Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 324: Rut Fresh Radio 12/11/19

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Ep. 324: Rut Fresh Radio 12/11/19 · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for
0:06
Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
0:11
Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm
0:16
Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan, and this is episode number We're
0:20
Speaker 1: back today for another rout Fresh Radio episode in which
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Speaker 1: we're getting the latest late season intel on current conditions,
0:27
Speaker 1: deer activity, and how to fill a tag right now,
0:43
Speaker 1: all right, welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought
0:47
Speaker 1: by brought to you, brought by brought to you by
0:50
Speaker 1: something by Onyx. We're here on X is helping Spencers
0:54
Speaker 1: with me too, and we are actually recording the introduction
0:57
Speaker 1: of this episode of rot Fresh Radio in Montana together.
1:03
Speaker 1: I'm looking at Spencer's beautiful blue eyes right in front
1:06
Speaker 1: of me, the burly man Beard, the big deep voice
1:09
Speaker 1: himself in the flesh. It's quite a privilege, never been
1:13
Speaker 1: done before. I think rud Fresh in person, No, I
1:16
Speaker 1: don't think that's I think you're right. Well, like I said,
1:18
Speaker 1: we are here for the rout Fresh Radio edition of
1:22
Speaker 1: Wired Hunting, which we are going to be hearing from
1:24
Speaker 1: a group of hunters from across the country to get
1:26
Speaker 1: the latest on deer activity on how conditions are impacting
1:31
Speaker 1: deer and deer hunting right now this week, and tactics
1:34
Speaker 1: and ideas for getting it done over the coming days.
1:38
Speaker 1: The hunting season is approaching the end, so you might
1:42
Speaker 1: be feeling the pressure. Got to fill that freezer with
1:44
Speaker 1: the remaining days on the calendar, and uh, we're here
1:48
Speaker 1: to try to help you do that. Now. I gotta
1:49
Speaker 1: bring something to everyone's attention. Uh. And it's much more
1:54
Speaker 1: fun to do this with Spencer here in person. I
1:56
Speaker 1: got an email the other day. It was either an
1:58
Speaker 1: email or review. I can't remember where I saw, but
2:00
Speaker 1: somebody said Spencer new Heart is the worst co host
2:05
Speaker 1: because he's obviously faking his voice. There's no way he
2:08
Speaker 1: really sounds like that in person. He's trying too hard. Uh,
2:12
Speaker 1: he's a fraud. Get him off the show. So I
2:16
Speaker 1: just need to let everybody know, well, we actually have
2:20
Speaker 1: a third person in the studio with us today. UH.
2:24
Speaker 1: Special guest appearance on Refresh Radio, someone who you might
2:28
Speaker 1: have heard on the Mediator podcast. He might have heard
2:31
Speaker 1: on the Hunting Collective podcast. We got Phil the audio
2:34
Speaker 1: engineer helping us out here today. Phil, can you help
2:37
Speaker 1: us shine some light on the truth of Spencer's voice. Uh, well,
2:41
Speaker 1: it's pretty simple. That's that's what he sounds like. And
2:44
Speaker 1: there's no audio magic, there's no No. I don't do
2:47
Speaker 1: any manipulation. I don't think you do either. No, that's
2:50
Speaker 1: just that's what comes out of his his mouth. What
2:53
Speaker 1: do you How do you feel about that? Does he
2:54
Speaker 1: sound unbelievable? Does he sound impossibly deep and mellow and
3:00
Speaker 1: sensual to you? He does? But that's not a that's
3:02
Speaker 1: not a bad thing. I don't know, No, no, I agree,
3:07
Speaker 1: you know. It's like something I've been actually conscious of.
3:10
Speaker 1: I remember in high school there was this girl from
3:13
Speaker 1: a high school I was dating a guy from a
3:14
Speaker 1: different school, and like we we had a lot of
3:16
Speaker 1: reasons to dislike him, but one of them was that
3:18
Speaker 1: it seemed like he was trying really hard to make
3:21
Speaker 1: his voice deep. And so if we were like to
3:24
Speaker 1: list off things why we didn't like this person, be like,
3:27
Speaker 1: and he like tries to make his voice sound really deep.
3:29
Speaker 1: And so since then I've been conscious of like having
3:33
Speaker 1: that not be something that someone tries to call me
3:36
Speaker 1: out for, like really trying to be a tough guy
3:38
Speaker 1: and trying to deepen my voice. You don't want to
3:40
Speaker 1: be the pot calling the kettle black. That's right, I don't.
3:43
Speaker 1: I think back to that often. Well, there's this thing.
3:45
Speaker 1: I got criticized for this too. We were talking about
3:48
Speaker 1: this last night. There's this I don't even really know
3:50
Speaker 1: how to describe it, but some type of way that
3:52
Speaker 1: people uh talk that's been labeled as is called vocal fry.
3:58
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't know how describ some certain way
4:01
Speaker 1: people intonate or whatever. And someone also harassed me about
4:05
Speaker 1: doing that. So both of our voices have been underneath
4:08
Speaker 1: the spotlight lately. Um. I don't know to tell you.
4:11
Speaker 1: There's nothing I can do. We can't change it. Um,
4:15
Speaker 1: but I do wonder I have theorized. I've been curious.
4:19
Speaker 1: Are you familiar with the story of Samson. It's a
4:22
Speaker 1: bit long story, long hair Sampson, and when they cut
4:24
Speaker 1: his hair, he lost all his superhuman powers. Well, I've
4:27
Speaker 1: often wondered if Spencer shaved off his beard, would he
4:31
Speaker 1: lose his deep man voice. Let's not find out, Phil,
4:35
Speaker 1: what's your guests? Yeah, well, I I had to grow
4:37
Speaker 1: a bad mustache for Ben's show, so I think it's
4:39
Speaker 1: only fair that Spencer has to shake his beard. I
4:43
Speaker 1: think that's a good idea. Now, I haven't seen my
4:45
Speaker 1: chain in like four years. Don't plan on it. I
4:49
Speaker 1: guess we'll never find out that. We'll have to find
4:52
Speaker 1: some way to make this happen over the over the
4:54
Speaker 1: coming years. I'm gonna do some thinking on it. But uh,
4:57
Speaker 1: with that out of the way, we do want to
4:59
Speaker 1: talk about de We do want to talk about deer hunting. Um.
5:03
Speaker 1: We've got a whole bunch of people that have reports
5:05
Speaker 1: on what's been going on in the woods over the
5:07
Speaker 1: last seven days or so. I've got a couple small
5:10
Speaker 1: updates on my end in Michigan, Spencer, how do you
5:13
Speaker 1: want to hear about that? All? Okay? Quick update is
5:17
Speaker 1: that there are still some decent bucks moving around in
5:20
Speaker 1: pockets of sanctuary cover. There's little zone on one of
5:25
Speaker 1: the properties I hunt where there's still two mature bucks
5:28
Speaker 1: moving in daylight. I saw Trand the other day when
5:31
Speaker 1: glassing from my little hillside, UH, spying location on him.
5:35
Speaker 1: I saw him. He's still alive. Then I got pictures.
5:38
Speaker 1: I want to check trail cameras. Checked trail cameras over
5:41
Speaker 1: the weekend and got pictures of him as recently as
5:45
Speaker 1: that weekend. So he's out there moving around a little bit.
5:47
Speaker 1: And then I talked to a neighbor who saw him
5:50
Speaker 1: moving in daylight one morning, as well as a different
5:53
Speaker 1: mature buck that I've never seen and never gotten pictures of.
5:56
Speaker 1: But he's right there next to us. UM, So that's positive.
6:02
Speaker 1: That's good to see. UM. I think it is conditioned dependent, though,
6:07
Speaker 1: And I know that's something that we're probably gonna talk
6:08
Speaker 1: about or here about from other folks today in the episode.
6:11
Speaker 1: Is that at least what I'm doing right now. I'm
6:13
Speaker 1: here in Montana with you, but as soon as I
6:14
Speaker 1: get home, I'm gonna be looking at the weather forecast
6:17
Speaker 1: and trying to plan careful strikes on this property when
6:22
Speaker 1: conditions are right. Yeah. And until we started doing a
6:26
Speaker 1: radio UM once the calendar flip to December, I never
6:29
Speaker 1: really considered how the weather affected dear movement. I would consider,
6:33
Speaker 1: like how really cold weather or snow or wind would
6:37
Speaker 1: affect me as a hunter and like being comfortable out there.
6:40
Speaker 1: But until I heard you and a lot of other
6:42
Speaker 1: guys start talking about um warm spells and cold fronts
6:46
Speaker 1: and precipitation come December, I never really considered how that
6:51
Speaker 1: can play a part in the set up for a haunt,
6:53
Speaker 1: and we do hear about that this week, and you
6:55
Speaker 1: just covered it on the Meat Eatior dot com. So
6:58
Speaker 1: give us a quick overview on like what is good
7:00
Speaker 1: weather in bad weather for late season? Yeah, so there's
7:03
Speaker 1: this article. I think we titled it something like how
7:06
Speaker 1: late season weather impacts deer movement or something along those lines.
7:09
Speaker 1: Basic just being right. At this point in the year,
7:12
Speaker 1: these deer have been hunted for months. They're extremely weary,
7:15
Speaker 1: they're sick and tired of humans hunters badgering them all
7:20
Speaker 1: the time. So these deer are reluctant to move, especially
7:22
Speaker 1: mature bucks. So at this time, the way I look
7:25
Speaker 1: at things is that you have to be extra careful
7:26
Speaker 1: about when you go in there and apply hunting pressure
7:28
Speaker 1: because any mistake you make, and this is true any
7:31
Speaker 1: time of year, but even more so now given that
7:33
Speaker 1: worth at the end um any mistake you make could
7:37
Speaker 1: turn that buck nocturnal again, could keep him from ever
7:40
Speaker 1: giving you an opportunity. So I wait until the right
7:43
Speaker 1: conditions are present, which would be one of these late
7:45
Speaker 1: season fronts that will get those deer up on their
7:48
Speaker 1: feet earlier and for longer periods of time. So that's
7:50
Speaker 1: typically to come in the form of two things. Number one,
7:53
Speaker 1: a significant snow system. When you get a lot of
7:56
Speaker 1: precipitation that covers the ground and it puts deer down
7:59
Speaker 1: for a while. You've get this um oh, I don't
8:02
Speaker 1: know how you describe it. But when you've got a
8:04
Speaker 1: strong storm coming. This could be true with a rainstorm
8:07
Speaker 1: or a snow storm, but heavy precipitation, strong winds, that's
8:12
Speaker 1: going to usually slow movement down for a period of
8:14
Speaker 1: time around that actual event. Right, they don't want to
8:16
Speaker 1: be out moving as much in a big blizzard. They're
8:18
Speaker 1: gonna bed down through the worst of it. But as
8:20
Speaker 1: soon as it slows up, as soon as it dies
8:22
Speaker 1: down and that high pressure system moves through, usually the
8:26
Speaker 1: cloud cover might break, blue skies, high pressure, colder temperatures,
8:30
Speaker 1: and all that snow settled. All those deer all of
8:32
Speaker 1: a sudden on their feet, and there's this latent hunt. Right.
8:35
Speaker 1: They've been haven't been feeding for a while. Now they're hungry.
8:37
Speaker 1: They want to get after it. They want to start
8:39
Speaker 1: accruing some calories. So that's gonna get deer up on
8:43
Speaker 1: their feet and moving earlier as well as then the
8:45
Speaker 1: second thing, which hopefully comes with that, which is colder
8:48
Speaker 1: temperatures if you get a significant cold front. We talked
8:50
Speaker 1: about this all year, right, cold fronts make a difference,
8:54
Speaker 1: but especially in the late season, when you get a
8:56
Speaker 1: super duper arctic front pushing through where you're dropping down
8:59
Speaker 1: to maybe single digit temperatures or something, you might have
9:02
Speaker 1: that special circumstance with that one old buck in the area.
9:06
Speaker 1: Finally is like a damn it, I'm moving. It might
9:09
Speaker 1: be an hour before dark. I usually don't like to
9:11
Speaker 1: move until dark, but it's so cold I need I'm
9:14
Speaker 1: burdening a lot of calories to stay warm. I gotta
9:17
Speaker 1: get that food bag on. And you might have this
9:19
Speaker 1: special opportunity when those one of those two things happened. Um,
9:23
Speaker 1: So that's what I'm watching for. Of course, there's a
9:25
Speaker 1: whole lot of other things, Like you mentioned how snow
9:28
Speaker 1: and cold impact us as hunters, how it might impact
9:31
Speaker 1: your ability to scout. I mean, snow on the ground
9:34
Speaker 1: really changes the game. As far as the sign you
9:36
Speaker 1: can see, that's something else to think about. Um. But
9:39
Speaker 1: more than anything, I want to see those weather systems
9:41
Speaker 1: helping me choose the days to get out there and
9:44
Speaker 1: take those last few calculated strikes. Yeah, all good things
9:48
Speaker 1: to consider and all things that we'll talk about with
9:50
Speaker 1: our guests this week, who are Byron Horton from the
9:52
Speaker 1: White Tail Experience in Ohio. Then we go to Oklahoma
9:55
Speaker 1: and talk to Caleb Combs from Stewart Ranch Outfitters. Then
9:58
Speaker 1: we go to New Amshure and talked to Brett Joy
10:01
Speaker 1: from Real Tree c Bucks. And then we end with
10:03
Speaker 1: Josh Sparks and Iowa from Midwest White Tails and Brett Joy.
10:07
Speaker 1: We gotta we gotta mention here. You get a double
10:09
Speaker 1: dose of Brett Joy this week because he just had
10:13
Speaker 1: a hell of a hunt, had some really um I
10:18
Speaker 1: don't know how you describe that whole lot of different factors,
10:21
Speaker 1: many years of work came together leading to an incredible
10:27
Speaker 1: late season buck over there in New Hampshire. So we're
10:29
Speaker 1: gonna hear from him a little bit today as he
10:31
Speaker 1: talks about the activity he's seeing in a little bit
10:34
Speaker 1: of what led to his success. And then tomorrow on
10:36
Speaker 1: the main Wired Hunt episode, you get the deep dive
10:39
Speaker 1: with Brett. I brought him on the main episode of
10:41
Speaker 1: the podcast to go through his story in detail. This
10:44
Speaker 1: this four year story in detail. Break it all down
10:47
Speaker 1: and how he eventually did kill a mid December, big old,
10:52
Speaker 1: mature white tail buck in the mountains of New Hampshire. Mean,
10:54
Speaker 1: it's a cool story. We talked about that, and then
10:56
Speaker 1: we talked about some other ideas when it comes to
10:58
Speaker 1: late season hunting. Um to help everybody, myself included, I'm
11:02
Speaker 1: still trying to kill my laces and buck um to
11:04
Speaker 1: help us all get those final ideas. Um, those final
11:09
Speaker 1: ideas for the final days. That's what That's where we're at. Spencer.
11:12
Speaker 1: Do you feel at this point in the year any
11:16
Speaker 1: sense of sadness that the season is closing up or
11:22
Speaker 1: any sense of remorse that it slipped through your fingers
11:25
Speaker 1: and you didn't get you didn't squeeze every last little
11:28
Speaker 1: bit of juice out of the orange of the hunting season,
11:30
Speaker 1: or do you feel like you got it all, you
11:33
Speaker 1: soaked it all? And where are you at right now? Yeah?
11:35
Speaker 1: I think this year is no different than other ones
11:37
Speaker 1: that I'm typically not satisfied come mid December, and then
11:42
Speaker 1: I'm already looking forward. What can I do different? Um?
11:47
Speaker 1: Where can I pick up additional tags, how can I
11:49
Speaker 1: plan better? All that sort of stuff. So I think
11:52
Speaker 1: even if I had killed ten bucks this year, all
11:55
Speaker 1: poping Young and Bud and Crockett. I'd still be like,
11:57
Speaker 1: damn it, I want it to be next fall right now,
12:01
Speaker 1: I want more. Yep. Well, soon here, we're gonna do
12:03
Speaker 1: a wrap up episode on Refresh Radio. I'm not exactly
12:06
Speaker 1: sure which week we're gonna do that, but soon, and
12:09
Speaker 1: I'm gonna grill you a little bit more on your
12:11
Speaker 1: year and your thoughts and and mostly just how irritated
12:14
Speaker 1: I am with you for you not white Tail anymore. Um,
12:17
Speaker 1: but we'll say that for a later days we'll talk
12:19
Speaker 1: to you that. Let's do it alright. And joining us
12:22
Speaker 1: on the line first is Byron Horton from white Tail
12:25
Speaker 1: Experience in Ohio. Now, Byron in Ohio, what would you
12:28
Speaker 1: say the bucket activities been lately on a scale of
12:30
Speaker 1: one to ten, So I would say we're at a
12:34
Speaker 1: solid too right now as far as buck activity in Ohio.
12:37
Speaker 1: And that's mainly due to we are at max hunting pressure.
12:41
Speaker 1: We just wrapped up our our gun season week and uh,
12:45
Speaker 1: you know, especially here on the public land, we hunt
12:48
Speaker 1: a lot of drives that have occurred, a lot of
12:51
Speaker 1: people in the woods, and it just seems like right now,
12:55
Speaker 1: it is a very difficult task to get a buck
12:58
Speaker 1: on the ground if you're trying to to shout the
13:00
Speaker 1: season and fill the tag. What are you looking for
13:02
Speaker 1: then on public land? To account for that pressure, Yeah,
13:06
Speaker 1: a couple of things you've got to consider, Uh is
13:09
Speaker 1: actually like rabbit hunting pressure. Rabbit hunters kind of start
13:12
Speaker 1: hitting the oh, the timber, the farmland country, and we
13:17
Speaker 1: kind of concentrate on areas that can hold deer late
13:21
Speaker 1: in the year, um, whether that be oh, southern facing
13:24
Speaker 1: betting areas, um brows, because then they can you know,
13:29
Speaker 1: feed while they're they're they're essentially close to betting. And uh,
13:34
Speaker 1: you know, you're you're looking for maybe a private food
13:38
Speaker 1: source that's next to a public land that's got the betting,
13:42
Speaker 1: and so you're trying to intercept those deer. You're looking
13:45
Speaker 1: for the most part, for any sort of food source
13:47
Speaker 1: that may may be you know, not harvested by a
13:50
Speaker 1: farmer or in big woods country, you know, it's the
13:53
Speaker 1: clear cuts. Those become very relevant and we kind of
13:56
Speaker 1: steered towards hunting big was just due to you don't
13:59
Speaker 1: have a rabbit hunter so much. How do you find
14:02
Speaker 1: where bucks are now betting sure those you know those bucks,
14:06
Speaker 1: you know they they they've definitely experienced some hunting pressure
14:08
Speaker 1: now and uh, you go from where you possibly have
14:12
Speaker 1: found sheds. We pulled some trail cameras that like have
14:16
Speaker 1: been out all archery season and so we just pulled
14:19
Speaker 1: one the other day that we were actually the only
14:21
Speaker 1: other hunters on camera and it was on a pretty oh,
14:24
Speaker 1: pretty obvious hunter route into the but it's a it's
14:27
Speaker 1: a section that's way far back in and if you're
14:30
Speaker 1: going to shoot a deer there, you've got to either
14:31
Speaker 1: have a team or pack a deer out. Um. So
14:34
Speaker 1: that's something we'll key in on. Uh, if you do
14:37
Speaker 1: your homework after a fresh snow, tracks can can come
14:40
Speaker 1: into play if you've got that skill set. Um. I
14:43
Speaker 1: won't say we're we're the Joe Elsing or guys of tracking,
14:47
Speaker 1: but that's a skill set we're looking you know, we've
14:49
Speaker 1: kind of improved upon over the last few years. Um,
14:52
Speaker 1: So that's something to consider as well. What would you
14:54
Speaker 1: consider to be ideal whether for deer hunters in December. Oh,
15:00
Speaker 1: let's see her, how I got to have some sort
15:02
Speaker 1: of a cold front. Actually, we don't have much in
15:05
Speaker 1: the in the forecast. But give me a cold front,
15:08
Speaker 1: northerly winds. Uh, maybe a day that where is the
15:11
Speaker 1: temperature starts in the morning and never really climbs high
15:14
Speaker 1: and kind of continually drops once you get into the afternoon.
15:18
Speaker 1: Um through the evening hours. Um too. Now it's scouting
15:23
Speaker 1: and scouting and then just timing that drone strike and
15:26
Speaker 1: hope you get a lucky To be honest, when you're
15:28
Speaker 1: trying to relocate bucks this time of year, are you
15:31
Speaker 1: looking for rubs and scrapes at all? You know, rubs
15:34
Speaker 1: scrapes not so much a huge factor. I do know
15:37
Speaker 1: of a few scrapes that kind of popped up what
15:39
Speaker 1: I'll call like late November into December. At this point, UM,
15:43
Speaker 1: I'm not so much concerned on that second runt, just
15:46
Speaker 1: because our gun season here in Ohio falls right in
15:49
Speaker 1: that first week of December. Um. If I can recall
15:52
Speaker 1: path hunting expenses. UM, I have seen some third rut
15:56
Speaker 1: type action once we kind of get to that first
15:58
Speaker 1: week at January when our mother the letter season picks up. Um.
16:02
Speaker 1: But yeah, right now, I'm not looking at any sort
16:04
Speaker 1: of rud sign in my tactic. It's brows it's foods,
16:08
Speaker 1: it's it's snow tracks. That's what that's way more valuable
16:11
Speaker 1: mean or visual sightings. Obviously you briefly touch on trail
16:14
Speaker 1: cameras earlier. Where are you running those trail cameras that
16:17
Speaker 1: in mid December? So right now I think, yeah, probably
16:22
Speaker 1: of our trail cameras have been pulled. We try to
16:24
Speaker 1: get those out of the woods for that gun week.
16:27
Speaker 1: Now is it's a matter of redeploy and uh, you know,
16:31
Speaker 1: we'll use any sort of late season food source, uh
16:34
Speaker 1: if we can or um, two of us have tagged out,
16:38
Speaker 1: we may actually deploy some cameras and some areas that
16:41
Speaker 1: we're kind of curious about for next season. Um. And
16:44
Speaker 1: obviously those turn up a buck grade. Um, so it's
16:47
Speaker 1: probably a fifties fifty split. And like I will use
16:50
Speaker 1: oh if I do find late season food sources, occasionally
16:54
Speaker 1: I will go back to scrapes or any sort of
16:56
Speaker 1: like creek crossing, uh, something that really funnels deer. And
17:00
Speaker 1: if I get snow on the ground, that's that's when
17:02
Speaker 1: I'm gonna at least hold it, hold at least oh
17:05
Speaker 1: camera two for for if if that aligns, because I
17:09
Speaker 1: can I can see what's going on there and attract
17:12
Speaker 1: a quality track then allows me to throw that camera
17:14
Speaker 1: on a higher percentage area going forward. Then in the
17:18
Speaker 1: six week or so, what do you think that bucket
17:19
Speaker 1: activity is going to be on a scale of one
17:21
Speaker 1: to tend in Ohio, I think this is the toughest
17:25
Speaker 1: time to use. I don't see it knowing what. Whether
17:27
Speaker 1: we've got here for the next week, you're still two
17:30
Speaker 1: to Yeah, you're still two on public land. Um, we've
17:34
Speaker 1: got two weeks till another fun run and then picks up. Um.
17:37
Speaker 1: These deer traditionally, based on on on kind of past experience,
17:41
Speaker 1: they don't really get to daylight active um until end
17:46
Speaker 1: of December starting into January. Um, we we do have
17:50
Speaker 1: a muzzleloader season, but there doesn't seem to be as
17:52
Speaker 1: much hunting pressure with that. UM. So so this this
17:55
Speaker 1: is a tough time and I'm gonna give it a
17:57
Speaker 1: two max I Byron, I hope you're pasted. Is um
18:00
Speaker 1: is wrong? Good luck and thanks for joining me. Thank
18:03
Speaker 1: spensor all right and joining us online. Next is Caleb
18:06
Speaker 1: Combs in Oklahoma from Stewart Ranch Outfitters. Now, Caleb in Oklahoma,
18:11
Speaker 1: what would you say the buck activities been lately. On
18:13
Speaker 1: a scale of one to ten, I would say about Nate, Uh,
18:16
Speaker 1: this is one of my favorite times. Two hunts of
18:19
Speaker 1: the year. I like everything pre rut, you post rut,
18:23
Speaker 1: and so I'm always optimistic about the time of the year.
18:27
Speaker 1: But also I went Friday and Sunday and I saw
18:32
Speaker 1: good bucks both times. Some were still chasing dose and heat,
18:35
Speaker 1: and some were back on food sources that look like them.
18:39
Speaker 1: I mean as far as they didn't have any interest
18:41
Speaker 1: in rud activities, that didn't appear to me. But I
18:44
Speaker 1: like the mixture, the combination of both. You can get
18:47
Speaker 1: them a couple different ways this time of year. As
18:49
Speaker 1: far as food sources go, what your deer hunters in
18:52
Speaker 1: Oklahoma be focused on right now? The late season, I'm
18:55
Speaker 1: always focused on acorns, whatever's left, specifically red red oaks
19:00
Speaker 1: late season, and then anything green so that's not dry,
19:04
Speaker 1: you know, not dry forwards. But if you can find
19:07
Speaker 1: a good food plot or good agriculture that's still growing,
19:11
Speaker 1: that's preferred to me. You said that you saw a
19:13
Speaker 1: little bit of chasing the other day. This time of year,
19:15
Speaker 1: do you expect to find any sidemaking and have you
19:17
Speaker 1: been seeing any this season. Yes, I mean it's still
19:20
Speaker 1: out there. They're definitely still making scrapes. I saw several
19:23
Speaker 1: bucks hit in the same scrapes Friday and then last
19:27
Speaker 1: week as well, So I still look at scrapes. I'm
19:30
Speaker 1: just not as focused on them. It's almost always food
19:33
Speaker 1: for me, food and then if you just happen to
19:37
Speaker 1: get on the couple of hot dogs that are left.
19:39
Speaker 1: But I kind of moved further away from rods and scrapes.
19:42
Speaker 1: I still watch them, just especially with cameras. I just
19:44
Speaker 1: don't hut them as hard because I don't expect them
19:46
Speaker 1: to produce that much. If I would have talked to
19:48
Speaker 1: you a month ago, I know you would have been
19:50
Speaker 1: looking for cold fronts. Are you still looking for cold fronts?
19:53
Speaker 1: This to have a your or just weather play less
19:54
Speaker 1: of a factor now. I mean, if if it's colder,
19:57
Speaker 1: I will assume they're up and they're eating more. But
20:00
Speaker 1: if it's just not hot, if it's real hot, it's
20:03
Speaker 1: less attractive. But if it's normal a tempts and lower
20:06
Speaker 1: than I'm good from there. With this being one of
20:09
Speaker 1: your favorite times of year to kill a mature buck,
20:11
Speaker 1: where are you running your trail cameras? At my trail
20:15
Speaker 1: cameras are still I pretty much leave them on scrapes
20:17
Speaker 1: all year. Uh. But then I I do leave on
20:21
Speaker 1: food horses as well, But food horses I try to
20:24
Speaker 1: leave in the same places all year long, so my
20:26
Speaker 1: cameras don't adjust based on the time of the year.
20:29
Speaker 1: I just if I need more cameras, I buy more cameras,
20:32
Speaker 1: but I leave in the same places all year long.
20:34
Speaker 1: I would like to just see the patterns more than
20:36
Speaker 1: the patterns on what I had left year. Wife in Oklahoma,
20:39
Speaker 1: do you find that there's a shift in bedding come
20:42
Speaker 1: late season? I would say no, but I had a
20:45
Speaker 1: lot of areas of low pressure. I usually try not
20:48
Speaker 1: to go to my places rifle season. I'll skip rifle
20:53
Speaker 1: season half the time after years, which sounds crazy. Half
20:55
Speaker 1: the years, uh, and then I'll just let them move in.
20:58
Speaker 1: But on most of our bedding days same. It's pretty
21:01
Speaker 1: hide population as far as books are concerned. So the
21:04
Speaker 1: good betting areas remain good. They're almost always pretty consistent.
21:09
Speaker 1: They might lay down more and random areas, but you
21:11
Speaker 1: know through the nine but the key the key places
21:14
Speaker 1: are always the same. Are you concerned with moon phases
21:17
Speaker 1: at all? This time of year. I'm not I don't.
21:20
Speaker 1: I don't pay a lot of attention to the moon.
21:22
Speaker 1: I mean a little bit, uh, a little bit, not
21:26
Speaker 1: not that much. It doesn't usually affect me. If I
21:28
Speaker 1: can go, I go. I'm not gonna not go because
21:31
Speaker 1: of the mood, whether it be more important, and definitely
21:33
Speaker 1: having food is really important going forward. Then in the
21:36
Speaker 1: sex week or so, what do you think that buck
21:38
Speaker 1: activity is going to be on a scale of one
21:40
Speaker 1: to tending Oklahoma, I'm forever optimistic, so still like seven,
21:44
Speaker 1: seven eight. If you're on good food sources, if you
21:47
Speaker 1: have food plots that didn't get hammered, and you have
21:50
Speaker 1: some food left, I think you'll be very successful. Our Kale,
21:53
Speaker 1: congrats on the great buck this year. Thanks for joining me.
21:56
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Thank you all right in joining us online.
21:59
Speaker 1: Neck in New Hampshire is Brett Joy from Real Tree
22:02
Speaker 1: Sea Bucks now Brett in New Hampshire. What would you
22:05
Speaker 1: say the bucket activity has been lately on the scale
22:07
Speaker 1: one to ten, I'd say it's been pretty variable day
22:11
Speaker 1: to day, but probably five or six. You know, there's
22:14
Speaker 1: a lot of factors going on that now are done.
22:17
Speaker 1: Season actually just ended, so there's been a lot of
22:20
Speaker 1: pressing in the woods the last six weeks or so,
22:23
Speaker 1: five or six weeks. Um, we've got a lot of
22:27
Speaker 1: we just had a big snow event. Um, it's been cold,
22:31
Speaker 1: and we've got rain. Um, food storess are changing. Um,
22:36
Speaker 1: and uh, you have some late red activity occurring as well.
22:40
Speaker 1: So there's just kind of a mixed bags of different
22:42
Speaker 1: factors that really affecting that activity. I'd say overall it's
22:46
Speaker 1: pretty decent. Um, you know, nothing like it was maybe
22:50
Speaker 1: two or three weeks ago, but um, it's uh, it's
22:53
Speaker 1: pretty good. I mean, you can definitely have some luck
22:55
Speaker 1: out there. There's some bucks moving around daylight. Um. No,
22:59
Speaker 1: it really depends on your situation and where you're hunting
23:01
Speaker 1: and with the food sources, and you know, if there's
23:04
Speaker 1: late does or you know whatever. So there's a lot
23:07
Speaker 1: that goes in up. Let's say, overall, it's it's pretty good.
23:09
Speaker 1: You just killed a big mature buck on Saturday. Tell
23:12
Speaker 1: us a little bit about that set. Yeah, So that
23:14
Speaker 1: was an interesting one that was never been after for
23:16
Speaker 1: a number of years and was after really hard during
23:19
Speaker 1: the rut um and he actually shifted into an area
23:22
Speaker 1: I believe that he was in because um, it's preferred
23:25
Speaker 1: a winning habitat. Uh. You know, it's gets pretty cold
23:29
Speaker 1: up here and we have love snow, had a lot
23:31
Speaker 1: of snow. It's well melping now. But um, you kind
23:34
Speaker 1: of moved into an area where I think there's some
23:37
Speaker 1: good brows, good thermal cover. Um it's a little more
23:40
Speaker 1: protected area and um, I know there's a number of
23:43
Speaker 1: those in there. So he was kind of hanging out
23:45
Speaker 1: down there. I was lucky enough to get a blanket
23:48
Speaker 1: of fresh snow and went in to check some cameras
23:51
Speaker 1: and actually get walked by my camera. You know, after
23:55
Speaker 1: that snow a couple of hours before, So I had
23:57
Speaker 1: this fresh track, had plenty of mountain of stuff and
24:01
Speaker 1: and big woods chaseman. So got on his track and
24:05
Speaker 1: it took me about four miles and five hours, but
24:07
Speaker 1: ended up catch up with him and killing him. Is
24:09
Speaker 1: that a common tactic for you this time of year?
24:13
Speaker 1: For me, it's someone common for for this area, It's
24:16
Speaker 1: very common. It's probably the most effective tactic for a
24:19
Speaker 1: late season that you know you can have whenever you
24:22
Speaker 1: have an opportunity to track and get fresh snow. In
24:25
Speaker 1: New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont or you know, really in the
24:28
Speaker 1: northeast of the Big Woods. Uh, you can be really effective, um,
24:31
Speaker 1: you know tracking down these bucks. If you have sorting
24:34
Speaker 1: of idea sort of an idea of what you're doing. UM,
24:37
Speaker 1: you know you can have you can at least be,
24:39
Speaker 1: you know, in the game, whereas you may not be
24:41
Speaker 1: if you don't have that snow. UM. So yeah, I
24:43
Speaker 1: would say it's pretty common. You talked about how that
24:46
Speaker 1: buck and moved into a sort of wintering range. Tell
24:49
Speaker 1: us a little bit more about what you're looking for
24:51
Speaker 1: embedding in mid December. Yeah, so the number one thing
24:55
Speaker 1: is low process. So really haven't been um, haven't had
24:58
Speaker 1: a lot of pressure in the Big Woods. That may
25:01
Speaker 1: not be as big a factor. If there's not much pressure,
25:03
Speaker 1: if you're maybe in the suburban type area, a lot
25:06
Speaker 1: of times will actually hang out and protected areas like
25:09
Speaker 1: with no hunting or even like behind neighborhoods stuff like that. UM,
25:13
Speaker 1: as far as habitat goes, UM, good brows is big
25:17
Speaker 1: if there either hasn't been much mass crop um, so
25:22
Speaker 1: areas that have been locked obviously really growing with that
25:24
Speaker 1: type of thing. UM. And then obviously a mass crop
25:28
Speaker 1: acorns and apples are a big big factors. Still there's
25:31
Speaker 1: still some left on the ground if you're in areas
25:33
Speaker 1: heavy with those types of trees. UM. And the last
25:36
Speaker 1: thing is really um conifers, So that's a huge, huge
25:40
Speaker 1: deal in the Northeast, especially in Hampshire. UM. These wintering
25:44
Speaker 1: habitats are critical for the deer. So UM. You know,
25:47
Speaker 1: if you can find a stand of mature spruce or
25:51
Speaker 1: refers or white pine or really hemlocks, this is the
25:56
Speaker 1: biggest one. UM. Those deer really start to gravitate towards
25:59
Speaker 1: those are is because it gives them great thermal cover. UM.
26:02
Speaker 1: The snow depths aren't as deep, and they actually do
26:04
Speaker 1: brows on that stuff pretty heavily because we just don't
26:06
Speaker 1: really have much for quality food sources this time year.
26:09
Speaker 1: Back real quick to tracking a buck through the snow.
26:11
Speaker 1: At what point did you give up on a set
26:14
Speaker 1: of tracks? I would say when he goes into an
26:18
Speaker 1: area you can't hunt, which most of the time that
26:21
Speaker 1: doesn't happen if you're tracking, because you usually are trying
26:24
Speaker 1: to track in areas where you have thousands of egers thrown,
26:27
Speaker 1: I'd say it gets dark or you kill them. That's
26:31
Speaker 1: those are would be the things. I mean, you can
26:34
Speaker 1: really pursue when it comes to tracking. And I'm not
26:36
Speaker 1: an expert tracking my any means, let's say I'm, like
26:38
Speaker 1: I said, enough to be maybe maybe would be a
26:41
Speaker 1: little dangerous. But um, all the the expert trackers that
26:45
Speaker 1: i've I've talked to you all say persistence is what
26:47
Speaker 1: gets it done, just staying on that track. I know. Um,
26:52
Speaker 1: for example, and I talked to you, uh my budget
26:55
Speaker 1: of films hell Blood is a very well known tracker
26:57
Speaker 1: and main and he actually tracked a buck two differ days,
27:00
Speaker 1: tracked him all day one day for a number of miles,
27:02
Speaker 1: and then got on that buck the next morning and
27:04
Speaker 1: tracked him the whole rest of They ended up killing
27:06
Speaker 1: him and he bumped him, you know, a handful half
27:09
Speaker 1: dozen times in those two days. So persistence is deadly
27:12
Speaker 1: when it comes to tracking. And are you sometimes tracking
27:15
Speaker 1: a group of deer or is it often where you're
27:17
Speaker 1: just tracking a single fuck? Um? You know it's it's
27:22
Speaker 1: much more challenging tracking a group of year, especially if
27:24
Speaker 1: snow conditions an ideal. Um, it can be confusing trying
27:28
Speaker 1: to figure out what track you're on and keeping track.
27:31
Speaker 1: Actually on Saturday, when I tracked my buck he was
27:33
Speaker 1: on with some does or was swallowing some dough tracks
27:35
Speaker 1: and I actually lost his track for a period of
27:37
Speaker 1: time and had to backtrack and see where you left.
27:39
Speaker 1: So it could be more challenging. I think at the
27:41
Speaker 1: best scenario is a buck by himself. Um it's maybe
27:45
Speaker 1: his done slicing dose and it's maybe looking at bed
27:48
Speaker 1: or just browsed around. That's probably the best situation. It's
27:50
Speaker 1: really difficult when they're on the looking for dose and
27:53
Speaker 1: covering on the ground or with dose chasing them so um,
27:58
Speaker 1: you know. And then when you finally get up the animal,
28:00
Speaker 1: if he's got three or four does, there's that much
28:02
Speaker 1: more chance you're gonna get busted before you get a
28:04
Speaker 1: shot at the bucket. After going forward, Then in the
28:07
Speaker 1: next week or so, what do you think that bucket
28:08
Speaker 1: activity is going to be on a scale of one
28:10
Speaker 1: to ten in New Hampshire, I'd say it's probably gonna
28:14
Speaker 1: stay pretty consistent, maybe a five or six. You know,
28:16
Speaker 1: see far is a good activity some days depending on
28:19
Speaker 1: like you said, all those factors um based on pressure, food, weather, um,
28:24
Speaker 1: and some late does or maybe even early um, you know,
28:27
Speaker 1: near links coming in so I'd say it's gonna stay
28:29
Speaker 1: pretty good. Um, definitely, uh, definitely a good time to
28:33
Speaker 1: be in the woods and and keep at it. Our
28:36
Speaker 1: riful seasons over, but we have another week of both season,
28:38
Speaker 1: so I think it's definitely worth, you know, spending some
28:41
Speaker 1: time if you have it all right, Brett will congrats
28:43
Speaker 1: again on the awesome dear, thanks for joining me. Thank you.
28:46
Speaker 1: Thanks Spencer all right and joining us on the line.
28:49
Speaker 1: Next from Iowa is Josh Sparks with Midwest White Tails. Now,
28:53
Speaker 1: Josh in Iowa, what would you say the bucket activity
28:55
Speaker 1: has been lately on a scale of one to ten
28:58
Speaker 1: on a scale wanted say? Then, I'm gonna go with
29:01
Speaker 1: a five. I'm just gonna attribute that to the fact
29:04
Speaker 1: that we've got some colder temperatures than we had the
29:08
Speaker 1: previous few weeks. So if you're hunting over food, um,
29:12
Speaker 1: and that's what we did on the tail end of
29:14
Speaker 1: the bow season, we had some pretty good encounters. Um.
29:17
Speaker 1: We ended up seeing on our last time of the
29:19
Speaker 1: year four different mature bucks. But the upcoming weather not
29:24
Speaker 1: looking so great. So replacing that weather, what kind of
29:27
Speaker 1: weather is ideal this time of year? Um, particularly where
29:31
Speaker 1: we're at we're hoping to get some snow, you know,
29:34
Speaker 1: just forcing this deer to feed a little bit more
29:37
Speaker 1: concentrated than they are right now. If we can get
29:41
Speaker 1: you know, a couple inches of snow, it'll really force
29:44
Speaker 1: these deer to go through the corn that we've got
29:46
Speaker 1: on this particular property. Um, there are some standing beans,
29:50
Speaker 1: but more or less there's just so much brows and
29:53
Speaker 1: when we don't have that snow, it's hard to concentrate
29:55
Speaker 1: them down to those particular spots. Do you notice the
29:58
Speaker 1: shift in the bedding for bucks and I all this
30:00
Speaker 1: time of year? Yeah, Um, at least again I'm resting
30:04
Speaker 1: this farm, we started to notice a lot more south
30:08
Speaker 1: facing ridge betting um, particularly just to stay out of
30:12
Speaker 1: was cold north winds. And on this farm there's a
30:16
Speaker 1: lot of CRP and those south facing slopes. Um, so
30:19
Speaker 1: it just offers good thermal cover. Um. It's kind of
30:22
Speaker 1: a shift more or less from the hardwoods to those
30:24
Speaker 1: areas of what we can see down here. I know
30:27
Speaker 1: you're just out checking trail cameras where your cameras focused
30:30
Speaker 1: at in early December. Uh Forrette, Now, that's what I've
30:34
Speaker 1: been doing today is actually moving them around and we're
30:36
Speaker 1: taking most of them off of all the scrapes that
30:38
Speaker 1: we had you know, October November, and we're putting them
30:41
Speaker 1: on most of mostly on trails going out to these fields.
30:44
Speaker 1: I was just talking about, Um, the biggest thing. We're
30:47
Speaker 1: trying to figure out where they're entering the food plots
30:50
Speaker 1: and then uh kind of basing that where we should
30:53
Speaker 1: set up the blinds or if we need to hang
30:55
Speaker 1: its hands. Did any of those scrapes have some recent activity? Yeah, no,
31:00
Speaker 1: when I was checking in the day, I mean it's definitely,
31:03
Speaker 1: you know, not like it was in November, but there
31:05
Speaker 1: are some younger bucks and does and then one of
31:09
Speaker 1: the bucks that we are hunting was on the great
31:11
Speaker 1: But it's not nearly as frequent for sure. How do
31:14
Speaker 1: you account for gun hunting pressure in a state like Iowa?
31:17
Speaker 1: For Iowa, UM, I think that's a pretty selective answer.
31:21
Speaker 1: You know, right where I'm at, gun hunting is pretty minimal.
31:24
Speaker 1: Most of the guys around here and waiting for the
31:26
Speaker 1: late muzzleoader seasons. Um. But I do know quite a
31:29
Speaker 1: few buddies that do face the shotgun pressure dilemma and
31:34
Speaker 1: a lot of their dear you know, getting ran because
31:36
Speaker 1: you can party hunt in Iowa, So that's a pretty
31:39
Speaker 1: popular thing. Um with pushing gear. So I think it
31:43
Speaker 1: can definitely be impactful, there's no doubt. But if you
31:47
Speaker 1: do have a farm where you don't pressure it, I
31:49
Speaker 1: think you can also you know, pick ups some deer
31:53
Speaker 1: from around your neighbors if they know that they're not
31:55
Speaker 1: going to get ran out on that piece of property.
31:58
Speaker 1: You mentioned that there's still some standing beans around earlier.
32:01
Speaker 1: A lot of the Midwest had a late harvest this year.
32:03
Speaker 1: But are you seeing that there's still a lot of
32:04
Speaker 1: standing crops in Iowa? Generally speaking, No, from what I've seen,
32:09
Speaker 1: most of everything's gotten taken out. Any standing food now,
32:12
Speaker 1: I would assume is purposeful for the use of you know,
32:15
Speaker 1: food plas and hunting. Most of the guys that I
32:18
Speaker 1: know that are farmers, we're able to get everything out.
32:21
Speaker 1: It was late, for sure, but they were able to.
32:25
Speaker 1: Have you been seeing any secondary running, Um, Yeah, I mean,
32:28
Speaker 1: like I mentioned, um when we sat that last day,
32:33
Speaker 1: I would have been December fifth, I believe we did
32:36
Speaker 1: see two of those mature bucks were bumping the does
32:39
Speaker 1: that we're in the plot, Um the does. Definitely, we're
32:44
Speaker 1: not having anything to do with it, and the Bucks
32:46
Speaker 1: gave up pretty easily. But I think, you know, looking
32:49
Speaker 1: for that last dough is definitely still on their mind,
32:52
Speaker 1: and you know that's the biggest thing too. We were
32:54
Speaker 1: thinking concentrated around food. Maybe we do get that last
32:58
Speaker 1: hot there, and if we don't, at least the Bucks
33:00
Speaker 1: will be thinking the same thing going forward. Then in
33:03
Speaker 1: the next week or so, what do you think that
33:05
Speaker 1: bucket TV is going to be on a scale one
33:07
Speaker 1: attendant Iowa. Um, on a scale one tendant Iowa. We
33:11
Speaker 1: do have some pretty cold attempts. Obviously, if you're shotgun hunting,
33:15
Speaker 1: who knows what it's gonna be like, you're gonna be
33:17
Speaker 1: driving everything around there. But I would say generally still
33:21
Speaker 1: around that four to five mark. Um, if you're you know,
33:25
Speaker 1: hunting over food, you've got a good shot. But really
33:29
Speaker 1: really looking forward to having some spell on the ground,
33:31
Speaker 1: hopefully within the next month. All right, Joshua, hope you
33:34
Speaker 1: get that weather you're looking for. Good luck and next
33:36
Speaker 1: for joining me, yes, sir, appreciate it.