Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 326: Rut Fresh Radio 12/19/19

Transcript

Ep. 326: Rut Fresh Radio 12/19/19 · 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 three
0:19
Speaker 1: six and today we're back for our last rout Fresh
0:22
Speaker 1: radio episode of the year, in which we're getting the
0:24
Speaker 1: latest intel and insight on current deer activity and the
0:28
Speaker 1: tactics you can be using right now to fill that
0:31
Speaker 1: late season tag. All right, welcome to the Wired to
0:46
Speaker 1: Hunt podcast, brought to you by Onyx. We are here
0:49
Speaker 1: for our last Rout Fresh radio episode of I know
0:55
Speaker 1: there's a couple of weeks left in the year for
0:58
Speaker 1: some of you. For for all of us, there's a
1:00
Speaker 1: couple of weeks left in the year. For some of us,
1:02
Speaker 1: they're still hunting season for something there's not um but
1:06
Speaker 1: we're gonna do here is as we do every week
1:08
Speaker 1: during the hunting season. We're going to hear from a
1:10
Speaker 1: group of hunters from across the country about current dear activity,
1:15
Speaker 1: about the conditions that are pushing right through now that
1:17
Speaker 1: are impacting dear activity and hunting, and some some very
1:21
Speaker 1: real time applicable ideas for how to get out there
1:25
Speaker 1: and fill tag. Um. I'm down to my final hunts
1:30
Speaker 1: run not time myself, so this kind of episode will
1:32
Speaker 1: be helpful for me. I'm looking for any new ideas
1:35
Speaker 1: I can get as I'm frantically desperately trying to kill
1:39
Speaker 1: my target buck this year in Michigan. UM, so I'm
1:42
Speaker 1: looking forward to this one. Spencer, do you have do
1:46
Speaker 1: you have any high level things off the top of
1:48
Speaker 1: you or mind that um stand out after chatting with
1:51
Speaker 1: our upcoming guests, or or where's your head at with
1:54
Speaker 1: all this man this time of year? It um feels
1:58
Speaker 1: like you could give the same advice as somebody would
2:01
Speaker 1: give during the rout, which is we say this often
2:04
Speaker 1: market We write this often on the Meat Eater dot com.
2:07
Speaker 1: But we always preach just like keep it simple. And
2:09
Speaker 1: if we were saying that during the rout, we'd be
2:11
Speaker 1: referring to hunting, travel corridors, hunting doll betting, stuff like that,
2:16
Speaker 1: hunting buck betting this time of year, though, I think
2:19
Speaker 1: if you were to tell someone to keep it simple,
2:21
Speaker 1: I would just mean to find the food and be
2:24
Speaker 1: there in the evenings when the deer want to pile
2:26
Speaker 1: into those places. And I think that is like the
2:29
Speaker 1: best advice I could give for these last few weeks
2:32
Speaker 1: of the season. Yeah, yeah, you're right. It doesn't it's
2:36
Speaker 1: not too complicated. But it's the execution of that is
2:40
Speaker 1: where the trick is, right, um, Because you could find
2:44
Speaker 1: the food, and you could hunt there in the evenings,
2:47
Speaker 1: and if you do it in a certain kind of
2:48
Speaker 1: way or at certain times, you might screw it up,
2:52
Speaker 1: you know, and and and not see the buck you're after,
2:54
Speaker 1: not see a buck or whatever kind of deer you're after. Um,
2:57
Speaker 1: you might not get that opportunity. So it always comes
2:59
Speaker 1: down to a little bit of you know, still playing
3:03
Speaker 1: it smart, still having a good exit route and entry route, um,
3:07
Speaker 1: knowing what the right food is. Um. So of course
3:11
Speaker 1: there are these little details, but you're right, it does
3:13
Speaker 1: come down to a couple basic foundational things, which in
3:17
Speaker 1: the late season usually revolves around those food sources. And
3:20
Speaker 1: if you know what they're hitting right now, there's some
3:22
Speaker 1: scouting or trail cameras or observation, um be there. So
3:28
Speaker 1: So here's the dilemma I've been debating there in my head.
3:32
Speaker 1: I'm curiously you think Spencer I I as as I've
3:38
Speaker 1: talked about often on this podcast. The spot where I'm
3:41
Speaker 1: hunting this one buck that I'm after, that deer I've
3:43
Speaker 1: been calling tran um. It's pretty limited. It's mostly just
3:46
Speaker 1: fields in a little bit of field edge and then
3:47
Speaker 1: a couple of little chunks of some cover. But oftentimes
3:51
Speaker 1: the bucks that I'm hunting are spending a lot of
3:53
Speaker 1: time on some neighboring properties in their cover, and I
3:57
Speaker 1: the closest I can get is like on the edge
3:58
Speaker 1: of the field, so I just hoping they're gonna pop out,
4:01
Speaker 1: and they occasionally do, so I keep on the debating.
4:05
Speaker 1: I can sit in the most likely entrance point to
4:09
Speaker 1: the food source on my property as close as I
4:11
Speaker 1: can possibly get to that betting era, and that's probably
4:14
Speaker 1: like the right spots, the best chance that the most
4:16
Speaker 1: you're going to come through. And sometimes the buckam after
4:19
Speaker 1: does pass either. So I'll do that and then he
4:23
Speaker 1: doesn't show up, and then the next day I'm thinking
4:26
Speaker 1: in my head, well, I could do the same thing again.
4:28
Speaker 1: But at the same time, as we talk about again,
4:30
Speaker 1: often the first hunt's always the best, and every time
4:33
Speaker 1: you hunt a spot it gets a little bit worse
4:35
Speaker 1: every time, and there's this desire to change it up.
4:39
Speaker 1: Go somewhere new, be mobile, hunt a new spot, surprise
4:42
Speaker 1: the deer um. So then I find myself thinking, all right,
4:45
Speaker 1: I gotta try something different, I gotta go somewhere different.
4:48
Speaker 1: And so I went to a new spot and I
4:50
Speaker 1: didn't see him there. And then you keep having this
4:54
Speaker 1: mental gymnastics going on where you're where. Sometimes I find
4:58
Speaker 1: myself overthinking things. One side of me saying, you got
5:02
Speaker 1: you something the different, go somewhere else, try something else.
5:05
Speaker 1: Then the other side of me, and this is what
5:06
Speaker 1: was going on in my head last night as I
5:08
Speaker 1: was heading out to hunt. The other side said, well,
5:11
Speaker 1: what if you hadn't hunted here before, or if you
5:14
Speaker 1: if none of these other things were going on, and
5:16
Speaker 1: you just had to simply say, based on current conditions
5:19
Speaker 1: and the wind and where you know deer are coming
5:22
Speaker 1: into the best food source around, where's the best place
5:25
Speaker 1: to be. And I would say, okay, well it's right
5:27
Speaker 1: here at this gap um, close to that betting year,
5:30
Speaker 1: right in the edge of that standing corn. Well, you
5:34
Speaker 1: hunted there once and then trend didn't show up, but
5:38
Speaker 1: you also didn't spook any deer that night, and your
5:40
Speaker 1: wind was great. No dear knew you were there. Um,
5:43
Speaker 1: you got picked up in the evening by a truck,
5:47
Speaker 1: so you didn't go walking across the field, So maybe
5:50
Speaker 1: your impact wasn't too noticeable. Maybe the Bucky were after
5:54
Speaker 1: wasn't even in the general zone that night. He just
5:56
Speaker 1: didn't happen to come through there. But maybe one out
5:59
Speaker 1: every four nights he will. So there's this other thing
6:02
Speaker 1: in my mind. This is maybe sometimes you just have
6:03
Speaker 1: to put your time in. If you find the right spot,
6:05
Speaker 1: hunt it right, but then you gotta give it some
6:08
Speaker 1: time because maybe it's the third day that he'll show up.
6:12
Speaker 1: But if you bounce to a new place every night,
6:15
Speaker 1: you'll never know that. So that's what I was sitting
6:18
Speaker 1: here thinking about yesterday as I was heading out to hunt,
6:20
Speaker 1: and I decided, you know what, this is gonna feel
6:23
Speaker 1: really stupid if I hunt the same spot over and
6:25
Speaker 1: over again. Um, but I have a bulletproof entry route,
6:29
Speaker 1: a bulletproof exit route, and great wind direction. If I
6:34
Speaker 1: put some time in here, I think eventually he will
6:37
Speaker 1: come out. So I'm I'm not gonna be fancy. I'm
6:39
Speaker 1: gonna keep it simple. I'm gonna hunt a simple, stupid
6:42
Speaker 1: field edge spot that's as close as I can get
6:44
Speaker 1: to the bedding area on my side of the line,
6:47
Speaker 1: and um, right there where I think he's going to
6:50
Speaker 1: come to the food. And so I did it, and
6:53
Speaker 1: he showed up last night and he came out, and
6:56
Speaker 1: I explained this on the upcoming main ups of the podcast,
6:58
Speaker 1: but I couldn't get a shot at him, but um,
7:01
Speaker 1: but it came really, really, really really close, And I
7:05
Speaker 1: think for me, it just was a reminder that we
7:08
Speaker 1: have to be careful not to outsmart ourselves. Sometimes you
7:12
Speaker 1: just have to put the time in when you're doing
7:14
Speaker 1: the right things. Sometimes you have to give that spot
7:16
Speaker 1: the right amount of time. Um. So that was a
7:19
Speaker 1: little less than I picked up this season that I'll
7:23
Speaker 1: think about probably the rest of the year and we'll
7:25
Speaker 1: see what it does for me next season. But I
7:28
Speaker 1: think I think you're right. I think we gotta be
7:31
Speaker 1: careful not to overcomplicate it. But like something though that
7:37
Speaker 1: I think people may be overlook this time of year
7:40
Speaker 1: is the value of scouting. And if you are somebody
7:43
Speaker 1: who's in college and has a Christmas break, or you
7:46
Speaker 1: work a job where they give you like between Christmas
7:49
Speaker 1: and New Year's off, and you're still trying to fill
7:51
Speaker 1: a tag. Uh, it can be really valuable to just
7:54
Speaker 1: like not hunt for a few evenings, to get out
7:56
Speaker 1: there and just glass and see everything that's going on.
7:59
Speaker 1: If you have some destination food source like pick corn
8:03
Speaker 1: or a food plot or hay bales or whatever that
8:06
Speaker 1: might look like for you, if you have five nights
8:10
Speaker 1: available to hunt, and I think if you put one
8:12
Speaker 1: or two of those towards scouting, just to figure out
8:14
Speaker 1: where these deer at and and look at the trails
8:17
Speaker 1: that the snow can help you decide on, it's going
8:20
Speaker 1: to make those last three hunts way more valuable than
8:23
Speaker 1: if you're just out there guessing and trying to adjust
8:25
Speaker 1: on the fly. And it sounds like Mark that it
8:28
Speaker 1: was all the scouting that you've had going into this
8:30
Speaker 1: haunt that almost allowed you to kill Tran there. Yes,
8:33
Speaker 1: you are two thousand percent right. Um. What I didn't
8:36
Speaker 1: tell you is that I had seen this buck will
8:40
Speaker 1: while glassing. I didn't hunt a few nights, and I
8:42
Speaker 1: was instead glassing from this hillside way off in the distance,
8:45
Speaker 1: and I saw him going through that betting year, heading
8:48
Speaker 1: south towards this spot near the cornfield. And if he
8:51
Speaker 1: continued on that path, he'd be coming out to the
8:53
Speaker 1: spot that I wanted to hunt. So that's why I
8:55
Speaker 1: felt so confident hunting there because I knew that, you know,
8:58
Speaker 1: I've seen him numerous times, not just those two times,
9:01
Speaker 1: but even earlier in the year. Um, I'd seen him
9:04
Speaker 1: taking that route, heading that direction, So I felt pretty
9:06
Speaker 1: confident that that that was where he had had some
9:10
Speaker 1: percentage of the time and I had the right conditions
9:13
Speaker 1: for So Yes, the scouting allowed me to have that
9:15
Speaker 1: confidence that I was in the right place and that
9:18
Speaker 1: I had to give it the time. If I didn't
9:19
Speaker 1: have that right then it's just a guessing game. Then
9:22
Speaker 1: you're blowing things up for no good reason. And that's
9:26
Speaker 1: that's where you gotta be careful. Don't sit somewhere randomly
9:29
Speaker 1: willy nilly and just hunt and hunt and hunt it
9:31
Speaker 1: for no good reason. But if you've got a good reason,
9:33
Speaker 1: and if you've got yourself the right exit and entry,
9:36
Speaker 1: and if you've got yourself a good place for your
9:37
Speaker 1: wind to blow and you're being smart about it, then yes,
9:41
Speaker 1: that's a well planned hunt. Still. Um So it's it's
9:46
Speaker 1: it's funny you get so involved in this and I
9:50
Speaker 1: think about so often that that you forget all these
9:55
Speaker 1: little steps that lead up to the ultimate decision of
9:59
Speaker 1: what you do on any given day or night, and
10:01
Speaker 1: it all kind of accrues like a snowball, day after day,
10:04
Speaker 1: year after year. Um, and then you just kind of
10:07
Speaker 1: forget that you're actually doing it. But I think that
10:10
Speaker 1: is the value and just thinking about this stuff a
10:13
Speaker 1: lot scouting a lot, hunting a lot. You might not
10:16
Speaker 1: kill buck this year, but you're gonna learn so much
10:19
Speaker 1: going through that process that next year will help you
10:21
Speaker 1: and year after year after year that eventually, you know,
10:24
Speaker 1: helps us find some success once in a while. Yeah.
10:27
Speaker 1: And besides your report from Mischigan this week, Mark, we
10:29
Speaker 1: talked to Philip Vanderpool in Arkansas from the Virtue TV.
10:33
Speaker 1: Did we go to Illinois and talk to Grant Oldenburg
10:35
Speaker 1: from Triple Threat Retrievers, And then in Virginia from the
10:38
Speaker 1: Urban Bowman, we talked to Taylor Chamberlain and then we
10:40
Speaker 1: talked to Nate Crick from Identical Draw in Kansas. Sounds
10:44
Speaker 1: like a good lineup. Um. I know big cult front
10:47
Speaker 1: just hit here in Michigan, so I'm feeling good about
10:50
Speaker 1: the next few days. Do you do we have some
10:52
Speaker 1: similar optimism for folks. Yeah, I think everyone kind of
10:56
Speaker 1: shares the same sentiment that if you have food and
10:58
Speaker 1: you wait for the right way they're being uh, you know,
11:01
Speaker 1: cold and maybe some snow that the deer are going
11:05
Speaker 1: to pile in there. And it's something that you've covered
11:07
Speaker 1: on the meat Eator dot com a few times, like
11:09
Speaker 1: what is the ideal late season weather pattern? Um, and
11:14
Speaker 1: we should have some of that on the way for
11:15
Speaker 1: parts of the country. Hey, speaking of the Mediator dot
11:19
Speaker 1: com and the articles that were writing over there. We also,
11:23
Speaker 1: as we've talked about in the past, we've got this
11:25
Speaker 1: hunt giveaway for uh. One lucky listener or viewer of
11:29
Speaker 1: the Back forty series can sign up to win a
11:32
Speaker 1: hunt with me and Steve Ronella on our Excuse me,
11:37
Speaker 1: I'm sitting over here drinking bubbly and burping. Uh. We
11:41
Speaker 1: have a hunt giveaway on the Back forty Farm with
11:43
Speaker 1: Steve and I for next year. That giveaway closes December.
11:49
Speaker 1: That's right, Spencer, correct. December I think is the last
11:53
Speaker 1: day to enter, and you can enter if you go
11:55
Speaker 1: to the meat eater dot com and you'll see a
11:58
Speaker 1: pop up where you can enter your email address and
12:01
Speaker 1: enter that competition or that that giveaway. I've got the
12:03
Speaker 1: details right, I think right. I'm trying to look them
12:06
Speaker 1: up now and I'll be able to confirm for you
12:09
Speaker 1: in one second year. I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure
12:12
Speaker 1: I'm I'm not a professional, but I'm an amateur. I
12:15
Speaker 1: don't even know what I'm trying to say. I'm not.
12:18
Speaker 1: I'm a professional bs er is what I'm trying to
12:20
Speaker 1: get it, and I think I b s those details correctly.
12:23
Speaker 1: The main point is it ends very very soon. So
12:26
Speaker 1: if you haven't signed up yet, go sign up right now. Yeah,
12:31
Speaker 1: that's that's right. I don't think we need to hear
12:32
Speaker 1: me ramble anymore give away coming up. Check it out
12:35
Speaker 1: on the mediator dot com. Otherwise, Spencer, I want to
12:39
Speaker 1: head out into the woods right now and try to
12:42
Speaker 1: wrap up this hunting season with a ball on top.
12:44
Speaker 1: And so you're good with taking it from here, I'll
12:47
Speaker 1: take it from here. And besides signing up for the hunt,
12:49
Speaker 1: go watch the latest episode of the Back forty Mark
12:52
Speaker 1: recovers the Wide eight. Uh. It's a super cool sixteen
12:56
Speaker 1: minute video. Uh. It's an awesome way to like put
12:59
Speaker 1: a bowl on the Back forty season. I know there's
13:01
Speaker 1: one more episode, but I felt like we have We've
13:04
Speaker 1: hit the climax. There, Go to YouTube, go to the
13:07
Speaker 1: meat Eater page, watch at least video. It's awesome. Yes,
13:10
Speaker 1: thank you Spencer, great points. Thank you everyone for going
13:13
Speaker 1: to watching that alright and joining us online. Next is
13:17
Speaker 1: Philip Vanderpool from the Virtue TV in Arkansas. Now, Philip
13:21
Speaker 1: in Arkansas, what would you say the bucket activity has
13:23
Speaker 1: been lateley on the scale one to ten, I would
13:26
Speaker 1: say about a five er sit. And the reason why
13:29
Speaker 1: I say that is we've had, uh, mainly a lot
13:32
Speaker 1: of warm weather and it seems like the activity has
13:36
Speaker 1: basically been nocturnal and when that's what I'm saying on
13:40
Speaker 1: my covert trail cameras right now, saying a lot of that,
13:43
Speaker 1: and we had such a mass crop for acres and stuff.
13:47
Speaker 1: They are still out there, They're not having to go
13:50
Speaker 1: far to get food. What would you say the ideal
13:53
Speaker 1: weather conditions are when deer hunting in Arkansas and December? Well, ideally,
13:59
Speaker 1: you know if cold, the cold of the weather, the
14:02
Speaker 1: bigger the buck and if you can stand the weather,
14:06
Speaker 1: and that's where the ground blinds usually play a play
14:08
Speaker 1: a huge park this time of year. Um, you get
14:12
Speaker 1: those high pressure days and bright sunny days with that
14:14
Speaker 1: cold winter, it just seems like it puts them on
14:17
Speaker 1: their feet more in the daylight. And that's so that's
14:20
Speaker 1: what we need. And when we get that, I think
14:22
Speaker 1: we're gonna be uh, you'll see activity. So we're up
14:25
Speaker 1: there for sure, and then they're gonna be checking for
14:28
Speaker 1: the last few days that that come in. Est was
14:31
Speaker 1: late this time of year as well. Besides acorns, what
14:34
Speaker 1: other food sources should hunters be focused on in Arkansas? Well,
14:39
Speaker 1: I mean, if you've got any any time you've got
14:43
Speaker 1: you know, obviously a food plot, you know, maybe some winter,
14:46
Speaker 1: we we don't have a lot of that where I'm at,
14:49
Speaker 1: um to be honest with you, but uh, brows, I
14:53
Speaker 1: love to hunt honeysuckles. If you can find a place
14:57
Speaker 1: that has a honey suckle thicket in there, they like
15:00
Speaker 1: that for brows. That's where they get their green and
15:03
Speaker 1: but any anything like that that that has some type
15:05
Speaker 1: of brows that they can get to, especially when the
15:08
Speaker 1: weather gets colder and the ground's frozen, harder to get to. Um.
15:12
Speaker 1: But that's that's what I would concentrate. And you know,
15:15
Speaker 1: the real feet state so a lot of the guys
15:17
Speaker 1: you know, obviously want to you know, probably throw out
15:20
Speaker 1: a little corn or a big tin is what I
15:23
Speaker 1: what I normally try to use up. And that's to
15:25
Speaker 1: get the doze in for sure, you know, and hopefully
15:28
Speaker 1: those bucks will come in and still you know, looking
15:30
Speaker 1: for a hot though it's hard to get a mature
15:32
Speaker 1: deer on a you know, a feed pile a lot
15:35
Speaker 1: of times. Uh. But that's that's what I recommend. But
15:38
Speaker 1: any time you can find a green something green that
15:42
Speaker 1: they can browse on really really works out this time
15:45
Speaker 1: of year. If you can find that. You mentioned trail
15:48
Speaker 1: cameras before. Where your trail camera is focused in mid
15:51
Speaker 1: to late December, well right now mid and late December.
15:56
Speaker 1: I've got them on crossings. I've got a lot of
15:59
Speaker 1: fence crossings, uh, where the ditches you know run down
16:03
Speaker 1: at the say, the head of a horror. That's that's
16:07
Speaker 1: our terminology where I'm playing at the head of the
16:09
Speaker 1: hollow there. But you know, places like that. And then obviously,
16:13
Speaker 1: if if you've got some showing piles out and stuff
16:15
Speaker 1: to kind of see what's going on because they may
16:18
Speaker 1: not be coming. Here's the thing. If if guys are feeding. Uh,
16:22
Speaker 1: you may not get that buck. He may be nocturnal,
16:25
Speaker 1: but if you can get a direction where he's coming from.
16:27
Speaker 1: And that's where the cobra trail cameras help me so much,
16:30
Speaker 1: is telling me what direction they're coming from. And then
16:33
Speaker 1: all you need to do is just moving a little
16:35
Speaker 1: closer to try to get him in the daylight. That's
16:37
Speaker 1: how you get on these big mature bucks. But if
16:40
Speaker 1: you can get a little food plot, I've got a
16:42
Speaker 1: buck brunch food plot. Uh, you know it's good for
16:44
Speaker 1: the late season right now and stuff there, and the
16:46
Speaker 1: deer are starting to get off the acrons a little
16:50
Speaker 1: bit and getting on that, so getting on the food plus,
16:53
Speaker 1: so I'm looking forward to seeing what I'm getting. I'm
16:55
Speaker 1: starting to get a little more activity on my trail
16:57
Speaker 1: cameras on that as well on my foot plots. Are
17:00
Speaker 1: you concerned with moon phases all late season? It can't
17:03
Speaker 1: affect you. But I'll tell you what I what I
17:06
Speaker 1: like to do, and and and and when you're going
17:09
Speaker 1: in late season. A lot of times I'll skip a
17:12
Speaker 1: morning just because I don't especially if it's a place
17:14
Speaker 1: I want to go back for the afternoon. I may
17:17
Speaker 1: skip the morning set, but get in there that nine
17:20
Speaker 1: thirty ten o'clock and go ahead and make all day
17:23
Speaker 1: set because a lot of times midday that sun pops
17:26
Speaker 1: out and if they've got a little you know, if
17:29
Speaker 1: if they're not bothered too much and pressured much, uh,
17:32
Speaker 1: you can get that midday activity. But usually the afternoons
17:36
Speaker 1: are way better when you're getting close close to the
17:39
Speaker 1: food sources. For sure, in a lot of northern states,
17:41
Speaker 1: you see a shift in bedding this time of year.
17:44
Speaker 1: Is that the same thing in Arkansas? Well, I tell
17:47
Speaker 1: you now where I'm at, it's I'm right in the
17:50
Speaker 1: heart of the Ozarks and I'm hunting mountain country and
17:53
Speaker 1: mass crops is really what they depend on. The one
17:56
Speaker 1: thing I see that I look for, um is where
18:00
Speaker 1: that sun hits. And you know on the south slopes.
18:02
Speaker 1: A lot of times do you like to get on
18:04
Speaker 1: those south slopes and get out of that cold and
18:07
Speaker 1: they will congregate in there. If you've got a food
18:09
Speaker 1: source or acron crop or whatever in that area, A
18:13
Speaker 1: lot of times that will help you out a bunch. Um.
18:16
Speaker 1: That's That's kind of what I look for. And probably
18:19
Speaker 1: as much as anything is where that sun is melting off.
18:22
Speaker 1: You know, if it's a little bit of ice, I
18:24
Speaker 1: think we you know, right now, we've got a little
18:26
Speaker 1: bit of ice, we had a little bit of weather conditions,
18:29
Speaker 1: and right now probably would be a really good time
18:32
Speaker 1: to be thinking about getting up there in a situation
18:35
Speaker 1: there and trying to hunt each deer right now again
18:37
Speaker 1: on a food source going forward then in the sex
18:40
Speaker 1: week or so, what do you think that bucket activity
18:42
Speaker 1: is going to be on a scale of one to
18:44
Speaker 1: ten in Arkansas? I think, Um, as long as we
18:49
Speaker 1: got the cold weather right now, I think it's gonna
18:52
Speaker 1: be about a six to eight level probably, you know that.
18:57
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be really good. Now. With that
18:59
Speaker 1: being said, if that weather warms back up, it's going
19:02
Speaker 1: to probably put them back Doccnel. But hey, the way
19:05
Speaker 1: I look at this guy, you gotta be out there
19:08
Speaker 1: to kill him and you never I mean, luck's got
19:10
Speaker 1: to be on the side. A lot of times you
19:12
Speaker 1: don't know if a coach is bumping a deer or
19:14
Speaker 1: somebody else. More activity, you know, just get have to
19:18
Speaker 1: and enjoy it, man, and have fun and enjoy it.
19:21
Speaker 1: But Graham Blind's work really well this time of year.
19:23
Speaker 1: It kind of helps conceal your scent, but at the
19:26
Speaker 1: same time, UM, you know it, it keeps you a
19:30
Speaker 1: little bit warmer, and maybe get your buddy heater and
19:32
Speaker 1: just be comfortable and have fun and enjoy the hunt.
19:35
Speaker 1: A right, Philip would like your optimism, good luck and
19:38
Speaker 1: next for joining me. All right, buddy, thank you appreciate it.
19:41
Speaker 1: God bless I want to wish everybody in merry Christmas
19:44
Speaker 1: in a happy New Year and many blessings throughout going
19:48
Speaker 1: into alright in joining us online. Next is Grant Oldenburg
19:53
Speaker 1: from Triple Threat Retrievers in Illinois now Grant in Illinois.
19:57
Speaker 1: What would you say the bucket activity has been lately
19:59
Speaker 1: on this one to ten? Um, I'd had to go
20:03
Speaker 1: with it being a nine and a ten. It's tough
20:05
Speaker 1: to say ever say ten and at ten, but over
20:08
Speaker 1: the past three days we've had two great mature box
20:11
Speaker 1: taken from our property, and uh, the movement has been fantastic.
20:16
Speaker 1: So I gotta go with a nine out of ten.
20:18
Speaker 1: Tell me a little bit about those setups where you
20:20
Speaker 1: guys killed those deer. Yeah. So the buck I shot
20:24
Speaker 1: on Saturday the fourteenth was um, basically a really our
20:28
Speaker 1: only pinch point on the property between two betting areas,
20:32
Speaker 1: and uh I was able to get a shot at
20:35
Speaker 1: him at fifteen yards at about eleven o'clock in the afternoon. Um,
20:38
Speaker 1: when he was switching between bed and areas, I presume,
20:41
Speaker 1: and I was able to get a shot on him.
20:43
Speaker 1: Eleven o'clock in the afternoon. Seems really late for this
20:47
Speaker 1: time of year. Are you often doing some midday sits. Yeah,
20:51
Speaker 1: the area was in is uh. You know, I have
20:54
Speaker 1: trail camera picks from late season there and I've seen
20:57
Speaker 1: a lot of buck activity in the area late morning
20:59
Speaker 1: and it's actually kind of funny that um early in
21:02
Speaker 1: the morning. Um, right at first light, I had two
21:04
Speaker 1: shooters come in and they just wouldn't give me a shot.
21:06
Speaker 1: And then a couple minutes later I had another shooter
21:09
Speaker 1: come in which I did get a shot on and
21:11
Speaker 1: uh I had an arrow to flect off a branch. Um.
21:14
Speaker 1: Then about nine o'clock, I had a dope come through
21:16
Speaker 1: at fifteen yards as they able to shoot her, and
21:18
Speaker 1: I was just my goal is to fit till eleven,
21:20
Speaker 1: knowing that I see a lot of bucks in there
21:22
Speaker 1: between ten and noon. Just um just transferred through this
21:25
Speaker 1: pinch point and uh, for some reason, I said an
21:28
Speaker 1: extra ten minutes. Then it paid off. Are you seeing
21:30
Speaker 1: any secondary running activity this year? Yeah, it was. It
21:35
Speaker 1: was a week ago. I was starting to see some
21:38
Speaker 1: little bucks pushing around. Does again I had one nice
21:41
Speaker 1: mature buck, Um run those small bucks off and push
21:46
Speaker 1: those But um, this this past weekend, starting to see
21:49
Speaker 1: the bucks group up again, and um, you know we
21:51
Speaker 1: were seeing him throughout the property really grouping back up
21:54
Speaker 1: and seeing him in pairs and even threes. So, um,
21:57
Speaker 1: I think that's that's that's already passed. What food sources
22:01
Speaker 1: should hunters in Illinois be focused on this time of year? Yeah,
22:05
Speaker 1: I think that right now. Um, with the temperatures dipping
22:09
Speaker 1: down the way they had, we've had a couple of
22:10
Speaker 1: weeks of kemps, you know, flirting in the freezing blow freezing,
22:15
Speaker 1: and uh that's given the farmers an opportunity to finally
22:19
Speaker 1: get their corn off and into the wet areas due
22:23
Speaker 1: to the real wet fall we've had in the Midwest.
22:25
Speaker 1: And uh, I think, um, then being able to go
22:28
Speaker 1: in there and do that is opening up you know,
22:31
Speaker 1: more movement for them, dear. And then also, um, I
22:34
Speaker 1: think those are gonna be hitting a lot of those
22:35
Speaker 1: fresh pick corn fields. Now they're looking at them off
22:38
Speaker 1: the betting area that you were hunting is at the
22:41
Speaker 1: same place that they've been betting basically all the way
22:43
Speaker 1: from October until now, or did they switch betting recently
22:46
Speaker 1: in late season. Yeah, the area we hunt, they do
22:49
Speaker 1: a lot of switching on the bedding. UM. Early season,
22:52
Speaker 1: you'll see them more out in CRP fields and UM
22:56
Speaker 1: along and you'll see him sometimes on the edge of
22:58
Speaker 1: ridges up there and that you know, when it gets
23:01
Speaker 1: colder like this, we see him shift into um real
23:05
Speaker 1: dense thermal cover on on those ridges and then also
23:08
Speaker 1: in the areas of the pines um that we have.
23:11
Speaker 1: So usually after the second gun season in Illinois, he
23:16
Speaker 1: started to see him, UM, the movement kind of shifting
23:18
Speaker 1: their in their patterns change. Did you find any fresh
23:21
Speaker 1: sign making being that close to the bedding There's it's
23:25
Speaker 1: this property. Um, it's tough not to find sign as
23:28
Speaker 1: far as rubs go. UM. I mean you can find
23:30
Speaker 1: rubs almost anywhere, so um, sometimes it's it's tough to
23:34
Speaker 1: ignore those. At the same time, they're so frequent throughout
23:37
Speaker 1: the property that uh, we don't always we don't always
23:40
Speaker 1: use that information and a lot of the scrapes. Um,
23:43
Speaker 1: you know, we have camera set up on scrapes and
23:45
Speaker 1: they kind of they kind of dried up a little bit.
23:48
Speaker 1: Going forward, then in the sext week or so, what
23:51
Speaker 1: do you think that bucket activity is going to be
23:52
Speaker 1: on a scale of one to tend in Illinois? Well,
23:56
Speaker 1: we still have some guys are hunting our property and uh,
23:59
Speaker 1: I think Wednesday, um, the eighteens is gonna be a
24:02
Speaker 1: great day. It's gonna be a cold dipping the temperatures.
24:07
Speaker 1: But after that, um, not feeling so optimistic as it's
24:09
Speaker 1: gonna warm back up again. So you know, I had
24:11
Speaker 1: estimate it probably had a five out of ten or
24:13
Speaker 1: maybe even last for the upcoming weeks. All right, Grant, Well,
24:17
Speaker 1: congrats on the awesome dear, thanks for joining me. Thanks Spencer,
24:21
Speaker 1: alright and joining us on the line. Next is Taylor
24:24
Speaker 1: Chamberlain in Virginia from the Urban Bowman. Now Taylor in Virginia,
24:27
Speaker 1: what would you say the bucket activity has been lately
24:29
Speaker 1: on the scale of one to ten. Well, on the
24:32
Speaker 1: skill one of ten, it's a hard ten because of
24:36
Speaker 1: what I was able to see in the woods a
24:38
Speaker 1: couple of days ago. So when I was pulling up
24:40
Speaker 1: to a party a property in Parking, I saw a
24:44
Speaker 1: dough run by, uh and and quickly right behind her
24:47
Speaker 1: I saw over eight shooter bucks that we're dogging her.
24:52
Speaker 1: So clearly this time of year, you know, any dough
24:56
Speaker 1: that hasn't come into into heat and been bred will
25:00
Speaker 1: cycle again about thirty days later, So we're kind of
25:03
Speaker 1: just pass that window here. Uh, Northern Virginia, like the
25:07
Speaker 1: eighth to the twelfth of November is really peak breeding
25:11
Speaker 1: for us in years past. So then again December eight
25:14
Speaker 1: to the twelfth is is gonna be a prime time,
25:18
Speaker 1: But that doesn't mean that every dough in the woods
25:21
Speaker 1: it's gonna cycle at that exact time. So, uh, if
25:25
Speaker 1: you can kind of key in on late season food
25:28
Speaker 1: sources right now, try to find where those does are.
25:31
Speaker 1: The bucks are gonna be doing the same thing because
25:33
Speaker 1: they're looking for any dough that has has cycled again.
25:38
Speaker 1: So what I'm looking for right now are primarily red oaks. Uh.
25:44
Speaker 1: In my neck of the woods, the red oaks that
25:46
Speaker 1: drop early season have too many tannins in them. They're
25:49
Speaker 1: too acidic for the deer to to tolerate. When they
25:53
Speaker 1: have the option of the white oaks or other brows.
25:56
Speaker 1: But I'm not sure if it's because of the timing
25:59
Speaker 1: or that they've been on the ground, or if it's
26:01
Speaker 1: just out of a lack of necessity. Um, but you know,
26:05
Speaker 1: the deer like to key in on those red of
26:07
Speaker 1: food sources, and I noticed that the dose will bed
26:11
Speaker 1: pretty close to those. So I try to get uh
26:14
Speaker 1: in the travel areas around those feeding or around where
26:18
Speaker 1: those does are bedding, preferably the down wind side. Just
26:22
Speaker 1: like peak rut in in November. Uh, those bucks tend
26:26
Speaker 1: to be cruising by and and trying to check those does.
26:29
Speaker 1: That area has a very high deer density. So do
26:32
Speaker 1: you see a strong secondary rout every single year or
26:35
Speaker 1: there are some other factors that change whether or not
26:38
Speaker 1: you're going to see a lot of rutting in December.
26:41
Speaker 1: So we see a very strong second rut because of
26:47
Speaker 1: how high our deer density is. Based on the fact
26:49
Speaker 1: that we just have such a skewed number of does
26:53
Speaker 1: in this area, Uh, it's just not possible for them
26:57
Speaker 1: to all be bred during the first rut. So if
27:00
Speaker 1: but if I come back as a buck, I'd love
27:02
Speaker 1: to be in this area. Based on the fact that
27:03
Speaker 1: it's a low hunter density and a high dough density.
27:08
Speaker 1: Sounds like a pretty good place for a buck to be.
27:10
Speaker 1: But we have very high uh second rut, and we
27:14
Speaker 1: even have a third rut. And I've seen as as
27:17
Speaker 1: late as mid January and sometimes February since seen chasing
27:22
Speaker 1: uh just because I think those dose will cycle until
27:26
Speaker 1: they get bread. What kind of weather are you looking
27:29
Speaker 1: for this time of year. I'm looking for a something
27:33
Speaker 1: that's outside of the normal range for the week. So
27:37
Speaker 1: if we have mild temperatures, I'm looking for that first
27:41
Speaker 1: cold cold snap morning, or if we have really cold days,
27:46
Speaker 1: I'm looking for that first kind of warm up afternoon.
27:49
Speaker 1: But the I'm looking for for something outside of that
27:53
Speaker 1: kind of median range throughout the week. UM. Also looking
27:57
Speaker 1: for spikes and barometric pressure. I've found that it's common
28:03
Speaker 1: to have higher barometric pressure this time of year as
28:06
Speaker 1: a roll into the winter. But um, overall those days
28:11
Speaker 1: with really high barometric pressure, I've always seen much better
28:14
Speaker 1: deer movement and earlier deer movement in the afternoon with
28:18
Speaker 1: this second and third rout. Do you see a lot
28:20
Speaker 1: of signmaking then late into the winter, for sure? Yeah,
28:24
Speaker 1: we see UM the standard kind of signmaking that you
28:28
Speaker 1: will see throughout uh, you know, late October early November.
28:32
Speaker 1: The only thing that's really different is UM. I think
28:35
Speaker 1: it's really uh specific to little pockets, so you have
28:39
Speaker 1: to find those pockets that hold the dough densities. It's
28:43
Speaker 1: not the same you know during late October early November,
28:47
Speaker 1: where the bucks are kind of cruising everywhere and just
28:50
Speaker 1: leaving sign it seems to be more isolated to tighter
28:53
Speaker 1: on the dough betting areas. But overall, UM, there's tons
28:58
Speaker 1: of tons of scrapes. You can still good active pictures
29:01
Speaker 1: in daylight on a scrape, lots of rubbing, but it
29:04
Speaker 1: just seems to be tighter to that cord dough betting.
29:07
Speaker 1: Where are your trail cameras focus in mid to late December.
29:11
Speaker 1: I like those travel corridors, any any terrain pinch points, UM,
29:15
Speaker 1: areas that the deer are gonna have to travel through
29:18
Speaker 1: that are really kind of close to that food area.
29:21
Speaker 1: So I like to try and hone in on the
29:23
Speaker 1: food source, figure out where the deer betting that the
29:27
Speaker 1: dose will really not travel very far uh this time
29:31
Speaker 1: of year from betting to food because they're all herded up.
29:34
Speaker 1: They can get away with maybe a little less cover
29:38
Speaker 1: than they would need to have a different times of
29:41
Speaker 1: the year when they're kind of uh more broken up
29:43
Speaker 1: for the ruts. So I like to kind of put
29:45
Speaker 1: my cameras real tight to betting food travel corridor kind
29:49
Speaker 1: of uh not not as much on scrapes, just because
29:52
Speaker 1: there's less activity, uh consistently than there normally is and
29:57
Speaker 1: kind of like late October when I normally have a
29:59
Speaker 1: have a camera on a screen going forward, then in
30:02
Speaker 1: the sex week or so, what do you think that
30:03
Speaker 1: buck activity is going to be on a scale of
30:05
Speaker 1: one to ten in Virginia, I think it's about a seven.
30:09
Speaker 1: So if you can find the does, you're gonna see
30:12
Speaker 1: really good buck movement. Outside of that, if you're in
30:15
Speaker 1: the wrong spot or you're outside of where that that
30:18
Speaker 1: core dough group on your areas, you might see zero movement.
30:22
Speaker 1: But if you find the DOES, I promise you'll find bucks.
30:26
Speaker 1: All right, Taylor, congrats on the awesome buck you just killed.
30:29
Speaker 1: Good luck with what's left of your year. Thanks for
30:31
Speaker 1: joining me, Thanks for having me, Spencer, good luck everybody
30:34
Speaker 1: out there alright and joining us on the line. Last
30:38
Speaker 1: is Nate Creek in Kansas from identical Jaw now Nate
30:41
Speaker 1: in Kansas. What would you say the buck activities been lately?
30:44
Speaker 1: On a scale of one to ten, I would say
30:47
Speaker 1: buck activity lately has probably been close to seven out
30:51
Speaker 1: of ten. Um, I would say seven because it actually
30:55
Speaker 1: started to increase with this colder weather coming through in
30:58
Speaker 1: the snow, and it just seems like what the trail
31:01
Speaker 1: cameras have been telling me and what I've seen is um,
31:03
Speaker 1: those bucks starting to move go to those food sources,
31:06
Speaker 1: and we've actually still been getting a decent amount of
31:08
Speaker 1: daylight activity from them. So it's been it's been pretty good.
31:11
Speaker 1: What food sources shoot hunters and Kansas be focused on
31:14
Speaker 1: this time of year. I mean there's always the big
31:17
Speaker 1: ag with corn and beans. UM. The best food source
31:21
Speaker 1: that we have that we're hunting is beans with um
31:24
Speaker 1: mixed with brasicas, with radishes and all those things. And
31:28
Speaker 1: it's been it's been super good. We have trail cameras
31:30
Speaker 1: on and we're getting still daylight picks and some of
31:32
Speaker 1: our best hunts have been in that field. UM. Just
31:35
Speaker 1: a few days ago, we had the neighbor who was
31:37
Speaker 1: hunting next door when we were down there, saying you've
31:40
Speaker 1: got there's so many bucks in your beans field right now,
31:42
Speaker 1: And the secret to that was we just we just
31:44
Speaker 1: didn't harvest them. We just we didn't mow them downward,
31:47
Speaker 1: just letting them stand go through the winter because right now,
31:50
Speaker 1: after the busy chasing of the rut, food is on
31:53
Speaker 1: their minds. So it has been a ticket those standing
31:55
Speaker 1: beans and ravishes. Are you seeing any secondary rudding this year?
31:59
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we have actually seen a pretty good, um
32:02
Speaker 1: glimpse of it. It's kind of winding down now that
32:06
Speaker 1: I'd say the last ten days to two weeks, we've
32:09
Speaker 1: actually been having our our scrape cameras get hit a
32:12
Speaker 1: little bit more with bucks almost making second or like
32:15
Speaker 1: another round of sign and then a few We've had
32:17
Speaker 1: some pictures and been seeing activity of still some chasing
32:20
Speaker 1: some bucks with their heads down and kind of move
32:23
Speaker 1: pushing those around. So there's there's definitely been a little
32:25
Speaker 1: bit of that where most of your trail cameras focus
32:28
Speaker 1: this time of year. Um, we transitioned a lot of
32:31
Speaker 1: them from the big timber November UM hunting spots to
32:36
Speaker 1: the bean field and a round of food sources. But
32:38
Speaker 1: I would say our besides the being camera that we
32:42
Speaker 1: have right now. Our second best camera is in bedding
32:45
Speaker 1: just off to the beans. We are getting a ton
32:47
Speaker 1: of movement and still some some good buck daylight pictures. Actually,
32:51
Speaker 1: twenty minutes before he called me, we had a shooter
32:53
Speaker 1: ten point walked right in our bedding camera and it's
32:56
Speaker 1: just in thick um basically weeds grass roses um, right
33:01
Speaker 1: off of our bean field, probably six yards and that's
33:06
Speaker 1: that's our best camera in the property right now. For context,
33:09
Speaker 1: Nate and I are talking at one pm, so you
33:11
Speaker 1: had a buck just up and moving around noon here.
33:14
Speaker 1: You mentioned that the betting is near the bean field.
33:18
Speaker 1: Is that where most of the deer you find are
33:20
Speaker 1: betting this time of year? Yeah, they're from what I've seen.
33:24
Speaker 1: Is there right off that food source. I think that
33:26
Speaker 1: they make it easier. They just say, I'm gonna go
33:27
Speaker 1: feed whenever I want. It's right there. I can be
33:30
Speaker 1: bedded down by the food source. Um, and I mean
33:33
Speaker 1: it's on a great facing slope, so there they're comfortable
33:37
Speaker 1: most of the day and I feel like they feel
33:39
Speaker 1: really secure by that. And right now I think they're
33:41
Speaker 1: safety is that food source, so they want to be close.
33:44
Speaker 1: Do you find any signmaking around the edge of that
33:46
Speaker 1: bean field. Oh yeah, we are being feelings been some
33:50
Speaker 1: of the best signed. Tons of scrapes along that edge,
33:53
Speaker 1: UM and you can just see there's deer trails, I
33:56
Speaker 1: mean clear the day, especially with the recent recent snow
33:58
Speaker 1: we've had down there, it's clear tons of scrapes along
34:01
Speaker 1: that field edge. How did the deer in that area
34:04
Speaker 1: respond to gun hunting pressure, Well, the gun season actually
34:08
Speaker 1: just ended this last Sunday in Kansas, and they we
34:12
Speaker 1: definitely noticed some some some nighttime activity definitely picked up,
34:16
Speaker 1: but it was it was kind of interesting. There's a
34:18
Speaker 1: warm spell during a lot of that um rifle season,
34:22
Speaker 1: so I noticed a lot less movement on the cameras
34:25
Speaker 1: and from when we were out there. So I'm not
34:27
Speaker 1: sure if that was because of the rifle movement of
34:31
Speaker 1: more guys in the woods, or if that was becomes
34:32
Speaker 1: of the weather. But it could have been a combo.
34:34
Speaker 1: But I know that area gets hit pretty heavy. UM.
34:37
Speaker 1: But I mean after that ended, these last two days
34:41
Speaker 1: have been some of the best um buck pictures we've
34:44
Speaker 1: been getting all feet and almost I mean tons of
34:46
Speaker 1: daylight action. So I don't I don't think they really
34:49
Speaker 1: minded it. A ton. There was definitely a time there
34:52
Speaker 1: where the cameras went quiet, but I'm not sure if
34:55
Speaker 1: that was weather or hunter. So it really hasn't been
34:57
Speaker 1: too bad going forward. Then, in the next week or so,
35:00
Speaker 1: what do you think that bucket activity is going to
35:01
Speaker 1: be a scale of one to ten in Kansas? I
35:04
Speaker 1: would say it's gonna say. I think eight to ten
35:08
Speaker 1: is what I put it at. Um, it's been really
35:11
Speaker 1: good lately and I plan on it being good the
35:13
Speaker 1: next at least few days. Um. I see the temperatures
35:16
Speaker 1: are gonna rise, so that might slop things down a
35:19
Speaker 1: little bit. But I mean late season can be this
35:21
Speaker 1: time of the year can be the best time to
35:23
Speaker 1: get after the buck he's been chasing. Um, get on
35:26
Speaker 1: those food sources if you can leave that food standing.
35:29
Speaker 1: And it's it's been super good for us, all right, Nate, Well,
35:32
Speaker 1: good luck with what's left of your season. Thanks for
35:34
Speaker 1: joining me. It sounds good. Thanks been ser