Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 402: What Can Be Learned From the 2020 Hunting Season

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Ep. 402: What Can Be Learned From the 2020 Hunting Season · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Podcast. I'm
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan, and this is episode number four
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: O two, and today in the show, I'm joined by
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Spencer new Hearth to review the top events, trends, and
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: nationwide lessons we can all learn from the twenty twenty
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: hunting season. All right, welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: brought to you by on X, and today we are
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: going to be talking about twenty twenty for the last time.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: We're not going to look back on that year anymore
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: after today. But what we want to do is something
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: that we we've done most years with me is Spencer
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: new Hearth and the two of us are going to
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: kind of wrap a bow on our rout Fresh radio series. Uh,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: you guys here year after year. You know what we do.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: We hear from hunters all across the country every week,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: find out what kind of activities going on the woods,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: what different factors like whether or I don't know, hunting
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: pressure or dear behavior are changing what we as hunters
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: should be doing. So we cover that all year. But
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: now here in Spencer and I want to look back
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: on the year kind of review what were some of
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: the notable things that happened, and what can we learn
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: from that, What can we take from and apply to
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: our plans and beyond. Um, there's no better way than
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: reflecting on the past and and thinking about it in
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: a pointed way. So Spencer, that's that's what I'm hoping
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: we can do here. UM. Are you game for that? Absolutely? Um.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: If if each rut Fresh episode is like a micro
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: look at deer movement, then this is going to be
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: the macro look, and it's something that we've done um
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: d Fresh itself, we've done for five years now. I
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: think this is our third year of doing one of
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: these sort of big UM put a bow on it
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: episodes where we look at the year past and now.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: After doing this for three years, these recap episodes, there's
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: a few things that jump out at me Um when
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: looking back on the fall, and I'm excited to talk
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: about those in this episode. So you you, I'm glad
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: you said about it. And number two, I was gonna say,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: you do this thing in the regular Fresh episodes where
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: you ask the guest uh to rate you know, dear
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: activity on a one through ten scale for the past
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: seven days, and then what they expect for the next
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: seven days. So to kick this off, if if you
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: can force yourself to zoom out, all right, imagine you
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: can see yourself sitting in your chair right now. Um,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: probably maybe you're sitting in your hot tub. Maybe you're
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: surrounded by rocks, all your little collected rocks on the
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: table and the carpeting around you, and maybe two cats
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: on the couch. I would expect if you can zoom
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: out and not only see yourself in this moment, but
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: zoom out and see the entire past, you know, five
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: months of the hunting season, and answer this question, which
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: was if you had to write the quality of the
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: season on a one through ten scale, if you were to,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: you know, look at all the different factors that affected
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: it and and come to some macro quality quality. What
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: am I trying to say here, some macro determination of
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: the general quality of the season as compared to previous
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: years that we've done this. How would you rate the weather,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: the factors that all impacted us across the country. My
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: preference would be marked that we saved this question at
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: the end, Um, we now have it's to keep people
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: around for like the next fifty minutes. But I think, um,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: a lot of what we're gonna talk about between now
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: and then it's gonna kind of set us up for
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: that answer, and I might talk myself into something like
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: a nine, or it might talk myself into a seven.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: I kind of want to see where this goes before
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: I give you a number. Alright, fine, I'll let you.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: I'll let you keep us, keep us wondering, and let
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: the anticipation grow. So so that said, then I know
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: you've you've given this some thought, You've kind of reviewed
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: the year and thought through a couple of the high
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: level takeaways or the big kind of headlines of what
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: was what's the first one for you? What really stood
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: out to get us started? The very first one? And
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: this is sort of something that was to be expected
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: based on what Hunter's head witness in the spring, but
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: there was going to be more hunting pressure via COVID
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: this fall. Um, this wasn't really something anecdotal either. A
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: lot of what we're gonna talk about on this episode
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: is gonna be kind of anecdotal based on what I saw,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: what you saw, what our you know, sixty different guests
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: saw this fall, but the hunting pressure thing is not.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: We saw increased license sales for spring turkey, we saw
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: increased license sales for just general fishing license in the summer,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: and we saw increased license sales again for deer hunters.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: So what did that mean? UM? I remember talking to
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Tony Peterson who was going to be going on some
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: September hunt this year, and I think it was a
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: place that he had gone many times over and he
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: got there and it was just like the most dudes,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: UM that he had ever seen in this place. And
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: why would that be? Well, probably because of what we
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: just talked about being COVID. Tony was sort of optimistic
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: coming out of it in that like he was having
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: the same experience as everyone else. Now, Tony had the
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: benefit it of knowing what this area's potential was and
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: that it was a good place to kill deer, But
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: a lot of these people were probably showing up for
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: the first time ever and UM had to deal with
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: all that pressure and then sort of evaluated based on
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: like that one five day trip and probably not want
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: to return again. And so I think you need to
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: consider that often when looking back on the season, if
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: you were going to some new place, if you were
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: hunting some different piece of public land. UM, I hunt
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: a lot of shared permission properties just from knockey on
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: doors and talking to landowners. Same thing for me in
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: those areas where I would usually not see guys out
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: there all that often, or they were very fair weather hunters,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: that wasn't the case in And I think my best
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: advice overall, if I were talking to somebody about doing
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: odd of state haunts or going to a new area
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: in their state, whatever that might be, and you're hunting
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: public land or doing d I Y knocking on doors,
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  Speaker 1: my single best advice would be to try to go
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: during weekdays. It's just such a night and day difference
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: from a Saturday to a Wednesday. Um, no matter what
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: month it is, if it's gunn season, November, archer season
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: in October, it's it's just totally different. Um, the amount
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: of land you can have to yourself. And in those
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: places that I was going to this year, where I was,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: you know, hunting those d I Y areas on shared
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: land or or public land, whatever that might be, that
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: just didn't apply as much this year as it does
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  Speaker 1: in other years. I think that's a single best piece
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: of advice I give you is try to haunt weekdays.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: And it just like didn't work as well as I
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: would hope in twenty and that's because of this covid
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: um sort of boom in hunting license sales that we
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: just talked about. So when I when I look back
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: on that, I think two things. I think, number one,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: we saw a boom in hunt of participation for for
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: in two different kind of ways related covid There's number one,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: that being people who did not hunt in the past
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  Speaker 1: who decided to, you know, try it out for the
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: first time because you know, there was more concerned around food. Uh,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: they couldn't do other things they normally would do, and
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: and all this kind of led them to getting back
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  Speaker 1: to the roots and trying this hunting thing. And then
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  Speaker 1: the number two thing is that people that previously hunted,
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  Speaker 1: people that were hunters but maybe didn't do it a lot,
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  Speaker 1: now all of a sudden, they're alternatives have been removed.
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  Speaker 1: They can't go to the theater, they can't go shopping,
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  Speaker 1: and they can't go out to a restaurant or whatever.
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  Speaker 1: So instead they spent more time hunting. So you've got
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: those two things combining to create this increase in hunting pressure.
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  Speaker 1: I'm expecting that and beyond, once we get past this pandemic,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: you're probably gonna see participation go back down to normal levels,
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  Speaker 1: is my guess. But you might have some of those
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: new hunters that try it for the first time, they
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: might stick around. So I say all that to give
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: people the I don't want to say hope, because I
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: don't think it's a bad thing to have more hunters
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  Speaker 1: out there, but but know that this will probably go
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  Speaker 1: down to some degree in the next season or two. Um.
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  Speaker 1: But but that's not necessarily you know something that's that's
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  Speaker 1: a good thing. As I want to close this rambling
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  Speaker 1: thought here by saying that while the added hunting pressure
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  Speaker 1: is uh frustrating at times and can make your personal
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: hunting more difficult, it's not a bad thing that there's
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: new people out there. It's it's it's a good thing
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: for the long term future of hunting. So rather than
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: bemoaning all these new hunters out there and how they
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: messed up your hunts, I would encourage us all to
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  Speaker 1: you know, adapt to it, adjust to it, make sure
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  Speaker 1: you can still reach your personal goals. Etcetera. But how
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  Speaker 1: about reaching out to one of these new hunters. How
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  Speaker 1: about seeing someone out there in the woods and you
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: talk to him for a second, you find out that hey,
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  Speaker 1: this is first time doing it. Rather than being pissed
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: that he messed up your spot, what about offering him
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: or her hand and suggesting that they try this idea
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: or that idea, or maybe this year, invite someone to
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: come along with you. Um. You know, the more we
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: can help new hunters and educate new hunters and and
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: help get them on the road for themselves, you know,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: the more likely we'll be able to do this thing
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: ten years from now, because there's people that love this
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  Speaker 1: and will support it and stand up for it. So
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: so that's one point I make. Another point I make, Spencer,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: is kind of adding on to what you said about
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: how hunting week days is usually a better option than
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: weekends to get away from all these people. Um. Another
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: thing that I'd suggest is avoid popular times of the
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: year too. So you know, opening day, first couple of
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: days of this season, there's always a lot of people
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: out there that are excited about it. And then when
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: you get to the rut, there's always a lot of
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: out of state hunting pressure in these big time white
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: tail states, and that's when people you just schedule their
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: vacations and really go after it. And then guns season
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: and then maybe you know holidays like Thanksgiving. Uh, if
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: you can get away from those big hot periods of
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: the season and maybe plan your hunting trip October tenth
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: or you know, November, I don't know, late November or
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: something when you know you're not typically thinking about planning
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: your white tail vacations, you might find that the woods
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: are are much more open than they would have been
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: on November one or October one or September one. So
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: there's there's plenty of ways to pick your spots and
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: pick your times and get away from some of this stuff. Um. Finally,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: my one other suggestion for dealing with this new hunting
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: pressure would be having more backup plans. So whether it's
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: hunting your home property or if you're going on out
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: of state plant state hunt, um, you better have a
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: Plan B and Plans C and Plan D for what
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: hunt because if you get there and you only had
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: one idea of what to do and then there's all
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: these other hunters out there and you don't know what
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: to do next. Well then you're s ol So you know,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: you've got to be able to adapt quickly and have
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: a bunch of other options to turn to. And I
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: think folks that went out into the public lands this
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: year with one plan in mind, uh, you know, dealt
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: with this in a pretty bummer kind of way. They
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: had a lot of disappointment. Those that went out there
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: with ten different ideas. They had to cycle through plan A,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Plan B, plan C. But then they finally got to
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: plan D and and they found their spots. So hunting
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: pressure is probably going to continue to pick up, maybe
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: some more COVID impacts this year. Maybe it's you know,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: us continuing to add new people into the fold. So
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: let's not bemoan it. Let's let's adjust and uh and
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: just get better at learning with that living with that reality. Um.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: That's that's where my head's at. Yeah. And it's it's
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: a fairly like privileged thing for me to be like,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: oh just go on week days like be in the
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: woods on Wednesday instead of a Saturday. I get it, Like, um,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: it's that's not the case for everybody. Um, but I
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: just like put so much importance on having the ability
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: to do that. If that's something that's sort of a
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: lout of your control. You you don't have UM that
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: that freedom to you know, hunt Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday instead
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: of Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Like you said, the ABC thing
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: is so important, and that's that's huge reason that I
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: failed on D. I y haunts way more. Just five
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: years ago. I'd have like a Plan A and a
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: plan being a Plan C, and I'd get really sucked
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: into A and and dedicate a whole bunch of like
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: the scouting to that area and then UM boots on
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: the ground time to that area, and then not have
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: those backup plans. If I think about when I went
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: to Wyoming this year, I killed my buck, and what
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: was probably like Plan G or something like that. When
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: I killed my bucking Montana this year, that was probably
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: like Plan D. It was it was far removed from
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: where I thought it was going to happen for me.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: And that is something that is in everyone's control, is
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: to to sort of do that homework ahead of time. UM.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: And what you talked about Mark for the helping those
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: people out and seeing those new people there. My guess
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: is that other people were that guy in some other
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: arena I was that guy with rockhunting. I was bugging
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: all kinds of people. I was buying books, I was
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: going to new areas. UM, I was doubling the amount
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: of rock hounders in certain places just because my wife
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: and I would go now instead of two people there
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: there before. So I was that guy in some other arena. Um.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: And and nobody was mean to me or bemoan me
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: that but I'm aware of or anything like that. And
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: I'm guessing a lot of people were, whether it was um,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: mushroom hunting or rock hounding or whatever that is. UM,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: So think about it from from their perspective, Like you said,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: do you is there a territorial nature to rock hounders?
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Do you ever think people are sending you nasty looks?
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: When you walk down the river bank? There there is like, um,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: a little bit of that fibbing that you have that's
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: probably like most familiar with fishermen, where it's like very
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: generic talk like, oh you have any luck today, oh
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: a few little ones, um that that kind of thing. UM,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: But being outright mean or scowls Now, I have haven't
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: witnessed that yet. Have you ever sent a fellow rock
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: hound in the wrong direction? Because you're really worried about
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: getting your fossilized wood or something. No. No, And this
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: this is something that I said on a Mediator episode
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: back in March. This is a hobby I'd love to
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: share with people that I would love to, uh like,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: genuinely send you to my best spots and stuff. So
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: if that's something you have questions about, hit me up.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: I'll try to send you in the right direction. Warning, though,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to do the same for haunting and fishing,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: still root for me. I'm still pulling for Spencer to
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: kill it, eatter catch the fish. So you're you're probably
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: going to get um a little bit of fibbing with
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: a little bit of truth. Well, I'm I'm thoroughly fascinated
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: by what you do with Rox Spencer, but I'm sure
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: most people listening probably aren't, so we'll move on from that.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: That's right. So, so maybe the first big like weather
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: event of the year that affected most hunters was another
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: early October cold front. This one didn't quite shape up
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: to what the early October cold fronts happened to be
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen and eighteen as far as actually meeting
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: what the forecast was. Um, I was kind of looking
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: across the country the week prior, I think it was
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: like October five or something like that was the first Saturday.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Excuse me, it was October three was the first Saturday
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: in October. And for a lot of hunters that is
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: like sort of their first time in the woods, and
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: and the forecast had a cold front coming up and
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: didn't sort of live up to those expectations. It was
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: maybe only like a tenor or thirteen degree drop from
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: one high to the next. But this was something that
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: we've seen multiple years around or some multiple years now,
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: and it's got me thinking, Mark, after you're witnessing this
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: in and where we get like this fifteen or twenty
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: degree drop from one high to the next and guys
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: go out and kill a whole bunch of deer, that
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: this is now something that I and others should plan for.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: What I mean for that is expect there to be
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: some sort of front that hits between like October one
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: in October fifteen, and that you should have like a
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: tree stand or two tree stands set up and and
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: in mind just for that singular event, because it's gonna
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: be such a great time to capitalize on buck movement
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: and that's not something that I've ever considered before. But
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: after doing what Fresh radio for five years and seeing
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: a whole bunch of dudes kill big bucks and then
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: seeing that cold front happen again in there, like, oh man,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: this is something that you can kind of plan for
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: um and set some specific stands to try to kill
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: a buck during that event. So so tell me this.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: It kind of sounds like I'm hearing a change of
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: heart because for many years, Spencer, we've had conversations where
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: I'm harping on how much I love cold fronts and
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: and what a significant impact they have, and you've always
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: been a contrarian voice saying, well, you know, a lot
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: of science doesn't point to a direct correlation, and your
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: your spiel has always been that cold fronts might be
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: more of a self fulfilling prophecy so and that when
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: hunters see a cold front coming, they're more likely to
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: go hunting. They're more likely to hunt their good spots,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: and that's the reason why more dear get killed. Are
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: you changing your mind? I am still um firmly seated
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: in both of those. I still think that there uh
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: is a lot of like uh, like you said, a
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: self fulfilling prophecy. You have this confidence, you're more aware
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: when you're sitting in your tree stand, you're sitting in
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: a better spot. Um, you're like arriving earlier in the morning,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: or you're getting there earlier in the afternoon. I think
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: that plays like as much of a role as the
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: actual part about getting deer on their feet. Part of
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: what like has me buy in to these early October
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: cold front is that I don't I don't see it
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: as much of a negative to be a little bit
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: more aggressive, say on like October five, and then sort
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: of leaving an area alone for the next like twenty
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: or twenty five days. Um, if we're talking about a
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: coal the front that's like on October UM nineteen or something,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: and getting really close to bedding and knowing that the movement,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: regardless of whether it's probably going to pick up in
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: about a week. I think that's why I like these
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: early October cold fronts so much. That I could be
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: just slightly more reckless, um based on the weather and
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: and I feel like I'm not hurting anything for the
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: next month if I plan to leave that area alone.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: So I I have come around a little bit too
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: cold fronts, but specifically these early October cold fronts interesting. Well,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: I certainly am. I'm right there with you. I love
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: those cold fronts and if so much of and this
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: is different based on the kind of hunting you do, right,
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: I mean, for people to hunt the same property throughout
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: the season, a lot of your strategy has to be
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: around timing when to hunt verse when to stay out,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: because you want to keep hunting pressure low as much
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: as possible. So that's a big part of of the
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: plan when you hunt one place all the time. On
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: the flip side, if you travel and you hunt a
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: bunch of different public land spots, then it's more so
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: you know, just choosing when do I go, When do
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: I go, or when do I you know, hunt my
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: very best spots hard for five days whatever it is.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: And as you mentioned, it's those early season cold fronts.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: There's lower downside um and and I think more significant upside.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: But at the same time, even the late October cold
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: fronts mid delayed October, at least for me, the way
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: I look at things more and more, I value early
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: season and mid season cold fronts more than I used to,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: and I value rut cold fronts less than I used to, um,
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: I'm jumping ahead a little bit here too. Some things
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about related to the rut. But man,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: when you get that big cold front like you described
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: in October five, there's a big difference between what might
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: be the normal deer activity or the normal mature buck
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: movement versus what you might get now with this temperature trap.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: And I think the same thing applies. Like October, there
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: was a front. I don't remember exactly what the days
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: were this year, but it was somewhere around the the twenties,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: early twenties, late teens, somewhere in that ballpark. And that
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: was another one that just flooded social media with big bucks.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: I remember, now, this guy is not indicative of your
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: average person, but Mark Dury killed like a one eighty.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: And then in three days between when that front hit
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: across two different states, and and all these different people
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: um that they were posting about I remember specifically, we're
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: dropping them. So you can see that when it comes
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: to the rut, I've actually I've actually put less value
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: on those because there's already a bunch of good things happening.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Culvern certainly helps. I'll love it. I'll take it, but
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: it's not as crucial to me as it might be
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: in other times of the year when I really need
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: that extra bump to get a moving. Um. So sort
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to say is I love cold fronts, but
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: they aren't the end alb all and you know, as
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: we'll get to a little bit, they certainly weren't something
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: we could count on for a lot of people in November.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Was there anything else in October or otherwise that you
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: wanted to focus on before we get there? Well, here
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: hearing you say that mark about UM now putting more
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: stock into like early October and mid October cold fronts
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: and less stock into roughty cold fronts. Um, I didn't
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: realize until you said it, But that's like the sentiment
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: that I share. That's sort of how my thinking has
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: also evolved. So I've I've come around UM a bit
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: too cold fronts, but not not quite all the way.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: And I think what you just mentioned there about you
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: know how the effective in parts of the season is correct,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: and that's how I'm That's how I'm viewing them as well. UM.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: Something that was different, very different from to which is
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: sort of an October event, is that harvest was mostly
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: on time or a head of schedule this year, UM,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: which was much different than in We had a lot
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: of wet fields or crops were staying in well past
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: the rut for a lot of the Midwest. You know,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: there were there were a lot of places where combines
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: we're still in the fields the week leading up to Thanksgiving.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: And I think if, like we talked about earlier with
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: the COVID thing, if you were hunting someplace in like
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: during the rout or during late October, and you're now
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: sort of like basing what you saw in an egg
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: heavy area based on like that five day window, it's
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: maybe not the reality of how thing this really are
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: for that property, because when you have all that standing
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: corn and all that standing beings, it can sort of
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: like mask the rut. And and it was something that
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: every single person we talked to you in the Midwest
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: in from like mid October to mid November talked about that, like, oh,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: we have perfect weather this weekend, um, but we have
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: a bunch of standing crops everywhere. It was it was
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: just a reality of and so that was not the
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: case you probably if you hunted the same exact places
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: from from mid October to mid November, you probably saw
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: a lot different um deer patterns and probably a stronger
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: rout because you didn't have so much deer movement masked
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: by thousands of acres of standing corn. Yeah, that's um.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: It was definitely noticeable for a lot of people, like
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: you said, and I personally experienced this. I experienced sit
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: to a to an even greater degree than that. And
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: in folks who have heard my stories about the season, no,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: maybe no where I'm going here with this, but I
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: had a situation where my main properties where folks got
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: their crops out so early and we're so ahead of
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: the game that they started doing stuff that they almost
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: never do around me at least, which was they were
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: disking under their crops in October. So, you know, on
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: on one of these properties that have hunted for a decade, now,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: this is the first time in ten eleven years that
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: I had no food on these properties. Usually the harvest
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: you know, the beans in uh sometime in October. They'll
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: pick the corn sometime in early November, and then that
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: stuff stays out there the picked fields until the next spring.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: And there's a lot of waste grain that these dear
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: feet on. But for me, I had three different fields
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: around me that provide almost hundreds of acres of food
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: usually that one of them in October, one of them
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: in November, and one of them in December were plowed
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: under to completely dirt, nothing but dirt, um and that
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: just wiped out food and it completely turned you know,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: the dear patterns on their head, I mean, stuff was
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: completely different. I've never had hunting like this before. It
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: wiped out some of my best spots all of a
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: sudden became dear deserts. So so for me, and this
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: is a unique maybe to some people, but maybe other
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: people experience the same thing, I'm not sure. For me,
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: what it put into my mind is that I really
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: need to have a plan for that in future years.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: I can't count on crop fields to be the food
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: source that I can count on all year long. UM.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: So this spring my plans to do more scouting to
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: better understand, you know, what are the masked options where
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: some of these little hidy hole spots that deer might
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: start using more if that happens again next year or
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: five years down the road. UM, I'm also gonna try to,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: you know, in the spots that I can do it
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: I've got a couple of spots where I can do
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: some small food plots and stuff. I'm going to you know,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: put more quantity of food out next year than I
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: did this year, because this year I got really funky
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: with trying to be really small and strategic UM, and
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: then I had no other food and these food sources
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: got destroyed earlier, and then I had nothing for late season.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: I'm never gonna let myself go into late season without
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: high quality late season food source again in in this
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: spot that I can do that. UM for the spots
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: where I can't manage things public land spots I hunt
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: or some private land by permission, I just need to
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: have this goes back to what we mentioned earlier. I
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: need more plans, C, D, E and f UM, you know,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: and the same thing goes for you know, next year.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: We might have a similar situation that we had three
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: years ago or two years ago with crops standing forever.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: So you just gotta think about both what are you
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: gonna do in each different scenario. Have a plan in
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: place ahead of time so that you're not trying to
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: figure this out on November five, when you're halfway through
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: your trip and you don't have time to prepare. You
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: just have to hunt, um trying to figure that stuff
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: out now or in March or in June, so that
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: once October or November gets here, you're just simply executing
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: on a plan, whether that's Plan A or B or G.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: And I think now with you're probably have seen both
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: ends of the spectrum as far as crops staying in
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: very late and crops coming out very early. It's probably
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: not what you're going to see on average years going forward.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: But now that you've you've sort of seen both ends
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: of the spectrum, like you said, Mark, you can plan
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: for those different events. What I think this is gonna
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: make what I think this is gonna be hard to
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: do now is if you're hunting a new area that
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: you showed up on twenty nine, that you showed up
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: in twenty it's probably gonna be hard to like develop
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: some store of historical patterns um for deer herds, if
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: you're in an egg heavy area learning a new place
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: for like late October over the last couple of seasons
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: because of these weird harvests that we've had, and we
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: talk about historical patterns a lot mark on rot Fresh
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: Radio and what I mean by that is like knowing
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: how a deer herd um sort of functions on a
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: landscape from the first day of the season to the
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: last day of the season, with some predictability around, like
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: here's where they're going to be in early October, here's
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: where they're going to be at the end of October,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: here's where they're gonna be in mid November, etcetera. It's
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: going to be hard to use a lot of the
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: information that you got over these last two years because
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: of like the sort of extreme examples that we've seen
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: now with with harvest in That's a great point and
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: you really need to try to take note of that somewhere.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: So don't just you know, you can take deer movement
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: or a deer sighting or something, and then you try
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: to tie that back to something and you could say, well,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: this happened because of the time of year, or this
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: happened because of the weather. Well, now make sure you
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: add the factor of, well, this was happening while we
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: had standing corn all the way into December, or this
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: was happening when we had a dirt field in October. Um,
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: try to keep track of that somewhere so that you
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: can look back on things as you mentioned, Spencer and
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: make sure you have that context. Um. You know, I
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: actually wrote about something that's pretty relevant to this. It
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: was it was focused mostly on the impact of crop
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: rotations and how that impacts deer movement. But it's it's
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: pretty similar to this discussion too as far as when
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: crops come out versus stay in, and it doesn't just
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: impact the foods that are available. And you alluded to
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: this with how corn can mask you know, running activity,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: how standing corn can mask what you see, Well, it
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: also completely changes where dear bed because you know, this
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: is something that I got a quote from John Eberhard about.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: He talked about how standing corn offers you know, sometimes
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: the very best bedding and feeding in the same place.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: So when you have hundreds or thousands of acres of
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: standing corn, not only does that just visually keep you
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: from being all the activities happening, but it also keeps
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: deer from using other betting areas. So you'll have all
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: this activity happening in the middle of these fields you
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: can't see, and then you know other bedding areas within
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: the timber or elsewhere aren't being used when that stuff
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: comes out, not only is there a lot more space
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: that's visible, but now you will have deer relocating to
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: those other areas too, So it's not just changing a
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: food pattern, it's also changing a betting pattern, and and
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: across the board all the transitions between there, here and there.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: Another thing to think about is how standing corn impacts
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: the adjacent cover. So you know, deer might use uh
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: patches short grass, like a little finger of grass. Maybe
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: that goes out into a standing corn field. That might
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: be an area that gets a lot of use when
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: they're standing corn there because it still feels secluded and
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: it's this kind of transition zone maybe or socializing area.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: But as soon as that standing corn's gone, now what
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: used to be a pretty nice little spot for deer
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: is wide open and they don't feel comfortable there. So
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: there's there's this cascading effect of impacts when the crops
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: come in or out like that. So I bring that
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: all up to just caution anyone thinking through some kind
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: of I don't know, trying to pin certain things to
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: this change we're discussing. Think about all the ripple effects.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: Think about how the standing corn or the dirt field,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: or the lack of food or the changing bedding areas
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: has changed all this different dear behavior and and maybe
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: maybe going down this strow just leads to a lot
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: of confusion. But I also do believe that if you
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: see all the pieces of the puzzle clearly, it's going
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: to help you put the pieces back together again. And
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: and there's a lot of interesting, unique puzzle pieces related
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: to crop rotation and harvests. So it's a good thing
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: to be thinking about now. And when you're laying in
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: bed one night and can't fall asleep, um and want
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: to be thinking about hunting, it might be an interesting
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: thing to ponder and uh, come up, come with some
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: conclusions for next season. Yeah. I think historical patterns are
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: so important and that can be a whole bunch of
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: seper factors like when cattle are moved around, or when
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: youth season opened, or when uh an upland bird season
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: open to whatever that is. And the thing that you
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: talked about there with crop rotations and crops coming in
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: and out, um, I think have a really heavy impact
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: on this on those historical patterns. So something to take
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: note of in and going forward for everybody, you know,
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: I'll say one more thing before you move on, Spencer is.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: We were just discussed like all these different factors that
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: could impact how you pattern deer and how they're changing
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: so much. And as I was talking through all that,
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: I had two voices in my head. Had one voice
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: in my head that was saying, like, you know, oh,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: think about how this could impact things, and think about
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: how this could impact things. Yeah, yeah, Yetta, And that
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: was the voice that was talking out aloud to all
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: of you. Then there was this other voice in my
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: head that was saying, Jesus, this sounds like a quick
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: way to get confused as hell. And I would say
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: that the way to deal with that, the way to
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: actually make some sense out of these things. Probably a
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: simple tool to help you do that is journaling, so
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: writing down all these things that were happening and and
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: having that alongside of what you saw. So this is
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: something that I've talked about in the past, wanting to do,
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: and some seasons I've gotten started with it. Some seasons
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: I've never gotten started with it. But inevitably I've yet
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: to complete an entire season doing a good job of this.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: And I hate myself for doing that because I know
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: a lot of very good hunters that do this every year,
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: and they do it well. So they track each one
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: of their hunts, what they see, what the weather was like,
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: what the all the different factors were that were going on. Right,
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: then they track all that where they went, what the
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: win direction was, so on, and then you know, next
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: year when they're trying to plan their season, or ten
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: years from now, when you have another year where the
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: crops come out early, you can say, oh, you know what,
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: this reminds me a lot of what happened that one
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: season when I killed Trent. What you was like, Oh,
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: that was en alright, I gonna go back to my journal,
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: find the twenty nineteen season, and if you have that documented,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: if you have that written down, you actually can get
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: an accurate understanding of what happened when it was like
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: this before. Um, that's that's a lot harder to do
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: accurately if it's all just stored in your head. So
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: so maybe for me, a takeaway out of this is
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: that I really need to get better at following through
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: on my little journaling idea, because it seems like the simplest,
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: most effective way to keep track of these things, all
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: of these things that we talked about on Refresh Radio, Honestly,
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: all of this could help you. You know, you could
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: better take action on the stuff we talked about by
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: having a journal and keeping track of what happened is
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: in your own world. UM, there's there's my resolution. I'm
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: doing that this season. I gotta do it. I like it,
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: I like And that's UM just another example of having
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: sort of a macro look at deer hunting. Like this
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: episode is a macero look at there's value in it, UM.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: But you still need that trailer camera and tell that
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: in season scouting boots on the ground stuff like that,
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: UM is even more valuable, UM, or just as valuable
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: is that that historical patterns and that macro look. Let's
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: move on to the rut mark. UM. Something we don't
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: talk about a whole lot and and we sort of
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: only dedicate like one UM intro a year on rut
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: fresh is the moon and the rutting moon in was
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: on October thirty one. This was supposed to make for
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: a good rutting moon or a sinc rut. That's not
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: what we had in Do you remember the exact date
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: of that mark. I feel like it was a little
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: bit earlier, and it was supposed to have um like
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: a drawn out rut or stronger movement in like those
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: early October twenty days. Do you recall exactly what was gosh,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: I don't. For some reason I was jumping to I
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: thought it was later. I thought it was like November four,
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: but that you know, they all kind of blurred together now,
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: so I wish I could tell you. Yeah, Well, maybe
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: maybe what we just touched on there speaks volumes to
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: how we view the rutting moon when we we can't
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: recall like I I feel like I know cold or
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: cold front dates very well in my head, but I
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: can't recall just the rutting moon that was two seasons ago.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: It's good point. So the rutting moon was supposed to
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: be on October thirty one this year, like I said,
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: I was supposed to make for a stronger rut. Do
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: you have any thoughts on this mark about twenties running moon? Man?
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: My only thought is the same thing that we touch
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: on most years, same thing I've written about on on
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: the on the website, which is maybe there's a little
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: bit of some kind of bump in how the moon
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: impacts some amount of daylight activity, But it really is
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: is very clear across a wide various studies, array of
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: studies that the moon does not impact the timing of breeding.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: It doesn't impact when deer actually breed. Uh, that's going
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: to happen. When it's going to happen because of other factors,
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: mostly that being photo period, which is the amount of
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: daylight which is impacting hormone levels and deer, which impacts
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: when deer are ready to breed. That stuff happens across
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: most parts of the country, year after year after year
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: at basically the same time. Um Now, there certainly are
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: other factors that can increase or dear decrease what we
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: see of that what we actually see when we're hunting
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: during the day. And you know, certainly people point to
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: the moon is being one of those things that maybe
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: could impact what we see. I have kept tabs on it,
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: I've watched for it. I just I I have not
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: seen enough two be really impressed with it to to
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: say that I can prove without a doubt that, man,
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: there's some strong anecdotal evidence at least that this thing
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: makes a difference. Um So, I I just don't. I
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: just don't give it much credence. I understand that some
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: people do keep tabs on it, but it's it's yet
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: to outweigh the other factors for me, that being the
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: date on the calendar, and then yes, some temperature stuff.
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: I've found some weather related stuff can either increase or
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: decrease some of the visible activity. So ah, I don't know.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: It's a thing to talk about. It is a thing
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: to look at, but I don't ever let it impact
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: how I time my hunts, where I hunt, when I hunt,
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: and um and I I guess there's not much more
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: say than that spencer I've said. I've used analogy in
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: the past, but for me, it's like bigfoot stuff. Like
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: I'm wildly interested in the subject of bigfoot. I want
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: to watch TV shows about bigfoot. I want to read
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: articles about bigfoot. I want to hear your first hand
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: experience with bigfoot. But at the end of the day,
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: and like gun to my head, I don't really believe
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: that bigfoot is real. And I don't really believe that
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: rutting moon has helped me or hurt me kill a deer. Um.
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: So that's that's sort of how I feel about it.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: And a few years ago Mark we wrote a piece
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: for matthews website sort of looking at like the two
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: sides of the coin on on both like extreme examples,
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: like the rutting mood absolutely matters, and then the other
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: side being the rutting mood absolutely does not matter. And uh,
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: this is very specific to this analogy, but I remember
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: seeing that the same percentage of deer hunters as the
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: same percentage of general population believe that moon impacts dear
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: movement also believe in Bigfoot, and so I now I
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: like that analogy even more after seeing that. Is that
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: for real? Yeah, that's for real. I have to look
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: back at the specific number, but it was like it
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: was within like a couple of percentage points of each other.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: That's so I like that. Let's let's talk about some
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: more tangible things though. This year's rut was a very
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: warm rut, not even warm for some areas, just damn
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: or just downright hot. I recall like being in South
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: Dakota on I don't know, like November four and getting
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: in my pickup to drive out from my afternoon hunt,
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: and the pickup was like damn near reading eighty degrees.
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: It was just a really hot year. And I think
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: for a lot of hunters when they set their rut
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: cation they sort of pick like the first weekend of
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: November or the second weekend of November, and that was
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: just sort of how the calendar fell this year. Like
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: November one through November seven was a Sunday through Saturday.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: November eight through November fourteen was November. Excuse me. November
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: eight through November fourteen was a Sunday through a Saturday. Again,
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: So you basically had those first seven days of the
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: second seven days if you were picking a Roucasian. For
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: most guys, if you picked that first seven days, you
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: probably had super warm weather um, regardless of what part
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: of the country you were in. And if you had
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: that second set of seven days, then you probably had
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: whether that you were more excited about. For a lot
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: of places in the Midwest, there was some snow, You
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: had these north winds that you expect there to be
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: in November, but just a week prior that wasn't the case.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: We talked about this a little bit earlier, market, and
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: that's not like talking about not putting a whole lot
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: of stock into cold or warm weather during the rut um.
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: I still feel that's the case, and I'm sure if
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: I listened back on that episode where I was doing
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: my routcation in South Dakota, I was cursing the weather.
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: I think that was kind of an extreme example, though,
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: when you have these daytime highs that are damn near
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: like record highs. I think looking back, it was the
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: the warmest in ben since like and prior to seen
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: it was the warmest city Bend and like seven or
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: eight years or something like that. So I a lot
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: of hunters, if they were unsuccessful in that first seven
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: days of November, we're probably cursing the weather. And if
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: you picked that second set of seven days, you probably
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: felt really good about your choice. So here's what I
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: would say about it. Um different than the weather in
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: the early season September or October. Those those cold fronts
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: that we talked about that were so important, those fronts
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: that would come through, would you know, push me or
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: you to hunt when maybe we wouldn't hunt, or push
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: us to hunt one of our best spots when maybe
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: we would not hunt one of our best spots. I
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: would tell you that when you get to the first
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks in November. While I like cold weather
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: during that time of year, and while I will certainly
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: probably see better activity through a larger portion of the
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: day with that colder weather. I'm not going to let
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: the warm weather keep me from hunting or keep me
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: from hunting good spots. So I guess what I'm saying
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: there is that while the coal front is certainly helpful,
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: it should not dictate as much of your strategy as
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: I think it should in October or September um, because
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: at those times of year, the weather might be the
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: only thing that's pushing dear to to move more than usual.
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: During November, during the rut, there's this really huge, freaking
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: thing that's pushing dear to do crazy stuff, which is
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: the fact that they want to procreate, and that makes
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: deer do some wacky things, and it makes them move
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: more in daylight, and it makes them move more in general,
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: and it gives deer hunters opportunities. And if you waste
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: any of those opportunities because you're sitting on the couch
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: instead of being out there when you could be, you're
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: making a mistake. Um, even on these crazy hot days,
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: while the activity most likely is less than it would
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: be otherwise and you're not gonna have as good of
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: a hunt, it's still going to be you know, they're
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: still gonna be the possibility of having those great moments.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: I had several really great hunts during these super hot
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: days when you know, as we talked about earlier this year,
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: I talked, I told, I've told the story about how
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: I kind of had my epiphany about Rott hunts when
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: all my buddies killed deer in Iowa when I had
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: given up on the hunt because of the weather. Well,
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: this year, I said, Nope, warm weather or not, I'm
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: going to be out there. So I still haunted on
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: those super hot days, and I ended up having an
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: encounter with my top target buck in Michigan one day
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: on one of those really hot days. Another day, I
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: had an encounter with my one of my top target
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: bucks on the back forty the draft time buck. And
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: then three days later, on a day that would reach
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: almost eighty degrees, I killed him. So I again was
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: reaffirmed of the need to still be out there and
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: still hunt the rut, just like you would hunt the
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: Rut any other year, even if it's eighty. Um. Now,
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: I'll say, like the movement on those days, at least
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: for me in my experience, is much more pushed to
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: the edges. So when it's thirty degrees and you had
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: a big cold come through, and it's November five. You
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: might have deer activity all day long. You could have
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: great midday hunts. You could have great activity at any
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: point in the day. That's what we all dream of
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: when it was eighty degrees on November five or whatever. Um,
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: it was much more a first couple of hours of
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: the day and then last half hour of the day,
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: and and that was just the reality of it. But
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: you could still have some really good stuff happen in
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: those portions. So what I found was that I was
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: still going to be out there. I was still gonna
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: hunt the mornings, in the evenings. I did not hunt
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: as many mid days as I usually might, uh, simply
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: because from everything I've seen and what I saw this year,
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: it was it was dead in the middle of that
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: really hot part of the day. And and my thought
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: process here was one I was going to take those
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: mid days and check off some important family time and
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: then be One of the toughest things about hunting the
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: rut when it's hot out is the fact that your
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: focus is so much more easily lost when there's these
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: long stretches of nothing. So when you've got the cold
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: weather and you have activity all day, it's very easy
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: to stay on point. It's very easy to to keep
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: your eyes on the prize because every half hour or
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: every hour you see another deer, you get excited. You're
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: thinking it might happen. So for the next hour or two,
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: your daying focused, you're scanning, you're being ready, you're doing
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: the right things. But on the flip side, when it's
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: eighty degrees on November five and after the first couple
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: hours of the day, it's dead and you sit out
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: there for six more hours and you haven't seen a
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: single deer and you're sweating. That's the scenario when it's
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: very easy to start looking at Facebook on your phone,
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: or fall asleep and taken to halp, or just be
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: digging around your backpack for twenty minutes trying to find
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: different snacks. And that's when you know bad things happen
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: when it gets to the last hour of daylight and
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: you're still dicking around and then here comes up buck.
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: So I think the biggest trick with hunting the warm
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: weather is is staying focused and staying positive. Um, there
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: certainly are some strategic things you can do a little
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: bit differently on warm weather rut hunts, But I think
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: the most important is just keeping the faith and keeping
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: on it. If you do that, sticking to regular rut
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: spots and knowing that the beginning of the day and
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: the end of the day are still gonna be great. Um,
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: that's a recipe for success. And I've seen now multiple
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: times over the last ten fifteen years that's that's been
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: the case. And uh, and this year it paid off
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: from me at least. So that's that's my take on
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: the hot rut. Did you did you get any other
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: ideas or any other perspectives if you look back on
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: our episodes we did during that time period, do you
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: remember anything else from some of our guests along those
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: lines or is it similar to what I just shared.
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: It's similar to what you said, and that people are
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: still hunting their best spots. They're not like staying out
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: of the woods because it's gonna be seventy seven degrees
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: at noon. Um. But I recall a few people mentioning
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: that water factored into their setups a little bit more
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: if they were choosing between two stand locations. Um, that's
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: sort of the tiebreaker might be water when it's that
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: hot and when you know, boxer up and they're moving
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: all day long. And for me, the like warm front
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: that we had at the very beginning of November, I
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: didn't hate it, maybe as much as other hunters would,
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: because I'm somebody who really struggles with all day sits,
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: even when um, like the weather is ideal, I just
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: get pessimistic. Um I I, like you said, get bored.
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: I dick around on my phone or digging around in
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: my bag, and so sort of having what I felt
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: like was a good excuse to like get out of
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: my tree stand from eleven am to one pm and
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: and go home and not like be having the back
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: of my head that like there's a buck under my
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: tree stand right now. I and I confirmed with trail
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: cameras later on that that wasn't the case. But it
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: like made me feel comfortable to do that for a
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: few days in a row. And sort of having the
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: ability to do that like allowed me to haunt a
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: little bit longer, because coming into my rocation, i'd like
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: been on the road hunting for a while. Coming out
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: of my rocation, I was gonna be on the road
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: hunting for a little while. And it's like you know,
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: a day of sleeping in on a hunt, or like
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: a day of getting out of your tree stand I
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: think can go pretty far in like keeping you in
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: the game a little bit longer for you know, another
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: day down the road or something like that. And so
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: the rut in when we had these like crazy warm
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: after neon temperatures, I didn't hate it because, like you said,
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: I was confident that I wasn't missing out on something big.
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: It could have bait me in the ass, but it
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: didn't as far as I know. This fall. Yeah, yeah,
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: it's it's it's funny. I've I've had a real change
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: of heart when it comes to this too, where for
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: a lot of years I have always been an advocate for,
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: especially to myself, of you know, if there's a chance,
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: you gotta be out there, so hunt every single day
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: all day. You know, no excuses, play a champion, uh,
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: you know, etcetera, etcetera. And and I'm kind of switching
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: it up now where I'm seeing the burnout effects of
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: hunting all day and you know how that can result
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: in you losing focus, uh, losing some of the fun um,
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: hurting relationships with family, that kind of stuff, And and now.
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's because I'm getting old, maybe it's because I've
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: got kids. Um, but I but this year, especially maybe
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: last year a little bit too, I've started to realize,
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: you know, just what you just said, Spencer. You know,
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: taking a morning off, or taking the middle of the
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: day off and having lunch with the kids, or taking
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: a little nap or having a nice meal, that kind
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: of stuff can do so much to restore your energy
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: and your focus later on, and and you're fun. And again,
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: like everyone listening knows, I am over the top in
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: a lot of ways about hunting. I really put a
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: lot of pressure to to get better, to learn more,
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: to do better, etcetera, etcetera. But if any of this stuff,
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: if any of these goals or you know, arbitrary plans
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: you put on your your hunting, if any of that
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: stuff keeps you from enjoying it, then what the hell
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: are we doing? So so that's something that that each
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: year I'm learning a little bit more about and and
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: I think it relates to this, I'm not gonna feel
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: as guilty as I used to about, you know, coming
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the day and and doing that
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: kind of stuff. Yeah, I might reduce my chances to
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: kill a buck at that time period, but at what expense.
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: So um, So that's that's that's a takeaway from me,
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: all right, Mark, Well, let's now move to late season.
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: Um And and this is a pretty mackerel look at
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: like post rut and the month of December in general,
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: but a lot of the country had very mild weather.
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: If I think back to Rut Fresh episodes, um for
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: in December, I recall a lot of pessimistic hunters that
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: I talked to you because the weather just wasn't there.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: And that was often like the takeaway after an interview
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: that it's like, oh, I think the movement this weekend
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: is going to be a four out of ten. But
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: if we get that weather, um that there's a you know,
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: chance of snow and the temperatures draft another ten degrees,
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: then I think it's gonna be an eight out of ten.
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: And there was just a lot of hunters telling me
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: that for the December episodes. And I'm sure you saw
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: it in your area. Um And this is probably most
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: like important or affected people the most at hunt in
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: the Midwest that sort of have a few places in
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: mind that they're going to be in the middle of December,
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: especially if it's like some gun season or whatever, that
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: you're gonna be hunting these specific food sources in the
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: afternoon and there's gonna be uh, you know, forty deer
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: rolling into this field or whatever. When you have this
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: mild weather and there's a whole bunch of available food
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: out there that's still like natural brows and they don't
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: have to congregate to the best and the most obvious
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: food sources. That can make it tough on late season hunters.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: And I think we had a lot of that for
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: Midwestern white tail hunters in the majority of December. Around
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: like Christmas, we got weather event, but leading up to that,
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: there wasn't a whole lot of weather. I think that
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: would make people excited. I know more you've talked about
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: this in the podcast, You've written about our website, But
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: how important whether it can be for late season white tailors. Yeah,
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: it's it's the exact opposite of what I was just describing.
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: For November. I think that that weather can make or
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: break your late season hunts, especially you know, especially if
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: you're after you know, one of those big old mature
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: bucks that by the time you get to the late season,
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: they have been you know, ran through the ringer by
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: months of hunting, and they really don't want to move
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: a lot. They're trying to conserve energy, they don't want
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: to put themselves in extra danger because they've been dealing
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: with hunters for months now. Um, So these deer are
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: pretty darn conservative whether when it comes to what they're
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: willing to do and when they're willing to do it. Um,
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: you could still you know, see good dear dough movement
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: and young bucks will still be out and about, but
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: at least, you know, unless you've got one of these
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: pristine are a thousand acre preserves where you know, these
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: deer aren't pressured all season. If you're hunting pretty real
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: world stuff. It just seems like the number of times
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: you'll get that big old buck to get on his
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: feet and step out somewhere in the relative open where
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: you might be able to get a shop those days
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: do not happen very often in a given month, And
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: it really seems to be dependent on those weather events,
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: getting that mega cold front um or snow event something
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: like that. And yeah, without it, I mean, you're in
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: a tough spot. It's not like you can't get it
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: done without it, but it's much much more difficult, and
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: this year was certainly example that. I'm really glad that
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: I filled my last buck tag before December because I
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: would have been a tough spot. I don't think I
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: would have got it done. Um in previous years, I
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: could have. This year at least the buck I was
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: trying to kill. This year, Um, he probably would have
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: been unkillable on the properties that I could hunt, both
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: because of the bad weather and because of the whole
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: food thing I mentioned earlier. So um, that said, if
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: you looked at social media and use it as a barometer,
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: once that big cold, snowy weather start hitting around like
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: just I think it was like somewhere around Christmas, like
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: you said, and then into early January. Um, if you've
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: been paying attention to stuff the last like ten or
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: fifteen days, for those people that still had seasons opening,
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: there's been a bunch of big deer hit in the
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: ground a lot, and um, and I think it had
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: to do with that. So yeah, I pray for cold
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: weather and snow in December. And when you don't get it,
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: you gotta get creative. And I honestly don't have a
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: good answer for what to do you can. You can
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: seek out sanctuaries, you can get a little more aggressive
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: and try to figure out how to get tighter to
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: bedding at that time of year where maybe they will
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: move a little bit, you know, even with the warmer weather.
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: But that stuff is tough. I mean, you really need
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: to have a strong set of experience and and really
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: uh good knowledge of where this dey're gonna be better
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: at this time of year and what you can get
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: away with. And for a lot of people, that's that's
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: outside the realm of possibility. So hoping for the good
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: weather is always the best case scenario. Yeah. I think
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: back to and I had a muzzle loaders tag in
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: South Dakota which was good for the home month of December,
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: and I ended up killing um pretty late in that season,
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: but almost every single hunt that winter for me, there
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: was snow on the ground. And then I didn't do
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: a lot of hunting this December. But I was down
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: in Kansas at the beginning of December and we just
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: had like terrible weather for most of the time. I
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: was saying, like, man, if we just had that weather,
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: like there'd be shooters out here every morning, every evening.
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: That wasn't the case. Uh, we still saw a lot
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: of good bucks, but the Cricks property sort of overpowered
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: the poor weather that we had. But if I was
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: in a lesser situation that didn't have um like this,
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: this manicured property for white tails, it would have been
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: really tough to to kill a good buck because of
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: what we just talked about. That mild weather didn't have
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: those bucks up and in the most obvious places. If
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: you want to um like, if you this is going
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: to be a thing that happens again, and it happened
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: you know every five years where there's a really mild
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: December and there's no snow and there's warm temperatures and
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: stuff like that. Tony Peterson just wrote an article for
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: us on the media dot com called how to kill
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: a late season Buck without hunting Food that talks about
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: some creative ways to address what you and I just
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: talked about, Mark, So i'd encourage you to go and
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: give that article a read. Well, Spencer, I think that's
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: a good idea. And now that I think we've wrapped
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: up our big takeaways from twenty twenty, unless you've got
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: something else you want to add, I would like to
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: get to the question that all of us have been
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: wondering for the last hour, the question that has been
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: gnawing away at me from the inside Spencer hell one
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: through ten scale, How would you rate the overall countrywide
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: quality of the twenty hunting season and the conditions that
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: impacted it overall? Um, I would say something like and
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: eight or seven and a half. I'll do seven and
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: a half. I think the positives that you had were
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: an early harvest, you didn't have the rut masked um
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: by a whole bunch of standing corn. But then the
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: negatives being that you were probably dealing with increased pressure
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: via COVID, and it seemed like we just had we
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: we were dealt an average hand of forecasts, and excuse
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: me of cold frown. I remember when we did the
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: recap episode in we were like, my goodness, you could
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: not have asked for better cold fronts? Is fall like
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: if you pull out a calendar and just circled the
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: saturdays that you want, circled the days in general that
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: you want, a cold fronts would probably be a Saturday.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: You got them that year. That wasn't really the case, UM.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: In in so you didn't have great weather, but we
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: had um a better like crop harvest for hunters. So
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: I would say, like a seven and a half. What
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: would your answer be, Mark, I think you're way too generous.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: Was a bit across the board man, not only everything
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: they happened across the world, but how about I mean
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: you just you just said the same thing as I
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: would say, which was we had well a lot more
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: hunting pressure in places that made people that weren't prepared
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: for it struggle. Then you had the you know, not
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: a lot of great cold fronts. Then you had the
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: warm front and a run, and then you had the
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: lousy warm December. I mean, that's a lot of stuff
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: and you're still giving us like a B. No way,
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: I gotta give us a five. That's a five. That
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: was that's a lot of negativity around factors at least
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: that can that can impact dear movement. So if you
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: had success this year, kudos to you because you dealt
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: with some challenges and you still got it done. And
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: and I don't think, well, knock on wood man, I
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: shouldn't even say it, but I think one should be better.
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: There's got to be something better coming down the road. Um.
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: That that said, though, I guess let's let's ask that,
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: let's quantify that on a one through ten scale spencer,
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: what do you predict for it's gonna be a tan.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: I want to I want to bring up a few
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: things that I didn't necessarily address when I was giving
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: my score, and that's thinking about like how bad things
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: could have been if we look at some of the
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: extremes from years in the past, like e h D
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: UM for the last three years on Meat eat Years website,
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: I've written in e h D recap for the country
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: is the most mild one that I've written UM compared
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: to twenty nine or eighteen, So that's a huge plus
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: when UM that can uh often be like a huge negative.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: So we didn't have the h D thing. They're also
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: I don't think was really widespread flooding in like we
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: dealt with I think he was in twenty nineteen. There
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: was there was a lot of flooding, and that was
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: like what sort of cross caused um this late crop harvest.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: And if you're somebody that hunts near water, whether it's
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: the edge of a lake or river bottom or creek
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: drandage whatever, um, that can cause like some lost acres
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: for fall and so I think if you weigh those
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: in there, I would agree maybe the seven a half
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: was a little bit optimistic. U. I'm not gonna come
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: all the way down to a five, but I would
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: say like a six and a half or a seven.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: Now after after we talk this through even more to
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: thorough all right, and you've convinced me, especially the e
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: h D thing, I'll bump it up to a five
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: and a half on mine. So all right, there you go,
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: uh Spencer, thank you for for recapping all this stuff,
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: and and thank you for all your great work all
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: hunting season long, talking to hunters, pulling in these great
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: insights and reports from across the country. UM. It honestly
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: helps me every week. I enjoy it and and it
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: does help give me some something to think about as
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: I planned my own hunts. So kudos do you, man,
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: and I'm looking forward to doing it again this year.
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: Thanks man. I'm also looking forward to season six and
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: we will be back at it in September. I will
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: talk to you guys in nine months. Sounds like a plan,
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: all right, and that's going to do it. I hope
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: you enjoyed that one. Hope we've given you a thing
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: or two to ponder as we head into the planning
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: phase of our next hunting season. And UH, if you're
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: taking a little time from the woods and are looking
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: for something to fill your time and while away these
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: cold wintry days, I've got two quick suggestions for you.
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: Number One, the Back forty show, it's wrapped up, it's done.
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: It's out there on the Mediator YouTube channel. You can
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: binge watch both seasons over there. Check them out. I'm
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: proud of that. There's a lot of work and I'd
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: love for you guys to get to enjoy and experience
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: that story. And speaking of stories, the second recommendation I've
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: got for you is that book I wrote that came
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: out last year, well, I guess two years ago technically
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: as far as the calendar back in twenty nineteen, That
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: Wild Country. It's the story of the history of our
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: public lands and my experiences exploring them, learning about them
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: and try to understand what's going on today and how
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: do we how do we make how do we make
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: we make make sure that these wild places and wild
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: up to hunt and pursue are still out there for
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: future generations. So you can pick that up, uh, in
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: a number of places we've got autograph copies over on
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: the meetater website. You can also pick them up from
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: local book stores. You can buy them on land from Amazon.
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: There's the audio version over on Audible and plenty of
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: places like that. So thank you in advance for all
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: of you who have purchased and read the book over
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: the last couple of years. And if you're looking for
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: something to feel a little bit of spare time or
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: some cold nights, I think that might be worth checking out.
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: So thank you all again for your time, your tension,
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: and until next time, stay wired to HU.