Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 383: Rut Fresh Radio 10/28/20

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Ep. 383: Rut Fresh Radio 10/28/20 · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for
0:06
Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
0:11
Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm
0:16
Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan, and this is episode number three
0:20
Speaker 1: three and today we're back with another Rut Fresh Radio episode,
0:24
Speaker 1: which means we are hearing from deer hunters all across
0:26
Speaker 1: the country about the latest deer activity, current conditions, and
0:30
Speaker 1: the tactics that are working right now. All right, welcome
0:38
Speaker 1: to the Wired Hunt podcast, brought to you by on X.
0:42
Speaker 1: We're here for rut Fresh Radio, which is our mini
0:45
Speaker 1: series getting up to date reports from all across the country.
0:50
Speaker 1: And you know the name is rut Fresh. We're here.
0:55
Speaker 1: We finally are going to get to see the rut
0:57
Speaker 1: that is in our name. Hopefully, I'm hoping that's what
1:01
Speaker 1: WE'RENNA talking about today, Spencer, some rut related intel, some
1:04
Speaker 1: rut related activity reports, because between now in our next episode,
1:09
Speaker 1: sweet November is going to begin, and that's what we
1:11
Speaker 1: all dream of all year. So here we are. That's right.
1:14
Speaker 1: A lot of stuff you're gonna hear talk about in
1:16
Speaker 1: this week's episode is pre rut seeking and chasing. Why
1:20
Speaker 1: scrapes are awesome to look at. Right now, you know
1:23
Speaker 1: how these mature bucks are gonna start making their extended
1:26
Speaker 1: walk about all that stuff that you associate with the
1:29
Speaker 1: end of October and why, like data driven hunters really
1:33
Speaker 1: love this time of year. Um, But we're gonna talk
1:36
Speaker 1: about that in our interviews, Mark, something that I don't
1:39
Speaker 1: touch on with too many of our guests this week,
1:41
Speaker 1: but I would love for you to talk about and
1:44
Speaker 1: go into, you know, like some detail on is the
1:47
Speaker 1: rutting moon and how that's coming up and you know
1:51
Speaker 1: what certain hunters believe that does to buck movement. Man,
1:56
Speaker 1: this is such a funny topic, Spencer, because I like
2:01
Speaker 1: to keep tabs and and and pay attention to it
2:04
Speaker 1: a little bit. But I also feel a little bit
2:07
Speaker 1: guilty talking about it too much because I don't want
2:10
Speaker 1: to be misleading. Uh. And we've written about it, we've
2:14
Speaker 1: put it out there. But but here's the basic gist.
2:17
Speaker 1: The basic gist is that all the research out there
2:21
Speaker 1: shows that the breeding phase for white tailed deer is
2:27
Speaker 1: primarily triggered by photo period, which is the amount of
2:31
Speaker 1: daylight in the twenty four hour period, which is consistent
2:35
Speaker 1: by region year after year. After years. So basically that
2:38
Speaker 1: means that where I hunt in Michigan, the average peak
2:42
Speaker 1: of breeding, the main time frames that that kicks off
2:47
Speaker 1: the rut that is going to be the same every year.
2:49
Speaker 1: For for here, it's around mid November is when the
2:52
Speaker 1: if you imagine the number of deer that are breeding,
2:55
Speaker 1: if you were to map that out and graphic, you'd
2:58
Speaker 1: have a bell curve, you'd have of some very small
3:01
Speaker 1: number that are breeding in you know, October, and then
3:05
Speaker 1: it's gonna slowly rise through November and then somewhere around
3:08
Speaker 1: the fift or sixteenth or somewhere in that ballpark will
3:11
Speaker 1: be the highest number of deer that are getting bred,
3:13
Speaker 1: and then it's gonna slowly go down the further back.
3:17
Speaker 1: So you know, across most parts of the country, that
3:20
Speaker 1: is the case, give ord move that peak you know
3:23
Speaker 1: this way or that way a little bit um And
3:27
Speaker 1: that essentially negates any other theories related to the moon,
3:33
Speaker 1: like the running moon theory, as far as do these
3:36
Speaker 1: things does the moon somehow impact the timing of the rut? Uh,
3:40
Speaker 1: It's it's categorically not true that these other things impact
3:46
Speaker 1: the timing of the actual breeding phase. But what there
3:52
Speaker 1: maybe some truth too, is whether or not things like
3:57
Speaker 1: whether like temperatures or the moon might impact how much
4:03
Speaker 1: of the related activity we actually see. So there's there's
4:06
Speaker 1: two different things we're talking about here. There's actual breeding
4:09
Speaker 1: that's going on, and then there's the rutting activity that
4:13
Speaker 1: we as hunters want to see, which is chasing, seeking,
4:17
Speaker 1: cruising bucks, you know, moving around a lot. That's the
4:20
Speaker 1: kind of stuff we want to see, and that's the
4:22
Speaker 1: kind of stuff that happens. You know, some years it
4:25
Speaker 1: happens all day, every day. Some years you don't see
4:29
Speaker 1: it as much, or some years you see it like
4:32
Speaker 1: crazy in the early part of the month, and then
4:33
Speaker 1: for some reason it doesn't seem to be quite as
4:37
Speaker 1: quite as uh as action packed the second week maybe,
4:40
Speaker 1: and you can be stuck wondering, like, what happened? Why
4:43
Speaker 1: was the ruts so awesome this year? Were not so
4:46
Speaker 1: good the next year? Um? Why is that the case?
4:49
Speaker 1: When supposedly the rest supposed to be happening at the
4:52
Speaker 1: same time and it is happening the same time. There's
4:54
Speaker 1: just a bunch of different factors that can influence what
4:56
Speaker 1: you see. So maybe the moon is one of those things.
4:59
Speaker 1: Maybe temperature is are one of those things. Um, hunting
5:02
Speaker 1: pressure could be one of those things. And then where
5:04
Speaker 1: you're actually sitting could be a big thing too, which
5:07
Speaker 1: should go without saying. But you can be sitting on
5:10
Speaker 1: one side of a property and see zero running activity
5:13
Speaker 1: for three days straight, and then you could sit yards
5:16
Speaker 1: away on the other side of a property and there
5:18
Speaker 1: might be stuff going bananas for three days. That's how
5:22
Speaker 1: location dependent running activity can be sometimes. So this is
5:26
Speaker 1: a long winded way of trying to put a qualifier
5:30
Speaker 1: and what I'm about to tell you, which is there
5:32
Speaker 1: are a series of different theories around the moon and
5:35
Speaker 1: what kind of impact it may have on this rut
5:39
Speaker 1: time period. And so the rutting moon theory which you
5:42
Speaker 1: brought up is one that was popularized by Charles L.
5:45
Speaker 1: Sheimer Um and Wayne I think Wayne laroche Um. They
5:51
Speaker 1: published it every year and Deer and Deer Hunting magazine.
5:55
Speaker 1: Basic gist is that supposedly the second full moon after
6:00
Speaker 1: the autumn equinox is what kick starts this running activity
6:06
Speaker 1: and then from there, you know, you've got that seeking
6:08
Speaker 1: and chasing stuff that picks up, and then you know
6:10
Speaker 1: the peak of breeding and the lockdown face should happen
6:13
Speaker 1: you know, two weeks after that or something somewhere along
6:16
Speaker 1: those lines. Um. So, I don't know if that. I
6:20
Speaker 1: don't know what to think about that, because I still
6:23
Speaker 1: look at the science that states that the peak breedings
6:25
Speaker 1: happened at the same time. But I do wonder like
6:27
Speaker 1: maybe the timing of that moon does influence like how
6:30
Speaker 1: hectic and crazy the daylight portion of that is. So
6:34
Speaker 1: all that's kind of leading us to the to the
6:36
Speaker 1: idea that you alluded to, which is that the running
6:39
Speaker 1: moon this year is on October thirty one. So the
6:43
Speaker 1: theory goes that when the running moon lines up with
6:47
Speaker 1: the same time period that we typically think of as
6:49
Speaker 1: good running activity, which for most people, if you have
6:52
Speaker 1: a peak breeding date of November fifteen, give or take,
6:55
Speaker 1: usually it's those two weeks preceding that, give or take
6:59
Speaker 1: where you see the most chasing, cruising, seeking, YadA, YadA, YadA.
7:03
Speaker 1: So I historically, I'm thinking, like Halloween to the four
7:07
Speaker 1: November is is the best part of the year for
7:09
Speaker 1: me as far as running activity, and the running moon
7:13
Speaker 1: happens to fall right at the beginning of that kind
7:15
Speaker 1: of perfectly in sync. So according to these guys, when
7:19
Speaker 1: that happens, you should see like the best possible rut um,
7:23
Speaker 1: the worst case scenarios when that running moon is like
7:26
Speaker 1: super duper late. Then suppose that you have something they
7:29
Speaker 1: referred to as a trickle rut um. I don't I'm
7:32
Speaker 1: not gonna stand by any of this stuff. All I'm
7:34
Speaker 1: gonna say is that it is interesting and if you
7:38
Speaker 1: do believe in it, it's pointing to good things for
7:40
Speaker 1: this year. Um. Now, there are a series of other
7:43
Speaker 1: rut related movement theories on the moon. We've talked about
7:48
Speaker 1: these throughout the rest of the year, so I won't
7:50
Speaker 1: spend too much time on them. But basically, you've got
7:52
Speaker 1: some people that think that when the moon is rising
7:56
Speaker 1: or setting in daylight right towards the end of the
7:59
Speaker 1: day a or towards the beginning of the day, that's
8:01
Speaker 1: a good thing. And this happens around the full moon.
8:04
Speaker 1: So the druries have talked about this, many people have
8:07
Speaker 1: heard our podcast The Marcher, He's talked about this well
8:09
Speaker 1: right now. They say that with that full moon hitting
8:12
Speaker 1: on October thirty one, their belief is that we're gonna
8:14
Speaker 1: have some particularly good evening hunts leading into the full
8:18
Speaker 1: moon and then really good morning hunts after the full
8:21
Speaker 1: moon because of that, but not so good in the
8:24
Speaker 1: middle of the month. So uh, they just put out
8:26
Speaker 1: a video over on their deer Cast app talking about
8:28
Speaker 1: this where they believe that we're gonna have a particularly
8:30
Speaker 1: good first part of the month of November. So this
8:34
Speaker 1: this phase we're coming into right now, especially those mornings,
8:37
Speaker 1: but you know when you get to that second or
8:39
Speaker 1: third week, it might be a little wonky again. I
8:44
Speaker 1: I this is just what folks are saying. Um. And
8:47
Speaker 1: then the final moon related thing would be those that
8:50
Speaker 1: follow the red moon UM, which would be believing that
8:53
Speaker 1: deer movement will pick up when the moon is directly
8:56
Speaker 1: overhead or underfoot, and this year the overhead to underfoot
9:00
Speaker 1: red moon days. I think the first one happens between
9:04
Speaker 1: November three and the seventh. So somebody like Adam Hayes,
9:07
Speaker 1: who's a big believer in this, he would tell you
9:09
Speaker 1: that that's when the running activity is going to be
9:11
Speaker 1: the very best. Um. It's a lot to try to
9:14
Speaker 1: take it in process. I don't think anyone has done
9:16
Speaker 1: a very good job of truly quantifiably uh correlated it
9:20
Speaker 1: in a way other than just anecdote evidence. So I
9:24
Speaker 1: always look at the calendar and I let that dictate
9:26
Speaker 1: when I'm gonna hunt. That last week of October in
9:29
Speaker 1: the first two weeks in November are hard to beat. Um.
9:32
Speaker 1: If I have to pick my days more carefully, I'm
9:34
Speaker 1: gonna pick the colder days and the fronts um. But
9:37
Speaker 1: I'm gonna spend every moment I can out there, because
9:40
Speaker 1: anything is possible during the rut. And ladies and gentlemen,
9:43
Speaker 1: it's here. I'm with you, Mark. You did a great
9:46
Speaker 1: job there of going through all the different moon theories. Um.
9:51
Speaker 1: And I've always likened like my stance on the moon
9:56
Speaker 1: and your behavior as the same thing of how I
9:59
Speaker 1: think about like big Foot. I am wildly interested in
10:03
Speaker 1: stories about Bigfoot, and I will eat it up and
10:06
Speaker 1: I will consume like any TV show or article or
10:11
Speaker 1: anything about Bigfoot. But I don't believe that he's real.
10:16
Speaker 1: And it's the same thing with the moon and dear behavior. Um.
10:21
Speaker 1: I'm really interested in this stelf. I look forward looking
10:23
Speaker 1: at the moon phases every year, and I want to
10:25
Speaker 1: know what the moon is gonna be doing, But ultimately
10:28
Speaker 1: it doesn't really change what I'm doing in the woods. Uh.
10:31
Speaker 1: And I don't think it changes dear behavior, so gun
10:35
Speaker 1: to my head, No, I don't think bigfoot is real,
10:38
Speaker 1: and no I don't think it's ever helped me kill
10:40
Speaker 1: a deer or preventing me from killing a deer. Uh,
10:44
Speaker 1: but it's still really like fun content to to take in,
10:49
Speaker 1: uh and think about it. It's just like maybe another
10:52
Speaker 1: piece of the puzzle for deer hunting. And and for
10:55
Speaker 1: whatever it's worth. There are a lot of very good,
10:58
Speaker 1: very successful deer hunters, that's whereby and they would tell
11:01
Speaker 1: you and me that we're a couple of knuckleheads. So
11:04
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, you take it for whatever it's worth,
11:08
Speaker 1: and uh, if it helps you get out there, more
11:11
Speaker 1: power to you. Um, I can tell you that moon regardless,
11:16
Speaker 1: it's the time of year when you should be seeing
11:18
Speaker 1: sign popping up like crazy, and you should see bucks
11:21
Speaker 1: starting a cruise and checking out doors and starting to
11:23
Speaker 1: bump them around and stuff. And that's what I've been
11:25
Speaker 1: seeing over the last week. Um it is it is
11:29
Speaker 1: ramping up big time. I'm seeing young bucks chasing a lot.
11:33
Speaker 1: I'm seeing those two year old starting to get out
11:36
Speaker 1: looking around a bunch of cruising. I'm seeing sparring. I'm
11:39
Speaker 1: seeing scrapes everywhere. Um, and and even even a couple
11:45
Speaker 1: of daylight sighting slash trail camera picks of my target
11:49
Speaker 1: mature buck. So he's on his feet already. So it's uh,
11:53
Speaker 1: it's on in Michigan. Yeah, I mean, there's there's a
11:56
Speaker 1: ton of reasons to love the end of October. Running
11:59
Speaker 1: moon be damned like, there's gonna be seeking and chasing. Uh.
12:03
Speaker 1: Signmaking is gonna peek here shortly. This is great time
12:06
Speaker 1: to use a decoy or do some calling. Um. And
12:09
Speaker 1: the coolest part is that the best is yet to come.
12:11
Speaker 1: I think that's maybe why I love the end of
12:14
Speaker 1: October so much, because dear movement is great and it's
12:17
Speaker 1: only gonna get better. Um. And that's what you're gonna
12:20
Speaker 1: hear from the hunters we talked to this week. That
12:23
Speaker 1: includes Mike Fitzgerald from bow Hunting dot Com in Minnesota,
12:26
Speaker 1: Trade Currents from Release Outdoors in West Virginia, Clay Nucombe,
12:30
Speaker 1: the newest member of Meat Eater in Arkansas, and then
12:33
Speaker 1: t j Ongar from the Virtue TV in Indiana. Awesome
12:37
Speaker 1: sounds like a good slate. Are are you gonna be
12:39
Speaker 1: able to get out in here anytime soon? Spencer. Yeah, Mark,
12:42
Speaker 1: In a couple of days, I'm heading back to South Dakota.
12:44
Speaker 1: I'll be there for about uh fourteen days or so,
12:47
Speaker 1: and then when I get back, I have a couple
12:49
Speaker 1: of weeks to fill my Montana tag. So the next
12:52
Speaker 1: three weeks here, hopefully I have some more personal rought
12:56
Speaker 1: updates for you. All right, man, Well, I'll be ended
13:00
Speaker 1: it out in Michigan and hopefully we'll have a good
13:02
Speaker 1: story as well. I'm I'm right there. I'm right on
13:07
Speaker 1: the edge of it. He's he's there. He's just the
13:10
Speaker 1: opposite place where I'm at. The old cat mouse came
13:13
Speaker 1: a star already, Spencer. So um, we'll see alright, Mark,
13:17
Speaker 1: I think we get to our callers and I will
13:19
Speaker 1: talk to you in November. Sounds good. All of this
13:22
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Speaker 1: head over to Trophy Ridge dot com. Alright, and joining
13:50
Speaker 1: us on the line next is Mike Fitzgerald from bow
13:52
Speaker 1: Hunter Die in Minnesota. Now, Mike in Minnesota, what would
13:56
Speaker 1: you say the buck activity has been lately on a
13:58
Speaker 1: scale of one to ten. On the scale one to
14:01
Speaker 1: tend the last week or so, I would I would
14:03
Speaker 1: probably give it about a seven. It's been hot some days,
14:06
Speaker 1: cold some other days. But we've definitely had an early
14:09
Speaker 1: start to our winter. We've had snow on the ground
14:12
Speaker 1: up here since the seventeenth. We're getting another three or
14:15
Speaker 1: four inches right now, so it looks a lot more
14:18
Speaker 1: like late November than it does lay October. But after
14:21
Speaker 1: that first snowfall about a day or two later, there
14:24
Speaker 1: was a two days stretch about the nineteenth and twenties
14:26
Speaker 1: where all my cameras just lit up daytime buck activity.
14:29
Speaker 1: They were out cruising hard then. So it's been it's
14:33
Speaker 1: been good. There's been a couple of flow days in between.
14:35
Speaker 1: But we're we're on that ramp up of of when
14:39
Speaker 1: you have time to get in the woods, get in
14:40
Speaker 1: the woods, when you have winter come early in the
14:44
Speaker 1: big woods. How does that change things for food sources
14:47
Speaker 1: as we get into the rut. Well, as we approached
14:49
Speaker 1: the ruts were you know, generally getting close to transition
14:53
Speaker 1: time up here anyway. But when it comes this early
14:56
Speaker 1: um where I'm already seeing doe groups kind of shift
14:59
Speaker 1: where they're at, they're already transitioning to mostly woody brows. Um.
15:04
Speaker 1: You know, the late fall. A lot of times you'll see,
15:07
Speaker 1: especially as the rut approaches, you'll see a lot of
15:09
Speaker 1: deer along the ditches and mediums feeding on that grass,
15:13
Speaker 1: and that grass is already buried and they're already kind
15:16
Speaker 1: of moving away from those and getting into their kind
15:18
Speaker 1: of winter hots. The nice thing about the snow is
15:21
Speaker 1: you can utilize it to your advantage, and you know,
15:24
Speaker 1: you know where they've been and how how far or
15:27
Speaker 1: how long ago they were there. So it's a it's
15:29
Speaker 1: a good tool to have, UM, even though it's kind
15:32
Speaker 1: of it seems harsh that it's happening already. Are you
15:35
Speaker 1: seeing a lot of signmaking right now in northern Minnesota.
15:39
Speaker 1: I've been seeing a few rubs here and there. Uh,
15:41
Speaker 1: scraped activity for me has been really low this year. Uh,
15:44
Speaker 1: that could very well just be my little pocket, but
15:47
Speaker 1: I haven't found much evidence of fresh scraping um so far,
15:52
Speaker 1: and with the snow cover again, I'm not entirely sure
15:55
Speaker 1: if that has a big impact on how much scraping
15:58
Speaker 1: they'll do. Um, But I don't want the snow hits
16:01
Speaker 1: the ground. I rarely find scrapes in our area here.
16:04
Speaker 1: When you're hunting the big woods, will you do any
16:07
Speaker 1: calling or decoying like hunters in the Midwest or is
16:09
Speaker 1: that not a tactic that you use. It certainly a
16:13
Speaker 1: technic you can use. I tend to be a little
16:17
Speaker 1: cautious about it, um, But calling in particular, I don't
16:20
Speaker 1: like to blind call a whole lot um. When the
16:23
Speaker 1: rut really gets going um and they're most receptive to rattling,
16:27
Speaker 1: I'll do that sometimes, but when it comes to grunting
16:29
Speaker 1: and bleating most of the time, I'm only doing that
16:31
Speaker 1: if I lay my eyes on deer and I'm trying
16:33
Speaker 1: to get them to change their path. Um. It's just
16:36
Speaker 1: up here, I could be I could have deer thirty
16:39
Speaker 1: yards for me and not really know they're there until
16:42
Speaker 1: they step out into my shooting lanes. And so I
16:44
Speaker 1: don't like to I don't like to surprise anything that
16:47
Speaker 1: I that I know or don't know, maybe looking at me.
16:50
Speaker 1: So I tend to lay off of calling unless I
16:52
Speaker 1: have the deer in my sights. But Dave, I've had
16:55
Speaker 1: a few bucks responding already um to some light drunting.
16:59
Speaker 1: So it's definitely a tactic I use. But I don't
17:02
Speaker 1: go in guns plays and that's for sure. You mentioned
17:05
Speaker 1: that your trail cameras have been lighting up lately. Where
17:08
Speaker 1: do you place a lot of your trail cameras during
17:10
Speaker 1: pre rout a lot of the time, UM, My favorite
17:13
Speaker 1: spot to have them are on ridgetops, either between or
17:17
Speaker 1: near dough betting areas. UM. So if I find sick
17:20
Speaker 1: cover that has a nice ridge run um going along it,
17:24
Speaker 1: that's where a lot of my a lot of my
17:27
Speaker 1: cameras are these days. And that's certainly one of my
17:30
Speaker 1: favorite cameras UM is in a spot just like that.
17:33
Speaker 1: And that's the one that really lit up over Uh.
17:36
Speaker 1: You know, a two or three day chunk earlier in
17:37
Speaker 1: the week, and I'm planning on hunting that in the
17:40
Speaker 1: next day or two too, because I'm seeing some similar
17:42
Speaker 1: conditions coming up weatherwise going forward. Then in this next
17:45
Speaker 1: week or so, what do you think that buck activity
17:48
Speaker 1: is going to be on a scale of one to
17:49
Speaker 1: ten in Minnesota. In northern Minnesota. Here, I definitely think
17:54
Speaker 1: we're we're on the rise here, So I think in
17:56
Speaker 1: eight or nine in this next week, I think once
17:58
Speaker 1: this front comes through the net, a couple of days
18:00
Speaker 1: will be golden. And then as we get through the
18:03
Speaker 1: Halloween weekend, we're just getting closer and closer to the
18:06
Speaker 1: main part of the routs, and it's it's hard to
18:08
Speaker 1: convince me that it's not a good idea to be
18:11
Speaker 1: in the woods at any point from this coming week on. Alright, Mike, well,
18:15
Speaker 1: good luck and stay warm. Thanks for joining me. Thanks, thanks,
18:19
Speaker 1: I have a good one, alright, and joining us on
18:21
Speaker 1: the line. Next is Trey Kerns in West Virginia from
18:24
Speaker 1: Release Outdoors Now Trey in West Virginia. What would you
18:27
Speaker 1: say the buck activity has been lately on the scale
18:30
Speaker 1: of one to ten, I'd say it's been a four,
18:33
Speaker 1: mainly just because of the abnormal warm weather we've had
18:37
Speaker 1: in October. Um, it's been, you know, rather warm, and
18:40
Speaker 1: I just feel like this deer haven't really been on
18:42
Speaker 1: their feet in the daylight hours, so it's been pretty minimal.
18:44
Speaker 1: When do you expect to start seeing some mature bucks
18:47
Speaker 1: moving in daylight. Then in West Virginia, I feel like
18:50
Speaker 1: this weekend next week you're really gonna start transitioning. Um.
18:54
Speaker 1: Really have been seeing some activity on the cell cameras
18:57
Speaker 1: as far as deer starting to get closer to that
18:59
Speaker 1: day like moving. But I feel like this weekend next
19:02
Speaker 1: week it's really going to start picking up. Are you
19:04
Speaker 1: seeing a lot of signmaking right now? Yeah, things we're
19:07
Speaker 1: getting pretty slow through the first half of Obtober, but
19:11
Speaker 1: the later half have definitely picked up. And uh, I
19:14
Speaker 1: feel like scrapes, um are really starting to get opened up.
19:17
Speaker 1: And this week, UM, you know, I've seen a lot
19:19
Speaker 1: of activity over the last week and this week over
19:22
Speaker 1: the course of my cell camera activity UM on those scrapes.
19:26
Speaker 1: So yeah, there's really starting to pick up the movement.
19:29
Speaker 1: You mentioned that your cell cameras are on scrapes right now.
19:31
Speaker 1: Is that where you place most of your trail cameras
19:34
Speaker 1: during pre route? Yeah, I mean that's where I try
19:36
Speaker 1: to focus Spencer. I mean I just feel like, um,
19:39
Speaker 1: you know, that's my bread and butter towards the later
19:42
Speaker 1: half of October, and having those cameras on those scrapes,
19:46
Speaker 1: it really allows me to see, UM what deer in
19:48
Speaker 1: the area and then what you're also moving in So
19:50
Speaker 1: it kind of gives me a good PenPoint and what
19:53
Speaker 1: I'm working towards these you know, next couple of weeks
19:55
Speaker 1: that I call that really good period of time are
19:58
Speaker 1: calling or decoying things you'll use in West Virginia and
20:01
Speaker 1: what do those setups look like when you're doing that.
20:03
Speaker 1: So not a whole lot of decoying, but UM as
20:06
Speaker 1: far as like calling and sequencing, I've been doing a
20:09
Speaker 1: lot of that, and then UM rattling is a big thing.
20:13
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of progress and through rattling the
20:17
Speaker 1: last couple of years UM and and doing that. So
20:20
Speaker 1: but I haven't really had the opportunity to do any
20:22
Speaker 1: decoys and I don't think I really have or will
20:24
Speaker 1: in West Virginia just based on the topography and how
20:27
Speaker 1: things lie, we don't have a whole lot of acts.
20:29
Speaker 1: So really focusing on just UM vocals and and and
20:34
Speaker 1: communicating in that aspect really helps us out. With a
20:37
Speaker 1: lack of egg what food sources are you then focused on?
20:40
Speaker 1: So we've had a really good production of acorn mass
20:44
Speaker 1: this year. Really trying to focus on UM white oaks
20:49
Speaker 1: and and red oaks. And then also we try to
20:51
Speaker 1: establish um some smaller plots and you know people call
20:55
Speaker 1: those kill plots or whatever, but we just try to
20:57
Speaker 1: establish a late season food source um to the later
21:01
Speaker 1: half of the year. And then right now we're really
21:03
Speaker 1: still focusing on acorn just because the mass production we
21:06
Speaker 1: had this year was so large that we're trying to
21:08
Speaker 1: just focus on that. And then over the next couple
21:11
Speaker 1: of weeks will kind of transition into trying to get
21:13
Speaker 1: on that downward side of those betting areas as well.
21:16
Speaker 1: Do you notice the shift in betting at all, whether
21:18
Speaker 1: that's from bucks or doughes in West Virginia as we
21:21
Speaker 1: approach November. I don't see a huge transition on where
21:26
Speaker 1: they're changing their betting areas. I feel like, um, you know,
21:30
Speaker 1: as a mature deer gets older, you know, it's it's
21:33
Speaker 1: core area really shrinks down. So I think those deer
21:36
Speaker 1: still betting in the same area. But you get them
21:38
Speaker 1: hopefully on their feet um in daylight hours if you're
21:41
Speaker 1: you know, in the right spot and just try to
21:43
Speaker 1: hunt that wind and uh, stay on the down one side,
21:46
Speaker 1: because that's what those big bucks are gonna do. They're
21:48
Speaker 1: gonna try to transition on the downward side of that
21:50
Speaker 1: betting area and check for that hot dough. So that's
21:53
Speaker 1: kind of where we try to put ourselves in this
21:55
Speaker 1: time of year. And if you can get those, it's
21:58
Speaker 1: not those big communities gray, but those ones that are
22:01
Speaker 1: really interior close to um, those big betting areas. That's
22:05
Speaker 1: kind of where we try to focus and kind of
22:08
Speaker 1: meet somewhere in the middle there going forward. Then in
22:10
Speaker 1: the next week or so, what do you think the
22:12
Speaker 1: buckett is going to be on a scale of one
22:14
Speaker 1: to ten in West Virginia. I think it's gonna be
22:16
Speaker 1: a nine. I think it's really gonna pick up as
22:18
Speaker 1: far as um. You know, scrapes are still getting opened up.
22:22
Speaker 1: But I really think that the hot dough is gonna
22:24
Speaker 1: come in more frequently. And I think those deer are
22:27
Speaker 1: really gonna start moving around a little bit, and those
22:30
Speaker 1: big bucks and mature deer are going to start transitioning
22:33
Speaker 1: and checking those down one sides and really trying to
22:35
Speaker 1: pen some beer down. So I think it's gonna be
22:37
Speaker 1: really awesome. All right, Trey, have a good rout and
22:39
Speaker 1: good luck. Thanks for joining me alright, Spencer, thank you alright,
22:43
Speaker 1: and joining us on the line. Next is the newest
22:46
Speaker 1: member of the Meat Eater team, Clay nucom in Arkansas.
22:49
Speaker 1: Now Clay in Arkansas. What would you say the buck
22:52
Speaker 1: activities been lately on a scale of one to ten,
22:56
Speaker 1: so in the last couple of days, Spencer, I would
22:59
Speaker 1: put it at a out six. And my reasoning is
23:04
Speaker 1: is I've hunted a portion of almost every day for
23:08
Speaker 1: about the last nine days. And yesterday afternoon was the
23:12
Speaker 1: first time that I saw a mature buck tending the dough.
23:17
Speaker 1: I mean he was out at three thirty in the
23:19
Speaker 1: afternoon and he was on that though. He wasn't dogging
23:24
Speaker 1: her and chasing her. He was just he was just
23:27
Speaker 1: with her, wasn't leaving her. And uh, that's the first
23:31
Speaker 1: but your buck I've seen do that this year. With
23:34
Speaker 1: how much you've been hunting lately, have you noticed any
23:37
Speaker 1: difference in mornings versus evenings with one being better than
23:40
Speaker 1: the other in late October, I have not noticed a
23:45
Speaker 1: ton of difference between morning and evening. I really haven't.
23:51
Speaker 1: Um it's the movement has been has been odd. We've
23:56
Speaker 1: had some big rain events, like right now it's been
23:59
Speaker 1: it's raining hard in Arkansas, and it's been raining hard
24:04
Speaker 1: almost twenty four hours, and I think it's got the
24:07
Speaker 1: deer moving in these breaks in the rain and uh
24:13
Speaker 1: so the movement has been odd Like last night, the
24:16
Speaker 1: last two hours after I saw that big buck, I
24:19
Speaker 1: hardly saw any deer and I anticipated it's been great,
24:23
Speaker 1: um but sawid deer movement early in the afternoon yesterday
24:27
Speaker 1: that it was kind of a break in the rainfall. Clay,
24:30
Speaker 1: I know that acorns are a big focus of your
24:33
Speaker 1: haunts for not only deer, but turkeys and bear and
24:35
Speaker 1: everything else in that part of the country. Tell us
24:38
Speaker 1: a little bit about how to identify the difference between
24:41
Speaker 1: a red oak and a white oak and why that
24:43
Speaker 1: matters to hunters. So this year in the Ozarks, all
24:48
Speaker 1: this region, there's a ton of red oak acorns, and
24:52
Speaker 1: uh white oak acrens are typically the preferred food source.
24:56
Speaker 1: Right now, if they are white oak acrens on the ground,
24:58
Speaker 1: they're being preferred by all game and eating up relatively quickly.
25:03
Speaker 1: This year, there's a ton of red oaks, I mean
25:05
Speaker 1: the spotted oaks and schumart oaks. That's what we have
25:09
Speaker 1: a lot of here are they're raining acrons. Man I
25:14
Speaker 1: mean just carpets of acrons and that's what the deer
25:17
Speaker 1: hitting on. And um. Yeah, So basically, a red oak
25:21
Speaker 1: is gonna have pointed lobes, it's gonna have bristles, and
25:24
Speaker 1: white oaks are gonna have rounded lobes. And those are
25:27
Speaker 1: the two bigger categories of oaks that we have in
25:30
Speaker 1: the Eastern US is white oaks red oaks. Inside of
25:33
Speaker 1: both those categories, there are a lot of different species,
25:36
Speaker 1: but the white oaks are almost always going to be
25:38
Speaker 1: the preferred food source. Um. And but yeah, that's the
25:43
Speaker 1: that's the easiest thing. Is pointed loab. Pointed points on
25:47
Speaker 1: the tips of the leaves means red oak. Rounded lobes
25:51
Speaker 1: means white oak during pre rot and rout in the
25:54
Speaker 1: big woods of Arkansas. Are you using any sense for
25:57
Speaker 1: white tail? The only thing that used for sense for
26:01
Speaker 1: whitetail spencer is I like to use dough yurine as
26:05
Speaker 1: a cover scent. Synthetic dough yurine. We have to use
26:08
Speaker 1: that here in Arkansas as a cover cent. I put
26:10
Speaker 1: it on my boots, and I don't put it on
26:12
Speaker 1: my boots so that a deer will follow me to
26:15
Speaker 1: my stand. I put it on my boots so that
26:17
Speaker 1: a deer will ignore me, because that is what I
26:19
Speaker 1: have seen extensively. Is that, So I'm not using it
26:24
Speaker 1: as an attractant. I'm using it as something to cover
26:26
Speaker 1: up my ground scent and the other thing that I
26:29
Speaker 1: like to do. And I've just seen it work so
26:31
Speaker 1: many times and buy me a couple of deer. Is
26:36
Speaker 1: it sounds hokey, But I pour out of daub of
26:40
Speaker 1: dope synthetic dough yurine out of my stand and just
26:44
Speaker 1: let it hit the ground once I'm up in the tree,
26:47
Speaker 1: and if a deer cuts my wind, he's gonna smell
26:50
Speaker 1: my human scent. At the same time, it smells a
26:54
Speaker 1: big dose of a new deer scent, and it just
27:00
Speaker 1: it confuses them. If they smell human scent, Bam, They're gone.
27:04
Speaker 1: I've seen dear stall out and even walk through my sense,
27:09
Speaker 1: and I feel like it's because of that that dough year,
27:13
Speaker 1: and so I like to do that. What are you
27:15
Speaker 1: seeing right now for signmaking in the oars, bucks are
27:20
Speaker 1: making tons of sign I feel like the big mature
27:23
Speaker 1: bucks are with the early doughs that are coming into Estris,
27:28
Speaker 1: We've got a fairly big breeding window here, and so
27:32
Speaker 1: there are dose in Estris right now, and just like
27:35
Speaker 1: I saw yesterday, I think some of the bigger deer
27:37
Speaker 1: are with those dear the other deer that aren't with
27:41
Speaker 1: that dough are making a ton of sign and checking scrapes.
27:44
Speaker 1: I checked us a camera over a scrape two days
27:49
Speaker 1: ago and it had had three different bucks to it
27:51
Speaker 1: in twenty four hours, and the prior twenty four hours
27:55
Speaker 1: to that, or the prior probably seventy two hours to
28:00
Speaker 1: at there has only been one or two bucks to it.
28:02
Speaker 1: So um, that was the twenty five of October. Notable
28:07
Speaker 1: increase in scraping activity, primarily with the younger bucks. But
28:12
Speaker 1: they are making they're making a lot of sign right now.
28:15
Speaker 1: Going forward, then in the sex week or so, what
28:17
Speaker 1: do you think that bucket ATVT is going to be
28:19
Speaker 1: on a scale of one to Tendon, Arkansas, It's gonna
28:22
Speaker 1: be at a ten. It's this is the best we
28:26
Speaker 1: you know for from about Halloween until about the seventh
28:30
Speaker 1: of November. Here is just historically the best time our
28:35
Speaker 1: peak breeding dates for northwest Arkansas from you know, fond
28:39
Speaker 1: conception studies that they've done over the years, is right
28:43
Speaker 1: around the fifth to the seventh of November, so it's
28:47
Speaker 1: a little bit of an early rut, so you know,
28:52
Speaker 1: right during the you know, right before that, um Man,
28:56
Speaker 1: we we can have some great red activity. Um So
28:59
Speaker 1: this week if we haven't, we're having good weather. It's
29:03
Speaker 1: it's not going to be super cold, but it's not
29:05
Speaker 1: gonna be overwhelmingly warm. Has in the fifties dipping down
29:10
Speaker 1: into the forties at night. It's gonna be good weather.
29:13
Speaker 1: I mean, if we're ever gonna have a ten, it's
29:16
Speaker 1: gonna be this week. All right, Clay, Well, good luck
29:18
Speaker 1: with the rest of your season. Welcome to the Meat
29:20
Speaker 1: Eater team, and thanks for joining me. Thanks, Spencer, appreciate it. Man,
29:25
Speaker 1: good luck to you all right, and enjoining us on
29:27
Speaker 1: the line. Next is t J Unger in Indiana from
29:30
Speaker 1: the Virtue TV. Now t J in Indiana. What would
29:34
Speaker 1: you say the buck activities been leally on a scale
29:36
Speaker 1: of one to ten, Spencer, thanks for having me on. Yeah,
29:39
Speaker 1: I mean, buck activity is is starting to increase. I'd
29:43
Speaker 1: probably rate it today about five. Um starting to see
29:48
Speaker 1: you know, young bucks on their feet pretty regularly during daytime,
29:51
Speaker 1: during daytime hours, so we're seeing two and three year
29:54
Speaker 1: olds that are that are moving pretty pretty heavily now,
29:57
Speaker 1: so things are ramping up to be a pretty solid
30:00
Speaker 1: next you know, six seven days, when do you expect
30:03
Speaker 1: to start seeing those mature bucks on their feet in daylight?
30:07
Speaker 1: We have, uh, some some pretty consistent meteorological conditions right now.
30:13
Speaker 1: So we had a big cold front push in on Friday,
30:16
Speaker 1: and it's been pretty consistent weather, a little bit of
30:19
Speaker 1: rain mixed in, just super light rain. Um moon phase
30:23
Speaker 1: is really solid, so I think every single day things
30:26
Speaker 1: are improving. So going into this weekend, gosh, it's only Wednesday,
30:31
Speaker 1: but um, you know, I'm expecting a really good Saturday
30:35
Speaker 1: Sunday uh here in Indiana, so I'm in the northeast
30:38
Speaker 1: portion of the state. But but yeah, looking at the
30:41
Speaker 1: extended forecast, UM consistently cold temps and uh that moon
30:46
Speaker 1: phase is is looking pretty solid. So I would not
30:48
Speaker 1: be surprised here over the next two three days if
30:51
Speaker 1: I'm seeing realm mature deer up on their feet and
30:54
Speaker 1: at least on trail cameras. You haunted Textbook state, and
30:59
Speaker 1: I imagine some textbook farms for doing some decoying. Is
31:02
Speaker 1: that a strategy that you'll use during pre rut it is.
31:06
Speaker 1: I've already been using I've got a Dave Smith, so
31:09
Speaker 1: I've already been using the decoy probably for the last
31:12
Speaker 1: week and a half. Um, you know, we're we're really
31:15
Speaker 1: not looking to kill those, so you know, sometimes you
31:17
Speaker 1: get a little bit of weird interaction with those, but
31:20
Speaker 1: have already had some good interaction with young bucks. So
31:23
Speaker 1: I think it was a week ago I had an
31:25
Speaker 1: encounter with two and a half year old and then
31:27
Speaker 1: followed by a three you know, three and a half
31:29
Speaker 1: year old. Um come out in the field and just
31:31
Speaker 1: kind of bow up to him, get a little bit aggressive.
31:34
Speaker 1: But um, you know, I'm still planning on Actually I'm
31:37
Speaker 1: I'm cleaning up and packing up right now, planning the
31:39
Speaker 1: head of the stands I'm taking to decoy with me.
31:41
Speaker 1: So now is the time in my book. Uh you know,
31:45
Speaker 1: obviously things change from one state or one farm to
31:48
Speaker 1: the neck. But um, if you've got pretty high, uh
31:52
Speaker 1: you know, competition on your farm's good buck ratio. Uh
31:56
Speaker 1: you know, now at the time I'm putting them out
31:58
Speaker 1: there and and letting them do the work, I'm still
32:00
Speaker 1: doing a little bit of light rattling. I haven't got
32:02
Speaker 1: too aggressive with it. But but yeah, man, this is
32:05
Speaker 1: this is the light switch for me and it's time
32:07
Speaker 1: to go. Do you think that signmaking has peaked yet
32:10
Speaker 1: in Indiana? Um? So, I mentioned that we're getting some
32:13
Speaker 1: light rain. So it's about every two to three days
32:17
Speaker 1: that we're just getting you know, it's less than a
32:19
Speaker 1: quarter a quarter into rain. The reason why I bring
32:21
Speaker 1: that up, um, you know, with any precipitation like that
32:25
Speaker 1: kind of washes out on those signposts, so community scrapes
32:29
Speaker 1: and whatever. Uh, it just gives these bucks another opportunity
32:33
Speaker 1: to to freshen up the scrapes and communicate with each
32:36
Speaker 1: other who's the boss. Um. So you know, over the
32:40
Speaker 1: course of the last two or three days, those signposts
32:43
Speaker 1: have really picked up pretty substantially. So if you follow
32:46
Speaker 1: me on social I keep posting pictures of new scrapes
32:50
Speaker 1: or freshly cleaned out scrapes. It's happening, you know, every
32:54
Speaker 1: two days, which is it's pretty great. Um. You know,
32:57
Speaker 1: I think, like I said, I think we're going to
32:58
Speaker 1: see that transition today light activity any day now. I
33:02
Speaker 1: really expect to see the first doze probably come into
33:05
Speaker 1: estro like I said, over the next maybe two or
33:08
Speaker 1: three days something like that. Um, but wouldn't be surprised
33:11
Speaker 1: if we see a little bit sooner. I saw on
33:13
Speaker 1: a recent Instagram post that you posted what would be
33:15
Speaker 1: a classic community scrape. Tell us t J about how
33:19
Speaker 1: community scrapes differ from other scrapes and how that factors
33:22
Speaker 1: into a hunt. Yeah. So, so I picked up several
33:27
Speaker 1: new farms, um in the off season and just kind
33:30
Speaker 1: of looking at the topography of this one particular front.
33:33
Speaker 1: Never hunted it before, UM, but just based on topography
33:36
Speaker 1: and and it connects to you know, some some pretty
33:40
Speaker 1: big timber uh. Really made a mock scrape relatively early
33:44
Speaker 1: in this area, uh and put cell camera on it
33:47
Speaker 1: and video mode and UM. Over the course of maybe
33:52
Speaker 1: five days something like that, I had twenty different bucks
33:56
Speaker 1: roll through that scrape, now, varying ages obviously, but um,
34:00
Speaker 1: but they're just making their routes at nighttime and communicating
34:03
Speaker 1: with each other obviously as horton, you know, their hormone
34:06
Speaker 1: levels change. UM. You know they're they're putting that sent down. UM,
34:10
Speaker 1: and in my opinion, a little bit earlier, they're telling
34:13
Speaker 1: each other they'll be back and kind of marking their
34:16
Speaker 1: own territory and and figuring out these main routes. But
34:19
Speaker 1: because so many deer travel through that section, it's just
34:23
Speaker 1: an excellent way for everybody to keep tabs on each other.
34:25
Speaker 1: I mean, those those are still hitting them, those still
34:28
Speaker 1: check them a little bit. But um as testosterone levels
34:31
Speaker 1: continue to peak. Uh man, there's there's a lot of
34:34
Speaker 1: box hitting these community scrapes. So I actually transitions from
34:39
Speaker 1: food sources and and you know, travel routes and that
34:42
Speaker 1: sort of thing over to scrapes a little bit early
34:45
Speaker 1: this year. Historically I felt like I was always late.
34:49
Speaker 1: You know, I would find a scrape, pop camera on it,
34:52
Speaker 1: and you know, I would only get a day or
34:54
Speaker 1: so uh where it was good activity. So this year
34:57
Speaker 1: are poping them up a little bit early on scrapes.
34:59
Speaker 1: It was a little slow to again with but we
35:01
Speaker 1: hit them right this year and and just about every
35:03
Speaker 1: one of those big community scrapes that we've got them
35:05
Speaker 1: on are are very very, very very active. So it's
35:08
Speaker 1: great to see. It's exciting. Just need to get these
35:11
Speaker 1: these big rascals in daylight. Last year, harvest in the
35:14
Speaker 1: Midwest was way behind and it made for a difficult right,
35:18
Speaker 1: what's the status of harvest in Indiana this year? So harvest.
35:23
Speaker 1: Harvest has actually been pretty early this year. We had
35:25
Speaker 1: all of our surrounding neighbors and the farms that were
35:27
Speaker 1: on they are cleared of crops already, so uh that
35:32
Speaker 1: was happening, you know the first part of October when
35:35
Speaker 1: when farmers were really hit in the fields. Um, so
35:38
Speaker 1: you know, I remember years passed hunting in mid November
35:42
Speaker 1: and still seeing standing corn, which makes it really difficult.
35:44
Speaker 1: Those bucks can pull those dose out in the standing
35:47
Speaker 1: corn and and really did live out there. So um,
35:50
Speaker 1: you know, it reduces habitat for these guys, and uh
35:54
Speaker 1: it's been great, you know, like I said, it's pushed
35:56
Speaker 1: these animals into the end of the timber. So uh
35:59
Speaker 1: So as far as sign and that sort of thing,
36:01
Speaker 1: I'm seeing a lot more sign in the woods that
36:04
Speaker 1: than I am outside of the woods. So right when
36:07
Speaker 1: that corn comes off, I think that deer have more
36:09
Speaker 1: tendency to to feed, you know, right with that fresh corn,
36:12
Speaker 1: and then they kind of went back to their their
36:14
Speaker 1: typical patterns. But um, we also have just an absolute
36:18
Speaker 1: banner year for acorns. So on the majority of my farms,
36:23
Speaker 1: I'm I'm seeing just a ton it's on a acorn,
36:26
Speaker 1: So that in timber activity has been pretty high. I've
36:29
Speaker 1: seen a lot of a lot of signposts and scrapes
36:32
Speaker 1: coming up inside those areas kind of on South Acan
36:34
Speaker 1: slopes and betting areas. They're boarding bordering big oak flats.
36:39
Speaker 1: Going forward, Then in the sext week or so, what
36:41
Speaker 1: do you think that book a TV is going to
36:43
Speaker 1: be on a scale of one to ten in Indiana
36:46
Speaker 1: going into this weekend, We're we're hitting that golden time
36:49
Speaker 1: of year. Um, November is almost upon us. So this
36:54
Speaker 1: is my very favorite time to be in the woods. Uh,
36:58
Speaker 1: to this point, I've stayed on edges, so I'm jumping
37:01
Speaker 1: into my more aggressive stop. I expect it. I'm not
37:04
Speaker 1: gonna call it at ten, but I would expect to
37:07
Speaker 1: see it somewhere around seven to eight. I I expect
37:09
Speaker 1: to see some good deer on their feet in daylight
37:12
Speaker 1: hours and uh, you know, starting to to seek out
37:15
Speaker 1: some some first dope coming into astrocycle. All right, t J,
37:19
Speaker 1: I like your optimism. Good luck with the rest of
37:21
Speaker 1: your season, and thanks for joining me. I really appreciate it. Further,
37:24
Speaker 1: you have good luck to you and stay safe. And
37:26
Speaker 1: that concludes this week's episode of Rout Fresh Radio. Thanks
37:30
Speaker 1: to Mike, Clay, Trey, and t J for joining me,
37:33
Speaker 1: and thank you guys for listening. As always, make sure
37:36
Speaker 1: you're following Wired to Haunt on Facebook and Instagram and
37:39
Speaker 1: following me spent her new Hearts on Facebook and Instagram
37:42
Speaker 1: as well. The next time I talked to you, guys,
37:45
Speaker 1: it is going to be November and I'm so excited
37:48
Speaker 1: for the eleventh month of the year. Until then, stay
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Speaker 1: Wired to Haunt.