Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 250: Rut Radio 11/14/18

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Ep. 250: Rut Radio 11/14/18 · 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. Is this episode number two and
0:18
Speaker 1: fifty and today in the show, we are back for
0:21
Speaker 1: a mid November edition of RUT Radio in which we're
0:24
Speaker 1: talking to hunters all across the country about the latest
0:27
Speaker 1: progress of the rut, white tail activity, how conditions are
0:30
Speaker 1: impacting activity, and the tactics that are working right now.
0:45
Speaker 1: All right, welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought
0:48
Speaker 1: to you by Onyx. We are here today for another
0:52
Speaker 1: edition of our UT Radio mini series in which we're
0:54
Speaker 1: hearing from hunters across the country about the latest on
0:57
Speaker 1: the progress of the white tail rut, dear activity, how
1:01
Speaker 1: current conditions are impacting deer and the different things we
1:04
Speaker 1: can be doing as hunters right now over the course
1:07
Speaker 1: of this next week to have some success. And with
1:09
Speaker 1: me to do that is Spencer, New Hearth. Spencer, how
1:13
Speaker 1: are you doing? I hear there's uh hear, there's there's
1:16
Speaker 1: finally some good news for you. Is that is that true?
1:19
Speaker 1: I'm doing good. I just filled my first deer tag
1:21
Speaker 1: of the season. So I have a new energy as
1:25
Speaker 1: we get into the middle of November. Here, Yeah, how
1:28
Speaker 1: does it feel to to be like the rest of
1:31
Speaker 1: us now? Instead of killing like nine things right away
1:33
Speaker 1: in the season, You've had to wait till middle of
1:35
Speaker 1: November to finally make it happen. You're back back to Earth,
1:38
Speaker 1: right back to Earth. But I hope I changed that.
1:41
Speaker 1: I hope. I am just lighting up your Instagram feed
1:44
Speaker 1: over these next few weeks with more white tails, so
1:47
Speaker 1: we'll see. I hope to change it. I hope. So too,
1:50
Speaker 1: do you do you want to give us a quick
1:51
Speaker 1: synopsis of the story or what are you thinking there?
1:54
Speaker 1: So this was a haunted northwestern South Dakota. It was
1:58
Speaker 1: a white tail tag, but that is an area that's
2:00
Speaker 1: kind of dominated by mule deer. It's an area that
2:03
Speaker 1: had a lot of leftover tags, pretty easy to draw.
2:05
Speaker 1: Um So I kind of knew that going into it,
2:07
Speaker 1: and I didn't have real high standards. Um So my
2:11
Speaker 1: strategy for that was to just for look, look for
2:14
Speaker 1: something that didn't appear to be like super rough, super
2:19
Speaker 1: super covered in cedars or yucca like you find those
2:22
Speaker 1: mule deer, and we got really deep innos in public
2:25
Speaker 1: like two miles back. Uh, And I found the white
2:29
Speaker 1: tail that I ended up killing just twenty minutes in
2:31
Speaker 1: the opener. So it was a short and sweet season
2:35
Speaker 1: for me. And so were you just kind of stalking
2:38
Speaker 1: along glassing and then you spot him and took a shop. Uh. No,
2:42
Speaker 1: I had a destination that I wanted to get to,
2:45
Speaker 1: a specific draw that looked like it had some hardwoods,
2:47
Speaker 1: which there aren't a ton of in that area. Uh.
2:50
Speaker 1: And it also came out of a hay field, which
2:52
Speaker 1: looked like something that you would find white tails on
2:54
Speaker 1: pretty much anywhere. And so I got set up there. Uh,
2:58
Speaker 1: it spotted a number of you will hear so far
3:00
Speaker 1: that morning, a few white tail does. And then this
3:04
Speaker 1: white tail buck that ended up getting a position on
3:06
Speaker 1: I think I killed him in like a hunter eighty yards. Nice.
3:10
Speaker 1: That's awesome, man, congrats seeing like running activity where they're
3:13
Speaker 1: chasing do anything like that. Yeah. So it's hard to
3:17
Speaker 1: uh draw any conclusions from that haunts because those rifles
3:20
Speaker 1: seasons on public land can be kind of weird where
3:22
Speaker 1: you have dear that maybe you aren't necessarily behaving like
3:26
Speaker 1: deer wood. And so you know, I saw some rutting
3:30
Speaker 1: activity from like the standpoint that there was a mule
3:34
Speaker 1: deer buck chasing some white tail does and there was
3:36
Speaker 1: just some chaos in that job. But again, uh, public
3:40
Speaker 1: land northwestern South Dakota kind of a weird landscape. It's
3:44
Speaker 1: hard to you know, get any exacts or anything that
3:47
Speaker 1: applies to most white tail hunters from that scenario. Yeah. Interesting, Um,
3:55
Speaker 1: do you want to hear Michigan report at all? Yeah?
3:59
Speaker 1: And I can't image and there's anybody to give a
4:01
Speaker 1: better Michigan report because you've been at it for like
4:03
Speaker 1: it seems like ten straight days or something. How how
4:05
Speaker 1: many days have you been in a tree now consecutively? Uh? Well,
4:09
Speaker 1: November two because I had those business meetings on the
4:12
Speaker 1: thirty one and first, which took me out of the tree,
4:15
Speaker 1: But otherwise it was it was five days before that
4:17
Speaker 1: and then two days of meetings, and then November two
4:20
Speaker 1: through today, which is what the twelfth. So I think
4:22
Speaker 1: it's eleven straight days there um in Michigan. And yeah,
4:26
Speaker 1: I mean I've seen a lot of different things. Last
4:29
Speaker 1: week I told you about some of the you know,
4:32
Speaker 1: I saw that mature buck lockdown with the dough. Um,
4:35
Speaker 1: I went to a new property. After we talked last time,
4:38
Speaker 1: I was on this hunt with with Ronnella and Yanni
4:41
Speaker 1: and the rest of the mediator crew, and UM, we
4:44
Speaker 1: saw we saw running activity. I also thought that maybe
4:48
Speaker 1: there was some lockdown going on because we did not
4:50
Speaker 1: see a whole lot of activity from the mature bucks. UM.
4:53
Speaker 1: And in general seemed like lots of the time was
4:56
Speaker 1: very dull. There was not much going on. UM. But
4:59
Speaker 1: there were a few day as that kind of gave
5:01
Speaker 1: us like punctuations of excitement. UM. So a lot of
5:05
Speaker 1: slow periods, but then the occasionally I had one morning
5:07
Speaker 1: where there's a lot of chasing going on a lot
5:09
Speaker 1: of young bucks, and then I did have a mature
5:11
Speaker 1: buck cruise through in the middle of the day UM.
5:14
Speaker 1: And then yesterday I did have another potential mature buck
5:17
Speaker 1: cruising in the middle of the day. So definitely saw
5:19
Speaker 1: that cruising. UM. Steve saw on mature buck do the
5:23
Speaker 1: same thing like late morning, and Yanni saw some cruising
5:27
Speaker 1: in the earlier in the morning. So a lot of cruising,
5:29
Speaker 1: a little bit of chasing, and UM, we didn't see
5:32
Speaker 1: bucks locked on the doors necessarily, but we kind of
5:34
Speaker 1: were hypothesizing that that was probably what was going on. UM.
5:39
Speaker 1: Another thing worth mentioning is that we definitely did see
5:41
Speaker 1: that our activity on trail cameras our scrapes has gone
5:45
Speaker 1: down pretty significantly, not nearly as many visits to the
5:48
Speaker 1: scrapes UM. So that's another thing worth pointing out. We
5:53
Speaker 1: weren't we definitely aren't keying in on signs so much
5:55
Speaker 1: right now. It's it's really when we were able to
5:57
Speaker 1: find deer and get on deers when we were either
5:59
Speaker 1: really hyped dough betting or actually in those kind of
6:03
Speaker 1: ridge system funnels, so terrain that is that's funneling deer
6:07
Speaker 1: movement as they go from betting area to betting area. UM.
6:10
Speaker 1: That seemed to be the ticket for us. We we
6:12
Speaker 1: didn't end up didn't end up filling attack, but we
6:14
Speaker 1: we had some close calls. So it was good. It's
6:16
Speaker 1: good trip. Yeah. And this time of year, like you
6:19
Speaker 1: talked about, once you get into the November teens, the
6:24
Speaker 1: the activity seems to come and go in like really
6:26
Speaker 1: big waves. Like one day you'll see incredible movement, you'll
6:30
Speaker 1: seem like bucks are chasing do you will be out
6:33
Speaker 1: of midday and then the next day you might not
6:35
Speaker 1: see anything at all if if they're handful of bucks
6:38
Speaker 1: got pulled off the property, buy a hot dough, or
6:41
Speaker 1: if those bucks are on the property, but maybe lockdown
6:44
Speaker 1: with a few doughs. And so you know, going back
6:47
Speaker 1: to seventeen. On route radio, you always get some reports
6:52
Speaker 1: that maybe don't agree with each other, uh, from from
6:55
Speaker 1: all over the country because it's just a really strange
6:58
Speaker 1: time of year. Oh yeah. I always try to remind
7:01
Speaker 1: myself if I'm sitting in the tree and it's dead,
7:03
Speaker 1: I just need to always tell myself that it could
7:06
Speaker 1: change an instant, and even though it might be dead
7:08
Speaker 1: right now two yards away, it might be a rut
7:11
Speaker 1: fest and that could be here in seconds. Or if
7:14
Speaker 1: I make a move tomorrow two and I happen to
7:17
Speaker 1: be in the right spot, then it could be chaos.
7:19
Speaker 1: It's just so much here but not there, and hot
7:23
Speaker 1: and coal. I mean, you just have to kind of
7:24
Speaker 1: go into it knowing that that's gonna be the case
7:26
Speaker 1: sometimes and just be willing to push through it and
7:29
Speaker 1: try to adjust if you can for sure. And like
7:32
Speaker 1: my greatest solution in South Dakota here is if we
7:34
Speaker 1: get to that stage where uh, it's getting difficult to
7:39
Speaker 1: find mature bucks moving is to pick up a gun
7:42
Speaker 1: when the gun seasons open. I am not a hashtag
7:45
Speaker 1: bowl only guy or some is like going to frown
7:49
Speaker 1: upon someone picking up a rifle or a musload or whatever. Uh.
7:53
Speaker 1: I am an advantageous hunter, so when our gun seasons open,
7:57
Speaker 1: I'm hunting with a gun and that usually seems to
7:59
Speaker 1: remedy any poor route movement. How about you, Mark, Are
8:03
Speaker 1: you gonna pick up a gun here? On? What is it?
8:05
Speaker 1: November fift in Michigan? Yeah, in Michigan, and I think
8:09
Speaker 1: I am this year. Um. I usually, I think I've
8:12
Speaker 1: mentioned in the past, I usually go to my family
8:14
Speaker 1: deer camp for a couple of days, but this year
8:16
Speaker 1: we're pushing that off a little bit later than usual,
8:19
Speaker 1: so opening day, in the first couple of days, I'll
8:21
Speaker 1: actually be on my main property. So I'm kind of
8:24
Speaker 1: excited about that. Um. I am hoping that that buck
8:28
Speaker 1: I was chasing last week is still around. I have
8:31
Speaker 1: reason to believe that maybe he is, So um, there's
8:34
Speaker 1: a little bit of extra excitement here because I've got
8:36
Speaker 1: a few more days of the boat to get after him,
8:37
Speaker 1: and if that doesn't work out, I'll keep it going.
8:41
Speaker 1: So we will see the hunt. The hunt will continue well.
8:44
Speaker 1: This week on the show, we talked to Bryce Slamley
8:46
Speaker 1: in Nebraska from Sitka Gear, then Beaumartonic from East Meat
8:50
Speaker 1: to West in Pennsylvania, then in Tennessee from Wildcare Deer
8:53
Speaker 1: Tracked and it's Josh Smith, and then Keith Thompson in
8:56
Speaker 1: Montana from Montana White Tails Excellent. We have anything else
9:01
Speaker 1: we need to cover before getting to those? I don't
9:03
Speaker 1: think so. Uh, you know, I think we did a
9:05
Speaker 1: good enough job of acknowledging that this time of years
9:09
Speaker 1: is going to be strange for reports and strange for hunts. So,
9:12
Speaker 1: like you said, just keep after it. That can all
9:15
Speaker 1: change in a second. Yeah that is. I mean we
9:18
Speaker 1: could just do nothing but repeat that over and over
9:21
Speaker 1: and over again on this podcast, and that might be
9:22
Speaker 1: the best thing that you could listen to right now.
9:25
Speaker 1: You just got to remember that it can all change,
9:27
Speaker 1: So just stay stay persistent, stay focused as best as possible,
9:32
Speaker 1: stay positive, um and good things oftentimes will come to
9:35
Speaker 1: those who do so. Before I before I get off here,
9:39
Speaker 1: I just want to wish everybody good luck and uh
9:43
Speaker 1: enjoy these days because before you know what the rut
9:45
Speaker 1: is gonna be done and we'll be back to looking
9:47
Speaker 1: forward to next year's rutt. So often I find myself like, oh,
9:50
Speaker 1: I can't wait, I can't wait. But then when it's
9:51
Speaker 1: actually here, then I'm stressed out, or I'm tired, or
9:54
Speaker 1: i'm you know whatever, complaining about something in my head.
9:57
Speaker 1: So I need to often remind myself to just just
10:00
Speaker 1: embrace it. If you have a close call and it
10:02
Speaker 1: doesn't go your way, that's upsetting. I know, Like I
10:05
Speaker 1: had a moment like that where I was really frustrated.
10:07
Speaker 1: I almost got it done. It was so painfully close,
10:10
Speaker 1: and then it didn't happen, and I was upset. But
10:12
Speaker 1: then later that afternoon, I just needed to remind myself,
10:15
Speaker 1: you know what, that was such a cool encounter like
10:17
Speaker 1: that is something you dreamed of all year, of being
10:19
Speaker 1: that close to a deer like that, And yeah, you
10:23
Speaker 1: didn't get to send an arrow, but you've got to
10:25
Speaker 1: have this really neat interaction with a with a special animal.
10:30
Speaker 1: And that's the kind of thing that the rut provides
10:32
Speaker 1: if you, if you choose to enjoy that and not
10:34
Speaker 1: get too focus on the end goal. So that's my
10:37
Speaker 1: little uh Pepper rally for everyone. Today, it's well said.
10:41
Speaker 1: We'll talk to you next week. Mark. Thank you Spencer.
10:45
Speaker 1: Before we get to our first update, let's pause for
10:47
Speaker 1: a word from our sponsors at white Tail Properties. This week.
10:50
Speaker 1: With white Tail Properties, we are joined by Billy O'Connor,
10:53
Speaker 1: a land specialist out of Kansas, and Billy is going
10:56
Speaker 1: to be telling us about what to consider when buying
10:59
Speaker 1: a property with a friend. Um, you know, buying a
11:04
Speaker 1: property the friend is a great idea. You know, it
11:06
Speaker 1: helps you get more land for less and it also
11:09
Speaker 1: helps with the cost and investment of time that kind
11:11
Speaker 1: of need for improvements. Plus it's just fun to kind
11:14
Speaker 1: of share in the experience of owning lane with someone
11:16
Speaker 1: who is passionate about the outdoors as you are. But um,
11:19
Speaker 1: you do need the process a little bit to make
11:24
Speaker 1: sure that you kind of cover all scenarios kind of
11:26
Speaker 1: going down the road. Um, when buying with a friend,
11:28
Speaker 1: you first want to talk through ideally what each partner
11:31
Speaker 1: wants out of the experience. You know, is this for
11:33
Speaker 1: an investment. Is it to raise mature whitetail by let
11:36
Speaker 1: him get to a certain age class. Is it a
11:38
Speaker 1: place you want to bring friends and family to hunt
11:39
Speaker 1: as well? Assuming you both want to manage for deer.
11:42
Speaker 1: Usually friends have the same goal and approach to management,
11:44
Speaker 1: but often one person will want to hunt other things
11:47
Speaker 1: such as quail and small game, and the other partner
11:51
Speaker 1: may not necessarily want to do that. So you kind
11:52
Speaker 1: of want to talk all that through UM. If you
11:55
Speaker 1: are not a state buyer, you do need to keep
11:56
Speaker 1: in mind at the State of Kansas, you're allowed want
11:58
Speaker 1: to land and attack her at the acres. So if
12:01
Speaker 1: you both want laying under tags, you need to make
12:03
Speaker 1: sure the properties at hundred six acres or more. I'd
12:05
Speaker 1: suggest you by the property under an LLC UM. That way,
12:09
Speaker 1: everything could kind of be explained in the by laws.
12:11
Speaker 1: In the event that something does down the road where
12:13
Speaker 1: you guys do need to split it or sell it.
12:15
Speaker 1: You know, things such as a divorce, or someone has
12:18
Speaker 1: more kids than they anticipated and or a death in
12:21
Speaker 1: the family and someone needs to sell. Um. Those type
12:24
Speaker 1: of thing you can kind of go over and get
12:25
Speaker 1: that out of the way from the get go. If
12:27
Speaker 1: you'd like to learn more and to see the properties
12:30
Speaker 1: that Billy currently has listed for sale, visit white tail
12:33
Speaker 1: properties dot com. Backslash O'Connor that's O c O. And
12:38
Speaker 1: n O R. And joining us on the line first
12:43
Speaker 1: is Bryce Lanley out of Nebraska from Sick of Gear.
12:46
Speaker 1: Now Bryce in Nebraska, what would you say the bucket
12:48
Speaker 1: activity has been lately on a scale of one to ten. Well,
12:51
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go back to my conservative self and tell
12:54
Speaker 1: you five. Um, it's just been one of the more
12:58
Speaker 1: disappointing early Novembers for me. And I realized that the
13:03
Speaker 1: rut is feast for famine, and you know, a half
13:05
Speaker 1: mile away it could be a whole different story. But
13:08
Speaker 1: I've got enough friends that that are kind of experiencing
13:10
Speaker 1: the same thing. It's just been a weird rut. And
13:13
Speaker 1: so if you had to put a label on what
13:15
Speaker 1: stage of the route you think the deer in your area,
13:18
Speaker 1: what would you call it? You know, I'm not seeing
13:23
Speaker 1: much cruise in a troll and whatever you wanna call it.
13:26
Speaker 1: And so it makes me wonder if bucks are locked
13:29
Speaker 1: down and um, you know, then you've got some you know,
13:33
Speaker 1: smaller bucks kind of hanging around the vicinity hoping to
13:36
Speaker 1: get some action as well. And it's just we're not
13:39
Speaker 1: seeing very much trolling, um, at least not in the
13:42
Speaker 1: properties where I'm at. So I'm getting lockdown. So prior
13:47
Speaker 1: to this, then in early early November, were you seeing
13:50
Speaker 1: some better movement than what you would consider that seeking
13:53
Speaker 1: and chasing a little bit? And you know, it's late
13:57
Speaker 1: October on trail cameras and from stand we're seeing a
14:01
Speaker 1: little bit more daylight activity from some of the bigger Bucks.
14:04
Speaker 1: And I was very encouraged in the days right before
14:08
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving looking forward to early November. But I never saw
14:12
Speaker 1: a pick up personally. Um. It doesn't mean it wasn't
14:14
Speaker 1: happening for other people, but I I didn't see a
14:17
Speaker 1: pick up at all personally. And usually this time of year,
14:21
Speaker 1: I'll do a number of all days SIPs and I
14:24
Speaker 1: tried to of them and it just I wasn't seeing
14:27
Speaker 1: anything in the midday. So it's really disappointed. This has
14:30
Speaker 1: been quite an unusual November for you. Correct, what don't
14:33
Speaker 1: you tell us about that? And then you know, tell
14:35
Speaker 1: the audience maybe a little bit about what kind of
14:37
Speaker 1: record keeping you have going back to the eighties. Well,
14:42
Speaker 1: I started keeping records about and UM keeping track of
14:48
Speaker 1: daufon ratios and every documenting every single hunt UM also
14:53
Speaker 1: keeping track of how many um bucks and aunt ors
14:57
Speaker 1: do that passed within my very limited range with my
15:00
Speaker 1: bow and arrow and um and offering shots. And it's
15:04
Speaker 1: been a weird year. I you I have not experienced
15:08
Speaker 1: the typical early November days where I would see ten
15:12
Speaker 1: or twelve different bucks all cruising, all with their minds,
15:15
Speaker 1: you know, they're making tracks through the woods. I haven't
15:18
Speaker 1: seen much of that at all. I mean literally almost none. Um.
15:23
Speaker 1: It has been uh an encouraging year in the number
15:26
Speaker 1: of bucks buck sightings within range that I could have
15:31
Speaker 1: had a shot at. I've had seventy four of those
15:33
Speaker 1: opportunities in sixty seven punts and that's well above average,
15:39
Speaker 1: and so that's encouraging. But um, most of them are
15:42
Speaker 1: one and a half year old and two and a
15:44
Speaker 1: half year olds. UM. The other anomaly that I'm seeing
15:47
Speaker 1: this year is that our fond ratio compared to dose
15:50
Speaker 1: is really low. It's a hundred dolls to forty one
15:53
Speaker 1: fonds um with you know, about four years scenes so
15:57
Speaker 1: that's really very low. It's less than half of um
16:01
Speaker 1: low years and it's you know, about two and a
16:04
Speaker 1: half times lower than the average, which is about a
16:06
Speaker 1: hundred to a hundred. And so I think we've got
16:09
Speaker 1: some predatory issues with low fur prices and lots of coyotes.
16:13
Speaker 1: I think that's part of the issue. UM. I'm hoping,
16:16
Speaker 1: I'm still hopeful that things will pick up after UM
16:20
Speaker 1: the rut you know reaches, you know, kind of a
16:23
Speaker 1: second phase where most of those have been bred and
16:26
Speaker 1: and now we get you know, hopefully the bucks will
16:28
Speaker 1: be back on their searching for for the leftovers. Earlier
16:31
Speaker 1: this fall, when I talked to you, you had said
16:33
Speaker 1: how the signmaking seemed to pick up earlier than usual
16:36
Speaker 1: this year. Are you still seeing any fresh sign in
16:39
Speaker 1: the woods? Very little? It's you know, we we talked
16:42
Speaker 1: before late September, it was just going crazy, and I
16:46
Speaker 1: still was getting a lot of activity at scrapes on
16:49
Speaker 1: trail cameras, uh into October. October very little since then.
16:57
Speaker 1: I mean, they might walk past it, but they won't
16:59
Speaker 1: stop even and it's it's an entirely different, entirely different
17:04
Speaker 1: type of UM reaction to the scrapes and so forth. Now,
17:08
Speaker 1: I have seen rubs pick up, and I've seen rubs
17:11
Speaker 1: in new places, And I don't know if those are
17:14
Speaker 1: frustration rubs or if those are something else, but I
17:17
Speaker 1: have seen rubs pick up but the activity of the
17:19
Speaker 1: scrapes has been very little the last week or two weeks.
17:23
Speaker 1: If hunters are experiencing lockdown this week, like you suspect,
17:26
Speaker 1: what are some of your strategies for finding the mature buck. Well,
17:31
Speaker 1: what I've seen with those that don't want to be
17:35
Speaker 1: hassled is that they are hiding in out of the
17:38
Speaker 1: way locations, which is probably also where the bucks will
17:40
Speaker 1: like to try to you know, stash them down as well. Um,
17:43
Speaker 1: but I'll find those like literally betted on the river bank,
17:47
Speaker 1: are out in the middle of nowhere, in just little
17:49
Speaker 1: tiny grass patches. And so what I like to try
17:52
Speaker 1: to do is figure out, Okay, if a buck is
17:54
Speaker 1: on the search for those types of those, where are
17:58
Speaker 1: some pinches in between where I might catch him? And
18:02
Speaker 1: so I guess I'm trying to do is maximize my
18:04
Speaker 1: opportunity by going to those pinches. And and also those
18:08
Speaker 1: pinches usually offer the hunter a little bit easier access
18:12
Speaker 1: in and out without boogering up the whole woods. And
18:15
Speaker 1: so that's kind of my my strategy at this point.
18:17
Speaker 1: Going forward then to the next week or so, what
18:19
Speaker 1: do you think that bucket activity is going to be
18:21
Speaker 1: on a scale of one to ten in Nebraska. Well,
18:24
Speaker 1: I'm gonna turn optimistic, gone in and hope it goes
18:26
Speaker 1: up to about an eight. I I think that we
18:29
Speaker 1: got We're in the middle of our guns season right now,
18:32
Speaker 1: and so there's a lot of hunters of field, and
18:34
Speaker 1: so some people are getting some sidings just based on
18:37
Speaker 1: deer being pushed to them and that sort of thing.
18:39
Speaker 1: But I think once the gun hunters m wrap things
18:42
Speaker 1: up here, um soon, very soon, that I think, you know,
18:46
Speaker 1: things should pick up again and and the bucks will
18:49
Speaker 1: be back on the move because we just haven't seen
18:50
Speaker 1: much of a rut and I can't imagine going in
18:53
Speaker 1: here without seeing that kind of steady activity was trolling
18:57
Speaker 1: and cruising and so forth. Bryce, great inuntil good luck
19:00
Speaker 1: this year, and thanks for joining me, Thank you alright
19:04
Speaker 1: and joining us on the line. Next is Bowl Mortonic
19:06
Speaker 1: from Pennsylvania. From East meets West Outdoors now Bow in Pennsylvania.
19:10
Speaker 1: What would you say the buck activity has been lately
19:12
Speaker 1: on a scale of one to ten, Spencer, I would
19:16
Speaker 1: say that the buck activity would I would say it
19:18
Speaker 1: would be around nine. In the last week or so,
19:21
Speaker 1: it's been ramping up quite a bit. The first like
19:25
Speaker 1: week of November, even the end of October there we
19:27
Speaker 1: had some relatively warm weather, a lot of precipitation, and
19:32
Speaker 1: it seemed like the daylight activity was slow, and even
19:35
Speaker 1: from the trail camera side of things, on scrapes and everything,
19:38
Speaker 1: they weren't UM as active as they normally are at
19:42
Speaker 1: that time. So this this past week, UM activity is
19:46
Speaker 1: really ramped up. And I know, specifically out of the
19:49
Speaker 1: camp that I hung out of my family had had
19:53
Speaker 1: killed quite a few deer just UM and in the
19:55
Speaker 1: last week or so and finally seeing some mature deer
19:58
Speaker 1: of moving in daylight hours. So what phased it about?
20:02
Speaker 1: Would you say that most of Pennsylvania is in UM.
20:06
Speaker 1: I think it's uh if it hasn't already kind of
20:08
Speaker 1: entered into lockdown things a little bit. And I know
20:12
Speaker 1: I said there you're moving and everything. But as as
20:16
Speaker 1: we're getting into you know, the twelve thirteen, fourteenth of
20:20
Speaker 1: November here, it's it's a lot of the smaller bucks
20:23
Speaker 1: aren't aren't moving as much, and I'm starting to see
20:26
Speaker 1: some of their maturity or kind of out looking again.
20:30
Speaker 1: But it's more it's more sporadic, so a little more
20:34
Speaker 1: daylight activity, but more middle of the day type stuff,
20:37
Speaker 1: cruising some dope bedrooms, maybe looking for that second day.
20:41
Speaker 1: I guess have you noticed if signmaking still active there
20:45
Speaker 1: in Pennsylvania not as much. It seems like the scrapes
20:48
Speaker 1: are a little bit covered up compared to what they
20:51
Speaker 1: were last week. And um, it's more of the travel
20:57
Speaker 1: corridors are are being active and definitely thinking, you know,
21:01
Speaker 1: all day hunting if possible, is really important. Specifically, yesterday
21:07
Speaker 1: I had a mature deer cruising right at noon, um,
21:11
Speaker 1: outside of a dope betting area. So are those dope
21:14
Speaker 1: betting areas then your focus this time of year if
21:16
Speaker 1: you're looking for a lockdown buck, Yes i am. I'm
21:21
Speaker 1: trying to get as close as possible to those dope
21:23
Speaker 1: betting areas, and um, kind of sitting on the down
21:27
Speaker 1: wind side. And if most of my setups have to
21:30
Speaker 1: do with having more than one dope betting area in
21:34
Speaker 1: the area, So specifically hunting in the big woods will
21:38
Speaker 1: have a lot of the creek bottoms have dope betting
21:41
Speaker 1: areas set up around some tickets in the swampy areas
21:45
Speaker 1: and setting up in between them at any travel corridors
21:48
Speaker 1: is what I'm looking to do. You talked a little
21:50
Speaker 1: bit earlier about the weather in early November kind of
21:53
Speaker 1: affecting deer movement. Are there any upcoming weather patterns or
21:56
Speaker 1: moon phases or anything like that that you think might change,
21:59
Speaker 1: Dear wmen again. Yeah, So, actually, we just had a
22:03
Speaker 1: pretty good cold front come through in the last couple
22:06
Speaker 1: of days, and from looking at the weather forecast, it's
22:08
Speaker 1: gonna be even colder going out to this entire week
22:12
Speaker 1: and with some snow in the forecast. That woke up
22:15
Speaker 1: to a blanket of snow this morning, and um, that
22:18
Speaker 1: seems to really get up moving this time of year.
22:21
Speaker 1: Do you have any strategies with your trail cameras as
22:23
Speaker 1: far as where those are at or if you use
22:25
Speaker 1: that intail for anything in mid November. So, I'm not
22:30
Speaker 1: really using that intail for a whole lot of um
22:32
Speaker 1: stuff at this time of the year. But what I
22:34
Speaker 1: am doing is I'm leaving them on specifically creek crossings,
22:39
Speaker 1: and I'm still leaving someone scrapes, although they're not as
22:43
Speaker 1: active that they scum here and there, But creek crossings
22:48
Speaker 1: and any type of funnels around like beaver ponds things
22:50
Speaker 1: like that have been really good this time of year.
22:53
Speaker 1: To catch some of those those box cruising And I'll
22:56
Speaker 1: use that intael when I pull the cameras at the
22:58
Speaker 1: end of the year for next year, because it seems
23:01
Speaker 1: like every year they follow a similar pattern going forward.
23:06
Speaker 1: Then in the six week or so, what do you
23:07
Speaker 1: think that buck activity is going to be on a
23:09
Speaker 1: scale one to ten in Pennsylvania? So I think the
23:12
Speaker 1: buck activity is gonna stay around eight or nine. I
23:15
Speaker 1: don't think it's gonna get much better. From from the
23:18
Speaker 1: standpoint of there's not I don't think there's gonna be
23:20
Speaker 1: as many deer moving. But I think if you um
23:24
Speaker 1: want a chance at one of the really big mature
23:27
Speaker 1: deer in the area, as I stay with the end
23:29
Speaker 1: of October, I think great now is your best chance.
23:32
Speaker 1: All right, Well, well, good luck this year. I'll be
23:34
Speaker 1: following along at East Meats West Outdoors. Thanks for joining me.
23:39
Speaker 1: Thanks Spencer, alright and joining me on the line. Next
23:43
Speaker 1: is Josh Smith out of Tennessee from Wildcare Deer Attractive
23:47
Speaker 1: Now Josh and Tennessee, what would you say the buck
23:49
Speaker 1: activities men lately on a scale of one to ten.
23:53
Speaker 1: I think we're at a six right now. Primarily young
23:57
Speaker 1: young bucks have started Jason too nice year old? Is
24:00
Speaker 1: that the oldest. I've been out probably six times in
24:03
Speaker 1: the last ten days. UM, and I think November six,
24:07
Speaker 1: I know I saw the first five point, the first
24:11
Speaker 1: buck chasing activity that I had seen. He was running
24:14
Speaker 1: a couple of dos real hot UM. A few days
24:17
Speaker 1: after that, I saw another two and a half year
24:19
Speaker 1: old six running some does. UM. Saw four point cruising
24:23
Speaker 1: you know, um in the morning. UM. And actually that
24:27
Speaker 1: five point I saw morning and even running does two
24:30
Speaker 1: different groups uh, first repair and then a single dough um.
24:35
Speaker 1: And then I saw a six point cruising in the afternoon.
24:38
Speaker 1: And we've had some post Thanksgiving type of weather lately.
24:43
Speaker 1: Things have gotten cold and and uh rain for the
24:46
Speaker 1: last few days, a little bit earlier than usual for us.
24:49
Speaker 1: It's usually around Thanksgiving her after that this kicks in,
24:51
Speaker 1: so I think, Um, normally our rut comes in a
24:54
Speaker 1: little bit before Thanksgiving. I think we're hitting things a
24:56
Speaker 1: little earlier this year. UM. We're not at peak right yet,
24:59
Speaker 1: but uh, I think that the timetables are literally earlier
25:03
Speaker 1: than normal. So I'm interested to see what starts moving
25:06
Speaker 1: around here in the next week or so. I think
25:09
Speaker 1: we'll hit the peak of the rut here probably late
25:12
Speaker 1: this week weekend into early next week, and I'm looking
25:15
Speaker 1: forward to seeing some of my Stu bucks on their
25:17
Speaker 1: feet at that time. I know you and your family
25:19
Speaker 1: also do some hunting in Kentucky. How was the stage
25:22
Speaker 1: of the ruts been maybe different up there than what
25:25
Speaker 1: it is in Tennessee. Yeah, they're just usually a little
25:28
Speaker 1: more advanced as far as the timetable. Bucks are are
25:32
Speaker 1: rutting pretty good up there right now. Yeah. I've got
25:35
Speaker 1: my dad's actually up there with my mom right now, um,
25:38
Speaker 1: and they've seen good activity. She has seen a couple
25:41
Speaker 1: of good shooters out in daylight, but I didn't have
25:44
Speaker 1: a chance to pull triggers, so hopefully today I think
25:47
Speaker 1: they're out in this morning. So what did you say
25:49
Speaker 1: that lockdown is approaching either state right now, Kentucky or
25:53
Speaker 1: Tennessee or do you think we're a little bit off that.
25:55
Speaker 1: I'd say it's it's probably approaching Kentucky sooner than us. Um.
26:00
Speaker 1: I think it'll probably be internet timetable, probably uh, within
26:04
Speaker 1: the next ten days or so. UM. And I think
26:07
Speaker 1: here at home it will probably be more a couple
26:10
Speaker 1: of weeks maybe, UM, but it could be a little sooner.
26:13
Speaker 1: I don't know, you're join. We'll just see what the
26:15
Speaker 1: weather kind of does. I think we're gonna dry out
26:16
Speaker 1: a little bit and we may warm back up, so
26:18
Speaker 1: if it may put a couple of things, we'll see.
26:21
Speaker 1: What do you see for signmaking right now? If Tennessee
26:23
Speaker 1: is a little bit behind, then maybe you're seeing some
26:25
Speaker 1: rubs and scrapes that are still active. Is that the case? Oh?
26:30
Speaker 1: I think the most active rub that I saw I
26:33
Speaker 1: saw about a week ago, and it looked like it
26:35
Speaker 1: was made at least a few days prior to that, UM,
26:39
Speaker 1: and it was kind of along the line that all
26:41
Speaker 1: showed similar signs. So I think that activity is kind
26:44
Speaker 1: of slowed down for us. UM, the scrapes that we've
26:48
Speaker 1: had are kind of dropping off a little bit at
26:50
Speaker 1: this point. I think, you know, they're kind of all
26:53
Speaker 1: efforts are shifting towards finding that dough and that's kind
26:57
Speaker 1: of shifting my tactics a little bit as well as
27:00
Speaker 1: far as like what I'll use for our sense. You know, UM,
27:04
Speaker 1: I'm starting to use astro still right now at home.
27:07
Speaker 1: I'll drag that in every time. You know, we've got
27:09
Speaker 1: young bucks chasing, Like I said, I think mature bucks
27:11
Speaker 1: are gonna be coming in soon, so it's good to
27:14
Speaker 1: have out there. And then once I know that mature
27:17
Speaker 1: bucks are little up on their feet a little bit
27:18
Speaker 1: more and looking, I'll start employing a little more of
27:21
Speaker 1: that rotten buck at that time, and I'll use that
27:24
Speaker 1: in tandem with the astrostough. You guys are on quite
27:27
Speaker 1: a few trail cameras between your Kentucky and Tennessee properties.
27:30
Speaker 1: What is your strategy with those right now? You know,
27:33
Speaker 1: for example, where they set up UM and maybe how
27:36
Speaker 1: is that different from what they were doing a few
27:38
Speaker 1: weeks ago we shifted more to UM sign in the
27:43
Speaker 1: woods set up. We were setting them up near buck
27:46
Speaker 1: Betting UM earlier in the season. You know, we're doing
27:49
Speaker 1: a lot of field edges, just even a couple of
27:51
Speaker 1: weeks ago, a lot of field edges primarily looking at
27:53
Speaker 1: scrapes and and employee mock scrapes for intel. And now
27:58
Speaker 1: we've kind of we're shifting to even our setups are
28:01
Speaker 1: are in the woods a little bit more now. You know,
28:03
Speaker 1: as we shift into lay season in the rut, we're
28:06
Speaker 1: iron travel routes a little bit more than than anything
28:09
Speaker 1: going forward. Then the sixt week or so. What do
28:11
Speaker 1: you think that bucket activity is going to be on
28:13
Speaker 1: a scale of one to ten in Tennessee. I think
28:16
Speaker 1: we'll hit a nine here in the next week. Um.
28:19
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know if we'll reach full peak. Uh.
28:23
Speaker 1: I hope we will. Um, I think we might. I
28:26
Speaker 1: know I'll be putting in some time in the woods,
28:27
Speaker 1: So I'm looking forward to seeing those mature bucks getting
28:30
Speaker 1: up in Adam during daylight hours. Most of what we've
28:32
Speaker 1: seen is still taking place at night, you know, for
28:35
Speaker 1: anything over two and a half years old, So I
28:38
Speaker 1: think the time is quickly approaching. All right, Joshua, thanks
28:41
Speaker 1: for joining me, Thanks for packaging my favorite dear year,
28:43
Speaker 1: and and good luck this year. Hey, I appreciate it.
28:46
Speaker 1: Thanks for having Spencer alright and enjoining me on the line.
28:49
Speaker 1: Next is Keith Thompson in Montana from Montana White Tails.
28:53
Speaker 1: Now Keith in Montana. What would you say the bucket
28:55
Speaker 1: activity has been lately on a scale of one to ten.
28:59
Speaker 1: I'd give it a pretty high nine, or I mean
29:02
Speaker 1: the high eight. I'm sorry, you know, the last three
29:06
Speaker 1: or four days for sure. UM, it's really turned on
29:10
Speaker 1: pretty quickly here. It was kind of dead the last
29:12
Speaker 1: week or so because it was so warm here, we
29:15
Speaker 1: got a good cold front, got a little bit of
29:18
Speaker 1: snow and it definitely got the deer up on their feet. Um.
29:22
Speaker 1: Like I said, it's it's been. It's been hit or missed.
29:26
Speaker 1: But like I said, the last four days, it's it's
29:28
Speaker 1: been pretty much on fire. Every day that we've come across,
29:30
Speaker 1: there's been a buck either locked down with it or
29:34
Speaker 1: we've had some younger deer that we're nudge and everything.
29:37
Speaker 1: So it's been it's been really good. If you had
29:39
Speaker 1: to put a label down on what stage of the
29:41
Speaker 1: rut your part of Montana is in, what would you
29:44
Speaker 1: say that is um as far as maturity or go,
29:49
Speaker 1: I would definitely say the maturity are starting to lock down. Um.
29:53
Speaker 1: A lot of the younger box were catching them in
29:55
Speaker 1: some of the agg field, just checking does and everything else.
29:59
Speaker 1: But we uh, we killed four bucks this week alone
30:04
Speaker 1: that we're actually locked down with those. Um. You know,
30:08
Speaker 1: it really gave us the ability to spot and stoff
30:10
Speaker 1: those deer rather than set the tree stand. So it's
30:14
Speaker 1: kind of age based. I think the mature deer kind
30:16
Speaker 1: of locked up, but some of the younger bucks are
30:18
Speaker 1: you know, up cruising around trying to find the right though.
30:22
Speaker 1: Now you mentioned seeing bucks out in egg fields. Are
30:25
Speaker 1: you focusing on those egg fields because that's the food
30:28
Speaker 1: source that's hot right now? Where is that just where
30:30
Speaker 1: most of the rutting activity has been visible? Um, we've
30:34
Speaker 1: been We've been hitting the act fields pretty hard simply
30:37
Speaker 1: for the fact that you know, there's a bunch of
30:39
Speaker 1: does coming into them, and the cooler attempts kind of
30:43
Speaker 1: actually had the deer up on their feet in the
30:44
Speaker 1: middle of the day. So it was one of those
30:46
Speaker 1: deals where I mean you could see, you could see
30:49
Speaker 1: what you wanted to shoot, whether it be seven o'clock
30:52
Speaker 1: in the morning or one o'clock in the afternoon. It's
30:54
Speaker 1: been pretty consistent as far as deer movement the last
30:57
Speaker 1: you know, three or four days. So how are your
31:00
Speaker 1: strategy setups different with hunters who are in camp with
31:03
Speaker 1: a rifle versus those of the bow. Um, I mean
31:08
Speaker 1: it's we we cause rifles around here. The equalizer, you know,
31:13
Speaker 1: you can we've been hunting a lot of bail blinds
31:15
Speaker 1: and and you know, either that or glass and from
31:18
Speaker 1: far away to find the deer to move with the rifle.
31:21
Speaker 1: I mean simply, I mean, you know as well as
31:23
Speaker 1: I do. You can you can definitely reach out and
31:26
Speaker 1: touch him with a rifle. Nowadays, where with our bow
31:29
Speaker 1: hunters were, we're concentrating them more in uh some of
31:32
Speaker 1: the river bottom. Uh, you know, we're we're looking for
31:36
Speaker 1: bottnecks where it pinches them down the you know, the
31:39
Speaker 1: natural curve of the river really pinches the deer at
31:41
Speaker 1: some spots, and um, you know, the deer have their
31:44
Speaker 1: favorite crossings. We we tend to work all our bow
31:48
Speaker 1: hunters in there where you get that you know, forty
31:50
Speaker 1: and less shot. Are there any weather patterns this time
31:53
Speaker 1: of year, in mid November that you think really changed
31:56
Speaker 1: things positive or negative for deer movement Montana weathers Uh,
32:02
Speaker 1: it's pretty tough to judge. One day at snow and
32:04
Speaker 1: the next day at the beginning of the week it was, uh,
32:08
Speaker 1: well even yesterday morning it was it was, you know,
32:11
Speaker 1: four degrees out and now today it's supposed to be
32:13
Speaker 1: up into the forties. So it's it's been hit or miss.
32:17
Speaker 1: But the cold weather at the beginning of the week
32:20
Speaker 1: most definitely played a part in you know, more activity.
32:24
Speaker 1: I mean you could see it across the board we
32:25
Speaker 1: were seeing more out, more moose. I mean it was
32:29
Speaker 1: it just had everything up moving around a lot better.
32:32
Speaker 1: Going forward. Then in this next week or so, what
32:34
Speaker 1: do you think that buck activity is going to be
32:36
Speaker 1: on a scale of one to tend in Montana? Uh? Well,
32:41
Speaker 1: from my point, I hope pretty high. Um. You know,
32:44
Speaker 1: I think if the temperatures stay relatively cool, I mean
32:48
Speaker 1: I don't see it slowing down at all. Um. I
32:51
Speaker 1: mean I would, I would give it at least an eight,
32:53
Speaker 1: you know, and hopefully hopefully turned on from here. Generally,
32:58
Speaker 1: this week and Thanksgiving week the week coming have been
33:01
Speaker 1: our absolute best weeks of the rut. I mean, in
33:05
Speaker 1: the last twelve thirteen years. Um. So it's it's always
33:10
Speaker 1: an exciting time. You always look forward to it. Um.
33:14
Speaker 1: You hope you get the weather that you want, which is,
33:17
Speaker 1: you know, I prefer like mid twenties maybe, Um, but
33:20
Speaker 1: last year it crept up into the forties a couple
33:23
Speaker 1: of times last last year on this same week, and
33:26
Speaker 1: and the activity was just as good as ever. So
33:29
Speaker 1: it's it's one of those deals. You just you know
33:32
Speaker 1: what I mean, you you hope you get what you want.
33:35
Speaker 1: Light Keith, Well, good luck to your hunters in Camp.
33:37
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me, yep, thank you, and that concludes
33:42
Speaker 1: this week's episode of Wired to Hunt's radio. Thanks to Bryce,
33:45
Speaker 1: bo Josh and Keith for joining me, and thank you
33:48
Speaker 1: guys for listening. As always, make sure you're following Weird
33:51
Speaker 1: to Hunt on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, and follow
33:55
Speaker 1: me Spencer new Heart and my blog Rut Fresh on Facebook, Twitter,
33:59
Speaker 1: and Instagram. Is well. Check out the meat Eater dot
34:02
Speaker 1: com this week for some videos, podcasts, and some articles
34:05
Speaker 1: by Mark and I, and it's also a great resource
34:08
Speaker 1: for all other things hunting, fishing, conservation, and cooking. Enjoy
34:12
Speaker 1: these final days of the rut, and until next time,
34:16
Speaker 1: stay Wired to Hunt.