Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 956: Rut Fresh Radio - October is Here! Giant Kansas Buck and Opening Day Game Plans

Transcript

Ep. 956: Rut Fresh Radio - October is Here! Giant Kansas Buck and Opening Day Game Plans · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: What is going on? Welcome back to Refresh. This is
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Jake Koefer and we have an exciting episode because it's
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: October first. So if you're one of the many states
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: that have been sitting on the sidelines and have been
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: watching some of these other earlier opening states, it is
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: your time. This is October first, and the excitement and
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: anticipation is going to build every single week. And we
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: have a great episode with a variety of different guests
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: here that have already killed some really great bucks, filled
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: their dough tags, or one guest that has put together
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: a game plan for October first after many many curve balls.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: So this week we're going to have Quint Coke from
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Missouri in Kansas he killed a Kansas Giant, clay Murvar
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: from North Carolina, Josh Telker from Indiana, and Connor Lokar
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: from New Hampshire. So this is the start of the season.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: I hope you guys enjoyed this episode of reugh Fresh.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Here we go real quick before we get into the
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: episode with the guests, I want to let you know
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: that Roughresh is brought to you by land dot com,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: the leading online real estate marketplace to find your perfect
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: rural recreational, agricultural or hunting properties here in the US.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: All we got Josh with before the echo on the line,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: what's going on in your neck of the woods here, Josh.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Oh, not a lot, man. We had a nice little
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: cool down come through. It's gonna warm up again here
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: before too long. But uh, yeah, I kind of fighting
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: off some EHD here in southern southern Indiana and uh
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: getting ready for October deer season.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Man, Well it's here, this is when this goes live.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: This is October first, This is the kickoff of fall,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: and you know it's gonna be hot. And I guess
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: before we get into that and looking at the exact
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: forecast and what your plan is for the next seven days,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: I think that unfortunately, a lot of people can resonate with,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: you know, EHD issues. Obviously, Ohio has been kind of
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: the center focus of a lot of these issues. But
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: you know, you're in Indiana and you're you're experiencing some
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: some issues. How how bad is it for you right now? Yeah?
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: So I live in Jackson County, Indiana. It's the second
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: worst county right now in Indiana. At least the last
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: time I looked, it's pretty bad. We you know, it's
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: all each He's always kind of central, you know, or
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: localized to certain areas. But you know, I found multiple
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: dead bucks and some of the properties I've hunted, and uh, Like,
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: someone came up to me the other day in the
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: grocery store and asked me about how you found any
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: dead bucks.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, yees.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: He saw like three kids walking down the road with
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: a bunch of racks in their hands, you know, coming
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: out of a creek. And a buddy of mine that
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: lives in the county east of me, he's found twelve
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: dead ones on his four hundred acre farm. So it's
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: pretty bad locally here, but there's other other places around
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: to hunt.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so how does that How does that change your
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: game plan? Obviously, you know, leading up to the season,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: you're like, Okay, this is tentatively my loose plans and
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: then the rug gets pulled out underneath you and are
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: you in a stage of regrouping right now or what
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: is your strategy as we get deeper into the season.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So, like the primary I hunt, like where you know,
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: if all things are being equal, is the area I
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: would be that that that's the area that really got
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: hit with with EHD pretty bad. I'll give you an example.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: I got two cell cameras, it's all I got out
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: this year, and they're on some private pieces that I
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: can hunt, and they're over a mineral site. And I
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: haven't got a buck on that those cameras for like
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: twelve days now at all, not a one single buck.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: So it's you know, I have a pretty low standard
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: over there, like I'm probably not gonna mess with it, just.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Leave it alone.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: But now like I get on those you know, I
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: got got on the Indy end as map of the
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: EHD outlook, and I mean you can tell where it
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: is and where it isn't, you know, pretty pretty quickly
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: on those maps. And luckily for me, some of them
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: the surrounding counties. I'm pretty familiar with the public land
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: in those counties too, and have some cameras running over there,
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: and I just just a matter of going and starting
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: from scratch over there essentially. You know, I didn't didn't
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: do any glassing over there this summer or scouting around
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: this summer. I did in the spring though, So there's
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: a little bit of me that's excited for this season
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: just because I'm going to get into some.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Some new stuff. Probably do a lot.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: Of learning this year, and that's always exciting and sometimes
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: it's refreshing. Uh, you know, freshing part of hunting is
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: learning and getting into some new territory.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: That's a really positive outlook, uh, because I think it
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: would be easy to follow into the you know, the
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: trap of my season through and.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: I'm happy about it, Like I will know one would
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: be right, like just being optimistic, right, Like, yeah, ideally
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: I'd like to just go hunt with there I know
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: and know where there's some big deer at.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: But yeah, other plans.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's all you can do. I mean, that's
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: that's out of everyone's control and you just got to
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: roll with the punches. And unfortunately there's a lot of
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: people that are in the same boat. So with warmer
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: temperatures here for the kickoff of the and do you
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: plan on if you if you sneak out, what is
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: kind of your game plan or what's uh what are
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: you specifically going to try to key in on. You're
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: going to kind of what somewhat blind now because you've
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: basically called an audible at the line, we're gonna run
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: a different play. So what does that look like for
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: this first week.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: For me, I like to hunt in the first week
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: of season. I find that I see more you know,
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: daylight movement from mature deer and this is very centralized
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: to where I hunt at and the hills in Indiana
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: is like low areas where we have a uh now
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: and like an area where you're gonna have some white
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: oaks dropping. And those lower areas oftentimes have some water
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: in them, which is something we're lacking this time of year.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Uh and that's where all probably focus on the first
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: couple of weeks. Has hitting these little like thermal hub areas,
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: and I mean I've had I've been successful early season
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: in these areas. I've had buddies that had the same
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: kind of scenario where you know, deer living down low
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: in the cool and shaded areas where's there's some oaks dropping.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: As far as are you gonna throw a morning hunt
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: in the first week or your primarily evenings or what's
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: your what's the strategy.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: I'm not opposed to hunting mornings at all for me
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: usually early season, so like I just it's it's kind
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: of a time thing for me usually, like I can't
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: get out in the mornings a lot of times because
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: I got something going on with whatever, kids or other
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: other things going on in life where I can't hunt
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: in the mornings.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: But no, I would come out.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: I would get in there in the mornings early season.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, the more you talk to some
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: of these guys that have, you know, way more experience
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: than me deer hunting, it's like, I mean a lot
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: of guys like talk to John Eberhart the other day,
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: and you know he's killed a lot of deer in
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: the morning early season, you know, so I, yeah, that's
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: something that I'm not You're not scared to do it, No,
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: not at all. And that's something I want to do
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: more of. It's just right now with young kids and
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: it's hard to get out in the morning sometimes getting
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: people into school, and.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: You know, yeah, what is it. Let's say you're stuck
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: to an afternoon hunt first week. You know, temperatures are elevated.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: You're going to go hunt a bottom. You know, you're
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: going to try to find a white oak with some
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: acorns and potentially you know, a thermal hub where sense
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: pulling down. There's likely betting nearby, and they're going to
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: come bet on some acorns and drink some water. What
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: is that entry or access point look like? How slow
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: are you going? And hopefully someone else might be able
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: to key in on on your approach and might help them.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: So what I like to do, Like ideally, if I
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: could set up the perfect scenarios where I would be coming,
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: you know, in from the mouth of the hub, and
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: you would have to either a you know, be really
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: good with mapping where you're going to be betting at,
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: which isn't always tried and true, but or be going
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: in and scouting it in the spring to know a
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: little bit about where maybe the bucks are going to
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: be betting up on the points, and then I would come
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: into the mouth from the mouth of the hub ideally,
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: and I will walk around no matter what, I do
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: not want to come down any of those points. One
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: of the huge disadvantages you have in hill country is
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: the amount of you know, space that a deer can
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: see see you coming from. It's so hard to get
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: close to deer, especially if you're up top silhouetting yourself.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: I'll do everything I can not to come down a
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: point or come around the you know, the top of
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: a ridge that goes in down into a hub and
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: I'll a particular one I'm thinking of, maybe I'll go
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: hunting if there's any bucks in there. I have to
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: literally walk down the opposite ridge, come back, you know,
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: come back down the ridge, and back up into the
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: the second ridge where the hub is, and it makes
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: my walk essentially twice as far. But I can't come
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: up on top where you know, the ridge of those hubs,
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: because more than likely something's gonna see you, or you're
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: gonna jump dose, or just something's not gonna go right.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: And in an early season, I just feel like they're
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: they're not you know, it's not the rut. They don't
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: have like a whole lot of reason to get up
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: and get going anyway, especially when it's hot, like it's
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: going to be. Like anytime you can avoid tipping them off,
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: you got to do it. So I'll walk around and
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: then I like when I come in, I like to
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: try to if there's a creek, I like to try
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: to stay in that creek. You know, I'm not saying
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: deer won't, but a lot of times they're not going
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: to walk down one of those little hub creeks. I mean,
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: there are a lot of times are rocky, and I
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: think they're I don't know if it's uncomfortable to them,
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: but it's just there's layovers in them and everything else.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: But I try to stay in those to keep low,
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: keep my scent down on that creek to where you
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: know they're not going to be able to cross across
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: my centin trail, and then I just get into, you know,
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: as close as I can without feeling like I'm too
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: close or getting in bad thermals or wind switches and
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: all that kind of stuff, which is sometimes just unavoidable.
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: I mean, thanks happening.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, I think the key thing there is you're
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: not going from point A to point B. You're going
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: to point a A one, A two eight, three, A
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: four to get to be A. So I think that's
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: a really important thing is people, you know, map out
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: their access if they're gonna go, uh, go out and
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: enjoy it. Like uh, it's always a challenge right where
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: people are like, well it's hot, I'm not gonna go
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: And next thing you know, we'll be doing ret fresh
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: and we'll be like, all right, it's late season and
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: this is your last chance. Like it'll be that quick
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: because it goes it goes by really fast. Every year
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: yeah it does. So first week of October, little elevated
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: temperatures on a scale one to ten, what do you
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: think the deer activity is gonna be? Or you're how
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: excited are you? Ten? Being is man, I feel like
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna kill the best dear of my life. I
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: feel amazing. And and one is basically like, dude, I
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: don't even want to go. Yeah it's open, but I'm
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: I'm just gonna buy time right now, all.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Right, listen, Like my desire to go is like at
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: a ten because I'm ready to be buck hunting, Like
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: I'm ready to be out in the woods deer hunting. Now,
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: how likely I do I think I'm gonna kill a
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: big one if it wasn't a EHD year and I
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: had in all this information that I had collected all
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: spring and summer on these bucks that I knew were around,
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: you know, if that wasn't the case, I would probably
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: tell you, like the first few days of season like
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: an eight. I don't really care how hot.
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: It is.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: This year, me going into some areas that are probably
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: going to be blind, Like I'll probably give.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: You like a six this year on like confident levels.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, fair enough, But as far as just going, I'm
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: a ten right now, dude, I'm ready to be out
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: there in the woods.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: I love it. Well, Josh, good luck the first week
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: and good luck the rest of the season. And I
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: wish you the very best. Thank you for hopping on here.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Thanks shake, have a good one man, all right. Next
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: up on the line, we have kind of locar from
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: New Hampshire and Connor. You've had some success, you've already
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: notched a tag. But I'm going to ask you this
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: question about New Hampshire because when I think of white too, Honey,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: New Hampshire is not the first one that comes to mind,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: and probably not even the fifteenth state that comes to mind.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: How many archie deer do you think we're shot in
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four or in the state of New Hampshire
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: archery deer archery only, I'm.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: Going to say four thousand.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: That's an excellent guess. We did not I did not
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: give him even a range before we started recording. Three thousand,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: five hundred and thirty deer. We're shot, okay, Yeah, with
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: with archery equipment. Last year in twenty twenty four, twelve
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: two hundred and seventy seven total deer harvested in the
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: state of twenty in the year of twenty twenty four,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: there's eighteen thousand bow hunters and fifty six thousand bow hunters.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: So when you look at that, there's there's not a
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: lot of deer hunters in the in the state of
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: New Hampshire. Or maybe maybe you can tell me differently.
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: No, I mean that's you know, we're not quite Michigan,
• 12:40
  Speaker 5: are we, with the you know, off the cold and
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: you know, half a million bow hunters or whatever it is.
• 12:44
  Speaker 5: You know, you know, we're a small state, and you know,
• 12:46
  Speaker 5: we have a we have a great hunting culture, but
• 12:48
  Speaker 5: I don't know if it's quite as pervasive as some
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: of those Midwestern states.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: But I know the.
• 12:53
  Speaker 5: Uh, you know, the bow hunters out here, they hold
• 12:55
  Speaker 5: their spots pretty deer. So I think they're all right
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: with the lack of competition. And I'll say I kind
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: of not cheated. But we have some state vilegests that
• 13:02
  Speaker 5: are really good about posting the total state harvest numbers.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: And I knew it was around that.
• 13:06
  Speaker 5: Twelvey mark for twelve or fourteen, so I got just
• 13:10
  Speaker 5: provide by you know, three, and that.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: Was my guess. So excellent guess man. Awesome. Well, first off,
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: congratulations on notching tag. You shot a dough very recently.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: That is often a debate of as the season kicks off,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: everyone's really excited. They maybe want to get the dust
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: off their bow and their arrow and go through a
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: shot motion sequence replenish their venison. What was your strategy
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: to go ahead and get one down to kick off
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: the year.
• 13:36
  Speaker 5: Well, for me, it was you know, I basically have
• 13:37
  Speaker 5: the same plan every year, which is chewed a doe
• 13:39
  Speaker 5: as early as I can and then focus on buck hunting.
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: And for those not familiar, we get two archery tags
• 13:43
  Speaker 5: here in New Hampshire, one either sex and then one.
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: Tag that's for bucks only.
• 13:49
  Speaker 5: Some of the southern units you can get supplemental dough
• 13:52
  Speaker 5: only tags too, but I'm just north of that.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: So my plan every year is just on the either
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: sex tag.
• 13:57
  Speaker 5: Get a dough, then hunt with for a buck with
• 13:59
  Speaker 5: the and it very rarely actually works out for me
• 14:02
  Speaker 5: as well as it did this year. But you know,
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: I just went classic early season low impact field edge.
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: You know what is what was left of my drought
• 14:10
  Speaker 5: ravaged clover anyway, just waited for them to come out,
• 14:14
  Speaker 5: had some pretty good game intel that they were doing
• 14:17
  Speaker 5: that early. And it was the first Saturday of the season,
• 14:19
  Speaker 5: a few days after the opener, and she came out
• 14:21
  Speaker 5: and didn't go twenty.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: As they say.
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: So it uh, it was pretty unbentifual, but you know,
• 14:26
  Speaker 5: kind of kind of followed the script.
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: And so it was perfect too because I was out.
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: I'm out of Venison from last year. I got like
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: two packs left, so it's well timed.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's that's how you want to start at.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: How did it feel, because you know when this goes live,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: Illinois will it's the opening day for Illinois, so I
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: mean you got a head start. You got to start
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: among many states throughout the Midwest. Give us, Give us
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: how it was, because if I feel that a lot
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: of people are probably out of venison and maybe they
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: need to shoot a dough depending on their deer numbers
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: and go through the motions, be full draw, just tell
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: us how it felt, because I bet it felt pretty good.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: No, I thought so good.
• 15:01
  Speaker 5: You know, it's uh, you know, just being out there
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: even when the weather's not ideal. You know, that was
• 15:06
  Speaker 5: the first week this season for us, so like that's
• 15:07
  Speaker 5: saying weather condition like today two weeks later, I probably
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: am not hunting, but you know that that first week
• 15:12
  Speaker 5: you kind of you got to take your swings just
• 15:14
  Speaker 5: just to scratch the itch if anything else. And you know,
• 15:16
  Speaker 5: if it's a low impact stand where you're not going
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: to scrow too much. You know, it's just being out
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: there after nine months off. It's it's the best.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. Okay, So you know it's October one, and
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: it seems like temperatures are are somewhat elevated. What is
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: your game plan strategy for the next week here when
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: it comes you already have your dough down, so you're
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: focusing on a buck or or you know, potentially multiple
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: target bucks. What do you what's going through your mind
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: right now?
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, it's so we have a September fifteenth opener.
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: So like I feel like looking at some of the
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: local Facebook groups, you know, you know, I think a
• 15:55
  Speaker 5: lot of guys are in there October well already, even
• 15:57
  Speaker 5: though October is just barely getting started, you know, because
• 16:01
  Speaker 5: my opinion is that that's a pressure driven phenomenon. So
• 16:04
  Speaker 5: you know, I think a lot of guys have already
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: done some sits, taken their swings. You know, maybe bump
• 16:08
  Speaker 5: some deer maybe sent the things up, so right on
• 16:10
  Speaker 5: the first or second. So we've been so dry all
• 16:13
  Speaker 5: all year, you know, depending on the meteorologist, you read
• 16:16
  Speaker 5: like either the worst drought on record or close enough
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: that it doesn't really matter, Like as dry as I've
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: ever seen it. And we finally got a pile of
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: rain last week, and you know, eastern New York at
• 16:28
  Speaker 5: around X got it, Vermont got it, we got it,
• 16:29
  Speaker 5: Main got it, and we needed it so bad. But
• 16:31
  Speaker 5: it's brought humidity and heat, and my cams have been
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: pretty much toast and acorns are dropping. So you know,
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: for the first and the second, we've got a cool
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: from I'm not going to call it cold front yet,
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: but we're you know, we're like mid eighties humid right now,
• 16:44
  Speaker 5: like I wouldn't want to sit. But first and second,
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: we're going to get daytime highs in the sixties, lows
• 16:48
  Speaker 5: back in the thirties. So I think you've got a
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: real you know, even though that's not technically our opener,
• 16:53
  Speaker 5: but you've got a real couple of days if you
• 16:56
  Speaker 5: can hunt midweek here. But then after that we're going
• 16:59
  Speaker 5: right back to high seventies, low eighties, hot, dry, So
• 17:02
  Speaker 5: you know, Grouse opens up on the first, Ducks open
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: for us on the fourth. You know, this might be
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: a good weekend to you know, maybe hunt some other stuff,
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: maybe let yourself get dragged to the apple patch or
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: you know, funking patch or the apple orchard or whatever,
• 17:15
  Speaker 5: and you know.
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: Maybe maybe bank some brownie points.
• 17:17
  Speaker 5: But you know, after these quick cool days here, this
• 17:20
  Speaker 5: week doesn't look very good on the back side of it.
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: So I now that I have the dough, and I
• 17:25
  Speaker 5: don't really have any compelling buck cam intel right now
• 17:27
  Speaker 5: to tell me otherwise, I'm probably waiting out that first
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: good cold front, and I.
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: Don't want to do anything stupid on October fourth.
• 17:35
  Speaker 5: It's gonna screw me up if we get a nice
• 17:37
  Speaker 5: cold front on the tenth or twelfth, when those.
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: Pre you know, itches start to tickle in.
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: So I'm gonna keep it passive here in the short term.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Now, if you magically could burn a vacation day on
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: the first or second and pretend New Hampshire opened on
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: the first rather than the fifteenth of September, you know,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: like the cool front first day, second day, And so
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: this is more geared towards the state that it is
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: falling under these conditions, would you burn a vacation day
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: or jet out of the office or the job site
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: early for the afternoon on the first or second.
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, one hundred percent.
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: You know Vermont right next door, they're in October first opener,
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: you know New York's October first opener, and they should
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: be still holding onto the tail.
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: End of the cold front at least for the first
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: So one hundred percent.
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: I think, particularly if you've got unpressured deer to take
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: that first shot, this is a you know, take an afternoon,
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: take a day.
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: I think you got it because I do.
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: I think it's going to be genuinely good conditions because
• 18:30
  Speaker 5: I think the deer are going to be pretty bottled
• 18:32
  Speaker 5: up daylight activity wise.
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: Coming out of all this heat.
• 18:34
  Speaker 5: So I think you're going to have a really good
• 18:35
  Speaker 5: shot whether you're doing afternoon food sorcery and if you
• 18:38
  Speaker 5: want to get kind of frisky and get close to
• 18:41
  Speaker 5: those betting areas.
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: I really think that this this weather's is going to
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: be worth it for a couple of days that we have.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: If you had to pick that food source in this hypothetical,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: what would you key in on specifically in Vermont? Or
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: New Hampshire or New York, or even go back to
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: your roots in Michigan.
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, if you ke in, you know, soft Man,
• 19:00
  Speaker 5: we've got some apple trees right now that are dropping,
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: and deer always have apples, but we're so dry. I
• 19:05
  Speaker 5: think that they are so keyed in on that moisture
• 19:08
  Speaker 5: content that I think they're struggling to get from browse elsewhere.
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: So if you have a lead on that or betting
• 19:15
  Speaker 5: close to it, you know, even if it's up by
• 19:16
  Speaker 5: somebody's house, but you know, you know, if you can
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: reverse engineer where, they're probably betting to get to that
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: right after dark because like they're they're coming to ours
• 19:24
  Speaker 5: by the road. Like again, we can't get daylight shot opportunities,
• 19:26
  Speaker 5: but they're they're coming every night.
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: So i'd say, soft Mass.
• 19:29
  Speaker 5: The storm knocked a lot of acorns down, and from
• 19:31
  Speaker 5: what I understand, the white acorn crop actually looks kind
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: of decent this year, which is always kind of hit
• 19:36
  Speaker 5: or miss for us. So if you can get on that,
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: or you don't keep it simple, I mean, I think
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: for you know, for me, hunting a water source has
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: never been something I considered because even in our dry years,
• 19:47
  Speaker 5: they're still generally water everywhere, but there's just no water
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: this year.
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: I mean it's we've gotten a.
• 19:52
  Speaker 5: Couple spots on our property, but it's I helped to
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: buddy track of dough opening night, and you know, we
• 19:58
  Speaker 5: look for in a swamp that like normal year, you
• 20:00
  Speaker 5: probably need hip waiters to go through. We could have
• 20:03
  Speaker 5: been skipping through there with tennis shoes on. I mean,
• 20:05
  Speaker 5: it's I've never seen it like this. So so I think,
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: you know, if you want to do some scouting and
• 20:09
  Speaker 5: if if you just find an isolated water source, then
• 20:11
  Speaker 5: it's all tracked up. I mean, like, you know, keep
• 20:14
  Speaker 5: it simple, stupid, just set up on it, blow your
• 20:16
  Speaker 5: win where you think it's least likely they're coming from.
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: But so, I actually think water source targeting is probably
• 20:21
  Speaker 5: more viable this year in our area than I think
• 20:24
  Speaker 5: it's ever been, at least in recent years.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: Love it all right, Well, here's the big question. On
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: a scale one to ten for the next seven days,
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: where are you following this to be in the power
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: rankings from one being the worst week of hunting ever
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: and ten being the absolute best of the season.
• 20:42
  Speaker 5: For those two cold days to kind of start the
• 20:44
  Speaker 5: week off, you're October one two, like I'd go a
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: hard seven.
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: I think it's gonna be really.
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: Pretty darn good early season opportunity, But I think it's
• 20:50
  Speaker 5: gonna be a hard too about thirty six hours later.
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: So it's either you know, take your shot and the
• 20:56
  Speaker 5: day off from work if you got it. Otherwise I'd
• 20:59
  Speaker 5: I would not be going out of my way this
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: weekend when the heat's back to screw anything up, you know,
• 21:05
  Speaker 5: go hunt something else, Go do something.
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: Else, scout a new spot.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: But yeah, so I.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: Think you've got a small window here of some high numbers.
• 21:12
  Speaker 5: But I think you're gonna average out back into the
• 21:15
  Speaker 5: week and next week pretty poor.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Well wonderful. Yeah, well, good luck the rest of the
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: season here, Connor. I appreciate you hopping on way to
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: kick off the season. Make sure that you guys have
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: venison on the table until hopefully you should altally, absolutely
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: really really appreciating good luck the rest of the season.
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, Jake, you too, good luck and thanks for having
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: me on all right.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Next up, we have Clay from North Carolina. Clay's already
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: had some success this fall, and so a fun little
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: fact about the state of North Carolina. There was only
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: twenty four thousand deer shot with the bow in the
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty fourth season, and the state typical record is
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty one and seven eight inches of
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: shot in nineteen eighty seven. So just to set the
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: stage for the state of North Carolina, I want to
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: make sure they're represented here on retfresh clay.
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: How's it going, man, I'm doing great. Off to a
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: good start in the season. Things have been hot down here.
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: I mean it's been hot and dry. Seems like it's
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: been that way most of the country. Right now, we're
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: sitting at eighty five degrees here. But I still think
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: if you got deers that are on a pattern, beans
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: are still green in most parts, acorns are starting to fall.
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: So with that, if you've got a deer that's showing up,
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: I think it's a good time to be in the woods.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So, and you've already had some success this year,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: right I have.
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: I was able to kill one on opening day off
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: of our farm, deer that was coming in to beans,
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: but he wasn't getting there till a lot later, so
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: I backed off and went in the timber and actually
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: kind of tag team that one with one of my buddies.
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: He was bedding in a big cutover and there were
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: beans on either side. I was about five hundred yards
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: in on one side, he was about two hundred yards
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: in on the other. And he came out early. I
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: mean I shot him about seven pm back in the timber,
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: once again, not sitting on top of the beans when
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: they're not hitting those till last light.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: Interesting, so you dove in a little bit deeper And
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: do you think that is a key element to your
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: success there to get him, you know, intercepted once he
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: got about a bed in his bed, and I do
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: it within shooting light.
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: I think it's a lot easier to see a bunch
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: of deer and maybe on camera get the deer you
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: want to see over a bean field or over any
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: kind of egg field right now. But I mean I
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: was able to shoot the deer an hour and a
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: half before last light being back in the timber, So
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: I think that definitely played in And it was kind
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: of a gamble, but our access was pretty good, little
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: to no wind, and I was in an almost bulletproof
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: spot for opening day, low pressure area.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Not many bow hunters where we're hunting.
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: So we're very calculated down here. We're not going to
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: go just blow spots out. But if we think that
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: we got an opportunity to go in to kill, we're
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: gonna take advantage of that when we could kill them.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, So you mentioned, you know, low pressure area and
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: also a pretty calculated game plan. Everyone talks about access.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: Everyone's very nervous to blow up spots at this time.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: You know, for a lot of people it's October first,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: and there's seasons just starting. So you had a little
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: bit of a head start. Explain what your access looked
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: like to have that successful hunt. Did you walk two
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: hundred yards one hundred yards and just kind of paint
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: that picture so everyone can understand. Yeah, so just.
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: Kind of driving down the driveway a little bit further
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: than normal. The beanfields right there as you come in,
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: and that's where these deer are getting to.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: But they're not getting there till last light.
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: I mean, at this point now we're sitting here September
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: twenty sixth, they're not hitting that until dark.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: So I was able to come in.
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: I really only had to walk about two hundred yards
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: from the truck down an open oak flat. Acorns at
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: that point weren't dropping yet, so I was able to
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: get in there, didn't bump any deer. And in a
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: lot of these spots were hunting because we're back in
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: the timber back past where these dough betting areas are.
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: We're only going to see one or two deer, but
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: those deer that we're gonna see are gonna be the
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: deer that we're gonna want to kill. So I'm not
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: I only saw two deer the night that I went
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: out there, but the one was the one in it.
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: I mean he came straight from a cutover. Like I said,
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: we knew he was betted in that and he was
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: either going to come out and go right and go
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: towards Nathan, or he's gonna come out and go left.
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: He came out, came left and had a twenty five
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: yard broadside shot.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: And so remind me, are you still able to hunt
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: in North Carolina with an archery tag for another buck?
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: Yes, we're two bucks state. So I mean I'll take
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: a back seat now. I got a six year old
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: with an itchy trigger finger. Youth Day comes in tomorrow,
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: so there's gonna be a lot of kids hitting the woods.
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: They're allowed to use rifle for the one day deer
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: on youth day. So I'll let him go, maybe try
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: to find another deer that we want to target. But yeah,
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: we are a two bucks state down here.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: Got And so for anyone that's in your neck of
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: the woods, October first, your guys, the season has already
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: been kind of been rolling. If you had to tell
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: someone what's key in on or what to pay really
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: close attention to from October first to October seventh, for example,
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: what would you if there was one thing, what would
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: you tell him to pay attention to for that period.
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: So acorns and percimmons are dropping. I was walking through
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: the woods earlier today. We had our first rain come
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: through in the past probably fifty days.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: It's been dry as can be. Food plots look horrible.
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: So if you can get back and the acorns aren't
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: loaded this year, like last year, every single white oak
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: in the woods was completely full.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: I actually prefer it like this year.
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: The trees that have acorns, they're loaded, but it's it's
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: few and far between, at least where I'm at. So
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: if you could find a good tree that's dropping, or
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: if you could find the per simmons, they were falling
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: yesterday all over that's where the deer are.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: Going to be.
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: If you can get there, kind of get back into
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: the timber a little bit instead of on those field edges,
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: and you got some type of a mass crop that's falling.
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: I think that's going to be the money for the
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: next week and a half.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: With the start of October first, it looks like, at
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: least here in Illinois still going to be pretty warm.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: I assume that's probably gonna be the case for North Carolina.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: How aggressive would you potentially suggest someone to be knowing
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: that the temperature is going to be somewhat elevated and
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: maybe not as forgiving. I mean, there's a lot of
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: touch and go here at this point in the season,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: especially with a lot of people. With it just being
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: there opening week here, everyone's excited, they want to be out.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: So what's your thoughts regarding that?
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: My thoughts, if it's opening day and you got something
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: out there, get in the woods. I mean, I've killed
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: a lot of deer on days that weren't good.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: And if you got.
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: Something and you have the intel and you think you
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: could get in and get out clean, I'd take take
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: that advantage and I dive in there. Early bird gets
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: the worm, get out there and try to make it
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: happen down here. We actually do have a little bit
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: I say cold front, but it's gonna go from about
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: an eighty five degree high this weekend and by the
• 28:14
  Speaker 4: end of the middle of the end of next week
• 28:16
  Speaker 4: it's gonna be down to about a sixty five degree
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: high and lows in the lower fifties. So that's a
• 28:23
  Speaker 4: pretty good difference. If I could, i'd be out next
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: to next week. I know, I gotta look at the schedule.
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: I pitch for coach, pitch for my son. I got
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: a flag football team, so I'm busy, but I'm looking
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: at those best days and those afternoons I'm gonna be
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: in the woods. I'll probably stay out the mornings, like
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: I said, tomorrow with youth day, me and my son
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: we'll go.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: We'll go into spots.
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: We're gonna see a lot of deer, probably not good deer,
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: but we'll see a lot of doze or younger bucks.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: Maybe a couple of.
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: Those management deer. But I would definitely take advantage in
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: get in the woods near the later next week.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: What have you seen for just general intel for camera
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: activity here this week with elevated temperatures. I mean, have
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: you been seeing above average below average buck moving on cameras.
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: Most stuff has been after legal shooting light. Now, I
• 29:17
  Speaker 4: do have a couple of people that have killed this
• 29:19
  Speaker 4: week and it's been the same thing. They are having
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: pictures of that deer late in the morning, maybe seven
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: or eight o'clock, and they're able to kill them in
• 29:28
  Speaker 4: that afternoon because they're not traveling too far. If they're
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: on your cameras in daylight in the morning and you
• 29:33
  Speaker 4: could get into that spot to hunt in the afternoon.
• 29:36
  Speaker 4: I've got two buddies that have success on that same thing,
• 29:39
  Speaker 4: and the morning that I killed it was the same.
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: He was on two of our cameras late into the morning,
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: eight on one, eight thirty on the other, so we
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: knew this deer is not far eighty five degree heat,
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: they're not traveling too far, they're staying in the shade.
• 29:54
  Speaker 4: They're running those creek bottoms. So if you have pretty
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: good access and you got a deer that's close by,
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: I think I think it's worth going into the woods
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: and trying to kill them.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: That's great advice. Honestly, that's great advice for anyone to
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: key in on. Now. On a scale one to ten,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: so October one October seven, ten being you feel like
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: you're gonna kill the biggest deer of your life. One
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: being you're not sure if you even really want to go.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: Where do you anticipate, Where do you predict next week's
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: movement to be?
• 30:27
  Speaker 4: Man, I'm giving it. I'm going to be in the
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: woods regardless. Like I said, I'm going out. I'm gonna
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: give it a six. So it's not great, but it's
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: not horrible. We're right there in the middle. I'll give
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: it a six. With this little bit of cold coming
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: in and the first bit of rain that we've had
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: in fifty days, and we're going to have probably three
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: days of rain next week, so you're going to be
• 30:48
  Speaker 4: seeing some green up in the food plots, probably see
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: some more acorns and percimons hitting the ground. You're going
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: to see fifteen to twenty degree temp swing. So I
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: think a six is pretty solid for October. I'd be
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: out there if I had time available.
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: I wouldn't take off.
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: From work, but if you're available to get out there
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: in the afternoon, I think.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: It's worth a shot. I love it well. Clay, congratulations
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: on kicking off the season with success. Good luck to
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: your son this weekend for U season, and good luck
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: the rest of the season. I appreciate you hopping on
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: here today, Yes, sir, thank you, Jack. I appreciate it. Guys.
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: Here's that one shot on opening day in North Carolina.
• 31:27
  Speaker 4: A little over a twenty inch spread, eight inch prow time,
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: just over one hundred and forty inches.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: So, man, not much you can ask for to kick
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: off the year in North Carolina. Man, there's a lot
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: of a lot of people that go the whole season
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: and might not see one of those. And you just
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: started it off just like that. Yep, yep. We like
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: I said, we were calculated.
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: We're going in there and we're hunting when things are right,
• 31:49
  Speaker 4: and we're not being afraid to take a gamble.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: All right. Next up, we are calling from Missouri with
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: my good friend Flint. He just killed his personal best
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: buck Flint. How does it feel?
• 32:03
  Speaker 6: Oh it feels great. It took it took a long time,
• 32:06
  Speaker 6: but I probably got a real big one.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it starts with the two. Yeah you know that's yeah,
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: that's amazing.
• 32:13
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I rough scored him at two twenty seven. I
• 32:15
  Speaker 6: was pretty shocked. But then last night. I compared him
• 32:17
  Speaker 6: to a buddy of mine so who killed at two sixteen,
• 32:20
  Speaker 6: and he had a lot more trash, same frames, so
• 32:23
  Speaker 6: it should be pretty close. It's up there way more
• 32:25
  Speaker 6: than I expected. I was just hoping he'd break two hundred,
• 32:27
  Speaker 6: and he definitely did that, I think.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: So yeah, well that's where I felt bad when he
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: texted me and I was like, that's got to be
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: like in the ballpark at two hundred. And then I
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: saw that you posted it was, you know, two twenty
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: five plus, and I was like, oh yeah, just incredible, man,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: Well congratulations, tell us the story. What happened.
• 32:45
  Speaker 6: I buy and so a lot of land. As you know,
• 32:47
  Speaker 6: I probably flipped maybe fifteen farms a year. Some might
• 32:50
  Speaker 6: buy and sell some My ten thirty one and a
• 32:52
  Speaker 6: bigger pieces. So I'm always watching the market. And I
• 32:54
  Speaker 6: got some counties in Kansas I love. I've sold probably
• 32:57
  Speaker 6: six seven hundred acres in Missouri, I had a big piece.
• 33:00
  Speaker 6: I've been buying up small pieces out there, just trying
• 33:03
  Speaker 6: to get better hunting. Missouri's qualities just keeps going downhill.
• 33:05
  Speaker 6: So I've been watching Missouri more, trying to buy stuff
• 33:08
  Speaker 6: on the east side because that's like it's the best
• 33:10
  Speaker 6: best not off his best area, but it's the best appreciation.
• 33:12
  Speaker 6: It's closest to us. So I've been watching a peace
• 33:15
  Speaker 6: come on mark. It was only seventy one acres, and
• 33:16
  Speaker 6: I usually stay away from them. I'd like to buy
• 33:18
  Speaker 6: eighties or one sixties for the landowner tag reasons, and uh,
• 33:22
  Speaker 6: it had one picture of one big shed on it
• 33:24
  Speaker 6: and that was it. No dear history, and it's just
• 33:25
  Speaker 6: growed up cattle ground. And I've been buying a lot
• 33:27
  Speaker 6: of grown up cattle ground and it's it's really good,
• 33:30
  Speaker 6: Like I think it's like the secret to Kansas right now.
• 33:32
  Speaker 6: I bought several places the last couple of years. I've
• 33:34
  Speaker 6: had a lot of bucks on it. They're just grow
• 33:36
  Speaker 6: up cattle ground, just locus cedar trees, brush, that's about it.
• 33:40
  Speaker 6: So I seen it kind of blew it off. The
• 33:42
  Speaker 6: price was pretty good, but I blew it off because
• 33:43
  Speaker 6: it wasn't an eighty. A few months went by and
• 33:45
  Speaker 6: I've seen the listing again and I thought, well, I'm
• 33:47
  Speaker 6: I was just called. I was kind of looking for
• 33:49
  Speaker 6: some deals. So I called her and she's like, yeah,
• 33:51
  Speaker 6: they don't have any history. It's just a couple that
• 33:53
  Speaker 6: inherited it and they're trying to sell it, and she's
• 33:56
  Speaker 6: like yeah, and I said, well, it's to deal with
• 33:57
  Speaker 6: the shed. You know, it looked like a pretty big one.
• 33:59
  Speaker 6: And he's like, yeah, I found it when I was
• 34:01
  Speaker 6: taking pictures. You know, if you like shd hunting, there's
• 34:03
  Speaker 6: probably more in there. I was like okay, So I said, well,
• 34:05
  Speaker 6: i'll be down there next week. I'll swing by and
• 34:07
  Speaker 6: look at it. So I showed up, looked at it.
• 34:09
  Speaker 6: That drained all night the night before. The grass was
• 34:11
  Speaker 6: all wet. They just pulled the cows out there before,
• 34:13
  Speaker 6: so it was all tall lespadissa and grass, and I
• 34:16
  Speaker 6: was soaked, and I was like, yeah, that's okay. You
• 34:17
  Speaker 6: just really can't tell much like that, you know, when
• 34:20
  Speaker 6: there's been cattle in there, you got cattle trails, and
• 34:21
  Speaker 6: you can't really tell what's deer what's not. So and
• 34:25
  Speaker 6: we kind of I kind of shot her price over
• 34:26
  Speaker 6: the phone before I looked at it, and she's like, yeah,
• 34:28
  Speaker 6: they'll be close to that. I said, well, before we
• 34:30
  Speaker 6: make a deal, i'll go look at it. So I
• 34:32
  Speaker 6: looked at it, didn't really do much with it, and
• 34:34
  Speaker 6: a couple weeks went by she called. She's like, hey,
• 34:35
  Speaker 6: they'll do your offer, your verbal offer, if you're good.
• 34:38
  Speaker 6: I said, honestly, I don't know if I want it.
• 34:40
  Speaker 6: I said, I'll tell you what I said. I'd buy
• 34:41
  Speaker 6: them for hunting. I said, why don't you let me
• 34:43
  Speaker 6: run a camera on it for a couple of weeks
• 34:44
  Speaker 6: over corn without even putting a contract on it. If
• 34:47
  Speaker 6: if they're fine, fat, you know, we'll do that. Like,
• 34:50
  Speaker 6: I'll do that, but I don't really want to buy
• 34:52
  Speaker 6: it and not know what's there. And she's like okay,
• 34:54
  Speaker 6: and back of mind, Like the only reason I was
• 34:55
  Speaker 6: extremely interested was that shit. And I was like, well,
• 34:57
  Speaker 6: there's a bunch of deer there, you know, it'll be
• 34:59
  Speaker 6: a nice piece. So I ran out there, threw out
• 35:01
  Speaker 6: a couple bags of corn, and like the second day
• 35:03
  Speaker 6: I had that buck on there and it was early.
• 35:05
  Speaker 6: He was just getting started, but he had like fifteen
• 35:07
  Speaker 6: points already, just had the main beams and the kickers
• 35:09
  Speaker 6: are ready. I was like, Oh, he's gonna be nice.
• 35:11
  Speaker 6: So we got under contract. We kind of went back
• 35:14
  Speaker 6: and forth again whenever they didn't have all the mental
• 35:16
  Speaker 6: rights they thought they did, went back and forth, and
• 35:18
  Speaker 6: we end up just closing like early September, so it
• 35:20
  Speaker 6: took all summer finally got it closed. And when we
• 35:23
  Speaker 6: first made a deal, I said, you know, I'll buy it,
• 35:25
  Speaker 6: but I want to be able to run corn feeders
• 35:27
  Speaker 6: and get a food plot going. And she's like, yeah,
• 35:29
  Speaker 6: that's fine. You guys do whatever you want. There just
• 35:30
  Speaker 6: wanting to get rid of it.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: So that's why I did.
• 35:32
  Speaker 6: And I had them all summer there, and it really
• 35:34
  Speaker 6: isn't that hard to kill a big one if you
• 35:36
  Speaker 6: can just find a big one. So he was there
• 35:38
  Speaker 6: and I just kept him, kept him fed, and I
• 35:40
  Speaker 6: got a big food plot in there and for alized
• 35:41
  Speaker 6: it good and it's had a bunch of rain and
• 35:45
  Speaker 6: so the muzzlim season and my elk tag opened the
• 35:48
  Speaker 6: same day, the fifteenth, I think. So I had to
• 35:51
  Speaker 6: decide I was I going to go to South Dakota
• 35:53
  Speaker 6: or go to Kansas. So I decided to go to
• 35:54
  Speaker 6: South Dakota because I felt like I better kill a
• 35:57
  Speaker 6: big bull there before they got killed out.
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: So that's why I did.
• 36:00
  Speaker 6: Went there first morning, put my bull, and loaded the
• 36:03
  Speaker 6: family up. The next day we dropped down to Kansas
• 36:06
  Speaker 6: and hunted.
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: That night.
• 36:07
  Speaker 6: I took my son with me, and we had probably
• 36:10
  Speaker 6: twelve thirteen bucks come out to the feeder, and the
• 36:12
  Speaker 6: big boy never showed. My son was about to have
• 36:14
  Speaker 6: a fit. He's six, and he's like, Dad, if you're
• 36:16
  Speaker 6: not gonna shooting these nice bucks, let me do it.
• 36:18
  Speaker 6: I said, no, we're waiting for a big one. I said,
• 36:20
  Speaker 6: I got plenty of one to twenties at the house already,
• 36:22
  Speaker 6: you know, So we didn't get him. The wind was
• 36:24
  Speaker 6: gonna switch. And what I did, and it worked really good,
• 36:26
  Speaker 6: is I put my blind about two hundred and fifty
• 36:29
  Speaker 6: yards away from the food plotting feeder. This early season,
• 36:31
  Speaker 6: the winds always swirled so bad. I always I feel
• 36:35
  Speaker 6: like I burned me stands out, So I'm like, I'm
• 36:36
  Speaker 6: just gonna back it up. I had a blind on
• 36:38
  Speaker 6: a trailer, so I just backed it up and hunted
• 36:41
  Speaker 6: it and didn't see him but a lot of deer.
• 36:43
  Speaker 6: So the wind was gonna be out of the west,
• 36:46
  Speaker 6: which is dead wrong. So I came home for two
• 36:48
  Speaker 6: days and then ran back out. The wind was kind
• 36:50
  Speaker 6: of cheating it, but I kind of set it up
• 36:53
  Speaker 6: to where he could hint of south or a north wind.
• 36:56
  Speaker 6: I know he came out with a much other bucks,
• 36:57
  Speaker 6: much other bucks come out first. He was climbing back.
• 37:00
  Speaker 6: It was actually three or four other bucks more mature
• 37:01
  Speaker 6: than him pushing him off. He come across the food
• 37:04
  Speaker 6: plot pretty quick, and then he come back out and
• 37:06
  Speaker 6: it was probably like a two hundred and twenty five
• 37:08
  Speaker 6: yard shot. And finally, once the bucks kind of cleared
• 37:10
  Speaker 6: out of the way, there fighting and feeding. Once they
• 37:12
  Speaker 6: cleared out of the way, I shot and couldn't tell
• 37:14
  Speaker 6: really what happened to Smoke. I thought i'd seen him
• 37:16
  Speaker 6: run across with his leg up, but didn't know for sure.
• 37:18
  Speaker 6: So I got down. It was about dark, look for blood,
• 37:21
  Speaker 6: couldn't find anything, went back, got a good light, never
• 37:23
  Speaker 6: found a drop of blood. So I was talking to
• 37:25
  Speaker 6: a buddy, mind Sam, and he's like, I got a
• 37:28
  Speaker 6: guy with a good dog. By the time I was
• 37:29
  Speaker 6: talking to him on the phone, and I found one
• 37:31
  Speaker 6: speck of blood, and so I hung up with him,
• 37:33
  Speaker 6: and I found like three specks and then there's a deer.
• 37:35
  Speaker 6: He only went like fifteen yards out of.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: The food plot.
• 37:37
  Speaker 6: But so it was it was pretty simple, it's just
• 37:41
  Speaker 6: find them. But the interesting part was how I kind
• 37:43
  Speaker 6: of found the farm and found the deer. Before we
• 37:45
  Speaker 6: even made a deal on it, which I've seen some
• 37:47
  Speaker 6: really good deer on listings. You know, if you just
• 37:50
  Speaker 6: watch in the summertime, not many other people really are,
• 37:52
  Speaker 6: and you can find some really good farms early season
• 37:55
  Speaker 6: like that I found.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, how were you nervous when you? Okay? So you
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: have a two hundred and some inch deer in your plot.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: The plant's coming together finally, and it's like it's been
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: a dream of yours obviously. I mean that's why you've
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: worked so hard to put yourself in a position for
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: this opportunity, and you got other mature bucks hanging out
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: in there. Were you just cool as cucumber? Because that's
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: kind of the impression I'm getting is I'd be shaking
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: like a leaf properly. I wasn't.
• 38:20
  Speaker 6: I wasn't as shook up as you would think, you know,
• 38:22
  Speaker 6: Like when I was a kid, you know, you always
• 38:23
  Speaker 6: dream of this giant buck coming out, and that's what
• 38:25
  Speaker 6: you hunt your whole life for. I was like, every
• 38:28
  Speaker 6: buck would come out, I could see legs and then
• 38:29
  Speaker 6: antler's and I was shook up on if that was him.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 38:32
  Speaker 6: Every time a buck would come out, I was like,
• 38:33
  Speaker 6: is this sim as him and finally he did come out.
• 38:35
  Speaker 6: So I was more shook up on waiting for which
• 38:37
  Speaker 6: deer is gonna come out? But once he got out,
• 38:40
  Speaker 6: you know, like when I got you know what from
• 38:41
  Speaker 6: my hand. Usually when I'm already shoot, I get pretty yeah,
• 38:45
  Speaker 6: pretty cold and can just pull a shot off, not
• 38:47
  Speaker 6: too many problems.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: You know, it was okay, give it, give it. Give
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: a piece of advice for someone for staying calm in
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: the moment. Is that repetition from over the years or
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: do you have a thought process or are you just
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: like suck it up and focus.
• 38:59
  Speaker 6: Yet a lot of killing a lot of deer.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: Probably.
• 39:03
  Speaker 6: Yeah, so I made a lot of bad shots when
• 39:05
  Speaker 6: I was younger with the bow by being too shook up,
• 39:07
  Speaker 6: but just timelessly, I guess time.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: Okay, how what were the conditions like the night it
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: all came together? You had mentioned, you know, the setup
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: worked for like a north and the south. H you
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: were somewhat cheating the wind. But where the was that
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: somewhat of a cold front or was it just hey,
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna be here because the wind's right and he
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: may come out in time.
• 39:24
  Speaker 6: Yeah, he'd been coming out like every other night and
• 39:26
  Speaker 6: the day before the night we hunted him, he didn't
• 39:29
  Speaker 6: show up, and the next night he did, and the
• 39:31
  Speaker 6: day before that he didn't. But it was about a
• 39:33
  Speaker 6: ten degree drop and it'd been like low eighties, high seventies,
• 39:36
  Speaker 6: and it was down to like low seventies that day
• 39:38
  Speaker 6: in Lorraine that morning, so everything seemed perfect like he
• 39:41
  Speaker 6: should show up, man, you know.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: But that's that is that is incredible. Shot a shot,
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: a bowl and two the same week, and that is
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: that is completely incredible. And obviously I've got to know
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: your story more, uh, since we've been connected and record,
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: you know, some episodes in the LAMB podcasts. So it's
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: so cool to see all this come to fruition with
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of hard work to put
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: yourself in this opportunity and have that chance. So October
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: one is the opening season, opening day for a lot
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: of states across the Midwest. Looking from October one to
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: October seventh, what would you suggest someone to pay close
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: attention to or what have you been able to pick
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: up over the years. Are you going to be hunting
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: in Missouri? What do you have in the pipeline here?
• 40:24
  Speaker 6: Now I'm around to South Dakota, this week and chase
• 40:27
  Speaker 6: meal deer. Missouri. There've been deer been hitting the beans
• 40:31
  Speaker 6: pretty well right now, but they're starting to disappear pretty
• 40:34
  Speaker 6: quick back into acorns. So if the weather, you know,
• 40:37
  Speaker 6: he had a good cold front come through, uh, definitely
• 40:40
  Speaker 6: get after him. But I don't think i'd burn anything
• 40:41
  Speaker 6: out if the weather's not good, like right here, we're
• 40:44
  Speaker 6: getting up hi eighties again, so I think i'd be
• 40:46
  Speaker 6: pretty careful getting back out there for the white tails.
• 40:48
  Speaker 6: So I decided to go out through mual deer. They're
• 40:50
  Speaker 6: pretty easy to find. Them move every morning and evening,
• 40:52
  Speaker 6: so I'm going to chase them around a little bit.
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: I like it, okay. So scale one to ten. What
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: do you anticipate October one to Octo over seventh for
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: deer activity, mature buck activity? Ten bean you shoot your
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: first two hundred, which you already did, or one bean,
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: it's gonna be really slow.
• 41:10
  Speaker 6: I would think it's gonna be pretty slow.
• 41:12
  Speaker 4: Here.
• 41:12
  Speaker 6: It's gonna be pretty hot. Uh that first week of
• 41:15
  Speaker 6: like the middle of September, the first week of season
• 41:17
  Speaker 6: from Missouri Canvas, that's always pretty good. Like that first
• 41:19
  Speaker 6: week usually the bucks are moving well still. For me,
• 41:22
  Speaker 6: it always seems like you know, early October is pretty slow.
• 41:25
  Speaker 6: Uh the deer just back on acorn so bad in
• 41:27
  Speaker 6: Missari here do.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: You do you? Have you hunted that first week of October?
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: Have you hunted mornings very often? Are you typically hunting
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: primarily evenings?
• 41:37
  Speaker 6: If you've got one, No, I'm just all evenings. I
• 41:39
  Speaker 6: mean I've got, you know, like everybody nowadays, twenty cell cameras,
• 41:41
  Speaker 6: and they're just not on camera in the mornings, you know,
• 41:44
  Speaker 6: and I don't want to push it in deep blow
• 41:46
  Speaker 6: them out, So I always just hunt the evenings. September
• 41:49
  Speaker 6: and October.
• 41:49
  Speaker 3: I feel like I like it.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: Well, f went congratulations on just like the start of
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: a dream season and hopefully you shoot a mule deer
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: and keep on rocket man. I really appreciate it. Congratulations
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: once again, Thanks Jake.
• 42:03
  Speaker 6: Have a good luck this season.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: There you guys have it. Hope you enjoyed this week's
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: episode of ret Fresh. Get out there and enjoy it.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: It's the season always goes by really fast, so you
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: heard it from Connor. If you're able to hunt that
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: initial cold front on the first or second it could
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: be really good. And if you aren't quite ready or
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: you need to get organized. Take this time to get
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: all your stuff together, make sure you're ready to rock
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: when the first cold front rolls in. Go out there,
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: or and maybe just sit and enjoy it and maybe
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: try to fill a dough tag. It is here, it's
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: October first. I hope you guys have a great first
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: week of season if you're one of the many states
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: that just opened, and we will see you next week.