Speaker 1: Welcome to Wired to Hunt's rut Fresh Radio, bringing you
Speaker 1: the latest reports from the white Tail Woods, presented by
Speaker 1: First Light, creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand,
Speaker 1: saddle or blind. First Light Go farther, stay longer, and
Speaker 1: now your hosts case Smith and Tyler Jones.
Speaker 2: Things are heating up around the country in the deer woods,
Speaker 2: but it's unseasonably warm out there as well. Is it
Speaker 2: time for you to get in the stand? Who knows
Speaker 2: this is Retfresh, Let's go.
Speaker 3: Welcome to Retfresh Radio, brought to you by First Light Gear.
Speaker 3: I'm Casey Smith and Tyler Jones is here with me.
Speaker 2: I'm playing Copol today and he is navigating us to
Speaker 2: where the bucks are.
Speaker 3: I think it's all right, super nav.
Speaker 2: Navigator, and uh, we're heading out on a hunt trip
Speaker 2: and I'm pretty excited about it.
Speaker 3: Tell you the truth, Tyler, how do you feel? I
Speaker 3: feel increasingly good as we had the direction we're heading.
Speaker 2: It's as funny as you as you head more towards
Speaker 2: no northern latitudes, you feel better about the deer.
Speaker 3: Hunting you do. And pretty hard to not going north
Speaker 3: when you're in Texas. I'm guarantee you unless you got
Speaker 3: some money, you can head south north. It's the inference
Speaker 3: that's good. We we do.
Speaker 2: Have some good reports from around the country, uh, from
Speaker 2: some different folks. A lot of deer already hitting the ground,
Speaker 2: which is very exciting. And uh man, this time the
Speaker 2: hype this time of year is uh. I don't know
Speaker 2: if I can say this word right. Palatable is that
Speaker 2: how do you say the word palpable? I'm trying to say,
Speaker 2: like you can you can like taste it, right or
Speaker 2: something like That's kind of how the context of that,
Speaker 2: it's palatable.
Speaker 3: Yeah, palatable.
Speaker 2: That's what them bucks be doing in the scrapes right now,
Speaker 2: just helping or tasting.
Speaker 3: It in them taste But it's all right, yeah, Tyler.
Speaker 2: We have been talking some strategy here as to what
Speaker 2: we're gonna do. We're gonna just go on a ten
Speaker 2: day just deer sleigh fest.
Speaker 3: And I don't mean like saying in a sleigh you
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: But it's a good time of year to do a
Speaker 2: lot of different things, maybe even some aggressive things. We've
Speaker 2: been talking a lot about rattling, and I think the
Speaker 2: jury is out on when is a good time to
Speaker 2: rattle And that might just be kind of my personal
Speaker 2: perception because I've had successes and failures at all times
Speaker 2: of the year doing it, maybe depending on where I'm
Speaker 2: at in the country. So let me just ask you
Speaker 2: a very pointed question, when is a good time to rattle?
Speaker 3: Like what dates are you thinking about rattling?
Speaker 2: And when is it like still borderline but worth doing,
Speaker 2: and like what's your strategy on it?
Speaker 3: Man, I don't know. I'm not the rattling guy by
Speaker 3: any means. I'd like to hear your two cents on it,
Speaker 3: for sure, because you probably do it more than I do,
Speaker 3: but that doesn't mean it works. Yeah, yeah, yeah, had
Speaker 3: some experience, though, I would say, you know, right now,
Speaker 3: it is probably a pretty good time to rattle. I
Speaker 3: don't know that I would get super knockdown drag out
Speaker 3: with it. I would try to sound like a couple
Speaker 3: of pre pre rut bucks going at it. But maybe
Speaker 3: I'm wrong, And maybe guys that are in Iowa that's
Speaker 3: like I've seen on Instagram recently have bucks chasing literally
Speaker 3: as fast as they can run thirty five miles an
Speaker 3: hour or whatever chasing dose. Maybe that does maybe it
Speaker 3: is time to do knockdown drag out but I do
Speaker 3: think of that knockdown drag out stuff's happening in the
Speaker 3: first few weeks in November a lot of times. And
Speaker 3: you know, I also with that, and with that in mind,
Speaker 3: I don't like to go for a long time. When
Speaker 3: I say knockdown, drag out, I mean just like full
Speaker 3: force getting after it for a good solid you know,
Speaker 3: twenty to thirty forty seconds, you know, or whatever, and
Speaker 3: you know, maybe stuff breaking or whatever. You know. So
Speaker 3: I would say that deer will be inquisitive here as
Speaker 3: the test sawstrone has really come up through the roof.
Speaker 3: And I think with us coming with having temperatures that
Speaker 3: are going to be decreasing here in the next few
Speaker 3: days across lots of the country, be good all the
Speaker 3: way till later November, where you may start to tone
Speaker 3: it back down to kind of some pre rut volumes.
Speaker 3: And you know, those deer have heard it, they know
Speaker 3: what it is at that point, and they may come in,
Speaker 3: if nothing else, just to be a spectator. I think
Speaker 3: that's a big deal.
Speaker 2: And maybe you brought this to my attention a few
Speaker 2: years back, like rattling is somewhat weird to deer at
Speaker 2: the beginning, because they just have it, hurt it in
Speaker 2: a while or whatever, and then they kind of get
Speaker 2: used to hearing it around or something.
Speaker 3: So I thought that was interesting.
Speaker 2: I have a couple of anecdotal things to mention here,
Speaker 2: because I do rattle a decent amount and I have
Speaker 2: had some success, but I mean I've had a lot
Speaker 2: of failures rattling because you don't rattle deer in very often.
Speaker 3: It's not a thing.
Speaker 2: I mean, maybe you go to South Texas and you
Speaker 2: hunt a really nice place that has a ton of
Speaker 2: whitetail deer and you're rattling in quite.
Speaker 3: A few bucks. It might even be high fence, Yeah,
Speaker 3: it might be.
Speaker 2: And so like there's this there's this thing. And that's
Speaker 2: where rattling became a tactic, right. It was those guys
Speaker 2: are in the seventies and eighties that kind of made
Speaker 2: that popular, that were doing it in South Texas because
Speaker 2: there's a ton of deer per acre or per square
Speaker 2: mile down there, and that's why it's the thing.
Speaker 3: But it works everywhere.
Speaker 2: All deer, all white tail deer, bucks fight and so
Speaker 2: they do experience that. Last year, I killed a deer,
Speaker 2: not by rattling, but right after he fought another deer
Speaker 2: and that it was like the knockdown dragon.
Speaker 3: I mean there was dust fly. I could see the
Speaker 3: dust flying naked eye from over.
Speaker 2: A mile away, a very wide open country if you
Speaker 2: can't tell, right, Like, they were trying to kill each other,
Speaker 2: and it lasted I would say twelve to twenty seven
Speaker 2: or something like that like that, the true knock. There
Speaker 2: was no like let's push on each other first. You know,
Speaker 2: it was like they knew that it was. They were
Speaker 2: trying to kill each other right away. It wasn't like
Speaker 2: a you know, if you've ever watched humans fight, which
Speaker 2: I'm not really condoning such activities, but if you see
Speaker 2: people in like street fight, all of a sudden, it's
Speaker 2: like we're about, I'm trying to rip this dude's head off.
Speaker 2: If you watch people who are good professional fighters like
Speaker 2: UFC or something, those guys a lot of times they're
Speaker 2: tapping gloves. They're kind of feeling each other out at
Speaker 2: the beginning, you know, kind of dancing around trying to
Speaker 2: just get a feel for things.
Speaker 3: And it's in in the streets. Yeah, and David Bowie,
Speaker 3: but those deer were the former.
Speaker 2: They were street fighting, and that was November fifteenth, and
Speaker 2: it was absolutely insane.
Speaker 3: I mean, they were trying to break each other's necks right.
Speaker 2: And by the way, that video is going to be
Speaker 2: on the Element channel pretty soon.
Speaker 3: It's insane, So go check it out if you y'all.
Speaker 3: I'll say this, it's supposed to be out the twenty ninth.
Speaker 3: I don't know if it's gonna be out the twenty
Speaker 3: ninth because we're, you know, we're on the way to
Speaker 3: some deer country and those don't those the Wi FI
Speaker 3: and deer country don't always mix, so that'll be the thing.
Speaker 3: But that's what we're trying to get it out, you know.
Speaker 2: And I'm really thankful to have been able to document
Speaker 2: that one and I want to share it with you.
Speaker 2: But I will say that I have observed this time
Speaker 2: of year, deer very much do the let's push on
Speaker 2: each other thing, and then as we're doing it, we're
Speaker 2: gonna kind of ramp up a little bit and and fine,
Speaker 2: and then maybe even at the end of it, there
Speaker 2: can be like a little bit of a hey, I
Speaker 2: want I'm gonna run you off type thing because there's
Speaker 2: a lot of stuff going on. And I'm no biologist,
Speaker 2: but I aspire to imitate one from time to time.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: You know, testosterone is ramping up continually until it peaks.
Speaker 3: In you know, November for most of the country.
Speaker 2: Uh you know, illogist actually tend to not have too high.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but.
Speaker 2: I think that I found success during this the other day,
Speaker 2: get fired up, laughing and we drive off the road.
Speaker 3: That's good.
Speaker 2: I did rattling a buck on October twenty fifth.
Speaker 3: He was a two year old a deer.
Speaker 2: I decided to not shoot, and he did come in
Speaker 2: down wind, or tried to be down windy, and he
Speaker 2: missed her wind just a little bit, and he was cautious,
Speaker 2: so he just kind of stayed there looking around, and
Speaker 2: I played with him a little bit. I snort wazed
Speaker 2: at him, and he he like locked it up real
Speaker 2: hard and then he did it again. He ran off,
Speaker 2: But it was fun. I love rattling in here, and
Speaker 2: I did that tactic. I didn't really start out super slow,
Speaker 2: and I didn't tickle antlers too much.
Speaker 3: I went ahead and.
Speaker 2: Got them together, but I was doing the said a
Speaker 2: clack clack, It's much more of a cranking them together, you.
Speaker 3: Know what I'm talking about kind of they're kind of
Speaker 3: like you said, pushing on your So it's kind of
Speaker 3: a grind more than it is a hit exactly. And
Speaker 3: I think it like bighorn sheep, you know what I mean,
Speaker 3: they don't do that.
Speaker 2: Deer put their heads together and then they and and
Speaker 2: that's the sound that you get all a lot of
Speaker 2: times when you're thinking about natural rattling. And I did that.
Speaker 2: It's actually really hard on your arms. It makes you tired,
Speaker 2: you know, but you're just putting in as much pressure
Speaker 2: back and forth as you can, or a large amount
Speaker 2: at least you don't want to break them.
Speaker 3: And it worked.
Speaker 2: So I think that that could be kind of the
Speaker 2: go to on the rattling this time of year.
Speaker 3: And they don't have biceps like you. Well, it's all forearms,
Speaker 3: you know. Whenever you're doing that, you got some good
Speaker 3: for I've been doing things, man, I've been doing.
Speaker 2: A lot of farmers walk lately because I feel like
Speaker 2: functionally that's like a very big thing.
Speaker 3: And I think it a because you can be a Mennonite.
Speaker 2: Yeah I'm trying to be a farmer, but you know, well,
Speaker 2: men nights, they don't walk. They got cars and stuff,
Speaker 2: so well true, I just thought they farmed. They do
Speaker 2: a lot of farming, but not all of walking. We're
Speaker 2: gonna do some rattling this week. I think it's gonna
Speaker 2: be a tactic that really works soon. It also sounds
Speaker 2: like there are some other taxes tactics that are really
Speaker 2: working well for some of the guys that are hunting
Speaker 2: around the country this week.
Speaker 3: Tyler, who do we got. We got Chandler Barnes from Kentucky.
Speaker 3: He's a guy who known for a few years. He's
Speaker 3: out there, you know, shooting deer like he always does
Speaker 3: every year, something that makes us jealous. We got Gordon
Speaker 3: Dalton from Virginia out there in East Virginia doing the thing.
Speaker 3: Funny how we met him, but I won't talk to
Speaker 3: you that story some other time. Michael Huntsucker from Heartland
Speaker 3: bow Hunter. He's been out in Colorado. He is the
Speaker 3: man for us in Colorado for some reason. We don't
Speaker 3: know anybody else in Hwai to hunts out there. And
Speaker 3: then we've got Scotty Lego, who's a snow snowboarder up
Speaker 3: in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: Awesome, let's see what they got to say. This is
Speaker 2: my buddy, Chandler Barns. He's been hunting in Kentucky and
Speaker 2: has had some success.
Speaker 3: Chandler, how you doing, man?
Speaker 5: Good?
Speaker 3: How you guys doing all?
Speaker 2: We're doing real well. Congrats on the big eight point dude.
Speaker 2: It seems like you always getting done about this time
Speaker 2: of year.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
Speaker 5: Yes, October, late October is my favorite time to be
Speaker 5: in the woods. I've killed a couple on October twenty seventh,
Speaker 5: and it's a great time to key in on scrapes.
Speaker 2: Okay, So do you think that scrapes are the key
Speaker 2: right now in Kentucky?
Speaker 3: Huh?
Speaker 6: Yes, Yes.
Speaker 5: What I've had luck in over the years is trying
Speaker 5: to move my cameras.
Speaker 3: To scrapes in late October.
Speaker 5: And I use this little stuff called white lightning. It's
Speaker 5: a pure white tail powder and I try to I
Speaker 5: don't know if that's in my head or if it works,
Speaker 5: but I put that stuff in the scrapes and they
Speaker 5: seem to really be active and check them a lot.
Speaker 3: That's cool.
Speaker 2: So are you waiting on a deer to show up
Speaker 2: in daylight on that scrape before you move in?
Speaker 5: I will, But it's such it's been so consistent over
Speaker 5: the years. Anytime in the tree that I can get
Speaker 5: in late October, the week before Halloween.
Speaker 6: Is it's go time.
Speaker 3: Hey, tell me a little more about that white lightning. Man,
Speaker 3: I don't it's a powder.
Speaker 6: Form, he said, So, yes it is.
Speaker 5: I found it through a buddy a few years ago,
Speaker 5: and I just you can order it online or anywhere.
Speaker 5: But it's a it is a little white can and
Speaker 5: now it might be clear now, but it's blue baby
Speaker 5: powder looking stuff and you pour it in your scrape
Speaker 5: and it's a white lightning. Is the peak dough in estras,
Speaker 5: you know, so it's ready to be bred. Well, when
Speaker 5: the dough PE's in there, he's thinking that there's a
Speaker 5: hot dough in the area, and he comes back a
Speaker 5: lot to check that scrape pretty frequently. And I've killed
Speaker 5: the last three bucks in October, well, two in October
Speaker 5: twenty seventh, and one on October twenty six checking a
Speaker 5: scrape because I've put that white lightning in it.
Speaker 3: That's pretty sick. See, I thought you Kentucky boys are
Speaker 3: about your bourbon. But you like the white lightning to yourself.
Speaker 3: You know, you're a pretty good trick them. And you
Speaker 3: don't paying it yourself right, because you wouldn't win any alphab.
Speaker 5: I have done that before, And I don't know, you know,
Speaker 5: but I've seen people do it and say.
Speaker 3: It works, so I'm not opposed to it.
Speaker 5: I'm not the type that, you know, if I got
Speaker 5: a p all pe out of the stay and it
Speaker 5: doesn't bother me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you just got to watch which way you're facing
Speaker 3: when the trail cameras around, that's for sure. Are you are.
Speaker 2: These mock scrapes or scrapes that are naturally made by
Speaker 2: No I have.
Speaker 5: I've never actually made my own scrape. I just over
Speaker 5: the years of consistency, they'll use a lot of the
Speaker 5: same scrapes. So I just kind of go in there
Speaker 5: on their scrapes that they've started in early October, and
Speaker 5: then I started about the first week of October. I'll
Speaker 5: start every time I go to check my cameras or stuff.
Speaker 3: Like that, all throw a little bit of that powder
Speaker 3: in the screen.
Speaker 2: So what are your cameras showing right now? Do you
Speaker 2: have daylight movement yet?
Speaker 5: Yes, I've had a lot of I've had a lot
Speaker 5: of bucks moving in daylight. It's been very dry here
Speaker 5: in Kentucky. We haven't had rain in several weeks, but
Speaker 5: it's just the leaves are falling and they're they're feeling theirselves.
Speaker 5: You know, they're getting there, they know what's coming.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's just that time of year. Man, It's
Speaker 2: it's super exciting. No matter if it's cold, whatever, we
Speaker 2: you know, the deer have to do the thing. I'm
Speaker 2: glad for it. So you think that it's time to
Speaker 2: start hunting mornings yet or are you going to concentrate
Speaker 2: on evenings.
Speaker 5: So I've had several buddies hunting the mornings that I've
Speaker 5: had and I've had buddies that have success in the mornings,
Speaker 5: But me personally, I'm not gonna lie. I've never killed
Speaker 5: a buck in the morning. And it's not that I
Speaker 5: don't like hunting mornings. I love hunting mornings, but I
Speaker 5: just a lot of my spots I have more luck
Speaker 5: in slipping in in the afternoon without bumping deer.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's hard not to bump them in the mornings,
Speaker 5: but I hunt them wide open.
Speaker 3: I like to hunt them too. Yeah, that's how I
Speaker 3: am too, man. I had killed a lot of deer
Speaker 3: in the evenings. But yeah, yeah, so.
Speaker 6: It's kind of like a thing.
Speaker 5: I want to get that off my chest. Yeah, but
Speaker 5: I just have so much more success in afternoons.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's easier to make a game plan sometimes in
Speaker 3: the afternoons. Man, So I hear you on that. Well,
Speaker 3: if you're looking at at trail camera photos and having
Speaker 3: success and and just knowing what's coming up, how do
Speaker 3: you feel about buck movement? What would you rate it
Speaker 3: on a scale of one to ten in the next week.
Speaker 5: You know, I'm gonna be optimistic and I'm going to
Speaker 5: give it a seven to eight. I think it's it's
Speaker 5: really going to amp up here, seeing that we'll be
Speaker 5: seeing a lot of deer hit the ground in Kentucky,
Speaker 5: I would say all right.
Speaker 2: I would too, man, I think those are valid numbers,
Speaker 2: especially looking at what time of year we're in.
Speaker 3: Chandler. Thanks for the report, man, and congrats a big buck. Hey,
Speaker 3: thank you guys so much. This is our good buddy,
Speaker 3: Gordon Dalton with blue Ridge Hunting. Gordon. The story of
Speaker 3: how we met is pretty wild, but it's been a
Speaker 3: few years that we've known each other, and you are
Speaker 3: a guy that stays on big Bucks in a unique
Speaker 3: part of the US. You've been out hunting in Virginia
Speaker 3: is where I'm guessing.
Speaker 6: Yes, sir, Western part of Virginia.
Speaker 3: All right, man, And so tell us real quick what
Speaker 3: that country looks like.
Speaker 6: And it's steep, steep and thick.
Speaker 8: This is the Blue Ridge Mountains, western central Virginia. So
Speaker 8: it's east coast standards, pretty steep, pretty rugged where I
Speaker 8: am at.
Speaker 3: Least got you a lot of oaks around, a lot
Speaker 3: of oaks.
Speaker 8: And we're having a pretty good oak year here with
Speaker 8: the white oaks, chestnut oaks especially.
Speaker 6: Of course the red oaks are good. But yeah, it's a.
Speaker 8: Pretty pretty heavy white oak acorn crop this year.
Speaker 6: I would say, not like we had.
Speaker 8: A couple of years ago, but it's it's definitely, you know,
Speaker 8: thick enough that they're they're staying tight up in.
Speaker 3: There, gotcha. So are the Are the oaks the key
Speaker 3: right now that you've been seeing lately or are there
Speaker 3: other things at play that you're hunting from?
Speaker 8: From what I see, Yeah, it's all about, you know,
Speaker 8: the oaks being up high on those ridges.
Speaker 6: With the oaks, especially.
Speaker 8: In the Mountain Laurel, which is where we usually find
Speaker 8: you know, there's the oaks and Mountain Laurel often kind
Speaker 8: of go together in the shady parts.
Speaker 6: Or up on the ridges.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly that Laurel is betting, I'm guessing or I.
Speaker 8: Think so, yeah, betting and cover. I am not seeing
Speaker 8: a lot down in the fields, you know, even at
Speaker 8: night when I'm driving home, I don't. I'm not seeing
Speaker 8: them down in the low grassy areas. They're up in
Speaker 8: the up high in the oaks.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 2: H So from following you on social and just kind
Speaker 2: of seeing the hunt you're doing, it looks like you've
Speaker 2: already got a decent amount of rut movement. Where do
Speaker 2: you think the deer are in the scale of the road.
Speaker 2: Is it like a normal Midwest you know, first and second,
Speaker 2: wait to November?
Speaker 3: Are you ahead of that or what's it like?
Speaker 8: I think we're right on track, you know, Like the
Speaker 8: more I do this, the more I see this last
Speaker 8: part of October.
Speaker 6: I think today's what the twenty eighth when we're talking.
Speaker 8: And this seems to be like when it when the
Speaker 8: older bucks kind of start to pick up.
Speaker 6: And that's what I've seen on the ground, you know.
Speaker 8: I saw a little bucks chasing the previous week, and
Speaker 8: then last Friday, I don't know if you saw it.
Speaker 8: I posted a video just on my way to work
Speaker 8: of a pretty good buck chasing a dough. I didn't
Speaker 8: even realize there was a dot at first. But yeah,
Speaker 8: so he started, you know, he was in the game.
Speaker 8: And then Sunday I let a really nice buck go
Speaker 8: and I'll probably regret that.
Speaker 3: That's what I.
Speaker 8: They're just starting to get into the game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So are you transitioned to pinch points yet? Are
Speaker 2: you still trying to hunt sign and find places where
Speaker 2: dere are?
Speaker 8: Lately I've been getting up you know, like I say,
Speaker 8: in the oaks. This is the time of year where
Speaker 8: I start, you know, looking at those scrapes for sure.
Speaker 8: I know a lot of people don't want to hunt
Speaker 8: over a scrape.
Speaker 6: I've had good.
Speaker 8: Luck this time of year, specifically, like last couple of
Speaker 8: days of October. Maybe in the next you know, into
Speaker 8: the first part of November. Yeah, that's that's been my
Speaker 8: plan so far. That you're staying tight up in those oaks.
Speaker 3: So you'll you'll do you think in the next week
Speaker 3: you'll stay with those scrapes in the tight cover or
Speaker 3: are you gonna move.
Speaker 8: Out As we get into next week, I would be
Speaker 8: looking for for some pinch point, trying to catch things
Speaker 8: cruising because I don't think you know, that many doose
Speaker 8: are coming in yet, but maybe yeah, trying to look
Speaker 8: at I mean, I'm always looking for those little terrain
Speaker 8: pinch points in terms of in the oaks, like narrow
Speaker 8: parts of ridges and little gullies that come up to
Speaker 8: the ridges. That's that's what i was doing last last weekend.
Speaker 3: So are you are you using those more than you're
Speaker 3: using like a certain I guess quote unquote feed tree,
Speaker 3: like one that they prefer for whatever reason.
Speaker 8: So this year I've been hitting areas that have historically
Speaker 8: been really really good, you know, with with the oaks
Speaker 8: and not so much specific feed trees. Last year when
Speaker 8: we had fewer white oaks, that specific tree kind of
Speaker 8: thing that seemed to work better. It seems like a
Speaker 8: prett a uniform crop this year. But they seem to
Speaker 8: like to feed in certain parts.
Speaker 6: Of the ridges.
Speaker 8: So that's kind of like what I've been looking at
Speaker 8: places I've found in the past just from boots on
Speaker 8: the ground, you know, just finding those that spot that
Speaker 8: they like to be, which I think is more specific.
Speaker 6: To like bedding. You know, they're bedding.
Speaker 8: In this little oak laurel clump and then they're coming
Speaker 8: out to different oak trees near the bedding. I think
Speaker 8: it's probably what's really happening there. I like to get
Speaker 8: a site near the bedding, but where they come out,
Speaker 8: you know, they'll bed down and then they'll get up
Speaker 8: and feed a little bit, you know, near their bed
Speaker 8: and that's often what the kind of place I'm in cool.
Speaker 2: So with the you know, the the good oak acorn
Speaker 2: crop and then with just the good dates that we
Speaker 2: have coming up here, I know you're excited about getting
Speaker 2: out there and hunting. And if you had to rank
Speaker 2: it on a scale of one to ten for big
Speaker 2: buck movement during the daylight, what are you going to
Speaker 2: call in the next week.
Speaker 8: For next week, man, for big bucks, I would have
Speaker 8: to say probably getting up near eight. Yeah, in terms
Speaker 8: of the you know, the year long scale. Yeah, in
Speaker 8: terms of movement that that helps us as hunters, Yeah,
Speaker 8: seven or eight.
Speaker 3: I agree, man, for sure.
Speaker 2: Awesome, dude, Well, thanks for the report from Virginia and
Speaker 2: I can't wait to see what you put on the ground.
Speaker 6: Yes, they're the same same to you guys. Good luck.
Speaker 9: M m m H.
Speaker 3: We're talking to Michael Huntsucker from Heartland bow Hunter and
Speaker 3: he again has been he's our correspondent in Colorado pretty much. So, uh,
Speaker 3: if we know any y tail hunters in Colorado, it
Speaker 3: is Michael Huntsucker. That's the only one. Michael has it doing.
Speaker 3: How's it going, man, it's going good.
Speaker 7: I'm happy to be happy to be the Colorado of correspondent.
Speaker 3: Man, It's it's real pretty out there this time of year.
Speaker 3: It looks like every every year. I'm like, man, the
Speaker 3: colors out there are amazing. You know, as we get
Speaker 3: into this late October time period, it seems like you're
Speaker 3: out there a lot in October, but you usually having
Speaker 3: to go back in November. Do you feel like October
Speaker 3: is the time to be out there?
Speaker 7: You know, it's really depending on the weather, and you
Speaker 7: know it also is delegated by the rifle season opening up.
Speaker 7: So you know this year, archery season ran until October
Speaker 7: twenty fifth, So I always hunt that last full week
Speaker 7: of archery. That's gonna be the best, you know, opportunity
Speaker 7: you had before rifles. So I always hunt that last week.
Speaker 7: And it's really really dictated by weather. If you don't
Speaker 7: get the cooler weather and stuff, you don't see the
Speaker 7: pre red activity. And then if I don't fill my tag,
Speaker 7: I go back after rifle, and obviously conditions of that
Speaker 7: time of year typically are a lot better, although somewhat
Speaker 7: influenced from hunting pressure.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I got you. So what's what's the hot ticket
Speaker 3: in the last week or so there? What were you
Speaker 3: where you finding bucks?
Speaker 7: I was, you know, hunting either you know, kind of
Speaker 7: pink points between you know, thick cover, bedding cover, or
Speaker 7: hunting some pretty active scrapes that had blown up in
Speaker 7: the past week. That was kind of my focus. We
Speaker 7: you know, weren't getting a whole lot of daylight activity,
Speaker 7: and so I just wanted to be somewhere close to
Speaker 7: where I thought they were bedded. That way, when they
Speaker 7: did move, you know, right before dark that hopefully we
Speaker 7: Las Island.
Speaker 3: What was there any cruising or anything going on or
Speaker 3: were you mostly seeing just a bed to food movement.
Speaker 7: We did see a little bit of bucks kind of
Speaker 7: cruising a little bit. We saw one buck kind of
Speaker 7: following a dough type bumping her and then we actually rattled.
Speaker 3: The buck in as well.
Speaker 7: So I was doing a doing kind of a blind
Speaker 7: rettle on the on the edge of the river there,
Speaker 7: and you know, those bucks seem to be fighters, man,
Speaker 7: they always you know it seems early to rattle, but
Speaker 7: they always bust their racks and bust their times early.
Speaker 7: And that's so when that first dough comes into heat,
Speaker 7: I'm sure there's always a battle wherever that is. So
Speaker 7: I decided to kind of imitate that and actually rattled
Speaker 7: in a really good buck that's probably only three years old,
Speaker 7: but was you know, every bit of one fifty five
Speaker 7: one sixty, so really good up and comer nice.
Speaker 2: So can you go in a little bit more about
Speaker 2: the sound of the rattling that you're doing, you said,
Speaker 2: imitated that. Are you really trying to make it sound
Speaker 2: like two mature bucks you're trying to kill each other?
Speaker 3: Or are you do it more with a tickle?
Speaker 7: So I actually usually i start out with, you know,
Speaker 7: kind of a softer rat all kind of more like
Speaker 7: a spar and then I'll take a break, you know,
Speaker 7: for five ten minutes whatever and see if anything comes
Speaker 7: to investigate, and then if if nothing does kind of investigate,
Speaker 7: then I'll then I'll bang them together a little harder.
Speaker 7: And I'm doing this too late in the morning as well,
Speaker 7: so you know, blind rattling is a thing like obviously
Speaker 7: gets a lot of attention, but you can do more
Speaker 7: harm than good if you're just blind rattling in the
Speaker 7: middle of a timber block where deer can just circle
Speaker 7: right down when so usually in the situations where I'm
Speaker 7: blind rattling, I have a hard edge behind me. So
Speaker 7: whether that be a river or a big creek or
Speaker 7: something that's gonna prevent the deer from getting down wind,
Speaker 7: that's that's huge if you're gonna blind rattle. But also
Speaker 7: I was I was doing this rattle sequence kind of
Speaker 7: later in the morning basically like if there's a buck,
Speaker 7: you know, in ear shot that we can't see that's
Speaker 7: not in his bed, Like, you know, what do you
Speaker 7: have to lose? Like if there's either a buck that
Speaker 7: is and here's it, it's going to come, or there's
Speaker 7: nothing within earshot and you're not heard anything. So that
Speaker 7: was kind of my outlook on it. Obviously a little
Speaker 7: more aggressive with that because.
Speaker 2: The week went on closer to the end of the
Speaker 2: week for sure, So a lot of people like to
Speaker 2: think about the moon and how it relates back to deer,
Speaker 2: and I know that there's quite the gambit of different
Speaker 2: opinions on it. As we looked towards this last week
Speaker 2: of October, here that we're in the hunting, it's going
Speaker 2: to be a new moon. Do you think that affects
Speaker 2: deer movement or you know, when you may or may
Speaker 2: not see deer on their feet. I don't.
Speaker 7: I don't put a whole lot of you know, faith
Speaker 7: into the moon phases. As much as I do like
Speaker 7: the moon rise and the moon set and the timing
Speaker 7: of that, I seem to correlate more deer movement with that.
Speaker 7: I don't know what the scientific you know, reasoning is
Speaker 7: behind or if there is scientific proof behind deer movement
Speaker 7: moon other than obviously ambient you know, light and that
Speaker 7: type of thing. But we're also just getting closer and
Speaker 7: closer to the rut and those first doughs are going
Speaker 7: to be coming into astros. So regardless, you know, if
Speaker 7: the weather's right, that's that seems to be the number
Speaker 7: one determining factor aside from just the timing of the years.
Speaker 3: Is the weather. So in the next week, would you
Speaker 3: change up your tactic, Sarah.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I definitely would probably get a little more aggressive
Speaker 7: and be honting more of the kind of rut style stuff. Obviously,
Speaker 7: it's like I said, it's rifle season. So if you're
Speaker 7: rifle hunting, you would obviously, you know, be probably areas
Speaker 7: where you can see more to where if I was
Speaker 7: bow hunting. When I do get back there to bow hunt,
Speaker 7: I'll be hunting in in tighter areas, closer to bedding areas,
Speaker 7: and more of those rut style stands that are a
Speaker 7: little more aggressive that I wouldn't typically do in the
Speaker 7: late October.
Speaker 3: Gotcha. So in the next week, what do you think
Speaker 3: buck movie is going to be like? On a scale
Speaker 3: of one to ten.
Speaker 7: Man, I think it's going to be a nine nine
Speaker 7: and a half.
Speaker 3: All Right, it looks good.
Speaker 7: We're finally over this little hump of warm weather and
Speaker 7: this cold front's coming in on Halloween. Everybody wants to
Speaker 7: kill a Halloween buck. I'm gonna be hunting in Iowa
Speaker 7: trying to kill a Halloween buck. But yeah, this next
Speaker 7: week looks phenomenal. It does look a little wet, especially
Speaker 7: you know across the board in Colorado, in the Midwest
Speaker 7: and so but the temperatures drop, they stay down and
Speaker 7: you got some good fluctuations of you know, storms coming in,
Speaker 7: you know, rain hitting and drying out deer. The bucks
Speaker 7: go nuts, you know, right after the rain stops to
Speaker 7: go check all those scrapes and hit this, and so
Speaker 7: I like what I see for the next ten days.
Speaker 7: That's my favorite, my favorite ten days.
Speaker 3: Awesome, dude. Well, thanks for hopping on man. I hope
Speaker 3: you have a great hunt in Iowa. Appreciate it. Michael, Yeah,
Speaker 3: thanks for having me. We're talking to Scotty Lego. He
Speaker 3: is a former Olympian and now he's an Olympian deer
Speaker 3: hunter because that's all he does all day, right, Scotty.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm just trying my best
Speaker 4: to live the dream, you know, as much as I can,
Speaker 4: and you know, avoid a real life job, you.
Speaker 3: Know, don't we all, man, aren't we all? That's awesome.
Speaker 3: So you've been in Massachusetts recently? Had some success?
Speaker 6: There, is that?
Speaker 7: Right?
Speaker 2: I did?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I actually killed my biggest buck with a bow today.
Speaker 3: Oh dude, way to go, wait to go, Thank you
Speaker 3: you kill it? What was the what was the key
Speaker 3: tactic there? Man? I?
Speaker 4: Uh, I just I found his little hiding hole, okay,
Speaker 4: And I would say decently pressured area.
Speaker 6: For acquired some.
Speaker 4: Different tactics and some permission. I'll just leave it at that.
Speaker 4: But I saw him coming out of the swamp about
Speaker 4: forty five minutes before before dark, and he was walking
Speaker 4: away from me. He was about one hundred yards out
Speaker 4: and it was decently windy day, and I grabbed my
Speaker 4: grunt call grunted out of him like three different times,
Speaker 4: pretty aggressive because I wasn't sure if he was walking
Speaker 4: he'd be able to hear or you know, could hear
Speaker 4: over the wind. And he came in. He circled cut
Speaker 4: down wind. I didn't have I didn't have any shooting lanes.
Speaker 4: That was right on the edge of a swamp. So
Speaker 4: he went straight down wind to me about twenty yards.
Speaker 4: Hung there for five minutes, and somehow I passed the
Speaker 4: scent test. I don't know if it was a pretty
Speaker 4: strong wind like I was saying, so maybe it was
Speaker 4: going right over the top of him. But saw a
Speaker 4: tail flicker. He turned, rubbed a tree in the swamp
Speaker 4: and then jumped out of the open hardwoods.
Speaker 3: And I didn't give them too much.
Speaker 4: Time to hang out when I had it, when I
Speaker 4: had a twenty.
Speaker 3: Yard so I stuffed him and way to go. That's awesome.
Speaker 3: That's incredible, man. So this this deer, you were close
Speaker 3: to his bed, so you think betting has been kind
Speaker 3: of key. Is the weather going to change and change
Speaker 3: anything for you in the woods in Massachusetts anytime soon?
Speaker 4: You think, yeah, I mean it's been good. It's been
Speaker 4: a it's been you know, decently cold, really cold mornings
Speaker 4: these last two days. We are getting some crazy warm
Speaker 4: weather coming up. I guess it's going to be like
Speaker 4: close to eighty, which you know, it's pretty insane because
Speaker 4: it's you know, it's low forties right now. So I
Speaker 4: have no clue what that's going to do for deer movement.
Speaker 4: Obviously it's not going to be good. But given like
Speaker 4: you know, the time of year, October twenty ninth, I mean,
Speaker 4: awesome time to be in the woods. You know, there's
Speaker 4: just like peak sign is being laid down everywhere, and
Speaker 4: I'm seeing from Osservation a lot of bucks in checking bumping,
Speaker 4: does a little bit of chasing. And then I just
Speaker 4: got a a buck on my moultree this today at
Speaker 4: eleven o'clock. So that's pretty rare, like at least for
Speaker 4: our area getting a buck like around mid day.
Speaker 6: So I don't know, I feel like it's we're in
Speaker 6: the heart of it. It's getting really good.
Speaker 3: So uh, since you have you know, the rut days
Speaker 3: are coming.
Speaker 2: Uh, Are you gonna have your grunt call on hand
Speaker 2: throughout this whole time?
Speaker 3: Is that? Is that a tactic?
Speaker 2: If you see a deer that's not range, are you
Speaker 2: gonna grind into ringing closer?
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely, gotta gotta gotta give it a shot.
Speaker 3: I have it pretty handy. I have it.
Speaker 4: I run a little fanny pack, so I got it
Speaker 4: right here pack And yeah.
Speaker 3: Man, what about blind calling anything that you do there?
Speaker 4: I have dabbled with that before in the past. I've
Speaker 4: had no success with it, but it really made me
Speaker 4: think when I when I grunted that end the other day,
Speaker 4: I'm like, you know, that was like almost one hundred
Speaker 4: yards away, and I'm like, geez, I'm like, maybe I
Speaker 4: should do some blin some blind calling. But no doubt
Speaker 4: he you know, he went directly down wind, so I
Speaker 4: it would have to be a pretty strategic location.
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely makes sense. So as you look forward to
Speaker 3: the next week, we got really good dates.
Speaker 2: There's some hot weather clothes, but there's a cold front
Speaker 2: that's going to hit pretty much most of the country
Speaker 2: later on in the weekend. With all that in mind,
Speaker 2: on a scale of one to ten. If you're going
Speaker 2: to give Buck Movement a rating there in Massachusetts, what
Speaker 2: would you rate it?
Speaker 5: Man?
Speaker 3: I gotta go.
Speaker 4: If if you're if you're in the box, if you
Speaker 4: know where where they're at, and have a basic idea
Speaker 4: of maybe a loose pattern, I would I would give
Speaker 4: it an eight, all right. I think I think it's
Speaker 4: you know, pre damn good.
Speaker 3: And if you have no.
Speaker 4: Clue clue where they're at, you know, and you're kind
Speaker 4: of waiting for the right, I would give it, you know,
Speaker 4: five with this this warm weather gotcha?
Speaker 3: Well that's awesome, man, I don't know. Yeah, yeah, that
Speaker 3: did make No that makes sense for sure. So Scotty,
Speaker 3: are the Celtics gonna win the championship again next year?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 3: You know I'm rooting for them, honestly, I know I was.
Speaker 3: I was.
Speaker 4: I was with him for you know, their all their winds,
Speaker 4: and now I just have kind of faded off and
Speaker 4: I haven't been paying attention to dear season.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 3: You know, you got to go out there it was
Speaker 3: and you just forget everything else going on. Man, So
Speaker 3: I appreciate you hopping on, Scotty, and uh go get
Speaker 3: you another one man? All right? Man? I appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Thank you, brother.
Speaker 2: I'm fired up about some deer Hunting Brothers stories. These
Speaker 2: reports are good and it's nice to uh to feel
Speaker 2: like we're in that time.
Speaker 3: Of year, and it for sure is. Man.
Speaker 2: We're driving across the country right now, the leaves are
Speaker 2: falling off of trees. I'm seeing yellows and reds and
Speaker 2: and corn getting harvested, and there's deer in the fields
Speaker 2: in the evenings like this is the time of year
Speaker 2: that I look forward to every year.
Speaker 3: I know it, man, I like to hype about it
Speaker 3: a little bit.
Speaker 2: If you need a little bit of hype in your
Speaker 2: life and you need even some in depth tactics, I'm
Speaker 2: going to give Mark King a little nod here.
Speaker 3: Mark does a really good job on.
Speaker 2: His podcast to getting good guests on the show to
Speaker 2: really deep dive into deer hunting tactics. And this time
Speaker 2: of year actually is a really good time of year
Speaker 2: to tune in for this kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: So if you haven't seen.
Speaker 2: Mark's episode with Steve Pinkston, you should definitely go to
Speaker 2: listen to that. They do a deep dive into tactics
Speaker 2: for killing big bucks, and that's what we are here for.
Speaker 2: Kill big Bucks. There'll be a link for that below. Also,
Speaker 2: the Element podcast is well.
Speaker 3: We'll link to that.
Speaker 2: Tyler and I give a lot of our thoughts and
Speaker 2: tactics and tried and true ideas for hunting white tailed
Speaker 2: deer as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of that comes from us just being
Speaker 3: out in the field and we just talked about what
Speaker 3: happened to what we saw the week before. So it's
Speaker 3: pretty up to date too. It's almost like a retfresh
Speaker 3: just a little bit different, only you know our perspective.
Speaker 3: There's also one last thing we talked about earlier that
Speaker 3: you need to go do as soon as this podcast
Speaker 3: is over before you listen to other podcasts, and that's
Speaker 3: go to our YouTube channel and check out what we've
Speaker 3: all what we've put out there. But most of all,
Speaker 3: like I said earlier, hopefully we have Case's moose that
Speaker 3: he shot that actually it would be called a white tail,
Speaker 3: but it looks like a movie. Genetically it's a white tail,
Speaker 3: but phonetically there you looks like a mood. They go,
Speaker 3: you go check that out on our YouTube channel.
Speaker 2: This is Reugh Fresh, Keep it Fresh.