Speaker 1: Welcome to Wired to Hunt's rutfresh Radio, bringing you the
Speaker 1: latest reports from the Whitetail Woods, presented by First Light,
Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.
Speaker 1: First Light Go farther, stay longer, and now your hosts
Speaker 1: Casey Smith and Tyler Jones.
Speaker 2: This week on rutfresh, we have hunters spanning the country
Speaker 2: talking about how cooler tempts might have affected the hunting.
Speaker 2: Things can change quickly and dramatically in September, and hunters
Speaker 2: should adapt quickly to observed patterns. This is rutfresh. Let's go.
Speaker 2: Welcome to rut fresh Radio. I'm your host, Tyler Jones
Speaker 2: and Casey Smith is on the other end of the line.
Speaker 2: This is brought to you by First flight Gear and Casey,
Speaker 2: I've been wearing a little bit of that First flight
Speaker 2: Gear tray stuff in the last on the last hunt.
Speaker 2: If the mosquitoes aren't too bad, that stuff is nice.
Speaker 2: It drives out quickly and it keeps you really cool.
Speaker 2: I like it, especially the bad they were bad. I'll
Speaker 2: tell you that we definitely needed a little extra, which
Speaker 2: I think if we were wearing Marino up there in Notak,
Speaker 2: we still would have been getting smoked, you know, so
Speaker 2: I had.
Speaker 3: To wear he takes a little chemical or you know,
Speaker 3: something like that, keep the mosquitos off.
Speaker 4: You can't just rely on the layering. Yeah at all times. Yeah,
Speaker 4: thankfully a few cool tempts.
Speaker 3: Have pushed in, uh, and we might be looking at
Speaker 3: the end or at least reprieve from intense mosquitos and
Speaker 3: parts of the country. Yeah, you know, things are changing
Speaker 3: a little bit right now, man, I kind of like it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, Man, here in Texas we've changed back
Speaker 2: into the hot side of things. Yeah, sure enough.
Speaker 3: If I was looking at the one week and we
Speaker 3: have like real summer tempts coming up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like ninety six or something like that, I think, yeah, ridiculous.
Speaker 2: So yeah, Casey, why are you on the other end
Speaker 2: of the line and not with me?
Speaker 3: Man, I'm only like four miles from here right now.
Speaker 3: But yesterday more than real early, my wife had our child.
Speaker 3: So I'm at home with her, caring to her and
Speaker 3: the baby. So that's kind of why I'm absent, in
Speaker 3: a little bit out of touch with what's going on,
Speaker 3: because you know, my sleep schedule is more messed up
Speaker 3: than a runt and buck, right, now, so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but is it is.
Speaker 4: It's a huge blessing. Man, everybody's healthy.
Speaker 2: Indura, that's cool, man, congrats on that. Thank you very much.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 2: You know this this you know stress as you are
Speaker 2: right now. Watch this. This is a stressful time of
Speaker 2: year for some of the deer in the south especially,
Speaker 2: and I can I can speak to our neck of
Speaker 2: the woods quite a bit. You know, in other places
Speaker 2: in North America, a lot of other places that the
Speaker 2: white tailed deer RNG spans through the winter is you know,
Speaker 2: that's the most stressful period for a deer where it's
Speaker 2: not a lot of the food in the landscape. They're
Speaker 2: eating twigs and whatever else, and there's snow build up
Speaker 2: sometimes and it's cold and they're run down from the
Speaker 2: rut and this and this and this right, but that
Speaker 2: doesn't really happen so much in our neck of the woods.
Speaker 2: I mean, if it snows here during the annual period,
Speaker 2: we throw a party. Like it doesn't happen every year,
Speaker 2: you know. So if we see it snowool, the kids
Speaker 2: get us cool. Yeah. Oh it's raining and it's supposed
Speaker 2: to get thirty tonight, you know, like we're probably gonna
Speaker 2: miss school. Tomorrow morning. But you know, for us, the
Speaker 2: most stressful period is pretty much right now. We're we're
Speaker 2: on the back end of that period where again we're
Speaker 2: getting some hot temps. This week, we've had some very
Speaker 2: hot temps and we've had a long dry period and
Speaker 2: it's been I mean, you can look out right now
Speaker 2: outside it just looks hot and crisp, be all those
Speaker 2: forbes and broad leaves of different sorts, and some of
Speaker 2: the things that these deer wood would brows are really dry.
Speaker 2: I mean they're almost yellow looking, and there's not a
Speaker 2: whole lot of probably nutrition and probably not very they're
Speaker 2: probably not very palatable right now. So you know, the
Speaker 2: deer are kind of in a period of transition between
Speaker 2: having stuff that's growing and then having achorns to eat.
Speaker 2: And that's kind of this period where a lot of
Speaker 2: the stuff that's growing on the landscape has slowed down tremendously.
Speaker 2: It's starting to die out because of the lack of
Speaker 2: moisture and the heat that we've seen. And it happens
Speaker 2: most of the time in August and carries on in
Speaker 2: through September and October sometimes where we don't even see
Speaker 2: cold temps or cool temps at all, hardly till November
Speaker 2: sometimes so, but we'll see acorns start dropping here really soon,
Speaker 2: I would imagine, don't you think.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know around our parts. It's weird because a
Speaker 3: schue mart which is a red oak acorn, those will
Speaker 3: drop early sometimes depends on the tree, so that'll be
Speaker 3: some of the first ones. Sometimes it's even before archery
Speaker 3: season that you see those dropping. We're still, you know,
Speaker 3: probably two weeks out from the early ones on that.
Speaker 3: You know, we'll have percimmons in between that. In fact,
Speaker 3: my persimons are already dropping, but I think, yeah I
Speaker 3: have because of my.
Speaker 4: Real sandy soil.
Speaker 3: I think my pershimons act different than other percentage and
Speaker 3: so like I don't know what yours are doing. I
Speaker 3: know you got that one good tree, you probably saw
Speaker 3: it today, But other percentmons around are still barely pink,
Speaker 3: and mine are they're translucent and ready to eat a
Speaker 3: lot of them are. Yeah, So the deer already hitting those,
Speaker 3: and that kind of helps a little bit with the
Speaker 3: the you know, scarce to get food.
Speaker 4: Muskey dines are also dropping right now, so that helps
Speaker 4: a little bit.
Speaker 3: But again not like we're talking about almost like the
Speaker 3: treats to the deer and not like a through food source,
Speaker 3: you know. So it's still there's not a lot of
Speaker 3: tonnage out there for deer, and so it's really tough.
Speaker 6: And in fact, one of the things that I think
Speaker 6: a you know, a person who's being mindful about their
Speaker 6: deer management, if they have a little proper dear, a
Speaker 6: big property or whatever.
Speaker 5: It is.
Speaker 3: Trying to supplement during this rough period, not just because
Speaker 3: but of course to take care of the deer herd
Speaker 3: as they go through this difficult time. But there's a
Speaker 3: thing going on right now that I think is pretty
Speaker 3: neat and it really doesn't usually correlate to killing deer,
Speaker 3: but it can. And that is like the redistribution of
Speaker 3: bucks after they shed their velvet. You know, I'd say
Speaker 3: that just a guess ninety five percent of the deer
Speaker 3: in ie area and probably around the country if shed
Speaker 3: velvet already. And if you see a buck with velvet
Speaker 3: on even right now, he's allowed to be small, you know,
Speaker 3: like a one point five.
Speaker 4: And what ends up happening after the shed development.
Speaker 3: They get a testosterone spike and probably some other factors
Speaker 3: as well. Bucks will kind of move to a new
Speaker 3: core area. I don't know if that's the right way
Speaker 3: to call it or not, but I'm gonna call it
Speaker 3: that way. They start using a different area sometimes sometimes
Speaker 3: they'll go a long ways. And one thing that you
Speaker 3: can do is make sure that your area that you
Speaker 3: have to hunt has adequate resources during the shift, because
Speaker 3: it almost might be the lottery right now where you
Speaker 3: haven't had a buck on your property all year, and
Speaker 3: all of a sudden one comes through looking for a
Speaker 3: place and while I he's got food, water, and cover
Speaker 3: on your property, and it's like, man, this is the
Speaker 3: best habit head around or this is the best food
Speaker 3: around or water or whatever it may be. So it's
Speaker 3: something to not that it's gonna work, but it's always
Speaker 3: good to kind of maybe, you know, kind of corner
Speaker 3: of the edge on which you could have right now,
Speaker 3: and it definitely could.
Speaker 4: Be a thing that could be benefits.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. You know, I've I've seen I haven't
Speaker 2: seen any books redistribute to my area, but I have
Speaker 2: seen where kind of proof of what we were talking
Speaker 2: about earlier, where you know, I have a feeder that
Speaker 2: goes off year round pretty much, and that feeder has
Speaker 2: the last this morning, it had eight dose at it
Speaker 2: at one time.
Speaker 4: I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the night before there was twelve in one picture, man,
Speaker 2: and there might have been another one or two outside
Speaker 2: of the frame of the picture.
Speaker 3: Sonny.
Speaker 4: I was like, is that a heard of axis?
Speaker 3: Just because you know, usually whitetail aren't packed in that
Speaker 3: did sleep.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they're hungry.
Speaker 2: Don't tell Greg, you know what I mean? Yeah, they
Speaker 2: were shoot access that's small, you know, and you just
Speaker 2: never know anyway. It's just it's just interesting to see
Speaker 2: that you're seeing that these deer feel like they need
Speaker 2: some food, you know what I mean. And so I
Speaker 2: have I also have a syrup tube back there that
Speaker 2: has uh it's usually just refills with rain water, you know.
Speaker 2: I don't have to fill it up hardly ever, I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't think I've ever filled it up since I
Speaker 2: put it out there, and uh, I've had I had
Speaker 2: to fill it up today. I filled it up this
Speaker 2: uh uh late this morning, uh because they had no
Speaker 2: water in it hasn't for a while. And I thought,
Speaker 2: you know what if I can give them dose some
Speaker 2: water because I put a five gallon bucket up here
Speaker 2: by my pear tree a little bit closer to the
Speaker 2: to the road, and uh, there were doos that were
Speaker 2: drinking out of it immediately, like I saw them, you know,
Speaker 2: and I thought that was cool. So I wanted to
Speaker 2: make sure and give them, give them what they need,
Speaker 2: give them through this period. And if I can keep
Speaker 2: those doughs around, like if they like what they they
Speaker 2: got here and they're eating enough and they're drinking enough,
Speaker 2: they don't have to go places. That could be good
Speaker 2: once we get closer to the rut and that that
Speaker 2: further redistribution of bucks, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, man.
Speaker 3: I mean if you can keep the honeies around, the
Speaker 3: boys will show up and that would be real cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it would be. It would be. Uh it used
Speaker 2: to be, you know, but these days it's like a
Speaker 2: war zone going around my property. So I don't know,
Speaker 2: but that's the show.
Speaker 3: Well, would you talk just some folks this.
Speaker 4: Week about, uh, you know, what's going around the country.
Speaker 2: I sure did you know? We we talked a little
Speaker 2: bit about the drought with Jeff Lindsay from The Lindsay Way.
Speaker 2: He's out in Kentucky and there's a there's a major
Speaker 2: drought going on in the in that Midwest area out there,
Speaker 2: from what I understand, right, from what I've heard. Uh,
Speaker 2: we talked to Gary Greenwalk. He was out in Washington,
Speaker 2: which is where he's from, and he shot a monster.
Speaker 2: Cameron Cushman in Montana has been hunting a little bed.
Speaker 2: And then justin Henry, who we heard from last year.
Speaker 2: He hunts down there in the weird part of Florida
Speaker 2: where the rut is starting to happen in certain places
Speaker 2: and has been have to be.
Speaker 4: More specific about the weird part of Florida.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there a Florida man.
Speaker 2: Florida man's down there. You know what I mean. You
Speaker 2: gotta watch out, you gotta watch out. So anyway, we'll
Speaker 2: hear from those guys right now. All right, I've got
Speaker 2: Jeff Lindsay here from the Lindsay Way. He's been out
Speaker 2: in Kentucky and had some pretty pretty good looking pictures
Speaker 2: to show for it. Jeff, what's going on? Man?
Speaker 5: Not much?
Speaker 3: Man?
Speaker 5: How you guys doing?
Speaker 2: Oh doing doing great? Man doing great?
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 2: Case actually had a kid last night, so he was
Speaker 2: unable to be here for this one. But uh, you
Speaker 2: know that'll get in the way, Yeah, for sure, will
Speaker 2: it'll uh, it'll make you grass to him. Yeah, well
Speaker 2: I will. I will thank you that for that. Man.
Speaker 2: Congrats to you on that big old Bucky shot. Man.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Man, you know, like they say, I'd rather be lucky
Speaker 4: and good.
Speaker 5: I got lucky.
Speaker 4: Uh the day four, you know, we were.
Speaker 5: Hunting five days.
Speaker 4: I had a hard stop.
Speaker 5: I had to leave it day five. So it worked out.
Speaker 8: Man, dear, he came in and uh, you know, gave
Speaker 8: us a good shot and my shot went in my
Speaker 8: favor and uh he didn't run twenty thirty yards and
Speaker 8: tipped over.
Speaker 2: Oh man, I love it when they drop in sight. Man,
Speaker 2: it's a good feeling.
Speaker 5: And yeah, yes it is. Man.
Speaker 4: Don't get that feeling enough unfortunately.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So so I guess what were you What were
Speaker 2: you doing the first few days? Did anything change from
Speaker 2: the first few days to that fourth day when you're
Speaker 2: able to connect?
Speaker 4: Yeah. They had opening weekend.
Speaker 8: Kentucky had exceptional weather. I think most of Kentucky that
Speaker 8: I know, northern Kentucky did. Like the first Saturday and
Speaker 8: Sunday day opener. It was like low of forty two
Speaker 8: those nights, and I just don't They said they can't
Speaker 8: ever really remember it, you know, really lining up dead
Speaker 8: center like that for opening weekend, and so I kind
Speaker 8: of shifted some things around and got there in time
Speaker 8: Sunday to hunt, and I was hunting a big ten,
Speaker 8: about one hundred and sixty inch ten, and they kind of.
Speaker 4: Been sending me pictures, said this deer you're gonna concentrate on.
Speaker 8: And then this giant seven pointer comes out that first
Speaker 8: evening and he's extremely tempting.
Speaker 4: I love those big management type deer.
Speaker 8: But I think he was only four, even though his
Speaker 8: body was huge, could have been five, probably four.
Speaker 4: We ended up seeing him the next three days. The
Speaker 4: second day we seen.
Speaker 8: The ten, we were after we also seen an old ten,
Speaker 8: just an ancient deer that I was pretty tempted on,
Speaker 8: but they wanted me to wait on that other ten,
Speaker 8: and he came out ten minutes after dark. They were
Speaker 8: all always together. But it's just a funky time of
Speaker 8: year because you know, Kentucky started always the first Saturday.
Speaker 8: I think that's what it does, but this year it
Speaker 8: was later because it was the on the seventh Saturday
Speaker 8: was the longest it could be as far as the
Speaker 8: opener there, and once those deers start shedding velvet, it's
Speaker 8: just a it's a different times the transition, they.
Speaker 4: Go, they come, you know, you don't know what's going
Speaker 4: to happen.
Speaker 2: So that's kind of what was going on.
Speaker 8: So we pulled off that deer after day three and
Speaker 8: you know Kentucky's debate state it was super dry there,
Speaker 8: so most of their clover's brown the corner was already
Speaker 8: browned up when it wasn't supposed to be. So they
Speaker 8: had been, you know, just putting protein and on the
Speaker 8: ground instead of you know, feeding corn. So that third
Speaker 8: day I went to tracks fly and I got my
Speaker 8: hand on some big time you know, I'm not a
Speaker 8: big you know, grab the corn pile up and put
Speaker 8: it out, but that's kind of what we were kind
Speaker 8: of limited to there because it was right and uh
Speaker 8: that was the magic sauce that that fourth day, that
Speaker 8: deer came in and came in a little bit down
Speaker 8: when we got lucky and uh, he kind of came
Speaker 8: up there to the feed. He never ate, he spoofed,
Speaker 8: He kind of stayed in clover bumped back out and.
Speaker 4: I shot him about it was probably thirty thirty five yards.
Speaker 8: I didn't even have time to range him, and you know,
Speaker 8: just angle it went in and he clipped.
Speaker 4: His order and uh it clipped the back of his
Speaker 4: lungs and that sucker just he was dead in five seconds.
Speaker 2: Oh that's awesome, dude. Yeah, you know that. The thing
Speaker 2: that some people that aren't from bait states failed to
Speaker 2: understand sometimes is that some of those older deer there,
Speaker 2: I mean, they'll eat there, right, but they're, uh, they're
Speaker 2: very wary around those things. And yeah, it's hard, I
Speaker 2: mean honestly, like you're gonna get a lot of string
Speaker 2: jump around those bait piles and stuff too. I mean,
Speaker 2: making good shots, there's a whole lot of different it's
Speaker 2: a whole lot of different variables than what you normally
Speaker 2: deal with sometimes, you know.
Speaker 4: So absolutely that's what happened on me. That's the reason
Speaker 4: I got so lucky on.
Speaker 8: That shot because he going right into it. But yeah,
Speaker 8: their neighbors, you know, they feed like crazy. They got
Speaker 8: neighbors all around them.
Speaker 5: And uh, you know, so that's just what you're dealing
Speaker 5: with out up there.
Speaker 8: If you if you don't do it, do you, you
Speaker 8: ain't them deer ain't gonna be on your profit.
Speaker 2: That's just yeah. And you know, I'm from Texas, so
Speaker 2: we had the same thing going on down here, you know,
Speaker 2: and uh, that's I mean, it's just that's kind of
Speaker 2: the way it is, which I can't even grow the
Speaker 2: food plots here hardly because it's just sandy soil and
Speaker 2: real dry, you know and hot. And so I mean
Speaker 2: that's that's you know, that is a good thing this
Speaker 2: time of year for bait, which Texas isn't open yet,
Speaker 2: but they're I mean, I got deer hitting my feet
Speaker 2: are like crazy right now because this is this is
Speaker 2: actually our stress period right the for the Northern States,
Speaker 2: that stress period is January February, you know, sometimes March,
Speaker 2: but like up down here it's August in September, you know,
Speaker 2: where it's just dry.
Speaker 4: I don't look at it like that. That's interesting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So they're they're hitting it hard right now. We
Speaker 2: just can't shoot them here. But uh, apparently Kentucky the
Speaker 2: bait will work now in the first then the next
Speaker 2: week or so, is it gonna Is it gonna warm up?
Speaker 2: I know it's warming up here in Texas, it is,
Speaker 2: it's warming up.
Speaker 4: But I think they like it.
Speaker 8: You know, they love those first four or five days
Speaker 8: of September before they start shedding. Then after that, you
Speaker 8: know that that fifth through the fifteenth or something. They
Speaker 8: just say it's a weird time. Now it's a little
Speaker 8: more consistency. If the deer start to get on the
Speaker 8: feed or a certain field, bean field, you know, cloverfield, whatever,
Speaker 8: they like, consistency. You know, the cold fronts to me
Speaker 8: are not that big of a deal this time of year,
Speaker 8: or the cool fronts at least, we didn't see that there.
Speaker 5: It's almost like.
Speaker 4: When it was cold, you know, they didn't know what
Speaker 4: them deer didn't know what to do.
Speaker 8: Sure, yeah, I think any little favor, you know, you
Speaker 8: can get in the weather as long as it's not
Speaker 8: too extreme. But I think this next week or so,
Speaker 8: if you can, it's going to be fairly consistent.
Speaker 4: You just got to watch them early season wins.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no doubt. Man. Well, Jeff, I appreciate. I got
Speaker 2: one more question for you. On a scale of one
Speaker 2: to ten, and the next week, what do you think
Speaker 2: that buck movement will be like in Kentucky?
Speaker 8: You know, I think looking at the forecast, it's gonna
Speaker 8: be I'd probably say seven and a half, somewhere between
Speaker 8: really good and somewhere between mid.
Speaker 4: I think it's gonna be pretty good. I like this
Speaker 4: consistent time up there.
Speaker 8: That's when I had a heck of a hunt up
Speaker 8: there last year, seeing a lot of mature deer.
Speaker 5: Out of velvet.
Speaker 8: So it's just up there, man, you got to play
Speaker 8: that win. It is some crazy swirling wins.
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, Well, I appreciate the report, and I'll be
Speaker 2: talking to you soon.
Speaker 4: All right, buddy, thanks a lot.
Speaker 2: All right. This is Gary Greenwalt of Washington. He's been
Speaker 2: out hunting a little bit this early season. Gary, what's
Speaker 2: going on, man?
Speaker 4: Oh found a little success last night.
Speaker 2: I'd say a pen of success, you know, yeah, probably,
Speaker 2: so that's a big deer. So Gary shot a deer.
Speaker 2: What did that thing score?
Speaker 9: He he taped out one seventy nine and an eighth
Speaker 9: gross green score.
Speaker 5: So measuring twice make sure it didn't screw it up.
Speaker 2: That's awesome, dude. Well, congrats on it.
Speaker 5: Thanks appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So so, uh what was key and getting this done? Man?
Speaker 9: The key with this guy was just figuring out his
Speaker 9: home territory he this year is this deer was around
Speaker 9: before I left for a last or guests. He's probably
Speaker 9: about eleven and a half years old, and a couple
Speaker 9: of other dudes I know, the hunting, they just never
Speaker 9: really figured out where he lived.
Speaker 5: He was alway.
Speaker 9: They'd always hunt him on the outskirts, you know, where
Speaker 9: he'd run out to during the rut, and then he
Speaker 9: just disappear on him. Yeah, it turns out that's he
Speaker 9: was living on on on our property where they couldn't hunt.
Speaker 9: So and I managed to figure that out this year.
Speaker 9: Why better half and I were going out to set
Speaker 9: cams and we wound up jumping him on the south
Speaker 9: end of our property, and I just knew it was
Speaker 9: a big deer.
Speaker 5: At the time, I didn't know it was this particular.
Speaker 9: Deer, but he had a he had a kicker off
Speaker 9: that one time that was pretty recognizable. I saw that
Speaker 9: when he ran off, So it made it kind of
Speaker 9: easy to keep track of him when he showed up
Speaker 9: on camera. So, you know, set up some cameras had
Speaker 9: him coming into a little little feed spot before he'd
Speaker 9: go out into the fields at night. But he'd he
Speaker 9: disappeared like two weeks before seasons mm hmm. And then
Speaker 9: with the CWD stuff, the bait, the state shut down
Speaker 9: our baiting, so you know, all feed stuff had to stop. Unfortunately,
Speaker 9: you know, it's only a few units, but you know,
Speaker 9: it is what it is.
Speaker 5: Well, we'll fight him on it. But that's a that's
Speaker 5: a whole nother story.
Speaker 2: Yeah, did they did they shut down agg production too,
Speaker 2: since the deer eating the corn fields and stuff.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I know that, you know, shut and tell the
Speaker 9: deer they can't scrape, and you know they.
Speaker 5: Can't be on each other staff.
Speaker 9: It's like, you know, you can't go to.
Speaker 5: That apple tree either. Yeah, I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 2: It's so the deer disappeared for a little while and
Speaker 2: then showed.
Speaker 5: Back disappeared, and uh, and I kind of.
Speaker 9: Started thinking about It's like, you know, it's like I
Speaker 9: just thought, this deer's got to be on hours. Nobody
Speaker 9: else has been able to pin him down, and I
Speaker 9: kind of.
Speaker 5: Had it hunt.
Speaker 9: He probably moved into kind of a core area that
Speaker 9: another big buck got caught, got shot out of last year.
Speaker 9: So I moved some cams around, and first morning I
Speaker 9: got him coming back up, and he showed back up
Speaker 9: again the next evening and I'm like, s all.
Speaker 5: Right, let's go time.
Speaker 9: So I just went in, threw in a tree saddle,
Speaker 9: set up, and climbed.
Speaker 5: I actually was gonna hunt this morning. For him.
Speaker 9: I wasn't gonna actually hunt last night because the weather
Speaker 9: was it was ripping, windy and nasty, and we just
Speaker 9: had an inch of rain, and I'm like, yeah, I'll
Speaker 9: just climb in, you know, the wind's fine, and I'll
Speaker 9: just sit for.
Speaker 5: The evening, ride it out. And man, the deer wound
Speaker 5: up moving way early.
Speaker 9: I had two other bucks come kind of feed down
Speaker 9: the timberline past me, and this guy came in. And
Speaker 9: long story short, I mean he came in from completely
Speaker 9: the wrong direction and actually all the scent control stuff
Speaker 9: I do paid off because he walked right through my
Speaker 9: sense stream, never picked me up, and gave me a
Speaker 9: thirty yard shot.
Speaker 2: That's cool.
Speaker 3: So so this deard moved on you, and you know
Speaker 3: you said it was so you think he kind of
Speaker 3: came into a place where another duere vacated. What was
Speaker 3: he spending most of his summers eating out there in
Speaker 3: that spot?
Speaker 9: So in the early part of the spring, you know
Speaker 9: that they're they're getting all the new crops coming up.
Speaker 9: You know that they're still eating winter wheat, the lenls
Speaker 9: are going to be popping up.
Speaker 5: Maybe guys got oats. There's lots and lots of natural brows.
Speaker 9: That time of year, and then as the brows starts
Speaker 9: to dry up, they're real heavy on the agriculture stuff,
Speaker 9: and you know a few alfalfa fields and patches here
Speaker 9: and there.
Speaker 4: Right now.
Speaker 5: He was actually the patch they were in.
Speaker 9: I was kind of on the edge of a staging
Speaker 9: area that's got service berries, and they were seem to
Speaker 9: be feeding on those, and there's something else there munched
Speaker 9: on them.
Speaker 5: They just couldn't make out.
Speaker 9: I don't know if they're kind of picking some snowberries
Speaker 9: or another little urban for some sort down down close
Speaker 9: to the ground. And then I have a feeling that
Speaker 9: those bigger bucks that they weren't even going out the
Speaker 9: agfield at this point, just as everything's harvested. I think
Speaker 9: they're just hanging up higher on the mountain, or if
Speaker 9: they were going out there, it's.
Speaker 3: Way late at night.
Speaker 5: You know, they're not getting down to a couple hours
Speaker 5: after dark.
Speaker 2: So being closer to kind of where they really are
Speaker 2: core areas and their bedding and all the guys, Yeah.
Speaker 9: I got way close to this core area, and you know,
Speaker 9: there's probably a little bit of luck finding that that.
Speaker 9: I mean, I've got I've hunted that place for four decades,
Speaker 9: so I mean, I know what the deer are doing.
Speaker 5: But but you know.
Speaker 9: Falling into the setup just right and having the plan
Speaker 9: come together, you know, that was pretty pretty.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's awesome, dude. Well, you know, as we look
Speaker 2: forward to the next week, I know this is a
Speaker 2: great week for you, but for people who might be
Speaker 2: going out next week based on whether moon patterns or
Speaker 2: you know, whatever you might see, what do you think
Speaker 2: buck movement will be like? If you had to guess
Speaker 2: in on a scale of one to ten, you know, one.
Speaker 9: To ten out here, I'd say you're probably going to
Speaker 9: start dropping off to three, four or five here pretty soon,
Speaker 9: because at least at least out here where we're at
Speaker 9: mid September and rolling into October, things can really start
Speaker 9: to drop off, you know if they're especially if you're
Speaker 9: in these overlap season is where there's elk hunters and
Speaker 9: bear hunters and they get bumped around the big bucks,
Speaker 9: will you know, they'll shut down and then they'll just
Speaker 9: still just go nocturnal, you know, which is probably one
Speaker 9: advantage I have having my own place to hunt. You know,
Speaker 9: they weren't pressured, sure, because really for me man catching
Speaker 9: a buck that size out in the Daylight's not a
Speaker 9: real common thing once that first week September passes for sure.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 2: Well, that's awesome. Congrats on the deer, and thanks for
Speaker 2: hopping on the phone with us.
Speaker 5: All right, man, I appreciate it.
Speaker 10: Guys, you have a good one.
Speaker 2: I've got Cameron Cushman on the phone here. He's been
Speaker 2: out in Montana hunting deer. Cameron, what's it like out there? Man?
Speaker 11: Man, we've kind of had a you know, we're coming
Speaker 11: up on kind of coming into week two of our
Speaker 11: tree season. Weather, it's kind of been you know, we're
Speaker 11: kind of in that period in western Montana where we
Speaker 11: still have some ninety degree days, but then we're also
Speaker 11: getting these colder cold fronts that are coming through, and
Speaker 11: so kind of saw our first big cold front come
Speaker 11: through about four days ago, and so kind of kind
Speaker 11: of seeing a lot more deer moving around as the
Speaker 11: weather is cooling off. And I live in two seventy,
Speaker 11: which is like trophy once in a lifetime mule deer,
Speaker 11: and so I see them kind of running all around,
Speaker 11: you know, my area and between the Muley's And then
Speaker 11: we got a bunch of white tail, definitely a lot
Speaker 11: of activity. Kind of still seeing some bachelor groups, but
Speaker 11: I'm definitely starting to see some some you know bucks
Speaker 11: pushing does.
Speaker 2: Now sure, so they're already kind of king kicking around
Speaker 2: dose and what are the tempts like when when you
Speaker 2: see in those cold fronts right now?
Speaker 5: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 11: So we're kind of entering a it looks like we're
Speaker 11: entering a really nice I wouldn't call it cold front,
Speaker 11: but temperatures are dropping definitely next week, I think the
Speaker 11: highs like seventy and so we're coming off of like
Speaker 11: a lot of ninety degree days and so those low
Speaker 11: temperatures which we were seeing, you know, mid fifties, are
Speaker 11: now we're getting down into the upper thirties, low forties.
Speaker 11: I was in the woods the other day and I
Speaker 11: had three does come in on me, and then followed
Speaker 11: by a button buck and then a young probably three
Speaker 11: year old white tail, and I watched both the button
Speaker 11: and that three year old mount two of the does,
Speaker 11: and so I'm pretty surprised to see that this early
Speaker 11: in the you know, in the year, but again relatively
Speaker 11: new to the Montana scene, so it could have been that,
Speaker 11: you know, that big shift in temperature coming off of
Speaker 11: such extreme highs, but definitely starting to see see em nudgingham.
Speaker 2: I'm seeing them chase.
Speaker 11: Scootering around town yesterday with the kids, and I watched
Speaker 11: a buck chase some doze off.
Speaker 2: You know, some city bucks.
Speaker 11: So there definitely seems to be some early activity.
Speaker 2: Man, that's that's wild. So what are you what are
Speaker 2: you hunting? Like, what's the tactic that you're using when
Speaker 2: you're out there right now? What pattern? For sure?
Speaker 11: So I'm definitely kind of very again, very new to Montana,
Speaker 11: so kind of doing a lot more exploring than I
Speaker 11: usually would do think Midwest, I'm I'm more or less.
Speaker 11: I was kind of hunting trails, food sources, water sources
Speaker 11: in the early season versus now I'm kind of covering
Speaker 11: as much ground as I can, trying to find where
Speaker 11: game trails come across food and so was hunting a
Speaker 11: BMA the other day and found the soul apple tree
Speaker 11: that was on the you know that BMA and kind of,
Speaker 11: you know, several game trails came into there, so I
Speaker 11: kind of backed myself off just to watch and a
Speaker 11: lot of activity coming through there and so kind of
Speaker 11: covering it all, hunted some you know, stage stuff. The
Speaker 11: other day, then some heavy timber and got the tree
Speaker 11: stand ready, and I think I'm gonna throw that up
Speaker 11: out here sometime soon.
Speaker 2: Cool. So if you were going to go out next week,
Speaker 2: what would you stay with the same patterns of looking
Speaker 2: at as kind of some of that food source stuff
Speaker 2: like the apple trees and that kind of thing, or
Speaker 2: would you would you change up to a more pre
Speaker 2: rut kind of pattern.
Speaker 11: Yeah, I think I think if it was this week,
Speaker 11: I'm probably gonna be on some of that food because
Speaker 11: I think is as this temperature has really drop all
Speaker 11: that food. Especially if if I'm like finding some of
Speaker 11: that stuff, it's going to be gone here, uh, because
Speaker 11: we've got some you know, mid thirties days coming up,
Speaker 11: And so I probably will I'd say in two weeks
Speaker 11: maybe transitioned to to some of that pre rut tactics,
Speaker 11: but you know, still kind of watching the behavior and
Speaker 11: seeing what they're doing. I obviously don't want to be
Speaker 11: letting out a grun coll or anything this early in
Speaker 11: the sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So you know, going going into next week, what
Speaker 2: do you think, on a scale of one to ten,
Speaker 2: the buck movement is going to be, like.
Speaker 11: You know, looking at it this week and just watching
Speaker 11: a lot of the movement that I'm seeing with this
Speaker 11: past two days of coldfront, I think I think there's
Speaker 11: going to be a good bit of movement. I definitely,
Speaker 11: you know, give it a six or seven, you know
Speaker 11: that ten scale.
Speaker 2: So sweet, dude, that's good. That's that's exciting. Man. I
Speaker 2: wish I had a Montana tag then.
Speaker 11: Man, for sure, I let that buck pass the other
Speaker 11: day at at about sixteen yards, and you know, I
Speaker 11: shared it to my story and I had a lot
Speaker 11: of Western people were like, why didn't you shoot it?
Speaker 11: It was a shooter and kind of coming from Missouri,
Speaker 11: a lot of my Missouri friends would have been like, man, good, good.
Speaker 2: On you for passing. That thing's too small.
Speaker 11: But you know somebody will probably take him. You hope
Speaker 11: to see him grow, but you know, public and stuff
Speaker 11: like that, it happens.
Speaker 2: Sure. Yeah, Well it's a you know, microregional this thing is,
Speaker 2: which is why we do the report. And I appreciate
Speaker 2: all the info. Man, And hopefully that deer makes it
Speaker 2: through and you get to shoot him next year. So
Speaker 2: and hopefully you have success this year as well on
Speaker 2: a different deer, for sure. Hoping to fill some tags,
Speaker 2: all right, thanks, Cameron, appreciate you.
Speaker 5: All.
Speaker 2: Right on the phone, I've got Justin Henry. He's been
Speaker 2: out in Florida doing some hunting. It sounds like a
Speaker 2: hot and skeetery proposition. Am I right? You were correct.
Speaker 5: To the fullest.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well we've got it bad here in Texas right
Speaker 2: now too.
Speaker 7: Man.
Speaker 2: It's like, uh, I just it just feels worse than
Speaker 2: it actually is heat wise out there. You know what
Speaker 2: the temps say, So it's it's pretty rough. Are there?
Speaker 2: Are you hunting deer that are rutting? By chance? I
Speaker 2: am not.
Speaker 4: They are actually starting to chase here.
Speaker 7: I had two buddies shot two bucks this week and
Speaker 7: coming in chasing?
Speaker 2: Does really so chasing like full on or just bumping them.
Speaker 5: Around lawn chasing?
Speaker 2: Man, it's wild. What I don't want to I don't
Speaker 2: want to give away anything you don't want to give away.
Speaker 2: But can you what's the smallest microregion you can lead
Speaker 2: us to to let us know where these deer are chasing.
Speaker 2: We'll say the Daytona Beach area. Okay, okay, man, you
Speaker 2: can watch race cars and shoot rutting bucks right now,
Speaker 2: which I don't even know. I guess it's not racing season.
Speaker 2: I don't know, you know, I'm not.
Speaker 4: No it actually yeah, not no more either.
Speaker 2: I think it actually is, but just not I gotcha. So, so,
Speaker 2: what are these guys hunting patterns? Or are you hunting
Speaker 2: patterns that are like typical ret funnel patterns or pinch
Speaker 2: points and that kind of thing, or are you still
Speaker 2: sitting on food or how's that going?
Speaker 4: Still still sitting on food?
Speaker 7: You know, Florida being extremely monotonous for the most part,
Speaker 7: you know, I mean, there are your subtle pinch points
Speaker 7: and ret travel areas, but I would say for the
Speaker 7: most part, still acorns are falling heavy, so that that, uh,
Speaker 7: I'm still meat personally, I'm still hunting that the food.
Speaker 2: Pattern, gotcha? So acorns? What what kind? Do you know
Speaker 2: much about oak trees and the different variants or you're
Speaker 2: red and.
Speaker 7: Whine I'm gonna have to say, just like your live oaks.
Speaker 5: Yeah, for the most part, I don't think.
Speaker 7: I don't know if any like red oak, white oak
Speaker 7: per se you. So it's like a live oak out here.
Speaker 7: I mean I can I can, you know, up north,
Speaker 7: I can find them out.
Speaker 2: But sure, so, so are you are you sitting really
Speaker 2: close to those live oak moots or are you sitting
Speaker 2: closer to betting.
Speaker 4: Towards enough food?
Speaker 2: I got food? I got you?
Speaker 7: Yeah, okay, later in the morning type most most most movement,
Speaker 7: I feel like, for the most part, is generally around
Speaker 7: that nine o'clock in the morning, whether it be that
Speaker 7: first adjustment, that first shift, or they're coming back from
Speaker 7: bed late or just getting up to get a snack or.
Speaker 2: You know, gotcha. Okay, So what's the what's the weather
Speaker 2: been like as you've been out this past week? Is
Speaker 2: it pretty consistent? And what are the tempts like?
Speaker 7: Actually this past weekend was a little on the cloudy side.
Speaker 7: So Saturday morning was opening morning for Zone C and Florida,
Speaker 7: and I think it was like eighty seven was the high.
Speaker 7: And then yesterday's Sunday, I believe the high was like
Speaker 7: ninety seven.
Speaker 4: So humidity at honest humidity at one hundred percent.
Speaker 2: So are there I don't even know, man, this is
Speaker 2: this is bad on me. But are there any tropical
Speaker 2: storms or anything that are out in the Gulf affecting
Speaker 2: y'all's weather.
Speaker 7: That's probably bad on myself too.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 7: I don't know of anything that's per se I know
Speaker 7: there was a little remnants of that one that went
Speaker 7: through Louisiana might even hit you all a tiny bit,
Speaker 7: possibly some bands, so I know they hit like northern
Speaker 7: Florida area, but.
Speaker 4: All in all we didn't get too much of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got you. So in the next week, say,
Speaker 2: would you would you shift over to a more rut
Speaker 2: pattern or would you stick with that food source in
Speaker 2: hopes of seeing rut suffer rutting action happen around that.
Speaker 7: I would say that the two guys that I know
Speaker 7: that had them bet shop Bucks chasing Chasing does I
Speaker 7: think those were just kind of based on small little area.
Speaker 7: They were both happened to be in the same general area,
Speaker 7: and I think if you went two miles down the
Speaker 7: road you would not see that. So I would still
Speaker 7: be hunting the bed to food patterns in hopes that leading.
Speaker 2: Up the next couple of weeks you might shift. I
Speaker 2: got you, man. It's it's wild how that though some
Speaker 2: of those southern ruts are so micro micro regional. So yeah,
Speaker 2: that's cool. Well, so on a scale of one to ten,
Speaker 2: in the next week, based off weather, moon, you know, whatever,
Speaker 2: it might be. What do you think Buck movement it's
Speaker 2: going to be like I'm.
Speaker 5: Gonna being early in the season.
Speaker 7: Deer aren't having the pressure the way they will here
Speaker 7: coming shortly, I'd give it right in the middle of
Speaker 7: the road about a five.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, that's not too bad. Are you gonna
Speaker 2: be going out soon?
Speaker 5: Yes, sir? All right, sir.
Speaker 4: I want to probably go tomorrow evening.
Speaker 2: All right, Well send me pictures if you shoot one, yes, sir,
Speaker 2: all right, I appreciate it. Justin all right, man. Well,
Speaker 2: the guests this week seem very level headed about the
Speaker 2: outlook coming up, and some of these cold fronts and
Speaker 2: weather patterns have been changing a lot, and I think
Speaker 2: as we see the weather patterns kind of pan out,
Speaker 2: we'll see more consistent patterns that probably will help hunters
Speaker 2: in the future.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, it doesn't make me feel too bad
Speaker 4: to you the truth.
Speaker 3: I got a little fomo here because everybody's posting dead
Speaker 3: out pictures and people are hunting deer across the country,
Speaker 3: and I'm just kind of on lockdown.
Speaker 4: Like old Buck right now because I'm at the house.
Speaker 4: You know, they takn't care of a baby.
Speaker 3: But pretty soon we'll have more seasons open, and that
Speaker 3: gets me really excited because that.
Speaker 4: Just starts opening up a lot of opportunities around the country.
Speaker 3: And if you're high about near season, you know, listen
Speaker 3: to the Element podcast on the podcast app or wherever
Speaker 3: you get your podcast information from. We're doing some q
Speaker 3: and a's by early season and talking about some of
Speaker 3: our prior experiences and just all things whitetail hunting. It's
Speaker 3: a great resource, and I appreciate the cues and the
Speaker 3: questions that we have been getting because it makes me
Speaker 3: think about stuff and maybe even might change my approach.
Speaker 4: It's a good place for us to all learn together.
Speaker 2: For sure. Another good resource would be the wire to
Speaker 2: Hunt website, which has articles on it, including one from
Speaker 2: Tony J. Peterson that is why do so many whitetail
Speaker 2: hunters struggle in September? So it's very prevalent information right
Speaker 2: there for us as we hunt through September. Guys, this
Speaker 2: has been rough, fresh, Keep it fresh.