Speaker 1: Welcome to Wired to Hunt's rut Fresh Radio, bringing you
Speaker 1: the 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: Case Smith and Tyler Jones.
Speaker 2: Seasons are continuing to open up around the country in
Speaker 2: the early season. Hive ain't slowing down, no time soon.
Speaker 2: This is Retfresh. Let's go. Welcome to Refresh Radio, brought
Speaker 2: to you by First Light Gear. I'm your host k C.
Speaker 2: Smith and Tyler Jones is here from Afar. He has
Speaker 2: joined us from the Netherlands. I come from Afar. I
Speaker 2: gotta I got a joke. Actually do you let's hear
Speaker 2: it's a man now, I forgot it. It's something like,
Speaker 2: how do you know the three wise men were firefighters?
Speaker 2: How do you know? Because as they said, I come
Speaker 2: from Afar, Afar as southern firefighters. Yeah, that's it. I
Speaker 2: like it. I like it a lot. Well. This episode
Speaker 2: of Refresh Radio, of course, is filled with some good
Speaker 2: reports from around the country. I feel really good about
Speaker 2: like our zones, you know, because early season it's hard
Speaker 2: to get different states because there's only a few states open,
Speaker 2: but I think this week we have all new states.
Speaker 2: I'm excited about that. But before that, Tyler Jones, you
Speaker 2: yourself have actually been doing some early season hunting career.
Speaker 3: I have, Man, I have.
Speaker 4: It's been Uh, it's been a learning experience. And what
Speaker 4: I learned was that I don't want to hunt early
Speaker 4: season anymore.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I can kind of empathize with that a little bit,
Speaker 2: I think. Yeah, I mean there's some there's definitely some
Speaker 2: deeming qualities to it. I think early season, to me,
Speaker 2: it just seems that if you have something figured out,
Speaker 2: it's gold. But if you go try to figure something
Speaker 2: out and you can't figure a thing out, could be
Speaker 2: the worst thing in your life. Huh. Yeah.
Speaker 4: And I think you see, you know, it gets harder
Speaker 4: and harder to find people that are hunting deer in
Speaker 4: early season. I think every year it feels like you
Speaker 4: and I at least talked about that the day. And
Speaker 4: I think a lot of it is people are understanding that,
Speaker 4: you know, traveling to hunt early season is very tough.
Speaker 4: And again, if you have the spot, if you have
Speaker 4: you know, if you live in Kentucky and you have
Speaker 4: a corn pile, and it's working for you, and you
Speaker 4: get in daylight, great, it's going to be awesome early
Speaker 4: season for you. Outside of that, it can be kind
Speaker 4: of tough. And I think a lot of people would
Speaker 4: rather go spend some time in the elk wood and
Speaker 4: try to catch one bugle in and I think that's what.
Speaker 2: I want to do next day. It sounds like a
Speaker 2: lot of raw tags. So you went to North Dakota, yep,
Speaker 2: And can you give us a quick synopsis about what
Speaker 2: you saw, what differences you made, and how close you
Speaker 2: got to a deer.
Speaker 4: Closest I got to a deer was probably seven yards
Speaker 4: and she looked right into my eyes until I closed
Speaker 4: them and then uh, then she just looked at the
Speaker 4: front of my eyelids. And I would say the things
Speaker 4: that the report there from North Dakota is one million mosquitoes.
Speaker 4: Deer movement in the evenings is consistent at a certain
Speaker 4: within a certain time towards dark. And uh, we noticed
Speaker 4: a pretty consistent pattern of it seemed like deer bedding
Speaker 4: before daylight.
Speaker 2: In the mornings. That's not good. No, it wasn't, No,
Speaker 2: it wasn't.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 4: We we had a really close encounter or you know,
Speaker 4: fairly close encounter the last couple of days we were
Speaker 4: we were working in on a buck. Finally that had
Speaker 4: been we had patterned a couple of days before. You
Speaker 4: can hear the the more expansive story of this on
Speaker 4: the Element podcast, our podcast, but for now, I won't
Speaker 4: tell the whole story because it's uh, there's a.
Speaker 2: Lot that happened.
Speaker 4: But we did squeeze in on a buck and eventually
Speaker 4: got to a couple of fairly close calls with him.
Speaker 4: But never it never was like never was really probably
Speaker 4: within eighty I probably was within one hundred yards of
Speaker 4: him at one point. So employed the ground game, Yeah, no, less,
Speaker 4: we did so, but I you know, that morning he
Speaker 4: had to get out of his bed I believe, and
Speaker 4: browse some corn for a little bit before we were
Speaker 4: able to see him.
Speaker 2: It was eight o'clock before we saw him. Yeah, So
Speaker 2: what was like your number one limiting factor? I would
Speaker 2: say corn being in It was always going to happen
Speaker 2: early season too.
Speaker 4: It's just the way it is your hunt if you're
Speaker 4: hunting egg country, for sure, you know, and I think
Speaker 4: that if it was like one one pivot with corn
Speaker 4: in it next to a bunch of grasslands or something
Speaker 4: like that. It would be potentially okay, right, but there
Speaker 4: was a lot of ag I didn't hunt a place
Speaker 4: that Like, if you watch people hunt North Dakota, like
Speaker 4: publicly in on video on YouTube, you probably haven't seen
Speaker 4: a whole lot of hunts from this area.
Speaker 2: You've seen them from a different part of the state.
Speaker 2: So it was a tough deal.
Speaker 4: I was going somewhere where I didn't really know a
Speaker 4: whole lot of people had been before. I ended up
Speaker 4: finding out after i'd planned this hunt that somebody else
Speaker 4: had been to this area before that I knew. But
Speaker 4: I don't make a habit of asking them too much
Speaker 4: about spots or you know, where they go or nothing.
Speaker 4: I'll ask them some kind of general questions about, you know,
Speaker 4: how many deer per acre kind of things or whatever.
Speaker 4: But anyway, yeah, I think that corn being in heard
Speaker 4: us because I think the deer were just in and
Speaker 4: out of that corn a lot.
Speaker 2: So getting eyes on deer kind of limited you.
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, and I would say another limiting factor to
Speaker 4: the that is the fact that they were betting before
Speaker 4: daylight in the mornings, so I couldn't glass them up.
Speaker 4: And if you weren't sitting and hunting in the evening,
Speaker 4: then you weren't going to shoot one. And so it's
Speaker 4: hard for me to just sit and just try to observe,
Speaker 4: especially if you don't like there's a lot of trees
Speaker 4: in this area, so you're just not gonna observe a
Speaker 4: whole lot anyway. So yeah, ultimately seeing seeing deer because
Speaker 4: of corn and vegetation and them betting before daylight, I
Speaker 4: think it was the hardest part.
Speaker 2: So not to get to pinpointed here, but if you
Speaker 2: were going to go for a opener next year, how
Speaker 2: would you what attributes to the country would you look
Speaker 2: for to kind of change success? Like on public you're saying, yeah,
Speaker 2: just to say, you know, say you're gonna go to
Speaker 2: a state and you're like, hmm, this didn't work out
Speaker 2: well here, Where can I go that looks different that's
Speaker 2: going to be better?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think probably like if your limited resources ag
Speaker 4: like and that's what like, you've got very little agriculture,
Speaker 4: but you can find some then that that helps a lot.
Speaker 4: So whatever that looks like, right, it could be in
Speaker 4: West Virginia in the mountains and you've got one person
Speaker 4: that has a you know, field of something up top
Speaker 4: or whatever it might be. Or like if you're hunting
Speaker 4: somewhere where there's not a whole lot of oaks, but
Speaker 4: there are some bands of oaks, then maybe you know
Speaker 4: you're able to sit near those oaks, blow your wind
Speaker 4: off of them, observe, see if anything comes in, you know,
Speaker 4: go to another band of oaks, observe those for the night.
Speaker 2: Whatever.
Speaker 4: But limiting that ag I think helps a lot, because
Speaker 4: there's a thing with big ag beans and corn. Is
Speaker 4: the country where those things are prevalent. When they cut it,
Speaker 4: they ain't nothing on the landscape anymore, right, And so
Speaker 4: that landscape year in and year out, in an annual year,
Speaker 4: it really doesn't produce. It's not like, oh we're going
Speaker 4: to overproduce a bunch of deer in six months. Because
Speaker 4: there's that vegetation. It's going to hold what it can
Speaker 4: hold in the winter, really, especially up north, right, so
Speaker 4: whenever the summer comes and they spread out, it's really
Speaker 4: like there's not a whole lot deer per square mile. Yeah,
Speaker 4: so it makes it really tough.
Speaker 2: So I can see that well, I think that's good
Speaker 2: information that's pertinent throughout the next couple weeks, because yeah,
Speaker 2: the opener of an early September is good if you
Speaker 2: want to go chase velvet deer deer, they don't have
Speaker 2: any pressure. But we have new seasons opening up constantly
Speaker 2: now and so that's same scenario will play itself out
Speaker 2: essentially until we hit pre rut where they're taking crops
Speaker 2: out and deer starting to do different things, right, scrapes
Speaker 2: and all that. So cool. So, speaking of seasons opening up,
Speaker 2: we have some interviews today, some reports, Yeah, from quite
Speaker 2: a few guys who are hunting new seasons that are
Speaker 2: opening up right now. Tyler, who are we talking to.
Speaker 4: We've got Ticnick Gonzales, he's out there, he's been in Arkansas.
Speaker 4: We've got Dakota Wellman in Kentucky who shot a monster
Speaker 4: by the way, Grant Forny out in Maryland, and our
Speaker 4: good buddy Mitchell Johnston with that end game calls from
Speaker 4: North Carolina.
Speaker 2: Awesome, man, Well, let's get to it and hear what
Speaker 2: those guys have to say. This is our friend Nick Gonzales.
Speaker 2: He has been hunting white tail deer in the state
Speaker 2: of Arkansas in the Mosquito fest. Nick, what's happening, man?
Speaker 5: Oh no, muss, just go back and very itchy. Yeah,
Speaker 5: lots of mosquito? How many to get back or definitely
Speaker 5: not so.
Speaker 2: Arkansas has an early season buck only hunts. What you
Speaker 2: went hunting?
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, it's a new thing this year for him. Yeah,
Speaker 5: and you've had some success in Arkansas in the past
Speaker 5: I have. Did you go in and target those? Seem
Speaker 5: similar tactics? And what are those I did? Uh, it's
Speaker 5: just a bed to food patterns. What I was after
Speaker 5: I this time That's what I've done in times past
Speaker 5: two but didn't have much success this time around. I
Speaker 5: went to a different spot and uh, yeah, no success.
Speaker 2: What kind of food were you targeting?
Speaker 5: Uh?
Speaker 2: There was a lot of.
Speaker 5: Beans in certain parts of this of this public. Uh
Speaker 5: there were some per simmons and lots of acorns dropping too.
Speaker 5: So uh just trying to key in on those simons
Speaker 5: hitting the ground. A couple of them, but most of
Speaker 5: them not. They're still too ripe.
Speaker 2: Gotcha. So, uh did you have deer hidings? Uh? I did?
Speaker 2: What were those deer doing? Well, most of them were betted.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, while scouting around, they were just in some
Speaker 5: like mulberry thickets stuff like that. So a lot of
Speaker 5: funds and a lot of does. Yeah, I think maybe
Speaker 5: one buck, but I didn't get a good look at it.
Speaker 2: Gotcha. Cool? Uh. So do you feel like you should
Speaker 2: have gone to a new place or do you think
Speaker 2: that historical data would have benefited you more?
Speaker 5: I think it's I enjoyed the challenge of going to
Speaker 5: new places, and so that's kind of why I went
Speaker 5: to this spot. And not all the pieces of public
Speaker 5: in Arkansas participate in this early book only weekend, and
Speaker 5: the place that I've hunted in the past wasn't open
Speaker 5: for this, gotcha.
Speaker 2: Gotcha? Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 4: So when you say mulberry betting, like mulberry trees, the thickets,
Speaker 4: like the little what do they look.
Speaker 2: Like like a beauty berry?
Speaker 5: I don't know what they call it.
Speaker 4: Oh, okay, they're the ones that had the purple yeah,
Speaker 4: clumps on them.
Speaker 5: Okay yeah, and just like crp fields and stuff like
Speaker 5: that is what they were in.
Speaker 2: I got you. So, did you see, dear, why you're
Speaker 2: actually hunting?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: Man, that's tough. Yeah. Do you think that what was
Speaker 2: the temps? Like? It was really good?
Speaker 5: Actually yesterday morning was I think fifty three, so pretty
Speaker 5: good cold front.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I just did you think that they negatively
Speaker 2: affected you.
Speaker 5: The temperatures, I don't think so, I don't think that
Speaker 5: I really I don't think I hunted in the very
Speaker 5: best spot.
Speaker 2: I only had like a day to scout.
Speaker 5: I didn't want to go in there and just blow
Speaker 5: everything out, and so I feel like I probably should
Speaker 5: have pushed a little bit closer to betting for the
Speaker 5: buck stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I saw the same thing this week. Deer we're not.
Speaker 4: Moving far in daylight at all, and I think that
Speaker 4: that would be like a commonality that you're what you're saying.
Speaker 4: And what I saw was that deer is still very much.
Speaker 4: They have a lot of stuff to eat, and they
Speaker 4: even though we had some pretty cold temperatures as well,
Speaker 4: still we're not seeing like movement till the very end
Speaker 4: of the day. Saw bucks bedded before daylight and that
Speaker 4: kind of thing. So did you see any bucks at all?
Speaker 5: I think I might have jumped one, but I didn't
Speaker 5: get a good look at it.
Speaker 2: But other than that, No, Yeah, did you hunt wine? H? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I did? Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 5: My trip got cut a little bit short because I
Speaker 5: had to get back for some work things. So I
Speaker 5: was planning on hunting today, but I just didn't get
Speaker 5: to I did some scouting yesterday afternoon. I found some
Speaker 5: stuff I think was really good buck but Habitat just
Speaker 5: real thick stuff, and it's a pretty good sign in there.
Speaker 2: Just find some rubes, like fresh rubes. I didn't, surprisingly,
Speaker 2: so potentially all the bucks are still velveted up. Yeah, yeah, interesting. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So as we look forward, you know, things are going
Speaker 2: to heat up again before the next cool front comes through.
Speaker 2: There is a tropical storm brewing out in the golf.
Speaker 2: I don't know if that's going to affect Arkansas too much,
Speaker 2: but sometimes you know, those things can push up overall
Speaker 2: in the next week. How do you feel Buckwo's going
Speaker 2: to be on scale of one to ten?
Speaker 5: Mm hmm, I'd still I'd still probably keep it pretty low.
Speaker 5: I'd probably give it.
Speaker 2: Like a three. Yeah, yeah, that's good and realistic. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I agree with you. I think that's going to be
Speaker 2: right on the money. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so you would, you would, you would push closer
Speaker 4: to buck betting to see that movement happen though.
Speaker 5: Yeah, just like what you were saying, I don't think
Speaker 5: they're moving very far during the day, So if you're
Speaker 5: going to catch them, I think it's going to be
Speaker 5: you know, right as the sun's going down or right
Speaker 5: as the sun's coming up morning.
Speaker 2: So cool man. Appreciate the report. Yeah, no problem. I'll
Speaker 2: you find more success in this in the future. Appreciate it.
Speaker 2: This is Dakota Wellman. He's a Kentucky hunter and has
Speaker 2: recently aired a giant buck. Dakota, congratulations, man.
Speaker 6: Thank you, thank you very much.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're welcome. Dude. So we were talking off air
Speaker 2: well ago, and it sounded like you kind of had
Speaker 2: a little history with this deer, which means that you
Speaker 2: probably have been plotting and scheming and trying to understand
Speaker 2: what to do to have success in the early season,
Speaker 2: and you got it done. Now, tell me what is
Speaker 2: the main tactic that you used to shoot this big
Speaker 2: deer in early season Kentucky.
Speaker 6: It was a lot of history, that repetitive history on
Speaker 6: a deer.
Speaker 3: They will normally do, especially early season, before the pressure hits,
Speaker 3: they'll do the same thing over again.
Speaker 6: I seen him opening day last year and seeing him
Speaker 6: again this year.
Speaker 2: How about that? So you shot this deer opening day, yes,
Speaker 2: working day, Very cool dude. So that deer is starting
Speaker 2: to shit his velvet and you see it in the photos.
Speaker 2: Do you see that the deer when they start to
Speaker 2: shed their velvet kind of disperse and do different things
Speaker 2: in that area.
Speaker 3: I have deer that will completely vanish from the area
Speaker 3: until January, if not February.
Speaker 6: That year in particular, never left that area. That was
Speaker 6: his home and that's where he stayed.
Speaker 2: So why was Opening day like when you needed to
Speaker 2: get it done?
Speaker 3: Toll front hit here in Kentucky and it was a
Speaker 3: major cold front, something really unexpected this time of year.
Speaker 3: I think the temperature dropped thirty degrees. The high was
Speaker 3: seventy when it was used to be in the nineties
Speaker 3: ninety five, and it got down into the forties at night,
Speaker 3: and it was really time to get in.
Speaker 2: There and get it. Are these deer that you're hunting
Speaker 2: relating to agriculture in the early season or are you
Speaker 2: hunting deer that are just way back in the thickest stuff.
Speaker 3: Well, this year they will. There's a lot of beans,
Speaker 3: but the beans have turned early this year won a
Speaker 3: severe drought, and I think that a lot of the
Speaker 3: beans are out of the question or have been out
Speaker 3: of the question before Opening day this year, unless they
Speaker 3: were planning super late. But you could find, you know,
Speaker 3: pockets of beans that are still green. But most of
Speaker 3: what I've been on and seeing the sweet beans have turned.
Speaker 3: But as far as natural brows and all that, that's
Speaker 3: all still there.
Speaker 2: What natural brows would you say was most key in
Speaker 2: this moment?
Speaker 3: I would say I was this year come into some
Speaker 3: clover which was barely hanging on due to the drought.
Speaker 6: But it was a green food source and that's what
Speaker 6: got him up.
Speaker 3: The weather got him up before dark, and the green,
Speaker 3: green food source made it happen.
Speaker 2: Okay, So looking forward to the next week, I would
Speaker 2: assume that you know, any of these early season cold
Speaker 2: fronts kind of have a warming trend afterward, is that
Speaker 2: going to affect the buck movement?
Speaker 3: I'm going to say for a couple of days afterwards,
Speaker 3: when it heats back up, it's going to slow down
Speaker 3: because they just kind of got shocked by the cold front.
Speaker 3: But once they kind of get warm back up, and
Speaker 3: it's been hot all summer, it's not nothing uncommon to
Speaker 3: them to continue to do their normal routine when it
Speaker 3: heats back up.
Speaker 6: But I think for a few days after they're going
Speaker 6: to have a little bit of effect to lay down
Speaker 6: and not move.
Speaker 3: A whole lot, just do the fact they hit a
Speaker 3: huge coal front, they moved a bunch and then it
Speaker 3: gets hot again, so they're going to take a few
Speaker 3: days to adapt back to the heat after the cold frunt.
Speaker 4: So on a scale of one to ten, what would
Speaker 4: you rate buck movement in the next week.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna say it's gonna be probably around a five
Speaker 3: until they get used to.
Speaker 2: The heat again. Got my favorite number, man, Yep, I
Speaker 2: like it. It's it's realistic. You know, everybody this tiny
Speaker 2: year seems to be real high. But you know, sometimes
Speaker 2: you do need to take a step back and be like, Okay,
Speaker 2: let's not get too crazy. You know, November November, they're.
Speaker 6: Not ripping scrape yet and doing that kind of stuff. Yet,
Speaker 6: it's going to be uh, it's gonna be moderate. It's
Speaker 6: gonna be around yeah.
Speaker 2: Cool to Got to appreciate the report, man, and congrats
Speaker 2: on the giant bug.
Speaker 6: Thank you very much. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Now I've got Grant forty with the Everyday at Doorsman
Speaker 2: YouTube channel. He's been doing some hunting in Maryland. Grant,
Speaker 2: what's happening, bro, Not.
Speaker 7: Too much, just really excited here at the start a
Speaker 7: hunting season. So that's pretty much my main focus right now.
Speaker 7: Got the season started and looking forward for what's the company.
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, I was falling along on social looks like
Speaker 2: you got a freezer, queen, So that's good. You got
Speaker 2: your meat secure? Congratulations?
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, bang. So it was a good opening day
Speaker 7: for me, good opening weekend. Was able to put a
Speaker 7: dough down, so that's always a nice way to start
Speaker 7: the season.
Speaker 2: But a little bit of meat in the freezer, yeah
Speaker 2: for sure. So you're hunting in an area that I
Speaker 2: just absolutely am not familiar with from on a hunting scale, right,
Speaker 2: So what's the move in Maryland this time of year?
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's early season like this. It's the food sources
Speaker 7: in the area that I'm hunting are pretty much corn,
Speaker 7: beans and acorns, So hunting public land that buffs up
Speaker 7: to a lot of private so you can hunt here,
Speaker 7: you know, going into the crop fields and then lots
Speaker 7: of oaks. So we've got a good acorn crop this year,
Speaker 7: so that's another big food source. So that's kind of
Speaker 7: the strategy is you know, figure out where they're feeding,
Speaker 7: try to catch them between betting areas and feeding areas,
Speaker 7: and then another major thing is just trying to stay
Speaker 7: away from hunting pressure.
Speaker 2: So oh yeah, that's.
Speaker 7: Kind of the strategy.
Speaker 2: Do you find that there's a lot of pressure there
Speaker 2: because it's kind of one of the few are you
Speaker 2: seasons open in September in the Northeast?
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, for sure. There's a lot of guys that
Speaker 7: take advantage of that early opener. Maryland always starts the
Speaker 7: Friday right after Labor Day, and then you get a
Speaker 7: lot of guys coming in from PA, just like me,
Speaker 7: to get some hunting in down there before PA opens,
Speaker 7: because PA doesn't start till usually October. So it's, uh, yeah,
Speaker 7: it's it's pretty pretty heavily hunted in the early season.
Speaker 4: I would say, do you find that opening weekend that
Speaker 4: you're able to hunt closer to those food sources or
Speaker 4: that the deer less kind of panicked before everybody enters
Speaker 4: the woods, or is it pretty similar to the way
Speaker 4: you would hunt normally during the season.
Speaker 7: So I would say the first day of the season,
Speaker 7: you could get away with hunting pretty close to the
Speaker 7: food sources and still still be able to get the
Speaker 7: deer coming in there, you know, not too pressured, But honestly,
Speaker 7: by like this second day, they're starting to feel the
Speaker 7: pressure already, and you're probably not gonna have as much
Speaker 7: success hunting right next to the food sources. That's what
Speaker 7: I've noticed. That's how quickly the deer are adapting to
Speaker 7: the pressure.
Speaker 4: Gotcha, are you you spend time hunting in the mornings
Speaker 4: at all?
Speaker 7: I do? Yeah, Yeah, I do still hunt the mornings.
Speaker 7: We've we've had some success doing that. Especially if you
Speaker 7: get a cool morning, it can be pretty good. I
Speaker 7: did not hunt any mornings here to start the season,
Speaker 7: yet shot my dell the first evening, and then I
Speaker 7: was able to get out the evening after that Saturday
Speaker 7: evening morning. Yet morning can be good.
Speaker 2: What is a cool morning? Like? What temperature range you
Speaker 2: looking at? There?
Speaker 7: A cool morning this time of year. If it's fifty
Speaker 7: five or lass, that's that's pretty solid. Like we've we've
Speaker 7: had really good, really good hunts fifty degrees or less,
Speaker 7: like this morning would have been a great morning to
Speaker 7: be out. We had great temps this morning, but yeah,
Speaker 7: anything under fifty five is pretty solid.
Speaker 4: Do you consider those oak trees that are dropping a
Speaker 4: food source or more of like a staging food source,
Speaker 4: like a destination or a staging food source.
Speaker 7: Some of both honestly, there are some some big oak
Speaker 7: flats that we hunt in and around that are I
Speaker 7: would say a destination food source where the deer might
Speaker 7: be all night long or at least close to them
Speaker 7: all night long. And then there's other ones that are
Speaker 7: in between betting areas and crop fields that are definitely
Speaker 7: used as more of a staging area. So some of both.
Speaker 7: You know, you just got kind of I guess, gotta
Speaker 7: know everything that's around and be able to put the
Speaker 7: pieces of the puzzle together.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's cool, man. So after your experience, you know,
Speaker 2: this weekend and seeing how pressure is effective the deer,
Speaker 2: and you know, considering weather and all that into account.
Speaker 2: Here as we look forward to the next week, on
Speaker 2: a scale of one to ten, what do you think
Speaker 2: that you'd rank the buck movement in Maryland?
Speaker 7: Well, I always hate to be negative. I don't. I
Speaker 7: don't think it's gonna be very good. I gotta be honest,
Speaker 7: I don't think he'll be very good this next week.
Speaker 7: I would I guess I would probably rate it a free.
Speaker 7: It's that there's gonna be a lot of hunting pressure,
Speaker 7: and the temperatures are gonna be pretty warm and even
Speaker 7: warmer than average. I would say I think are highs
Speaker 7: the next week. A lot of the days the highs
Speaker 7: are in the low eighties, so it's gonna be warm,
Speaker 7: and the deer still feeling the hunting pressure from opening
Speaker 7: weekend and opening week here. So unfortunately, I don't think
Speaker 7: he'll be very good. That doesn't mean that you can't
Speaker 7: get it done. You still can get it done. It's
Speaker 7: get close to betting if you're getting away from hunting
Speaker 7: pressure finding a way to do that, getting close to bedding,
Speaker 7: or when it's really warm, if you have a good
Speaker 7: spot to hunt over water, that could be a good
Speaker 7: ticket as well. But overall, I don't think. I don't
Speaker 7: think it'll be very good, so I probably have to
Speaker 7: give it free.
Speaker 2: Hey man, I appreciate a realistic rating as opposed to
Speaker 2: just you know one that's in blind optimism, so I
Speaker 2: think our listeners will as well. So thanks a lot, grant.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, hey, thanks a lot for having me on.
Speaker 7: Guys really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: This is Mitchell Johnson with Dead End Game Calls my
Speaker 2: brother in Christ. How are you today, sir?
Speaker 8: I'm great, brother, I hope you guys are.
Speaker 2: We are, man, it's it's a good day around these parts.
Speaker 2: Deer season has started and you've been doing some hunting
Speaker 2: North Carolina. What is the deer hunting like right now?
Speaker 8: Man, dear, that's pretty good right now. Deer are moving
Speaker 8: in daylight hours. A lot of great bucks are being
Speaker 8: killed throughout North Carolina. You know, I'm from the mountain region,
Speaker 8: which is kind of different from the Piedmont region in
Speaker 8: the coastal region. We have a dramatic difference in elevation
Speaker 8: and change as far as the topography goes. But you know,
Speaker 8: deer moving great, and it's great time to be in
Speaker 8: the woods.
Speaker 2: So are you hunting mountain deer? Then where you're at.
Speaker 8: We are we're kind of the mountains and the foothills,
Speaker 8: And honestly, it depends on where a hunt. I could
Speaker 8: drive forty five minutes one way or the other and
Speaker 8: you kind of throw me into the foothills, and then
Speaker 8: if I'm around home, I'm in the mountains.
Speaker 2: So in that area of the country, I'm assuming that
Speaker 2: that natural brows is a big deal deer, big deal,
Speaker 2: excuse me. And you could be having acrons at any
Speaker 2: point in time because you have a variance in elevation, right,
Speaker 2: So are you seeing acrons already or when does that
Speaker 2: come about?
Speaker 8: Acrons was dropping already, yes, sir. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 8: I was in the woods yesterday and that was one
Speaker 8: of the things that I noted around the home. They
Speaker 8: started dropping probably seven or eight days ago, and so
Speaker 8: definitely the deer patterns are changing, that's for certain. You know,
Speaker 8: in North Carolina is legal to bait deer, so a
Speaker 8: lot of people throw out their bait and mostly deer
Speaker 8: corner peanuts, and they hunt over that bait. But the
Speaker 8: deer's activity is getting ready to flip. That switch is flipping.
Speaker 8: When those white oak acorns start hitting the ground. Man,
Speaker 8: it's a game changer. So you got to come off
Speaker 8: of that bait and start hunting those transition areas to
Speaker 8: those white oat flats.
Speaker 4: Mitchell, we've been seeing some pretty brisk temperatures around Texas
Speaker 4: the last week or so. Has anything been abnormal for
Speaker 4: you guys? There's pretty pretty normal temps.
Speaker 8: Well, I think this morning it was forty nine degrees
Speaker 8: when I woke up, and so that's yeah, it's very nice.
Speaker 8: And honestly, you know, I hunted opening day. Our opening
Speaker 8: day of deer season was light. This past Saturday, and
Speaker 8: I took a young man that was a good friend
Speaker 8: of my son's, mister Levi Webb, and he and Mason
Speaker 8: and his dad, David. We're all gathered together in our
Speaker 8: ground blind together was tight quarters, to say the least.
Speaker 8: We had an awesome hunt. Levi actually ended up missing
Speaker 8: a nice seven pointer and then just literally like two
Speaker 8: minutes later, he missed a great eight pointer. And yeah,
Speaker 8: you know, sad for him because you hate that he
Speaker 8: missed the deer. At least he didn't want the deer.
Speaker 8: But man, he's in high spirits. When I went back
Speaker 8: yesterday afternoon and had a great hunt, just didn't see
Speaker 8: the bucks I was wanting to see. Seen a couple
Speaker 8: of dos, but definitely these temperatures, it's probably the coolest
Speaker 8: opening day. I think it was seventy six degrees when
Speaker 8: we went to the ground blind if I remember correct.
Speaker 8: And man, that's one of the cooler opening days I
Speaker 8: can remember here North Carolina.
Speaker 2: Man. So I mean, if you had to choose peanuts
Speaker 2: or corn.
Speaker 8: That's a hard choice. Buddy, I'm gonna go. I love.
Speaker 8: There's a mineral and a corn attitude that I throw
Speaker 8: out a lot.
Speaker 6: It's called right white tail.
Speaker 8: Mineral, and I throw that out quite a bit. They
Speaker 8: have a tendency to love it just almost as much
Speaker 8: as acorn. So you know, you can't go wrong with
Speaker 8: any of the three.
Speaker 2: So y'all have been seeing quite a few bucks. Are
Speaker 2: any of those bucks telling velvet or they all mostly shed?
Speaker 8: They are? So the seventh pointer that Levi missed, it
Speaker 8: was shed, and then a few minutes later the eight
Speaker 8: pointer that he missed was just a beautiful basket rat
Speaker 8: and full velvet.
Speaker 2: Oh cool. It's a little bit of both. And when
Speaker 2: those deer shed, do you kind of see them shift
Speaker 2: their kind of their core area?
Speaker 8: Oh, they shift their core area. Well, I'll say this,
Speaker 8: it usually takes them a week or two to start
Speaker 8: making that shift and they start to break apart a
Speaker 8: little bit more, you know, two or three weeks into
Speaker 8: our season. That's what we see typically here in North Carolina.
Speaker 8: I am seeing some bucks by theirself now more so
Speaker 8: than what I have in the past.
Speaker 6: Our opening week.
Speaker 4: The TIMPs are going to be increasing for us next
Speaker 4: week and we're going to see some nineties and stuff
Speaker 4: like that. Are you guys anticipating that to happen where
Speaker 4: you're at.
Speaker 8: To be honest with you, I don't have a clue.
Speaker 4: Okay, Well, if you were to say, based off your
Speaker 4: hunting the last day here or a day or two,
Speaker 4: what would you what would you think that buck movement
Speaker 4: is going to be in the next week on a
Speaker 4: scale of one to ten, So.
Speaker 8: I think bunck moving on a scale of one to ten.
Speaker 8: One would depend upon temperatures, but also will depend on
Speaker 8: that moon. You know, the moon phase is changing, you
Speaker 8: know right now we you know earlier in September was
Speaker 8: in that new moon pattern. Then I think tomorrow is
Speaker 8: supposed to be in the first quarter, and then sept
Speaker 8: I think on the seventeenth we're supposed to have a
Speaker 8: full moon, and that full moon will change things dramatically.
Speaker 8: You know, deer will go to that midday feeding pattern
Speaker 8: or nighttime feeding feeding pattern. And no doubt that moon
Speaker 8: phase plays a huge role and movement of white tails.
Speaker 8: So I think you're going to see the white tailed
Speaker 8: move as far as hunting times go, decrease over the
Speaker 8: next week just because of that moon pattern.
Speaker 4: Okay, so scale of one to ten, if you had
Speaker 4: to give it a number, what do you think.
Speaker 8: Next week you're going to look at about a four
Speaker 8: to five.
Speaker 2: Gotcha, all right? I thought of that. Yeah. Well, you
Speaker 2: know down here in Texas they discourage you hunting them,
Speaker 2: not in daylight ours. I don't know if North Carolines
Speaker 2: like that. Mitchell appreciate you always, man, thank you so much.
Speaker 8: Yeah, we appreciate you guys.
Speaker 2: Man, I appreciate the realistic expectations for the next week.
Speaker 2: You know, I think that I'm excited right now. I
Speaker 2: haven't got to do any hunting yet, so even the
Speaker 2: threes and fives kinda get me a little bit pumpedy,
Speaker 2: because at least you could get being the bow or
Speaker 2: being the tree with a bow in your hand. But
Speaker 2: I understand that it can be difficult. So I think
Speaker 2: the overall synopsis from this week is that if you
Speaker 2: have something figured out, be careful, go in there and
Speaker 2: kill that deer. But if you don't, there's no reason
Speaker 2: to go in there and mess it up too bad.
Speaker 4: Right now, Hey, you got interviewed for an article recently
Speaker 4: by Adam Moore.
Speaker 2: I did.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So that's on the Wired Hunt website. It's called
Speaker 4: Unpacked Case Smith's Early season gear set up Man. And
Speaker 4: then we also did a video recently. Well, we put
Speaker 4: this video together and released it recently. The last hunt
Speaker 4: from last year Arkansas. We spent some time doing some
Speaker 4: buck boating and it's called Trailer Park Troubles. You should
Speaker 4: go check it out on our YouTube channel, the Element
Speaker 4: YouTube channel.
Speaker 2: What else, anything else? That's it, man. I am just
Speaker 2: ready to get this month going that way. I can
Speaker 2: get to some hunting here pretty soon. I know you've
Speaker 2: got some a truck to clean and some wings lick
Speaker 2: a little bit, and then I think you're gonna kill
Speaker 2: White Town on September. Still, really I did? I do?
Speaker 2: I think so, man, and I'm excited to see it happen. Guys,
Speaker 2: have some optimism, be realistic about your expectations, and don't
Speaker 2: burn that PTO too quick. This has been Reugh Fresh Radio.
Speaker 2: Keep it fresh,