Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 397: Rut Fresh Radio 12/16/20

Transcript

Ep. 397: Rut Fresh Radio 12/16/20 · 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. 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,
0:35
Speaker 1: all right, welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought
0:39
Speaker 1: to you by on X. We're here for the last
0:44
Speaker 1: regular episode of ret Fresh Radio for two thousand twenty.
0:50
Speaker 1: That means today we're gonna hear from hunters all across
0:52
Speaker 1: the country on what's happening out there in the woods,
0:55
Speaker 1: how weather's impacting things, how the time of years impacting things.
1:00
Speaker 1: What types of tactics are are relevant and helpful at
1:03
Speaker 1: this time of the year. Um, and that's you know,
1:07
Speaker 1: it's it's it's a little bit of sweet spencer knowing
1:10
Speaker 1: that our weekly checkens are coming to a close. But
1:14
Speaker 1: it's been a good run this year, isn't it. That's right? Yeah,
1:16
Speaker 1: this is this is a finale of season five, and
1:20
Speaker 1: it still seems weird that we've been doing this for
1:23
Speaker 1: five years. It seems like the wrong number, but it's not. Uh.
1:26
Speaker 1: Despite this being the last episode, what you're kind of
1:29
Speaker 1: gonna here today is probably relevant for the next month.
1:33
Speaker 1: And that's not like a thing that you can say
1:36
Speaker 1: for any other episode during the year. What you hear
1:39
Speaker 1: in mid October isn't relevant in you know, mid November.
1:43
Speaker 1: What you hear at the end of September isn't relevant
1:45
Speaker 1: at the end of October. But I think what you're
1:47
Speaker 1: gonna get out of this December six episode is going
1:50
Speaker 1: to be good for the rest of however long your
1:54
Speaker 1: season goes. If you have a season that goes until
1:56
Speaker 1: the end of January, what you're gonna hear is talk
1:58
Speaker 1: about today, it's probably gonna be real event for these
2:01
Speaker 1: next six weeks. It's uh. It's the late season, man.
2:04
Speaker 1: In the late season is is from here on out
2:07
Speaker 1: until until seasons closed. Antlers drop and we're right back
2:12
Speaker 1: into the new year. So so you're absolutely right, it's uh.
2:16
Speaker 1: I hesitate to say it's simple. It's not simple. It
2:18
Speaker 1: can be. It can be a challenging time of year,
2:21
Speaker 1: but it can also be a great time of year
2:22
Speaker 1: if you have the right spots of the right situation.
2:25
Speaker 1: Um And and I don't know do you want me
2:28
Speaker 1: to walk through I mean, we we've talked about this
2:30
Speaker 1: in the past. There's nothing terribly revolutionary about this time
2:34
Speaker 1: of the year except for knowing you know how to
2:37
Speaker 1: react when certain conditions come through and then locating places
2:42
Speaker 1: where you can take advantage of those conditions. Um Uh.
2:45
Speaker 1: Do we cover some of that stuff with the guests
2:47
Speaker 1: or should I run through some stuff? We cover some
2:49
Speaker 1: of that with the guests, Mark, But I've heard you
2:52
Speaker 1: say this on probably every season of Red Fresh Radio
2:54
Speaker 1: that late season can be the great season. So remind
2:58
Speaker 1: us again, what does it take for this next multip
3:00
Speaker 1: hunting to make the late season the great season. I'm
3:03
Speaker 1: really good with that rhyming stuff, aren't I. Um. So,
3:08
Speaker 1: you know what it is is that at this time
3:10
Speaker 1: of year, more so than any other, deer are um
3:15
Speaker 1: concentrated in specific places, and they're very focused on mostly
3:20
Speaker 1: one thing, and that is the best possible food source
3:24
Speaker 1: because there, you know, they've been running around like crazy
3:27
Speaker 1: over the course of the rut, and winter is coming
3:29
Speaker 1: and so all deer within the population are trying to
3:32
Speaker 1: put on calories to make it through the upcoming tough months.
3:36
Speaker 1: So you know, it makes to a degree, you know,
3:39
Speaker 1: figuring these deer out simple if you find whatever it
3:42
Speaker 1: is they want to feed on. Right now, you've found
3:44
Speaker 1: the deer and they'll be relatively patternable. Now, of course,
3:49
Speaker 1: this is more simple if you're trying to kill a
3:51
Speaker 1: dove versus a six year old buck. But even that
3:54
Speaker 1: mature buck in certain places, if you've got a spot
3:59
Speaker 1: where he's not getting a shirt and harangued all the time,
4:01
Speaker 1: even that deer might be more patniable at this time
4:04
Speaker 1: of year than any other two. So you know, step
4:08
Speaker 1: number one is simply trying to find that best food
4:11
Speaker 1: and maybe you've got it on a property you can hunt,
4:13
Speaker 1: or maybe you don't. If you don't have it on
4:15
Speaker 1: the property you can hunt, you need to figure out, well,
4:17
Speaker 1: where is that best food source on someone else's property,
4:21
Speaker 1: And then you know howard dear traveling through mind to
4:24
Speaker 1: get to that. You've got to figure out how that
4:26
Speaker 1: influences dear movement where you can hunt. So maybe that
4:28
Speaker 1: means that you don't have the food, but you who
4:30
Speaker 1: do have the betting, or maybe you don't have either,
4:33
Speaker 1: but you've got the travel corridor between the two. You
4:35
Speaker 1: gotta figure that part out. But step one of that
4:39
Speaker 1: map is the food, and you can figure that out
4:42
Speaker 1: by long distance observation. This is a great time year
4:44
Speaker 1: to be glassing from afar if you've got places to
4:47
Speaker 1: do that. Um. You can also take advantage of snow
4:50
Speaker 1: at this time of year to really tell the story
4:52
Speaker 1: because in the snow you can very clearly see where
4:55
Speaker 1: deer have been traveling recently. You can very clearly see
4:58
Speaker 1: where deer have been feeding recently because you can see
5:00
Speaker 1: the pot up snow, fresh dirt. Um, it's it's spelled
5:04
Speaker 1: out much more obviously than than almost any other time
5:08
Speaker 1: of the year. So snow helps a lot. Observation helps
5:11
Speaker 1: a lot. You can still run trail cameras to figure
5:13
Speaker 1: this stuff out, just like you do it any other
5:15
Speaker 1: part of the year. Um. But all these things I
5:19
Speaker 1: would preface with the fact that you've got to be
5:24
Speaker 1: more careful than at any other point of the year
5:27
Speaker 1: to not pressure these deer because they've been bumped around,
5:29
Speaker 1: they've been hunted, they've been harassed for months now, so
5:33
Speaker 1: they're gonna be you know, walking on pins and needles.
5:36
Speaker 1: So we two as hunters need to walk on pins
5:38
Speaker 1: and needles to not mess up what little bit of
5:41
Speaker 1: advantage we might have. UM. So for me, that means
5:44
Speaker 1: all of what I just described. I'm usually doing a
5:46
Speaker 1: lot of long distance observation and running trail cameras, checking
5:49
Speaker 1: those every once in a while in the middle of
5:51
Speaker 1: the day when the wind's right, um, and using that
5:54
Speaker 1: to tell me, you know, if the deer I'm after,
5:57
Speaker 1: or if any deer I'm after our you know, in
6:00
Speaker 1: the area, and if they're still in the area, then
6:02
Speaker 1: I'm going to wait until one of two things happened.
6:05
Speaker 1: And it's the same thing I would typically be talking about,
6:08
Speaker 1: you know, in early October, middle of October, which is
6:11
Speaker 1: ideally I'd like to either see or get a picture
6:14
Speaker 1: of that deer moving in daylight or have a big
6:18
Speaker 1: cold front coming through that will get that deer moving
6:21
Speaker 1: in daylight. So mega cold temperatures right at this time
6:25
Speaker 1: of year, if you get those single digits mean it's
6:27
Speaker 1: all relative to where you live, I guess, but whatever
6:29
Speaker 1: extremely cold is for your area, or some kind of
6:32
Speaker 1: significant snowfall, those two things usually get those deer on
6:36
Speaker 1: their feet and going more than any other time. So
6:40
Speaker 1: if you see that, it's time to get after it
6:42
Speaker 1: or if you're scouting tells you to do, so go
6:45
Speaker 1: in there and make it happen. Um. And you know,
6:49
Speaker 1: all the other details that we talked about throughout the year,
6:52
Speaker 1: as far as stand placement, as far as entry and exit,
6:55
Speaker 1: all that still applies. So you gotta play all your
6:58
Speaker 1: cards right. You gotta know how to get in. You've
7:00
Speaker 1: got to know the right place to sit in relation
7:02
Speaker 1: to where those deer gonna come out. But just remember that,
7:05
Speaker 1: you know, at other times the year you might be
7:07
Speaker 1: thinking about scrapes and rubs and funnels and uh, you
7:12
Speaker 1: know the October lull quote unquote or whatever, all that
7:15
Speaker 1: stuffs out the window. Now, just just figure out the
7:18
Speaker 1: food and then figure out where you can hunt in
7:21
Speaker 1: relation to that. And that's gonna get you started and
7:24
Speaker 1: in the right direction nine times out of ten. Um. Yeah,
7:28
Speaker 1: you know that's that's that's at spencer. I mean, there's
7:31
Speaker 1: a bunch of other little nitty gritty stuff depending on
7:33
Speaker 1: your situation, but that's if you've got that figured out,
7:37
Speaker 1: and if you can find what that top thing is,
7:39
Speaker 1: you're in the game now. Right now. For example, UM,
7:42
Speaker 1: I'm hunting does in Michigan and I don't have the
7:47
Speaker 1: main food source on the properties I'm hunting, so I've
7:51
Speaker 1: been kind of clinging to hope that maybe I can
7:55
Speaker 1: catch a straggling Doe family group just checking out one
7:58
Speaker 1: of these little like third option, fourth option, very poor
8:01
Speaker 1: food sources that I still do have in my area. Um,
8:04
Speaker 1: but they're very obviously not doing that, so I'm kind
8:07
Speaker 1: of just clinging to the past. And I still was
8:10
Speaker 1: able to kill a deer tonight doing that, but instead
8:12
Speaker 1: of seeing what what should be fift deer, I saw
8:17
Speaker 1: four and I know that's not the long term solution.
8:20
Speaker 1: So I got away with it tonight, but I don't
8:21
Speaker 1: think I'm gonna try that again. I realized now that, Okay,
8:25
Speaker 1: if I want to get these deer, I don't have
8:27
Speaker 1: the best food source right now, but I know where
8:30
Speaker 1: that best food source is on some other properties several
8:33
Speaker 1: properties away, and I can at least get in between them.
8:36
Speaker 1: So you know, that's how I'm going to adjust. I
8:38
Speaker 1: saw tonight that this is not where they're at. I've
8:41
Speaker 1: got a really good hunch of where they will be.
8:43
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make that adjustment next time I come out
8:45
Speaker 1: and hunt a transition, and uh, I think that will
8:48
Speaker 1: get me right in the middle of the movement. Yeah.
8:50
Speaker 1: And ultimately, Mark Um, late season can be the easiest
8:56
Speaker 1: time or the hardest time to kill him a sure buck.
8:59
Speaker 1: Just all depends how your property sets up. And I
9:01
Speaker 1: can think of some places that I hunt where it
9:03
Speaker 1: is by far the hardest time to kill them. Try book.
9:05
Speaker 1: Then there's other places where it is by far the easiest. Um.
9:09
Speaker 1: And it has to do with all those things that
9:11
Speaker 1: you just talked about. Now, if you get done with
9:13
Speaker 1: this podcast, Um and you still want more information on
9:16
Speaker 1: late season hunting, I have three articles that should be
9:20
Speaker 1: on your reading list. One of them is from Mark
9:23
Speaker 1: it's called three Places to Find a post rut Buck
9:25
Speaker 1: that he wrote in late November. And the two articles
9:28
Speaker 1: from Tony Peterson, how to kill a late season buck
9:31
Speaker 1: on public Land and three Overlooked deer hunting Tactics for
9:35
Speaker 1: late season. These are all articles that you can find
9:38
Speaker 1: on the mediator dot com if you go over there,
9:40
Speaker 1: navigate from hunt to whitetail or searching our search bar,
9:44
Speaker 1: and you'll find exactly what I'm talking about. Now. The
9:46
Speaker 1: people we talked to this week are Dan Moultrie from
9:48
Speaker 1: Moultrie in Texas, Josh Hilliard from the National Deer Association
9:52
Speaker 1: in Michigan. That's talking to Further's first appearance on RUT
9:57
Speaker 1: Fresh radio. Oh Man, alright, I love it, Hunter Little
10:00
Speaker 1: Masters from the Release in West Virginia, and the Garrett
10:03
Speaker 1: Armstrong from White Tailed Properties in Iowa. Well, guys, get ready,
10:07
Speaker 1: this is gonna be a slam dunk podcast. We got
10:10
Speaker 1: we got Further and actually I'm playing on talking with
10:13
Speaker 1: him at the very end of the year for the
10:15
Speaker 1: end of the year wrap up chat two. So you're
10:17
Speaker 1: gonna get a preview of Josh tonight and then you're
10:19
Speaker 1: gonna get a full blown j Hilly. You'red uh, I
10:24
Speaker 1: don't know what. I don't know what you call it
10:26
Speaker 1: or something. So you get five minutes today and then
10:29
Speaker 1: you get like sixty minutes at the end of the month.
10:32
Speaker 1: So this is a good little appetizer for more Further.
10:35
Speaker 1: What what more people want at the end of the year.
10:37
Speaker 1: We're giving them everything we couldn't have in We will
10:41
Speaker 1: give it to you now in the end to send
10:43
Speaker 1: the year out on the right note. That's right, all
10:45
Speaker 1: the podcast downloads coming over with oh Man, it's gonna
10:47
Speaker 1: be a killer alright, dude, alright, Mark Well, I will
10:51
Speaker 1: talk to you in one for our Red Fresh Radio
10:54
Speaker 1: wrap up episode. Until then, good luck with what's every
10:58
Speaker 1: left of your season? Same to you, buddy, alright and
11:01
Speaker 1: joining us on the line next is Dan Moultrie from
11:03
Speaker 1: Moultrie in Texas. Now, Dan in Texas, what would you
11:07
Speaker 1: say the buck activity is on a scale of one
11:09
Speaker 1: to ten, The buck activity is really pretty good. The
11:13
Speaker 1: bucks for coming to horns and the rud is on.
11:17
Speaker 1: But all South Texas is in sort of a drought
11:20
Speaker 1: right now, and and the ranches where we hunt were
11:24
Speaker 1: in a stream drought, and so I think the dose
11:27
Speaker 1: are in poor body condition, and so I would give
11:30
Speaker 1: it a scale of six because it's sort of a
11:33
Speaker 1: trickling rut instead of all intents at one time. So
11:36
Speaker 1: let's go with six on that special. So what phase
11:39
Speaker 1: of the rout would you say different parts of Texas
11:42
Speaker 1: are in right now? It's it's it's the in South Texas.
11:46
Speaker 1: The rud is on from the Golden Triangle down. I mean,
11:49
Speaker 1: it's prime time right now. But again, when the with
11:53
Speaker 1: water being so imperative to the size of the horns
11:57
Speaker 1: and the quality of the deer and the quality of
11:59
Speaker 1: the reproduction and those it has uh slowed the those activity.
12:05
Speaker 1: You don't see them all coming in. You still see
12:07
Speaker 1: a lot of those with their yulings with them and
12:10
Speaker 1: that haven't come in, but the bucks are ready to run.
12:14
Speaker 1: You know, we probably had as good a years as
12:17
Speaker 1: you could have. We killed eight bucks. Uh and and
12:21
Speaker 1: like I said, they were coming to horns also. But
12:23
Speaker 1: that we averaged about one sixty on free range deer,
12:27
Speaker 1: which is just you know, as good as it gets.
12:30
Speaker 1: And you never would have done that if the rut
12:31
Speaker 1: hadn't been on. So a little bit of a little
12:34
Speaker 1: bit of weather conditions, but that's really typical of South
12:38
Speaker 1: Texas more so than almost anywhere else in the United States. Uh.
12:44
Speaker 1: You know, everything is conditional upon how much rain you
12:47
Speaker 1: get down here. So with that area being in a drought,
12:51
Speaker 1: do water sources factor into your setups at all? Absolutely,
12:54
Speaker 1: and especially on bow hunting. Uh. The the water holes, really,
13:02
Speaker 1: they may not come to a feeder, they may not
13:04
Speaker 1: come to corn on the road, they may not come
13:07
Speaker 1: to whatever food source they've been on, but they're gonna
13:09
Speaker 1: come to that water hole sometime during the day or
13:13
Speaker 1: the night. And most of them were not nocturnal. Uh, most,
13:18
Speaker 1: you know, we saw all activity during the day. So yes,
13:21
Speaker 1: if somebody who's gonna do a set up, it's a
13:23
Speaker 1: great time to have a set up on a on
13:26
Speaker 1: a water hole or as they call them, out hit
13:28
Speaker 1: tanks where the windmills are. You mentioned that you were
13:31
Speaker 1: doing some rattling this week. What is a typical calling
13:34
Speaker 1: sequence look like for you during peak rod in Texas?
13:38
Speaker 1: The the most you know, they've always been good that
13:41
Speaker 1: the buck to doe ratio down here is so good
13:44
Speaker 1: on the big ranches, it's always been really close to
13:48
Speaker 1: one to one, and so you always get very good
13:51
Speaker 1: response off horns. Uh. We started about two weeks. We've
13:55
Speaker 1: been down here three weeks and we started about two
13:57
Speaker 1: weeks ago rattling pre hut and they came to horns,
14:01
Speaker 1: And I don't think we did a sequence that we
14:03
Speaker 1: didn't see deer come in and down here it's different
14:07
Speaker 1: than a lot of places in the US. You don't
14:09
Speaker 1: have just one deer coming in. You may have you know,
14:12
Speaker 1: the last sequence we did though, day we had three
14:14
Speaker 1: bucks come in and they start making sort of circles
14:17
Speaker 1: around you, and there you can tell the bucks are
14:20
Speaker 1: in La la Land. But you know they they don't
14:23
Speaker 1: believe they're lying. Is not seeing the deer once the
14:27
Speaker 1: rattling because they're so intent on coming into the to
14:30
Speaker 1: the fight. So really this is the best rattling place
14:35
Speaker 1: I think in the US because of the good buck
14:38
Speaker 1: to dough ratio. But they really were coming to horns. Well,
14:42
Speaker 1: do you see midday movement in Texas like you do
14:44
Speaker 1: the rest of the country during peak rutt Yes, we
14:47
Speaker 1: saw it, Yes, absolutely you do. And again it got
14:50
Speaker 1: up into it was eighty six and then it'll go
14:53
Speaker 1: down in the highs for the day will be in
14:56
Speaker 1: the seventies. But it's rare that we get below that
14:58
Speaker 1: down here during midday. But even when the temperature was up,
15:02
Speaker 1: we were still seeing activity of of bucks pushing those
15:06
Speaker 1: during the middle of the day. And it's right now
15:08
Speaker 1: when we just left the ranch, it's you still we're
15:11
Speaker 1: seeing you know that going on. I think it's gonna
15:14
Speaker 1: trickle out where usually it's it's around the tent as
15:18
Speaker 1: the peak and its start tent to the fift something
15:21
Speaker 1: like that. Down here, I think you'll see it trickle
15:23
Speaker 1: on for this month and then the second run will
15:26
Speaker 1: come in for anything that didn't get breadth and uh,
15:29
Speaker 1: I think it'll be fine. But it's just again just
15:31
Speaker 1: the dry weather conditions in mid December in Texas. Where
15:36
Speaker 1: do you want to be running most of your trail
15:37
Speaker 1: cameras right now? We if, I think, because a lot
15:42
Speaker 1: of the deer and they're they're all hungry also, so
15:45
Speaker 1: this would be more than trails, or more than scrapes,
15:49
Speaker 1: or more than some of the other places people put
15:51
Speaker 1: the crossings or whatnot. If I was running my trail
15:55
Speaker 1: cameras right now, there's two places i'd have. I'd have
15:57
Speaker 1: them on the feed source and I'd have them on
15:59
Speaker 1: the water source. If you had your your feeders and
16:02
Speaker 1: your water sources cameras on, you're gonna catch, you know,
16:07
Speaker 1: all the deer at some point you're gonna have You're
16:09
Speaker 1: gonna have a great inventory of what you got there
16:11
Speaker 1: and what you what you have available to hunt going forward. Then,
16:15
Speaker 1: in this next week or so, what do you think
16:17
Speaker 1: that buck activity is going to be on a scale
16:19
Speaker 1: of one to ten in Texas? I think it will
16:21
Speaker 1: continue to be the six down here in South Texas
16:25
Speaker 1: because of the the the drought weather conditions. I think
16:29
Speaker 1: that it will will be intense up to that six,
16:33
Speaker 1: but again being defined by the shape that the does
16:37
Speaker 1: are in and the harsh weather conditions. All Right, Dan
16:40
Speaker 1: will congrats on the great bucks from you and your
16:42
Speaker 1: buddies down there. Thanks for joining me. Good luck with
16:44
Speaker 1: what's left your season, It'll be great. Thanks for calling.
16:48
Speaker 1: Wish everybody good luck and have a happy holiday, all
16:51
Speaker 1: right and joining us on the line. Next is Josh
16:53
Speaker 1: Hilliard from the National Deer Association in Michigan. Now, Josh
16:57
Speaker 1: in Michigan, what would you say the bucket activity has been, Hey, Spencer,
17:02
Speaker 1: thanks for having me. UM. I would say buck activity
17:05
Speaker 1: here in Michigan has been very low, like maybe like
17:09
Speaker 1: a two, maybe a three, UM, you know, lower on
17:14
Speaker 1: my end, and I've seen some people have been having
17:16
Speaker 1: some success, but we're just wrapping up about a month
17:20
Speaker 1: worth of guns season here in Michigan. UM, and then
17:24
Speaker 1: the zone where I'm at you you've been able to
17:26
Speaker 1: use uh any type of legal firearm for about a
17:29
Speaker 1: month now, just a couple of days of break between
17:32
Speaker 1: our general firearms season and then uh what has traditionally
17:35
Speaker 1: been a muggleloader season that has been opened up to
17:38
Speaker 1: additional weapons this year. So there's been a lot more
17:42
Speaker 1: pressure these last couple of weeks, um than what I've
17:46
Speaker 1: traditionally seen during muzzleloader season. UM. So I think it's
17:50
Speaker 1: just a byproduct of a lot more pressure on these
17:54
Speaker 1: deer and more hunters in the woods right now. I've
17:57
Speaker 1: I haven't seen a buck in my last few hunts Primariland,
18:00
Speaker 1: public land. Um. But yeah, it's been it's been tough
18:04
Speaker 1: on in here the last couple of weeks. Do you
18:06
Speaker 1: typically expect to only see no internal movement then for
18:09
Speaker 1: the rest of the season in Michigan. Yeah, you know,
18:12
Speaker 1: I think what we'll see some some daylight movement if
18:15
Speaker 1: we can get some cold leather here, some snow. Um,
18:19
Speaker 1: it's been a little bit warmer than what I would expect,
18:22
Speaker 1: and it's been like in the forties here, high thirties,
18:24
Speaker 1: where we're going to be consistently low to mid thirties
18:27
Speaker 1: here the next week or so, and then looks like
18:30
Speaker 1: maybe by Christmas we're supposed to get a nice little
18:32
Speaker 1: drop in temperature. So hopefully that will get some some
18:35
Speaker 1: bucks back on their feet and moving, uh in daylight hours,
18:38
Speaker 1: trying to you know, hit some food sources again, trying
18:41
Speaker 1: to put some of that body weight back on um
18:43
Speaker 1: leading into the into the winter here. It's supposed to
18:46
Speaker 1: get a couple of inches of snow today, but not
18:48
Speaker 1: looking like we're gonna get that. So I'd love to
18:50
Speaker 1: see a few inches of snow on the ground and
18:53
Speaker 1: some cold weather moving in, but um, it doesn't look
18:56
Speaker 1: like that's gonna be happening here in the next week
18:58
Speaker 1: or so. I know, you just you didn't do a
19:00
Speaker 1: public parcel this last weekend. If you're doing some in
19:03
Speaker 1: season scouting in Michigan, what kinds of things are you
19:07
Speaker 1: looking for in mid December? Yeah, I mean if there's
19:09
Speaker 1: if you can find any spots with any with any
19:12
Speaker 1: oak trees or acorns on the ground still, um, you know,
19:16
Speaker 1: back into some difficult to access spots. I think that's
19:20
Speaker 1: key right now, especially if you're hunting public in a
19:23
Speaker 1: in a state like Michigan where it's heavily pressured. You know,
19:25
Speaker 1: we were able to to use a boat and to
19:27
Speaker 1: get into some some marshy areas that um, you know,
19:31
Speaker 1: I don't think it hit too hard, um, but there's
19:34
Speaker 1: definitely still hunter signed back in there, so people are
19:36
Speaker 1: still getting there if you can. I'm looking for areas
19:39
Speaker 1: that maybe have some food or maybe have some good
19:42
Speaker 1: thick betting tome with some you know, oaks or something
19:45
Speaker 1: on a ridge or something where where it's difficult to
19:47
Speaker 1: access for for your kind of everyday guy. That that's
19:51
Speaker 1: what I'm looking for right now, is trying to get
19:52
Speaker 1: away from from the crowds if I can. Besides acorns,
19:57
Speaker 1: what other food sources should hunters be focused on right now? Yeah,
20:01
Speaker 1: I mean, if you if you've got access to you know,
20:04
Speaker 1: any egg fields or anything around, if you can find
20:07
Speaker 1: some some standing beans or um, you know, a cut
20:11
Speaker 1: corn field that hasn't been disk under yet or anything
20:13
Speaker 1: like that. Any anything like that would be would be
20:16
Speaker 1: great in an ideal scenario. Um, you know, if there's
20:20
Speaker 1: any sort of green forage on the ground still, um
20:23
Speaker 1: that they're they're chomping on and that's always a positive too.
20:27
Speaker 1: But um, you know, hopefully you've got somewhere you can
20:30
Speaker 1: get that at least maybe it's even if it's on
20:32
Speaker 1: public maybe it maybe it butts up to some some
20:35
Speaker 1: private egg fields or or or whatnot. But um, that
20:39
Speaker 1: would be you know, ideal scenario would have some standing
20:42
Speaker 1: beans or something like that. But they're keying in on
20:44
Speaker 1: where are you running a lot of your trail cameras
20:46
Speaker 1: in mid December. Yeah, I've got a little forty acres
20:50
Speaker 1: that I that I hunt. UM actually haven't hunted it
20:53
Speaker 1: much since I killed a buck on it back in
20:56
Speaker 1: mid November. I've kind of stayed out of there. UM.
20:58
Speaker 1: I don't have any like great food sources on that property. UM,
21:03
Speaker 1: but what I've got is really good betting cover, especially
21:06
Speaker 1: like thermal bedding cover. UM. So I've this is my
21:09
Speaker 1: second year on that piece, and I've ran some cameras
21:13
Speaker 1: on that place around um that that betting cover. UM,
21:17
Speaker 1: I seemed I seemed to hold a lot more dear
21:19
Speaker 1: on that property late in the season. It's right in
21:21
Speaker 1: the little um Creek bottom and it comes up this
21:24
Speaker 1: little hill into the like about eight or ten acres
21:27
Speaker 1: of conifers and pines and just great betting cover. So
21:31
Speaker 1: I've been kind of monitoring that the edges of that
21:34
Speaker 1: um in the late season, just kind of seeing if
21:36
Speaker 1: I've got any you know, any bucks kind of that
21:39
Speaker 1: have moved into the area, UM or maybe have been
21:41
Speaker 1: displaced through through guns season. They're looking to get away
21:44
Speaker 1: a little bit. I try to keep the pressure low
21:46
Speaker 1: on that place, so um, ben checking cameras and see
21:49
Speaker 1: if I have any new bucks showing up here in
21:51
Speaker 1: the late season. I haven't yet, but um, I had
21:54
Speaker 1: a couple of new ones show up last year. So
21:56
Speaker 1: we'll see if if anything shows up, and then try
22:00
Speaker 1: make a couple more calculated strikes down there with with
22:03
Speaker 1: my ball here in the late season going forward. Then
22:05
Speaker 1: in the next week or so, what do you think
22:07
Speaker 1: that Buck ACTV is going to be on a scale
22:09
Speaker 1: of one to ten in Michigan. Yeah, I hope it
22:12
Speaker 1: starts to pick back up a little bit, and I
22:14
Speaker 1: could see them to beget into like a four or five, um,
22:17
Speaker 1: especially later towards the next week. Um, with some of
22:21
Speaker 1: those temperatures coming down, hopefully less pressure in the woods
22:24
Speaker 1: with the gun seasons wrapping up, and and I think
22:26
Speaker 1: less people are out in the woods with their ball
22:28
Speaker 1: this time of year. UM, So hopefully a little less pressure,
22:31
Speaker 1: a little colder weather, maybe some snow here in the
22:34
Speaker 1: forecast the next week or so, we'll get those bucks
22:37
Speaker 1: starting to be a little bit more daylight active. All right,
22:40
Speaker 1: JOSHU like your optimism. Good luck with what it's after
22:43
Speaker 1: your season, and thanks for joining me alright and joining
22:46
Speaker 1: us on the line. Next is Hunter the Masters from
22:48
Speaker 1: the release in West Virginia. Now Hunter in West Virginia.
22:52
Speaker 1: What would you say the bucket activity has been lately
22:54
Speaker 1: on a scale of one to ten. Lately within the
22:57
Speaker 1: last week and up to now, I'd say it's right
23:00
Speaker 1: around the seven. Um. That's so because where I'm hunting
23:06
Speaker 1: right now, one of the spots, there's actually a lot,
23:09
Speaker 1: a lot of big population, a lot of those, and
23:12
Speaker 1: the second route, I've noticed a lot of chasing, and
23:15
Speaker 1: uh so that's been why I'm giving into seven. And
23:19
Speaker 1: then I've talked to a lot of other people around
23:20
Speaker 1: here and they've been seeing a lot of chasing as
23:22
Speaker 1: well as well as fresh scrapes and a lot of
23:25
Speaker 1: daytime movement. Now, you just recently killed a great book
23:28
Speaker 1: in West Virginia. Tell us about that set up, why
23:31
Speaker 1: you were there, and why that buck was there. I
23:33
Speaker 1: killed this buck on Saturday at twelve, and I worked
23:38
Speaker 1: nights last week coming up into that, and after night
23:42
Speaker 1: I went out scouting all day long whatever to some
23:45
Speaker 1: public land that I round about show Camerzon was moving
23:48
Speaker 1: stuff around, and then I got back to where I
23:50
Speaker 1: was wanting to hunt that evening, which is where I
23:53
Speaker 1: was wanting to focus the next few days, but instead
23:56
Speaker 1: of hunting out, decided just going and scout and see
23:58
Speaker 1: how the deer were using the pro begin coming out
24:00
Speaker 1: into the fields. Because I had a camera cell camera
24:02
Speaker 1: on this food plot over the field by hunt and
24:06
Speaker 1: there's recently there's a lot of activity in the evenings
24:09
Speaker 1: and a lot during nighttime and a lot of bucks
24:11
Speaker 1: were moving, So I wanted to see how they were
24:13
Speaker 1: using that, how they're getting into that field. Right at dark,
24:16
Speaker 1: I had a loving point come into the field, so
24:19
Speaker 1: I saw where the buck was coming into the field.
24:21
Speaker 1: And the next morning I got up on the ridge
24:24
Speaker 1: and uh, I caught a couple bucks coming back to
24:26
Speaker 1: bed and so does but nothing. I was really wanting
24:28
Speaker 1: to shoot, but I was really focusing on that next evening,
24:31
Speaker 1: and that evening I got back in there. Uh had
24:34
Speaker 1: the same wind as the night before. Um, it was
24:37
Speaker 1: a little cooler, it was raining, but I knew I
24:39
Speaker 1: had to be in there because I've seen that action
24:41
Speaker 1: the last few days. So I got in. Um, a
24:44
Speaker 1: couple of little bucks come out, and then right before dark,
24:48
Speaker 1: I saw the buck that I had shot pushing two
24:50
Speaker 1: dose and he pushed him right to me, right underneath me,
24:53
Speaker 1: and I was able to get a shot on him.
24:55
Speaker 1: It sounds like food was the key to that haunt.
24:58
Speaker 1: What food sources should hunters and West Virginia be focused
25:01
Speaker 1: on right now? I think right now with um how
25:05
Speaker 1: the weather is changing in bucks are just pending on
25:09
Speaker 1: the area to like where I'm at. You know, you
25:11
Speaker 1: just second rut a lot of days weren't bread. They'll
25:14
Speaker 1: come back in. So I think hunters in West Virginia
25:16
Speaker 1: they should focus on areas was more population. You get
25:21
Speaker 1: out to trail cameras and see where they're moving, but
25:23
Speaker 1: try to focus in on where the doosese are at.
25:25
Speaker 1: Is where the those are at. The bucks will be
25:26
Speaker 1: right now, and they were in this case. The uh
25:30
Speaker 1: they're all coming to that food plot. There's that big
25:33
Speaker 1: field in one section of it's a little bit of
25:35
Speaker 1: food club where at a farmer come in and plant
25:38
Speaker 1: some mouthalfla, different clovers and grasses, and they've been hammering
25:41
Speaker 1: that lately. So that's why I was in there. I
25:44
Speaker 1: got in between that and the betting area trying to
25:46
Speaker 1: get them staging down from betting to that field. And
25:49
Speaker 1: as as they able to do that, I think That's
25:51
Speaker 1: how what people want Virginia to be focusing on just
25:53
Speaker 1: where the where they're feeding. Um, try to get in
25:57
Speaker 1: catch them as are coming in and going out of that.
26:00
Speaker 1: Do you notice a shift in bedding in mid December
26:02
Speaker 1: in West Virginia? Depends on where you're hunting again, Like
26:06
Speaker 1: where this spot where I've been hunting throughout the year
26:08
Speaker 1: it has changed lately. That then actually betting closer to
26:12
Speaker 1: the food source, just getting around the food sources and
26:15
Speaker 1: hunting the wind correctly and you get a good luck
26:18
Speaker 1: at being successful. What's the idea whether that you're looking
26:21
Speaker 1: for this time of year in that part of the country. Uh,
26:24
Speaker 1: big weather shifts like right now, Um, but then the
26:27
Speaker 1: last week it's dropped twenty degrees. I think it was
26:30
Speaker 1: like sixty the first days scout an hour he uh
26:34
Speaker 1: snowing in the thirties, a thirty degree change. And uh
26:37
Speaker 1: today I've noticed a lot more action on my cell cameras.
26:41
Speaker 1: Be are moving around, bucks are moving around. So just
26:43
Speaker 1: that changing weather, good pressure. This week, this past week,
26:47
Speaker 1: and this coming week is looking like it's going to
26:48
Speaker 1: be a great time of hunt going forward. Then it's
26:51
Speaker 1: next week or so, what do you think that bucket
26:52
Speaker 1: activity is going to be on the scale of one
26:54
Speaker 1: to ten in West Virginia. I think it will. I
26:57
Speaker 1: think it will be up around and nine uh the
27:00
Speaker 1: next couple of days. The pressure is looking good, the
27:01
Speaker 1: weather is dropped in the snow, um, they're gonna keep moving.
27:05
Speaker 1: And I had that second round activity going on. I
27:07
Speaker 1: think the next few days is going to ramp up
27:09
Speaker 1: even more. And some of the friends and cousins I've
27:12
Speaker 1: been talking to you, it seems like they're having the
27:14
Speaker 1: same action that I've seen. So I think the next
27:17
Speaker 1: few days here in West Virginia is a great time
27:19
Speaker 1: to be out in the woods. All right, hunter, congrats
27:21
Speaker 1: on the great buck. Good luck with the rest of
27:23
Speaker 1: your season, and thanks for joining me. I appreciate it.
27:25
Speaker 1: Thank you alright and joining us on the line. Next
27:28
Speaker 1: is Garrett Armstrong from white Tail Properties in Iowa. Now,
27:32
Speaker 1: Garrett in Iowa, what would you say the buck activity
27:34
Speaker 1: has been lately on a scale of one to ten.
27:36
Speaker 1: On a scale of one to ten, I would say
27:38
Speaker 1: the buck activity has been about a four and a
27:41
Speaker 1: half uh. And the reason I say that it would
27:45
Speaker 1: be better, however, we're in the middle of our second
27:48
Speaker 1: shotgun season, and in my area there's just been a
27:51
Speaker 1: lot of pressure, a lot of a lot of driven hunts,
27:54
Speaker 1: a lot of guys out, and that's really suppressed the
27:57
Speaker 1: natural daytime movement. However, we did experience We've got about
28:02
Speaker 1: four to five inches of snow on the ground that
28:05
Speaker 1: we've had for about four or five days, and with
28:08
Speaker 1: the colder temperatures, the movement has been good on some
28:11
Speaker 1: food sources, so it kind of it's somewhat balancing out
28:14
Speaker 1: that that human pressure. So on farms that aren't getting
28:17
Speaker 1: a ton of pressure, I am seeing good buck movement
28:20
Speaker 1: right now. What are some of those food sources that
28:23
Speaker 1: are relevant for hunters right now in Iowa? I mean,
28:26
Speaker 1: right now, it's gonna be your grains, um pick corn
28:30
Speaker 1: fields have been really hot. If you've got some standing
28:33
Speaker 1: beans with this snow, I've been seeing good movement there
28:36
Speaker 1: and they're just starting to hit kind of my Braska
28:39
Speaker 1: turn up plots. So I would assume that everybody's plots
28:44
Speaker 1: are in the same position, just starting to kind of
28:47
Speaker 1: hit those pretty hard, but really grains, corn and beans
28:50
Speaker 1: still going to be the primary food source right now,
28:53
Speaker 1: whether it be from late season, whether or gun season.
28:56
Speaker 1: Do you notice a shift in bedding in mid December,
28:59
Speaker 1: and I you know what I am, I'm seeing uh
29:03
Speaker 1: some of our kind of traditional you know, betting areas,
29:06
Speaker 1: ridge tops and some north facing slopes that would have betting,
29:10
Speaker 1: you know, during during the rut. Now everything's really shifting
29:14
Speaker 1: to the super thick cover and anything south facing. Again
29:18
Speaker 1: we're you know, mid twenties too, low thirties during the
29:20
Speaker 1: day and in single digits overnight, so we're we're definitely
29:24
Speaker 1: seeing south facing slopes kind of hold hold more, dear
29:27
Speaker 1: at this point, where are you running your trail cameras
29:30
Speaker 1: right now? My cameras are a hundred percent on food sources.
29:34
Speaker 1: In fact, actually today I'm I'm moving a couple of
29:37
Speaker 1: cameras around that I've had set up since November. Um.
29:41
Speaker 1: Again kind of getting ready to be prepared for for
29:44
Speaker 1: late muzzleloader season. Um, everything's going to food sources, uh,
29:50
Speaker 1: edges of cover and just kind of transitions from betting
29:53
Speaker 1: to food. Just trying to get a handle on what's
29:56
Speaker 1: made it through shotgun and what's gonna be around late
29:58
Speaker 1: season this year. Do any setups in the morning this
30:01
Speaker 1: time of year, you know, I personally don't. UM, I'm
30:05
Speaker 1: a I'm a afternoon hunter only this time of year.
30:09
Speaker 1: I guess if I had some some intel from the
30:12
Speaker 1: cameras that would give me a reason, uh and some
30:15
Speaker 1: motivation to hunt morning, I might try it. But that'd
30:19
Speaker 1: be a pretty rare scenario. So for me, it's really
30:22
Speaker 1: just slipping in, you know, quiet afternoon on some food,
30:26
Speaker 1: seeing what's hitting the food, and then getting out. So
30:29
Speaker 1: I'm I'm not getting really aggressive this time of year.
30:33
Speaker 1: I'm hunting edges only, and again that's the benefit with
30:35
Speaker 1: the muzzleloaders. You know, I've got a little bit of
30:37
Speaker 1: distance and reach as opposed to you know, archery equipment.
30:42
Speaker 1: So I'm just hunting the edges of food and trying
30:45
Speaker 1: not to disturb my properties as much as possible. Historically,
30:48
Speaker 1: do you notice any kind of a secondary rout in
30:50
Speaker 1: your part of Iowa? You know what, I have seen
30:53
Speaker 1: a little bit of it. And a good friend of
30:55
Speaker 1: mine and client of mine hunted first shotgun, which was
30:59
Speaker 1: you know, December six seventh eighth. He was out that
31:02
Speaker 1: first weekend and he actually did experience some running activity.
31:06
Speaker 1: Um he had bucks bumping dos around, um kind of
31:10
Speaker 1: checking and seeking. So, uh, yeah, we we do see
31:14
Speaker 1: a bit of a second area run. But again it's
31:15
Speaker 1: gonna be you know, suppressed and at a much lower
31:18
Speaker 1: rate than what we've seen in November. Has signmaking pretty
31:22
Speaker 1: much gone cold for you? Uh? It has. I haven't
31:25
Speaker 1: seen any open scrapes uh at all. And and again
31:30
Speaker 1: I say that because I really haven't been spending a
31:32
Speaker 1: ton of time inside these properties, just trying to keep
31:35
Speaker 1: pressure off. But some of the kind of community scrapes
31:39
Speaker 1: and bigger scrape areas on the edges of food sources
31:41
Speaker 1: have you know, and gone dead for me. Going forward, Then,
31:45
Speaker 1: in this next week or so, what do you think
31:47
Speaker 1: that buck activity will be on a scale of one
31:49
Speaker 1: to ten in Iowa? If I had to make a prediction,
31:52
Speaker 1: if this weather stays the way it is, um, I
31:55
Speaker 1: think it's gonna increase a little bit on food. So
31:58
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give it. I'm gonna give it us six
32:00
Speaker 1: on food. We still have some relatively mild temperatures, and
32:04
Speaker 1: I don't think we're gonna have the weather too to
32:06
Speaker 1: really get those big bucks on their feet moving early
32:10
Speaker 1: and on food in daylight. I think we're still maybe
32:13
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks away from that. So so I'd
32:15
Speaker 1: say next week we're gonna be you know, five and
32:17
Speaker 1: a half to six on Buck Movements. All right, Garrett,
32:20
Speaker 1: I hope you get the weather you're looking for. Good
32:22
Speaker 1: luck with what's left to your season, and thanks for
32:23
Speaker 1: joining me. Yeah, thanks so much. And that concludes this
32:27
Speaker 1: week's episode of rout Fresh Radio. And that concludes season
32:31
Speaker 1: five of rut Fresh Radio. Thanks to Dan, Josh, Hunter,
32:35
Speaker 1: and Garrett for joining me, and thanks to all of
32:37
Speaker 1: our contributors for the twenty season of rout Fresh Radio.
32:41
Speaker 1: And thank you guys most of all for listening. Mark
32:44
Speaker 1: and I will be back for an extra rout Fresh
32:47
Speaker 1: Radio at the beginning of January for a recap of
32:50
Speaker 1: the season, and after that, I'll be back in September
32:54
Speaker 1: for season six of the podcast. If you want to
32:57
Speaker 1: fall along with what I'll be doing for the next
33:00
Speaker 1: us nine months, go follow me on Instagram at Spencer
33:03
Speaker 1: new Hearth and subscribe to our newsletters at the Meat
33:06
Speaker 1: Eater dot com. I will talk to you in tw
33:10
Speaker 1: one and until then, stay wired to Hunt.