Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 983: Rut Fresh Radio - Peak Southern Rut Meets Prime Food Sources: December’s Perfect Storm

Transcript

Ep. 983: Rut Fresh Radio - Peak Southern Rut Meets Prime Food Sources: December’s Perfect Storm · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: What is going on? Welcome back to Retfresh. I'm Jake
0:04
Speaker 1: Hoefer and we have some updates. It's December, it's not
0:08
Speaker 1: November anymore, so you still have a tag, you're still
0:11
Speaker 1: listen to this. It's time fundy rally caps, time to
0:14
Speaker 1: hear what's going on. Here's some quick strategies on what
0:17
Speaker 1: folks are looking to do for the following seven days.
0:20
Speaker 1: We have Michael Perry from Alabama. We have Reeg Johnson
0:22
Speaker 1: from Kentucky and Alice Comstock from Minnesota to give their updates.
0:26
Speaker 1: As you know, retfresh is brought to you by land
0:29
Speaker 1: dot com, the leading online real estate marketplace to find
0:31
Speaker 1: your perfect rural, recreational agricultural hunting properties here in the US.
0:37
Speaker 1: My challenge is to refocus, reassess your current season, and
0:42
Speaker 1: not necessarily low your standards, but be realistic and keep
0:45
Speaker 1: scout and keep hanging cameras, figure out where the deer
0:48
Speaker 1: are moving to as a constant, constant reshuffling up the deck.
0:53
Speaker 1: And I feel like this is probably a clean new
0:55
Speaker 1: starting point, especially if you just got a fresh coat
0:58
Speaker 1: of snow. So let's kick things off. Michael Perry and Alabama.
1:02
Speaker 1: Here we go, all right, First, stuff on the line.
1:10
Speaker 1: We have Michael Perry of Alabama. Michael, how's it going
1:14
Speaker 1: going good? How y'all did doing great? Doing great? I
1:17
Speaker 1: know things are heating up down in Alabama. I know
1:20
Speaker 1: you already shot a buck here recently, so congratulations. But
1:24
Speaker 1: we've been pretty focused on the Midwest, and I know
1:26
Speaker 1: things are getting exciting in your neck of the woods,
1:28
Speaker 1: so I wanted to bring you on.
1:30
Speaker 2: Oh, I appreciate it.
1:31
Speaker 1: So what did you shoot your most recent buck here
1:34
Speaker 1: in Alabama.
1:36
Speaker 2: Thanksgiving morning?
1:38
Speaker 1: Okay? What was that? What were you set up on?
1:41
Speaker 3: I was set up on a like a I've full
1:45
Speaker 3: on above a creek crossing that landatorally some blowdown points.
1:50
Speaker 1: So okay, what's been kind of the general running activity
1:53
Speaker 1: in Alabama in your neck of the woods here in
1:55
Speaker 1: the last couple of days.
1:57
Speaker 3: Well, that earlier area where we hunt, you know it's
1:59
Speaker 3: right now, is on on fire. This a thousand times
2:02
Speaker 3: different than last year because it's kind of weird. You know,
2:05
Speaker 3: a lot of people say they don't like hunting when
2:06
Speaker 3: the years have a bunch of mask crop. This year
2:08
Speaker 3: we've had a bunch of mass crop, wet spraying, wet summer,
2:12
Speaker 3: and them bucks are feeling good, are chasing people. Man,
2:15
Speaker 3: it's been incredible the sightings and the harvest that has
2:19
Speaker 3: took place the last couple of weeks. Is now I'm
2:21
Speaker 3: looking forward to this next week because it could be
2:23
Speaker 3: just as.
2:23
Speaker 2: Good, just depending on how wet it is.
2:26
Speaker 3: You know, some people kind of don't like the rain,
2:28
Speaker 3: but it's but the root is hot and heavy. It's
2:31
Speaker 3: there's one specific wm A and maybe another one that's
2:35
Speaker 3: you know, we have an early rut in one.
2:36
Speaker 2: Specific spot kind or maybe two.
2:38
Speaker 3: So but now it's it's it's going hot and I
2:41
Speaker 3: hope it's gonna continue like that in other parts of
2:43
Speaker 3: the state.
2:43
Speaker 1: So yeah, well do you think the deer And this
2:47
Speaker 1: is just anyone's best guest here, but you know, the
2:49
Speaker 1: deer activity has been really good with a lot of
2:51
Speaker 1: mass crop. Is that because the deer were able to
2:53
Speaker 1: you know, beef up and be super healthy going into
2:56
Speaker 1: this fall.
2:57
Speaker 2: I believe that's what is.
2:57
Speaker 3: I believe they're so happy, they're full, they're I mean,
3:00
Speaker 3: they just it's kind of cooling off now. They're just
3:03
Speaker 3: that's the amount of sign and uh rubs and scrapes
3:07
Speaker 3: and movement has It's crazy the difference between one year.
3:11
Speaker 3: I mean people were tore up last year thinking that
3:13
Speaker 3: the light the deer were gone or something. But then
3:15
Speaker 3: they've been so visible and rubs again, like rubbs scrapes
3:19
Speaker 3: was popping up everywhere, so and people are having success.
3:22
Speaker 2: So it's that's it's awesome right now.
3:25
Speaker 1: Is this one of the best ruts you you can
3:27
Speaker 1: remember in a long time, like one of the best
3:28
Speaker 1: in the last ten years?
3:29
Speaker 3: You think, yeah, man, I've only seen bucks chasing those
3:34
Speaker 3: a handful of times in on on on puppet Land.
3:37
Speaker 3: It's just but this time it was, I mean, it
3:40
Speaker 3: was just amazing. The buck cacher his head down and
3:42
Speaker 3: rolled back with his nose on the ground, chasing her
3:44
Speaker 3: as exacting back and forth making the same moves she was.
3:47
Speaker 1: It was.
3:47
Speaker 3: It was intense and y'all trying to get him stopping,
3:52
Speaker 3: which wouldn't work, so I had to kind of.
3:53
Speaker 2: Shoot with the movie.
3:54
Speaker 3: But it was but it was it was fun, exciting,
3:56
Speaker 3: and that's just that's you know, them kind of hunts
3:59
Speaker 3: are dream hunt to me, so.
4:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, well yeah, they're ingrained in your brain forever. When
4:05
Speaker 1: everything goes right and you get to see a lot
4:07
Speaker 1: of really cool deer behaviors. So I mean, looking here,
4:10
Speaker 1: you're you're back home and you're going to be packing
4:12
Speaker 1: up and heading back to camp. What's your strategy in
4:15
Speaker 1: Alabama for you know, the first week in December. As
4:18
Speaker 1: you know, the rut's still rank you know, cranking, but
4:21
Speaker 1: it has anything changed since thinks giving No.
4:24
Speaker 3: It'll it'll, it'll, it'll get better. Well, it should get
4:27
Speaker 3: better because December second is my favorite day. All times
4:31
Speaker 3: people ask me that they've asked me what week or whatever,
4:34
Speaker 3: So I'll tell you to day in December second. I've
4:35
Speaker 3: seen more chasing and stuff going on that day, So
4:37
Speaker 3: I'm looking forward to that time of the month and
4:40
Speaker 3: being the same general management area that we're hunting.
4:42
Speaker 2: And after the middle of December, we'll we'll move on.
4:46
Speaker 3: But I expect this week that week to be hot too,
4:49
Speaker 3: so long as the weather kind of hold out, and
4:50
Speaker 3: it looks like it's gonna hold out pretty good. It
4:52
Speaker 3: might rain some, but that that won't affect as long
4:55
Speaker 3: as the people will get out and hunt.
4:57
Speaker 1: So yeah, all right, I want you to think that
4:59
Speaker 1: you did do any scouting. You are listening to this
5:03
Speaker 1: right now and you're like, Okay, I have an Alabama tack.
5:05
Speaker 1: I want to go try hunting this week, Michael, What's
5:08
Speaker 1: the one thing I should look for? What's the one
5:10
Speaker 1: thing I should try to do. I know my success
5:12
Speaker 1: is not very likely because I haven't put in the work,
5:15
Speaker 1: But if you give me one piece of advice, where
5:17
Speaker 1: should I start?
5:18
Speaker 3: I just start walking, well, I'm jumping there, and hope
5:20
Speaker 3: this is not worth up of them, and then maybe
5:23
Speaker 3: walk fifty yards past where you're jumping and set up,
5:25
Speaker 3: you know, just trying to find deer or fresh tracks.
5:28
Speaker 3: Me what I would do if I was going somewhere
5:30
Speaker 3: like that, hadn't kouted anything out of walk just maybe
5:33
Speaker 3: if you're pretty good at looking at topo stuff, look
5:35
Speaker 3: at kind of what you want to say, and then
5:36
Speaker 3: let's take off walking till you jumping there, then set up.
5:39
Speaker 2: They might have spend a couple of days ear So.
5:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, how is that kind of your general plan? Are
5:44
Speaker 1: you going to be parked in a certain area for
5:46
Speaker 1: a period of time and I hope you hope to
5:49
Speaker 1: see what you see and if you don't, you're going
5:50
Speaker 1: to move on? Is that kind of what your mental
5:52
Speaker 1: game plan is right now?
5:53
Speaker 2: Yeah?
5:53
Speaker 3: We have like designated gun days, so I'll spend I've
5:56
Speaker 3: got two spots kind of picked.
5:57
Speaker 2: I'll spend the morning.
5:58
Speaker 3: In one spot in that spot, and if I'll do
6:02
Speaker 3: that for four days in a row, if I want to.
6:04
Speaker 2: But it don't bother me to sip.
6:06
Speaker 3: These type of crossings are pitch points four days in
6:09
Speaker 3: a row because of the way it just that's just
6:10
Speaker 3: the way they travel. It's just you know, it might
6:12
Speaker 3: take a few days, they might take a year or two.
6:15
Speaker 3: But I mean just it's just not guaranteed. But that's
6:17
Speaker 3: my strategy and I stick with it, and it's been
6:20
Speaker 3: it works pretty good for me.
6:21
Speaker 2: Soon.
6:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, Uh, do you on album in public? Do you
6:25
Speaker 1: ever try?
6:25
Speaker 2: Right?
6:26
Speaker 1: Don't on a grunting or anything like that? Are you
6:27
Speaker 1: pretty much rattle rattle?
6:29
Speaker 2: Grunt? People been using grunk call.
6:30
Speaker 3: I've had several people send me pictures literally taken on
6:33
Speaker 3: grunk calls or can calls, little doe bleats, that's do
6:37
Speaker 3: you do that.
6:37
Speaker 2: You're not gonna hurt a thing.
6:38
Speaker 1: It can help, so okay, So you don't think it's
6:42
Speaker 1: you're off for trying it.
6:43
Speaker 2: I'm all for trying. It will not hurt, trust me, Okay,
6:46
Speaker 2: so it can definitely help.
6:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, is there anything else that you want to share
6:51
Speaker 1: here for folks for the next week, I mean on
6:52
Speaker 1: the on a scale one to ten. Uh, December third
6:55
Speaker 1: through the tenth in Alabama, where you're at ten being
6:58
Speaker 1: the best week of the year, one being the one
7:00
Speaker 1: of the worst weeks of the year. Where do you
7:01
Speaker 1: put this week?
7:02
Speaker 2: I underten? I mean it's gonna it should be.
7:05
Speaker 1: Good, man, so awesome.
7:09
Speaker 3: So yeah, I mean, I mean I'm hoping it should
7:11
Speaker 3: be good. That's usually real good for me and some
7:13
Speaker 3: some folks I know.
7:14
Speaker 1: So things are winding down here in the Midwest. So
7:17
Speaker 1: I'm excited for you because we're on the back end
7:20
Speaker 1: of the Bell curve and things are just getting super
7:22
Speaker 1: exciting where you're at. So I wish you the very
7:24
Speaker 1: best of luck. And then, uh, if people want to
7:26
Speaker 1: follow along with on Instagram or anything with your season
7:29
Speaker 1: and go check out the bucket you shot earlier this year.
7:31
Speaker 1: Where's the best place for people to do that?
7:33
Speaker 3: Uh, you can get me up under my name on Facebook.
7:36
Speaker 3: Then eighteen Outdoors on Instagram and YouTube if you wanna
7:39
Speaker 3: check it out.
7:39
Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
7:40
Speaker 3: Hey, if I want to come on down South, come on,
7:42
Speaker 3: because from now till February, it's gonna be hot different man, Flariers.
7:45
Speaker 3: You know, you can hit me up message man, I'll
7:48
Speaker 3: I'll try to help you out what I can.
7:49
Speaker 1: So yeah, awesome, Well, Michael, I really appreciate it. People
7:53
Speaker 1: want to watch your trophy room. They go to White
7:54
Speaker 1: Tail Cribs and watch watch and here all your stories
7:57
Speaker 1: all right. Next up in line we have Rhys Johnson
8:00
Speaker 1: from Kentucky. I feel like all our guests has killed
8:03
Speaker 1: a deer in Kansas, and so you're part of that club.
8:05
Speaker 1: You shot a deer in Kansas here not long ago,
8:07
Speaker 1: and back to Kentucky.
8:09
Speaker 4: Yep, it is the Wonderland. It's hard to beat it.
8:11
Speaker 4: It's my favorite.
8:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely So people are wrapping up their Thanksgiving,
8:18
Speaker 1: you know, their back to reality, back to work. More
8:19
Speaker 1: than likely November they did not do all the work
8:22
Speaker 1: they probably should have done. You're probably guilty this to
8:25
Speaker 1: some degree. And it's December now and you're in Kentucky.
8:33
Speaker 1: What have you been seeing for activity here in you know,
8:36
Speaker 1: the first part of December, very last couple of days
8:38
Speaker 1: of November. I mean, is there any running activity that
8:41
Speaker 1: you can identify or is it kind of starting to
8:42
Speaker 1: get to food patterns.
8:44
Speaker 4: Well, with this cold front that we've had a little
8:47
Speaker 4: earlier than normal, I mean, I know a lot of
8:48
Speaker 4: the Midwest is either got dumped on with a bunch
8:52
Speaker 4: of snow or fixing to and so I think that
8:54
Speaker 4: that's going to obviously speed this up a little bit
8:55
Speaker 4: as far as the getting them out to feed pattern.
8:58
Speaker 4: But that being said, you know that traditionally, one, you know,
9:02
Speaker 4: there are some second second dough, you know, second whatever
9:05
Speaker 4: you want to call it. You know, there are a
9:06
Speaker 4: few stragglers that come in, you know, And I had
9:10
Speaker 4: my number one target buck chasing a dough last night
9:13
Speaker 4: and him and another another small buck came through pushing
9:16
Speaker 4: and you could tell mouth was wide open and they were,
9:18
Speaker 4: you know, pushing her around. So it's it's not over,
9:22
Speaker 4: You're just you're just gonna have to be lucky.
9:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's yeah, luck goes a long way, whether people
9:30
Speaker 1: want to admit it or not.
9:32
Speaker 2: Yeah.
9:32
Speaker 4: So yeah, it's just not in finding that, you know,
9:34
Speaker 4: and hey, you know what it is, it's just such
9:35
Speaker 4: a smaller percent chance. But you know, for me right now,
9:38
Speaker 4: it's it's survivor's season figuring out who's who made it?
9:41
Speaker 4: You know, are can n take your rifle wrapped up
9:44
Speaker 4: last weekend, and so just trying to figure out who's alive,
9:47
Speaker 4: who's safe, what do we want to target, what deer
9:50
Speaker 4: do we want to try to protect and get through?
9:53
Speaker 4: Are any of these deer showing a pattern? You know,
9:55
Speaker 4: we had all that that warm weather in the early
9:58
Speaker 4: November where things we just goofy and we're and you know,
10:01
Speaker 4: they were they were chasing under seventy degrees and they
10:03
Speaker 4: didn't didn't have a choice. And now we're seeing some
10:05
Speaker 4: of that, some of that better weather with with potentially
10:08
Speaker 4: some snow, and so you know that all being said,
10:10
Speaker 4: I think we are going to have a lot more
10:13
Speaker 4: of that dead the food pattern kick in a little
10:16
Speaker 4: bit earlier, and it could honestly be a hard, hard
10:18
Speaker 4: winter on the deer if you know this amount of
10:22
Speaker 4: snow sticks around.
10:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, we got we're here in Illinois, we got a
10:27
Speaker 1: bunch of snow. We're supposed to maybe get a little
10:29
Speaker 1: bit more snow here now and it's probably the coldest
10:34
Speaker 1: little snap we've had. Like you know, it's funny people
10:36
Speaker 1: do all these late season planning and oh yeah, late
10:39
Speaker 1: season is going to be great. The last couple of years,
10:41
Speaker 1: it's been too warm for the majority of the season.
10:43
Speaker 1: But for folks that you know, plan for an insurance
10:45
Speaker 1: policy for late season, they might be able to cash
10:47
Speaker 1: in here now as far as the next week. Here specifically,
10:53
Speaker 1: what's what's kind of your strategy? You still have a
10:55
Speaker 1: Kentucky tag in your pocket? What are what are some
10:59
Speaker 1: of the setups and what until are you looking for?
11:02
Speaker 4: Every every minute that I've had free for the last
11:05
Speaker 4: little bit, now that you know, in between Thanksgivings and
11:07
Speaker 4: being gone for that, I've been chicking cameras, you know,
11:11
Speaker 4: whether you're mulling corn, filling feeders, whatever it takes, you know,
11:16
Speaker 4: prepping for what's you're anticipating a pattern to develop. You know,
11:20
Speaker 4: there is a deer that I've got it in mind
11:23
Speaker 4: that he's tempting. He won't score a lot, really cool deer. Uh,
11:26
Speaker 4: we're debating on whether there's three or four. Either way,
11:28
Speaker 4: we're not gonna target him this year. But he's I
11:31
Speaker 4: was talking to my dad last night. You know, he's
11:33
Speaker 4: he's coming to that food pod. He's hit it four
11:35
Speaker 4: afternoons in a row in daylight, you know, And whether
11:38
Speaker 4: that's a three year old tendency or not. So anyways,
11:40
Speaker 4: you know, those patterns are starting to develop. You know,
11:42
Speaker 4: That's what I'm gonna be looking for. I'm gonna be
11:43
Speaker 4: trying to you know, potentially shift some cameras around, see
11:47
Speaker 4: what I can find, take, take some of them down
11:50
Speaker 4: that you know, maybe aren't producing. And that's what I've spent,
11:53
Speaker 4: you know, so I haven't really been in the tree
11:54
Speaker 4: for that reason. I'm trying to locate, see who survived,
11:57
Speaker 4: figure out what I want to do. I need to
12:00
Speaker 4: you know, move a set, move something around, take you know,
12:04
Speaker 4: move a feed, or bring something in over here. I mean,
12:06
Speaker 4: I'm you know, open to all in any things. I
12:09
Speaker 4: mean that not everybody can do that or wants to
12:11
Speaker 4: do that, but you know, you gotta gotta do what
12:13
Speaker 4: you gotta do. And so that's the way I'm approaching it.
12:16
Speaker 4: And then as you know, these temperatures settle in and
12:20
Speaker 4: and you know, we'll kind of get back to normal.
12:22
Speaker 4: I will probably be hunting most as many evenings as
12:24
Speaker 4: I can get away with, for sure.
12:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so the obvious question here that I mean,
12:30
Speaker 1: it's probably obvious for ninety nine percent of people, you're
12:33
Speaker 1: basically taking down potentially cameras that aren't producing, maybe they're
12:37
Speaker 1: in a rough funnel and repositioning them to a food
12:40
Speaker 1: source or a new area where there's more sign.
12:43
Speaker 4: Is that pretty much like your g You're you're excited
12:46
Speaker 4: in October and then you know the rut gets here
12:47
Speaker 4: and you don't want to go in there. You want
12:49
Speaker 4: to you know, you're stay out or maybe you're gone
12:50
Speaker 4: or you're mounting, and you're like, you know, I haven't
12:51
Speaker 4: checked that camera since the twenty fifth of October, eighteenth
12:54
Speaker 4: of October, and so you go in there and it
12:56
Speaker 4: maybe whether it was a soap, you know, but you
12:59
Speaker 4: call it a soaker and all, you know, I mean,
13:00
Speaker 4: if it's not producing, there's no point you know, in
13:02
Speaker 4: leaving it there. Most likely you've kind of got a
13:04
Speaker 4: general feel for what you would expect to be either
13:06
Speaker 4: And if they weren't there during November, unless it's a
13:07
Speaker 4: food source, why would they be there in December anyway.
13:10
Speaker 4: So so yeah, I'm not a huge fan of just
13:13
Speaker 4: leaving those out, you know, as far as the ones
13:16
Speaker 4: that may you know, aren't producing. So you know, there's
13:19
Speaker 4: a lot of them that are. I have pulled over
13:21
Speaker 4: the course of the last week, and I've got I'm
13:23
Speaker 4: making plans to try something different somewhere else.
13:36
Speaker 1: How I know, you hunt some big woods too, what's
13:40
Speaker 1: the what's the late season game plan for big woods?
13:42
Speaker 1: Like we're in December now, is it defined feed trees
13:46
Speaker 1: or red oaks or does find with the're browsing.
13:48
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a little bit of both. I mean, if
13:50
Speaker 4: you can find some of the you know, on these
13:51
Speaker 4: on the good master years like we have, you know,
13:53
Speaker 4: you can key in on some of that. You know,
13:56
Speaker 4: there are some opportunities for brows in the right places,
13:59
Speaker 4: but you know, you know they're still public deer un
14:01
Speaker 4: they're pressured. And then you know, we have there are
14:04
Speaker 4: other public lands that if you're willing to drive put
14:06
Speaker 4: the time in, there's maybe standing crops or maybe food
14:10
Speaker 4: plots or whatever. That's you know, I don't really key
14:13
Speaker 4: in on that too much because of just the pressure aspect.
14:15
Speaker 4: You get a lot of folks who want to be there,
14:17
Speaker 4: So I try to get a little closer to the bed,
14:18
Speaker 4: you know, cut them off. You can't push too hard.
14:21
Speaker 4: But obviously you can figure out that bed to feed
14:23
Speaker 4: pattern and then get a little closer in there to
14:25
Speaker 4: that bed. You know, but that's where you know, on
14:28
Speaker 4: public you might have to roll the dice a little
14:29
Speaker 4: bit more, but they will develop, you know, a pattern
14:32
Speaker 4: as far as where they want to be, whether you
14:34
Speaker 4: feel like there's a natural food source or not. In
14:38
Speaker 4: the big Woods, I mean, and so it doesn't it
14:40
Speaker 4: doesn't scare me. So you know, I've had one mature
14:43
Speaker 4: deer on on the cameras now three times in ten days,
14:47
Speaker 4: and that's exciting to me. In the big Woods, it's
14:49
Speaker 4: pretty good. Yeah, And so it's just a matter of
14:53
Speaker 4: tightening that up and getting in there.
14:57
Speaker 1: What's been one of the biggest things you've learned this?
15:00
Speaker 1: I feel like every year's people are learning different things
15:03
Speaker 1: or maybe how they manage their season could be something
15:06
Speaker 1: that they learn. Is there anything that you keyed up
15:08
Speaker 1: on here through October and November that you're like, Okay,
15:11
Speaker 1: not going to do that again next year, or I'm
15:12
Speaker 1: going to keep that in mind right now for December
15:15
Speaker 1: till our season closes.
15:16
Speaker 4: Well, I'll say I'll I'll approach this maybe a little
15:19
Speaker 4: bit differently than than then, maybe tactic wise. Is you know,
15:24
Speaker 4: I'm getting a little older, I've got three kids, my
15:27
Speaker 4: son Charles first buck this year, and you know, It's
15:29
Speaker 4: just one of those things where I used to be
15:32
Speaker 4: really really I would let it bother me. You know,
15:37
Speaker 4: maybe some maybe a neighbor might shoot a three year
15:39
Speaker 4: old or something might happen, or somebody might be in
15:42
Speaker 4: that spot. But you know, just one of those things.
15:44
Speaker 4: If as I've gotten older, you know, and and a
15:46
Speaker 4: man told me this one time, He's like, you know,
15:50
Speaker 4: maybe you know that that deer was meant for that man.
15:54
Speaker 4: God put that deer in that man's life. You know,
15:56
Speaker 4: it wasn't for you. And so it's just like, you know,
15:59
Speaker 4: as somebody who was, you know, we got to get
16:00
Speaker 4: them through, we got to manage we're doing all these things.
16:02
Speaker 4: It's just a matter of slowing down, you know. You know,
16:06
Speaker 4: you know, everybody gets a chance to enjoy it as well.
16:08
Speaker 4: And you know, as I've just gotten an older and
16:11
Speaker 4: more appreciative, because I'm afraid we are in the golden
16:14
Speaker 4: age if we haven't already missed it of white tails,
16:16
Speaker 4: that's a scary thought. And so you know, just being
16:20
Speaker 4: more appreciative, being genuinely happy for someone who has a
16:24
Speaker 4: chance to harvest that year. And if they're excited, I'm excited.
16:27
Speaker 4: And so it's just one of those things where I
16:29
Speaker 4: may not have been that way even five years ago,
16:31
Speaker 4: and so just as time has gone on, it's really
16:33
Speaker 4: just something I've kind of tried to implement and I
16:36
Speaker 4: think and you know, notice or pay attention to throughout
16:40
Speaker 4: this season. And so that may not have been the
16:42
Speaker 4: answer the right way, but it's just that I have
16:48
Speaker 4: tried to to really take account for this year.
16:51
Speaker 1: Absolutely. So looking here for the next seven days, scale
16:53
Speaker 1: one to ten, ten being the best week of the year,
16:55
Speaker 1: one being one of the worst. Where do you put
16:57
Speaker 1: Kentucky December third to the ten, one to ten.
17:01
Speaker 4: I'm optimistic, I really I'm hopeful. This is some of
17:03
Speaker 4: the best weather we've seen. We we had just a
17:06
Speaker 4: couple nights blow freezing at all in November, not excluding
17:10
Speaker 4: the last four or five days. We'll say, but you know,
17:12
Speaker 4: early parts. So you know, this first week, I'm excited
17:15
Speaker 4: and I'm gonna give it a seven or eight. Take
17:17
Speaker 4: your big I'm ready. And that's the thing, you know,
17:19
Speaker 4: now that we're back to work per se, we kind
17:21
Speaker 4: of you know, get into a routine here. We got
17:23
Speaker 4: a couple weeksfore Christmas. You know, this is the time
17:26
Speaker 4: that I'm excited to reset and hit it hard.
17:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, awesome, I love it. We've had higher scores this
17:33
Speaker 1: week than what I had anticipated, So I'm glad people
17:35
Speaker 1: are optimistic. That's what people need to hear. They're still
17:37
Speaker 1: listening to rough Fresh right now. They have a tag
17:39
Speaker 1: in their pocket more likely, So we need to rally
17:42
Speaker 1: and put on the rally caps and keep moving forward.
17:44
Speaker 1: If people want to follow along with your season, Where's
17:46
Speaker 1: the best place for people to do that?
17:48
Speaker 4: Uh? Yeah, just reached Johnson seven on Instagram or find
17:51
Speaker 4: me reach Johnson Facebook wherever, and I post their stuff.
17:58
Speaker 1: Right on reasonable good luck, I have give one all right.
18:01
Speaker 1: Next up on the line, we have Alex Comstock from Minnesota. Alex,
18:05
Speaker 1: how's it going doing good? How are you doing doing great?
18:08
Speaker 1: It's December. I don't know how I feel about it,
18:10
Speaker 1: but it's December. How do you feel that it's December?
18:14
Speaker 5: It's I can't believe a fast and flew by, and
18:17
Speaker 5: you know, we're Thanksgiving. We got pound to his snow,
18:19
Speaker 5: so it's Thanksgiving and it looks like thanksgetting December and
18:22
Speaker 5: it looks like December.
18:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's for sure. And so you're in Minnesota, what
18:27
Speaker 1: have you been seeing here on cameras were out and
18:29
Speaker 1: about here. As far as deer activity is it, is
18:32
Speaker 1: it waning down? Are they herding up? What have you
18:34
Speaker 1: been seeing?
18:35
Speaker 5: Yeah, it seemed to really taper off here and about
18:38
Speaker 5: the last week. Like I said, we got a bunch
18:41
Speaker 5: of snow over Thanksgiving, so like about a ron matt
18:44
Speaker 5: about a foot. So, I mean it's like deer going
18:47
Speaker 5: into late season other pretty quick. And all of my
18:50
Speaker 5: cameras are in areas I had them set up for
18:53
Speaker 5: like still like the rut end of the rut, So
18:55
Speaker 5: I need to get out, grab pretty much all my
18:58
Speaker 5: cameras and reallocate them essentially.
19:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, So in Minnesota, where where are some key spots
19:03
Speaker 1: for you to relocate these cameras because I feel like
19:05
Speaker 1: just about everyone probably needs to do the camera reshuffle
19:07
Speaker 1: right now.
19:08
Speaker 5: Yeah, where I'm at, there's no like agfields or anything.
19:11
Speaker 5: So I hunt a couple of different types of like subsets.
19:15
Speaker 5: So I've got a lot of my stuff was suburban,
19:17
Speaker 5: so like in town and everything, and so there's kind
19:20
Speaker 5: of just there's known areas that a lot of times
19:23
Speaker 5: people are feeding deer once snow's on the ground, And
19:25
Speaker 5: obviously you can't hunt like over people's feed, but you
19:29
Speaker 5: kind of treat neighborhoods in areas it's like destination food
19:31
Speaker 5: sources and backtrack from there and no where betting is
19:34
Speaker 5: and stuff like that. And then I've got one spot
19:37
Speaker 5: that I'm hunting with a food plot and it's new
19:40
Speaker 5: to me. Actually my buddy. It's my buddy's property that
19:44
Speaker 5: he sold, but I have rights to it and he doesn't.
19:48
Speaker 5: It's a very really weird deal, but he pretty much
19:50
Speaker 5: planned me this food plot that I have to go
19:51
Speaker 5: put a camera on, and then just natural brows. There's
19:55
Speaker 5: a lot of buck thrown around here and stuff like
19:57
Speaker 5: that that like to snack on in the in the winter,
19:59
Speaker 5: So it's kind of for me. There's a lot of
20:01
Speaker 5: areas that I've hunted in the past that I'm going
20:03
Speaker 5: to just kind of get cameras too. And a nice
20:05
Speaker 5: thing with the snow early this year is I can
20:08
Speaker 5: scout as I would for like a true late season,
20:11
Speaker 5: and figure out where they're betting and moving in between,
20:13
Speaker 5: and get a bunch of cameras out.
20:15
Speaker 1: The snow tells us a lot, I mean, whether you
20:17
Speaker 1: like it or not. I mean, the snow just can
20:19
Speaker 1: tell you a bunch. Now, for people who are suburban
20:22
Speaker 1: hunting and something similar to what you're doing, how long
20:25
Speaker 1: is the line of movement typically on these bucks from
20:28
Speaker 1: where they're betting up. I know it's situational, but is
20:30
Speaker 1: there like an example of like, man, they really only
20:32
Speaker 1: move one hundred yards or they running or moving like
20:34
Speaker 1: five hundred yards from the nearest block of cover to go. Yeah,
20:38
Speaker 1: I'd say it's definitely situational.
20:40
Speaker 5: There are areas that it's close, but I would say
20:43
Speaker 5: generally speaking, you know that four to thousand yards, like,
20:46
Speaker 5: they'll move further than people think, especially up here when
20:51
Speaker 5: and when we do get a lot of snow, it's
20:52
Speaker 5: nice because the deer do seem to get concentrated, and
20:55
Speaker 5: so they'll kind of have their set couple of trails,
20:58
Speaker 5: you know, and if you can find them, And what
21:00
Speaker 5: I'll do is I'll get cameras up and let's say
21:02
Speaker 5: I've got a buck hitting at you know, right this
21:04
Speaker 5: time of year is getting dark, both say five o'clock,
21:07
Speaker 5: they've got a deer hitting at seven a bunch. Then
21:08
Speaker 5: I'll just kind of backtrack and work my way closer
21:11
Speaker 5: and closer to bet until I can.
21:12
Speaker 2: Find them in daylight.
21:13
Speaker 1: Or bump them and ruin it. Yeah, yeah, for sure,
21:17
Speaker 1: that's Uh, it always feels like late season. It just
21:20
Speaker 1: the deer pressure. They've played the game, and it can
21:24
Speaker 1: ma it can beautiful, it works out. But how how
21:27
Speaker 1: much do you how much are you concerned about screwing
21:31
Speaker 1: things up this time of the year too, because it's
21:34
Speaker 1: you know, like we're entering I feel like we're entering
21:36
Speaker 1: the late season chapter of the year for much of
21:38
Speaker 1: the Midwest, probably like two or three weeks earlier than
21:41
Speaker 1: what it typically feels like. So it's like we have
21:43
Speaker 1: a long time for late season, but we're getting to
21:46
Speaker 1: head start on like that segment of the season. Yeah.
21:49
Speaker 5: I love it because, like especially up here in northern Minnesota,
21:52
Speaker 5: the last two years, we haven't had much snow at all,
21:54
Speaker 5: which has made late season really tough and I've killed
21:57
Speaker 5: a lot of deer in December. I love late season,
21:59
Speaker 5: and so the cold in the more snow we get,
22:01
Speaker 5: the better. As far as like being worried about ruining something,
22:05
Speaker 5: if I'm after a specific buck, I'll be a lot
22:07
Speaker 5: more worried and just be a little more careful. For
22:10
Speaker 5: this year, for example, like I haven't there's not one
22:13
Speaker 5: single buck that I'm really trying to kill. So I'm
22:15
Speaker 5: gonna be a little bit more aggressive and really try
22:18
Speaker 5: to figure out where these deer bety and and get
22:21
Speaker 5: in tight and and if I blow one out, I'll
22:23
Speaker 5: just kind of move on cause I've kind of got
22:25
Speaker 5: pockets of private and public and you know, I'm gonna
22:28
Speaker 5: have I don't even know how many cameras out a
22:30
Speaker 5: lot and a lot of scouting, and if I ruined
22:32
Speaker 5: a deer, then I really not going to care.
22:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you find do you find liberty in that?
22:38
Speaker 1: Like a little less stress?
22:40
Speaker 2: Nice?
22:40
Speaker 5: It's nice and not like especially for a year like
22:43
Speaker 5: this year I've had it in Minnesota, especially a terrible
22:45
Speaker 5: It's been a really tough season.
22:46
Speaker 1: I mean I literally haven't had an encounter. It's mature buck.
22:49
Speaker 5: And you know the years when you're after a buck,
22:52
Speaker 5: it's kind of something like driving you even if you've
22:55
Speaker 5: had a crappy year, you kind of have that deer
22:57
Speaker 5: to target. But as we move towards the end of
22:59
Speaker 5: the year here, and I don't really have you know,
23:01
Speaker 5: I've got a couple of different bucks that I know
23:02
Speaker 5: of that I would love to shoot. But when you
23:04
Speaker 5: don't have that one, even chasing for two three years
23:07
Speaker 5: or something. It is kind of nice where it's just like,
23:08
Speaker 5: you know, we're going to see what happens and see
23:10
Speaker 5: what we can make some eye.
23:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like it. Let's see as far as you know,
23:15
Speaker 1: your success in previous Decembers, is it pretty much boiled
23:20
Speaker 1: down to the food and cold weather and having snow?
23:22
Speaker 1: Is that like the ninety ten of like you got
23:25
Speaker 1: to have that in order for it to.
23:26
Speaker 5: Work exactly for me, the colder it is, the more
23:29
Speaker 5: snow we have, the better, you know. I just like
23:33
Speaker 5: thinking about, you know, some of the bucks I've killed
23:36
Speaker 5: in December. You know, I can just think off a
23:38
Speaker 5: couple off the top of my head that was like
23:40
Speaker 5: I'm talking negative twenty, negative thirty.
23:43
Speaker 1: Tons of snow, you know, feet of it.
23:46
Speaker 5: It sucks for every other aspect, right, like just driving
23:48
Speaker 5: around snowblowing life, But when it comes on, mean like
23:52
Speaker 5: give it all to me.
23:53
Speaker 4: I like it.
23:54
Speaker 1: How do you stay warm? Do you have any tips
23:56
Speaker 1: for staying warm?
23:57
Speaker 4: Yeah?
23:58
Speaker 5: I mean I've done everything. I mean, at some level,
24:01
Speaker 5: you've got to be wearing good gear, you know, like
24:04
Speaker 5: you don't want to be just going and grab that
24:07
Speaker 5: fifty dollars jacket off the shelf and Walmart. Obviously, there's
24:09
Speaker 5: so many different brands out there that are really good
24:12
Speaker 5: and having just layering right and having the proper footwear
24:16
Speaker 5: if you have a legitimate walk to the tree, Like
24:18
Speaker 5: even if it's really really cold, you know, I'll wear
24:21
Speaker 5: my bib. I'm not where I hardly ever wear my
24:24
Speaker 5: outer layer jacket to the tree, trying to stay you know,
24:27
Speaker 5: as dry as you can, because when it's really really cold,
24:31
Speaker 5: I mean, you don't want to sweat it all if
24:34
Speaker 5: you can help it. They're like little tips like I
24:37
Speaker 5: use actually in my boots. I use a ug sheepskin
24:41
Speaker 5: liner that I've worn for like five years and it's.
24:45
Speaker 1: I love it.
24:47
Speaker 5: I'll use when on this on the when I'm talking
24:50
Speaker 5: negative twenty thirty like in North Dakota. I'll have the
24:53
Speaker 5: body warmers, the handwarmers, I'll tape them. I'll appeal and
24:56
Speaker 5: stick big ones you know, all over the place, like
24:58
Speaker 5: anything you can do to give a little bit of
25:01
Speaker 5: extra warmth, you know, if you're and then I also
25:03
Speaker 5: don't sit for long, right, I'm not gonna go try
25:05
Speaker 5: to pull an all days sit or something, you know, brutal. Yeah,
25:09
Speaker 5: you gotta utilize you know, obviously this time of year
25:11
Speaker 5: most often hot in the evenings and you're sitting for
25:14
Speaker 5: the last hour and a half two hours and staying
25:16
Speaker 5: warm and trying to shoot a deer. Do use rubber
25:19
Speaker 5: boots in late season, like the like you know, like
25:21
Speaker 5: the lacrosse Yeah, yeah, I have worn lacrosse. I'll wear MUCKs,
25:27
Speaker 5: I'll wear any kind of rubber boot. And then I
25:29
Speaker 5: do have a pair of actual I don't know how
25:35
Speaker 5: we call them, just like boot boots that I've I've
25:36
Speaker 5: never really used them before, and I'm gonna I got
25:38
Speaker 5: a pair of this year. I'm gonna give a try
25:40
Speaker 5: and see what the difference is.
25:41
Speaker 2: I like it.
25:42
Speaker 1: So looking here over the next seven days and Minnesota,
25:45
Speaker 1: the cold the cold North scale one to ten, ten
25:49
Speaker 1: being the best week of the year, one being one
25:51
Speaker 1: of the worst weeks of the year. Weather considered, you know,
25:54
Speaker 1: all factors considered, Where do you put this next seven
25:58
Speaker 1: days out? You know?
26:00
Speaker 5: For me, I base it all off the weather and
26:02
Speaker 5: looking at it right now, it's gonna be pretty cold.
26:04
Speaker 5: I mean Saturday, the sixth below is negative three. We've
26:10
Speaker 5: got it looks like handful up till like five six
26:15
Speaker 5: more inches coming over the weekend. So I'll be optimistic
26:18
Speaker 5: and I'm gonna give it a five right now. Okay,
26:21
Speaker 5: And that's off you know, no current intel other than
26:24
Speaker 5: just basing it what I would say, off the conditions,
26:26
Speaker 5: and I'm gonna I'm gonna give it a We'll go
26:28
Speaker 5: five and a half. I want to get above I
26:30
Speaker 5: want to get above a five.
26:31
Speaker 1: Okay, the uh, the scores this week were way better
26:35
Speaker 1: than what I have anticipated that I've told the other
26:37
Speaker 1: guests like, hey, we all need this positivity right now.
26:40
Speaker 1: We all need uh to think that it could happen,
26:42
Speaker 1: because it certainly could well. And one thing to this
26:46
Speaker 1: third through the tenth, you know, I usually think of
26:48
Speaker 1: it as like the fifth the fourteenth generally speaking, is
26:51
Speaker 1: there are gonna be those dose you know, cycling through. Again.
26:54
Speaker 5: I'm not banking my hunting off like the second rut,
26:58
Speaker 5: but if you can get into pockets where you know,
27:00
Speaker 5: be a bunch of does and you just kind of
27:01
Speaker 5: never know what could happen in that scenario for dos
27:03
Speaker 5: cycling through, So something to keep in the.
27:05
Speaker 1: Back of your head too. Yeah, absolutely, well, good luck, Alex.
27:09
Speaker 1: Hopefully you turn one up here in late season. You
27:11
Speaker 1: never know who's going to show up. If you find
27:13
Speaker 1: the right food and if people want to fall along
27:15
Speaker 1: with what you have going, where is the best place
27:17
Speaker 1: to do that.
27:19
Speaker 5: Either YouTube, whitetail, DNA if you just type that in,
27:21
Speaker 5: or Apple Podcasts, Spotify every your podcasts as well.
27:25
Speaker 1: So awesome. Well, thank you so much, Alex, good luck
27:28
Speaker 1: the rest of the season. Appreciate it. Thanks Jake. All Right,
27:31
Speaker 1: there you guys have I hope you guys enjoyed this
27:33
Speaker 1: week of ret fresh. Hopefully this week find something positive.
27:37
Speaker 1: Maybe it's a deer that you thought was dead shows
27:39
Speaker 1: back up on camera, maybe you find a new deer
27:41
Speaker 1: on a prime late season food source, or maybe you
27:45
Speaker 1: just get out there and you start filling the freezer
27:47
Speaker 1: with some dos. If you have a lot of DOS
27:48
Speaker 1: in your area, I would say be really sensitive to
27:51
Speaker 1: whether you're in an area where EHD has been an
27:54
Speaker 1: issue and at that point maybe to start building for
27:56
Speaker 1: the future. So hope you guys have a great week.
27:58
Speaker 1: We'll see you here next Wednesday. Seam m HM