Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 320: Rut Fresh Radio 11/27/19

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Ep. 320: Rut Fresh Radio 11/27/19 · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:03
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,
0:12
Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm
0:16
Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan, and this is episode number three
0:19
Speaker 1: and twenty in. Today in the show, we are here
0:21
Speaker 1: for another rut Fresh radio episode in which we're getting
0:25
Speaker 1: you intel from across the country on the latest deer activity,
0:29
Speaker 1: conditions that are impacting deer and the tactics that are
0:32
Speaker 1: working right now. All right, welcome to another episode of
0:45
Speaker 1: the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by on X,
0:49
Speaker 1: and we've got another one of our weekly rut Fresh
0:53
Speaker 1: radio episodes with myself and Spencer new Hearth, in which
0:57
Speaker 1: we are talking about and hearing from a right of
1:00
Speaker 1: hunters on the progress of the white Tail Rut, on
1:04
Speaker 1: current deer activity, on how current conditions are impacting deer activity,
1:09
Speaker 1: and then what the heck we can be doing as
1:11
Speaker 1: hunters to try to fill a tag over the next
1:15
Speaker 1: seven days. That is what we're doing here today. Spencer
1:19
Speaker 1: is the man, the myth, the legend who's chatting with
1:22
Speaker 1: all these hunters and getting that intel. What do we
1:25
Speaker 1: got this week? Spencer? Do we have something to look
1:28
Speaker 1: forward to. Yeah. Um, it's it's exciting, but it's also
1:31
Speaker 1: kind of sad because I think these next couple episodes
1:33
Speaker 1: are going to be like the end of sort of
1:35
Speaker 1: the rut talk in our Rut Fresh radio series. We're
1:40
Speaker 1: now at the end of November, We're coming up on
1:41
Speaker 1: next Giving. And you know, once you get beyond that,
1:44
Speaker 1: like those first five to ten days in November, you
1:47
Speaker 1: still get that second verse of like secondary rut, and
1:49
Speaker 1: then that's kind of it if you are a deer hunter,
1:54
Speaker 1: um and Mark, you actually had some success last year
1:57
Speaker 1: hunting that secondary rut, right, Yeah, And it's something that
2:02
Speaker 1: you know, I had heard about a lot over the
2:04
Speaker 1: previous years. I've heard people talk about the fact that, yes,
2:07
Speaker 1: you can get this quote unquote second rut um, but
2:11
Speaker 1: I've never seen it. Basically, the gist of what happens
2:14
Speaker 1: is that typically they'll be in a in a healthy
2:17
Speaker 1: deer population where you have fawns that are healthy, well fed,
2:22
Speaker 1: and on track with the maturity. You'll get some funds
2:26
Speaker 1: that reach sexual maturity by about one month after the
2:30
Speaker 1: rest of the deer coming to heat. So if let's
2:33
Speaker 1: say the peak of running activity for a lot of
2:36
Speaker 1: folks across the Midwest is you know you're seeing that
2:38
Speaker 1: activity in early November give or take. Well, then about
2:41
Speaker 1: a month later you might get some of these healthy fawns,
2:44
Speaker 1: female fawnds coming into Estra's early December. And that doesn't
2:50
Speaker 1: happen a ton. It doesn't happen nearly as consistently as
2:54
Speaker 1: you'll see obviously in November. But it is something that
2:57
Speaker 1: people do see on occasion, and that if you are
3:01
Speaker 1: keeping an eye out for it, you can take advantage
3:03
Speaker 1: of it. So that's what happened for me last year.
3:06
Speaker 1: I wasn't counting on anything like this to happen, but
3:09
Speaker 1: I was hunting that big buck. Frank you probably remember
3:11
Speaker 1: that ten point I was honey in Michigan, and I
3:14
Speaker 1: was hoping he had made it through guns season. So
3:16
Speaker 1: I was frequently glassing this property from this hillside. I've
3:21
Speaker 1: got this great view of things that I'm always using,
3:24
Speaker 1: and I went out there one morning and was able
3:26
Speaker 1: to get an eye on this buck. On the morning
3:29
Speaker 1: of I think it was December six or December seven, summer,
3:32
Speaker 1: right in that ballpark. I saw him out there locked
3:35
Speaker 1: on a dough, and I saw other bucks circling around him,
3:39
Speaker 1: and they were trying to come in he was, he
3:40
Speaker 1: was running him off, and you could just see he
3:43
Speaker 1: even he even sparred with another buck for a little bit.
3:46
Speaker 1: You could just tell there was a hot dough like
3:48
Speaker 1: it looked like it was November five, but it was
3:50
Speaker 1: December six or seventh or whatever. Um. So I saw
3:54
Speaker 1: that activity happening, I said, Okay, I know what's going on.
3:57
Speaker 1: We just had a dough coming into heat. The second
3:59
Speaker 1: ruck kind of situation is going on. I'm gonna play
4:02
Speaker 1: this exactly as if it was November seven. So I
4:05
Speaker 1: watched that buck follow that dough, watched the exact route
4:09
Speaker 1: he took watch to see which betting area they went into,
4:12
Speaker 1: and then I went in that afternoon made a move
4:15
Speaker 1: to get right back in between that route I saw
4:18
Speaker 1: them take. Because you know, there's no guarantees, but lots
4:21
Speaker 1: of times when you've got a buck locked on a dough,
4:24
Speaker 1: that dough is going to a they're going to stay
4:26
Speaker 1: in a relatively small area and be they're gonna follow
4:29
Speaker 1: usually a similar circuit um. That dough is gonna go
4:33
Speaker 1: from the little betting aar to little food source to
4:35
Speaker 1: a little betting aar and that Buck's gonna want to
4:38
Speaker 1: keep her close and keep her from going to a
4:40
Speaker 1: lot of places. So I thought, hey, there's about as
4:43
Speaker 1: good a chance as any that they're gonna come back
4:45
Speaker 1: out to this little green field. And I got set
4:48
Speaker 1: up in a blind. I had it right along that
4:50
Speaker 1: route and and and kind of swung for the fences.
4:53
Speaker 1: It was a wind direction that I would normally never
4:55
Speaker 1: hunt this spot, but I kind of knew this is
4:58
Speaker 1: a special opportunity, gotta gotta try, and I did it.
5:02
Speaker 1: And it worked out that Bill came out right towards
5:05
Speaker 1: last light, and and the big boy was right behind
5:07
Speaker 1: her and got a crack at her. So that was
5:10
Speaker 1: a that was a great example of why it pays
5:12
Speaker 1: to still be out there and paying attention here in
5:16
Speaker 1: early December. Um, I'm not I'm not saying exactly what's
5:20
Speaker 1: going to happen, but I certainly will continue to keep
5:22
Speaker 1: an eye out for that kind of thing in the future.
5:24
Speaker 1: And if I see it again, you can you better
5:26
Speaker 1: believe on to get after it. So, yeah, the second
5:29
Speaker 1: rut can certainly keep things interesting this time of year, right,
5:32
Speaker 1: and you sort of touch on it at the beginning,
5:34
Speaker 1: But this is like one of those things in deer
5:37
Speaker 1: haunting that is often talked about more than it is
5:40
Speaker 1: experienced or seen. Um, because it certainly does exist, but
5:46
Speaker 1: there's just less people in the woods at this time
5:49
Speaker 1: and it's probably like a more localized thing. With that said, though,
5:53
Speaker 1: absolutely I think if there is a year to experience
5:57
Speaker 1: a secondary rut, that this is going to be it. Um.
6:01
Speaker 1: And I say that this is completely anecdotal, but thinking
6:05
Speaker 1: that too. When peak rudding would be taking place in
6:08
Speaker 1: most of the Midwest, like two weeks ago, um, a
6:11
Speaker 1: lot of the areas still had a ton of standing corn.
6:14
Speaker 1: And if you're a bow hunter, you know you know
6:16
Speaker 1: this that that standing corn can like really put a
6:19
Speaker 1: damper on your sightings in early in mid November because
6:24
Speaker 1: of deerra hang out in the standing corny you just
6:26
Speaker 1: don't know about it. I think that would potentially leave
6:29
Speaker 1: some doughs get on bread. Um. I think another part
6:33
Speaker 1: of the standing corn thing is that in a lot
6:35
Speaker 1: of states it's still up right now and that probably
6:38
Speaker 1: saved some bucks during gun season as well. So you're
6:41
Speaker 1: coming into early December with more doughs that were on
6:45
Speaker 1: bread during the regular run because of standing corn. And
6:48
Speaker 1: you're coming into early December with more bucks that weren't
6:51
Speaker 1: killed by hunters because of standing corn. And that's completely unecdotal,
6:54
Speaker 1: but that's something that would make me optimistic if I
6:58
Speaker 1: was chilling trying to kill a buck in these next
7:00
Speaker 1: two weeks. Yeah, I definitely, I definitely think that standing
7:04
Speaker 1: corn for a lot of people probably will have an impact.
7:07
Speaker 1: I'm certainly hoping that one that you mentioned on the
7:10
Speaker 1: UH in regards to just more bucks making it through,
7:12
Speaker 1: I think I think that's the case in a lot
7:14
Speaker 1: of places. So the corn on one of my Michigan
7:17
Speaker 1: farms just came down last week. I think. I guess
7:20
Speaker 1: we we talked about that last week on the Red
7:22
Speaker 1: Fresh Radio UM as we were recording it. I think
7:26
Speaker 1: the night before the corn had started to come down,
7:29
Speaker 1: and then over the next day and a half it
7:32
Speaker 1: came all the way down. UM. So, I know a
7:35
Speaker 1: few bucks that I was after, including the one buck
7:39
Speaker 1: I'm really after, he made it through the opening weekend
7:41
Speaker 1: at least a Gunns season, maybe in part because that
7:43
Speaker 1: corn was up all around. UM. So yeah, I think
7:47
Speaker 1: I think things are lining up for good December, especially
7:50
Speaker 1: if you have good food in your area. Now, this
7:54
Speaker 1: is an interesting counterpoint to what you're saying. As we know,
7:57
Speaker 1: as you get into December in the late season, food
8:00
Speaker 1: is so so important to focusing where deer are because
8:03
Speaker 1: food becomes increasingly more rare of a commodity. Right as
8:07
Speaker 1: crops have gone out, natural vegetation is losing some of
8:09
Speaker 1: its quality and nutrition. So if you have a food plotter,
8:14
Speaker 1: if you have a corn field or soybean field or
8:16
Speaker 1: whatever might be, oftentimes that's gonna be where deer are at.
8:21
Speaker 1: But this year a lot of farmers didn't get crops in.
8:24
Speaker 1: There was a lot more fellow fields this year than
8:26
Speaker 1: I've ever seen before, at least in my area, and
8:29
Speaker 1: and hearing from other folks across the country. Um So,
8:32
Speaker 1: I'm also thinking there's gonna be some people. It's gonna
8:35
Speaker 1: be feast or famine. I guess if you've got the food,
8:37
Speaker 1: it's probably gonna be better than ever because there's gonna
8:40
Speaker 1: be less food elsewhere, so they're gonna be focused on yours.
8:43
Speaker 1: If you don't have the food because of you know,
8:46
Speaker 1: the wet spring and farmers not being able to get
8:48
Speaker 1: stuff in, you might suffer. Um So it's gonna be
8:52
Speaker 1: interesting to hear hear what kind of reports we get
8:55
Speaker 1: over the next month because of that. Yeah, and besides
8:59
Speaker 1: all reported this week, you're going to hear from Kevin
9:01
Speaker 1: Vistison in Michigan from the Deer Hunter podcast, and then
9:05
Speaker 1: from Wildcare Deer Tracted in Tennessee. We talked to Josh
9:08
Speaker 1: Smith and then Tim Bieble in Vermont from the four Pointer,
9:11
Speaker 1: and then we talked to Bryce Slamley in Nebraska. Question
9:15
Speaker 1: for you, do you have any more white tail hunts
9:20
Speaker 1: coming up on your schedule. I've got one last hunt
9:24
Speaker 1: coming up here, white tail buck hunt. I have like
9:27
Speaker 1: a B tag in Montana which will allow me to
9:30
Speaker 1: shoot an enderless white tail, but I don't really count that. Um.
9:34
Speaker 1: But next week in December, I'm going to be heading
9:36
Speaker 1: to Nebraska hunting some public land and I'll be in
9:40
Speaker 1: an area where there is a mixture of mule deer
9:43
Speaker 1: and white tail and the tag is good for both
9:45
Speaker 1: and it is an opportunistic freezer failing hunt. So it
9:50
Speaker 1: will be a white tail hunt slash mule deer hunt, um,
9:53
Speaker 1: and it will be in some cool country. Yeah, I'm jealous.
9:56
Speaker 1: I I know we talked in the past. I was
9:59
Speaker 1: hoping to go on that trip and it didn't end
10:01
Speaker 1: up working out my schedule, So I will be watching
10:04
Speaker 1: from Afar and routing you on. So bring back a
10:08
Speaker 1: good story for us next week, would you. I'll do that,
10:10
Speaker 1: all right, We'll talk to you next week. Mark, Thanks alright,
10:14
Speaker 1: and joining us on the line first is Kevin Vistisson
10:17
Speaker 1: in Michigan from the Deer Hunter podcast. Now, Kevin in Michigan,
10:21
Speaker 1: what would you say the buck activities bend lately? On
10:23
Speaker 1: a scale of one to ten? One to ten, I'm
10:26
Speaker 1: gonna go right down the middle and say five. But
10:30
Speaker 1: I'm also going to add to that that even though
10:32
Speaker 1: I'm saying five, your chances for killing a good deer,
10:37
Speaker 1: specifically an older age class book, I would say are
10:41
Speaker 1: about as high as it would be all year. I'm
10:43
Speaker 1: gonna go nine or ten. I love the late part
10:46
Speaker 1: of November into early December. Expand on that a little
10:49
Speaker 1: bit for me. Why do you prefer this time of
10:51
Speaker 1: year to find a mature buck? I think part of it.
10:56
Speaker 1: Pressure dictates most things that white tails do here in
10:59
Speaker 1: the state of Michigan. Our gun opener being on November. Uh.
11:03
Speaker 1: These deers that have made it through a couple of
11:05
Speaker 1: guns seasons figure out real quick that what's going on,
11:07
Speaker 1: and they get pinned down real hard. And from the
11:11
Speaker 1: trail cameras that I've ran over the course of the
11:13
Speaker 1: last five six years, I just see this window around Thanksgiving,
11:17
Speaker 1: big deer on their feet in daylight. And I think
11:20
Speaker 1: it has to do with the fact that they recognize
11:23
Speaker 1: people go hard the first couple of days a gun season,
11:26
Speaker 1: maybe the first week, and a lot of people are
11:28
Speaker 1: have either gotten their deer and are out of the
11:30
Speaker 1: woods or really have just lost motivation to go out.
11:35
Speaker 1: Deer hunting in the woods gets emptied out pretty quickly,
11:39
Speaker 1: and I think the deer recognized that. And uh, I
11:42
Speaker 1: think there's still good opportunity for deer to do breeding
11:46
Speaker 1: through the later part of November. And I I just
11:49
Speaker 1: absolutely love this time of year. So what is your
11:52
Speaker 1: strategy then, for say this Thanksgiving weekend when you're trying
11:55
Speaker 1: to find one of these mature bucks on their feet.
11:58
Speaker 1: It's time in the stand and it's it's really that's
12:02
Speaker 1: what it comes down to. There's no real magic recipe.
12:06
Speaker 1: It's very um spontaneous. From what I said, A lot
12:10
Speaker 1: of this comes from, like I said, um, you know,
12:13
Speaker 1: hard data from running cameras and seeing deer on their feet,
12:17
Speaker 1: big deer in daylight, and there's really no rhyme or
12:21
Speaker 1: reason or way to predict it if it's going to
12:23
Speaker 1: be Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday at what time of the day.
12:27
Speaker 1: So my my strategy is just seat time and uh,
12:32
Speaker 1: if the weather provides, then it doesn't chase you out
12:34
Speaker 1: of the woods. It's a beautiful time to be sitting
12:37
Speaker 1: sitting out there. And uh, I think that's what it
12:39
Speaker 1: really comes down to, is just putting the hours in
12:42
Speaker 1: at this point and a lot of people, really, uh
12:45
Speaker 1: myself included, struggle after the opener gun season to find
12:49
Speaker 1: the ambition to do that. I think this coming week
12:52
Speaker 1: and then are you going to be hunting traditional rut
12:54
Speaker 1: setups like pinch points at funnels, or do you have
12:56
Speaker 1: a different strategy for late November, uh height to cover
13:01
Speaker 1: heavy stem count. You know, I'm avoiding anything open, open fields,
13:06
Speaker 1: open timber. The deer definitely been concentrated into secure betting.
13:11
Speaker 1: That's the one other great thing about this time of
13:13
Speaker 1: year is that bigger deer, specifically that have made it
13:18
Speaker 1: through a couple of gone seasons know the safe places
13:21
Speaker 1: to go. They know places that people haven't been hunting
13:25
Speaker 1: over the course of the last six weeks. And if
13:28
Speaker 1: if you can scout and and find those places, or
13:30
Speaker 1: if you know those places from years past, those deer
13:34
Speaker 1: are pinched into those places and it makes it relatively
13:38
Speaker 1: easy to find a congregation of deer, and that's where
13:42
Speaker 1: they will be. I will be hunting heavy cover, betting
13:46
Speaker 1: um food sources. UH. Acorns are still there's I can't
13:51
Speaker 1: believe how many acorns there were on the ground this
13:53
Speaker 1: year and still all right. I think there's gonna be
13:56
Speaker 1: a lot of acorns that are going to return to
13:57
Speaker 1: soil here over the course of the winter and spring.
14:00
Speaker 1: I don't think the deer going to be able to
14:02
Speaker 1: even eat them over the course of the winter, there's
14:03
Speaker 1: so many of them still on the ground. Besides acorns,
14:06
Speaker 1: are there any other food sources that hunters should be
14:08
Speaker 1: looking for in late November? Big woods, natural brows cuts.
14:15
Speaker 1: I like those cuts that are you know, two to
14:18
Speaker 1: three years old. The cuts that are year old. The
14:21
Speaker 1: deer definitely UM they prefer those, so they get hit
14:25
Speaker 1: the heaviest through the early part of the fall. The
14:28
Speaker 1: cuts that are two to three years old, the new
14:31
Speaker 1: growth isn't as doesn't have as much dense nutrition, and
14:35
Speaker 1: the deer will leave those for last. So if you
14:37
Speaker 1: can find a cut that was done, you know, two
14:39
Speaker 1: or three even four years ago, there's still going to
14:42
Speaker 1: be good food for them there. And UH, as far
14:45
Speaker 1: as agricultural goes, obviously corn stubble that's left out in
14:49
Speaker 1: the ground. I've really never had any success hunting over beans.
14:54
Speaker 1: Dry beans here in the state of Michigan their gold
14:56
Speaker 1: when they're green, but brown beans here in the state.
15:00
Speaker 1: I think that most deer know it's a recipe for
15:02
Speaker 1: disaster for them to step out the mills during daylight,
15:05
Speaker 1: so I avoid that. When you get this little burst
15:08
Speaker 1: in movement around Thanksgiving, do you also notice some fresh
15:11
Speaker 1: sign being made. I'll say that, uh, for whatever reasons,
15:18
Speaker 1: rubs definitely, rubs in the betting areas stay hot and
15:23
Speaker 1: uh maybe even accelerate a little bit. And I think
15:26
Speaker 1: part of that might be UM. These deer that are
15:29
Speaker 1: pushed into these areas are a little frustrated that they
15:32
Speaker 1: don't feel safe traveling outside of them, and they lay
15:36
Speaker 1: a lot of sign down. Like I said, these deer
15:39
Speaker 1: get pushed into uh safe areas and they get congregated
15:43
Speaker 1: into tight spaces, and it could be just that these
15:46
Speaker 1: bucks are in close proximity to each other. But yeah,
15:49
Speaker 1: I see scrapes pretty much get abandoned, but a ton
15:53
Speaker 1: of rubs, and and that is really really what I'm
15:57
Speaker 1: focusing on this time year. If I can find good
16:00
Speaker 1: dense cover with some fresh, heavy rubs, is a good
16:03
Speaker 1: indicator to me that there is uh, you know, bucks
16:06
Speaker 1: that are using actively using that cover going forward. Then
16:10
Speaker 1: in the six week or so, what do you think
16:12
Speaker 1: that buck activity is going to be on a scale
16:14
Speaker 1: of one to tend in Michigan. I think it's probably
16:16
Speaker 1: gonna stay right around the five or the six as
16:19
Speaker 1: far as activity goes. Daylight activity, jar will still be
16:23
Speaker 1: doing a lot of um, you know, a lot of
16:26
Speaker 1: their breeding and they're running around under the cover of darkness.
16:31
Speaker 1: But I, like I said, I I feel that there's
16:34
Speaker 1: still a very good percentage of chance that if you're
16:36
Speaker 1: willing to put the time in the seat that this
16:39
Speaker 1: time year, even more so than you know, peak rut
16:43
Speaker 1: around the middle of November is your best chance to
16:46
Speaker 1: capitalize on I'm putting a good deer down, so you know,
16:50
Speaker 1: I guess I I struggle to answer that the actual
16:55
Speaker 1: physical deer activity that you're going to see is going
16:57
Speaker 1: to be relatively low. Like I said, maybe a five
17:00
Speaker 1: or six, but the chances of seeing a good deer
17:02
Speaker 1: are about as high as they get a nine or ten.
17:06
Speaker 1: All right, Kevin, awesome info, good luck this weekend, and
17:08
Speaker 1: thanks for joining me. Thanks Spenser are in joining us
17:12
Speaker 1: on the line. Next is Josh Smith in Tennessee from Wildcareen.
17:16
Speaker 1: Dear Jack, did now Josh and Tennessee. What would you
17:19
Speaker 1: say the bucket activity has been lately on the scale
17:21
Speaker 1: of one to ten. I think we're on a seven
17:24
Speaker 1: out of ten. We are just kind of in getting
17:29
Speaker 1: warming up for Pete Rutt. Mature bucks are starting to fall. Uh.
17:32
Speaker 1: Some some of my family members have been real successful
17:36
Speaker 1: over this past weekend. Um, I think that activity would
17:42
Speaker 1: be a little higher, but we've had a little bit
17:44
Speaker 1: of unseasonably warm temperatures. We've been in the low sixties,
17:48
Speaker 1: which is I think putting a little bit of a
17:50
Speaker 1: damper on things. But rut activities is picking up pretty good,
17:53
Speaker 1: so I'm looking forward to spending some more time in
17:56
Speaker 1: the woods this week. So would you normally expect to
17:59
Speaker 1: be seeing some post jout to activity right now. No,
18:02
Speaker 1: I think we're on par as far as our usual schedule.
18:06
Speaker 1: We we get pretty hot right before Thanksgiving, um, and
18:09
Speaker 1: you know, Thanksgiving a little late this year, so uh,
18:13
Speaker 1: I think we're right right on schedule. Are pretty unclose
18:16
Speaker 1: to it. I think that it's just a little warm,
18:18
Speaker 1: and you know, whether or not there's any truth to it.
18:22
Speaker 1: I prefer to be out when it's cold. I think
18:23
Speaker 1: activity is a little better when it's cold and deer
18:25
Speaker 1: up and moving a little better. Tennessee's gunn opener happened
18:29
Speaker 1: about a week ago. Now, what is your strategy when
18:31
Speaker 1: you're playing off of that gun pressure going into this weekend? Um? Honestly,
18:36
Speaker 1: I like to do a little steel hunting. I think, uh,
18:39
Speaker 1: you know, when pressure is high, people are kicking stuff up,
18:42
Speaker 1: and I don't like to sit still too awful much.
18:45
Speaker 1: I like to be on the move a little bit. Uh,
18:47
Speaker 1: stick to ridges, um, and kind of just cruise those
18:50
Speaker 1: ridges where I expect traffic to be. Like saddles anywhere,
18:55
Speaker 1: excuse me, anywhere I can find a good saddle on
18:58
Speaker 1: the map. I'm looking for that and trying to see
19:03
Speaker 1: if if I'm if I can be successful hunting that
19:05
Speaker 1: as a funnel. Are there any food sources this time
19:07
Speaker 1: of year that you key in on in Tennessee? Yeah,
19:11
Speaker 1: we still we had a pretty good mass crop this year,
19:13
Speaker 1: so still quite a bit of acorns on the ground,
19:16
Speaker 1: so that that's kind of an unchanging thing for me. Uh.
19:19
Speaker 1: Not a lot of eggs where I'm hunting here, So
19:21
Speaker 1: acorns are key and I'm and I'm still paying attention
19:26
Speaker 1: to those pretty well. As a scent company, I assume
19:29
Speaker 1: that you have a strategy for using year in in
19:31
Speaker 1: late November. What's your strategy this time of year? Um? Well,
19:35
Speaker 1: I'm obviously using Doestris and I like to use our
19:38
Speaker 1: rutt and buck as well. Um. With this route activity,
19:41
Speaker 1: we're seeing a little bit of scrape action still uh
19:44
Speaker 1: and quite a bit of rubbing going on right now too, um.
19:48
Speaker 1: And I like to set up my mox scrapes um
19:51
Speaker 1: and visit those when I'm doing my still hunt. Um.
19:55
Speaker 1: And I'll use Dostris. I use it as a drag
19:58
Speaker 1: as well when I'm stand hunting, um, but more just
20:02
Speaker 1: as a scrape tool when I'm still hunting. You said
20:05
Speaker 1: you're seeing some fresh sign Does that mean that most
20:07
Speaker 1: of your cameras are still on scrapes. Yeah, they are. Um,
20:12
Speaker 1: we like to run them and we check them frequently,
20:15
Speaker 1: and when activity starts to taper a little bit, we'll
20:18
Speaker 1: move into traffic areas instead of scrapes. But right now
20:21
Speaker 1: they're sticking tight to scrapes. Do you follow the moon
20:23
Speaker 1: phases all this time of year? I do. I do. Um,
20:27
Speaker 1: you know tonight, actually we've got a new moon, so
20:32
Speaker 1: I'm I'm thinking activity is gonna be good. You know,
20:35
Speaker 1: I've always haunted the moon, just kind of as a
20:38
Speaker 1: growing up that way, Um, just part of what we do.
20:41
Speaker 1: You said that you've been seeing a lot more mature
20:43
Speaker 1: buck movement lately, but does that mean you're seeing some
20:45
Speaker 1: midday movement as well. Yeah, quite a bit of midday movement. Um.
20:52
Speaker 1: Some of the nicer bucks that I've seen being taken
20:54
Speaker 1: lately have been in the middle of a day. You know,
20:56
Speaker 1: they're cruising for dose or chasing dose. Time isn't really
21:00
Speaker 1: a factor when it comes to that. You know, when
21:02
Speaker 1: the ruts starting to peak, it's best to be out
21:04
Speaker 1: there as as long as you can going forward. Then,
21:08
Speaker 1: in the next week or so, what do you think
21:09
Speaker 1: that buck activity is going to be on a scale
21:11
Speaker 1: of one to ten in Tennessee, I think it's probably
21:15
Speaker 1: gonna stick to seven or eight. I think that the
21:17
Speaker 1: rud will probably slowed down a little bit, but I
21:20
Speaker 1: think we have a cold front coming in. Temperatures are
21:23
Speaker 1: going to drop from sixties and forties, so I'm looking
21:26
Speaker 1: forward to that, and I think activity will stay steady. Um.
21:30
Speaker 1: I have quite a bit of movement, and I'm looking
21:32
Speaker 1: forward to be in the woods. All right, Josh, I
21:34
Speaker 1: like your optimism. Good luck this weekend, and thanks for
21:36
Speaker 1: joining me. I appreciate it. Spencer, thank you alright, enjoying
21:40
Speaker 1: us on the line. Next is Tim Bieble and Vermont
21:43
Speaker 1: from the four pointer. Now, Tim, Invermont, what would you
21:46
Speaker 1: say the buck activities been lately on a scale of
21:48
Speaker 1: one to ten. I'm going to give it a six
21:51
Speaker 1: to seven. Right now, I think I've definitely seen some
21:55
Speaker 1: chasing bucks. Are bucks are with those or or look
22:00
Speaker 1: conform um that the past the time of year when
22:04
Speaker 1: they're really scraping hard and wandering around, But right now
22:07
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure they're with those. Deck breedings Invermont is
22:10
Speaker 1: always in uh you know, right around so there that
22:17
Speaker 1: is the phase that we're in right now. Are there
22:19
Speaker 1: any specific food sources that hunters should be focused on
22:22
Speaker 1: right now? Yeah. My answer to that is hunters need
22:27
Speaker 1: to know what food sources in there. I've been sitting
22:29
Speaker 1: near oaks I've seen. I was out yesterday morning after
22:34
Speaker 1: a fresh snowfall, and the dealer we're already into the oaks,
22:36
Speaker 1: digging under the trees, so in the leaves for the oaks,
22:39
Speaker 1: the acorns, So me, it's oaks, that's where it is.
22:44
Speaker 1: That's where they're feeding right now. So that's what I'm
22:46
Speaker 1: spending most of my time. And that's also a lot
22:49
Speaker 1: of the oaks where I'm at are also in travel
22:51
Speaker 1: corridors where I would expect to see deer wandering through
22:54
Speaker 1: throughout the day. Um So that's kind of a win
22:57
Speaker 1: win if you can find a travel corridor with food source, um,
23:02
Speaker 1: that's where That's where I'd be spending my time. You
23:05
Speaker 1: mentioned that this is historically right around the date of
23:07
Speaker 1: peak rutt. What is your strategy then during peak rut
23:11
Speaker 1: and then that lockdown period? Well around here, I mean,
23:16
Speaker 1: you know, there's probably a lot of areas that I
23:20
Speaker 1: think the biggest factor into being a successful hunter is
23:23
Speaker 1: is being able to put in a good amount of time. Um.
23:28
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of areas around Vermont are very sparse,
23:31
Speaker 1: uh with their deer numbers. Other areas are pretty populated,
23:35
Speaker 1: but where I'm at a lot of time, it's pretty sparse.
23:37
Speaker 1: So I've just got to put in time, um, you know,
23:41
Speaker 1: and a lot of hunters do it. It's a perseverance game.
23:44
Speaker 1: You just gotta be there. So again, I'm focused on
23:47
Speaker 1: the travel corridors where there are some food sources where
23:50
Speaker 1: I know that those are going to be coming through.
23:53
Speaker 1: And in the past, you know, the times that I've
23:55
Speaker 1: been successful, there's been a buck on the heels of
23:57
Speaker 1: a dough and so that's that's my suggestion right there.
24:03
Speaker 1: Gun openers in the Northeast have been opened for a
24:05
Speaker 1: little while. Now, what is your strategy when you're trying
24:08
Speaker 1: to plan for some of that gun hunting pressure? Yeah, Um,
24:12
Speaker 1: gun hunting pressure is pretty intense the first you know,
24:15
Speaker 1: a week or two, especially on the first weekend, um,
24:18
Speaker 1: and then midwek it pretty much dies down and then
24:20
Speaker 1: we'll have a little bit more intense pressure here around
24:23
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving and then Vermont's going the gun season ends actually
24:26
Speaker 1: right after Thanksgiving, so Um. Anytime there's pressure in the area.
24:30
Speaker 1: If I'm hunting a smaller woodlot and I know there's pressure,
24:33
Speaker 1: I just try to get into position ahead of the
24:35
Speaker 1: guy that's coming in later. And I try to stay
24:37
Speaker 1: there as long as I can, because those guys are
24:39
Speaker 1: gonna they're gonna get anti around eight thirty nine o'clock
24:43
Speaker 1: and go for a walk. And if you can put
24:45
Speaker 1: yourself in a position where, again, a place where you
24:49
Speaker 1: know deer are going to travel or they're gonna try
24:50
Speaker 1: to escape to get away from pressure, the perfect spot
24:54
Speaker 1: to set up an ambush of deer that's trying to
24:56
Speaker 1: get away. Wouldn't we get a fresh snow this time
24:59
Speaker 1: of year? And like that for speak at December? Does
25:01
Speaker 1: that change anything for you in New Hampshire and Vermont? Uh? No,
25:05
Speaker 1: other than you know, if I have a chance, I'm
25:07
Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna make a quick loop, you know, a hike,
25:11
Speaker 1: and to see if if where the deer spending the
25:15
Speaker 1: time has changed, to relocate it a little bit. Blood areas,
25:18
Speaker 1: I mean they're thick, so you know, the hundred yards
25:21
Speaker 1: can make all the difference. And and they'll bounce around
25:25
Speaker 1: from from oaks to oaks so if there's a fresh snowfall,
25:29
Speaker 1: I usually take a you know, a half hour or
25:31
Speaker 1: something and do a quick loop and just see, you know,
25:34
Speaker 1: where the fresh sign is and and relocate to those
25:37
Speaker 1: areas if I need to going forward. Then in the
25:39
Speaker 1: sex week or so, what do you think that book
25:41
Speaker 1: activity is going to be on a scale of one
25:43
Speaker 1: to ten in Vermont? I think it's gonna lower down
25:47
Speaker 1: a little bit. I'm gonna go down to four or five.
25:51
Speaker 1: It's still a good chance. Like I said, think breathing,
25:53
Speaker 1: we're just barely past it. So uh, there's still gonna
25:56
Speaker 1: be some bucks out there looking for for some dose. Um.
26:00
Speaker 1: So it's not like it's just gonna shut right off.
26:02
Speaker 1: But we're not going to fail down here. And then
26:03
Speaker 1: when we get into Vermont, does have you know a
26:07
Speaker 1: late muzzleoader season that starts in two weeks from now
26:10
Speaker 1: more or less. Um, I've had good luck in that
26:14
Speaker 1: early season, I mean that late season with muzzleloaders where
26:17
Speaker 1: the buck activity is picked up. They've gotten more responsive
26:20
Speaker 1: to calling. Again. Um and uh, I've even seen him,
26:25
Speaker 1: you know, al cruising looking for those late about that time.
26:28
Speaker 1: It just it just starts to come back around and
26:29
Speaker 1: see a little bit of that what you would see
26:32
Speaker 1: in like late October, early November. It does come back
26:35
Speaker 1: around again in early December, but just not quite as intense.
26:38
Speaker 1: So um yeah, I mean it's gonna die down here,
26:42
Speaker 1: but it's gonna pick back up slightly before it all
26:44
Speaker 1: comes soon and eventually. All right, Tam, well, good luck
26:47
Speaker 1: with what's left of your fall. Thanks for joining me,
26:49
Speaker 1: all right, yeah, thanks, Spencer, appreciate it alright, and joining
26:53
Speaker 1: us on the line. Next in Nebraska is Bryce Lanley. Now,
26:56
Speaker 1: Bryce in Nebraska, what would you say the buck activity
26:58
Speaker 1: has been lately on a ski of one to ten. Well,
27:01
Speaker 1: for most of the guys I talked to and my
27:03
Speaker 1: own personal experiences, it's been about a six for the
27:06
Speaker 1: last week, week and a half or so. So what
27:09
Speaker 1: phase of the route would you say that most of
27:11
Speaker 1: Nebraska is in right now? I would say that we're
27:14
Speaker 1: in um lockdown, and you know that term gets over
27:18
Speaker 1: here's a lot I think when people aren't seeing dear,
27:21
Speaker 1: but I really haven't seen many bucks at all. From
27:24
Speaker 1: one and just walk to the timber looking for other
27:27
Speaker 1: those those seem also non existent as well or else
27:31
Speaker 1: very skittish. It just seems to me like um, the
27:34
Speaker 1: bucks are off in cows or and a little bit
27:37
Speaker 1: of feast of salmon, which always at this time of year.
27:41
Speaker 1: And I think UM, at least from my buddies this year,
27:45
Speaker 1: it's been kind of a famine the last week or two.
27:48
Speaker 1: So when you say that we're in lockdown, what is
27:50
Speaker 1: your strategy then to get a buck during lockdown? Well,
27:55
Speaker 1: bo I had to miss out on it doing like that.
27:57
Speaker 1: Just a couple of days ago we had we had
27:59
Speaker 1: a a and boy, that makes it perfect in my opinion,
28:04
Speaker 1: to try something off the wall. That might be to
28:07
Speaker 1: go to some cover that you might normally think is
28:09
Speaker 1: better peasn't cover perhaps um weedy areas and are way
28:14
Speaker 1: away from the main areas that the deer bed in.
28:17
Speaker 1: Perhaps I hand along the platform of valley and you
28:20
Speaker 1: know hunting is the well or right on the river
28:24
Speaker 1: bottom in the heavier timber, and that's where the deer
28:27
Speaker 1: usually bad. But I do think those bucks will try
28:31
Speaker 1: to depend on those those um far away from the
28:35
Speaker 1: normal areas where they m run into other deer, they
28:39
Speaker 1: have less competition, and those places are early off the
28:43
Speaker 1: wall locations that UM don't jump out. It you're right away,
28:47
Speaker 1: and I'm still learning. I'm kind of on a couple
28:49
Speaker 1: of new properties now they've been spending time because I
28:51
Speaker 1: know there's some bucks there, and I'm still trying to
28:54
Speaker 1: learn where those plots are. They're hard to find. I
28:56
Speaker 1: think they sometimes, I mean maybe giving up hunt or
29:00
Speaker 1: two to try to lash from long run to find
29:03
Speaker 1: out where what they're doing or where they're doing it.
29:06
Speaker 1: As we get into post right here around Thanksgiving, what
29:09
Speaker 1: is going to be your strategy? Then it just seems
29:12
Speaker 1: to me that a lot of the the deer, especially the dose,
29:15
Speaker 1: are going to return more to their feeding patterns. Um
29:17
Speaker 1: the bucks are still and I honestly in the past
29:21
Speaker 1: several years I've had as good a November and early
29:25
Speaker 1: early December. Is that be late October and early November,
29:28
Speaker 1: and so a lot of times we're all kind of
29:31
Speaker 1: that area between the building and the feeding like you
29:33
Speaker 1: normally would, but also in the wind, keeping the wind
29:36
Speaker 1: in mind, where it seems like maybe on the north
29:39
Speaker 1: edge of the timber with the south wind, those bucks
29:41
Speaker 1: might cruise that north edge trying to pick up dose
29:44
Speaker 1: there their head, not to feed, And so I kind
29:46
Speaker 1: of returned to that that strategy a little bit. Um,
29:49
Speaker 1: I personally like that time of year better than the
29:52
Speaker 1: middle of November. Maybe that's just my own preferences or
29:55
Speaker 1: maybe shortcomings about middle November. The guys shouldn't give it
29:59
Speaker 1: up just yet. I think that some of the best
30:01
Speaker 1: stuff that still become a lot of the country is
30:04
Speaker 1: getting some snow here over these next couple of days.
30:06
Speaker 1: As somebody who hunts from the ground a lot, how
30:08
Speaker 1: does that change things for you? Well, for me, I
30:11
Speaker 1: think it actually opens up a couple of new options.
30:13
Speaker 1: One hunting from the ground with snow camouflage for some
30:16
Speaker 1: or like op to fight two is a great snow
30:19
Speaker 1: camels as well a dear look right through that. A
30:22
Speaker 1: lot of times it's like opportunities to hut places where
30:25
Speaker 1: you normally you haven't been able to hunt. Perhaps, and
30:28
Speaker 1: that also second part of that is is skinny crew
30:32
Speaker 1: on cloudy days, um, you can get by with those
30:35
Speaker 1: same camouflage as I just mentioned by with um on
30:40
Speaker 1: other days, especially when there was snow cover. And so
30:43
Speaker 1: I do think that maybe gives you some options in
30:45
Speaker 1: areas that you overrooked before, just that he couldn't do it.
30:49
Speaker 1: You mentioned before there during post route you look for
30:51
Speaker 1: does returning to food sources. What are those food sources
30:54
Speaker 1: that you're focused on this time of year in Nebraska,
30:58
Speaker 1: Ryon Hunt, it's mostly corn and being means it does
31:00
Speaker 1: seem like beans, you know, they kind of go out
31:02
Speaker 1: of favor for a while. It seems like this time
31:04
Speaker 1: of year beings kind of come back into favor. Now
31:07
Speaker 1: around here most of the beans are harvested and so forth.
31:09
Speaker 1: But if anybody's got standing beans, I think that's your
31:12
Speaker 1: number one magnet. Then standing corn, of course is a
31:14
Speaker 1: second because you've got the the extra cover it also
31:18
Speaker 1: provides I think going forward. Then in a sex week
31:21
Speaker 1: or so, what do you think that bucket activity is
31:23
Speaker 1: going to be on a scale of one to tend
31:25
Speaker 1: in Nebraska. Well, I'm kind of optimistic because it seems
31:28
Speaker 1: like I always see a bump in that type of
31:30
Speaker 1: activity and that includes reopening some scrapes and stuff like that.
31:34
Speaker 1: And so I'm going to say an eight um for
31:36
Speaker 1: the next couple of weeks. All right, Bryce, for good luck,
31:39
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me. You appreciate it. Thank you, Center,
31:42
Speaker 1: And that concludes this week's episode of rut Fresh Radio.
31:45
Speaker 1: Thanks to Kevin, Josh, Tim and Bryce for joining me
31:48
Speaker 1: and thank you guys for listening. Oh, everybody has a
31:51
Speaker 1: chance to get out here and hunt over the holidays.