Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 481: Rut Fresh Radio 11/17/2021 - Hunting the Whitetail Lockdown

Transcript

Ep. 481: Rut Fresh Radio 11/17/2021 - Hunting the Whitetail Lockdown · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to Wired to hunts rut Fresh Radio, bringing you
0:05
Speaker 1: the latest reports from the White Tailed Woods and now
0:08
Speaker 1: your host, Spencer new Hearth. This is Wired to Hunt's
0:16
Speaker 1: rout Fresh Radio powered by First Light and I am
0:18
Speaker 1: your host, Spencer new Hearth. This is episode FO one
0:22
Speaker 1: and this week we're talking about the white Tail Lockdown.
0:37
Speaker 1: Welcome to Wired to Hunt's Fresh Radio. I am your host,
0:40
Speaker 1: Spencer new Hearth and back again joining us this week
0:43
Speaker 1: is Mark Kenyon. Now, the reason Mark wasn't with us
0:47
Speaker 1: last time because he was without service somewhere in Nebraska
0:51
Speaker 1: trying to kill a white tail with his bow. Mark,
0:54
Speaker 1: I'm interested to not only hear how that hunt went,
0:56
Speaker 1: but also what you witness for buck activity. So give
0:59
Speaker 1: us all, uh, give us a little preview about it. Yeah,
1:04
Speaker 1: well it was intense, you know. This is that hunt
1:07
Speaker 1: where I was going out there and trying to learn
1:10
Speaker 1: how to hunt deer in open country with like a
1:13
Speaker 1: handheld decoy, like one of those handheld silhouette heads up decoys.
1:17
Speaker 1: That's what I was using. And there's a brand new
1:20
Speaker 1: thing for me. But it was a ton of fun.
1:23
Speaker 1: I mean, something that I'm absolutely gonna want to do
1:25
Speaker 1: more in the future and a lot of good buck activity.
1:29
Speaker 1: As far as general rut activity and behavior, I saw
1:34
Speaker 1: a lot of cruising, and then I also saw a
1:37
Speaker 1: lot of kind of rut fests where you've got a
1:40
Speaker 1: buck locked on a doll, like a mature buck locked
1:43
Speaker 1: on a doll, and the three or four satellite bucks
1:46
Speaker 1: you know, surrounding them or all five of these bucks
1:49
Speaker 1: chasing that doll. I had. That happened two different days. Um,
1:53
Speaker 1: so you know, full blown rut is basically what I
1:55
Speaker 1: experienced last week, and I imagine, you know, there's gonna
1:59
Speaker 1: be more, more and more of that now as more
2:01
Speaker 1: of these bucks are locked on does. So it was
2:04
Speaker 1: definitely a fun week and great to see. After an
2:07
Speaker 1: aisle of hunt where I did not see a whole
2:09
Speaker 1: lot of rutting activity, this Nebraska strip was was kind
2:12
Speaker 1: of a perfect antidote for them. So if you had
2:15
Speaker 1: to put a label on the rutting activity that you
2:17
Speaker 1: saw in Nebraska, what would you say That phase of
2:20
Speaker 1: the rut was, Oh, gosh, we are right in that transition.
2:24
Speaker 1: I'd say between like light chasing too early lockdown like
2:28
Speaker 1: there was there was some of both happening. Um, pretty
2:31
Speaker 1: unclose like peak rutt You know, I don't know if
2:33
Speaker 1: we were at peak breeding, but peak rutting activity and
2:37
Speaker 1: and probably you know, somewhere around now would be what
2:40
Speaker 1: most people would would call peak breeding, where the largest
2:43
Speaker 1: number of dolls are being actively bred. Yeah, and you
2:47
Speaker 1: brought up lockdown, which is going to be a theme
2:50
Speaker 1: when we interview our guests this week. But I want
2:52
Speaker 1: you to talk a little bit Mark about the reality
2:55
Speaker 1: of lockdown and maybe go over like what the perception
2:59
Speaker 1: is that a lot of hunters have about lockdown versus
3:03
Speaker 1: what the reality is of lockdown and what that really
3:06
Speaker 1: means for buck movement. Yeah, so lockdown lockdown is kind
3:11
Speaker 1: of this term we use now to describe that period
3:15
Speaker 1: of time when the largest number of doughs are being bread.
3:18
Speaker 1: So if we think of the timing of breeding as
3:22
Speaker 1: as being described by a bell curve, right, So for
3:25
Speaker 1: people that don't know, the bell curve is basically imagine
3:27
Speaker 1: the graph and there's this line that starts low and
3:30
Speaker 1: it slowly rise to the top like a bell, and
3:32
Speaker 1: then it eventually drops down. That top of the bell
3:35
Speaker 1: would represent when the most doughs are being bread, which
3:38
Speaker 1: in most parts of the country is happening right around now.
3:41
Speaker 1: So we call that lockdown because when a dough is
3:44
Speaker 1: being bred, usually what happens is a buck, whatever buck
3:47
Speaker 1: has kind of one her. We'll try to corral her
3:49
Speaker 1: into some little patch cover or some weird place in
3:52
Speaker 1: the middle of a field or somewhere he can get
3:54
Speaker 1: her away from all the other deer, and he will
3:57
Speaker 1: hang out with her there for a day or two
3:59
Speaker 1: or sometimes three, uh, breeding her and keeping her around.
4:03
Speaker 1: And so people would describe as being locked down. So
4:06
Speaker 1: that's happening, and at this time there's a whole bunch
4:09
Speaker 1: of bucks that are currently locked down with the dough.
4:12
Speaker 1: That's the general, high level description of what's happening. What
4:16
Speaker 1: most hunters would tell you is that this is a
4:18
Speaker 1: really tough time to hunt because they think all the
4:21
Speaker 1: bucks are locked down, and so there's no way your
4:23
Speaker 1: and will get a deer in their feet because there,
4:25
Speaker 1: you know, in one of the little patches, they're stuck
4:27
Speaker 1: with the dough somewhere they're not moving, and you know,
4:30
Speaker 1: there is to a degree validity in that like that
4:34
Speaker 1: is happening a lot. There are a lot of bucks
4:35
Speaker 1: like that, so it can be a slower time, but
4:38
Speaker 1: it can also be a lights out time because these
4:42
Speaker 1: bucks aren't on does the entire time, right, There's always
4:44
Speaker 1: going to be a buck or two or some that
4:47
Speaker 1: lose their dough or that finished off with a doll
4:50
Speaker 1: or I'm looking for the next one, and so those
4:52
Speaker 1: in between moments can lead to chaos. There can be bucks, Jason,
4:56
Speaker 1: there can be bucks cruising, there can be all these
4:59
Speaker 1: great things happening right now. It's just gonna be a
5:01
Speaker 1: little bit more hit or miss. So I think the
5:03
Speaker 1: trick this time of year is sticking it out, and
5:07
Speaker 1: even if you have two days where it's absolutely dead,
5:10
Speaker 1: trying to keep the face because any moment now that
5:13
Speaker 1: big one could break off of his doll and he'll
5:15
Speaker 1: be right back in the game, and you need to
5:16
Speaker 1: be there too. If you've given up to the two
5:18
Speaker 1: slow days, you're gonna miss that day window when he
5:21
Speaker 1: is free and he's searching all over the place of
5:23
Speaker 1: that next deal and he's going crazy. Um. There's also
5:26
Speaker 1: a great opportunity if you spot a buck locked on
5:28
Speaker 1: a doll, and you can maybe slip in on him
5:31
Speaker 1: for lots of times. If you see a buck on
5:33
Speaker 1: a doll in a certain little patch of cover. We'll
5:35
Speaker 1: usually stick right around there for the next twenty four
5:37
Speaker 1: thirty six forty eight hours, and you can move right
5:40
Speaker 1: in there and have a kind of consistent movement of
5:44
Speaker 1: that deer. That deer might be in there tight and
5:46
Speaker 1: move around a little bit for moving the evening for
5:48
Speaker 1: a little bit, moving the afternoon, moving the morning, and
5:50
Speaker 1: if you can get right in there with him, you've
5:52
Speaker 1: got a chance. Um, if you're doing on something like
5:55
Speaker 1: I was doing last week with a head of decoy,
5:57
Speaker 1: you can move right in on that buck and present
5:59
Speaker 1: the decoys to him head on a challenging it'll come
6:02
Speaker 1: in there and try to push you off. So my
6:05
Speaker 1: cliff notes of this is that while the lockdown can
6:08
Speaker 1: be tough, it also could be you know, bananas. So
6:12
Speaker 1: so don't skip out on the out there because the
6:14
Speaker 1: ruts still happening, and when it happens, you can get
6:17
Speaker 1: really hot and heavy fast. Yeah. I think you said
6:19
Speaker 1: it best at the end there that like you should
6:22
Speaker 1: still be in the woods. This time of years, still
6:23
Speaker 1: great time to kill a mature buck and it doesn't
6:26
Speaker 1: happen where it's like a mature buck has a dough
6:29
Speaker 1: corral for like November and sixteenth, and then November seventeenth,
6:33
Speaker 1: he goes right into post route where he's nocturnal. Again,
6:36
Speaker 1: he only cares about food sources. It's not like one
6:40
Speaker 1: like phase ends or breeding happens, and then it's right
6:42
Speaker 1: to post route for him that there's still gonna be
6:44
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of movement out there in the
6:47
Speaker 1: woods that hunters can capitalize on. And again the lockdown
6:50
Speaker 1: thing and breeding is something you're gonna hear from the
6:52
Speaker 1: rest of our guests this weekend. And the reading materials
6:55
Speaker 1: for this week which you can find the description of
6:57
Speaker 1: this episode. If you're on like Spotify, I scroll down
7:01
Speaker 1: or I Heart or iTunes, you're gonna find these articles
7:03
Speaker 1: linked below. How to e scout for the Rout by
7:06
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. Tony talks about how to use aerial imagery
7:09
Speaker 1: to kill a buck in November, like what he did
7:11
Speaker 1: in episode one of One Week in November, which is
7:14
Speaker 1: out on YouTube right now. And then we have what
7:16
Speaker 1: I've learned watching Do You Have Sex? From You? Mark Kenyon.
7:20
Speaker 1: Mark covers how witnessing white tails breed informed his perspective
7:24
Speaker 1: on hunting in mid November, and then we have how
7:27
Speaker 1: to pull off I Like It I like it. And
7:30
Speaker 1: then we have how to pull off and almost all
7:32
Speaker 1: day rot Haunt by Tony Hanson. Hanson goes over history
7:35
Speaker 1: rategy for staying in the woods as much as possible
7:38
Speaker 1: this time of year, and then we have what is
7:40
Speaker 1: the white Tail Lockdown? By Mark Kenyon. Mark looks at
7:43
Speaker 1: the reality of the white tail lockdown and why it
7:45
Speaker 1: shouldn't be a phase of the rod that keeps you
7:48
Speaker 1: out of the woods. Mark, What is next for you?
7:52
Speaker 1: I feel like every time I talk to you, you're
7:54
Speaker 1: you're in a new state doing a new haunt. What
7:56
Speaker 1: is next for you on the agenda? Yeah, Man, I
7:59
Speaker 1: leave in a day and a half for Maine, and
8:04
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be hunting up in northern Maine learning how
8:07
Speaker 1: to track here in the snow with hell blood. So
8:12
Speaker 1: it's gonna be super interesting. My biggest wildcover right now
8:16
Speaker 1: is that there's not necessarily snow in the forecast. So
8:19
Speaker 1: if we don't get snow, it's gonna be it's gonna
8:21
Speaker 1: be a real doozy. Some cross my fingers and toes
8:23
Speaker 1: that we get the pre set that we need and
8:27
Speaker 1: I can get a good opportunity out there to at
8:29
Speaker 1: least learn this really interesting style of hunting. That's that's
8:33
Speaker 1: what I got. And what about Michigan? Did you forget
8:35
Speaker 1: about Michigan this year? And Man, this year? This year
8:40
Speaker 1: because of the crazy slate of travel I have, Michigan's
8:43
Speaker 1: pretty much been put on the back burn. Um. I
8:45
Speaker 1: might get a few hunts in December. Um, but you know,
8:49
Speaker 1: I'm just home for a few days at the time,
8:50
Speaker 1: so mostly just trying to spend it with a family
8:53
Speaker 1: and be a dad when I can. So the Michigan
8:56
Speaker 1: Bucks are kind of getting the free passes here, all right, Man,
8:59
Speaker 1: Well they won't get the same treatment next year, I imagine,
9:02
Speaker 1: and I look forward to hearing how the main hunt went.
9:05
Speaker 1: Talk to you next week, Mark, sounds good, Thanks Man, alright,
9:10
Speaker 1: And joining us on the line next is Alex Gilstrom,
9:12
Speaker 1: who's writing you can find on Wired Hunt's website in Illinois. Now,
9:16
Speaker 1: Alex in Illinois, what would you say the buck activity
9:19
Speaker 1: has been lately on a scale of one to ten.
9:23
Speaker 1: The lately, I'd say in the last week it's been
9:24
Speaker 1: pretty close to about of six. Um. Kind of unfortunate really,
9:29
Speaker 1: It's it's been we had a really timely cold front
9:32
Speaker 1: of the movement's just been kind of slow overall. We
9:33
Speaker 1: had a timely cold front move in last week and
9:37
Speaker 1: just a few days ago, but it was accompanied by
9:39
Speaker 1: really high wind. So the wind speed was high, you know,
9:41
Speaker 1: Lett we're up round twenty miles so pretty was pretty sustaining,
9:45
Speaker 1: and it was a south wind, and it was had
9:47
Speaker 1: a lot of swirling in it, gusting, and it just
9:50
Speaker 1: seemed to I don't know if it necessarily subdued the
9:52
Speaker 1: deer movement, it just the deer just didn't move very well. Um.
9:56
Speaker 1: I didn't see a lot of daylight activity much at all,
9:59
Speaker 1: especially when it come the running activity. Not much chasing
10:01
Speaker 1: or seeking. I think we meant me in a little
10:03
Speaker 1: bit of a lockdown phase, but it's just, uh, yeah,
10:06
Speaker 1: it hasn't been real great so far. So where do
10:10
Speaker 1: you want to be running your trail cameras this time
10:12
Speaker 1: of year. I've always had the best success during you know,
10:15
Speaker 1: the first couple of weeks in November and and even
10:17
Speaker 1: phasing into two you know, kind of later into the month. Um.
10:21
Speaker 1: I'm a really big fan of just really kind of thick, thick,
10:25
Speaker 1: tight security cover for betting and security cover for transitions,
10:29
Speaker 1: So thick cover that can be transition zones between the
10:33
Speaker 1: dough betting areas, UM downward sides of betting areas, anything
10:37
Speaker 1: like that. I think that's that's where I've seen and
10:39
Speaker 1: had the best luck of maximum you know, getting not
10:41
Speaker 1: just good pictures of bucks in the area, bucks moving
10:44
Speaker 1: in um or bucks that have kind of like is
10:46
Speaker 1: in there within their home range, but also daylight pictures
10:49
Speaker 1: as well, so you can get kind of a little
10:50
Speaker 1: bit better idea of you know, or is this is
10:53
Speaker 1: this based on the bucks cruising circuit when they're moving
10:57
Speaker 1: and traveling. Is it more on their morning side or
10:59
Speaker 1: their evening side. You can kind of assess that a
11:01
Speaker 1: little better. So I'm a big fan of betting areas
11:03
Speaker 1: this time of year. What have you been seeing for
11:06
Speaker 1: signmaking as of late? Not a ton. I haven't seen
11:10
Speaker 1: a lot um of course, you know, in the first
11:12
Speaker 1: week in November. First week in November was a lot more.
11:15
Speaker 1: But they've kind of seemed to move off of the
11:17
Speaker 1: signmaking scrapes are getting covered up by leaf drop and
11:20
Speaker 1: leaf fall. Um. There's still some some scrapes opening up
11:24
Speaker 1: in some from fresh rubs, but um, it seems like
11:27
Speaker 1: we're in the kind of the stage right now. Where
11:29
Speaker 1: they're really focused on just finding the doughs, blocking you know,
11:32
Speaker 1: breeding the doughs and getting into that that lockdown period
11:35
Speaker 1: or there where that where it really gets aggressive and
11:37
Speaker 1: that kind of are leaving the chap, the scrape checking
11:41
Speaker 1: and things like that away. I'm not seeing a lot
11:43
Speaker 1: of fresh sign pop up recently. What food sources are
11:46
Speaker 1: relevant right now for deer hunters in Illinois? And what
11:49
Speaker 1: is the crop harvest status in your state? So the
11:53
Speaker 1: crops are out for the most part here in western Illinois,
11:56
Speaker 1: where west central Illinois where I'm at, Um, it's I
11:59
Speaker 1: mean it's it's God's country as far as corn beans
12:03
Speaker 1: and agriculture, so they you know, they don't let the
12:06
Speaker 1: crops stay in the field much longer than they have to.
12:08
Speaker 1: So by now, Um, we had some some late rains
12:12
Speaker 1: and stuff like that maybe held a few things up,
12:13
Speaker 1: but all the beans and corn fields have been harvested
12:16
Speaker 1: by this point for for the most part, I mean
12:17
Speaker 1: except maybe just one or two, just one offs here
12:20
Speaker 1: and there, but um, so that's been good. And then
12:22
Speaker 1: and then now they're really shifting. So we've had a
12:24
Speaker 1: couple of really good hard frosts, some colder weather come in,
12:27
Speaker 1: so it really seemed to be shifted to the grain.
12:29
Speaker 1: The oak ridges are still pretty hot. I'm seeing still
12:33
Speaker 1: quite a bit of dough activity, feeding and things like
12:35
Speaker 1: that happening on the oak ridges as well. So if
12:37
Speaker 1: you have acorns, um, it can be pretty timely right
12:40
Speaker 1: now for that as well. But but it seems like
12:42
Speaker 1: they're really kind of shifting to the grain for pretty
12:44
Speaker 1: pretty pretty good right now. Historically, do you do any
12:48
Speaker 1: calling or decoying in Illinois in mid November? You know,
12:52
Speaker 1: not really a whole lot in Illinois. I had a
12:54
Speaker 1: lot of public actually exclusively public ground in Illinois for
12:56
Speaker 1: the last couple of years, and um, I'll do some grunting.
13:00
Speaker 1: I don't really rattle a whole lot, just because on
13:02
Speaker 1: public it's just so competitive. But UM, I have had
13:05
Speaker 1: some luck with some tending grounds close to bedding or
13:08
Speaker 1: thick security cover, especially if I can see the year
13:11
Speaker 1: that I want to call to and watch his body
13:13
Speaker 1: language and read it, um and just kind of attract
13:15
Speaker 1: and call into that a little bit more so so
13:18
Speaker 1: I will I will I always haven't gun call with
13:20
Speaker 1: me and do some light running, but um, outside of that,
13:23
Speaker 1: I don't do a whole lot, a whole lot of
13:24
Speaker 1: calling myself right at this kind going forward then in
13:28
Speaker 1: this next week or so, what do you think that
13:29
Speaker 1: BUCKETTV is going to be on a scale of one
13:31
Speaker 1: to ten in Illinois? Gotta be optimistic, it's gotta just
13:35
Speaker 1: bust loose and and some of the spots that I hunt.
13:38
Speaker 1: Um now, so I'm thinking I'm gonna I'm thinking it's
13:41
Speaker 1: with the weather looking ahead, the um hoping enough, you know,
13:44
Speaker 1: if there was some some some of the more mature
13:46
Speaker 1: bucks and lockdown, they're coming off their doors. They're looking
13:48
Speaker 1: for that next one's kind of um expanding their search
13:50
Speaker 1: a little bit out of their core. So I'm gonna
13:53
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give it an eight. I'm gonna say, we're
13:54
Speaker 1: gonna we're gonna move from that six to that eight
13:56
Speaker 1: and and be good to go. All right, Alex, I
13:59
Speaker 1: like the optimism, luck with your haunts. Thanks for joining me,
14:02
Speaker 1: Thanks all right and joining us on the line. Next
14:04
Speaker 1: is Wade Middleton from White Tail Diaries in Texas. Now,
14:08
Speaker 1: Wade in Texas, what would you say the buck activity
14:10
Speaker 1: has been lately on a scale of one to ten.
14:14
Speaker 1: I think it's about a six, depending on where you are. Statewide. Uh,
14:18
Speaker 1: in the central part of the state. Man, the Reds
14:20
Speaker 1: are actually going on to fantastic correct now. Everybody I
14:24
Speaker 1: talked to said the Jason does I'm seeing there? You know,
14:27
Speaker 1: Buck Stason does that there? You may have to go
14:29
Speaker 1: eight in that part that when you get down south
14:31
Speaker 1: southwest or we spent a lot of the last ten
14:34
Speaker 1: days it's been kind of hot, a lot of late
14:36
Speaker 1: afternoon here, you know, showing up right at last night.
14:40
Speaker 1: Give that about a six for for that part. But
14:43
Speaker 1: at all that the hunting has been. So what phase
14:48
Speaker 1: of the route would you say? Sort of northern Texas
14:51
Speaker 1: and southern Texas are in right now, you know that
14:54
Speaker 1: central northern part. There's no doubt the Reds going on
14:57
Speaker 1: from San Antonio north through Austin, going on the way
15:00
Speaker 1: up north from there. I mean, Bucks have the most
15:03
Speaker 1: to the ground there doing what we all like, showing
15:07
Speaker 1: up any word at any time when you go southwest
15:10
Speaker 1: towards Del Rio, or you go south of San Antonio,
15:13
Speaker 1: we're still a couple of ways and a couple of
15:16
Speaker 1: weeks away from seeing that road that to you picked
15:19
Speaker 1: up there. Wait, I know you said earlier this year
15:21
Speaker 1: in February that you had a freeze event that's been
15:24
Speaker 1: one of the most extreme you've witnessed in southern Texas.
15:27
Speaker 1: Is that something that you've seen impact hunting this fall? Absolutely,
15:32
Speaker 1: that freeze was empty because it reached down the way
15:35
Speaker 1: to the Texas Coach you know, caused big fish kills
15:38
Speaker 1: down there, I mean eat backs, as hers. You know,
15:42
Speaker 1: a lot of fleas are burned and got fast fact
15:44
Speaker 1: black better word, while they were developing. And as such,
15:48
Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of the accorn, a lot
15:50
Speaker 1: of the mass crops seemed to be stunned. A lot
15:52
Speaker 1: of the acorns that I'm seeing it at various places
15:55
Speaker 1: this year really small, about the smaller than the size
15:58
Speaker 1: of your pinky dale. And so therefore it seems like
16:01
Speaker 1: to me that deer have been searching far and wide
16:04
Speaker 1: for you know, corn corn feeders Texas the famous form,
16:08
Speaker 1: and more deer showing up around feeders this year earlier
16:12
Speaker 1: than than ever. So if you notice that February freeze
16:16
Speaker 1: impact bedding at all, since the deer tend to want
16:18
Speaker 1: to be around the feeders more, do you notice the
16:20
Speaker 1: shifting bedding in mid November than what you've seen in
16:22
Speaker 1: the past. Yeah, the the traditional patterns seem to have
16:27
Speaker 1: gotten back to normal. Um, it just seems that, you know,
16:30
Speaker 1: like I said, a lot of the normal mass crops
16:32
Speaker 1: that we have are just a little smaller. The other thing,
16:35
Speaker 1: I noticed that we had a mild spring, we had
16:38
Speaker 1: a mild summer. I mean, hundred pery temperatures were far
16:41
Speaker 1: less issue we've ever had. Antler development is sobomenal along
16:45
Speaker 1: a lot of the places that we've been. You know,
16:46
Speaker 1: look at the sting cameras and hunting Texas. So it's
16:50
Speaker 1: really it's just been a different year because of the
16:53
Speaker 1: mass crops and a lot of guys that you know,
16:55
Speaker 1: relying on hunting by a feeder. Uh, they're all like, man,
16:59
Speaker 1: we're seeing more deer than what you're past in mid
17:02
Speaker 1: November in southern Texas. Is water factor into your setups
17:05
Speaker 1: at all? It does? You know, we're pretty dry in
17:09
Speaker 1: the southwest part of Texas. We've had good rain in
17:12
Speaker 1: other parts of Texas, but this year they've got that
17:15
Speaker 1: Luninia is like college set up out there in the
17:17
Speaker 1: delf And, and so we don't get as much rain.
17:20
Speaker 1: They don't get a lot of runoff, they don't have
17:22
Speaker 1: those big storms, and you know, I hunted up in
17:24
Speaker 1: Brownwood area early in October. I just we've spent a
17:27
Speaker 1: lot of time around del Rio and surface water sources
17:30
Speaker 1: are pretty limited. And if if you've got surface water
17:33
Speaker 1: and you go look around the edge of those ponds,
17:35
Speaker 1: you're gonna find tracks and you're gonna see activity. I know,
17:38
Speaker 1: way that you like to do some rattling this time
17:40
Speaker 1: of year, tell us what those setups look like, and
17:43
Speaker 1: when you have a successful one, what maybe the those
17:46
Speaker 1: areas have in common when you do get a buck
17:48
Speaker 1: to respond. You know, for me, rattling, that's that is
17:52
Speaker 1: one of my biggest fashions. But I kind of read
17:55
Speaker 1: the conditions. Am I seeing a lot of scrapes and
17:57
Speaker 1: when I've seen dear mateing in my you know, chasing
18:00
Speaker 1: those at the in the middle of the day, let's
18:02
Speaker 1: seeing buck rudding sign then I kind of determine how
18:05
Speaker 1: loud and aggressive that I that I want to be.
18:08
Speaker 1: Right now, if I was in the hill country part
18:10
Speaker 1: of Texas going up north, I would I would bang
18:13
Speaker 1: those antlers pretty aggressively. You to try to you know,
18:16
Speaker 1: literally something in you know, from sunrise up to about
18:19
Speaker 1: two o'clock. I have good success down south roout, no
18:22
Speaker 1: rout southwest. If I'm gonna round them, it's kind of
18:25
Speaker 1: a light tickle. Um, you know, I'm just just trying
18:28
Speaker 1: to make enough noise. That's something that's trolling on the east.
18:31
Speaker 1: Might change direction and come our come our way. But
18:33
Speaker 1: two weeks from now I'll be banging them pretty hard
18:37
Speaker 1: going forward. Then, in this next week or so, what
18:39
Speaker 1: do you think that bucket activity is going to be
18:41
Speaker 1: on a scale of one to ten in Texas? Texas?
18:45
Speaker 1: I mean it's fixing to blow up everywhere. I would
18:48
Speaker 1: say we've got a cold coming through. I believe Thursday
18:52
Speaker 1: of this week, I think gonna get back mild statewide.
18:55
Speaker 1: We've got a little moist in a few places, and
18:58
Speaker 1: always like that this time of the year. I think
19:00
Speaker 1: the eight statewise, I think it's about to break loose.
19:04
Speaker 1: All right, Wade, good luck to you and everyone else
19:06
Speaker 1: from White Tailed Diaries. Thanks for joining me. Thanks Panters
19:11
Speaker 1: all right in joining us on the line. Next is
19:13
Speaker 1: Brian Christner from Knock and Release in Kentucky. Now, Brian
19:17
Speaker 1: in Kentucky, what would you say the buck activity has
19:19
Speaker 1: been lately on a scale of one to ten? Lately?
19:22
Speaker 1: With our trip, we would say it was a good stick.
19:25
Speaker 1: We started off our trip on the nine of November
19:29
Speaker 1: and we were seeing you know, just our our regular
19:33
Speaker 1: you know guys on the on the property with with
19:37
Speaker 1: the activity and everything in does um, but we're seeing
19:40
Speaker 1: a lot of activity at night, so a lot our
19:43
Speaker 1: daytime pictures. Our daytime activity wasn't the greatest. And then
19:48
Speaker 1: we started rolling into the about the eleventh in the
19:50
Speaker 1: twelve we uh, we started seeing those young bucks chasing
19:55
Speaker 1: pretty good. Um. I saw a couple of nice mature
19:59
Speaker 1: bucks on that the tent actually that morning and uh,
20:05
Speaker 1: it was yeah, I'd say it was a it was
20:07
Speaker 1: a solid stix. And then near that opening Gune weekend,
20:12
Speaker 1: we started rolling into the seven and eight range, um
20:16
Speaker 1: with the bucks more on their feet cruising looking for
20:18
Speaker 1: those um. But yeah, it was it was. It was
20:23
Speaker 1: a good six at the beginning of the week and
20:26
Speaker 1: near the end of this last week, I would say
20:28
Speaker 1: it was a seven and an eight. Just now, you
20:32
Speaker 1: just killed a great buck in Kentucky over the weekend.
20:34
Speaker 1: Tell us about that set up, why you were in
20:36
Speaker 1: that spot, and why that buck wanted to be there.
20:38
Speaker 1: So that spot was it was on top of a ridge, Um,
20:42
Speaker 1: it was a great spot. It was actually just in
20:44
Speaker 1: a leaner, uh, just a double sleated leaner fiftet in
20:48
Speaker 1: the air and uh it kind of looked down into
20:51
Speaker 1: a like a like a natural bottleneck almost to where
20:56
Speaker 1: those deer traveled. That bottleneck pretty hard and it was
21:00
Speaker 1: by a hundred yards from bettings, so we knew the
21:02
Speaker 1: deer traveled through. They're pretty good so and you know,
21:06
Speaker 1: with all the podcasts we listened to, you know, everyone
21:08
Speaker 1: always says, you know that first light when you can,
21:11
Speaker 1: if you can grunt, if you can grunt, and you see,
21:13
Speaker 1: you know, I have good light grunt. You know, tried
21:16
Speaker 1: pulling those deer in um. If a buck's cruising by,
21:20
Speaker 1: they're gonna hear it. And that's exactly how that set
21:22
Speaker 1: up went for me. I took that to heart and
21:24
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm gonna I'm gonna try this like everyone says.
21:28
Speaker 1: And I did it. It was right around six thirty.
21:30
Speaker 1: I started running and uh, within five minutes, I had
21:36
Speaker 1: that buck. I I saw him about a hundred yards
21:39
Speaker 1: out through the woods down that bottleneck and he literally
21:42
Speaker 1: pinpointed me and walked six yards from the bottom of
21:47
Speaker 1: my stands um. So it was It was a well
21:51
Speaker 1: traveled area. Betting was nearby, so the dos were nearby,
21:55
Speaker 1: and the bucks knew, you know, the dose were there,
21:58
Speaker 1: and we kind of had an idea everything was at too,
22:00
Speaker 1: so it worked out really well for us. UM. But yeah,
22:04
Speaker 1: it was It was an awesome experience to see that
22:06
Speaker 1: buck so close and he came straight up to the
22:09
Speaker 1: bottom of my stand, grunning and searching. He knew something
22:13
Speaker 1: was nearby, and I just made a mistake and came
22:16
Speaker 1: to me, where do you want to be running a
22:18
Speaker 1: lot of your trail cameras this time of year in Kentucky?
22:21
Speaker 1: In Kentucky, where we were at, we were running. Um.
22:24
Speaker 1: We we had him on food sources, of course, but
22:27
Speaker 1: we we sat the woods. Um. We really dedicated ourselves
22:30
Speaker 1: to the woods near bedding, hardwood, thick areas. The area
22:35
Speaker 1: I was hunting was pretty thick um with basically off
22:40
Speaker 1: a little cut you you know, as about as white
22:43
Speaker 1: as us. You know, a small car could go down.
22:46
Speaker 1: And that's where I hunted in that area. UM, And
22:50
Speaker 1: so where I had we had all our trail cameras.
22:54
Speaker 1: We were running about eight trail cameras this last week
22:58
Speaker 1: and we were checking read them religiously. We had a
23:02
Speaker 1: couple of cell phone cameras, so that was a huge
23:05
Speaker 1: help because we knew exactly what was going on NonStop
23:07
Speaker 1: in those areas. UM. So we we concentrated very very
23:11
Speaker 1: heavily on on trails in the woods. What have you
23:14
Speaker 1: been seeing for signmaking as of late? So that that
23:18
Speaker 1: was a big We were pretty disappointed actually, Uh come
23:22
Speaker 1: the end of October. We have a nice road cut
23:25
Speaker 1: through there, and and plenty of areas where these you
23:27
Speaker 1: know overhanging tree you know, little limbs and everything where
23:30
Speaker 1: you see that sign all the time, rubs and scrapes
23:33
Speaker 1: and and we just weren't seeing that well here this
23:36
Speaker 1: last week we saw a lot of that happening. We
23:41
Speaker 1: saw bucks making rubs, We saw bucks making scrapes and
23:45
Speaker 1: hitting those spots, especially after it rained this past thursday
23:49
Speaker 1: up there in Kentucky. I think the entire state, the
23:52
Speaker 1: whole Midwest got that band going through them. That's what
23:55
Speaker 1: brought that big front and and U which really started
23:58
Speaker 1: that activity. But and that's when they were freshening up
24:02
Speaker 1: those scrapes and freshening up those rubs. Um. But we
24:06
Speaker 1: saw that a lot this last week Going forward, then
24:09
Speaker 1: in the next week or so, what do you think
24:11
Speaker 1: that bucket activity is going to be on a scale
24:13
Speaker 1: of one to ten in Kentucky one to ten. I
24:17
Speaker 1: think this weekend is gonna be a nine. Honestly, I
24:21
Speaker 1: think it's it's just gonna get fired up. It's when
24:23
Speaker 1: we left, you could actually already tell the bucks were
24:27
Speaker 1: on their feet more in daylight, according to our pictures
24:29
Speaker 1: that we were getting. And then um and it just
24:34
Speaker 1: you know, according to you know, other podcasts and those
24:38
Speaker 1: things we listened to and pay attention to, and the
24:41
Speaker 1: hunt casts and everything, it looks like Friday is gonna
24:45
Speaker 1: be an awesome day to be in the woods. For sure.
24:48
Speaker 1: Friday and this Saturday, it just looks really really good.
24:52
Speaker 1: Um So I would be in the woods definitely, if
24:54
Speaker 1: I wasn't taged out, all right, I would be out
24:56
Speaker 1: there again. So all right, Brian, congrats on that great
24:59
Speaker 1: buck he killed. Thanks of joining me, Ye, thank you,
25:04
Speaker 1: all right and joining us on the line. Next is
25:05
Speaker 1: Nick Kravitz from Flat Line, White Tails in Pennsylvania. Now
25:09
Speaker 1: Nick in Pennsylvania, what would you say the buck activity
25:11
Speaker 1: has been lately on a scale of one to ten,
25:15
Speaker 1: I'd say this week it's probably gone upwards of seven
25:19
Speaker 1: eight maybe nine. I mean, it's getting colder this week,
25:23
Speaker 1: is why. I would say that it kind of warmed
25:25
Speaker 1: up there the week before and now it's dropped back
25:28
Speaker 1: down again and we actually got some snow recently, so
25:31
Speaker 1: I think that things have been on their feet more.
25:34
Speaker 1: And I mean I've seen all my buddies are really
25:36
Speaker 1: getting the mature deer on the ground right now, so
25:38
Speaker 1: I think it's really ramped things up. Your brother kill
25:41
Speaker 1: a great buck over this last weekend. Tell us about
25:44
Speaker 1: that set up. Why was he in that area and
25:46
Speaker 1: why was that buck in that area? Well, that area
25:49
Speaker 1: in particular actually is a turn up plot. So there's
25:52
Speaker 1: a good food source. They're off of a thick bedding,
25:55
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of doughs hanging out in that
25:57
Speaker 1: food and there's also what a few bucks in that area,
26:01
Speaker 1: So that buck I think came out looking for the
26:04
Speaker 1: does and they were feeding and that just it kind
26:06
Speaker 1: of worked perfectly in that situation. What would you label
26:10
Speaker 1: this phase is the rod as in Pennsylvania? Oh Man,
26:14
Speaker 1: I would say at this point, they're definitely, like, I mean,
26:19
Speaker 1: they're beyond lockdown at this point there. I don't know.
26:22
Speaker 1: It's hard to say, but they're definitely locked on the doughs.
26:26
Speaker 1: I actually was hunting with my buddy Billy there and
26:29
Speaker 1: we watched him breed a dough, and after he bred
26:32
Speaker 1: that dough, he just kind of moved on. You know,
26:35
Speaker 1: where are you running a lot of your trail cameers
26:37
Speaker 1: at this time of year? Well, right now, we kind
26:40
Speaker 1: of have them in some different spots. I have a
26:42
Speaker 1: bunch of mine on like the transitions like pinch points
26:46
Speaker 1: um in the thickets there when they're moving from betting
26:50
Speaker 1: areas to food source and that seems to be working
26:53
Speaker 1: out good. We have some nice pictures of books in
26:58
Speaker 1: these transitions of these betting area is that we're getting
27:00
Speaker 1: a lot of daylight pictures. Actually, most of the pictures
27:03
Speaker 1: I've been getting, I've been at like eleven am and
27:07
Speaker 1: two pm is when we're getting a lot of them.
27:09
Speaker 1: The sture bucks on camera at the moment you mentioned
27:12
Speaker 1: that your brother's buck was killed on a turnip plot.
27:15
Speaker 1: What other food sources are relevant right now for deer
27:17
Speaker 1: hunters in Pennsylvania. Well, when my buddy and I saw
27:22
Speaker 1: that fuck breed a dough, actually all the doughs and
27:25
Speaker 1: a lot of the little bucks are coming out and
27:27
Speaker 1: they're feeding in that soybean field there where we were hunting,
27:30
Speaker 1: So that's where we were kind of seeing a lot
27:32
Speaker 1: of the activity, a lot of doughs coming into those
27:34
Speaker 1: soybeans right now. Um, I haven't hunted much of the corn,
27:38
Speaker 1: so I can't speak for that myself, but I know
27:41
Speaker 1: they were definitely hitting the soybeans hard and obviously the
27:44
Speaker 1: turn up plot there that Tyler was hunting. What have
27:47
Speaker 1: you seen for signmaking as of late, Well, there's been
27:50
Speaker 1: a lot of weathers as far as rain and whatnot,
27:53
Speaker 1: so here and there they're freshening up the scrapes, but
27:57
Speaker 1: it seems like they're more worried about the does this point.
28:00
Speaker 1: I see a lot. Even in my yard when I'm
28:02
Speaker 1: coming home, there's a buck with the dough almost every
28:05
Speaker 1: night in there. So it seems like they're more focused
28:08
Speaker 1: on just going after the dose at the moment. But
28:11
Speaker 1: they are still hitting the scrapes periodically as far as
28:13
Speaker 1: I'm seeing some of my cameras, they're set up on them,
28:17
Speaker 1: But um, I think it's more hunt the does at
28:21
Speaker 1: the moment as far as that goes. In mid November,
28:23
Speaker 1: are you doing any calling or decoying in Pennsylvania. I
28:26
Speaker 1: personally don't use a decoy myself, but we are seeing
28:30
Speaker 1: some response. We saw some response all this coming this
28:33
Speaker 1: past week here to the grunt calls. Um, they seem
28:36
Speaker 1: to be coming in getting defensive about it. And uh,
28:40
Speaker 1: it's definitely stirring up some activity as far as we've
28:43
Speaker 1: seen going forward. Then in this next week or so,
28:46
Speaker 1: what do you think that bucket activity is going to
28:48
Speaker 1: be on a scale of one to ten in Pennsylvania.
28:51
Speaker 1: I think it will pick up to an eight or
28:53
Speaker 1: a nine personally, just because it's it's cold weather now,
28:56
Speaker 1: it's sticking around, and I think that's really got things
29:00
Speaker 1: really moving. Um. And I mean one other thing I
29:04
Speaker 1: would have to say would be where my cousin Jagger
29:07
Speaker 1: shot his buck was over a water source there and
29:11
Speaker 1: that buck that he particularly shot the his goal was
29:15
Speaker 1: to come in and drink that water and just move on,
29:17
Speaker 1: but he didn't make it far because jaggering out before
29:19
Speaker 1: he could leave. So the water seemed to be good
29:22
Speaker 1: there too. All right, Nick, good luck to you and
29:24
Speaker 1: the boys from Flat Line White Tails. Thanks for joining me. Yeah,
29:27
Speaker 1: take care. And that concludes this week's episode of Wired
29:32
Speaker 1: to Hunt's Rout Fresh Radio. Thanks to Alex Wade, Brian
29:36
Speaker 1: and Nick for joining me, and thank you guys for listening.
29:38
Speaker 1: As a reminder, this week's reading materials can be found
29:41
Speaker 1: in the description of the episode. You're gonna see articles
29:44
Speaker 1: like how to eat scout the rut, what I've learned
29:46
Speaker 1: watching deer have sex, how to pull off and almost
29:50
Speaker 1: all day rutt haunt, and what is the white tail Lockdown?
29:53
Speaker 1: And as another reminder, the first episode of One Week
29:56
Speaker 1: in November is now available on Meat Eaters YouTube channel,
30:00
Speaker 1: with new episodes dropping every single Tuesday from now until
30:03
Speaker 1: the end of the year. This week's episode, though the
30:06
Speaker 1: first episode, is especially exciting because Tony Peterson drops the
30:09
Speaker 1: hammer on a giant four by four that you're gonna
30:12
Speaker 1: want to see. It was an exciting episode to make.
30:15
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be an exciting episode to
30:16
Speaker 1: watch and we'll talk to you next week, but until then,
30:20
Speaker 1: stay Wired to Hunt.