Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 469: Rut Fresh Radio 10/20/2021 - Biggest Buck in Rut Fresh History

Transcript

Ep. 469: Rut Fresh Radio 10/20/2021 - Biggest Buck in Rut Fresh History · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to Wire 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 Wire de Hunts
0:16
Speaker 1: rut Fresh Radio powered by First Light. I am your host,
0:19
Speaker 1: Spencer new Hearth, and this week we talked to a
0:21
Speaker 1: hunter who killed the biggest buck in show history. Welcome
0:37
Speaker 1: to Wire to Hunt's rut Fresh Radio. This is episode
0:41
Speaker 1: four hundred sixty nine and we're officially in late October. Now.
0:46
Speaker 1: Normally joining me for the intro is Mark Kenyon, but
0:48
Speaker 1: as you've probably seen on Instagram or Facebook, he is
0:52
Speaker 1: on assignment with our buddy Clay Newcomb making some really
0:55
Speaker 1: cool content that I think you're probably gonna see more
0:57
Speaker 1: of in two. So joining me is our other buddy,
1:02
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. And Tony, last time I talked to you,
1:05
Speaker 1: you were taking twin nine year old daughter one out
1:09
Speaker 1: for a deer hunt. Who you got a dough um.
1:11
Speaker 1: But this last weekend you took out twin nine year
1:14
Speaker 1: old daughter two and you did even better. Tell us
1:17
Speaker 1: about that hunt, oh man. So they actually both the
1:22
Speaker 1: girls got doze in September. But then there you know,
1:25
Speaker 1: you know how they are, So they're like, we gotta
1:26
Speaker 1: get bucks now. And so last weekend we were on
1:29
Speaker 1: a buck mission over there in northern Wisconsin. And the
1:33
Speaker 1: very first night we got over there, five minutes into
1:35
Speaker 1: our hunt, my daughter taps me and she goes, Dad,
1:38
Speaker 1: there's a buck right there. And I was I thought
1:40
Speaker 1: she was joking because my kids messed with me all
1:42
Speaker 1: the time, so I didn't even look. And she goes,
1:45
Speaker 1: debt right there, and I looked out and there's a
1:47
Speaker 1: little forky standing there, and I just I felt like
1:50
Speaker 1: we had this is it totally not like me, but
1:53
Speaker 1: I felt like we had a really good chance of
1:55
Speaker 1: of encountering a bigger deer. So I told her. I
1:57
Speaker 1: was like, honey, you can do what you want, but
1:59
Speaker 1: I think if we let this one go, we'll have
2:01
Speaker 1: a bigger one come in. And she sat there for
2:04
Speaker 1: like twelve seconds and she goes, Dad, I really think
2:08
Speaker 1: my first book should be a little guy. I said,
2:11
Speaker 1: all right, light him up, honey, and she made a
2:14
Speaker 1: good shot and got him, and it was it was
2:16
Speaker 1: really cool, awesome. That is good parenting, something I don't
2:20
Speaker 1: know anything about. So I'm glad to hear the hunt
2:23
Speaker 1: went down like that. And I imagine Tony, this opens
2:26
Speaker 1: up sort of the rest of the fall for you
2:27
Speaker 1: to focus on you and your haunts. Is I right? Well,
2:31
Speaker 1: So I have one nine year old who haven't shot
2:33
Speaker 1: a buck this year now, so I know I'm I'm
2:37
Speaker 1: turning right around and going back to get her one.
2:41
Speaker 1: You know this coming next couple of days and see
2:44
Speaker 1: if we can see if we can get another forky
2:46
Speaker 1: in range. And then after that it'll be my time
2:48
Speaker 1: to get into a tree. Sweet glad to hear of
2:51
Speaker 1: all the successes so far with your daughters. Um, Now,
2:54
Speaker 1: what I really want to talk to you about, Tony,
2:56
Speaker 1: is in season scouting and what hunters should be looking
3:00
Speaker 1: or this time of year, because I know you would
3:02
Speaker 1: do a lot of traveling to hunt, and you're often
3:04
Speaker 1: exploring new properties, especially this time of year, because as
3:07
Speaker 1: I've talked to you before, Tony, I think mid October
3:10
Speaker 1: laid October tends to be one of your favorite times
3:12
Speaker 1: of year to to make an honest state trip and
3:15
Speaker 1: and go kill a white tail sort of a week
3:17
Speaker 1: or weeks before a lot of hunters are getting in
3:20
Speaker 1: the woods for their big extended period and taking vacation
3:24
Speaker 1: time off and stuff like that. So what are some
3:27
Speaker 1: things that a white tail hunter should be looking for
3:30
Speaker 1: right now if they're entering a new state or a
3:33
Speaker 1: new piece of property for the first time, and they've
3:35
Speaker 1: got like one day to do some in season scouting
3:39
Speaker 1: to sort of set the table for the rest of
3:40
Speaker 1: their trip. Yeah. Man, I mean I think you could
3:43
Speaker 1: even say, not only those groups of hunters, but anyone
3:47
Speaker 1: who's even if you're on private ground. Um, you know,
3:51
Speaker 1: my strategy right now is to get into the into
3:54
Speaker 1: the cover and look for big concentrations of buck sign
3:57
Speaker 1: you know. And a lot of people kind of make
3:59
Speaker 1: a mistake of they see signs showing up everywhere on
4:02
Speaker 1: field edges right now, and they go, this, this is it,
4:04
Speaker 1: This is all I need. But you know, if you
4:06
Speaker 1: hunt pressure deer, it's you want to get into the
4:11
Speaker 1: cover typically, and so I just look for some scrapes.
4:14
Speaker 1: You know. I'm kind of moving when it gets toward
4:16
Speaker 1: the end October, I'm kind of moving away from scrape
4:18
Speaker 1: hunting and really focusing on rubs. And man, there's nothing
4:21
Speaker 1: I like better than walking in and get into like
4:24
Speaker 1: the real cover, kind of reverse engineering that travel from
4:27
Speaker 1: the food sources and just looking for rubs and if
4:30
Speaker 1: I find the right concentration of fresh rubs, then it's
4:33
Speaker 1: time to start hunting. So paint me then a detailed
4:37
Speaker 1: picture of say it's October and you're in just some
4:42
Speaker 1: general Midwest state and you're going into the woods to
4:45
Speaker 1: look for sign. What what is like the exact ideal
4:48
Speaker 1: scenario that you're hoping to find. Well, you know, it
4:53
Speaker 1: probably starts with the the easy sign, you know, the
4:56
Speaker 1: field edge, the meadows, whatever, where most people would start.
5:00
Speaker 1: But you know that's probably nocturnal sign making, right, that's
5:03
Speaker 1: probably nocturnal travel. But it tells you, Okay, we're not
5:06
Speaker 1: super far away, and there's probably gonna be daylight movement
5:09
Speaker 1: in the cover somewhere close to here. So you know,
5:13
Speaker 1: I might start with the easy stuff, but I'm always
5:15
Speaker 1: backtracking and getting into the cover and just looking for
5:19
Speaker 1: some concentration to sign within, you know, maybe a hundred
5:25
Speaker 1: two five six hundred yards away from those destinations of
5:30
Speaker 1: food sources, but it just has to be something with
5:32
Speaker 1: some terrain that offers them an advantage as far as wind.
5:35
Speaker 1: So it's kind of it's kind of like a staging
5:37
Speaker 1: area strategy, but gets even tighter when you're like, okay,
5:40
Speaker 1: there's a whole bunch of rubs here two hundred yards
5:43
Speaker 1: off this field in a place that's real thick and
5:47
Speaker 1: not all that easy to approach. I I just like
5:49
Speaker 1: that tight cover and high concentration of sign. Now let's
5:54
Speaker 1: fast forward like two weeks, say it's November third, but
5:57
Speaker 1: it's same scenario. You're in a place that you've never before,
6:01
Speaker 1: and you have like one afternoon to get into the
6:03
Speaker 1: woods and and sort of find what you need to find.
6:07
Speaker 1: What are some things you're going to be looking for
6:09
Speaker 1: when the rut is in full swing and you're on
6:11
Speaker 1: a brand new property, terrain man, what what what's funneling them?
6:18
Speaker 1: And you know, we think about rut hunting like you've
6:21
Speaker 1: got to find that sign and you know, get on
6:24
Speaker 1: those rubs like I'm talking about right now. And for me,
6:27
Speaker 1: the most valuable sign that I see for rut hunting
6:31
Speaker 1: like pure, like right in the heart of it. Rut
6:33
Speaker 1: hunting is a pounded trail that goes through some kind
6:37
Speaker 1: of pinch point or funnel. I don't care if there's
6:39
Speaker 1: rubs or scrapes or whatever anymore. What I want to
6:41
Speaker 1: see at a place where the deer have to travel,
6:44
Speaker 1: and it gives me some kind of wind advantage, some
6:46
Speaker 1: kind of access advantage, so you know, it's it might
6:49
Speaker 1: be a river bottom where a bluff bucks up to
6:52
Speaker 1: the river bank, or it might be just your traditional
6:55
Speaker 1: bluff country kind of battles or something like that. That's
6:58
Speaker 1: just like they the deer look like they have to
7:01
Speaker 1: go through here. That's what I want. I love it.
7:05
Speaker 1: Hearing that gets me stoked for November. But we still
7:08
Speaker 1: have like another ten days before we're there, so we
7:11
Speaker 1: ought to focus on late October, and that's where you're
7:13
Speaker 1: gonna hear about in our interviews this week. And who
7:16
Speaker 1: we talked to is Aaron Slide from the ninety ten
7:18
Speaker 1: Project in Iowa, who buried the lead on this a
7:22
Speaker 1: little bit, but he killed the biggest buck in rut
7:25
Speaker 1: Fresh history, so you're gonna want to hear that interview.
7:28
Speaker 1: The other folks we hear from our Josh Smith from
7:30
Speaker 1: Wildcare Deer Attracting in Tennessee, Cole Stevens in Michigan, and
7:34
Speaker 1: then Kyler Mopert from Louisiana Bow Hunter in Louisiana. And
7:38
Speaker 1: for the reading assignments this week, which you can find
7:41
Speaker 1: in the description of this podcast episode, you're gonna be
7:44
Speaker 1: linked right there, So all you gotta do is scroll down.
7:47
Speaker 1: You can click on these articles and you're gonna be
7:49
Speaker 1: right on Wired Hunt's website getting the info that you need.
7:53
Speaker 1: And that is how to rattle a How to Rattle
7:56
Speaker 1: in a book on public Land by John Eberhart. John
7:59
Speaker 1: goes over his experience with calling in bucks on heavily
8:02
Speaker 1: pressured public land and all the considerations that go into
8:05
Speaker 1: a calling sequence. And then the land feature that too
8:08
Speaker 1: many deer hunters ignore by Beau Martinic. Bow covers one
8:12
Speaker 1: specific land feature that he always looks for when doing
8:15
Speaker 1: boots on the ground scouting and why it's so relevant
8:17
Speaker 1: to white deal hunters. And this is going to be
8:19
Speaker 1: especially useful if you hunt public land or big woods.
8:22
Speaker 1: You know. We have how to sight in a bow
8:24
Speaker 1: in twenty five minutes by Tony Hanson. Hopefully you've been
8:27
Speaker 1: shooting your bow all summer, but if that's not the case,
8:29
Speaker 1: you need to get dialed in quick before they are.
8:31
Speaker 1: This is how to do it. And last we have
8:33
Speaker 1: how Adam Hayes find the biggest buck on a property
8:37
Speaker 1: by Emily Canner. Emily interviews one of the best big
8:39
Speaker 1: buck killers we know in Adam Hayes, who shares his
8:42
Speaker 1: strategy for locating the most mature white tails in a neighborhood.
8:47
Speaker 1: I thank you for joining me, Tony, and uh, the
8:50
Speaker 1: next time we probably talk to you, it is going
8:51
Speaker 1: to be November, so I look forward to that. Good
8:54
Speaker 1: luck with the rest of your season. Man. Thanks Boddy,
8:57
Speaker 1: good luck to you too, all right, joining us online.
9:01
Speaker 1: Next is Aaron Slide from the ninety ten project in Iowa. Now,
9:05
Speaker 1: Aaron in Iowa, what would you say the bucket activity
9:07
Speaker 1: has been lately on a scale of one to ten,
9:11
Speaker 1: you know, uh, based on weather. When you have good
9:15
Speaker 1: weather like we've had, getting those cold temperatures, UM, I
9:19
Speaker 1: say an eight. And the reason I say eight is uh,
9:23
Speaker 1: I love hunting October. When you get these cold mornings,
9:26
Speaker 1: these cold evenings, even if it's the first hour of
9:30
Speaker 1: light or the last hour of light. Um, as long
9:32
Speaker 1: as you have cold temps, high pressures, there's no reason
9:37
Speaker 1: not to push it into some of your better spots
9:39
Speaker 1: right now. Now. If you haven't realized it yet, you
9:42
Speaker 1: probably will in a second. But you've likely seen Aeron's
9:45
Speaker 1: pictures floating around these last couple of days of a
9:48
Speaker 1: buck that he named Angry that he just killed in Iowa,
9:51
Speaker 1: which is the biggest book that we've ever talked about
9:54
Speaker 1: in brought fresh history and probably one of the biggest
9:57
Speaker 1: bucks killed in one. Thus are so Aaron, tell us
10:01
Speaker 1: about this dear named Angry, tell us about the haunts,
10:04
Speaker 1: tell us about uh that spot, why you were there
10:06
Speaker 1: and why that deer was ultimately there? Yeah? Yeah, so
10:10
Speaker 1: you know, uh, you you had alluded to the projects,
10:14
Speaker 1: and what I talked to people about is you know,
10:18
Speaker 1: ent of of hunting is the setup, right, whether that
10:22
Speaker 1: be growing, maintaining, holding, tracking deer the ten percent the
10:28
Speaker 1: ten percent of the kill of course. Um. So the
10:31
Speaker 1: story of Angry is, uh if long he a couple
10:35
Speaker 1: of years ago was a deer that you know, you'd
10:37
Speaker 1: really kind of a scroll through your pictures in Iowan
10:41
Speaker 1: just say it's a nice buck. I've seen a nice buck.
10:44
Speaker 1: We really started paying attention to him last year in
10:48
Speaker 1: um when he had about a hundred sixty hundred rack
10:52
Speaker 1: on him and he was just always piste off. Every
10:55
Speaker 1: time you've seen him, he was just angry, right, just
10:57
Speaker 1: had a chip on the shoulder, always posture and dear,
11:00
Speaker 1: whether it was January nine, the day before season well
11:04
Speaker 1: passed run. He was just always aggressive. UM. So the
11:08
Speaker 1: way that we wanted to set up with Angry is
11:10
Speaker 1: uh is is go towards his home range right and
11:15
Speaker 1: basically tracking him. Doing that, tracking him where he was
11:19
Speaker 1: and where he wasn't, we quickly figured out where he
11:22
Speaker 1: wasn't and that was the problem is running trail cameras.
11:26
Speaker 1: He just disappeared October one. Last picture of him was
11:29
Speaker 1: probably ten thirty at night on October one and he
11:32
Speaker 1: just disappeared. So again alluding back to having an eight
11:37
Speaker 1: right now for as far as having good hunting, So
11:41
Speaker 1: we picked the cold morning, low or high pressures, and
11:45
Speaker 1: we picked where he wasn't because we didn't know where
11:47
Speaker 1: he was. So we thought, you know what, let's go
11:49
Speaker 1: into a spot. We don't think he is, but he
11:51
Speaker 1: could be. UM And a lot of the food is
11:54
Speaker 1: getting cut down here, a lot of your corns coming out,
11:56
Speaker 1: your beans are coming out, and you know, with cut corn,
11:59
Speaker 1: that's kind of a dinner bell for him. So what
12:01
Speaker 1: we did is we set up in a bedding area
12:05
Speaker 1: on the way back from a cornfield. UM. Again, cold
12:09
Speaker 1: morning and a lot of people are thinking you're gonna
12:11
Speaker 1: hunt mornings in October. If you got a cold morning
12:15
Speaker 1: and he got high pressures, don't be afraid to go
12:17
Speaker 1: into some of your better spots. So we slipped back
12:20
Speaker 1: in there, and you know, we had good buck activity
12:23
Speaker 1: the whole morning, just a boodle of dose just all
12:27
Speaker 1: over the place. And uh and I mean we sat
12:29
Speaker 1: in there late. You know, I was just watching dos,
12:31
Speaker 1: just hoping that they're not catching our winds, and thinking, man,
12:34
Speaker 1: I should be three hundred yards further west towards that cornfield,
12:38
Speaker 1: you know, a little bit further into the bedding, and
12:41
Speaker 1: uh and I kind of look up towards the west
12:43
Speaker 1: and see you buck stand on the hillside, and I thought, man,
12:46
Speaker 1: that's a good deer. And uh I look below him,
12:50
Speaker 1: and you could you could see his acting distile and
12:52
Speaker 1: uh I look below him and shure, enough, there's angry
12:55
Speaker 1: just doing what he does, his ears back piste off,
12:58
Speaker 1: posturing and ready to fight. So just picking those good spots.
13:02
Speaker 1: Don't be afraid to go into him, even even though
13:05
Speaker 1: it is October. As you followed this deer, did you
13:08
Speaker 1: pick up on anything with his pattern that would change
13:11
Speaker 1: based on the weather or based on food status in
13:14
Speaker 1: the area. Yeah, I did you know where we thought
13:19
Speaker 1: we'd kill him. He just wasn't showing up. And you know,
13:21
Speaker 1: you go to the standing you get a little bit defeated.
13:24
Speaker 1: When you have a deer that's been so consistent and
13:26
Speaker 1: you don't shoot him, you don't see him, you start
13:29
Speaker 1: to run through worst case scenarios. Right, was he poached?
13:32
Speaker 1: Did he get the h D which we have commonly
13:35
Speaker 1: here in Iowa. Um, you know, we we focused on
13:39
Speaker 1: cut corn. I said, you know what, if he's not
13:41
Speaker 1: on these these big, beautiful green plots we have, he's
13:45
Speaker 1: not on these standing beams, he's not on uh, these
13:49
Speaker 1: these clover plots, brassica cereal grains, he's gotta be eating
13:52
Speaker 1: cut corn. That's the only thing that changed, right, So
13:56
Speaker 1: we thought, what changed from October one to now? The
13:59
Speaker 1: corn came out, all the corn started getting cut and harvested,
14:03
Speaker 1: and I thought, you know what, he's got to be
14:04
Speaker 1: on cut corn. It's the only place I don't have
14:07
Speaker 1: a trail camera. And sure as heck, that's where he
14:10
Speaker 1: ended up being. So if you got cut corn right now,
14:13
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that hunt hunt on a cut corn field,
14:15
Speaker 1: but put yourself between that cut corn and uh and betting,
14:20
Speaker 1: and that's what we did. What are you seeing for
14:22
Speaker 1: signmaking right now in Iowa? Man, it's on fire. Uh.
14:27
Speaker 1: What I really focus on is scrapes and and especially
14:30
Speaker 1: rub posts. You know, I've been getting into rub posts
14:33
Speaker 1: with some living branches and grapevines, specifically grape minds the
14:37
Speaker 1: past couple of years, and I have him on pretty
14:40
Speaker 1: much all of my my food plots and as far
14:43
Speaker 1: as signmaking goes, he's dear aggressive when I see him
14:46
Speaker 1: hit the field, especially the upper age class. Dear, you
14:49
Speaker 1: know you're you're three year old above. Uh, they're really aggressive.
14:53
Speaker 1: You know, they're snort weezing already. There they're they're rubbing,
14:57
Speaker 1: and they're scrape and I mean when they're scraping, then
14:59
Speaker 1: they're and so they're they're definitely this is the time
15:03
Speaker 1: to kill an old deer. If you have, you know,
15:06
Speaker 1: to know how of of where your dear is. You
15:08
Speaker 1: might not have him on the exact trail camera, if
15:11
Speaker 1: you have the general idea of the general neighborhood they're in, Um,
15:15
Speaker 1: don't be afraid to get in there. Like you said,
15:17
Speaker 1: with signmaking, UM, I knew danglong when I saw angry
15:22
Speaker 1: at a hundred yards. I said, you know what, this
15:24
Speaker 1: dear's he's as good as dead. Because with those upper
15:28
Speaker 1: age class dear, with how aggressive I've seen them and
15:31
Speaker 1: their scrapes and rubbing. Uh, I just did a snort
15:34
Speaker 1: wheeze at him. He whipped around. I grunted a little bit.
15:37
Speaker 1: Once he turned, I knew he was uh. I knew
15:41
Speaker 1: he was interested. So I kind of got behind the
15:43
Speaker 1: tree and and hit some horns. And they always do
15:46
Speaker 1: that little little tail kick, you know. When he did
15:49
Speaker 1: that tail kick and turned his body, I said to
15:52
Speaker 1: uh the cameraman, I'm like, he's as good as dead.
15:55
Speaker 1: It took him about forty five minutes. Because it's a
15:58
Speaker 1: seven year old deer, right, he's gonna take his time.
16:01
Speaker 1: They're not stupid, um. But he took his time. He
16:04
Speaker 1: bridged a gap of a hundred yards. Took him about
16:06
Speaker 1: forty five to fifty minutes for him to bridge that gap.
16:10
Speaker 1: But don't be afraid to get in there and do
16:12
Speaker 1: some calling. I'm not saying to do an all out
16:14
Speaker 1: brawl rattle uh blindly, but if you have an opportunity
16:18
Speaker 1: where that deer can't see you, it might be an
16:21
Speaker 1: obstruction of you as a hill or maybe some brush.
16:24
Speaker 1: Don't be afraid to hit some horns in October. It's
16:26
Speaker 1: the best time to kill him. Going forward. Then in
16:29
Speaker 1: a sex week or so, what do you think that
16:31
Speaker 1: buck activity is going to be on a scale of
16:33
Speaker 1: one to ten in Iowa? So the that's a good question.
16:37
Speaker 1: The temperatures are dipping again right now. It's warm, but
16:40
Speaker 1: you still have your cold mornings, right so looking a
16:43
Speaker 1: forward at the forecast starting tomorrow through the weekend, Man,
16:48
Speaker 1: get out there. Don't wait for uh, don't wait for November,
16:51
Speaker 1: because you're gonna be kicking yourself thinking I missed so
16:53
Speaker 1: many good morning, so many good nights in Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana.
16:59
Speaker 1: Because as you're waiting for that rout right, the pre
17:02
Speaker 1: rut for me as far as the pressured and unpressured deer, um,
17:07
Speaker 1: it's hot right now, so I would label that as
17:10
Speaker 1: an eight to a nine. Um probably a little bit
17:12
Speaker 1: better than Saturday when I killed because we're getting thost
17:15
Speaker 1: high pressures and cold temps. And I tell you what, Spencer,
17:18
Speaker 1: the the amount of movement in the morning is just
17:22
Speaker 1: on fire. And I remember waking up Saturday morning, I'm like, hey, nah,
17:26
Speaker 1: but I know I got a giant deer to to
17:28
Speaker 1: to hunt, but I don't want to get out of bed.
17:31
Speaker 1: Now is the time to get out of bed. Now
17:33
Speaker 1: is the time to hunt these good early October mornings
17:36
Speaker 1: while it's cold. And if you want to see the
17:39
Speaker 1: photos of Aaron's buck angry, go to Instagram and check
17:42
Speaker 1: out at the project. Uh there's some great photos there
17:46
Speaker 1: of all two hundred and thirty seven inches of antler.
17:49
Speaker 1: Congrats again, Aaron, and thank you for joining me. Thanks brother,
17:52
Speaker 1: good luck to everybody all right and joining us on
17:55
Speaker 1: the line. Next is Josh Smith from Wildcare Deer Attracted
17:59
Speaker 1: in Tennis See Josh and Tennessee. What would you say
18:02
Speaker 1: the buck activity is ben lately on a scale of
18:04
Speaker 1: one to ten, Well, I'd say on a scale in
18:09
Speaker 1: the ten over the last ten days or so, I'd
18:11
Speaker 1: give it a three, and I might even go a
18:14
Speaker 1: little lower than that. Um, if it weren't for our
18:18
Speaker 1: younger bucks still kind of sticking in bachelor groups and
18:21
Speaker 1: we're still seeing in a lot of daylight activities from them.
18:24
Speaker 1: The older bucks are kind of dropping off the daylight
18:27
Speaker 1: pictures on the cell cams. Um, and it's fairly slow
18:32
Speaker 1: because we've got such a high yield of mass drop
18:35
Speaker 1: this year. Uh, everywhere around home, acorns are just falling
18:39
Speaker 1: like rain. So I think that's kind of contributing to
18:42
Speaker 1: a little bit of inactivity. That the deer aren't having
18:45
Speaker 1: to travel quite as much for food. They can kind
18:48
Speaker 1: of hang tight to those sources that are literally just
18:51
Speaker 1: falling out of the sky on them right now, So
18:53
Speaker 1: not much motivation to get up and be mobile. Um.
18:57
Speaker 1: And also I think, uh, you know, we we had
19:00
Speaker 1: a good cold front come through this past weekend, but
19:03
Speaker 1: unfortunately it was just really windy at the same time
19:07
Speaker 1: the first couple of days of that, so I think
19:09
Speaker 1: that it was kind of neutralized a little bit there,
19:12
Speaker 1: but the wind kind of died down on Sunday and
19:16
Speaker 1: it stayed a little cool, but and then started to
19:18
Speaker 1: warm right back up on Sunday evening and on the Monday.
19:22
Speaker 1: So we had about a twenty degree drop last weekend
19:24
Speaker 1: and we're looking at back up about fifteen degrees so
19:28
Speaker 1: we're riding right around seventy five for the next week
19:31
Speaker 1: or so. So historically in mid to late October and Tennessee,
19:35
Speaker 1: would you consider a three to be normal or blow
19:37
Speaker 1: average for dear movement. I'd say it's pretty normal, but
19:43
Speaker 1: it really depends on food. Uh. We're not really agg
19:46
Speaker 1: heavy where I lived, so you know, the mass crop
19:48
Speaker 1: is crucial and in years where we have have a
19:52
Speaker 1: light crop, activity is a little higher. But historically, on average,
19:56
Speaker 1: i'd say it's in that three day five range. You
19:59
Speaker 1: mentioned that the ass crops has been large this year.
20:02
Speaker 1: What other food sources are relevant right now for deer
20:04
Speaker 1: hunters in Tennessee. Oh, there's tons of brows man. Uh.
20:09
Speaker 1: Our woods are still thick and green, so you know
20:12
Speaker 1: there's plenty of stuff in the undergrowth for deer to
20:14
Speaker 1: be cruising around munching on. Um. And you know, I
20:18
Speaker 1: think we have got back to mass crops. We've got
20:21
Speaker 1: twenty species of oaks and Tennessee, so just tons of
20:25
Speaker 1: opportunity there. Uh, And that's what I would focus on
20:28
Speaker 1: more than anything. Obviously, you know you're looking at your
20:30
Speaker 1: travel corridors, but those will probably heat up a little
20:33
Speaker 1: more as we close in on the rut in about
20:36
Speaker 1: three or four weeks UM. But yeah, as far as
20:39
Speaker 1: food sources, definitely mass crop and just you know your
20:42
Speaker 1: your brows that they like to munch on food plots
20:45
Speaker 1: if you're lucky enough to have them in And what
20:47
Speaker 1: are you seeing for signmaking right now? We're seeing that
20:51
Speaker 1: they're starting to make scrapes. It's still kind of premature,
20:54
Speaker 1: but they're happening. They're just not as dense as usual. Um,
20:59
Speaker 1: But I am, you know, using our sense right now.
21:02
Speaker 1: I'll use all really all of them, A basic dough,
21:05
Speaker 1: basic buck. We use our Rutt and Buck and Asterius dough.
21:08
Speaker 1: Just kind of keep stock on what's going on and see,
21:11
Speaker 1: if anything, you kind of get a good monitor of
21:13
Speaker 1: the rut activity and how close it's getting. You know,
21:15
Speaker 1: it's still a ways out, but you'll get bucks acting
21:19
Speaker 1: aggressive toward different sense and kind of get a good
21:21
Speaker 1: idea on how to make a play on them. Um.
21:24
Speaker 1: So that's kind of the game there. But yeah, straight
21:26
Speaker 1: activities kind of moderate yet, but I'd say it'll be
21:29
Speaker 1: heating out pretty good here in the next couple of weeks.
21:31
Speaker 1: Besides on scrapes. From a hunting perspective, how are you
21:35
Speaker 1: using sense as we get into late October? If once
21:41
Speaker 1: we get into late October, depending on the method I'll
21:44
Speaker 1: use for hunting, I like to still hunt quite a lot,
21:46
Speaker 1: So I'm not using sense quite as much when I
21:48
Speaker 1: do that, but when I tree stand hunt, I definitely
21:50
Speaker 1: like to use cover scent. Um. You know, it's thermals
21:54
Speaker 1: are a big deal here. We're in the foothills of
21:56
Speaker 1: the Smoky so playing the thermals is extremely important. But
21:59
Speaker 1: you can never be a hundred percent with that, so
22:02
Speaker 1: it's great to have something to kind of just boost
22:04
Speaker 1: a little bit of cover scent for when the wind
22:06
Speaker 1: does start to swirl in the evening or in the
22:08
Speaker 1: morning going forward. Then in this next week or so,
22:11
Speaker 1: what do you think that bucket activity is going to
22:13
Speaker 1: be on a scale of one to ten in Tennessee. Man,
22:18
Speaker 1: I'm hoping that we get up to a five or so.
22:20
Speaker 1: I expect it won't clind much higher than that, but
22:22
Speaker 1: if it gets that, that's that's good enough for me.
22:25
Speaker 1: You know, I think that's good for this time of year.
22:26
Speaker 1: So that's enough motivation for me to be on stand
22:29
Speaker 1: as much as possible. Um. But yeah, you know, in
22:32
Speaker 1: Tennessee is a big state. You gotta keep in mind
22:34
Speaker 1: we're in the east side and it's almost like a
22:36
Speaker 1: completely different country than the West side. So I don't
22:38
Speaker 1: want to speak for everybody, but if you're in the
22:40
Speaker 1: east side of the state. I think I got it
22:41
Speaker 1: pretty well nailed, all right, Josh fingers crossed that you
22:45
Speaker 1: get some cooler weather. Good luck with the rest of
22:46
Speaker 1: your season, and thanks for joining me. I appreciate a buddy.
22:50
Speaker 1: Have a good one, all right and joining us on
22:52
Speaker 1: the line. Next is Cole Stevens in Michigan. Now, Cole
22:55
Speaker 1: in Michigan, what would you say the buck activity is
22:58
Speaker 1: been lately on the scale of one to ten, I
23:02
Speaker 1: still one of ten. Say it's right around the five
23:04
Speaker 1: right now. Um, And I think I give it that
23:07
Speaker 1: because outside of opening weekend it was really warm and
23:11
Speaker 1: and and rainy really here, to be honest, where I'm
23:13
Speaker 1: at Michigan. UM, and i'd stay over the last five
23:16
Speaker 1: seven days with that cold front that pushed through it
23:19
Speaker 1: last week, it's really improved. Um. The cameras are a
23:23
Speaker 1: lot more active now with about activity, and we're getting
23:26
Speaker 1: some in daylight. So I think it's it's up to
23:28
Speaker 1: a five, and I can see that increasing here as
23:30
Speaker 1: we go on. What food sources are relevant right now
23:33
Speaker 1: for deer and deer hunters in Michigan. I think the
23:37
Speaker 1: biggest food source would still be UM acorns right now.
23:42
Speaker 1: With all that rain that we got, it kind of
23:44
Speaker 1: pushed the cross back a little bit. There are some
23:46
Speaker 1: cut corn fields where I'm starting to see more dear
23:47
Speaker 1: activity because I think overall, um, dear, dear, really sitting
23:51
Speaker 1: on the acorns right now. What are you seeing for
23:54
Speaker 1: sign making this time of year? Um? Yeah, So sign
23:59
Speaker 1: has really picked up over the last couple of days. Um.
24:02
Speaker 1: I have some cameras over some mock scrapes and and
24:05
Speaker 1: notice that they've been getting freshened up recently. Yeah. And
24:08
Speaker 1: I'm starting to see more scrapes just throughout the woods,
24:11
Speaker 1: on the on the trails and whatnot. So I think, um,
24:14
Speaker 1: that's really picking up here. I actually had some uh
24:16
Speaker 1: Sunday night, I had four bucks coming and they actually
24:19
Speaker 1: made some scrapes near mine and and starting to spar
24:22
Speaker 1: So I think the sign and tests starting to raise
24:25
Speaker 1: a little bit. Besides on mock scrapes. Where else do
24:28
Speaker 1: you like to run trail cameras in mid to late October? Um?
24:33
Speaker 1: Right now where I'm at, it's it's pretty flat, um,
24:37
Speaker 1: and I'm running them off the mox scrapes and outside
24:39
Speaker 1: of that, just in between betting and our small food
24:42
Speaker 1: plots that we hear that we have on our piece. UM,
24:46
Speaker 1: and then I like to keep a couple of just
24:47
Speaker 1: on the edges of of the food sources like the
24:49
Speaker 1: agg fields and stuff where here just crossing through this
24:52
Speaker 1: time of year in a heavily pressured state like Michigan.
24:56
Speaker 1: I feel like you get a lot of varying opinions
24:58
Speaker 1: on this topic. But do you like to do any
25:01
Speaker 1: calling to Bucks in Michigan? I'm not really UM, I'm
25:07
Speaker 1: definitely not one of those aggressive callers. UM. You know, typically,
25:12
Speaker 1: especially this time of year, I'll wait until maybe early
25:14
Speaker 1: November to do any sort of calling that might just
25:16
Speaker 1: be like grounds if I see something in the woods.
25:19
Speaker 1: But I'm not a decoy or hardcore caller. UM here
25:24
Speaker 1: in Michigan. What are you seeing from morning movement right now?
25:31
Speaker 1: Morning movement had been really slow up until the last
25:34
Speaker 1: two days. UM. I haven't been out this week yet,
25:37
Speaker 1: but the cameras were going off in and I'm getting
25:40
Speaker 1: more bucks in daylight. UM. Just starting to kind of
25:42
Speaker 1: look like they're cruising, UM, not really running too hard
25:46
Speaker 1: and not really feeding, just just crossing paths. New deer
25:49
Speaker 1: coming in so UM, it's starting to pick up. If
25:53
Speaker 1: you're doing some in season scouting in a state like Michigan,
25:56
Speaker 1: what are you looking for in late October? Uh? Personally,
26:02
Speaker 1: I'm looking for fresh signs just to see where the
26:04
Speaker 1: deer are at right this minute. Um. You know, for example,
26:07
Speaker 1: these smaller private pieces that I'm on has a lot
26:11
Speaker 1: of pressure, So if if I know what deers in there,
26:13
Speaker 1: he might not be in there for more than a
26:15
Speaker 1: couple of days if that so, I'm just looking for
26:18
Speaker 1: fresh sign fresh scrapes. Is like I I typically to
26:20
Speaker 1: hunt over um and really that's what I rely on.
26:25
Speaker 1: I don't really look for the food source too much
26:27
Speaker 1: outside of um getting into just where the doors might
26:30
Speaker 1: be grazing once the rud activity starts to pick up.
26:33
Speaker 1: But right now, just fresh sign going forward. Then the
26:36
Speaker 1: next week or so, what do you think that bucket
26:38
Speaker 1: TV is going to be on a scale of one
26:40
Speaker 1: to ten in Michigan. I think this coming weekend and
26:45
Speaker 1: in the week to come when it'll push up to
26:47
Speaker 1: seven seven and a half maybe, Um, I think it's
26:50
Speaker 1: really gonna increase. Won't be peak yet and we're a
26:53
Speaker 1: little early, but um um, we have another cold front
26:55
Speaker 1: coming in with some rain this Thursday, and then it's
26:58
Speaker 1: supposed to be in the lows of thirties and highs fifties,
27:00
Speaker 1: So I think that's really gonna get them on their feet. Alright, cool,
27:04
Speaker 1: I like your optimism. Good luck with the rest of
27:06
Speaker 1: your fall. Thanks for joining me, Yeah, thanks, Spenser, alright
27:11
Speaker 1: in joining us on the line. Next is Kyler Moppert
27:13
Speaker 1: from Louisiana. Bow Hunter in Louisiana. Now, Kyler in Louisiana,
27:17
Speaker 1: what would you say the bucket activity has been lately
27:19
Speaker 1: on a scale of one to ten, So on HeLa
27:24
Speaker 1: one of ten this past weekend, I would probably put
27:27
Speaker 1: it at about a seven um, and that has a
27:30
Speaker 1: lot to do with the fact that we've finally got
27:31
Speaker 1: a cold front second weekend to the season, the main season. Um,
27:36
Speaker 1: we finally got down into the fifties. I think some
27:38
Speaker 1: areas got into down into the mid forties, which is
27:42
Speaker 1: for us down south, pretty cold. So I know, I've
27:44
Speaker 1: got a lot of buck pictures this weekend sent in
27:47
Speaker 1: from our community members, and a lot of people are
27:50
Speaker 1: laying down bow and finally, now, Louisiana is one of
27:54
Speaker 1: those classic southern states that has a variety of white
27:58
Speaker 1: tail herds and you always have different phases of the
28:01
Speaker 1: rout happening in different parts of the state. So what
28:04
Speaker 1: is sort of a general overview and a rudimentary look
28:07
Speaker 1: at the different phases of the rout happening right now
28:10
Speaker 1: in Louisiana. So, um, right now, I know is prime
28:16
Speaker 1: rut for the southwestern part of the state, which for
28:20
Speaker 1: most people, even in the Midwest, would be considered really early. Um,
28:24
Speaker 1: we're talking about a lot of marsh deer coastal deer
28:27
Speaker 1: um that are not of the Florida variety, but of
28:31
Speaker 1: the same logic behind watch Florida has such an early
28:34
Speaker 1: rut um. But I had a Texas warning from a
28:38
Speaker 1: good friend of mine, Ronnie do God, that said he
28:40
Speaker 1: almost closed the deal on a big ten point that
28:42
Speaker 1: he's behind been hunting that was trailing a dough And
28:44
Speaker 1: here it is in October sevent eighteen, whatever the date is,
28:47
Speaker 1: and he's been hunting that deer for the last week
28:50
Speaker 1: or two. Um, want to speak during daylight. And he's
28:53
Speaker 1: getting good rut activity. But in general, most people are
28:58
Speaker 1: getting really good buck activity because we've had we've got
29:00
Speaker 1: these uh cooler camps. Now, the reason why the rut
29:05
Speaker 1: is so sporadic across the state. We don't have just
29:08
Speaker 1: one rut period where it's kind of like a two
29:10
Speaker 1: week window and then it's over for everywhere, kind of
29:12
Speaker 1: like the Midwest or other states. We have UM a
29:16
Speaker 1: bit of a mixed bag of different um different types
29:20
Speaker 1: of buck activity and rut activity. A lot of times
29:23
Speaker 1: the river parishes as well what we call parishes what
29:26
Speaker 1: other people call counties. People places that used to historically
29:30
Speaker 1: flood for hundreds and hundreds of years. Those year that
29:34
Speaker 1: are gonna be close to the Mississippi River are gonna
29:36
Speaker 1: rut um later in the season in order to have
29:40
Speaker 1: their fall and drop be after the flood cycle in
29:42
Speaker 1: the springtime. UM, whereas places in central, northwest and southwest
29:47
Speaker 1: Louisiana are going to have an earlier rut because that
29:49
Speaker 1: flood cycle isn't as much as the factor. And then
29:51
Speaker 1: you have to throw in the fact that in the
29:53
Speaker 1: sixties we actually transplant planted a UM I don't know
29:58
Speaker 1: the total number, but a larger out of deer from
30:00
Speaker 1: Wisconsin another northern states and release them to kind of
30:04
Speaker 1: repopulate some areas that were bearing a deer and those
30:08
Speaker 1: deer having more classic Midwestern rud cycle you know, might
30:12
Speaker 1: be like around um, Halloween, first two weeks in November. Um,
30:17
Speaker 1: that's common also. So we do say that it's always
30:20
Speaker 1: running somewhere in Louisiana. But the thing is, it's typically
30:23
Speaker 1: so hot here that we call it a trickle rut
30:27
Speaker 1: most times where it'll be rut activity. But it's not
30:31
Speaker 1: just hot and heavy, gotta be in the woods, you know,
30:33
Speaker 1: bucks running around without a thought rolling through their heads.
30:37
Speaker 1: It's not like that. It's you might see a little
30:39
Speaker 1: more daytime movement, and you might get a lot of
30:41
Speaker 1: rut pictures at night on camera, but that's about it
30:45
Speaker 1: for us. We're never really wide open like a lot
30:48
Speaker 1: of other states. What food sources are relevant right now
30:51
Speaker 1: for deer hunters in Louisiana. So that's a great question, um,
30:59
Speaker 1: I had we just on on my podcast last week.
31:02
Speaker 1: We just discussed, um, the fact that the beginning of
31:05
Speaker 1: the season last year, by opening day, all the for
31:08
Speaker 1: Simmonson dropped and that was over. That was not worth hunting,
31:12
Speaker 1: that was not worth sitting over, It wasn't even worth
31:14
Speaker 1: hanging a camera on. Whereas right now I still got
31:17
Speaker 1: for Simmons dropping well in October, but I think we're
31:21
Speaker 1: probably on our final week of that. UM. A lot
31:24
Speaker 1: of pin oaks, a lot of red oaks are starting
31:26
Speaker 1: to drop really well. Those usually dropped consistently throughout the
31:28
Speaker 1: whole season. And I'm expecting the white oaks what we
31:32
Speaker 1: call swamp folks too. Those are the big, big, old green,
31:37
Speaker 1: almost pink pong ball sized acorns. Those should be dropping
31:40
Speaker 1: any day now. And that is that's my favorite. That's
31:43
Speaker 1: like deer candy UM that started to drop finally with
31:46
Speaker 1: these cooler tips that that we just got last weekend.
31:49
Speaker 1: So acorns uh as we call the acorn trees. Oak
31:52
Speaker 1: trees are supposed to be UM probably your best bet
31:56
Speaker 1: for natural food sources in the next a couple of
31:58
Speaker 1: weeks because brows is starting to decline. I think those
32:01
Speaker 1: deer have been waiting for for oak trees to start dropping,
32:05
Speaker 1: and they've been hammering the brows pretty hard. So if
32:07
Speaker 1: you've got a hot swamp oak or white oak or
32:10
Speaker 1: something like that that's dropping, hang a camera and see
32:12
Speaker 1: if you can time it well with us and deer
32:14
Speaker 1: coming in. How does signmaking in Louisiana differ for deer
32:19
Speaker 1: and deer hunters than it does maybe in a Midwestern state. Um,
32:27
Speaker 1: we're getting to get a lot of your early season
32:30
Speaker 1: rubs that people kind of consider to be territorial. When
32:34
Speaker 1: I say your early season, I mean like the first
32:35
Speaker 1: week or two of October. That's really a lot of
32:38
Speaker 1: the rugs that you're finding early season or just in
32:40
Speaker 1: trying to get their velvet off. Um. And especially on
32:44
Speaker 1: areas where you've got a later rut, a later falling
32:48
Speaker 1: drop and um, you know later antler dropped. You know
32:51
Speaker 1: they nut might not drop the antlers until April and May.
32:54
Speaker 1: You're gonna see a lot of deer and velvet all
32:56
Speaker 1: the way up into mid October and some areas, So
32:58
Speaker 1: if you're seeing hubs this time of year, it's not
33:01
Speaker 1: so much territorial like it is pre run. It's more
33:04
Speaker 1: of just like, hey, get this stuff off of me,
33:06
Speaker 1: I gotta get it off now type of thing. Um.
33:09
Speaker 1: But I am seeing on some properties that I hunt, um,
33:13
Speaker 1: public land, I'm starting to see some community scrapes and
33:16
Speaker 1: I've got cameras set up on some community scrapes that
33:20
Speaker 1: seem even for me, even like very early, very early
33:23
Speaker 1: in the season to start seeing scrapes, but they're getting
33:26
Speaker 1: hit every single day and the thing that's most interesting
33:29
Speaker 1: is every two or three days we'll see a buck,
33:32
Speaker 1: but every day, four or five times a day you'll
33:34
Speaker 1: see does come in, jump around piano, hang around in
33:37
Speaker 1: front of the camera for a couple of minutes, and
33:39
Speaker 1: move on. So they're actually being checked more by doze
33:42
Speaker 1: right now than they are bucks. And and to be
33:44
Speaker 1: totally honest, I'm not quite sure to what to make
33:47
Speaker 1: of that as far as like an early season signmaking
33:50
Speaker 1: that one's even kind of new to me going forward. Then,
33:53
Speaker 1: in this next week or so, what do you think
33:54
Speaker 1: that buck ACTVT is going to be on a scale
33:56
Speaker 1: of one to ten in Louisiana. I think it's going
34:01
Speaker 1: to decline. Um. I think it's probably gonna go down
34:05
Speaker 1: to a five or six, which would be about average
34:07
Speaker 1: for US UM. And the reason why is the attempt
34:11
Speaker 1: surrising it's going to be in the sixties is a
34:13
Speaker 1: low and the eighties mid eighties is high again. Um.
34:16
Speaker 1: And not only that, but I think that southwest Louising
34:19
Speaker 1: in a rut is going to start to dry up
34:21
Speaker 1: and we're just gonna go back to our typical level
34:24
Speaker 1: of four or five seeing bucks uh during daylight, which
34:29
Speaker 1: isn't that great, but until your area really kicks off
34:33
Speaker 1: for it's rut activity, I think it'll probably stay in
34:36
Speaker 1: the four or five range um for the time being.
34:40
Speaker 1: All Right, Kyler, great intel, good luck with the rest
34:42
Speaker 1: of your season, and thanks for joining me. Thanks Spencer,
34:47
Speaker 1: appreciate it. And that concludes this week's episode of rut
34:51
Speaker 1: Fresh Radio. Thanks to Aaron, Josh Cole, and Kyler for
34:54
Speaker 1: joining me, and thank you guys for listening. As a reminder,
34:57
Speaker 1: you can find this week's reading material the description of
35:01
Speaker 1: the podcast, where you're gonna get articles like how to
35:03
Speaker 1: rattle in a buck on public land, the land feature
35:06
Speaker 1: too many deer hunters ignore, how to sight in a
35:09
Speaker 1: bow in twenty five minutes, and how Adam Hayes finds
35:12
Speaker 1: the biggest buck on a property. I hope you're in
35:15
Speaker 1: the woods this weekend. You're gonna find all sorts of
35:17
Speaker 1: rubs and scrapes that you didn't previously see, and you're
35:19
Speaker 1: gonna be hearing bucks rattling and seeing them sparring and
35:23
Speaker 1: hopefully get a shot opportunity for yourself. I will talk
35:26
Speaker 1: to you next week, and until then, stay wired to Hunt.