Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 306: Rut Fresh Radio 10/9/19

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Ep. 306: Rut Fresh Radio 10/9/19 · 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 Hunt Podcast. I'm your host,
0:17
Speaker 1: Mark Kenyan, and this is episode number three hundred and six,
0:20
Speaker 1: and today in the show, we're back for another one
0:22
Speaker 1: of our fresh radio episodes in which we're getting the
0:26
Speaker 1: latest intel from across the country on what deer doing
0:29
Speaker 1: right now, how current conditions are impacting it, and the
0:32
Speaker 1: tactics that are working right now. All right, welcome to
0:45
Speaker 1: the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by on X.
0:49
Speaker 1: We're here for this week's rout fresh radio episode in
0:52
Speaker 1: which we are going to dive into the latest and
0:55
Speaker 1: greatest intel from across the country in regards to what
0:59
Speaker 1: white tailed deer doing right now. And Spencer interviewed a
1:03
Speaker 1: handful of guys all across the country. We're gonna get
1:05
Speaker 1: those updates shortly, but for now, we've got to do
1:08
Speaker 1: our quick intro check in session. Uh, Spencer, what's on
1:12
Speaker 1: your mind? Do we have some good news coming up?
1:15
Speaker 1: Are people excited? Are people kind of saying, hey, it's slow,
1:18
Speaker 1: there's nothing going. What's the general vibe? People are optimistic?
1:22
Speaker 1: Because we are coming off of a cold front and
1:25
Speaker 1: now we're going into another cold front. Basically, wherever you
1:30
Speaker 1: haunt in the country, you either caught a cold from
1:32
Speaker 1: last weekend or you're getting one this weekend. And that
1:35
Speaker 1: gets hunters pretty excited. Yeah, it's uh, it generally leads
1:40
Speaker 1: to some good stuff. So, yeah, I'm actually going to
1:43
Speaker 1: be doing a mentor hunt this coming weekend, taking out
1:47
Speaker 1: part of that Field to four program by q d
1:50
Speaker 1: m A. And so we're taking eight new hunters into
1:53
Speaker 1: the field for the first time, and I think the
1:54
Speaker 1: conditions will be perfect for so I'm excited for that too. Yeah,
1:58
Speaker 1: such cool program. Now, we if a lot of these
2:01
Speaker 1: fronts that you get in October, you tend to see
2:03
Speaker 1: some precipitation as well, and you kind of give your
2:06
Speaker 1: thoughts annually on this market as far as what rain
2:10
Speaker 1: will do to deer movement. But can you tell us
2:13
Speaker 1: about that again? How how you think rain this time
2:16
Speaker 1: of year, anytime and fall can suppress or help deer movement. Yes,
2:21
Speaker 1: So what I've always seen in Michigan is that we
2:26
Speaker 1: get a disproportionately good amount of movement during rain events
2:31
Speaker 1: by mature bucks. Um. I think that typically the typical
2:35
Speaker 1: thing you see is if it's a really really hard downpourt,
2:38
Speaker 1: it's gonna slow movement. But as soon as the ease
2:41
Speaker 1: is up to a light trickle, or if it stops
2:44
Speaker 1: for a little bit, then the deer just seemed to
2:45
Speaker 1: pour out. So lots of times it can be a
2:48
Speaker 1: good thing. If I see rain in the forecast, I
2:50
Speaker 1: want to be in the woods, if not during it,
2:53
Speaker 1: at least immediately after it stops. Um. Take for example,
2:58
Speaker 1: my first hunt in Michigan. I told you about it. Well,
3:01
Speaker 1: I don't know if we did talk about because we
3:02
Speaker 1: talked about the night before my first hunt. But the
3:05
Speaker 1: night of my very first hunt, it was pouring rain, wendy,
3:10
Speaker 1: lots and lots of rain, and started seeing deer trolling
3:14
Speaker 1: out as that rain just started slow a little bit.
3:17
Speaker 1: Buck dough dough dough dough, buck dough, dough dough, And
3:20
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, really nice, big three and
3:23
Speaker 1: a half year a buck came out while I was
3:25
Speaker 1: still raining. And I saw maybe four or five different
3:28
Speaker 1: bucks that night, ten to fifteen does. Um. So they
3:32
Speaker 1: were definitely moving in that And you know, I don't
3:38
Speaker 1: know why it is. I know some people don't seem
3:40
Speaker 1: to think dear moving all in the rain. But I
3:42
Speaker 1: talked to a lot of people in states like Michigan
3:44
Speaker 1: or Pennsylvania, and they seem to see that mature bucks,
3:47
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, made me feel a little bit more
3:48
Speaker 1: comfortable in those conditions. John eber Hearts a guy who
3:52
Speaker 1: preached this for a long time, and because of what
3:54
Speaker 1: he said, I started hunting in the rain a lot
3:56
Speaker 1: and started seeing this too. He has always theorized as
3:59
Speaker 1: because hunt is often aren't out there, and so that's
4:02
Speaker 1: become like a safe period for older bucks to move
4:04
Speaker 1: around in daylight. I don't know if that's the case
4:06
Speaker 1: or not. I can only speak anecdotally, but from my
4:10
Speaker 1: experience when I'm out there in the rain, I see
4:13
Speaker 1: better dear more often, so I'm not letting it keep
4:17
Speaker 1: me inside, and especially want to make sure that if
4:19
Speaker 1: it slows down or stops, you want to be there
4:21
Speaker 1: to catch that inflution movement. So that is how I
4:24
Speaker 1: look at rain. I will say a couple of things.
4:26
Speaker 1: Number One, if you are hunting in the rain, I
4:31
Speaker 1: always am hoping for it to be stopping soon after,
4:35
Speaker 1: because the concern is always blood trail. So if it
4:38
Speaker 1: is raining and it doesn't stop when I think it's
4:40
Speaker 1: gonna stop, or if it picks up more than I
4:42
Speaker 1: thought it's going to be. If if the rain is
4:43
Speaker 1: pretty pretty serious, I either will not take a shot
4:46
Speaker 1: at all if it's going to be a constant, constant downpour,
4:49
Speaker 1: or I'm gonna wait for it to be a very close,
4:52
Speaker 1: very perfect shot. Um. You know, if my max ranges forty,
4:57
Speaker 1: if it's raining and it doesn't seem to be stopping,
4:59
Speaker 1: I'm taking a twenty yards shot or in and it's
5:01
Speaker 1: got to be a perfect broadside shot. Like you don't
5:03
Speaker 1: want to have any question marks about tracking that deer. Um.
5:09
Speaker 1: I would also say that thinking about how you're gonna
5:12
Speaker 1: handle that blood trail is important as well. So I'm
5:16
Speaker 1: definitely not gonna push a deer if it's raining, because
5:18
Speaker 1: I would rather I hope it's going to bed down
5:21
Speaker 1: and die right away wherever it is, versus push it
5:24
Speaker 1: and then have a deer run a mile and then
5:26
Speaker 1: not have a blood trail. So I'm I'm thinking about that.
5:29
Speaker 1: Another thing to consider if you do shoot a deer
5:31
Speaker 1: in the rain is that a dog, a tracking dog,
5:35
Speaker 1: can track very well still in the rain, So In
5:38
Speaker 1: that case, Let's say you decided to go out, it
5:39
Speaker 1: starts to rain, maybe part way through your hunt, your eize,
5:42
Speaker 1: oh crap, I've got worries about a blood trail, or
5:44
Speaker 1: maybe it started rain just after you took a shot.
5:47
Speaker 1: In many cases, that dog will have a better chance
5:49
Speaker 1: of tracking the deer if you don't go walk all
5:52
Speaker 1: over things. So don't go trounce all over the place
5:54
Speaker 1: looking for blood. If you know this is going to
5:56
Speaker 1: be a dicey blood trail, just immediately call your buddy
5:58
Speaker 1: who has a dog, or look online trying to find someone.
6:01
Speaker 1: If it's legal in your state, that can be a
6:04
Speaker 1: dynamite way to recover your deer. Even if the blood
6:06
Speaker 1: trail is hard for you to follow, it's not going
6:08
Speaker 1: to bother the dog. We had this experience last year
6:10
Speaker 1: with my buddy Andy. He shot a deer in the rain.
6:13
Speaker 1: We picked up my buddy who has a dog, and
6:15
Speaker 1: we tracked it right to him. So keep that all
6:18
Speaker 1: in mind. Be very careful, um, because yes, while deer
6:23
Speaker 1: are moving in the rain, you don't want to lose
6:25
Speaker 1: a deer that you hit. So it's a very careful
6:28
Speaker 1: balancing act and you have to make a critical decision
6:30
Speaker 1: there um whether or not it's it's it's ethical to
6:34
Speaker 1: take that shot. So that's something I'm always trying to
6:35
Speaker 1: figure out my own mind, and um, it's something you
6:38
Speaker 1: need to factor into your decision making as you hunt. Well,
6:41
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be a bit of a wet blanket. But
6:43
Speaker 1: there is no research that shows that dear move like
6:48
Speaker 1: better during rain or better right after rain. But with
6:51
Speaker 1: that said, there are a ton of hunters. Hused, what
6:53
Speaker 1: a horrible pun. By the way, Yeah, you're gonna be
6:55
Speaker 1: a wet blanket there. There are a ton of hunters, though,
6:59
Speaker 1: who's a pinion? And I really respect and intel, I
7:02
Speaker 1: really like to get that say just what you said.
7:05
Speaker 1: That deer movement seems to be increase falling a rain shower.
7:08
Speaker 1: And I think back to an episode last year on
7:11
Speaker 1: RUT Radio. It was it was early to mid October,
7:14
Speaker 1: right around this time of year when Alex comp Stuck
7:17
Speaker 1: killed a giant public land white tail in Minnesota, and
7:21
Speaker 1: that was exactly the scenario for him. It was raining
7:24
Speaker 1: all evening, rain let up, I think like thirty minutes
7:27
Speaker 1: before sunset. It was kind of an ideal scenario. When
7:29
Speaker 1: bucks we're getting on their feet anyway, and uh, he
7:33
Speaker 1: ended up killing a big white tailent and he really
7:36
Speaker 1: credited that jumping deer movement falling a rain shower. Yeah,
7:40
Speaker 1: and I think if that rain is coming, I'd rather
7:44
Speaker 1: be in the tree than not. And um, see what happens.
7:47
Speaker 1: Get some rain gear, get a little tree umbrella, stick
7:50
Speaker 1: it out, because yeah, as soon as it lets up,
7:52
Speaker 1: it can just be dynamite. So I don't you don't
7:54
Speaker 1: want to miss it. You don't want to be sitting
7:55
Speaker 1: in the house. And then check your trail camera the
7:57
Speaker 1: next day or something and see that once the rain
8:00
Speaker 1: died down a little bit, they're all on their feet
8:02
Speaker 1: and you were inside eating hamburger. That's a bad feeling.
8:05
Speaker 1: So um since the last podcast, I think the last
8:10
Speaker 1: time you and I chatted that was after the very
8:13
Speaker 1: first night of the Michigan season, and I told you
8:15
Speaker 1: about how that buck trans showed up right, So the
8:17
Speaker 1: next day and I discussed this a little bit on
8:19
Speaker 1: the main episode of the wire Hunt podcast that'll be
8:22
Speaker 1: coming out tomorrow, so I won't get too much into this,
8:24
Speaker 1: but as I just alluded to a second ago, with
8:26
Speaker 1: that whole rainy night, that rainy night, Hunt happened, saw
8:29
Speaker 1: a bunch of deer. Uh, saw a really nice three
8:32
Speaker 1: and a half year old buck that I ended up
8:33
Speaker 1: passing on. UM. A lot of action, and then I
8:38
Speaker 1: hunted the next two days, still trying to get a
8:41
Speaker 1: shot at Tran. Didn't end up seeing him anymore. UM,
8:44
Speaker 1: so I took three stabs at him in the early season.
8:47
Speaker 1: Didn't work out, but I saw a pretty good amount
8:48
Speaker 1: of action. Saw that three and a half year old
8:50
Speaker 1: buck moving in daylight twice the night he was at
8:53
Speaker 1: ten yards, and I saw him the next night a
8:55
Speaker 1: couple hundred yards away. Um. And then over the past
9:00
Speaker 1: three days I've started hunting on the back forty and
9:04
Speaker 1: those are the first hunts in the back forty property,
9:06
Speaker 1: which is exciting to see, exciting to see how it,
9:09
Speaker 1: you know, actually plays out. After having done all this
9:12
Speaker 1: work in the summer, now getting to sit up in
9:14
Speaker 1: a tree and watch it for the first time was
9:17
Speaker 1: really cool. UM. Kind of a good news bad news
9:21
Speaker 1: situation is that hiking in for the very first hunt,
9:24
Speaker 1: I bumped a buck right off the edge of the
9:26
Speaker 1: field UM, in an area I was not expecting anything
9:29
Speaker 1: to be bettered, and it was a big mature buck.
9:32
Speaker 1: Big bodied, wide deer went jumping off and you could
9:35
Speaker 1: see him, and uh, so good news that we've got
9:38
Speaker 1: a mature buck. Bad news that we spooked him and
9:42
Speaker 1: that was our only mature buck sighting, but nice to
9:45
Speaker 1: know we have it. And we saw a good number
9:47
Speaker 1: of does, some young bucks. Our second night, I saw
9:51
Speaker 1: a couple of young bucks sparring off in the distance.
9:54
Speaker 1: And then last night we had a guest hunter in
9:58
Speaker 1: Cooperative Extension Bachealists from UC Berkeley who has been doing
10:02
Speaker 1: some very interesting research UM related to land use and
10:06
Speaker 1: private land conservation and the impacts of hunting on conservation,
10:10
Speaker 1: so stuff that ties in really nicely to what we're doing.
10:13
Speaker 1: And he came out and hunted for a couple of
10:14
Speaker 1: nights and he shot a doe last night. So we
10:16
Speaker 1: have the first deer off the back forty so that
10:20
Speaker 1: is uh, it's been pretty good, good to decent movement.
10:23
Speaker 1: I'd say like five to six on a ten um.
10:26
Speaker 1: We're seeing deer having fun, but not a ton of
10:30
Speaker 1: mature buck activity. Well, besides your Michigan report, we also
10:33
Speaker 1: have a report in Indiana from Brad Beaver at Lone
10:36
Speaker 1: Wolf Tree Stand. Then we talked to Caleb Combs in
10:39
Speaker 1: Oklahoma from Stewart Ranch Outfitters. Then we go to Virginia
10:43
Speaker 1: and from First Light we talked to Taylor Chamberlain and
10:45
Speaker 1: then we talked to Josh Sparks from Midwest white Tails
10:48
Speaker 1: in Iowa. What is the date again for your first
10:51
Speaker 1: white tail hunt? My first white tail hunt is like
10:54
Speaker 1: five days away at this point. I will be heading
10:57
Speaker 1: back to South Dakota soon after we wrap up the podcast,
11:00
Speaker 1: and I have a few days to archery hunt. But
11:03
Speaker 1: then after that I have a muzzleloader tag that I
11:06
Speaker 1: will be after for about a week straight there and
11:09
Speaker 1: that kind of kicks off my month of hunting a
11:14
Speaker 1: ton being gone a bunch of weekends, and hope that
11:17
Speaker 1: I don't get divorced. I'll tell her to be nice
11:20
Speaker 1: to you and let you get out there and hunt,
11:22
Speaker 1: because it's been too damn long since you have been
11:25
Speaker 1: white tail hunting. So I'm glad you're getting after and
11:27
Speaker 1: and interesting you make this point. Um, You're gonna have
11:31
Speaker 1: to run Fresh Radio solo next week because I'm going
11:35
Speaker 1: to be in Minnesota on my boundary waters hunt, totally
11:39
Speaker 1: off the grid. Um, I think or maybe maybe we'll
11:43
Speaker 1: be recorded just before I leave for that. Maybe we'll
11:45
Speaker 1: be able to do that. Um, but we'll be we'll
11:47
Speaker 1: both be getting in some interesting adventures here very shortly,
11:50
Speaker 1: so we need to talk about that. It's looking like
11:54
Speaker 1: it's gonna a little bit a rugged trip, Spencer. I'm
11:56
Speaker 1: seeing snow and very cold temperatures in the forecast. So yeah,
12:00
Speaker 1: the the entire Midwest. I'm like concerned about how I'm
12:03
Speaker 1: going to get back to South Dakota. For some of
12:05
Speaker 1: these Hunt speakers. There is a lot of snow and
12:08
Speaker 1: wind between here and home. Yeah. Well, I guess next
12:11
Speaker 1: week's we're at Refresh radio will be very interesting. So
12:15
Speaker 1: until then, I suppose we've just tuned into what we've
12:17
Speaker 1: got today. All Right, we'll talk to you next week
12:19
Speaker 1: or two weeks from now. All right, we'll figure it out, alright.
12:24
Speaker 1: And joining us on the line first is Brad Beaver
12:26
Speaker 1: in Indiana from Lone Wolf Tree stands Now. Brad in Indiana,
12:30
Speaker 1: what would you say the bucket activity has been lately
12:32
Speaker 1: on a scale of one to ten. Um. On scale
12:35
Speaker 1: one to ten, I mean it's October, so I put
12:37
Speaker 1: it at three or four. UM. It was nice last
12:41
Speaker 1: week because of uh that early October cold front we
12:44
Speaker 1: got I think had some of the bucks up on
12:46
Speaker 1: their feet. But again it's still really early, so I'm
12:49
Speaker 1: gonna stick with three or four. When you see a
12:51
Speaker 1: cold front come like that in early to mid October,
12:54
Speaker 1: how does that change your setups or do you get
12:56
Speaker 1: a little bit more aggressive? Oh? Definitely. Um. You know,
13:00
Speaker 1: anytime those October could crons come in, you have to
13:03
Speaker 1: kind of be prepared, um different than one I think
13:08
Speaker 1: would be in November. Whereas that drastic temperature change really
13:12
Speaker 1: gets the deer up on off their feet, so you
13:14
Speaker 1: really have to approach it, at least I do anyway,
13:16
Speaker 1: a lot more aggressively than something later in the season. UM.
13:21
Speaker 1: That being said, I I hunted a lot of buck
13:23
Speaker 1: betting um this last week in Indiana. Um, whereas in
13:28
Speaker 1: November I would probably focus more on food. This could
13:32
Speaker 1: be an awkward time of year for finding what the
13:34
Speaker 1: deer eating. With harvest and acorns eating the ground. What
13:38
Speaker 1: are you seeing there in Indiana for the preferred food source?
13:41
Speaker 1: That's a good question. I mean, if you can find
13:44
Speaker 1: um an oak flat or anytime acorns are on the ground,
13:47
Speaker 1: I think in October that's going to be the place
13:49
Speaker 1: to be UM. But the big problem. I think that
13:54
Speaker 1: the problem with the buck movement is that the crops
13:56
Speaker 1: are still up so UM. I hunted stand beans a
14:00
Speaker 1: little bit, and I think because of the cool front,
14:03
Speaker 1: that's why I saw some of my movement um, and
14:06
Speaker 1: they were hitting the beans. But with standing porn being up,
14:09
Speaker 1: um and all these crops still be in it, it's
14:11
Speaker 1: it's super tough to pin down bucks this time. Here.
14:15
Speaker 1: What are you seeing for signmaking right now? So obviously
14:17
Speaker 1: starting to pick up. UM. I saw a few scrapes
14:22
Speaker 1: here and there along along tree lines. I'm really starting
14:25
Speaker 1: to see rubs pop up. I think those kind of
14:27
Speaker 1: comes first, UM, and then they as the temps drop,
14:31
Speaker 1: they'll focus more on their scrapes. But um, again, obviously UM.
14:36
Speaker 1: Going into the second week of October, it's it's really
14:38
Speaker 1: gonna start picking up. Are you concerned about moon phases
14:41
Speaker 1: at all this time of year? I don't hunt moon
14:43
Speaker 1: phases at all, um. And the reason being is, you know,
14:47
Speaker 1: if the moon is full or if the moon is
14:50
Speaker 1: if there is no moon, I'm gonna hunt either way.
14:52
Speaker 1: I just you know, I don't have time to pick
14:55
Speaker 1: and choose when I get to be in the woods.
14:56
Speaker 1: So anytime I can be in the woods, I'm gonna
14:58
Speaker 1: be there. Um. Now, I do pay attention to it,
15:01
Speaker 1: just kind of for my own records, Like if I
15:04
Speaker 1: see bucks and think, oh, well, there was no moon,
15:07
Speaker 1: so maybe that's why. Um. But as far as hunting moons,
15:11
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't really pick out when I need
15:14
Speaker 1: to hunt and when I don't based on the moon.
15:17
Speaker 1: As someone who does a lot of hanging hunts, how
15:19
Speaker 1: does your equipment or your setups change from now kind
15:22
Speaker 1: of until we get into the rut. Yeah, that's a
15:24
Speaker 1: good question. I I hanging hunt, I would say nine
15:27
Speaker 1: percent of time. Um. I just like like staying mobile.
15:30
Speaker 1: Um My, my equipment is not going to change hardly
15:35
Speaker 1: at all between now and once we moved to the rut,
15:38
Speaker 1: but definitely my tactics will. I'll get a lot more
15:41
Speaker 1: addressive during the rut. As far as hanging hunting in
15:45
Speaker 1: the mornings, um, this time of year, if I can
15:48
Speaker 1: avoid it, I will try to avoid hanging hunting in
15:51
Speaker 1: the mornings, just because it's loud and inconvenient when it's dark. Um.
15:56
Speaker 1: So as we move more towards the rut in a
15:59
Speaker 1: November or I'll do a lot more hanging hunts in
16:01
Speaker 1: the morning and get a little more aggressive than I
16:03
Speaker 1: would be this time of year. Do scrapes factory into
16:06
Speaker 1: your decision making it all this time of year? Is
16:08
Speaker 1: that's something that you like to set up on. Yeah,
16:12
Speaker 1: so just because I think that's where this time of year,
16:15
Speaker 1: I think that's where you can pinpoint Bucks two is
16:18
Speaker 1: scraped and they're not as focused on food right now.
16:22
Speaker 1: I would say, um, if you can get into a
16:24
Speaker 1: betting area, I think you could jump on a book
16:27
Speaker 1: a little easier. But I would definitely if you can
16:30
Speaker 1: find an active scrape and if you know that Buck
16:33
Speaker 1: is checking it a lot in early October, I think
16:35
Speaker 1: that's a great place to be going forward. Then this
16:38
Speaker 1: next week or so, what do you think that Buck
16:40
Speaker 1: activity is going to be on a scale of one
16:42
Speaker 1: to tend in Indiana? I mean, obviously the closer we
16:45
Speaker 1: we moved in November, it's gonna go up. I mean
16:48
Speaker 1: that's a that's a given. Um next week, especially this weekend,
16:51
Speaker 1: we're supposed to have a really big cool trunt come
16:54
Speaker 1: through the entirement West. So um I expected it to
16:57
Speaker 1: be up higher than it was last week. Obviously, UM
17:00
Speaker 1: I don't think we're gonna be full bore pre rut.
17:03
Speaker 1: I would. I would put it in the five to
17:05
Speaker 1: six category out of out of tune are Brad, I
17:07
Speaker 1: like your optivism, Good luck in Indiana, and thanks for
17:10
Speaker 1: your time. Yeah, man, thanks for having me on alright
17:12
Speaker 1: and joining us on the line. Next is Caleb Combs
17:15
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma from Stewart Ranch Outfitters. Now, Caleb in Oklahoma,
17:19
Speaker 1: what would you say the buck activities been lately? On
17:21
Speaker 1: a scale of one to ten, I would say it's
17:23
Speaker 1: about us six h just because I'm always a little
17:27
Speaker 1: bit more optimistic than most. But typical early season stuff.
17:31
Speaker 1: We had about normal temperatures a little higher at first,
17:36
Speaker 1: So if you were on them, if you knew where
17:38
Speaker 1: the betting was, if you already had intail, it was
17:40
Speaker 1: real good. But if you were further out on field
17:44
Speaker 1: edges and stuff probably wasn't successful. It seemed like you
17:46
Speaker 1: must have had that intael because you just killed a
17:49
Speaker 1: big buck in Oklahoma. Tell me a little bit about
17:51
Speaker 1: that set up and why you were in the area
17:53
Speaker 1: you were. No, it was a good opener for me. Uh,
17:57
Speaker 1: I don't usually have success this early. I usually try
17:59
Speaker 1: and eight tell October tenth ish, it's about the time
18:03
Speaker 1: I started seeing them moving more. But this year I
18:06
Speaker 1: went ahead and went October one. We had a buck
18:08
Speaker 1: that I've been watching for a couple of years. It's
18:11
Speaker 1: a set up so that all the bucks come out
18:14
Speaker 1: of their bedding and then they're making their way through
18:16
Speaker 1: a transition area. It gets covered up in scrapes later
18:19
Speaker 1: on in season. There's a lot of scrapes. It's on
18:21
Speaker 1: the end of the scrape line, and so I hunted
18:23
Speaker 1: with the south winds and the bucks will cut you
18:25
Speaker 1: in directly in front of you. Um. It took me
18:29
Speaker 1: a long time to figure that out, but I find
18:31
Speaker 1: my got it and that's exactly what happened, shout him
18:33
Speaker 1: at like six o five. Luckily I went and checked
18:37
Speaker 1: that camera after Initially I was wrong because he was
18:41
Speaker 1: there and it worked out surprisingly well. What's the acorn
18:44
Speaker 1: crap like this year in Oklahoma? Everything I've seen so far,
18:49
Speaker 1: it's a banner year for acorns. Traditionally it'll be like
18:53
Speaker 1: the white acorns will produce one year, or the red
18:55
Speaker 1: acorns um will drop. But this year it seems like
18:58
Speaker 1: every tree that's in the woods is making acorns, so
19:02
Speaker 1: it will be interesting as far as trying to pattern
19:04
Speaker 1: it out, find whatever tree there enjoying the most. You know,
19:10
Speaker 1: white acorns are early red acorns late, but it's going
19:13
Speaker 1: to be interesting for sure. Are you seeing much signmaking
19:16
Speaker 1: yet in Oklahoma? I don't usually see that much personally.
19:20
Speaker 1: Tell about the second week of October. That's when I
19:23
Speaker 1: start seeing, uh a lot of the bucks starting to
19:27
Speaker 1: make scrapes and making their way around. But it's also
19:30
Speaker 1: just one of my favorite times to be out there.
19:32
Speaker 1: It's around the twelve October twelves just for some reason
19:34
Speaker 1: seems like they start picking up more and they start
19:36
Speaker 1: doing a little more pre rut checking different spots. Much
19:40
Speaker 1: of the Great Planes had a lot of rain this
19:42
Speaker 1: spring and summer. Did that change anything in Oklahoma as
19:45
Speaker 1: far as harvest status or mess up any betting areas,
19:49
Speaker 1: I didn't see any of it. It It looked like they
19:50
Speaker 1: still we have a dry spell there towards like when
19:54
Speaker 1: all the corn was harvested and everything. So as far
19:56
Speaker 1: as I saw, everybody got everything out in a time manner,
20:00
Speaker 1: I think it'll be good. As far as antler growth,
20:02
Speaker 1: we had a really wet spring. I think there's been
20:04
Speaker 1: a lot of Forbes a lot of forge um. That's
20:07
Speaker 1: a trend that's been going on the last two or
20:10
Speaker 1: three years in Oklahoma. I think it will continue. I
20:12
Speaker 1: think there'll be some really big deer out there. How
20:14
Speaker 1: do your strategies change when you see an approaching cold
20:16
Speaker 1: front like we have coming this weekend. Luckily, I already
20:20
Speaker 1: had a trip planned for this weekend, so I was
20:23
Speaker 1: going either way. But I think it's going to be
20:25
Speaker 1: really good the cold front moves through. I think like Thursday, Friday,
20:30
Speaker 1: Thursday night, Friday morning, there's supposed to be quite a
20:33
Speaker 1: bit of rain, so I always I won't make it,
20:36
Speaker 1: but if anybody can make it Wednesday night, I would
20:38
Speaker 1: assume that would be really good. And then I think
20:42
Speaker 1: the whole rest of the weekend will be great, whether
20:44
Speaker 1: it's whatever time it quits rain and where you're at
20:46
Speaker 1: Friday and then Friday evening, Saturday all day going forward.
20:50
Speaker 1: Then in the next week or so, what do you
20:52
Speaker 1: think that bucket activity will be on a scale of
20:54
Speaker 1: one to ten in Oklahoma? I'm always optimistic, so i'd
20:58
Speaker 1: put it high. I'd say about a nine. It's one
21:01
Speaker 1: of my favorite times of the year because it's pre
21:04
Speaker 1: ruts pre chaos. Everybody to be cruising cold front will
21:08
Speaker 1: have them on their feet. I mean, I don't see
21:10
Speaker 1: how it could get any better as far as just timing,
21:13
Speaker 1: It's gonna be good, our capable. Congrats on the awesome dear,
21:17
Speaker 1: and thanks for joining me. Hey, I appreciate alright and
21:20
Speaker 1: enjoining us on the line. Next is Taylor Chamberlain from
21:23
Speaker 1: First Light in Virginia. Taylor, on a scale of one
21:25
Speaker 1: to ten, what would you say the buck activity is
21:27
Speaker 1: ben Leyley in Virginia overall, I'd say buck activities about
21:32
Speaker 1: three to four. And I'd say that because, um, really
21:37
Speaker 1: not seeing a ton of daylight movement right now. Um,
21:41
Speaker 1: you know, I am seeing some some mature dear, uh
21:44
Speaker 1: starting to you know, make sign a lot of scrape
21:48
Speaker 1: activity right now, especially around the primary food sources. But um,
21:54
Speaker 1: you know, they're really not doing a ton of daylight movement.
21:56
Speaker 1: It's all mostly night pictures that we have on this
22:00
Speaker 1: craps right now. So, um, you know, as far as
22:03
Speaker 1: hunting goes, I definitely give it a three to four
22:05
Speaker 1: on on buck activity. You touch on food sources there now,
22:09
Speaker 1: most hunters this time of year focused on acorns and
22:12
Speaker 1: crowd fields. Things like that. But you do a lot
22:15
Speaker 1: of urban hunting, so I assume that's different. What are
22:17
Speaker 1: the food sources that you're looking for this time of year.
22:20
Speaker 1: I mean every food source that I hunted is properly specific,
22:24
Speaker 1: but food is key. So on properties that I have
22:28
Speaker 1: where they have some acorns, especially white oaks, I'm keying
22:33
Speaker 1: on those, especially on years like right now, where I
22:38
Speaker 1: don't have a ton of mass on the ground. The
22:41
Speaker 1: few white oaks that are dropping are pretty much guaranteed
22:44
Speaker 1: spots to have dear activity. If there's a mature buck
22:48
Speaker 1: in that area, um, he will be on that food
22:51
Speaker 1: source system, matter of catching him before light ends or
22:55
Speaker 1: catching him there in the morning. Outside of that, you know,
22:58
Speaker 1: I have a unique situation here where on the suburbs,
23:02
Speaker 1: the food source could literally be the landscaping on that property, um, shrubs, brows,
23:08
Speaker 1: I mean, whatever the deer turning to um that that's
23:12
Speaker 1: where you're gonna find them. But I really try to
23:15
Speaker 1: key in on the white oaks this time of year, uh,
23:18
Speaker 1: as long as there aren't a ton of them on
23:20
Speaker 1: the ground, and and here in in suburbia, we don't
23:23
Speaker 1: have a ton of options for white eggs. So where
23:25
Speaker 1: you find them and you can hunt them, You're gonna
23:28
Speaker 1: find deer guaranteed. Do you see the same kind of
23:30
Speaker 1: lull this time of year where bucks are harder to
23:32
Speaker 1: spawn daylight as hunters across the country that are hunting
23:36
Speaker 1: farms and more rural properties, I don't really see much
23:41
Speaker 1: of a low. UH. The loll that that I see
23:44
Speaker 1: is the direct correlation to pressure. So if you have
23:48
Speaker 1: an area, or if I have an area that has
23:51
Speaker 1: a mature buck in it, or any buck for that matter,
23:54
Speaker 1: just deer in general, and we start hunting, or I'm
23:58
Speaker 1: in there hunting at a good bit putting pressure on it,
24:01
Speaker 1: there's deer will react to that pressure and they'll start
24:03
Speaker 1: to move more in the UH outside of daylight hours.
24:09
Speaker 1: But on properties where I might not get around the
24:12
Speaker 1: hunting them for a while or there's no pressure on them,
24:16
Speaker 1: I very rarely see much of a lull. I actually
24:18
Speaker 1: see pretty much of a linear increase in more and
24:22
Speaker 1: more daylight activity based on the closure we get to
24:26
Speaker 1: the end of the month. Now you've run a lot
24:27
Speaker 1: of trail cameras. How does your trail camp setups change
24:31
Speaker 1: from early October until they run? As soon as I
24:35
Speaker 1: start seeing scraping activity or deer that are making sign
24:40
Speaker 1: I try to find those primary scrapes or uh that
24:44
Speaker 1: big communal scrape that's close to bedding or you know
24:48
Speaker 1: normally this time of year it's right around the primary
24:51
Speaker 1: food source. That's the best place in my opinion, to
24:54
Speaker 1: get activity or get get a good uh feeling of
24:59
Speaker 1: every buck in that area, because they're all going to
25:02
Speaker 1: come through there, and it's a great way to kind
25:03
Speaker 1: of get an inventory of what's in the area. And and
25:06
Speaker 1: and based on the timing of this picture, you can
25:08
Speaker 1: figure out kind of how the timing and frequency, you
25:11
Speaker 1: can figure out how how close that deer is living.
25:14
Speaker 1: So you know, if you have a deer coming by
25:16
Speaker 1: once a week at two o'clock in the morning, odds
25:18
Speaker 1: are that bucks probably not living too close by. UM. Again,
25:22
Speaker 1: in my my situation that your tend to travel pretty
25:26
Speaker 1: far because they have to to find food sources and
25:29
Speaker 1: also have cover, and you know they live in tiny
25:31
Speaker 1: wrote pockets where um where human human interference doesn't get
25:35
Speaker 1: to him. But if you have a deer coming by
25:37
Speaker 1: rate a daylight or his on a scrape, you know
25:40
Speaker 1: in the morning or in the evening pretty early before
25:43
Speaker 1: shooting light ends, you know that deer is bettered close
25:45
Speaker 1: by and have much better chance of harsen that animal.
25:49
Speaker 1: You're probably more likely to be hunting in rain there
25:51
Speaker 1: in Virginia than most hunters I talked to you. So
25:53
Speaker 1: how do you notice that change or suppressed deer movement? Uh?
25:58
Speaker 1: You know, I find that the rain doesn't really affect
26:01
Speaker 1: the dear too badly. If it's blown sideways and thirty
26:05
Speaker 1: miles an hour, then you know, if I don't want
26:08
Speaker 1: to be in the tree, odds are that you aren't
26:09
Speaker 1: gonna be up and moving. But on those light, misty rains,
26:13
Speaker 1: I find that the deer are moving a ton. Um.
26:18
Speaker 1: I really love like a light, light rain and a
26:21
Speaker 1: nice high pressure system with a uh, you know, a
26:25
Speaker 1: relatively low and consistent wind. I find a really good
26:30
Speaker 1: movement on days like that, foggy days too. Um, I
26:34
Speaker 1: see a ton of good movement going forward. Then in
26:37
Speaker 1: the six week or so, what do you think that
26:39
Speaker 1: bug activity is going to be on a scale of
26:41
Speaker 1: one to ten in Virginia. I think in Virginia we're
26:44
Speaker 1: still going to be in that three to four range.
26:46
Speaker 1: I mean, if you if you have a really good
26:49
Speaker 1: primary scrape on that primary food source. I get in
26:52
Speaker 1: there and hunt, and I think you have a really
26:55
Speaker 1: good chance of of shooting your target animal. But outside
26:58
Speaker 1: of that, I don't see any reason to push it.
27:00
Speaker 1: I think the moon is pretty bad and our bare
27:02
Speaker 1: mutch pressure is really low for us right now. So
27:05
Speaker 1: here in Virginia, I'm I'm holding off. I'm hunting secondary
27:09
Speaker 1: areas or you know, maybe taking a couple of flyers
27:11
Speaker 1: on some betting areas, But for the most part, I'm
27:14
Speaker 1: I'm waiting until the week after this to really start
27:17
Speaker 1: hand right down. All right, Taylor, great intel, and thanks
27:20
Speaker 1: for joining me. Thanks for having me all in joining
27:23
Speaker 1: us on the line. Last is Josh Sparks from Iowa
27:26
Speaker 1: with Midwest white tails. Now, Josh in Iowa, what would
27:29
Speaker 1: you say the buck activity has been lately on the
27:31
Speaker 1: scale of one to tend uh scale? Woman Send, I
27:35
Speaker 1: would say a buck activity in general has been a
27:39
Speaker 1: six um just saying that because of the recent cold
27:42
Speaker 1: front that we had to go through, and it was
27:45
Speaker 1: definitely a spike, uh, you know, compared to what you'd
27:47
Speaker 1: expect for that first week in October. What food sources
27:51
Speaker 1: are you focused on right now? In Iowa? A state
27:53
Speaker 1: that has a lot of big egg but also some
27:56
Speaker 1: pretty big acorn crops. Um. So the piece of public
27:59
Speaker 1: land that I actually had a really good counter on
28:02
Speaker 1: this past week. UM, I was focused on beans just
28:06
Speaker 1: because it was a pretty safe play as far as
28:09
Speaker 1: doing a hanging hunt. You know, first week of October
28:12
Speaker 1: and there's a big acorn flat right next to it.
28:15
Speaker 1: With the north wind, we were able to sneak in there,
28:18
Speaker 1: sneak out. But so really I could say it is
28:21
Speaker 1: focus on acorns and egg. When we have another approaching
28:25
Speaker 1: cold front coming like this weekend, what is your strategy
28:28
Speaker 1: as a public land hunter? Um, you know, the public
28:31
Speaker 1: land hunter, I'm not really holding anything back just because
28:34
Speaker 1: everything that I'm going to try, anybody else is welcome
28:38
Speaker 1: to do that themselves. So we're gonna go into that
28:40
Speaker 1: same spot with the north wind, I think bucks will
28:43
Speaker 1: be up on their feet again. Ideally with the cold
28:46
Speaker 1: front there's a big thunderstorm day on Thursday and then
28:49
Speaker 1: on Friday. The reason why I'm setting up on that
28:51
Speaker 1: bean field is because of all the scrapes that are
28:53
Speaker 1: popped up on the edge that we're hoping to catch
28:55
Speaker 1: a buck coming to freshen up those scrapes, and as
28:57
Speaker 1: we're getting further into mid October, hopefully I can do
29:00
Speaker 1: a little bit of calling and maybe bring him in
29:02
Speaker 1: the boat ranges. Time you just touch on scrapes there
29:04
Speaker 1: a little bit. But how much do signmaking factor into
29:07
Speaker 1: your decision making this time of year and how does
29:10
Speaker 1: that change once we get closer to the rug um
29:12
Speaker 1: this time of year, It's definitely going to be a
29:14
Speaker 1: lot more influential just because that's what I'm hunting. I'm
29:17
Speaker 1: not really breaking into September as much. Um. I'm really
29:22
Speaker 1: all about access and whether or not I can get
29:25
Speaker 1: in and out clean. So as far as signed, you know,
29:28
Speaker 1: scrapes are really the only thing I'm paying attention to
29:30
Speaker 1: as of right now. As a public land hunter, when
29:33
Speaker 1: do you notice an increase in hunting pressure when you
29:36
Speaker 1: have an obvious cold front coming through like this weekend?
29:38
Speaker 1: Do you expect to see more guys in the woods.
29:40
Speaker 1: I definitely set to see more guys in the woods
29:42
Speaker 1: just because of the weekends. Uh, That's one thing that
29:46
Speaker 1: I would definitely say. In Iowa specifically, I noticed the
29:50
Speaker 1: pressure increases exponentially with the rut, and that's the time
29:54
Speaker 1: of year that we're getting a lot out of state hunters,
29:57
Speaker 1: guys taking their vacations. So really I think October early
30:02
Speaker 1: mid amily is an underlooked time of year to go
30:05
Speaker 1: out and hunt on public land. Personally, with harvest taking
30:08
Speaker 1: place in Iowa anywhere from now until mid November, how
30:12
Speaker 1: does that normally change things for you in the combines
30:14
Speaker 1: at the fields? Uh So, for in Iowa this year,
30:17
Speaker 1: at least where I'm hunting, harvest is gonna be a
30:20
Speaker 1: little bit later than normal field They're still pretty wet.
30:24
Speaker 1: But as of right now, I'm using that to my
30:26
Speaker 1: advantage of hunting along those you know, agricultural fields. Once
30:30
Speaker 1: those crops come out, that will cause me to go
30:33
Speaker 1: deeper into the September um just because I think that's
30:36
Speaker 1: where they are going to start the transition for cover,
30:38
Speaker 1: especially bucks. And as we get further into the year,
30:41
Speaker 1: you know, I'm more or less focusing on where the
30:43
Speaker 1: doors are gonna be opposed to where I think the
30:45
Speaker 1: bucks are, So it really just kind of changes where
30:48
Speaker 1: I'm focused going forward. Then in the sext week or so,
30:51
Speaker 1: what do you think that buck activity is going to
30:53
Speaker 1: be on a scale of one to tend in Iowa
30:55
Speaker 1: coming Friday at least, so we're gonna be I would
30:58
Speaker 1: say anywhere from the six and seven, just because of
31:00
Speaker 1: that cold trying Friday. We're gonna rain Alliday Thursday, and
31:04
Speaker 1: then we've got about a twenty five three temperature drops.
31:07
Speaker 1: It's gonna be down the low thirties and that's I
31:10
Speaker 1: think that's gonna shock the deer in the activity and
31:12
Speaker 1: hopefully them mature box just like it did this past week.
31:15
Speaker 1: All right, Josh, Well, good luck to you and everyone
31:16
Speaker 1: else at Midwest White Tails. Thanks for joining me, appreciate it.
31:19
Speaker 1: And that concludes this week's episode of rut Fresh Radio.
31:23
Speaker 1: Thanks to Brad, Caleb, Taylor, and Josh for joining me,
31:26
Speaker 1: and thank you guys for listening. I hope this October
31:29
Speaker 1: coldfront finds you well and I'm excited to take advantage
31:31
Speaker 1: of it, like I hope many of you are. But
31:33
Speaker 1: until we talk next week, stay wired to Hunt