Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 578: Rut Fresh Radio 9/28/2022 - Paying It Forward For Late Season Success

Transcript

Ep. 578: Rut Fresh Radio 9/28/2022 - Paying It Forward For Late Season Success · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: Welcome to Wired to Hunts Rutt 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 Radio,
0:15
Speaker 1: brought to you by Vortex Optics, and today we're talking
0:17
Speaker 1: about paying it forward, so you have big payoff with
0:20
Speaker 1: big bucks later in the season. Guys, there's been some
0:38
Speaker 1: hunting getting done man here at the Element crew, at
0:41
Speaker 1: the Wired to Hunt crew, there's been hunting going across
0:44
Speaker 1: the country. We've talked a lot about it. Our good
0:46
Speaker 1: friend Mark Kenyon is joining us this week. Mark, how
0:49
Speaker 1: are you feeling, man? Hey, Casey, I am, I'm good.
0:54
Speaker 1: I just uh. I just got home a few days
0:56
Speaker 1: ago from my first wait til hunt of the year,
0:59
Speaker 1: which is, you know, great to kind of kick off
1:01
Speaker 1: the rust to get that in the books. And then
1:04
Speaker 1: my next hunt the year kicks off in Michigan in
1:07
Speaker 1: just a few days on October one, so it's like Christmas,
1:11
Speaker 1: the best time of years here, buddy, how's all Rookie
1:15
Speaker 1: Rookie is dead? No? Is he really? I didn't know that. Yeah,
1:19
Speaker 1: at least I'm I'm nine sure. He disappeared at the
1:22
Speaker 1: end of October last year and I have not seen
1:25
Speaker 1: hide or hair of Rookie, so he's not on the radar.
1:29
Speaker 1: And how does it make you feel? Are you excited
1:31
Speaker 1: to start with a clean template or do you kind
1:33
Speaker 1: of miss having that talking about? You know, what's been
1:36
Speaker 1: what's been nice about that area where Rookie was living
1:42
Speaker 1: is you know, I've been hunting that area for I
1:45
Speaker 1: don't know, twelve years now or something, and there's been
1:49
Speaker 1: like a dramatic improvement in the number of bucks that
1:53
Speaker 1: make it to older age classes. So, you know, when
1:56
Speaker 1: I first started hunting there, like there would be one
1:59
Speaker 1: three year old and that would be the only buck,
2:01
Speaker 1: Like that would be the best buck in the whole area,
2:03
Speaker 1: you know, like in the sixty acre block that I
2:06
Speaker 1: could hunt that other people hunted, Like that'd be the
2:08
Speaker 1: one deer we're seeing. And in the years since then,
2:11
Speaker 1: I've worked with some neighbors, I've passed a ton of deer.
2:14
Speaker 1: I've been working on trying to prove some things. I've
2:16
Speaker 1: gotten permission and other properties in the general area, and
2:19
Speaker 1: along started short more and more folks are kind of
2:22
Speaker 1: letting younger deer go. And what that's led to is
2:26
Speaker 1: that you know, now ten eleven twelve thirteen years later,
2:29
Speaker 1: when I used to have one three year old. Now
2:32
Speaker 1: this year, I've got like multiple four year olds and
2:34
Speaker 1: a five year old and several three year olds, So
2:38
Speaker 1: if one of them gets whacked, I'm not too bummed
2:41
Speaker 1: out because there's several other deer that you know, I
2:43
Speaker 1: know of and that I've been kind of following and
2:45
Speaker 1: keeping tabs on over the years too. So so like
2:49
Speaker 1: this year, I've got one buck that's a five year
2:51
Speaker 1: old that I I'm really interested in, and then and
2:54
Speaker 1: I've seen a ton, and then another four year old
2:57
Speaker 1: that I saw a ton and passed a bunch, So
2:59
Speaker 1: those are my top two. And then there's another four
3:02
Speaker 1: year old that I saw some last year that I
3:05
Speaker 1: would take a crack at. And then a fourth buck
3:08
Speaker 1: that I'm like on the fence about. So that's awesome,
3:12
Speaker 1: you know, for Michigan to have a bunch of deer
3:14
Speaker 1: like that to get me excited and waking up in
3:16
Speaker 1: the morning. So I'm not I'm not mourning the passing
3:19
Speaker 1: of Rookie too much because there's more food on the
3:22
Speaker 1: on the buffet. Well, you better not podcast about this
3:25
Speaker 1: stuff too much because people are gonna start you know,
3:28
Speaker 1: giving you Michigan guys the side. I when you say
3:30
Speaker 1: it's tough up there, it sounds like, man, yeah, man,
3:34
Speaker 1: it's uh, it's it's all relative, right, yea, absolutely, it's
3:39
Speaker 1: uh it's not too bad, it's not too good. It's
3:42
Speaker 1: it's just right. I guess it's hunting. That's what it is. Man,
3:45
Speaker 1: It's it's cool and uh, well, you're doing the opposite
3:48
Speaker 1: of target deer hunting. We're hunting any of your hunting
3:50
Speaker 1: at the moment. Uh, you know, been chasing some deer
3:54
Speaker 1: around in public actually, been just chasing the yellow line
3:57
Speaker 1: for most of the last forty eight hour. I've slept
4:00
Speaker 1: about three hours last forty eight so probably taking a
4:03
Speaker 1: nap after we get done with this. But you know,
4:05
Speaker 1: we're running high on the Adrillain of Big Bucks had
4:08
Speaker 1: some encounters this morning in Nebraska on public ground. Um Tyler,
4:13
Speaker 1: Uh did some scout in Today's Good day, Good day
4:22
Speaker 1: A long way least for sure. That's cool. And you
4:29
Speaker 1: know it seems like here that food is keen right
4:33
Speaker 1: now and it's just the thing that you're hunting or
4:35
Speaker 1: actually food and water uh is Michigan. I mean, do
4:39
Speaker 1: y'all have droughts? There is that a thing that happens
4:42
Speaker 1: in Michigan or is it kind of going back to
4:46
Speaker 1: everything being relative, Like you do have droughts where there's
4:49
Speaker 1: long stretches about rain and that can impact the crops,
4:52
Speaker 1: but we don't have droughts at the same scale as
4:56
Speaker 1: like something like you might have down in Texas folks
4:58
Speaker 1: out west half where there's just no water. Like our
5:01
Speaker 1: baseline water level is so high, there's water sources like everywhere,
5:05
Speaker 1: at least in most parts of Michigan. There's ponds of
5:08
Speaker 1: her the strings of the swamps everywhere. So even in
5:10
Speaker 1: the driest years, it's really hard for water to become
5:14
Speaker 1: like a major limiting factor. So it's not I'm not
5:20
Speaker 1: gonna say it's never something a key on, but it's
5:22
Speaker 1: it's definitely not as high on my list as it
5:25
Speaker 1: might be in a place like Nebraska. Yeah, it's probably
5:28
Speaker 1: more for you just food pop production. I would think,
5:31
Speaker 1: like you need the rains at the right time to
5:33
Speaker 1: make sure that the plots come up, otherwise just end
5:36
Speaker 1: up with a bare field. Yeah here right now, man,
5:38
Speaker 1: it's um the cattle tanks are where it's at. I
5:41
Speaker 1: watched fifteen deer drink out of a cattle tank this year,
5:44
Speaker 1: I mean this morning, and uh, definitely making some patterns
5:47
Speaker 1: off of that. And it feels good. Man, just to
5:49
Speaker 1: be out in the woods making moves on deer is
5:52
Speaker 1: such a huge thing, you know, like you can get
5:54
Speaker 1: down in the dumps, like we were actually talking about,
5:57
Speaker 1: you know, off the air. Will I go and and
5:58
Speaker 1: not celebrate those small victories, And like the thing that
6:02
Speaker 1: I like to celebrate is learning something, Like it really
6:06
Speaker 1: means something to get out there and to learn something
6:09
Speaker 1: about the way white tail act and behave and be
6:12
Speaker 1: able to use that in your hunting repertoid now and
6:16
Speaker 1: for forever more, you know, like I kind of throw
6:19
Speaker 1: this actually back to I killed a deer um in
6:22
Speaker 1: Oklahoma late late season last year, but in a drought,
6:25
Speaker 1: and he was on a water pattern in the evening
6:28
Speaker 1: and actually that video is gonna come out here about
6:30
Speaker 1: a week or so, but it was without actually uh,
6:34
Speaker 1: listen to your boy Tony talk about it and read
6:36
Speaker 1: some of his stuff and talk to him a lot
6:37
Speaker 1: about water hunting, and I was like, I give a shot,
6:39
Speaker 1: and sure enough, you know, public land bucked down, So
6:42
Speaker 1: like you just kind of for and it took me
6:45
Speaker 1: a long time to recognize water as a legitimate source
6:48
Speaker 1: of of a thing to hunt. And then now we'll
6:50
Speaker 1: show up in Nebraska and it's like the first thing
6:52
Speaker 1: I'm looking at, you know, because I have that experience,
6:55
Speaker 1: and I don't know, uh, Like you were saying about
6:57
Speaker 1: being positive, you if you just get negative because you
7:00
Speaker 1: spook deer, you have a bad hunt or whatever, um,
7:04
Speaker 1: it can get in the way of your learning and
7:06
Speaker 1: actually focusing on the details that can help you. Yeah. Man.
7:09
Speaker 1: And you know you mentioned how you saw some good
7:12
Speaker 1: bucks this morning, and I was thinking about, you know,
7:14
Speaker 1: the same kind of things happened to me on my hunt.
7:16
Speaker 1: I was just dawn. And what a great feeling it
7:19
Speaker 1: is when you do get eyes on a deer you
7:21
Speaker 1: want to take a crack at, or you get that
7:23
Speaker 1: little bit of intel that all of a sudden switches
7:25
Speaker 1: you from being down in the dumps to all of
7:27
Speaker 1: a sudden feeling like you're in the game. Like that
7:29
Speaker 1: feeling of all, man, I'm in the game. Like that
7:32
Speaker 1: is such a great feeling, Like that's a win right there.
7:35
Speaker 1: That that is so much. It's it's so exciting in
7:38
Speaker 1: the moment, and sometimes I let myself gloss over it,
7:41
Speaker 1: and I'm trying to get better at just being like, man,
7:43
Speaker 1: this is it. It's those little things along the way
7:47
Speaker 1: that make cunning so awesome and uh so, man, soak
7:50
Speaker 1: it in you. You're in the game, buddy, Yeah, that's
7:56
Speaker 1: being in the game, is uh. I I struggle man
8:00
Speaker 1: to too, uh have fun sometimes when I'm not in
8:03
Speaker 1: the game, like or when I don't have that feeling
8:06
Speaker 1: that you're talking about, really I have, like I feel
8:09
Speaker 1: like I have three levels almost where there's uh, this
8:12
Speaker 1: level of, um, I can't figure out what the heck
8:14
Speaker 1: to do and it's four PM, early season, I gotta
8:17
Speaker 1: just go do something glass or whatever. And then there's
8:20
Speaker 1: like a level of like, well this could work, but um,
8:23
Speaker 1: this has been a tough hunt, and I don't really
8:25
Speaker 1: expect Dear to do what I'm assuming they might do
8:29
Speaker 1: in this spot. And then there's the level of like
8:32
Speaker 1: feeling real good about it and almost calling the shot,
8:34
Speaker 1: you know, And that's that is just it is like
8:37
Speaker 1: a special feeling, man, And even if it doesn't come together,
8:40
Speaker 1: usually those those end up being pretty good hunts because uh,
8:44
Speaker 1: you see a lot of deer or something like that,
8:46
Speaker 1: because you felt good about it, you know. So I
8:50
Speaker 1: don't know, I but I do struggle, like I almost
8:52
Speaker 1: feel like I struggle early season mentally more than um,
8:57
Speaker 1: like you know, November and later because uh, for one,
9:01
Speaker 1: obviously November anything can happen. Um. And then later in
9:04
Speaker 1: the season, you know, if I have a couple of
9:07
Speaker 1: bucks under my belt, I'm feeling uh pretty satiated, you know.
9:12
Speaker 1: And early season, I just have this like, you know,
9:17
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's just like almost like a stress
9:19
Speaker 1: you know what I'm talking about. And some people may
9:21
Speaker 1: not quite understand, but like I just feel like I'm
9:24
Speaker 1: spending a lot of money to go out of state
9:26
Speaker 1: and uh chase deer for a long time, and it's
9:29
Speaker 1: a difficult time to kill deer sometimes depending on where
9:32
Speaker 1: you are and what kind of access you have and everything.
9:34
Speaker 1: And I just like I just almost have this thing
9:37
Speaker 1: that where it's not even like prove, it's it's something
9:40
Speaker 1: to prove, but it's not really anything to prove to
9:42
Speaker 1: anybody else. It's it's to prove to myself that I'm
9:46
Speaker 1: not wasting money in time, you know what I mean. So, um,
9:50
Speaker 1: it's stressful. Two thousand. Yeah. So, how how has your
9:57
Speaker 1: Idaho hunt been going. Man. It's so I don't want
10:01
Speaker 1: to give too much away because tomorrow's episode, like the
10:04
Speaker 1: main show, I'm gonna dive into the details of it. Um,
10:08
Speaker 1: But I'll give you if you want it. I'll give
10:10
Speaker 1: you like one through ten um as far as like
10:13
Speaker 1: what activity was like okay, and then I can I
10:15
Speaker 1: can give you a little bit more of you know,
10:18
Speaker 1: just like a deer report and save my personal details.
10:21
Speaker 1: I'll give you the generic details, okay, and I would.
10:24
Speaker 1: We don't want to hear what you and Josh had
10:26
Speaker 1: to do, you know, extracurricular wise. You know, I know,
10:30
Speaker 1: I also know you're a lumper. So these deer. This
10:32
Speaker 1: deer report isn't it doesn't include trout or anything, does it?
10:36
Speaker 1: Or you know, I can. I can give you a
10:37
Speaker 1: trout report too, because we deviled there. Sometimes you pick
10:41
Speaker 1: me up. That's what I told Josh. Did you see
10:42
Speaker 1: me a picture of the trouns? Like, dude, sometimes you
10:44
Speaker 1: gotta go just catch a trout. There's no want to
10:46
Speaker 1: have the haller Bro's head on for sure. You know
10:50
Speaker 1: me too well. Um, So, so I don't scale one
10:55
Speaker 1: to ten. I put you know, overall deer activity like
10:58
Speaker 1: a like a five um there was deer activity. And
11:03
Speaker 1: what was very interesting is that where there was heavy
11:06
Speaker 1: deer hunting pressure, and this is the should be no surprise.
11:09
Speaker 1: Where there was heavy hunting pressure, the activity was much
11:13
Speaker 1: much lower and much much later. But we had an
11:16
Speaker 1: interesting location where we're at, where we could be hunting
11:19
Speaker 1: on this public land that was getting pounded, I mean
11:21
Speaker 1: just like pillaged. And then right across the road was
11:25
Speaker 1: some private land where there was obviously no hunting pressure.
11:29
Speaker 1: And so on the public land that we were hunting,
11:31
Speaker 1: you know, we weren't seeing deer until the last five
11:36
Speaker 1: three minutes of daylight, I mean the very end, and
11:39
Speaker 1: we had two at times. Finally, as I throughout the
11:41
Speaker 1: course of the week, I was pushing further and further
11:44
Speaker 1: and deeper and deeper and more and more aggressive, and
11:46
Speaker 1: finally was you know finding deer. You know, way way back,
11:51
Speaker 1: like on the edge of the river, and the farthest
11:52
Speaker 1: back reaches a possible bedding cover, and those deer were
11:55
Speaker 1: still not getting out of their beds still three minutes
11:57
Speaker 1: before daylight, before dark. Sorry. So so that was the
12:01
Speaker 1: activity level in the public But right across the road,
12:04
Speaker 1: you know, five yards away, there were shooter bucks, mature
12:08
Speaker 1: bucks feeding in the middle of alfalfa fields at noon,
12:14
Speaker 1: So there would be like twenty deer out in the
12:16
Speaker 1: middle of alfalfa field within range, within sight of the
12:19
Speaker 1: public land. And I could see these deer on the
12:22
Speaker 1: other side of the road out there living their living
12:25
Speaker 1: their best life. So you know, the deer on the
12:27
Speaker 1: feeding patterns, if they're comfortable and not being chased around
12:31
Speaker 1: all of the place where they were being chased around,
12:34
Speaker 1: they're moving very very late. There's deer still feeding on alfalfa.
12:38
Speaker 1: There were also some deer feeding on corn and actually
12:41
Speaker 1: living in corn fields right now adjacent to public land.
12:45
Speaker 1: We started realizing that a lot of these deer had
12:47
Speaker 1: been pushed onto the public or started off the public
12:50
Speaker 1: into the private corn fields as like the sanctuary. Um.
12:54
Speaker 1: So those are some things we noticed. Well, Josh sent
12:56
Speaker 1: me a picture of a buck that is no longer
12:58
Speaker 1: moving too, so uh not even in the last few
13:01
Speaker 1: minutes of daylight. So we found some We found some
13:04
Speaker 1: dead ones, the folks that hit and not recovered. Really. Yeah, man,
13:11
Speaker 1: before I think the last time we talked to you,
13:13
Speaker 1: we talked about how y'all were going to head out
13:15
Speaker 1: a little bit later in September to try to avoid
13:18
Speaker 1: the opening pressure and stuff. Do you feel as if
13:21
Speaker 1: you would do that again or is that something that
13:23
Speaker 1: you think kind of is kind of on the out
13:26
Speaker 1: now now. So our theory was wrong in this case,
13:30
Speaker 1: um because you know it maybe it would still work
13:34
Speaker 1: if we pushed later, but we didn't push late enough
13:36
Speaker 1: pibly because because what ended up happening was that there
13:39
Speaker 1: was still hunting pressure even in the third week of September.
13:43
Speaker 1: So we didn't we didn't get away from the hunting pressure.
13:45
Speaker 1: But the extra downside was that now we were not
13:49
Speaker 1: enjoying those first few days of the season when deer
13:52
Speaker 1: we're still acting dumb. So in the past two years
13:55
Speaker 1: we'd have two, three or four days with these deer,
13:58
Speaker 1: you know, even though there was pressure. Now, they were
14:00
Speaker 1: still living a good life and they weren't you know,
14:02
Speaker 1: changing things up dramatically, so we were seeing them. Now
14:05
Speaker 1: we arrived twenty days, you know, into hunting pressure for
14:08
Speaker 1: these deer and they had already gone back to their
14:11
Speaker 1: bunkers and like it's a war zone for them. So
14:14
Speaker 1: we we had none of the you know, easy daylight
14:20
Speaker 1: bucks floating around thinking that's safe and free anymore. So
14:24
Speaker 1: it was it was an interesting hunt that'll get into
14:27
Speaker 1: you the full scoop on tomorrow. But there was not
14:29
Speaker 1: nothing easy Like in previous years. We were seeing big bucks,
14:33
Speaker 1: like not too far from the food sources forty five
14:37
Speaker 1: minutes before daylight. Um, you know, even on public land.
14:40
Speaker 1: Now we were going back two miles to get to that.
14:42
Speaker 1: But now we had to go further back, deeper and
14:46
Speaker 1: like in the freaking trenches to find anything. Well, so
14:50
Speaker 1: it goes public sometimes, but um, I'm glad you guys
14:54
Speaker 1: got to hang out, do the do the hunt again.
14:57
Speaker 1: You know, you never know when Josh is just gonna
14:58
Speaker 1: ditch out on you, so you never know. And uh man,
15:04
Speaker 1: we uh we had some good some good discoveries, some
15:08
Speaker 1: good lessons learned. And I'm not gonna tell you what
15:11
Speaker 1: happened how it ended, but there there might be a
15:13
Speaker 1: little twist at the end tomorrow to find what happened.
15:18
Speaker 1: I hope it's not like a grizzly attack or something.
15:20
Speaker 1: But I hope you guys all right, I'm still kicking,
15:24
Speaker 1: Yeah you are. We don't know about Josh. Might be
15:27
Speaker 1: a hologram that's over there on Instagram, right now. Um, Well,
15:31
Speaker 1: so I'm glad that you guys had a good hunt
15:34
Speaker 1: Man together, and uh it sounds like we're gonna get
15:37
Speaker 1: to hear more of that on the main show here shortly,
15:40
Speaker 1: so I'm looking forward to that. Um. This week, we
15:43
Speaker 1: actually have on the retfresh we have Tony Peterson and Wisconsin.
15:48
Speaker 1: We all know him pretty well. Uh. One of our friends,
15:51
Speaker 1: Nick Gonzale is killing a nice public lan buck in Arkansas.
15:54
Speaker 1: Jesse Richard uh with a report from Iowa. And our
15:59
Speaker 1: good friend Matt I from Landing Legacy in Missouri. He
16:03
Speaker 1: was a part of a big buck kill there. So
16:05
Speaker 1: we're looking forward to hearing from these guys. Let's go
16:07
Speaker 1: ahead and get to the interviews, all right on the phone, now,
16:12
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson from Meat Eater. You guys are familiar with
16:14
Speaker 1: this guy. Uh, Tony, you've had success in Wisconsin recently. Yeah.
16:20
Speaker 1: I took my daughter over, one of my twin daughters over,
16:24
Speaker 1: i should say, on opening weekend and we we fought
16:27
Speaker 1: the the mosquitoes and the spiders and stupid humidity and
16:32
Speaker 1: the heat and ended up killing a spike. So it
16:35
Speaker 1: worked out pretty well. It's good man. That spike is
16:37
Speaker 1: about as clean of a spike as I've seen it
16:39
Speaker 1: looks like, yeah, he's uh, he's a clean one. And
16:43
Speaker 1: now my my other twin daughter, she's I'm taking her
16:46
Speaker 1: this weekend, and she said, we gotta we gotta get
16:48
Speaker 1: one with at least three points. I was wondering if
16:51
Speaker 1: there's like a jealousy factor there at all? Man, big time.
16:54
Speaker 1: And you know, she killed, she killed forky last year.
16:57
Speaker 1: So this this daughter that killed this weekend, she that
16:59
Speaker 1: was a first box. So she's stoked, and now her
17:02
Speaker 1: sisters like, I need to do just a little bit better.
17:04
Speaker 1: So even I showed her a picture of a little
17:07
Speaker 1: four pointer that we have coming into that same plot,
17:09
Speaker 1: and she she said, Dad, to those those little ones
17:12
Speaker 1: in front of those counters points, So yeah, that one
17:16
Speaker 1: will beat your sisters if you kill them. Awesome, Dad,
17:19
Speaker 1: Well so you got you were fine Mosquitoes. Was is
17:22
Speaker 1: it above like normal temperatures or has it been? Is
17:26
Speaker 1: it pretty warm? Oh? Man, it was way above our
17:30
Speaker 1: our normal seasonal temperatures, And it was you know, we
17:33
Speaker 1: get we get such humidity up here that you know,
17:37
Speaker 1: it's just it's weird when you go out in the
17:38
Speaker 1: morning and you know it had rained the night before
17:41
Speaker 1: the opener, so everything was wet anyway, but just the
17:44
Speaker 1: humidity was like a hundred percent, and you know, you
17:48
Speaker 1: kind of expect to go out and have it be
17:51
Speaker 1: kind of chilly and maybe see your breath in the morning,
17:53
Speaker 1: even if it's gonna get pretty warm in the day.
17:55
Speaker 1: But it was like sixty five degrees in the dark,
17:58
Speaker 1: I mean, which is a pretty unusual for us this
18:01
Speaker 1: time of year. So has that did that? Do you
18:05
Speaker 1: think that's been affecting the deer much or are they
18:08
Speaker 1: pretty much still just in normal early season patterns? Man,
18:12
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think it affected the deer that much. Really.
18:14
Speaker 1: I think what it did was kept a lot of
18:16
Speaker 1: people at home because I don't know if I've ever
18:19
Speaker 1: had an opener, you know in my home state of
18:22
Speaker 1: Minnesota or over in Wisconsin where I've seen fewer trucks
18:26
Speaker 1: and field drives and stuff where you're like, that's definitely
18:28
Speaker 1: a hunter. I didn't. I didn't hardly see that last weekend. Yeah. So,
18:33
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson, the mobile hunting aficionado, how do you manage
18:39
Speaker 1: to slow it down and make a hunt fun for
18:42
Speaker 1: for your girls? Man? Uh? Man, it is like so
18:49
Speaker 1: hard for me to just go. You know, basically we're
18:53
Speaker 1: turkey hunting right Like, we're sitting in blinds and it's
18:55
Speaker 1: like get on a good spot and ride out as
18:58
Speaker 1: many hours as you can. And it's rough. But you know,
19:03
Speaker 1: with with the girls, they just they can't. They can't
19:06
Speaker 1: do the mobile thing yet, it just wouldn't work, and
19:10
Speaker 1: so I just I'm like, this is just what I'm doing.
19:12
Speaker 1: But what does help with that is we are hunting
19:15
Speaker 1: any deer, So you know, it's not like you're sitting
19:18
Speaker 1: there and you're going, you know, it's one four year
19:20
Speaker 1: bust or whatever. It's like, if a deer walks by here,
19:23
Speaker 1: we're gonna shoot at it. And that makes it a
19:25
Speaker 1: little more tolerable because you're like, it's you know, you're
19:28
Speaker 1: probably not gonna have to put in tons and tons
19:30
Speaker 1: of time before that happens. But you know, we hunted
19:32
Speaker 1: eight hours on Saturday, never saw a deer, and Sunday
19:36
Speaker 1: we got out there in an hour into it that
19:38
Speaker 1: spike came in. So we saw a deer and killed it. Well,
19:42
Speaker 1: well that's efficiency and it's finest man, So congrats on that.
19:46
Speaker 1: Across the country, it seems that mast fall is starting
19:49
Speaker 1: to happen, and I know different areas of the country
19:51
Speaker 1: is gonna be a little bit different. But uh, you know,
19:54
Speaker 1: acorns as we call them, are falling here and falling
19:56
Speaker 1: across the South. I know for sure from some other buddies.
19:59
Speaker 1: Does that effect some of the patterns that you've kind
20:01
Speaker 1: of been setting up on for a hunt like this,
20:04
Speaker 1: I would say that that played a pretty big role. Uh.
20:08
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't expect to see a lot of
20:10
Speaker 1: deer anyway, because I just wouldn't in those setups. But
20:13
Speaker 1: you know, we've we had a we've got a pretty
20:15
Speaker 1: good hard mass thing going on right now, and the
20:18
Speaker 1: apples and the soft mask over there where I was
20:20
Speaker 1: hunting in Wisconsin are definitely playing into it. And I
20:24
Speaker 1: know just from checking cameras before the opener, my sightings
20:28
Speaker 1: went way down, And you know, I just there could
20:32
Speaker 1: be other reasons, you know, there you might have a
20:34
Speaker 1: pack of wolves or something come through that kind of
20:36
Speaker 1: kills it for a little while, But I suspect what
20:38
Speaker 1: was happening was a mass situation. Yeah. Yeah, So going forward,
20:45
Speaker 1: you in Wisconsin, do you feel like that um that's
20:49
Speaker 1: going to continue to change things up or is it
20:52
Speaker 1: gonna actually get consistent, uh for guys that move their
20:55
Speaker 1: cameras and react to that kind of stuff. Um, you know,
21:00
Speaker 1: it's so variable, but the mass thing, it comes and
21:04
Speaker 1: goes usually pretty quick. And I see this happen so
21:09
Speaker 1: much because I hunt a lot of early season stuff
21:11
Speaker 1: where it's a pretty big factor in the first couple
21:13
Speaker 1: of weeks and then you you kind of attack on
21:16
Speaker 1: the the you know, initial hunting pressure. And so I
21:20
Speaker 1: look at the forecast going forward, and I look at
21:22
Speaker 1: the reality that the mass is gonna get get eaten
21:25
Speaker 1: up a little bit, and I just think it's gonna
21:27
Speaker 1: get really, really good. And I actually, like, you know,
21:30
Speaker 1: where we're hunting over in Wisconsin and some of my
21:32
Speaker 1: places in Minnesota, I like, you know, about two weeks
21:36
Speaker 1: into the season, when the acorns aren't really affecting it
21:39
Speaker 1: as much and the apples aren't and the people are
21:41
Speaker 1: kind of giving up until the rut, there's a good
21:44
Speaker 1: time there, especially on public land, to get out and
21:47
Speaker 1: figure one out when you know most people just aren't
21:49
Speaker 1: doing it. Yeah, I know that you love to get
21:52
Speaker 1: out there and capitalize on some of that lower pressure
21:54
Speaker 1: time of year like this. So as you look forward
21:56
Speaker 1: to the next year with you know, kind of fall
21:59
Speaker 1: continue to progress and and maybe something's changing, you know,
22:03
Speaker 1: deer starting to slowly push more into that more testosterone
22:06
Speaker 1: top mentality. What do you predict dear movement to be, like,
22:09
Speaker 1: especially buck movement on scale from one to ten, I'll
22:13
Speaker 1: give it a seven. It's a good number. Yeah, I
22:16
Speaker 1: think I think it's gonna get good, man. And I
22:18
Speaker 1: think that a lot of people in their head they
22:21
Speaker 1: think it's just not it's not going to get there yet.
22:23
Speaker 1: But you know that in that situation where we're hunt
22:26
Speaker 1: over in Wisconsin, when when those really localized food sources
22:31
Speaker 1: dry up, they kind of gotta work. There's a lot
22:33
Speaker 1: of browsing going on in a lot of big wood stuff,
22:35
Speaker 1: so they cover ground. And you know how it is
22:37
Speaker 1: when when bucks start covering ground, they start leaving you
22:40
Speaker 1: some sign to work with. And I actually I think
22:42
Speaker 1: it gets almost a little bit easier right at the
22:45
Speaker 1: beginning of October and to September to to figure out
22:48
Speaker 1: what they're doing right now. Yeah, man, well that's really cool.
22:52
Speaker 1: That's exciting, such an exciting time of year for all
22:54
Speaker 1: of us. Anyways, and then guy like telling me starts
22:56
Speaker 1: throwing out some big numbers as far as like a
22:58
Speaker 1: hot fist. Man, it's a that time to roll, you
23:00
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. Listen, here's the deal, guys. And
23:05
Speaker 1: you know this, even if I said I think it's
23:07
Speaker 1: gonna be a one, you still should go hunting. Yeah, buddy,
23:11
Speaker 1: you know, I mean honestly that if you would have
23:13
Speaker 1: asked me on Friday night before the open or what
23:16
Speaker 1: the deer movement's gonna be like and what the buck
23:18
Speaker 1: movement's gonna be like, I would have maybe set a
23:20
Speaker 1: one or two just to give it a little bit
23:22
Speaker 1: of grace for the opening weekend. You know, they haven't
23:25
Speaker 1: been hunted yet, but it would have been a low number,
23:29
Speaker 1: and it's still worth going. Yeah. Absolutely, they have to
23:32
Speaker 1: exist somewhere, man, And I think a lot of guys
23:34
Speaker 1: forget that and they try to time it out right.
23:36
Speaker 1: And for sure, you have to balance your time off
23:39
Speaker 1: versus you know, time with family and then time in
23:42
Speaker 1: the woods. So put all those numbers together and you
23:44
Speaker 1: can come up with a real good reason to not
23:45
Speaker 1: go to the woods. But I'll tell you what, man,
23:47
Speaker 1: there's never a better time than now to go ahead
23:49
Speaker 1: and capitalize. So Tony, we appreciate the update, dude, and
23:52
Speaker 1: I hope you have a great risk the season. Awesome,
23:55
Speaker 1: thank you fellas. Okay on the phone now, Gonzales, you're
24:01
Speaker 1: actually from Texas. You're a friend of ours, local to us,
24:05
Speaker 1: but you have been up in Arkansas doing some deer hunting.
24:08
Speaker 1: How's everything going right now? Man? Um on Cloud nine
24:12
Speaker 1: right now? Successful weekend hunt. So that's awesome, dude. So um,
24:20
Speaker 1: you're just kind of breaking down what you what you
24:22
Speaker 1: got going on from from that hunt basically right, and
24:25
Speaker 1: you've got some meat and you've got a bunch of
24:27
Speaker 1: trash everywhere. It sounds like, yeah, like I was saying earlier,
24:32
Speaker 1: it's uh, it's crazy how much trash you can accumulate
24:35
Speaker 1: in the truck in just two days of hunting and
24:37
Speaker 1: camping with one yea, So you have you have done
24:43
Speaker 1: what seems about near impossible to me at this point,
24:45
Speaker 1: but you've shot a public land buck in Arkansas and
24:50
Speaker 1: it's a toad in Sceptember, incept. How do you do that? Man? Well? Uh,
24:58
Speaker 1: we actually my buddy and I went up there um
25:01
Speaker 1: in January, did some scouting, We did a little bit
25:04
Speaker 1: of hunting to have a late season there. Um, actually
25:07
Speaker 1: came and talked to you guys and looked at the
25:09
Speaker 1: on X maps and just kind of pick out some locations.
25:12
Speaker 1: So um, obviously with on X you can see you know,
25:16
Speaker 1: the topography and everything else, but it's good to just
25:20
Speaker 1: get boots on the ground out there. So that's what
25:22
Speaker 1: we did. We went out there and did scouting. UM.
25:25
Speaker 1: Like the location that we were at, I didn't see
25:28
Speaker 1: a whole lot, just late season and everything. UM, but
25:31
Speaker 1: I saw that they had a September opener there in
25:34
Speaker 1: in Arkansas, so I wanted to give it a shot. UM.
25:37
Speaker 1: I did not expect to get a buck, I can
25:39
Speaker 1: tell you that much, but anything would have been great
25:43
Speaker 1: for me, um, just to get a September deer. So
25:46
Speaker 1: definitely definitely started with on X and then just getting
25:48
Speaker 1: some boots on the ground. So yeah, that's cool man.
25:51
Speaker 1: So when you went up there in September this time,
25:54
Speaker 1: we got boots on the ground. Uh in that you know,
25:56
Speaker 1: early season stuff. What did you see it made you
25:59
Speaker 1: decide to hunt where you did? Um? So I found
26:03
Speaker 1: a pretty clean looking creek. It was close to private
26:07
Speaker 1: UM and they had a feeder set up over there.
26:10
Speaker 1: I don't know that it was being used or not,
26:12
Speaker 1: but it was just a really good water source for
26:14
Speaker 1: the deer there. Um. It's kind of a a good
26:17
Speaker 1: little funnel point just because it was real tall pasture
26:19
Speaker 1: on one side, uh, and then some good um oak
26:22
Speaker 1: flats in the bottom. But this particular area was real green,
26:26
Speaker 1: had some good grass, and then it had a pretty
26:28
Speaker 1: hard edge of trees beside it where you could tell
26:31
Speaker 1: that that was probably where they were betting. So they're
26:34
Speaker 1: definitely cruising through this little um funnel area by the creek,
26:38
Speaker 1: you know, to get some get some food. Um. And
26:40
Speaker 1: so that was kind of the game plan was you know,
26:43
Speaker 1: hopefully they would come out of their beds to come
26:45
Speaker 1: get some food, and ultimately that's what what happened. Did
26:49
Speaker 1: you feel like that deer eating acrons while you were there?
26:54
Speaker 1: The guy, the buck that I shot was eating acorns
26:57
Speaker 1: as the shot him. Were they just would you could
27:01
Speaker 1: you tell what kind of oaks they were? I'm not
27:05
Speaker 1: a I'm not a tree guy like you guys. I
27:07
Speaker 1: really don't know what kind of oak it was. As
27:09
Speaker 1: long as there's a tasty acren on the ground, I said,
27:11
Speaker 1: I it's a good place set up. Yeah. Now you
27:13
Speaker 1: know too that they liked them. Acron's right there, and
27:16
Speaker 1: it's a good spot to till it. Man, that's cool.
27:19
Speaker 1: So was he was? He was? He? He was basically
27:23
Speaker 1: just cruising to eat. He wasn't when you say cruising,
27:25
Speaker 1: he wasn't like rut cruising by any means. Or was he? No,
27:29
Speaker 1: he was not. He came in with another buck. Um.
27:32
Speaker 1: He came in with a probably a little three point
27:34
Speaker 1: who I saw first. You don't want I mean, if
27:39
Speaker 1: he was, if he was so low, I would have
27:40
Speaker 1: shot him just because he was the only one I
27:42
Speaker 1: saw it first. But then I saw the antlers on
27:45
Speaker 1: the other one turn. I said, I'm not worried about that.
27:50
Speaker 1: How fast was your heartbeating? Man? It was? It was.
27:53
Speaker 1: It was pounding pretty good, I can say that much.
27:55
Speaker 1: That's your first buck with a bow. That's my first
27:58
Speaker 1: buck with a bow. Yeah, yeah, it's Uh. I had
28:02
Speaker 1: hadn't done a ton of archery hunting really mostly recently.
28:05
Speaker 1: Is when I've when I've done archery hunting. Um, first time,
28:09
Speaker 1: I gotta congrats on that dude. So awesome. How far
28:13
Speaker 1: was the shot? Uh? He was about twenty five, So
28:17
Speaker 1: he came in. He came in pretty close Yeah, I
28:20
Speaker 1: was up in the Yeah, I was up in that
28:22
Speaker 1: cruiser saddle. And I gotta say, if anybody does any
28:26
Speaker 1: public land hunting, that is absolutely the way to go,
28:29
Speaker 1: just to just saddle hunting in general. M because he
28:32
Speaker 1: came in at a good angle and you can just
28:34
Speaker 1: you can move all around that tree without making any noise.
28:37
Speaker 1: Neither one of them had any idea that I was there. Um,
28:39
Speaker 1: so it worked out perfectly. Man. That's that's too cool.
28:42
Speaker 1: So that's awesome story, dude, And I'm super pumped for you. Uh,
28:46
Speaker 1: just you know, knowing you as a as a friend
28:49
Speaker 1: and knowing kind of your journey as a hunter, that's
28:51
Speaker 1: just so cool to see you go up there and
28:52
Speaker 1: do that. If other guys kind of like you trying
28:55
Speaker 1: to go up there be weekend warriors. Right now, we
28:57
Speaker 1: have a you know, kind of a cool front through
29:00
Speaker 1: the country, a little bit of weather in the Gulf. Um.
29:03
Speaker 1: But looking forward to the weekend here, what do you
29:05
Speaker 1: predict dear movement being like specifically buck movement on a
29:08
Speaker 1: scale of one to ten kind of for this upcoming
29:10
Speaker 1: week Um, it's kind of hard to say, just um,
29:16
Speaker 1: you know, we're still early season, but with this with
29:18
Speaker 1: this cool front coming in, I think it's upper forties
29:21
Speaker 1: possibly going to be over there. It could be. I mean,
29:23
Speaker 1: I'm definitely gonna be hunting, and it would be I
29:26
Speaker 1: would definitely recommend getting out there. Probably maybe around seven
29:31
Speaker 1: seven or so. Oh that's pretty good. Sevens. That gets
29:35
Speaker 1: me pump. It's biblical number. Yeah. So do you think
29:43
Speaker 1: that acorns or acorns however people want to say it is,
29:47
Speaker 1: is kind of the key right now as far as uh,
29:49
Speaker 1: you know, bed defeed goes. It seems like, I mean,
29:53
Speaker 1: they're they're just now really starting to produce. Um, we
29:55
Speaker 1: saw quite a bit on the ground just in different
29:58
Speaker 1: various spots, and uh, that's definitely what what this guy
30:02
Speaker 1: with both of these deer we're targeting. So uh yeah,
30:04
Speaker 1: I would I would hone in on the akrons for sure.
30:06
Speaker 1: Well that's awesome, dude. I'm if I don't kill tonight,
30:09
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be honing in on some acrons too. So uh,
30:12
Speaker 1: I appreciate you hopping on dude, Appreciate your friendship and
30:15
Speaker 1: and I'm really uh just proud of your accomplishment. Accomplishment, man,
30:21
Speaker 1: it's a it's an awesome thing. I know, it's a
30:23
Speaker 1: great feeling. I've felt it before and it's uh it's
30:26
Speaker 1: hard to beat. So congrats on everything, man, way to go, Nick,
30:29
Speaker 1: appreciate it all. Right. Now we've got Jesse Richard from
30:46
Speaker 1: Outdoor X Media. Jesse, how are you doing this morning? Man? Oh,
30:50
Speaker 1: not too bad. It's uh good temperature for this time
30:53
Speaker 1: of year. I'm okay with it. Yeah, it's different down
30:56
Speaker 1: here in Texas. For some reason, everybody in the world
30:58
Speaker 1: is getting cold fronts and Texas is it in here
31:00
Speaker 1: ninety something degrees every day, so we're we're burning up.
31:03
Speaker 1: But uh, it's good that you guys are getting some weather.
31:06
Speaker 1: I'm sure that's helping the deer movement. Um, now you're
31:09
Speaker 1: trying to stay in white tail shape right now? Right?
31:11
Speaker 1: This isn't mountain shape or elk shape or anything, is it. Yeah? No,
31:15
Speaker 1: this is uh it's It's also college football season, so
31:18
Speaker 1: if you have to kinda you know, you go to
31:22
Speaker 1: the gym a couple of days of the week so
31:24
Speaker 1: you can tailgate and have a few and eat some
31:27
Speaker 1: horrible food during the weekend. So it's a never ending battle.
31:31
Speaker 1: So are you a cyclone guy or a Hawkeye guy.
31:34
Speaker 1: I'm a hawkye guy. Uh hasn't been too awesome this year,
31:38
Speaker 1: but uh, you know, you gotta stay loyal little it'll
31:42
Speaker 1: turn back around, That's right. I really like you guys logo. Man,
31:45
Speaker 1: you'll have a cool logo. Um yeah, I would totally
31:48
Speaker 1: wear a shape like what's that the tiger hawk? Yeah yeah, dude,
31:53
Speaker 1: so cool. But so we're with the weather with football season.
31:58
Speaker 1: One of the things that makes Hall just the best
32:01
Speaker 1: time of year is that also you start getting cold fronts,
32:04
Speaker 1: things start changing and the deer start moving. And you
32:07
Speaker 1: actually experienced this recently. You guys have been out I
32:10
Speaker 1: think quite a bit lately, um hunting and your daughter
32:13
Speaker 1: shot a really nice what is an eight point? It's
32:16
Speaker 1: it's a it's a ten pointer. He's got short short
32:19
Speaker 1: G four's um. But yeah, are full season. Our archery
32:25
Speaker 1: season opens up October one, but youth season has been
32:28
Speaker 1: open for oh about a week now. So and for
32:33
Speaker 1: those who are listening, this is Iowa. This is like,
32:36
Speaker 1: this is where people dream of going. You guys lived there. Um,
32:42
Speaker 1: so I've been kind of falling what you've been doing.
32:45
Speaker 1: And you've you've been posting some trail camera pictures and
32:48
Speaker 1: stuff like that. Now lately have you is there a
32:52
Speaker 1: reason that you feel like you guys were successful. Was
32:55
Speaker 1: there a was there a weather pattern or a moon
32:58
Speaker 1: phase or anything that helped you out there too, uh
33:01
Speaker 1: find success or you know, was it something in the
33:04
Speaker 1: trail cameras that you're able to see that led you to,
33:07
Speaker 1: you know, kind of find out this is a pattern
33:10
Speaker 1: we should key in on. Yeah. This, So this particular
33:13
Speaker 1: farm is owned by one of my buddies. It's a
33:16
Speaker 1: it's a forty acre chunk. It's mostly agged but has
33:19
Speaker 1: one pretty decent draw and we have standing beans and
33:23
Speaker 1: I put in probably a three quarter acre Braska plot
33:27
Speaker 1: and this farm actually got rained. We've been in a
33:29
Speaker 1: horrible drought up here. One of my other farms that's
33:33
Speaker 1: less than five miles away until recently had had two
33:37
Speaker 1: inches of rain in three months, so trying to get
33:40
Speaker 1: food plots to grow, we're horrible. But this particular farm
33:45
Speaker 1: just caught all the little ones that the other one missed.
33:47
Speaker 1: So the food on it's been really good. Uh. We
33:51
Speaker 1: run a bunch of cell cameras. I think I have
33:54
Speaker 1: forty fifty myself on multiple different farms. And this is
33:59
Speaker 1: one of the deer that was pretty regular on the cameras,
34:04
Speaker 1: so we knew that he was around and in the area,
34:09
Speaker 1: and he's a maturity or I don't know exactly how
34:11
Speaker 1: old he is. Um these these five plus based off
34:14
Speaker 1: of all the characteristics, but um we my other daughter
34:19
Speaker 1: hunted the same blind a week ago. So it was
34:22
Speaker 1: last Sunday and we didn't see him, but when we
34:28
Speaker 1: were walking out, he was in the food plot by
34:31
Speaker 1: the time we got out of the blind that we're
34:33
Speaker 1: walking out, so he was ten minutes late. So I
34:36
Speaker 1: knew that it was it was a weather issue because
34:39
Speaker 1: it was uh, probably degrees when we got into the
34:43
Speaker 1: blind last week, and it was sixty four degrees on
34:48
Speaker 1: Thursday when she shot the deer. So that's a good
34:51
Speaker 1: code from man. That's that. That's the kind of set
34:53
Speaker 1: that makes you excited for Yeah, we've had this short
34:57
Speaker 1: little burst come through. We had a had that hiccup
35:01
Speaker 1: of nineties plus degrees and then it's slowly dropped off. Uh,
35:06
Speaker 1: Friday was good. Also today looks really good. But it's
35:09
Speaker 1: gonna warm back up for a couple of days here
35:11
Speaker 1: in Iowa, not to upper eighties, mid eighties something like that.
35:15
Speaker 1: So it's it's September. It's a weird time of year
35:18
Speaker 1: where you get those highs and lows. Yeah, for sure.
35:21
Speaker 1: So congrats to you all again on that great buck
35:23
Speaker 1: and the opportunity to get out in the stand with
35:25
Speaker 1: your daughter and put around an ear. That's really awesome. Man.
35:28
Speaker 1: As we look forward to, uh, you know that October
35:32
Speaker 1: one opener that you reference there, Uh, do you feel
35:35
Speaker 1: like food and water are going to be some of
35:37
Speaker 1: the key things that people need to be thinking about
35:40
Speaker 1: there across the central Midwest. So I don't know about
35:44
Speaker 1: everywhere else, but we have had an absolute amazing mass
35:47
Speaker 1: crop this year. The acorns are I've I've bow hunted
35:54
Speaker 1: for over twenty years and I've I can't remember a
35:58
Speaker 1: mass crop like this. I mean, there are there are
36:01
Speaker 1: eight corns on trees that haven't had eight corns and
36:04
Speaker 1: they're dropping and it's it's something else. So it's my
36:10
Speaker 1: personal cameras on a couple of farms have been pretty
36:13
Speaker 1: dry recently. Um, it's between the deer shedding their velvet.
36:18
Speaker 1: I I've always called it the September scramble. When they're
36:20
Speaker 1: shedding their velvet the acorns are dropping. You know, you
36:23
Speaker 1: get these weird weather patterns. I lose a bunch of bucks.
36:26
Speaker 1: I gained bucks, but I know they're still in the area.
36:29
Speaker 1: So if I don't have anything to go after, you know, consistently,
36:35
Speaker 1: you know it's close to daylight movement or something like that.
36:38
Speaker 1: I'm a big dough hunter. I'll go I'll go out
36:41
Speaker 1: whenever I can and start filling the freezer. That's cool,
36:45
Speaker 1: that's exciting, man. So uh, you know, does are good
36:47
Speaker 1: for freezers and bucks or are also good for freezers
36:50
Speaker 1: and for having even more fun when you get to
36:53
Speaker 1: show off to your buddies. Right, So, as we think
36:55
Speaker 1: about maybe some buck hunting as well early this season,
36:58
Speaker 1: what do you protict the deer movement between a scale
37:01
Speaker 1: of one to ten to be specifically the buck movement
37:03
Speaker 1: as a season opens there, I think you're gonna have
37:07
Speaker 1: your pockets of of your home body deer that are
37:10
Speaker 1: going to consistently do the same thing. I I've looked
37:14
Speaker 1: ahead to kind of the forecast, and we don't have
37:16
Speaker 1: a huge weather front coming through. We just kind of
37:19
Speaker 1: have a gradual fall weather, you know, in the seventies
37:23
Speaker 1: for highs, forties, fifties for lows, just kind of stagnant
37:27
Speaker 1: for almost the next two weeks. So it's it's kind
37:33
Speaker 1: of waiting to really go into your spot until you
37:37
Speaker 1: do get some sort of a weather weather front. You know,
37:40
Speaker 1: a little even even a ten degree temperature drop is
37:44
Speaker 1: is huge to deer. It can get get those deer
37:46
Speaker 1: on their feet, you know, ten fifteen, twenty minutes earlier well,
37:50
Speaker 1: and get them to the food or into a transition
37:52
Speaker 1: point going to the food. It just really depends. And
37:56
Speaker 1: that's why we rely on trail cameras. I mean, the
37:58
Speaker 1: cell cameras are invaluable. Um, it's they're a game changer. Awesome. Man. Well,
38:05
Speaker 1: so if you're gonna show somebody this picture on social media,
38:09
Speaker 1: where would you send them just to let him see
38:11
Speaker 1: the picture of this big old buck that was shot. Um,
38:15
Speaker 1: I've had it on my on my my social media pages. Um.
38:19
Speaker 1: We posted probably the best one on the Outdoor x
38:21
Speaker 1: Media facebook page. And I'm gonna probably edit the hunt
38:26
Speaker 1: this week and have it up next week. Uh, it's
38:30
Speaker 1: I got everything on video. I've I've been filming for
38:34
Speaker 1: fifteen sixteen years consistently, and it's it's fun. She my
38:39
Speaker 1: oldest daughter, loved it. I don't think she's killed the
38:42
Speaker 1: deer turkey off film. Uh, since she's been hunting. She's eleven,
38:46
Speaker 1: so she's got half a dozen deer and three or
38:48
Speaker 1: four turkeys underneath her belt already. So that's awesome, man,
38:53
Speaker 1: Well cool, So congrats on that. Tell her congrats and
38:56
Speaker 1: we appreciate chopping on the phone with us. Yeah, not
38:58
Speaker 1: a problem on the phone. Now, I've got Matt Dye
39:03
Speaker 1: with Landing Legacy and he has been hunting and filming
39:06
Speaker 1: in Missouri and filming some big old bucks. I think, man, Man,
39:12
Speaker 1: I can't I can't be more happy than been. Honestly,
39:15
Speaker 1: the way the season kind of kicked off for us
39:17
Speaker 1: here in south central southwest Missouri, it's been awesome encounters
39:21
Speaker 1: with some really mature deer and then some really good
39:25
Speaker 1: up and comers and uh, a lot of deer activities.
39:28
Speaker 1: So we had a great start to the opener. That's cool, dude.
39:31
Speaker 1: So Missouri kind of has a would I think is
39:34
Speaker 1: a unique opener in the country where it's like kind
39:37
Speaker 1: of mid to late September and so you're not really
39:40
Speaker 1: hunting a true summer pattern, but it's not like fall
39:45
Speaker 1: pre rut stuff. I wouldn't say, but why don't you
39:47
Speaker 1: explain to me a little bit more kind of what
39:49
Speaker 1: you had been seeing pattern wise. Absolutely, Yeah, it's September
39:53
Speaker 1: fift Every single year is opener, doesn't matter what day
39:55
Speaker 1: it falls on. September fifteenth rolls around and bow hunters
39:59
Speaker 1: take to the hoods and it is that cool mix
40:02
Speaker 1: of um, still some summer pattern. We've got some transitions,
40:07
Speaker 1: some food sources that happened pretty frequently during this time frame,
40:11
Speaker 1: so um, you're kind of catching that tail end of
40:15
Speaker 1: summer activity. But things are due to change really a
40:19
Speaker 1: matter of a couple of days as season opens up
40:21
Speaker 1: every single year, and just depending on temperatures, depending on um,
40:25
Speaker 1: you know, whether you've got a mass production or not
40:27
Speaker 1: that year kind of determines if those bucks are gonna
40:31
Speaker 1: stay on that summer pattern for longer or not. And um,
40:36
Speaker 1: this year, we have a really big white oak acorn
40:40
Speaker 1: crop through much of the much of the state, and
40:45
Speaker 1: we got kind of lucky that not a lot had
40:48
Speaker 1: fallen prior to that September fift date, and they're hanging
40:52
Speaker 1: the tree a little bit longer, and so we don't
40:55
Speaker 1: have all that food source being available and on the ground,
40:59
Speaker 1: so most of the deer activity that we were hunting
41:02
Speaker 1: was definitely revolving around in alfalfa food source and then
41:06
Speaker 1: a brassica blend food source just right next to each other,
41:11
Speaker 1: probably about two and a half three acres um. Deer
41:14
Speaker 1: were absolutely piling into both of those food sources. Yeah,
41:18
Speaker 1: so you sound like you kind of have it pretty dialed.
41:20
Speaker 1: And I've known you for a while, man, you actually
41:22
Speaker 1: make you live in property management and you know, uh,
41:25
Speaker 1: I guess evaluating wildlife properties as a whole. So the
41:29
Speaker 1: place she'll we're hunting, is that a place that you've
41:31
Speaker 1: put a lot of work into. So this is a
41:34
Speaker 1: place that are good buddy, Seth Harker, who UM hunt
41:39
Speaker 1: a lot with and it's part of kind of our
41:41
Speaker 1: our team UM from a filming and content standpoint. He
41:47
Speaker 1: has leased this place for ten, twelve, maybe fifteen years now,
41:51
Speaker 1: and he's a little limited on the amount of habitat
41:56
Speaker 1: manipulation that as an individual he can do. However, the
41:59
Speaker 1: land donor is very much into UM intense timber management,
42:04
Speaker 1: So sets kind of role as a least on this
42:07
Speaker 1: place is very much UM food plot oriented. But then
42:12
Speaker 1: there is a component of clear cuts, there's a component
42:15
Speaker 1: of thin timber of edge feathering, of prescribed fire, of
42:19
Speaker 1: pine plantations on this given five acre place. And so
42:25
Speaker 1: although not everything is revolved around um wildlife habitat manipulation
42:32
Speaker 1: like I do for our clients, it's still really good
42:35
Speaker 1: and it's above it's above um average, let's say, from
42:39
Speaker 1: the habitat that does offer and then sets done a
42:43
Speaker 1: great job of supplementing that habitat with really successful of
42:48
Speaker 1: food plot kind of regime. So every year it's it's
42:52
Speaker 1: pretty much lights out. Got a great age structure. And
42:55
Speaker 1: that's the thing too, if you're if you're out there
42:57
Speaker 1: and you're listening, you don't have property to be that
43:00
Speaker 1: hands on and manage, you can still have a lot
43:03
Speaker 1: of influence on the age structure, on the deer herd
43:07
Speaker 1: itself by what you're shooting, what you're not. So he's
43:09
Speaker 1: done a good job of that. And in every year
43:11
Speaker 1: there's you know, four or five six target deer um
43:16
Speaker 1: on this place that are better. That's enough to make
43:20
Speaker 1: me get the shivers for sure, dude. That's cool. So
43:23
Speaker 1: y'all actually uh capitalized on some of that uh you
43:27
Speaker 1: know kind of mid September action, I believe, and we're
43:30
Speaker 1: able to uh shoot really really nice. Speaking of age structure,
43:35
Speaker 1: buck right, can you tell us a little bit about
43:37
Speaker 1: that hunt? Absolutely. So the hunt took place over the
43:41
Speaker 1: course of four days. Um, we weren't able to get
43:43
Speaker 1: out um the first day of season work schedule, and
43:47
Speaker 1: then we didn't want to push it because the wind
43:50
Speaker 1: wasn't just dynamite, and we said, you know what, let's
43:53
Speaker 1: just wait, Um, the next day is gonna be better.
43:56
Speaker 1: We're a little bit more free. So we didn't push
43:59
Speaker 1: the envelope one, but we hunted the um next two
44:03
Speaker 1: days consecutively. That was a Friday Saturday, and we saw
44:07
Speaker 1: thirty thirty five deer each night. And night number one
44:13
Speaker 1: we had the book that he ended up shooting. A
44:16
Speaker 1: seven and a half year old tin pointer comes strolling
44:18
Speaker 1: out six thirty. We had an hour of daylight, UM
44:23
Speaker 1: left and he's at basically seventy eighty yards and the
44:27
Speaker 1: field is just full of deer. But the deer never
44:31
Speaker 1: comes within range during that night, and UM, We're like, well,
44:34
Speaker 1: I'm not terribly upset. I mean, shoot, we saw we
44:37
Speaker 1: saw a mature deer, We saw the target deer really
44:40
Speaker 1: that we're hunting. Um, let's just get back in here
44:43
Speaker 1: and so same when the next night get in there,
44:46
Speaker 1: we ended up seeing another mature buck, and the one
44:50
Speaker 1: that we had hunted the night before came out in
44:52
Speaker 1: a different portion of the field, but a hundred and
44:55
Speaker 1: fifty yards away, kind of went to a different food source. Um,
45:00
Speaker 1: and we're kind of left with their head scratched a
45:02
Speaker 1: little bit like man, as as many deal deer piled
45:05
Speaker 1: in here, Uh, why didn't he come right back? But nonetheless,
45:09
Speaker 1: we saw a four and a half year old buck
45:11
Speaker 1: um right close to hundred fifty here, and and he
45:16
Speaker 1: didn't come within range either, So we kind of made
45:21
Speaker 1: a little bit of a judgment. Call Um, the wind.
45:23
Speaker 1: The wind was gonna switch from southeast the first two days.
45:27
Speaker 1: For the next two days is gonna be southwest and
45:30
Speaker 1: hunting out of a saddle the first two nights kind
45:32
Speaker 1: of on the west side of the plot, we've got
45:35
Speaker 1: a blind situated for a southwest wind on the other side.
45:40
Speaker 1: Made that gameplay. He took his son. The next day,
45:44
Speaker 1: Um saw the original seven a half year old tin
45:47
Speaker 1: pointer and then that four and a half year old
45:50
Speaker 1: They came into range rate at last shooting light and
45:55
Speaker 1: they're like, man, such another close encounter they're pounding this
45:58
Speaker 1: food source. We got a good clean entry and exit,
46:02
Speaker 1: and we're like, we're gonna hunt it four nights in
46:05
Speaker 1: a row. Although temperatures yeah, right, pretty pretty pretty daring,
46:10
Speaker 1: but we weren't getting busted getting in and getting out
46:13
Speaker 1: and while we were in the tree, so we're like,
46:15
Speaker 1: we're not really educating anything. So there's not a lot
46:19
Speaker 1: of harm and and we're playing the win right um
46:22
Speaker 1: and and normally don't tend to be that aggressive in
46:26
Speaker 1: early season. But at the same time frame, we're kind
46:29
Speaker 1: of we're kind of trying to run the race with
46:32
Speaker 1: the acorn crop, knowing that hey, it's a bumper crop
46:35
Speaker 1: this year. We don't want to push the envelope um
46:39
Speaker 1: and and try and wait out and try to give
46:41
Speaker 1: this field a little bit of rest. If they're still
46:43
Speaker 1: showing up during daylight, it's just a matter of time
46:45
Speaker 1: before they step within range during daylight hours two. So
46:48
Speaker 1: if they're coming, we're coming. And we got the right wind.
46:51
Speaker 1: So the fourth night we hunted, it was ninety three
46:58
Speaker 1: degrees that day. It was the hottest day of them all,
47:02
Speaker 1: and we're like, man, this is this is warm. We're
47:05
Speaker 1: facing last as we're in this blind but um, just
47:09
Speaker 1: like clockwork, here comes that one four and a half
47:13
Speaker 1: year old dyer. He comes out, starts feeding our direction um,
47:18
Speaker 1: and then about thirty minutes before darker last shooting light,
47:25
Speaker 1: whereas the sun was setting just to our left, about
47:28
Speaker 1: sixty five yards away, here comes that seven and a
47:32
Speaker 1: half year old tin pointer strolls out of the timber
47:35
Speaker 1: and directly into the plot, puts his head down, starts feeding,
47:39
Speaker 1: and fortunately for us, unlike the other nights, he made
47:44
Speaker 1: his way into the plot kind of fed to the
47:47
Speaker 1: center of the plot um much faster than other days,
47:51
Speaker 1: and close the distance to forty yards um about ten
47:56
Speaker 1: minutes fifteen minutes of light left and Seth made an
48:00
Speaker 1: excellent shot. But those deer were just kind of jockeying
48:03
Speaker 1: back and forth between the fall annual blend of uh radishes,
48:09
Speaker 1: turn ups and uh sugar beets and that alfalfa. So
48:15
Speaker 1: he came within range and he made a great shot.
48:19
Speaker 1: Deer went about eight yards and pile it up. Man,
48:22
Speaker 1: you just gotta love when they do that. Dude, that's
48:24
Speaker 1: just a true testament of hard work, determination and just
48:28
Speaker 1: you know, being committed to shooting true bucks and things
48:31
Speaker 1: like that. Payoff and that that is awesome. So as
48:33
Speaker 1: you look forward to uh, you know, the next week
48:36
Speaker 1: here as um, maybe those acrons do you start dropping?
48:40
Speaker 1: What do you predict buck movement to be like maybe
48:42
Speaker 1: on a scale from one to ten. Well, I'm gonna say, really,
48:47
Speaker 1: looking at the weather that we've got, we've got load
48:51
Speaker 1: amid seventies and cool nights down into the forties uh
48:55
Speaker 1: for for the next week. Um, and that that temperature
48:59
Speaker 1: swing data, he's gonna be pretty good. And so I
49:02
Speaker 1: anticipate the deer, specifically mature box they're gonna be moving.
49:06
Speaker 1: But I want to throw caution out there too, is
49:08
Speaker 1: they're probably going to be moving um as these acorns
49:12
Speaker 1: are falling in different locations than what they have for
49:15
Speaker 1: the last couple of months, going from shifting from that
49:18
Speaker 1: kind of green field soybean crop field food plot clover
49:23
Speaker 1: deal into more of a timber situation. So um, although
49:27
Speaker 1: it may not feel like they're moving great on your cameras,
49:31
Speaker 1: you got to make sure that those cameras are in
49:34
Speaker 1: the right locations. They're over um your white oaks that
49:37
Speaker 1: are dropping and producing, and you'll catch them there. They'll
49:40
Speaker 1: be there, um. And and it's not that hey deer
49:43
Speaker 1: went nocturnal, It's just they've shifted patterns because we've got
49:46
Speaker 1: a different food source here. I'm driving driving back from
49:50
Speaker 1: Kansas right now from consulting and the other kind of
49:54
Speaker 1: thing to consider for a lot of guys if you're
49:57
Speaker 1: not in timber country with a lot of mass production.
50:00
Speaker 1: As crops are changing. We got beans that are uh
50:03
Speaker 1: dropping leaves, We've got corn that's coming out of the field,
50:06
Speaker 1: and so those are some considerations that you should have
50:09
Speaker 1: to as again, food sources are really changing, uh this
50:13
Speaker 1: time of the year. Yeah. Absolutely, man, that's all good
50:15
Speaker 1: stuff to consider. You're always a wealth of knowledge, dude.
50:18
Speaker 1: And I know you film that hunt as well, so
50:20
Speaker 1: real quick, tell everybody where they had find maybe some
50:21
Speaker 1: of that footage and then also some other uh that
50:24
Speaker 1: knowledge that you boys at Landing the Legacy have. Yeah. Um,
50:29
Speaker 1: if they want to see some of those harvest photos, UM,
50:32
Speaker 1: definitely go check out Instagram and Facebook Landing Legacy. Um
50:36
Speaker 1: that that hunt is actually gonna be on YouTube and
50:38
Speaker 1: potentially television um next year, So um kind of got
50:43
Speaker 1: a new thing happening there, so we'll we'll have some
50:46
Speaker 1: more announcements on that. UM. But do encourage people if
50:49
Speaker 1: they like the habitat um talk they like manipulating their
50:52
Speaker 1: landscape um for the betterment of whitetail hunting or turkey hunting.
50:58
Speaker 1: Definitely check out podcast Uh we do to podcasts a
51:02
Speaker 1: week here at Lanta Legacy and were habits at nerds
51:05
Speaker 1: and plant nerves, but we love chasing big deer and
51:07
Speaker 1: kind of combined it all together. Yeah, dude, that's awesome stuff.
51:10
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, brother. I really appreciate your time today. Absolutely, man,
51:14
Speaker 1: take care and you'd be safe out there. Guys. Be
51:18
Speaker 1: sure and check the description below to see more about
51:20
Speaker 1: what we have going on. What Mark has going on
51:23
Speaker 1: in some really helpful links that might help you as
51:26
Speaker 1: season gets started. Here in particular, Mark has a pretty
51:29
Speaker 1: good article about making things fun because it is important
51:32
Speaker 1: to have fun while you're out there. It keeps you
51:34
Speaker 1: rocking and rolling and having a good time and staying
51:36
Speaker 1: sharp on these deer. This is ret fresh, Keep it fresh.