Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 371: Rut Fresh Radio 9/16/20

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Ep. 371: Rut Fresh Radio 9/16/20 · 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, and this is episode number three
0:19
Speaker 1: seventy one, and we are back for another edition of
0:22
Speaker 1: our rut Fresh radio mini series in which we are
0:25
Speaker 1: hearing from hunters all across the country about the latest
0:28
Speaker 1: deer activity, weather conditions, and behavioral changes that are going
0:31
Speaker 1: to impact your upcoming deer hunts. All right, folks, welcome
0:39
Speaker 1: back to another episode of the Wired to Hunt podcast,
0:43
Speaker 1: brought to you by on X. Today, we're back for
0:46
Speaker 1: our second episode of our rut Fresh radio mini series.
0:51
Speaker 1: This is something we do every fall. If you're not familiar,
0:54
Speaker 1: here's the very quick synopsis. We are going to check
0:57
Speaker 1: in with you every week with updates from four were
1:00
Speaker 1: five deer hunters from across the country giving us the
1:03
Speaker 1: latest on deer activity, dear behavior, how current conditions are
1:08
Speaker 1: impacting things and what tactics are working for them. And
1:11
Speaker 1: we're getting these updates every six seven days, so it's
1:14
Speaker 1: really fresh, very timely, irrelevant to help you with your
1:17
Speaker 1: very next hunts. So that's what we're gonna try to
1:20
Speaker 1: do today with me. To do that is Spencer New
1:23
Speaker 1: Hearth Uh Spencer. I don't know if you knew this,
1:26
Speaker 1: but Tony Peterson and I were together about a month
1:30
Speaker 1: ago on the back forty over here in Michigan, and
1:34
Speaker 1: we actually named a buck after you know that. I
1:38
Speaker 1: didn't know that, but I'm intrigued. Tell me more. Yeah, so, uh,
1:43
Speaker 1: we found a buck that had a really nice main
1:47
Speaker 1: frame eight left side, but then he had this very
1:51
Speaker 1: strange other side of him that you know, if you
1:54
Speaker 1: weren't paying attention, you never know that this other side
1:58
Speaker 1: of the buck, which is just like a funky four
2:00
Speaker 1: work with weird points coming off the tip of his
2:02
Speaker 1: G two, you never know that the other side, behind
2:06
Speaker 1: the scenes side of this buck is that he hangs
2:07
Speaker 1: out in the hot tub all the time, and he's
2:09
Speaker 1: got a weird thing for bobcats and turkeys and and
2:12
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. So Tony decided we should call
2:14
Speaker 1: that one Spencer. So your ears might have been ringing
2:18
Speaker 1: in August. I like it. I like it a lot.
2:21
Speaker 1: How is this a regular buck? A buck that you
2:23
Speaker 1: would shoot, a buck that you're excited about the future for?
2:27
Speaker 1: Tell me more about him. He's a nice buck, he's
2:30
Speaker 1: he's at least three years old. UM. So I think
2:33
Speaker 1: we would, I think we would take a crack at him. Um.
2:35
Speaker 1: And he seems to be their decent bit. We got
2:37
Speaker 1: a good number of summer pictures of him. Now, of course,
2:40
Speaker 1: I don't know what's going on now that it's September,
2:41
Speaker 1: things shift around, so he might be gone. But he
2:45
Speaker 1: was there a lot in August, so I'm hoping he'll
2:47
Speaker 1: be around and we'll get a crack at you. Um.
2:51
Speaker 1: But that I don't know. That randomly popped in my head. Spencer.
2:54
Speaker 1: What what I really wanted to ask you about though, was, uh,
2:58
Speaker 1: you know, since we're trying to to talk about the
3:01
Speaker 1: thielindness of this information, how this stuff can be useful
3:04
Speaker 1: for upcoming hunts. I know last week you and I
3:06
Speaker 1: had talked and you were just about to head to
3:08
Speaker 1: South Dakota, and we had heard from a bunch of
3:10
Speaker 1: hunters all over the place and heard about what was
3:13
Speaker 1: working for them. Now, just curious if anything you heard
3:15
Speaker 1: from our guests last week helped you on your South
3:18
Speaker 1: Dakota hunt that you just wrapped up. Yes, so on
3:22
Speaker 1: last week's episode and In this week's episode, almost all
3:25
Speaker 1: of our guests talked about soybeans. Um. And there's like
3:29
Speaker 1: this conventional deer hunting wisdom that I think is kind
3:33
Speaker 1: of accurate but also sort of inaccurate, and it's that
3:35
Speaker 1: deer don't like yellow soybeans. I think that's oversimplified, and
3:39
Speaker 1: the reality is that it's not that deer dislike yellow soybeans. Um.
3:44
Speaker 1: It's just that this time of year, when you have
3:48
Speaker 1: yellow soybeans start to show up in fields, you also
3:51
Speaker 1: have the first a coorantinating the ground. You have apples
3:55
Speaker 1: dropping for simmons um, and then you have this other
3:58
Speaker 1: agriculture where there's hay fields and alflfa and all those
4:02
Speaker 1: kinds of things. And so I think it's more so
4:05
Speaker 1: that deer don't dislike yellow soybeans, it's that they like
4:08
Speaker 1: some of the other things that are available now as well.
4:11
Speaker 1: And so on my hunt back in South Dakota, the
4:13
Speaker 1: soybeans had turned yellow um, and the neighboring property had
4:17
Speaker 1: a green hay field, and they were always like three
4:19
Speaker 1: or four times more dear hitting that green hay field
4:23
Speaker 1: than they were the yellow soybeans. I say this to
4:26
Speaker 1: say to our listeners that if you have yellow soybeans
4:29
Speaker 1: and that's the only thing around, um, then you shouldn't
4:33
Speaker 1: be too disappointed. The deer probably gonna keep using it.
4:36
Speaker 1: But if you have yellow soybeans and there's a bunch
4:39
Speaker 1: of other really good food sources available, and it's just
4:42
Speaker 1: a buffet of green things and fruit and nuts in
4:47
Speaker 1: the woods, then you might not see a lot of action.
4:50
Speaker 1: And so you're gonna hear a lot about soybeans on
4:53
Speaker 1: this episode, probably the next episode, and the last episode. Yeah,
4:57
Speaker 1: it's funny you mentioned that. I've been watching some bean
5:00
Speaker 1: fields myself here in Michigan and seeing the same thing
5:04
Speaker 1: that the deer not focusing on the beans as much.
5:06
Speaker 1: Right there, mostly yellow. But this is another thing we
5:10
Speaker 1: talked about last year or one of these years, was
5:12
Speaker 1: the fact that even when you've got those bean fields
5:15
Speaker 1: turning and they're turning yellow and they're drying down, there's
5:17
Speaker 1: still little pockets in there where there are green beans still, right.
5:20
Speaker 1: There's just not the beans, it's the leaves that they're
5:22
Speaker 1: feeding on right now. So even if most of the
5:25
Speaker 1: field looks less than desirable, you'll still still get some
5:29
Speaker 1: deer in there hitting little pockets of it. And so
5:31
Speaker 1: what I've seen in my observations the last few days
5:34
Speaker 1: is that there are deers still coming out to these
5:36
Speaker 1: bean fields, but they're just moving through them very quickly.
5:39
Speaker 1: So they're transitioning through it, hitting a few little green
5:42
Speaker 1: leaves that are left, and then transitioning out of that
5:46
Speaker 1: pretty fast into the neighboring corn fields where that corn
5:50
Speaker 1: is starting to dry down as well, and so as
5:52
Speaker 1: the beans get less attractive, the corn is getting more attractive.
5:55
Speaker 1: And uh, that's what I've seen out here. If you
5:58
Speaker 1: want a deer activity report from Michigan, just based off
6:01
Speaker 1: of the handful of days I've been able to get
6:03
Speaker 1: out and watched in these fields, I'm gonna say it's
6:06
Speaker 1: been a five or six out here. I've I've maybe
6:10
Speaker 1: even a little higher. There's been a decent number of deer.
6:12
Speaker 1: Movie has been relatively cool in Michigan. Now the season
6:14
Speaker 1: is not open for regular folks, but the youth season
6:18
Speaker 1: was open this past weekend, and I know a number
6:21
Speaker 1: of people had success, and I think this cold spell
6:24
Speaker 1: has at least helped with that. Um And I actually
6:27
Speaker 1: saw a really nice shooter buck last night. Spencer show
6:30
Speaker 1: up on one of the properties that can hunt. He's
6:32
Speaker 1: a deer I had seen last year a little bit
6:34
Speaker 1: and gotten pictures of I thought he was a three
6:36
Speaker 1: year old and he kind of blew up this year.
6:38
Speaker 1: He's a really good looking six by five with some
6:42
Speaker 1: stickers on his brow times. So I'm excited to hopefully
6:46
Speaker 1: see more of him come October. Yeah, and I'd agree
6:49
Speaker 1: with you there that what I saw in South Dakota,
6:51
Speaker 1: I'd put it like a six or seven. It was
6:53
Speaker 1: just about finding the right food source for this time
6:56
Speaker 1: of year. You're gonna hear similar things from the people
6:58
Speaker 1: we talked to this week. That includes Tony Peterson who
7:01
Speaker 1: was just hunting in Wisconsin, Patrick Cutter in New Jersey,
7:05
Speaker 1: Keith Thompson in Montana, and then Drew Carroll in Georgia.
7:09
Speaker 1: UM And Drew was great to talk to because I
7:13
Speaker 1: don't know if he saw this mark, but he just
7:14
Speaker 1: killed the biggest White Tale of his life. Uh. And
7:17
Speaker 1: Duroys brings a super unique perspective because the guys from
7:21
Speaker 1: Seek One hunt like the most urban white tales in
7:25
Speaker 1: the country. Um and sort of how their tactics are
7:28
Speaker 1: the same and different. Um. So Drew is an exciting
7:32
Speaker 1: one to end on this week. Yeah, that's awesome. Those guys.
7:36
Speaker 1: I don't know how they do it. They just it's nuts.
7:38
Speaker 1: Uh what's his name, I'm blanking on his name? Uh?
7:42
Speaker 1: Lee Lee? Yeah? Lee just killed the slammer yesterday too,
7:46
Speaker 1: so they're on a tear. Any other big takeaway from
7:50
Speaker 1: your conversations with these guys that is worth mentioning at
7:53
Speaker 1: the top here that we should be focusing on as
7:56
Speaker 1: we listen. Man, it's sort of the end of the
7:58
Speaker 1: summer patterns. Deer out of velvet bachelor groups are pretty
8:03
Speaker 1: much gone, so we're starting to see that transition. Um.
8:07
Speaker 1: And this is like sort of that in between time
8:11
Speaker 1: of the summer pattern and what we'll talk about in
8:13
Speaker 1: a few weeks as the October law. So it's sort
8:17
Speaker 1: of a tweener time and it's all about like picking
8:20
Speaker 1: your spots, as we talked about last week, when to
8:22
Speaker 1: be aggressive, um, and when to maybe sit back and
8:26
Speaker 1: give an observation. Hunt Very good? All right? Well, I
8:30
Speaker 1: think my Michigan season opens in fifteen fourteen days, I think,
8:38
Speaker 1: so we've got two more episodes till I'm hunting. Do
8:41
Speaker 1: you have any white tail hunts? Uh? Coming up? In
8:44
Speaker 1: about two weeks, I'm gonna be go into Wyoming, Um
8:47
Speaker 1: and I have a tag there where the country is
8:50
Speaker 1: split between white tail Country mule deer Country, So that
8:52
Speaker 1: will be my next white Tail Country on tap on
8:56
Speaker 1: For the next few weeks, I'll just be trying to
8:59
Speaker 1: kill and elk with my bowl and really looking like
9:02
Speaker 1: a fool. Well you got that part, Peg Spencer, so
9:07
Speaker 1: I trust you'll do well a kid. Um All right, man, Well,
9:13
Speaker 1: I'm excited to hear from our guests today, so maybe
9:16
Speaker 1: we should just roll the tape. All right, We'll talk
9:18
Speaker 1: to you next week, Mark alright In. Joining us on
9:21
Speaker 1: the line first is Tony Peterson from Wisconsin from the
9:24
Speaker 1: Hunt for Real podcast. Now, Tony in Wisconsin, what would
9:27
Speaker 1: you say the buck activities been lately? On a scale
9:30
Speaker 1: of one to ten, I would say a solid seven
9:34
Speaker 1: or eight. Just a lot of a lot of deer
9:36
Speaker 1: moving around. You know, Wisconsin's opener this year was a
9:39
Speaker 1: little bit early. It was September twelve, so you're catching
9:42
Speaker 1: that summer bachelor group just getting into velop just getting
9:47
Speaker 1: from Velvet to hard Antler. And it was what I
9:50
Speaker 1: saw an opening weekend was incredible. It was it was awesome.
9:53
Speaker 1: Dear activity hunting this last weekend. Were you seeing a
9:56
Speaker 1: lot of bachelor groups still together in Wisconsin? Yeah, out
10:00
Speaker 1: I saw. I had my daughters out, so I was
10:04
Speaker 1: taking eight year old hunting, so it was a different
10:06
Speaker 1: kind of hunt for me. But we saw one bachelor
10:09
Speaker 1: group that had seven bucks in it, including legit you know,
10:13
Speaker 1: hundred fifty inch er and you know, several really nice
10:16
Speaker 1: bucks and they were all hanging together. You aren't as
10:20
Speaker 1: a conservative of a hunter as most bow hunters in
10:24
Speaker 1: mid September. What are some aggressive tactics that you're using
10:28
Speaker 1: to try to kill a buck if you if you
10:29
Speaker 1: want to talk about aggressive tactics to me, it's just
10:32
Speaker 1: observe and move. Observe and move. And so you know,
10:36
Speaker 1: if you're catching them on that you know, still hanging
10:38
Speaker 1: around the bachelor group type of thing, if you see
10:41
Speaker 1: him do something today, it's time to get in there
10:43
Speaker 1: tomorrow because that pattern is going to die. And so
10:47
Speaker 1: I don't hang back and try to call them in
10:49
Speaker 1: or declaim or something like that. I try to move
10:51
Speaker 1: right on top of where they want to be and
10:53
Speaker 1: try to kill him the next night. I know for
10:56
Speaker 1: most of your Western public land haunts, that you're focused
10:59
Speaker 1: on water the time of year. Is that the same
11:01
Speaker 1: case in a state like Wisconsin or Minnesota? Nope, especially
11:07
Speaker 1: this year. You know, the temperatures have been pretty cool
11:09
Speaker 1: and really nice to hunt, and so it's been a
11:11
Speaker 1: food source thing for me. And those bucks that I
11:14
Speaker 1: got on with my daughter this past weekend, they were
11:17
Speaker 1: they were on a soybean program and you know, making
11:20
Speaker 1: their way to a distant alfalfa field. But this is
11:23
Speaker 1: you know, that area. If you want to hunt water,
11:25
Speaker 1: you could spin in degrees and find water everywhere. And
11:28
Speaker 1: so it's a it's a matter of an early seasoned
11:31
Speaker 1: food source for me in a state like Wisconsin. What
11:34
Speaker 1: does a morning set up look like for you this
11:36
Speaker 1: time of year? Uh, staging areas, trying to trying to
11:40
Speaker 1: find a good route to get in and catch them
11:43
Speaker 1: coming back from the food before they go to bed.
11:45
Speaker 1: Were you seeing any signmaking in Wisconsin over the weekend. Yeah,
11:49
Speaker 1: I've watched between North Dakota and Wisconsin. I've watched quite
11:54
Speaker 1: a few bucks make rubs. I haven't seen any make
11:57
Speaker 1: scrapes yet. I saw a lot of sparring and bucks
12:00
Speaker 1: just trying out their their antlers. It looked like they
12:03
Speaker 1: were just excited to not be in velvet anymore and
12:05
Speaker 1: they wanted to use them. We have Minnesota's opener coming
12:08
Speaker 1: up here this weekend. What are your setups going to
12:10
Speaker 1: look like for that first weekend of hunting? Sponge and
12:13
Speaker 1: stuff set up on field edges. It'll primari primarily be
12:16
Speaker 1: all falful where I'm hunting, but I'm going to check
12:19
Speaker 1: some acorns just in case to see if there's any
12:21
Speaker 1: white oaks dropping, and if if the temperature creeps up
12:25
Speaker 1: a little bit more then it's forecasted, there'll be some
12:27
Speaker 1: water playing into my plans, but mostly it'll be just
12:30
Speaker 1: a field edge, try to get a try to get
12:32
Speaker 1: a gimme slipping up on his summer pattern. You know,
12:35
Speaker 1: this weekend and after that that will be dead. Tony.
12:38
Speaker 1: You kill a lot of deer in early to mid September.
12:42
Speaker 1: What is it about this time of year that you
12:43
Speaker 1: like so much? The deer haven't been hunted super harsh yet,
12:48
Speaker 1: you know, it's been nine months since they've been pressured,
12:51
Speaker 1: and they're pretty predictable, and so if you kind of
12:54
Speaker 1: learn to ignore the weather and what deer supposed to
12:57
Speaker 1: do and get out there and hunt them, you see
12:59
Speaker 1: that they're they're to move. If it's hot, cold, windy, rainy, whatever,
13:03
Speaker 1: they're going to be doing their saying. And so if
13:05
Speaker 1: you can kind of ignore what you know, like the
13:08
Speaker 1: typical white tail of advice and just go hunt, you
13:11
Speaker 1: can run into a lot of deer and have some
13:13
Speaker 1: great hunts when really theoretically you probably shouldn't, but they're
13:17
Speaker 1: out there doing this thing and it can be so
13:19
Speaker 1: productive to get out there. Going forward. Then in the
13:22
Speaker 1: sext week or so, what do you think that buck
13:24
Speaker 1: activty is going to be on the scale of one
13:26
Speaker 1: to ten in Wisconsin? I would peg it right, maybe
13:29
Speaker 1: out of six, and maybe back it off just a
13:31
Speaker 1: hair and say, you know, the pressure is gonna get
13:33
Speaker 1: to him a little bit, but I think it's gonna
13:35
Speaker 1: stay pretty good with at least what the ten day
13:37
Speaker 1: forecast looks like. All right, Tony would look with the
13:39
Speaker 1: rest of your season. Uh Listeners. You can read a
13:42
Speaker 1: lot of Tony's work over at the Meat Eater dot
13:44
Speaker 1: com and listen to his podcast, The Hunt for Real Podcast.
13:47
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me, Tony, Thank you alright and joining
13:51
Speaker 1: us on the line. Next is Patrick Cutter from Red
13:53
Speaker 1: Hand Outdoors in New Jersey. Now Patrick in New Jersey,
13:57
Speaker 1: what would you say the buck activity is bent lateley
13:59
Speaker 1: on a ski of one to ten a spencer, Um,
14:03
Speaker 1: I would say right now, you'll probably call a six
14:07
Speaker 1: six out of ten. Um. The season has just opened
14:10
Speaker 1: up on Saturday, so so you're still getting um, definitely
14:14
Speaker 1: still getting some deer that are on their on their
14:16
Speaker 1: summer patterns. Other than that, attempts have been pretty warm. Um,
14:21
Speaker 1: you know hot high in the seventies, um, you know,
14:24
Speaker 1: low eighties. Um, but we do, we do have a
14:27
Speaker 1: cold front coming up this weekend. I think, uh, I
14:30
Speaker 1: think it's gonna really get the deer, the deer on
14:32
Speaker 1: their feet. So you mentioned some deer still in their
14:35
Speaker 1: summer patterns. Does that mean you're still seeing bucks and
14:38
Speaker 1: bachelor groups. Yeah, yeah, there's definitely bucks that are still
14:41
Speaker 1: running together. Um. I went out, it's earn a buck
14:45
Speaker 1: here in New Jersey, so you have to shoot a
14:47
Speaker 1: doe first. Um. I was out Sunday, uh in one
14:50
Speaker 1: of those early zones and I saw I saw three
14:53
Speaker 1: bucks round together. Nothing big but um, but they're definitely
14:56
Speaker 1: still still still running together for the MOBI far I
14:59
Speaker 1: guess some of your bigger one are starting to break
15:00
Speaker 1: up a little bit. But what are the relevant food
15:03
Speaker 1: sources that hunters in New Jersey should focus on this
15:06
Speaker 1: time of year? UM. I mean in New Jersey, you're
15:09
Speaker 1: you're allowed to bait, so uh, I'd imagine a lot
15:12
Speaker 1: of guys are baiting. UM. I don't have any spots
15:16
Speaker 1: right now that I'm baiting. UM, but there's a lot
15:19
Speaker 1: of guys that bait, So that's a that's a good
15:21
Speaker 1: a good food source for them. UM. Any obviously, any
15:25
Speaker 1: agg um is definitely hot early earlier in the year. UM.
15:29
Speaker 1: I used to have a farm that you had had
15:31
Speaker 1: a bunch of alfalfa on it, and that that was
15:33
Speaker 1: always good early. Um. The acorns I think are pretty
15:37
Speaker 1: pretty limited this year. UM. I haven't seen a white
15:41
Speaker 1: oak tree with with acorns on it at all. Um.
15:44
Speaker 1: And the red oaks are pretty sparse as well. I
15:47
Speaker 1: haven't haven't seen many of them. I mean, the deer
15:49
Speaker 1: aren't gonna hit them till later in the season. But
15:50
Speaker 1: I think as far as acorns this year, it's gonna
15:53
Speaker 1: be it's gonna be pretty pretty limited. So anything you
15:57
Speaker 1: know baiting or or you know, any any egg you
16:00
Speaker 1: can get get to, it's gonna be good. I know
16:03
Speaker 1: in New Jersey you hunt some big Woods and you
16:05
Speaker 1: hunt some egg country. How did those two different venues
16:09
Speaker 1: vary for mid September. I would definitely say that the bucks,
16:14
Speaker 1: the bucks on in the agg country, they're definitely more
16:17
Speaker 1: more patentable the bucks in the big Woods. I mean,
16:21
Speaker 1: they're they're tough to to to pin, you know, um,
16:25
Speaker 1: you know under under a certain oak tree or something
16:27
Speaker 1: like that. They they they have a lot of more
16:30
Speaker 1: free range to move around and and um, it's definitely
16:32
Speaker 1: tougher tougher there. So if you got if you've got
16:35
Speaker 1: a phone that you can hunt, that's that's gonna be
16:37
Speaker 1: your best bet come mid September, mid to late September.
16:41
Speaker 1: Are you seeing any signmaking yet? Yeah? I was out
16:46
Speaker 1: today actually, Um, I was actually scouting a peace a
16:50
Speaker 1: piece of public in the Big Woods that's in one
16:53
Speaker 1: of these early zones, because I did you know, I
16:55
Speaker 1: shot a doll the other day, so I had my
16:57
Speaker 1: buck tag. Now, um, you know, most of my other
17:00
Speaker 1: properties are in a zone that doesn't open its October three.
17:02
Speaker 1: So I figured out I'd go check out a piece
17:05
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, give me something to do until
17:07
Speaker 1: until my other zone opens, and I was surprised that
17:11
Speaker 1: the amount of rubs that I saw today, the amount
17:14
Speaker 1: of fresh rubs, I probably saw ten or fifteen within
17:18
Speaker 1: about a half mile span along this ridge. And then
17:21
Speaker 1: I found a couple of good ones in there too,
17:22
Speaker 1: So I might be putting a couple of sits up
17:25
Speaker 1: there over over the next week or two and and
17:28
Speaker 1: and see what happens. It's not uncommon to have a
17:31
Speaker 1: hurricane roll through that part of the country in the
17:33
Speaker 1: next month. How does that affect deer hunting when you
17:35
Speaker 1: have that sort of weather come through the area. Um,
17:39
Speaker 1: it could be good and bad. It depends on. Usually
17:42
Speaker 1: by the time it hits us, it's it's not terrible.
17:45
Speaker 1: I mean, we we have gotten some bad ones over
17:47
Speaker 1: the years. But usually if you could if you could
17:50
Speaker 1: plan for, you know, being in the woods at the
17:52
Speaker 1: end of that that front coming through or that hurricane
17:55
Speaker 1: coming through, I mean, you can catch some pretty good movement. Um.
17:58
Speaker 1: You know, if if it comes through and it's really
18:00
Speaker 1: it's really harsh, I mean, that's obviously gonna gonna gonna
18:02
Speaker 1: slow to your down for the duration of of the storm. Um,
18:07
Speaker 1: but I think it could be you know, I mean
18:09
Speaker 1: as long as you're not right on the coast like
18:10
Speaker 1: where I'm out. I'm not right on the coast. I'm
18:12
Speaker 1: kind of north western New Jersey, kind of in the mountains,
18:15
Speaker 1: so it doesn't really get pounded too bad. So it
18:18
Speaker 1: all depends on the severity of it. Um, it could
18:21
Speaker 1: it could go either way going forward. Then in the
18:23
Speaker 1: next week or so, what do you think that bucket
18:25
Speaker 1: activity is going to be on a scale of one
18:27
Speaker 1: to tend in New Jersey, I'm gonna bump it up
18:29
Speaker 1: to a seven or eight. I would say this upcoming weekend,
18:34
Speaker 1: you know, we got our first temperatures that are that
18:36
Speaker 1: are gonna be hitting the mid to low forties uh
18:40
Speaker 1: over overnight highs of like I think it's sixty sixty three. Um,
18:44
Speaker 1: so that's I think that's our first real cold front
18:46
Speaker 1: of the year. Um. I think if you know, guys
18:48
Speaker 1: are having played it smart and they jump in the
18:51
Speaker 1: woods this weekend, they could get a crack at you know,
18:54
Speaker 1: the book that they've been watching all summers. So, um,
18:57
Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's gonna drop up so
18:58
Speaker 1: probably like an eight. Like your optimism, Patrick, good luck
19:02
Speaker 1: with the rest of your season and thanks for joining me,
19:05
Speaker 1: thank you all right, and joining us on the line
19:08
Speaker 1: next is Keith Thompson and Montana from Montana White Tails.
19:12
Speaker 1: Now Keith in Montana, what would you say the buck
19:14
Speaker 1: activity has been lately on a scale of one to ten,
19:17
Speaker 1: no better than a four. It's it's been pretty hot here,
19:21
Speaker 1: kind of wacky weather. We had snowstorm about a week
19:25
Speaker 1: ago and then it was been in the nineties the
19:28
Speaker 1: last few days. So the deer have not been moving
19:32
Speaker 1: too much. Everything is still really green too, so we're
19:35
Speaker 1: struggling to get them to come out of the river
19:36
Speaker 1: bottoms into the alfausa fields that seed. They're seeing some deer,
19:39
Speaker 1: but most of the older maturity deer haven't been showing
19:42
Speaker 1: up much. Do you put any stock in what the
19:45
Speaker 1: moon is doing this time of year? Um, I mean,
19:48
Speaker 1: I can definitely have its effect. I know there's a
19:50
Speaker 1: lot of different theories and opinions on that. Um. I mean,
19:54
Speaker 1: we basically are doing the same thing no matter what
19:57
Speaker 1: I mean. We weren't hunting transition in the morning and
19:59
Speaker 1: food and even most times, so we kind of get
20:02
Speaker 1: the wind right and and hunt and see what happened.
20:05
Speaker 1: Now you mentioned that everything is still green. What does
20:08
Speaker 1: that mean for the food sources that you're focused on
20:11
Speaker 1: this time of year in Montana, it's been tough because
20:13
Speaker 1: they said, we really rely on the off half the
20:16
Speaker 1: field as a, you know, a drawing factor to get
20:19
Speaker 1: those bigger bucks out, and with the river bottoms being
20:22
Speaker 1: so green or so much brows, they haven't having to
20:25
Speaker 1: show themselves in daylight, so it's been making it a
20:29
Speaker 1: little bit more difficult. Are you seeing bachelor groups still
20:32
Speaker 1: together and you're still seeing any bucks that have velvet um?
20:35
Speaker 1: There's a there's just actually we saw a young buck
20:38
Speaker 1: the other day that was still in velvet. Most of
20:40
Speaker 1: the mature gear seemed to be out. As far as
20:43
Speaker 1: the bachelor groups go. We're seeing some of the younger
20:45
Speaker 1: bucks group up yet. But the we killed two good
20:48
Speaker 1: white tails this week. They were both by themselves. So
20:51
Speaker 1: tell me about the setups when you had your clients
20:54
Speaker 1: kill those deer. The first buck we shot this week
20:57
Speaker 1: was sitting over in alf half the field and ironicle,
21:00
Speaker 1: he was the first deer that came out that night,
21:02
Speaker 1: and it was like five thirty in the afternoon, So
21:05
Speaker 1: not your yeah, not not usually typically what happens, but
21:11
Speaker 1: it worked so and the client that I had just
21:15
Speaker 1: had out the other night. We actually shot that deer
21:17
Speaker 1: while elk hunting. We were working through a creek bottom
21:21
Speaker 1: and just so happened to look up and saw the
21:23
Speaker 1: deer actually feeding down the creek bottom to us, and
21:26
Speaker 1: we set up and he walked right to us to
21:28
Speaker 1: thirty yards. So it was kind of a bonus kill. Really,
21:31
Speaker 1: we weren't even targeting white tails worked out that way
21:35
Speaker 1: with the elk rot about to cut loose, does that
21:37
Speaker 1: change anything for your white tail setups? Does it push
21:40
Speaker 1: deer out of certain areas or kick them off of
21:42
Speaker 1: certain food sources? Yeah? I agree. I mean they're definitely
21:46
Speaker 1: bouncing around. Um, we're lucky to have the river bottom
21:50
Speaker 1: where mostly it's just the white tails. I mean, every
21:52
Speaker 1: once in a while we'll get some of the elk
21:54
Speaker 1: down into there. Um, generally we don't have too big
21:57
Speaker 1: of a problem as far as you know, one her
22:00
Speaker 1: the other one, because we're kind of targeting them in
22:02
Speaker 1: different areas In a place like southern Montana where there's
22:05
Speaker 1: big temperature swings this time of year. How does your
22:08
Speaker 1: strategy change when you get that cold front move in?
22:11
Speaker 1: It really helps them hit the food. I mean some
22:13
Speaker 1: of the natural brows will die off if it gets
22:16
Speaker 1: below freezing. And you know that alfalfa really thrives for us,
22:20
Speaker 1: then I think the deer kind of go more or
22:22
Speaker 1: less into panic mode as oh crap, we need to eat,
22:25
Speaker 1: you know, And our fields will double in deer numbers
22:29
Speaker 1: as soon as we start. Once we get the first frost,
22:31
Speaker 1: our fields will definitely double in deer numbers going forward. Then,
22:35
Speaker 1: in the next week or so, what do you think
22:36
Speaker 1: that buck activity is going to be on a scale
22:38
Speaker 1: of one to tending Montana? Unfortunately, I don't think it's
22:41
Speaker 1: gonna get much better. I mean, I saw the Dematrians
22:44
Speaker 1: are supposed to cool down a little bit, but I
22:47
Speaker 1: don't think it's gonna be enough to really get some
22:50
Speaker 1: of those older, mature deer on their feet yet. So
22:52
Speaker 1: I'm waiting for a frost, that's for sure. Alright. Keith,
22:55
Speaker 1: good luck to you and your clients. Thanks for joining me.
22:58
Speaker 1: Thank you are in joining us on the line. Next
23:01
Speaker 1: is Drew Carroll from seek Jue in Georgia. Now, Drew
23:04
Speaker 1: in Georgia, what would you say the buck activity has
23:06
Speaker 1: been lately on a scale of one to ten. Well,
23:10
Speaker 1: I'd have to say it's up there close to a
23:12
Speaker 1: ten in that eight to ten range. Based on the
23:15
Speaker 1: fact that I just killed one yesterday. UM, we got
23:18
Speaker 1: we got four guys on the team that have been
23:19
Speaker 1: hunting the last three days. Season opened September twelve, and
23:24
Speaker 1: we've all been seeing a lot of buck activity. UM.
23:27
Speaker 1: Obviously very dependent on where you're hunting, but we actually
23:32
Speaker 1: had somewhat of a cool front hit right before the
23:34
Speaker 1: season started, so that's definitely gotten the bucks up on
23:36
Speaker 1: their feet more than they had been kind of leading
23:39
Speaker 1: up to the season. Now. I saw on Instagram some
23:41
Speaker 1: teasers that you just killed your biggest white tail ever.
23:45
Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit about that hunt and about
23:47
Speaker 1: that deer. Yeah, yeah, So it's a It's actually a
23:51
Speaker 1: spot that I've had for probably six years. UM. Killed
23:55
Speaker 1: a buck there maybe five years ago, uh, in the
23:59
Speaker 1: in the same area, but this particular spot I haven't
24:02
Speaker 1: hunted until my first time was yesterday. So essentially I've
24:06
Speaker 1: just been running uh feeders and trail cams on it
24:09
Speaker 1: this whole time, just kind of waiting for the right opportunity,
24:12
Speaker 1: and sure enough I had a buck there that basically
24:17
Speaker 1: grew out on that lot all summer long. UM, and
24:21
Speaker 1: here in Atlanta, like, we're hunting these really small blocks
24:24
Speaker 1: and it is a total crapshoot whether or not that
24:26
Speaker 1: buck will stick around once he sheds his velvet um.
24:30
Speaker 1: Most of the time they won't. They typically start roaming
24:32
Speaker 1: like crazy, And luckily this spot stuck around. He Uh,
24:37
Speaker 1: there's awesome betting on the property, food and water super close.
24:41
Speaker 1: So he was extremely consistent all summer and like leading
24:45
Speaker 1: up into the season. Um. Crazy thing is the lot.
24:49
Speaker 1: Most of the lot was torn down because they're building
24:52
Speaker 1: a house on it. It was torn down like two
24:54
Speaker 1: weeks before the season started, so I thought it was
24:57
Speaker 1: going to completely screw it up. Uh. It did, caused
25:01
Speaker 1: all the deer to go nocturnal. Um, but construction stopped
25:06
Speaker 1: for a couple of days. Uh, I guess two days ago.
25:10
Speaker 1: And when it when it stopped and all that activity stopped,
25:12
Speaker 1: this deer started showing back up in daylight. And so
25:14
Speaker 1: I got in there already had my stand hung uh
25:17
Speaker 1: and shot him yesterday evening. So um crazy track job
25:22
Speaker 1: on this one. The shot was about as perfect as
25:25
Speaker 1: I could have put it, and we tracked him almost
25:28
Speaker 1: un till midnight last night. Ended up backing out and
25:31
Speaker 1: found him this morning. So I'm literally covered in blood
25:34
Speaker 1: talking to you guys right now. We just finished up
25:37
Speaker 1: getting process and everything. So I like that. I like
25:40
Speaker 1: that hunting in an urban environment. How are the food
25:43
Speaker 1: sources that you're focused on different than people are hunting
25:47
Speaker 1: more traditional venues. Uh So, I don't think it's different
25:51
Speaker 1: for the most part this time of year. I mean,
25:53
Speaker 1: white oak white oaks are the key, and we're kind
25:58
Speaker 1: of seeing him just start to drop right now. It's
26:00
Speaker 1: it's very dependent on what area you're in. So like,
26:04
Speaker 1: I've got areas where they're not dropping yet they're about to,
26:08
Speaker 1: and then other areas where they're just dumping. Um, this
26:11
Speaker 1: particular spot where I just killed this buck, they are
26:13
Speaker 1: not dropping yet, which honestly played to my advantage because
26:17
Speaker 1: we're allowed to bait in Georgia now. Um So I
26:20
Speaker 1: just kept a feeder running that I've been there all
26:22
Speaker 1: summer long, and he was staying consistent on it because
26:25
Speaker 1: that was really the only solid foodspores they have. Um. Now,
26:30
Speaker 1: if the acorns are dropping, that's when these deer get
26:34
Speaker 1: extremely sporadic. You gotta cover a lot of ground. Um
26:37
Speaker 1: that's why we just soak up as much hunting permission
26:40
Speaker 1: as possible, run as many cameras as possible. So yeah,
26:42
Speaker 1: but the White Oaks right now is where you need
26:44
Speaker 1: to be. The bucks will walk over a bait pile
26:46
Speaker 1: to go to White Oaks, and that's really going to
26:49
Speaker 1: continue on into the rut. You mentioned that the property
26:52
Speaker 1: you killed this deer on had water. How much of
26:54
Speaker 1: a factor is water in your mid September haunts in Atlanta?
26:59
Speaker 1: It's really not a huge factor, just because there's so
27:02
Speaker 1: much water here. UM for people that haven't spent much
27:06
Speaker 1: time in the suburbs of Atlanta. UM, it's not flat, like,
27:11
Speaker 1: it's very hilly, a lot of ravines, tons of creek bottoms,
27:15
Speaker 1: so these deer do not have to travel forward to
27:16
Speaker 1: get water. UM. Almost all of our spots have some
27:21
Speaker 1: sort of creek running through it, so we don't really
27:23
Speaker 1: we don't really target that. But the thing is, like
27:26
Speaker 1: in the suburbs, the waters where the woods are, because
27:30
Speaker 1: that's where you can't develop. UM. So these little fingers
27:33
Speaker 1: of woods are always following creek bottoms, floodplains and in
27:37
Speaker 1: river bottoms and things like that, so it's it's pretty
27:39
Speaker 1: much always close by. You guys were hunting Tennessee's opener
27:43
Speaker 1: back in August, how have you seen deer patterns shift
27:46
Speaker 1: over the last three weeks based on what you saw
27:48
Speaker 1: then and what you're seeing now. Yeah, that's totally totally different.
27:52
Speaker 1: I mean those bucks were still under velvet, still bachlard
27:55
Speaker 1: grouped up, full bachelard groups. Um. I was hunting a
27:59
Speaker 1: big bean field in Nashville, and so that's a completely
28:03
Speaker 1: different scenario than what we're doing here in the Atlanta suburbs. Um.
28:08
Speaker 1: The deer that Lee killed in Nashville was more of
28:11
Speaker 1: a suburban deer, your typical suburban stuff. Um. And it's
28:15
Speaker 1: the same deal. I mean they were that year was
28:18
Speaker 1: I think focusing on just like a green food source. Um.
28:23
Speaker 1: I think it was like a clover patch down in
28:25
Speaker 1: this little meadow. And so essentially what these bucks do
28:28
Speaker 1: is they have arrange is maybe a mile that time
28:32
Speaker 1: of year, and they's hopping around like a bunch of
28:35
Speaker 1: different little pockets of woods and you just have to
28:37
Speaker 1: catch them at the right time at the right place. So, um,
28:41
Speaker 1: you know, there's their stage and they're waiting for those
28:42
Speaker 1: acorns to drop up there as well, but they're still
28:46
Speaker 1: still in their groups. So they're they're more patentable at
28:48
Speaker 1: that time of year, but obviously as soon as that
28:51
Speaker 1: velvet comes off, things completely change. Going forward. Then in
28:54
Speaker 1: the sixt week or so, what do you think that
28:56
Speaker 1: bucket TV is going to be on a scale of
28:58
Speaker 1: one to ten in Georgia. I think it's gonna be
29:02
Speaker 1: this next week. I think it's gonna be a ten.
29:04
Speaker 1: I mean, we have this tropical storm coming in, so
29:06
Speaker 1: weather's looking pretty nasty out right now. So it's been
29:11
Speaker 1: last week it was nineties four degrees it's like right now. Um,
29:17
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna see a lot of bucks drop
29:19
Speaker 1: this this week. If people actually get out there and
29:21
Speaker 1: the breaks in this rain, that's when these are going
29:24
Speaker 1: to be moving the most. So I think some big
29:26
Speaker 1: bucks are gonna slip up here soon. All right, j
29:28
Speaker 1: Will congrats again on the awesome deer. Looking forward to
29:31
Speaker 1: seeing photos and videos of the haunt. Thanks for joining me,
29:34
Speaker 1: Yes sir, thank you, And that concludes this week's episode
29:37
Speaker 1: of rout Fresh Radio. Thanks to Tony, Patrick, Keith and
29:41
Speaker 1: Drew for joining me, and thank you guys for listening.
29:44
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30:02
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30:05
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30:07
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