Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 254: Rut Radio 11/28/18

Transcript

Ep. 254: Rut Radio 11/28/18 · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for
0:06
Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
0:11
Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm
0:16
Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyon. This episode number two d and
0:19
Speaker 1: fifty four and today we are back with another episode
0:22
Speaker 1: of Rut Radio in which we're hearing from hunters all
0:25
Speaker 1: across the country on the latest with the White Tail Rut,
0:28
Speaker 1: with deer activity, current conditions, and with the strategies and
0:32
Speaker 1: tactics can help you right now. All right, welcome to
0:46
Speaker 1: the Wired Hunt podcast, brought to you by Onyx and
0:50
Speaker 1: back today for radio, which is our weekly mini series
0:55
Speaker 1: during the season where we're talking to hunters all across
0:57
Speaker 1: the country to get the latest on what happening out
1:00
Speaker 1: there in the white tailed woods, the progress of the rut,
1:03
Speaker 1: different conditions that are impacting deer and deer hunting, what
1:07
Speaker 1: kind of tactics are working right now? And um, I
1:09
Speaker 1: gotta say I made a huge mistake last week, but
1:13
Speaker 1: because of with schedules, I could not make it for
1:17
Speaker 1: the Rut Radio show last year or last week. The
1:20
Speaker 1: intro that is so I said, Spencer, you know what,
1:22
Speaker 1: you're a mature adult. You can handle RUT Radio all
1:25
Speaker 1: by yourself this week. And then and then he goes
1:29
Speaker 1: off the rails talking about all sorts of crazy stuff
1:34
Speaker 1: which I actually really got to kick out of Spencer.
1:36
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed you speaking as my proxy. UM, well done,
1:40
Speaker 1: my friend, thank you. It would only be fair then
1:44
Speaker 1: if you just did this whole week solo for the intro,
1:46
Speaker 1: just to level things out. Yeah, I should have thought
1:50
Speaker 1: that ahead of time. UM. But but yeah, we're it
1:54
Speaker 1: is good to be back on here here about what's
1:56
Speaker 1: happening across the country. UM. I don't have a whole
1:59
Speaker 1: lot to myself because I've kind of taken the last
2:02
Speaker 1: week off to get caught up on family. Um, of course,
2:06
Speaker 1: the holidays and different things going on. After I've been
2:09
Speaker 1: out basically the last month hunting NonStop. I need to
2:12
Speaker 1: get requainting with my wife and son. So UM, that
2:15
Speaker 1: was good. But it sounds like you just keep on hunting. Um,
2:20
Speaker 1: your wife doesn't seem to care, so that's good. UM.
2:24
Speaker 1: I don't think we've talked on the podcast at least
2:27
Speaker 1: at least not about your Kentucky hunt. Are you interested
2:29
Speaker 1: in sharing about that because that was just a few
2:31
Speaker 1: days ago or last week, right, Yeah, that was pretty
2:35
Speaker 1: much exactly a week ago. Um, that property that I
2:39
Speaker 1: was hunting kind of sets up for like really good
2:43
Speaker 1: field edgies, and so it's kind of tougher in the mornings,
2:46
Speaker 1: but usually better in the evenings. And I was seeing
2:49
Speaker 1: all sorts of doughs on those hunts, like sometimes twenty two,
2:53
Speaker 1: two thirty to your total, with only a handful of
2:57
Speaker 1: bucks and usually small bucks. Um. Now, I don't think
3:00
Speaker 1: that's like really unusual, because I think Kentucky has one
3:03
Speaker 1: of the higher deer populations in the country, so seeing
3:06
Speaker 1: like thirty deer there might be like seeing you know,
3:10
Speaker 1: five or six somewhere else. So I was seeing a
3:13
Speaker 1: ton of deer, but just not the quality bucks that
3:16
Speaker 1: I know exist in that area. So I reached out
3:19
Speaker 1: to a few locals actually, including an outfit or a
3:22
Speaker 1: few hours south of there, and he had said that
3:26
Speaker 1: everyone in their camp was struggling as well, and it
3:29
Speaker 1: seemed like lockdown and some warmer weather had kind of
3:33
Speaker 1: shut things down for that week. So I was there
3:35
Speaker 1: for three days going into the last hunt. The last evening,
3:39
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm just gonna shoot the first thing.
3:41
Speaker 1: I want to go home. Um with some meat, because
3:43
Speaker 1: I don't kill a handful of d this year. And
3:46
Speaker 1: Adio happened to step out in the bean fields. I'm like, perfect,
3:49
Speaker 1: I'll take her, be happy with her and beyond the
3:52
Speaker 1: road to South Dakota. So it's gonna let her get
3:55
Speaker 1: a little bit closer and right behind her. The buck
3:58
Speaker 1: that I ended up killing stepped out. Happened to be
4:00
Speaker 1: the biggest book that I saw a week. It just
4:02
Speaker 1: came in the last twenty minute to the hunt, so
4:05
Speaker 1: it just about didn't happen. But um, that was the
4:09
Speaker 1: deer that I didn't see, you know, for all three days,
4:12
Speaker 1: and and the biggest year that I ended up seeing, Uh,
4:15
Speaker 1: just stepped out at that last moment. What do you
4:18
Speaker 1: think was he like stepping out in there like locked
4:21
Speaker 1: on that dough or what was he What was he doing?
4:23
Speaker 1: Do you think? Yeah? He was he was short behind
4:25
Speaker 1: the dough. He was right behind her, and so um,
4:29
Speaker 1: had I not let that doll getting closer and I
4:31
Speaker 1: just would have, you know, shot her right there, I
4:33
Speaker 1: would have never seen that buck because he was he
4:35
Speaker 1: was right on her tail. Um, So I think there
4:38
Speaker 1: was still some really quality running activity going in going
4:41
Speaker 1: on in Kentucky last week, but you maybe had to
4:43
Speaker 1: be uh in a little bit thicker timber or just
4:47
Speaker 1: you know, be there a few days earlier, a few
4:49
Speaker 1: days later to catch some of those cruising bucks. So
4:52
Speaker 1: was that consistent with what you've been hearing from other
4:54
Speaker 1: folks this week? Yeah? I think this week, you know,
4:58
Speaker 1: we're not hearing anything about lockdown released, so that was
5:01
Speaker 1: that kind of information is probably seven to eight, seven
5:04
Speaker 1: to ten days old, uh for most of the country,
5:07
Speaker 1: but we're still hearing about some like trickling post rout
5:10
Speaker 1: activity and so specifically with those mature bucks. This is
5:15
Speaker 1: something you'll hear talked about in this week's episode and
5:18
Speaker 1: something that you even wrote about Mark for the Meat
5:20
Speaker 1: Eater last week about how for the rut the younger bucks,
5:26
Speaker 1: it seems to be a sprint, but for the older
5:29
Speaker 1: bucks it's more of a marathon. And so you can
5:32
Speaker 1: still find them cruising, uh, moving around at midday even
5:36
Speaker 1: into December because they have the I guess, the knowledge
5:41
Speaker 1: to to look for some of those last remaining willing
5:44
Speaker 1: does all the way through the end of the month. Yeah.
5:47
Speaker 1: And I've also seen and this is something that you know,
5:50
Speaker 1: it's sometimes overblown like people talk about the quote unquote
5:54
Speaker 1: second run like it's this huge thing, and at least
5:57
Speaker 1: from my experience, I'm talking a lot of people, it's
5:58
Speaker 1: it's not something I usually planned for or really count
6:02
Speaker 1: on or anything like that. But I have seen a
6:05
Speaker 1: couple of times during that, sometimes the first or second
6:07
Speaker 1: week of December. So for people listening right now, you know,
6:10
Speaker 1: coming up here, maybe the first few days of December.
6:13
Speaker 1: Sometimes you'll get these fawns that reach sexual maturity by that,
6:18
Speaker 1: you know, thirty days after when most doughs are coming
6:20
Speaker 1: into Estra. So let's say that is, if most of
6:23
Speaker 1: those in Michigan are coming into Estrius somewhere around the
6:25
Speaker 1: first couple of weeks of November, then you might get
6:28
Speaker 1: some of these really super healthy, more mature fauns might
6:32
Speaker 1: come in the first week or two of December. And
6:34
Speaker 1: if you happen to catch that, and again I'm saying,
6:36
Speaker 1: this is usually pretty rare, at least where I hunt,
6:38
Speaker 1: But if you happen to catch it, you might get
6:40
Speaker 1: one of these funds that gets hot and she might
6:43
Speaker 1: pull in a bunch of bucks. You could have a
6:44
Speaker 1: little mini rutfest. Um I had this happened to me
6:47
Speaker 1: last year in Ohio where there's one little faun that
6:51
Speaker 1: happened to be, you know, ready to go, and she
6:53
Speaker 1: pulled like seven or eight bucks run around bucks fighting,
6:56
Speaker 1: like full blown November type action on December seven. Um,
7:01
Speaker 1: so I would just say, you know, I wouldn't necessary
7:04
Speaker 1: plan for that, but if you happen to see that
7:06
Speaker 1: kind of thing, don't dismiss it as some random anomaly
7:09
Speaker 1: that just happened to happen tonight. You know, realize that
7:12
Speaker 1: that dough is probably in heat, that fawns probably in heat,
7:15
Speaker 1: and try to take advantage of that over the next
7:17
Speaker 1: couple of hunts. Keen on that. Just like you would
7:19
Speaker 1: if you saw a hot dough on November seven, you'd
7:22
Speaker 1: want to get right back in there because it's probably
7:23
Speaker 1: gonna be you know, bucks a rounder. Um, the same
7:26
Speaker 1: thing could possibly happen right now. So that's just something
7:29
Speaker 1: that I do keep in mind and keep an eye
7:31
Speaker 1: out for. And on that point, I would say probably
7:34
Speaker 1: the biggest factor if you are having a strong secondary
7:37
Speaker 1: road or even a witnessed secondary road, is what that
7:41
Speaker 1: age classes like in your area. Now. Talking to Bryce
7:45
Speaker 1: Lamley and Nebraska a few times this year, he has
7:48
Speaker 1: mentioned how there's hardly any fawns around um because there's
7:53
Speaker 1: tons of coyotes in the air, tons of predators. Uh,
7:56
Speaker 1: the coyote help prices or way down. And so with
8:00
Speaker 1: his record keeping link over the last thirty years, this
8:03
Speaker 1: is the least amount of fonds that he's ever seen.
8:05
Speaker 1: And so in an area like that, if that's what
8:07
Speaker 1: your herd looks like, you're probably not going to see
8:10
Speaker 1: any kind of a secondary rut now. Like in Illinois
8:13
Speaker 1: this week we talked to Alex Gilstrom. He mentioned that
8:16
Speaker 1: their age structure seems to be back and recovered from
8:18
Speaker 1: the two thousand twelves e h D and so he
8:21
Speaker 1: is predicting a stronger secondary rut in his area. Are
8:25
Speaker 1: there any other factors marked that you think would attribute
8:27
Speaker 1: to like a strong or weak secondary rut or would
8:30
Speaker 1: you agree with that? No? I think um. I think
8:33
Speaker 1: also just available nutrition is another thing too, because I
8:38
Speaker 1: believe this to be true from what I understand that right,
8:41
Speaker 1: if you have dough excuse me, if you have fawns
8:45
Speaker 1: that are you know, being born at the right time,
8:48
Speaker 1: and then I have the necessary nutrition to be really
8:50
Speaker 1: healthy and to be at the you know, to be
8:52
Speaker 1: able to be sexually mature and healthy enough to be
8:56
Speaker 1: able to come into estrus at this time period. I
8:58
Speaker 1: think those things are not going to be the case
9:00
Speaker 1: in all areas, So in northern Michigan where the very
9:04
Speaker 1: little food and maybe there's a really screwed up buckador
9:07
Speaker 1: ratio or age structure where maybe you're gonna have fawns
9:09
Speaker 1: dropping at different times in the spring and they're not
9:12
Speaker 1: gonna get a lot of great food. I'd imagine that's
9:14
Speaker 1: scenario where you're less likely to see that second run
9:17
Speaker 1: because you're not going to get those doughs. That excuse me,
9:20
Speaker 1: I keep saying that these fawns that are going to
9:22
Speaker 1: be mature and healthy enough to cycle. Um. On the
9:26
Speaker 1: flip side, like you said, a situation like what Alex
9:28
Speaker 1: might have in Illinois, that's probably the opposite. It's the
9:30
Speaker 1: best case scenario where you might get these funds ready
9:32
Speaker 1: to go. So UM, something to something to keep in mind,
9:35
Speaker 1: And I'd be interested to see, you know, as we
9:38
Speaker 1: talk to people next week, um, in the week after that,
9:40
Speaker 1: I'll be really curious to to see who does see
9:43
Speaker 1: any kind of secondary run and then what their scenario is.
9:47
Speaker 1: I wonder if we'll be able to point to any
9:49
Speaker 1: consistencies there. But like I said before, we talk to
9:51
Speaker 1: Alex Gilstream this week from dream Chaser's Helen in Illinois,
9:55
Speaker 1: and then in New Jersey from Red Hand Outdoor Company
9:57
Speaker 1: is Pet Cutter. That in Texas we talked to Tyler
10:00
Speaker 1: Jones from the Element podcast, and then in North Dakota
10:03
Speaker 1: from Ultimate Outdoor Adventures TV is John Arman. It sounds
10:06
Speaker 1: like a good group of folks. Um, I commend you,
10:10
Speaker 1: Spencer C. You don't need to commend yourself. And with that, UM,
10:15
Speaker 1: I'm good to go if you are. Yep, let's get
10:17
Speaker 1: to the first color. Before we do that, though, let's
10:19
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10:23
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Speaker 1: that's j A. M. E. S alright, and joining us
12:01
Speaker 1: on the line first is Alex Gilstrom from dream Chaser's
12:05
Speaker 1: Hunt in Illinois now Alex in Illinois. What would you
12:08
Speaker 1: say the bucket activities been lately on a scale of
12:10
Speaker 1: one to ten? If I had to rank it on
12:12
Speaker 1: one to ten, all right now, it'd be a strong,
12:17
Speaker 1: a strong seven to and eight with an asterisk, and
12:20
Speaker 1: and the asters would be just in the last couple
12:22
Speaker 1: of days, we've actually had a pretty nasty front move
12:25
Speaker 1: through with a bunch of high wind and and really
12:27
Speaker 1: cool temperatures, and it kind of seemed to actually we
12:29
Speaker 1: even get some snow, a couple inches of snow, and
12:31
Speaker 1: it seemed to kind of put them in a little
12:33
Speaker 1: bit of a freeze or a whole pattern where the
12:35
Speaker 1: movement hasn't been great the last couple of days, at
12:38
Speaker 1: least from from what I've seen, But before that it's been,
12:41
Speaker 1: i mean, just in the last week and and and
12:43
Speaker 1: even prior, it's been unbelievable, really really good movement. We've
12:47
Speaker 1: had great weather pretty much all of of late October
12:51
Speaker 1: and November, really good consistent movement and even building movement
12:54
Speaker 1: as it's gotten into later later November here, So i'd
12:57
Speaker 1: have to I'd have to give it a pretty pretty
12:59
Speaker 1: high score with a with a seven or eight um
13:02
Speaker 1: with the exception of maybe the last couple of days
13:04
Speaker 1: here you touched on seeing great movement, But does that
13:06
Speaker 1: mean you're still seeing a lot of rutting activities well,
13:09
Speaker 1: and if so, what phases the route would you say?
13:11
Speaker 1: Illinois in yeah, I think we're yeah, So it's great
13:16
Speaker 1: rutting activity, um. And I think it's been a little
13:20
Speaker 1: bit slow to start as far as the high number
13:23
Speaker 1: of bucks that I've seen really really cruising. It's been
13:25
Speaker 1: getting better and better as it's gotten later in the month,
13:28
Speaker 1: especially as the potension in November. And uh, I would
13:31
Speaker 1: have to give it, like I said, a really high
13:33
Speaker 1: score ranking there and then it's it's been kind of
13:37
Speaker 1: funny with the mature buck activity. It's certainly increased, and
13:39
Speaker 1: I think that's just indicative of kind of moving into
13:43
Speaker 1: the post rut. It's I would definitely give it a
13:45
Speaker 1: late rut classification into the post rut um with that
13:49
Speaker 1: have seen increased movement from mature books. Though having that
13:54
Speaker 1: better movement out of mature Bucks. If if you were
13:56
Speaker 1: targeting uh, one of those mature white tails, what kind
13:59
Speaker 1: of areas to be focused on right now at the
14:01
Speaker 1: end of November, I would start to transition a little bit.
14:05
Speaker 1: What I have been doing and seeing a little bit
14:07
Speaker 1: more movement as a result, is transitioning a little bit
14:10
Speaker 1: out of the corridors and getting a little bit closer
14:13
Speaker 1: to like, you know, your funnels are, you're you're you're
14:15
Speaker 1: traveling between the funnels and transition areas, between betting areas.
14:20
Speaker 1: They're still really great and in good movement, but I've
14:22
Speaker 1: been seeing with with obviously the end of the rut
14:26
Speaker 1: coming and and and Bucks, looking for the last receptive
14:30
Speaker 1: does or the dwindling number of receptive those folksing along
14:34
Speaker 1: those food sources and getting a little bit closer to
14:37
Speaker 1: the security cover that kind of transitions or parallels the
14:40
Speaker 1: food sources has been. Um I've been seeing a little
14:43
Speaker 1: bit increased sightings there. It seems like that's really where
14:47
Speaker 1: the congregation or the concentration of movement has kind of
14:50
Speaker 1: been moving to over the last week week and a half,
14:54
Speaker 1: and I kind of expected that to continue to even
14:56
Speaker 1: increase as we as we get closer into December here
14:58
Speaker 1: and those areas between and in food does that set
15:01
Speaker 1: up better for a morning hunter in evening hunt? Personally,
15:04
Speaker 1: I I've always had better luck in the late this
15:08
Speaker 1: this at this period of the rut and moving into
15:09
Speaker 1: the late season in the evenings and those areas. Uh.
15:13
Speaker 1: And then obviously UM noncessary obviously, But what I've what
15:18
Speaker 1: I've experienced and had better success with was is still
15:21
Speaker 1: honing in throughout the end of the November here and
15:24
Speaker 1: even into the early December. Is um the betting you know,
15:27
Speaker 1: close to the security cover, close to the betting areas
15:29
Speaker 1: of the transition areas between betting areas for mornings. You
15:32
Speaker 1: touched on that the rut has gone on a little
15:35
Speaker 1: longer and a little stronger this year in November. Uh.
15:39
Speaker 1: Does that give any signs or point towards anything for
15:42
Speaker 1: how the secondary route might look? Is we're about ten
15:45
Speaker 1: days outer, So from that it's kind of everybody goes
15:48
Speaker 1: back to you know, talks about two thousand twelve at
15:50
Speaker 1: from h D, especially here in the Midwest nil and
15:52
Speaker 1: there is no different, especially in this area. They had
15:55
Speaker 1: a pretty pretty significant die off. One of the exciting
15:58
Speaker 1: things I think in the last two years especially and
16:01
Speaker 1: and certainly for this year, has been seeing faun recruitment.
16:06
Speaker 1: The faun increased, the increased number of fonds, dough group sizes,
16:09
Speaker 1: and the age structure among those groups has been really
16:14
Speaker 1: really strong. And I think as a result, we will
16:17
Speaker 1: probably see better post rut or secondary rut activity than
16:22
Speaker 1: we've seen in a long time UM. And I think
16:24
Speaker 1: that's because the age structures have kind of recovered. Uh,
16:27
Speaker 1: they've come back kind of hit the hit mother Nature
16:29
Speaker 1: hit that reset button, and UM had a few years
16:32
Speaker 1: a hardship there. But I think it's really starting to
16:34
Speaker 1: come back strong. And and because of faund recruitment and
16:37
Speaker 1: good you know, a lot of twin fawns and UM
16:40
Speaker 1: seeing multiple fonds with does I think that, uh, we're
16:44
Speaker 1: probably going to have a fairly decent um fairly decent
16:47
Speaker 1: activity here for for the second rudder or post rut.
16:51
Speaker 1: As some of our hunting shifts to focusing on food sources, Uh,
16:55
Speaker 1: do you find any value in some of those natural
16:57
Speaker 1: food sources like acorns as we get into December. You know,
17:01
Speaker 1: I haven't really spent a lot of time trying to
17:03
Speaker 1: target UM as far as acorn is particularly like a
17:07
Speaker 1: mask goes for uh for late season. Um, if you
17:11
Speaker 1: can find a good green browse uh that deer like
17:16
Speaker 1: to target, you know, back in the temper in cover
17:18
Speaker 1: for sure. I mean those can be still be great
17:20
Speaker 1: staging areas. But here living in farm country like I do,
17:24
Speaker 1: it's you know, anytime you can get close to grain
17:27
Speaker 1: or be being corn beans or corn or even if
17:29
Speaker 1: there's a cover crop somewhere with brass. Because I hunt,
17:33
Speaker 1: you know, I hunt exclusive public ground here in Illinois,
17:36
Speaker 1: so don't have the luxury of planning food pots. But um,
17:39
Speaker 1: when you can get close to those food sources that
17:41
Speaker 1: are existing either on the public ground or close to it,
17:44
Speaker 1: that are grain here here in farm country, that that
17:47
Speaker 1: seems to be it works pretty well for us going forward.
17:49
Speaker 1: Then in a six week or so, what do you
17:51
Speaker 1: think that bucket ativity is going to be on a
17:52
Speaker 1: scale of one to tend in Illinois. I think it's
17:55
Speaker 1: gonna stay, you know, like I said, with the exception
17:58
Speaker 1: of the last couple of days in this weird front
18:00
Speaker 1: came through, Um, I think it's gonna be right there
18:02
Speaker 1: at a at a strong seven to an eight. There's
18:04
Speaker 1: gonna be a little bit of a warm snap looks
18:06
Speaker 1: like moving into some some clear weather, higher pressure coming in,
18:10
Speaker 1: and I think it's gonna be really strong. I think
18:12
Speaker 1: we're gonna continue to see mature bucks on their feet
18:15
Speaker 1: looking for those last available dose or receptive dose, and
18:18
Speaker 1: as the herds continue to pile in closer to the
18:22
Speaker 1: food food sources, trying to get ready for the winner.
18:24
Speaker 1: I think that it's gonna be a higher concentration of that.
18:28
Speaker 1: Even so, I think it's gonna be a great time
18:29
Speaker 1: to be in the woods. Well, Alex, I like you're optimism.
18:32
Speaker 1: Good luck with what's left in the season, and thanks
18:34
Speaker 1: for joining me. Thanks Spencer, I always appreciate it, buddy,
18:37
Speaker 1: alright and joining us on the line. Next is pet
18:40
Speaker 1: Cutter from Red Hand Outdoor Company now pet in New Jersey.
18:43
Speaker 1: What would you say the bucket activity has been lately
18:45
Speaker 1: on a scale of one to ten? Uh lately? Well, Um,
18:51
Speaker 1: yesterday our muggle Or season just opened up. We have
18:54
Speaker 1: a two day muggle Or season. Um. I did go
18:56
Speaker 1: out last night. I shot a dough last night. Um.
19:00
Speaker 1: But I'd say as for buck activity the past a
19:03
Speaker 1: couple of days, it's been it's been pretty mediocre. Um.
19:06
Speaker 1: I think the ruts definitely dwindling down, and you know
19:11
Speaker 1: food is gonna start to pick back up a little bit. Um.
19:15
Speaker 1: One of one of my buddies did shoot a nice
19:16
Speaker 1: buck last night, though, Um, I think I'm pretty sure
19:20
Speaker 1: he was a four and a half year old beer
19:22
Speaker 1: bustled off his name being but nice dear. Um. But
19:26
Speaker 1: I would I would probably give it about a five
19:27
Speaker 1: out of ten. I think across much of the Midwest,
19:31
Speaker 1: harvest is just wrapping up, so there's still some standing
19:33
Speaker 1: crops up. How about in the Northeast, Yeah, I mean
19:38
Speaker 1: my farm, about my my least that I'm hunting right now.
19:41
Speaker 1: Usually the crops are out by the beginning of November,
19:44
Speaker 1: but it's been so wet lately. Um, this whole fall
19:47
Speaker 1: pretty much that he still has him up. He hasn't
19:49
Speaker 1: really had the time to get in there to get
19:51
Speaker 1: him out with, you know, without ruining the field. So
19:54
Speaker 1: I I still have crops standing, and I think that's
19:57
Speaker 1: hurting me from getting pictures right now. Um, I'm actually
20:00
Speaker 1: about to go check two cameras right now. I'm gonna
20:03
Speaker 1: hunt tonight since it is the second day of our
20:05
Speaker 1: two day muzzle order. I'm gonna hunt regardless but um,
20:08
Speaker 1: I'm gonna check two cameras. I can hunt on a
20:10
Speaker 1: west wind and pick a spot real quick and jump in.
20:14
Speaker 1: So what's your strategy with those cameras? Then, knowing that
20:17
Speaker 1: it's post rut and there's still a lot of standing corn,
20:21
Speaker 1: I still have some over some scrapes that are getting
20:25
Speaker 1: touched once in a while, and then I do have
20:27
Speaker 1: some that I just started put to put out feed
20:30
Speaker 1: for late seeds to help to help get pictures. Um,
20:33
Speaker 1: it is legal debate here in Jersey, and UM, you
20:35
Speaker 1: know it's a great It's a great way to get
20:37
Speaker 1: an inventory come a late season. And then if you know,
20:40
Speaker 1: if you want to hunt over it, you can. You
20:42
Speaker 1: can hunt over it too. So do you ever notice
20:45
Speaker 1: a spike in that signmaking as we get towards that
20:48
Speaker 1: secondary rot er? Do you think after this point it's
20:50
Speaker 1: pretty much irrelevant. I don't. I don't really notice much.
20:55
Speaker 1: I mean, if you do get that that um bill
20:59
Speaker 1: coming into her set around, UM, you can get lucky, definitely. UM.
21:03
Speaker 1: I usually don't have very much luck with it, but
21:06
Speaker 1: I know it does happen. So as we get into
21:08
Speaker 1: early December, are there any weather patterns or moon phases
21:12
Speaker 1: that you think positively or negatively will thank the buck movement. Um. Yeah,
21:17
Speaker 1: I think, Um, if we can get some cold weather
21:19
Speaker 1: and we can get some snow to cover up all
21:22
Speaker 1: the brows and stuff like that, acorns and you've got
21:25
Speaker 1: you know, corner beans, you know cut cut cornfield or
21:29
Speaker 1: standing beans. I still have some standing beans here. Um,
21:32
Speaker 1: if we can get some snow on the ground, I
21:34
Speaker 1: think that would help out a lot. Um. But I
21:37
Speaker 1: don't see any of the near future. So um, it's
21:40
Speaker 1: kind of just a waiting game. Now. How about with
21:43
Speaker 1: like that late morning or mid day movement, is that
21:45
Speaker 1: all but over at this point in New Jersey as
21:49
Speaker 1: far as I can tell? Uh, Yes, Um, I'm sure
21:52
Speaker 1: they're still You're still getting a couple of big bucks.
21:55
Speaker 1: There are cruising for those late those. I talked to
21:57
Speaker 1: a buddy, I want to say, three days to go,
22:00
Speaker 1: and I think it was um he had a buck
22:04
Speaker 1: on a on a doll early afternoon. Um. But from
22:09
Speaker 1: what I've seen, pretty much, it's it's it's it's out.
22:14
Speaker 1: What about with mornings, it's typically as we get into
22:17
Speaker 1: late season, guys started doing more evening hunts. Do you
22:20
Speaker 1: have any strategies to to kill them ature buck in
22:22
Speaker 1: the morning. Um, I mean if you if you've got
22:26
Speaker 1: good access and you could sneak in into their bedroom
22:29
Speaker 1: or just outside their bedroom on you know, down one side,
22:32
Speaker 1: I wouldn't. I wouldn't rule it out. I don't have
22:35
Speaker 1: a great place to really do that. I could potentially
22:38
Speaker 1: do that, but I wouldn't really risk you know, blowing
22:41
Speaker 1: him out of there unless I thought that was that
22:44
Speaker 1: was the only way I could kill him. Um, I mean,
22:46
Speaker 1: you can do it, but I probably put him. It
22:49
Speaker 1: wouldn't really risk it going forward. Then, in the sixt
22:52
Speaker 1: week or so, what do you think that Bucket ATV
22:54
Speaker 1: is going to be on a skill of one to
22:55
Speaker 1: ten in New Jersey. I'd say it's gonna be pretty stagnant.
23:00
Speaker 1: The weather's really not doing much. We probably have average
23:03
Speaker 1: temps and moon phase is getting getting dark. I would
23:07
Speaker 1: call it a four or five out of ten. All right, Pat, Well,
23:10
Speaker 1: good luck to you and the guys at Red Hand
23:12
Speaker 1: out Door Company. Thanks for joining me. Thanks Spencer, all
23:16
Speaker 1: right and joining us on the line. Next is Tyler
23:18
Speaker 1: Jones from the Element podcast in Texas. Tyler in Texas,
23:22
Speaker 1: what would you say the buck activities been lay on
23:24
Speaker 1: a scale of one to ten and it's probably a seven. Uh,
23:29
Speaker 1: I would think it loose, was quite a bit of
23:31
Speaker 1: cruising and uh, it's it's not just messing around at all,
23:36
Speaker 1: you know, it's on a fast walk. So, um, if
23:40
Speaker 1: you're in, if you're in a funnel, it's a good
23:41
Speaker 1: place to be this time of year. What phase of
23:43
Speaker 1: the route would you say you're part of Texas is in? Then? Uh, well,
23:48
Speaker 1: in in East Texas, we're uh, you know, Northeast Texas,
23:52
Speaker 1: and it's it's the rude. I mean we uh, we
23:56
Speaker 1: start kind of with the traditional dates where everybody else
23:58
Speaker 1: is and and we're still going strong this time of
24:01
Speaker 1: year in late November and it really until December. Um,
24:05
Speaker 1: we consider it pretty much the rut. Still. So how
24:08
Speaker 1: do your strategies change when you're hunting a place like
24:11
Speaker 1: Northeast Texas versus a place like Kansas in late November?
24:15
Speaker 1: What are your how do you set ups differ from
24:18
Speaker 1: those two areas? Yeah, I mean when I'm in in
24:23
Speaker 1: Northeast Texas, I'm gonna be seeing this time of year,
24:26
Speaker 1: I'm sitting in a rut funnel of some sort, some
24:29
Speaker 1: kind of a pinch. Uh. And in particular where I've
24:33
Speaker 1: been sitting in the last few a few days that
24:36
Speaker 1: I've been hunt in Texas. Um is basically creek with
24:40
Speaker 1: a bunch of junk in it, a bunch of trash,
24:42
Speaker 1: uh you know, boat ark trees and stuff that kind
24:44
Speaker 1: of blocked away, and then a big creek. Um that
24:49
Speaker 1: that creek feeds into. Um come. You know, there's a
24:52
Speaker 1: pretty pretty narrow like sixty yards pinch up against the
24:56
Speaker 1: big creek, and uh man, there's a great trail. So
25:00
Speaker 1: I mean, if you see a good trail this time
25:02
Speaker 1: of year, um, that's kind of between betting areas obviously.
25:06
Speaker 1: I mean that sets up well. Uh you know, if
25:09
Speaker 1: I was hunting somewhere in the Midwest where you have
25:12
Speaker 1: more traditional run and you're starting to get more post
25:14
Speaker 1: rud at this time, I'm gonna be sitting a little
25:16
Speaker 1: closer to food sources. Probably you just hoping that cold
25:19
Speaker 1: weather brings the dose out and and uh that the
25:22
Speaker 1: bucks will follow up before dark. How about with signmaking Texis,
25:26
Speaker 1: are you still seeing some active rubs and scraps? Oh yeah, definitely,
25:31
Speaker 1: UM seeing seeing quite a few rubs, uh and scrapes
25:36
Speaker 1: are still um still being worked. Definitely I've got a
25:42
Speaker 1: on a private piece that I've got I'm actually made
25:44
Speaker 1: a box grape and broke a limb over and they've
25:47
Speaker 1: they've been hammering. It's uh even up until I guess
25:51
Speaker 1: a couple of days ago when I last suck that, Uh,
25:54
Speaker 1: it's still fresh. So uh that's exciting. It's good to
25:58
Speaker 1: have your cameras on and be monitor ring um as
26:02
Speaker 1: those big dear kind of monitoring to see which does
26:05
Speaker 1: might be coming in late or decoying. Is that a
26:08
Speaker 1: strategy that you'd be using right now in Texas? Uh,
26:13
Speaker 1: It's it's not really. I've been rattling a little bit.
26:16
Speaker 1: But as far as decoyin goes, we don't, uh, we
26:19
Speaker 1: don't use a lot of decoys where we're at. Our
26:23
Speaker 1: dear densities um are probably a little lower uh than
26:27
Speaker 1: most areas compared to the amount of uh just brush
26:34
Speaker 1: that we have. Essentially, you would think there'd be more dear,
26:37
Speaker 1: but they tend to walk in on a decoy pretty
26:41
Speaker 1: close range and it's not a good thing, uh sometimes,
26:44
Speaker 1: so we hold off on the decoys. But I have
26:47
Speaker 1: been rattling a little bit, uh, usually starting out pretty
26:50
Speaker 1: light because stick covered and just making sure, nothing's too
26:53
Speaker 1: close before I really get into it. And UH actually
26:57
Speaker 1: rattled uh a little one year old inn the other day,
27:00
Speaker 1: which is something to be since it doesn't sound crazy
27:04
Speaker 1: cool to most people, but that's something to be talked about.
27:07
Speaker 1: In East Texas, for sure, we don't rattle too many
27:10
Speaker 1: deer and very often, so I think it's definitely a
27:13
Speaker 1: tactic that could work right now for sure. Last time
27:16
Speaker 1: I talked to you a few months ago, I believe
27:18
Speaker 1: you brought up the big acorn crop that you're experiencing
27:21
Speaker 1: in that part of Texas. Is that still a factor
27:24
Speaker 1: or not? It is? Um. We actually had I think
27:29
Speaker 1: most of the most of the Midwest got hit with
27:32
Speaker 1: us some pretty good snowstorms and that kind of from
27:35
Speaker 1: last few days. And that was mainly just I mean,
27:39
Speaker 1: it was a little bit of cold weather, but it's
27:41
Speaker 1: a lot of wind and um, I actually uh living
27:46
Speaker 1: in a metal roof house right now, and so I
27:50
Speaker 1: can hear the anchors falling on my on my roof
27:53
Speaker 1: all night. And basically we had a heavy wind or
27:56
Speaker 1: high winds and early in the night it's just like
28:00
Speaker 1: raining down all the rest of the acrons on top
28:03
Speaker 1: of them, on top of the roots there and then
28:05
Speaker 1: by the morning it was still blowing, but there was
28:07
Speaker 1: nothing's hidden. So I think, um, that you're gonna see
28:11
Speaker 1: that pretty much all acrons have fallen at this point
28:14
Speaker 1: out of the trees here northeast Texas, and that, uh,
28:17
Speaker 1: it's something that you can keep him on for the
28:20
Speaker 1: next few weeks until maybe a rain kind of spoils
28:22
Speaker 1: them or something like that. So, um, and we have
28:26
Speaker 1: been seeing we've been hunting near smoke flats up against
28:29
Speaker 1: that particular pinch I was talking about earlier. Um, it's
28:33
Speaker 1: got a old flat right next to the creek there
28:35
Speaker 1: and and uh, those those are coming in there, and
28:38
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's like it would be like hunting.
28:40
Speaker 1: The feet are just about uh they're coming in there
28:43
Speaker 1: and and staying there for a while in the mornings.
28:46
Speaker 1: So it's definitely something to to key in on. I
28:49
Speaker 1: think until we get a little more rain or just
28:52
Speaker 1: gets real late in the here going forward, then in
28:55
Speaker 1: this sext week or so, what do you think that
28:57
Speaker 1: bucket activity is going to be on a scale of
28:59
Speaker 1: one to ten and texts, I think that if we
29:03
Speaker 1: continue to get some pretty chilly weather, it's gonna be
29:06
Speaker 1: it's gonna be good for sure. Last year our trail
29:09
Speaker 1: camera showed late November is being one of the best
29:12
Speaker 1: times for for buck travel during daylight hours. It seemed
29:16
Speaker 1: like so um, I think with that a couple of
29:20
Speaker 1: with some cold tempts um our deer here in North
29:24
Speaker 1: these Texas a pretty thin skin. So um, they definitely
29:28
Speaker 1: like to hit the food sources. If you have any
29:30
Speaker 1: agg we've built that kind of thing. Um, definitely be
29:34
Speaker 1: close to those in the next few weeks for sure.
29:37
Speaker 1: Al Right, Tyler, good luck with what's left at the rut.
29:40
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me. Alright, thanks all right and joining
29:45
Speaker 1: us on the line. Next is John Armand from Ultimate
29:47
Speaker 1: Outdoor Adventures TV in North Dakota. Now John in North Dakota.
29:51
Speaker 1: What would you say the bucket activity has been lately
29:53
Speaker 1: on a skill of one to ten. I would say
29:56
Speaker 1: in the past week it's been added abount of five.
29:58
Speaker 1: You know what we've seen is in in the last
30:00
Speaker 1: week things have really tapered off. It seems like our
30:03
Speaker 1: rut was really kicking in hard um that November nine
30:07
Speaker 1: at that time where the deer were really going at
30:11
Speaker 1: it hard. And in this past week we were just
30:14
Speaker 1: out in Montana hunting bill beer and whitetail, and saw
30:18
Speaker 1: a very few of the buck still on doors. There
30:22
Speaker 1: was an occasional mature buck that was on a door,
30:25
Speaker 1: but for the most part, we have seen things really
30:28
Speaker 1: taper off in the last week. So how will that
30:31
Speaker 1: change your strategy going forward? What are you gonna be
30:33
Speaker 1: focusing on as we get in December. Well, for us,
30:37
Speaker 1: we've you know, we've always been we are usually rifle
30:40
Speaker 1: hunting during the rut, so um it's not as crucial
30:44
Speaker 1: for us. But now we're getting back into the bow
30:47
Speaker 1: and with the rut tapering down, all these deer are
30:51
Speaker 1: run down and the temperature I look at the forecast
30:54
Speaker 1: next week is supposed to get cold. They're going to
30:57
Speaker 1: be hitting the food sources and that's where we really
30:59
Speaker 1: can trade on. If we have any standing corn, um,
31:03
Speaker 1: sunflower or anything like that, we're gonna be sitting up on,
31:06
Speaker 1: you know, cutting them off. They're gonna be getting on
31:08
Speaker 1: their feet a lot earlier. They're gonna be moving because
31:10
Speaker 1: they have to, they have to refuel. The bucks that
31:14
Speaker 1: we have taken in the past few weeks have zero
31:17
Speaker 1: body fat on them, and that usually is the case.
31:19
Speaker 1: So we're gonna be hitting those food sources. Do you
31:22
Speaker 1: do any morning sits during that time? Absolutely, we do
31:26
Speaker 1: a lot of morning sits. This is probably one of
31:28
Speaker 1: the times we do more than in the past, just
31:32
Speaker 1: because our deer are they're staying out later. It seems
31:36
Speaker 1: like this time of year they will be hanging in
31:38
Speaker 1: those food sources and meander and their way back to
31:41
Speaker 1: the bedding area. Usually we have deer moving all the
31:45
Speaker 1: way into nine o'clock this time of year with the
31:48
Speaker 1: cold temperatures, and so with those morning sits on those
31:52
Speaker 1: corn fields or sunflower fields, are you sitting on a
31:55
Speaker 1: field edge or you're catching them somewhere between that field
31:58
Speaker 1: and the betting We do a lot in the evening.
32:00
Speaker 1: We're usually sitting up on the food sources, um, you know,
32:04
Speaker 1: waiting for them to to get to the food sources.
32:07
Speaker 1: And most of our food sources are right at the
32:10
Speaker 1: end of draws, so we're able to do that. And
32:13
Speaker 1: it seems like the deer we hunt, they go to
32:15
Speaker 1: our food sources and they keep going south into the
32:17
Speaker 1: neighbors and other food sources. So we will set up
32:21
Speaker 1: in between then um in the morning, so we'll kind
32:24
Speaker 1: of set up between two corn fields and it seems
32:26
Speaker 1: like they're um, they're never happy with the food source
32:30
Speaker 1: you have for them, and they go to the next one.
32:32
Speaker 1: So we will get set up in between them and
32:34
Speaker 1: hopefully catch them on the way back. Do you notice
32:37
Speaker 1: the change in bedding as we get into December and
32:40
Speaker 1: some of that colder weather and snow rolls and um,
32:43
Speaker 1: we do. And one of the things that has hurt
32:45
Speaker 1: us this year is our corn fields are still up.
32:48
Speaker 1: We had quite I would say six of the fields
32:50
Speaker 1: around us. We're up a lot of the deer we're
32:52
Speaker 1: bedding in the corn and um not going into the
32:56
Speaker 1: the you know, the dance cover because of UM. You know,
32:59
Speaker 1: they just feel safer there with those fields coming off
33:02
Speaker 1: and the temperature is dropping. UM. With our northwest winds
33:06
Speaker 1: coming and those little Berta clippers coming, those deer are
33:09
Speaker 1: going to be looking for those places that are out
33:11
Speaker 1: of the out of the wind. They'll be going into
33:13
Speaker 1: those coolies and draws. UM. A lot of times ours
33:16
Speaker 1: will start betting a lot closer to the food source
33:19
Speaker 1: than normal. They'll move up, you know, maybe halfway between them,
33:23
Speaker 1: just so they don't have to travel further and burn
33:26
Speaker 1: that energy they need. You just mentioned that the winds
33:30
Speaker 1: may be affecting some movement, But are there any other
33:32
Speaker 1: weather patterns or moon phases in early December that you
33:36
Speaker 1: think positively or negatively affect your movement. Well, I think
33:39
Speaker 1: it's one of those deals we've We've always said we
33:41
Speaker 1: hunt no matter when, and um, doesn't make a difference
33:44
Speaker 1: what the moon phase is because we all work full
33:47
Speaker 1: time and if it's a full moon and we have
33:50
Speaker 1: a day off, we're hunting. But it definitely makes a difference. Um,
33:53
Speaker 1: you know those deer do. It seems like no matter what,
33:56
Speaker 1: there's always those two or three days out of that
33:58
Speaker 1: month that are absolutely phenomenal. But we see more of
34:02
Speaker 1: those days. Um, the cold of the temperatures get because, um,
34:07
Speaker 1: if you're starving and you're hungry, you have to get
34:09
Speaker 1: on your feet. You gotta move and you're not gonna
34:11
Speaker 1: wait for the moon phase or the barometric pressure you're
34:14
Speaker 1: gonna go by that you need to get fuel in
34:17
Speaker 1: your system. So I think those deer will be a
34:20
Speaker 1: little bit more vulnerable all this time of year. Now
34:23
Speaker 1: we're probably about ten days or so away from that
34:26
Speaker 1: secondary rout. Is there anything that changes for you guys
34:30
Speaker 1: to to get some of that secondary rutting action. Um, No,
34:34
Speaker 1: we really don't. We don't really change any kind of tactics.
34:37
Speaker 1: We're still sitting on the food sources because if the
34:39
Speaker 1: doors are coming to the food source, the buck um
34:42
Speaker 1: is right behind them, and then you get that activity
34:45
Speaker 1: and then you can be you might be able to
34:46
Speaker 1: catch them um on their feet a little bit longer
34:50
Speaker 1: and chasing. But nothing really changes for us. We're still
34:53
Speaker 1: hunting those food sources because that dough is gonna be
34:56
Speaker 1: hitting those food sources and then she's in heat and cycle.
35:00
Speaker 1: The buck is going to be right behind her going forward.
35:03
Speaker 1: Then in this next week or so, what do you
35:04
Speaker 1: think that bucketivity is going to be on a scale
35:06
Speaker 1: of one to ten in North Dakota. I'm gonna say
35:10
Speaker 1: the bucket activity is going to be as far as
35:12
Speaker 1: rutting goes, probably in that three to four. I think
35:14
Speaker 1: you're still gonna catch that occasional one out there. But
35:17
Speaker 1: I think the deer activity is going to be good
35:19
Speaker 1: because of the colder weather and they're gonna be hitting
35:22
Speaker 1: those food sources. All right, John, Well, good luck to
35:25
Speaker 1: the north, Thanks for joining me, Thank you buddy, have
35:28
Speaker 1: a great day, and that concludes this week's episode of
35:31
Speaker 1: Wired to Haunts wrote Radio. Thanks to Alex, pat Tyler,
35:35
Speaker 1: and John for joining me, and thank you guys for listening.
35:38
Speaker 1: As always, make sure you're following Wired to Haunt on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
35:42
Speaker 1: and YouTube, and follow me at Spencer New Heart and
35:45
Speaker 1: my blog at rut Fresh on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
35:49
Speaker 1: as well. The next time I talked to you guys
35:51
Speaker 1: is going to be December, so get the long John's
35:53
Speaker 1: out and get ready for some late season, cold season haunts.
35:58
Speaker 1: Until then, stay Wired to Haunt