Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 569: Rut Fresh Radio 9/7/2022 - Adversity Produces 4 Season-Opener BUCKS!

Transcript

Ep. 569: Rut Fresh Radio 9/7/2022 - Adversity Produces 4 Season-Opener BUCKS! · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: Welcome to Wired to Hunts RUT Fresh Radio, bringing you
0:05
Speaker 1: the latest reports from the White Tailed Woods and now
0:09
Speaker 1: your hosts, Casey Smith Tyler Jones. This is RUT Fresh
0:15
Speaker 1: Radio powered by Vortex. I'm your host Casey Smith. This
0:19
Speaker 1: week we're talking about overcoming adversity to find early seasons success.
0:37
Speaker 1: All right, welcome to Wired to Hunts Fresh Radio, brought
0:42
Speaker 1: to you by Vortex. We are back for another season.
0:47
Speaker 1: This is our weekly episode that comes out throughout all
0:52
Speaker 1: the fall hunting season, breaking down the latest in white
0:56
Speaker 1: tail intel from the cross the country. We're gonna be
0:58
Speaker 1: chatting with folks from different regions, learning about what deer
1:02
Speaker 1: doing right now, what kind of tactics are working right now,
1:05
Speaker 1: how different variables like weather, moon, time of year, any
1:09
Speaker 1: of that stuff is impacting deer hunting. This show is
1:12
Speaker 1: all about helping you become more effective right now in
1:16
Speaker 1: the deer woods. So that's what we've been doing for
1:18
Speaker 1: something like seven years now, I think maybe, and it
1:23
Speaker 1: has been I think one of the most valuable things
1:26
Speaker 1: we've brought to the wire Hunt podcast. So they say,
1:30
Speaker 1: if it's not broke, don't fix it, but we've had
1:35
Speaker 1: to fix rough Fresh Radio we're switching it up because
1:40
Speaker 1: all Spencer new hearth, it's no longer with us, and
1:45
Speaker 1: he's and he's kicking, he's alive, heartbeating, he's still out there.
1:50
Speaker 1: But you're gonna hear You're gonna hear some different voices
1:52
Speaker 1: in the pod. You just heard the very uh loud,
1:57
Speaker 1: exciting laughter of our two new hosts of Refresh Radio.
2:02
Speaker 1: Spencer is out and Casey Smith and Tyler Jones of
2:07
Speaker 1: The Element are in. Welcome to the show, gentlemen. Thanks Mark,
2:12
Speaker 1: Thank you, Mark. We're ready. We had an obituary and
2:16
Speaker 1: a birth notice all on the same sentence there. Yeah, man,
2:22
Speaker 1: I mean Spencer, Spencer was great, but I think everybody
2:25
Speaker 1: listening just new. We were just waiting for an upgrade.
2:28
Speaker 1: Year after year. They kept thinking, Man, there's got to
2:29
Speaker 1: be something better than this, and we finally No Mark,
2:34
Speaker 1: I can remember back to the first I can't remember
2:37
Speaker 1: if it was the first year Refresh was around, but
2:39
Speaker 1: I listened the first time at least, and was pretty
2:43
Speaker 1: impressed with Spencer. Like being able to call around and
2:47
Speaker 1: compile the knowledge and stuff you know from from different
2:49
Speaker 1: directions across the country. I thought it's pretty cool, man.
2:51
Speaker 1: I like it Spencer. Spencer did a really good job,
2:55
Speaker 1: and uh and we will miss him. I will miss him,
2:57
Speaker 1: good buddy. But he's moving on up in the world.
3:00
Speaker 1: He now hosts Met the Meat Eater trivia podcast and
3:04
Speaker 1: that takes up a lot of his time, so he
3:06
Speaker 1: simply just doesn't have the bandwidth to do this anymore.
3:09
Speaker 1: So Spencer's moving on up to the meat eater throne,
3:13
Speaker 1: and us here in the Wired Hunt world are bringing
3:17
Speaker 1: in some new talents. So the show is gonna stay
3:19
Speaker 1: the same, right, We're still going to do the same format.
3:21
Speaker 1: We're going to be hearing from folks all across the
3:24
Speaker 1: country each week. But you guys, I think are gonna
3:29
Speaker 1: bring a different flavor to it, which I like. Um,
3:32
Speaker 1: you know, one thing I used to give Spencer really
3:34
Speaker 1: hard time about was that he didn't hunt white tails
3:39
Speaker 1: for big chunks of the year anymore, especially since he
3:41
Speaker 1: moved to Montana. He was all about elk and mule
3:43
Speaker 1: deer and stuff, and then he'd go out in November
3:46
Speaker 1: and I always ras him about it. But you guys,
3:48
Speaker 1: I mean, with a few exceptions, you guys are gonna
3:50
Speaker 1: be getting after it all year, and um, I think
3:53
Speaker 1: that's gonna give us some really interesting insight throughout as well.
3:56
Speaker 1: So I guess before I get ahead of myself too much,
4:00
Speaker 1: can the two of you, can you each give us
4:03
Speaker 1: a little introduction for people that haven't heard, and hopefully
4:05
Speaker 1: they know who you are. I know you've both been
4:07
Speaker 1: on the Wired Hump podcast a good amount over the years,
4:10
Speaker 1: but could you each kind of give a quick introduction
4:13
Speaker 1: to who you are and then maybe collectively tell us
4:16
Speaker 1: a little bit about what your you know, what your project,
4:19
Speaker 1: the element is, what you guys do over there? Yes, sure, man.
4:22
Speaker 1: So I'm Casey Smith. I'm from Northeast Texas. Uh, hunt deer,
4:27
Speaker 1: and I'm a family man. I'm a youth ministry. I
4:30
Speaker 1: do a lot of what I think is cool stuff
4:31
Speaker 1: because it's I'm doing it. You probably don't, but that's okay. Uh.
4:35
Speaker 1: And honestly, um man, it's hard to Tyler will probably
4:41
Speaker 1: do better at this, he's more articulate. But um it's
4:44
Speaker 1: hard to kind of separate myself from what Tyler and
4:48
Speaker 1: I both do now because we've been doing this for
4:51
Speaker 1: so hard for so long. You know. Uh, we travel
4:54
Speaker 1: the country and hunt deer every chance we get, pretty much,
4:57
Speaker 1: and then do our best to uh experience the outdoors
5:02
Speaker 1: within other parts of the season and with other parts
5:05
Speaker 1: of the year. So that's kind of who I am. Man.
5:07
Speaker 1: I'm Tyler Jones. I am also from northeast Texas and
5:12
Speaker 1: I love a deer hunt. But I grew up bass
5:14
Speaker 1: fishing a lot cat fishing on Lake Fork, Texas, which
5:17
Speaker 1: is a world famous bass largemouth bass lake. Um. And
5:22
Speaker 1: also have a family of four that I really love
5:26
Speaker 1: to be around. Uh it's hard this time of year
5:28
Speaker 1: to to not be around them because of all the
5:31
Speaker 1: traveling we get we do, but it is still super
5:34
Speaker 1: blessing that we get to go and do that stuff
5:36
Speaker 1: and uh just witnessed so many cool things. UM. I
5:40
Speaker 1: am also a uh i'd call myself a small stream officionado.
5:45
Speaker 1: I'm not a lumper like Mark. Um. I do think
5:50
Speaker 1: that there are more than one cutthroat species out there
5:53
Speaker 1: and for a whole other podcast. Yeah, so we'll get
5:57
Speaker 1: into that at some point, So you'll just hold on
5:58
Speaker 1: to that for a little bit. Yeah ah yeah, Man,
6:02
Speaker 1: So I gotta tell the audience that I can I can.
6:06
Speaker 1: I can vouch for Tyler, I cannot vouch for Casey yet.
6:10
Speaker 1: But I just spent a week in the woods with Tyler,
6:12
Speaker 1: and I can vouch for him now. Uh he is.
6:15
Speaker 1: He is the real deal and a dang good fisherman
6:18
Speaker 1: to boot. So Casey, you're gonna have to prove yourself
6:21
Speaker 1: to me here soon and maybe in December we'll get
6:23
Speaker 1: when we get together, we can do that. But Tyler,
6:27
Speaker 1: it was a great time. I'm really glad we got
6:28
Speaker 1: to do that. True. I agree, man, I thought I
6:30
Speaker 1: thought you were gonna be a bad fisherman, but you
6:33
Speaker 1: were pretty good to you so at least we were
6:36
Speaker 1: both better than Dailan. They We just had last smart
6:41
Speaker 1: enough to take the streamer off. That's all we had
6:44
Speaker 1: to do. So so give give folks a little bit
6:48
Speaker 1: more of an idea of of what you guys produced
6:51
Speaker 1: at the Element. I mean, you do videos on your
6:53
Speaker 1: YouTube channel, you do a podcast, but if you had
6:57
Speaker 1: to describe like what makes the Element unique or or
7:02
Speaker 1: why it's worth watching, you know, what's what's your stick?
7:05
Speaker 1: And maybe sticks the wrong word, but like what's your thing?
7:08
Speaker 1: If you're in the South, stick is definitely the wrong word.
7:11
Speaker 1: It's not really a thing that said with lapinos for sure,
7:18
Speaker 1: that's that's the stick. Um, I think that, Um, I'll
7:24
Speaker 1: toller will have a better answer than me. But UM,
7:27
Speaker 1: kind of the thing that at least makes us who
7:30
Speaker 1: we are. I don't want to say it makes us unique,
7:32
Speaker 1: because that's a perspective from someone else, not for myself,
7:36
Speaker 1: is that, Um, we have kind of a die hard attitude,
7:39
Speaker 1: but also make sure we have fun doing everything we do. Uh.
7:43
Speaker 1: And that's kind of um the way we operate, man.
7:47
Speaker 1: We we try to experience things, tell stories, and make
7:51
Speaker 1: sure that we give a positive outlook, you know. Like uh,
7:59
Speaker 1: I think at um, hunting needs to be preserved for
8:05
Speaker 1: the future. And if we continue on as whitetail hunters,
8:09
Speaker 1: specifically with like this diehard, Um, I'm gonna go hunting
8:14
Speaker 1: by myself and this is terrible until I shoot the
8:17
Speaker 1: dear mentality, then it's not very attractive to other people.
8:20
Speaker 1: So uh, I think it would be better to be
8:22
Speaker 1: able to portray that in a positive lot and say
8:25
Speaker 1: how awesome it is to be in all these different
8:27
Speaker 1: environments ecosystems around the country and show people how cool
8:32
Speaker 1: deer are and how much fun you can have hunting
8:34
Speaker 1: and how it's a great bonding experience and being able
8:37
Speaker 1: to convey that via video and podcasts. Is it's pretty
8:42
Speaker 1: cool man? Yeah, for sure. I mean that's that's like
8:45
Speaker 1: that's burst straight from k C to like, Um, the
8:49
Speaker 1: optimistic side is definitely something that I've learned from him. Um,
8:55
Speaker 1: and that is why we're able to have fun even
8:58
Speaker 1: when it's not uh great conditions or you know, things
9:02
Speaker 1: aren't quite going your way. Um. So yeah, I mean
9:05
Speaker 1: I definitely agree, like, uh, the idea is to have
9:08
Speaker 1: fun because hunting is just a privilege that we have
9:11
Speaker 1: and there's no reason to go out and just suffer
9:15
Speaker 1: and struggle. Of course it's not always fun, right, but
9:19
Speaker 1: like there there needs to be some sort of an
9:22
Speaker 1: optimist attitude to get you through those moments because overall
9:25
Speaker 1: it will make them the experience more fun. So I
9:27
Speaker 1: definitely uh concur with what case he's saying there. Yeah,
9:32
Speaker 1: well I can echo what you're saying and from a
9:35
Speaker 1: viewer's perspective, tell you that you guys are doing a
9:39
Speaker 1: great job of conveying that fun. If there's anything I
9:42
Speaker 1: if I had to lump you guys into anyone category,
9:46
Speaker 1: I would I would call it. I would call it
9:48
Speaker 1: the fun category. You guys. Uh, you guys definitely have
9:52
Speaker 1: a good time out there, and it comes through and
9:54
Speaker 1: and it makes viewing your stuff, listening to your stuff,
9:57
Speaker 1: it makes it all that much more enjoyable too. So
9:59
Speaker 1: I'm excited about you bring in that to Rot Fresh
10:02
Speaker 1: Radio because if there's anything that Spencer is not, it's
10:05
Speaker 1: fun this podcast, it's hilarious, all right, before we crap
10:16
Speaker 1: on Spencer anymore. Um, when you when we first started
10:21
Speaker 1: talking about this earlier this summer, about you guys taken
10:23
Speaker 1: over and you started thinking through, all right, how are
10:26
Speaker 1: we gonna put our spin on ret Fresh Radio? How
10:30
Speaker 1: are we going to do it? How are we going
10:31
Speaker 1: to fit into our schedules and everything? Was there anything
10:35
Speaker 1: you know, when you think about the rest of the season,
10:37
Speaker 1: Is there anything that comes to mind as far as
10:40
Speaker 1: tweaks you're thinking about changing or or different ways or
10:44
Speaker 1: different things you think might be a little bit more
10:46
Speaker 1: unique because of what you're doing or where you're gonna be.
10:49
Speaker 1: I guess what I'm getting at is is what sure
10:51
Speaker 1: listeners have to look forward to over the next four months.
10:53
Speaker 1: Is there anything you you can think of that comes
10:57
Speaker 1: to mind on that one? I mean, yeah, there's that.
11:00
Speaker 1: I mean, the first thing comes to mind there is
11:02
Speaker 1: um a can probably take up take it up an
11:06
Speaker 1: octave or so, probably in the register department. Uh also
11:12
Speaker 1: also definitely a tenor over here also, um just like
11:16
Speaker 1: that that live hunt aspect um. Uh where we're gonna
11:22
Speaker 1: be out so much this year just hunting different places
11:25
Speaker 1: all across the US and them. I don't know, there's
11:27
Speaker 1: probably like between eight and ten states that will be
11:30
Speaker 1: in this year, and so just that that'll be another
11:34
Speaker 1: just you know, every every week will almost have like
11:37
Speaker 1: a different an extra state report, you know, because of
11:41
Speaker 1: where it will be. I think so that that's something
11:43
Speaker 1: that's exciting. Yeah. I think to um, y'all done a
11:47
Speaker 1: great job of getting a variety of of guests on
11:50
Speaker 1: in the past, but just with new people comes a
11:54
Speaker 1: new network. So it's maybe some fresh voices, some different
11:57
Speaker 1: perspectives and things of people who we know and and
12:02
Speaker 1: know where are good hunters and can give kind of
12:05
Speaker 1: some new perspectives throughout the season. Yeah, yeah, I think
12:08
Speaker 1: that'll be great. Uh So where are you guys gonna
12:12
Speaker 1: be going this fall? What what can we be looking
12:14
Speaker 1: forward to from you guys specifically? Oh man? Uh So
12:19
Speaker 1: the first place that will be uh in September will
12:23
Speaker 1: be basically three states, Colorado, Arizona, and Nebraska, so our
12:30
Speaker 1: whitetail stuff doesn't actually start until Nebraska later this month,
12:34
Speaker 1: I think. But we're case. He's got l hunt in Arizona. Um,
12:39
Speaker 1: super lucky tag drawl there. Um. And then I had,
12:42
Speaker 1: uh I got a mule deer hunt in the high
12:44
Speaker 1: Country that I'm really excited about. Took me a long
12:46
Speaker 1: time to draw, so uh yeah, super excited about those things.
12:50
Speaker 1: After that, it looks like, uh, you know how it
12:53
Speaker 1: is when November hits. Sometimes it's like just you know,
12:57
Speaker 1: spur the moment, like oh, I just killed a deer.
12:59
Speaker 1: Now I think I'll go somewhere else, you know, so
13:02
Speaker 1: really um, South Dakota uh, UM, Wisconsin, potentially Illinois, Oklahoma,
13:11
Speaker 1: Kansas are all ones that we hope to go to.
13:14
Speaker 1: Arkansas uh and then of course, uh, Texas is something
13:19
Speaker 1: that will be spending some time in as well, which
13:21
Speaker 1: we'll see you down at some point down here. UM
13:25
Speaker 1: hopefully trying to keep up, you know, with the spicy
13:28
Speaker 1: foods and stuff. I don't know how you do with
13:29
Speaker 1: those things. I like spicy food The questions can you
13:33
Speaker 1: keep up with all long strides. Luckily I don't have
13:38
Speaker 1: to film you. We'll have somebody else having to keep
13:40
Speaker 1: up with you. Oh man, I'm I'm looking forward to
13:46
Speaker 1: that hunt. That will be an epic Fresh radio episode
13:49
Speaker 1: that we record, uh during the midst of that hunt.
13:52
Speaker 1: But alright, guys, well, I am really really excited for this.
13:57
Speaker 1: I appreciate you joined the team and helping us out
14:00
Speaker 1: with rough Fresh this fall. And I guess from here,
14:03
Speaker 1: I'm gonna let you take the reins and run with it.
14:05
Speaker 1: It's your baby now, so take good care of it.
14:07
Speaker 1: All right, sounds good man, he's been practicing. I got
14:10
Speaker 1: a couple of babies, so we got all right. Appreciate it.
14:15
Speaker 1: I'm excited to hear the hear the stories this week. Cool.
14:19
Speaker 1: This week, we're gonna talk to Jared Larson from on
14:22
Speaker 1: X who's been wyoming. We're gonna talk to the Elements
14:24
Speaker 1: own hunter Dickens hunting in Tennessee, Mark Haslem in Georgia,
14:29
Speaker 1: and then we're gonna wrap it up with Alex Comstock
14:31
Speaker 1: from Wait Till d NA who's been up in North
14:33
Speaker 1: Dakota on the phone. Now, I've got Jared Larson, the
14:39
Speaker 1: Killer from on X. He's been hunting Wyoming, dude, how
14:42
Speaker 1: are things Casey? Good to hear from your buddy. It
14:45
Speaker 1: has been hot. Uh, not ideal weather conditions, highs in
14:49
Speaker 1: the nineties, lows in those upper sixties. But so far
14:52
Speaker 1: in camp we've done pretty well. Um, we've seen the
14:55
Speaker 1: fair amounted deer movement for the given weather, both morning
14:59
Speaker 1: and evening. Uh. In fact, that to the three deer
15:02
Speaker 1: that have now been killed in camp, we're all killed
15:04
Speaker 1: on morning hunts, which is pretty atypical of this time
15:07
Speaker 1: of year. Um. But I'd say I'd say hunting has
15:10
Speaker 1: been solid, you know for the first week. Unpressured deer.
15:13
Speaker 1: Uh they seem to do. They seem to be doing
15:15
Speaker 1: unpressured dear things. Yeah, that's an exciting time to be
15:18
Speaker 1: in the woods. Is whenever the deer just aren't used
15:20
Speaker 1: to people. It's a it's a good time. And you
15:22
Speaker 1: actually capitalized on that and shot a cranker of an
15:26
Speaker 1: opening day buck Man. Well, I appreciate that. Yeah, I mean, uh,
15:31
Speaker 1: I can't really take a whole lot of credit here.
15:33
Speaker 1: My good buddy Aaron helped put me on that deer.
15:36
Speaker 1: He had hung the stand for me. Um, I've gone
15:38
Speaker 1: out there with him you know, the evening before we
15:40
Speaker 1: blast some deer. UM actually didn't see the buck I
15:44
Speaker 1: ended up killing the next morning. But it was one
15:46
Speaker 1: of those stands where we were either gonna see a
15:48
Speaker 1: buck that we wanted to shoot, or we weren't going
15:50
Speaker 1: to see a deer at all. We were tucked in
15:52
Speaker 1: a bedroom. Um, you know those morning hunts in September
15:55
Speaker 1: while they're still out feeding, particularly here in northeast Wyoming,
15:59
Speaker 1: you know a lot of egg pivots at their feet
16:01
Speaker 1: and on coming up back into the draws for betting.
16:03
Speaker 1: And so that's where we were sitting and shoot. I
16:06
Speaker 1: mean I first saw him at twenty three yards and
16:08
Speaker 1: shot him at ten yards. I mean it was a
16:10
Speaker 1: whopping you know, fourty five second encounter as they are sometimes,
16:14
Speaker 1: but yeah, it was. It was a great buck, and uh,
16:16
Speaker 1: I was stoked. I've never shot one on September one. Dude.
16:19
Speaker 1: He's beautiful, had some kickers and stuff, and he's big framed.
16:23
Speaker 1: What what how many scorebol points he end up having? Yeah? Fourteen?
16:27
Speaker 1: Actually he has, Uh, he's he's just a main frame eight.
16:30
Speaker 1: But then he has six different daggers that are over
16:34
Speaker 1: an inch like coming off of his bases, and I
16:36
Speaker 1: mean a couple of them are three four inches. I mean,
16:39
Speaker 1: just a really unique buck as far as you know
16:42
Speaker 1: the character. He's got all over his bases. And he
16:45
Speaker 1: actually must have just came out of velvet within the
16:48
Speaker 1: day or so because he just had that blood red
16:50
Speaker 1: stained Antler's. It was super cool Buck. Yeah, that's cool.
16:54
Speaker 1: How are you gonna preserve that? Guy? You're gonna so
16:55
Speaker 1: shoulder mout? You're gonna do a euro? What are you thinking?
16:58
Speaker 1: I'm a year o guy, rose euros for sure. I
17:02
Speaker 1: have a few shoulder mounts, and uh they're tough to
17:04
Speaker 1: move and expensive, so your euros are are my style
17:08
Speaker 1: for a while. You kill as many big deer as
17:10
Speaker 1: Jared Larson does, you can't just don't have enough room
17:12
Speaker 1: for too many shoulder mounts, you know you got. Well
17:15
Speaker 1: that's that's more pillow fluffing than I deserve. But I
17:18
Speaker 1: appreciate you. Yeah, you're welcome, man. So, uh, did you
17:22
Speaker 1: expect to go in and kill on that morning hunt?
17:25
Speaker 1: Is that a thing that you you felt good about
17:27
Speaker 1: or was it kind of a taking time until the
17:30
Speaker 1: standard evening killed time that most people associate with early season. Yeah? No,
17:36
Speaker 1: I absolutely did not expect to go in there and
17:38
Speaker 1: shoot a deer in the first season. I figured, you know,
17:42
Speaker 1: we're gonna sit those bedrooms, and you know how it
17:44
Speaker 1: is hutting the buck bedroom Like any time that you're
17:46
Speaker 1: in an area that, especially early season, a buck is
17:50
Speaker 1: habitually using whether it's um on a particular wind direction
17:54
Speaker 1: or you know, there's other patterns that you can start
17:56
Speaker 1: to put together if you're able to watch some dear
17:59
Speaker 1: for uh, you know, a couple of days in advance. Um.
18:02
Speaker 1: And so my buddy Aaron has been able to do
18:04
Speaker 1: that out here and uh, and so he sounded it
18:07
Speaker 1: was probably about at shot whether a buck came in
18:10
Speaker 1: there is how he felt about it. So. Um, but
18:12
Speaker 1: I expected this to be very much an evening hunt thing.
18:16
Speaker 1: But again, with highs in the nineties, the mornings have
18:19
Speaker 1: been much cooler. The weather is supposed to drop off
18:23
Speaker 1: over here in this part of the world in Wyoming, Montana,
18:26
Speaker 1: the west here North Dakota, UM in about five days.
18:30
Speaker 1: You know, the highs are in like the sixties, low seventies,
18:32
Speaker 1: So I would imagine the evenings will really kick in
18:35
Speaker 1: here pretty quick. Yeah, that's cool. So are you seeing
18:37
Speaker 1: deer also relate to water sources with it being so hot.
18:41
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, absolutely, quite a few folks here have been hunting,
18:45
Speaker 1: you know, just just water holes, um, you know, guzzlers,
18:48
Speaker 1: that type of thing. Do you see them doing that
18:51
Speaker 1: earlier in the afternoon or is that a last lot
18:53
Speaker 1: top thing? Yeah? From from what I've seen it, it's
18:56
Speaker 1: pretty much seemingly right when you start for in those gear,
19:00
Speaker 1: getting up out of bed to head into a water source,
19:02
Speaker 1: getting to drink before they go find food. Yeah. Cool,
19:05
Speaker 1: So definitely plenty of shooting lot if you're hunting over
19:08
Speaker 1: a water source on a hot day. Are you seeing
19:10
Speaker 1: bucks still in bachelor groups? Are they already pretty much
19:12
Speaker 1: split up? You know? So about half the bucks out
19:16
Speaker 1: here are still in velvet, about half our out. In fact,
19:18
Speaker 1: we saw one last night that was in full velvet
19:21
Speaker 1: and this morning he was completely shed. You know, just
19:24
Speaker 1: luder at antlers was super cool in the sun. Um.
19:28
Speaker 1: And so they're definitely hanging out in groups. And my experience,
19:32
Speaker 1: you know, that will really purl along through quite a
19:35
Speaker 1: bit of September here. Um from what I've seen, particularly
19:38
Speaker 1: in the west here Da go to Montana, Wyoming's own area. Um.
19:43
Speaker 1: So yeah, I would, I would expect to sea bucks together. Yeah. Cool.
19:47
Speaker 1: So if you were predicting for guys that maybe had
19:51
Speaker 1: to work, you know, for the opener, but about to
19:53
Speaker 1: get out on this weekend and throughout the next week,
19:56
Speaker 1: what's your predicted buck movement level if you say like
19:59
Speaker 1: zero as opposed to just them going crazy? Well, so
20:04
Speaker 1: the high tomorrow is a hundred at least where I'm at.
20:07
Speaker 1: So I would definitely, um, if you can and you
20:12
Speaker 1: are able to pinpoint a betting area, I'd be sitting
20:16
Speaker 1: as tight to that as you possibly can. Uh, if
20:19
Speaker 1: you can slip in there undetected in the morning, UM
20:22
Speaker 1: to get that, you know, first half hour of shooting
20:25
Speaker 1: light movement. Uh, and then in the evening just focus
20:29
Speaker 1: on shade, you know. Again, if you don't know exactly
20:32
Speaker 1: where a buck is betting, if you can find a
20:33
Speaker 1: combination of of shade, good green food sources and water.
20:38
Speaker 1: That's the other thing I've noticed out here. You know
20:40
Speaker 1: a lot of times you's just so much of what
20:42
Speaker 1: you're looking at is dry, and uh, there's just in
20:46
Speaker 1: in the shady wet spots. Just me on green grass, um,
20:50
Speaker 1: as compared to everything around it and to no surprise.
20:54
Speaker 1: That's where we've seen the most dear congregate in the
20:56
Speaker 1: evenings when they go out and feed. Is just that
20:58
Speaker 1: best food source avail a bull that also can keep
21:01
Speaker 1: them cool. Yeah, dude, killer info there. Man, Really appreciate that,
21:05
Speaker 1: and congrats on that dead gum cool buck. Man. That's
21:08
Speaker 1: so awesome. Well, I appreciate it, Casey. It's always a pleasure.
21:12
Speaker 1: And hopefully do this again at some point later this fault. Yeah,
21:14
Speaker 1: hopefully you kill like seven more when we get to
21:16
Speaker 1: talk every time on the phone. Now we have got
21:22
Speaker 1: the elements own h t H as we call him,
21:25
Speaker 1: or Hunter, the Hunter, Hunter Dickens. What's up, dude, Hey
21:29
Speaker 1: k C. How's it going? It is great? I hear you.
21:32
Speaker 1: Uh just got off the road from slopping a bunch
21:35
Speaker 1: of doves and you actually slocked Sweet Tennessee velvet buck
21:40
Speaker 1: in the special velvet season that they had recently. It
21:43
Speaker 1: is between those two hunts, it's been quite the quite
21:47
Speaker 1: the week for me. I've got a full freezer which
21:49
Speaker 1: we're about to start gnawing into here pretty soon. Do
21:53
Speaker 1: you have some special recipes plan to combine that, uh,
21:57
Speaker 1: that white tail and the doves together. I'm thinking about
22:01
Speaker 1: a stuffed uh white tail. Oh yeah, it's kind of
22:05
Speaker 1: like a turn ducking, but different. It's like a turn
22:08
Speaker 1: yeah deer duven. That's hilarious. So you went up and
22:13
Speaker 1: uh hunted some pretty early dates for it's at least
22:17
Speaker 1: what the Midwest would consider in the special velvet seave
22:19
Speaker 1: its season in Tennessee. Um, you kind of went up
22:23
Speaker 1: there side unseen, a little blind, I understand. And how
22:26
Speaker 1: did that go for you? Yeah? It was, Uh it
22:30
Speaker 1: was very side unseen and blind. Uh. Season started the
22:34
Speaker 1: twenty six and ended the so real short uh hot
22:39
Speaker 1: season for this time of year too. Uh. With that
22:42
Speaker 1: being said, though, the weather we had a couple of
22:44
Speaker 1: breaks and weather, thank goodness. Um, And so most of
22:49
Speaker 1: the the scouting was kind of done from the standard
22:53
Speaker 1: on the ground deering the hunts. It was all just
22:57
Speaker 1: information I was taking in dear in the hunt we did.
23:00
Speaker 1: We showed up one day early, so we got to
23:03
Speaker 1: scout the evening before season started, and that was all
23:07
Speaker 1: the knowledge we basically had. Now traditionally, uh, deer are
23:12
Speaker 1: just hitting soybeans this time of year pretty hard because
23:15
Speaker 1: they're still green and it's just a really great protein source.
23:17
Speaker 1: Did you see that that was the case. On your
23:19
Speaker 1: hunts idea, I noticed a lot of deer real close
23:27
Speaker 1: to the egg. So I was really focused in on
23:31
Speaker 1: betting areas just within probably two to three hundred yards
23:36
Speaker 1: of the egg, because again, temperatures are hot, those deer
23:39
Speaker 1: aren't gonna be moving a ton. They're gonna be sticking
23:42
Speaker 1: close to their food sources and their water sources, uh
23:45
Speaker 1: for this time of year. So that was something that
23:47
Speaker 1: I really took consideration on. Got you and that actually
23:51
Speaker 1: helps you set up. Man. You're like the last morning dude.
23:54
Speaker 1: That's just I'm lining with you for a few years,
23:57
Speaker 1: and you like to shoot stuff on the last morning
23:59
Speaker 1: fall sable. I just to give it some drama, and
24:02
Speaker 1: that's exactly what you did. I think you were up
24:04
Speaker 1: there hunting with her buddy Chad from Cruiser Saddles and
24:07
Speaker 1: uh had the intent of going in and doing just that,
24:10
Speaker 1: but kind of had to call an audible last minute. Yes,
24:13
Speaker 1: yes we did. So we got dropped off early that morning. Uh.
24:17
Speaker 1: Greg was the cameraman with me that day, and when
24:20
Speaker 1: we got dropped off, I said, Greg, we're gonna be
24:24
Speaker 1: super tight on these deer going in because these deer
24:27
Speaker 1: in a very uh kind of nocturnal stage right now.
24:32
Speaker 1: They haven't lost any velvet, but it's hot in the day,
24:35
Speaker 1: so they're just feeding when it's most comfortable and casuals
24:38
Speaker 1: to them. So I told Greg, as we're going through
24:40
Speaker 1: these beans, we're gonna be right on top of deer.
24:42
Speaker 1: So we're not using lights. You just I'm gonna lead
24:46
Speaker 1: the way. You step where I step. We're gonna be
24:48
Speaker 1: as quiet as we can. And we walked past deer
24:51
Speaker 1: twenty yards away. You could hear their antlers breaking in
24:54
Speaker 1: the soybeans as they were eating. I mean, it was
24:56
Speaker 1: just hair standing type situation. So it sounds funny snug
25:03
Speaker 1: past some monsters in the dark. I'm assuming they in
25:06
Speaker 1: the dark. They at least had to have been two
25:08
Speaker 1: inches by by how much soybeans they were moving. We
25:15
Speaker 1: got past them, and we're going to set up in
25:18
Speaker 1: this bedding area. I dropped a pin on it the
25:20
Speaker 1: night before. I was like, man, this is the spot.
25:23
Speaker 1: Is about a hundred and fifty yards down to draw
25:26
Speaker 1: in a bedding area away from the soybeans. I was like,
25:29
Speaker 1: we're gonna get in here and set up. And once
25:32
Speaker 1: we broke the crest of that draw I could hear
25:35
Speaker 1: dear relatively close to us within forty fifty yards. Uh.
25:41
Speaker 1: I mean we were walking very very quietly and carefully,
25:44
Speaker 1: and so I was whispering to grads, like, we can't
25:46
Speaker 1: go into the bed and area. They're already in there.
25:48
Speaker 1: So let's turn around and go get up on the
25:51
Speaker 1: cusp of this this drainage, um and see if we
25:54
Speaker 1: can catch some deer coming out of these soybeans. And
25:57
Speaker 1: we had a little buffer zone probably or stage in area,
26:01
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it, probably about sixty yards wide. Uh,
26:06
Speaker 1: And it was just beautiful habitat and we're working our way.
26:10
Speaker 1: We'd only gotten into this drainage maybe forty yards, and
26:13
Speaker 1: we turned around and there is a buck skylighted or
26:18
Speaker 1: moonlighted on the crust of this ridge. And Greg goes
26:23
Speaker 1: to turn the camera on and I you know, he
26:26
Speaker 1: kind of forcefully hit him in the chest to stop
26:30
Speaker 1: him from from lightness up real bad with the camera.
26:33
Speaker 1: And it's just one of those things it just kind
26:36
Speaker 1: of takes experience to know, because that buck was working
26:40
Speaker 1: his way to us and ended up getting within about
26:42
Speaker 1: fifteen yards of us and milling around, and we could
26:46
Speaker 1: hear him eating and he eventually worked off. That's what
26:48
Speaker 1: happens when you got a good wind and you're super stealthy.
26:51
Speaker 1: But we walked up to the crest the crest and
26:56
Speaker 1: uh could hear deer around us, and I'm like, you know,
26:59
Speaker 1: I talk Greg, I said, it's just too quiet to
27:02
Speaker 1: try and get in a tree right now. Is the
27:04
Speaker 1: best thing we can do is get on the west
27:06
Speaker 1: side of a tree and stay in the shade. As
27:09
Speaker 1: this sun starts to come up. We'll just be a
27:11
Speaker 1: shadow in the woods and when these deer come out
27:14
Speaker 1: of the field will be ready. So that's what that's
27:17
Speaker 1: what we ended up doing. And how did that work
27:21
Speaker 1: out for you, sir? That ended up with a twenty
27:24
Speaker 1: yard on the ground, perfect broadside shot on a in
27:29
Speaker 1: my book Monster Tennessee velvet buck. That's what I'm talking about, dude.
27:34
Speaker 1: It's so cool, And you know, I kind of have
27:37
Speaker 1: a little extra insight into this, just because you and
27:39
Speaker 1: I were talking through the whole hunt, and uh, that
27:42
Speaker 1: was a well appreciated deer for sure, just because of
27:46
Speaker 1: how hard that hunt was for you. I know, Yes,
27:48
Speaker 1: So that was actually aside from deer in the dark,
27:51
Speaker 1: that was the first buck we saw in legal shooting light,
27:54
Speaker 1: so the opportunity was not going to be passed. Hey,
27:57
Speaker 1: you're one from one dude on Tennessee doublet bucks. So congratulations, hunter,
28:01
Speaker 1: I have a thousand percent that's there. I'll sell you out.
28:04
Speaker 1: It's an awesome buck. And it sounds like you had
28:06
Speaker 1: the camera guy Gregg with you. So does that mean
28:09
Speaker 1: this thing is on film? That means it's on film
28:11
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be up on the Element YouTube here
28:15
Speaker 1: pretty soon. Awesome dude. I'm excited to get to watch
28:18
Speaker 1: that thing and it's entirety folk show. Uh. So, with
28:22
Speaker 1: all that being said, congrats on the great buck in Tennessee. Um,
28:26
Speaker 1: as more seasons start to open up, we have, you know,
28:29
Speaker 1: like the Kentucky's Velvet season that opens this week. What
28:32
Speaker 1: do you expect buck movement to be going forward here?
28:35
Speaker 1: With some cooler temperatures. I looked at the actual forecast
28:38
Speaker 1: for that area and we're looking at some pretty rainy
28:41
Speaker 1: weather really for the upcoming days. Oh man, I wish
28:44
Speaker 1: you could see me right now. I've got goose bumps
28:46
Speaker 1: on me. That just makes me get that just makes
28:48
Speaker 1: me get all excited. Uh. But these cooler temperatures rolling
28:53
Speaker 1: in them. Those bachelor groups are gonna break up. The
28:55
Speaker 1: bucks are gonna be off for a couple of days,
28:58
Speaker 1: losing their velvet. So if y'all losing on camera for
29:00
Speaker 1: a while, UH, don't be too worried. They as long
29:04
Speaker 1: as you've got your cameras in the right spot, they're
29:05
Speaker 1: gonna show back up. But they're gonna venture off, lose
29:08
Speaker 1: that velvet, and come back in. Uh, mostly in singles.
29:13
Speaker 1: You may have some of your smaller uh more uh
29:17
Speaker 1: in mature bucks uh still grouped up in twos or threes,
29:21
Speaker 1: But your mature bucks are gonna be getting ready to
29:24
Speaker 1: start roaming here soon. That's cool, Yes, sir, established in
29:30
Speaker 1: there there their home ranges. So put a number on
29:34
Speaker 1: it between one and ten, which you expect the buck
29:37
Speaker 1: movement to be in daylight over the next week. Uh,
29:41
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be a lot better. So I
29:43
Speaker 1: would say probably i'd expect a six or seven versus
29:48
Speaker 1: you know here in the past two weeks, I would
29:49
Speaker 1: expect you know, I judged that to be a four
29:52
Speaker 1: to five, and I think with the velvet coming off,
29:55
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a six to seven type situation. It's
29:58
Speaker 1: it's gonna be more than favorable. Awesome, well hunter again.
30:01
Speaker 1: Congrats in the great buck, dude, and I can't wait
30:04
Speaker 1: to see what else do you put down this season.
30:06
Speaker 1: Oh yes, sir, more monsters coming ye all a way.
30:21
Speaker 1: I have got Alex com Stock with whitetail DNA on
30:24
Speaker 1: the phone right now. And late at night last night,
30:27
Speaker 1: while I was proving the socials, I saw this guy
30:32
Speaker 1: post a story picture and it was just an obscure
30:36
Speaker 1: angle of a big velvet buck, which is what these
30:38
Speaker 1: guys like to do to us, see, like to tease us. Now, man,
30:40
Speaker 1: apparently you have killed a buck? Is that correct? I did? Yeah,
30:45
Speaker 1: I was able to send an arrow through on us
30:47
Speaker 1: for sure. Sweet dude. Congrats man, I know you have
30:51
Speaker 1: been working hard out there. That's in North Dakota, right, Yeah, yep,
30:54
Speaker 1: we're out in North Dakota. Yeah, so North Dakota. You've
30:58
Speaker 1: been hunting for a long time. You're a Minneso, a native.
31:01
Speaker 1: Uh so it's just kind of a hot skip and
31:02
Speaker 1: the jump over there for you. But it seems to
31:04
Speaker 1: have gotten the spot lot as of late. And I'm
31:07
Speaker 1: sure there has nothing to do with the big bucks
31:08
Speaker 1: you've been putting down out there. But did you see
31:11
Speaker 1: a lot of hunter pressure while you're out there? Um,
31:14
Speaker 1: we've seen a few people hunting, which, honestly, even though
31:17
Speaker 1: just a few people hunting that I would call that
31:19
Speaker 1: an uptick over over the past years where it would
31:22
Speaker 1: be maybe not seeing anyone else on him. Yeah. Yeah,
31:25
Speaker 1: did you see that that was affecting buck movement as
31:29
Speaker 1: you were scouting and kind of leading up to the hunt? Um,
31:32
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not, I don't. It could have especially
31:35
Speaker 1: opening night, Um, I was going after a particular deer
31:38
Speaker 1: and had someone get dropped off and shoot right into
31:40
Speaker 1: where I was, um expecting the buck to be betted.
31:43
Speaker 1: So that might have affected it. But that's more of
31:46
Speaker 1: a I wouldn't call it a general generalization of like pressure,
31:49
Speaker 1: more so isolated case of someone going right into where
31:52
Speaker 1: I thought a buck was betted. Got you. So when
31:55
Speaker 1: you go out to North Dakota, I know you use
31:56
Speaker 1: a variety of tactics just depending on you know, what
32:00
Speaker 1: cameras are lining up or you know, I'll let you
32:03
Speaker 1: tell me that. But did it seem like you were
32:04
Speaker 1: doing the traditional early season uh, you know, bid to
32:07
Speaker 1: feed top thing or where you getting creative or doing
32:10
Speaker 1: something different there. Yeah, pretty much pretty much the traditional
32:14
Speaker 1: early season bed to feed patterns. And so what's the
32:18
Speaker 1: major food source up in that northern part of the country.
32:22
Speaker 1: Like where I'm hunting, it's a lot of bean fields primarily.
32:26
Speaker 1: And then in this neck of the woods of North Dakota,
32:29
Speaker 1: there's a lot of areas where a ton of acorns
32:31
Speaker 1: are dropping, and that can definitely tell bucks are shifting
32:34
Speaker 1: off the crops a little bit into those acorns. You So,
32:38
Speaker 1: from the picture I saw that this buck was in velvet,
32:42
Speaker 1: how many are giving me a ratio? I guess of
32:44
Speaker 1: what you would say you saw bucks that were in
32:47
Speaker 1: velvet versus ship that first week of September, I still
32:51
Speaker 1: say like nine of the bucks are in velvet. It's
32:53
Speaker 1: act their most We've only got out of all the
32:57
Speaker 1: bucks we've seen a pictures of I think pictures of
33:00
Speaker 1: a couple that are have a hardcorn. Now that's cool.
33:04
Speaker 1: So it's still definitely a good spot to go for
33:06
Speaker 1: opportunity at a velvet buck. That's nice. I know that
33:09
Speaker 1: other parts of the country, like down in your Texas,
33:11
Speaker 1: I think over half of our deer shed, so it's
33:14
Speaker 1: kind of cool to see the discrepancy across the country.
33:17
Speaker 1: Is it pretty wet up there? Where would you say
33:19
Speaker 1: it's a drier year? Um, I would say it's probably
33:22
Speaker 1: on the like right in the middle. Yeah, it's not
33:25
Speaker 1: you know, it's not overly uh wetter, overly dry. So
33:29
Speaker 1: I'd say, yeah, cool. So some of the other guys
33:33
Speaker 1: I've talked to that have uh taking bucks this early season, Uh,
33:38
Speaker 1: they've all shot there dur in the morning. But you're
33:40
Speaker 1: the standout I believe of an evening hunt. Um. Is
33:44
Speaker 1: there a specific taketic or thing that you were seeing
33:47
Speaker 1: there that allows you to take a deer on an
33:49
Speaker 1: evening or was that just when you felt like the
33:52
Speaker 1: stars aligned for you? Yeah, I mean I feel like
33:55
Speaker 1: I'll here. Primarily it's weight, it's it can be pretty
33:58
Speaker 1: difficult for the spots that I hunt to get in
34:00
Speaker 1: to a morning spot without booker and stuff up. So
34:03
Speaker 1: we're hunting, you know, pretty tight to betting in the
34:06
Speaker 1: evening and even so, I mean we get into it more.
34:08
Speaker 1: But like this buck came out at you know, like
34:10
Speaker 1: the last couple of minutes of shooting light. Yeah. Wow, okay,
34:13
Speaker 1: So tell me a little bit about that, hunt man.
34:15
Speaker 1: How did that go? Down. Yeah, he is coming kind
34:18
Speaker 1: of on the edge of a wood lot and wheat field.
34:21
Speaker 1: And um, it was a slow night, only had seen
34:24
Speaker 1: a couple doing a fan and then with about five
34:27
Speaker 1: minutes to go kind of just blew open and had
34:30
Speaker 1: a bunch of small bucks and doors around me. And
34:32
Speaker 1: and this guy came right along the edge of the
34:34
Speaker 1: wood lot and wheat field and worked his way by
34:36
Speaker 1: it twenty yards with about a minute last a shooting light.
34:40
Speaker 1: Oh wow, that's uh, that's cool. It's not when they're
34:43
Speaker 1: close like that, because man, when starts getting dark, those
34:46
Speaker 1: shots are hard to make. Yeah, that's yeah, it was. Yeah,
34:50
Speaker 1: exactly is this the deer that you have some history with? Um, no,
34:55
Speaker 1: he's We have really no clue what book it was. So,
34:58
Speaker 1: you know, this time of year, you know a lot
35:00
Speaker 1: of those deer even though he lets his velvet yet,
35:03
Speaker 1: but you know kind of you know, shed and velvet
35:05
Speaker 1: slash kind of starting to shift, you know, potentially where
35:08
Speaker 1: they're kind of gonna be spending their fall time. And um,
35:11
Speaker 1: did not know this buck. Yeah cool, So I don't know,
35:15
Speaker 1: I've only seen that one side profile picture. What is he? Man,
35:19
Speaker 1: He's just you know, a solid uh, seven pointer. Actually probably,
35:23
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's a three and a half
35:24
Speaker 1: year older uh, two and a half year old buck.
35:26
Speaker 1: He's nothing crazy, but he's a he's a good looking deer.
35:29
Speaker 1: And he came in and you know, we had one
35:32
Speaker 1: night left hunting, and he was got me fired up.
35:35
Speaker 1: And you know what I mean, Hey, dude, it's all
35:38
Speaker 1: about getting excited. You know, that's what If the deer
35:40
Speaker 1: makes you excited, it's fun to shoot him, dude. That's
35:42
Speaker 1: that's why we do this thing exactly. Yeah. Cool. So
35:46
Speaker 1: going forward, if guys were thinking about going and exploring
35:49
Speaker 1: some of this country, um, as kind of the temperatures
35:52
Speaker 1: start to cool a little bit, what do you expect
35:54
Speaker 1: the buck movement to be for the next week or
35:57
Speaker 1: so up there in North Dakota. You know, I'd expect
36:00
Speaker 1: it to be. Um. You know, it looks like with
36:03
Speaker 1: temperatures it's be pretty high for the next few days
36:05
Speaker 1: and then dip back down over the weekend. So I
36:08
Speaker 1: definitely say there'd be room for uh for some good
36:11
Speaker 1: buck moving here over the next week. If you had
36:13
Speaker 1: to rank it between one and team, what are you
36:15
Speaker 1: gonna call it? Let's call it. Let's go with the
36:20
Speaker 1: five five. I think we're gonna go right in the middle,
36:24
Speaker 1: right in the middle. Yeah, So definitely reason to get
36:28
Speaker 1: out there. Still just expect to have to work for
36:30
Speaker 1: him a little bit, and that's okay, right right. I'd say,
36:33
Speaker 1: you know, getting tight ish to betting and you know, um,
36:38
Speaker 1: I I don't think you know it's gonna go crazy,
36:40
Speaker 1: but I definitely think there's potential. Yeah. Cool, dude. Well,
36:43
Speaker 1: congrats on the great buck. Dude. I know you work
36:45
Speaker 1: hard out there and it's cool to see that rewarded.
36:48
Speaker 1: And I hope you have a great rest of the season. Man,
36:51
Speaker 1: appreciate it, dude. We are on the phone with Mark
36:55
Speaker 1: Haslem of Southeast Whitetail dot Com. Mark, you went or
37:00
Speaker 1: are in South Carolina and shot a great great velvet
37:05
Speaker 1: buck that I am doing the best to not be
37:08
Speaker 1: envious of. Of course, Man, it looked like you had
37:10
Speaker 1: a great hunt last week. I did. I appreciate it. Um. Yeah,
37:14
Speaker 1: thanks for having me on. Yeah, I um had a
37:17
Speaker 1: great hunt. Uh went the farm with some other other
37:21
Speaker 1: guests hunt Tuesday through Saturday. In my hunt in the
37:25
Speaker 1: Thursday morning, so I couldn't I couldn't be. I'm still
37:28
Speaker 1: riding high. I would imagine, Man, that's super cool. So, um,
37:34
Speaker 1: I'm assuming this is a hunt that you do on
37:36
Speaker 1: a yearly basis where you're able to go and hunt,
37:40
Speaker 1: you know, kind of a velvet type hunt there in
37:42
Speaker 1: South Carolina. Do you usually expect to see pretty good
37:44
Speaker 1: buck movement that early in the season. Um, most years, yes,
37:51
Speaker 1: but there's some years where it's just kind of based
37:53
Speaker 1: on our food plots and based on and based on
37:56
Speaker 1: what what a farmer plants. I felt confident based on
38:00
Speaker 1: trail cameras and knowing where they're feeding at night and
38:04
Speaker 1: which is historical data, historical observations, knowing where they bed,
38:08
Speaker 1: I thought pretty confident that we could maybe get maybe
38:11
Speaker 1: filled two or three tags last week. Yeah, and so
38:15
Speaker 1: did you go into that hunt's hunting that buck specifically
38:19
Speaker 1: or more just uh, just historical patterns of where bucks
38:24
Speaker 1: tend to be? So um, we I they were there.
38:29
Speaker 1: There were two large bocks that they were they were
38:32
Speaker 1: running together. They were in a bachelor group. But but
38:35
Speaker 1: but but these two big boxs are kind of sticking
38:37
Speaker 1: together almost like a tag team. And Josh Hilliard came
38:40
Speaker 1: down from first light. I'm sorry, man, I'm just kidding.
38:48
Speaker 1: He's a good friend. Yeah, he's a class guys. That's
38:51
Speaker 1: like he's one of those you know, like you follow
38:53
Speaker 1: people on social media and you and you it's like
38:56
Speaker 1: you know them and then you're finally me. But no,
38:58
Speaker 1: Josh is super cool guy, humble, down to earth, great
39:02
Speaker 1: guy to have at the year camp. Um. And he
39:04
Speaker 1: had a guy, Hunter Rudd from Capture Creative, super nice guy,
39:08
Speaker 1: just a lot of fun. But I showed them that
39:11
Speaker 1: first afternoon when they got in there, um, some of
39:15
Speaker 1: those peanut fields and where I thought these two bucks
39:17
Speaker 1: were betting. And they did get within seven five yards
39:20
Speaker 1: um of both of those bucks about an hour after
39:23
Speaker 1: first light, gone by the bedding. But they but he
39:26
Speaker 1: had a bow and there a bow hunting at that point,
39:28
Speaker 1: and um it just you know, I said, if I
39:31
Speaker 1: shot said up yards shows obviously too far. Um. But
39:35
Speaker 1: that was and then they were chasing those bucks for
39:38
Speaker 1: most of the week and then the buck I um
39:42
Speaker 1: I shot Thursday morning. That was simply based off historical data,
39:46
Speaker 1: historical hunting. I I shot two velvet bucks back to
39:50
Speaker 1: back in the same hunt within two hundred yards in
39:54
Speaker 1: my tree back in nineteen, same same same time set
39:59
Speaker 1: up morning hunt catching them going back to this betting
40:01
Speaker 1: thicket and UH shot a butt last year on the
40:05
Speaker 1: other side of the property. Employment is pretty much doing
40:07
Speaker 1: that having that same strategy. Did you go in boots
40:13
Speaker 1: on the ground style and find a betting area to
40:15
Speaker 1: set up on there, or are you just assuming from
40:17
Speaker 1: map scouting or what have you that deer would be
40:20
Speaker 1: moving from food sources to where you're at. Pretty much
40:24
Speaker 1: just assumption, but based on one based on real data.
40:28
Speaker 1: They're gonna come out of the coolest part of every
40:30
Speaker 1: single day. I mean every single day. The coolest part
40:33
Speaker 1: of the day is gonna be overnight the summer. I
40:35
Speaker 1: thought August, they're gonna come out. It might be an
40:38
Speaker 1: hour of four daybreak and might be at two am,
40:41
Speaker 1: but they're gonna feed all night because you gotta remember
40:43
Speaker 1: these these years. To stay healthy, they on average, per
40:47
Speaker 1: you know the National Year Association, they've got to eat
40:49
Speaker 1: six to eight percent of their body weight every single day.
40:52
Speaker 1: That is a ton of pounds of a single day.
40:56
Speaker 1: So they're probably they're probably gonna gonna consume most of
41:00
Speaker 1: at night. UH works relatively safe, and then they're going
41:04
Speaker 1: to make their way back. These bucks will within about
41:06
Speaker 1: an hour first light. And that's exactly what this buck did. Um.
41:11
Speaker 1: You know, came right by my tree about forty five
41:15
Speaker 1: minutes after first light. Man, that's great. It's a great
41:19
Speaker 1: buck too. Man. Tell us a little bit more about that, Dear.
41:22
Speaker 1: I don't really have much history really at all. I
41:26
Speaker 1: am about nine percent sure that he's the last year
41:29
Speaker 1: I saw of my last hunt. In December of last year,
41:33
Speaker 1: I saw a buck kind of the same area and
41:37
Speaker 1: he just appeared a gray light on my trail, look
41:40
Speaker 1: in my direction, and I tried to get on them,
41:43
Speaker 1: but I really couldn't tell exactly what he was. I mean,
41:46
Speaker 1: I knew he was probably shooter, but I couldn't tell
41:49
Speaker 1: what I was looking at. And it just didn't make sense.
41:51
Speaker 1: And Thursday morning, I was raining and I picked the
41:56
Speaker 1: I picked the pine tree to climb rifle hunting my
42:00
Speaker 1: him or faces the tree, so I've got some good
42:01
Speaker 1: levers kind of brace up against the tree. And I
42:04
Speaker 1: was about fifty yards from a nasty bedding thicket. Um,
42:09
Speaker 1: and I was kind of in line to where I
42:11
Speaker 1: should have some deer filtering out of those few plots
42:14
Speaker 1: and added fields going back that bedding site and that
42:18
Speaker 1: area that pine block has a lot of oaks that
42:21
Speaker 1: were left um from the last time it was clear cut.
42:25
Speaker 1: So that was good because I picked the tree where
42:28
Speaker 1: I had an oat right behind me and the branches
42:31
Speaker 1: were like right up right up against my back. I mean,
42:33
Speaker 1: I had an awesome backdrop. I did not have a
42:36
Speaker 1: silhouette at all, but those other oaks created blind spots
42:40
Speaker 1: for me. So what happened is this buck. I had
42:43
Speaker 1: had to go groups that pass by early on in
42:47
Speaker 1: this buck just appeared. He he just stepped out from
42:50
Speaker 1: behind his oak, you know, going out of trail about
42:52
Speaker 1: thirty five yards and it's well at the first light,
42:56
Speaker 1: but it's still raining and it's still very overcast. I
43:00
Speaker 1: couldn't make out even that close exactly what he was,
43:04
Speaker 1: and thankfully he put his head down and kind of
43:06
Speaker 1: shifted over under some branches of that oak, and that's
43:09
Speaker 1: when I raised my gun. And I've learned from mistakes
43:12
Speaker 1: in the past. There's there's one bug I can think
43:15
Speaker 1: of in the twenty sixteen season where he stepped down
43:18
Speaker 1: on trail and I raised my binoculars first looked at him.
43:23
Speaker 1: That's the buck I want to take. Raise my rifle
43:26
Speaker 1: and he's gone so when you see a bug, you know,
43:29
Speaker 1: in the woods like this, you gotta raise your rifle,
43:31
Speaker 1: you know, glass him with your rifle and said it said,
43:34
Speaker 1: especially if he's in shooting range, go ahead and get
43:37
Speaker 1: get your gun up. So thankfully there was a blind
43:40
Speaker 1: spot where being that close, um, I could raise my
43:44
Speaker 1: gun because his his trail was angling towards me. He
43:47
Speaker 1: had two bucks behind him that were much smaller I
43:50
Speaker 1: think they were, you know, like like a little six
43:52
Speaker 1: points maybe a four point um they were behind them
43:56
Speaker 1: so they didn't see me raise my gun up. And
43:59
Speaker 1: he probably put the shot around twenty five yards and
44:03
Speaker 1: he was quartering to me, which you know, um, um,
44:08
Speaker 1: I've taken that shot before close range. I prictness, my prightness,
44:13
Speaker 1: rifle shooting a lot, and I know what my gun does.
44:16
Speaker 1: And I put that bullet on a fifty grain seven
44:19
Speaker 1: man right between his between his shoulder and his chest,
44:23
Speaker 1: went in there, blew his shoulder up, took out the
44:26
Speaker 1: vitals and it and the bullet got hung up in
44:28
Speaker 1: him didn't exit, so he so he took the entire force,
44:32
Speaker 1: did a jay hook and just crashed. And uh, it's
44:35
Speaker 1: just it's one of those haunts. Where like it's happened
44:38
Speaker 1: so quickly. You know, I wasn't seeing other bucks trickle
44:41
Speaker 1: through to getting excited. All of a sudden, there he was. Man,
44:46
Speaker 1: there's nothing like the satisfaction of having a rifle drop
44:49
Speaker 1: one close. You know, it's just pretty exciting when you
44:52
Speaker 1: just boom and it's over. That's very cool, man, very
44:55
Speaker 1: exciting and gets me super excited for the rest of
44:58
Speaker 1: the season coming up. I looked at the weather forecast
45:01
Speaker 1: for uh, you know, the extended ten day right now
45:04
Speaker 1: and as seasons start to open up. Uh, there's a
45:06
Speaker 1: lot of rain in the forecast and some cooler temperatures.
45:10
Speaker 1: Do you expect the mornings to still be the time
45:13
Speaker 1: to be employing that tactic of hunting near the bedding areas? Um?
45:17
Speaker 1: Or would you see more of a food source type
45:20
Speaker 1: thing be the thing to look for in the coming week? UM?
45:25
Speaker 1: I would say both, Um, based onm what I'm about
45:28
Speaker 1: to say. If you get some good food plots um
45:31
Speaker 1: or active or some good food sources that have not
45:34
Speaker 1: been touched and there's not much pressure on them, hunt
45:37
Speaker 1: them and just see what you see. But we noticed
45:40
Speaker 1: this last week, this early part of the season. I
45:44
Speaker 1: mean there are hunters that that are gonna be blowing
45:46
Speaker 1: the woods up over the next five days just hunting,
45:50
Speaker 1: doing work in these gear have not been around humans
45:53
Speaker 1: for the most part, um, especially around hunting hours, you know,
45:58
Speaker 1: daybreak and and uh and last light and you know, six, eight,
46:03
Speaker 1: ten months, So we should I mean, these these bucks
46:07
Speaker 1: in the South are so skittish they get bumped off
46:10
Speaker 1: their schedule very quickly. Say if you have some good
46:14
Speaker 1: food sources, hunt them in the evening. Maybe don't get
46:17
Speaker 1: too aggressive and going too close, um hunt them. But
46:20
Speaker 1: then also hunt those mornings, figure out where they bed,
46:24
Speaker 1: um and see if you can't try to get flush
46:27
Speaker 1: up in the bed. And I see what you see.
46:29
Speaker 1: People people talk talk down about hunting, hunting mornings until
46:35
Speaker 1: the first cold front and the rut, and I really
46:37
Speaker 1: just don't understand other than you know, I equate it
46:41
Speaker 1: to when people like to hunt certain moon phases, are
46:44
Speaker 1: certain kind of weather temperatures. If they're not hunting the
46:47
Speaker 1: other south the spectrum, they don't know what they don't
46:51
Speaker 1: you know, they don't know what they're missing because they're
46:53
Speaker 1: not out. So yeah, I agree, I think, Yeah, it's
46:57
Speaker 1: also very much a um more Midwestern type thing to
47:01
Speaker 1: not hunt mornings. But whenever you're from the south like
47:03
Speaker 1: we are, you understand that it's uh until eight pm,
47:09
Speaker 1: you know, nine eight degrees and the coolest part of
47:11
Speaker 1: the day is the first thirty minutes of the morning,
47:13
Speaker 1: and that's when the deer are gonna be on their feet.
47:15
Speaker 1: So looking forward to this next week here, I know
47:18
Speaker 1: that it traditionally would like to put a number on it,
47:20
Speaker 1: so somewhere between zero and the deer jumping the blind
47:23
Speaker 1: with you, what do you expect the buck movement to
47:25
Speaker 1: be in the coming week. I would say it's gonna
47:30
Speaker 1: stay consistent from what we've seen the past two weeks.
47:33
Speaker 1: And I would say probably uh six or seven, you know, good,
47:37
Speaker 1: good movement as long as you're understanding of pressure. Because
47:41
Speaker 1: and when I say that is because these deer are
47:43
Speaker 1: still in their summer schedules. They are right now. They
47:46
Speaker 1: are eating in their hiding. They are they are consuming
47:50
Speaker 1: that six aberish in their body way in their hiding.
47:52
Speaker 1: It's all they're really doing for the most part. And
47:54
Speaker 1: of course I know they're simian animals and they do
47:56
Speaker 1: different things. But a point being is that velvet most
48:02
Speaker 1: most the velot right now in these bucks are going
48:04
Speaker 1: to be off bigger box typically show the velvet first,
48:07
Speaker 1: but that testosterone is gonna start to spike. They're gonna
48:12
Speaker 1: start to make more signs, rubs, scrapes, bashilor groups are
48:15
Speaker 1: gonna break up. They're gonna start sparring. And that's when
48:18
Speaker 1: you see that big September shift to where they separate
48:23
Speaker 1: and they're really kind of going in the next next phase.
48:26
Speaker 1: What's the pre roud So right now they're in that
48:28
Speaker 1: summer mode. They're eating and they're hiding, and so I
48:34
Speaker 1: mind go to you move exactly. What explains you earlier
48:37
Speaker 1: is figure out where they're feeding. But I don't really
48:40
Speaker 1: hundle of food swords. I hunt them coming back, um,
48:43
Speaker 1: coming back at first light, because they are if you
48:46
Speaker 1: can get on them, they are. They are much more relaxed.
48:50
Speaker 1: They've been out all night, they've been feeding, haven't been
48:53
Speaker 1: harassed for the most part, and they're just making their
48:56
Speaker 1: way back to bedding. Yeah, man, man, sounds like a
49:00
Speaker 1: good plan to me. I'm excited to get the season started.
49:03
Speaker 1: Pretty awesome to see you get the season started so well. Mark.
49:06
Speaker 1: Thanks for coming on and sharing your information. Absolutely appreciate it.
49:09
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me on it's been a blast. Be
49:13
Speaker 1: congrats to all these guys on their opener bucks. I
49:16
Speaker 1: know it can be a grind out there in the
49:17
Speaker 1: hot month of September chasing these deer down, and I
49:20
Speaker 1: know that those guys put in some work and rewarded
49:22
Speaker 1: in a huge way. If you haven't go, be sure
49:25
Speaker 1: and subscribe to the Element YouTube channel. You're gonna get
49:28
Speaker 1: to see hunters hunt for the Tennessee Velvet buck on there.
49:31
Speaker 1: Also on the wire to Hunt blog, there's a cool
49:33
Speaker 1: article for how to take care of meat in the
49:34
Speaker 1: hot weather, which you're gonna need to know if you're
49:36
Speaker 1: gonna go chase some deer in September. Also the Foundations
49:39
Speaker 1: podcast on the wire to Hunt feed that Tony did
49:42
Speaker 1: recently about giving yourself some options when you're headed out
49:46
Speaker 1: to make sure that you have plenty of options in
49:48
Speaker 1: places to ambush. From that way, you don't pigeonhole yourself.
49:51
Speaker 1: Check that out. If you haven't remember, Stay Fresh. This
49:54
Speaker 1: has been rough. Fresh Radio