: cameras is I had to move all my all my
12:33
Speaker 1: cameras off of scrapes and rubs last week or two
12:37
Speaker 1: weeks ago or so, transitioning them back all the food
12:40
Speaker 1: Historically in Indiana, do you see any kind of a
12:43
Speaker 1: secondary rut? I mean, you see not really a rut,
12:48
Speaker 1: I don't usually, Um, but I see a lot of
12:52
Speaker 1: cruising around. They're still with those, but I've never seen
12:54
Speaker 1: actually chasing, you know, no breeding or anything going on
12:58
Speaker 1: after I mean, i'd say after this last weekend there,
13:02
Speaker 1: you're pretty well done with the breeding cycle. As we
13:06
Speaker 1: get into December, what does a morning set up look
13:09
Speaker 1: like for you? Strictly me, I I don't hunt mornings
13:12
Speaker 1: come December unless I got something on camera daylight. Uh,
13:16
Speaker 1: I'm pretty much November late October morning hunting and then
13:21
Speaker 1: I back off and let's the deer feel safe and
13:24
Speaker 1: I don't want to spook anything, so I stay off
13:27
Speaker 1: of it until evening hunts. So what would it take
13:30
Speaker 1: for you to go do a morning hunt. I'd have
13:33
Speaker 1: to get at least consistent pictures in the morning of
13:38
Speaker 1: a buck showing up. That's the only way I'd go
13:40
Speaker 1: in the morning going forward. Then this next week or so,
13:44
Speaker 1: what do you think that buck activty is going to
13:46
Speaker 1: be on a scale of one to ten in Indiana?
13:49
Speaker 1: Buck activity of the weather. It all depends on weather
13:52
Speaker 1: right now. But if it stays cold and those bucks
13:56
Speaker 1: gotta get up on their feet sometime to go eat,
13:58
Speaker 1: so be where the to be, where the doughs and
14:00
Speaker 1: the food are and they I mean, your luck should
14:04
Speaker 1: be really good, all right, Tyler, congrats again on the
14:07
Speaker 1: great buck. Good luck with the rest of your season,
14:09
Speaker 1: and thanks for joining me. Thank you alright and joining
14:13
Speaker 1: us on the line. Next is Andrew Maxwell from The
14:16
Speaker 1: Southern Outdoorsman in Alabama. Now, Andrew in Alabama, what would
14:20
Speaker 1: you say the buck activity is ben lately? On a
14:22
Speaker 1: scale of one to ten, I would say it's probably
14:25
Speaker 1: a seven. Um, We've had, um, I mean some encounters
14:29
Speaker 1: lately in my friend group. Um, of course I killed one,
14:32
Speaker 1: uh two days ago, and our cameras have been showing
14:37
Speaker 1: a pretty decent amount of daylight movement. I mean, of
14:39
Speaker 1: course in the thick cover you know where they're supposed
14:42
Speaker 1: to be quote unquote Um, but yeah, I mean I
14:44
Speaker 1: would say a seven. There's there's actually a decent amount
14:47
Speaker 1: of nice bucks that hit the grounds on the w mail.
14:49
Speaker 1: It's hunting this weekend, So it's looking pretty good for
14:53
Speaker 1: my particular area. Congrats on that great buck that you
14:56
Speaker 1: just killed. Tell us about that setup. So that particular
15:00
Speaker 1: buck I was hunting a basically a giant thicket. I
15:04
Speaker 1: mean down here we have like almost we have we
15:07
Speaker 1: have mostly thickets with little strips of hardway was running
15:09
Speaker 1: through them. Uh. And so I got up to the
15:12
Speaker 1: head of this draw that runs up into a large
15:14
Speaker 1: cutover and I basically got at the very tip of that,
15:18
Speaker 1: picked out a tree on the very edge and the
15:20
Speaker 1: trees in front of it, and got up and I
15:22
Speaker 1: was watching a like what we call a compounding feature.
15:25
Speaker 1: We talked about it all the time on our show.
15:27
Speaker 1: Is like a like a saddle with like another saddle
15:30
Speaker 1: running into it, or like a bench running into a
15:32
Speaker 1: saddle or something like that. So that's what the spot was.
15:34
Speaker 1: It was a compounding feature. There's multiple terrain funnels going
15:37
Speaker 1: to this one spot within a thicket. Um. And not
15:41
Speaker 1: only was it in a thicket, but there was also
15:43
Speaker 1: kind of habitat diversity in the thicket itself. Um. So
15:47
Speaker 1: there's edges in front of me out in the cut
15:49
Speaker 1: that I'm watching, and this buck he came through right
15:53
Speaker 1: at prime time, I mean right when they're supposed to
15:55
Speaker 1: come through, like right at sundown. You got that last
15:58
Speaker 1: thirty minutes of light. He walked out and he was
16:01
Speaker 1: basically just working uh an edge within that cutover coming
16:05
Speaker 1: right through the saddle like he was supposed to. And
16:07
Speaker 1: uh he was actually I think he's getting ready to
16:09
Speaker 1: make a scrape when I shot him. He was actually
16:12
Speaker 1: uh being on his tarsels. So it was a great hunt.
16:16
Speaker 1: Um of course, like I said, in a thick cover.
16:18
Speaker 1: And another interesting spot, uh, an interesting like little tidbit
16:22
Speaker 1: about that spot is that he was only two hundred
16:25
Speaker 1: yards off the road. I mean, there's people driving right
16:27
Speaker 1: past me. But the way that you have to access
16:30
Speaker 1: that you kind of have to swing in through more
16:31
Speaker 1: thick cover. And and we're finding more and more that
16:34
Speaker 1: those spots just right off roads that are overlooked and
16:37
Speaker 1: hard to get to because of terrain and or vegetation
16:40
Speaker 1: or some of the best spots. So what phase of
16:42
Speaker 1: the route would you say that you're part of Alabama
16:45
Speaker 1: is in as well as the rest of the state.
16:47
Speaker 1: From my particular part here in central Alabama, we're definitely
16:51
Speaker 1: kind of on the edge of pre rut and rutt Um.
16:53
Speaker 1: We're at the point now where bucks had been fighting
16:56
Speaker 1: for like a week, week and a half, two weeks um.
16:59
Speaker 1: Some of the small all our bucks are out cruising
17:01
Speaker 1: kind of doing their thing, and we should have some
17:04
Speaker 1: of those that are already starting to come in right now.
17:06
Speaker 1: I mean pek rutt should be I mean around December
17:09
Speaker 1: tenth round at it's really like primetime December tenth is
17:13
Speaker 1: like that day where a lot of guys kill nice
17:15
Speaker 1: bucks that weekend. Um. So yeah, we're right on the edge. Now.
17:19
Speaker 1: The rest of Alabama, the vast majority of the rest
17:22
Speaker 1: of Alabama is still, as a minimum a month out.
17:25
Speaker 1: A lot of places they are a month and a
17:26
Speaker 1: half out from the rut. So, um, I mean where
17:30
Speaker 1: we're at, we're seeing a lot of sign popping up already,
17:32
Speaker 1: Scrapes are getting opened up, lots of fresh rubs. There's
17:35
Speaker 1: a lot of fresh rubs where I killed this buck
17:37
Speaker 1: two days ago. Um. But for the rest of the state,
17:40
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be more of your typical I mean,
17:42
Speaker 1: it's not really early season, but it's kind of like
17:45
Speaker 1: that same mindset. I mean in some places, you know,
17:48
Speaker 1: bucks might even still be together. Uh, they're they're leaving
17:51
Speaker 1: a lot of sign in the daytime areas that they're
17:53
Speaker 1: hanging out, but they're not they're not doing anything related
17:57
Speaker 1: to the rut whatsoever. Across most of about Bama. You
18:00
Speaker 1: mentioned that the buck that you just killed was hitting
18:03
Speaker 1: a scrape. How much do signmaking factor into your decision
18:07
Speaker 1: making this time of year in Alabama? A lot um
18:11
Speaker 1: A lot of these areas that we're hunting. We have
18:12
Speaker 1: past history with like, for instance, this spot last year,
18:16
Speaker 1: we ran cameras in it, and we had a lot
18:18
Speaker 1: of bucks uh in this area last year at the
18:21
Speaker 1: same time in daylight. So we figured that you know,
18:24
Speaker 1: this year would be good. And sure enough, the first
18:26
Speaker 1: time I went in there was able to get him.
18:28
Speaker 1: But there's a lot of sign in there, I mean
18:31
Speaker 1: right now. When we go into spots, usually we have
18:34
Speaker 1: an idea that there should be deer in there, just
18:36
Speaker 1: based off you know, the map or past history with
18:39
Speaker 1: the spot, but we definitely want to see rubs and
18:43
Speaker 1: scrapes this time of year and there. I mean, if
18:45
Speaker 1: I had gone in there yesterday and not seeing the
18:48
Speaker 1: amount of fresh road, if I if I go intore
18:50
Speaker 1: yesterday and not seen a single fresh road, my confidence
18:52
Speaker 1: level would have dropped tremendously. Um. And if I if
18:56
Speaker 1: I wasn't too late getting in, then I probably would
18:57
Speaker 1: have bounced and went to a different spot. But thankfully
19:00
Speaker 1: the sign was there. Um. So yeah, I mean it
19:03
Speaker 1: plays a huge part for us right now. I mean,
19:05
Speaker 1: we wanting to see those those scraps and fresh rubs
19:08
Speaker 1: popping up, um and tracks two tracks or really in
19:12
Speaker 1: a way of tracks for us are more relevant than
19:15
Speaker 1: anything else because we've got so many dirt roads to
19:18
Speaker 1: go through, all these cutovers and thickets, and and being
19:21
Speaker 1: able to walk down that road and read those tracks
19:24
Speaker 1: and see how fresh they are and get really the
19:28
Speaker 1: best representation possible of like, are there deer in the
19:31
Speaker 1: thicket right now? You know, you find a track that
19:34
Speaker 1: looks extremely fresh, there's a really good chance that that
19:36
Speaker 1: deer is laying within two hundred yards of you. And
19:38
Speaker 1: that's that's probably one of the more useful tools that
19:42
Speaker 1: we've used here lately. I mean, that's how I killed
19:44
Speaker 1: the buck out there last year. And um, I mean
19:47
Speaker 1: we've used similar tactics this year and they're probably gonna
19:49
Speaker 1: continue to do so. So I mean, for me, tracks
19:51
Speaker 1: are actually kind of number one. Now as we approach
19:55
Speaker 1: peak rut, will you do any calling or decoin? Probably
19:58
Speaker 1: won't do any decoin just because it's so thick here.
20:01
Speaker 1: There's really not many places where you can put a
20:03
Speaker 1: decoy where they would be able to see it outside
20:05
Speaker 1: of like ten yards. Um. Calling, Yeah, I'm actually already
20:09
Speaker 1: doing a lot of calling. Um, We've been grunting and
20:11
Speaker 1: rattling a good bit I haven't had any success yet. Um,
20:15
Speaker 1: several years ago, I killed a nice buck actually on
20:18
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving rattling around here, and I've done it since then.
20:21
Speaker 1: I just haven't had much luck with it, but I'm
20:24
Speaker 1: gonna keep doing it. Um right up, I mean right up,
20:27
Speaker 1: thus the right, just because I think it's a I
20:30
Speaker 1: think it'll work. We've talked to a lot of people
20:32
Speaker 1: lately who swear by it, and I haven't had success
20:35
Speaker 1: with it in a while, but I'm gonna continue to
20:37
Speaker 1: do it going forward. Then, in a sex week or so,
20:39
Speaker 1: what do you think that BUCKETTVT is going to be
20:42
Speaker 1: on a scale of one to ten in Alabama? From
20:45
Speaker 1: my area, I'm gonna say it's gonna be like a
20:47
Speaker 1: nine or a ten. I mean they they're gonna be
20:49
Speaker 1: doing it this week for sure. We got really cold
20:51
Speaker 1: weather rolling in the rut is supposed to be here,
20:54
Speaker 1: and the conditions just look absolutely perfect. So I'm gonna
20:58
Speaker 1: say it's gonna be I mean, this next canna have
21:00
Speaker 1: two weeks is gonna be as good as it gets, uh,
21:02
Speaker 1: in my part of Alabama. For the rest of Alabama,
21:05
Speaker 1: I'd say it will probably be still be pretty good.
21:07
Speaker 1: I mean, with this weather front we have coming in
21:10
Speaker 1: and right now we're kind of in a transition period
21:12
Speaker 1: where pretty much all of our leaves just dropped. And
21:15
Speaker 1: for us in the South, that's kind of when our
21:18
Speaker 1: major shift happens because things that were once really really
21:22
Speaker 1: thick are now a lot less thick, and the deer
21:25
Speaker 1: tends to kind of abandon areas, and uh, when the
21:28
Speaker 1: leagues call, they kind of get concentrated into more specific
21:32
Speaker 1: betting areas that that keep that visual obstruction as opposed
21:36
Speaker 1: to like a sweet gum thicket or something which you know,
21:39
Speaker 1: two months ago you couldn't see ten yards in two
21:41
Speaker 1: and now you can see slap across it. So that's
21:44
Speaker 1: a that's gonna be a big factor for everybody. So
21:46
Speaker 1: I think I think the hunting actually gets a little
21:48
Speaker 1: bit better when that happens. So that, combined with the
21:51
Speaker 1: weather that we're having, I think that it'll be a
21:53
Speaker 1: great upcoming weekend to get out in the woods wherever
21:56
Speaker 1: you're at in Alabama. Alright, Andrew, congrats again on the
21:59
Speaker 1: great white tail, good luck with the rest of your season.
22:01
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me. Thanks bencor alright and joining us
22:05
Speaker 1: on the line. Next is Dylan Tramp from Outdoor Forum
22:07
Speaker 1: in South Dakota. Now, Dylan in South Dakota, what would
22:10
Speaker 1: you say the buck activity has been lately on a
22:12
Speaker 1: scale of one to ten, I would say just in
22:15
Speaker 1: the last few days, it's been fairly decent, probably maybe
22:19
Speaker 1: as high as the seven. The rut seems to be
22:21
Speaker 1: winded down a little bit, but I have seen a
22:24
Speaker 1: few bucks chasing those that might be the last few
22:27
Speaker 1: to go on the heat through this first cycle, and
22:29
Speaker 1: gun seasons are winding down, So it's activity has been
22:32
Speaker 1: pretty good now year in far western South Dakota. What
22:36
Speaker 1: label would you put on this phase of the rout
22:38
Speaker 1: for that area? It's not quite totally post rut. I
22:42
Speaker 1: would just say the last phase of the normal ruts.
22:47
Speaker 1: Whatever title you want to put on that. No, I
22:50
Speaker 1: know you just killed a great book yesterday. Tell us
22:52
Speaker 1: about that set up and about that hunt. Ah. Well,
22:56
Speaker 1: we were just covering some ground and the bucks and
23:00
Speaker 1: were on dose. They were not quite locked down, it
23:02
Speaker 1: seemed like yesterday, but they were just keeping an eye
23:04
Speaker 1: on them and filling their bellies getting ready for winter,
23:07
Speaker 1: and they were feeding in It seemed to be clearings,
23:12
Speaker 1: clear cuts, cattle pastures, kind of open timber, so I
23:16
Speaker 1: think they were feeding on the grasses. Um. So the
23:18
Speaker 1: setup was just pretty much eliminating. It's just all public
23:23
Speaker 1: national forest out here, and so I was just eliminating
23:26
Speaker 1: all the easy access areas places that you saw a
23:29
Speaker 1: bunch of bootprints at the trailheads, just crossing those off,
23:33
Speaker 1: finding funnels next to send my open terrain where there's
23:36
Speaker 1: grasses and feed and just kind of still hunting through
23:39
Speaker 1: the timber works out our grass is the primary food
23:43
Speaker 1: that you're focused on this time of year, or there
23:44
Speaker 1: are other food sources in the Black Hills in forest,
23:47
Speaker 1: it seems like there's a lot of different food sources,
23:50
Speaker 1: but grasses and just any sort of greenery it seems
23:54
Speaker 1: to be the key. And this this time of the
23:57
Speaker 1: year things are starting to die off. So it seemed
23:59
Speaker 1: definitely like the grasses and the pastures, we're definitely the
24:02
Speaker 1: place to be over the last few days. That area
24:05
Speaker 1: has a pretty mild weather lately. Historically, as we get
24:09
Speaker 1: in December and things get colder, do you notice a
24:11
Speaker 1: shift in bedding at all in the Black Hills, I
24:14
Speaker 1: don't think so. In the in the conifers, I think
24:17
Speaker 1: the betting will just mainly be dictated by hunting pressure,
24:20
Speaker 1: which should be winding down, but I think they just
24:22
Speaker 1: want to get away and be in the thickest cover available,
24:24
Speaker 1: which isn't. It's kind of monotonous timber in most places,
24:29
Speaker 1: so it's heavy. Cover is kind of hard to come by.
24:31
Speaker 1: So if you find it and it's secluded, it's probably
24:33
Speaker 1: gonna be pretty consistent throughout the year. Do you normally
24:35
Speaker 1: expect to see any signmaking at the end of November
24:38
Speaker 1: in the Black Hills? Signmaking out here isn't. It doesn't
24:41
Speaker 1: get laid down too heavy. I don't know if it's
24:43
Speaker 1: because needle in the haystack. It's a big forest and
24:46
Speaker 1: the deer concentrations are pretty high. The sign that I
24:49
Speaker 1: did see this weekend was definitely a few weeks old,
24:53
Speaker 1: so I don't I don't really see it picking up
24:54
Speaker 1: a whole lot, but if you do find it, he's
24:56
Speaker 1: probably pretty close. With that high deer density, you expect
25:00
Speaker 1: some sort of secondary rot. Is that something that you
25:02
Speaker 1: typically witness in that area, just just like anywhere else.
25:05
Speaker 1: I think the last few that trickle in the heat,
25:09
Speaker 1: or even the fonds that are older, old enough and
25:12
Speaker 1: put on enough weight to reproduce the first year, they're
25:16
Speaker 1: probably going to trickle in. I don't think it's a
25:18
Speaker 1: whole lot different out here than any other part of
25:20
Speaker 1: the state. So if you're in the right place and
25:23
Speaker 1: you've happened to be by that feeling that comes into heat,
25:26
Speaker 1: if your activity could be a ten going forward, then
25:28
Speaker 1: a six week or so. What do you think that
25:30
Speaker 1: buck ACTV is going to be on a scale of
25:32
Speaker 1: one to ten in South Dakota buck activity well, since
25:36
Speaker 1: the gun season is winding down across the whole state,
25:39
Speaker 1: the rut will also be winding balance those night offset,
25:43
Speaker 1: I would expect still decent buck movement if you have
25:45
Speaker 1: the food and you have unpressured relatively on pressured ground,
25:49
Speaker 1: I'd put it maybe a strong six. All right, Dylan,
25:52
Speaker 1: congrats again on yesterday's five by five. Good luck with
25:55
Speaker 1: the rest of your season. Thanks for joining me, Thank
25:57
Speaker 1: you as well. All right, enjoy a sunline. Next is
26:01
Speaker 1: David g Rizzo in New York from tagging brigg Now.
26:04
Speaker 1: David in New York, what would you say the buck
26:06
Speaker 1: activity has been lately on a scale of one to ten.
26:09
Speaker 1: The past week, it's probably been about a three. I think, um,
26:14
Speaker 1: I think the bucks really ran hard up here for
26:17
Speaker 1: three to four weeks, maybe a little bit longer. We
26:19
Speaker 1: saw a lot of good run activity at the end
26:22
Speaker 1: of October early November, and quite honestly, I just think
26:26
Speaker 1: that the war out at this point, the scrape activity,
26:29
Speaker 1: the trail camera activity has literally come to a halt
26:33
Speaker 1: for us. And honestly, right now we're just trying to
26:35
Speaker 1: gear up for late season. So you haven't seen much
26:39
Speaker 1: running activity since Thanksgiving, not much running activity at all.
26:43
Speaker 1: And and in the past that's been completely different. We
26:46
Speaker 1: usually see a pretty solid like second run activity, you know,
26:50
Speaker 1: in between like and of November, and for the past
26:55
Speaker 1: week or so, it has just been completely dead up here.
26:58
Speaker 1: What are the food sources that hunters in New York
27:01
Speaker 1: should be focused on as wegin in December? You know,
27:04
Speaker 1: right now, it it seems like a lot of the deer,
27:07
Speaker 1: especially like the doe groups, are shifting to the grain.
27:10
Speaker 1: So whether it be beans or corn um. We're getting
27:13
Speaker 1: a lot more colder weather in as of lately, and
27:17
Speaker 1: we're supposed to get a huge snow front um tomorrow
27:20
Speaker 1: and Wednesday, So I think the shift to the grain,
27:24
Speaker 1: to that late season food source is gonna be uh
27:28
Speaker 1: is gonna be necessary in the coming weeks when that
27:31
Speaker 1: snow and cold is rolling into the northeast. How does
27:34
Speaker 1: that change things for you as far as your setups
27:36
Speaker 1: go deer hunting in New York. You know, we've shifted
27:39
Speaker 1: all or a majority of our trail cameras back onto
27:42
Speaker 1: food sources. So, like I said, between the beans, the corn,
27:45
Speaker 1: and even the turn ups, we've switched all of our
27:49
Speaker 1: all or most of our cameras to food sources because
27:52
Speaker 1: we just really weren't seeing scrape activity at all. Um.
27:57
Speaker 1: Moving forward, you know, entry in and in and out
28:01
Speaker 1: of the stands are gonna play a huge part in
28:03
Speaker 1: keeping the deer on your property. We're gonna be hunting
28:06
Speaker 1: food sources. We're probably gonna be hunting a lot from
28:09
Speaker 1: elevated box f lines because of the inclement weather, and
28:13
Speaker 1: and it's gonna shift to more of an evening hunt
28:16
Speaker 1: will probably focus less and less on morning hunts as
28:19
Speaker 1: we move into December. Are you doing more mornings or
28:22
Speaker 1: more evening setups right now? You know what, we're kind
28:25
Speaker 1: of coming off that like late rut swing where we're
28:28
Speaker 1: still we're still hunting. Both I hunted this morning. I
28:32
Speaker 1: actually saw seven deer in the pouring rain this morning,
28:35
Speaker 1: which I was a little bit surprised of, um, But
28:38
Speaker 1: it seems like a majority of the deer movement is
28:41
Speaker 1: kind of shifted to that last hour before dark and
28:45
Speaker 1: and I mean it's it's rightful season up here now too,
28:48
Speaker 1: So the human and the hunting pressure definitely plays a
28:51
Speaker 1: part in that as well. Do you historically see some
28:54
Speaker 1: secondary rutting activity in New York? We do. We do
28:58
Speaker 1: the past couple of years, Like I said, late November
29:01
Speaker 1: even into early December, we've we've seen some um, some
29:05
Speaker 1: late run activity and and even from the fonds over
29:07
Speaker 1: the past couple of years, Like there's still two fonds
29:11
Speaker 1: on our property that we see pretty regularly that have
29:13
Speaker 1: spots like and the November I mean, so you can
29:17
Speaker 1: only imagine when that dough was bred last year. So
29:20
Speaker 1: there's definitely some second run activity for whatever reason this year,
29:25
Speaker 1: it just seems like this past week, the later part
29:27
Speaker 1: of November and and moving into December has been very
29:31
Speaker 1: very dormant as far as the deer and and specifically
29:34
Speaker 1: the big buck movement. Even on our trail cameras, it
29:37
Speaker 1: has come to a complete halt after the rout and
29:40
Speaker 1: when gun seasons are happening, do you notice a shift
29:43
Speaker 1: in bedding in your area. Definitely, the deer, at least
29:47
Speaker 1: by us up in this big hardwoods, they typically will
29:51
Speaker 1: will flock to the hemlock tickets for the thermal cover.
29:54
Speaker 1: So I mean they'll spend the majority of their day
29:57
Speaker 1: in those hemlock thickets. We've got some beaver swamps and stuff,
30:01
Speaker 1: some real gnarly thick stuff that they'll go into also,
30:05
Speaker 1: But definitely kind of focus our attention on the food
30:08
Speaker 1: and then the hemlocks because if it seems like you know,
30:11
Speaker 1: the travel corridors between the two are are great also
30:14
Speaker 1: because that's where the deer are stage and going forward.
30:17
Speaker 1: Then in the six week or so, what do you
30:19
Speaker 1: think that buck activity is going to be on a
30:21
Speaker 1: scale of one to ten in New York? I think
30:24
Speaker 1: in New York, you know, we'll see a shift to
30:26
Speaker 1: like six or seven. And that's basically just because of
30:30
Speaker 1: the weather. As soon as the snow hits up here,
30:33
Speaker 1: these deer are gonna be you know, their main focus
30:35
Speaker 1: is going to shift to the food. I think we're
30:37
Speaker 1: gonna see a lot more activity on our food plots,
30:40
Speaker 1: specifically with with the bucks coming out of their little
30:43
Speaker 1: holes and stuff for the last week or so and
30:46
Speaker 1: shift into to try and recoup and revitalize themselves from
30:49
Speaker 1: the rot. So with the major weather front that we
30:52
Speaker 1: have coming in, I would say the buck activity up
30:54
Speaker 1: in New York is going to be a six or
30:55
Speaker 1: seven in the coming week. All right, David, great info,
30:58
Speaker 1: Good luck with the rest of your seed. Thanks for
31:00
Speaker 1: joining me always I appreciate the time. And that concludes
31:04
Speaker 1: this week's episode of rout Fresh Radio. Thanks to Tyler, Andrew, Dylan,
31:08
Speaker 1: and David for joining me, and thank you guys for listening.
31:11
Speaker 1: I hope you get to witness some of the secondary
31:13
Speaker 1: rot action that magically appears in early December. And as
31:17
Speaker 1: that Mark Kenyon has said in the past, the late
31:19
Speaker 1: season can be the great season. I will talk to
31:22
Speaker 1: you guys next week. Stay warm, good luck, and until then,
31:26
Speaker 1: stay weired. Hut