Speaker 1: Welcome to Wired to Hunts rutt Fresh Radio, bringing you
Speaker 1: the latest reports from the White Tailed Woods and now
Speaker 1: your hosts Casey Smith Tyler Jones. This is rut Fresh
Speaker 1: Radio powered by Vortex Optics. I'm your host, Casey Smith,
Speaker 1: and one of the most anticipated weeks of the year
Speaker 1: is here. We talked to hunters this week across the
Speaker 1: country who are doing their best to deal with the
Speaker 1: hot weather and still get on big bucks. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the rut Fresh Radio podcast, brought to you by Vortex Optics.
Speaker 1: On the phone. Right now. I've got the one and
Speaker 1: only Mark Kenyon. We have not been able to spend
Speaker 1: much time with him lately, as you can imagine. We've
Speaker 1: all been in different directions, and I've got sitting here
Speaker 1: on the couch with me Casey Smith. We are just
Speaker 1: chilling and fixing to go out again on the road. Mark,
Speaker 1: You're out somewhere in the middle of nowhere, is what
Speaker 1: I hear? Yeah, yeah, buddy, I am in Parts Unknown, Nebraska,
Speaker 1: all right, excited Unknown Destination Stern movie from Mecca in
Speaker 1: the nineties and then what that was called Parts Unknown
Speaker 1: or something like that. Yeah, it might be it's private parts, um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, you guys. I'm I'm about to kick off
Speaker 1: my vocation here and we're filming season two of one
Speaker 1: week in November, so I'm excited about that. We just
Speaker 1: got here like half hour hour ago something like that,
Speaker 1: so we're just kind of unpacking, organizing our gear. We're
Speaker 1: gonna get out and do some scoulting this evening and
Speaker 1: then start hunting tomorrow. So look deary right now, Mark, Yes,
Speaker 1: it's like it's you know, it's you know what Nebrassa
Speaker 1: is like. There's a lot of places that don't look deary,
Speaker 1: like at least white tailly right. I'm in an area
Speaker 1: where there's a lot of open country where you're thinking,
Speaker 1: oh man, there's you at least here. But I don't
Speaker 1: know about why tales, But as soon as you find
Speaker 1: these little patches of cover, these little Heidi holes, these
Speaker 1: little rivers and creeks and stuff like that, you're in
Speaker 1: some good white tail stuff. So um, that's that's what
Speaker 1: I'll be hunting here. Um. But I gotta tell you
Speaker 1: guys something real quick before you before you ask me
Speaker 1: anything else. I haven't I haven't been on rough Fresh
Speaker 1: in a while, because you guys have been traveling over
Speaker 1: the world doing all this stuff, and I just want
Speaker 1: to publicly say it feels great that my baby has
Speaker 1: been in good hands. You guys have been doing a
Speaker 1: good job. I've been listening every week like that parent
Speaker 1: who's like got their ear to the door and listen
Speaker 1: to what the kids are doing in the room next door.
Speaker 1: You know that's what I do. And you guys haven't
Speaker 1: been breaking anything, you haven't been fighting, you have been
Speaker 1: doing anything too bad. Um, so parental parental approval is here.
Speaker 1: Are the next Wisconsin guy that comes up behind me
Speaker 1: in a dark camp will for though, So let's not
Speaker 1: let that head. It's uh, it's been it's been fun.
Speaker 1: I'm enjoying what you guys are doing, and uh, I'm
Speaker 1: glad to be back. They'll gladdy back on here and
Speaker 1: get the chat with you guys before all sorts of
Speaker 1: exciting stuff breaks loose. Because guess what. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you guys realized it, but it is November. The
Speaker 1: podcast drops right O. Man, it's the best time of
Speaker 1: a year. Man, It's like, you know, they wrote that
Speaker 1: song the most wonderful time of the year. They wrote
Speaker 1: about Christmas, but they should have written in about the
Speaker 1: first two weeks in November for sure, for sure, And
Speaker 1: if if only I knew a musician who also loved
Speaker 1: the deer hunt, who might be able to write a
Speaker 1: song like that? Do you know anyone like that? I'm blanking, man,
Speaker 1: I'm blanking on it. Who also has recording equipment at
Speaker 1: the house? Right, so we should be listen. I'm an
Speaker 1: ex musician, Okay, I don't get to play guitar anymore,
Speaker 1: right us the Most Wonderful Time of the Year edition, Dude.
Speaker 1: I've I've thought about this, actually thought about, you know,
Speaker 1: making a music catalog for deer hunting shows on the
Speaker 1: outdoor networks you know, um TV, because I could do
Speaker 1: it easy, dude, and it would be you know, you
Speaker 1: just gotta write corny songs about trucks, just like country music,
Speaker 1: but you gotta put a little bit of some deer
Speaker 1: you know, anecdotes and and uh references in there. So
Speaker 1: it's it's easy. Man. I think a bone collector did
Speaker 1: at one point, you know, and I think I could
Speaker 1: do the same thing. Yeah, yeah, I mean it sounds like, ah,
Speaker 1: I think something we should release on the Wired to
Speaker 1: Hunt platforms for sure. Sure, Yeah, you know what you
Speaker 1: catched me on the right day, I might say it
Speaker 1: so that in all seriousness, Bone Collector did release an
Speaker 1: album like that, right, There's this called the Bunk collect
Speaker 1: Brotherhood or something like that, and I had I have
Speaker 1: it downloaded back when it came out ten years ago.
Speaker 1: I downloaded it and pie it or did you you know,
Speaker 1: I legitimately legitimately downloaded. So and still this is on
Speaker 1: top of my mind though right now, because my two
Speaker 1: year old and four year of boys are like all
Speaker 1: eight up with anything hunting, and so they to hear
Speaker 1: some hunting music. So like I put on like the
Speaker 1: Dirty Point Buck, and I put on fred Bear and uh,
Speaker 1: and then I pulled up that one. And there's a
Speaker 1: song on that album called bucks Fever, and it's a
Speaker 1: good old you know jam about buck fever and stuff.
Speaker 1: And my kids love it. But my son for some reason,
Speaker 1: thinks it's called deer Sick. So instead of buck Fever,
Speaker 1: called it dear Sick. So from now on, if I
Speaker 1: ever like miss a deer get to Jinger, I'll like,
Speaker 1: oh man, guys, I got some I got some beer sick.
Speaker 1: We also we have another musician on the staff now,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you know that or not. But Greg,
Speaker 1: the guy I've been running around with, he is uh
Speaker 1: it was a tearing musician and kind of the uh,
Speaker 1: I don't know what you call the genre, but definitely
Speaker 1: rocking out real hard, you know. And uh he's also
Speaker 1: um one of the guys hard progressive. He's gonna be
Speaker 1: hunting with this down in Texas when you come down
Speaker 1: with us and him and I've been scheming on how
Speaker 1: to get you on buck man. So I'm excited. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're pretty excited too. Yeah. Supposedly deer sightings are gonna
Speaker 1: be good and so pretty much from here until the end,
Speaker 1: we just see deer every day, dude, can you believe it?
Speaker 1: But well, the thing is, Mark, you're gonna you're gonna think, Man,
Speaker 1: why are these guys seeing so many deer and I'm
Speaker 1: not seeing anything but goats. That's what you're gonna think,
Speaker 1: because they're gonna be about your buddy. Josh just sent
Speaker 1: us some trail camera pictures of like I think they're moose,
Speaker 1: but they have whitetail antlers and white tails. Um from Kansas.
Speaker 1: No in uh, Michigan. I just can't believe the size
Speaker 1: of the animals up there. Man, it's so cool to
Speaker 1: travel the country and just see the discrepancies, you know,
Speaker 1: in in white tail. But then they're all especially in
Speaker 1: Marks book, they're all just white tails. So just deer. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you're deer, just dear too. They're all the group.
Speaker 1: When you guys make these lumpers and splitters, do you
Speaker 1: think anybody knows what in the world they're talking about?
Speaker 1: But it's okay, inside jokes of the best jokes they are.
Speaker 1: We do this for us, Mark, not for thee. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So are we talking about We're talking about hunting bucks
Speaker 1: in the rut man. That's uh, that's what's going down
Speaker 1: right now. Everybody is hype. We've had a lot of people,
Speaker 1: uh just go wild about the numbers that they want
Speaker 1: to give for what kind of week it's gonna be.
Speaker 1: And I understand, right because hyping is fun. I know
Speaker 1: that you're probably participating in some of it. We're doing
Speaker 1: quite a bit of it right now, honestly, we Uh,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of us are in the mode
Speaker 1: of like the buck who's been chasing like crazy and
Speaker 1: had to stop and take a break for a couple
Speaker 1: of hours and then just get right back after it.
Speaker 1: You know, that's kind of how I feel at least, Um,
Speaker 1: have you heard much. I don't know how many guys
Speaker 1: you've gotten to talk to you yet so far, But
Speaker 1: have have folks been talking about this forecast though that
Speaker 1: we've got for a lot of country because at least
Speaker 1: up in the Midwest, in my neck of the woods
Speaker 1: in Michigan or even here in Nebraska, it's really hot.
Speaker 1: It's early part of November. Um, And I'm always, you know,
Speaker 1: bummed out when I see that, because that's not ideal.
Speaker 1: But then I gotta remind myself it's still the rut.
Speaker 1: We're still doing the thing. You don't need to get
Speaker 1: too crushed about it. Um. But is that something that
Speaker 1: is a theme this week? In fact, we talked to Uh,
Speaker 1: you're a good friend, Josh with first lot up in Michigan.
Speaker 1: He is actually mentioned that quite a bit. Uh. We
Speaker 1: talked to Michael Hunt Sucker in Colorado. Uh, he's talked
Speaker 1: about the weather a little bit as well. Play nucom
Speaker 1: who you were about to UH be doing some texting
Speaker 1: with for the next week for one week, I'd imagine.
Speaker 1: We talked to him about Arkansas, and then we talked
Speaker 1: to Chris B. About Ohio and whether it is a
Speaker 1: um big factor in all that because it's like the
Speaker 1: it's this is when he's one of your favorite words
Speaker 1: here where it's a balancing thing. Uh, it's the first
Speaker 1: week in November, so they're going to do the thing.
Speaker 1: But it's not ideal weather. So what does that look like?
Speaker 1: And there's some really interesting theories in there of just
Speaker 1: you know, how guys hunt around the weather because say
Speaker 1: it's late October, you can just say, oh, it's not
Speaker 1: worth it, but right now it's worth it. Like no
Speaker 1: matter what the temperature is, what the weather is, it's
Speaker 1: worth being in the stand, which is exciting, right, but
Speaker 1: you there's certain ways to to manipulate that to your favor.
Speaker 1: And I would be interested in Mark Kenyon's first impulse
Speaker 1: when it comes to maybe a hot weather situation in
Speaker 1: early November. You know, it's it's mostly sticking to the
Speaker 1: normal plan, right. I mean, mornings especially are going to
Speaker 1: be just as good as any other time. You know,
Speaker 1: mostly that's the coolest part of the day. You're gonna
Speaker 1: have a longer stretch of time that's gonna be cool
Speaker 1: and comfortable. So those bucks are the cruise and there
Speaker 1: will be chasing right, and whatever they would have been doing,
Speaker 1: they should still be doing in the morning. So I'm
Speaker 1: hunting the same kinds of spots in the morning. Um,
Speaker 1: I think the gas place at the hot weather impact
Speaker 1: by rut hunts is that mid day kind of action,
Speaker 1: because you know, when you've got like a twenty or
Speaker 1: thirty degree thirty degree super cold day, I can hunt
Speaker 1: the betting area and feel pretty confident there's gonna be
Speaker 1: bucks cruising through that, you know, late morning, midday, early afternoon.
Speaker 1: When it's on November three or fourth, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have much much lower expectations for that kind of
Speaker 1: thing happened, So you know, I might feel honestly a
Speaker 1: little bit less bad about taking a mid day off
Speaker 1: and get some lunch or doing something creative midday, like
Speaker 1: you know, take advantage of mid days if you're not
Speaker 1: gonna sit all day because there's not much moving at noon.
Speaker 1: You know, maybe then you do some more scouting and
Speaker 1: walk around and check out stuff, or you know, one
Speaker 1: of the things I'm gonna do here in open country
Speaker 1: is I'm not gonna stre sit at noon or one o'clock,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna get out of the tree, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go drive around and walk around and glass in
Speaker 1: this open country and see if I can't get eyes
Speaker 1: on a buck with a dough you know better with
Speaker 1: the dough locked on a dough, do that kind of thing,
Speaker 1: and see if I can't, you know, get lucky and
Speaker 1: spot something to make a move on it. Um. So,
Speaker 1: So that's the way I'm gonna try to take advantage
Speaker 1: of those hours that might be slower because of the temperatures.
Speaker 1: And then the evening. You know, I think you know
Speaker 1: you're gonna see on average, you know, that action is
Speaker 1: going to be closer to dark than maybe it would
Speaker 1: be on a nice cold day in November, but it's
Speaker 1: still gonna happen. So I would say my biggest takeaway
Speaker 1: for the hot rut time period is stay the course,
Speaker 1: keep the faith. It's still possible. There's still rutting. You know,
Speaker 1: if you've got some water sources, like some little water
Speaker 1: holes ponds back in the cover, that kind of thing
Speaker 1: can be particularly good on these hotter days. Um. I know,
Speaker 1: those things would be pretty good even a normal weather days,
Speaker 1: let alone a hot day during the rut. So he's
Speaker 1: got that. That's one of the things to think about
Speaker 1: adding to your stand set up kind of rotation. But
Speaker 1: that's my quick two sense and I planned, dude, you
Speaker 1: really put this thing together. Oh I'm I've been chomping
Speaker 1: at the bit man for a while. So yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: ready to make it happen. I'm ready to uh, I'm
Speaker 1: ready to just dive into November full force and see
Speaker 1: what happens. Listen. I um, I know Casey, you know
Speaker 1: it's pretty teasy with his pictures, but I don't need
Speaker 1: any of I don't have time for any of that.
Speaker 1: So when you shoot Buck in Nebraska, just straight up
Speaker 1: to send me the hero shot. That's all I want. Well,
Speaker 1: I absolutely oh Casey back though, so like Casey that
Speaker 1: I'm not going to send it to the group, direct
Speaker 1: to you and then to Casey like I'm gonna send
Speaker 1: him a foot and send him a pale. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: send him like a haunch because not only has been
Speaker 1: like one of those, but you guys have killed like
Speaker 1: nineteen deer this year, done that every single one of
Speaker 1: the tiers, So I've got a lot of payback, that's true.
Speaker 1: Definitely send that to you know his way, um first,
Speaker 1: that way, you know, I don't have to. I don't
Speaker 1: want him to be sitting in the truck with me
Speaker 1: and me like, oh Mark killed the buck, you know,
Speaker 1: and then he's gonna make me show him. So yeah,
Speaker 1: go to him first for sure. So yeah, man, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's an amazing time. I'm super excited. I'm I'm
Speaker 1: sorry for you guys and for everyone listening. Uh, this
Speaker 1: is you know, these are some of the best episodes
Speaker 1: of Rough Fresh every year, because you know, stuff changes
Speaker 1: so fast this time of year two. Everyone's excited. Everyone's
Speaker 1: just hoping to hear that a little bit of good news.
Speaker 1: So well, I'm ampt to get into it. I'll be
Speaker 1: listening here. Yeah cool, dude. Well, I hope that things
Speaker 1: go well for you out there in Nebraska. And like
Speaker 1: I said, Sindis pics whenever you get done, and um,
Speaker 1: we'll get to the interviews now. Sounds good? All right?
Speaker 1: Now on the phone is Cris b everybody's favorite YouTuber
Speaker 1: at least mine. What's going on? Chris, Well, I pay
Speaker 1: you to say that. Yeah. Yeah, it's the first one
Speaker 1: I've been paid doing that kind of hunting stuff. Good,
Speaker 1: it's good man, just just traveling around shooting box trying
Speaker 1: to at least. Yeah, dude, you've been shooting him lately
Speaker 1: a couple of different states. Uh, recently. Actually, we just
Speaker 1: found out, like today pretty much that you shot a
Speaker 1: deer in Ohio and he looks like a toad? Is
Speaker 1: he a toad? Yeah? He's really nice. He's he's goofy.
Speaker 1: I really don't even know how he's you know, score wise,
Speaker 1: not that I really care, but he's just so goofy.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Yeah, but he's cool. He's big, dude,
Speaker 1: So what what kind of tactics were you using to
Speaker 1: get close to this book? Um? So there's these rare
Speaker 1: um yellow acorns that drop, you know, these really weird piles. No,
Speaker 1: but my tax case really went back to Um. I
Speaker 1: picked up this new piece of property like during season
Speaker 1: uh end of September, and it was just like time
Speaker 1: to get intel. So in Ohio obviously you can you
Speaker 1: can bait and it can be for you sometimes it
Speaker 1: can be against you. Like it definitely hurt hurt me
Speaker 1: earlier in the week hunting because it just kept getting
Speaker 1: busted and stuff. But I got some intel and uh,
Speaker 1: there's sparks showed up and kind of hung around. But
Speaker 1: he daylighted for the first time three days ago. So
Speaker 1: I actually jumped in the truck, drove all night, hunted
Speaker 1: that morning that night, didn't see him. Hunted yesterday morning
Speaker 1: and night didn't see him. And I think my access
Speaker 1: is bad. Um. So there was like some clear cuts
Speaker 1: and weird stuff going on, and I was kind of
Speaker 1: bombing through it on my e bike and thinking that
Speaker 1: I could just like ripped through it and it'll be
Speaker 1: different than walk in and they won't really scare. But
Speaker 1: I like totally flipped my my whole perspective over access
Speaker 1: from a completely different area but still hunting roughly the
Speaker 1: same spot. And um, yeah, man, he came in like
Speaker 1: right at first light this morning. Um, and I think
Speaker 1: I was ten minutes past legal time. Like I was
Speaker 1: like checking my phone, you know, and being like okay, well,
Speaker 1: like I'm good, there we go, you know. And it
Speaker 1: was it was good man. He uh shot him, found
Speaker 1: him about an hour later, and it was just kind
Speaker 1: of textbook it all happened. That's awesome, dude. Congrats on that.
Speaker 1: By the way. Um Man, I've always appreciated your just
Speaker 1: candidness with the the abating thing because a lot of
Speaker 1: people think it's taboo and um, you know, people from
Speaker 1: from states that don't do that, don't you know, they
Speaker 1: have their opinions about it. But as you know, we're
Speaker 1: from Texas and uh we are probait, um and you know,
Speaker 1: pro whatever you however you want to do it. Man,
Speaker 1: it's deer hunting. It's fine, it's legal, you know, so
Speaker 1: um yeah, but that's also always seems like that, like
Speaker 1: what you said, it's like Kentucky, Ohio, everyone's a hundred
Speaker 1: percent for it. But as soon as it's like a
Speaker 1: guy born and raised in you know, Michiganaigan and even
Speaker 1: you know, it's just like they just put people down
Speaker 1: about it, and I'm just I'm just not about that man. Um.
Speaker 1: It's a really good way to get on deer, particularly
Speaker 1: in a place that, um, it can be difficult otherwise.
Speaker 1: You know, whether it's like the weather that's going on
Speaker 1: or the access or what have you, you can make
Speaker 1: a deer move in ways that maybe they wouldn't if
Speaker 1: you're just hunting travel outs and stuff. Uh. And I know,
Speaker 1: like with the upcoming weather for the first week in November,
Speaker 1: everybody is really concerned. How do you feel like, um
Speaker 1: that you know this hot streak we're gonna have the
Speaker 1: first week in November is going to translate your honey woods.
Speaker 1: So that's kind of why I So I live in Iowa,
Speaker 1: and that's kind of why I left because the weather
Speaker 1: wasn't great there, and I left and came to Ohio,
Speaker 1: um to kind of wait out the weather back home. Um,
Speaker 1: But you know, I'm taking these days to kind of
Speaker 1: get some more cameras out, maybe hang a couple more stands, um,
Speaker 1: and still like utilizing those days and and still hunting,
Speaker 1: but really not getting my hopes up too much. But
Speaker 1: it's November now, dude, Like it's just anything can happen, um,
Speaker 1: And it's just you gotta you gotta, you know, use
Speaker 1: those warm days, warm windy days in your advantage. But
Speaker 1: maybe reset or you know, get more intel and just
Speaker 1: don't get down about it because I think I'm like
Speaker 1: the fifth, it's gonna like freaking turn right back on
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be hot. So yeah, so you're you're
Speaker 1: gonna hunt just guessing here you're gonna be sitting in
Speaker 1: funnels in Iowa on the fifth. Yeah, just you know,
Speaker 1: pinches and and just all everything rut related. Man, it's
Speaker 1: just it's just game on. So a lot of be
Speaker 1: bopping around and try and trying to make it happen,
Speaker 1: rattling and just dude, it's just everything next week. That's awesome.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited. Um, we're a guy who had like
Speaker 1: semi flexible schedule, and you're trying to decide if you're
Speaker 1: gonna take your your long weekend here safe November one
Speaker 1: through seven, or if you're gonna wait later in hope
Speaker 1: that a front room moves in. Would you rather push
Speaker 1: it and try to make it happen in the first
Speaker 1: week or wait and see next week. I for sure
Speaker 1: would push it if I if I had one week,
Speaker 1: I'd wait till like seven, seven through fifteen, somewhere in
Speaker 1: that window. Just these first few days, you know, and
Speaker 1: they start getting lockdown like to like getting those local
Speaker 1: doughs bread and I mean first few days or good
Speaker 1: and then as soon as they get on that lockdown
Speaker 1: and and and chill out, it's not until you know,
Speaker 1: the ninth or ninth or fifteen when they really started
Speaker 1: back up. Yep, those are good dates. Man. Well, I
Speaker 1: appreciate you, Um, congrats on that big buck, dude, and uh,
Speaker 1: hopefully we'll be able to check back with you sometime
Speaker 1: this season to see how things are going. First, before
Speaker 1: we get out of here, though, I want you to
Speaker 1: give me a one to ten rating on buck movement.
Speaker 1: You're predicted buck movement in the next week. Beginning of
Speaker 1: the week like a three. End of the week is
Speaker 1: going to be ten. Oh yes, man, I'm telling you. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Remember remember the fifth November. That's right. I've killed on
Speaker 1: the fourth A couple of dayre on the fourth, I
Speaker 1: think so. Yeah, it's good dates in there. Man, All right, well,
Speaker 1: best of luck this year, dude. Thanks man, appreciate you. Guys.
Speaker 1: We're on the phone with one and only Clay Nukem.
Speaker 1: He's been doing a little unting up in Arkansas. I
Speaker 1: do believe Clay. What's going on? Man? Hey man, I'm
Speaker 1: doing good and yeah, you're right, I've I've been in
Speaker 1: Arkansas going to Oklahoma today. Actually we actually were just
Speaker 1: told about a little bit of that to uh. We're
Speaker 1: trying to decide where to head because it's such a
Speaker 1: good time of year. Things are right for the picking.
Speaker 1: But we we do want to talk about what's going
Speaker 1: down in Arkansas. What have you been seeing up there
Speaker 1: in the uh in the hills. Man. Yeah, so this
Speaker 1: week I hunted I think three mornings and afternoons, and
Speaker 1: I saw bucks, let's see four four of six sits.
Speaker 1: I saw bucks cruising, just just moving through with their
Speaker 1: heads down. And I saw I saw a buck that
Speaker 1: was a good buck, I mean a three and a
Speaker 1: half year old plus type buck that was chasing those
Speaker 1: at three o'clock in the afternoon when I was walking
Speaker 1: into a stand. So, I mean, I would I would
Speaker 1: say that it's that it's the last week of October
Speaker 1: here in the Ozarks. Is really just really good? Man,
Speaker 1: It sounds like, man, yeah, yeah, it is. And uh
Speaker 1: that being said, I've also got cameras on on some
Speaker 1: feed and that's always really interesting because you you start
Speaker 1: losing pictures of bucks when they start roaming, you know,
Speaker 1: they're kind of like it on a feed pattern, and
Speaker 1: then they then when you quit getting pictures of deer
Speaker 1: on your feed, usually that means they're really cruising and
Speaker 1: that that seems to that happened really last week. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I have some friends at hunt up in the
Speaker 1: Arkansas area. Stuff kind of south you though, but uh,
Speaker 1: for them, bears are an issue when it comes to uh,
Speaker 1: you know, dear fee and they mess up their situations
Speaker 1: up there. But you know, for a guy like you,
Speaker 1: that might be a dual purpose feed situation. Is that
Speaker 1: how you treat it? Or do you have problem with bears? Man?
Speaker 1: Where I where I'm deer hunting, we don't really have
Speaker 1: many bears at all? Really? How about that? Yeah, because
Speaker 1: you took care of already, didn't you. Well, my situation
Speaker 1: where I'm I'm doing most of my deer hunting is
Speaker 1: really kind of like suburban hunting. Honestly. A lot of
Speaker 1: what I'm doing up here where I live now. Now
Speaker 1: I go to and and there's just not bears right here.
Speaker 1: But I do quite a been hunting in in on
Speaker 1: big public land, you know, and there's definitely bears there,
Speaker 1: but you can't hunt a feed so on the private
Speaker 1: land parcels where they're small parcels, which is what I'm
Speaker 1: hunting a lot of. I mean, it's hard to be
Speaker 1: successful without being in the feed game when every everybody's
Speaker 1: got feed out, you know. So it's kind of a
Speaker 1: necessary evil in some ways if you want to if
Speaker 1: you want to play, sure, Yeah, So what when when
Speaker 1: the bucks kind of you know, get to roman like this,
Speaker 1: What are you focused on? Do you still stay on
Speaker 1: the feet and just hope there's enough does around or
Speaker 1: what are there other attributes are different kind of uh
Speaker 1: landscape features. No, I'm not. I'm not hunting the feet
Speaker 1: as much as I am just natural pinch pinch points
Speaker 1: and funnels. And you know, there's just places over the
Speaker 1: years where in the Ozarks, you know, you're just using
Speaker 1: topography that's funneling the here. You know, back edges of
Speaker 1: fields with hollas that come up. I mean, there's just
Speaker 1: every little spot that I do hunt like that that's
Speaker 1: just a funnel, transition area, travel area. Each has its
Speaker 1: own little unique reason why they're coming through there, you know.
Speaker 1: And and really some of those places to you would
Speaker 1: never in your I wouldn't pick them out on on
Speaker 1: and think, man, that is gonna be a good travel area,
Speaker 1: But just having hunted places for a long time, you're
Speaker 1: just like that's where they're going to be. Sure, it's
Speaker 1: sometimes not as distinct as we'd like to hope that
Speaker 1: a travel area would be. So with that, like are
Speaker 1: their native food sources that you look at in the
Speaker 1: next week or so that are going to be really
Speaker 1: a good thing for you know, keeping those around when
Speaker 1: you're looking at funnels between maybe betting or uh feeding
Speaker 1: areas for those, man, it's it's all about the acorns
Speaker 1: right now for us and and probably for almost everybody
Speaker 1: in the eastern deciduous. For us, the white oaks are
Speaker 1: gonna be starting to tail out about right now, even
Speaker 1: though they are white oaks on the ground that are good.
Speaker 1: But if there's red oaks that have made the red
Speaker 1: oaks seem to hold a little bit longer. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: acorns are big, man, and acres it'll pretty widespread this year.
Speaker 1: Just to me, like at least for a Hunton, it's
Speaker 1: seems to be we were up in Illinois and it
Speaker 1: was the same thing going on up there, man, Just
Speaker 1: lots of acrens on the ground. So if you were
Speaker 1: gonna focus on one tactic for the next week, man,
Speaker 1: what's it gonna be? Just funnels, just places where you're
Speaker 1: gonna see deer movement does and then if you can,
Speaker 1: you can grown them in this time of year or two,
Speaker 1: you know, yep, yep. So if you're if you're in
Speaker 1: a funnel that's a little wider, and some of the
Speaker 1: places I hunt, it feels like you know, within about
Speaker 1: seventy yards where they're gonna be. And uh, but this
Speaker 1: time of year that works pretty good because if you
Speaker 1: can see them, you know they're around. Sometimes you can
Speaker 1: grown them in yep. So if you're gonna rank deer
Speaker 1: movement for this first week in November, buck moving in
Speaker 1: particular from a scale of one to ten. In Arkansas
Speaker 1: what you're gonna call it the Northwest Arkansas, it's as
Speaker 1: good as it gets the first week, but the temperatures
Speaker 1: are gonna be seventy three degrees, so that's gonna put
Speaker 1: a damper on it. But they're still gonna be doing it.
Speaker 1: Just early in late it's gonna be good. Probably mid
Speaker 1: day is gonna be good too, because there yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think sometimes when the daylight movement isn't real good,
Speaker 1: mid day is good because they've been bedded since earlier
Speaker 1: in the day. Real cold, it's real cold. They might
Speaker 1: be really move until ten o'clock, just kind of on
Speaker 1: their natural pattern. But you know, if it's warm and
Speaker 1: they they've got a belly full of food and the
Speaker 1: does aren't moving much, they might bed down closer to
Speaker 1: daylight and then but then get up in the middle
Speaker 1: of the day, so man, you know in all days
Speaker 1: good too, even when it's hot. Sorry, scaled one of team.
Speaker 1: What is it perfect? I'm not saying all right now
Speaker 1: a whole on case. Are we talking about with the
Speaker 1: specifics of the weather, or just in general the first
Speaker 1: seven days of November, whichever answer is the most optimistic,
Speaker 1: like just I want to go with it, man, it's personal, man,
Speaker 1: my man, Clay Nucom thanks for the report from Arkansas. Dude,
Speaker 1: you bet all right now on the phone, I've got
Speaker 1: Michael Hunt Sucker from Hartland bow Hunter. We recently talked
Speaker 1: to you. But you're in a different state here that
Speaker 1: not many people hunt for white tails. This is Colorado
Speaker 1: you've been in recently, right, you had some success there? Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: we had a I mean a picture perfect trip. You
Speaker 1: couldn't couldn't draw it up any better, to be honest, Man,
Speaker 1: it's awesome. That's uh. That buck looks awesome. He's so heavy, dude,
Speaker 1: And just I love when this is one of the
Speaker 1: nd measurables. But like when a deer has times that
Speaker 1: are thick and heavy, you know, like you don't you
Speaker 1: can't measure that, but it's shows for sure when you
Speaker 1: look at a buck and that's one of those bucks
Speaker 1: like that. Man. Yeah, I mean definitely, you know, a
Speaker 1: deal of a lifetime, this unbelievable character, and um, the
Speaker 1: whole story behind it really is what makes it even
Speaker 1: more special. Yeah yeah, So, um, what kind of what
Speaker 1: kind of patterns were you hunting while you're out there?
Speaker 1: So when we got there, you know, I used to
Speaker 1: get there and I'll run cameras and check, um kind
Speaker 1: of see what's been going on. And um, it's it's
Speaker 1: kind of a river river system, and so there's a
Speaker 1: lot of natural pinch points and so that's where the
Speaker 1: cameras kind of are all in national natural pinch points. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, fence crossings, gate gaps, levy crossings, just stuff
Speaker 1: that kind of funnels them down more so than they
Speaker 1: already are, you know, being on the river channel. And
Speaker 1: so um, a big thing for me was right when
Speaker 1: I got there, was to start shifting some of those
Speaker 1: two scrapes because I realized, you know, right when I
Speaker 1: got there, I mean, scrapes was blown up everywhere. It
Speaker 1: seemed like the bucks were starting to you know, lay
Speaker 1: down scrapes, check those scrapes and just kind of getting
Speaker 1: Nancy for the for the rut to come. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: were they were big deer you in those scrapes? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: absolutely they they Once we did find some of these scrapes,
Speaker 1: I put a camera on one of them and there
Speaker 1: was probably I don't know five six bucks using it
Speaker 1: and two of them two or three maturity are using
Speaker 1: the same scrape. So a little bit territorial in this
Speaker 1: going on there or whatever you whatever you want to
Speaker 1: call it. Technically they're not territorial. I guess we're scrapes,
Speaker 1: but you know what I mean. Yeah, those uh, those
Speaker 1: communal scrapes get they get hot this time here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so were they you Did you actually shoot your buck
Speaker 1: over a scrape? Uh? Yeah, I only just made after
Speaker 1: I called him in Oh my good. So I know
Speaker 1: that's a big part of what you'll do in general,
Speaker 1: is the calling thing, right, is it? Uh? Did you
Speaker 1: have to kind of adjust that song because of it
Speaker 1: being late October when you're out there? Is it the normal?
Speaker 1: You know, just see a button getting to hear you. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: I mean I'm a huge fan of calling in certain
Speaker 1: areas Colorado, Eastern Colorado, Western Kansas. Little they kind of similar, um,
Speaker 1: you know, really good, really competitive rep situations. They got
Speaker 1: great buck the door ratios and good good age structure,
Speaker 1: um naturally such as it makes for a great time, um,
Speaker 1: you know, for for calling and grunting. But yeah, so
Speaker 1: it was like, you know, we're hunting that basically last
Speaker 1: you know, oh ken days or so of October, and
Speaker 1: it's got one of those deals. I think we got
Speaker 1: there like the eighteenth or something like that. So really
Speaker 1: you know, the third week of October really and so
Speaker 1: it could be you know a little little early for
Speaker 1: a ton of activity. But um, so I'm not blind
Speaker 1: calling by any means, but um definitely had the rattling
Speaker 1: was packed and definitely had they grunt to with me,
Speaker 1: and um it's what it's what killed my dear. Um
Speaker 1: you know, I I I've seen him just kind of
Speaker 1: creeping through We we basically hunted this this basically known
Speaker 1: betting thicket area that that we thought, okay, you know
Speaker 1: a lot of your bed here blocks are going to
Speaker 1: be cruised through here, um, kind of checking for dos.
Speaker 1: And we were able to sneak in um to that spot,
Speaker 1: uh you know, early in the morning, catch him kind
Speaker 1: of coming back in there. And actually that deer was
Speaker 1: literally the first year we saw. It was the first
Speaker 1: thing in the morning, and he was actually heading away
Speaker 1: from us. Um and so had I not grunted got
Speaker 1: his attention and he was interested in come check it out.
Speaker 1: He actually probably a hundred yards away, walking kind of
Speaker 1: you know, catty corner away from us, and I hit
Speaker 1: the ground two. We put this head up and looked
Speaker 1: our way, and it started stiffly walking right to us.
Speaker 1: He got halfway and he held up in the trees
Speaker 1: and he was kind of out of sight from us,
Speaker 1: and I'm watching him and I'm looking for him, looking
Speaker 1: for him, listening for him. I'm like, what the heck,
Speaker 1: I don't hear him, I don't see him. But he
Speaker 1: slipped out on us. What happened? I only hit him
Speaker 1: again with the grunt two, so really soft, just a
Speaker 1: couple of grunts and doing here he came. And so
Speaker 1: he came be lined right to us. And it was
Speaker 1: one of those mornings, super calm, and so you hate
Speaker 1: to call too loud or overcall, because I mean he
Speaker 1: literally pinpointed exactly where that grunt was. Luckily it's super
Speaker 1: you know, that area is super thick, and so they
Speaker 1: were you know there there would be a situation where
Speaker 1: you know, he could hear the ground but not see
Speaker 1: the deer. Dude, that's insane. So if you were going
Speaker 1: to be up there again this week, would you be
Speaker 1: using similar tactics or would you hunt different spots? Would
Speaker 1: you use different tactics and your calling or you know
Speaker 1: what do you think that you would use? Yeah? Pretty similar,
Speaker 1: Pretty similar tactics, maybe a little more aggressive. I mean
Speaker 1: it's getting to the points where, um, I running camera's
Speaker 1: notice and the deer starting to break break some times.
Speaker 1: And actually, so after I shot my buck, you know,
Speaker 1: one of the biggest year, and when you were talking
Speaker 1: about the giant with the double drop times, you know,
Speaker 1: we we would really obviously he had been super regular
Speaker 1: all year, and my buddy Tony, Um, you know, he
Speaker 1: actually had some history with this deer, so he had
Speaker 1: shot him last year. So I I kind of stayed
Speaker 1: stayed clear with that deer, go to the hunt I got.
Speaker 1: I was able to kill my buck, you know, the
Speaker 1: third day of our hunt, and then he was coming
Speaker 1: in like the fourth day or fifth day, and so
Speaker 1: I got to hunt with him, um the next few days,
Speaker 1: and we actually decoyed that buck in with the with
Speaker 1: the decoy and so um, it's just seemed to be
Speaker 1: that time man, we had we had seen him. We
Speaker 1: hunted the night before and Brandon was scouting um and
Speaker 1: he Brandon laid eyes on him, um, and he came
Speaker 1: out and like bumps and does made a scrape. Um.
Speaker 1: He ended up meeting up with a little spike buck
Speaker 1: and kind of got progressive towards him, and then the
Speaker 1: spike buck obviously back down and then they were kind
Speaker 1: of just being buddies. But it's it was just like
Speaker 1: I told brand I was, we're gonna sit there where
Speaker 1: you saw him last night. We're sitting there with the decoy. Um.
Speaker 1: And mainly because he was coming out and doing alfalfa
Speaker 1: field and it's a just a big field and so
Speaker 1: the odds of him like walking right past us. I
Speaker 1: was like, I don't really like our odds is our
Speaker 1: last night going to be there? And so we we
Speaker 1: deployed the decoy, and I didn't didn't work textbooks to
Speaker 1: the to the decoy, you know what the decoy situation
Speaker 1: would normally work. But it worked. So that's awesome. So
Speaker 1: if you were gonna put a number on it on
Speaker 1: a scale from one to ten, for eastern Colorado for
Speaker 1: the first weekend November coming up here? What's the buck
Speaker 1: movement gonna be like? Man, I honestly haven't looked at
Speaker 1: the weather, but I'm gonna say I'm gonna give it
Speaker 1: an eight right now. And I want to give it
Speaker 1: a zero because I'm a bow hunter and I can't hunt.
Speaker 1: But it's hilarious, all right. If you got a tag
Speaker 1: for rifle out there, you know it's a zero. Mon
Speaker 1: Sucker said, there's no reason to go. It's hilarious. Man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a great time of the year. We're all excited
Speaker 1: about it. Mike. Thanks for the great information, dude. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you bet. We have got Josh Hilliard with First Lot
Speaker 1: on the phone right now. He has been hunting in Michigan. Josh,
Speaker 1: what's been going on date? Well, hey, guys, thanks for
Speaker 1: thanks for having me on first Um. Man, it has
Speaker 1: been uh, it's been slow going for me here in Michigan.
Speaker 1: Um last week or so, um hunting a hunting a
Speaker 1: few times under last week and finally started to see
Speaker 1: some uh, some young bucks starting to cruise and and
Speaker 1: and moving, um, you know, a little later into the morning.
Speaker 1: But other than that, man, it's been it's been real
Speaker 1: slow for me here in Michigan. St. Yeah, I can
Speaker 1: sympathize with you. Had some slow hunts here in the
Speaker 1: light October two, and I think that's the way it goes.
Speaker 1: But traditionally, do you see good movement in light October
Speaker 1: in Michigan. I think it's pretty car. I think it's UM.
Speaker 1: I think it just kind of depends on on where
Speaker 1: you're at. Like I've seen some some good movement in
Speaker 1: late October on this little piece that I hunt, and
Speaker 1: it's also been slow like this um as well. So
Speaker 1: I think it's all just kind of dependent on you
Speaker 1: get a if you get a dough that comes in
Speaker 1: to ask just a little early and you can really
Speaker 1: kind of get them get them picked up. But UM,
Speaker 1: with that being said, I've actually had a couple of
Speaker 1: different um mature bucks move into my little, my little
Speaker 1: lease here in the last like two days. So that's
Speaker 1: that's a positive that I'm just kind of buying my
Speaker 1: time to get out. Um just with family stuff going,
Speaker 1: I haven't been able to get out the last two
Speaker 1: days unfortunately, So UM tomorrow tomorrow, start hitting it hard
Speaker 1: on some of these some of these beers. First couple
Speaker 1: of shooters I've had in cameras since like September one,
Speaker 1: So it's just been a wittle year for for this
Speaker 1: little piece of property that a hunt. But there's usually
Speaker 1: a good, good one or two that that strolled through
Speaker 1: here this time of year. So looks like it's starting
Speaker 1: to happen. That season long date is is very healthful,
Speaker 1: I would imagine, and I bet that there's some benefit
Speaker 1: to Michigan being a high pressure state. From what we
Speaker 1: hear from everybody, I don't know, you all seem to
Speaker 1: kill a bunch of big bucks, so I feel like
Speaker 1: it's a lot of fluff because Mark killed a big
Speaker 1: one my first weekend. But all things considered, you staying
Speaker 1: off the property because there's not a ton of shooters
Speaker 1: there early I bet can benefits you later as November
Speaker 1: pushes on. Yeah, I think that's kind of been my
Speaker 1: game plan. I always tell myself every you're like, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be aggressive, like early season. Um, there's there's
Speaker 1: quite a few years that get killed um in that neighborhood,
Speaker 1: like early October. Um. So every year I tell myself
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do that, and then this year, of course,
Speaker 1: I'm gone on a on a trip first week of October,
Speaker 1: so I really only hunted a handful of times, just
Speaker 1: been pretty selective about when I'm going out there. Um
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's a small piece of forty acres,
Speaker 1: so it can get blown up pretty quickly and a
Speaker 1: lot of hunting pressure around. So I've just tried to
Speaker 1: do my best to be patient and stay often until
Speaker 1: I know, um, you know, either time frame like this
Speaker 1: time of year, um with the rut kicking off, or
Speaker 1: if I've got one that's that's consistently showing up kind
Speaker 1: of that late October and then make a strike. But
Speaker 1: I just haven't had that, so I've tried to just
Speaker 1: be selected when I'm going out there. Right, So in
Speaker 1: this next week, the first week in November, here are
Speaker 1: you what are you focusing on? Like what tactics are
Speaker 1: you gonna be using to try to get in front
Speaker 1: of bucks? So I'm just trying to get between some
Speaker 1: betting areas and this this piece of property I've got
Speaker 1: like um a standard like Conifers that's like ten acres
Speaker 1: and it's some of the best betting in the area. Um.
Speaker 1: But there's a couple of other betting areas on neighboring properties. Um.
Speaker 1: And there's a couple of different travel corridors that these
Speaker 1: bucks traditionally used to get back and forth between these
Speaker 1: these betting areas. So I'm just trying to get on
Speaker 1: the downland side of these these betting areas pretty pretty standard,
Speaker 1: you know, rut um tactics, trying to get trying to
Speaker 1: get myself between these betting areas where there's these bucks
Speaker 1: are gonna be traveling. Um. It's kind of a it's
Speaker 1: kind of a piece of property that has some good
Speaker 1: topography for like southern Michigan, um, so it kind of
Speaker 1: dictates some of the travel There's I've got a couple
Speaker 1: of stands where a couple of different ridges kind of
Speaker 1: converge and dump into uh, pretty heavily used travel corridor. Um.
Speaker 1: To get into this this pine stand. That's I've had
Speaker 1: multiple opportunities that here and that spot and a couple
Speaker 1: other spots too, um that are very similar. So they
Speaker 1: seem to be from from some of the data I've
Speaker 1: got with cameras out there right now, they seem to
Speaker 1: be hitting one side of these pines pretty heavily right now.
Speaker 1: So I'm just I was going to go this morning,
Speaker 1: but I had a horrible win for that location. So
Speaker 1: trying to trying to be patient and get out there
Speaker 1: tomorrow and get after him when things kind of turn
Speaker 1: him off. Favor smart man making smart moves. I like it, dude.
Speaker 1: So we'll see. We'll see how it plays though. Uh
Speaker 1: we like to say we'll see what happens. You know,
Speaker 1: we actually have a role where that costs you five
Speaker 1: dollars if you said so, way to go, Josh. You
Speaker 1: avoided that. Um, So looking forward, Um, the first week
Speaker 1: in November, we all know is to be like this
Speaker 1: is what we want to hunt, right, yeah, for real?
Speaker 1: The Super Bowl, the World Cup, whatever you call it, right,
Speaker 1: World Series? Man? That the Astros World Cup? Is that?
Speaker 1: Is that the way you look at it too? In
Speaker 1: Michigan with yeah, I think for sure, Like it's kind
Speaker 1: of first two weeks in November are are just usually
Speaker 1: pretty darn good up here, and you're kind of running
Speaker 1: up against our rifle season starts November first, No, so
Speaker 1: you're kind of down to the wire here. Um, if
Speaker 1: you're gonna get it done with the bow, like now
Speaker 1: now is the time, you know it's it's once those
Speaker 1: done start cracking off here in Michigan, there's there's a
Speaker 1: lot of there's a lot of them out there in
Speaker 1: the woods from November, so it just gets exponentially harder. Um.
Speaker 1: So yeah, these these first two weeks in November specifically,
Speaker 1: I I really like the first week. Um, start to
Speaker 1: get a little later in the November, you start to
Speaker 1: experience in the lockdown all that good stuff. So now
Speaker 1: now is the time and and uh, man, if you
Speaker 1: can get out in the woods, be in the woods
Speaker 1: right now, well put a number on between one and ten,
Speaker 1: which you expect buck movement to be like this week? Man, Um,
Speaker 1: I hope it's a ten, right. Uh. I don't think
Speaker 1: it will. I mean, we're I don't know about you guys. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't like this time of year. I'm not as
Speaker 1: concerned about weather and temperatures. But man, we're supposed to
Speaker 1: be up into the seventies, um, like high sixties, low
Speaker 1: seventies by the weekend, which is you know, abnormally warm
Speaker 1: for up here this time of year. So um, you
Speaker 1: know they're still gonna be rotten, they're still gonna be moving.
Speaker 1: I think that may impact a little bit about like
Speaker 1: daylight movement, what you're seeing, Um, just just with the
Speaker 1: competrys I'm gonna say, like a seven point five alright,
Speaker 1: ill like it still passing grade. Sounds good, dude, I
Speaker 1: used to I used to shoot for that in college
Speaker 1: a lot man. Yeah, that's good stuff, Josh hoping you
Speaker 1: went up on a big one out there. Man. We
Speaker 1: appreciate the info. Well, thanks, guys. Appreciate you guys having
Speaker 1: me on. It is time to make this a November
Speaker 1: to remember. Guys. The deally is the bucks are gonna
Speaker 1: chase the doughs and they're gonna do the thing, no
Speaker 1: matter what the weather, what the pressure, what's going on.
Speaker 1: So be excited because we live for this time of year.
Speaker 1: It is the most exciting time of the year as
Speaker 1: a deer hunter. If you need some motivation or some
Speaker 1: inspiration of what you should be doing in the woods
Speaker 1: or why you should get in the woods at all,
Speaker 1: you should check out episode five nine one of the
Speaker 1: Wired to Hunt podcast. It's about patterning bucks during the rut.
Speaker 1: And then also Tony Peterson has a cool article about
Speaker 1: five mistakes that hunters make during the rut. If you
Speaker 1: want to see some hot Texas pre reaction, the Element
Speaker 1: went down to some good old river bottoms here in
Speaker 1: East Texas and actually try to scratch one out. Got
Speaker 1: really close. You just need to watch the video and
Speaker 1: see what that's about. We'll put the links to that
Speaker 1: stuff in the description below. This is rough fresh, Keep
Speaker 1: it fresh.